izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

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

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[founderinglight]

Actually, it was, but it was designed to be used in teams of three or four. It's a training ground from the late Astral War.

[So, okay, he can afford to give you a handicap, just a bit. It's malfunctioning anyway, no surprises given its age in this memory-place.

A coil of rope and a ball of purple yarn drop out of the Armiger in twin blue flashes to land on either side of Junpei. One of those will do, right? One or the other?]

And for the record, I do not keep garbage, I keep only potentially useful items and snacks.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Like a true video game veteran, Junpei grabs the rope first, shoulders it, and then snatches the yarn too lest Izunia think he won't make use of anything he's given.

He holds it up first, though. The yarn, that is.]

What. You knit?

[He's quick to find the end and start unraveling the ball, freeing up a length of yarn to leave behind as a trail, labyrinth-style.]

Funny you call it a training ground, though. It's almost exactly the kind of thing in my world used to torture promising kids into awakening their psychic powers. But with less math. More creepy statues, though.

[Let's just start laying down this yarn.]

[founderinglight]

No. My son's wife did.

[He watches with interest, feet occasionally swinging, and also while sipping on what appears to be a glass bottle of some summoned soda.]

It was designed to hone reflexes and teamwork - the sort of thing that people needed most, if they were going to be on the front lines against daemons several times their size.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Why's it called the Astral War if you guys were fighting daemons? Hold that thought, it's going to be hard to talk and find my way up there at the same time.

[There he goes again, spooling out the yarn as he trots, watching for traps and waiting for gravity to shift again. There's got to be a way that favors cleverness over athleticism. And if not, well, now he's got a rope.

As an afterthought, he calls back:]

Or keep talking, that's fine, too! You'll make a great auditory landmark!

[founderinglight]

[Hello Junpei you have given him the chance for exposition? like he's going to turn that down?]

It's the difference between soldiers and generals. The Astrals fought each other, and humanity fought everything it had to in order to survive, until the Infernian was defeated and, so they hoped, the Scourge with him.

[He... probably doesn't need to tell Junpei what a vain hope that was, does he.

After some consideration, Izunia won't just be an auditory landmark - a bright white light, some kind of magitek something-or-other lamp, takes its place from the Armiger to stand next to him.]

According to the histories I've read, the daemons weren't even a problem until well after the war began. From everywhere His blood spilled came black tar for humanity's final pyre and so on. A plague takes time to build, even one formed of a god's curses.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Huh. Well, not always. Depends on the disease vector and type of infection and all that. Viral shit tends to go faster.

[Okay, here we go. If he ties the rope to these bars while the room's oriented this way, and then climbs down quickly once it's rolled over...

Junpei drops down next to Izunia and punches him in the face with a surprise robot arm.]

Fuck you two thousand years retroactively, Uncle Shitweasel!

1/2

[founderinglight]

[Oh the kid's good.]

Bloodborne infections tend to take a while to build, though of course they're difficult to stop once -

[founderinglight]

[WHAT THE FUCK IS IT WITH PEOPLE AND ROBOT ARMS THESE DAYS yeah hey thanks Junpei you straight up knocked him off his perch to down where you were earlier.

It's not the worst landing but it's not a great one either - he kind of hits the ground on his side and stares back up for a moment.

Ow.]

...Oh, that's going to swell.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei's turn to sit like a smug asshole and dangle his (admittedly less long and fancy) legs over the edge.]

How does that even work? Do dead people bruise, or are you some kind of immortal, too?

[He tosses what's left of the yarn ball up and down, pleased with himself. Izunia can follow the thread if he likes, or be a cheating cheater who cheats, aka a Lucis Caelum.]

[founderinglight]

Technically, the spirits of kings past persisting through the ring of the Lucii isn't living...

[Yeah no fuck you he's cheating? Just let him get up and dust himself off a little and... ouch yeah his hip is going to be feeling that. Don't get old, Junpei.

A black bladed dagger embeds itself a few paces away, and then Izunia follows, pulling himself up surprisingly well. The warp-flash is the blue of crystal-declared kings, or perhaps the blue of crystal-declared kings is Izunia's.

Either way, he resumes his seat with a wince.]

This place seems to work based on expectations of how reality works. I expect to bruise, so I probably will.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...

[Junpei glances around at the nonsense geometry of Pitioss Ruins.]

Well, I'm glad I don't come from a place expected to work like this. You got anything stronger than soda?

[Beer him up, man.]

[founderinglight]

...How strong do you want?

[He should probably not enable your bad decisions Junpei but fuck it you're Ardyn's id not his.

Anyway beer is disgusting.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Do you know how many times I was crushed by a spike cube today?

[How strong do you think he wants?]

[founderinglight]

Touche.

[Here is an entire bottle of brandy. Who needs an alcohol cupboard when you're a Lucis Caelum?]

So do I ever get your name, considering that you already know mine?

[At least, he assumes that Junpei actually knows it and is just using 'uncle shitweasel' out of deranged preference.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Hell-o.

[Okay, there's no way Junpei can finish this off by himself, but gee whiz, what a Christmas present. He's perfectly happy to introduce himself now.]

Junpei. Junpei Tenmyouji. Dad decided he'd rather take on that mouthful of a surname than carry "Izunia" around forever.

[founderinglight]

[Enjoy that, Junpei, he's going to stay sober for the time being. Not exclusively because you may need a designated warper to get out of here.

He resists the urge to comment on the matter of how he was usually the one giving piggyback rides as a child, and instead takes a sip of his soda.

It's one of those stupid fancy organic ones, for the record.

Instead, with typical Lucian morbidity - ]

I've heard it said that people only truly die when their names are spoken for the last time.

[He pauses to swirl his soda as though it were something alcoholic.]

I suppose he has every reason to want to hasten my demise, in that sense.

[He never thought he'd find that painful, of all things. And of course he's happy that Ardyn can move on, in any way, but - ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Uhhh, what? Dude, I don't think that was his reasoning at all. God damn, you guys are both morbid as hell.

[New drinking game, take a drink every time a Lucian is a fucking 2000's emo kid. Congratulations, you have died of alcohol poisoning.]

[founderinglight]

We're Lucian royalty. More to the point, we're the generation of Lucian royalty that established the black-and-gold death worship aesthetic of the kingdom.

[Okay so that was mostly Izunia, but. When your entire kingdom is created and founded on your swan song wish that one of your descendants someday manages to kill your twin brother? You get fucking morbid.]

Are you really surprised?

[misanthropicprinciple]

No, but Jesus. I've met Noct, too, and for a guy named "Night" he sure knows a lot more about lightening up than you.

[Another swig, because "black-and-gold death worship aesthetic" definitely merits that.]

He did it because he didn't want to be "Ardyn Izunia" anymore is what I meant. He couldn't go back, but he could look for a way forward. Or something.

[founderinglight]

Noctis is crafted entirely of light in a way that the rest of us could only hope to emulate. I'll have you know his grandfather was named Mors.

[It doesn't get more aesthetic than that.]

...Does it have a meaning, besides being yours?

[misanthropicprinciple]

You mean Tenmyouji?

[For some reason, that makes Junpei laugh. It's not even a mean laugh, though he was just rolling his eyes at Noctis being made of light. Lucians. Pretentious fucks, all of them.]

Hah, I'll say it does. You think your brother would settle for anything less than the most ridiculous video game surname available to him? Come on, it's like you don't even know him.

[founderinglight]

[Please enlighten him, Junpei, it's an utterly foreign tongue.]

Oh, I'm sure I can imagine. After all, our given names were certainly more than fitting for our fates.

[misanthropicprinciple]

I dunno that mine's fitting for my fate, exactly.

[He holds his hand out again and wags his fingers. Gimme, gimme. Someone's used to taking advantage of someone else's infinite bag of holding.]

It'll be easier to explain if I write it, too. Japanese has kind of a funky morpheme system, seeing it'll demonstrate something about how it works.

[founderinglight]

[Goodness, how demanding.

Fine he does in fact have a notebook or two. And a fancy ass fountain pen.

He'll elaborate while you fuss with it.]

At least back in our era, it was family tradition for children to be named for when they were born. We were birthed at sunset, thus - 'Ardyn,' for the burning color of the setting sun, and 'Izunia' for the first stars.

[There's a faint smile on his face, bitter as it is.]

Considering that he would eventually take the sun from the sky entirely and I would be the one to spawn the line of kings, like stars in the night, that held out until the Dawn... More fitting than our parents could ever know.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Really? 'Junpei' just means 'pure plain.' Super common boy's name where I come from.

[He's set down the brandy to write as he talks in surprisingly neat strokes, even with the fountain pen. As practiced as if he's done this before, he writes the kanji vertically and then adds the romanized pronunciation in parentheses:

天 ('ten')
明 ('myou')
寺 ('ji' or 'tera')

He flips the pen over and points with the end to each character in turn.]

That first one, ten, that's 'heaven' or 'sky.' The line at the top represents how it covers the earth below. Then the next one combines the characters for sun and moon together into one. So, the sun and the moon in the sky. Tenmyou.

[He points to the last one.]

In my name, this last one's pronounced ji and it means 'temple.' But that character's got another reading in other words. Tera. [Junpei smiles wryly at Izunia, pushing the pen and notebook back to him.] You know. Like 'terra' in your language. So sun, moon, earth, and sky, all lined up in one name.

He didn't even know what it meant when he asked if he could use it. It was at least, like, the third funniest thing I've experienced in the moments before a dramatic life-or-death escape.