week 4

[airlockedmods]

[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!]

Comments

[desperateprayer]

...I can guess why. No one liked me. My mother was... Unfortunately gone by then. I'm sorry. Gula disease... It took her. But she's at least not suffering.

[ That's... Fine. It hurts, but she at least knows her mother doesn't have to suffer that horrid disease anymore. ]

...But... Ayn... The chief's son... He came to warn me and Mikaela. And he decided to take us to Aceid over a mountain trail that few know how to navigate.

[ A deep breath, and she'll lean against a wall. ]

...I'm going to be fine. But what about you?

[scourgingstars]

...

[He should have cared about that. Hadn't he...promised Clarith he would try to help her mother? Wasn't he the savior that could have prevented that?]

[...Wasn't he?]

[Ardyn shook his head, pressing his right hand with the ornate black ring to his face before raking it through his hair.]

I'm...sorry. About your mother.

[desperateprayer]

...It's all right. I think... She'd be happy. That I escaped the people who hurt me. I had nothing to tie me to that place anymore. She was... Already quite old, anyway.

[ ...Clarith needed to stand on her own two feet and walk forward. And she'd just done that. ]

Fleeing was... Terrifying. But... I think I'll be all right. I'm moving forward finally, instead of allowing myself to be trapped in an unending cycle.

[scourgingstars]

...You should move forward with someone that isn't me, Clarith. Don't waste your time or sympathy, and worry about yourself instead.

[desperateprayer]

...Why? You helped me become stronger here. I'm standing now because of you and all of the others who reached out to me. ...Regardless of what you remember, Ardyn... Don't your actions now, here, in the present, speak louder than any of that?

[ That is... How she feels. ]

[scourgingstars]

...No. They don't. [That smile came back, but now it was bitter and humorless.]

[All in thrall to darkness-]

[It didn't matter at all, did it? His actions here...the person he thought he was...none of it mattered.]

[Ardyn turned on his heel, shrugging his shoulders and moving to leave.]

You'll be better served looking after the others. You're good at that--better than I am.

[desperateprayer]

[ Nope sorry. You turned your back, you are now getting a hug from behind, Dad. ]

...Well. I still care about you. No matter what you say.

[scourgingstars]

...

[He froze in place, for a brief instant expecting the sensation of Lunafreya's vain attempt at healing--then remembered this was neither the oracle nor was it the ruined Altissia.]

[What was he doing?]

Clarith--

[desperateprayer]

[ Sorry Ardyn, it was Mikaela who knew healing. She'll just bury her face in his back for a bit like this. ]

...Maybe it's too much to talk about right now. That's fine. ...But please don't push us all away. You may not believe it yet, but... I think... Where you go from here is what matters.

[ --And then she'll let go. ]

...Take your time. But I'm ready to listen. ...I... Was a terribly bitter person before. I wanted to either die or for my entire village to suffer. So I don't think there's much you could say to dissuade me from caring about you. ...So take as long as you need.

[scourgingstars]

[None of us would have turned you away.]

[But that was different. What Lee had done surely hadn't even approached this level. This was something there was no recovering from.]

...I'll be fine, Clarith.

[Ardyn Lucis Caelum was beyond salvation. Lunafreya had proven that herself.]

[desperateprayer]

...I hope so. Just... Don't let it fester until it's too late. All right? Don't... Close yourself off.

[ You have people who care about you. ]

[scourgingstars]

You really do worry too much.

[desperateprayer]

Well, it's only fair. You worry about all of us.

[ She'll let him leave now if he wants to, honestly. ]