week 2

[airlockedmods]

Week 2

[It's been about a week since the Champions woke up in their new consumerist hellscape of a temporary home and, despite a few odd goings on and the bomb incident with Church and Nari, things haven't been as bad as they could be. No one is even dead yet! But let's see how long that lasts.

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

(( Also, don't forget to submit your AC and item rolls! You can also bother your Overseer here. ))

Comments

[a10tionplz]

...no. It's always an option. Thinking otherwise just puts you in the same place as Xander.

[burninglight]

How optimistic.

[But he didn't argue, leaning back against the wall with a deeply tired look.]

At least Xander's human. Weak and sentimental, with his own faltering resolve written all over his face, but human. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have even that much anymore.

[a10tionplz]

[The Doctor puts down his tablet, looking dully over at Ardyn for a moment.]

...What'd he do, your brother.

[burninglight]

...it's a long story.

[At first, it didn't look like one Ardyn was willing to share.But he took a slow breath and closed his eyes, gesturing vaguely with one hand as he spoke--like he was simply too tired for the proper dramatics.]

When I was still mortal, I was working as a healer--using divine magic to take on a daemonic plague and save those afflicted by it. Our kingdom was barely even in its infancy then, and it was I who was to become its first ruler.

My brother, to the best of my recollection, had other ideas. Izunia Lucis Caelum pretended to be me, turning the very subjects I sacrificed everything to protect against me. He had me executed as just another of the daemons which the plague spawned, yet of course it didn't work--I was already immortal.

So he had me killed again. And again. I remember losing count somewhere around the sixth or seventh execution, varied as they were. When nothing worked, I was exiled to a solitary stone prison on a forsaken island, where I remained for some generations until I was able to find my way out.

The history of our world calls 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' the Founder King of Lucis; claims him some great hero who saved the world from the brink of oblivion. And as true as it is on paper, it is and has ever been a lie.

What my twin brother did was to steal everything from me and push me well over the brink of shrieking insanity by condemning me to eternity in darkness.

[a10tionplz]

...I'm sorry. I am so sorry.

[The Doctor slowly sits up on his bed, hands resting lightly between his knees.]

But all that rage, the loss, the betrayal and vengeance. You're really going to tell me you've felt all that and try saying you're anything but human?

[burninglight]

Of course I am. I've spent two thousand years feeling all of that and next to nothing else. Left untouched by time, watching history itself unfold having left me behind as something utterly forgotten.

[Ardyn laughed hollowly, running a hand through his hair.]

...I'm not human. Just another daemon living alone in darkness where no mortal dares to tread.

[a10tionplz]

No, I've seen the best and worst of humanity, all across history. Humanity's capable of so much worse than any demon. That pain, that denial- that is so human.

[He blows out a low, sad breath.]

That "where no mortal dares" bit, that's too Byronic to be anything BUT human, sorry to say.

[burninglight]

I'm afraid I only know the worst of it.

[Ardyn shrugged, trying to play off the whole conversation as if it didn't bother him.]

But I suppose it doesn't matter. It would seem I'm quite human now, with all the myriad aspects of it.

[a10tionplz]

Yes you are. And that's the hard part, cause now you've got to decide where to go from here. How to go forward. Terrifying, isn't it?

[burninglight]

[...]

Yes.

[a10tionplz]

...don't try to hide from it. The humanity. I've seen what happens to the people who do, what happens to whole races.

[The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Time Lords- all running so far from their own mortality.]

You've seen the worst. But now you've got a chance to try to be better than that. Be the best humanity can offer. Don't throw it away.

[burninglight]

I was the best humanity had, once. And they threw it away. What reason have I to make the same mistake twice?

[a10tionplz]

Oh, that's the beauty of it, you get to make whole new mistakes.

[burninglight]

....That...doesn't exactly sound a desirable outcome.

[a10tionplz]

Well. You're gonna make mistakes no matter what you do, I promise that. Might as well have some fun with it if you can, yeah?