Luxuria Intro Log

[cancrymods]

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...

Comments

[emberserker]

Does it matter whether it was one or the other? If it comes to the same thing in the end, I don't know.

[schardynfreude]

Don't you want an answer to your mystery, even if the details don't change what happened?

[emberserker]

...Perhaps. It might well come to the same thing, as far as I know.

[schardynfreude]

But at least you would know. Isn't that better? Would that not give you some small sliver of contentment, closure even?

[emberserker]

...If the answers are there. And if they aren't, I'll tear at whatever's hiding them until they come out.

Don't tell the others about this. Sword alone crows enough as it is about me.

[schardynfreude]

My dear Wolfsbane, I'm hardly going to throw stones at someone who thinks something beyond their ken may have influenced them toward a darker side. And the thoughts and worries in your heart are not for me to share with others.

While I will certainly not shy away from pointing out when I think you're in the wrong [as he has obviously done before], I also think Sword can eat crow.

[emberserker]

...Very well. You have my thanks, in that case. Whatever happened, something will bring it out.

[schardynfreude]

And when it does, we will be here for you for whatever the fallout.

I don't imagine anyone would call you a coward if you truly didn't want to know. [Sword.....aside and all that.] Rarely do our memories seem to be of anything joyful.

[emberserker]

It isn't as if I don't want the answer. The only issue is that I don't know what it'll say. Or what I am now.

[schardynfreude]

Phoenix tends to insist that the people that we were and the people that we are now are not the same. That for whatever we remember, we don't have to tread the same paths as we did before.

I am...still unconvinced of his argument, but he is persistent in believing it.

[emberserker]

Loath as I am to admit, he might have a point. If only because our path is the same either way: fix Purgatory, go through to the end, our reward is oblivion. Esme was a snake who deserved what she got, of course, but it's something I'd rather not dwell on.

[schardynfreude]

Oblivion. [Something about the word is...troubling? Is that what that feeling is? It catches his ear and causes a frown.] It's an end to a version of ourselves, but in theory being reborn something new, it's still us in some way. Perhaps we'll look the same.

Though if we remember nothing, is that truly different from oblivion, I wonder...

[emberserker]

You've thought on it yourself, then. Well, there's no reason why you wouldn't. You aren't afraid?

[schardynfreude]

Of the end? [There's a twist to his lips that could only generously be called a smile.] Oh no, not anymore. I'd welcome it, really. I've been...

['Alive' doesn't seem the right word, even without these dead-based extenuating circumstances.]

Cognizant for far too long, I think. The distinction between simply ceasing to exist and not remembering if one existed before...that's the part that I wonder about. If there's a difference, if it matters.

[emberserker]

What? You're sick of it enough that you want a new life?

[schardynfreude]

I'm suggesting that perhaps I don't. That a true oblivion might be a blessing after all.

[But does that change the mission at all? Hm...]

...If you could change Purgatory. If you had the power to rearrange it, alter it to your will, what would you do?

[emberserker]

If I could? I...

[She pauses and looks down at herself, confused.]

I should have more of an answer to that. If becoming the Princeps Mage was so important, it should be easy. [Which only lends credence to the theory that something messed with her head, but let's move on, shall we!] Well. These lower layers that convince you you want more of everything until they send you into a frenzy, that's got to go. One can't very well work through one's sins with that nonsense about. Clean up the Revenants, too, of course.

[schardynfreude]

Would you keep the base concept? Themed layers to work through sins, rather than embrace them; reach an endgoal, go out the other side into whatever waits beyond?

[emberserker]

I suppose it would depend on how that changed things. It certainly can't stay like this, with everybody stagnating so long they turn into Revenants because they can't bear it. That's hardly a proper afterlife at all, much less a temporary one.

[schardynfreude]

I was under the impression that it had only gotten so bad because the Cogs are stuck. There's no point in forward momentum if there's...well. No way forward. So in theory, I suppose fixing that problem might smooth everything out.

[emberserker]

We'll have to see, won't we. Or somebody will, after we're gone.

Why this train of thought, though? About being in charge of Purgatory. Do you suppose that demon girl plans to relinquish the title?

[schardynfreude]

She's not a daemon. [...Different spelling, same pronunciation, alas.] Though I could not tell you what she is.

She and I had an enlightening conversation. I'd prefer to float the idea to everyone, although...there is a theory that if several people share the Authority for Purgatory, together they may be able to change it. She alone cannot.

[emberserker]

Sharing? So doing what was done for Invidia, then?

[schardynfreude]

In a sense. I do want to ask some of our fellows if they are able to truly exert any power and influence with their Authority... Change it from the inside out first, perhaps. But again, perhaps something of a moot point if the Cogs don't turn.

Unless we do away with the Cogs entirely.

[emberserker]

Do away with the system? And put what in its place? Just keep people here?