theairlock | Week 3

Entry tags:

!round 5,
!week 3

Week 3

[Well, your first case sure was something, wasn't it? Yuuri Wakasa and Thomasin have both suffered brutal deaths, and while your Overseer didn't seem particularly pleased with the way Thomasin went out, you're all still being held here.

On Sunday morning, you'll find that the metal sheet between the Starbucks and RoombaVille has disappeared. More importantly, though, you'll find yourself waking with things you'd forgotten still ringing in your head.

There's one new hallway to explore, and two more still unaccounted for. Maybe you'll find something to cheer you up? Probably not. It's worth a go?]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Don't forget to do your weekly check-in and check the memory regain post! The item roll and Xander office hours posts are still open as well. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Noctis doesn't spend much time in the food court after... that. He's still shaking, and honestly he just wants to hit something. Xander, definitely. But he can't do that, so Noctis settles on finding something else to do.

Maybe break some stuff. Who knows. He ends up in Universe, and... ]

... Hey.

...Hello, Noctis.

[Back to the calm detachment now, focused on the sword in his hand and the unconventional method of sharpening it. It was either cut off all higher thought processes or turn to screaming rage himself, breaking everything and kicking Xander's office door in.]

I confess I'm surprised, if this isn't a chance meeting and you actually sought me out again.

Nope. Just felt like doing something, and since Xander's face is off-limits for punching...

[ He shrugs and takes a seat. ]

Guess I just ended up here.

Do try not to punch mine instead. I suspect that would actually hurt now.

[He calmly discarded yet another file that had been worn out and bent out of shape, turning the sword over to focus on the other side of the blade's edge.]

...This would have been much easier with a metal file, but heavens forbid I should happen across one wide enough for even a sword this small.

Wasn't even considering it.

[ Since, you know. Last time. ]

Just sharpening it for fun, or do you have a reason?

Oh, call it 'wishful thinking' mixed with boredom and immeasurable fury. After all, if I see a chance to take out Xander I'd prefer not to be carrying a blunted weapon.

I guess that's pretty fair.

[ He leans back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. His PIP feels like it weights ten tons. ]

... So. Who'd they threaten you with?

[ Getting right to it, then. ]

...

[Ardyn's hands went still, and for a long moment he didn't answer.]

I don't have anyone I care about--at least, not back home. I thought I knew who it was that would be the closest approximation to 'most beloved', but...I was wrong.

[He pulled back his sleeve and pressed his left hand to his eyes, laying his right arm on the table and leaving his PIP in plain view.]

No one even worth killing over.

[ Ah, he has questions about who Ardyn thought was his... "most beloved." But when his eyes fall on the PIP, he goes quiet. ]

Your brother. Seems like these people don't know you as well as they should.

They've rather limited options in my case, I suppose. Despite what I once told you, I don't exactly have friends. There were really only two people I ever cared about on any personal level.

So who's the other one?

[Another sigh, Ardyn pulling his sleeve back down over his PIP and starting to twirl a nail file in his hands restlessly.]

Oh, I think Marshal Leonis or perhaps Gladio would know better than I what the Shield of the Founder was up to in more recent eras.

[bitter? nah.]

Before he was the whispered legend and test upon which Shield and Crownsguard alike threw themselves at to prove themselves, he was the closest friend I ever had.

Ah.

[ So... Gilgamesh, huh. ]

Did he know about Izunia's whole thing with you?

He must have; he knew something was happening to me, and after the fact... If even only one person in the world could tell us apart, it would ever have been him.

But I don't know. I don't know when he disappeared to the Tempering Grounds or what became of him to make him some eternal wraith haunting the canyons of Lucis. He was nowhere to be found when I was executed, and long since faded into legend by the time I left Angelgard.

[Ardyn pressed a hand to his head as if to force away some unpleasant memory before it took over his entire thoughts and left him struggling to stay in the present time. After a second or two he raked it back through his hair, taking a slow breath and resuming sharpening the sword for something else to focus on.]

...What of yourself?

... Couldn't tell you. I don't know much about him, anyway, other than his whole trial thing.

[ He shrugs a little... and then he instinctively stiffens. His hand tightens on his PIP, and for a long time he's quiet. He tries a few times to speak... but cuts himself off. It's painful to think about--to think that they could bring him back just to put him through something like this. ]

... It's my dad.

... [He paused in the repetitive motion for a second, the only clear indication of actual surprise. It occurred to Ardyn, however briefly, that he wasn't sure how much Noctis even knew--if he was aware someone else had claimed vengeance for his father's death.]

Xander's bluffing. Or whoever he takes orders from is.

Can you seriously say that, knowing full well both of us are here when we shouldn't be?

[ He looks at Ardyn, expression hard. It's obvious he believes they could do this, because the impossible's already happened. ]

Of course I can say it. I say quite a lot of things I want people to believe.

[He said that much easily, in a way that was both familiar and foreign-sounding coming from the Chancellor of Niflheim; it was a boldly stated admission of lying, but with no trace of a taunting word to it.]

We're not prepared to dispatch Xander. We don't know enough about where in the middle of gods-damned space we are or how to get out. We can't just take the gamble that we can kill him without failing and being executed, much less do so successfully and be left with a tremendous feeling of 'what now?'.

So the alternative is to let myself and everyone else be convinced it is possible, and lose others as we did Yuuri and Thomasin. People we likely know, ones we care about and don't even comprehend why. We have to choose one option of a miserable choice, and I see no option for myself but to choose calling a bluff I'm not convinced even is one, if the alternative is letting more of them die.

Well, that's for sure.

[ It's a quiet reply, and he listens to Ardyn. Considers what he's saying. Honestly, he sounds like the kind and noble king he once was... but Noctis won't mention that, even if he really wants to. It's not the time, nor the place... though especially not the time. ]

It's the last thing I want to believe. But if they can bring my dad back, what the hell am I going to do?

[ His voice is strained, and he wants to rip the damned PIP off his wrist. He wants to take down this whole thing, whatever it is, to make sure that his dad and all the others shown on their stupid devices aren't taken. ]

I'm not going to kill anyone here because of this, in case you were wondering.

That hadn't even crossed my mind.

[And that sounded more like an obvious statement of fact; of course Noctis wouldn't kill anyone for this. Ardyn had gone to far too many lengths to make sure he'd have the nerve to kill the immortal blight on the planet, he knew too well what kind of person Noctis had become.]

And I'm not about to sell all of you out just to throttle my brother; that's inefficient and he's not even worth the trouble. But I've no idea what we're going to do if this isn't bluffing, Noctis.

[ Of course. Noctis taps at his PIP, mouth set in a hard line. ]

... Then we see a bunch of people we care about kill each other for... what? The hell of it?

[ And he stops, eyebrows furrowing like he'd said something that echoed too familiar. ]

I don't know. Maybe we can talk them out of it and maybe that might even last for some short time, but after what's already transpired someone is going to snap agai-...what? Why are you looking at me like that?

I... don't know. It's probably nothing.

... It's definitely nothing. Don't worry about it.

...we'll figure something out, Noctis.

[Because honestly, even he didn't want to consider the alternative.]

Even if 'something' turns out to be no more than 'what to do in the aftermath'.

... Yeah.

[ He's still not sure, and his head kind of hurts, but he'll ignore it. ]

I'm really hoping no one kills over this. But...

[ ... always the "but." ]

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