Endgame: Discussion

[lifeaftr_mods]

ENDGAME: DISCUSSION

Who: The gods...and you
What: The gods have a discussion with themselves, each other, and all you adventurers
When: May 3rd to May 17th
Where: Primarily Ensō
Warnings: Please mark anything as it comes up!

Keep Me In Your Clouded Mind

So, by now you're probably aware that things have shifted massively in the past few days. The Historian has arrived on LifeAftr's shores to spill a few mountains' worth of beans, and now all of you are stuck having to deal with it. But that doesn't mean that you're going to need to make this discussion alone.

The fate of LifeAftr - and the fate of all of you - is now in your hands. And while all of you decide what you will about how you plan to deal with that, the gods are busy having a long overdue familial argument. Consider this log a catch-all for you to discuss the fate of LifeAftr among yourselves, react to the various revelations, ask the gods questions, or just sit and eat some popcorn while they argue amongst themselves.

Remember - you have until May 10th to come up with any solutions that other player characters can vote on.

So think long and hard about where you want things to end up.

But Now the Stars Have spoken

Of course, you are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed. You may also use this log for characters to discuss and react to things with each other and argue amongst themselves; consider it a catch-all for IC endgame discussion.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on the Questions header on our Endgame Rundown post! If you come up with a solution that enough player characters agree can be voted upon and that is feasible for endgame, be sure to drop it on the Voting header on our Endgame Rundown post once voting opens!

Endgame Timeline

[ ♆ ] May 3rd: Discussion regarding the fate of LifeAftr begins.
[ ♆ ] May 10th: Voting for endgame begins.
[ ♆ ] May 17th: Voting for endgame ends.
[ ♆ ] May 20th: Preparations for endgame begin, and you deal with the fallout of any decisions.
[ ♆ ] May 31st: Endgame begins and lasts into June.

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[scourgingstars]

I'm almost flattered.

...You know, there's actually something I've been painfully averse to asking you for a long while now. Would you be interested or able to hear a request now?

[story_teller]

Well, what have we to lose?

[The Storyteller's tone is wry.]

If you have a request, I've no quarry with hearing it.

[scourgingstars]

On the very slim chance this course of action should prove worthwhile and the results improbably agreeable, it would do little good to kick me off this world into wherever else as I am now.

Much as I loathe asking favor from the divine, then before I leave this realm I would wonder it within your power to divest the average horrific abomination of its immortality, once this is over.

...Hypothetically.

[story_teller]

Considering that, in the greater scheme of things, it is more likely that I owe you for whatever my past might have done, you're free to view this as the repayment of a debt if it suits you.

Once, I would have refused that. [This is not, after all, the first time he has asked. They remember.]

If it were to be done in this world...as it crumbles, a great deal of liberated energy will be available to me, assuming that it is not your will that this landscape be remade indefinitely, and our memories obliterated once more.

It may yet be possible.

Please understand. I say possible because I've not attempted such a thing before. I do not want to make a promise I will be incapable of keeping.

But I would make that effort, if you wished it.

[scourgingstars]

[To say Ardyn's general recollection was 'flawed' would be highly charitable. But he had remembered that, and all this time later (how long, he wasn't sure he had the capacity to measure anymore) he thought he might have had a better idea of the shape of what he actually wanted. Even if the only viable method of gaining it would be something he held considerable distaste for.]

I harbor more scattered bits of memory than I can begin to count or measure in lifetimes, and so few of them mine that the human I used to be is near-utterly forgotten. I make no apologies for the things I've done, either to those whose lives I've left in my wake or to the world I destroyed. Perhaps it was all the desperate screaming of something with nothing left to lose and no purpose in existence but to destroy. Perhaps I enjoyed it, or perhaps I was too far gone to care. So in that respect, I either didn't deserve the chance to continue living, or to continue was a punishment in itself. I really can't tell which it is anymore.

...But these memories...are mine. Not stolen from another, and not twisted delusions crafted in eternal imprisonment. Deserved or not, I would fight to keep them as they are, and to continue onward for the first time rather than exist in this terrible stagnation of ages uncountable.

So here is my deal, should the best come to pass. Make that effort no matter how successful, and whether all of this was benefit or punishment, I shall consider us even and abandon this silly little grudge against you for my having been beholden to the gods once more.

[Whether it worked or not, all Ardyn wanted to know was that one god, somewhere, would actually keep their word to him.]

If it fails, then that will simply be my problem as it ever has. Whether monster or mortal, all I desire above all else right now is to not be made to forget.

[story_teller]

I suppose you and I have that in common. I would rather not forget.

[It's spoken quietly, like a prayer rather than a statement or anything else.]

Should the best come to pass, I will do what I can. Whatever might come of that...I hope for the best.

Perhaps hope is a foolish thing. But I've found that many of you are fond of it. And rather good at weaponizing it.

[scourgingstars]

I've lost the capacity for hope a long time ago. But...well, I can't say I mind considering the slim chance things might improve. That's close enough to it for me.

[story_teller]

If it's the closest that we can get, I will...do my best with what time we still have.

Regardless of what Stori might think, I believe you deserve a better fate than the one you've had.

[scourgingstars]

Hm. I think I've run into the sort of fate I've earned, or done enough to earn it retroactively. But either way such things scarcely matter now, don't they?

[story_teller]

Haven't we all. And yet for better or worse, it seems we've all been allowed a second chance at things.