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theairlock2017-07-01 11:46 pm
airlockedmods) wrote in theairlock2017-07-01 11:46 pm
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.]
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.
[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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Besides, if we did have to go to your world, I'd fucking fight all those assholes and you know it.
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[point him at who needs to be full of swords]
...Junpei, I- [Again he faltered, this time out of uncertainty rather than losing himself to a couple thousand years of memories.] I can't exactly talk to Church about this right now, and none of the others quite have the larger picture of things.
Would it--be alright if I told you what the last memory I saw was? I rather suspect I'll start getting bitterly irritated about it if I don't tell someone, and we don't need my brand of spite here again.
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You really don't have to ask.
[Not because he's the royal advisor. But because Ardyn is Ardyn.]
Seriously. You can tell me anything, any time.
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[...He really hoped he'd be able to do this without snapping back to Insomnia. Focus, ground yourself in where you are and who you're talking to.]
...What you should know first about the Astrals is that communing with them directly is usually left to the Oracle, but they have been known to speak with humans on occasion. One, for example, sleeps within the Crystal and occasionally lowers himself to speak with Lucian kings.
[Deep breath. Exhale. A bitterness and spite that felt uncomfortably human in how painful it was built at the back of his mind, and Ardyn pushed it back rather than let it color his words right now.] And the line of Lucis can, in some cases, forge covenants with the gods and be granted their aid to call upon in.
...The night Noctis confronted me, I called forth the only one I ever forged such a contract with--Ifrit. 'Champion of the Infernian' was literal, not only a metaphor for being vessel to the scourge.
[Ardyn gripped the pen in his hand like it was a sword he was ready to swing at the next thing that looked at him wrong, but otherwise he remained as level as one could.]
When he and his three glaives began to be pushed back into a corner, it was Bahamut who decided to show his miserable face to counterattack.
[Spite and anger came back with a quiet vengeance, the name spat like a Midgarsormr's poison with a scowl on Ardyn's face.]
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[HOW FUCKIN' DARE, BAD DRAGON?!]
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He stopped answering me not long before I was cast out; before the ring ceased to work for me. How dare he even think of showing his face where I could see him after--
[...Which was actually an astounding thing, considering he was starting to feel much worse the more he thought about it.]
...Church said something to me a few weeks ago, and I worry he may have been right.
Junpei I...don't think Bahamut ever meant for me to save anything. I think he needed what I became--so his real Chosen King could kill me and destroy the Starscourge. So he could come in and play the benevolent hero at the last second, so he...so he could...
[Ardyn's voice broke, hand pressed to his head. You and your Crystal, you and your Crystal, you and your Crystal--]
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Junpei wasn't part of that conversation between Church and Ardyn, Junpei doesn't remember when he came to that same conclusion, but as soon as he heard that Ardyn wasn't the Chosen King, that there was another, that he'd been set up to believe something that wasn't true despite every odd stacked against him--
Every hero requires a villain. Every mystery murderer a detective. Every puzzle-maker, a puzzle-solver.
Every Zero... needs a challenger. Black rabbit and white rabbit.]
I'm going to kill him.
['No... you're wrong, Delta. Nothing in the future has been set in stone. We'll shape the future with our own hands!'
Carlos, so sure, so heroic. And Delta's shitty, triumphant laugh, even though he'd lost.
'I'm sure I told you in another history that my motives are complex? ...You're so determined now to change the future. ...It's all going according to plan. Without a single casualty--I created a future where mankind will be saved.']
He had no right--no right to twist your life like that! Like human beings... are some kind of pawns for him to play chess with! There should have been another way!
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[Concentrate. Breathe. If he kept talking, focusing on his words and Junpei's then maybe he'd find something to hold onto in the sharp anger and pain that was surfacing now that he'd given voice to the whole thing.]
I'll claim responsibility for what I did, but he-...he should never have had to-- [Ardyn's voice cracked again; he dropped to sit on the floor with his hands on his head.]
...he's dead. He's dead because of what I did to the world. Because we both had to die to save it.
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Ardyn--Dad.
[He crouches in front of him, both hands on Ardyn's arms.]
Dad, you're alive again. You and Church... Queenie...
[He shakes him a little. Look UP. Look at him.]
You're alive so we can save you.
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[This wasn't right. It wasn't right, the once helpless and hapless prince and Ifrit's flame and Bahamut's armiger--I will await you but he didn't, he couldn't possibly have been there or he wouldn't be here at all-]
[Ardyn had won everything he'd wanted for two thousand years and never once felt like he'd lost so decisively until that moment.]
...Why should...I have been the one saved instead of him?
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[He searches Ardyn's face, looking for an answer, and--his hands are full of Ardyn's sleeves, his words can't reach a place he's never been, and Ardyn's looking so lost, like he could drown, all Junpei can think to do is--
Headbutt him a little.
Maybe 'think' was a strong word. Junpei winces a little himself, but shakes his head and keeps going.]
You--you felt that, right? You're here. You're alive. And that means, out in this crazy multihistorical universe? He can be, too. We just gotta beat the how out of the showrunners who brought you here along with everything else we need to know. Big deal.
[Oh no, how terrible, more reasons to kick the shit out of the bastards that brought them here. Junpei's grip and voice both tighten.]
If you can't live like this, let's turn this space station wagon the fuck around and save Night Boy from your shitsack godhole, too.
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...that hurt.
[Which was neither objection nor complaint, just Ardyn confirming he was back in the present for the most part, at the moment.]
Do you...think we can truly manage that?
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I don't know how saving both Noctis and salvaging the planet could be possible, but...if there is one, perhaps we'll be lucky enough to find it.
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...Luck, huh...
[Junpei looks away for a moment, tapping his fingers absently on Ardyn's arms.]
Hold that thought. Okay? Because it's like Arianna told me--anything we must do, we can.
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In a way, he's family. I guess.
[...Congrats, Noctis...?]
So maybe less 'have to' and more 'want to.' If you want to.
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