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♥ Who: Lup + Close CR (who will be contacted! <3)
♥ Where: Lup's house
♥ When: start of August
♥ What: A ladies (kinda) night, the redux!
♥ Rating: PG and up, probably

Those who Lup deigned to grace with an invitation will receive one at random: that at the recipient's convenience if they so desire, they are invited to join her in what she is calling (without explanation) a Pocket Dimension Party. As per the instructions, any time within the next 24 hours, they can enter through the garden back door and "find the cat".

Should one accept the invitation and follow those instructions, they can find Ditto curled up in the grass beside the house, dozing, though at the arrival of any visitor he perks up and stretches. Rubbing up against their legs, Ditto will head over to a section of the wall and paw at a corner, until a door abruptly glimmers into existence and opens for him. He meows plaintively and waits. Go on in! Just close the door behind you.

Inside the doorway, visitors will find… a mansion. Elaborately decorated, warm, and inviting, it is like entering a rich and immaculate house that someone's taken a lot of time and TLC to make perfect. No one greets them as they enter, but if they call for attention and no one is in the immediate vicinity, a semi-transparent spectral servant will arrive and guide them to Lup. Otherwise, they are free to explore the house and make use of the facilities as they please.

The following areas are available:

An extravagant entrance hall with soft wood paneling and fancy art on the walls
A lounge area with big fluffy couches, pillows, and blankets, as well as a projection screen that works with communicators and whatever digital media Lup is familiar with, or a music mix in lieu of said media being played
A full-service kitchen and dining area, where a collection of spectral servants (features to be determined) will upon request cook any meal a person desires, assuming they (and by association Lup) are familiar with the recipe and ingredients. It's all delicious, too!
A sizable basement with regenerating training dummies, various targets, and more servants who will act as moving targets on request. They can't be hurt, but they can move around freely.
A big and beautiful spa with all the soaps and pampering material that anyone could ask for
A "pet room", AKA a room devoted to toys, climbing shelves, cat trees- whatever an animal might want to stay entertained for hours unsupervised

More details to be added as needed! This is a mingle free-for-all, there is no set schedule. Visitors can come and go as they please for 24 hours, and at the end of the spell anyone still inside will be summarily booted out into the garden.

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[Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy. With him sitting up, she shifts closer and just plunks herself down in the spot on the chair next to him. At least it's a lounge, so even with how much bigger he is than her, it isn't a terribly tight squeeze. She's somewhat hunched over, arms hanging and rested on her thighs.]

Yeah... yeah. [She exhales a bark of humourless laughter.] Fuck.

[How often has she felt that same sentiment? Just clamped her mouth shut every time it might have come up, any time the opportunity to share could have come to light, because she's fine and doesn't need fucking therapy and it's not like it left her shaken and petrified to go back, it's not like she'd lost the sense of everything, it's not like even after all this time the slow drip of water on stone makes her remember the cave, that goddamn cave and the way it always echoed where her voice couldn't reach-

She curses again, softer this time. Clamps her mouth shut, just like always. She's fine. She doesn't have to say it. A sentiment like "I'm sorry" or "that sucks" or "anything I can do?" might be more appropriate in this instance. Keep the focus on him. Keep listening. It's what she always does, and it works.

She doesn't mean to say it, initially- but when she opens her mouth, what comes out is,]

You're wrong about that.

[No one understands. She'd thought the same thing for so long.]

...

[Ardyn knew better than to say anything himself. There was nothing one could say about anything like that; nothing that could make it better, and very little that could make it worse than it already was.]

[Instead, without a word he placed a hand light on her shoulder and just waited for her to do or say whatever she would.]

[It takes her a bit, but his touch is grounding, similar to her hands in his hair, she suspects. Who knew? Truly, who knew that there'd be... so much. She'd held this for so long, stubbornly, protectively, yet when she opens her mouth it all comes spilling out.]

I was on my own for a bit- real secret mission, some save-the-world bullshit. I was deep in this abandoned mine, headed for a hidden door that would seal away a dangerous weapon, hopefully forever. I didn't know it'd corrupted my guide, though. Managed to get them both sealed away, but not before he stabbed me in the back. It didn't take long for me to die.

[That part's easy. Dying? No problem, she's done that plenty of times before. This, though... this, she struggles with.]

...Liches are... spectral. If my body dies, my soul crawls out of it like a ghost, and I can keep on existing like that. Normally it's fine. But here... my spell focus, the Umbra Staff, consumes the power of defeated magic users. And a lich is... all magic. I didn't even have a chance to fight- suddenly it just yanked on my soul and in I went. I woke up in a dark room with no one and nothing, and no way to escape. My voice couldn't reach outside. I couldn't do anything but sit and wait. I couldn't feel anything, I could barely hold on to who I was.

[She pauses, taking a shaken breath, and adds,]

Someone would have come for me. Enough time, and- my family would have found me, I was sure of it. No one came, though. I didn't find out until years later that it's because all memory of me had been erased by a- a spell, more or less. No one found me because no one was looking.

[Or almost no one. Barry was trying, at least, when he was alive, when he knew to look. But he's only one man, and he'd surely been... hindered, by Lucretia.]

By random chance, my brother ended up in the cave eventually. Except... he just found an umbrella and a corpse. Neither meant anything to him because he didn't remember me. All year it- I- was his spell focus, and... no matter how much I called for him, he didn't hear me. My voice couldn't reach him.

[No one found me because no one was looking.]

[Ardyn abruptly felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach, and the hand on Lup’s shoulder twitched almost imperceptibly as whatever color was in his face swiftly left it. If he had ever screamed in anguish or frustration, if he had ever wondered whether or not his own brother would have changed his mind and ended that imprisonment—Ardyn didn’t remember, and he didn’t dare linger on the thought.]

...they didn’t know I had ever existed, either. [His own voice was quiet in response, almost as if he had again forgotten how to use it after eternity in still and stagnant air.] Somewhere along the generations I was just...a legend. Some terrible and formless idea warning others away from a forbidden isle. Adagium. [His voice didn’t quite crack on the word, but there was something deeply hurt and angry carved in four short syllables.] I was afraid Regis wouldn’t believe me when I told him who I was—or worse, that he would try to kill me like his father’s royal guard did. I-

[It wasn’t fair. And not unlike Lup, he was realizing the whole long affair had cut deeper than spear or shackle ever could.]

I- [An apology? Meaningless, and he knew that as well as she would. It didn’t help, didn’t do anything at all, and yet that was all he could pry out of his throat for a moment. Not a single thing he could say would begin to approach the sheer magnitude of the problem for either of them, and instead...cautiously, mindful of how being kept in place was the entire problem, he placed his arms loosely around Lup’s shoulders.]

Would that I could say anything that would help worth a damn, but that may be a bit beyond me right now.

Edited 2020-08-10 19:10 (UTC)

[She's torn for a moment between accepting the support and pulling back. There's always been that need to be strong, to be unshakeable, to be a pillar of strength and calm amidst her family as one of the oldest and most grounded, both morally and emotionally. Even with them, she's tried to let herself be seen like this by Taako and Barry only- and more recently, Honerva as well. But... it isn't fair. Not a bit, something she's been forced to confront a few times against her will already. And he's feeling it, too.

With a soft exhale she relents and leans against him, her arm shifting to curl lightly in the fabric of his shirt, in the space between their bodies.]

I think we both know words won't fix this for either of us. I wouldn't expect them to, and neither should you.

[This is a place of healing, though. She'd meant it before, and she means it now, as the thought flits into her mind. The Umbra Staff had been empty just as his prison had been, but here there is a door, it's a house full of objects and fulfilled wants and warmth. Here, there are people. Friends, family. One day, maybe a wedding.

Healing is... comfort. And someone who understands. She didn't expect to find it here, but she'll take it, quietly and gratefully. And... after a moment, she slides her other arm between them, palm lifted.]

Hey... give me your hand.

[Ardyn didn't think much of his worth as a healer anymore, ironically enough. His only purpose in life, and all it had done was destroy him as well as everything he'd cared about. With the way he was now...he doubted he could be of help to anyone. Cold, not quite dead but not really living, a monster beyond even his own comprehension--surely such a thing couldn't do much of value.]

[...But he was trying, whether he believed it was worth anything or not.]

Wh-...what? [He hesitated, as unsure about his too many scars as ever--but there was no argument past the confused question, pulling back just enough to place one hand in her own.]

[She shows no hesitation or concern about the scars as she takes it, and like his, her hands carry little warmth; even so, her fingers curl around his, holding fast like a lifeline.]

I'm not afraid of death, or pain, or anything like that. The idea of going back, being lost and forgotten... that's a million times worse than what could or has happened to my body.

[It's not a unique fear by any means. But the visceral nature of how that had felt... it's so rare to be understood like this. She looks down at their hands for a long, quiet moment, then up to meet his eyes.]

This... it's better, I think, than drowning alone in that kind of fear. You help me, I'll help you?

[He didn't answer immediately--not out of hesitation, but simply having been caught off guard by how everything Lup was saying sounded like it could easily have come out of Ardyn's mouth instead. Dying or being wounded was less than meaningless to him, but after all this--after everyone and everything he'd gained here, the idea of having nothing and being nowhere terrified him more than he dared to contemplate right now.]

I-... [He smiled shakily, hand lightly squeezing Lup's.] I think I can try that, if you're willing to.

Yeah... I'm willing.

[There's no cure for this feeling, and she's not so foolish to assume as much. But bandaged wounds are a path to healing even if curative spells aren't available. The thought of- of some progress, of any sort of treatment for the lost and lonely void of their shared history, is much more than she'd expected in all her long years. Sharing that weakness isn't easy by any means, another thing they both understand.

But this? This slow, cautious attempt at something new, a path not walked alone? She's definitely willing.]

...alright. I think...that might be a good idea.

[He hadn't wanted to admit it even to himself, but that painfully heavy loneliness and isolation was a difficult thing to bear, and impossible to heal. No one could understand what it was like to be whatever kind of twisted thing he was, to live for so long in complete isolation. Not completely, at least.]

[But on the other hand, it didn't have to be any understanding so perfect as that. Ardyn wouldn't have wanted anyone else to know such a thing enough to comprehend it in detail, so in that respect as well as simply being able to reach out and find someone else's hand reaching back...this was enough. More than enough.]

I should warn you I may not always be...the most forthcoming person when it comes to matters of my own troubles, but that is something I would like to endeavor to change just a bit.

You'll find that's something else we have in common.

[Considering it's been a year and this hasn't exactly come up with anyone else? Yeah. She embodies "everything's fine" most of the time and that's precisely how she likes it.]

Is that something I should push back against now and then?

Are you wondering if you should mercilessly torment me until I dare express an actual thought I might be having? It's hardly different from what my dear family does.

[...look at that, an actual joke.]

And would you ask me to do anything in turn?

Oh, good! I'll fit right in then. Prepare to be kindly roasted.

[Though it might be a bit weird to get too close to him and his family now considering... recent developments. She'll have to hash that out when the issue arises; for now, this is neither the time nor place.]

Mm... I usually get by. But considering what just happened, seems like you opening up drags some truths out of me, too. So maybe when it's just us, you can poke the bear a little. I won't bite.

Sounds a difficult task, but I can be sure to keep it in mind.

[what the hell is a bear]

Are you feeling alright now?

[Maybe someday Polymorph will teach you.]

Mm... I'm alright, yeah. I'll get there. Not sure if you've noticed, but it doesn't take long for me to bounce back.

[For better or worse, that's just how she is.]

How you doing?

I...think I'm alright. I can safely say I have felt worse, at least.

Well, I'll take it. What did I tell you, huh? A place of healing.

[She gives his side a little nudge with her elbow.]

Don't be afraid of reaching out for help. My old boyfriend's a bone monster, a bit of cold doesn't scare me.

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