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

CATHERDING

[goei]

[And with all the monsters being slain, Izou claps his hands and starts shouting. Finally his volume is being put to good use!]

Alright, circle up you bastards! I think the way forward's unlocked now, but we aughta share what we learned first!

[And once everyone's gathered;]

Me 'n Kirumi went up the one stairs and we found a sword, a mirror, and a spear! But when we touched'em, they just turned into fuckin' glitter and a voice whispered some shit at us. Two of 'em turned into paintings of knights fer a hot second too. One was Argenti but the other was this one armed guy. Apparently he helped Argenti outta a scrape once? But now he's dead, so Argenti's all gung ho ta honor his memory or some shit. Even though it mentioned the goddess was lost?

On top've that, it seems like he's some sorta savior, chosen one type thing of Idrila? Like THEY blessed him or some shit, and he's drawn a lotta people into his whole Beauty thing? But some people still think they're freaks anyway.

Oh and then the mirror went on about some nonsense how beauty can't exist without ugliness and some people think Idrila made bad shit just so her heroes can be more heroic?

I dunno if any of this is helpful but it's nutty that's fer sure. What'd the rest of you get up to besides STARTIN' FIGHTS without ME while I had ta listen to a buncha rambling??

[bloodweapon]

[trying not to roll his eyes at the latter part, but,]

I examined the statues - the first one of a knight suddenly lost an arm as I was looking at it, which seems to refer to the man you learned about. The second turned into a pair of enemies that I was able to defeat with Richard's and Izou's help.

[So yeah he found nothing useful and rolled poorly for most of it! Great job so far, Fray.]

[ledbythewind]

[At least they have roses?]

[destage]

[Thank god for Izou's loud volume coming in handy for once--]

Wei-san and I went upstairs to the...third floor--we were being watched by some kind of shadowy figure the whole time--he looked like a tall man, but there were two items that appeared. I wound up messing with the cross I found.

It turned into a painting of this...hmm, how do I describe it...this impossibly beautiful kind of lady, and she was...very enchanting. I got a little distracted before I saw that she was raising a claw at me, and jumped back.

The painting went back to normal after, and she wound up...speaking to me. I think. I can't tell if it was something she'd said before, but...

"You passed the trial now. But you must know that it is your lot in life to experience many trials. The day you fail, is the the day you lose all that you are."

[bloodandstars]

Impossibly beautiful lady? Sounds like that would be the knight's missing Aeon.

[ Huh. Would that mean those are words THEY've said to Argenti? Or maybe, all THEIR knights. ]

[destage]

[...

You know. Sayaka probably should have--]

That'd--that make the most sense, wouldn't it?

[GUESS WHO DID NOT THINK OF THAT...HOW COULD SHE BE SO BLIND TO THEIR RADIANCE...]

...I wonder if that's something that Argenti-kun would have been told, by her, then.

[fullmoonmutt]

Hey, shut up with all the whining about being left out of fights! Those things behind the curtains were nasty shit!

[ Says Eli, who, while healed, still looks roughed up and has a few flower petals still stuck in his hair. ]

Ugh, okay, so is his whole insecurity about... like... the one-armed dude or being stuck with the whole savior thing? Because I would hate being seen as a blessed savior.

[ Sounds stressful, mate. ]

[cirquedesang]

[........So he's picking out those flower petals as the perfect pretense to give a little feel-better -patpat-. And a Dia, while they're comparing notes.]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Celeste! Why! Eli looks away moodily as the petals are cleaned out of his hair, but despite that, he leans over to give Celeste an affectionate little shoulder bump. Look, shut up, he's trying to be subtle, don't perceive him. ]

...thanks.

[goei]

Yeah it sounds like he's got a lot ridin' on him either that he chose ta take on like that guy's legacy or that other people put on him by callin' him a savior.

[Sounds stressful indeed.]

[fullmoonmutt]

Sounds like people are saying his god is gone, too. Wonder if everyone expects him to find them? Be the big hero? But he hasn't yet?

[vogelfrei]

[ Well, if Izou is styling himself leader of this mission, then he can't complain if McGillis speaks to him. ]

Celeste and I can corroborate that he's highly revered among Idrila's followers - they believe he even heard Idrila's voice.

Argenti himself is waiting for us upstairs, according to the shadows attending this ball.

[cirquedesang]

[And McGillis can't complain about speaking to Izou, because there were two of them there and yet he's the one taking initiative to share the information gathered.

Thank you for being peaceful. Ish.]

[vogelfrei]

[ He's being the bigger person not just literally but metaphorically. This, too, is pettiness. ]

[goei]

[Hey guess who's not being the bigger person.]

Here I figured you'd find out something we didn't already know with all that time you were wastin' dancing.

[vogelfrei]

[ Okay, if you're going to talk to him more, then he'll talk back. He'll even smile! ]

You might recall that we knew exactly nothing when we set out to persuade the shadows. And corroborating your results through different lines of question is just part of any thorough investigation.

[gardenful]

Thanks for listening to all that rambling.

[ She was too busy gazing into the dark abyss to do any of that— ]

Argenti told me a while back that Idrila is lost. The Knights have started searching for her all across space and she hasn't been found yet.

As for what Maika and I found, we looked beyond the curtains, and we just saw a bunch of darkness. The faces on the statues changed, too, like they were about to attack anyone who got close. We looked behind the curtains again just to see if that would change anything, but once I started hearing some scary whispers, I let go of it.

[bloodandstars]

Nothing attacked us, either. Maybe the rest of you weren't being beautiful enough.

[ Is she cheesed she missed out on some fights? Maybe. But whatever, she admired Aerith and some curtains for a while and she'll punch Argenti later. ]

[goei]

[Izou likes Aerith he's decided. Even if he doesn't know her name.]

How do you lose a goddess? It's not like they exist in the physical world. Maybe she's just ignorin' them?

But yeah, seems like the right call ta just leave that shit where it was.

[chimken]

Ah... [ This would be a good time to share what she saw...hopefully Argenti won't be too cross with her about it. ]

When I was investigating the rose statue I had a short vision...Argenti was with someone who looked like they had gotten hurt...

[gardenful]

Really? Were they badly hurt?

[imperiosity]

[Hm...]

Were you able to see what they looked like?

[imperiosity]

[Aaron takes the ocarina he picked up and hold it out so people can see it.]

Like idol girl already said, we checked out the third floor. Must've lucked out, because the ocarina I picked up just turned into a painting of a landscape, with this thing right in the middle.

After that, I heard a voice recite some kinda story. The gist of it was that war eventually broke out in a prospering country, after enough corruption had taken root. At the end, it sounds like things became chaos -- there was the mention of 'demons emerging' and minds deteriorating into madness too, but I dunno how literal that was supposed to be.

[Possibly extremely literal, based on how much fucked up shit exists in the world but hey.]

After all, the painting changed into two people dancing, but there weren't any real features there besides their clothes and hair.

[bloodandstars]

[ War and chaos, demons... that's all pretty standard, maybe. Depending on how metaphorically that's supposed to be. ]

Maybe that's what the ruins we walked through on the way were supposed to symbolize? Too vague to really tell.

[goei]

Wh- How come you get ta keep yours??