[hi. asa is staring at one of the plates of food that has been mysteriously put out during the day, lips pursed together and eyebrows furrowed. maybe she will simply starve, actually...]
[ THE WAY I HAD YOUR PC OPEN IN A TAB ON MY DESKTOP AND NEVER TOUCHED IT SEND HELP
hello sweet girl.... on this fine (?) culty monday, asa can find rondo outside of the cabin area! he's sitting plopped on the ground with a big old sword in his lap, and he's cutting up - what looks like the remains of one of those white robes, into strips.
he looks up! and when he sees asa, he immediately smiles and waves. sunshine. ]
Good morning, Miss Asa! Were you able to get settled into the cabin alright?
[ there's a little ink patch on the front patch of his cloak, that casually spells out the words - Not realizing sooner. ]
he is so high energy and she is so baffled by this, tbh. she nods at him, eyes darting momentarily to that patch of ink and then back to meet his gaze. she has yet to notice the smudged writing on the side of her neck, however, but rondo can see what it says from this angle:
anyway despite being a baby TM when the fog has finally lifted enough that they're all free to escape and run around and find each other, rondo's doing just that - in a hurry, moving quickly, and when he sees asa, his grim expression turns to one of visible relief. ]
- Miss Asa! [ one more person he can check off that's safe and sound, one more friend not lost. ] Are you alright? You aren't injured or anything, are you?
[ as this is happening, across his chest, the inky tattoos of the week have multiplied - the shadows and ink coalescing in more than one spot, spattering a perfectly white cloak. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. ]
[hi, rondo. your girl is lowkey disassociating in front of the bulletin board, though she quickly turns to look at him once she hears her name. two little words loop around her wrist: everyone dies.]
[ i never started anything because i SUCK yesterday so rondo was handwaving fussing and is now fussing again today, hanging out with asa at the cabin!
ACTUALLY I CHANGED MY MIND ITS VOID TIME BUT DIFFERENT ]
[ after your induction into the guardians of light - hasty as it was - you join the others as they make their battle plans to march on the gates of hell. between your research with king solon and the willpower of the other guardians, preparations are being made for a confrontation of a lifetime, and you feel a little out of place.
everyone here is powerful - a king, a lord, the very ringbearer chosen themselves - and they control armies, countries and politics. this is the kind of thing that sazantos would have handled, where you would stand dutifully by his side and listen, wanting to help and soaking up what you could learn, but...
... but sazantos is your enemy, now. he lounges in hell with the forces of the undead gathering under his influence and might. you haven't gotten to confront him, not yet - you only know now what queen alaune has told you, that he intends to use her older sister, the princess elrica who was executed by her cruel tyrant father, against all of them. alaune tells you all that she wants to go to hell to confront them herself, because she is brave and admirable, and the ripple of shock that moves through the room is heard by everyone, perhaps no louder than richard, stunned at her side.
immediately, you feel moved, moved by the sense of duty and purpose you always feel, and you bow, one hand to your heart, and ask alaune and the ringbearer chosen if you might join them. you know the two of you could protect the queen, and...
... and you need to go to hell, too. you need to see sazantos for yourself.
you need to ask him why.
the queen accepts your offer with warmth as always, and to the background noise of shades of the walking dead approaching the castle in droves, the three of you descend into hell through the portal. ]
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[ hell is - not what you're expecting.
it's gloomy and dark and miserable, and the oppressive power of pure evil seems to lurk around every corner. you find yourself standing in a near exact replica of the castle of edoras, and though alaune swallows nervously in front of you, she is strong, her shoulders squared backwards: the ringbearer chosen's lantern shines with a safe, warm blue glow like the sacred flame itself, and it soothes all three of you as you begin to navigate your way through the endlessly labyrinthine tunnels of this alternate castle.
you are accosted by shades and spirits of monsters nearly every third step, but you and the ringbearer chosen are both strong and capable, and you slash them back, keeping the queen safe as you guard her journey towards her sister. each monster is twisted beyond belief - some are humanoid, flesh melting from their bones and eye sockets, creatures of rage and despair, and others are just monsters, multi-eyed beings that spit black magic and acid, all designed to torment, to kill, to cause despair. it feels like you wander for days, down plush red carpets and past structures of horrible black crystal and roots, digging up into the castle's surface like claws. the entire time, your heart pounds with purpose and necessity, and though you aren't afraid, the further you get into the castle, the further a gut feeling of dread starts to build.
your gut feelings are usually accurate, and this is no exception. when you round a corner into a hallway, now cleared of monsters, there's a burst of black, accursed flame, and walking out of its embers is none other than sazantos.
your heart stops.
sazantos looks so different than you last saw him. your last memory of the former flameguard was him leaving flamesgrace to head to the isle of orsa - white cloak, silver armor, brilliantly blue eyes, long silver hair braided with a red ribbon that you feel like you've stared at a thousand times. a man you have seen in reality, in your dreams, someone who you have spent nearly every waking moment of your life following, chasing, striving for.
here, sazantos wears black armor, his face covered in a mask - his silver hair tucked into the back of the armor, too. the accursed flame nearly oozes off of him, roiling with purple and black and pink, the same sight the two of you once fought off in berecain.
it is in this moment that you realize that everything that you have so fervently hoped was false is a reality, and the sight of him breaks your heart into a thousand pieces.
you can't help yourself. you rush forward, ahead of alaune and the ringbearer, and his name escapes you in a rush - ] Sir Sazantos...!
[ sazantos regards you for a moment, and then walks away from you - he is always walking away - but you hesitate, because you know how he is and it's just like in training, that surely he will respond if you give him a moment. and sure enough, he speaks after you follow him, your gaze stuck to his back. isn't it always?
"I must say. I hadn't expected to behold your foolish face even here, at the very end of the world." sazantos says, almost wry. he turns to you, holds out his hands, as if beckoning you to attack him or run to his arms - mockingly. "Have you improved at all in the time we've been apart, Rondo?"
the way his voice smooths out the syllables of your name is so familiar that your heart aches, because it used to draw you in like a moth to the flame. you have hung on his every word for almost ten years now, and you you taste something bitter and miserable in the back of your throat as you regard him.
you suck in a breath, force the lump in your throat down. you should answer the question, but you - you can't, you can't address that, you don't care if you've improved or not, because the only thing that matters is the secondary reason you came down here, what you've wanted since you joined the guardians, since you heard the news of sazantos' betrayal in the first place. your hands curl into fists at your side, trembling. ] Why...
[ and you run to him, closer to him, facing him one to one. your voice breaks with your anger and your despair and confusion and loss and hurt. your heartbreak, as you finally get your chance to confront him. your composure shatters and you shout, desperate - ] Why are you doing this?!
[ because that's what you've wanted to know from the start.
his hands drop back down to his side, and sazantos shakes his head, says your name again. "Rondo."
the timber of his tone is familiar - he's already dismissing you. "You cannot hope to understand."
(but you want to. you've always wanted to. you want to understand everything about sazantos. you want to know him, want to understand him, and he's never once let you in.)
he turns, folding his arms, and for a brief, terrifying moment, you think he's going to disappear again. "No...no. No one can."
but that's not true. can't you understand him? would he ever let you? why won't he ever let you try?
you want to run to him and shake him, impulsively, want to wrap your arms around his shoulders and shake the truth into him, that you want to understand him that you love him that he is your everything - but you don't. you suck in a breath, and drop your hands to your side, curling them into tight, shaking fists.
sazantos explains to you what pushed him over the edge. he says he never knew if human lives had any value or not - which stuns you - until ceraphina and lyblac, who showed him how greedy and desiring human beings were. how every single one of them deserved to perish, because they destroyed the world around them, based on those desires. that all human beings were evil. that they all deserved death.
you almost can't believe the words coming out of his mouth.
this is sazantos, after all. the flameguard. the brilliant, protective force who cared for the continent, who has saved so, so many lives. it's dissonant, it's wrong. after everything you've seen him do, you feel like you have to defend him from himself, from this insanity, from this darkness that's taken him over that just can't be him. you can't reconcile it. and as always, passionate and impulsive, you can't help yourself, throwing out your arm with the force of your denial - like you could reach out and wrench him back from this cliff he's standing on yourself. ] No! You're wrong - humans aren't all evil!
[ your voice starts to break - your vision blurs with tears, but you barely even notice as you take another step forward, throwing your arms out, and your words pick up volume. you're shouting, now, echoing through the voluminous hallways of the castle in hell, your desperation and despair as you try to make him understand wild and untamed.
(you don't realize it, but you've started crying.) ] You saved me and my sister, didn't you?! You risked your life for us without a second thought! That's why I looked up to you - why I wanted to be like you!
[ because you remember his back then, too - you remember his ethereal presence, the brilliantly azure flame in his hands that saved your lives, the way he turned to you afterwards and told you you were worth something, that you could be something, that he recognized you -
your last word rings out, and the heat goes out of your voice as you run out of air.
you stare at his back, again, always staring at his back, and you ask, tiny and hollow with the horror of realization. ] ... Are you saying that was all some sort of act?
[ sazantos finally turns to you again. he regards you, for a long moment.
"Well, Rondo..."
and then sazantos summons the accursed flame. it's ominous and dark black in his hands - its wrong, its so wrong, and he tells you that maybe you should ask the sacred flame that you love, instead of giving you an answer. the sacred flame that he taught you to follow.
you don't understand. you want to understand him. you want to know what happened, you want to understand why he fell to this depth, you want to know you want to understand him help him you want to know you want to be there for him, you have always wanted -
sazantos looks at you again, and you swear you can see his eyes behind that mask, their bright blue that you fell in love with a decade ago. and then he chuckles, and his mouth turns up in an odd smile. he walks closer to you. he holds out his hands to you. he faces you.
"...You should join us, Rondo." he says, "The dark flame awaits you."
it knocks you for a loop. you stare at him, stunned, and then your feet start moving before you can even stop yourself - not sure if you're going to throw yourself into his arms or tackle him - but before you make it three steps, he's gone. you scream his name and rush after him, but the accursed flame only leaves behind sparks.
and as sazantos vanishes, your knees give out, and you collapse to the ground, staring at the space where your future used to be. ]
Rondo... [softly. she's stunned and she doesn't fully understand what the fuck she just witnessed, but...
she gets the gist of it, at least. the emotional beats. the betrayal and the disappointment and the heart crushing feeling of watching a person you thought you could trust turn their back on you.]
What happened to him? Did you find out?
[ALSO i have a mem list here so lemme know what you want for return memshares or at least if you have any cws to avoid.]
[ cabin! house! who knows! but he is somewhere and he is horizontal. rondo's also back in his knightly uniform - asa can see through the peek of his collar that his throat is blackened and cracked, and the skin there glows a sort of eerie blue like the flickering of a hearth. that's fine.
when he realizes who's here, he lifts his eyes up, and then manages a smile, dipping his head politely like always. ]
I did. [ thankfully. ] It was not a pleasant experience, but... one that I am grateful for, nonetheless. I feel much better - thank you for checking in, Miss Asa.
rondo's really good at bouncing back from tragedy. he's used to tragedy, he's used to loss, but there's - there's just nothing that could have prepared him for this. for the first time, he's not running around looking for people after death has struck. today he's just sitting by the blue, blue pyre on the ground, his arms around his knees.
it becomes very, immediately clear that he's crying. silently, but he's crying. ]
again, he's just... out by the pyre. far enough to not be visible by camille or aqua, but curled up in a ball and just staring out at the blue, blue flames. lucas' blood is still on his clothes. everything sucks forever. ]
[this is presumably before, uh, you know. asa is looking through a book in their brand new library, pausing when she stumbles across a particular line of text.]
[ THIS HAS BEEN THE WORST WEEK OF ALL TIME 0/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND
anyway!!! rondo sure is in the forest still. he's just sitting by the gravestone, curled up in a ball with his head in his knees, arms folded across them. if he has company he has not noticed it yet, but even from a distance it is like, blatantly obvious that his shoulders are shaking.
[ at some point on monday, rondo can be found at the amusement park! he's looking at the food stands with a facial expression that could be best described as wonder.
There's so much to eat, I don't even know where to start! What's cotton candy? Is that sugar? That must be. What's a funnel cake? It smells so good over here, I could.....woof
why did he brain woof. probably because he saw asa! ] Woof! [ no, wait, ] I mean - Miss Asa, look at this place! Have you ever seen anything like it?
rondo's... here! he's around the village! he is still semi transparent, just kind of watching the group interact at the moment - when he sees asa again, though, he has a smile for her, warm as warm can be. ]
Miss Asa, hello! Do you want to come take a break with me?
[she is so :pika: over this whole thing still. frowning at the way she can sort of see right through him, but it's not like she can do anything about it right now.]
... Yeah, sure. Did you want to see one of the new areas?
rondo is settled somewhere after everything is all done - probably on the graveyard side, tbh, it's so much nicer over here. there is a sheep with him that is chewing on his cloak crankily, and he's sipping on a concoction from alfyn, just kind of enjoying the post-battle atmosphere.
when he sees asa, though, he brightens and waves at her. ]
Miss Asa! Are you okay? Did you get all the healing you needed?
[it is so much nicer in deadland if they ignore the (looks at notes) fire fleas and monsters??? apparently??? what the fuck, y'all.]
I'm okay. I got a little bit of healing, so I'm not bleeding or anything. [just achey as heck, tbh. she limps over to him, moving to settle down next to him.] Are you alright?
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week zero, saturday.
week zero monday
hello sweet girl.... on this fine (?) culty monday, asa can find rondo outside of the cabin area! he's sitting plopped on the ground with a big old sword in his lap, and he's cutting up - what looks like the remains of one of those white robes, into strips.
he looks up! and when he sees asa, he immediately smiles and waves. sunshine. ]
Good morning, Miss Asa! Were you able to get settled into the cabin alright?
[ there's a little ink patch on the front patch of his cloak, that casually spells out the words - Not realizing sooner. ]
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[HELPPPP it's okay
he is so high energy and she is so baffled by this, tbh. she nods at him, eyes darting momentarily to that patch of ink and then back to meet his gaze. she has yet to notice the smudged writing on the side of her neck, however, but rondo can see what it says from this angle:
her own clumsiness killed her mother.]
I can't complain, since we each have our bed.
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week 0, friday
anyway despite being a baby TM when the fog has finally lifted enough that they're all free to escape and run around and find each other, rondo's doing just that - in a hurry, moving quickly, and when he sees asa, his grim expression turns to one of visible relief. ]
- Miss Asa! [ one more person he can check off that's safe and sound, one more friend not lost. ] Are you alright? You aren't injured or anything, are you?
[ as this is happening, across his chest, the inky tattoos of the week have multiplied - the shadows and ink coalescing in more than one spot, spattering a perfectly white cloak. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. not being strong enough to protect the people you care for. ]
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I'm fine. [she's got a pulse, so.] Are you okay?
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week zero, saturday.
... So, that's that.
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anyway, yeah. he's here, tense and tired, lacking his usual energy and just. frowning at the fire, too, watching the blue flame flicker. ]
... We only managed to solve one. [ which is such a bad feeling. ] ...How are you holding up, Miss Asa?
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week 1, monday
Have you ever gotten to spend any time with farm animals, Miss Asa?
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Not really. I've lived my whole life in the city.
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w1, sat
the vibe is bad but it's not like, no contact bad, at least? he has not noticed he has company. ]
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Are you okay?
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w2, monday
ACTUALLY I CHANGED MY MIND ITS VOID TIME BUT DIFFERENT ]
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Rondo... [softly. she's stunned and she doesn't fully understand what the fuck she just witnessed, but...
she gets the gist of it, at least. the emotional beats. the betrayal and the disappointment and the heart crushing feeling of watching a person you thought you could trust turn their back on you.]
What happened to him? Did you find out?
[ALSO i have a mem list here so lemme know what you want for return memshares or at least if you have any cws to avoid.]
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week two, thursday.
... Did you use the swamp?
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when he realizes who's here, he lifts his eyes up, and then manages a smile, dipping his head politely like always. ]
I did. [ thankfully. ] It was not a pleasant experience, but... one that I am grateful for, nonetheless. I feel much better - thank you for checking in, Miss Asa.
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wk 2 friday
well
rondo's really good at bouncing back from tragedy. he's used to tragedy, he's used to loss, but there's - there's just nothing that could have prepared him for this. for the first time, he's not running around looking for people after death has struck. today he's just sitting by the blue, blue pyre on the ground, his arms around his knees.
it becomes very, immediately clear that he's crying. silently, but he's crying. ]
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she doesn't sit, but she comes to stand next a few steps away.]
Rondo.
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w2, sat
again, he's just... out by the pyre. far enough to not be visible by camille or aqua, but curled up in a ball and just staring out at the blue, blue flames. lucas' blood is still on his clothes. everything sucks forever. ]
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asa just stops to stand a couple feet away, staring at the opaque containment zones.
after a moment:]
... You should change.
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w2, sunday
thats the starter ]
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when the shadows take them, rondo will get two memories for the price of one. they may be a little relevant after today's events, considering....]
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week three, monday.
... Huh? The Afflicted?
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rondo's up on a ladder plucking a book from a higher shelf when he hears asa - he comes down a few steps and peers over. ]
...What'd you find, Miss Asa?
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week 3 friday
anyway!!! rondo sure is in the forest still. he's just sitting by the gravestone, curled up in a ball with his head in his knees, arms folded across them. if he has company he has not noticed it yet, but even from a distance it is like, blatantly obvious that his shoulders are shaking.
everything is fine ]
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how did asa make it past the spiders? mystery. but she's just going to come quietly sit down next to him.]
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week three, saturday.
... Do you really think that Robin...?
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She... it's hard for me to picture what she was saying as anything but a cry for help.
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week 3, sunday
when he sees asa, he smiles - tired, but still rondo - and dips his head. ]
Miss Asa. So another week ends...
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... So it does. Despite everything, we survived another week.
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w4 monday
There's so much to eat, I don't even know where to start! What's cotton candy? Is that sugar? That must be. What's a funnel cake? It smells so good over here, I could.....woof
why did he brain woof. probably because he saw asa! ] Woof! [ no, wait, ] I mean - Miss Asa, look at this place! Have you ever seen anything like it?
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barks.
closes it as the words i'm going to kill them come out of her brain loud and clear.
tries again—]
A boardwalk? [she sniffs, wrinkling her nose a little.] Yeah. But it's all greasy and gross...
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RATSHAKES YOU
w6, wednesday
rondo's... here! he's around the village! he is still semi transparent, just kind of watching the group interact at the moment - when he sees asa again, though, he has a smile for her, warm as warm can be. ]
Miss Asa, hello! Do you want to come take a break with me?
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... Yeah, sure. Did you want to see one of the new areas?
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w7, sat!!
rondo is settled somewhere after everything is all done - probably on the graveyard side, tbh, it's so much nicer over here. there is a sheep with him that is chewing on his cloak crankily, and he's sipping on a concoction from alfyn, just kind of enjoying the post-battle atmosphere.
when he sees asa, though, he brightens and waves at her. ]
Miss Asa! Are you okay? Did you get all the healing you needed?
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I'm okay. I got a little bit of healing, so I'm not bleeding or anything. [just achey as heck, tbh. she limps over to him, moving to settle down next to him.] Are you alright?
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