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

OH DEAR :D

[scourgingstars]

My, that certainly did happen.

[ardyn, can you like. not?]

What an incomprehensible course of action. Almost insulting, I must confess.

[warpstriking]

[It's Ardyn we're talking about. If anything, he would be concerned if he wasn't being some level of spiteful bastard.]

Of course it would be to you!

[Never mind that he would have wished for his friend to have saved himself, but... he knew Ignis would never do it. Always taking the blame for his screw ups ever since childhood, never once complaining about it but always nagging him to do better. He was this close to striking at the man, but stayed his hand as everything else began to register. "Ardyn Lucis Caelum"? He'd heard that name before, but something about it didn't match up to the history lessons he'd pretended not to be paying attention to.]

...Anything resembling loyalty is foreign to you, isn't it. [That wasn't a question.]

[scourgingstars]

Obviously.

[And that was likely the most honest answer he'd ever given Noctis--or perhaps, anyone at all.]

It's long since been a concept I've accepted as nothing but a charming little myth.

I'm somehow sorry and not sorry at all. (Episode Ignis Alternate Ending spoilers)

[warpstriking]

[Really, he should get a cake to commemorate such an auspicious occasion. The day Ardyn actually was honest with anyone. It's a miracle that should be celebrated with a cake made of shit and dog piss thrown right into his face. Except that takes far too long to conjure up, and is far too disgusting on top of it.]

You're wrong about that.

[Just because it isn't something he doesn't acknowledge, or experienced... It doesn't make it any less real.]

If it was, Ignis would have followed you.

[And he doesn't even want to think on where that could lead..]

[scourgingstars]

I was quite surprised that he didn't, truthfully. It seemed the obvious choice in that situation.

[not everyone is fundamentally incapable of friendship, ardyn]

[warpstriking]

What's so obvious about leaving a brother behind?

[Oh, Astrals, if only he knew... But with what he could pick up between bloodlust and the rest, it... wasn't a picture he wanted to see in it's entirety.]

But I guess, if you can't even trust your Shield...

[Oh look, he did pay attention.]

[scourgingstars]

...I strongly advise you shut your mouth about him before I make you regret ever learning to speak.

[warpstriking]

Which one? [Because he was referring to Ignis with the first, so the next logical choice would be the Blademaster. But his ability to give a damn was lost about two months ago.]

[scourgingstars]

The last thing I want to hear about is that cowardly little shade haunting the Tempering Grounds. And I might also offer you the advice that I know more than you think about leaving one's brother behind, as well.

You hardly know as much as you think, impudent child.

[warpstriking]

[He could make a comment about how Gladio fought said shade and won, or that he could really care less about it in the slightest other than how his own Shield seemed the more confident for it. But something keeps him from doing so. Namely, the fact that aside from how the history he knew, and the one Ardyn just inferred in his memories just didn't match up.]

You're sure in a giving mood.

[...Is that a bit of trepidation behind the thinly veiled anger and snark? The world may never know.]

[scourgingstars]

Oh, I just think it cruel not to offer the full context of the matter. Heavens know the average history class must tell a hilariously inaccurate rendition of things.

[warpstriking]

And you'd know all about that... How none of it matches up.

[For once, the sass he usually hid behind doesn't even disguise the bitter hatred. He should have known when Luna tried to read to him from the Cosmogony that something didn't make sense. Though there was something far more horrifying bugging him.]

They say the founder of my line was 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum', but that's not true, is it?

[Again, not a question - or something he ever thought he would connect the pieces of far too late. After all, Ardyn was such an uncommon name... He could kick himself right about now.]

[scourgingstars]

Well...on the strictest of technicalities, that is somewhat fact. The founder of Insomnia and of the Lucian line of kings did indeed call himself 'Ardyn Lucis Caelum'. And he did in fact look and act exactly like a healer of that age.

...But that's the funny thing, is it not? Twin brothers are so easy to mistake for one another. Why, they could even take one another's place and no one would be the wiser.

[warpstriking]

[Well, if Ardyn was aiming for a look of abject horror, then he certainly got his wish.]

...That's- [Look, he could fill that with a lot of adjectives, but the only one that even seems remotely fitting is:] That's fucked up.

[And Ardyn expects him to believe that?]

[scourgingstars]

That is an ineloquent manner of phrasing it, but certainly not inaccurate.

I was, by a negligible difference, the elder of a pair of twins. 'Ardyn and Izunia Lucis Caelum'.

[warpstriking]

[Ardyn. You've been following them for who knows how long, and you're expecting him to be eloquent. You're funny.]

So that's why...

[He grits his teeth, averting his gaze. He gets it, now - and it only makes him appreciate his friends more.]

[scourgingstars]

That is the 'why' of a great many things, yes.