Week 11.

[azumods]

WEEK 11 The meeting with Mars could have gone infinitely worse. It's difficult to say that it went well, admittedly, but at least it didn't go as poorly as it could have; either way, her departure leaves you free to look around the Valley Windworks, and it shouldn't take you long at all to find something interesting on the floor. It's bright yellow and glowing, set into the ground like any other normal part of the floor otherwise; stepping on it will cause the world to spin briefly in your field of vision, and when it straightens itself out again, you find yourself standing in the corner of the lobby of a large building you've never seen before. Welcome to the Jubilife TV station. The place seems staffed with Galactic grunts, but they leave you alone outside of just watching you in that dead-eyed, vaguely unnerving way they have of watching everything; they'll let you leave without a fuss at any rate, and it's probably for the best that you get yourself situated for the time being. After all, you've got an entire new city to get accustomed to. The people here seem to be trying to get themselves situated as well, though obviously that's for entirely different reasons. The world continues to change, around them and you both, and overall things do seem to be going in a direction that might be considered favorable. Noticeably, the grunts in the TV station don't seem to be changing at all, regardless of what happens to the other locals; that might be cause for some concern... CURRENT LOCATION: JUBILIFE CITY POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week eleven of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due this weekend!]

Comments

[bloodspent]

[It occurs to Jake, weeks after the fact, that when he was trying to explain a mall goth to Chelsea he probably could have just said "everything Ignis chooses to be with his wardrobe." It feels kind of wrong to pick on the blind guy for his fashion choices, but it is what it is.

Anyway.

Jake's got his sneasel out with him today; she's looking at everything like she's trying to figure out how best to use it to do something stupid, but such is life, really.]

Hey, Ignis.

[The greeting is easy enough, anyway.]

Still working out yesterday?

[discutio]

[At least he's out of the Black Parade jacket which is the actual uniform of the elite royal guard. Then again, the purple leopard-print is also technically a uniform, so really are we doing better?]

...A bit, yes. [The Absol at his feet yawned as she sat down, Ignis himself turning to face Jake and folding his arms.]

I take it you're doing the same?

[bloodspent]

Kind of? I'm mostly just getting real sick of trying to yell sense into these people.

[It's kind of a mess.]

I guess it's not really our job to make them come around, but it'd make our lives a hell of a lot easier if they'd sort themselves out a little.

[discutio]

I...suppose I simply can't process that they truly think this is the right thing to do. It's beyond incomprehensible.

[bloodspent]

...Yeah.

[He doesn't like it.]

I do get that feeling off of them, though - at least from Saturn and Mars. Maybe Jupiter in a really backwards sort of way. It's fucked up, but they're trying.

[discutio]

Though it kills me to admit, you're right. Their devotion is well past merely 'twisted', but their loyalty is crystal clear. Whether Cyrus' motives are as they've been told or if there's more to them he's kept hidden, they seem genuine in their pursuit of it.

...The damage upon our star was wrought by vengeance, and that at least made sense as much as the end of a world ever could. The perspective they must have to see all this as ideal is something I've no idea how to refute anymore.

[bloodspent]

...There's one guy I know of back home who tried to end the world. He thought he was saving it. From humans, mostly - war and violence and a lack of resources. He thought we all deserved judgement, and he was the one to make the call, so he did. And he decided we all needed to die. It was obviously fucking insane, but that's what was going on in his head, I guess.

I don't really get it, either, and I don't know how we're supposed to argue it. It'd be better if we could talk to Cyrus somehow, so at least we'd know where this shit is coming from? But...

[But Cyrus isn't one for talking, apparently.]

[discutio]

Ours was...complicated. I've done a fair bit of research on it in the last ten years, and the summary of it is that there was a would-be king that gods and mankind alike rejected. So he traveled a long path of revenge on the world and all things in it; I suppose he must have found it just as deserved as yours, for a far different reason. As deep in his own madness as Ardyn was, that's similarly logic one can follow if not understand.

In other words, I agree with you. We won't know the center of such reasoning until we find its source and speak to him ourselves, but we've no idea where he is or how to find him. Not to mention he apparently has the kind of power that might well vaporize us on the spot.

[bloodspent]

Revenge is a nice-ass motivation like that. Someone fucked you up, you fuck them up right back. It's nice and easy and understandable, because goddamn everybody at least wants to do it once in their lives. This sort of shit, though...

[mnnngh.]

I'm not crazy about the idea of facing down Cyrus anytime soon. I know it's gonna have to happen, though, as soon as we figure out where he is. I know people are going to start yelling about it as soon as we get a location on him - they'll talk about how it's a bad idea and everyone's gonna die, but they're all going to want to go anyway.

[discutio]

It was difficult not to understand his perspective, after we'd dug up the relevant materials shining a bit of light on it. Even so, it doesn't justify or outweigh the burden upon the entire world--or on the few who had to repair the damage done.

[Ignis sighed, adjusting his glasses.]

...They'll have to be talked out of it, if such a situation arises. We've been fortunate that it seems he's no interest in pursuing us yet, and going after him as wildly unprepared as we are will very literally end in worse than death. We can't even stand against Maylene, never mind the commanders. I don't see how any of us expect to handle Cyrus if and when any negotiation breaks down.

[bloodspent]

The only reason I can think of that we've been left alone so far is that we're not important enough. The Commanders don't seem to think we're worth their time, and Cyrus hasn't...I dunno, smited us yet. I kind of wonder if we're managing anything at all by their standards - we've affected a handful of small cities as far as we know, that might not be worth looking into yet.

[discutio]

Now that you mention it, there's something about all this that's bothering me. The rank and file of Galactic were with Mars as well as the facility we arrived in here, weren't they? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but they sounded no different to me as they did when we first awoke in Veilstone; passive, cold, hardly even moving past what was necessary.

...Why isn't anything affecting them, and why does anything changing in this world spare them alone?

[bloodspent]

No, you're right about that. I don't know what their problem is, but it doesn't seem to be changing them at all.

[He has no idea why that's happening, but it sure as shit is.]

Maybe they were hit harder by whatever's doing this? I'd say maybe Saturn hit them again with those machines he was talking about, but apparently he's been AWOL for a while now.

[Possibly dead? He doesn't know how likely that is, but possibly dead.]

[discutio]

Honestly, I was starting to suspect their conditioning ran deeper somehow--or possibly that something's sustaining it, though I can't quite articulate a 'what' or 'how' to such a concept.

[in short, 'we don't know shit']

...Saturn disappearing makes sense enough considering our last encounter, but I can't imagine what could have happened to Jupiter. And now I'd not be surprised if Mars followed suit. Do you think Cynthia's actually doing something?

[bloodspent]

It might be Cynthia, but if that was the case I don't get why Cyrus wouldn't have told Mars that. Sure, it might have set her on the warpath, but if Cyrus told her not to engage I'm gonna believe she wouldn't do anything too dumb.

I don't like the part where he apparently didn't tell her shit.

[discutio]

I have to admit I don't entirely believe any of the options I presented Mars with. It's strategically absurd to summon two one's lieutenants and leave a third in the dark, so I don't think they were called back to base. Running afoul of some angry deity is possible, but feels unlikely considering Galactic apparently had no trouble with them before. Cynthia having dispatched them is plausible, but then returns us to the tactical failing of Cyrus not telling Mars that her fellow commanders were incapacitated or captured.

[Ignis paused as if to think over what he'd just said, reexamining it to see if he'd overlooked something. It all felt logically sound to him, but the absence of a real explanation left him deeply unsettled.]

...Something's wrong here, and I don't know what it is.

[bloodspent]

Yeah, that's why I keep thinking about it. I don't really care about what's happening to them, because honestly I don't give a fuck about them. But it seems like something we should know about somehow.

[discutio]

I'll admit to some mild concern over Saturn at least, though I'd not exactly lament if we never saw Jupiter again.

[at least he's honest]

Regardless, it's something liable to cause us serious trouble one way or another if we can't determine what's happened.

[bloodspent]

Yeah, that's true.

[...]

It looks like everyone in that group seems to want to keep Mars in the dark; she was doing a lot of yelling about how Jupiter and Saturn would never falter in their faith and stuff.

[Meanwhile, Jupiter is out for herself and Saturn is Saturn.]