April 2023 Test Drive Meme

[folkie]

April 2023 TDM

Introduction

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Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.

All TDMs are game canon. You can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Each TDM will provide a scenario for how characters arrive in-game that particular month.

Playing TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.

Current players are allowed to have in-game characters react to TDMs via the Network or make a log with the prompts. Current players are always encouraged to tag new people on the TDM!

TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.

[ Prompt One ★ Prompt Two]

worms. ★

Content Warnings: hallucinations, poison, giant worm

One minute you were a falling star, but as your body reforms you become aware of one important detail: it's friggin hot.

That's because you've landed in a desert! Yes, you have had the misfortune of landing in Cruel Summer, the hottest and arguably most dangerous part of Folkmore. Lucky you!

The first bit of good news is that you're pretty sure you can see a train station off in the distance, although it's extremely difficult to judge exactly how far off due to the flatness of the terrain. The second bit of good news is that you have awoken with either a canteen of water, or an umbrella to keep the sun off. The third bit of news - good or bad, depending - is that you've awoken near another Star Child. Whoever this is will have the opposite gift than what you received; if you have water, they have an umbrella, and if you have an umbrella they have water. Well, you know what they say: sharing is caring! Undeniably the water is a touch more important, so hopefully whoever has it isn't a colossal dick.

As you trek through the desert towards the distant structure, you will notice periodically the air off to either side of you will shimmer. You may dismiss it as merely the heat playing tricks, but if you choose to investigate you will find mundane weapons like swords, guns, shields, etc.

At some point as you walk, you will feel a tremor beneath your feet. It grows in intensity until suddenly the sand sprays everywhere as something bursts forth from the earth below!

Wavering above you is a blood red worm. It is large - end to end it runs about thirteen feet - and its segmented hide is tough enough that rocks bounce right off of it. You might have more luck with bullets or bladed edges, but it's still going to be a tough fight. It also boasts some impressive offensive tricks; its mouth is ringed with many rows of fangs, and itspits a thick yellow acid that will corrode your skin and your weapons if you're not careful. If that wasn't enough, during your fight you might here a sudden brrrrrrrrrapppp! as the creature farts lightning at you. Hilarious... until it knocks you to the ground.

You would do well to work as a team to take this monster down. You and your partner might have powers or skills that could come in handy, or maybe you're quick on the uptake when it comes to any new abilities afforded you by your new role!

If you defeat the worm in battle, a golden chest will appear. Inside of it are items from your homeworlds - these rewards are especially likely to be any weapons you owned back home.

But hey, maybe you're a lover, not a fighter. There's no judgement here in Folkmore. You can outrun the worm instead if you're both fast and clever - finding any terrain that is more rock than sand will give you a decided advantage.

Once you have either defeated or escaped the worm, you will find that you come upon a small group of tents. Under their shade are first aid supplies, and kiosks manned by fennec foxes offering water, food, and shaved ice. Nice!

so scarlet it was. ★

Content Warnings: emotional trauma, impalement

Giant death worms aren't the only danger in the desert, they're just the most obvious.

Even if you avoided the worms entirely, you still have to make it to one of the train stations in Cruel Summer. As you trek across the dunes you will gradually become aware that over the sound of wind and shifting sand you can hear someone singing. You feel an urge to follow the sound to its source.

This song could be anything - one that exists in your world or others, or just a melody spun in the air for the first time. Whatever it is, it is heart rending; tears may spring your eyes as you follow the sound, precious moisture falling to the thirsty desert ground.

The singing is coming from a cactus. It is taller than most humanoid creatures, tinted purple and pink at the tips, with abnormally long spines. Its song reminds you sharply of some deep loss from your past, and at the same time inspires a terrible compulsion to go to the cactus and sink against it.

And what a relief it is, to embrace that melody and feel the spines slide easily through your flesh to pierce your heart. You do not bleed. By some strange alchemy, your heartache drains from your body as liquid, filling the cactus and causing its flowers to bloom and its song to cease.

You could very well stay pinned there, dying a slow death of desiccation, but lucky for you Star Children are all over the place this time of the month and someone is bound to see that you need help.

Trying to pry someone off of the cactus is impossible. The key lies in the flowers - they must be removed. When they are, sweet liquid will spray from the place where it had grown, dousing the rescuing Star Child. With this impromptu shower comes psychic flashes of the painful memory that has trapped the victim.

Once all of the blooming flowers have been removed, the cactus will retract its spines and release its prisoner. There will be no physical wounds left from this encounter.

You will also discover nearby that there is now a golden chest. Inside of it are items from your homeworlds, although none of these items are weapons.


Thankfully, you should be able to reach either Oozlum or Obambo Station without further incident. At either of these you will be able to get some water and supplies, as well as get the hell out of Cruel Summer.

Comments

[zechs_isonfire]

Accepting her hand up, though Zechs didn’t need the help, seemed like a way to thank her for her efforts. His grip was strong, his hands sporting many of the same callouses hers did, some that she lacked. After all, he never favored a large, two-handed sword when he did fight with old-fashioned weapons - and she’d not spent a career piloting mobile suits.

“This is a regular sort of occurrence as well, then,” Zechs said as he got to his feet. “Lovely.”

He gave her a considering look. It’s appraising, measuring her to some sort of martial standard - instead of giving her a once-over to admire her assets. “You’re a soldier, if I don’t misjudge you. That is a remarkable sword.”

[necrosavior]

Gideon shrugs. It's not less of a big deal now, but she's learned how to roll with it. Thirteen and Gideon have made their peace more or less, at least when it matters most. It saved another Gideon's life. She doesn't forget that.

"Your world has its weird shit, so does mine," Gideon says, "At least per everyone else." All it takes is some sharing to identify what seems weird about it.

"You do, but I don't blame you," Gideon says, "I've met a couple of me that are." She chuckles about the sword. "This? Standard issue infantry."

[zechs_isonfire]

Part of his mind had to admit that’s interesting, idly considering what part of his world might’ve been strange to her. Ideally, the long-spanning war would be the weird difference - but he didn’t have high hopes. Surely battle was a constant everywhere. Zechs felt humanity was too good at perpetuating violence, unless given sufficient motivation to end it. It’s more likely what he had decided to do would be seen as odd, Zechs believed.

Which was and wasn’t fortunate, for them.

But Gideon mentioned something far more fascinating. “There are other versions of ourselves which visit this place?”

Fascinating, horrifying, intriguing. A mixture of all three.

[necrosavior]

Gideon flashes finger guns at the new guy catching on so quickly, rather than getting confused by the statement. Sounds like he'll do well here—at least with catching on to what's going on. How he handles it? Getting hung up on a cactus doesn't tell her that much.

"Got it in one," Gideon says, "Hasn't happened in a while, so Thirteen might be trying to keep it fresh. This last month people got made older or younger, but it turns out that wasn't Thirteen. That was due to one of our peers."

She motions in a direction. "Lets get you to civilization, yeah? Unless you're dead set on wandering a foreign desert with no sense of which way leads out."

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs frowned a little. “I’d been wondering. None of us are truly real - our actual selves are living our lives. It would follow that, at any point during them, we could be taken here. It makes as much sense as simply being here to begin with.”

The rest of what she said … was tucked into a part of his brain, to be picked apart later. In a dangerous situation, it was best to focus on the parts that were immediately recognizable and could be acted upon. When he wasn’t in immediate danger, he could dissect and analyze the rest.

If there was anything rational to be found at all. So far … none of this made sense.

“That doesn’t sound like an ideal plan,” Zechs quipped wryly, to wandering the desert. “Though I’d prefer to face more of those sand-worms than waste away in illusions, should we encounter anything on our way.”

[necrosavior]

Gideon exhales loudly. "If that's how you wanna take it, be my guest," she says, "Fair warning, if you treat me like shit because you think I'm not real or because you're just being a dick, you'll get the same response."

It's day number one. It's a hard day. She gets it. Not everyone comes from being about to die (or probably die but actually get stuffed into their own corpse and reanimate it).

"Sand worms, delightful," Gideon mutters. That's why she carries weapons all the time. Not only because she's a cavalier and a sword nerd and a jock. "Yeah, lets go, newbie. As we walk, tell me some of your living preferences, and I can direct you toward where you might wanna live, or if that's too much tell me what you like to eat, and we can grab a bite somewhere."

He has some clothes. Food and shelter. Necessities.

[zechs_isonfire]

“That fox, this place might have judged me accurately as a monster,” Zechs told her frankly, “but I am not that sort of monster. I’ll react you with respect as all persons warrant.”

Given that he was growing horns, it seemed pointless to dissemble.

His lips twitched, almost amused. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been a ‘newbie’. What are my options? I’ve lived with little privacy before, and meager rations - but that wouldn’t be my preference.”

[necrosavior]

Gideon walks side by side with the new guy. "So you're a Myth," she says, "That doesn't make you a monster. Fellow Myth here. Treating yourself like a monster, not a person, doesn't do yourself any favors. Treat yourself with that same respect all persons warrant."

Gideon waves her tail back and forth. Apparently, she's not the horny type.

"Mood," Gideon says regarding little privacy and meager rations, "A lot of the housing is in Willow. It's large and green. It has the lakes and a lot of farmland.

"You've got Lapine, which are burrows, good if you like underground living. Talk about soundproofing. It's spread out, quiet, with lots of food and clean water. Take the train to get to anything to do.

"You've got Leshy, which are treehouses, good if you want the high ground. They cluster in groups of five. They're spread out, so you can shop for an exact location you want. At risk to high winds.

"You've got Gram, which are cottages, good if you want privacy. They're around the lakes, farther north near Thoth. You got privacy, but everything else is a lot farther to get.

"Lastly, you've got Talaria, which are tiny houses, good if you like community. They're right at the corner of Willow, Cruel Summer (where we are now), and Exile. They're seriously tiny, but everyone helps each other out. They get destroyed the most frequently, but hey try out a different house?

"In Cruel Summer, you've got Puca Park, which are trailers, good if you like independence but having each other's back. It's near Exile. Night sounds creepy af, but they have fun doing physical shit for entertainment. Gotta travel a lot for food and groceries.

"In Exile, if you've been exiled, if the land likes you, you might get a little cabin to make your own. No guarantees. Good for privacy. Long trek for literally anything else.

"In Epiphany, you've got Satori Hills, which are apartments, good if you like to live in the city. You got neighbors, sure, but you also have access to everything in the city, like the food carts and Catfe."

Gideon counts off on her fingers to check. "Yep that's all of them. Unless you want to live in a dorm at a school. Thoughts?"

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs didn’t say anything in response to her claim, that he treat himself with respect. Being a myth might not make him a monster - but his actions had. What he’d chosen after, the steps he’d taken since, didn’t erase that. His history might be meaningless to her - he’d had no idea what she’d seen removing him from that cactus - but Zechs knew he brought his actions and any consequences therein with him, no matter how alien this place was.

It’d be a kindness he didn’t deserve if he escaped them, he felt.

“It all sounds incredibly … rustic,” Zechs remarked, thinking that was the best word for it. “While I am an exile of sorts, I’m uncertain if I can simply live off the land. Perhaps the city would require the least amount of adjustment.”

There’s a beat, turning over what she said further. “What destroys things in Talaria?”

[necrosavior]

Gideon looks over at Zechs, eyeing him the way she might Eren because he vibes the same way. It's an easy vibe check to make with everything she got pulling him off the cactus. Regardless, she has her eyes on him, and if he thinks he can treat himself like shit, he's got another thing coming. Friendship.

"There's people here who've never heard of space travel," Gideon says, "I've had to explain outer space before. So sure, it's rustic, but you get privacy and never have to worry about starving as long as you interact with people."

She shrugs casually at the question about Talaria. "Weather mostly," she says, "Last summer there was a massive flood. Magical kind. Destroyed the cabins in the summer camp too. In January, it was snow everyyyyyyyywhere. Except Cruel Summer. Some of the tiny houses were completely buried under." She makes a squishing motion. "Willow had mudslides everywhere this spring. Part of a whole cleansing the land thing?"

"Look, I grew up on a planet with no atmosphere, so this whole weather thing and seasons is something I'm still getting used to. Weird as fuck if you ask me."

[zechs_isonfire]

Fortunately, Zechs had no idea he’d already been categorized as such. He might try to dissuade her otherwise. Perhaps there was a pattern in the behavior of these sorts of people.

His brow furrowed in consideration. “Odd. I wonder if having most of this reality in a more primitive state helps the vast majority adjust, if they exist without the technology to leave the Earth. Or establish their own colonies.”

“Cleansing the land, or the people within?” Zechs muttered. But then, his brows raised. A planet with no atmosphere? “Does your reality lack the technology to terraform a planet, or is that in progress? Granted - it is something our scientists are developing at present. That was the project I was assisting with.”

[necrosavior]

"You want to figure out what's going on with technology, visit Thoth," Gideon says, "That's the tech school and where the majority of the that kind of nerd hang out. People have a wide range of tech where they come from."

She gives an easy shrug. Tech nerd she's not. What she knows the way anyone knows the basics of their world. The stuff you can't help but know.

Gideon cracks her knuckles and rolls her head around a couple times. "Welcome to where my world gets weird compared to the rest," Gideon says, "We're high tech, yes, but our tech is based on necromancy. Blah blah planetary requirements blah blah thanergy thallergy blah. You wanna know more, talk with the nerds."

She pauses, realizing that she never paid attention to that stuff. It never mattered to what she was going to do. Gideon shrugs. She assumes they do it.

"The Ninth House's location is also super secret so enemies can't find it. It's inside the planet itself, so fly around, if you don't know where it is, good luck finding it. You terraform that shit, you're blasting that location to all corners of space."

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs frowned, a little uncertain if he’d be useful there. He elaborated, “I’m not a scientist myself. I know enough engineering to maintain my own equipment, if needed - but that is all. I’m not certain there will be a lot of use I can provide for them.”

He felt adrift here, he knew that immediately. Zechs knew he was looking for some kind of task, some goal - preferably, some threat. Otherwise, why would the fox take him at all? Unless, of course, Zechs was supposed to be threat everyone would unite against. Again.

It’s harder to accept that role if he didn’t know why he was playing the villain.

Gideon’s explanation was a good distraction from getting too stuck within his own head, too caught up in his own brooding. “Necromancy. You fuel yourselves off of the dead - your enemies, perhaps? Does war fuel your technology?”

Magic wasn’t real to Zechs, before. But war was something he understood. An endless war to fuel ambition and power - Zechs couldn’t help but hold a certain tension in his body, of revulsion.

[necrosavior]

Gideon looks over at her company unimpressed. The misunderstanding makes them sound like shit. There's plenty shitty in the Nine Houses. Gideon got to hear it first hand right before she came here, but that's not it.

"Time for basic biology lessons," Gideon says, even as she holds herself ready should he attack. "Our bodies are made of cells. They don't last our whole lifetime. About every seven years or so, you're made of an entirely new set of cells^*. That means at any given time, you have cells living and dying in your own body, creating life energy and death energy, the two kinds of energy used in necromancy."

She looks at him, like, see.

"Everyone who dies in the Nine Houses continues to serve somehow after death. In the Ninth House, after everything else has been processed and you're down to the bones, that usually means being a skeleton farmer. Skeletons work the fields growing snow leeks to feed the living.

"In battles, sure, necromancers use the energy of the dead, friend and foe, but can you tell me, where you're from, people don't use whatever they can in the middle of a fight?"

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs looked away, his expression shuttered. He realized belatedly, by the way she started to walk - she’s preparing herself for an attack. Something by way of his reaction was read as a threat. He could curse himself - of course it was.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” Zechs said quietly. “Of course we did. I guessed necromancy fueled your war, because it is what my reality would have done with that same magic. It is not your fault that humanity is just as vile everywhere. I am not blaming you.”

Another moment of quiet, and he went on, “Our world had seen such war for centuries. Only recently, through dire measures, has peace broken out at last. If your planet, hidden from the rest, was able to exist with some measure of peace - I admire them for it.”

[necrosavior]

His admiration takes the wind out of Gideon's sails. She's not in the Cohort (yet) (ugh). However, his admiration is not deserved. Centuries are pitiful compared to what her universe has been up to, all because two groups of people can't let go of shit from even longer ago. She rubs her palm against her forehead, above her sunglasses.

"The Ninth House generally stays out of it, but turn that admiration around and wrap yourself up in its warmth," Gideon says, "Because the incredible powers of intergenerational hate-ons in my universe makes yours look like nothing."

In the tone of explaining the birds and the bees, Gideon explains the five thousand year old conflict, "Ten thousand years ago, the world died. Humanity survived two ways far apart from each other. One without necromancy. One with necromancy. They lived their separate ways for five thousand years, expanding into space. When they found each other, they hated each other so hard they started a war they've fought ever since. Five thousand are you fucking kidding me years.

"On the left, we have Necromancy is Wrong and Must Die. On the right, we have We Stayed on the Dead Planets."

She exhales loudly. Yeah, so much for admiration.

[zechs_isonfire]

“That’s madness,” was Zechs’ first reaction. Not at the necromancy, which he accepted because he had to accept a talking fox. “Five thousand years. Too much is easily lost in the interim - human memory is fickle. And yet they carried that torch of hatred for so many millennia …”

Zechs had to take a deep breath and unclench his hands. Since she’d been apprehensive before, he said, “My anger is not directed at you. I am - let’s say disappointed, that humanity has found a reality to exhibit even more deplorable behavior than what I’m already familiar with. A war spanning across inhabited planets. For a time longer than most civilizations can stand. I can only imagine how many have perished who weren’t even soldiers at battle.”

CW: references to murder, mass murder, and war

[necrosavior]

Gideon nods and takes the reaction. She's not a soldier, but she spent most her life wanting to be one. She never questioned the war. It'd been going on five thousand years, half the lifespan of the empire. It'd never occurred to her to question it. All she'd seen was a way off the Ninth House. The only way off the Ninth House.

Worse, Gideon probably would still take it, if it'd been offered to her, like her worst self. She and Harrow figured shit out off of the Ninth House, but there's no way they could've there, not with Crux and the great aunts and everything about how they worked there. There was no life for her there. So judge away, newbie. There's more than one reason Gideon's a Myth.

"I know I'm bad at letting go of grudges," just take a look at her mom and dad, how could she not?, "but I'm not five thousand year war bad at not letting go of grudges."

She sighs. "Can you imagine? In five thousand years? That's a looooooooot of people," Gideon says, "directly in battle, indirectly because of lack of food, reshuffling to refugee planets, people's nerves getting fried and taking it out on each other as civvies, yadda yadda yadda." She's read about it in novels. And comics. And on occasion thought about it more seriously. Mercymorn killing John—killing Dominicus, killing the Nine Houses, killing millions.

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs was all too aware of the cost of war. From his infancy, being taught how immoral violent conflict was, taught to take the higher road; to witnessing the massacre of his family; to becoming a soldier himself, a killer first-hand. Zechs had crafted himself into his world's Myth for a reason. Such wars could not be allowed to continue.

Hearing Gideon had come from an even more dire timeline made his expression darken considerably. His jaw clicked as it tightened, his eyes cold. Zechs had been driven and then succeeded in taking revenge on many, many people by the age of nineteen. He understood a grudge. "There are personal grudges, and then there is whatever should fuel such a hatred for thousands of years. That scale of bloodshed is nothing if not evil."

"I can imagine." Zechs' thoughts were all turned inward as he did. He could imagine himself witness to such a reality, and knew what he'd done in his own world to stop something lesser. So, "Perhaps it is fortunate I am not from your reality."

[necrosavior]

Gideon thinks of John Gaius—God, her dad biologically if nothing else until recent awkwardness—and manages not to disassociate because such declarations aren't new. Augustine asking him to stop. Other conversations about such things. Yep, pretty incredible scale of bloodshed. Note to self: enroll her dad in Eleanor Shellstrop School of Self Betterment? She might not be the best suited to... help him.

"Cool cool cool, sounds like you can imagine being involved in that," Gideon says, "You already know I'm from there and I'm a Myth, so how about you confess your sins if you want to call them that, past deeds that could get you massively hated if you don't. If there's one thing I can tell you, it's that the more you keep that secret, the more Thirteen will force you to share it with someone. At least this way, you get to choose sharing it with me, your Mythic pal in shithole war worlds. Though you said yours reached peace? I'd be curious to hear about that."

[zechs_isonfire]

"You keep mentioning this Thirteen," Zechs remarked, a little wryly. Given these circumstances, it did seem pointless to hide his past actions. He wouldn't judge her on the fact she was a Myth alone; but he should be judged, and treated accordingly, for what he's done. She didn't seem fragile, someone to protect from ugly truths.

But the idea he'd be coerced to speak made Zechs internally bristle. "Who, or what, is Thirteen? Why do they believe it should have any right to command us to do things which might be against our will?"

[necrosavior]

"I'll note for the record that you didn't respond to the suggestion," Gideon says first. She looks over at her companion, and even behind sunglasses her face says she will not forget what she asked, nor his failure to respond.

"Thirteen is the fox you followed to get here. She's a fox god-like being, godlier than the gods that are here as Star Children," Gideon explains, "Official reasoning is to help us achieve our potential. It's definitely also to generate lore. That's what we're doing now. Interact ⟶ Create lore. This might be the part where you go *hiss hiss autonomy my choices i wouldn't do what you drag me to do for a single corn chip hisssssssss* and I get it. Look at me. You're looking in the mirror.

"Thirteen's not dumb. Nor a dumbass like me. That's why I mentioned sharing. My second month here, there was this thing where you'd trip and fall when you were next to someone, and you'd be stuck where you fell until you shared something deeply personal with them. I was like fuck that shit, so I got ahead of her, I fell on my own, and I shared on my own. You know what? She never made me fall."

Gideon pauses and even stops walking a moment.

"More seriously, she let me use this mirror trial where you get a gift from home to get this bomb that was going to kill this other me," Gideon says softly, "That way when we had to send her home—that was a different trial—she didn't die. She got to go home and live and you know... have a whole life. That wouldn't have been possible without Thirteen."

In the context of five thousand year long wars, one life is a small thing, but it's hers... even if it's not. That means something to Gideon, along with the rest.

"I don't think Thirteen entirely understands what matters to us, and I don't think we can entirely understand her either. She's not pure evil. She can be worked with. That's more than I can say of some people."

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs stopped alongside her, as he carefully listened to what she had to say. He didn't know Gideon. Had absolutely no reason to trust her, to believe she was doing anything but telling him something outrageous for her own amusement. And yet, there seemed so little utility in that. He already knew a fox, somehow, took a version of themselves to this place, and changed them. Based on their supposed roles.

Based on that alone, everything she explained seemed to logically follow, in a way. Plus, given that they were completely alien to one another - what would be the point in lying about any of it? So, it might all sound completely ridiculous. But Zechs had no choice except to believe her.

And the fact this so-called god was neither evil, nor good, rang truest of all. Very few things were truly evil. That war Gideon mentioned might be one of those things, but persons rarely were.

He waited until she was done explaining, before he told her - calm, blunt, and without much emotion;

"My name is Zechs Merquise, but I was born Milliardo Peacecraft. Despite the war which had raged for centuries, my father as king lead our nation through his philosophy of absolute pacifism. He would not compromise on it. He would not lend his people nor our country's resources to battle. And so he, and nearly my entire family, was murdered for it."

"I sought revenge. I had achieved my revenge. And yet - it was hollow. It didn't matter that my country was now free, that my surviving sister could rule it, untainted by the blood I had spilled. The war went on. More and more atrocities were being committed, and the people I admired most in that conflict stood on the opposite side, and were losing. And then my country fell again, my sister captured, made a puppet of tyrants."

Zechs took another breath, continued in that same calm tone. "There was a machine, that showed its user possible outcomes to their actions. It allowed me to consider a new path, a path to true peace. It showed me a possibility I had discussed once, with a man I considered a friend, but whom also was often an enemy. If there was someone so terrible, who committed an act so heinous, that it would unite all the Earthsphere against them - that would finally bring peace, if someone could actually play that role."

"And I was prepared to do so. After I understood that terrible possibility, I was given the opportunity to lead a faction of terrorists who happened to possess the right kind of firepower. With Libra, I would be able to send the Earth into a nuclear winter that would kill billions. The survivors - and everyone in the Colonies - would hate me, and the idea of war, forever. Peace would be had at last."

"I abandoned the name of Zechs Merquise, which had hidden my true identity - and I took up my birth name of Milliardo Peacecraft, son of the pacifist martyr, to become the true evil that everyone could unite against."

[necrosavior]

Pacifist nation led by King Peacecraft. Touch on the nose eh? She listens to a story not particularly surprising, if a touch underwhelming at first. Gideon didn't grow up with a family, but she has Harrow and friends now. She'd do a lot now. At the same time, her stomach gets a sick feeling with the various memories of killing Crux, some the real Crux, some not, some happened yet, some not. Abruptly, she wants to vomit, but she holds her face passive as a silent nun. The silent Ninth at Canaan House. Listening.

Surprise! Revenge didn't work out!

Zechs describes something much much worse than his personal revenge. Seriously, why does everyone want to nuke the earth? Of all the points to have in common with her dad, seeking revenge until everyone involved is dead + nuking the earth didn't need to be the two. How about bad puns and a taste for weird flowy robes?

"Everything gone through on that by the time you came here?" Gideon asks, "Because when I said ten thousand years ago the world died, it'd been dying, and someone finished it off with nukes. They nuked it, and you've heard how much that's put people off war. So I'm curious, real reeeeeeeeeal curious, to hear how that went for your universe."

CW: suicide, suicidal ideation

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs’ stomach twisted at her account. Surely, it didn’t? That couldn’t have been the impetus to that evil which had lasted for so long? While he’s inclined to allow her to think the worse of him - he had to refute that much.

“I didn’t.” Zechs looked down now, his voice no longer calm - it was hushed with guilt. “I was convinced in the end that peace would proceed without those deaths. That the fact I was the monster they could unite against was enough.”

“I destroyed Libra,” he admitted. “I did not intend to survive it, but I did. I should have perished along with the war.”

Zechs looked at her. “There has been peace since. One year ago, someone attempted to use the child of my friend and enemy to start another one - I revealed myself alive to help stop him. And yet there was still peace after.”

“Instead of execution, or imprisonment - which I would have equally deserved - I was sent to a distant planet, to help terraform it.” A beat. “Being a Myth does not make me a monster. I had accomplished that on my own.”