♥ April (Lasai) Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

April (Lasai) Event Log
Lasai is a beautiful month. The weather is warmer, the sky is a breathtaking blue again, and with the flowers from Ainir growing nicely, the entire city of Havenwell just feels more alive with every breath. It's a time of renewal, of rebirth, of Ainea's greatest strength as her adherents open the temple gates to invite people and robots from all walks of life to enter and share together. What should be a joyous time, however, is suddenly interrupted as the earthquakes mount day by day through the start of Lasai. Those messages that people have been receiving since Nalom? It seems it's time for the gods to deliver on their promises.

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❥ PROMPT I: The Wild Wild West (East, South and North)

As Ainir gives way to Lasai, one morning the earthquakes, which had been growing more frequent again, suddenly mount in their intensity. The entire city is shaking and the native residents cower despite their faith in their gods' protection. The guards along the wall shout alarm and abandon their posts as the walls start to shift under the strain. When the last of them are safely away from the walls, the barrier and the wall itself quivers. The citizens cry out in alarm and fear until they realize that the walls aren't falling - they're moving. And they're moving further out. As everyone in Havenwell looks on, the walls and its surrounding barrier fluctuates and expands, sliding through the city streets as if on hidden tracks, avoiding buildings and ruins, pushing the toxic air and the storm further away. They finally come to rest and snap back into place, new walls rising from who knows where to fill in the gaps. The barrier strengthens and the earthquakes stop, and as the dust settles, a cheer rises from the citizens.

"Praise the gods! Praise the off-worlders!"

Among the din of their celebration, however, other cries start up among the newly incorporated ruins. Cries that sound like howls and screeches, and certainly do not sound human. Grab your weapons and steel yourselves, off-worlders, with the addition of this new space comes the need to clear it of anything potentially dangerous that got caught up in the expansion. Not all creatures you'll find are hostile, but some certainly are. Docile ones might just fetch a nice price from the Research Towers and the Conservatory if you can capture a mating pair.

OOC: These are the creatures you can encounter in the city as you go through to clear it. It's not an invasion level of infestation, as the majority of creatures will prefer to remain inside their known territory beyond the original barrier, but you will on occasion need to take up arms and fight. Next to their names are the frequency with which you can find them, ranging from common to extremely rare.

• Inky Black Spiders (common - hostile): These relatively small, black spider-like creatures have very basic melee attacks, using their fangs and their sharp legs to bite and claw at people. Those who were around in October when the wall broke will recognize them as the most common enemy back then. Their exoskeletons are hard and when they die, they smash into a black goo. They tend to travel in packs, using sheer numbers to overwhelm their prey.
  
• One-Eyed Lizard (uncommon - docile): An iridescent scaly purple and green lizard approximately 8 to 10cm in length from tip to tail. It has a single eye at the top of its head that can rotate to see 360 degrees around it. This creature's main defenses are its tough hide and a spine on the tip of its tail which it whips at predators to dissuade them from eating it. It's more likely to run than fight, however, and can usually be found sunbathing on exposed rock with its eye closed.
  
• "Bone Giraffe" (extremely rare - hostile): A nearly 20-foot tall, long-necked skeleton of a four-legged creature long dead with a single curved horn protruding from its skull and a sharp snout. It's usually found lying in a heap, as if it laid down and died that way. A black seven-petaled flower sometimes (but not always) grows from the skull and beneath the skeleton is an oily black film. Touching the oil slick activates the creature, which draws the oil up into the skeletal cage. Its main attacks are brute force, using its bony legs and neck to kick and slam against its prey, and its acid breath. It breathes a black fume that sizzles and burns anything it touches.
  
• Rive Talon (rare - hostile - medium): In the past these creatures may have been canines of some form, now they seem to have melded with the detritus of the fallen buildings and creatures of the landscape. Extra spikes, ridges, and protrusions extend from its body at odd angles. Many of them are metal or stone, rather than bone. And some of the bones clearly were not originally its own. (Suggested by Sierra!)
  
• Outskirts Hare (uncommon - docile): A shy creature, roughly the size and shape of an earth hare, covered in fuzzy-looking, curly pink hair and cat-like whiskers. Normally quite timid, this creature's poor eyesight causes it to flee when it feels threatened, and relies largely on a sense of touch to navigate its surroundings. Contact with this creature's fur is markedly pleasant, but its skin discharges an oil that causes mild skin irritation on contact when it's nervous. Active mostly at night time. (Suggested by Mel!)
  
• Ansaurini (rare - annoying): a bipedal feathered bird with sharp claws and teeth good for chomping; some possess flight capabilities, but the majority are prone to a lazy waddle. Mostly harmless and deceptively unassuming until you turn your back- and suddenly it's run off with something it stole off your person! They are excellent at escaping, though they can be traced back to their hoard, and if their collection is raided they will make a lot of noise in protest. Just watch your back- they will try again until you leave their territory. Truly, a horrible thing.
  

❥ PROMPT II: Welcome to the (Urban) Jungle

Once the creatures are mostly taken care of and the newly revealed area is deemed safe enough to venture into, the city council will put out a call for those willing and able to assist the natives with a clean-up effort. The city outside the walls is badly damaged, left to the ravages of the time and the ever-present storm, which means clearing dust, debris, and flotsam is a high priority before people can begin to repair the new districts and salvage material or live there. Thick brown vines cover large parts of the city, grime from the storm is caked onto windows, rocks and scattered rotted bones and twisted metal can be found in roads and crashed through buildings. The atmosphere in this part of the city seems to mirror the decrepit state of the land, too, feeling heavier and grayer and more depressing than it has any right to be. Going out with people and helping together, taking breaks to lean against one another tends to help clear away any negativity that this land seems to bring to your thoughts, however. Since it's dangerous to go alone, be sure to take a friend.

The biggest concern is the vines, so natives offer to lend machetes to the offworlders to help the hack them away. The vines look brown and dead, the leaves withered and curled up. When characters hack into them, the vines release a puff of yellowish dust. Inhale the dust or get it anywhere near your face and over time, you'll begin to get sleepy - very sleepy. It's hard to keep your eyes open, no matter your resistance to poisons or magic, and eventually you'll find yourself falling asleep wherever you are. And once you're asleep? The vines start moving, crawling toward you at a snail's pace. Hopefully you did bring a friend because you'll need their touch to wake up and stay awake long enough to get away from the vines before they pull you deep within their grasp.

❥ PROMPT III: Take a Load Off

Not everyone can fight or clean or even wants to do it, so while those who are more suited to being on the front lines are off doing their thing, those who remain behind must begin the effort of preparing everything that people will need to live in these new areas. At the temples and in the main square, the priests have set up large rest areas with blankets and pillows, and are busily putting together repair kits for mechanics and explorers to use as they go through the ruins. Those who want a place to rest that doesn't require going all the way back to their homes might find these waystations more convenient.

At each, characters can find hot soups with chunks of hearty replicated breads and both hot and cold drinks available for any who wish it. They're trying to replicate pain medications and bandages for people who have been injured while exploring or fighting off the monsters who were unlucky enough to be left inside, and will ask you to try it if you're injured. Taking this medication might have some unintended side effects, however, like a feeling of euphoria or delusions of grandeur or even something as banal as turning your hair a shocking shade of chartreuse - the effect, if you want one, is up to you! The rest areas also have robots "skilled" in giving massages that are looking to test their newly acquired skills and with four pairs of arms, they can work on two people at once! In fact, they're rather insistent about giving you a free massage if they hear even the slightest hint of fatigue in your voice and will usher people into their curtained off booths regardless of whether they know the other occupant or not. These robots are still learning though, so anyone curious enough to try may need to work with their partner to give these robots pointers. They're trying, but not having fragile little flesh bodies is a major obstacle in learning how to have a gentle touch.

❥ PROMPT IV: That Which Remains

With the opening of the city, there seem to be a lot of buildings that need cleaning. Some are so dilapidated that they're better off demolished than repossessed, and most are residential and commercial buildings reminiscent of the ones the offworlders are used to seeing everyday in the Havenwell they've all known up until now. However, among the ruins of these older sections, those intrepid enough to venture and explore may find a few unique gems awaiting them. Just remember: the first rule of urban exploration is to never go alone. You never know what might be lurking in those abandoned buildings or what obstacles might be in your way. Doorways blocked by rubble will need more than one person to remove them. Frightened (and frightening) animals might be lingering in the dark. And, most importantly, you don't want to fall through the floor and vanish into a basement. There seem to be quite a few weakened floors out there. In the following parts of the expanded city, characters can find these interesting ruins:

• Northwest: The Arena - In the northwest of the newly opened area, characters can find what looks to be a ruin of a large open air oval building. The building itself is almost 3 stories tall with walls overgrown with brown vines and dead foliage. There are doorways that have no doors, instead being high archways through which people can access in the interior. Stairs lead up into what looks like worn stone benches and down below is a rubble-strewn open area. Part of the walls have collapsed over time but it's very clear this place was used once as some sort of viewing area. It'll take a bit of work to clear this place until it's usable!
  
  There are archways with stairs that lead downward, but you'll need some help clearing away the rubble to get to what's below! If you're successful in getting beneath the arena, you'll find hallways with empty rooms that vary between large enough to possibly be some sort of training room to small enough to be just enough space for someone to put a slim single cot or bed and maybe a wardrobe to have a small private room. Some rooms have rusted metal that may or may not have been weapons at some point, while others have faded wall paintings, chipped and worn with age. It's hard to make out, but with enough reconstruction work, you may just learn who used to haunt these halls.
  
  
• Southeast: The Baths - In the southeast of the newly opened area, characters will find a domed building unlike the rest of the architecture around it. It's extremely large, for one, and squat, while the rest of Havenwell's buildings seem to be lean and tall. The walls are made of the same stone, but the dome above is broken glass. There are several metal sliding doors set in the walls, but many are fused shut with grime and years of disuse. One main door, larger than the others is sightly ajar, however, and with some help characters may be able to force it open.
  
  Inside, they find an expansive lobby with white floors that must have sparkled before all the grime, dirt, and broken glass took over. The dome overhead reflects the light, making the interior of the building as bright as outside. At the center of the lobby is a dry fountain with two broken statues - four armed humanoids holding urns. Their heads are missing and many of the arms are broken and lying in the dry basin. From the lobby there are alcoves in every direction and two hallways that lead further into the buiding in opposite directions. In each alcove are low stone seats and round basins sunk into the ground that are either dry with a black film around the inside, or full of a dark oily substance that's nearly coagulated.
  
  Go down the hallways and you'll find identical looking chambers. First, you enter an open area with broken sinks and mirrors, with stone cubbies on the walls. Then when you pry open and push past the metal sliding doors, you'll find yourself in a wide open semicircular area filled with baths of different sizes, shapes and depths. Some are free-standing stone tubs, others are large basins sunk into the ground, and still others are rectangular and just big enough for one or two people to lie down in. Each of these basins are like the ones in the lobby, either filled with that same coagulated black ooze or dry with a black film inside. Looks like it's time to get cleaning because each basin also seems like they might be able to be retrofitted to produce water perhaps.
  
  
• Southwest: The Factory - In the southwest, closest to the wall, the characters can find an imposing square building. It has small thin windows and boasts a plethora of chimneys and smokestacks on the roof, some of which are crumbling or broken with age and exposure. There are two square doors, both of which are large enough to drive a truck through and made of metal which needs to be pried open before accessing the inside. Once inside, the characters find a massive operation geared toward ore and mineral processing and metallurgical refinement. The machinery is old, but extremely well laid out, as it seems this plant was used to process huge volumes of minerals and ores before being lost to time. There are stations for every imaginable part of the refining process separated neatly so they can work efficiently, but all of the machines are broken or currently inoperable and will need significant work before they can start functioning again.
  
  Explore the refinery and you may still find one or two of the ores lying about. They contain an unknown metal that gleams a slick oily silver. At the back of the refinery is an industrial elevator which is currently inoperational. Peering down through the cracks, however, reveals that the shaft goes a long way down. The view of just how far is obstructed by a shimmering rainbow-colored barrier, not unlike the one that is just outside the walls.

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This event will run from April 15th to 30th, although due to the areas and effects not technically vanishing, feel free to continue playing with it for some time beyond. Click on each prompt's title to see the text. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread.

Comments

cw: suicidal ideation

[scourgingstars]

...The person I am now may well stop existing someday, yes. But it won't be you who kills me then, and it is not only for my own sake that I want to live.

[If Ardyn Lucis Caelum 'died', then it would be because something unthinkably terrible had put a knife in his heart. Something beyond sanity or reason, who would bring about untold devastation and the end of the world. That wasn't him, or at least Ardyn wanted desperately to believe it wasn't. So long as he existed as he was now, maybe things would never fall so far as they already had.]

I should have died long ago, Noctis. I was already prepared to, well before what happened between my brother and myself. It doesn't bother me to know that I'm destined to die so that the world can continue on, because I had already assumed as much when I was still human.

Besides, there are plenty of things worse than death. I would prefer it to becoming what you know me as, or another thousand years in Angelgard. So the idea of seeking to avert my own fate...just doesn't concern me.

[carbungle]

[Noctis is quiet for all of that, pensive and thoughtful. He taps his heel against the floor when Ardyn's finished, glancing down and away.]

...It concerns me.

[He's quiet, almost petulant. Ardyn can think whatever he wants, but if they're going to investigate ways of altering fate, they might as well go all the way. Save everyone, as he'd told Cor months ago. It's one thing to kill Izunia, if he truly wants to die or if killing him is a requirement for saving the world and he's actively making it worse. But killing Ardyn, who has done no such crime... it would just be sacrificing someone needlessly. The prophecy shouldn't require two sacrifices. One is bad enough.]

If we're gonna look for anything, we should find a way to make you human again.

[scourgingstars]

Are...you sure of that? Seeking one impossible thing is difficult enough, two feels more like pushing our luck. Even setting that aside, to be rid of the Starscourge would mean to be rid of me by simple necessity.

[carbungle]

I'm gonna be honest- I'm not sure of anything. But if the Crystal's light is meant to rid the whole world of the scourge, then it should be able to get rid of what's inside you, too. Hell, if we can find a method for that and it works on Izunia, maybe he won't be such a piece of shit.

[...No offense, uncle. There aren't enough hugs in the world to make him stop disliking that man these days.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn laughed, though it was more a weak attempt at humor than anything.]

It's...all that's left, the same as any other daemon that was once mortal. To get rid of the scourge would be to destroy this physical body completely, so far as I have ever been able to tell.

I am not saying that the idea is beyond consideration, only...beyond possibility.

[carbungle]

"Far as you can tell" isn't definitive. And if you're prepared to die for the world [like me, reminds the rebel voice he squashes, because he's trying, goddammit] then it'll come to the same end either way.

[This isn't to say that he's... fully on board or anything. He's not rebelling against the gods or stubbornly trying to evade his own fate. His path is set and if it comes to it, he'll walk that road. Better to resign himself to death than hope and be disappointed- or worse, hope, and try, and fail, leaving the world worse than it was. If their alternate plan risks that, he won't allow it.

Still... what harm is there in conjecture, really.]

All I'm saying is, try one before the other.

[scourgingstars]

...if you think that plausible, very well. I'll consider it.

[Neither of them wanted the other to die, was what it seemed to come down to. Ardyn could understand that much.]

[carbungle]

[Noctis shrugs. A year ago none of this would be plausible to him; gods and legends and prophecies were all just stories to him, old tales from the Cosmogony. No one told him what being the Chosen would entail, or that he'd be forging covenants with gods, or that he'd die killing his own family to save the world. It all felt too far away to be anything like that. Nothing plausible about any of this, to the average person.

But then, they're not exactly average, either.]

I think... for a while at least... I'm gonna not think about it. Any of it. Or try, at least.

[He knows it's an impossible goal; so many things remind him of what's happened to him, or the world. Many things remind him of what's to come. Even looking at Ardyn is never truly going to be the same. He may not be that man, but his face and eyes and voice share enough similarities that Noct's immediate reaction might be unpleasant for a long, long time, even if it isn't so severe as hatred, panic, or violence. A little flinch, a startled look, a hitched breath. That first moment is hard, and there's little one can do about the subconscious association of one man with his more-or-less evil twin. Try is the key word, here.]

I don't know how much time we have. Any of us could go back at any time, so... I shouldn't waste it. I get that. [It's part of why he's here now, trying to mend this rift between them.] But I just... I can't. Now right now.

[Let him accept one, fully and completely, before he considers the other. It'll hurt less if - or when - it all falls apart.]

[scourgingstars]

I think...that's a good idea.

[How many times had he looked at Noctis and halfway seen someone else? Too many to count, and more than he would admit to. It was something that had lessened little by little, now that memory of his brother wasn't relegated to the delusions of madness or endless nightmares. But on occasion he would look to Noctis and not quite know which of them he saw, only for an instant or two of tangled emotion; from fear to anger to a deep and painful loneliness.]

[Sometimes--like right now--the comparison wasn't a bad one. Ardyn could almost, almost remember a time when they were both still very young, when his brother would insist upon sleeping in the same room and refuse to admit the reason was anything from nightmares to thunderstorms. Then, as now...he just wanted to help. To offer what little comfort he was able and do what he could to make things better, if he could not make them right.]

[He would never hold Noctis accountable for looking at him and seeing a monster when Ardyn looked back and occasionally still saw a reflection of the worst day of his life.]

It's as you say, there's no way to measure the time left to us here. But I think that as much a justification for enjoying it where one can, as it is for using that time to the best of our abilities. Running ourselves into the ground will do little to help, don't you agree?

[carbungle]

I do.

[Hard not to. It's what he'd been doing for months before coming back here, and it shows in every aspect of his life in the aftermath. He's not slept well, he's been stressed and depressed, putting on a facade as he tries to remember what it means to be healed and relaxed. It isn't always a mask to hide the fears beneath, but it's often enough that he knows those around him have noticed. This is one more step forward on the path to recovering for real, rediscovering his balance. He'll get there, slowly but surely. Or maybe they'll struggle their way there together. At the very least, none of them are alone here.

All of this reminds him of something else that came up recently, something concerning and tangentially related, so after a tentative pause-]

Did Besithia talk to you about what to do if this ends up happening to him? If he wakes up as his future self?

[The creepy evil one, that is. ...Well. More creepy.]

[scourgingstars]

I try to avoid him if I can help it.

[Even in Niflheim, Ardyn had still possessed sense enough to understand Verstael was...the way he was. With a bit of distance, a shred more sanity, and an uncomfortable revelation or two? He would have gladly put several continents of distance between them given the chance.]

[...Considering the idea of what he might be in five or ten years was a little unsettling.]

Was there something he said to you?

[carbungle]

Guess he's found a new best friend.

[He doesn't know how to feel about this. It's weird. Is this what he gets for sort of cooperating?

At least he's not outright evil...]

...He asked me to kill him.

[scourgingstars]

...What?

[That didn't fit with the image of Verstael in Ardyn's head. Then again, he didn't often have the right mental image of anyone, if Somnus had been any indication.]

I don't...think that I understand. What could possibly become of him to call for such a request?

[carbungle]

He wasn't subtle about it. He thinks that his research drives him insane- he gets sick, or loses his mind. Either way, he isn't himself, based on his own future notes.

[Not an entirely unique situation in this place, all things considered.]

I guess he'd rather die than end up like that.

[scourgingstars]

...or both.

[Ardyn said that under his breath as a very unsettling conclusion drew itself in his head. After all, he knew what the apparent fixation of Verstael's research had been--the reckless fascination that had unearthed a monster better left sleeping.]

I...suppose that makes sense. If nothing else, it's almost promising he recognizes it as madness, right?

[Much like some other people on a course to go murderously insane.]

[carbungle]

I guess, yeah. And in part I'd rather know than not.

[It makes him slightly less of a monster to know he doesn't want to be one. Or at the very least, that he claims as such, rather than being proud of all those accomplishments.]

I wish he hadn't asked me, though.

[Asking Ardyn had served at least one other purpose than to loop him in- he'd wanted to know if Verstael had asked someone else. Why him?]

[scourgingstars]

I fear I can't claim to understand how Verstael thinks on any given day. He asked me to examine his notes myself some time ago, but I could make little sense of them. Much less figure out whatever he sought to discern.

[Sighing, he ran a hand through violet hair.]

I wish I had some form of answer for what his reasoning is, but I simply don't.

[carbungle]

Figured. ...Worth asking, anyway.

[He looks down again, quiet for a moment, before giving Ardyn a sidelong glance.]

Thanks.

[For a lot, right now, but he can add "thanks for not asking me to do the same thing" to the list.]

[scourgingstars]

...it's...nothing, really.

[Even if he'd had the heart to ask that of Noctis...Ardyn really wasn't sure he wanted to contemplate seeing the same face put a sword through him again.]

[carbungle]

[Yeah... speaking of. Noctis is quiet for a bit, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, trying to figure out how to broach the subject that's been sort of bothering him for a while now- almost since the revelation from Bahamut, really, since he returned here and remembered what Somnus looked like. He scuffs a hand through his hair, chews on his lower lip, before finally just- getting it out there.]

Do you think the gods can, uh... choose how someone's supposed to look? Or- change it?

[He looks like his mom. He knows this, he's been told that before. But... he also looks like Somnus. A lot like Somnus. It seems a little too convenient, that the one chosen to kill the Accursed happens to pass as a younger twin of the brother who betrayed him and helped to kickstart them all on this path.]

[scourgingstars]

It's ever been said that mankind was made in the Astrals' image, though that isn't quite the same thing.

[Ardyn considered the idea, having a good idea why Noctis was asking.]

...I would not think it beyond the realm of possibility, all things considered. Though if it is the reasoning you question more than the possibility, that I can not answer.

[carbungle]

...I don't know what I'm asking for.

[It's not as if Ardyn knows everything; he shouldn't expect those answers. But the ones who'd know aren't here, and... based on how brief a conversation he was granted with the two Astrals with whom he'd spoken so far, he doubts he'd be told the truth regardless.

Still... it's hard not to feel uncomfortable about it, now that he knows, and it shows clear as day in his expression.]

Sorry. That was a weird one. I- it can't be any easier for you than it is for me.

[Is this their fate? Shared destiny, shared death, and a shared revulsion of their opponent's face, as the one who stole away their life, their happiness, their hope for any future? Somnus killed Aera and ruined Ardyn's life. Izunia killed Luna and tried his best to do the same to Noctis. Like a set of scales being balanced, the weight of vengeance laid against a bloodline of the man who is no longer alive.

Maybe it's even worse. He was selected as the Chosen when he was a child, before he had any strength, before his abilities were known, before they knew if he'd ever recover from the Marilith attack. Maybe he was picked by the gods not by any sort of inherent worth or qualities but because of his face. Wouldn't that be the ultimate degree of pettiness--

...That's... a bad train of thought to follow when he's already struggling with his own self-worth and impending sacrifice. He closes his eyes and buries his face against one hand. Stop, stop.]

[scourgingstars]

It's alright. That is no more your fault than it is mine.

[He laid a light hand on Noctis' shoulder, smiling as calmly as ever.]

I won't lie to you, especially not about this. It is not always easy, particularly when my own grasp on reality itself is...shaky, on occasion. Sometimes I look at you and briefly don't know who it is I can actually see.

[He looked at Lunafreya the same way, seeing the echoes of her ancestor written on the young woman's face. And if Ardyn knew what had become of the last Oracle, it would break his heart and horrify him beyond measure. If he learned of it, Ardyn would know beyond any doubt that 'Ardyn Izunia' was irrecoverably mad beyond reason; not only in killing an innocent woman, but in becoming worse than he ever thought Somnus to be in deliberately killing someone he surely only saw as Aera.]

It frightened me at first, in some measure. I've spent so long seeing my brother in only twisted memory and nightmare alike that it could do little else. But you are not him, no matter your resemblance. The pair of you are utterly different individuals, with disposition and thoughts alike entirely your own. Or in simpler terms: the second either of you opens your mouth, the difference is as clear as night and day.

[No pun intended. Ardyn shook his head, letting his hand fall away to fidget idly with the other. Staring distantly at his own scars, trying to piece together the fragments of complex feelings that had been broken by circumstance.]

...I loved my brother more than my own life. There was a time when we were the very definition of inseparable, and glad for it. I love him yet, even if that feeling is-...'tarnished' seems the wrong term, but it is a lie to say it has not changed in some way I can not put to words.

[Even if they had found some strange form of reconciliation here--even if Ardyn had been able to set aside the worst of what had happened, those scars were still present deeper than the ones he wore in his skin. The anger was still there, taken root in a dark and corrupted part of his heart and left to grip tightly over centuries.]

But I look at you at this moment and I do not see the king who stood over me with the sword made twin to my own. I don't see the ruler our people feared to even speak of, the man I argued with endlessly before I left home, or even the brother I grew to understand here in this city.

Today, all I can see is Noctis. A child with my brother's face, who is as afraid and uncertain as I am. Were I to consider you 'my brother', it would perhaps be rooted in that resemblance and yet sprout as the desire to protect a different person who reminds me in more than mere appearance of the child my little brother used to be.

[And gods, he missed that. He missed the tiny shreds of that life he could remember, childish bickering settled over a chessboard and chasing one another around the courtyard in training sessions devolved into chaos. Sighing to himself, Ardyn pressed a hand to his chest where a renamed blade had left a scar.]

...Before I was a healer I was an elder brother, Noctis. To protect someone like that...runs deeper in my nature than any magic could.

[carbungle]

[It's a kinder answer than he perhaps deserves, with the sort of question he's asking, but it's one that Noctis will quietly, gratefully accept. He can hardly blame Ardyn of sharing the same difficulty as he himself does; just because he hides it better doesn't mean the hurt is not the same. He isn't Somnus, and neither is Ardyn his future self. He's quiet for a long moment, mulling those words over, but as he does his hand lifts to rest over Ardyn's at his shoulder. If only to remind him of the other's presence, that they're both real here and living in this moment. As before, he would never expect a gentle touch like this from Izunia.]

I... guess it doesn't matter, in the end. Whose face we've got. [It does matter, at least a little, but not in the grand scheme of things. One's first instinct is not the same as how one feels about a person, deep down.] It's not like either of us can change what we look like.

[Maybe someday, the hatred and fear that he feels will numb into something more palatable, something like what Ardyn feels for Somnus; a love soaked in complexity, irreparably altered by those darker times but not gone. Tainted, as he said for lack of a better term, but there nonetheless. He wants to be able to look and see more than just... everything that man took from him. Izunia is not meant to be a target but an endgoal, a monster made to be saved from his own insanity. Even if the method of saving ends up being a sword, as Somnus had done millennia ago.

If he can look Izunia in the eye as he dies and let him see something other than hatred, maybe then he'll be able to rest for good. Maybe that's... why he's here. To learn how.

For now, he can look at Ardyn- and not hate him. That's the first step.]

You offering to shield me, uncle?

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn really couldn't voice the long and myriad complexities of his feelings toward his brother; he could barely understand them himself, much less examine the whole thing piece by piece and discern any one simple answer. But he no longer found he hated even the man who killed him, who called him a monster and erased his existence. Knowing that much had lessened to nothing was enough. And seeing someone able to smile with his face--whether that happiness belonged to Somnus or to Noctis, either was worth everything to him.]

[They were family, after all.]

Would it bother you if I were to do just that, nephew?