The Age Up/Down Meme

[kingshaming]

Look, most of our characters have lots of backstory to take advantage of, or headcanons for their future. This is the place to use it!

Prompts

1) People are suddenly shifting ages on the good ship Teremity! It's probably space waves and will fix itself in a day or two, so enjoy reliving your mispent youth.

2) You were always this age! Nothing bad is happening and you all already know each other and it's all cute af. A fluff option.

3) You are this age... and going through your round (or a remixed version) of your Airlocked season. Not for the REALLY young age downs!

Comments

[scourgingstars]

You are more than welcome to accuse me if you will; know only that your skilled persuasion will kill every single one of us if you do.

[Ardyn dropped the casual demeanor in a matter of seconds, setting the half-empty float aside and straightening up to his full height (a lanky teenager still growing into a too-tall, too-thin frame) with a sharp and focused stare.]

I will not be intimidated, by you or those reigning over this game. And when blood is spilled, it will not be by the hand of a Lucian.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Sluuurrrrp.]

Then do you wanna talk about it? Because none of that means shit to me, kid. I can't trust what I don't know, and right now all I know's what I saw.

[And if nothing else, Tenmyouji knows how to roll a perception check.]

...I got no intention of dying here. My grandson's waiting for me to get back home.

[scourgingstars]

... [Ardyn's right hand curled into a loose fist before relaxing again, a nervous gesture that only served to call attention to the ring on his hand. He folded his arms, a frown gradually coming to his face.]

My world can not afford for my life to end here. Nothing they offer is worth that risk.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Not even if what they offer is your world? Or its future?

[scourgingstars]

I am my world's future.

[It was more than likely strange to hear that without a trace of arrogance, especially from a scrawny kid dressed like the king of the Black goddamn Parade. Ardyn said it as though it were objective fact, the same as the sky being blue.]

My planet is...very, very ill. It bears a plague only I hold the power to cure the people of, and only I will have the power to banish it entirely.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Hm.

[Tenmyouji's fingers tighten around his glass.]

I've heard talk like that before. And when the talk led to action, it didn't turn out so well.

[scourgingstars]

Meaning what, specifically? You ask me to confide in you and respond with something such as that--I rather feel as though I'm being mocked at the moment.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He considers his glass a long moment, then looks up at Ardyn, eyes hard and measuring. Finally, without breaking eye contact, he says:]

A 'plague' of sorts wiped out most of my planet's population. And the ones who tried to stop it... turned into monsters themselves, justifying their crimes in the name of 'saving' people.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn stared right back without hesitation; the casual child was entirely gone, replaced by someone that looked far older than merely eighteen.]

I am sorry to hear that. Truly--I am. But the only way to avert such a fate for my world is through my own actions. If I do nothing, then I doom an entire planet and its people including myself to death.

[misanthropicprinciple]

And the action you have to take is what, exactly? If it's not killing all of us for the free ride home.

[scourgingstars]

That is none of your concern. It has no bearing on any of you, as I've no intention of killing anyone.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Fair enough. Guess I'd have no reason to care if it doesn't affect us.

[Except this ornery old man very clearly does care, for once.]

It does affect you, though. Right? Something like the fate of the world hanging over you, that's something they can use to move you against us eventually, if this 'different future' bullshit doesn't do it for you.

[scourgingstars]

It's my entire world at stake, of course it affects me. But I'm telling you I am not so weak of will or cowardly enough to betray anyone here. My kingdom will not find salvation through betrayal.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Hm. If you say so.

[He's so convinced. Now, though, he gets up, since it doesn't seem that pressing the matter will get him anywhere.]</small You ever change your mind about talking about it with someone, you know where to find me. I'd be curious to hear how you'd do it, given the similarities in our situation. Later, then.

[scourgingstars]

...Don't regard me as though I am some child, Tenmyouji. I hardly need guidance or counsel as though I were your grandson myself.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He snorts.]

You're, what. Sixteen?

[scourgingstars]

Eighteen. I have been king of Lucis for two years.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Ohhh, eighteen.

[He rolls his eyes and then points at Ardyn with the hand holding his root beer float.]

I don't care if you're Emperor of Japan. I call it like I see it, kid, and my ten-year-old grandson's got a more mature grasp of reality than you. You think you can handle it alone, fine, but take it from someone who knows--you got a world of hurt coming to you if that's how you handle yourself.

[scourgingstars]

I don't care.

[Flatly, like the whole thing was something he'd resigned himself to a long time ago.]

I would rather the suffering be mine than that of my people.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[It's almost like Ardyn's slapped him across the face. His eyes widen for a moment, and then his brows come down like a thundercloud once more, jaw clenched.]

You're an idiot.

[His free hand is a white-knuckled fist at his side.]

You can't take people's suffering away from them. They're always going to suffer, it's part of fucking life! If it isn't your plague, it'll be something else--war, starvation, the goddamn nuclear holocaust. What'd a single martyr ever do for anyone, huh? All they get is misery without changing a damn thing.

The least you could give your fucking people is a chance to try to fight for themselves.

[scourgingstars]

You don't understand. [That came out not quite sharp enough to be an accusation, but certainly close to one.] No, you can not understand.

What I am doing is giving the people of the world a fighting chance. It's helping them to survive to see the next morning, so that they may continue to build a world worth saving.

[misanthropicprinciple]

How? By keeping them in the dark about what it'll take? Protecting them alone from things they don't want to know? That's self-serving horseshit, Majesty.

[scourgingstars]

By curing the plague so they don't die, must I spell it out?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Then why all the secrecy? If it's that simple, why's it such a big deal?

[scourgingstars]

...It simply is. I have to be the one to do this; me, and no other. It is my burden to bear and my purpose to fulfill.