Argenti's Palace

[beautifulknight]

The stage is set they say;
They don their masks and shields,
Shadows creep and cover their minds;
Now, what beautiful role shall they play?

𝓜𝓮𝓵𝓾𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓷 𝓒𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓵𝓮


♫

Comments

[imperiosity]

[After walking through the destroyed town (with more goddamn fog!!!), Aaron is hardly in the best mood once they reach the main entrance. And it really doesn't look like it's improving any time soon with the way their path forward is barred by the gate.]

...I'm guessin' that smashing through this thing won't work.

[Just give him a moment, he'll actually bother thinking of potential answers to this after he's had some time to complain.]

[bloodweapon]

Considering where we are, that seems likely.

[Not that he wasn't considering anyway...!! Fray's already not in a great mood and now we're being faced with a riddle?? Fantastic. Off to a great start.]

[imperiosity]

[hi5s Fray in spirit]

Dammit, why's he gotta be such a pain in the ass... You got any bright ideas for this one?

[bloodweapon]

It would be best to play along. And given my suspicions as to who this palace belongs to...

[He stares up at the gate, considering.]

My answer is "hope".

[imperiosity]

[...You know, that's a perfectly reasonable answer and it's probably close to correct, but like, just in case it doesn't work he's going to shout his own answer at the gate:]

"Your mom".

[or maybe he's just still pissed, we dont know]

[bloodweapon]

[..................do not make him fucking laugh at something so damn stupid, give him a moment—]

If that works, I'll be genuinely impressed.

[kandata]

[Behind Aaron, Kirumi sighs and gets a hand on her axe, ready to fight anything that may come to smite Aaron for that answer]

[gardenful]

If that's the answer, I'll actually be impressed.

[bloodandstars]

We could try that first.

[ Argenti would understand. Argenti knows the people here, probably. This is practically an invitation to solving the problem with something semi-explosive. ]

[imperiosity]

[You know, this is pretty tempting if only because it would be great if it actually worked that way, but he's from a JRPG! He knows how this goes!! You gotta push the right switches before anything actually opens like it's supposed to!!!]

You wanna give it a shot, then? We can do it on three.

[bloodandstars]

[ Hell yes. If nothing else, this'll let her vent her feelings about being asked a fucking riddle. And warm up to hit Argenti later. ]

You're on. One, two—

[ And on three she's going to pointlessly summon Anubis to smack the gate with a Giant Slice. I'm not rolling for this unless Lum makes me to smite me!! ]

[beautifulknight]

[ Nothing happens. Even if Aaron pitches in, nothing will happen. ]

[imperiosity]

[He definitely pitched in because solidarity!! Or something. But hell yeah wasting SP!!

This sucks.]

Well, we can cross that one off our bucket list. Anything else we wanna try while we're at it?

[goei]

What about climbing it?

[As if one circumventing would work but another wouldn't]

[imperiosity]

[But smashing is more cathartic... but no, climbing also sounds valid if it wasn't for them being in a palace.]

Hard to think he wouldn't have accounted for that, but it might be worth a shot. You wanna give it a go?

[goei]

Sure!

[Izou, your shoulder wounds???]

Eli! C'mere and hold my sword fer me!

[fullmoonmutt]

[ What is he, a dog?! (yes)

Well, regardless, he does come over, but only to snag Izou by his fluffy wuffy ponytail. ]

You ain't climbing shit with your shoulders fucked up as they are, you idiot!

[chimken]

Typically, in my experience, smashing through only leads to something more dangerous.

[ Falin still smiles slightly. ]

But I am positive your time will come to smash through something.

[imperiosity]

[Fair that it could just lead to attacks bouncing back to their faces or worse tbh.]

Well, not like there haven't been plenty of fights whenever we came stumbling into these places. But it'd definitely speed things up if we could just blow past these sorts of obstacles instead.

[like yeah there's probably some kind of meaning to doing it the right way, but consider: no]

[chimken]

Yes, but this is about Argenti, correct? He's not going to want something so brash!

[ Falin nods vigorously at her own statement. ]

[imperiosity]

Dunno, he seems perfectly fine with resorting to force, if you ask me. And it's not like it'd be hurting anyone by breaking a few fences.

[except maybe themselves, apparently...]

[fullmoonmutt]

If only... The guy likes to talk. A lot. This place is probably going to be full of monologues about beauty, so chances are we gotta give the gate a monologue of our own.

[imperiosity]

[Aidios, he hopes not. That would feel dumb (unless they were talking about Argenti's mom maybe) but he can see where Eli is coming from.]

Wait, is that why you were waxing poetic over oxidized copper?

[fullmoonmutt]

Eh? That? Nah. I just think it's pretty even after it's been all left out to turn colors and stuff, but Celeste said that doesn't count as tarnished.

[imperiosity]

Nah, I'm pretty sure that's the same as being tarnished? It's basically the same kinda deal as rust.