43rd ♫ | one more time, one hundred more tries

[eudemonics]

THE MEMORY SHARE MEME
(i want every single person here to appreciate how hard it was to find a gif that adequately conveyed the idea of this meme)

HOW IT WORKS:
⍟ Post your character's toplevel with their name, canon and anything you might need to warn for in their memories.
⍟ Post a handful of memories from your character's past -- you can write them up or just links to clips and scenes, DO IT HOWEVER YOU LIKE.
⍟ SURPRISE, EVERYONE CAN SEE EACH OTHER'S MEMORIES so tag around as you like
⍟ GET EMOTIONALLY TERRORIZED FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Not at all, I simply thought the tactless subject should have been pointed out.

[in other words: oh my gods ignis, you can't just ask someone how many times they've died.]

Hmph...'Usurper', I always thought that quite funny. Just between us, I genuinely think the Draconian has no concept of what the word means. I certainly did nothing to deserve such an epithet.

[He'd certainly admit to earning the rest, of course. That one specifically was just a personal insult as far as Ardyn was concerned.]

[...And yes, of course Ardyn was well aware that did not remotely answer the question.]

[unfatalist]

You have a long way to go in your own right, before you have any grounds to lecture me on the subject of tact.

[BUT ANYWAY.]

...Yet you must have loved something, then. You took the Scourge into your own body, and from the looks of things you knew something was wrong, the more its mark on you grew. So why continue? What inspired that devotion to your cause, even in the face of its corrupting influence on you?

casually drops ep ignis spoilers in here too

[scourgingstars]

And I should think you need not ask me a question you know the answer to. After all, you're certainly one to talk about destroying yourself out of a matter of devotion.

[The word came out like the sound of a knife being sharpened, unforgiving steel of a cold smile against the hard stone of an everpresent threat.]

Why, some people are just idiotic enough to set themselves alight solely to keep others warm.

the choicest spoilers

[unfatalist]

Not "others". One other.

[It's a fool's errand, perhaps, to provoke Ardyn like this. But there's a benefit to provocation, as well — because for all that Ardyn might rage, the fury might make him careless, and with it he might let slip —

...What? Some secret? The key to his pathos? The motivation for his insanity, his cruelty, his destruction?

Nosce hostem tuum. It's not such bad advice, when the enemy may well have just such an interest in him in return.]

It was not for the sake of a kingdom that I did what I did. And I don't believe it was for you, either.

[scourgingstars]

Then you'll just have to be wrong, then. [If the provocation had struck a nerve, Ardyn was doing an excellent job of hiding it. He answered carelessly with an unnecessarily wide gesture of both arms, as if to indicate the world at large.]

If you must know, the man who would have been Founder King was never so narrow-minded as to focus on a single person alone. Solheim, Lucis, the entire world--it simply didn't matter. None who believe themselves Chosen could possibly afford to think of anything but the welfare and safety of all those who lived in fear of the dark. What is one life weighed against so many others, for a selfless imbecile such as that?

'A fair price', should be the obvious answer.

[unfatalist]

[So. The same choice set before Noctis, then — and ultimately, the same decision. A Lucian king ordained. One life for the betterment of all.

He can't help but wonder if one of those silent retainers of his had longed to see fate changed, themselves. Perhaps not, to have stood idly by while things transpired as they did.

Still, he wonders.]

And therefore now you think only of yourself and your own goals. Selflessness earned you nothing but scorn and condemnation, so now you follow a course purely selfish in nature.

...And pour out your hatred upon those who are selfless in their turn.

[scourgingstars]

Collateral damage. My interests lie in the destruction of my brother's line and the useless Crystal that caused all of this; if that means the world has to burn in the process, then so be it.

[unfatalist]

...If those were truly your interests, then you would have had your satisfaction long ago.

[He tilts his head slightly to one side, as if sensing something on the wind.]

With thousands of years to plan, and a line over a hundred long? You can take the shape of any person you choose. You can't very well tell me you couldn't have ended the line of Lucian kings long ago. Kill them in their beds, as infants. Render another barren. Let old age claim the rest. You might've snuffed them out at any time, but you didn't.

You even had a half-dozen chances to kill Noct himself, and you didn't. You've not been pursuing their destruction. You've been waiting.

[scourgingstars]

You are quite perceptive, as far as reckless fools go. I said 'destruction' of the line, not a simple ending. I've waited all these long ages to see what kind of King of Light the Draconian saw fit to choose over me, and quite frankly? Not all that impressed.

[Ardyn laughed as though this were nothing more than an ordinary discussion, shaking his head.]

As I said--disappointing. I've my doubts he'll even be able to fulfill the prophecy at all, and that's meant to be a foregone conclusion. Why, all the work's practically done for him already.