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

[jadethenecromancer]

"Are they? I should think your control is what matters the most."

Unlike the last time they spoke, Jade decided it was time to be blunt. Back in the meeting, there had been the risk of being overheard -- and even if there hadn't, he had suspected Sephiroth wouldn't be willing to openly discuss his insecurities in any case. Prodding his buttons had been the only way to get anything out of him.

Now, with just the two of them here and the scene right there in the open, vague accusations and double-meanings were pointless.

"Between this and the dream last month, you have been shown a possible future your heritage may lead you to. What are you going to do about it?"

[shinrasfinest]

There was a time not so terribly long ago when Sephiroth would have whole-heartedly agreed with Jade. No matter what might be presented to him, he'd had the self-confidence, the self-discipline, to easily reject any accusation that was made of his future. Like he had done when Genesis had come with his intention to 'soften the blow' for when the hammer eventually did come down. To somehow prepare Sephiroth's sanity for the weight that would shatter it; of course, stubborn as ever, he'd had none of it.

He'd put the Night of the Thirteen Moogles away deep within himself and focused his life on what he could realistically contribute within the premise as they found themselves in. Within Crystallis. Even the jarring aspects of the dream he'd had were starting to soften under the effects of time, some of the finer details with regards to the state of his doppelgangers consciousness became blurrier as the days drew on - yet Sephiroth would never forget the fact; he'd betrayed them all.

"I daresay, at this point...knowing what I do now, that there is no possible about it." He followed with a painful-sounding huff in Jade's direction. That hurt more to admit out loud than Sephiroth had thought it might and he scowled a little, fighting the urge to fold his arms back in over his front.

"As for what to do about it...what is there to be done? The information I go away from here and find, will change me irreparably."

He referred to the scene they'd been shown, as it was easiest to do so.

[jadethenecromancer]

Jade said nothing for a moment. A part of him was starting to get irritated at the way Sephiroth seemed to be simply giving up -- and yet, as a citizen of Auldrant, he was hardly in position to criticize anyone for submitting to fate. That everything followed a predetermined future... It had been a fact of life everyone in his world had accepted with scarcely a question, Jade himself included. There had been no sense questioning it, not when everyone knew the Score had been perfectly accurate for 2,000 years. Until Luke had been born...

On second thought, perhaps the people of Auldrant had more right to object than anyone else.

"Of course it will. People change. That is what makes us human." He pinned Sephiroth with a hard gaze. "Why, precisely, should that only leave you with one path? Do the cells of the Calamity take away your ability to think for yourself? Can you not act unless you know your actions have already been decided for you?"

[shinrasfinest]

For what it might be worth, Sephiroth was already irritated and more than a little angry at himself for always reaching the conclusion that there was only one way for it all to end up.

For years he'd defended his own independence, his own right to carry himself however he liked through life whilst at the same time still being retained by the ShinRa company. As was right, since they'd been all he'd had after his mother had died bringing him into the world - raising him, teaching him, training him. But that foundation been dragged out under the magnifying glass and had all but been torn down by the name that graced the space above the door at the top of those steps. It pulled everything, Sephiroth's entire purpose and what he'd worked so hard for his whole life, under that same harsh light.

Regardless that Genesis had appeared to give his final two-cents, that light push which had tipped it all over the cliff, Sephiroth wouldn't have left Nibelheim without finding out the truth. It really did make no difference.

"That's not it at all." Jade put it all so plainly, with that cold logic, that it was all that Sephiroth could do but to fiercely refuse the suggestions given his own stubborn independence. There was a lot more to it, which Jade couldn't have known about unless he'd been there and even Sephiroth as he was there now in the aftermath of the scene didn't know precisely what developed in the meantime. Calamity cells, what a way to put it -really- given their circumstances. Trust Genesis. Did they have the capacity to control him though? Obviously? Subconsciously? Instinctively? He didn't know, ultimately.

"I think," He swallowed to help keep his tone more level, to attempt to distance himself from what he had seen - attempting to detach himself in order to see things objectively. "That what results may be the exact and extreme opposite of such abstinence. Where all had been a complete lie, before."

[jadethenecromancer]

"If you can predict what's coming, you have a means of changing the outcome, do you not?" That had been why, even after abandoning the Score, their group had still looked to Ion's reading of it for guidance. Not to obey it blindly, but to better understand what was coming. The future may have been written in stone, but once you had the stone in front of you, you could start working with the chisel...

"We already know there are multiple timelines with different versions of each of us." Professor Nebilim's doppelganger flickered through Jade's mind. He dismissed the thought. "I couldn't care less what some other Sephiroth from another timeline did. You possess memories that he didn't. As far as I'm concerned, that alone makes you a different individual, and you alone are responsible for what you choose to do from here."

Jade frowned, his voice growing a little more stern. "And as you colleague, I certainly hope you're not about to bow down to something as flimsy as fate or destiny."

[shinrasfinest]

"Logic suggests." At first he sounded as if he were agreeing with Jade, and even followed the gesture with a curt nod. But after a short humph of a shrug Sephiroth pulled his gaze all over the floor and then back up to Jade's face again.

"Unless it all already happened, and I just don't know that yet. I'm pulled from a time previous."

To so many others from his own reality. For a fleeting moment he pondered on why that might be.

But the fact remained, Jade referred to the Sephiroth from the previous cycle, whom he had dreamed of. If there were one thing that the silver haired warrior knew for a fact it was that he was certainly not that man. He would never cultivate such loyalties, such bonds with so many other people just to cut them all as if they never mattered on such a whim. For such a desperate grab at ultimate power.

"I have never believed in a fate that one doesn't carve out for oneself. Don't worry about me."

[jadethenecromancer]

"I will hold you to that." Apparently satisfied with the answer, Jade turned away as if to leave, before adding: "Faith in an inescapable destiny is, ultimately, little more than a coward's way out of accountability, and a convenient excuse not to improve or think. I have no patience for anyone that weak."

If Jade sounded more firm than usual, it was because he had seen firsthand what disasters could be wrought by mere irresponsibility. Not just from others, but from himself as well -- the pain he had caused by refusing to face reality for a good decade would have repercussions for years to come, for thousands of people. Neither young age nor unfortunate circumstances excused that -- but neither could he continue to uselessly drown in his guilt and do nothing to repair the damage.

As unpleasant as reliving that memory had been, at least it had served as an effective reminder of what needed to be done. Perhaps that was why Jade felt a need to get involved in Sephiroth's situation, too. It was really none of his business, but remaining passive while a comrade was in trouble was an irresponsible thing to do, after all.

For now, however, he had said all he wanted. Unless Sephiroth had something further to say, Jade would let him go and give him a chance to pull himself together.