daemonized | EL NYSA IC INBOX.

Taking advantage? Never. Having you here is a pleasure, have no doubt about it.

[A glass poured for himself, Ardyn decides to take a seat opposite of the man. He doesn't take a sip just yet, tilting his head curiously in Kirei's direction.]

What happened to your jacket?

[ He pauses to look at his jacket like he didn't know. ]

Ah, someone tried to kill me. [ He shrugs. Not a terrible big deal now. ] We have made a truce with one another, however. Not my idea either. [ But obviously, he is more than okay with it. Really, he is grateful because even with his healing, he isn't fond of the idea of getting sniped with an explosive round from halfway across the city. ]

It is an old grudge between us that has spanned over a couple timelines... or so I have come to understand.

A couple of timelines? My, there's a story there.

[He decides to take a sip of his wine, considering.]

Why the conflict? Or is it a torrid, complicated story from back home?

Indeed. I am equally curious as to why there is a difference in what he remembers and what I remember. Yet I do not doubt it. He would not hostility toward me unless he lived in some other world. I barely had any contact with him in my own timeline...

[ And he does not doubt the hostility, he glances for a second at his jacket. ]

It is not so complicated. If I know myself... that man was going to lose to me in battle. I have a habit of adding more words than necessary. But yes, I know myself. In order to let his failure sink in, I would have explained what my plans were so that his last seconds would be agonizing. [ He takes another sip. ] My goal is a simple one. It is allowing a cursed being to be born.

[ Kirei chuckles to himself before naming it. ] Angra Mainyu. He was once a human that now bears the sins and curses of the entire world, the entire human race. He was forced to take them into himself by humanity, because in their childlike thinking, if he was the "evil of the world"... no human born could be. And so the legend goes, they wouldn't let him die until he succumbed to old age. His true name no longer exists anywhere and so that would be how the legend ends.

[ He shakes his head. ] But he exists and exists outside the realm of men. It is my intention to bring him into reality, to give him flesh and bone. It is my wish to have him tear this world apart... eradicate all humanity that damned him, if he so wishes. And it has little to do with my connection with Angra Mainyu... [ Lifting his hand, he reminds of the black mud that heals his body. ] ... in any case, if that man lay dying, I would let him know of these plans that he could no longer stop.

[ And also, that will answer a question for Kirei. A question he has wondered and agonized for his entire life. But he'll keep that personal comment to himself. He thought for a moment of omitting some truths, and just omits the true end goal that he has. In the end, he runs the numbers in his head. Nothing yet has disturbed or frightened Ardyn from what he has said; he supposes that he just is curious as to what the man would take of half of his end goal. ]

As such, our conflict is a simple one. I wish to help Angra Mainyu be allowed to exist, and that man wants to ensure I do not succeed. He wishes to save humanity from me. An honorable and noble goal. [ And he sips more of his wine. ]

[Now that’s a story. Ardyn listens again, not interrupting, his attentions rapt. He was once a human that now bears the sins and curses of the entire world… Ardyn’s lips twitch at that, threatening to turn into a frown. But with ease of willpower, his expression remains calm and easy. Approachable, despite the dark things being told to him. Destruction of humanity, of the world.

Funny how it strikes a chord in him.]

You call it an honorable and noble goal, and yet you still work to unravel it. Why? Do you wish for humanity to be eradicated?

No. If that is what happens, it is, but that is not my hope. [ His eyes slide away as he decides to go with another half answer. ]

He wishes to exist. [ Looking at his free hand, he hums. ] There is no purer wish than to simply live. And so, I decided to let him be given the chance to do just that. He may be the evil of the world... his body and spirit is filled with curses. He may end up killing everyone and everything.

But he was also human. So, he may not. I see no reason to condemn his existence over a possibility. It hardly seems... right. [ And he chuckles. ] And... he may kill me, too. I do not expect to be rewarded for allowing him to come into our reality, nor do I want to be. I am, after all, possibly calling forth the end of all things... well, no. Maybe a small percentage will survive.

Edited (typos and wording) 2017-10-04 19:45 (UTC)

[To have that sort of, what? Blind faith in a man so riddled with curses? Some may call it naive, but Ardyn finds it skirting between the lines of amusing and hitting too close to home to call it such. It's obvious that his interest refuses to wane, that there are many turns of phrases that keep him listening intently.]

The potential sacrifice of an entire world is a very large price to pay so that one man might have a chance to really, truly live.

[His grin sharpens a little, knowing the twisted irony in his following statement. The wrongness of it, and yet... he can hardly judge.]

How very kind of you. [A beat.] This story you've told me... Do you know that it runs rather parallel with my own?

It is, but it hardly will stop me. [ His tone shifts from the calm to a notably happier one. ] I wouldn't call it kind or good. I am helping and wishing for someone irrevocably evil be brought into existence, yet I refuse to denounce someone that has yet to do anything. I would call it a sane madness.

[ Parallel to Ardyn's own? ] I did not. In your world, you are Angra Mainyu...? [ There is a laugh beneath his question. That sane madness. So then, would Ardyn be able to answer his question? The question that he is willing to sacrifice so many lives for. ]

I suppose you can make that decision for yourself.

[Strange, how open he is willing to be about this next bit. Normally he would show restraint in sharing his past with others, or at least talk about it in an annoyingly roundabout way. But with Kirei, he really does want to compare -- the idea that in some other world similar circumstances had taken place was interesting. But perhaps not surprising, given how fate likes to crush everyone under its heel.

He starts from the most suitable part. The beginning.]

I used to be a healer, you understand. A long, long time ago. I took sickness into my own body, one that was particularly nasty, for the sake of saving others. To save them from daemonification.

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pfft wasn't happy with the original tag but have another long-winded tag

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