When the night is come [Open]

[founderinglight]

Who: Izunia and you! And possibly also Ardyn aor Verity, depending on prompt.
When: Late July, various.
Where: See prompts!
What: Catchall, featuring tattoos, escape artist cats, and uh. Everything else.
Warnings: This Post Contains Airlocked, so standard murdergame warnings apply.

Lounge (outside greenhouse and hottub), any afternoon from 7/20-8/8 featuring burninglight

[A miracle is taking place behind the set-up paper screens that have suddenly appeared in the glass-walled lounge.

That miracle is "the Lucis Caelum twins, largely getting along."

There's also a tattoo gun involved.

Anyone who peeks around the screens Izunia set up for privacy at some point will find the younger twin stretched out on a tattoo chair, while Ardyn works on his arms or back. There's a light grey outline of the parts of the tattoo that haven't yet been finished - a greatsword that might look familiar down the left arm, a weird mechanical looking sword on the right, and six loops of chain hung between them, the lowest reaching almost all the way down Izunia's back to the waist. A handful of weapons hang in the loops, and there's a few notable gaps... Discounting the gaps of the broken links, there's precisely a hundred and fifteen links in all.

While Ardyn works, Izunia seems, mostly, to zone out, either with music playing for the both of them or something on a tablet in front of him, headphones in. For a guy getting stabbed repeatedly, he largely seems pretty relaxed, fiddling with his set of floating crystals idly.

Occasionally, however, one might happen by and hear the twins bickering, as they do...]

Rise, anywhere

[What's this?

Well, long-term residents of the Station will probably recognize the giant, fluffy silver tabby who butts against their ankles. Verity's on the prowl, looking for attention and/or snacks.

But... Where's Izunia? He doesn't normally let her out like this...

And that's assuming that she hasn't just suddenly appeared in your room. You closed that door for sure, right?]

July 30th, late evening, closed to Junpei

[Investigation episodes are always rough. And Ardyn did warn him that this one, in particular, had the black blood that comes with the Scourge.

Izunia's prepared for that.

He's not prepared to see Junpei, apparently dead, lying in a pool of it, and in the safety of his room, he very nearly throws the tablet across the room.

Actually, he does throw it - just into the Armiger in a moment of not completely losing his head, rather than letting it impact anything.

Time to hyperventilate.]

Anything else

[Nap grandpa is somewhat more absent for the next two weeks than usual, even given that he's spending half or more his afternoons spread out getting inked. If you're in his most prominent haunts, however - Fight Club, the kitchen on the doubles floor of the Rise, or the observation deck at dawn or dusk (especially dawn, lately, oddly enough for a Lucis Caelum) - he's hard to miss.

Also, if you're one of the handful of people he keeps a special eye out for - chiefly Prompto, Maddie, and Elize - you might find him turning up at your door after a tattooing session with a hot meal or two.]

Comments

[founderinglight]

...I don't let myself think about what could have been different often.

But if you hadn't been berserk at that time, I... Everything would have been different. I wouldn't have let anything hurt you.

[ Please believe me. I never wanted to hurt you.]

[burninglight]

...yeah. Probably would've been different.

[He didn't seem like he wanted to think about it either, but at least there was that acknowledgement.]

[founderinglight]

...Even when you're right here, I miss you.

[Because the unconditional bond they once had is forever out of reach. Because there will be no more staying up too late together working on a project, no more falling asleep leaning on each other on the couch. They can't even talk about those times, because Ardyn doesn't remember, and they can't make new memories to write them over, because they've hurt each other too much.]

But if you have every right to never forgive me, then I have every right to have not healed from that, Ardyn. I can't just... Turn off the pain of losing my twin brother. I have to work around it, and sometimes watching you with them is just kicking the crutch out from under me.

[burninglight]

I never said you should. I just...don't know what to do. I barely know how to talk to you or even if I want to some days. I'm trying to let you in on what's happened since Insomnia, and this is the only way I can do that rather than try to speak of it and fall apart into screaming insanity in the process.

[founderinglight]

I know. And because it's important to you, I'm trying, even when it hurts.

But it isn't as though I know all of what happened before that last day in Insomnia, either. That... I'll still accept you, no matter what. It's truly unconditional.

...I suppose that's why it hurts so much, sometimes, that you don't feel the same.

[burninglight]

It's not easy to look at two thousand years of holding a grudge and brush it all aside as 'oh, it was merely a misunderstanding'. Regardless of how wrong I was in believing your motives were what I assumed, I'm not ready to just forgive all that came of it.

...I can't give you anything unconditional. All I can offer right now is the fact that I'm trying just as much myself.

[founderinglight]

I don't expect you to. Not realistically, not when I think with my head. My heart is stubborn and won't get the idea so easily.

[Also that unconditional love is quite literally one of his coping mechanisms. But don't call him out on that.]

I think - I think that if we're going to move forward at all, we can't deal only with the past. Otherwise we'll be playing catch up forever.

[burninglight]

That's rather what I'm attempting to drive at here. I want you to recognize who I am now and understand why I exist as this person, not see me as who I can't remember or what I turned into.

...If I weren't making some attempt to see you as something other than I remember, I wouldn't even be here.

[founderinglight]

I know you are. But...

...To my way of thinking, it's still the past. The present is the person in front of me, not how he got there. The Ardyn you can't remember is never going to disappear for me, Ardyn Tenmyouji - not when there is still so much of him in you, not when those memories were a touchstone for me for so very long. But I'm trying, in my own way, to see who the person in front of me is. And that takes being in the present, with you, not in the past you can't stand to talk about - recent or ancient.

[burninglight]

You're probably right about that. But I...was it so terrible to try and outline the process, comparatively short as it was?

[founderinglight]

Of course not. And I dearly appreciate that you did trust me enough that you consider my promise of secrecy to be worth something.

[To anyone else it would be such a little step, but Izunia sees and recognizes that for Ardyn, it's a large one.]

So, we're... We're getting somewhere, wherever we're going.

[burninglight]

...better than nothing at all, right?

[founderinglight]

Every little bit forward.

[A smile, but then a sign and a deep breath.]

Aside from my neck... If I'm breathing hard without cause, that's usually evidence that something is wrong. I'm usually aware enough to try to take deep breaths to mitigate it, even if I can't stop the panic.

[burninglight]

...mm. Alright.

I don't really...know what any warning signs for mine look like.

[founderinglight]

From what I've seen, you tend to get very spacey - unfocused eyes and going very still.

[burninglight]

Sounds...about right, yeah.

[founderinglight]

[Izunia smiles faintly.]

If nothing else, I've gotten pretty good at picking up on body language.