week 7

[airlockedmods]

[For the first time in several weeks there is no new memorial in the garden. No new body in the morgue, no bloody mess for the roombas to clean. Choromatsu is still in need of time to heal and constant vigilance but he's alive. They're all alive for once on a Sunday and, even with the terrible realizations their returning memories may bring, there's a sense of hope for the first time in a long time.

There is no new floor this week.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 6, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's such a small detail, but one he'd gotten used to with as many times as he'd manhandled Ardyn, touched him, held his hand, curled up against him, kissed him. Any argument dies a dry, dry death in his throat, and he stares at Ardyn's hand, then up at him.

What happened, he wants to ask, but that's not--that's not quite the right question. Maybe the right question is where is it.

Maybe the right question is what did you DO?

He doesn't have to say anything to show how clearly he gets the point, though. Look at that: more ways to shut Church up.]

[myocordial]

[At first, Heart seems to be standing perfectly still. His arms are crossed and he looks calm enough, if you only briefly glance at him.

Look at him for more than a second and you'll see that, no, he's not perfectly still. His arms aren't simply crossed; he's gripping the sleeves of his jacket, hands shaking, looking like he might tear the material apart at this rate. And the look in his eyes is... both intense and strangely distant.

It's someone who very much isn't okay doing his absolute best not to react. And, in the process, failing miserably.

He's holding himself together with every last bit of willpower he has.]

[everylittlesecret]

Malarial... somehow I don't think that quinine or any other antimalarial's will work. Also, you guys sound like you don't have mosquito that can carry it, or else your world might be fucked. So... would extreme heat work? I can heat my body up much higher than a normal person without damage... think I could keep myself safe doing that? Parasites can't handle high heat.

[goteachother]

[Queenie has plenty to say about cupcakes for breakfast PAL. But she might snag one with her coffee.... pick it up but maybe not eat it right away. She's eyeing it suspiciously, a fingertip full of frosting halfway to her mouth when the motive announcement happens.

She freezes, staring up at the ceiling, eyes wide.

O-oh.....]

Oh no

[What could she do to help Credence, to save him and he'd never have to become what he was and Grindelwald would never come looking for him. Or save Mr. Graves from suffering the way he had or save Jacob from losing his memories and keep him with her always.

There's so many people that have been hurt... She looks around the room, swiftly, at these people, at her friends... how could she bear to lose any of them though?]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Nnh...

[There goes Yuuri. There doesn't go Church, quiet and still in a way that scares Junpei more than anything else has in this mansion. Heart... And, okay, well, thank god for Nishitani-san. Other than him, Junpei doesn't know whom to go after first.]

Always with the tall orders, Ardyn...

[scourgingstars]

Hallway. Now.

[This time it was Ardyn who pulled Church along out of the majority's plain sight. Ardyn who faced Church with frustration, grabbing his collar and shoving him back against the nearest wall the moment they'd turned a corner.]

Don't even think about it, Leonard.

[Ardyn, who was refusing to accept they'd come this far to splinter now.]

You don't get to rely on something like this to change fate, do you understand me? Whatever the outcome you're expecting might happen if you go through with this, you have no way of knowing if it will come to pass. Avert one disaster, and thousands more can spring up in their place.

We are not losing you. I am not losing you because you gambled on something that machine offered, and I don't care how much of a hypocrite I am for saying that.

[scourgingstars]

It's alright, Junpei.

[Ardyn dropped a hand onto his shoulder, the corpselike body temperature having given way to something much more human.]

I'm with you. We'll do this together.

[goteachother]

[Queenie comes up to him slowly, cautiously. She knows a bit about that distance in his gaze and if he's too caught up in his past he might lash out without meaning to.

She gently slides her hands over his, trying to coax his fingers out of the material of his jacket.]

Heart? Honey?

[scourgingstars]

That's not likely. There are plenty of daemons capable of fire and ice magic, so if extreme temperatures affected them they'd only be hurting themselves. I'm afraid there's no cure for it except in highly specific cases of healing magic--the only way to survive is to not contract it in the first place.

1/3

[misanthropicprinciple]

[...]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[...???]

3/3

[misanthropicprinciple]

UH???

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Okay. Okay. Ardyn's (?!?!?!?!?!?) got Church. He'll get Yuuri. They're a team. It's not just him. They can do it.

But they can probably do it in another thread, where it will be eligible for sweet loot.]

[scourgingstars]

...I'll explain later. Right now, you need to see to Yuuri--if she's in a safe enough state of mind, then come to our room later tonight and we'll deal with Church as well as ourselves. From there we'll worry about keeping the others together.

[Clearly very aware of how surreal the situation was, Ardyn focused instead on the situation at hand and how to beat it to a tragic conclusion.]

Understood, Royal Adviser Tenmyouji?

[myocordial]

We all have a serial number right on our chest. Impossible to miss. However, this body doesn't have one.

Furthermore... [...Well, this requires a little more explanation.] There are three basic types of Roidmude. Cobra. Spider. Bat. Other than the serial number, there's really no way to tell them all apart.

This one, however, is unique. I only know of a single Roidmude who has this type and he's... gone. And even then, he still had a serial number.

I don't think this body is anyone else's...

[Which means... uh. Well, he's still working on that.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn had not, in fact, told anyone about his conversation with PAL the night before. Talking to anyone after the disaster that meeting had been seemed just a little ill-advised. He'd ended up in one of the rest areas overnight, actually sleeping for the first time in--well, not that long at all, but semantics.]

[When he woke up that morning, it took a moment or two of hazy confusion before he started piecing together the events of the previous evening. He'd--oh, Shiva, he'd actually been stupid enough to make anything resembling a deal with PAL? What if he'd lied, what if the Starscourge--or whatever passed for it--ended up with someone else? They'd be the ones suffering, and it would be his faul-]

['Even were the dawn to break now, it would only bring the horrors to light-!']

[...Ardyn felt cold in a way that had nothing to do with the Starscourge and everything to do with a deep sense of terror and pain he felt at the edge of his mind.]

[Thankfully, the motive was enough to distract him temporarily. He lingered in the kitchen for a short while after that, with a cup of coffee he actually seemed to be drinking for once. After that he went to the garden for Luscinia, ignoring any aversion to sunlight he'd had before.]

[Ardyn seemed to be moving much less aimlessly than usual; he walked the halls with that same cavalier demeanor, but seemed to be actively looking for everyone for whatever reason until returning to room seven around nightfall.]

[That dark and cold horror was clawing at the back of his mind, paired with the temptation of change one person's fate, but...just a little longer. He just had to hold out and keep this place together until they escaped, and then he could stop one way or another.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's all moving too fast, too fast for him to really stop and think before the reversal of their positions, and he's not even mad, just wide-eyed, his hands automatically up around Ardyn's but not prying him off, just--

He can see the ship explode in his mind's eye, or the grenade that destroyed her body, or telling her before shipping out--telling her Tex, I-- and he couldn't say anything else but just be careful, or hearing Sheila's stuttering and damaged voice and the recounting of the last moments before crashing, asking Wash she should be here, right? And he can see Ardyn smiling, see the glint of trouble in his eyes, remembers the taste of cinnamon and bad decisions, swear to me that you'll remember I was once this Ardyn before you now.

And it's playing in his head, the most heart-wrenching tune he'd ever heard, omnia dividit tragoedia coram amandum quae tragoedia tragoedia tragoedia and what if someone kills for this?]

I...

I-I can't--

[daughterofthemark]

--Sir PAL?!

[And she even took a cupcake. How could you betray her like this?]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei opens his mouth a couple times, too many questions balling up together to come out. But, finally, he laughs, weak and incredulous and confused and happy, and lightly punches Ardyn's arm.]

Copy that. Your Majesty.

[myocordial]

[He tenses up at the contact, but it's not a conscious thing. In some ways, everything around him is so very clear and in another way, it feels as if he's a million miles away.

Which is probably why it takes a moment for him to answer Queenie.]

...He has a lot of nerve.

[scourgingstars]

Listen to me. Forget everything else and focus only on what I am saying.

I know you're in pain. I know that you've been suffering for weeks and bearing all of it while trying to keep everyone else from breaking, including me. When I said that I knew I asked too much of you, I meant it--not you or any other here should have come to bear all that we are right now.

[He let go of Church's shirt, hands resting on his shoulders instead. There was something bright in his eyes--not the inhuman black and yellow of Starscourge, but a spark that was turning to a steadily burning flame of fury and determination.]

...So let me help you carry it, just this once.

[scourgingstars]

Well said. Go on--I'll see you there.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Church, you...

[Heart looks like he's going to fry his own circuits with rage, Queenie's quiet and staring, even Arianna--and then Yuuri, pale and beautiful in fury in a way that makes Junpei's heart beat hard, storms from the room, and he has to go.]

I'll--I'll be back. Okay? I won't... we'll talk.

locked for suffering with junpei

[serrata]

[ It shouldn't be too hard to work out where Yuuri's taken herself. It's the obvious guess, after all -- where else would Champion Green Thumb head when she's stressed? And who else would be on her mind right now, but Ruu?

That's where he'll find her -- sat in front of Ruu's memorial, legs at odd angles like she only just barely made it here before they gave out under her. She's got her head tipped forward, and her fingers are tangled up in her hair, like she's trying to physically hold herself together.

There's some evidence that there may have been a bit of a tantrum on the way there as well -- the neatly arranged row of gardening tools has been scattered across the floor and the bucket she usually uses to move dirt and plants around has been very obviously kicked across the room.

It's pretty safe to say that she might be incredibly mad. ]

[daughterofthemark]

Indeed. We must not give in.

[It's... probably obvious to everyone who Arianna is thinking of.]