lifeaftr | Exploration Event: Neverwere

EXPLORATION EVENT: NEVERWERE

Who: Everyone!
What: Your wildest dreams come true!
When: May 15th to May 18th
Where: Ziziphus, those still on Ensō...and Mu
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Then Know That My Life Was Just a Killer Dream
You can find most of the information you need in the OOC info post! In the meantime, feel free to use this log as a catch-all for your dream worlds, as well as detailing your efforts to free one another. Whether they're on Ziziphus or Ensō at the time of the dreams' capture, your character is free to access as many dreams as you like, as the interlocking mental landscape allows for that sort of crossing over apropos of nothing. And time, of course, is very fluid in dreams - many days, months, and years can transpire in a matter of mere minutes.

Will you fight your way free from Ziziphus's vines or Mu's thrall, or are you content to die in your sleep?

Remember to let us know if your character dies during this event!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] May 15th: The vines make their move, ensnaring characters in ideal fantasy worlds
[ ♆ ] May 17th: The Storyteller will make contact with those they can, as well as issue information and a potential solution
[ ♆ ] May 18th: Those that have not freed themselves from the vines or from Mu will suffer a death

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...I should have been. [Ardyn looked away, folding his arms and struggling to focus. he was steady enough, for now...perhaps not his original self entirely, but human in enough sense to keep his sanity for a little longer.]

My real name, my proper name--it truly is 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum.' The man you call the Founder King...he was my brother.

All this suffering? So much death all because you got in a fucking tiff over the crown with your brother?

[For as angry as he's been up till this point he mostly just sounds outright disgusted now. So much hate and strife, war and loss because Ardyn was pissy about losing the fucking title?]

And what would've stopped you from running all of Lucis into the ground millenia ago if your brother hadn't taken the throne? You've sure done a fantastic job of it now.

Are you stupid, do you not get it?!I'm broken. I'm not human, I'm just a sentiment twisted by a divine force of malice. It's not about Somnus or the crown anymore, not even the Crystal at this point. It hasn't been in centuries.

I had to wait to bring the night so the True King could banish it. So I could die. All I am is just another piece on the prophecy's chessboard.

Convenient way to make none of it your fault, huh? [Not that he was certain it really mattered to Ardyn. And this was a man that had manipulated entire empires for centuries. Gladio wasn't stupid enough to think he could outsmart him. Probably everything he was saying was meant to make him question Noctis and their mission and the future laid out before him.]

I don't believe for a second that you never made a conscious decision in all of this. Blame the gods so you don't have to own up to your part. Bullshit

I'm not saying that, I-...can you just shut up for five minutes so I can think clearly?!

You're just saying you had no choice, no control of your actions, none of it was your fault. Acting like the godsdamned victim. You know who's the victim here? Lunafreya.

Or maybe Regis and my dad. Cor? Monica, Dustin, Jared? Every single fucking person outside Lestallum.

Prompto's past and Iggy's eyes. And you're responsible for all of it.

It's not that black and white, you imbecile. Yes, i'm an inhuman monster. I deserve to die for all I've done, I want to die and put all of it to an end, but it's-

...it's just not that simple. I wasn't always this. 'Ardyn Izunia' wants people to suffer. Revels in it, enjoys it, and finds satisfaction in it. But in that form I'm a murderous lunatic, and in this brief moment of lucidity I don't want to hurt anyone anymore.

Stop fucking calling me stupid, you asshole!

[By the six, Ardyn, it's kind of a lot to wrap his head around and he's actually fucking trying to understand what the hell is going on. He doesn't have any of the same background that Noct or Iggy have, okay.]

Hate to burst your bubble but this is all bullshit. Sure you're not hurting anyone here I guess but you're not helping shit because they're not real.

[Harsh as it is he almost sounds... apologetic? Not like he feels sorry for Ardyn or anything. It's just... well it's complicated, isn't it?]

...I know. Or--I know that now. This is...just a dream, isn't it?

Think it's something worse than that...

It'd be easier to leave you here to rot but... [Gods above it sounds awful and he doesn't really want to say it to a man that is actually sitting here having a reasonable (ish) conversation.]

You have to die in Insomnia. [At the most convenient time for everyone else.

It's fucked but it's the truth.]

No...I already did.

[He shook his head as if to clear something out, struggling to remember.]

I'm dead--I should be dead, and yet I awoke here. I can't find rest even with the fulfillment of the prophecy. I'm trapped here and I can't die.

Already...

[There's something close to horror in his expression. The jumbled timelines... Ignis knowing so little while he knew too much.

Ardyn knew what happened on the other side of the doors to the Citadel. Yet he was still here, still existing, beyond all odds. He's dead, he should be, he has to be. The prophecy can't have failed. There's comfort in that, he supposes, but at the same time.]

That's fucked.

[Ardyn answered with a sharp laugh, sounding pained more than finding any real humor in the situation.]

...that's one word for it.

[The sound of that laugh is enough to make him flinch, dark and bitter and worst of all eerily familiar.

And that is a terrifying thing to acknowledge, that he might have something in common with Ardyn. Too many years in darkness, eating away at things like hope and joy. It's enough to make him feel sick.]

I- [What do you even say to that? It's so strange, to look at this man whose cause so much anguish in his life and think that maybe, just maybe, he kinda feels sorry for him. But like hell he can let himself say that.]

Don't suppose the "second chances" line is really... gonna cut it...

Oh, we both know I don't deserve one. I wouldn't want it even if I were handed the opportunity.

...All I want is an ending, and it's the one thing I can't find.

You don't. [He might be a little more conflicted, infuriatingly acknowledging that yes, there's some grey there, but there's no hesitation in that. Whatever he once was, Ardyn is still a monster.]

I'd put you out of your misery if I could. [An offer he's made before, and not just because Ardyn deserves to die, needs to die. But because there are things worse than death. How many hunters, soldiers, Glaives has he had to put down before the inevitable happens? Cold, certainly, and something so many of his fellows didn't have the stomach for but it was also a mercy. He wouldn't let anyone brave enough to fight beside him turn into a daemon.]

Exploration Event: Neverwere

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: suicidal ideation

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject