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

[scourgingstars]

No, I wore exactly what I've been wearing here. Noctis and his friends were the ones that looked as though they'd not have been out of place carrying guitars.

[A shrug.]

Most in modern Insomnia dressed like what you might see the others wear around here. Nobility and the Crownsguard wore more formal attire.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Crownsguard... that's like the Kingsglaive? I'm assuming they're less cool, though, because I don't want to be in the less cool group.

[scourgingstars]

The army, in other words. The Kingsglaive are simply the most elite members.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Wow. ...Haha, never thought I'd be a military man. It's not really too much of a thing in Japan anymore.

[He rests his chin in his palm a moment, looking at nothing in particular and thinking about it.]

...Do they get their own emblem? The Kingsglaive.

[scourgingstars]

The current uniform and emblem is somewhat different than it originally was--things like that do change over time, so that's to be expected. But there are a couple of sigils associated with them still. Swords, usually.

[misanthropicprinciple]

What's it look like?

[scourgingstars]

The emblem of the group at large features swords and Bahamut, which I must say I do not particularly care for.

[look at him go, that was only mostly bitter instead of enraged and spiteful.]

But the individual uniforms--one moment, I think I can recall it well enough. [he took a blank sheet of paper from an inside pocket of his vest, unfolding it and starting to draw something out.]

Swords are the general symbolism regardless, as you might expect from the name 'Kingsglaive.' The uniform itself is black, a military jacket over a simple shirt if I'm not mistaken. This emblem is what one would find printed on the back of those jackets.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei leans closer as Ardyn sketches, watching with interest as the symbol unfolds.]

That...

[Junpei Tenmyouji is twenty-two years old and made of bad decisions.]

That would look so cool...

[His face could not say I want it any louder.]

[scourgingstars]

...Why exactly are you asking, Junpei?

[said a filthy enabler father figure who knew exactly where this was going]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He ducks his head a little, looking away, rubbing the back of his neck.]

...It'd be meaningful.

[Tsun dad has a tsun son.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn held up the sheet of paper with the most nefarious smirk imaginable on his face--the unmistakable look of one who had the ability to let someone never live this down forever.]

[...And then he simply held it out to Junpei without the slightest smartmouthed comment.]

It's yours.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He takes the sheet and doesn't even do something embarrassing like hide behind it. He is a man, thank you.]

I dunno if I could really go for a full back tat like, I don't know, Nishitani-san, but...

[He looks at both his arms, then turns towards the left. The one left living, the one closer to the heart.

Also the one with more free space.]

Maybe here. [He rubs his upper arm.] Since I'm likely to turn southpaw anyway.

[scourgingstars]

I wonder if we can talk Church into a matching one...then again, knowing him he might just run in the other direction the minute he catches sight of a needle.

[...]

It would suit you.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...As far as I know, I'm actually the one in your Glaive with a needle aversion.

[scourgingstars]

. . .

Wait, then why are you-?

[???????????????????????]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Like I said. It'd be meaningful.

[...]

In Japan--the country I come from--tattoos are usually a sign you're in the yakuza, like Nishitani-san. Uh, you know. Organized crime. So it's frowned upon by the average Japanese citizen.

But for exactly those reasons, when people in the yakuza get their tattoos--they're showing their loyalty. It's... it's blood.

So. You know.

[scourgingstars]

... [His initial answer was a short sound that might have seemed like a laugh; Ardyn wasn't sure what to say for a moment. It was...actually a touching gesture, and now that he fully recognized that it was difficult to find the correct response.]

Is..that right.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Mm.

And. After that first game I was in, the others who escaped with me, we all kind of... went our separate ways. It--it wasn't like this, it only lasted nine hours, and I think those were nine hours some of us wanted to forget.

But I... never want to forget anything, ever again. Whatever happens, this time I spent with all of you really meant something. And I think that's something I'd be proud to say with this.

[He taps the picture Ardyn's given him. The symbol. The emblem.]

That's what this means to me.

[scourgingstars]

[A smile crossed Ardyn's face as Junpei spoke; it was small and tired, but right now it wasn't something burdened by the terrible things he'd done and all that he'd remembered in the past weeks. For just right now, he was calm and entirely sincere.]

Seven weeks is hardly any time at all to me, even now. It's less than an instant, if it registers as any time at all in the larger picture of things. And yet despite that, you're right. No matter what may happen to me after we leave together--all of this mattered. Every moment of it, every second and every last word exchanged meant something.

[He looked back to the table, under the pretense of focusing on the drawn-out Armiger in sharp pen lines.]

It's funny--you, and Yuuri, and even Clarith when she isn't frustrating me to no end. If I had ever wound up with children two thousand years ago...I might not have minded, had they been anything like the three of you.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[When Junpei realizes he's holding his breath, he lets it out on a soft, wondering, believing half-laugh.

Angel fell, and he rose up. But is there a single one of them that hasn't completely changed over the last seven weeks? Junpei doesn't think so. And as much as they've suffered, there's also so much they learned. So much more that they know now.

He punches Ardyn's arm lightly.]

Okay. But I'm never calling Church 'Mom.'

[scourgingstars]

You should, just to see him when he thinks you slipped again.

[He reached over and put a hand on Junpei's head, half trying to get him off-balance and half making his hair even more of a disaster than it had already turned into.]

[It was hard even now to pin down who he was and who he'd become over the past weeks.
He thought himself one person, then fell hard and fast into something horrific, and now he was left trying to balance the emotions of a human with the weight of a monster living in his shadow, and struggling to exist for just a little longer without it reaching from the darkness to throttle whatever was left.]

[Whoever he was, whatever he'd done--for now, hopefully just being 'Ardyn' would be enough for a little bit longer.]

Can you imagine the look on his face?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Success. Junpei's snort-laugh as he gets his hair paternally mussed is surprised and genuine.]

Nooo, he'd never let me live it down, even if he knew I was kidding. There are lines, Ardyn. There are lines, and he's already got enough fodder to make fun of me for the rest of my life. I don't need to hand him freebies.

[Eyyy, vibrating arm jokes. His smile goes teasing.]

You should call him 'babe.' Or 'honey.' I bet that'd get an even better reaction out of him.

[scourgingstars]

Oh, I'll have to remember that the next time I hear him teasing you. He expects jokes like that from you, don't you think it would be much more startling from me?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[No one aboard the IGS Fantasy Sweet has ever seen Junpei this purely gleeful.]

Yes. You are the best dad.

[scourgingstars]

People always did say I had a gift for causing trouble. What's the point of that if I don't use it?