[ Ardyn doesn't need to give voice to the rest of that thought for him to know how it ends. It would be an impossible task, convincing a healer not to heal.
But as he sees it, they have lingered here long enough. There's naught more to be found in this scene but more heartbreak. ]
Should we wander off, do you suppose we'll land in yet another scene from the past, or will we finally find our way out?
[Ardyn moves in the direction of impossibly tall shale and stone, sticking up from the ground and reaching towards the sky. Where the meteor had once fallen, long ago, even in this memory.
He looks over his shoulder, smirking a little, though he slows his step just long enough to let X’rhun catch up to him.]
That can be arranged, I’d say, since a body of water does lie nearby. But I forget that felines do not like getting wet.
[He arches a brow, finding that title interesting. They continue pressing forward, until stone looms over them -- the center of the crater is still very far off, but can be clearly seen from where they stand.]
The Archaean rests here. Titan, as he's called. Asleep with the burden of a great meteor still hefted upon his back.
[A sweeping gesture at the display before them. Ardyn’s eyes track against the contours of rock and crystal jutting upwards.]
A rather straightforward one, though. Once, there was a meteor that threatened to crash into Eos, and would cause irreparable damage to the delicate balance of life that existed on this star. And Titan — an astral, and therefore tasked with protecting this land — simply rose up and caught it before it crashed into the earth. The force was still not insubstantial, though, as you can see.
[He seems to consider something for a moment, then continues.]
Some say Starscourge itself originated from that meteor.
[ There’s something about the sight that puts him in mind of Mor Dhona – a sprawling, wasted landscape of barren rock and jutting crystal formations, the remnants of a desperate battle between a mighty Garlean warship and a great dragon. The skeletons of both were left to stand guard in the midst of the lake in which they fell.
He doesn’t dwell on the comparison overlong, however, since Mor Dhona was where he last confronted Lambard. He needn’t let his mind take them into yet another memory. ]
In a way that affects me? It certainly doesn't matter now. Wherever it came from, it swept across this land; that much would never change.
[But he shrugs his shoulders.]
Still, can you imagine it? A sickness like that, originating from the black unknown of space? What others stars might have suffered from it, what other worlds are still under threat of it reaching their lands?
[He's thought about it before, the reaches of the Starscourge; if there was another star like Eos out there, having dealt with the same as his own.]
I am supposed to be the scourge itself, and yet... I wonder sometimes, if I am just a small part of a whole.
[ The way Ardyn talks about the starscourge is oddly reminiscent of what precious little they know of the Storm, and he can’t help but wonder if the two are somehow related. A smaller piece of the much greater whole, as he says. ]
Do you think there are other stars out there, ones who fell victim much like Eos?
Well, if the meteor was what brought the Starscourge to Eos, then...
[He waves a hand, explaining in a rather casual way despite the weight of the implication.]
Then I would be the figurative meteor for the whole of El Nysa. That sickness still lives within me, after all. It wouldn't take very much effort to spread it.
Given what I have seen and experienced, I’m not convinced that the Natha don’t have pieces of the Storm aboard that ship of theirs, themselves.
[ Why else would he have been caught in that slice of the Storm while they were supposedly healing him? There are a lot of questions there, but he doesn’t know fully how to ask them, or if he even should. ]
Regardless, I very much doubt our station-dwelling friends would take too kindly to the notion of you spreading a plague on their little planet. They’d stuff you back in a tube, and where would I be, without someone with which to exchange delightfully witty banter?
Indeed. You would be met with a great loss if I were to be shuffled back into a state of sleep, and I would truly hate to do that much to you, X'rhun.
[Not to mention such a thing sounds awful, being asleep while the rest of the world whirls and marches on without him. He is well-aware of the irony of it, given what he did to Noctis back home.]
But let me tell you a secret -- I've no inclination to cover this place in darkness and illness. I have nothing to gain in doing so, not truly.
[ He had suspected as much, actually. Slow mover and patient planner though Ardyn could be, if he wanted to start an epidemic, there has been nothing stopping him from doing so already.
Well, aside from the aforementioned being stuffed back in a tube. ]
No, I’d imagine you really wouldn’t. Your prophecy is about Eos, not El Nysa.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
♦ ARDYN
[ Ardyn doesn't need to give voice to the rest of that thought for him to know how it ends. It would be an impossible task, convincing a healer not to heal.
But as he sees it, they have lingered here long enough. There's naught more to be found in this scene but more heartbreak. ]
Should we wander off, do you suppose we'll land in yet another scene from the past, or will we finally find our way out?
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[Already, he begins to walk. He takes on a flippant resolve, motioning at X'rhun to follow, his back already turned to him.]
Move along now. If we're lucky, perhaps we can get some sightseeing in, until everything crumbles beneath our feet.
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I do hope that's not a trend. I thought for certain we were going to end up in the water.
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He looks over his shoulder, smirking a little, though he slows his step just long enough to let X’rhun catch up to him.]
That can be arranged, I’d say, since a body of water does lie nearby. But I forget that felines do not like getting wet.
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I’m not so feline that I don’t enjoy a good swim, but if it’s all the same, I’d prefer you didn’t just up and toss me into a lake.
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[Though who knows how such things work in memories. Maybe X'rhun would just fall through the water itself, it was difficult to say.
Still, they do press forward, until it becomes clearer that these upward-reaching rocks actually exist within a large crater.]
Doesn't look much like a resting place for a god, does it?
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[ Please don’t ruin his uniform. Think of the poor feathers!
He follows the line of the stones with his eyes, from ground to apex, and gives a small shrug. ]
It depends on the god in question. I could see the Lord of Crags calling this place home quite easily.
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The Archaean rests here. Titan, as he's called. Asleep with the burden of a great meteor still hefted upon his back.
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[ He comes to stand next to Ardyn, peering out at the great expanse of crater before them. ]
I assume there is a story to that – how he came to be here, and with a meteor of all things.
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[A sweeping gesture at the display before them. Ardyn’s eyes track against the contours of rock and crystal jutting upwards.]
A rather straightforward one, though. Once, there was a meteor that threatened to crash into Eos, and would cause irreparable damage to the delicate balance of life that existed on this star. And Titan — an astral, and therefore tasked with protecting this land — simply rose up and caught it before it crashed into the earth. The force was still not insubstantial, though, as you can see.
[He seems to consider something for a moment, then continues.]
Some say Starscourge itself originated from that meteor.
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He doesn’t dwell on the comparison overlong, however, since Mor Dhona was where he last confronted Lambard. He needn’t let his mind take them into yet another memory. ]
Do you believe that? Or does it no longer matter?
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[But he shrugs his shoulders.]
Still, can you imagine it? A sickness like that, originating from the black unknown of space? What others stars might have suffered from it, what other worlds are still under threat of it reaching their lands?
[He's thought about it before, the reaches of the Starscourge; if there was another star like Eos out there, having dealt with the same as his own.]
I am supposed to be the scourge itself, and yet... I wonder sometimes, if I am just a small part of a whole.
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Do you think there are other stars out there, ones who fell victim much like Eos?
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[No way of knowing, neither now or ever.]
Comforting thought, isn't it?
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[ His gaze drifts upward, from the great spikes of rock and crystal to the sky. ]
I confess a part of me wonders if the two are related.
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[He's jests, in that dry, sometimes deprecating humor of his. His hand comes up to adjust his hat again.
But he knows that's not exactly what X'rhun meant.]
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Yes, Ardyn. I’m calling you personally responsible for literally every bad thing that has ever happened.
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[He's hurt, except not at all. Ardyn just huffs out a laugh.]
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[ He’s not sorry in the least. About anything, let alone the absurdity of this conversation. ]
Besides, you knew what I meant.
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[At this point, he wouldn't even be surprised. And yet-]
Actually, you had best hope that's not the case.
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What do you mean? Apart from the obvious of being a part of the much larger cataclysm, that is.
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[He waves a hand, explaining in a rather casual way despite the weight of the implication.]
Then I would be the figurative meteor for the whole of El Nysa. That sickness still lives within me, after all. It wouldn't take very much effort to spread it.
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[ Why else would he have been caught in that slice of the Storm while they were supposedly healing him? There are a lot of questions there, but he doesn’t know fully how to ask them, or if he even should. ]
Regardless, I very much doubt our station-dwelling friends would take too kindly to the notion of you spreading a plague on their little planet. They’d stuff you back in a tube, and where would I be, without someone with which to exchange delightfully witty banter?
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[Not to mention such a thing sounds awful, being asleep while the rest of the world whirls and marches on without him. He is well-aware of the irony of it, given what he did to Noctis back home.]
But let me tell you a secret -- I've no inclination to cover this place in darkness and illness. I have nothing to gain in doing so, not truly.
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Well, aside from the aforementioned being stuffed back in a tube. ]
No, I’d imagine you really wouldn’t. Your prophecy is about Eos, not El Nysa.
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