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theairlock2017-06-03 11:15 pm
airlockedmods) wrote in theairlock2017-06-03 11:15 pm
week 4
[Just like the previous week the status quo is restored with frighteningly quick efficiency. PAL still makes the morning and night time announcements through the PIP on each Champion's arm, and still the Champion unitards are freshly laundered and re-hung each morning in their closets. Even the glass roses Choromatsu and Takumi broke after the trial in their fit of anger have been replaced with fresh ones. All signs that there was anything amiss this weekend are completely gone.
There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 3, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]
There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]
[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 3, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]
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[Junpei's no actor.]
If and when this goes back to normal--like the first time PAL messed with us--the others are going to know something's up. ...I will, anyway, if no one else.
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I'm sorry, Junpei. I- [His voice broke off for lack of knowing how to continue that sentence, Ardyn quickly distracting himself by gently pushing the bird away from his hair. The clear sense of emotions was...jarring, and there was an unpleasant ache to suspecting what he was and what he would likely turn back into soon enough.] ...I'm sorry that any of you may need to contend with what I've become.
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[Junpei pauses, then sits himself up and brushes fallen leaves off his back.]
Whatever you think you are or have become, I think that it's good that this happened. I mean-- [He points between the two of them. The switching.] It's fucked up and raises more questions than it answers, but... look at you. You know now that whatever's happened to you, it's... it's not you.
Even if your powers or this no-feelings crap is tied to your bloodline or your lifeforce or whatever, they're not who you are. You still feel stuff under it, and it's something PAL can shunt off like the national export. So, whatever. [He shrugs.] I've contended with worse than you, Ardyn.
[It's a little bit I dare you to be worse than my bullshit, and he knows he'll likely regret it, but #yolo. ...#yol-an indeterminate and frankly very confusing number of times.]
Whatever this is-- [Junpei gestures to himself.] --you're still the guy that kept us all alive at boys' night. No matter what else you are.
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[Ardyn looked stunned for a moment as what Junpei had said fully processed. He knew damn well that the emotional aspect had nothing to do with the Crystal or the power of kings, but he wasn't about to let on about that. The loss of that uncertain shadow over his emotions had left striking clarity; that he was someone who took on the burdens of others because it was right. Because the gratitude and joy of his people made him happy, not because it was merely his chosen role.]
[He blinked once or twice, looking to the ring on his right hand.]
[Right now, he felt more like 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' than he had in recent memory. Not as king, but as the compassionate healer, the man who taught his brother how to fight, who competed with his Shield in a long string of lost sparring matches. He felt human, with a real and sharp fear of the man who had killed an Oracle in Altissia, now desperately hoping the same fate would meet no one here.]
...Swear to me that you'll remember that.
[The hand wearing the ring was curled close to his chest, Ardyn not meeting Junpei's eyes as his own turned distant.] No matter what I may become--or already have--swear to me that you'll remember I was once this Ardyn before you now. That I wanted the best for every last one of you, and would sooner die than see a single one of you hurt.
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He thinks he wouldn't mind carrying this a little longer. If it's a little longer Ardyn might be free.
He's not sure. His feelings shift, grey and indistinct--fog and smoke.]
All right. Uh... I swear.
[Remembering. Hah. That's something he knows how to do.]
But you remember it, too. A memory that only one person has... won't do anyone much good. No matter what some people think.
[A bitter undercurrent swims beneath his words. Not anger, not yet, but dark all the same.]
...And even if it does, I don't want something like that.
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[Ardyn laughed--no longer hollow and distant, there was something genuinely positive about it amidst a heavy exhaustion.]
[This wouldn't last. And even if it could...it shouldn't. What Ardyn had been carrying--and he knew its name no matter what lie he'd told to Church--was his own. It was better that way, and at that moment he knew that with perfect clarity if he was able to take it back, he would have done so right that instant.]
[That was what he was meant for, after all.]
...I want to say 'I'm not going anywhere', but I have no ability to promise that right now. But I can tell you I've no intent to die before we all get out of this. Whoever I might be by then, I plan to leave here when the rest of us do.
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...Now, if only everyone were as considerate as you.
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[your turn, good buddy]
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[I.e., he's gonna.]
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[Still, he wraps his arm around himself and rubs at the back of his neck, walling himself off, filtering what he wants to say out of the simmering betrayal below.]
It's... about where I was, right before coming here. Probably. Something I remembered.
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Zero Escape spoilers ahead!
[Or in case he goes Infernian, perhaps.]
If I'm right... when I was taken from my world, six billion people had just been condemned to their deaths--because in our escape from that twisted death bunker, we helped release a deadly virus into the outside world.
Six billion people, Ardyn. Seventy-five percent of humanity. Killed.
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[Ardyn got very quiet at that, and though he remained visibly calm he had also gone quite pale.]
1/2
[Junpei's right hand clutches his left wrist tightly, knuckles whitening.]
Akane Kurashiki... the woman I've dedicated every waking hour of the past year to finding... God dammit, I was going to help her, I was ready to--to give up everything again, start over with her, spend my life working at her side...!
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[My, that's a lovely shade of fuck Junpei's face is turning. His voice climbs, eyes a brighter red than brown.]
She made me forget finding her...! After everything--everything I did...!
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Junpei.
[Ardyn reached out to rest one hand on Junpei's right arm, not fully realizing that was what a very different healer had once answered a similar hatred with.]
[When the prophecy is fulfilled-]
[Just for a minute...he could let himself think that prophecy had been about him, for Junpei's sake more than any other.]
You've every right to be angry, from the sound of things. More than that it sounds as though hatred is the least one might deserve for placing you in a situation such as that. And I can't say that something like that could possibly be truly alright, because clearly it isn't.
...But Church, Yuuri, myself--every last one of us; we're at your side, through everything. We will never abandon you or allow you to be left alone.
[Dauntless Order prevents mortal damage and restores HP.]
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But Junpei Tenmyouji's base state isn't as calm and accepting as Ardyn Lucis Caelum II's, and the words catch at a place in his heart too tender even for comfort. He yanks his arm back and stands with balled fists, bleeding black and the heartbreak of the young at his edges.]
You've known me for three weeks! How can you say that when Kanny--when Akane was the one who put me in the Nonary Game in the first place?!
[The past, trapped there in the wall of his words. Kanny. Akane. A dear, dear friend.]
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We're still in this situation together--like it or not, we're your friends at this point all the same. And I'm willing to exercise a little faith and say none of us are the one truly responsible for what's happened.
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[Still boiling, Junpei stares at Ardyn for a long moment before he opens his mouth.]
Ha. Hahaha. Hahahaha...!
[He steps back into the trunk of his shade tree and slides down, covering his face with both hands. Finally, the Scourge begins to evaporate from his skin. Ardyn's offered him nothing to fight, no entry to battle, and Junpei's anger has nowhere to go.]
Sure... sure, that'll work out great for all of us. Just like it always does.
[En route to despair, his emotions hit that heavy filter again, like firelight through smoked glass, and fizzle out before most of it can reach him. Slowly, he calms and lowers his arms.]
I don't know if I told you, but it's common enough for the masterminds of these operations to join in the fun themselves. To observe the results up close, I suppose. You sure you want to risk your life and trust on your 'little faith'?
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[Ardyn was caught between the primary concern of worrying about Junpei and the secondary of what the hell am I, but the latter was very quickly eclipsed by the former as he answered without hesitation.]
I've risked my life on less than that. And if I'm wrong, you can blame me entirely for that.
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[There. The rest of the overwhelming fuck you--doesn't go away, exactly, but gives a metaphorical snort and curls in and away, settling back into that muted not-muchness of the past two days. Junpei waits a beat to see the dragon might resurface then lets his head dip back against the tree and looks up at leaves, still green and obliviously innocent, as if nothing had even happened.]
...How do you do this...?
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['If I don't know what I am, how could you ever claim to know Ardyn Lucis Caelum even still exists?']
[Ardyn tried to repress a shudder with limited success, folding his arms.]
...I'm sorry. I mean that now more than I ever could as whatever I truly am. No one should have to carry this save for myself.
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I'mmmm pretty sure it can't be good for you, either. I mean... we did just get through affirming that it's not how you're supposed to be. And obviously you don't enjoy it, either.
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