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?

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[twibeast]

[ Since the moment Rei spoke up, Achilles had gone quiet almost as if ashamed of himself. But it was difficult to fully shake Chiron’s words, even if they were sounding far too good to be true. He stands there now, between two people at odds that he loves both of dearly, uncertain where to go.

But hearing her now speaking of taking responsibility, of fixing her mistakes, and then hearing Phoenix's words, how he would not turn away from the one he promised to stand beside...

It was hard not to think of Odysseus again. The woman he had loved so dearly, enough for him to finally consider marriage for the first time in 2000 years. Those happy days with her and Orpheus that were ultimately cut so tragically short. She had lost so much and despite knowing it would damn the world, she had done everything she could to keep herself from losing anyone else... except him, a man who had failed her and hurt her by helping to keep a secret that wasn't his to share. And he had run from her - not just because she had hurt him with a cruelty he never knew her capable of when he dared criticize her, but because he couldn't bring himself to stop her.

"Please Orthrus... if I go too far, if I succumb to these dark feelings you have to promise you'll stop me. Even if that means killing me."
"I... I can't do that, my moon. But... I promise you, I won't let such a thing happen in the first place. I said I'd be the sun to always illuminate you, didn't I?"
"...I wish I could believe you. I wish you could understand."

In the end he couldn't keep it - he couldn't save her from herself, and he couldn't be the executioner she wanted him to be. But more than that he couldn't protect the world that had embraced him so thoroughly. Couldn't bring himself to do anything to help it, only sleep and then let his child go on a journey to do what he couldn't.

...But that was then and this is now. And there is a promise he can keep this time, isn't there?

He adores his lovers - loves them as much as he did Odysseus all that time ago (and even still does). He would do practically anything for them. But there was one other person he loved more than anything, just as much as he loved the child that saved him from his fate of cold eternal slumber and taught him to live again. The one who found him when he first awoke in this place and had been just as, if not even more, pivotal in his growth as the person he was now.

After a moment of quiet contemplating he closed the gap between himself, Phoenix and Ardyn. For a split second it seems like he might be about to take both of their free hands, finally take up Ardyn on the one that was offered to him before.

But instead he just puts a hand on Phoenix's shoulder, squeezing gently. Tender. ]

Phoenix.