Event || In Your Worst Memory

[0301120113092025]

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?

Comments

The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

The world comes into being with the arm of a machine skidding across an expansive steel surface. Dozens of people are in a scrambling and the sound of gunfire is rampant. But this isn't simply a warzone, the shots were louder and larger, and it wasn't much the case of guns going off nearby either, but off in the distance, but still close enough to make the ground rumble with each shot.

Instantly MarKus recognizes things, the situation at hand, and for the 3rd time it only worsens. A massive red machine has it's head and torso enveloped in a black sphere, and when it recedes, nothing remains of it.

"What... the fuck! It's getting worse! This isn't supposed to be happening this way! FUCK!" MarKus is cussing up a storm. Can't well repair machines if there's nothing left of them to fix, much less the pilot!


((Visitors have the option of waking up in one of the 3 machines from the planning post, or nearby MarKus. I *would* prefer that things be kept to 1-on-1 threads for tagging efficiency, but I won't object to multi-person threads if they happen))

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

Zelda appeared standing next to MarKus. Her long blond hair was tied behind her head in a tight ponytail and she was wearing a more unusual outfit compared to the dresses she usually wore. Her dress was replaced with paints and a light tank top. She looked at MarKus feeling a little unsure of what was going on.

"MarKus?" She stared at him surprised. "What's going on? Is this your home?"

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

MarKus quickly turns around, hair whipping around him as he lays eyes on the familiar blonde. Normally he reserved his words around her but...

"The fuck are you doing here!?" He'll apologize later, maybe.

Shortly after that, a stray wing from a fighter jet would go sliding along the deck. Well away from them, but still a deafening screech of metal on metal.

"Sort of! Not my usual... Anyway it's not safe up here!" he says, grabbing her by the hand to get her somewhere more safe, only to be cut off by a minituraized plane crashing into the deck that they're retreating toward.

MarKus stops in his tracks, eyes both focused and unfocused on the disgustingly familiar sight of something that is supposed to be attached to a body.

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

Zelda covered her ears watching the plane as it skidded across the ground. She couldn't answer his question because she didn't know. She wasn't so surprised when he began to guide her away from the conflict but she jumped as the crash blocked their path.

"MarKus!"

Zelda gently pulled him back seeing the aftermath of the crash.

"Are you okay?"

She didn't know why she was here but she was more worried about him than she was about herself.

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

"That... that didn't happen... That... it didn't happen like this..."

MarKus is apparently too shocked by what he's seeing, dream or no, that he can't even move away from staring at it. He didn't even hear Zelda's voice, fortunately neither the Festum trying to call out as well...

Which was going to end up really, really bad if Zelda answered it's call.

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

Zelda didn't understand what was going on. She pulled at MarKus's shoulder trying to get him to step away from the crash.

"MarKus. We should go." It didn't take much effort to tell that it wasn't safe here. Her eyes frantically glanced around the area looking for something that might be able to lead them out of this place and upwards towards safety.

Zelda had no weapons on her but she could make do with what she had.

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

Upward wouldn't be safe, rather downward, below deck would be safer for Zelda, despite that she had her old power back. MarKus himself though... lacked power at all, having nothing but...

No... not even one of his counterfeit belts was there for him to rely upon.

That shove, that pull on his shoulder finally got him to stumble out of his daze, looking at Zelda. Her face, while it wasn't comforting at that moment, it was a reminder that this was a dream, even if it was twisting upon itself to try and break him down.

One step, then another... finally staggering off and leading her towards a raised portion of the deck, around it's corner should be a stairwell under deck, a service path.

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

She was happy that he started to move except she really didn't know where she was going. She had her skills from home except that the powers given to her from the goddess where very much help here. She had a sword at her side and her training in the knight academy but that was it.

Zelda followed after MarKus keeping him close to her as they moved. "Which way?" She didn't know if they should go up or down. She wanted them to be safe so that she could ask MarKus where she was. It was his memory and there had to be a reason he was reliving it.

Her mind tried to think things through as they moved but she didn't know how this ship might have been built.

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

MarKus tries to lead on, but he keeps finding himself distracted, watching another huge machine go down, causing him to scream and curse out again, and another one, though of much less importance as he finally manages to pull her into a stairway that heads downward under the deck, leaving him slamming another door shut behind them and ramming his head into it, just once, his fist banging into it a couple of times.

"This... this didn't happen this way. What the HELL is going on!"

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

"MarKus."

Zelda placed her palm on his shoulder trying to turn him from slamming his head against the wall again. "What isn't suppose to happen this way."

Her gaze was worried but they were at least away from immediate danger. "What's going on?"

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

"This... this whole thing. This battle. People are dying that shouldn't have." That might've explained some, but, not the most.

He takes a deep breath. "I don't know why but... I'm reliving a memory of probably the most dangerous battle I had to go through. I made a lot of friends for life here, and my first girlfriend but... Something is going wrong and... it's happening differently. my girlfriend... my ex was just killed... It's... not making any sense..."

And if he's not careful, he'll slip up and get killed himself.

The L-Boat

[goddessofthesky]

"This is your memory though. You have to be seeing this for a reason right?" She had to believe there was a reason. Zelda looked at MarKus worried about what might come next. They were safe for now but she didn't know how long that might last.

"We need to find a way out or find out why you are seeing this."

She couldn't think of another way but finding out why this was being shown to him might be painful besides the fact that they are both possibly going to die.

Re: The L-Boat

[2hell_weride]

"Because the the whole thing was fucked up. We had to fight monsters that we couldn't even think at for two weeks. We were bait so tens of thousands more could live. We were all supposed to make it back. But... but people are dying that SHOULDN'T have." he shouts even as he's stopped from banging on things further.

He couldn't think of why he had to see, or relive it all again. Or why it was being twisted.

"I don't... I don't know why, again. But it's working... I'm being fucked with... The kid with the indomitable will. The brat who forgot what fear was..."

[zodiac_brave]

It has been a strange few hours or days since Ramza disappeared from Aqures Ixen. And this had to be the strangest scenario he had found himself in.

Like the Construct 8, luckily, the machine that had been entrusted to Ramza seemed able to function mostly on its own, requiring only orders. Either that or one of the unfamiliar people with him inside of the machine were in more control than he was.

The cursing he hears from...from some unknown source is quite familiar. He turns left and right, but he only gets confirmation when he looks at the glass square embedded in the metal in front of him.

"MarKus? Is that you? What is happening?" he asks, baffled.

[2hell_weride]

Fotunately, these machines have speakers. MarKus hears Ramza rather loud.


"The fuck're you doing here?" he says, knowing the voice but turning around to see a big blue Gespesnt. "The hell..."

Well fortunately the other person in the machine was taking more of the controls than the utter newbie as it raised a machine gun to fire at the enemy from the deck...

He was at least safe in there, mostly. "Whatever you do, do NOT think at the big gold things in the sky. Ignore them or you'll die!"

[zodiac_brave]

"Do not think at them?" he repeated, uncomprehending. There was nothing like being told not to think of a thing to make someone think of it. Still, he tried not to look through the windows of the construct and see any of them out.

"What should I do? How do I help?" he asked, willing to put the oddity (and his unresolved feelings from his own memory) aside in the face of this new crisis.

[2hell_weride]

Fuck... it's been a long time, so many more complicated things besides the Gespy...

"There should be petals at your feet, and two handles, like sword grips. Take the handles, but don't squeeze the triggers. Turn and lean them both to the right. Then step with your right foot on the petal, then the left. It'll be like walking, but using the control... the handles to point where you want to go!"

Crash course in piloting. That's all he has to do is walk and not be where the fighting is. Who knows what'll happen if he dies in a dream!

[zodiac_brave]

Ramza took the controls in hand and moved forward. It felt strange, but it was not difficult. He took a few experimental steps.

"Done. Now, how do I fight?" he asked. As great as walking was, they were not going to solve the situation at hand with mere mobility.

[2hell_weride]

"YOU don't!" he shouts as he starts heading for one of the 'buildings' on the deck, a few flights that would lead up to a command station.

The pilot behind and above him was shouting something in a foreign language at Ramza, kicking at the back of his chair in protest.

Soon though, the very thing MarKus tried to warn about occurred, a call out "Are you there?"

"RAMZA! FOCUS ON ME! Focus on the stupid weird-ass bullshit that you never understood the fuck I'm always sayin!" Usually Ramza was confounded by the weird curses he used and he needed him to focus on that!

[zodiac_brave]

What? Not fight? Was that an option in the midst of a battle? And there was shouting and his seat was bouncing with his copilots kicks. Was this what MarKus was accustomed to dealing with?

He turned to seek out the source of the voice, but MarKus's shouting pulled him away from that. "You make no sense," he muttered, still having no idea what to do. He had a feeling he was more a hindrance than a help here. "There is much more feces and fornication in your speech than the situation ever call for."

He kept his machine walking, hoping that eventually, he would figure out what else he was supposed to do.

[2hell_weride]

Good, just as planned! MarKus, at least, saved ONE life this time around but before long, much like when Zelda had come into his memory on the last replay, a human-sized figher-jet body crashes onto the deck, making him avert his eyes.

"Just keep going to that building. Ignore the person in there with you. Let him keep shooting until you're there!"

And further off another one of his long-term allies, his past friends, was destroyed by a black-hole taking out the middle of his machine, another one simply toppling over as the pilot turns into a mess of green crystal.

[zodiac_brave]

"What about you? Are you coming?" he asked. He heard the crash through the radio, and saw explosions on the screen. If the building was the safe place to be, MarKus should be there as well.

But he had a feeling the blacksmith would not feel the same way. He had shown the same recklessness in Ramza's memory as well. Ramza kept the machine going, because that is what MarKus had asked him to do.

[2hell_weride]

"You first! You don't know your way around!" he shouts as he actually does go off in a different direction. Less towards the building and more to another side of it.

However, again, the cry "Are you there?" rings out. Ramza was already trusted not to answer it but it manages to get to his co-pilot now, and the first signs of his death, aside from panicked screams, are the green crystals trying to stab into Ramza's back and spread.

Not the building ahead, but the part of the ground beside it opens up, a compartment in the runway meant for rapid launching of other machines. MarKus WAS leading Ramza here...

[zodiac_brave]

The green crystals tore through the seat. The armor Ramza wore, while strange to see in the cockpit of a mech, protected him from major injuries, though he could feel pinpricks whenever he shifted his weight to move the controls to pilot the machine.

He said a whispered prayer for the man who had just succumbed to...whatever their enemy was.

Ramza neared the building, and stopped. "What is that? Is that hole meant to be there?" He had seen trap doors, of course, but never on that scale. He was not sure if it was a bolt-hole for their allies or another of the enemy's tricks.

[2hell_weride]

"Yeah! It leads below deck! Now I need you to do these things!" He says as he starts guiding instructions, more or less simplistic, to get the cockpit open and allow Ramza out.

ONce he was riding down on the tow line, MarKus yanks him down into the opening.

"Okay, we got that far... I really didn't expect anyone else after Zelda... But at least I know most of this is not the way things happened. It's now a matter of protecting you while I'm... stuck."