week 1

[airlockedmods]

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]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

[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]

[misanthropicprinciple]

...

You seem like a good brother.

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

[scourgingstars]

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.

[misanthropicprinciple]

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.

[scourgingstars]

...

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

Is there something bothering you, Junpei?

[misanthropicprinciple]

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.

[scourgingstars]

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.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[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.

[scourgingstars]

...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.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah. Well. I'll find them.

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

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

[scourgingstars]

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

[...]

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

[misanthropicprinciple]

[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.

[scourgingstars]

[look junpei you seem like an okay kid and draconian forbid you run around made of spite and vengeance]

[it'd really suck to live like that]

That sounds an entirely reasonable reaction to me. Do you think that they will answer you?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Not that anybody here would know anything about that, haha lol]

...Even just seeing them would be an answer.