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


♫

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The Beginning of the End: Shadow Argenti 2/2

[beautifulknight]

[ ♫ ]



[ ...that there is a white-haired man, who awaits them all in the room. Before getting even close to him are rows upon rows of rose bushes on the farthest sides of the room, beyond the already adorned benches, placed as if they belong there. As if to herald a ceremony, a special kind of union of some sort. On both sides of this man are two marble statues of knights covered from head to toe in armor.

This man turns to face them properly, with stark white hair instead of red, golden eyes instead of green pinpointed with a sharp red. He then smiles, gently...and, it is already quite obvious how familiar he is. After all, how can he not be? ]

Welcome.

Have you come to try to cast your last gaze upon the eternal Beauty itself?

[ Welcome to the introductory phase of the fight with Argenti's shadow. Strangely enough, the man seems composed. But, right after he speaks, thirteen mirrors fly up to position themselves along the walls, reflecting each image of everyone available right back.

(The official round 1 to the battle will go up tomorrow at 12 PM EST. If there are words you wish your character to say, please feel free to have them say it now.) ]

[fullmoonmutt]

[ Argenti looks so... ]

Is that really Tin Can?

[goei]

[Squinting]

I think so? Looks way worse without his red hair though.

[fullmoonmutt]

...for real.

[ After that, Eli raises his voice. ]

Hey, Argenti! Get your shiny metal ass down here! We're not leaving this place without you!

[bloodweapon]

[Finally, Fray thinks, because he's spent this entire time waiting for the opportunity for this confrontation. He knows that it'll be a fight. There's no way it won't be, between those who want to punch Argenti for pulling them into this and Argenti himself. But if there's a chance to talk, to solve this without violence, then he has to try. It isn't his strong suit. It never could be. But...]

Argenti.

[Fray doesn't draw his sword, but he steps forward regardless. The other knight is... radiant, but he isn't really Argenti with such a distinctive, different appearance. Talking likely won't do any good.]

You're worried you've lost your way. [It isn't a question; the previous areas have made that perfectly clear.] Why is that? Has your time here truly been so... troubling?

[How long has he been suffering with such doubts? How had Fray not noticed?]

[beautifulknight]

[ Fray can very much make the attempt. Solving everything without having to fight would make things simpler, wouldn't it.

Yet, it is also very much true that he doesn't seem intent to ignore everyone if someone should speak to him in the narrow time before the battle commences. When he speaks, his voice is light, still gentle as if everything is still right as rain, even with the subtle distortion only a shadow can have. ]

Worried?

Isn't it clear how far matters have already progressed? Whatever concerns I had before no longer matter.

Whatever has happened here...only sped up the inevitable.

[bloodweapon]

The inevitable?

[It's sudden, sharp, tinged with anger and frustration and everything he's been trying to hold back this entire time. His eyes flash - yellow to red and back again as Fray tries to settle.]

The only inevitability here is that we're going to drag you back with us. We've come this far. We've seen what you had to show us, to explain why we're here. If you think we'll turn around now, then you're a fool.

[Another step forward. Still he doesn't draw his sword.]

Those concerns of yours still do matter - they matter to me. I want to help you as you've helped me, Argenti. I won't rest until you're free from this.

[He nearly leaves it there, but then...]

Let me help you.

[It's determined as the rest of his words, certainly, but there's something more to it that isn't quite as identifiable. It's not quite frustration despite his earlier words.]

[bloodandstars]

[ Well, look who it is at last. Maika might have walked away from the last shade of a knight. But this one? She's striding right up to him, her expression flat with distaste. ]

Fuck eternal beauty, and fuck this farce too.

[ The last time they talked she tried to hold her words back. But that was for a person who, from the look in those golden eyes, currently isn't here at all. There's no reason these words would reach him now, but even so... ]

...I'm here to find someone. He's stupid and self-righteous and talks too fucking much about everything except what's important. But he's also too stubborn to let something else take his mind and his will and wear him like a skin. Wake up, Worldwalker. There's darkness right here for you to vanquish. Are you going to fight it, or not?

[beautifulknight]

What crass language.

[ Someone still has no liking for that, apparently, or perhaps all of that tolerance disappeared with the wind. ]

Perhaps it is your fault for overestimating the strength of this someone.

[ ...Is what he says to the rest of that, clearly not being easy to convince. ]

[bloodandstars]

[ Maika considers, for at least a moment or five, the potential attack strategy of just knocking this version of Argenti the fuck out with the foulest language she can muster.

...She's keeping that option in her back pocket. For now. ]

We find strength in unexpected places when we need it. He didn't make it this far without that.

[ People like Argenti, like Maika, who'd walked out of ruins like the ones she saw in that memory. She'll talk whatever shit she likes about Argenti, but hell if she's letting this empty reflection do it. ]

When you have something to fight for, it drives you forward. It reaches out and pulls you back from the darkest places a mind can fall into. What are you fighting for?

[goei]

No! I've come here ta kick yer ass like I promised!

[beautifulknight]

[ A glance at Izou, as if unbothered, as he speaks one swift sentence to him: ]

We shall see if you can manage to even land a single hit on me.

[goei]

[WOW! WOW!!!!!]

Yeah yeah, talk shit all you want, but we ain't leaving here without you, and I know yer gonna make us beat you up first!

Re: The Beginning of the End: Shadow Argenti 2/2

[beathollow]

... You gave us the flowers. They were beautiful... thank you. But... I do not think you can reach what you want like this. Will you please come home with us?

[beautifulknight]

[ ... ]

...It is for the best I remain here.

Away from any single one of you.

[gardenful]

[ She doesn't like this, the white of his hair and the gold in his eyes reflecting none of the warmth that she had grown accustomed to. This isn't like the man she accompanied down a dirt road a few weeks ago, talking about life and the things that are most important to them.

This isn't like Argenti at all.

And yet... she knows he's in there somewhere. He has to be. Anything else is simply unacceptable. ]

I'm here to get back my friend.

[ Because that's what he is, despite all of the complicated feelings and mixed up thoughts she had about him after Fuyu's death. He made a point to reach out to her, to extend his trust, and so she will do the same. Right here, right now. ]

I know you're in there somewhere, Argenti.

[beautifulknight]

[ There she is.

Argenti's gaze is upon her, no less different than it has been when he greeted her; as if nothing is wrong. Though, of course, his words spell a different story entirely. ]

...Have you not considered that your friend has been lost forever?

I shall be ready to show you the error in your presumptions soon enough.

[ This, apparently rings true, given he seems more prepared to welcome everyone to battle. ]

[imperiosity]

[Here they are again. As Aaron walks in, he sweeps his gaze about as he takes in the grandiose surroundings -- it's not quite like a cathedral (or at least the ones he's seen), but it has a similar enough atmosphere. Not that he's the kind of person who would ever let the solemnity of a sacred space stop him from running his mouth... which is exactly what he's going to do here.]

What, you talking about that Idrila chick you worship? 'Cause the only beauties I'm seeing here are the ladies who came to beat some sense into you.

[I wish I could say no offense to the dudes here but it's probably full offense to the dudes tbh]

[beautifulknight]

[ ...

Aaron, why and how are you the man that you are? There is a moment of silence as if he's grappling on how to answer this with some sort of finnese.

Fortunately, he does manage: ]

They can very well try.

[ As for the other men.....they'll live...maybe. ]

[destage]

[Everything about this feels wrong.

Sayaka isn't blind to it all. She remembers seeing those bloodstained people. The stories he must have told to the boy. The vision of Idrila, pretty as THEY were. Everything about all of this...is this what their blythe, rose painted knight has kept hidden for so long?

Sayaka's got her knife and the one that Yi Sang stabbed her with, dual wielded in hand, and when she looks at Argenti's shadow, she can't help but feel...sad, really. Is this what he's had underneath this entire time?]

...I don't want it to be our last gaze. Argenti-kun...you've fought so long and hard to be the person you are, haven't you?

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti watches her, voice reaching out to her gently with ease and grace, and he spreads his hands, though there are no petals to encircle him just yet. ]

Yes...and it has been for naught.

You must see that it is.

Therefore, if you wish for it to not be your last gaze, then turn around and leave.

[ That, he considers another warning. Though he figured his own words before this were exactly that. ]

[ledbythewind]

Beauty? Don't make me laugh.

[There's something sharp to those words, something cold.]

There's nothing beautiful in turning your back on the people who have come here to help you.

[beautifulknight]

[ His eyes haze over with some unidentifiable, disconcerting emotion at this and his empty smile grows wider. ]

...You understand, then.

It would be best if you just left. After all, I turned my back on all of you.

It is hardly surprising...considering how far I had Fallen.

[vogelfrei]

[ It doesn't suit Argenti of all people to be speaking of eternal solitude. His life may have been that of a wanderer, always meeting and departing, but McGillis hasn't taken him for closed off due to it. If anything, he should be waxing poetic about the Beauty to be found in a thousand transient connections that one carries in their heart for eternity.

Solitude, being beyond everyone's reach, having abandoned them... McGillis finds that Argenti sounds more like him than himself. It's irritating. ]

I can see words will get us nowhere here, but allow me to add some of my own anyway.

Your order forbids you the pursuit of power, yet teaches you to see Beauty in combat. It's an interesting paradox... that don't care much for.

Know this: The defeat I want to bring to you is going to be of the beauty I believe in - absolute brute force, so mesmerizing that you cannot avert your gaze.

I want to save you with forbidden power tainted in your religion's greatest sins.

[beautifulknight]

[ McGillis certainly seems to be approaching this in his own way - there is no reason for that to change. Everyone here is their own person, who should speak their mind as genuinely as possible...even if Argenti would wish in the current state that he is it would mean that they decide to abandon him instead.

But, the blond is stubborn, even when his own physical state is still hardly in the greatest spot. That is the most surprising thing of all, alongside those words, carefully and expertly composed to land a strike, that daringly reach him; a testament to his conviction. ]

You cannot hope to claim victory with your brute force you call beautiful.

I am still too much for any of you to overcome...but, I shall be witness to your failed attempts to defeat me soundly in combat!

[ And with that, the battle begins. ]