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]

...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?

[schardynfreude]

I don't know. Perhaps put nothing in its place. [He shrugs.] Something else entirely? I admit I remain unclear as to the purpose of Purgatory. 'Work through your sins' seems so broad and...well, what is the point if you're to be reincarnated anyway? If you don't remember your self previously, then what does it matter?

And what of the gods and afterlives any of us thought we believed in? Is it all invalidated? Is this death, truly, or something between? What if what is dead may never truly die?

[bruh we're just eating some carnival food why you gotta do this]

[emberserker]

I haven't got any answer for that. If my gods were real, I don't owe a thing to them anyway. All they did was make an ungrateful wretch their saviour and have her take everything I deserved for herself.

[Wolfsbane stews in this and takes an angry bite out of her turkey.]

[schardynfreude]

...My gods are real. Demonstrably real. But this isn't the Beyond that I know of. Unless it's some pocket dimension, hrm...

[He polishes off his corndoggy abomination.]

What if you didn't actually deserve it?

[emberserker]

Excuse me? I --

[But something makes her stop. Thinking of the meeting, or maybe something else.]

I always thought destiny was something one was born for. If you weren't born under the right star for what you wanted, you shouldn't try. I put everything I was into becoming a mage good enough that my family would acknowledge that I was the kind of talent they hadn't seen in centuries. And then it turned out I wasn't. It was all some sick show of pity.

[schardynfreude]

Destiny is...a fickle and complicated thing. [More complicated than he had ever thought, apparently. The thought makes something in him flicker with a bright and terrible fire, but from a distance, removed from the heat of it.] And one is not always destined for good if they are destined at all.

Did you ever want to be or do anything else? When you were younger. Or were you convinced of this false destiny right from the start.

[emberserker]

...I don't know. I do doubt it. Especially with how dedicated I was to this. I don't know why it matters so much to me, if only because nobody will let me forget we're all dead.