week 6

[airlockedmods]

[Even with three deaths two weeks in a row, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to some semblance of normalcy come Sunday morning. The messes are cleaned up, the bodies are safe in the morgue (or in Kip's case, still in a liquor bottle in the garden) and with this new week comes a fresh crop of returning memories.

There is no new floor this week.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 5, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Try 'neither'.

I'm-... [Ardyn hesitated awkwardly, glancing around like he was briefly entertaining the idea of finding the best escape route.] ...I'm trying to say that...if one of us is going to break, it shouldn't be you and it won't be because of me.

I told you once that I knew I asked too much of you. And what I am making some effort to express is that if you don't talk to me, then at least consider Junpei or someone moderately more human in sentiment than I am.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Are-- [don't ruin it don't ruin it don't ruin it] Are you seriously giving me the 'please talk to someone I don't care who as long as you talk' speech instead?

That's not one I expected from you. Queenie, maybe, and Junpei, but you?

I don't-- [He wants to try and make this something funny, except that that's...really oddly and stupidly sweet of Ardyn in a way he's not entirely sure he knows how to process. (Join the club.) Ardyn has been in some wild swing of a mood since learning he's dead and might be alive forever and ever here. That's understandable, just...kinda expected it to be a downswing instead of like...this sideswing? And kind of an upswing?

It's the effort to care, and the effort to let it be known that he cares. For as much as he can. Church flashes a quick and uncertain smile, like he really is about to tell a joke, but whatever he thought he came up with never actually comes out. The smile vanishes, and he's left rubbing his neck and looking pretty awkward himself.]

I--talk to you. I talk to you a lot. And Junpei, I talk to him, too. I told him I'd keep him in the loop, more or less, about you and me both. It's not everything; it's never everything--

And sometimes I talk way too much and nobody can get me to shut the fuck up. [There we go, there's at least a modicum of a joke! Salvaged this right at the end.]

[scourgingstars]

Don't give me that. I just-

[...Queenie had, admittedly, had a point. Ardyn was struggling to figure out who he was and what to do with that, but being as abrasive as came naturally to him wasn't helping.]

[If he was going to be anything else with even one person, then it would be this one.]

...It doesn't need to be everything. But I wouldn't ask my Shield to carry more than he could handle alone.

[motherfucking_ghost]

You've seen me when I stop being able to handle shit. [On at least two occasions now. He's not proud. Because he's a stupid dude.]

And I don't wanna have to...burden you. More than you already are. You've got more than enough shit to deal with in your own life, I just...feel kind of...guilty, sometimes, a little, when I bitch and moan about anything I remember or some of the shit I say. I mean, we're a team, the three of us, we're a team, and we can rely on each other, and we tell each other shit, that's how it works, I know, trust me, I know how a team works.

I just, uhhh...I-I mean, sometimes you just gotta have shitty thoughts because this is a shitty situation in a shitty place. I'm not the happy fun ball all the time.

[scourgingstars]

...I know. I doubt any of the three of us can handle ourselves on our own at this point, so we've no choice but to rely on each other.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[At long last, Church rises to his feet, fuzzy arms spread wide. Not for a hug. Wait--] Besides. I can carry you pretty well.

[softly: church don't Is Ardyn ready for Church wrapping his arms around him and trying to heft him up off his feet for just a second, just to show he can? Cuz...cuz that's happening.]

[scourgingstars]

What--put me down, what are you doing?!

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's just a little (or a big) heft and a lean back just to get you off your feet, Ardy! And right back down again. With a little wheeze.]

Jesus, how much more weight do the clothes add on? I'm just taking a metaphor and making it entertainingly literal in an attempt to distract from the emotional matter at hand, what's it look like I'm doing?

[Let it never be said that Church is not painfully self-aware. At times.]

[scourgingstars]

[a lot because ardyn is kind of a stringbean]

Being entirely unnecessary, as you're quite well known for.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Also that. [Look at this utterly charming smile!]

[scourgingstars]

Just don't make a habit of that. I've a reputation to uphold.

[motherfucking_ghost]

So, next time, spin you around, got it.

[scourgingstars]

If you want your nose broken, then by all means go ahead.

[motherfucking_ghost]

It'll be like a dance! You were a king, I'm sure you know how to, like, waltz or whatever, right?

[scourgingstars]

I can dance perfectly well, Church. There's a difference between that and whatever ridiculous thing you're talking about.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Then you can spin yourself around. No me picking you up required. What if I twirl you?

[scourgingstars]

Are you-...

...Are you trying to get me to dance with you?

[motherfucking_ghost]

...I'm not too proud to admit that wasn't originally the intention. But now that you suggest it...

[How's the refuge in audacity to distract from feels working out for ya, Ardyn?]

[scourgingstars]

I suggested no such thing.

[goin good]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Is it because you're rusty? Two thousand years, you haven't danced at all, huh. I won't tell anyone.

[scourgingstars]

For your information, I think I most likely have since then.

[but he's not sure]

[The truth of the matter was that the Imperial Chancellor spent the average social function in Niflheim's capital being what passed for 'social'--charming, upbeat, and incredibly unnerving to anyone that knew better. (Which more than likely boiled down to 'just Ravus and Aranea'.) There might have been the occasional dance or two along the way; such was the nature of cultivating an amicable image.]

[You know, smile pleasantly one day, stab everyone in the back the next. Politics.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay. So. You've shown off singing. At some point I bet you'll have to show off dancing. We'll force you to have fun. It'll be the most annoyed fun you'll ever have.

[scourgingstars]

'Annoyed fun' seems to be your favorite kind. Very well, I'll accept the inevitability at some point in the future.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yessssss. [insert fist pump here] You're right, it's the best kind of fun for me. You know me all too well.