At least they are less tedious than the other so-called people from that broken world--those overeager twins who recently showed up, for example--but some things really are best in smaller doses!
[He sighed again.]
Especially as that partial soul they're all parading about once belonged to a dear friend of mine. How many strange faces am I to see imposed over top of it?
[ It took him a time, but he soon found something intertested - and amusing - enough on the network to bend to his efforts. Fortunately for him, the others involved didn't seem to mind that it had taken him a few days to find it. Not Noctis, certainly. ]
Here we go! Incoming link, my dearly beloved.
[ Aaaand boop! Apparetly, Noctis is now under the impression that they are dating. Ardyn opened up the conversation so that Emet-Selch could read it too. ]]
[ He laughed at the response. Trust Emet-Selch to be as amused by something as petty and small as this... just like Ardyn himself. Ah, you found amusement where you could, as the years marched on. ]
Yes, that's my dear brother's descendant. He's a good boy at heart, really. [ Ardyn hated him. And yet he didn't just hate him. No, that would be too easy. There was that irritatingly human part of him that felt for the boy, for his circumstances, and the ill fortune that had him be born to the family and the role that he had been.
But that was all a bit too much for this silliness.
Besides, it wasn't like Emet-Selch hadn't felt it all in his mind. ]
You can see why I can't restrain myself from tormenting him so!
Oh, I doubt he'll think too much about it. Somehow, pretending that I'm a completely asexual being seems to be how he's justified my existence here. [ And if he could have lived like that here, he likely would have. Sex was entertaining enough, but it wasn't what he was focused on, and if it wasn't a perfect way to generate Chroma he likely wouldn't have bothered seeking out partners.
Still, he did enjoy what he had with Emet-Selch. Midna and Grimm were there, too, but the former was a more emotional, platonic intimacy, and the latter a strictly mutual use. Emet-Selch mingled the two, likely because of what they'd seen of each other.
He wondered how it would feel to daemonify him. What would he know, what would he feel? Would he, too, become an adherent of this Zodiark? Or would the Starscourge eat even that?
Things to think of another time, perhaps. ]
So, naturally, at any moment I can bring you up, I shall. No need to worry!
Ah, the lies youths will tell themselves about their elders... Some things really never change.
[ If only that applied to more things... Ah, but this was hardly the time for waxing maudlin. Ardyn had called on him to lift his own spirits, after all. And though he was hardly qualified, being himself so hollowed out, he owed the man the courtesy of the pretense. ]
I am most gratified to hear that you will keep me in mind. I assure you, I would do you the same courtesy, were i to find myself in a similar position.
You never really have told me about your own family. Near as estranged as mine, or so I understand. [ He didn't really want to know, but it was only fair game. If he got to use Emet-Selch to horrify one of his, then Emet-Selch could use him to scandalize one of his.
Well, the grandson, most likely. There had been some tiny affection for the son, and the great-grandson had been an utter lunatic, if the memories he had seen were true. ]
I assure you, I will be your disgustingly attentive partner when you need one to horrify them.
[ In Ardyn's experience, people like that were excessively dull. There was no greater scope to their single-mindedness. Whatever the great-grandson had inherited through his soul from Emet-Selch, it hadn't been expressed well. The undying conviction to Zodiark at least had merit, and the sad tale of a world sundered into fourteen pieces, with you one as the only remaining complete beings, at least gave a noble sort of tragedy to the whole thing.
Just charging down target after target to find something to challenge was all but animal, like a rutting male looking for rival suitors to better display his tusks.
He gave a sympathetic tut. ]
Ah, such a good thing we've learned not to pin our hopes on the young, isn't it? What's that old phrase... 'if you want something done right...'
Quite so. I even had to come back from my feigned death to take the reins back from my poor grandson. And Zenos could not even manage not to die before his time, short as that was anyway. The last I saw of him was merely his corpse, borrowed by one of my colleagues.
What a terribly discourteous colleague you had! [ Presumably there had been no love lost there; a mad dog wasn't mourned when it was put down, blood relative or not. ] The polite thing to have done would have been at least give you some kind of downpayment for your work in making the vessel.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[He sighed again.]
Especially as that partial soul they're all parading about once belonged to a dear friend of mine. How many strange faces am I to see imposed over top of it?
Ugh! Ardyn, do distract me with something.
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Give me a moment.
[ It took him a time, but he soon found something intertested - and amusing - enough on the network to bend to his efforts. Fortunately for him, the others involved didn't seem to mind that it had taken him a few days to find it. Not Noctis, certainly. ]
Here we go! Incoming link, my dearly beloved.
[ Aaaand boop! Apparetly, Noctis is now under the impression that they are dating. Ardyn opened up the conversation so that Emet-Selch could read it too. ]]
There we are.
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Why, Ardyn, I am so touched that you should consider me so!
[He allowed amusement to lighten his tone.]
And that scalawag must be your nephew, however-many times removed. He seems rather lively.
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Yes, that's my dear brother's descendant. He's a good boy at heart, really. [ Ardyn hated him. And yet he didn't just hate him. No, that would be too easy. There was that irritatingly human part of him that felt for the boy, for his circumstances, and the ill fortune that had him be born to the family and the role that he had been.
But that was all a bit too much for this silliness.
Besides, it wasn't like Emet-Selch hadn't felt it all in his mind. ]
You can see why I can't restrain myself from tormenting him so!
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[Much as he would never set Ardyn against any of Hydaelyn's chosen, or vice-versa. It would simply not do.]
Ah, but this mean I am to be the subject of family gossip, now? How gratifying.
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Still, he did enjoy what he had with Emet-Selch. Midna and Grimm were there, too, but the former was a more emotional, platonic intimacy, and the latter a strictly mutual use. Emet-Selch mingled the two, likely because of what they'd seen of each other.
He wondered how it would feel to daemonify him. What would he know, what would he feel? Would he, too, become an adherent of this Zodiark? Or would the Starscourge eat even that?
Things to think of another time, perhaps. ]
So, naturally, at any moment I can bring you up, I shall. No need to worry!
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[ If only that applied to more things... Ah, but this was hardly the time for waxing maudlin. Ardyn had called on him to lift his own spirits, after all. And though he was hardly qualified, being himself so hollowed out, he owed the man the courtesy of the pretense. ]
I am most gratified to hear that you will keep me in mind. I assure you, I would do you the same courtesy, were i to find myself in a similar position.
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Well, the grandson, most likely. There had been some tiny affection for the son, and the great-grandson had been an utter lunatic, if the memories he had seen were true. ]
I assure you, I will be your disgustingly attentive partner when you need one to horrify them.
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[Though not more so than he was, with that brief, misguided hope he's held.]
That would be rather fun, should my grandson, Varis, make an appearance. He would be properly scandalized! Ah, but Zenos... [He heaved a heavy sigh.]
One did worry about that boy. All he ever managed to care about was his Hunt.
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Just charging down target after target to find something to challenge was all but animal, like a rutting male looking for rival suitors to better display his tusks.
He gave a sympathetic tut. ]
Ah, such a good thing we've learned not to pin our hopes on the young, isn't it? What's that old phrase... 'if you want something done right...'
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[He tutted.]
So it goes, with that kind.
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[ He winked at him. ]