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Lildear18
Half PintThe Round Table Discussion II
Word Count: 2829 (+3)
”According to Asgore, a king of the underground who was unstoried by a Consul and then given the task of fueling one of those clocks alone as part of some cruel jape, there are these symbols, like suns, found on the ground across the world, that resurrect the dead. They do not recall their past lives in this world when brought back, but still have the potential to remember the ones before. Like we have now,” before getting to the gist of things, which was ”As a result, as far as we know, anyone lost can be brought back, but they will not remember the time they had spent here, or with us.”
At the news, Goldlewis gaped, while Sandalphon stared. Arms crossed, Nadia looked away, her lack of response betraying the fact that she already knew. Geralt, meanwhile, sighed at this revelation. “So, theoretically, any of us could have lived a thousand lives here and know nothing about them?” That was…existentially horrifying in a thousand ways. As for Roxas, the whole notion of being reset and forced to start over went a little over his head. Was there some previous life or iteration where Axel and Xion were still with him in Twilight Town? And why would they have changed locations if that was the case?
Trying to ignore the revelation of that fact, Sectonia shook her head. ”If that is the case… then wouldn’t anything any of us have done previously have some impact on the world at large even if we ourselves don’t remember it?” She said, more looking for something to say as she grasped the same thing Geralt had figured out.
"She's right! If I was alive before I definitely would have tried stopping Galeem!" Pit agreed. There was no way it was true that they all had been living in a cycle this whole time... it couldn't be! Right?
Sandalphon glanced at him, not happy about what she had to point out. “To stand against Galeem, you would need to have been destoried first.”
Pit crossed his arms and bit the inside of his cheek. Duh, of course someone would have had to free us before... or I could have broken out myself! Or... For all those possibilities, it was just as possible that this had been the first time that any of them had been destoried. A cosmic coincidence. If someone hadn't happened to just pick up a ring, or happened to destroy the Land of Adventure's Guardian, then he would never have been himself again - and he'd never even know it, like Geralt had said. Relenting, he frowned.
"So then we really could have just been doing the same thing over and over, like being stuck in the worst TV rerun ever."
Nadia regarded him with a raised eyebrow. “You know what a TV is?” she muttered.
Geralt nodded solemnly. “I was just doing the usual Witcher work until I was destoried. Would’ve done it the whole ten years until I faded into ash, I imagine. Already been at it for decades, what would one more be?” The idea of having spent the rest of eternity walking the Path on repeat, even if he sometimes found Ciri or Yen…disturbed him more than he was willing to admit.
This got Sectonia thinking, and she came up with a conclusion that they all knew, but now there was much more context behind it. ”So the Consuls found a way to break out of this cycle of resurrection and instead use this infinite cycle of resurrection to fuel their own debauchery. And they call this “Moebius”.”
”Which probably stands for ‘infinite one sided loop’ if I remember what that word means right? So they are claiming in a fancy way to be infinite.” Roland said, trying to give some input on this conversation.
”...Yes.” Sectonia said, not sure if the definition of the word brought anything new to the table. ”What's interesting is that, due to whatever method they used to ‘leave the system’, if they are defeated they die forever.”
Sandalphon’s pupils took the form of inverted triangles as she thought. “That’s something that Lost Numbers and Moebius have -or rather, don't have- in common, then. No spirit–no reference point for their existence outside of the World of Light.” She narrowed her eyes. “I wonder if the Consuls ‘escaped’ under their own power, or with the help of some authority, most likely Galeem itself, given that they assume control of the World of Light to perpetuate the cycle.”
She breathed in, then out through her nose. “Since we've abandoned the chronology at this point, let's specifically recount everything we know about the Consuls. I can start us off with Moebius Y.” She conjured a screen that displayed an image of the late Consul. “We encountered him in Midgar, first at the headquarters of Neuron, a local law enforcement agency. He held a position of overt power over the local government and manipulated events to prolong the Ever Crisis, a ceaseless war between the people of Midgar and various enemy forces. An enemy of his, one Jena Anderson, exposed his original identity to us: Yoseph Calvert. He appeared to obstruct us when we moved to challenge the Guardian, but he seemed acutely aware of the stipulation Sectonia mentioned: that his death would be permanent. To that end he consumed an enormous amount of Mako energy -and Legion cores- and transformed himself in an attempt to merge himself with a dimension known as the Astral Plane. However, he failed to do so, and resigned himself to a final battle in which he was ultimately vanquished. He referred to himself as a ‘slave’, unable to ‘transcend Moebius’, and with his last breath expressed bitter regret.”
”Don’t forget about the other one.” Roxas finally piped up after spending a long moment lost in his own head about the whole “resetting” thing. But now he was finally ready to get back into the conversation, ”I think he was called C, right? That demon guy who was manipulating the debate between Armstrong and Shinra. He was down there too. Waited until after we took down Y before he made his move. What was his real name again?” Roxas paused to think about it, looking between other members of the Midgar Team for a reminder. ”Chaos… something? Right?”
“Happy Chaos,” Goldlewis confirmed, himself somewhat happy to be distracted from the cycle of life. “In fact, he’s from my world. Responsible for a serious international incident, too. Stormed the White House and held world leaders captive almost single-handedly. I ain’t fully informed, but they say he’s the one who gave the world magic.”
”Consul C, Happy Chaos.” Zenkichi summarized, then shuddered. ”Didn’t even fight us, just turned one of his little minions into a monster and then…he made us fight an illusion. Or…maybe it wasn’t an illusion until the end, but he used my old boss as a meat shield and just rode off into the sunset. C just…wanted to cause chaos.” A mixture of anger, disgust, and despondence permeated his voice. His failure to save Konoe was clearly weighing on Zenkichi, and he fell silent again.
”I can retell what I know of Consul P that we met in the Underground.” Sectonia said, getting herself ready for a longer explanation. ”When it comes to Consuls, P is dead, I saw to it myself as I stabbed his ‘Moebius core’ as he said when he died. He ruled the city called the Home of Tears in the underground and was, for all intents and purposes, a spoiled evil child with the ability to change history at a whim. If he was any more intelligent about it, things could have gone poorly.” Sectonia said, retelling of their defeat of P. ”The important thing learned from this encounter, is that whatever makes them Moebius is an object or core, perhaps something replacing their spirit in its entirety that acts as a weak point.”
”Hmph, he wasn’t the only brat we defeated down there.” Ganondorf interjected. He’d been standing over in the corner of the crowded common room this entire time, arms crossed and only listening. But since the topic had finally shifted to the Under, he figured now he had a place to speak. ”His sniveling cohort, F, was a brat too. Begged us for his life after we slew his pet Guardian. We tried to take him prisoner but the blasted little bastard managed to slip away from us.” He paused to take a breath in order to keep himself from sounding too angry about that, but the fury and hatred was still very much in his tone as he added. ”I won’t be making that mistake, again. Ever.”
Therion's ears twitched, feeling a little called out considering it was he who'd stopped Primrose from executing F at the time. But going forward, he'd be taking a page out of the King of Evil's book.
”I suppose we did get something out of dealing with F though, the power structure or lack thereof of the Consuls, how they all interact with each other, and which ones to be more wary of. ” Sectonia said, at least salvaging the situation a bit.
Elsewhere around the table came an awkward chuckle. "Heheh, funny you should mention that," Pit said, sneaking a glance at Ganondorf. Going into this meeting, they'd all known there would be new information to share and some disturbing truths to wrestle with. Pit just hadn't expected that he'd had anything like that to share until about twenty minutes ago. He looked up at the ceiling with his eyebrows scrunched together before speaking.
"There's another Consul too. S, the one Ms. Fortune mentioned earlier? If that really was him that we ran into, then he tricked a bunch of people into attacking us. But then he kind of warned us about the other Consuls, and..." Pit looked back down at the other Seekers. He squeezed his folded arms together tighter for a moment before dropping them entirely, splaying his hands open as he said his next piece. "Now he's kind of like, a good guy? When I talked to him, he seemed like he really regretted what he'd done."
While Sandalphon tilted her head in curiosity, Ganondorf shot a look at the angel. ”Explain!” He demanded, unwilling to put up with any shenanigans where the Consuls were concerned.
"It's just that, he said he didn't have a choice and he tried to change the whole 'Moebius' thing from inside, but it didn't work. And now he wants to help us," Pit replied. Despite everything he'd heard so far, he sounded like he was willing to give the Consul the benefit of the doubt. Which was more than some could say, understandably.
"And you believed him?"
While Pit tried to put together a response under pressure, one of the bystanders relieved him. With his unmistakable style and impressive stature, the mercenary Vandham would be recognizable as Tora and Poppi’s friend to anyone who set foot in Alcamoth before. “Oi! Lemme give ya a missin’ piece of the pictcha,” he interrupted, speaking in his typical Australian accent. “That benefactah that Mistah Dickinson mentioned? That’d be S. If not for ‘im, we wouldn’a made it outta Alcamoth alive, none of us. And when M popped in to finish us off, S fought by ah side, keepin’ us alive. I dunno ‘is endgame, but believe you me, if ‘e wanted us dead ‘e wouldn’a ‘ad to lift a fingah.” He shrugged. “Plus, ‘e bloody well turned ‘imself in when these Lost Numbah blokes arrived. ‘E knows ‘is mates’ll kill ‘im for what ‘e did, so now ‘e’s on the run, same as us.”
“A consul on our side, huh?” Goldlewis didn’t sound like he fully believed it himself, but the evidence he’d been given was hard to deny. “Could be mighty useful. Mighty dangerous, too. Hope y’all know what you’re doin’.”
”So he’s here? On this vessel?” Ganondorf asked, though it was obviously a rhetorical question. ”So be it. Then maybe he can give me an answer I’ve been looking for regarding the Flame Clocks.” He said, referring to the plan he’d come up with about destroying them. A plan that so far only half of the Seekers had been made aware of.
”Yes, more information about these Flame Clocks would be prudent. Perhaps they could have a use for us if understood fully.” Sectonia said, her plan being more to use the flame clocks to enhance her own power. Although if they had no use but to extend the life of the Consuls, she would agree with Ganondorf on destroying them if he proposed such an idea.
”The… the Dead Zone, you mentioned it briefly, right? Did it have a city called Redgraccoon city in it, made up of tall gray rotting towers, filled with undead and demons?” Minda chipped in with odd hesitancy with an oddly tangential question.
”that does seem like it fits the bill, yes? Why do you ask?” Kamek enquired but instead she pushed
”and, have any of you seen Consul D? Blood red armor, top of the helmet a bit like a captain’s hat, black cape, pair of bone white spurs coming down the chin like fangs? Aristocratic tone. Magic user. Drinks something that definitely wasn’t wine”
”Nope! Consuls are kinda a more recent thing.” Blazermate said, chipping into the conversation since she was there for the whole dead zone before it went boom. ”I wonder if it going boom took him out too?” Blazermate said, trying to get a cheery thing out of that wasteland of zombies.
”I think he was visiting, only there to claim the contents of the clock” she said, before explaining ”the reason I ask is because, well, I didn’t see or meet either of these places, nor til now know about flame clocks. I dreamed about them, in vivid detail, one night in Midgar, a dream that ended with me dying at Consul D’s hand after I’d conquered the entire region and ended the cycle of war fueling the clock in the process. So if what you say is true, about us living over and over, and if these things I dreamed where true and real despite me having never seen them in this life, then, well”
”Maybe the ones we’ve lived aren't as gone as you or he thought”
It would have been easy to write off someone's dream as just that, a dream, now matter how relevant. However, Asgore himself had told some of the Seekers that they could be a glimpse into past life times lived. And Midna wasn't the only one with a similar experience.
"...I had a dream like that too," Therion said. It had been more like a nightmare really, and the added context made it even more horrifying, which showed in his darkened expression. "Except I didn't work with her. The Consul I saw. I don't know which one it was, but she had a... demonic looking mask, a spear, and commanded lightning. She slaughtered the entire village I was living in. Then I woke up. I thought it was just a really realistic bad dream."
He'd left out some things he'd seen and preferred to keep private, especially if it could have actually happened at some point. The smell of burning and blood had certainly seemed real.
”I thought it was odd, whenever I have a dream about dying it's always … him” she admitted without really intending to ”but with this I’m pretty sure that is what it means. Which means that the Consul are the ones stirring up the violence, and anyone wins a war, then they just wipe out the winner and start things up all over again”
Nadia winced. “Ugh. It’s so depressing.” As she thought over that further, her ears flattened in alarm. “Wait. In the Deep Blue Seaside, we more or less won the war for Limsa and the Azure Navy by taking out the Abyssals’ commander. So if they have no more war to fight…”
“Their Flame Clocks will run out,” Sandalphon realized. “If their Consul doesn’t finish them first.”
“...Uh oh, hehe,” the feral laughed nervously. “Guess we, uh, better add a visit to the to-do list. Make sure Lisma’s not Lomin-scuttled.” The realization that even the places the Seekers had saved might not be safe did little to improve the general mood, and the dead air that followed Nadia’s badly-timed pun lengthened into an awkward silence.