theairlock | week 1

Entry tags:

!round 2,
!week 1

week 1

Week 1

[With the introduction to the relationship experiment and their overseeing hosts done with, the Champions are left to their own devices to explore the first floor of the mansion as they please. Cece and Kip will pop-up every once in a while to chit-chat but for the most part they're somewhere inaccessible.

Each morning the Champions are awakened promptly at 7 am by PAL's even, almost laid back voice announcing the time and each evening at 10 pm to announce when the kitchen is closing for the night. Unlike the Overseers, he doesn't seem to be one much for conversation.

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

[ooc: welcome to week 1, everyone! This first week is a peace week which means there will be no murder this weekend! Feel free to start submitting threads for the benefactors]

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That's such bullshit! Why are the odds stacked so impossibly high against you? Don't you have... Can't your scientists find some other way to harness that Crystal thing to help you?

No, of course not. [Ardyn looked confused and a little startled by Junpei's reaction, briefly fumbling for a response.] I am the only one who can truly channel the Crystal's power.

The Astrals are on my side, as well as the Oracle to commune with them. I have a bodyguard, an army, and a brother more than capable of handling the capital while I am away. My odds are not as terrible as you seem to think.

[LET ME BE ANGRY ABOUT FFXV'S STUPID ANGSTY SHIT! JUNPEI SMASH!!]

That's still so--! What the hell, can't you see how unfair that is? Not just the odds, but... I mean, what if you need a sick day? What if you want to take a fucking nap?! Who's covering your shift at the Red Cross when you ARE the entire Red Cross?

[i mean gosh ardyn is clearly fine with it and will never once consider any of it unfair whatsoever]

What-

[JUNPEI CALM DOWN WHAT THE FUCK IS THE RED CROSS]

I'm a healer, I don't get sick. Besides, it may be difficult work, but it is something I enjoy dearly. I accept and welcome my role, and there is nothing I would not do to save every afflicted person I should be capable of reaching.

That--That way of thinking...

[So many things want to burst out of Junpei at once. He holds his fist against his mouth to keep the roar of it in.]

Heroics... they're fine for kids, but for us... Just, dude. It never turns out well for the hero.

...I've been doing this for quite a long time.

[Ardyn spoke evenly, leveling Junpei with a very calm look in bright yellow eyes.]

It is true that I have sacrificed what others may take for granted. The family which Izunia holds dear is something out of my reach, and the Oracle's relative safety in communing with the gods is a life foreign to me as well.

I spend my life traveling with the Shield of the King with both of us risking our lives on a road full of monsters, for the hope that perhaps I can save the afflicted and forestall the night before it should engulf the planet for all of eternity. If I fail, it is not merely Lucis at stake--all of Eos may well be finished.

The risks are obvious. Blind optimism will do me no favors. But I am the King of Light who has been chosen to save everyone. The time I could use to complain about whether or not the Crystal's choice was the right one is time I could use to be saving the people of my world and gathering the power to erase the Infernian's scourge from the planet.

I suppose you could say 'I have no choice', but even if I were to be given an option, this path is the one I would walk all the same.

[The fist in front of his mouth becomes the back of his open hand held against it. He presses the palm over his eyes as he turns away from Ardyn, damp hair hanging low and dark over his face.

He's twenty-two years old. A man, not a kid. His voice comes out low and distant, as if from the bottom of a deep, dry well.]

Shit.

[Junpei stays like that, bowed over the table, one arm folded over the tabletop and the other still screening himself from view. It's a moment before he speaks again.]

I shouldn't have asked. ...Sorry.

No--you've committed no offense needing an apology. [He answered with a patient smile, not entirely grasping why Junpei was so upset but recognizing that he was regardless.] You simply asked, and I elaborated.

Are you alright?

Pff.

[He scoffs, but he's still not looking up.]

Yeah. Just... It just ticks me off. That it's set up like that. I mean, that you were chosen and you didn't get to...

[...Nope, he just trails off. Sentence fin.]

Someone had to be chosen. Why not someone who enjoys doing what the position entails?

[The more regal and professional demeanor dropping, Ardyn put up the exaggerated affectation of someone who was so very long-suffering, don't you know.]

Besides, it's better that it should be me than my brother. He takes himself so very seriously, you see--it's always 'Ardyn, stop gallivanting around', 'Ardyn, stop playing with that chocobo', 'Ardyn, don't warp behind me just to see if I jump'.

He's hardly any fun at all. I'm sure he'd have hated being the Crystal's chosen.

[A wan smile tries to make an appearance on Junpei's face as he glances Ardyn's way again, but doesn't quite make it. Still, he finally lets his hand drop, though his arms still remain crossed over the table.]

Sounds like a typical older brother. Am I right?

One would perhaps get that impression, but no--I'm the elder by five years.

[Ardyn gave a small smirk of his own, obviously satisfied that picking on his own brother behind his back had gotten Junpei to seem a bit less miserable.]

Izunia is a good man who I've no doubt wants the best for Lucis and Insomnia, but he works much too hard. And he scarcely seems to find any enjoyment in it as I do. He's always been very serious, ever since we were children.

[there is no word in lucian for 'buzzkill'. yet.]

Ah. So it's a tough case of second child syndrome instead. Must be hard to live up to the Chosen One.

[Surely, that won't be relevant at all, ever.]

Sounds like you worry about him, though.

[That's what big brothers do, right? Junpei should know.]

[Briefly, it looked as though what Junpei was saying bothered Ardyn on some level; it was a very minor change, but for a fleeting second he looked almost downcast.]

...If ever he's felt that way, he's never said as much. Even with his annoyingly limited sense of humor, we have ever been friends as well as brothers.

My duty may be to the world before anything, and it may be rare for me to return home to the capital, but my brother and his family are always close in my thoughts. I'm certain that Izunia knows that I worry about him no matter how different our fates may have become.

[~~YOU WHO I CALLED BROTHER, HOW COULD YOU HAVE COME TO HATE ME SO~~]

...

You seem like a good brother.

[What the HELL, is that a GENUINE COMPLIMENT from JUNPEI???]

That's kind of you to say. I would be a poor leader were I to neglect caring about my family for the sake of caring for the world. It may not be a simple matter, but one should be able to do both.

Hah.

[Oh, and we're back to sarcastic bitterness. At least Junpei doesn't seem quite as immediately distressed, though cynical and sullen is arguably not an improvement.]

If only. Not everyone puts as much effort into maintaining their work-life balance as you do, I guess.

...

[Ardyn hesitated, but then answered with something very patient and quiet:]

Is there something bothering you, Junpei?

Uh, besides the whole kidnapping, brainwashing, and no beer situation? Does something else have to be bothering me?

[Yes, obviously. Even Junpei can't deny that deflection was weak.]

...Why don't we just say I'm the end result of getting that balance dead wrong.

I rather thought 'apart from the obvious' was implied.

[That didn't have any of the sarcasm it usually might have, that patient tone still in place.]

I quite literally have all night, if it's something you felt you wanted to elaborate upon.

[Junpei's jaw muscles flicker as he grits his teeth, obviously prickling against Ardyn's steady patience. If he were a porcupine, he'd be a bristling bush of needles as he scoffs and glances away again.

...But Ardyn's not pushing it. And if he's going to be stuck here "with no time limit" and a bunch of nosy, paranoid hostages, he'd rather it be someone who's shown he won't stab people in the sore subjects.]

...Someone... I thought I had a connection with... used me. And ran away.

[That's it. That's the extent of his elaboration.]

They did it for the greater good, but neither "great" nor "good" are words I'd use to describe the experience.

...I'm sorry to hear that.

[There it was again; that odd muted sense of emotion that felt as though he was experiencing something as basic as sympathy through a filter like clouded glass. And while that sensation was contributing to his general calm about the whole dire situation, it was also getting more concerning as events wore on.]

[The only time he'd actually felt something clearly was when he'd tried to call forth his sword with every intention of fighting Kip on the spot. And if he thought about that for more than a second, the larger implications of that deeply worried him.]

[But his problem wasn't the focus right now; Junpei was. Ardyn could focus on that rather than let himself wonder what was going on with his head at the moment.]

The greater good is a difficult concept at times, though obviously I can't begin to understand how you might have suffered for it or at whose hands. But you have my sympathy regardless.

Yeah. Well. I'll find them.

[Even if it takes forty-five fuckin' years.]

And I'll get my answers, if nothing else.

...Is it answers you are seeking, or vengeance?

[...]

Perhaps that was one step too far and a bit too much to ask. Never mind.

[Junpei doesn't answer right away; but this question doesn't nearly get his hackles up like the initial attempt to broach the subject did.]

No. It's cool. It makes sense you'd wonder.

[Is our local smartass edgelord THAT HARD A DUDE??? Who knows.]

I just... want to ask them about it. Face to face.

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