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

"No. No, you don't." Ashelia sighed, shaking her head. These were the fruits of her labor; working so hard to set up the Observatory, safeguard the future of the Heroes, and what had it gotten her?

"My father was killed as well, trying to protect me. Not in this...this way," Ashelia stumbled over her words for a moment as the scene continued to play in in front of them, "but effectively similar. He was lured into a trap at a treaty signing. He was warned, but he was so committed to peace. My...husband and his kingdom had been obliterated scant weeks before. On the slim chance he could protect me and his people, he walked into the snake pit." She shook her head, closing her eyes. "He did not walk out.

"I was so angry. I felt so guilty. If I hadn't - if he didn't have to protect me, he would have still been alive. If only I was stronger, I could have prevented it. But it just isn't true."

Yuffie began to shake her head recognizing her words and the pain that she had caused her own father. He had done everything he could to keep everyone alive and all she had done was rebel. Just the thought of her father made her chest twist in pain. She couldn't even begin to think about what he must have gone through.

"This was a war... it was all my fault." She took a deep shuttering breath. This wasn't like Ashe's story. She might have lost her father but it wasn't due to something she did directly. Yuffie had been born during a war. She grew up knowing that as the princess she shouldn't go outside. She didn't have any friends and was forced into her studies at an early age.

She knew better than to go running from the house. How could she not blame herself? "I knew not to go outside."

"We all do," Ashelia replied. "And yet, we insist. Perhaps my youthful brashness did not end my father's life, but...there was another time when it was almost so." She closed her eyes and shook her head, remembering the time she'd almost gotten in the way of saving her own father from assassination.

"In any case..." The queen sighed, a hand hovering just above Yuffie's shoulder. "She succeeded. You were safe, in the end. If there is one thing a parent strives for above all else, it is that." The hand lowered, though tentatively. "Your mother was glad to give her life for yours, this I know.

"Mourn," she continued. "You must. But do not forget; your mother gave you this life, in more ways than one. The best way to thank her, to honour her memory, is to use it to help people. Use her strength as a rock; let it lift you up. She'd not want to drag you down like this."

Yuffie didn't need permission to mourn and yet hearing Ashe's words made her heart break. She missed her mother but she wasn't sure if she had ever truly mourned her loss. She wouldn't let herself feel that weak.

She shifted then, her palm wiping at her cheeks as if to clean her face from the shame that stained it. "Why would it be worth it. She was so much greater than me. I can't be the princess that she wanted me to be. I'm not like her." Her voice choked. "I don't even remember what she was like."

Yuffie didn't know why she was telling this to Ashe. She didn't have a reason to except that she wanted it to end. She wanted to stop jumping whenever those shots fired. She wanted to stop the throbbing pain in her chest and the shout of the man who cried after the young princess who foolishly ran from her home.

"Perhaps only a parent could truly understand," Ashelia answered quietly. She had so wanted to understand....

"She did not want you to be. Yuffie." Here, Ashelia's voice got quieter, until it could scarcely be heard above the murmur of the rain. "You will lead your people one day. Your mother entrusted them to you, with this act, to teach you the selflessness that must come with the station. There is no greater lesson a princess, a queen, must learn than to protect others above her own life."

Yuffie slowly shook her head. She had tried so hard and maybe not in the best of ways but she always had Wutai in her heart.

"I can't... I've failed so many times. I wish she was here to teach me and tell me what to do." She knew her father wanted more of her, for her to do better but she couldn't live up to that either. She'd seen the world but it taught her nothing. In the end she needed her mother and she felt so lost without her.

Ashelia sighed, shaking her head. "She is, however, not. It isn't easy, Yuffie. It never is. But you must carry on; you've no choice. For your people." That's all there was to it, in the end.

Ashelia stood again and shook her head. She didn't think there was much more she could do; she had said her piece. "Carry her close to your heart, and think of her in times of strife. Carry on her legacy, for your people should never have to carry on without that love."

Yuffie looked up at Ashelia pressing her palms to her cheeks with a snuffle. "Do you think my dad blames me?" Her voice was small and fragile as she looked towards Ashelia.

She didn't always care for the bossy queen but right now she needed someone and Ashelia was there.

Ashelia shook her head again. "No. I know he does not. He...he blames himself, I'm sure." The queen crossed her arms, looking down on the young woman. "He blames himself. For being unable to protect his people. For being unable to protect his queen. For being unable to protect his daughter from war's horrors. This, I know."

Yuffie's palm wiped at her tears as she tried to compose herself. It was hard and it was worse knowing that Ashe had seen her in such a state. She cradled her face in her hands for a long moment trying to compose herself but it didn't come. Her body shuttered and jolted as the shots sounded again. They sounded further away than before and yet Yuffie was sure the scene was still playing.

It always would.

Suddenly she felt like a lost child again. The little brat who had stolen Cloud's materia and not the girl that bit by bit grew up. It was her friends that had changed her and despite her tendencies she wanted to help. Her heart was always in the right place. She fell in on herself thinking of her past, her father, and her friends.

Her sobs slowly stopped but she didn't look up. Ashelia would notice that the scene around them began to fade. The sounds became distant and the sky and scene faded to black. Yuffie looked young standing with her face clutched in her hands but she was accepting the scene that she had been forced to watch again and again. She didn't say anything to Ashe. Instead Yuffie shook her head and then vanished as Ashelia was kicked into another dream.

Event || In Your Worst Memory

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