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

[nomorecowbell]

"What truth?" Nanami said. She didn't trust Himemiya. Perhaps less than she trusted the Chairman. Maybe because Himemiya had never stopped pretending: she'd seen what Touga and the Chairman were like when they gave her that car ride. Himemiya had always acted like the innocent sister and friend.

Of course, she'd never really seen Himemiya alone. She was usually shadowing Tenjou, or with the Chairman. "The truth is, my brother doesn't care for me, and probably never did. I was just another interchangeable girl to him, and didn't realize it because he was being my brother."

She hated that. Even now, even when she wanted someone who she could count on to care about her, she wanted them to care about her. Even Touga hadn't known what she actually wanted from him.

[flowershrine]

Anthy turned back to Nanami, figuring it was the lease she could do to look her in the eye. Ohtori had done a number on them both, she realized. The blonde's pain was easy to forget - she was still a child, already free of the terrible game and Anthy felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Touga was cruel in his pursuit of his ends and as such, but he became ...strange towards the end. I think he was more honest with you than the rest of us," Her eyebrows knitted at that. "He did not lie about your adoption."

This was going to end poorly, she knew but Nanami deserved better than this. Let her hate Touga, purge him from her heart - it would let Nanami stand strong where she had failed with Akio. Let her be ill with grief and disgust now and grow from this.

"What he did not tell you is that he was adopted with you. You are siblings."

[nomorecowbell]

"But..." Nanami had rationalized Touga as 'maybe blood family was what made the difference'. Even if Tsuwabuki, in his naive attempts to help her, had been more kind to her than Touga had. Even if Nanami knew the Chairman and Anthy were blood siblings.

It would be easy to reject Anthy. Because Nanami knew Anthy was deceitful. But Nanami also knew that Anthy would be able to find out. "Why would he treat me like that, then?"

She wanted to hate him, and maybe she did. Oh, she was furious at him, but Nanami had realized that she still considered him family. Even now. That's why she wanted to leave, to be in a place where she didn't have to figure out how to handle an altered relationship with Touga or deal with him at all. Well, she'd gotten that, until today.

[flowershrine]

"Touga is someone who considers his goals worth any price. I'm sorry."

Anthy left the clear comparison to Akio unsaid for the moment, watching Nanami instead for signs of something worse in her response. It was hard to hate family, even Anthy wished that things could have been different before her departure from Ohtori. The past was past and it was not her duty to shoulder Akio's failings, just as it was not Nanami's to shoulder Touga's.

[nomorecowbell]

"I don't want you to feel sorry for me," Nanami snapped. "He wants... whatever we're supposed to be dueling for, right?" She didn't know what that was. Sure, she'd agreed to do so, but it was more because she wanted to defeat Tenjou when Touga couldn't. And to show she wasn't going to end up like Himemiya.

She's seen what happened to Touga when Tenjou had beaten him. For that matter, she knew it wasn't Himemiya he wanted, after seeing him win.

But, whatever winning the duels got you, it was what the Chairman wanted. Juri-sempai and Miki had admitted as much to her, that he'd been involved with them, too. For that matter, Tenjou pretty much knew (well, probably, given how naive Tenjou was, Nanami could never tell) that she was playing into the Chairman's plans but did it anyway. "What is your brother's deal, anyway? For that matter, what's your deal?"

[flowershrine]

"Excellent, because I don't." Anthy retorted, matching the blonde frown for frown. "I am sorry because I know what it's like to used by someone who is supposed to love you."

As quick as Nanami was to catch on, Anthy felt jealousy turn her stomach. The demand for answers and clarification irked her, and she took no pleasure watching the girl herself back into a quagmire that she was quite clearly no longer involved in.

"Once my brother had been someone important, sidelined by illness. The people in his charge demanded that he help them. I did not let him go, because I knew it would kill him and they attacked me for it. His illness changed him and the attack changed me. I thought it was my fault, that I was the reason he became a monster."

There was a pause as her gaze went distant, frown becoming lighter as recollection eased the words from her tongue and her posture curled in. It was as if the memory itself was unnerving.

"So to make up for it I let him do what he wanted, did whatever he said. He was my brother, eldest and all had in the world. What did I care for anyone else, when all I sacrificed for was still within my grasp?"

Anthy blinked a few times, unable to keep the revulsion and disappointment off of her face. She looked back to meet Nanami's eye, emerald meeting violet and continued.

"It was almost easy for a while. And then I was reminded of what it was like to be a person instead of a thing. Utena helped me and I left. He languishes there trying to figure out why things won't go back to the way they were."

Running a hand through her bangs, Anthy looked back towards the memory with an inscrutable expression.

"That is, as you so flippantly called it, 'our deal'."

[nomorecowbell]

That was a lot to absorb. Nanami didn't speak. She didn't trust Himemiya but... well, Himemiya was acting different. She wasn't acting passively. Even when Himemiya was being sneaky, she always seemed to be passive. Like someone had to lead her somewhere.

Now she wasn't. She really hadn't been since Nanami first met her hear. Maybe she was... well, not with her brother any more. Nanami still didn't trust her, and the whole thing sounded strange, but... well, Ohtori was a strange place. "Ugh, I knew he was a creep. Someone like that shouldn't be in charge of a school, I don't care who he's engaged with."

[flowershrine]

It was strange how simple the first step into the future could be. Anthy had expected anything but acceptance from the blonde, but knew better than to conflate her casual tone for simplicity. She gave a smile in surprise, a faint upward quirk of lips.

"He is most assuredly a creep."

Anthy straightened her posture and brushed the wrinkles from her dress.

"It will not be easy, but I believe it's high time to leave Ohtori in the past. Wouldn't you agree, Kiyruu-san?"

[nomorecowbell]

You know what? Not even spiting Anthy Himemiya was enough to make Nanami think going back to Ohtori was a good idea. There were some things Nanami did believe and that was that she was done. "Yes. It's not even in this world."