Week 5

[airlockedmods]

[As with the weeks before, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to something resembling normalcy with shocking efficiency. The second floor rest area and Adventure Zone Death Orb Room are spotless again, the demon glitter has been vacuumed, the deflated orbs have been replaced. It's like none of it ever happened, like three more friends aren't dead and stored away in the guest house morgue.

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 activity for week 4, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Shall I get to the point and have this out of the way before we move forward, then?

[Once the others had more or less gathered, Ardyn spoke up in a voice laced with bitterness and contempt. The look on his face was cold as ice, yellow eyes sharp but at the moment uncorrupted by anything inhuman.] Allow me to regale you with a tale.

In an age long past and nearly forgotten, a prophecy spoke of a king who would save the world from an encroaching darkness. And not long after the word of the gods was passed down on that matter was a savior born to the house of Lucis. He who would bring the dawn was named the 'sky of burning light'--'Ardyn Lucis Caelum'.

He was hailed as a saint and savior by all he encountered, curing the afflicted of the plague which turned children of nature into twisted daemons. It must have seemed as though his very existence was a miracle to those he saved and protected.

...But the King of Light harbored a secret. For his healing was not modern white magic, but transferral of wounds and ailments--onto the savior himself. He carried the suffering of his people in a very literal sense, and was content in knowing he could save others by shouldering their burden.

[Ardyn curled his right hand close to his chest, the crystal set in his ring catching the light as he struggled to keep a bitter scowl off of his face.]

And the more innocent lives he spared, the more that 'burning light' faded. He was able to hold the Starscourge within himself without succumbing to it or risking the infection of others through mere contact, but at cost to himself. Gradually, the healer's body and soul became something which was human no longer.

When word reached the capital about what the savior was becoming, it was scarcely long at all before another moved to take the throne and cast out the current ruler. All those he had sacrificed his body and soul for turned on their salvation, spurred on by the false king in Insomnia. 'Accursed', they named him; called a usurper to the Crystal's power. 'Daemon', 'monster', they blamed him for the propagation of that which he had been told it was his destiny to banish. Even his own Crownsguard and Kingsglaive turned upon him in an instant, aligning themselves to the jealous king who sought power.

[He stopped to press a hand to his face, pausing briefly as though collecting his thoughts; when that hand dropped back to his side, his eyes were a little too bright with a barely-hidden quiet hatred that twisted what had once been a compassionate expression.]

...The souls of Lucian kings are meant to ascend to sleep within the Crystal upon their deaths. But one who corrupted his own body and soul would curse the Crystal with the plague he carried, and so even the gods who had selected and blessed him deemed he should be unfit to ascend. Which means he was no longer even allowed to die.

So the once-mortal healer who now cursed and despised those who had turned on him was cast out from his kingdom by those he had dearly loved. Erased from all of history by the one who stole the throne, he who was once exalted and adored became little more than a man of no consequence. He swore apocalyptic vengeance upon the planet and all upon it from gods to mortals, the line of Lucis being no exception. And when he left the name of 'Lucis Caelum' behind, he replaced it with the name of the one he hated the most. So that no matter how many thousands of years passed in an unaging and undying body that was more daemonic than it had ever been human, he would remember the name of the man who betrayed his own brother.

'Ardyn Izunia', the immortal Accursed. 'Champion of the Infernian', because I am vessel to the plague which Ifrit wrought.

[desperateprayer]

[ Clarith is quiet as she listens. Her face falls into a frown more and more as she listens to this story until she looks very, very sad. She won't speak a word at the end. No, she'll stand and approach. ...Ardyn may be expecting something else. She's not sure what. But instead, she throws her arms around him and clings tight. She told him. Everything yesterday now makes sense. She told him, though. Over and over. ]

I'm sorry. It must hurt, still. What happened, what you've suffered alone. I'm so, so sorry.

[scourgingstars]

...

[what the fuck does he do with this.]

Clarith, I am not entirely certain you heard me.

[desperateprayer]

I heard you. You... Carry a great burden. And everyone turned on you for it. Because someone you thought you could trust used the situation to their advantage. ...I'm so sorry.

[ Nope, she fuckin' heard you. She fuckin' told you, Arbys Lucifer Oreos. ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

...

That's about what I figured. I mean, generally. I couldn't have called some of the details.

[scourgingstars]

...I should have listened to you.

[There was no real regret there--just a statement of fact.]

Humans really are selfish creatures.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei releases a faint breath of a laugh, voiceless and a little rueful.]

And yet, you all keep proving me wrong. ...Well, besides Wisniewski.

Honestly, Ardyn, I don't know what to think anymore.

[myocordial]

[He listens intently, as he's sure everyone else does. And this... the transferral of wounds sticks with him, reminds him of Medic, and it immediately creates a bias. Because he's seen the effect of corruption via healing. It's not a nice thing to go through. And as for the rest, well.

Well.]

...That is an awful lot for one person to go through. I know my words may as well be meaningless in the face of all of that, but I still am... truly sorry. You did not deserve any of that.

[scourgingstars]

The entire planet might disagree with that, I'm afraid.

[myocordial]

Then it's good I'm not here to offer anyone's opinion but my own.

[shikosuki]

...............................

.....So what you're saying is you're basically a super villain.

[ Choromatsu....... ]

[scourgingstars]

[I MEAN...]

Well...you aren't exactly wrong.

[buddyoldpal]

[ He snorts. After all that...? ]

Called it.

[scourgingstars]

Really.

[you did good, nishi]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's not enough to be obvious or distracting to the audience members, but Church definitely makes a point to be close by during Episode Ardyn. If anyone cares to notice, there's not a whole lot of reaction on his face--or at the very least, he's trying not to react much, and so it's not nearly as much as he would normally.

He doesn't think anyone will turn on Ardyn, as much as his roomie seems to think that's exactly what's going to happen. Man, you picked the wrong group of inhumans and demons and forgiving friendship shits to lose faith in humanity at, huh?]

[scourgingstars]

[And despite how everything Ardyn said was...very unhinged, he didn't object or argue at Church's close proximity. If anything, he shifted imperceptibly closer at certain points--collecting himself after outlining the Crownsguard's betrayal in particular.]

[It was a little while before he spoke to Church directly, while the others were working through their own myriad issues.]

...I don't understand this. Are they really that careless with their own lives?

[everylittlesecret]

[Whoa, buddy. That sounds like something out of a video game...]

So your brother betrayed you... that... that really sucks. Seems we both got a crap draw with siblings.

[scourgingstars]

[DON'T IT JUST]

Apparently. I suppose he was jealous, or that's the matter to the best of my recollection.

[brokencode]

[Angel listened to his words patiently. It seemed a horrible fate, to live forever, to suffer eternally for trying to do the right thing. After Ardyn finished speaking, the small woman approached him. She stood before him, quiet for a long moment, before holding her hand out to the man.]

Thank you, for being honest, Ardyn. I... do not know if it is forgiveness you seek, but if that is the case, then yes, I do forgive you. But... if you ask me, what happened to you is cruel. You only wanted to do right. That is more than I can say for myself, at least.

[scourgingstars]

I haven't done anything needing forgiveness.

[Except a murder he remembers and a lot he doesn't, but who's keeping track.]

...I just want to get out of here. And it's more convenient for me to do that with the rest of you than play along with this game. [So, for just a brief second or two, he took Angel's hand with one that felt more like a walking corpse than anything warm enough to be human.]

[serrata]

[ ... What the fuck

What the fuck!!! ]

But... I don't understand. You were helping them! You were-- you were giving yourself to people so they could keep living! How could they just turn on you like that, like you were just-- some thing?!

[scourgingstars]

[...what the fuck]

What, that's all? No 'oh, Ardyn, you can't just end the world, revenge is simply terrible' or other pleas to what little humanity I might yet have remaining?

[goteachother]

[It's quite the tale, it's horribly unfair, she understands that. What's happened to him is awful... but so is killing everyone.

She watches these reactions, sees everyone so forthcoming with forgiveness and approval and she just can't. In her minds eye it's the shifting images of dozens of slaughtered no-majs all across Europe. People with families and lives and jobs, gone. Dead. snuffed out of existence because one man thinks he's more important than all others.]

It's wrong- [Soft, almost too quiet amidst other proclamations of friendship.]

What they did to you is wrong, yes. But you can't just... slaughter everyone.

[And the fact that he can even consider it is terrifying. Enough to make her clutch her wand tighter to her and she'd hide if she could but everyone she'd hide behind is... siding with him.]

[scourgingstars]

See, at least someone has sense enough to be objecting to this.

[Ardyn sighed, like he was exasperated with the whole situation.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Q, nobody's saying he should fucking do that. [...Well, some might be, but.] Because he definitely should consider other options. [WE TALKED ABOUT THIS BRO] We're just saying we don't think he's the monster he's trying to convince us he is, because we're not the people in his past.