lifeaftr | am i more than you bargained for yet

Entry tags:

am i more than you bargained for yet

Who: Ardyn + open
What: Fallout post-Monsun and catchall for everyone that's going to annoy the hell out of him.
When: 2/10 and onwards
Where: Islet 4, shack 1
Warnings: Ardyn being Ardyn--probably threatening but no actual physical harm ~~yet~~.

[So that happened. Once Ardyn reclaimed his unfortunate shack of a living space from Xion and Shion, he all but immediately sequestered himself; Hresvelgr could still be seen wandering around on occasion, munching on the occasional plantlife without a care in the world. If Ardyn did go out himself, it was in the middle of the night well after the sun had gone down.]

[This was fine. Sure, he was absolutely livid that he'd been stuck on some miserable desert for so long. And he was utterly furious at being forced to be like that, some sentimental and revoltingly kind person too stupid to know any better. It would be a problem, dealing with Asch and everyone else foolish enough to believe in a person like that. But...well, it was easy enough to handle. He'd just have to be rid of them one way or another.]

[Easy, right?]

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[Initially, Ignis heads to the islet with the intent of making sure Asch is able to get the tent set back up properly, but once he is able to confirm that, the Advisor makes no real move to leave the area. Instead, he studies a certain shack and a certain chocobo and wonders just how long a certain Chancellor is going to play hermit before someone drags him from said shack.

Quickly bored of just waiting--he's a man of action, after careful study of course--Ignis makes his way over to Ardyn's shack, leaning nonchalantly against the crumbling wall by the door and raps on it.]

You do realize you can't pout in there forever. It will make for a frightfully dull story and who knows what lengths the Storyteller will go to this time to liven things up.

[As he waits for a response, Ignis taps a very well carved walking stick against his foot. He came back with a proper one the guys had picked up for him in Altissia, but this one is more symbolic, something that will continue to remind Ardyn of the other side he fights so hard to deny exists.]

Oh, I think you'll find I can.

[The mocking condescension was back in full force, colder than ever as Ardyn approached. He frowned sharply as gold eyes briefly dropped to the carved wooden stick, quickly looking back up to its owner.]

And what do you want?

My, my, the great Chancellor of Niflheim reduced to a mere pouting child. What a sad day this is.

[Ignis can't see the glance, but he can almost feel the frown, and it causes the corner of his mouth to quirk upward for a moment. In what seems like an idle gesture but is nothing of the sort, Ignis slides his hand down to the neck of the cane, pointing the top--and a certain set of initials--right at Ardyn.]

I suppose someone should record the fall of such a great man. It will be my sorrowful duty to pass the story along.

It would be far from the first time.

[Bitter? Ardyn? Goodness, no.]

Kindly get that out of my face before I hit you with it.

Oh goodness. Is it that close to your face? I had no idea. How rude of me. To think, I might have accidentally struck some sense into your thick skull.

[For a brief moment, Ignis' hand shifts back on the cane as if he is going to swing it and literally enact his words. Instead of doing that, though, he pulls the stick in toward himself, gesturing at his face. There are no sunglasses covering his scars today. He still has a set of sunglasses, but in memory of that 'final' farewell perhaps, he's left them in his jacket pocket, his face open and honest.]

You don't really think I'm going to walk away now and just let you 'forget' the last few months, do you?

I think you will, if you're at all attached to the concept of living. I think we both know any truce I have with Noctis is and has ever been worthless, after all.

[Ignis can't help but snort at the man's words, threatening as they may be. Letting the cane rest against his leg, he holds up his gloveless left hand, tapping the thumb at the base of his middle finger where a bright white scar encircles it. It's hard to tell how much of the rest of the scarring is from his run in with the Oolick and how much is from the Ring itself, but that's really not the point now is it?]

I think we both know my opinions on being too attached to the concept of living, now don't we?

Oh, dear. Of course, I forgot you were an idiot. How very careless of me.

[Ardyn rolled his eyes, sighing as if this was the biggest inconvenience known to mankind.]

And did the little walking road flare want something, or did you just come to irritate me?

Yes, that is me. The royal loyal idiot. Perhaps I should ask Noct if I can add that to my official title.

[Ignis lets his hand fall, arms crossing loosely over his chest.]

You know why I'm here, just as you should also know I'm not going away.

Ah, just here to irritate me, then. Noted.

[Ignis shrugs.]

I suppose you could call it that. I prefer to call it making sure you remember what the rest of us won't forget.

Humiliating things are often so difficult to forget, I doubt I need the help. Here I thought myself well above embarrassment, yet I've been soundly proven wrong by that little spectacle.

[He punctuated that with a cold laugh, leaning on the door frame with his hands on his hips.]

Oh, it must have seemed a fairytale come to life for you. The lost and broken fragment of a bygone era, scrambling desperately for acknowledgement before being lost once more to the black waves of an endless dark...and you, the mortal enemy so selfless as to offer a hand all while knowing deep in your heart that such a faint effort could never make any difference.

What was lost so long ago can not be salvaged. And you know that, yet you delude yourself to the contrary out of some base stupidity, or perhaps misguided devotion to the bloodline. Or...worse yet, perhaps you were fool enough to think him fallen for you.

[For a moment, despite knowing that Ardyn is purposely goading him into anger, Ignis lets himself fall for the goad. He feels anger, not for himself, but for the man who he'd lived and survived with for so long on Monsun. The one who felt he deserved nothing. The one who'd given up on ever having anything in order to protect everything. The one who cared more than he could let himself ever admit.

Ignis remembers his final meeting with that man on Monsun and peace drives the anger away. Sound, touch, taste. The memory is healing even if the healer is buried deep within the monster right now.]

So many words, so little substance. Do you fear that fragment so much that you must constantly remind yourself you are the one in control? Are you so frightened of the idea that promises can be kept and loyalty lasts to the end that you must discredit it at every opportunity?

Oh, I don't fear anything.

[Ardyn rolled his eyes, idly pulling his dagger from its holster and spinning it around in his hand, an unseen idle gesture that doubled as a thinly veiled threat.]

It's you who should be afraid, for you continue to delude yourself in such a terribly cruel manner. Why, you're all but digging your own grave for the moment when that mad fixation upon loyalty stabs you right in the back.

[The sound of a dagger cutting through the air should be more worrying to Ignis than it is, especially since now that he remembers Altissia he can make a very certain guess as to who that dagger last cut down. Instead of being worried, he finds himself strangely calm, and he knows he can only justify part of that calmness with the knowledge he can summon his own daggers to hand in a heartbeat.]

I dug my own grave long ago. Truly, I'm surprised you haven't realized that before now. Of course, maybe burning oneself to death out of loyalty is not so dramatic as being stabbed in the back. If so, my apologies for not living up to your overly-dramatic expectations.

There is certainly something to be said for the spectacle of setting yourself alight, I think. Far more interesting than letting me stab you and be done with it.

Ah, but I must be careful not to become repetitive. There's no...excitement in repeating what's already been done, and I would hate for you to become bored.

Mm, that certainly is true. But it's so terribly difficult to surprise me by now, I'm afraid.

And yet I have done just that, and once you have done something...

[Ignis gestures with one hand.]

...it becomes so much easier to do it again. I wonder how long it will be until I surprise you again? It's quite an exhilarating feeling if I'm honest.

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