izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

you will pry twinzunia from my cold dead hands let's do this

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[scourgingstars]

What-?

[He turned at the voice, rubbing a hand against hazel eyes like that would clear up what he was looking at. Who...was that? Of course there was just one other person in the world who looked like him, but he was so much older--that wasn't right, Ardyn was the elder twin by five minutes that he never let his little brother live down.]

...Izunia?

[founderinglight]

[Oh gods he's real. Or real enough, enough to -

Sorry Ardyn you are just going to get hugged and clung to right now oh god his sweet twin brother is here -

Some shit has apparently gone the fuck DOWN by the time you're thirty five, Ardyn.]

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

[The words are almost muffled into Ardyn's shoulder.]

[scourgingstars]

I-?!

[A lanky and awkward frame struggled not to get knocked off balance, and in a split second Ardyn dropped any and all concerns about an impossible age difference. Without a doubt, this was his brother--the only course of action, then, was to hug him as tightly as he could and gently push messy red hair into something resembling order. (Weird, he thought--it wasn't like Izunia to leave his hair such a mess.)]

Now, now--it's alright. Who is it that's upset you so? Tell me, and I'll see to it they pay for having been so cruel to my favorite brother.

just uses this icon the ENTIRE THREAD b/c he's never letting go

[founderinglight]

[Oh Ardyn. The offer draws a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob out of Izunia, who simply clings to the warm and alive brother in front of him.

Healthy. Living. Surely a dream.

The only reason he could be the present Ardyn's favorite brother is that there are no others in competition for the title.]

Forgive me, I... I'm so sorry. I'm such a fool, and I am so sorry.

[It isn't this Ardyn that he should be apologizing to, and yet it is. The other wouldn't even allow him to get this close, anyway, and so Izunia drinks up the physical contact, drinks up Ardyn's genuine care and affection, like a man dying of thirst in a desert.

Who has upset Izunia? No one Ardyn can make pay. Only the gods, and Izunia himself.]

two can play that game

[scourgingstars]

Ssh, ssh...calm down, everything is fine. I am right here, and fool or not you are my brother. I'll not allow anything to hurt you. Tell me what's wrong, Izunia.

two accounts enter, one icon leaves

[founderinglight]

You idiot.

[It's the pained amusement of 'of course you would be like this.']

Hush for a minute and let me protect you for once. I can't...

[Oh, this is so painful. Where does he even begin?]

I can't sit by knowing you destroyed yourself trying to carry that burden alone.

[scourgingstars]

What are you...talking about?

[founderinglight]

[Izunia doesn't let go, but he does pull back a little so that Ardyn can actually see his face.

There are definitely tear tracks, but it's also the familiar Izunia face of 'how many cups of coffee have you had in the past 24 hours' that inevitably leads to a lecture on how Ardyn needs to take better care of himself.]

...Have the healing powers manifested for you, yet?

[That's the first and worst concern. Have the gods already put his brother on the path to destruction?]

[scourgingstars]

What relevance does that have to anything?

[Ardyn smiled gently, in the way he often did when trying to brush aside concerns like how he'd probably forgotten to eat, or that he'd been working three days straight. He reached out and brushed a light hand under his brother's eyes, forcing back concern and confusion over their obvious difference in age.]

Of course. Why, are you hurt?

[founderinglight]

[The flash of despair that comes across Izunia's face at the confirmation ought to be answer enough.

Is he hurt? Yes, terribly, he may as well be bleeding out. But not in a way that Ardyn can fix.]

And do you... know how exactly it is that they work?

[Take the burden for others. Of course they would be, and of course he would.]

[scourgingstars]

...

[And the half-second of silence that came before Ardyn's answer was an answer in itself.]

[Of course he knew. He'd always known.]

Why are you so troubled? Must we scrutinize the finest details of a gods-granted miracle? What matters is that it works.

[founderinglight]

[It is indeed, and the expression of pain Ardyn's words cause is answer enough in itself.]

Gods-granted, but no miracle.

[The words are quiet, and so much of Izunia's posture goes limp at that.]

There are no miracles in the world, Ardyn. Only divine set-ups and the making of tools.

[scourgingstars]

Izunia--my beloved not-so-little brother, talk to me.

[He took his brother's face gently in both hands, the gentle touch of a mechanic's rough skin not yet calloused by ten years of swinging around a greatsword.]

Tell me what is going on. What is it that's hurting you, and why you look at me this way.

[founderinglight]

[Nothing else for it but the truth, is there? Izunia closes his eyes and lets himself lean into the touch for just a moment.]

They used us, Ardyn. They used you to sweep all of the Scourge into a neat little pile and then they used me to break you into pieces and a hundred and thirteen generations of my children until they had the perfect tool to destroy it once and for all.

[He is so much older than he appears. Not so little, indeed.]

[scourgingstars]

But that's...that's impossible.

[And though he tried to laugh it off, the corners of Ardyn's smile held the slightest tremor to them.]

Come now, Izunia--if this is your idea of a joke you could stand to try harder. We would never hurt each other, not even if our very lives depended on it.

[founderinglight]

[The words are almost too much to bear and Izunia pulls him close again.]

I would never want to hurt you. Please, never doubt that. Never in all two thousand of my years...

[So very long did he believe their lies. So very long did he rally his family against the monster that took his brother.]

But we were set up from the very beginning to fall. I made one mistake in recklessness and so very many heeding the lies of the divine and I am so sorry, Ardyn.

[scourgingstars]

I know that--I trust you completely, I've no doubt you would never wish harm to befall me.

...I don't understand. I thought-...no, I am saving people. You can not expect me to believe that to be a lie--or worse, to stop entirely.

[founderinglight]

[The confidence and trust Ardyn has in him is almost worse than hatred. One burns, but the other is like shards of glass in his heart, cutting him fatally at every beat.]

I know you won't. I know.

[That's why he was the perfect tool for the job.]

But eventually, the amount of Scourge that you take into yourself will...

...It won't allow you to die, Ardyn. All of the pain and anger of the daemons trapped inside you will keep you alive for two thousand years, unable to find rest or pleasure in anything.

[scourgingstars]

...And what is it you would have me do, brother? I can not give up on this effort; if I do that, countless innocent people will die pointlessly.

[Ardyn was (for once) quiet as he answered--seeming far older than only twenty himself.]

My life is nothing, placed next to that.

[founderinglight]

Tell me. The me in your time, the one who hasn't - has yet struck the blow that will make you Accursed.

[Can he change anything? Is there even a point?]

Share your burdens with those who love you, so that we don't - so that we don't destroy each other on top of the gods destroying us. It is not your life I fear for, Ardyn, it's everything that comes after. I don't want -

[He has to stop, with a small, pained sound. It is a purely selfish wish, perhaps, something that will change nothing in the long run, and yet, and yet - ]

I don't want you to go into that darkness again thinking that I hate you.

[scourgingstars]

It is not my wish to burden him with something like that. So much is uncertain, and he worries for all of it--the elder brother's role is to carry what the younger can not.

[founderinglight]

Ardyn, I beg of you - stuff that elder brother complex up your ass for once and share your burdens.

[Izunia only ever swears when he's serious, when it's something like this.]

If you love me, then be honest and so prevent me from doing something that I will regret for literally the rest of eternity.

[scourgingstars]

If the alternative is hurting you this way, you know I will do anything to see another outcome. I'm the one who should apologize--I never would have wished for things to come to this.

[founderinglight]

You get to apologize for nothing because you did nothing to deserve what happened.

[Now shut up and accept him crying on you while squeezing you half to death.]

You didn't hurt me. I destroyed myself with my own foolishness, along with you.

[scourgingstars]

But you’re in pain all the same. So I should apologize for failing you, when I should have protected you from any such unhappiness.