daemonized | EL NYSA IC INBOX.

Who's being rude? [Look at him!!! That skinny boy!!!]

I cut a more imposing figure compared to him, no matter if I'm awake or asleep and frozen.

[Which is not untrue, but Ardyn is also a little biased. There are a number of complicated emotions that exist when it comes to Noctis.]

With that hat? Oh, I very much think not.

[ It’s been too grim an afternoon… too grim a few days, even. When in doubt, resort to teasing. ]

I beg your pardon!

[Ardyn will of course roll with it, though days that are dark and grim don't appear to affect him in the same manner as most.]

I could wear ten of these hats, and be more imposing than most I meet.

[Ten of them!]

[ Ardyn pls. It gets a laugh out of him, in any case, the sound bouncing between the rows and rows of cold glass tubes. ]

My friend, there is not a soul in existence who could wear ten hats with any amount of dignity, even you.

Well, you've never seen me attempt to wear ten hats at once, X'rhun.

[Someone stop them.]

I guarantee that you'll be speechless. Absolutely brought to your knees by just how ineffably dignified I would be.

Ardyn, please. You would look a fool, and I would only be brought to my knees from how hard I’d be laughing. In fact, I daresay I would have no end of things to say about how ridiculous you look.

[ Sorry they’re having this conversation right in front of you, Noctis. Be glad you’re unconscious. ]

[Even asleep, there is undoubtedly some small part of Noctis' slumbering soul that is screaming out in ferocious agony right now.]

You wound me, X'rhun. But I still think you're wrong. Maybe I'll prove it to you someday.

[Yes, definitely ferocious agony.]

Please do give me advance warning so I can have my camera ready.

[ SORRY NOCTIS. At the very least he is able to break from the absurd conversation long enough to give the still form of the young man a glance, and a slight, respectful, nod of his head before he figures it’s best not to linger. He begins to move away, trusting that Ardyn will follow. ]

Is he the only one you keep tabs on up here or are there more?

There are more, of course, though my interests vacillate between them all.

[None as quite fixated upon as Noctis, for obvious reasons. He needn't explain that much.

Regardless, Ardyn does follow easily enough, only a step or two behind.]

Are you overcome by curiosity? Would you like to see a few?

[ X’rhun turns on his heel, walking backwards as he addresses his friend. ]

If you would be so kind as to introduce me, I wouldn’t say no.

Well. [He stops and disappears behind a row, going a different direction. Best follow him, for he calls out:] Right this way.

[The first he'll settle next to, if X'rhun follows as expected, is none other than the sleeping King Regis. Peaceful in expression, like all of those here sequestered into a pod, dreamless and unmoving. He is dressed in his kingly raiments, all done in various shades of black and dark grey; overall, an older gentleman with a regal bearing.]

This is an interesting one. Another of the royal line -- Noctis' father.

[ It is, quite frankly, off-putting to be shuffled through rows of people as if he were on some museum tour, but he follows along quietly for now. His goal here is to ultimately understand Ardyn a bit more, to wrap his head around who and what occupy his thoughts and why. ]

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding, but Prompto had called his friend a king, rather than a prince. Where, then, does his father fit into all that?

[Well, that's a simple enough explanation.]

His father was king, until he died.

[Casually spoken, for he certainly had no love for anyone with the last name Lucis Caelum.]

Noctis then would take up the mantle left so empty by his father. Yet he did not comport himself as a king; still a little lost prince, learning his place in the world. Understanding what fate has in store for him. The Crystal would eventually make him worthy of the title.

[As well as his acceptance of what had to be done.]

[ X’rhun cannot help the way he frowns, glancing again at the frozen figure in the pod. ]

This is not the first time I have heard that those who should be dead are being kept in stasis.

[ This is, however, the first time he has seen one – because as obtuse as Ardyn could be and still is on a regular basis, he has no reason to doubt him on this front. In fact, he would not be surprised to learn that Ardyn had a hand in this man’s demise, all to spur Noctis into action and see the prophecy fulfilled. ]

Ardyn, let us say that the prophecy had come to pass. The Storm does not claim your world, Noctis emerges from his slumber and confronts you at last – what waits for you, at the end of all that?

[Ardyn nearly tilts his head at that, an eyebrow gently raising. He's certainly not hesitant to answer this particular question, even if it is apparently fated to not come to pass.]

A battle among Kings. He must work for victory.

[If he couldn't defeat him, then the world would die, and it would be only be a delirious sort of spite that would keep Ardyn going after that.]

But if he succeeds? Then the final, complete death of my soul. A deep, dark void of nothingness.

[ As much as he would like to say he’s surprised, the fact of the matter is… he just isn’t. From what he knows of Ardyn, the man wouldn’t shroud the world in darkness just to save it. He wouldn’t bend a knee to fate for the good of the common man, not now. Not after thousands of years of tortured existence, of being damned for that very line of thinking.

But to serve himself? Oh, yes. There’s no doubt. The prophecy may be the means, but the motivations are truly selfish. ]

Rest. At long last, hm?

Indeed so. And in a twist of irony, the completion of what I had once sought to do, long ago.

[The end of the Starscourge, once and for all. Perhaps the latter half was not so important as achieving his rest, but the aforementioned irony -- that cruel twist of the knife -- did not escape his notice.]

Nothing that should be surprising to you at this point, X'rhun.

Mayhap not, but I will admit it’s nice to hear such things from your own mouth rather than having to do guesswork all the time.

[ He’s sure there is still quite a bit about Ardyn Izunia that he has yet to unravel, but there is a certain level of understanding between them. At the very least, X’rhun seems to be able to figure out where the pieces will fall before they land. ]

Well, where's the fun in that? I'll have to be more cryptic just for you, from now on.

[A chuckle.]

Would you like to know something else strange about the old king sleeping in one of these pods?

Now, now. You do a fine job of that already. No need to redouble your efforts, I promise.

[ He chooses to see this as headway, a sign of trust, mayhap, and he’d rather not see it undone, even jokingly. ]

Well, you have me intrigued. Go on, then.

[He should take whatever headway he's given, where Ardyn is concerned. But to be fair, it wouldn't hurt to look at it as progress, even if veiled behind a joke.

For now, though, Ardyn just reaches out and taps at the glass. Regis won't mind.]

He isn't even supposed to have a body. He has been delegated to the role of... spirit, shall we say.

That is no less shocking than learning he should be dead, to be honest with you.

[ His eyes sweep over the man in the tube yet again. He seems quite solid indeed. ]

Do the dead often become spirits where you are from or is that a fate given only to the royals?

Oh, I don’t know. There’s something impressive about the idea that his very form has reverted back into something physical.

[But of course, that might just be an issue of time not making sense among all of them. Ardyn is living proof of that, after all.]

Only those of the Lucis Caelum line, if deemed worthy enough, will live on through the Ring of Lucii. [Ah, he waves a hand dismissively.] A powerful family heirloom, a gift from the gods, something that would grant a living member of the line a great sort of power.

Your world seems to treat the one family line very particularly.

[ It’s just a mild observation. He himself knows someone touched by destiny, it is not so far-fetched to believe that there is an entire bloodline similarly touched. ]

I assume the living member of that family line would similarly have to be worthy to wield such power, yes?

Quite so.

[To both of those statements. But Ardyn continues the conversation along the second point.]

And Astrals forbid those who aren’t of the family line and try to wear the ring. The last man who used its power lost his sight. The one before that? Turned to dust. Another lost his arm.

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