cancry | Luxuria Intro Log

PROCEEDING...
With the real super power of teamwork, the Executors have successfully managed to make their way through the Gula Underside and defeat the previous Authority there. With Gerda now freed from her past regrets and given the power of an Executor, Gula and its inhabitants seem to be in safe hands... for now at least. More interesting – or concerning, perhaps – is the tentative ally you've gained in the form of Birdie, the mysterious girl who attacked some of your number in the Superbia Underside. While she seemed to be nothing but an enemy back then, a surprising connection has been formed with who you now understand to be the Authority of Purgatory itself. While she doesn't necessarily believe the Executors will be able to repair Purgatory, she is at least willing to admit that she shares their goals of wanting to see Purgatory restored... either to its former state, or to something new. But what does that mean for the Executors? And what does that mean for Rei supposedly born from the Authority's discarded heart? There are still many questions the Executors need to answer and as a blast of dry, hot air blows up from the next layer, you can only hope that Luxuria holds the key to at least some of them...
LUXURIA
♪♫ Wet & Dry – Sakuzyo After the humidity and noise of the Gula Underside, passing down to the Lust Layer of Purgatory initially seems like a relief. The air here is dry and sharp and though you hear noise drifting up to meet you and see a whole rainbow of lights clustered together in the dark, it doesn't seem as though it'll be quite as overwhelming as some of the bustling Layers you've had the pleasure of exploring before. But as you set foot down into Luxuria and feel the heat of the ground under your feet, you begin to wonder if you might just have hopped out of the frying pan and into the fire...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, actually--surprising as it might be, I feel as though I should be able to manage this.

Good. [A little more distantly:] Good.

...Have you remembered anything more, by chance?

Not just yet, no.

...Why, have you?

Mm. I should...thank you, I suppose. You softened the blow this time by telling me about Somnus--about my brother's role in what happened to me. You were right.

...I would have liked to have been wrong about that.

[He put his other hand on Chiron's arm as well--not quite openly a hug right out in public, but the added touch was an attempt to be comforting.]

Are you going to be alright?

...Perhaps. I think I need this--a distraction. This place. I still have many unanswered questions, but...

[He trails off for a time. Recounting the events.]

I at least know I did not kill my beloved.

...

['Yikes' didn't quite cover it.]

Perhaps I could trouble you to accompany me for a time? It will be easier than learning my way around on my own.

[He gives a distant but assenting sound. Like he's already distracted, but not from this.

Abruptly, with a hand over Phoenix's:] In your memories, you must know of the Crystal, must know something of the power it contains. Magic and light and the will of the gods.

Ah...not very much, but I do believe I can recall something to that effect. Why do you ask?

I had hoped... [He stops, frowns, shakes his head and starts again.] Aera was the Oracle and so would wait on the word of the gods to let us know--and they were to choose a king, through the Crystal. [you understand ffxv as well as i do it's all fuckity convoluted] I had been out in the country, going from town to town to heal those that I could, while avoiding the guards that Somnus sent after me. Until I was informed that a decision had been reached, and I was to come to take the throne.

There are those who supported me, but I had no desire for it. But who was I to defy the will of the gods? [ardyn laughing alone with salad] But it was all a lie, a trap set by Somnus. He said that he was chosen, that I was a monster ill-suited to the task of leading a nation. There was a fight, and in it, Aera...

[He dare not recount it in words, at the moment.]

The stain inside me, that I had been healing, kept me from death no matter how many blows I suffered. I climbed the stairs. I begged for an explanation, for any answer. I reached for the Crystal.

It summarily rejected me.

...

[That pieced together a few things for him. The connection between the Chiron he knew and the one in his memories was a little bit clearer now.]

You are not some terrible person, Chiron. I doubt you ever truly were.

Everyone has a breaking point. That is not some unforgivable sin, to reach one's own.

A breaking point, [he says with a scoffing laugh. Is that what we want to call it?] It would be forgivable if my breaking point involved saying something snappy and staying in my room drinking naught but wine in a stupor. Not... [with a little flighty wave of his hand] Whatever atrocities I apparently did.

'Understandable', then, if not forgivable. The exact line drawn is beside the point I wish to make.

I had that damned Crystal strung up in chains not unlike myself above the precious throne of the doomed country that once hailed me a savior.

[There is a moment where it's almost like he can feel it, the influence of ▮▮▮▮▮ lapping at the edges. Are the two of them so different? Where is the line that delineates Chiron from the version of him that would murder so thoughtlessly?]

And yet...I do not know how I got there. I had little interest, if any, in causing so many problems after that miserable little rat of a man rescued me from my confines.

...Chiron.

[Phoenix moved to step in front of him, gently raising both hands to his face.]

I wish I had more answers than I do...that there were anything more I could do to aid with your uncertainty. But I don't know anything else, and remember very little.

...I can only say that if I have been mad enough to stay with you for this long, I doubt you could chase me off if you tried. Whatever may happen and whatever may be left to discover, I will not allow you to do so alone.

[Phoenix may not be able to see the sequence of confused emotions play out across Chiron's face, but hands along his face will let him feel some of the shifts.

He leans in, pressing their foreheads together as he lets go of a deep sigh.]

I do not understand you. The poor choices that you've made. But I am...grateful that you're so stubborn and foolish.

I don't much understand it, either. But it is my choice all the same, and I intend to stand by it.

If it all goes terribly wrong, you'll only have yourself to blame. [Well, that's said with a brighter tone than such a thing would normally necessitate. But it's punctuated with a kiss, so!]

I will endeavor not to regret it.

[oh hey, kissing. kissing is nice. let's do more of that.]

[Kissing is good and distracting.]

Mm, perhaps sometime later we should check out some of the rides. There's a ferris wheel, in fact. It's quite tall and seems to take a while to go around...

Don't you think the view from on high would be a bit lost on me?

I'm not thinking about the view, Phoenix.

You're terrible.

You of all people should know this already!

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