THE REGENT'S ADDRESS [OPEN TO ALL]

[aionpcs]

[It comes on fast, once the Regent has your spirit in their hold. Around you, you may see other Aions stumble in the same moment, as if shaken by the same tectonic motion. An inexorable darkness claws at your senses, and you have only a few moments, hard fought, to reposition yourself so that you don't simply drop to the ground when it overtakes you. It has similarities to Communion, to the way another entity's thoughts and words reach out to your mind, but by the same token it's entirely foreign.

This presence is not like another person, it is like a raging, screaming cacophony that drowns out everything else in its path. Whether you be Kenoma or Pleroma, the Regent's presence in this metaphysical realm is staggering. To the Pleroma, though, it also feels caustic, as if the movement of their aura is enough to erode your own, with time.

Gradually, a new world forms. Unlike other Communions, where you are ultimately grounded in reality, here you can been dragged to what seems to be its own distinct psychic realm. A vast, void-filled courtroom, where only the throne at its front has a defined form. Around you, you see shadows of other people, other Aions, that have summoned along with you... but for the moment they seem spectral and unclear, their identities obscured by the realm's aggressive focus on its master.

The Regent sits at their throne, their body swathed in dark fabrics that drift and flutter like smoke. They have no face to be seen, only a faceted silver mask, without any markings or the barest indication of what might be beneath it. Their size is indistinct, maybe a bit taller than you are. They at first sit reclined, but straight up as their 'guests' arrive.]

It's been a long time coming, my subjects.

[At first, they are the only one that can be heard. Though you feel as if you have some physical presence here, a shadowy body of your own, if you attempt to speak no sound emerges.]

To the Pleroma: well done surviving thus far. Granted, I feel as if my Kenoma have made things easy for you. How strange, that most of you were allowed to wander a city within my empire without recourse. Able to summon that wretched creature to your side, even.

I hope you've enjoyed yourself, in the time you've had, because this will be no more. You've spread your infection in Venera, in Godsblood, and it is only necessary that these wounds be cleansed by the touch of the Kenoma. Your presence gives the people ideas... ideas that would disrupt the fragile peace they've come to enjoy, after so many years of suffering. As a kindness, I will only trim the vine, rather than burn the vineyard. What Venerans have taken up your cause, I will see shorn from my empire. And in Godsblood... an example will be made, as of the Sovereign's moon.

My Kenoma will do this for me. Fight them, if you want. But know that I am no longer asking for your fealty. I am demanding it.

[As if opening their court for questions, you will find yourself more able to act. Those that speak or take action will find their physical forms taking shape, standing in the court as people rather than shadows. If you want to question the Regent, now is the time to do so.

OOC: This post is a free for all! We will try to response as the Regent to people who directly engage with them, but you are also allowed to threadjack and interact with each other if you like. Please note that we will not be responding to tag ins done later than the 12th.]

Comments

[tohell]

[ Go ahead and ask away. His answers would simply be, "A friend" and "Not this." While there's truth in the fact that, during his some seven hundred years alive, J hasn't been able to successfully open his heart to many. It would still be a lie to say the demon would feel nothing at all upon learning that Barnaby's plans for future disobedience earned him a permanent expulsion from this war and existence itself. ]

Is that what he would do? Your Kotetsu. [ J remembers with frightening clarity that moment during their joint Innocence infection, when Barnaby's love had poured into his body like the breaking of a dam. Would a man worth that kind of immeasurable adoration simply abandon Barnaby in his most desperate hour? The sort of person who would appeal to his fellow Kenoma's sense of justice and righteousness, Hell- someone who could even measure up to Barnaby's expectations, that wouldn't be a man who could look on and expect Barnaby to fend for himself in dire straights. So perhaps using that sore spot, a dead man loved and lost, might remind Barnaby of what he's asking here: For J to potentially watch him orchestrate his own destruction. ]

Would you really expect him to leave you, to face this alone? [ Barnaby's action are so self-destructive that J can't help but point it out in the vaguest terms. His decisions are setting things up to pit Barnaby against the world at large, unless he can so easily assimilate into the very faction he's been working to destroy these last few months. He has serious doubts the Pleroma have such short memories, or are ready and willing to trust one of the legion orchestrating their destruction. The faction his mindset more readily aligns with could spell his doom just as easily as theirs.

A shard makes bodily death less of a lasting concern, but all it takes is the destruction of that soul-bound crystal left behind, and Barnaby won't be coming back to rattle the hornet's nest a second time. ] I sincerely doubt it.

So why are you so dead set on believing everyone else should let you down? [ In this crucial moment, Barnaby would do well to not conflate J's inability to change the other man's stubborn mind with the assumption he's just going to kick back, sit on his hands and doing nothing. He's not an altruistic being by any means, but J is too selfish a creature to simply let what he likes senselessly fall to ruin. ]

[hundredpower]

Kotetsu... [He whispers the name under his breath, eyes averted. He would be one of the idiots shouting at the Regent, if not charging in to outright attack them if Barnaby didn't stop him, and that's probably why this is all so hard to watch. There are many in this room who are more heroic than he is in this moment, and it would be an insult to Kotetsu's memory not to help them when his leash is loosened enough that he can do so.

And yes, Kotetsu would never abandon him. He always reined in Barnaby's more destructive impulses when he was at his worst, though he can't see why J would show anything like the same loyalty except out of self-interest. It's difficult to comprehend in circumstances like this why anyone should care about him on a personal level.]

He was the kindest person I knew. He always did everything he could for others. But I'm not naive enough to think everyone is the same.

[While J's insistence on not giving up at him does tug at his heart, it doesn't prevent that simple, internal contradiction: Kotetsu would never willingly serve the Regent. Listening to J's desire for him to not do anything rash would be the same as submitting to the Regent. So this time when he meets J's gaze once more, it's with a revised assessment:]

If you want to help me like he did, stand with me. If you want to drag me down, stay out of my way.

cw: Suicidal ideation

[tohell]

That may be true. So what? [ Since when does anyone here need to be a paragon of altruism to wish for more than the grisly end that may await a man his fellow Kenoma have come to know? And really, Barnaby professes that he doesn't expect such high standards, yet he drives the point home in a way that clearly wishes for it. Expressing all the severe disappoint of a parent's highest hopes dashed. As though everyone here has fallen impossibly short; incapable of measuring up to the martyred figure Barnaby now judges others by. ]

He and I don't need to be the same to prefer that you continue to exist, Barnaby. [ Makoto is nothing like the ghost of a man J had chased across the endless span of centuries. Every excruciating minute hollowed of even a shadow of the prior love he'd felt, nestled under Wald's protective care. His own body had been a living grave of a soul that never found peace, yet couldn't wrest itself free from the cage of flesh and blood it lay eternally snared within. In finding someone just as desperate as he'd ever been, half-starved for love and acceptance, J was offered the hope that his greatest wishes may be fulfilled. The same principle can be applied to Kotetsu and J. He doesn't have to be some heroic figure burned deep into the landscape of Barnaby's heart to provide what he needs. Namely, an obstacle to this self-destructive impulse that could put his life at risk. ]

And nice try, with your adorable ultimatum. But isn't it a little arrogant to assume you're the one calling the shots here? [ The world upon which demons preyed was filled with suffering: War, famine, disaster. People as a whole understood this fundamental fact. And with the awareness of fresh horrors unfolding upon the most helpless and vulnerable with their every breath, somehow they were still miraculously capable of going about their day, cycling through the same dull routine. Does the allowance of evil, a conscious acceptance that it will perpetuate into infinity, make those who turn their backs on it, to work a nine to five and come home to their wife and kids, guilty in their inaction? Of course not.

Evil is watching a child approach a busy street and not feeling compelled to stop them. Or witnessing a small animal drowning, it's head struggling to stay above the water of a bucket or family's pool, and choosing not to reach in to save their life. He may not necessarily be driven to take on those responsibilities. But here and now, with Barnaby in front of him, J does metaphorically reach out to offer a helping hand. ]

I can help by pointing out that you're doing a real bang-up job of looking out for yourself, without dropping everything to run off with you or turning a blind eye.

[ There's no way to save everyone who may suffer the ills of the Regent or the consequences of a war they've only just set foot within. And honestly? The demon doesn't wish to. That demands too much of a person standing on the precipice of oblivion, who flirts with gravity and dares it to tip him over the edge. Living every day feels like an endless cycle of pulling the air out from his lungs, then forcing it back in with the violence of reviving the dead. His own life is a candle left out in a drafty storm. Wavering and willing itself to stay lit, until the one meant to snuff it out finally makes his move.

To add Barnaby to that scale practically tips it over. J's cup already runs over with reasons to walk away, and yet he cradles this small attachment in the grand scale of things, for the tiniest fear it may too burn out without the shield of his hand. ]

Neither of those options are in the cards anymore. [ It's the closest thing to a warning he'll give Barnaby as to where the consequences of his actions may lead. J will gladly stand at his side, should his fellow Kenoma decide to shelve the formation of any mutinous ideas. If not? Well, that puts J in the uncomfortable position of weighing the risks of letting him go. That could lead to the Regent examining his egregious negligence in failing to report known dissidence, and using it to condemn him. And while the demon couldn't care less about himself, what would happen to his ward if J's shard was crushed beneath the Regent's boot?

Come Hell or high water, J will never place Makoto's head on the chopping block by daring to find out. He'll sacrifice himself, all of Horos, every Aion and the rest of the Universe first. ]

[hundredpower]

[Barnaby gives him a long, flat stare, and for a moment it seems like he isn't going to say anything. Until finally:]

If you're acting out of self-preservation, then don't pretend you care about me beyond that. And don't bring his name into this.

[That's all Barnaby has to say, his expression tightening as he crosses his arms, looking away to focus on the Regent and the latest Pleroma to shout their defiance. He and J can debate this back and forth all day, but he'd rather not complicate things by having someone overhear them -- if thy haven't already.

Even if part of him is beyond caring. The Regent, it seems, already knows about his treacherous intentions, and whatever happens next is inevitable. He just has to bide his time, and stay away from J, for as long as possible]

[tohell]

[ Excuse me, has he listened to a single word J said? Even if Barnaby's petulant mood-swings have cooked his brain so hard he can't think straight, what happened to the last however many months of camaraderie? Has that too suddenly been burned out from the interior of this hothead's skull? Apparently!

And by the way, Mr. "Everything is Black and White", those two things are not mutually exclusive. Some people have the sense to not fling themselves directly in harm's way, knowing it will ultimately doom them and ruin any chances for them to actually achieve their goals later on. Unfortunately, J seems to divide the lion's share of his time between two people determined to stubbornly ignore the illogic of their reckless decisions. ]

That's where you'd be wrong. [ J gives a snort after he's finished staring at Barnaby like he's a fool, as though he's heard the most ludicrous smattering of words his fellow Kenoma could throw at him. ] The shard I'm trying to preserve isn't my own.

But seing as how you're not up for a chitchat, I won't darken your door any further. [ The demon spreads his hands with a shrug, even though he knows this conversation has met its untimely end. Oh well, beating a dead horse wasn't getting him anywhere before Barnaby finally chose to give him a cold shoulder. Obviously, he's only wasting his breath here. Shame.

With only Barnaby's back to send him off, J turns around on pawed feet to make his slow traipse to more welcoming company. Well, as friendly as Makoto might feel after burning holes into the side of his head with a lingering glare for the duration of his chitchat. He does pause after that initial step away to turn his head, eyeing Barnaby from his peripheral so that he might offer him the consolation of a more appropriate farewell. ] See you, Barnaby.

[ And with that, J finally departs from Barnaby's company for good. Strolling with hands tucked behind his back and tail swishing side to side, J wanders off across the illusionary courtroom. ]