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phantasmalrift2019-01-03 06:58 pm
phantasmods) wrote in phantasmalrift2019-01-03 06:58 pm
Entry tags:
IC INTRO - JAN 2019
Sometime after the group all heads back down the mountain, comes another mass text from home base -
Hey guys? We started getting some weird readings overnight... It might be good if you started heading back this way? We're not sure what the Fissure is doing right now. (,,꒪꒫꒪,,)
So back you had better come! Along with that new friend of yours, who surely won't raise questions...
With the time issue being what it is, it's over the course of a day or two that people actually get back to the Station. Thus, there is no single feast set up like usual; instead, there are lots of hot drinks and various pots of soup made up throughout the two days that people trickle back to base. It's warm and filling, can't ask for much more.
The Station you return to hasn't changed that much from the one you left, though all your left behind pets are very glad to see you. It's now January and frost is on the ground, though not snow, at least for now. There is an air of emptiness around the Station that the first group of arrivals - the few of you who remain - will likely find familiar, though the murder sign has been updated while you were away as usual.
The androids, for their part, are very glad to see everyone (or at least, most everyone) returned safe and sound. (Though certain injured parties are destined for the medbay and Strange's fussing before they even get a chance to settle on rooms of their own.) In particular, Muon - now in a bright yellow vest instead of her previous scarf - spends a lot of time hanging out in the glider bay to welcome everyone back, both new faces and old.
TRADING POST - STRANGE - MUON - SIGNAGE CATCHALL - And don't forget to get on the housing post!
Hey guys? We started getting some weird readings overnight... It might be good if you started heading back this way? We're not sure what the Fissure is doing right now. (,,꒪꒫꒪,,)
So back you had better come! Along with that new friend of yours, who surely won't raise questions...
With the time issue being what it is, it's over the course of a day or two that people actually get back to the Station. Thus, there is no single feast set up like usual; instead, there are lots of hot drinks and various pots of soup made up throughout the two days that people trickle back to base. It's warm and filling, can't ask for much more.
The Station you return to hasn't changed that much from the one you left, though all your left behind pets are very glad to see you. It's now January and frost is on the ground, though not snow, at least for now. There is an air of emptiness around the Station that the first group of arrivals - the few of you who remain - will likely find familiar, though the murder sign has been updated while you were away as usual.
The androids, for their part, are very glad to see everyone (or at least, most everyone) returned safe and sound. (Though certain injured parties are destined for the medbay and Strange's fussing before they even get a chance to settle on rooms of their own.) In particular, Muon - now in a bright yellow vest instead of her previous scarf - spends a lot of time hanging out in the glider bay to welcome everyone back, both new faces and old.
TRADING POST - STRANGE - MUON - SIGNAGE CATCHALL - And don't forget to get on the housing post!
He is, arguably, the sanest of the bunch for better or worse.
[As the Milotic approaches, Regis holds out the hand that's not heavily bandaged and tries not to think about how the Pokemon's length and serpentine nature remind him of the various types of snake daemons back on Eos.]
Hopefully, you don't tackle new acquaintances either. Regis Lucis Caelum. Strange just--begrudgingly I may add--released me from medical. I highly doubt they wish to see me back so soon.
no subject
[You spare a fish from getting eaten one time and then it loves you forever???]
That's Ky, I'm Michael. So, how are you related to Noctis? I'm meeting so many distant relatives today, it's very weird.
no subject
You know Noctis?
[Sorry, Ky. Regis doesn't mean to suddenly ignore you, but Michael just brought up the one person he will drop everything to talk about.]
I'm not so distant as the others you may have met today. He's my son.
[Oh, but there is pride in that statement. Pride and unconditional love.]
no subject
[HE...actually doesn't know all that much about Noctis's dad! He was much closer friends with Ignis, really. So this could either be good or, if Noct's childhood was like any of his other friends', absolutely wretched.
He can give the benefit of the doubt.]
Cool. I met him in the last universe that just sort of kidnapped people from all over the place. Well, no, that isn't fair. A specific guy in the universe was doing the kidnapping. It's where I picked up all these guys.
no subject
[Considering the way his tone changes, it's obvious that Regis feels the time allowed was not nearly enough despite his best efforts.]
I will always be indebted to Ignis for filling the gaps my absences left. The task I asked of him was a large one, and yet he still managed to complete it and more.
[Regis falls quiet for a moment then, hand tightening unconsciously on the top of his cane as he finds himself torn between needing to know how his son was doing when Michael last saw him and fear of that very answer considering he knows well the darkness his son's future holds.
In the end, the father in him wins out.]
Kidnapping aside...
[What is with all these people and places just pulling others randomly from their worlds?]
...how was he? Was he well?
no subject
[We've had a lot of conversations with Ignis about his issues.]
He was fine. Ended up back in his universe for a little bit, but we got the local gods of time and space to go fetch him again. From the afterlife or from just before he died, it was a little unclear.
no subject
Well, that is sure a lot to unpack and delivered in such a laid back manner that Regis' finds himself, uncomfortably, reminded of a certain Chancellor. He doesn't realize he's clenching his injured hand around the top of his cane until it decides to remind him, very loudly, and in the form of a spike of pain so strong he almost drops it.
Right, the goal was not to end up back in the medical wing, wasn't it? Best if he focuses on something else then.]
They were together?
[Somehow knowing that makes Regis feel more at ease. If Noctis was going to be kidnapped anywhere, having Ignis with him would make things infinitely better. Together they were practically unstoppable. One of the positives to having brought them together so young even if it, perhaps, was not the kindest thing for Ignis' developing sense of self.]
If he was okay with returning, then I suspect it was after his death. He would not have left his duty undone.
[There's something distant and detached in the way Regis says that. He's never questioned that Noctis would do his duty when the time came, but it's difficult to think about what that duty entails...
...and his own role in it.]
no subject
[Michael arches his eyebrows meaningfully. If he's picked up on how his manner is disturbing Regis, well.]
Yeah, solid chance I'll try to make more connections to your afterlife once I get mine up and running. It seems pretty permeable.
no subject
Well, then...
Regis raises a hand to cover his mouth torn between surprise and joy for the boys who he loved so dearly. His son's relationship with Lunafreya was always a strange one, feelings of love forced to remain in a kind of limbo between romantic and platonic due to distance and time. He's not really all that surprised that Noctis came to love another, especially one who was devoted to him for as long as Ignis was.]
As long as they are happy.
[After all, happiness and a chance at a normal life was all he ever wanted for Noctis.
Regis can't help but give Michael a closer look, though, when he starts talking about the afterlife in such a familiar way.]
You're not human, are you?
no subject
Oh, no. I'm a demon. Not one of those malarial things you get in Eos, our kind are eternal beings that work in the human afterlife.
no subject
And it sounds as if you are quite unhappy with how that afterlife is run.
[Maybe he shouldn't take Michael so easily at his word, but if he earned both Noctis and Ignis' trust--the latter's harder to gain than the former's for a great many reasons--then Regis can't help but give him a little trust of his own.
Not as much as he would have given before the Fall, but it's still something.]
no subject
[He's not sure how much to get into it for someone who doesn't already have the cultural concept of a Hell full of demons.
...well, someone who he actually cares if they think he's a horrible torture monster.]
no subject
I wish that answer was a surprise. Yet, how can anything created for humans by an entity that doesn't know what it is like to be a human ever truly be human-friendly? Many beings that call themselves divine view humans as simple tools to be used and discarded once their usefulness is at an end. For all our flaws, we are much more than that.
[As he speaks, Regis slowly makes his way to the table, his knee paining enough from standing so long that he knows he needs to sit before he is forced to in a very undignified manner.]
May I?
no subject
[Easier for him to say than a human, maybe. But they're all in some other dimension now, so it doesn't matter anyway. Michael waves a hand at the nearest unoccupied seat, which has the additional effect of getting his Pokemon to back off a tad.]
Sure. I mean, the half of the afterlife I'm from was never meant to be good for humans. I almost get that better - it's not a good thing, but at least no one there's acting like it is. People on the other side, they're real high-and-mighty about not lifting a finger for any mortals.
no subject
Oh, I'm certain if you ask most people in Eos, they would profess their undying adoration for at least one of the Six. You just so happen to be running into those who have had reason to reexamine their beliefs.
[Even now there is part of Regis that doesn't want to doubt what he was taught his whole life about Bahamut and the prophecy--what was taught over years untold to the whole line--but then all he has to think of is the fate awaiting Noctis and...
Yeah.]
If you are from the side of the afterlife that is not suppose to be kind to humans, why is it you are so interested in making a better place for them? Is it something to do with the hypocrisy of the other side or did something happen to adjust your views?
no subject
If they've never actually met them, then their opinions don't count. Just means the gods have good PR.
[He folds his arms, tilting back in his chair a little.]
I made friends with some humans I was torturing. Supposed to be torturing - I was trying out this whole new thing, didn't really work. Anyway. One of them was a professor of ethics and moral philosophy when he was alive, so we all ended up taking classes from him a few times a week. Then I tried to smuggle them out of the torture zone, kinda didn't work the way I wanted, and things just kept escalating from there. [.....] Things usually keep escalating, for us...
no subject
Regis takes several moments to think over the explanation before asking a question that is probably not the one Michael's expecting.]
Were your friends safe the last time you saw them?
[Trust him. He knows a thing or two about situations starting to escalate and never stopping.]
no subject
[He grins in a way that sort of threatens mayhem.]
I left them in the universe I met Ignis and Noct in. It's safe now - we've got enough powerful friends there to drive off some demons, if they could even manage to find it.
no subject
I'm glad to hear it. Strong allies make it much easier to do research and put plans into action.