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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[You know, with everything happening so much, there hasn't been much of an opportunity to really... talk with Queenie. Not really. Maybe this isn't the time for it, but the last thing he wants is to keep things waiting for later.

So hey Queenie, just gonna... approach you.]

...You don't mind if we have a word, right?

[She smiles up at him when he comes in and huffs a small, frustrated sigh at her book. It gets tucked in next to her and she fans out her blankets to give him space to settle in beside her.]

Of course not, sugar. Come here.

[He seems so serious but then he always does, doesn't he?]

Hm...

[Well, alright, he'll just... go ahead and take the spot next to her, then.]

It's not exactly a pleasant subject. I don't want to bring things down. I'm happy you've returned to us and of course that's most important. But it's... difficult not to think about certain things...

[This mess got so complicated he hardly knows how to bring this up.]

's not that easy, I know.

[She just snuggles in against him and pokes at that ever present coat. You're not going to sleep in that, Heart. And you don't need to sleep but she does so you're staying here dammit.]

'm so happy to be here with you all but... people are still gonna be upset with me, I know that.

[Or... maybe he won't stay. Maybe he's gotten over the relief of her being alive and wants to cut ties.]

...You left something behind for us. For each of us. I know memory is a tricky subject at the moment, so first I suppose... I should ask how much of that you even know.

[Memory manipulation isn't new to him. But memory magic is so different and he'd rather just get confirmation from her, to make this easier.]

I... don't remember doing it, or what was in it. [A sigh, nuzzling into his shoulder a little more.]

But, after the memory that Nari took, I guessed that's what was in the box. Memories for all of you. Once they're out they're gone. I don't... remember what was said... I can guess a bit, what I would've said, but...

...You were very harsh. Towards yourself, I mean.

[He'd had to think about if he wanted to see the memory or not. When he did, what she said... He understood her to an extent, of course. Her decision must have been difficult and very painful, so it's no wonder she saw herself in such a bad light in that moment.

Even so...]

I understand why.

But you... you compared yourself to... [...He can barely even say it. Because it's just too wrong. The level she put herself on in that memory.] Not... directly, but...

[She didn't remember but she'd had the thought since then again. That this was, perhaps, how Grindelwald himself began on the path he was on. As she speaks she pulls away from him, drawing her knees up to her chest and unable to even look at him.

She doesn't deserve forgiveness.]

Grindelwald has a saying... a motto if you will.

"For the Greater Good."

It's like he thinks with wizards in charge the no-maj's will be better off. It's so wrong, twisted and terrifying and all last week the only thing I could think that got me through the days was that... that's what I was doing. For the greater good.

A few people... such a small number and millions of lives would be saved. I hated it. I hate that I let myself think like that... like him. Like the people that hurt you and Nari and Clarith...

I'm so sorry, honey. I know there's nothing I can say that will make up for it. I just... I'm so scared of what's going to happen.

Don't-- ...Don't. Don't think like that.

[The "please" is unspoken, but still clear and heavy in the words. Please don't.]

People like that... like this Grindelwald... It's not the same. The things they do and the things well intentioned people do to help others, misguided or not, it's... it's not the same.

[It hurts a lot, to hear her talk of herself like that.]

I don't agree with what you tried to do. But it doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you anything like that.

And nothing like my... [...] ...like the one who created me. Please don't ever compare yourself to him again...

[There's logic in his words, she knows that. But at the same time the hurt is so deep, not just from the thought of losing them but of herself, learning she's capable of that.]

I- [A sniffle, a shaky breath. Don't start crying again.]

I killed someone. I don't remember it but I did. I loved him and I-

All of you would've died... How does that not make me a bad person?

It takes much more than one action to make someone good or bad. This is one... which had big consequences attached to it. But it's still the one action. One you regret, even. It will take much more than that to erase the good you've done and the intentions you had.

And now you're here with us. On this path.

[One that certainly won't lead to her becoming a bad person.]

...And I've forgiven much worse than this before. So how could I possibly see you as someone bad?

[He won't say this didn't hurt. Because it did. But that's... alright, he thinks.]

H-Heart...

[She uncurls, turns to him and wraps her arms around him, burying her face into the fur of his collar and clinging to him.Her breathing stutters and her face is damp but she's not sobbing. Just slow quiet tears that make her throat tight.

It's hard not to argue, not to insist that no one should forgive her. But she wants them to, whether she deserves it or not she wants to be at home here.]

's hard not to think I am... but... thank you, sugar. [Tipping her head just enough to brush a kiss against his jaw.]

Of course.

[The good thing about being alive is getting to move on from regrets. So he's sure she'll be alright, eventually.She has a family to get her there...]

...All of this reminded me a little... Well, the situation is very different, of course...

But I was reminded of someone else important to me.

Tell me about them...

Of all the things we've talked about you've mentioned your friends but never really told me about them. [She sits back just a little, enough to kiss him softly.]

Remembering them is how we keep them close... please?

...Her name was Medic. She was... special.

Right after our fight began, things were very dire. The first Kamen Rider appeared, defeating us one by one. It seemed like hope was lost for us. And then she just... appeared. This girl dressed entirely in white... Somehow, she had the ability to heal damaged Roidmudes. To me, she seemed almost like a goddess.

["Healing goddess" is what he'd called her multiple times...]

...That healing did... come at a cost. One I didn't realize at the time. It changed her. I didn't know that for a long time, though. To me she was always so kind. It always seemed to me as if she lit up the room just being there.

She must have been a ray of hope for you, at the time.

[A soft smile, another kiss, this time to his throat as she nuzzled against him.]

It sounds like you loved her an awful lot. Healing... always takes a toll. Means ya gotta see some a the worst in people to make it better.

She was. Without her, we never would have lasted as long as we did...

[It's fitting, almost, that losing her is what finally doomed them.]

It was... more literal, for her. You see, we... most Roidmudes... they had negative human emotions programmed into them, early on. ["They", not "we". Because he's somewhat of an exception.] When Medic healed them, she felt those emotions as well. Took them into her. And it changed her so much. Corrupted her...

I did love her. Perhaps that's what made me so blind to the fact that she... didn't really care about anyone except me.

[It hadn't seemed serious. She bickered with Brain, sure, but he didn't think it was... quite so bad.]

Behind my back, she even sacrificed other Roidmudes. When there were already so few of us.

[Her breath catches in her throat, the similarities to Ardyn are so striking it makes her heart ache. But to have someone you love and trust, someone so close to you, betray you so completely...

And have it not be their fault.]

You've already forgiven everything she did, haven't you?

[It's why he can forgive her so easily.]

...It was wrong of her. I was... very upset when I first found out.

[The first and only time he yelled at her. And even when he'd calmed down he'd just shut her out. Walked past her like she didn't exist, because he couldn't acknowledge her at that moment. But...]

But understanding her feelings... and seeing how she felt when I found out... How could I possibly not forgive her?

[No one would have blamed him if he hadn't, he's sure. But even Shinnosuke had understood her feelings, chosen to spare her when he could've ended her life right there.]

...She was better, from that point on. It didn't change what she'd already done. But it changed who she was going forward.

You gave her a second chance... that's more than most would do.

I'm glad you did and that she took it and made herself better. [No matter how likely you are to be hurt by it the joy and satisfaction of helping someone become better than their past was worth the risks. She only wishes she'd been able to give Credence that opportunity.]

I wish people were more willing ta give Clarith that chance too...

[She still can't believe that so many people are mad at Clarith when, by rights, they should have been furious with her.]

Hm. Right at the end... for just a moment... I got to see her as she used to be again.

[And then she was gone.]

...Clarith is a complicated issue. I'll forgive her in time myself, but first I - as well as some of the others here, I'm sure - do need that time.

It just don' seem fair, I s'pose... so many willin ta forgive me for-

[She swallows hard, bites her lip. No, she can't say it. Not yet.]

But then still bein so angry with her.

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the final week

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