melodiesoflife | 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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ashelia took some time to explore the area, observing Ib, Nebilim and Igor closely. She took a little more time with Kalki, but didn't really try to engage the woman - it didn't seem appropriate. The girl, though, was looking right at her. Ashelia approached her, eyebrows furrowed.

"These Heroes were those gathered around the Crystal," she said, crossing her arms. "But not all of them. They supported the plan to preserve the next cycle."

She didn't see any reason to beat around the bush.

The little girl nodded, before replying.

"That is correct. Another version of your existence was among those who did not."

Ashelia nodded slowly. "Just so. Perhaps it was the wrong decision at the time..." She clenched her jaw, then shook her head. "But she - I...was right. The cycle can be broken." She looked back at the girl, eyes squinting slightly. Who was this child? "Can't it?"

"It can be broken now. It could then as well. What changed are the outcomes available to you."

"I see." Ashelia paused, looking over in Kalki's direction. "Yet even now, they search for the answer. So long, and they've yet to find it..." The queen clenched her fists. "I know not who you are, but you clearly have knowledge beyond our ken.

"All I desire is the power to protect everyone, to end the cycle of suffering once and for all. Even..." She thought back to her own doppelganger, living happily with her own version of Rasler in a simple house in Aqures Ixen. Their son had such bright eyes...

"Even if it means never seeing him again. I will give anything to set this right. Please, help us. Tell me what must be done and I will make it so."

"Reaching your destination is less important than walking the path. I cannot tell you what is rightfully yours to find."

Another pause.

"There are nine other avatars, scattered across Crystallis. They will help you-- Or stop you."

"Avatars?" Ashelia repeated, unsure. She didn't like the sound of that. "Avatars of what? Of...?" She looked at the crystal for a moment, mouth open. The legend...the cracks...

"This crystal. It is the First Crystal." It wasn't a question. "And other avatars...you are one of them. But...if the First Crystal is the source of life on Crystallis, how did it come to be in a place such as this?" She glanced at the former Heroes, frozen in time. "Is it their doing? To...protect it from further harm, perhaps?"

"The first crystal is dying."

She took yet another pause.

"If it dies, so will Crystallis. And the entity you know as the Calamity will be free."

"...and along with Crystallis, the other worlds." Ashelia sighed, nodding. "We will make this the final battle, then. See it through to its end. No more cycles. No more suffering."

She opened her mouth to speak again, but paused. If the First Crystal's destruction would cause the Calamity to break free, then what was the crystallization currently affecting Crystallis? "What of this crystallization extending from Old Hera, then? That is not the Calamity?"

Edited 2015-06-05 15:08 (UTC)

"The Calamity is one made of many. It adapts to the world is preys upon."

She took a pause.

"It is the Calamity acting through Crystallis."

"I see." Well, there's that theory dashed. Better to know, though, than to act on assumption.

She looked again over at Kalki for a moment. "Nova Crystallis. Sir Kurma of the Triumvirat claims that is Garland and Kalki's goal. Know you of the Ancients' lore?"

She paused but answered the question in an indirect way.

"Garland executes the will of the Ancients. Kalki does not."

Ashelia raised an eyebrow. "Garland does? Then to what end does she work?" The queen glanced back at Kalki once more, shaking her head. "She wanted to perpetuate the cycle. At that point, it may have been the only option. But now..."

She sighed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "Girl. Avatar - you know me, but I do not know you." Ashelia crouched down in front of the girl in order to get down to her level. "You have said much, but there is still more to say, is that not the case? You are one of the avatars of the First Crystal, damaged by the Calamity, leaking souls of the deceased back onto Crystallis as fearsome beasts...but who are you?"

"Kalki tries to execute the will of the Heroes of Light."

She did keep staring at Ashelia as she crouched down, but took some time to reply.

"I am an avatar, but you are mistaken as to my identity."

With that said, she extended a hand for Ashelia to take.

"Not of the First Crystal? Then of what...?" Ashelia reached out a hand to take the girl's, but hesitated.

Kalki said...we are a part of it...

"Not the...Calamity?" She grasped the girl's hand just as she said the last word, trying to search for meaning in the seemingly young girl's eyes.

When she grasped the girl's hand, Ashelia had a vision. The vision was of Crystallis seen from space, the planet falling apart and the stars fading one after the others until nothing but a void and the remnants of Crystallis remained.

However, a creature emerged from the remnants of the broken planet. It was hard to see what the creature was exactly, it didn't seem to have a definite form but from it, red tendrils made of light and energy spread and consumed everything around it. But beyond a maddening form and endless energy, the creature had a consciousness, one that Ashelia could feel. And yet at the same time it wasn't a single consciousness. Maybe it was an unified collection of consciousnesses, countless voices speaking together, all saying something different.

This thing would have been enough to make anyone go mad, but before it could truly affect her, Ashelia was kicked away from the vision and garden, only to be thrown into another memory.

Event || In Your Worst Memory

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