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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Jade raised his eyebrows at the question. Of all the people involved in the incident, he would have thought himself the least sympathetic one. An arrogant child who fancied himself a genius, who possessed little respect for anyone not at his level. Professor Nebilim had been the only one he had admired, nearly to the point or idolizing -- yet even that hadn't made him listen to her, not when he had his own prowess to prove.

The real answer was a complicated one, and not something Jade wanted to get into.

"I'm quite alright. It was a long time ago, after all."

Frowning, Ven tilted his head slightly, both indicators that he didn't quite believe that. He was trusting, sure, but not entirely naive. Even so, pushing here was both nosy and disrespectful. Honest or not, he recognized when a topic was closed, so he only made a noncommittal (if unconvinced) sound.

"She seemed nice." It was said with an expression that was more sad than smile. Even in those fleeting, chaotic few moments, he had recognized a protector. "What was her name?"

"Professor Gelda Nebilim." The inquiry seemed to require more of an answer, and so he added: "She started a private school in my hometown. She was... very kind."

Talking about the Professor made a bitter taste rise in his throat -- especially here, in the place he had killed her. Her library, which had stolen his breath the first time he had seen it, destroyed and burned to ashes. That had been another thing they had shared a connection through... Their love of books. The thirst for knowledge.

Jade turned away and walked towards the door, now in a bad temper. Staying here was pointless.

Ven watched him go, and then after a moment sighed. He didn't understand any of this. Some memories could be changed, or at least affected, while others played out entirely and couldn't be touched. More than that, everything he'd seen so far was painful.

The why of all this was bugging him a lot more than the how.

Not long after he was left alone to his grim thoughts, Ven hurried to and through the door -- not to find out what happened to those two boys as much as he was eager to move on to whatever came next. Granted, it could be worse, but it meant they were all one step closer to getting out of here. At least, he hoped.

While they had been talking, the two boys had made it out of the house. Nebilim was lying on the snow, which was quickly soaking her blood. A tiniest hint of breath rose from her mouth into the cold air.

But not for long. Saphir was standing nervously on the sidelines, appearing hopeful despite the tears and snot covering his face. The young Jade was kneeling by the Professor's side. The end tail of their conversation could just be caught.

"...don't have a fomicry machine..."

"I'll use fonic artes to do it. I did it once with Nephry's doll, so it should work."

Bright light shone from Jade's hands, enveloping Nebilim's motionless body. Seconds passed, then minutes, and something took shape by her side; a woman, completely identical to the one next to her... except for the lack of wounds.

The light ceased, and with it, so did Professor Nebilim's breathing.

Outside, there was really nothing to do but watch. Even though Ven respectfully kept his distance, the scene was still clear, its focus still on those boys at the center of it.

He made a startled sound when the replica completed, looking between her and the original's body. As well-versed in magic as he was, he had never heard of anything like this. The closest thing he could compare it to was when Xehanort had...

The thought sent a bolt of pain through his head and he winced, hissing quietly. He immediately let that thought go, deciding the pain wasn't worth it; this wasn't the same, clearly. Fortunately.

The sharp intake of breath briefly drew Jade's attention away from the memory. He gave the boy a puzzled glance. "...What is it?" he asked, almost grateful for the brief distraction. It was probably a vain hope that the rest of the memory could be ignored.

The boys were crowding around the replica as she sat up awkwardly -- "It worked! Jade, you're amazing!" -- and thus didn't notice the guard coming towards them from the town.

He hadn't thought he would be heard amidst the scene, so Ven started slightly, looked over, glanced aside again, and hesitated, appearing a little guilty.

"Nothing." That probably sounded as convincing as his reaction had looked. Still, that didn't seem very fair when he was intruding on this memory like this, however involuntarily, so after a moment he added, "This just... reminded me of something. From a long time ago." He watched as the guard approached, although his stare was a little distant, his focus only half-there.

"Hm. I see." Jade had little to say to that. It sounded like a personal matter, and this wasn't the time to pry anyway. What happened next would not be conductive to casual conversations.

The guard called out to the boys, demanding to know what was happening. The Nebilim replica slowly turned to stare at him -- and in a blink of an eye, she was moving.

The scream was cut short, and the guard fell on the snow in a splatter of blood. Saphir gasped, while the younger Jade froze in shock, all arrogance vanishing. Standing over the dead soldier, the replica turned back to them. She was grinning.

Since this memory had first begun, Ven remained more or less passive. Not indifferent, but his reactions had been kept minimal; his reflex to try and heal Nebilim had been the one real exception.

This time, he visibly jumped, as only someone entirely caught off guard could. Even with his original agility and perception returned alongside his powers, he didn't even see the replica move -- and that was saying something -- until the soldier was already dead.

Ven was no stranger to the violence of battle, either, having bled, sprained, and accumulated a few scars, but that didn't mean he wasn't impacted. On the contrary, he probably felt more than most would for that soldier -- faceless, nameless, long since dead if Jade's current age was any indication, but all the same...

He followed the replica's stare, and while there was some comfort in knowing one of those boys lived, he knew nothing about the other, and that uneasiness showed.

It was the other boy, Saphir, that the replica stared at next -- before extending an arm and conjuring a blast of energy. Saphir screamed and collapsed to the ground, motionless. The young Jade looked back at him in alarm -- then turned back to the replica.

The silence stretched for too long as the two stared at each other. Then the red-eyed boy drew a shuddering breath.

"Go away." At first, the words came out in nothing more than a whisper. Then he raised his voice. "Go away! You're not Professor Nebilim! You're just a failure! You're nothing like Professor Nebilim! Go away!"

By then he was shaking from desperation and anger. It made no difference. Withing moments, the replica had rushed forward, seized the boy by the throat, intent on strangling the life out of him. Jade struggled in vain, groping helplessly at her hand and trying to gasp for breath.

The adult Jade said nothing. He thought, vaguely, that he should have been more bothered by this -- but of all the things in this memory that could have unsettled him, seeing himself on the verge of death was not one of them.

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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