Week 4

[airlockedmods]

[After everything that this case was, you probably don't want to deal with anything else. But you wake up on Sunday, just like before, with some new memories, and some new stores to check out.

Let's see what this week brings.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Don't forget to check in, and check your memory regains! You can also stop by the gacha machine and Xander's office hours. ))

Comments

[burninglight]

...I don't have a choice. Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.

['Fates lead the willing and drag the unwilling'.]

I'm still alive, so it falls to a matter of either allowing myself to give out and fall apart, or trying to salvage whatever might remain before I shatter entirely.

[nightcure]

On the plus side, at least you've got people who'll help pick up the pieces if that happens.

That's one of the good things about having people who care about you.

[burninglight]

Why would they? A broken glass is a pile of useless shards and nothing more.

[...Which spoke volumes about whoever Ardyn was in two short sentences. 'Anyone would get rid of something useless', where the 'useless' thing was 'an Ardyn Lucis Caelum who served no purpose for anyone'.]

There's no reason for anyone to go to the effort of repairing something like that.

[nightcure]

Maybe you can't see it, but people who care about you? They'll stand by you, even when you feel like you're falling apart.

[ Gladio and Ignis and Prompto had for Noctis, even if Gladio had been... Gladio about it. But in the end, they'd been there for him right until the very end. ]

Or especially when you feel like you're falling apart.

[burninglight]

...

[He glanced off to the side, an obvious argument dying in his throat as he fidgeted mindlessly with the orange scarf around his collar. There had been people who stood with him as his body began to deteriorate and warp into something terrible, and what had happened when he gave out and broke?]

[What had trust gotten him, two thousand years ago? What did it mean when he couldn't trust the gods he'd sworn his service to, or the twin brother he must have cared for once, or even the Shield who guarded his life right up until he didn't?]

I'm...trying, I think. Whether it's an attempt I'm consciously aware of or not, but it-... [Another deep breath, another hand pushing violet hair from his face.]

...This is all wrong. In these memories we all relied on each other, kept barely any secrets and were able to keep ourselves together even when one of us turned on the rest. But it's all a jumbled mess made so difficult now--Church and I can barely hold a conversation without having a nervous breakdown, and without-....without Yuuri we're all an unmitigated disaster.

[nightcure]

I'm guessing it's because your memories were so messed up, back then.

[ He frowns. He remembers what it was like at the beginning of his program. He didn't have it nearly as bad as Ardyn, but that's not particularly surprising. Noctis sighs and sips at his tea. ]

Yuuri was the glue that kept you together, huh? I didn't realize she was that important to you.

[burninglight]

She was-...I'm sure if I say 'rational' it likely won't match up with what you've seen of her, but it's true all the same. We had a garden--she used to plant memorials after we left the courtroom.

Church was the person I trusted to know I wasn't human, but it was Yuuri I would talk out the rest of the situation with, because she was the one checking in with us and trying to keep us relatively sane.

[nightcure]

... Honestly? I kind of got that idea.

[ She reminded him of... well. Of a mini-Ignis, but he's not gonna mention that. ]

I'm guessing she was pretty much a different person during your first program, since we had memory crap going on then, too.

[burninglight]

...I suspect that we all were.

[nightcure]

... Yeah. So was I.

When I got there, I didn't even know Insomnia had fallen.

[burninglight]

The first thing I remembered was...negotiating after that little incident with Diamond Weapon. I didn't even recognize myself, much less the Citadel.

[what a headache.]

I've no idea how I got out of that mess without turning to something even more insane than I already was. Presuming that I'm not, which I can't quite tell anymore.