Week 2

[airlockedmods]

[Other than the reappearance of the Overseer, there's no real change in the routine. PAL still makes the morning and night time announcements through the PIP on each Champion's arm, and still the Champion unitards are freshly laundered and re-hung each morning in their closets.

No other floors unlock, but Cece and Kip will still be appearing randomly to chit-chat.

All you know is... something has to change soon.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 1 and submit your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

I'm fine. [He'd said that just a little too quickly, glancing off to the side. It sounded like he tried to answer Church's remark with a laugh, but it came out halfhearted at best.] You've no reason to worry about me.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Dude. Kinda hope you'd be a better liar than me. Listen, I've known you fucks less than two weeks, but I don't want to see you guys die or anything. Well, not most of you, anyway. You're a cool guy for a roomie. I already know you probably got fucked over by your own gods, and you don't have entirely human traits.

Welcome to the club, I guess.

Sooooo, you could tell me what's up, or you can listen to me whine at you until you do.

[scourgingstars]

Don't say that so lightly. The Astrals chose me for this--they want rid of the scourge as much as I do. They would gain nothing from turning their backs on me.

[And yet, as impossible as it seemed...who was he trying to convince?]

This is not your concern, and it is not something I would speak of in plain sight even if it was.

[motherfucking_ghost]

When in doubt, use humor to lessen the blow, man.

Listen, if you're hurt, that's kind of a concern. To everyone. If you wanna go back to the room and you can say something then, whatever, I can wait.

It's okay to lose your cool. I say this as someone who frequently loses his cool.

[scourgingstars]

I'm not injured. That is not a lie; it was a scratch and nothing more. You sound like my Shield, worrying over such a small thing.

[It was anything but okay. Anger seemed to be the only emotion that didn't come through that muted filter in Ardyn's head, and he didn't want to focus on that at all.]

If I fail to keep my composure, I shudder to think how rapidly all of you might follow.

[motherfucking_ghost]

We're not kids. Well, we're not all kids. You're not our king, and you're not our dad. Not to say we don't appreciate someone with a persistently cool head, but there's some crazy shit happening, and everyone needs to let off steam. We sure could use some punching bags or something.

1/2

[scourgingstars]

I said that I'm fine.

[That came out sounding half snapped and half a low snarl, something very cold flashing in yellow eyes for an instant.]

[scourgingstars]

...

[Even Ardyn himself looked like he had no clue where that had come from, faltering and internally scrambling to recover from whatever had just come over him.]

[What on Eos was wrong with him? Why did compassion feel like he was barely going through the motions, and yet frustration came through as sharp as his own swords?]

I-...forgive me, I'm not certain why I said that.

[motherfucking_ghost]

......O...kay.

[He's going to let that sit there for a second aaaaand drink some water, and try very hard to resist the urge to splash some on Ardyn. Maybe take just a little scoot away from him. He told Nishi-kun he wasn't much of a hand to hand fighter, and while that's true, he did still go through space military space training. He's not sure what kind of training Ardyn has.

Sure gives off the impression that he could take off a few heads with a glance, though.]

Dislikes. Being shown compassion.

[scourgingstars]

That isn't--

[But he trailed off, looking to the coin in his hand. That profile was wrong, it had to be. Nearly every word of it was entirely backwards, but if the others were able to find some truth in theirs...]

[Ardyn Lucis Caelum didn't know who 'Ardyn Izunia' was, and he felt a distant and cold sense of something like dread as he considered the possibilities that he refused to believe could be true.]

[Likes: Himself, vengeance, the Starscourge.]

I'm not...that person. 'Champion of the Infernian', whoever--whatever those in charge of all this think I am.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I know. Cuz I'm not a fucking AI. I don't know where Mother of Invention is, but it sounds like a ship. Maybe somehow they screwed me up with some AI made on a ship somewhere, somehow, for some reason. I'm a person, a human being turned ghost, with a long life behind me and hopefully a long life ahead of me.

But it makes you wonder. Where they got this information from, for it to be so wrong, and yet...

[He shakes his head. Everyone being okay with the idea of him being a computer jacked in some body's head only makes it worse, because they don't know, they don't know what AI are like where he's from. It's not just being a computer. They don't know about Freelancers.]

I don't know what to tell you. You know you're not right, that you've changed. I don't live in a world of gods and monsters; I can only guess. And I would hand you a drink if it did anything for you and...if there was any left.

Anyway. You aren't just someone because they tell you that's who you are. You go and make your own fuckups for people to judge you for.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn had barely the faintest grasp on what an AI even was despite them having apparently been taken over by one, so he didn't dare comment one way or the other. Once he understood that a little more clearly, maybe he'd try to approach that subject.]

...I can't completely agree with that. I am the Crystal's chosen because that was what was dictated by the gods--I have no control over that aspect, and would take no steps to change it even if that were an option.

My actions, however, are my own. I've no doubt traveling constantly and healing the afflicted is part of what has to be done to eradicate the Starcourge from our world, but even if it were utterly irrelevant I would still be doing it. I am 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' by design, and 'Ardyn, healer of the people' by choice.

...I don't know who 'Ardyn Izunia' is. And the longer this goes on, the less I want the answer to that question.

[motherfucking_ghost]

So. We're agreed. Whatever we do, we do because it's who we are now, and the choices we made now. Not because of some maybe missing memories and some weird shit we can't fully explain and a profile we don't know what's going on with.

Hell, PALly-pal took over, maybe he changed things behind the scenes.

[scourgingstars]

... [He turned the coin over again--the face and name of an Oracle he didn't know, a year he didn't even understand, and all of it recognizably from Eos in nature. It didn't make sense...none of this made sense. But in a terrible way Ardyn refused to acknowledge, there was an explanation that might have allowed everything to fall into place.]

[It would be possible, if--]

...You really do sound like my retainer, if a bit more blunt and ineloquent. Clearly as stubborn, if nothing else. [He laughed softly, coin disappearing into a pocket as he brushed violet hair out of his face.]

I can accept that deal. Whatever should happen from here, we face it as who and whatever we might be at this moment.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I'm nothing if not stubborn. And an asshole. A stubborn asshole. That's not a thing that'll change.

So maybe don't get snappy at people who are trying to be a stubborn asshole of goodness at you. You, uh. You can be a scary son of a bitch when it comes out of you from places unknown.

[scourgingstars]

...My apologies. I wasn't trying to frighten you, I just...briefly lost my temper, I think.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Because I was making sure you were actually okay okay and not lying-about-it okay. I'm just saying! Putting it out there. It's been a weird two weeks.

[scourgingstars]

That is a tremendous understatement, my friend. There are sure to be several words to describe the past fortnight, but I find even I fail to come up with one suitable to describe how utterly insane it has been.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I dunno, I think I dig 'utterly insane' just as it is. Interdimensional kidnappings, crazy house AI, solid ghosts. I've seen some crazy shit, but...yeah. This is...on another level.

[scourgingstars]

It perhaps speaks to my tolerance level for this manner of things that 'solid ghosts' at least sounds plausible.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Pretty sure it's a staple of ghosts that they're not solid. Walking through walls and all that. I can't do that right now, don't have all the abilities, but you know what I mean.

[scourgingstars]

I understand the concept, yes. But even so there can be no denying that thing was clearly meant to be invisible.

What also concerns me is the question of what it was doing there; clearly it had some kind of claws, and most of you were completely defenseless.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Also, what the fuck kind of thing leaves behind a trail of sparkle dust in its wake? Like an angry, invisible pinata. But with glitter instead of candy. Maybe PAL cooked something up...

[scourgingstars]

What reason would it have? It was my understanding it wants us to kill each other, not do the job itself.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Hey, all the more reason to not be alone, right? Alone and brooding. [Cuz you were brooding, my royal man.] Make sure no invisible monsters pick anyone off.