aionpcs: (regent)
Aion Teleos NPCs ([personal profile] aionpcs) wrote in [community profile] aionchat2022-07-10 02:52 pm
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THE REGENT'S ADDRESS [OPEN TO ALL]

[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.]
aquaveiled: (himeka-501)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-11 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka shakes her head. ]

Nothingness isn't peace. Peace comes with a feeling, with gratitude. You can't feel that when there's nothing.

[ She's earnest in her conviction, but not preaching. ]

I know it can feel like it's never ending--but it isn't. If you'd asked me this several months ago I would have to agree that there seems to be a futility to it all, a cycle that we can't escape. But I have been to the ends of the universe, Father Paul. I've seen worlds ended because they gave up. What they achieved wasn't peace.

And even within those worlds...there are still people who hope. Would you deny them that?
vivificantem: (092. make me a channel of your peace)

[personal profile] vivificantem 2022-07-11 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
There's a difference between finding that peace for yourself and giving up. Just as there's a difference between silence and nothingness.

[...]

Tell me. Have you ever loved someone you had to hurt them? For their own good, perhaps. For their own sake. Because if they continued on their own path, they would harm themselves far worse than anything you did ever could.

Have you ever felt that?
aquaveiled: (himeka-574)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-11 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka exhales slowly, but nods. ]

Yes. I have.

[ What she doesn't say is that she's afraid she may have to do it again. Here. ]

I wouldn't wish it on my enemies.
vivificantem: (086.  master grant that i may never seek)

jesus let us pretend that I know how grammar works

[personal profile] vivificantem 2022-07-11 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
The Regent discourages unconditional love. It's something that I can understand, given our ultimate goal. But love doesn't have to be unconditional to hurt like that. And sometimes you love people so much that you have to destroy them.

Unconditional love is a selfishness. It just encourages you to hold on to that which should have been released long ago. Smothering. Impeding us, and impeding others. Our love and our desire for peace - our desire for all beings and all worlds to know freedom from suffering - just happens to look like this. Different from yours, but it's as I've been saying. I don't hate you.

Nothing about this is about despair, or hating life, or hating you.
Edited (fml that was going to bug me) 2022-07-12 02:00 (UTC)
aquaveiled: (himeka-534)

no jesus here only regent

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-14 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's likely no surprise that she doesn't agree, even if she does feel she understands where he's coming from. All the same, Himeka thinks it's important to try and understand anyone willing to have that conversation. Not everyone is willing to put their beliefs out there under scrutiny. ]

Then if I can ask, what does peace look like to you?
vivificantem: (089. to be understood as to understand)

[personal profile] vivificantem 2022-07-18 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Personally? It's as I've described to you. It's not so much a feeling as it is an absence.

Silence is a blessing, as much as anything else that exists. Unless you believe I'm lying to you, or trying to mislead you somehow... I'm willing to follow the Kenoma to its end, because that's more than enough for me.
aquaveiled: (himeka-590)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-23 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
No, not at all. I believe that you believe everything you're saying to me.

[ That much is clear. ]

I suppose a part of me does understand. There are times I've wished for an...absolute silence of sorts. But there is another part of me that wonders if you always felt this way? Or if something happened to change your mind?
vivificantem: (091. as to love with all my soul)

[personal profile] vivificantem 2022-07-23 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[...]

If things can happen to a person that are so bad they can change their minds toward believing that oblivion is preferable to nothing at all, I'd think that's more of an argument for how intolerable the suffering of the world is than anything.

I'm aware that my stance isn't the one that most would take. But it is what it is, in the end, however I came to that conclusion.
aquaveiled: (himeka-502)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-25 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Mayhaps...though it helps to understand someone. Don't you think? To know their experiences.

[ Maybe that's just because she's used to conveniently getting visions of people's pasts, but, eh. ]

If you don't want to tell a stranger, though, that's okay. Something like that would be hard to talk about even with your closest friend.
vivificantem: (088. as to console)

[personal profile] vivificantem 2022-07-25 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
More like I'd prefer not to in front of a live audience.

[There are kind of a lot of people here, and he isn't interested in giving all of them his Tragic Backstory, whatever it may happen to be.]

Perhaps someday. But not here. Not now.
aquaveiled: (himeka-533)

[personal profile] aquaveiled 2022-07-25 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ Himeka nods, that's an understandable reservation. ]

Well, when the time comes...I would be glad to listen.