descent

[cancrymods]

growing heavy for the vintage

Like flakes of snow, the days spent in the Sloth Layer slowly but surely begin piling up. Life here is quiet and easy, even with the anxiety that comes with needing to move onto the next layer. But as the days drag out, so do the mysteries at play here – with the gradual uncovering of the odd doppelgangers and the seeming lack of any way to proceed to the next layer, it leaves the Executors at a loss for what to do. Until one day, everything changes. It comes entirely without warning – the ground lurches under everyone's feet in a sickeningly familiar way as a brief but violent earthquake rattles through the town. Then all of you feel it; a snapping sensation deep from the very foundations of Purgatory followed by the most cataclysmic impact any of you have experienced in your lives – or unlives. Snow explodes up from the ground, houses creak and lurch and the whole layer seems as though it might shatter apart under your feet. It seems like it's going to last forever. Then, finally, it stops. The silence that follows is even more pronounced in comparison to the hell-rattling noise from before, but as some semblance of calm starts to return, you realize several things. First is how eerily quiet the town is. Surely after all that, you'd hear a Specter or two... but there's nothing. Secondly – a splash of something wet strikes your cheek. Then again. Until it becomes clear that the weather has taken a sudden drastic turn and in place of the gentle snowfall from before, the heavens have opened with a torrential rainfall. Why? Possibly because of the steadily growing heat you suddenly feel burning up through the foundation of the layer and radiating out through the town. Will you investigate?

Comments

[phantasmagorial]

[ Rei completely freezes. ]

... what?

[ She thought that knowing this man was and wasn't the Chiron she knew would have given her some leg up on expecting what to hear from him but that seems to have completely silenced her.

Though only for a moment. ]

W... we can't just– we can't just give up. Not after coming this far and– and without us, everyone will still be trapped here. We don't have any choice but fixing things.

[schardynfreude]

Trapped.

[He spreads his arms.]

Trapped, she says. As though we haven't the entirety of Purgatory at our fingertips. As though we can't reshape this to our will if we only but try. We have always had a choice. You gave us a choice so long ago, when we hardly knew what we were even agreeing to. There are those who have made their choice to stay where they are at rather than continue on.

[He scoffs, shaking his head.]

We have a choice now. Do not presume otherwise.

[discutio]

[Phoenix opened his mouth as if to object-]

...




[and then closed it.]

[twibeast]

[ ……uh oh. He noticed that. ]

…Phoenix…?

[discutio]

Yes, Achilles?

[twibeast]

You… [ goddess what does he even say ] You’re not actually…

You’re not… actually considering it, are you?

[discutio]

[Was he considering it? No, of course not.]

[Because in Phoenix's mind, the decision was already made.]

[In another life he'd chosen the good of the world over who he should have stood beside against all odds and any enemy. That person, those memories that felt so distant now...he had failed. Failed to consider other options, failed to protect the one who mattered far more than his own life, failed to do anything but let him die. That world had persisted, and at what cost? Was it even a world worth saving without that person in it?]

I think Veil--Arianna, rather--has the right idea. Making any decision right here and now would only lead to disaster. All of us need rest.

[He couldn't let himself fail again. Couldn't go back on his word a second time, in a second life. If that meant letting the world burn to ashes around them...]

[...honestly, it was becoming harder to care.]

[twibeast]

…You’ve seen what happens to the people who overstay here. It’s not as simple as just staying as long as we want.

[schardynfreude]

No. You're quite right. Not so simple. But surely there's a solution that isn't merely fixing the blasted Cogs and letting it all happen, all over again, until the next time they break.

[twibeast]

I…

[ Had never even considered any other solutions as a possibility. He’d always been focused on the end goal, his entire viewpoint influenced by a lifetime as an immortal from a dead world of other immortals who longed and longed for a nothingness they envied, the same immortals he narrowly escaped being murdered by as a child in the name of “mercy”. His people - his older siblings - were all husks of their former selves, some driven mad, some intent on sleeping forever or becoming still as stone to escape the agony. Even without remembering the exact details, that had always been the reasoning behind why he felt no qualms about the plan as it had always existed. Why he failed to understand the authorities or even Mona in a meeting oh so long ago now. Eternal existence was a curse to the Astral Beasts, and if specters would turn into revenants with the cogs stuck then they had to restore things to the way they were.

But now… well things are a bit different now for Achilles the Executor aren’t they? There are wounds from Orthrus the Beast’s memories that still sting, some of which physically exist on his person now as a constant reminder that he was never as free as he thought. That he would never have a happy ending. And maybe now, finally, after all this time he might be able to understand that viewpoint from before. The viewpoint of so many other authorities who had unhappy lives, finally found something meaningful, and then held onto it fiercely with all their might in spite of “natural order.”

One of his hands subconsciously goes to his throat, fingertips brushing the scar tissue straight across. Orthrus the Beast had been hunted and killed by a vindictive sister who only saw him as property, had been robbed of a happy ending with his two partners, had failed to protect the found family that always accepted him and the child that gave him purpose again after losing the former, had run from a promise he couldn’t keep…

But maybe Achilles the Executor didn’t have to— ]

Do… you really think there could be…? And that we won’t have to then… move on?

[ Maybe he could have that happy ending with his partners and found family this time…? ]

[phantasmagorial]

[ Rei's head whips around like she's just been slapped and accordingly, the expression she's wearing is wounded. ]

What are you talking about...?! You've seen what happens to the people who are stuck here for long enough! We just fought one of them!

[ She's looking between all of them now, Ardyn to Phoenix to Achilles and all the others with an increasingly panicked look. ]

And– and what about the people who do want to move on? Who need to be able to move on and put things behind them so they can start again – what will they do if we don't fix things? If we just force them to stay here without any hope?

[daughterofthemark]

[Rei seems like she might need a hug, so Veil-Arianna-whoever-she-is-now gives her a Surprise Hug.]

[schardynfreude]

Why do you want to be rid of us so badly? Wouldn't it be nice to spend more time with us, your friends?

Especially seeing as you can't move on and put things behind you.

Consider! Consider if we all put our powers together, with our little Birdie, and reshape the very essence of Purgatory! Be rid of these floundering Cogs that chew up a soul and spits it out with none to remember. We can make something new, something that lets us stay if we so wish without devolving into mindlessness, and move onward if we so wish, including you and your double! Is that not better?

What is it that you are so afraid of?

[mementomoritz]

Is this a "we" choice? I think technically being the layer authority means it's just you choosing, the rest of us can't open the way down.

[Medic being Medic, this is spoken in a tone completely lacking in any sort of accusation or concern. She's legitimately just interested in being accurate, here.]

[schardynfreude]

And I would prefer that we come to some agreeable conclusion before hastily going on down. We've injured. And--ah, is this all of us that's left, even? Surely not.

...Suppose I ought to figure out how to make an easier path here, in that case. [y'know instead of a fuckin DROP]

[daughterofthemark]

...perhaps we might take a moment to settle ourselves before making any major decisions?

[She hesitated before saying that.]

[crypddyd]

[There's a groan from the ground as Lion stirs, Medic's attention getting him back to his feet]

Decide what you wish. I will continue down. On my own, if I must.

[mementomoritz]

[Cheerfully:] If you try to wander off by yourself before you're fully healed, I will physically tackle you!

[Granted, given the size difference, that might be less because she thinks she can stop him and more so that she can hold onto him and continue to apply healing power.]

[That said, given the usual rate of her abilities, he shouldn't have too much of a wait.]

[schardynfreude]

Mm, quite right. And I doubt any of us would simply stand aside and watch you go.

[says the man who just KICKED LION OVER THE SIDE AND SAID TOODLES]

Most of us wouldn't, at any rate.

[ourtomorrow]

[ Monarch has been stunned throughout most of this, cursing his weakness and his inability to do much for anyone. Chiron-san was alive.....Lion-san nearly wasn't.....and the dragon....And then.....

.....Ardyn......

Who.....

No. This is wrong. This is wrong. This isn't Chiron-san - does that mean - the person Chiron-san had been, before he lost his memories....? But what's the most wrong of all is....

His knees are trembling, but he walks to Lion-san's side. They haven't spoken much, haven't mixed well, when they did. But... ]

I'm going down, too.

[schardynfreude]

[Ardyn's attention becomes fixed on Monarch. The boy is like one he got along so well with but is not (but is, but is not)--]

Not right away, I hope. Gods only know what more fighting awaits us down there without a proper rest, without healing.

[emberserker]

So this is what you've been building up to all this time, is it? Ever since you started becoming "Ardyn." Because you don't just want to not go through the Cogs yourself. Tell me, do you even want us to fix them?

[schardynfreude]

No. I don't. I want us to do better. I want us to make something better of this wretched place.

[emberserker]

And what, languish here forever? Just because you want to give up and rest and embrace whatever it is you are now doesn't mean everybody else does. Was it not you who took umbrage with my assuming we all wanted to fight, that we were meant for something more than sitting and waiting? Why are you assuming now that everyone wants the opposite?

[schardynfreude]

Was it not you who thought it was fate and the will of the gods that we're here, that we were put here specifically to fix the afterlife? I have not been interested in being the puppet of any kings or gods in a very long time.

What do you want, Wolfsbane? Do you think accomplishing this is your ultimate goal? That you were not allowed to win in your living life, but this, oh, this is what you were always meant to do, to finally succeed? Do you think if you shed this life and pass through to whatever is beyond, perhaps then you will succeed? And what if you make the same wretched mistakes, and end up right back here, and go through again, forget, again, in this tiresome cycle?

What if...we could make it better? What if we could make it so if one wanted to pass on, they could, but with memories, feelings, lessons learned intact?