Calling the Old Man Out

[foolishjustice]

[Goro has barely been seen since getting back from the Fissure, only leaving his room briefly to eat a couple times a day, coffee in hand and looking half asleep. Now, though, he seems to finally be properly awake...at approximately 8PM.]

Good...erm, evening, I suppose. I’m sorry I’ve been so absent lately, that Fissure must have taken more out of me than I thought.

But, now that I’m recovered, there’s something important I need to tell everyone. The last batch of new arrivals included a man named Masayoshi Shido. He’s my father, and a truly despicable man, who has had numerous people killed for his own convenience or benefit. He even had my mother killed to cover up the scandal of my birth.

[Here he holds up a phone, showing a picture of Shido...with what looks like avocado and cheese smeared on his face and a shrimp up his nose, wearing the most tiredly Done expression as he reaches for the offending crustacean.]

I injured him in the forest in retaliation for the things he’s done to me, one of my boyfriends, and countless others, but don’t mistake him for someone who deserves your pity. He’s physically not much of a threat, but he is a skilled schemer and manipulator, and-

[ Which is the moment that the video will shake, and a very brief flash of a familiar face (spoiler: Akira’s) can be seen. Off-screen, he’s gently pressing a kiss to Goro’s cheek, whispering that he loves him. Don’t mind the view of a ceiling for a moment, guys - it’s a nice ceiling, at least?

… He’ll properly make it up to Goro, later, if he can? For now, though, he gently brushes the fingers of one hand through his boyfriend’s hair. Akira’s face can properly be seen, after he takes a quiet breath. He looks… well, how most would remember? Only with a bit more of a tiredness to it, maybe.

Though, that’s not taking away from how serious he looks as he speaks. ]

... and, while Goro is right about all of that, there is one more detail I feel should be taken into account. Shido isn’t a good person, but he’s well-aware of that now. He’s done unforgivable things, but his eyes were opened to all of it after his ass was kicked.

[ JUST SAYING… ]

Anyway, nobody has to worry about him. Besides, he knows if he tried anything, he’d have to answer to all of us from his world, and then some.

[ JUST SAYING... ]

[This is the point where Goro takes his tablet back, looking a bit huffy.]

It’s true, he isn’t likely to be a threat now. But he absolutely doesn’t deserve anyone’s kindness or sympathy.

Comments

[makejapangreat]

[Oh, there's something... painful about that response. He takes a steadying breath. He swallows, and dips his head.]

Goro Akechi, I am not fit to be your father. I have hurt you beyond belief... in ways I know and will never know. Were I not so negligent, maybe your life would have been kinder, and filled with less pain. Your mother, beautiful and brilliant and strong as she was... may very well still be here today.

I have robbed you of your life, of much of your happiness, and of your future.

[A wavering breath.]

Please forgive me.

[foolishjustice]

You're right. It is impossible to move forward while held back by your past. That's yet another reason I can't forgive him.

Did you think to wonder, how it is that I know he's ordered people other than my mother assassinated?

[makejapangreat]

[A startled bark of a laugh.]

You're right. You're absolutely right.

[...but he is glad to know that the people here have been so good to him. Good. That's what he deserves.]

[founderinglight]

Of course you're not. Most of the people I've known who could stand to be nominated for the title died reasonably horribly.

But you are still a person.

[foolishjustice]

[It...actually does feel good, to have a proper, direct apology. To have his suffering acknowledged and responsibility taken.]

.....It's a start.

[dubiouslychthonic]

o)+ ALright.

o)+ Good Luck getting your shit settLed.

[dragonmouth]

I can't say I know what, exactly, your circumstances are. And I'm rather confused about the particulars...

[what am societal stigma against out of wedlock births, can you eat it]

Still. My mother had her complications, but she was a far better person than this.

But the man you speak of seems just as vile as her consort.

[Her mother's husband. Not her father. The choice of words is quite deliberate here.]

[rhododendronhoney]

I'm glad we can agree on this. [A sweet smile with razor-sharp intent behind it, before she turns her attention to discussing things with Goro.]

[matchmakes]

Flying, huh... Well, I have missed that sort of thing. I'd appreciate it.

[founderinglight]

It sounds to me like you're letting your past control you utterly.

You will not change my mind, Goro. No matter what atrocity it is you name. Because no matter what it is, even if I have not done more and worse myself, I can say with certainty that Ardyn has. That does rather come part and parcel with 'attempted omnicide of the entire planet via daemonification and eternal night.'

[makejapangreat]

I wouldn't fault you if you wanted to.

[And he isn't entirely sure that he's being reassured that just to get stabbed in the back (or front) anyway. But his self-preservation isn't exactly top-notch at the moment. Nor is his sense of worth.]

Do you have a preference for where?

[He's still kind of recovering from his infection and really shouldn't be pushing himself that hard, but ha ha... that whole worth thing...]

[burninglight]

Think you can make it to room #42? No one should bother us, and I've coffee if you'd like some.

[makejapangreat]

[He hardly knows what to make of this. Such kind words... he hardly deserves them. For a long time he just stares at the words, reading them over and over. The best of him? The person he'll become? They're such foreign concepts to him they feel like fantasies. Yet she sounds so certain.

... wait, what? Books by Travis Tea? What... what does this have to do with anything. He shakes his head, clearly thoroughly rattled by what he was just told.]

I... who... are you?

[foolishjustice]

Haven't you already acknowledged that your own viewpoint regarding your brother is distorted?

--> action

[makejapangreat]

I'll be there shortly.

[His body still feels a bit sluggish, but he heaves himself from bed to go to that room. Honestly, he doesn't know what to expect when he get there. The walk down the hallway is somewhat unnerving in itself, knowing that everyone here now knows of his sins and may want to make him pay.

But he gets there without incident, and after a moment of hesitation, he brings up a hand to knock on the door, expression mostly tired and resigned.]

[foolishjustice]

I always enjoy a chance to stretch my wings, myself.

[And he means literal wings, as with a flash of light, a pair of gigantic crow wings, each about the size of the rest of his body, unfolds from his back.]

[foolishjustice]

He is quite vile. I wouldn't even call my mother his former lover, she was merely a mistress to provide immediate satisfaction and be discarded when she became inconvenient. Though, that's more or less how he treated everyone in his life.

[dragonmouth]

When I was nine years old, a woman was brought to the capital for her execution. No one was happy about this. My mother saw her as nothing more than an obstruction. An annoying insect who dared speak the truth before her eyes.

Or so I thought.

But she untied the restraints and challenged the woman to a duel to the death anyway, though all she had to do was carve out her face. She even told the woman's daughter that when she was no longer a child, she was more than welcome to seek revenge.

Later, she told me this: "if someone stands in your way, there is no greater shame than to refuse to even look them in the eye."

I cannot forgive my mother for her mistakes.

But I don't consider having a shred of honor to be one of them.

[founderinglight]

To the point that I don't know what the 'right' viewpoint to hold is.

But that does not change the facts of his actions, merely my view of them. And even disregarding that view, I am not the only one who has decided that he deserves something other than to be made to crawl and feel as though he is the scum of the earth for what he's done.

[burninglight]

[When Ardyn opened the door, he was armed with nothing but a hesitant and tired smile, stepping back to let Shido in.]

Come on in. Make yourself comfortable, I kind of suspect this might take a bit.

[His room was much the same as all the others in structure, but...strangely, he already seemed to have a collection of junk scattered in some form of organized chaos, from an otamatone to a small violet model car and an arrangement of snacks in the kitchenette. Just by that was a table that looked like it came straight out of Starbucks, with two chairs already set up.]

This is...going to be difficult to explain. So I'll start with the simplest of terms. [He poured out two cups of coffee, setting them on the table before taking a seat.]

...I've had my heart changed as well, in a sense.

[matchmakes]

[He lets out a low whistle, clearly impressed.]

I'm almost jealous. If I could fly by my own power, I would...

[makejapangreat]

[This vitriol makes him bristle a bit. Not on his behalf, surprisingly, but on Akechi's. This sort of behavior— isn't it just encouraging Akechi to cling to his own resentment and suffering?

He truly has a way of bringing out the worst in people, doesn't he?

A few breaths. And then he responds, as calmly as before.]

I cannot find a way to make it "enough". What I have done can never be righted by an equal amount of "good". But that does not mean I won't try.

... you may know what my heart was like when I was corrupted, but you do not know who I am as a person. [neither does he but that's besides the point] Besides, what worth would there be to saying that I'm going to fight to improve? All that would earn me is taunts of being all talk.

I will not take back the words I chose.

[....mmn.]

But I owe you an apology, as well. I am sorry for the way I manipulated your group and endangered you all. As well as the attempt I made on your life.

I owe it to you to make things up to you.

[makejapangreat]

[A wry smirk and an empty gaze.]

I had my henchmen do it.

[dragonmouth]

My father was a poet.

His feelings for my mother had cooled some years after my birth, but from the letters I found in her room...

It was like a comet, I think. Far too fleeting, far too intense.

[So, a romantic fling.]

I was kept from him more than I would have liked, but I bear no resentment towards him.

When the Crown Princess - my aunt - died without any heirs, my mother married her betrothed to fulfill our family's political obligations.

As much as as my mother has her mistakes... I don't doubt that she cared for me.

But her consort only ever saw me as being in the way of what was promised him.

[foolishjustice]

Then I doubt they were ever forced to commit gruesome murder under threat against their own lives.