hugtopia | [Video]

[The feed opens on Gladio, sat in his garden, the sun shining down on him. The sky is bright, the weather warm but a cool breeze ruffles his hair. The garden is well tended, green and well kept. The scene might have been a lovely and calm one if not for the serious look on Gladio's face. He's not quite looking at the screen, but off to the side, seemingly lost in thought for a long moment before he heaves a heavy sigh.

Still not looking at the screen, he starts to speak.]

It's been long enough. I've had time to think, so I'm going to tell you why I did what I did.

[He goes quiet again, considering his next words.]

I know... some of you are pissed we did this. You were happy livin in blissful ignorance, trusting this world without question. And for a while I was too. Till I realised how messed up that was.

I was so desperate for a peaceful life I didn't think...

[Gladio glanced at the screen then, his eyes narrow slightly.]

When did we all just roll over and accept this insanity? We were kidnapped from our homes, our families, and trapped in this bubble. We were given the most basic info and told to accept it. The most basic food we can't even really call 'food', and we accepted it. We were given tasks and rules and hoops to jump through, and we accepted it. We were forced to touch, kiss, hold and reveal secrets to strangers, and we accepted it. It was the 'will of the Gods'. We all just nodded and accepted it. Why? Why have we accepted all this? Why do people keep coming and going? Where do they go? Do they just go home? Or are they taken? Are they being hurt? Experimented on like the animals they had us catch? Why do these weird things keep happening? Why can't they answer our questions?

And why are we terrorists for wanting answers? We hurt no one. We destroyed nothing. We're the heroes of this world, right? Here to save the planet. So what are they keeping so secret?

Why aren't you all asking questions?

Why're you just rolling over and accepting their truth?

[Again he looks away, heaved another heavy sigh and brought a hand up to rub tiredly at his eyes. He definitely looked tired. Stressed. His tone shifting from angry to confused to desperate for people to understand, and for himself to understand why no one else was fighting.]

We're forced from our homes... Our families. We form bonds with people only to watch them vanish. And... I don't know bout anyone else, but I didn't consent to this. I never signed up for this world.

I want answers. We wanted answers. And we weren't gettin them. So we went looking for them.

[Here he laughs, low and without humour. A shake of his head and a sardonic glance at the screen.]

The fact the natives reacted the way they did should be a red flag. What're they protecting so badly? What's so secret? What aren't they telling us? Is it about what really happened to this world? Who these 'Gods' are? How we actually got here and why? Where our friends go when they suddenly disappear?

And we're the bad guys?

How's that make sense?

[Gladio shrugged and with one last sigh he reached out and switched the feed off. He'd said what he wanted. Now he would lie down in the sun and try and calm down.]

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[Another long pause. Collecting his thoughts, evening out a temper threatening to flare, and preparing to explain a lot of things he'd tried not to think about.]

Verstael is part of the reason I turn into what you know as 'Ardyn Izunia'. I won't assign blame to him alone by any means--a great deal of it remains my own fault, or will be in the future. But without his influence I imagine the matter would have been less immediately drastic.

It was he who went poking around Angelgard in search of some terrible legend he knew only as 'Adagium' and chose to prod it in the direction of vengeance. He who kept a slumbering god in the basement of his facility hoping to have him daemonified.

Cooperating with our fellow offworlders is one thing. But trusting someone like that is not a mistake I will ever make again.

Ardyn...

I get it. He's a bad guy... at some point. But so're you. The things you'll do in my world, the things you'll do to my friends, to Noct... By all rights we should treat you like a villain too.

[He sighed and sat himself up, finally picking up his phone to look at the screen with a tired sort of resignation.]

I don't know the guy. Others vouched for him. I just went along with it. But if you're askin me to judge him for what he'll do, are you asking me to do the same for you?

I do not speak of or concern myself with his future. I speak upon his present.

[Ardyn’s jawline was tense with his mouth tightly closed for a moment as though he was biting back exactly what he thought of that.]

And that’s the same thing, to you? What he was actively doing before we came here, what he’s expressed no regret or remorse for, you think that of equal weight to the horrors committed decades in my future after he helps provoke me into complete madness? I do not absolve myself of what has yet to happen for me knowing how it pains all of you, and it’s cruel of you to brush off what I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t gleefully still do with me given the chance.

You have some godsdamned nerve, Gladio.

[The anger that had been simmering just under the surface was starting to show in the narrowing of his eyes, the set of his lips and the growl in his voice.]

And you have some damn nerve gettin angry with me for something I didn't know, something you or anyone else could have told me over the last seven fucking months! But hey, make me the bastard here for not knowing if it helps you sleep at night.

But I had no idea of any of that until this very second with you telling me. Maybe if I knew before hand I wouldn't have gone anywhere near the guy. I won't ever fucking know now because none of my friends let me know there was a guy around that was worse than Ardyn Izunia!

[A hand appears at the top of the screen, Gladio's voice had been rising to a near shout until the hand dropped on his head and he abruptly stopped what he was about to say. His eyes closed and after a few seconds he took a deep, shaky breath before glancing up at Tony. He mouthed the words 'thanks', before he glanced back at the screen in his hands.

The anger was gone, but the hand seemingly stroking his hair remained. Gladio just looked tired again.]

... I'm sorry. I didn't know, couldn't possibly know. No one told me. And I'm sorry...

[Ardyn was as calm as he could be in the face of Gladio's tirade, listening patiently until he finished.]

...It is as you say. He has as much right to exist here as I do, and I chose to believe he didn't have the means to do anything so carelessly foolish. So I have spoken very little on our brief history and that, I see now, was a mistake on my part. In that respect, you have no need to apologize.

... Any of you could have told me. But you didn't. So... [He sighs, a heavy sigh followed by a hand that covered his face momentarily while he rubs at his eyes.] ... I'll talk to him myself. Just like with you. I gave you a chance. He gets one too. If I don't like what he says... that'll be the end of it.

[But he'd already learned he couldn't apply Eos rules to these worlds. He'd met people before, people who had destroyed worlds, who had killed or would kill, who had died for a cause or would go on to die to save their worlds. Gladio had met so many... but all he could judge them on were their actions then. He could only judge Ardyn on his actions now, not back home. And the same would apply to Verstael.]

But I am. Sorry, that is. I'd no intention of hurting you, or angering you. I did what I felt was right. I shouldn't have lost my temper.

I am angry about a great deal of things today, Gladio, but a mere misunderstanding is not among them.

Right...

Sorry about that, too.

I'll see you, Ardyn.

[Gladio flicked the feed off, let the phone drop, and just leaned against Tony's side. The fight had well and truly left him.]

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