INTRO LOG - APRIL/MAY 18

[phantasmods]

Eventually, Charm starts herding people towards the parked exploratory drone, a few at a time, mostly people who have finished their noodles or other business. "It's almost nightfall at the Station," he says, "and with this many new arrivals, we're going to have to make multiple trips."

(For those who might ask, he also explains that they've chosen not to stabilize the noodle shop for the time being, as the other androids will almost certainly want to speak to Viella, and have no other way of doing so, due to the fact that they don't dream. Aside from that small region, the Fissure is largely stable.)

It in fact takes four trips total to get everyone to the Station. Those of you who don't fall asleep on the way there - the minute you hit stable reality, the inability to sleep vanishes, and most will be hit with a wave of exhaustion - will find that the Station Annex, a building off to the side of the main station, has been finished, at least outwardly.

By the time the first group arrives, the sun is dipping towards the horizon; by the time the last gets there, it's set, leaving a few pink-tinted clouds in the sky. The drones drop everyone off (and that is everyone, even though of you who have fallen asleep) on the observation deck, where those of you who didn't get your fill of noodles will find several buffet-style tables set up with...

...Pizza? Yeah, pizza, in damn near every variety you can think of, including a few things that only loosely fall under the heading of "pizza." Half a table is full of calzones of various varieties; another significant chunk is things that are just desserts in the general shape of pizza, including a couple of iced cinnamon pastries, a pair of brightly-colored "pizzas" made of canned fruit over cream cheese, and a two-layer cake that's just decorated to look like a pizza, with strawberry jam and round slices of strawberry 'pepperoni' sandwiching yellow icing. Finally, the last third of the third table is just three baskets of breadsticks with varying amounts of cheese and garlic, accompanied by two turrens of dipping sauce (one white, one red) and a tower of little plastic dipping cups.

(Those who opt to head directly to bed will find that the banquet gets packed up and moved back to the kitchens around midnight, though it stays warm under a stasis enchantment for roughly the next day before someone packs the remainder into the fridge.)

In the common room, meanwhile, the usual boxes of clothes and trading post sign are set up. Unclaimed rooms can be claimed by writing your name in on a list set up next to the boxes, on what seems to be a broken music stand with a large ROOMS AVAILABLE sign hanging from it. There is also a rather hastily assembled, hand-poked Braille version of the sheet (with the paper punched through in one or two places).

Those who go looking will find that the androids are somewhat more absent than they usually are after an expedition; save obviously for Charm, and Strange who arrives on the deck as usual not long after, you'll have to go looking. Considering the amount of the station you have available, they could be just about anywhere... But perhaps it'd be worth checking over in that new building...?

[Mod note: Strange is the only NPC with a top-level this round, but others may respond to your top-levels, especially in the Annex areas! Consider it a fun surprise. c:]

Comments

[founderinglight]

...Not gonna forget. Don't worry.

[Pizza into his face hole now.]

[myocordial]

I'm glad to hear it. I'd collect anyway even if you did, but... Surprise attacks aren't really my thing.

[founderinglight]

Don't work well on me anyway. Phasing reflex.

[Uggggggh he supposes he might as well try to wake the rest of the way up for this conversation. Ugh. The things he does for you, Heart.

Where coffee there we go.]

[myocordial]

Ah yes, that annoying little trick.

That's no fun at all.

[founderinglight]

Quite fun when you're doing it.

[Beat. Coffee sip.]

If you have warping from Ardyn, you could probably learn.

[myocordial]

I do, yes.

Hm. [He doesn't sound all that curious.] I do need more practice with all that anyway, so I suppose in that way it's worth learning more about. But avoiding hits isn't my style. If you can't even feel your opponent's strength, then what point is there?

[founderinglight]

...You certainly are something, aren't you.

[He's... sleepily impressed and slightly terrified of how casually that's said.]

[myocordial]

Am I? I just like to fight, that's all. A proper battle gets my blood pumping like nothing else.

[founderinglight]

The touch of a god of war is in my family's blood and there are still few of us who consider the idea with such relish.

[Said while very pointedly staring into his cup of coffee. When he's managed to unleash that mostly-coherent thought out, he tips the mug back and slams about half of it.]

Come to my aid, almighty placebo effect.

[myocordial]

But still some. They must have been very strong, yes? It's a shame they aren't here.

[Because he... he would want to fight them. Like, real bad.]

[founderinglight]

[You know he doesn't even need to say it for Izunia to get the idea?]

You're incorrigible. Sorry, I'm afraid that Ardyn, Noctis, and I are what you get.

[myocordial]

And you've already proven yourself boring to fight. Hm, perhaps less so in a proper one? No... No, I doubt that.

Still, I have Ardyn, of course. Even if his hand-to-hand skills are a little lacking.

[founderinglight]

You haven't seen me fight, you've seen me reflexively dodge a punch.

[Those are not at all the same thing, Heart.]

[myocordial]

Your instincts tell me plenty. As does your personality.

[founderinglight]

You know next to nothing of me beyond my brother's justifiably biased account. If I didn't think I could take the hit, I wouldn't have offered. I just prefer not to.

[myocordial]

Oh, what you could do has little to do with it.

But fine then, if you want a more fair assessment? Tell me this. What do you feel when you fight?

[founderinglight]

...It depends on what I'm fighting for.

[God, this is too complex a question for when he's half-awake, Heart? Give him a minute to slam the rest of his coffee mug, here, and dead-eye one of the particularly unappetizing-looking pizzas while he thinks.

(Mayo and corn? Really?)]

In a friendly spar, I enjoy the challenge. It's... it keeps me awake and real in a way that little else does. It's anchoring and satisfying.

But when it's to protect the ones I love... I'm angry. How dare anything try to harm my family, my people. Nothing less than complete destruction of the threat will satisfy me.

[myocordial]

[There, finally, he sees some of what he admires in Ardyn in Izunia. The first proper sign of their relation, if you ask him, because appearances and superficial similarities don't say much at all.

And despite how he feels about Izunia, Heart does smile.]

That's more like it.

[And that is infinitely more interesting than how durable someone is.]

Whether or not someone is fun to fight is about a lot more than how capable they are. I wonder what you might be like with a proper fire in you... Driving you...

Now that?

That would be an opponent worth fighting.

[founderinglight]

[It's a smile that's difficult not to return, even if it is one centered a bit in bloodthirst. So he does return it, in a slightly tired way that makes the physical resemblance even more obvious.]

It's been some time since I managed much more than a spark for anything but rage against the heavens, but I consider it a work in progress at the moment.

[myocordial]

[Heart shakes his head at that.]

The problem there is obvious. A lack of conviction.

[founderinglight]

...Not conviction. Hope.

[They're distinct enough that it warrants a correction.]

[myocordial]

A lack of the latter often leading to a lack of the former.

You still have some rage left in you, don't you? It doesn't matter what it's directed at. There has to be some.

[founderinglight]

Oh, certainly. Were any manifestation of the Draconian to appear here, I don't believe I would be able to wait even a moment for the rest of you to come get a piece.

[Said casually and cheerfully and not at all like he's talking about straight up murdering a god.]

[myocordial]

Then that fire hasn't gone anywhere at all. You don't need more than that, you simply have to use it.

With proper conviction, all you need is your strongest feeling to drive you.

[founderinglight]

...Allowing that strongest feeling to control me untempered is how this mess came about. You'll forgive me for not being eager to indulge in it again.

[Do not approach the light of love, for it is the sun and it burns.]

I am dearly, dearly tired of hurting the people I love.