lifenet | A call for help~

[Ardyn sighed and rolled his eyes, motion visible under that insufferably present hat.]

Come over here and sit down. It'll just take a moment.

[Gladio mimics the action, sighing as well but he does settle himself beside Ardyn, opposite Hresvelgr.]

Right... How does this work? [Because the only healing Noct has is making energy drinks into something out of a fucking video game.]

It works by you holding still and being quiet so I can concentrate.

[Ardyn took off the everpresent fingerless gloves to reveal scattered and old scars on his hands, one of which reached over to hover over the bandages; this would go more quickly with direct contact, but he expected Gladio would take his arm off if he tried. Those were a pain to regenerate.]

[After a second or two, there was a glow of light from his hand; warm and golden like morning sunlight. Gradually, the puncture stitched itself together under the sensation of warmth, Ardyn's free hand pulling his hat down to hide his expression.]

[The layers hid it well, but as Gladio's wound healed a black stain began to appear on Ardyn's clothes in the same place, as if it were Ardyn that had been stabbed instead.]

[Still and quiet he could do. Usually. This was a fairly unusual occurrence, having his mortal enemy healing a wound from a friend he'd had a miscommunication with.
It's curious though, watching that golden light spill from Ardyn's hand, feeling his body knit itself back together.

He doesn't think anything of the way Ardyn adjusts his hat but, if anything, lifting his arm makes it more apparent that he's bleeding and Gladio's eyes go wide. He reaches down and snatches Ardyn's hand away from his abdomen, fingers holding firmly to his wrist.]

Are you insane!? [He doesn't mean to yell but it's loud and a little panicked and unless Ardyn stops him he's reaching to pull his jacket, and hopefully a few more layers, out of the way.] You didn't tell me you-

Don't. [Ardyn's voice was sharp, slapping Gladio's hand away to press his own to his side.] It's fine; it'll be gone in a moment.

[The black miasma that passed for blood was already evaporating even under Ardyn's hand, though the bleeding itself hadn't yet stopped.]

...I told you. Monsters are created, not born.

[Slowly Gladio sits back on his heels, watching black ooze from the wound in something between horror and sympathy. He actually looks at Ardyn for a long moment, head still reeling with all of the new information he has about the other man but-

Especially after this there's one thing that he has to tell Ardyn. He waits until he's certain the wound will heal on it's own. The he hasn't been healed just to have someone else suffer in his place. Not that it isn't painful, that much is rather apparent, but if Ardyn is injured for weeks over this he'll never forgive himself.

Eventually, though, he relaxes, sits back and refuses to meet his eyes.]

I'm sorry. For- [A gesture at Ardyn's blackened hand.] and... I tricked you.

...What are you talking about?

[The pain didn't seem to bother Ardyn too much; either because he didn't feel it or just because he was hiding it.]

Last week... I- [He never expected to have to explain any of this to him. And he's still watching carefully, just in case something goes wrong and Ardyn isn't as okay as he says he'll be.]

After everything with the dreams I just wanted to understand. So I went to talk to you.

But without you knowing it was me.

[Ardyn frowned, somewhere between annoyed and confused. The black stain in his clothes continued to evaporate in the thin smokelike trails characteristic of Starscourge, though it was gradually lessening.]

What? When was that?

Edited 2018-06-04 01:47 (UTC)

You won't remember. It... it's part of the enchantment. You wouldn't recognize me or remember the conversation, not really.

I figured if I just walked up you'd tell me to get the fuck off your lawn. I... didn't want you to just mock me for not getting it so I used this stupid mask thing I got so you wouldn't know it was me.

And what, might I ask, was so vital that you decided to just magic away all recollection of the incident?

Which, I might add, is considerably rude.

Think I don't know that!?

[He doesn't mean to snap and he flinches as soon as the words leave his mouth. Fuck he really should just stop talking.]

I just wanted to understand... both sides, I guess. It wasn't about making you forget it was about getting you to talk in the first place. You'd say more to a goddamn stranger than to me unless there was something you had to lord over me.

[And that has his breath catching, amber eyes flashing wide for a second as he realizes the hole he's backed himself into and then he drops his gaze, looks away. Oh Ardyn had the biggest thing to hold over his head now and he'd just gone and put his foot in his mouth all over again.]

[Ardyn finally pulled his hand away, black miasma disappearing from his skin and clothes as he pulled the gloves back on to cover scarred and calloused hands.]

...So what happened?

You made a lot of metaphors and found something to lord over me anyway.

[Maybe he shouldn't have started this. This was stupid and awful and Ardyn was fine now, he should just go meet Tim and forget this shit too.

This would be so much easier if it wasn't like talking to two different people.]

I'm painfully good at that, unfortunately.

[Ardyn sighed, adjusting his hat in the following silence as if seeking something to do with his hands. Then, at length:]

...How was he, when you saw him? Gilgamesh.

Yeah. [A huff and just as he's about to make his excuses that question catches him off guard. Gilgamesh?]

Disappointed, I think. [A shrug and he shakes his head. He didn't really understand then. Maybe Gilgamesh understood that he'd come to eventually. Maybe that was why he had let Gladio go.]

By me and the fact that he didn't get to see the Marshal again, I'd say. Talked awfully fondly of a guy that took his arm.

... [Of all the unbelievable things, a small and tired smile gradually crossed Ardyn's face.]

Sounds about right--he always did have high standards. I imagine having his arm taken off would have done little but impress him.

[It's only now that he realizes why Ardyn is asking.]

You knew him. Before... [And now he's scrambling, trying to remember something else he could say about the spirit. It was a dramatic turning point in his life, it held weight, certainly, but it had also been over a decade ago.]

The arm thing didn't really mean anything for him, y'know. I mean physically it wasn't there but I don't know how much of him was. He... he definitely used both arms to kick my ass for a good portion of that fight.

I did. Fairly well, I would say--or enough to not be surprised. I don't know what happened to him in the last two millennia, but persisting through sheer stubbornness is very like him.

Maybe that's why he let me pass then. I mean... I only really started to get the gist of what he was trying to say towards the end of that fight. I didn't really get it until years later.

When I wasn't serving as Shield, oddly enough.

...What was it he told you?

That I couldn't really be worthy of serving my King as Shield if I was afraid.

Fear and doubt begets death alone

If I can't accept my faults then I'm only gonna get my King killed... If I couldn't accept the fact that I am not enough to protect Noct alone then I was only going to put him in danger. There's a reason it's always been me and Ignis. I can take a blow for him but I can't protect him... not the way Iggy does. Which, honestly scares the shit out of me most times.

[Hell, he'd been trying to avoid actually bringing Ignis up.] ]

[Ardyn didn't answer at first, turning the concept over in his head for a minute.]

...The Shield of the Founder failed once before, terribly so. When he was needed most, when one whom he swore to protect was in greatest danger...the Blademaster was nowhere to be found. I've no way of knowing why, of course. But I wonder, perhaps, if he wished to prevent such basic human faults from causing history to repeat.

Maybe...

He was supposed to protect you, wasn't he? No wonder he was afraid if that's the sort of shit you were doing. [He gestures to Ardyn's hip where the wound he'd taken from Gladio had been.]

Killing yourself for other people and what would the crown have done to you on top of that? Maybe he thought he was protecting you.

He didn't...know. I didn't tell anyone. At--at least I don't think I did, I can't always remember that far back.

[Ardyn glanced away like he was trying to recall a long-forgotten memory, voice turning distant.]

...If anyone had known...it would have been a catastrophe. People were already afraid and struggling just to survive in the wake of the Astral War; I was all they had. The only reassurance that things would ever improve, the only sign of dawn after the darkest hour. If I had told anyone I wasn't truly curing the scourge...

[He shook his head, as if trying to pull himself out of his own thoughts.]

I don't...remember when it changed. I remember the Crystal rejecting me, choosing my brother instead. I know I was executed more times than I care to count, and I know Gilgamesh wasn't there.

I didn't--I didn't want this. I didn't ask to be an eternal monster, I just...wanted...to help people.

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