Week 5

[airlockedmods]

[Five weeks in, and suddenly your numbers have been reduced by a lot. All evidence of Oda's methodical slaughter has been wiped away by the robots, but getting rid of the memories isn't going to be so easy. Not to mention the emotional scars.

Again on Sunday morning, you'll find yourselves with some new memories and some new items. Today, however, there are no new rooms.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( ooc: Don't forget to turn in your AC for Week 4, submit your memory regains, and put in your Benefactor threads! ))

Comments

[helladoptera]

[ Ooh his majesty ooh. ]

Cats, huh? Neat.

[ How she's doing...

"I've heard the doctors talking about it-"

A little too quickly, a little too forced: ]

I'm alright.

[nightcure]

[ Yep. He catches that. Noctis nudges her lightly with his shoulder before closing his book. ]

I'm here to talk about it. Or listen to you, if you need it.

[helladoptera]

I...

[ Whatever next word is supposed to come out, she chokes on it.

"So, I know I'm just putting off the inevitable..." ]

... I thought it would fix things.

[nightcure]

[ ... god. He can hear the pain, and he pulls her into a hug. He can't say it's alright, whatever "it" is, and if it's causing Max so much grief, it'd probably just be an insult. ]

... but things didn't go as you thought?

[helladoptera]

I... Chloe was...

[ She hugs back, tears finally starting to form.

"I'm saying that being with you again has been so special." ]

I just wanted to make her life better, but I fucked it up instead. A-And then she...

[nightcure]

[ He puts it together. Did she go back in time to fix something? And it ended up worse?

He cradles the back of her head. ]

If it's too hard, take a breath. You don't have to tell me, if it's that upsetting.

[helladoptera]

[ She does take a breath, but it only makes her feel marginally better. ]

... I managed to fix things again. I did, but she... I had to...

[ "I just wanted to feel like when we were kids running around Arcadia Bay... ]

I tried to go back and save Chloe's dad, from the car accident that... that killed him. But... with him back, Chloe was in one, and she was paralyzed, and I...

[ "... and everything was possible." ]

[nightcure]

[ He feels sick. Not because of what Max did, but the effect it had. He... he's dreading what comes next.

But he can't back down, when Max needs him. His arm never leaves its place around her. ]

What happened?

cw assisted suicide talk

[helladoptera]

[ "And you made me feel that way today." ]

She... we hung out. And then, at the end, she...

[ "I want this time with you to be my last memory." ]

... she asked me to... to kill her.

[nightcure]

[ The breath he takes in is audible. Very slightly, but she can hear it. ]

And you fulfilled her request.

[helladoptera]

... yeah, I did.

[ "All you have to do is crank the IV up to eleven." ]

Does... should I have?

[nightcure]

[ He hesitates. It's... a complicated question, and Noctis isn't sure he has the right answer. ]

I don't know. She asked you to do it, right? So she had a reason.

All you ever wanted to do was help her. You saved her from getting shot. Tried to make things better by saving her dad.

But it's not really my place to decide if you should've. That's for you to decide, hard as it is.

[helladoptera]

She said... the doctors said her lungs were failing. And her parents were in debt keeping her... alive. So...

[ She had even abandoned the timeline right after. She remembers now, in the haze of last week's memory, mentioning it to Chloe. Her Chloe.

But if that timeline still exists, then...

She's the one who robbed it of Chloe Price. ]

... did you have a nicer memory, Noctis?

[nightcure]

You did what you could to help her. That's all.

[ Eighteen years is way too young to have all this on her shoulders. Noctis wants to reach out and pluck that weight from her back, but... he knows it's never that easy. ]

You ever want to talk about anything else, I'll listen.

[ It's an offer that'll never expire. Noctis gently ruffles her hair. ]

I don't know if it's nicer. Things make sense now, though.

[helladoptera]

Yeah. I just... need some time to process.

[ She smiles. ]

That's good. Things making sense is... nice.

[nightcure]

Yeah. It hasn't been that long since you remember. [ He ruffles her hair lightly. ] You've got time.

[ He sighs. Man... it feels like forever ago since they looked at all those pictures. ]

You were right, about Ardyn.

[helladoptera]

That's one thing I have plenty of.

[ But the change in subject to Ardyn of all people is either sudden or surprising enough that it works as a distraction. ]

About what part?

[nightcure]

That makes two of us.

... You were right about him being a relative.

[helladoptera]

Wait, really? Wowser, I was joking about the long-lost uncle thing.

[nightcure]

Really. I don't know if he's an uncle, but he's definitely a Lucis Caelum.

[helladoptera]

Huh. How very... Game of Thrones. Did you remember anything else about him?

[ DID HE KILL MORE PEOPLE YOU LIKE DOES SHE HAVE TO FI- YELL AT HIM ]

[nightcure]

Oh yeah.

He stuck me in a crystal for ten years, brought eternal night to all of Eos, messed up my hometown...

Turns out he was the source of all the daemons. [ Pause, and he looks a little.,. sympathetic? ] But that part wasn't really his fault. I mean, yeah, he handled a betrayal pretty badly, but mostly...

[ He goes quiet. ]

[helladoptera]

[ Max is quiet, for a bit. ]

So he... made some really really bad choices, and one thing led to another, and... Do you think he's a bad person?