lazybox | izunia lucis callout

[Ardyn laughed in the hollow sort of way he tended to do, when exhaustion and pain and endless ages crept up on him. Half hanging off Church and half clinging to him, the former immortal didn’t answer for a second or two.]

...there’s no one better.

[Flawed, broken, stupid, thoughtless—just the same as Ardyn himself.]

You know how it goes. Kingly healer turned immortal monster winds up in an interdimensional televised murder mansion with a robot ghost from the future, your classic meet-cute situation.

Should I show him the tat? Oh my god show him your tat. Would he know what that means? I can and will take my shirt off if that embarrasses the hell out of you.

I'm a former king making his living running a knickknacks shop slash black market swords operation, it's not as though that's any stranger.

[A subtle shift of his head, Izunia's eyebrows going up. Part of him is surprised that they would have already gotten to the 'matching tattoos' stage already, but on the other hand...

Well, Ardyn probably wouldn't think him much for ink, either.]

Is this the point where I say 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' and then Ardyn mocks me for the innuendo for twenty minutes?

Oh, he'll likely not recognize it; the organization as it is now wasn't established until much more recently. And as for innuendo, I assure you I am not the one you need to worry about.

[But Ardyn shrugged, pulling his scarf off and turning to show a small sigil in black, low on the back of his neck.]

[Points.] That, by across my back, cuz I'm not a fucking weenie. [He's also not covered in scars, but he would like to keep the tone of all this upbeat thanks.]

Sooooo you got some too? Like brother like...brother. Twin...brother.

...It's familiar, actually, but I can't say I can place it. Something from Regis' reign?

[Hey guys you realize that a Glaive upright wore the ring to activate the Wall at one point, right.

In answer to Church's question, Izunia shrugs his shirt casually into the Armiger. There's a set of black cracks at the base of his sternum, over the heart, and from there, a group of birds flies up towards his collarbone - eleven crows.]

Just the one.

It's the mark of the modern Kingsglaive, yes. Several of us have i--

[?????]

When the hell did you get that?

[Well Church apparently doesn't know a lot of things, but also he doesn't understand your god damn magic so.]

Dude. That's sweet as hell. Kinda hipster but I'm not gonna judge.

...After.

[There's no need to say after what. There's only one event in their lives that can really be explained so well in just one word.]

Nine for silver, ten for gold -

...

[Ardyn glanced away, wrapping his scarf back around his neck and fidgeting with it as he leaned on Church's shoulder.]

Eleven for a secret to never be told.

You guys and your stupid fucking rhyming mystical bullshit. Okay. I got a fucking question. [And he might wrap an arm back around Ardyn pretty tight.] You literally took over his life after the whole tried to kill him, didn't take, shoved him in a shitty stone prison, also didn't take, etc.

Why?

I mean--I find it really hard to believe that people didn't know about the twin brothers, and if one got all daemonified and cast out, then...like, why lie about which brother you are? Fucking why not go oh, well, Ardyn got fucked by the gods, time for Izunia to be king, bitches? Kinda how monarchies usually work.

[Honestly he expected that question a long time ago. The dress shirt flicks back into being in a flash of blue, and Izunia adjusts the collar to delay answering.]

...Because Ardyn was right when he called me a coward.

[He takes a deep breath and does not elaborate.]

'Izunia' didn't deserve to be remembered with all the respect that I knew the Founder King would gain, the near-worship as the beginning of the Lucian line. 'Ardyn,' who gave up everything he was trying to heal and protect the people, did.

[Ardyn went rigid at Church's side, putting an arm around his waist as well as if to momentarily stop either of them from launching across the room and throwing a punch.]

And did Gilgamesh abandon 'Ardyn' immediately, or did he just-...

[...]

-or did he just abandon me?

[Good, because Church can't warp, but he's tempted to do the next best thing and go break his fucking nose.]

Get rightly fucked, scrublord, how did people react when they found out 'Ardyn' suddenly couldn't heal for shit?

Most blamed it on the grief, or that actually taking the throne changed the power somehow. I planted a few rumors to encourage the latter and avoided ever answering the question directly.

[Politics! He's a liar with good hair, what did you expect?]

...He left me. Me, specifically. He was the only person I trusted to help with 'Ardyn' and he never approved of the idea - just didn't know what to do about you and the Scourge any more than I did. Once I could pull the deception off without help, he told me exactly where I could stuff the entire thing and left.

...

[Ardyn didn't say anything, though some small amount of tension left him at that. He wasn't sure if that was comforting or not; it didn't help the initial abandonment, but perhaps it would have been worse if the real Ardyn was the only twin deserted.]

Why not let someone else be king? Fuck it, and fuck prophecy. Your gods already had a bitchfit of a war that, y'know, fucked everything up. It ever occur to you maybe they were wrong?

Not until it was far too late to change anything.

[And, before either of them asks - ]

Ignis, at Altissa.

[This will mean things to Ardyn, anyway.]

So the adviser knew more than I thought, did he? I should have realized you had as much of a hand in that as the others.

[Sighing, he gestured to Church with his right hand to indicate the ring he was wearing.]

In summary, there have been two not of Lucian blood to wear this and control its power. To do so, one must be judged by the souls of past kings. Including him. And the last person to do so may or may not have used its power to fight me and live.

The ring you won't let me wear because you're still afraid it's gonna light me the hell on fire.

Of those who were unworthy to wear it, the lightest any of them got off was Ravus, and we still took his arm. Of the worthy, Ignis is the only one to have lived. It's not something to be done lightly - even if the fact that I exist bodily indicates that its power is probably spent.

[He shrugs and fixes Ardyn with something of an 'are you kidding me look.]

Ardyn, dear brother - you warped into his face. Surely you didn't think that went unnoticed.

I was planning on killing him but that certainly went south in a godsdamned hurry--and tell him why he doesn't get to wear it!

[POINTING AT CHURCH like the 2000 year old child he is]

We're like five hundred billion lightyears and actual years from your stupid doomed crystal anyway, and if it was still connected, you'd have lit up like a Christmas tree, so it's not gonna do anything to me!

...Technically, he's very much still of the blood, and if there are no kings in the ring to judge, it'll let any Lucis Caelum wear it by default. The Crystal rejected him for the Scourge, not for any of his other, numerous, unquestionably-Ardyn questionable traits.

By the same token, it'll burn anyone who isn't of the line, because there's no dead kings to tell it no.

...Probably.

[This is his best guess, here.]

In other words, I have marginally less chance of getting set on fire, while you have a one-hundred-percent-absolute-certainty of blowing the fuck up if this damn thing ever works again.

Idiot.

[beat]

What the hell do you mean 'unquestionably-Ardyn questionable traits'?!

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