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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Kobato kept to herself when she wondered and had been trying her hardest not to end up in places that she shouldn't be in, but she had found herself in a place that she knew she probably shouldn't be in. Keeping her hands close to herself, she was unsure of what to do as she watched the scene unfold.

Her brown eyes kept watching and the more she watched the more she wanted to get involved. To help and stop the needless fighting. So she started to run forwards, moving closer and closer. "Please stop!" But she soon found that she couldn't do anything and that upset her more than anything. Whoever this memory belong to she wondered how they were feeling and just where were they.

As the memory was slowly coming to the end, Kobato saw someone that seemed to stand out a little bit and it didn't take her long to run over to him. "Wh-What's going on? Why are they fighting?"

Ven had noticed the girl earlier on, but she was an observer, like himself, and he all but ignored her. By the time she approached him, he too had given up trying to interfere with the memory, knowing it was futile.

Her question made him wince slightly, but he still didn't look away from the fight in front of them. The fight that never should have happened.

"They..." His fists tightening at his sides, Ven wavered, even if he of course knew the answer. "They're fighting... to protect what's important to them." He winced again as Terra narrowly dodged a blow; even if Ven knew he would be fine, it still hurt to watch.

"Fighting to protect something important to them?" She had to admit even she didn't understand that, why do you need to fight for something important to them.

"I don't think this is the best way to go about it though." Her eyes glanced over at what was going on before she quickly looked away and back towards the other. She still didn't want to watch. It just didn't seem right.

Ven shook his head, but it was in agreement. "It wasn't. They didn't have to, but..." But the Master taught in absolutes. He'd been confronted with one of the biggest possible dangers in all the worlds and acted accordingly, like one of the True Masters should have. Quickly and decisively. Ven kept that to himself, however, and instead finished with, "...but everything was on the line. I don't think words were enough this time -- it's how we were all taught."

Including the Master. Fight for your beliefs, hold fast to your convictions. We bear Keyblades for a reason.

Kobato pouted slightly, she still didn't believe that fighting solved anything. But that was in her mind. "It's still not right, no matter the reason. But I guess that's because I'm someone who doesn't believe in fighting like that... I mean I guess fighting to save someone is one thing though..." She did that, she fought to save a summons once, but that was the least that she did really.

"I guess I just don't understand any of this and no matter what, it just makes me sad to see it. Even if words weren't enough, I'm sure something else could have been."

"Yeah. It could have been avoided." Ven's gaze did finally drop, but it was distracted, distant and unseeing. "But... that was my fault. The things I said... it pushed them to this." More accurately, his existence pushed them; his existence as one half of the X-blade along with his conflicting place as Terra's friend. And yet, even before then, so many more things had come into play that it really did go beyond Ven's actions alone. That heavy feeling of guilt only made it harder to see.

As the fight drew to a close and both fighters paused, clearly worn down, Ven looked at them again, but he still spoke to the girl. "I'm sorry it makes you sad. I can't make it stop, but... you don't have to watch if you don't want to." He could bear that weight alone.

Kobato kept a pout on her face as she listened to him. It was kind of sad really, hearing those words, but she wanted to be there for them, even if she didn't know anything about him.

"No, I will stay. I don't want you to be alone here. Though I'm not exactly sure what I am meant to be doing. I know that this seems to be peoples memories, but I din't know what exactly we are meant to do in them."

Despite the grim circumstances and stinging reminder, Ven managed a sad smile at that. "Thanks." He wasn't sure which was worse right then, being alone or having other people see such a sensitive memory, but he was grateful for her kindness all the same. "I don't know, either. The ones I've seen so far have all been pretty bad. Maybe someone's trying to tell us something." Whoever was responsible for all this, if it was even a who to begin with.

Silently, he watched Terra and Eraqus exchange words of unspoken apology -- and as absorbed as he was in it, Ven almost missed the new presence along with them. A flicker of shadow and quick movement, the glint of sunshine on steel--

"No!" He moved on reflex, dashing forward as his own Keyblade appeared in his hand with a flash of light -- but stopped three steps later with another cry, because it was too late. Xehanort had made his move and now Eraqus was wounded, falling--

--gone, just like that.

Ven went deathly still. If he was totally honest with himself, he had suspected Eraqus' fate before now; the signs had all pointed to it. For that reason, he had done his best to avoid thinking too hard about it, afraid of deducing the truth.

Now, there was no hiding from it.

As Terra fell to his hands and knees, Ven stayed right where he was, only paces away and utterly still. After a moment, his Keyblade fell from his numb fingers, hitting the stones and disappearing.

Kobato opened her mouth for a brief moment, about to say something when she watched the other run off and do something. he had no idea what was going on exactly, but as she looked over and saw what happened, her eyes widened ever so slightly.

She was frozen, unsure of what to say or do any more. She was sure that was the last thing that they had wanted to see, but soon she slowly started to move until she was standing next to him.

"I-I'm sorry. I guess I can't really say much to be of actual help here, so sorry again."

Ven didn't respond right away. He only stood there, silent and still, staring at where his master's fallen Keyblade lay.

He felt... cold, but otherwise surprisingly numb. It was as though his head -- or maybe his heart -- couldn't process what he had witnessed. He'd seen Aqua come close to death before, and that had only incited a desperate rage; but this, the failure and the blame, did the opposite. Rather than prompting him to do something, it took all the fight and energy out of him. There was nothing and no one left to fight.

Even Xehanort, as he approached, was merely a shade, a ghost Ven couldn't touch. And yet, ghost or not, Ven found himself taking a step back out of reflex, unwilling to be so close to the old man.

The girl's words finally caught up with him and he shook his head, although it was just as much to clear both it and the tears in his eyes. "No... you -- don't have to apologize." If anyone owed an apology here, Ven thought, it was himself. To the present, as well as to the past he was looking at. To Eraqus, to Terra, to Aqua...

"I think... I knew what happened," he added more quietly, partially to himself. "But..." That didn't make it much easier, if at all. "I don't... get it. Why are we seeing all this?"

Kobato was still not use to helping people in times of sadness, even though she had been through that time at least once during her time here. She knew that it took some time for her to get out of that funk and figured the same could apply here. Never the less, she made sure to stand right by him, a small frown on her face. She was trying to make sense of it to, but it was never her strong suit.

"I... I can't say I know why exactly. I mean a lot of people have been seeing things like this, but I guess it has to be an important reason. Maybe... I don't know." She pauses for a moment "This whole thing is confusing. But... it's sad that people have to go through it again. I wish that they didn't have to."

Ven was -- usually -- the type to take comfort from being around others, so he was glad that she stayed, and gladder still that she stayed beside him. He would reach the point sooner or later when he just wanted to be alone, but for now, he would take the physical reassurance.

"Maybe... it's better this way. That I found out." He didn't sound too convinced of that -- just upset, even a little bitter. "Maybe someone thinks I need to know."

That didn't make it okay -- no one had any business diving into his memories like this, and there was certainly no excuse for putting it all out there for everyone to see. Ven had no pride to speak of, but Eraqus' memory shouldn't have been disrespected like this. And Terra... This was a matter between the three of them. No one else.

"...I'll be okay," he added after a moment, eyes hardening as they found Xehanort. "I'm... all right. I just..." He shook his head lightly. "I need to stay. Until the end." Even if it hurt.

"Maybe, but it's something that shouldn't get someone down. I mean... sure it's a sad thing that happened, but one should find the positive in it all. T-Though you might not want to hear that." She looked down at the floor as she finished with what she wanted to say. She wanted to help and she was slowly wondering if she was actually helping at all, or just making the whole situation worse.

"But if you want to stay still the end, that's a good thing. No matter how much it hurts."

Sure enough, Ven couldn't see the positive in this -- his stupid mistake, being played so easily, forcing Terra to fight the Master... and then their unknown fates afterwards. If there was any good to be had from this, it was buried deep, or at least not present in this scene.

But he knew what she was trying to do, so he didn't rebuke her for it. He just stayed quiet after that, watching and listening to Xehanort's cryptic words -- and then the not-so-cryptic, the blatant threat to kill Ven and Aqua, not unlike Vanitas' threat to lure Ven to that same place. All for the X-blade. All to push Terra over the edge.

But why? That could only be something that Terra answered, maybe -- or Xehanort, although Ven wasn't looking forward to that reunion. Not by a long shot.

But then something even more unexpected happened: not only was the land, his home, torn asunder as if it were nothing, but after that... after that, Terra changed. More than once. Baffled, Ven watched each transformation in confused silence -- this wasn't right. It couldn't be. This was... something else. Terra's appearance -- not just that, but two of the those figures looked nothing like him. Then again, the last one -- the man in a black robe that remained... He had Terra's features, but only parts of them. If Ven hadn't been shown the transformation like that, he never would have noticed those subtle similarities.

And that was where the memory seemed to stop. He waited, but the wind kept howling and Terra -- not-Terra -- went on standing there, as still and silent as the remains of the castle.

"That's... it?" said Ven doubtfully, once he'd found his voice again. "I don't... understand..."

And that was when he hit his knees. He didn't understand it all, but he could guess -- and those guesses were enough.

Kobato had wanted to try and help, but she still wasn't sure if she could even do that. Her hands help themselves lightly as she tried to voice something. Anything. But nothing came to her lips. She hadn't a clue what to say except to bow her head, eyes keeping to the floor.

She felt really bad. She wanted to keep positive, she wanted to try so hard to make the other smile, but the more she thought about it the more she started to think that after seeing something like that... Why would one want to smile.

"I... don't understand myself." She glanced up as she looked over to the side before back towards the young blond, going to kneel beside him her hand slowly touching his shoulder. "I guess...I know that trying to make you smile and be happy isn't the best idea here and... Well seeing this...I think I understand why, but don't people who don't understand something try and find the answers? I know I do all the time. So if you don't understand then try and figure it out, find answers."

Ven nodded once, slowly and stiffly, but it was an unconscious gesture, with more obligation than thought behind it. He wanted answers, certainly -- and if not for the circumstances of this world, he would have charged off to find them long before now. After this, however... he just had more questions, more mysteries, and still no way of pursuing them.

He wasn't ignoring her, but he couldn't think of anything to say -- or anything worth saying. So Ven stayed silent, and if she wanted to stay, he wouldn't object; if she wanted to leave, he wouldn't stop her.

Kobato at times could be stubborn and didn't want to leave, but with the memory at the end she wasn't sure how long it would be before well... things would go black and she would get booted out, so she figured she should speak again before that happened.

"I know that it's going to take a while, but I promise that if you want help or need help... I'll be there, okay?"

The energy to give even another nod seemed to have left him, so instead Ven opted for a low, halfhearted reply.

"...Yeah."

Later, when he recovered from this, he would probably apologize and reinforce how grateful he really was right then; but for now, it was hard to care.

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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