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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Yuffie looked at him for a moment considering his words. "I get to watch the things you do. I think if I call you nice you should believe me." She assumed he believed the stupid part since he hadn't commented on it.

"I don't understand Vincent. Why?" Love wasn't blind like this. Was she family? Or was he lost in himself enough to not even see people as they were? She didn't understand. It was frustrating.

Love is and was blind. Hindsight was always far more clear than foresight. It was always easier for others to see what was there, than for someone to see themselves.

Yuffie thought he was 'nice'? Another noise of disagreement, but he didn't argue. Nice was another term that could have many definitions.

"What don't you understand, Yuffie." The voice was colored with hints of fatigue. Strained patience, frustration. Bad enough he was having to relive this, but to be questioned on it too?

"You." She looked over at him. "You're so sad and you think you deserve it. I was told by a lot of people. That I should be happy. That is was okay. Isn't it okay for you too?"

Yuffie had to believe that anyone could be happy. That everyone was allowed to be happy and yet she felt like something was holding him back. She didn't want her friend to be like this. It wasn't fair.

Hmmm. Vincent was quiet as he pondered her words. Turning them over in his mind, trying so hard to tune out the repeating memories that cut him so deeply. Happiness? Did he want to be happy?

He wasn't sure he deserved it. He'd done many things that were nothing to be proud of. His failure to stop this madness was only the greatest. His punishment would never be enough, in his eyes.

"I was her bodyguard."

"That doesn't have to do with being happy. That an excuse." She was the master of making excuses and she could spot them easily.

Yuffie also knew what it was like to fail someone that you wanted to protect. She'd done that so many times because of her Cloud had died.

"Wouldn't 'nice' have been doing my job correctly? Protecting her, even from herself?" Vincent countered. Perhaps it was an excuse, but he felt it was a justified one.

"Nope. That isn't what nice means. Nice mean's you tried you're best and did what you could at the time." As far as she can see, Vincent tried. He's still trying even after all this has happened.

"Nice means many things, Yuffie." Another counter. "Wouldn't it have been 'nice' if I'd done my job properly? I could have stopped the madness." His voice had grown slightly louder, and he turned his head away in disgust. Unable to look at her, or the memory.

"You cant stop people from being themselves. They would have found another way if you stopped this one." She looked at Vincent curiously wondering how he might respond to her.

No, one couldn't stop another from 'being themselves'. But he could have taken Lucretia away. He could have shot Hojo. He could have done any number of things that would have set things upon a different course.

Perhaps even that different course would have turned out worse.

"It's in the past, Yuffie." Again the voice held tired exasperation. Wasn't it enough that he had lived it? Still had to live with it? Now he was being argued with about it all as well.

"Then why are we here." They were never shown anything without there being a reason. Yuffie knew that much about her time in Crystallis.

This scene was somehow important to Vincent and she wasn't going to let him get stuck in it.

Because it was important to him. Because it had helped shape who he was. Because he was still tormented by it, his punishment inescapable. Because whoever had done this wanted to inflict pain?

There could be any number of reasons. Vincent wasn't going to claim he knew the answer. He knew better than to be so arrogant.

"...why are you here?" Not an accusation; curious. He hadn't expected her presence, although he supposed perhaps it was inevitable. Her own curiosity often got her into things that others wished would lay still.

Yuffie just shrugged. "Maybe to help." That's all she could figure. She wasn't here by choice and she didn't want to be here.

She looked over at Vincent and studied him. "Something about Crystallis. If something strange happens... it means there is something to learn. Or at least thats what I think."

Vincent tilted his head, getting to his feet after several moments of staring at Yuffie. Towering over her, and moving closer, crimson gaze not blinking as it studied her. "Why would you help me, when I am already punished for it?"

Yuffie didn't move. It was true that before she had found Vincent creepy and very unsettling at time but not anymore. She's seen real monsters and he didn't even make the top five anymore.

She let out a slow breath looking up at her friend. She had the urge to step closer but she didn't think he'd like that very much.

"Because, I like you. I don't want you to suffer." Yuffie didn't want anyone to suffer anymore. Even if it was a childish thought, she didn't care.

It was clear in crimson eyes, even if his expression never wavered, that this had not occurred to him. Why would someone 'like' him? He wasn't particularly a social or amiable person.

He found some measure of comfort in being around Avalanche, as accepting a group as their shared adventures had made them. Nor was he usually bothered by the lack of acceptance or warmth from others. It was his own fault, and he was who he was. His outside simply reflected the inner qualities, he supposed.

Somehow, the idea that he call another a 'friend' was easier to understand. That they might return the gesture, was more alien and difficult to comprehend. Logically, he could see reasons, but the emotion didn't connect.

And how did one respond, when he wasn't sure what to make of this new revelation? Especially in light of the loop of pain being repeated in front of him and Yuffie. He hadn't brought her here--had no control over her presence of the repeating loop.

He didn't say anything but it was obvious from the look on his face that he was lost in thought. Yuffie walked him next to him and lightly tapped him on the arm. She was too short to tap his head but she felt like he needed to be petted. Like a sad puppy.

"Hey." She looked up at him with a grumpy scowl that slowly slipped into a smile. "I meant it. You're probably over thinking it."

She paused listening to the scene playing around them but otherwise tuning it out. "You don't only fall in love once and I bet she'd be happy knowing that you were still kicking and trying to help out. You've done a lot of stuff. I know I was there... for part of it anyway." She waved her hand. "You shouldn't blame yourself and you shouldn't be alone."

"That's just sad and quite frankly I'm tired of sad stuff. Let's just be happy." She looked up at him as if she was saying please at the end of her sentience. Her happiness had never been dictated by friends but Vincent was the only person she had told about the Empire and because of that she relied on him a little bit more than before.

Vincent blinked at the tap to his arm, but didn't move away. He wanted to flinch, feeling too exposed and needing to hide with his memories being bared. Then adding Yuffie's new words on top of that, and he wanted to find a place he could simply mull this new concept over.

But she was speaking, and his attention went back to her. Listening to her words, and what she wasn't saying as well. It was difficult to pull his thoughts away from the memories, from how he'd failed, to try and see this new angle Yuffie was attempting to get him to look at.

Quiet as she finished, his gaze flickering once more to the gunshot, to his remembering of the pain, the disorientation, and further insight into Hojo's madness. There was a second or two, and then he deliberately pulled his gaze away. Back to Yuffie, reaching up with the gauntlet-covered hand and placing it on her head. Offering his thanks, he hoped, with the gesture as he nodded at her.

He wasn't smiling; letting go, if he could, would take time. But he would try to be less sad, at least around her. Try to be her 'friend' in turn, as she was his.

The metal was cold where it covered leather over his ruined-appendage, but he was careful with the sharp claws. Yuffie felt it long enough to recognize the gesture, his acceptance. Then she'd be kicked out of the memory.

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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