melodiesoflife | Event || In Your Worst Memory

Event || In Your Worst Memory

Characters: All Heroes of Light. Only those who signed-up can start a memory.
Where: Interdimensional Rift
When: May 27th - May 30th
Summary: The Heroes of Light relive some of their worst memories, with a twist. All characters participating in this will be physically missing from Crystallis for the duration of the event.
Warning: It depends on the memory.

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Everything around you freezes, nearly as if time itself stopped, as if the world was frozen in time. And before you have a chance to understand what is happening, you can hear a voice right behind you.

"Kali Shashidhwaja."

Should you turn around, you may see a child who seems to be the only one aside from you unaffected by what is happening. And as she stares right at you, it makes no doubt these strange words are aimed at you. But before you can reply to her, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you know it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, Crystallis vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see.

And once again you feel different: all the powers from your Jobs are fading. Not only that, but you might find that your Crystal is gone and your clothes back to what they were before you woke up in Crystallis. It is silent, cold and before long it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you... And yet, slowly the world reforms around you. The darkness fades away and a new world appears, yet at the same time this is not a world.

This is a memory. The question is, is it yours or that of someone else?

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As soon as he sees Johnny in the vision before him, Jack knows precisely what he's seeing. The 'not a Time War' that Johnny had been trapped in before coming here. Son of a bitch. This isn't a city, it's a war zone. Even worse than he had imagined the fighting that Johnny had been through. He looks at the vision of Johnny (he can't even comment on the fact that Johnny seems to be left with a used sledgehammer to defend himself with, but his eyes also won't leave the sight). There's a determination in his eyes that is dangerous, a look Jack has seen in his own eyes from time to time, but at the same time, it's tinged with failure. It's the look of knowing your efforts are hopeless, but standing up and continuing to fight anyway.

And then Johnny falls. Jack can't help but reach out a hand towards him, he cries out, but then it feels like things shift again.

Now the explosions are happening all around Jack. Where he was only a spectator before? Now he is right in the thick of it. He shouts out a curse as he dives for some sort of rubble. The world rocks around him, before it settles, and Jack is shaking his head repeatedly to try to clear his ears. He pats himself down, actually checking for injuries, but is pleasantly surprised to find that he's armed. Call that the first stroke of luck today.

The voice cuts through Jack's thoughts, and he looks up at Johnny. Alive again. And he sees that they're there.

"Johnny. This is the Initiative, the- the thing you were talking about, isn't it?" He pulls a revolver from his holster and checks it, before looking back up. "I don't know why we're here, but what do we need to do?" A hopeless fight, maybe, but now there's one more desperate idiot too stubborn to stop in it.

[Yuna is there too watching as the city forms and shifts around her. She doesn't know what it is like being in a war like this but she knew the look in Johnny's eyes all to well. It is the look she had when she went to finally face Sin. She knew what it means to risk everything for a place that you love. Her heart reaches out to him but before she can say another word the world shifts again and she found herself crouched next to Johnny.

Her eyes are wide looking over at him as he became more solid. She doesn't have the faintest idea what was going on now. She can feel the heat around them and is only slightly away of Jack's words ringing in her ear.

If he is to fight, she'd fight too. She'd give everything to save her friends.]

Why're you guys-- [Coby was gone, replaced by those from Crystallis. As upset as he is about others being here, he'd have to figure out why things have changed like this later. Right now, he had to get them to safety. Somehow. There had to be something he could do.

Johnny just nodded at Jack's question, still looking shellshocked.]

The UE. It's the UE and this is New York. Was. I know that-- that it's not mine really, but shit, does that even fucking matter--!?

[As more shells smash around them, Johnny jumps in the way of Yuna and knocks her out of the way of the incoming ammo. Once they stop, he mutters an apology and struggles to get back up to his feet. He spots his hammer laying nearby and grabs it, using it to help haul himself back up.]

This isn't gonna stop. And they... They're tough. Beyond tough. Damn near unkillable. I managed to take a few out, but they're even tougher than the ones that attacked Exsilium city itself. They sent out everything they had for this.

Then we'll give them everything we have in return.

[K'pandolu steps up, nodding briefly to the others because switching to watching the battlefield- she feels truly herself again, the power of the Monk flowing through her.]

Where do we go?

[Yuna feels Johnny's weight press her to the ground as bullets fly through the now empty space. She stares, her confusion lifting as Johnny rises from the ground. She follows bringing her guns to her palms in an easy motion.]

Thanks. [She mutters back softly looking around at the area they've found themselves in. Johnny obviously knows the way and being stuck in plan sight probably isn't the best plan. She doesn't say anything more moving next to Johnny while bringing her guns up.

Yuna sees those who were shooting at them and begins to return fire, if only to give them a chance to move. She turns to Johnny.] Run.

[It's like Midgar, kind of. How it might look if AVALANCHE or Genesis' army of copies might have unleashed an attack on some area of the upper plate; except a great deal dirtier with no holding back on the destruction they might cause. Sephiroth has been in war zones before but this-

This was something else. Immediately he takes up a battle stance and Masamune is drawn from behind his left arm ready as the scene shifts. The smell hits first, followed closely by weight of the unsettled dust of buildings and the thick smoke that seems to hang over everything. As a round of shells explode around his location, Sephiroth leaps up --much higher than any human should be capable of-- intending to vault over a large chunk of a building to his back.

At first it's not clear if he made it or not but as the others come across each other Sephiroth ducks down and manages to locate them by their voices. As Yuna begins to open fire in retaliation, a shield is formed around each of the group as Sephiroth drops down from the top of a nearby half-building to join them- covered a little in soot on the one side of his face.]

If we're going to- [A pointed, concerned look over Johnny as Sephiroth takes a more realistic note of the extent of his injuries.] -we can't stay here.

Yuna, the woman he remembers from the dream of Gwen, the military man. Better options than they could be stuck with. But if this is Johnny's world, Jack is going to defer to his judgment. "Where to? Is there a point they're entering from? Bottleneck it at the point of origin? At least can we do something to stop it from getting worse?"

[Like hell Johnny would run. If it was just him alone, he'd be running at those soldiers with his maul held high. But with the others here, he looked like he was almost close to panicking. Johnny is always an emotional sort, but panic is never usually one of those emotions. But he know how dire this situation was, and all the painful memories were right in his face. Reliving it this way was worse than all the nightmares he had about this day.

But this had already happened. This couldn't really be happening again. Could it? Time was a funny thing, he knew that all too well. He himself had been sent back into the past to fix the future countless times, and there was nothing telling him this wasn't just like those times.

As scared as he seemed, he wasn't going to leave them here. Johnny never ran from a fight, much to the worry of his Exsilium friends who have pulled him out of more than one helpless battle. Today was no different with those from Crystallis.]

I'm not going anywhere. We need to stick together. They're in big groups. They're everywhere. Literally everywhere. Airdropped, I think. I... I don't know what we can do. There was nothing the Initiative could do. We could hide, try to ambush 'em maybe. Which we should do right fucking now.

[There was enough remains of buildings in this area that they could do that. And they better, too, as that nearby group of UE soldiers seems to have spotted them and had begun to open fire.]

Then we should make for cover. The closest, would you say? [she glances around, looking for what the others think.]

I'll cover you guys.

[Yuna keeps firing wondering why it is that they group wasn't moving yet. It isn't as if she's going to run out of aim any time soon but it is silly to be standing in the middle of a battle field and just talking.

She notices some of the buildings that Johnny is talking about and she gestures her head towards him while she fires.]

Go!

[When Johnny mentioned airdropping Sephiroth forces himself to look up and listen; imagining he might be able to hear the aircraft that had to be up there but without any luck. Either they were all already deployed, or the UE forces hadn't yet come around for another drop. Disconcerting, either way.]

Did you attempt to ambush them before?

[He wants to get the facts, before committing to any course of action but as the force coming the street towards them made obvious- they are fast running out of time. With a final look around everyone, and a glance to Yuna, Sephiroth also looks around for the nearest get of building debris that they might be able to scrape some advantage out of.]

We all need to move. No exceptions. [He comments specifically at Yuna but then turns to head further back away from the advancing troops. Trying to pick out a good spot which they might be able to hide, or -as Johnny suggested- ambush them.]

We didn't even have a goddamn plan, let alone a way to ambush 'em. And we're out in the open here. They're gonna see us hide.

[Johnny shook his head. Why did the Initiative even bother trying? They had to have known how hopeless this was.

The good news was here, Johnny had his strength back. The way it was when he left Exsilium, not like it was during this battle. Had he trained harder before this, he may have survived it. But no time for regrets now. As he ducked behind some of the walls, he sat for a moment to catch his breath. He was still injured here, bleeding too much. Bullets began to riddle the other side of the wall as the troops advanced on them. Whether dream or reality, Johnny wasn't going to let everyone fight without him. He began to collect nearby pieces of debris that he could use to throw at the soldiers. Even if it would just make them scatter, that was better than nothing.

The UE soldiers continue to advance while firing. Their armor seems to be protecting them rather well from gun fire. Johnny, from his hiding spot, had only one piece of advice to offer.]

Aim for their necks!

They'll still need to come after us.

[but hiding she can do. Fighting at range, though… It's not her strongest suit, nor what she prefers. But she'll make do as best she can, following Johnny's lead and searching for things to throw at the UE soldiers.]

That is possibly one of the strangest pieces of battlefield advice Jack has ever gotten, but, okay. Aim for their necks? Pretend they're Sontarans? Luckily, a lot of years of dealing with odd scientific effects that tend to be quirky has trained Jack to follow the strange advice first, ask questions later. He only has a few shots per cylinder, so he's taking his time with each one, aiming carefully, seeing if there are gaps in their armor near where Johnny is talking about.

When he pauses to reload, he looks to Johnny in concern. "You gonna make it?" A very different question than 'are you okay?' but Jack is pretty sure that he and Johnny are both looking at this situation with the right kind of scope.

[Yuna doesn't dare to look away from where she is aiming. It's enough to diswaid the enemy from firing as they move behind cover. She glances at everyone as they move following behind slowly. Each step is measured making sure she doesn't trip and fall while her focus is at the end of her guns.

She wishes people would move faster though luckily with her old abilities she isn't feeling so tired as she using trigger happy at her targets.]

[Once Johnny has a nice pike of projectiles built up, he manages to get to his feet with some effort. Having his usual strength back was a big help in keeping him moving. He looks at Jack with worried eyes.]

I don't know. I dunno how I'm still even movin'. I don't even know if this is real or not. But better safe than sorry, I guess.

[He picks up one of the debris chunks, and after a moment hauls it over the soldiers with vicious force. They dodge out of its way, but it does cause them to break form for a moment, making them a bit easier to hit. But they are hard to stop, most of them shrugging off hits like nothing.

Johnny is right about the necks, though - it's the most vulnerable part of their seemingly impenetrable armor.]

[He's ended up back and across the way some from where Johnny and Jack are squatted behind part of a building, pressed with his shoulder in plush to a similar corner that is for now providing cover from the rain of relentless bullets. Bullets take chunks out of the concrete and sometimes he has to move lest the corner might be chipped away and the shot might get his arm but Sephiroth's combat good-sense is switched on and sharpened as far as it'll go.

He doesn't want to stray too far from the others, especially as there is no telling what exactly is keeping Johnny going at this point. Sooner or later the adrenaline would stretch too far and break; he's seen this type of determination a thousand times before. There is one thing also; Sephiroth is certainly not going to do any good this far out of range. His expertise is in close combat, and while he might be able to cast magic by way of the materia he's equipped with there is no telling if he might still be out of range or even if the UE soldiers were impervious to it's effects. The small weak point at their necks being the only apparent way - if only he could get close enough without being shot to ribbons.

At least there appears to be a break in the shelling, being as the UE forces are in the vicinity. Sephiroth extends his hand out in front of him -positioned as if holding a ball- and he draws strongly on the Bolt materia. As Johnny hauls a chunk of debris, he steps out and follows with his cast. With any luck, the lightning will chain from one soldier to another and help even though they dodged Johnny's throw.]

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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