silvergarden | Avalon Inbox

((aka this disaster))

Rinea suddenly receives a message from someone with the username therightful. Who could this possibly be!]

If you are not as inept with this technology as your "lord Somnus", do us all a favor and teach him to use it. If you are, then at least tell him not to contact me like this.

[WHO COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE!]

[AH.............. "THE RIGHTFUL"???????? WHAT KIND OF DRAMATIC SUCCESSION ANGST ASS NAME IS--

Rinea's reply is thankfully legible. Her username Rinea_378 gives the impression that the system set it up on her behalf, though.]

Chancellor Izunia,

I apologize; lord Somnus and I rarely if ever communicate by phone. Because of that, I would consider his attempt to do so with you a mark of sincerity...

[Rinea's brainrot is terminal and she privately finds Somnus's ineptness kind of charming unfortunately. The lady is a sucker for gap moe.]

I must also express my surprise that your affinity with technology is so markedly different!
But regardless, I shall endeavor to do as you ask so that he may correspond with you properly.

Sincerely,
Rinea of Rigel

[listen do you think he WOULDN'T have a dramatic succession angst username after obsessing over the succession for two thousand years!!! he's a professional revenger!!

Rinea's reply is... surprisingly composed and barbless. Ardyn would have expected her to be more defensive of Somnus and displeased towards Ardyn himself, but she's doing a good job of being polite, even seemingly almost genuinely. He feels a pang of... well, it would be wrong to call it feeling bad, but it's something. She's definitely being more gracious about things than he is, and he dislikes feeling as though he's lesser.]

My thanks. Where would we be without you, miss Rinea. :)

I have spent longer than him in the modern world. Regardless, I would have expected him to have learned to use these devices, if only out of self-respect. Alas, even in two thousand years he seems to not have gained any.

[It's not that he CARES about his brother but the ineptitude is annoying and infuriating and he's sick of it!!! Maybe if Somnus wasn't such an insecure bitch none of the succession drama would have happened!!! >:(!!!!!]

[Oh, he used a smiley emoji... Given his penchant for suspicious little smirks in person, it's probably more than halfway sarcastic. Hmm. She's getting better at reading these, maybe.]

I can only imagine that your and lord Somnus's situation is quite complicated. I could not dare to question the methods through which either of you learned to navigate the world.

[Even as she says that, though, she's Pretty Shocked. Two thousand fucking years???????? Waaauuugh it's probably a bad idea to ask Ardyn for any sort of information about their history. And does this count as gossiping behind Somnus's back?!?! But she's curious.. and still considers any civil conversation with Ardyn to be an above-average outcome. (Also she probably should have guessed Ardyn's modern world experience after CarGate.)]

Perhaps emphasizing that point.... The timescale you speak of seems nearly impossible to comprehend. I am embarrassed to admit that two thousand years is a longer time span than my country has even existed.

[Is being dead-alive for 2k years NORMAL???????? If she gets yeeted back to Rigel again she hopes against hope she won't spend two thousand fuckin' years as a dead ass fire demon, holy shit. RIP]

[Well, now he's tempted to tell her that it IS normal. When you die you definitely have to spend 2000 years as dead-alive monstrosity. It's just fact, just ask the Caelums. (do not ask the caelums, about ANYTHING, the entire family shares one braincell that they soccer kick to one another, and it has space plague on it anyway)]

I would say our situation is not that complicated. But I would much rather he tell you everything himself. After our last encounter, I do feel as though you neither trust nor like me. ;( And it is not every country in our world that is as ancient as Lucis! So you may rest assured that it does not make you lesser. Lucis, too, had once stood for only a handful of decades, so I am certain that your Rigel will stand for much longer as well. Unless it is also on its way to destruction?

[Rinea fusses for a while on whether or not to respond to the first paragraph of his message. This is "bait," right? She's supposed to confirm his suspicion and be labeled cruel, or deny it and be obviously lying, right? The "dislike" part is a bit complicated, but it's true she doesn't trust him, given the whole Tried To Explode Avalon Via Dead Guys thing. And the weird brother thing. He hasn't been violent to her yet, so that's a plus in Ardyn's favor, but he's still in Wait And See territory.

Ultimately she decides to move on without comment. #GeniusStrategist]

I suppose that depends on whether or not you would consider it the same country if its rulership collapses. The people yet persist, but in what form or under which leader I cannot say.

[Rinea has some secret hope for Alm's protagonist power, but that still leaves the Big Evil God and his Evil Clergy to deal with. Rigel in its current form is definitely fucked either way!]

But Chancellor... that "also" in your message reads quite heavily. Do not tell me you have dim hope for your country's future?

[and, influenced by the eleven year old Line-using preteen she lives with, Rinea caps off the message with:]

[He was about to start replying, but the sticker blows him out of the water. If they were around each other irl Rinea would have the (dubious) pleasure of hearing him burst out laughing in surprise. ~~Also at least one of the people he's mindvored over the course of his career must have loved stickers so a part of his brain approves~~]

You are certainly more versed in this technology than my brother. Do not tell him one can send images through the app as well, I doubt his mind could take it.

[BUT ALAS IT'S TIME TO DO DRAMA AGAIN]

As for your question - why, having no hope is Lucis's future! The whole place is one grand, glorious human sacrifice two thousand years in the making. And lo, Light shall triumph over Darkness, and what does it matter if millions will die for it? It is the right thing to do!

[he's ok he's fine everything is ok and fine, also don't mind the fact that he's the one who orchestrates a fuckton of those deaths, not important]

[Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm. Rinea sort of knew this part, vaguely. Somnus's entire line is to be sacrificed for the good of the realm... but she was told that Ardyn was already killed(even if it didn't stick) by the time this prophecy came to pass. So then, what reason would he have to resent it? Surely not out of familial love. Could it be out of envy, even if Somnus's position as a sacrifice still kind of sucks? Maybe because he includes himself as one of the sacrificed? Maybe because his resentment of Somnus extends to anything the man is associated with? (Thinking about it that way, maybe she IS lucky to not have been stabbed last time they spoke. Oof.)

From what Somnus said of the Starscourge, Rinea understands Ardyn had a fraught relationship with it... but she cannot really grasp how much it shaped him. (Somnus's explanation is nearly two thousand years dated, after all.) There are clearly depths to Ardyn she has yet to realize.]

That truly sounds quite awful. [No matter what, that much is true.] I am sorry to hear your homeland faces something so dire! And for you to have lived so long watching such a fate must surely take its toll.

[Is that sympathy? Eww.]

Avalon Inbox

on the day that Somnus tries to message Ardyn

LMFAOOO oh god

bless rinea for being nice about it omfg

picking her battles 😤

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