isleofavalon | [open] SOMNUS & YOU, catch-all dec

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[open] SOMNUS & YOU, catch-all dec

WHO: somnus & you
️ WHAT: Quests and TDM prompts.
WHEN: around Dec
WHERE: Everywhere!
WARNINGS: none so far!

Gliten and Glitonea: Whisper Bridge

[ You may be crossing the bridge, lured by the voices beyond the edges of the rope, nearly stepping towards your brutal doom, when suddenly--

A hand grips the back of your collar, holding you from falling off, and after a moment, he pulls you back to the bridge. While both you and him may be blindfolded for this task, he seems keen on assisting anyone across. Somnus' voice, low and grim, may not be the most encouraging to some; however, it is resilience that hardens his tone, not despair. ]

False hope tempts, insidious. Continue forward.

Avalon Crossing: Snowy Shack Paradise

[ After placing the snowball outside of his residence for the night, he receives the following request for a snow-shack the next morning: home with ancient roman bath theme. Somnus is neither and architect nor familiar with what "roman" is, but he is quite the ancient, dead man, and he is someone who is familiar with the aesthetic of how baths ought appear (whether or not they're "ancient", thank you very much).

Find Somnus constructing the interior of a snow-shack that contains ionic pillars of ice and marble-esque snow-and-ice flooring. Currently, he is working on a pseudo-mosaic just outside, using his kinetic power to meticulously carve a tessellation of stars into the wall. When he hears you approach, Somnus pauses in his work, turning to regard you with a stern, cautioning-- ] Hold.

[ --and gestures to the ground beneath your feet. The steps leading up to the structure are iced over. While it gives the steps a glossy, refined look, it is very, very slippery and dangerous to those unaware of their footing. ]

Isle of Dreams, pt 2

[ The power of the fertile isle yields figments of imagination to come to life, invasive and intrusive as they are. Should you be venturing into the fog that veils the hills, you will see a few insidious hints of someone's subconscious-- or dreams, or long, dead history-- recreated bit by bit. One white sylleblossom spouts along the path, then another, then two more in a cluster: they are pure as pearls, and with petals as soft as snow-made-silk. Soon, they'll be numerous enough to coat an entire field.

Somnus is there, but he's standing still among the flowers. His gaze remains forward, expression as hard as marble, jaw set. Follow his line of sight, and it's obvious just what he's so focused upon:

A woman stands within the field of white flowers. Clad in an immaculate white, her back remains turned to both Somnus and you. In fact, should you approach and attempt to see her visage, the illusion will appear as if her back always remains turned to you. ]

[Closed] Oo-nye-doo? Quest To Ritsuka

[ It has been a few weeks since their prior encounter, and this one occurs much like one before, a coincidental meeting in a field of snow, with him hunting with his great eagle-owl pet. Only this time, he's riding on horseback.

The eagle-owl-- still nameless-- drops a snowhare by her.

At least the bird is polite enough to not drop it on her this time. ]

Wildcard

[ Have an idea? PM this account, drinksteapots, or Jade294#6977! ]

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Though initially Ardyn's idly curious, hoping for some amusement in this opportunity to root around in someone else's consciousness and find their weaknesses... his good mood quickly disappears as soon as the sylleblossoms begin to sprout up under his feet. It's not hard to guess whose mind this might be, and now instead of amusement there's the sheer annoyance that once again he has to be reminded of the past, that once again he has to deal with his brother.

He picks up his pace, moving like a caged animal, wanting to put an end to this quicker - but once the field opens up before him, Ardyn stops in his tracks.

For a few moments, there is nothing but silence. Then his breath returns, calm and even, the usual expression of aloof amusement on his features and a small, wry smile on his lips as he watches Aera's figure. How very, very sweet, both her apparition and this field of beautiful, delicate, fragile flowers.

He starts to stride forward, a dark shape among the white, leaving a darker trail as well, stems bent, petals crushed underfoot and trodden into the soil. There is no obvious malice to it - after all, how can one hate something that so obviously has no significance? There's the soft whisper of steel as Ardyn draws his sword, moving closer to Aera and paying no heed to Somnus's figure in the distance, then leisurely raises it...

... to bring it down in a wide sweep across Aera's back, in much the same movement that Somnus had originally killed her with. If there is anything Ardyn feels in the moment, it's the regret at the knowledge that this is merely a dream and he is still denied his revenge - and a twisted excitement at finding out how it must have felt for Somnus to kill Aera. If this is his brother's dream, then perhaps he can finally know what it was like, sinking the blade into her flesh, opening up skin and bone, warm blood down his hands, the metallic tang of it in the air.

Such is plan of the Bladekeeper, that wrath drives him towards vengeance. If there is no other proof that the man before him is no longer who he once was, it is this. Yet, despite the thorough execution that takes place before his eyes, there is the thought some part of his soul can be saved, so long as the Light is restored.

The flowers onto which the body collapses are spattered with red, and the bright pigment spreads like a disease onto the others, slowly at first, then all at once. Within seconds, the whole field is blood.

Somnus cannot imagine Aera anything but dead, and Ardyn has put her in her rightful grave-- in the same manner that Somnus had, two thousand years ago.

"You remember."

Curiously, Ardyn nudges one of the nearby blooms with his foot - is the blood merely a change of colour? Or are the flowers now truly soaked in it? He does not quite look up at Somnus before replying, instead turning his attention to his blade, watching Aera's blood drip off it with acute interest.

"Oh, I may be older than you, Brother, but my memory is still quite good. Do not think I would go senile that quickly."

Somnus cannot imagine Aera as anything but dead. They both know that she is.

“Brother…”

It is too late. Decades ago solidified the fact that is is too late. The moment they had stepped into the throne room it was too late— the younger of them saw to that. Millennia then passed both slowly and quickly at once. The world became increasingly engulfed in petty squabbles, all while the Scourge remained to be truly eradicated. Now the Night has come.

His voice lifts. A gamble ensues, an offering:

“Do you wish to bury her?”

For the briefest of moments, there's a certain blankness to Ardyn, as though he hasn't heard the question - or perhaps as though he had to struggle with something. Then his answer comes, a lazy drawl as he still inspects his blade.

"Whatever for? Leave her here. She ought to be glad about her body feeding the flowers."

There is an edge to his smirk, as though he does find some perverse pleasure in the thought.

His lips part, then press together in silence. The isle of dreams carries that silence like a march, one beat, two beats, three, as the petals of the flower wilt with the turgidness of blood.

He steps forward.

All is heavy.

“She deserves better.”

(Didn’t Ardyn?)

Again there is that blankness of Ardyn shutting away whatever feelings those words might bring up in him - and then his lips split in a wide grin, deranged fire in his eyes as he gives an exceedingly elaborate bow, all the while keeping his gaze on Somnus.

"Be my guest, then."

He does step back from Aera's corpse as though truly intending to let Somnus bury her - and yet there is that kind of tension to him, barely controlled rage hidden behind a mask of sarcastic politeness.

Ardyn takes one step back, and Somnus moves forward. Only when he approaches the corpse close enough does his focus fall, for the first time this meeting, from his brother to the body. There it lies, the body of the oracle. If there were signs of the scourge upon her, she would have been burned. Mangled and fleshly bleeding, a burial is her fate. Bones will become gravesoil to the blossoms around them, if this illusion is to last.

His brother had not been there for her actual burial. Neither was he there when the next of the Oracle's line was acknowledged by the Astral. The reason for this absence lies upon the shoulders upon the one who saw to his imprisonment.

Somus kneels and reaches out to the corpse, taking her body into his arms. His expression remains as flat and hardened as granite.

"Will you stay for her burial?"

Ardyn takes a couple more steps back as Somnus approaches, folding his arms and seemingly dispassionately watching him kneel down to pick up the corpse. Ardyn is not so bad at faking the indifference, but there is still a tension to him. A little more, just a little more...

"A burial, hmm? That would be quite grand."

And once he judges Somnus to be distracted enough, Ardyn lunges forward again, bringing his sword down in a slash. Though Somnus was not entirely wrong about there being some vestiges of the original Ardyn left, his hatred, multiplied by the Scourge's influence, snuffs those brief moments of other emotions so quickly.

Illusions manifested from one's subconscious captivate in a way that make the one responsible for them vulnerable. Somnus, effected as such, perhaps having entirely underestimated-- or outright denied-- the visions' power over him, is not at all prepared.

Steel slices through the thick wool of his cloak and robes to pierce into flesh before he can defend, and it's by the countless years of practice of phasing and evading that he just barely manages to prevent a more lethal cut. Nevertheless, tossed from the arc of Ardyn's blade, blood splatters onto the red petals of the sylleblossoms, and Somnus stumbles back, dropping the Oracle's body between them.

"Brother--"

There's a bid to stop in his tone.

Ardyn steps closer again, shaking the drops of Somnus's blood from his blade, unmasked murderous glee on his features. The pleading is like music to him; to be in charge as he was meant to, to hear his brother beg for his pathetic life... It's almost everything Ardyn's dreamed of. He raises the sword again, grinning - no, he is not going to stop, there is nothing here to stop him, no weakness, no chains, no solitude that Somnus had sentenced him to--

But this is an isle that brings everything to reality - dreams, hopes, wishes... memories. And the brief moment of remembrance is enough.

"Wh--"

Ardyn makes a choked sound as chains - the chains - whir out of nowhere, blindly striking him through, the hooks embedding themselves in his flesh again. He drops his sword as the pierced hand is dragged back unceremoniously, forcing Ardyn into the same position he'd spent two thousand years in. Perhaps one of the hooks has gone through a lung, because the black blood of the Scourge bubbles up on his lips as Ardyn snarls.

"You!"

Whether genuinely or merely because of the overwhelming rage, Ardyn doesn't seem to realize that what is happening is not Somnus's doing, but his own. Stuck in the past, Somnus had called him before, and it's rather ironic that Ardyn does find himself literally bound by his memories, unaware of it, struggling against the chains and growling like an enraged beast.

An dangerous isle of dreams and illusions it may be, the effects of it are reflected of one's mind, making it all the more real. Somnus, holding pressure upon the wound to his shoulder, watches as chains manifest and pierce into the other's flesh. Recognition flashes across his features of where they pierce through old scars. This is the torture he had sentenced for his brother, the very same. He could leave him here, just as he did back then. This world makes them mortal. Wounds like those will bleed and strangle the victim, and with the Scourge dormant and powers suppressed, there is little doubt that Ardyn would succumb to it.

Somnus has been here a year, and Ardyn has been here for half of it. Being at their necks, of tension and strife and battling one day after the other, leaving each other exhausted and wounded when there is no external reason, no fate above their heads in this realm-- it has sustained them both to this day. When they return to their Star, fate will resume at full-force, placing them back onto the path to march to fulfil the Prophecy, when their blood will be no more.

Yet in this world, is this all? Is this status quo the same they must endure in a realm blinded to the Bladekeeper?

"Restore the Light... and free my brother from his curse." The last words he had spoken to the True King flit through his mind.

Their fate lies with their Star. But here, where his brother does not spew the Scourge, where he is mortal...

Somnus moves forward, calling his blade into his hand to strike down one of the chains.

Though the Scourge is dormant, the devastation it's wrought on Ardyn's mind remains. And now, caught halfway between memories and reality, with no way to keep his inner balance that usually lets Ardyn at least pretend to be human... If he could still think, he would find it strange - and infuriating - that Somnus would move to break his chains. But he doesn't think, daemonic hatred drowning out everything, and the only thing Ardyn is aware of is that he has some more freedom of movement now. Blindly, he makes a grab for his sword again, scrabbling for the hilt even as the remaining chains dig deeper still.

Closing his fingers over the hilt gives Ardyn some feeling of control, at least, a chance to start thinking. Some rationality returns, and because of it he doesn't immediately lunge at Somnus, but tries to hack off the rest of the chains to give himself room to move -- but once he's (reasonably) free he lashes out with another broad sweep of his sword. Yet fortunately for Somnus, Ardyn's returned mortality does play against him: despite the fury he puts into the swing, it misses; a heavy blade is complicated enough to wield in normal circumstances, and even more so with a pierced arm and injured torso. Feeling himself vulnerable, Ardyn shrinks back, half-crouched in defense and exhaustion, still growling like a beast, the black ichor of the Scourge oozing from his wounds. His eyes do not leave Somnus's figure, and even through the pain he tries to hold his blade at the ready to deflect whatever attack might be coming. A sad sight in its way, and a far call from the compassionate healer of the people he once was.

Somnus, even while injured, easily side-steps the swing of Ardyn's blade, but only just enough that he's out of reach from a follow-up strike. Still applying pressure to his own wound, he remains standing there, watching the other as he partly crouches into the blood-red field of flowers.

Long ago, there had been hopes for the both of them to rule as brothers. Then one betrayed, murdered the other, and imprisoned him, and now the other wishes to destroy all that has become of their family and more. It would be too simple to retell it as Somnus being the one responsible for making a beast out of someone who was once a man. In the millennia that followed, he's realized it's the opposite: the cold-blooded monster that continues on this path had been him.

There is nothing that will make up for what he's done, aside from all of Lucis being destroyed and every single one of the Line erased from their Star. Still--

"You are not immortal. You need treatment."

True enough to Somnus's words, Ardyn feels his vision start to swim. How inconvenient mortal bodies are... Though this is far from the only altercation he's had with his brother in Avalon, it's the first one in which Ardyn is injured to such a degree (even if not by Somnus's hand). Kinetic and blood magic have made up for other uses of the powers he'd been robbed of, but they do not save him succumbing to wounds - even if he were to use his own blood as a weapon, the loss of it would still get him in the end.

... Is that really how it is to be? Would he be granted his rest in some distant world, away from the land and the gods he hates? If the others succeed in restoring the flow of time, what would happen to Ardyn himself? Would he remain here or be pulled back onto Eos, forced to play his accursed role again?

Bitterness, anger, despair, exhaustion - all those feelings that such thoughts bring Ardyn pushes away, thrusting his sword into the ground to prop himself up on it. Even in this state, he'd be damned again if he kneeled, and his answer to Somnus comes with a low, derisive laugh.

"The treatment... of your blade, I've no doubt. But why... bother, dear Somnus? Just leave... me here... to bleed out. Not the first... time."

Despite the bravado, even the little speech is costing Ardyn quite enough, his breath growing shallower and the pauses longer as he tries to gather enough air to keep talking. It likely won't be long until he faints.

Why, indeed, when he had exiled him and left him within a prison. If Ardyn is able to keep his consciousness for a few moments more, he'll see that the question causes a crack in his brother's expression, one of guilt.

Ultimately, Somnus gives no answer, but instead simply waits for his brother to fall. As soon as his body hits the floor, the sylleblossoms disperses, petals lifting into the air then vanishing into crystalline, phantom fragments. Even the Oracle's corpse does not remain. The illusion over, the isle appears far more barren.

Somnus crouches at Ardyn's side, not saying a word. With the aide of kinetic magic, he carries him and returns to Camelot.

[ Continued here. ]

Edited 2022-02-07 15:16 (UTC)

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[open] SOMNUS & YOU, catch-all dec

Isle of Dreams :) CW: murder... fantasy... things.......

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