August Event: Overgrowth

[lifeaftr_mods]

AUGUST EVENT: OVERGROWTH

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: You choke on your flowery words
When: August 10th to August 17th
Where: Primarily Umui, though Ensō is also an option
Warnings: Character death, potential body horror - please mark as you go!

Say You're Happy Now - Once More With Feeling

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 those afflicted by the Overgrowth, and whatever attempts may be made to save them. It will be emotional honesty that saves you - or your desperate need to cling to a repression of self that will make you quite pretty, in bloom.

Remember to let us know if your character dies during this event. Death penalties have been reduced for this event, but we still need to account for them!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] August 10th: Afflicted characters begin to exhibit Stage Two symptoms
[ ♆ ] August 17th: Those who have not shed the Overgrowth enter Stage Three, and suffer a death
[ ♆ ] August 19th: Characters who succumbed to Stage Three are revived, and suffer a death penalty
[ ♆ ] August 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[scourgingstars]

You can't-

[He choked on the denial in his throat, going briefly tense. Was...that not true?]

...I'm not certain. [He ran his other hand through Ignis' hair, brushing aside petals in a light but awkward attempt to be gentle while clearly not knowing how. Seeking out even further physical touch like a plant sought sunlight.] I want to understand--start there. Why, after everything I've done to the four of you...and you, particularly...just why?

The person you claim to love remains the same one you fought in Altissia with the power of my brother and all the rest behind you. The same one who killed Lunafreya, who orchestrated the fall of Insomnia and brought the world to a literal shadow of what it once was--when anything notably unfortunate happened in most of written history, I can almost guarantee I was there if not directly responsible just to keep myself entertained.

What makes some shred of a memory worth putting aside all of that, with no promise of anything in return and indeed a near certainty that nothing will ever change?

Why are you doing this to yourself?

[shatteredlenses]

Because...

[Ignis starts strong, but then his words fail him. Just how does he explain something this complex with mere words? They don't do the feelings justice. They don't help Ardyn feel what he needs to feel to truly understand, and yet, if they are going to start anywhere--the redhead is right--they have to start here.

He takes as deep a breath as his injured body will allow and then turns various answers over in his head until he finally finds one that doesn't cause the blooms in his body to react. With how complicated this all is, Ignis is surprised at how simple the answer turns out to be. He slides closer to Ardyn, his arm looping around the redhead's waist. If he had more energy, he would shift their positions since Ardyn actually seems to want contact for once, but right now this is all he can manage.]

I'm doing it because I want to. You of all people know what it's like to want something. Well, I want this.

[He's well aware that answer, simple as it is, just begs follow up questions of 'why,' so he continues even though he's still sorting everything out in his own head.]

Don't fool yourself into thinking I'm sugarcoating or conveniently forgetting what you've done. I'm not. In fact, when Gladio and Noctis arrived, here, I was terrified that I would lose both their friendships when they learned what we had. Still, I wasn't going to turn my back on you. I promised you I wouldn't and I meant it. The person who is here with you now... He's different than the person you taunted in Altissia. He understands so much more now. He's not the innocent follower he once was.

[For a moment, there is only the soft rustling sounds of Ignis shifting his position so he can rest his head against Ardyn's chest, over where his heart would be if he admitted to still having one.]

My life wasn't the only thing I was willing to throw away to protect Noct in Altissia. I would have let the whole world burn if it would have kept him safe because without him, the world was not worth living in. You know well how it feels to be willing to let the world burn albeit for a reason different from my own.

[scourgingstars]

[It didn't make sense. It didn't, it couldn't, it never would--and yet he knew that couldn't possibly be a lie with things as they were now. Why risk one's friends just to keep a promise? No answer would have been satisfactory, and yet Ardyn still found himself asking the obvious questions.]

...why me? If you aren't forgetting what I've done, why do you want this to the point of even risking the loss of your own allies?

[No one wanted him. No one ever had, no one ever would for all that he'd done. Why was this different?]

[shatteredlenses]

Because I...

[Ignis starts the same as before and as before cuts himself off before he gets too far along. He could go over the same things they've gone over before, but that's not the answer Ardyn's looking for and not the truth he needs to give.]

You understand. Both as the healer and as the destroyer.

[The simple statement seems so at odds with everything, and yet it's the truth. When Ignis whispers the words, there is not so much as a twitch from the flowers inside of him. Indeed, it almost feels like something releases allowing him to breathe a little easier for the first time in a long time.]

The healer in you--no matter how much he's faded--understands what it is like to want to give everything you are to help someone. No one else understands that. Noct gets angry anytime we mention sacrificing ourselves and yet the need to act is still there within me. That drive to do anything I can do no matter the cost.

[He pauses a moment, tilting his head up so he can gaze blindly at Ardyn's face.]

In Altissia, were you just shocked I would go so far or was your surprise the product of something else? Someone else stirring within you and reminding you of needs you would rather forget?

[scourgingstars]

[Part of him wanted to snarl a response, tell Ignis to shut his mouth about that which he couldn't understand before he said something they'd both regret--but Ardyn said nothing whatsoever, at first.]

[He had always understood sacrifice. Maybe he'd been Noctis' age, maybe a little older--Ardyn could no longer remember the finer specifics, but he knew his life and that of the sheltered Chosen King had been very, very different. It had been a war of far more than mere nations that served as the backdrop to a life long since mostly forgotten, and a foolish child who took the weight of the world on his shoulders without a second thought rather than falter and hesitate in the purpose laid before him.]

[Where it had gotten Ardyn almost made him think Noctis was halfway to the right idea when it came to self-sacrifice, but he knew better than to hope he'd ever truly get the message in any timeline.]

...jealousy.

[At length he gave a quiet answer, shakily brushing the advisor's hair from his eyes and tracing a hand chilled by death to his jawline.]

I carried what I did as quietly as I was able. It was neither my brother's nor Gilgamesh's burden to carry, and I would not have asked it of them. Whether I was right or wrong in believing so is irrelevant; I saw it as my task and mine alone, making the world one they could live in even if I didn't think I would survive to do the same. For their happiness, a price such as my life was nothing at all.

It wasn't myself I saw reflected in what you did that day, but everyone else. All those who should have stood against the gods' declaration and protected their king rather than give the crown to a fratricidal usurper.

Again--again my own brother would have seen me destroyed, even if only by proxy and temporarily. At that point, one just has to laugh about the scale of the joke being played. You couldn't have known you stood before the brother of your precious Founder, and yet you bargained with him to fight off a monster threatening your king.

...I wonder if he cared to acknowledge the irony of it. I wonder if he cared that I know neither he nor Gilgamesh would ever have put themselves on the line like that for my sake.

[shatteredlenses]

I...don't have an answer to that for you.

[Ignis leans into the touch, not bothered by the chill of Ardyn's fingers. It's not so different from the chill that he's felt in his bones ever since the ring's power left him, after all.]

Truth be told, I half think they were prepared for another person to use the ring after Nyx stood and all but spat in their faces. It was King Regis who spoke the most to me and it felt as if he was saying only what they wished him to.

[In hindsight, he can't help but wonder if they were punishing Regis in some manner since Ignis was the second person connected to he and Noctis who broke the rules and donned the ring when they had no right to. It was easy to tell it pained Regis to deliver the details of the deal in such harsh terms. What had being the father of the Chosen King ever gained Regis but pain, though? Not that Ignis mentions any of this to Ardyn. Their pains are not something that should be compared anyway.

Slowly and carefully, he reaches up to cup Ardyn's face in his hand.]

I would stand for you now, you know. The same way I stood for Noctis. It doesn't erase the fact those who should have back then didn't, but perhaps it will calm the jealousy a little now.

[His thumb traces warm over Ardyn's jaw, unconsciously mimicking the redhead's earlier touch.]

Before you ask why again, think of all those things that made you do what you did back then. The things you wanted to give them. The pain you wanted to shelter them from. I wish to do the same.

[A small, sad smile crosses his face.]

Even if I am 2000 years too late.

[scourgingstars]

...too late in most respects, yes.

[He tilted his head into Ignis' hand like a cat lying in a patch of warm sunlight. It was far, far too late; two thousand years, one fulfilled prophecy, and one unfortunately extended eternal lifetime too late.]

[But at the same time:]

Yet here I remain, regrettably alive. And for some mad reason I chose to drag myself this far to see you. Because if I'm to be forced to be honest...there's no other choice I have but for it to be you I let myself give such objective truths to. No one else I remotely care about whether they should live or die, or even bother to talk to. So perhaps...it's not too late in every definition of the term.

[shatteredlenses]

Perhaps.

[And maybe that would just need to be enough. There's no certainty in perhaps, no clarity, but right now with things as they are, the word might as well be a certainty. After all, the disease that afflicts them both will accept no less.

Ignis' fingers continue to gently brush against Ardyn's jaw.]

Are you feeling any better after all that? It can take some time, but breathing should at least be a little easier now.

[scourgingstars]

[As long as that hand was still there, Ardyn would keep leaning into it in silent encouragement.]

Somewhat. Bordering on functional, it would seem. What of yourself?

[shatteredlenses]

I wish to hug you.

[Ignis laughs softly, but the truly telling thing is that there is no rattling or coughing along with that laugh.]

So it seems my foolishness has returned to its proper levels, at least.

[scourgingstars]

...I think I shall permit that. But I've a condition to set; I certainly can't allow such a foolish thing without a fair trade. You can barter for such a gesture in exchange for a kiss, if you like.

[shatteredlenses]

Goodness. Driving such a hard bargain. You must be feeling better.

[Blind eyes sparkling with mirth, Ignis draws himself slowly up to his knees so he can move forward and press a kiss--one preceded by a mischievous flick of his tongue-- to Ardyn's lips. At the same time, he wraps his arms around the redhead's waist, leaning into him as much as he dares. They are just starting to feel better, after all. The last thing he wants to do is aggravate whatever flowers remain.]

[scourgingstars]

[His own arms snaked around Ignis almost cautiously--still unsure of what constituted 'gentle', but taking care not to cause further injury--as he leaned into the kiss as much as he dared to. Once they broke apart, his head came to rest on Ignis's shoulder as the advisor was pulled closer as securely as Ardyn dared to.]

...I truly can't love you. I need you to remember that. But...whatever this is, even should I never be able to name it, I should like to hold to it for a while yet.

[shatteredlenses]

I will.

[Ignis rests his head against Ardyn's, content to remain where he is for as long as he is allowed to.]

Hold onto it for as long as you wish; I'll not ever take it away from you.