January Event: Rejection Rooms

[lifeaftr_mods]

JANUARY EVENT: REJECTION ROOMS

Who: Anyone and everyone!
What: Rejecting your Light comes with dire consequences
When: January 25th - 28th
Where: All over Monsun
Warnings: Violence and possible character death; please note any specific content warnings if they come up!

You're Ruled by the Things You Feel

This log is primarily for the Rejection Room portion of the event, for ease and convenience. To quote our event post:

Characters intent on rejecting their Light will find themselves irrevocably drawn to Monsun's shores. They might not even be aware of it - driven by their rage, their paranoia, their fear, or all of the above, and more. Monsun, for its part, is happy to receive them. Its landscape has become so warped over time...and those parts of Monsun consumed by shadow will start to distort, molding into structures that such characters are only too happy to hide within: Rejection Rooms.

Those who challenge the Rejection Rooms need not worry about death for themselves - damage taken within the rooms will simply translate to exhaustion outside of it, with seemingly mortal wounds leading to expulsion from the room itself, and an inability to re-enter.

The same holds true for the boss of each Room. Failure to beat them into expulsion means that the Room will continue to feed from their wildly catastrophizing mind, until there's nothing left to save at all.

So, simply top-level below with your character if they've signed up for a Rejection Room and prepare for whoever wants to gamble a confrontation. We recommend linking to the comment that details your character's Room, for the benefit of others. Remember to communicate; if your character is still trapped in their Room by the event's end, they will suffer a character death, though characters who merely try and fail to free them will not.

If your Rejection Room opt-in comment did not receive any response or additional discussion from the mod team, consider your Room and moveset approved; we want to allow for retroactive edits to your comments and plans, if those become necessary!

---

Some useful links, for reference:

[ ♆ ] OOC Event Post
[ ♆ ] Rejection Room Sign-Ups, for information on what Rejection Rooms look like
[ ♆ ] Deaths Page; death penalties have been reduced for the duration of this event, but remember to let us know if your character is still stuck in their Room by the event's end!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.
[ ♆ ] January 21st: Shadows of both initial variants appear.
[ ♆ ] January 23rd: Shadows of both initial variants disappear.
[ ♆ ] January 25th Lights and Rejection Rooms appear.
[ ♆ ] January 28th: Lights and Rejection Rooms dissipate. Those still trapped in their Rejection Rooms by the event's end will suffer a character death.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[shatteredlenses]

[A small, tired smile pulls at the corner of Ignis' mouth even as a violent shiver runs through him.]

I'm not the one lying. If that is what you truly want, then I will find it for you, but that's not truly what you want anymore. Don't lie. You don't have to. We're the only ones here. No one else will ever know.

[scourgingstars]

Be silent. Just...stop talking and kill me. I don't want to do this, I don't want to hurt you, so end it instead of this sentimental nonsense.

[shatteredlenses]

No.

[Despite how much he hurts, Ignis manages to make the word come out in a way that makes it clear he won't change his mind.]

I won't. I love you and I want your pain to stop. It won't stop if I kill you. It will only grow worse because it will be the proof you need that I was lying the whole time.

[He finally finds the strength to raise his head.]

I love you. If you can't accept him now so that you can understand what that means again, then I will wait and keep waiting as long as I need to. Someday you will find balance again. I believe in you.

[scourgingstars]

You don't love me. There isn't a single thing worth loving. You--I...I don't--

[What the hell was he doing? This whole thing was useless, so Ardyn should have just brought it to an end. But...he just couldn't. All this and he couldn't even bring himself to kill one person? Worse yet, he was accomplishing nothing but hurting the only person he didn't hate, so what was the point of all this?]

[He hugged Ignis tightly, hiding his face against the advisor's shoulder.]

Why?! Why won't you just forget this worthless endeavor and leave me alone?

[shatteredlenses]

I know you don't remember so it's impossible to understand, but that's not how love works. There was a reason I just...didn't bother for so long. It hurts and it's messy and it doesn't make any bloody sense most of the time, but that doesn't invalidate the joy and comfort it brings.

[He lets his cold, pained body collapse against Ardyn again, holding him as tightly as he can.]

Now that I've let it in, I'm not ever letting go again no matter how often you ask or how much logic you throw at me. It's not worthless and it never will be.

[scourgingstars]

Don't lie to me. You love what you believe I am, nothing more. Not you or anyone else will ever care for what I've become.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis is silent for several moments before sighing and then shifting against Ardyn's shoulder so he can turn his blind gaze in the redhead's direction.]

I will admit that back at the beginning that may have been true. I didn't understand what I was doing then. I didn't understand you.

[This is obviously difficult for him to say, and as a result is voice is soft and hesitant at times.]

Honestly, I'm still not sure I know what I'm doing, but I like to think I understand you a little better now. It wasn't some idealized version of you who I hurt at the beach party and who helped me understand after that I couldn't let my optimistic hopes blind me. It wasn't some the Healer-King of old who sat on the floor with me and shared his deepest fears as flowers and thorns threatened to tear themselves from our bodies, and it was certainly no mere human who held me so tight in his exhaustion that we had to pile him under chocobos in order to win my freedom.

[He raises a shaking hand so he can gently run his fingers across Ardyn's cheek.]

Once it may have only been the daemons that remained, but that is no longer the case. You have become more than what I first loved, more than you believe yourself to be.

[scourgingstars]

I can't...do this, Ignis, I can't be whatever it is your influence has been turning me into. I don't know how to be anything else, and it's driving me mad because I don't know what I am with you. I--I-

[Ardyn shook his head, whatever else he was going to say cut off by a choked and muffled sound, black miasma briefly staining Ignis' shirt before evaporating.]

...I'm not worth this. I can't take it anymore. Please--please, just end it.

[shatteredlenses]

You can.

[It's hard to keep the words steady and confident when he hears the choked and muffled sound that Ardyn makes. He cannot see the miasma, but he can imagine it there and it breaks his heart.

Why must this pain Ardyn is feeling be the very thing that proves he can be more?]

Listen to me. You are worth it and you don't have to do this alone. I'm here and I'm not leaving no matter how many times you ask. You survived two thousand years of hate and rage. You can survive this too.

[scourgingstars]

You...you have no idea how near insurmountable such a task truly is. I just want everything to stop, I want to stop having to live this way. Don't you comprehend that I have no other option, I-I...

[He shook is head against Ignis' shoulder, words unsteady and shoulders trembling.]

...please. I can't bear it anymore. Not alone.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis shifts his arms so that he can wrap them around Ardyn's head where it's come to rest against his shoulder. He then settles his cheek into the redhead's hair.]

You're not alone. You've not been alone for a long time. It's no two thousand years, this time we've been together, but there can be more if you will just give it a chance. The unknown and the confusion can stop if you can find just enough strength to reach out. I'm right here. You don't have to reach far. This task is not so insurmountable as you feel it is. I promise.

[scourgingstars]

...you won't stay. I'm not-...I'm not your king, I'm not the Chosen. I'm nothing and no one of consequence, just as I've ever been. Why should you stay with something like me, is it just because you take pity on something so wretched and broken?

[shatteredlenses]

No. You don't need to be either of those things to be of worth to me, to be loved by me.

[He runs his fingers gently through Ardyn's wild, red hair, voice a loving whisper.]

Or, if you must be one, then know you are Chosen. By me. Because I can see your value when the Astrals could not.

[scourgingstars]

I don't have any value--!

[Ardyn's voice cracked and broke off, an unsteady silence following for only a moment.]

...would you truly-...you want this miserable shell so badly that you would go even this far? Is that--even something I can believe to be possible?

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis tightens his arms around Ardyn, burying his head farther into the redhead's hair.]

Yes. Please.

[scourgingstars]

...I'll kill you, you know. If I should ever so much as suspect you to turn your back on me, I won't hold back like I've done here. You'll die, regardless of whether that death should be permanent or not.

[shatteredlenses]

If you didn't, I would be disappointed.

[What might be a joke with anyone else, is completely serious here.]

If I ever willingly turn my back on you, I will wish for death because it means I've completely forsaken everything that makes me who I am.

[scourgingstars]

...I-I want--

[A pause, in which Ardyn struggled to steady the wavering in his voice.]

I don't...know what I want. But I can't stay like this.

[shatteredlenses]

Just take that first step with me.

[He moves slightly so he can press a kiss against Ardyn's temple.]

Accept and then we will find what it is you want. Together.

[scourgingstars]

And what happens when I fail? If all this comes to naught and I can be nothing but a monster? You'll only be proven wrong, in the end.

[shatteredlenses]

Why don't we wait until the end to assume that, hmm?

[Ignis presses another kiss to his temple, a small smile crossing his lips.]

Lets not go borrowing trouble. There is enough of it in this place as it is.

[scourgingstars]

If I do this--if I listen to you and attempt to learn how to act human again...I've one condition. Should things go wrong and should I be something needing to be dealt with, then kill me. I don't care what you do or how many times it takes. Just don't--

[Ardyn's voice cracked, his next breath coming shakily.]

...don't lock me away. Don't leave me alone somewhere and forget I ever existed.

[shatteredlenses]

[When they have come so far, Ignis hates that they still have to have killing Ardyn as an option, but he's already made this promise in a way, hasn't he? So long ago when Monsun appeared for the first time. So long before they had any of this, and if he could make that promise back then, he certainly can make it now.]

I promised you such when we first met on Monsun. In a little different form, but in the end, the intent is still the same. If death is the path we must take, then it will be. I will stay by your side until it is done so that I can guarantee you are not locked away and left alone once more.

[Even if it means his own death and depending on Ardyn's state, it very well could mean that. If it comes to that, he can only hope that Gladio will forgive him.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn was silent for a long moment after that, hiding his face against Ignis' shoulder and clinging to him.]

...I'll...try again, one more time. No matter how I doubt it will ever work.

I'd like to go back to the desert, for a while yet. The light from that damnable rock hurts my eyes.

[shatteredlenses]

You know trying is the most I will ask of you.

[Ignis runs a hand over Ardyn's hair before wrapping his arms around the redhead again.]

I would like that too, though, perhaps we should stop by the cottage first. I can get you my sunglasses. Unless a certain chocobo has stolen them again, that is.

[Tired, bad joke, get? Yep.]