what you're given, what you live in

[fatedfinality]

Darling, it finds a way to live in you

Who: Ardyn & You
What: A catch-all log for Ardyn and the various shit he's bound to get up to outside of events (so: quests, misc. interactions, etc.)
Where: All around Town
When: The last months of 2024

Warnings: Blanket warnings for suicidal ideation, self-harm tendencies, alcoholism, and others that will be specific to the threads and noted in the subject line!

code

Comments

[amaratha]

“So if it blasts us it won't hit us both!!” It's okay, they can not question Ardyn's strange altruistic impulse together. “It’s gotta be killable, unless it's actually some dark chicken god?!”

She's also the ‘use as much force as possible’ kind of DPS, but under Ardyn's (unusually?) sensible counsel, she can easily accept a reasonable nonviolent solution. Well, they can continue trying to kill it after they've penned it if they have to, it's often too early for violence but it's never too late.

“Okay-” -she’s interrupted by a bone-chilling crow from the large chicken, a clear signal that it's preparing for some kind of Special Attack. She glances back, then to Ardyn; before veering away from him as she'd just explained. The chicken would have to choose between them instead of trampling both underfoot, at least.

[fatedfinality]

Hopefully, it'll never come up again! He'd prefer if it didn't. He'd also prefer if Absinthe made a bit more sense, but- They can't all get what they want, can they? He understands the theory, sure, but putting it into practice is another thing entirely. Oh, well. They don't have time to do anything but put it into practice now, so: Here they go.

He lets her go this time though. It splits up the chicken offense, at least, and the larger one seems to view Ardyn as the bigger threat despite Absinthe's attacks. That's good, he thinks. He can't be killed in any way that matters, so he might as well take the heavy hitter. "That's right," he offers it, taunting, as the shine of his yellow eyes becomes a little brighter.

"Do your worst."

i'm up for timeskipping to the end of the encounter maybe? playing it turn by turn may take a while

[amaratha]

The large rooster screeches and rushes at Ardyn in some sort of charge attack, its heavy footfalls causing tremors across the cobblestones. However Ardyn chooses to handle that, he doesn’t have to do it alone for too long- after a few seconds, the chicken pauses trying to savage Ardyn and looks up, sensing some sort of spell being cast on it.

Absinthe is further down the road, yelling and waving. As the rooster takes a moment to decide whether to keep attacking its current target or go after the new one, Absinthe’s yells turn into a yelled command word; two Eldritch Blasts shoot out to the chicken to bait it away from Ardyn.

The chicken continues further down the path; slowly, but steadily, they’re making progress.

[fatedfinality]

Between Absinthe's persistent redirection and Ardyn's provoking it towards the direction they seek, eventually they manage to get the rooster and flock both back to its owner. "Next time," he says, to the farmer a bit more menacingly than he intends, "maybe outline all the details, hm?" He would have liked to have been prepared for the fucking angry giant rooster, but- He concedes they won't be getting paid due to the unfortunate eradication of a chicken or two meaning he lost some money on eggs.

He actually isn't too fussed about that though. Tired, certainly, but no doubt Absinthe is too after using that much magic just to wrangle a bunch of feathered freaks back into their coop. Ardyn has half a mind to pelt the farmer's house with eggs stolen like a disgruntled teenager, but- No. He won't.

(At least, not in broad daylight with any witnesses around.)

"Far more than we bargained for," he says, "but at least we make an interesting team."

[amaratha]

Absinthe, on the other hand, is fussed about the lack of payment- she gripes and whines to the farmer about it, before sulking off to survey the damage she'd wrecked in the wake of things.

She won't admit it, but the farmer did have a point when he retorted that she had killed a lot of chickens. In her defense, they kept going for her or Ardyn. As the Tiefling spins away from the disgruntled farmer in a full sulk, Ardyn comes up to her, and his remark does bouy her mood somewhat.

“Yeah! We did good, even if the farmer doesn't get it.” She stares at the closest chicken corpse obliterated by a 1d10 Eldritch Blast, the wheels in her mind spinning again. “Thanks for partying up with me. You think some of those chickens I shot would do anything for you?”

That's not much worse than the compensation they would've gotten anyway, she thinks. Freshly killed chicken is even better than eggs and feathers!

[fatedfinality]

"That's alright," he says, about the farmer. "I'm sure he'll recognize the error of his ways when we're the next successful champions of Town." Or, you know, his house is egged. It's going to be the latter, but Ardyn can pretend he means the former.

"I mean, far be it from me to deny good meat. Even if I don't eat it, I'm sure I can find a use." He could lure some kind of creature out to tame, maybe, or give someone salmonella. The possibilities are endless, truly!

(this seems like a good point to wrap?)

[amaratha]

“Yes. I’m sure he will,” Absinthe agrees, fully confident in their potential as future heroes. She fancies herself as having outgrown egging houses, but she’s hardly going to police other people about it.

“Let’s go! If we pick them up quickly, it’s basically fresh.”