theairlock | the final week

Entry tags:

!round 2,
!week 8

the final week

[Eight weeks. Eight weeks of friendship and love, death and loss, hope and despair all muddled together in a cocktail that's too sweet on the tongue and leaves an acid-y pit in the stomach. With nine of them left (ten counting their dear but lone surviving host), things look darker than ever. Come Sunday morning the last of the Champions missing memories will be returned to them while they sleep. For some of them this will reveal answers, for others it might just be a fate worse than death. They could even be death.

But how does the song go? "It's always darkest before the dawn"?

There are no announcements from PAL this week. Not even morning and evening announcements.

Sunday Monday Tuesday

[ooc: Welcome to endgame, everyone! We're all very proud of you for making it all the way to the end. As you can see this is going to be a short IC week but we promise things will not be going down until this weekend (7/7-7/9). On Tuesday we'll be unveiling the OOC post for what to expect during the final investigation. There is no official AC this week, just a check-in and as mentioned above characters will be at their true canon points on Sunday morning.

Buckle up, kids, the ride's not over yet.]

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That's still very fast, don't you think?!

[ THE REDDEST ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SURVIVOR DWRP HAS TO OFFER ]

Rii-san, anything could happen now. Who knows when you'll have another chance?

...

[That wasn't enough to understand the full picture--not even close to it. The full implications were so far beyond anything that a sentence and a few listed statistics could explain as to be incomprehensible.]

[Species: Artificial intelligence.]

[But it was enough. Ardyn had been so caught up in learning his own profile was the truth that he hadn't stopped to consider the others in detail. Hadn't stopped to realize that the person in his arms was a personand an AI both at once, hadn't comprehended how much of a strain on one's sanity the mere concept alone must have been.]

[And oh, uncaring gods damn everything, he wanted to murder who or whatever had made things come crashing down so harshly.]

It's not just that I'm--

I mean it is, but there's... [more, there's so much more]

I know. That no one cares what I am, because I'm a person and I'm here and I'm one of you. But it matters. To me.

I didn't know. I didn't know I was parading around like a human with a history and a family and a girlfriend--like a parody of a human.

[But he'd--he'd been human, before, right? He'd seen his own face, had skin, could taste, could breathe, and then he died--

God, but if he was an AI all along, then whose body was it?]

If it's significant to you, then that's not something I can take away. And I don't...I don't know that there's anything I can say which would be of any help.

...But I can do for you the same that you've done for me. However long you need me to, any time it's necessary--I will be at your side. If you need reminding of who you are, then I will be there.

Just tell me what you need, and you'll have it--you saved me from breaking apart, and I plan to return the favor.

[There's a pang of guilt, but buried down beneath the memories. For a moment, he feels as though he's being a terrible Shield. That, lately, Ardyn's the one that's been pulling him back from the brink, not the other way around. Sure, he got rid of the potions, plans to stay, to stay with him, but that might not matter if Ardyn breaks apart and falls into the darkness of his memories.

But that's far and away inside him right now. Because there's more, and he has to figure out how to say it. Or indicate it. He presses his thumb over his own image, then clears the screen. This is him, this has to be him, but he could've looked like anything, like anyone at all. Piloting a meatsuit.

None of it is easy, none of it, it all hurts like stepping on glass.]

I can't--Ardyn, I wanted to give everyone a new home. I wanted them to come with me, and I know some of them didn't, but I want you to come with me, and--and I can't.

[He doesn't want to say it, because being dead meant something different then. Being dead meant being a ghost over a dead body but continued existence. This is...this isn't that.

It's no new revelation to anyone here to realize that they're dead, and he feels small and petty for it, but he's trying to impress on Ardyn the implication without having to say it.]

I can't take anyone home.

Then we'll find another one.

[He answered that immediately, catching Church's face in his hand and bringing him to look up again. Ardyn's eyes were sharp and burning with fury that had turned to determination, a refusal to accept any outcome that didn't end with everyone as safe and functional as was possible at this point.]

Who and whatever you are, you are alive right now. Living, breathing, human as I am. And I am never letting go of that. If every last person in this miserable facility needs to find somewhere to go, then we're going to find one--I don't care if it means returning to a planet purged of shadow and rebuilding it brick by gods-damned brick.

You and I and everyone here...we'll find somewhere. No matter how long it takes or how much work we put into it. And you'll be there with me no matter what you are right now.

[That he'd be willing to even go back to Eos at all is a testament to how much Church doesn't deserve Ardyn. They don't have to go back to anyone's homes or times, of course--they don't even know if that's possible, no matter what Junpei says. Maybe they'll get out and simply...find somewhere out there to live. Among people who would gladly watch them die for entertainment.

His hands play with the scarf around his neck, anxious.]

Pretty sure nobody back there's...going to want to see the walking apocalypse be their new carpenter.

[At least it's a joke, even if he doesn't look like he's got a shred of humor left in him. It's in there, somewhere.]

Dunno how it'd work with a dead man walking, to boot.

...I want you to make me a promise. I don't care that I don't even understand the reasons anymore, it's...

If something happens. To either one of us. Promise me you won't say goodbye.

You say that like I don't know how to hide. You really think Ardyn Lucis Caelum's face was seen in two millennia? No, I'm far too good for that.

[He answered with a slight joke of his own--as entirely factual as it was, there was the smallest note of humor to it. Fiery determination started to fade into a smile, tired but honest.]

Never. Whether something happens or even if it shouldn't, I will never say that. Wherever we go after this, we go together.

[It's not okay, none of this is okay and he doesn't know how to react, so maybe this was inappropriate, maybe this was taking it out on the wrong person, but by god he's happy to see her alive.

And so afraid that this isn't real.

He doesn't trust himself to say anything more right now, content as he can be to keep her close and rock her, letting her breathe, letting her sob, because she's warm and alive and here.]

[ Is-- is she wheezing?! She's actually wheezing. Good god. ]

We-- I thought we were all getting out of here, weren't we?! So there's no need to rush any of this! We'll have plenty of time to go and have a perfectly normal life and not have this conversation right now!

Good. I hate goodbyes. So maybe it's better I didn't get to say it to--to the others. To everyone who was with me. I hope they're going somewhere better.

I hope we're going somewhere better.

[It would be so much easier if that was it, wouldn't it? If that's all that he knew, that he was the computer the profile claimed all along and that he was dead. People have had worse revelations, especially the one right in front of him.

But that's not it, that's not everything, it's not--everything Wash told him. And the fragments. And that it was his choice, in the end, in a way, even if it was somewhat coerced.

He tries to work his mouth around the ideas, but nothing comes out at first. Present in the moment, the adrenaline, the sickness, faded off somewhere in the background radiation of this moment, but it's so much to take. "That's why Epsilon went insane; it was meant to. It was all the horrible experiences the Alpha needed to shed to survive." Maybe Nari was wrong, too. He'd seen some shit, been put through some shit, deliberately, just to break him down. He didn't need to be glass to break; if you have the right tools, you can break anything.

He tries again.]

I don't know how I am...what I am. I don't know how I'm this...seemingly whole, complete person. There's so much missing, but I never knew. ["Exhorted little fragments of purified, compartmentalized emotion. None of them were a full personality."] When I said...shit. When I said I've broken more times than--I was being literal. Not just an emotional breakdown, but a breaking down of emotion.

I've got holes in me. Not like the hole Tex left behind. I'm broken. Things are missing. My memories, for one thing.

[Maybe he should explain it to Junpei. Junpei might be a little better equipped to understand. He doesn't mean to--doesn't want to sound like he's whining about not being human when Ardyn had to live with that for ages. But it's so hard to put into actual words. Maybe it's too soon; maybe it'll sort itself out as the day goes on.]

But--what if something goes wrong?

[WHAT IF IT'S LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO HER]

[Junpei's guess for this one is:]

Someone dashingly handsome and really smart.

A very special pair of undies that Choromatsu's brother Karamatsu gave him at his going away party. They're simple, comfy white briefs... that have Karamatsu's own face on them. Choromatsu would rather burn them than ever wear them.

[FUCKING SPITS HIS COFFEE.]

[Junpei's still a little red-eyed from breaking completely down on Queenie, but he passes her a note so as not to interrupt the proceedings:]

You were right.

Later or tomorrow?!

[He listened without fully comprehending the concept; he could think of it in terms of himself, of Ardyn Lucis Caelum's light suffocated by blackened hate. There were sure to be things he'd lost and forgotten himself in day after day after day after year after decade after century--but this sounded different. Worse, perhaps, although measured on a different scale.]

[Only once Church had finished speaking and silence briefly settled in did Ardyn speak again, as though for once in his life he was actually hesitant about crossing some boundary whether physical or otherwise.]

Then you're in excellent company right now, aren't you?

We don't have to solve this right this instant, not with you so shaken by the issue at hand. And I won't pretend to understand the full situation or even know if there is a solution to it, or even if one would fix anything.

But I promised you that we're getting an 'after' once this is over, and I'll hold to that even if I have to tear it from the hands of impossibility itself. We're going somewhere better than this, broken and ragged and miserable as all of us are.

[And Junpei shoots Ardyn a concerned look. Dad, the hell is going on with Church?]

I feel--feel like you should know. What you've gotten yourself into. [But he runs a hand over his face and breathes, shaky. How does he go back to all of this knowing he'll never feel as whole as he did in that one terrible burning shining moment again?]

I got--gotta sort it out. Junpei might make sense of it. Just...need to sort it. Find the...words.

[He breathes for a few moments longer, and when the shakiness starts to subside, he drops his hand.]

You okay?

['Talk to him later', he mouthed silently, over Church's shoulder.]

...We have to treasure the time we have. Who knows... When we'll leave or even what will happen once we leave here. ...So I wanted to do something. I'm not able to do much, but... After so many funerals, I thought maybe...

[He nods, though the concern sticks. That's his best friend, showrunning motherfuckers. Who the hell dared to hurt their Church?]

Worse than what you've gotten yourself into? [He laughed softly, exhausted but making the effort anyway.] I think I'm quite a difficult case to handle myself, in case you forgot.

[He caught Church's hand with his own, holding it tightly.]

Better off than you are. I can manage on my own until you've a handle on matters.

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the final week

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Re: 14.

15. i can't believe i almost forgot

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