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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"I watched. This is where it started." Vincent simply replied cryptically. He hadn't asked for others to see this, and he would not share details that were intimate. Not without a need.

What was being played out before them, relieved as Vincent felt the phantom pain from the gunshot as it happened again... Intimate enough, and not what he would've chosen to show others. If he'd have chosen to show them anything about him, in the first place.

It seemed like that was all he was going to get out of Vincent. And that was fair. Albel wouldn't want to explain his past to anyone, either.

There seemed to be no stopping the memory, though. Not knowing what else to do, Albel sat down and settled in for however long he'd be there. He watched again... and again...

Finally he asked, "Who was she?"

Vincent had seen it all so many times; it replayed in his mind well before it had been bared for all to see, all too often. Odd that he found so far Albel had been the politest in unwitting intruders. He and the silver-haired warrior from Vincent's own world had both not immediately sought answers or pelted him with questions.

"Dr. Lucrecia Crescent." Vincent responded, keeping his voice carefully professional. How he felt, the emotions he worked so hard now to keep hidden, were already clear to see in the scene playing before them. "I was assigned as her bodyguard."

Albel could tell Vincent was vehemently against this "experiment," but he would have felt the same. Experimenting on children was simply wrong. What was wrong with such a woman that she would not only abuse a child, but clearly her own?

The other man reminded Albel of Vox -- dark and corrupted by his thirst for power. Hateful. Albel's expression twisted with incredulity and disgust. "Why would she... What kind of woman does that? Where is the father? He should have set her straight."

A good, firm patriarchal hand might have stopped this madness.

Vincent couldn't help it; there was a low growl in his throat and chest--Chaos stirring within in interest. Never mind that he hadn't agreed with Lucrecia's choice either; it was still her choice.

He hadn't asked or invited this outsider to view private memories. Now, this Albel--who was imperious and arrogant--was judging her? The man didn't even know the whole story. Vincent did not either, but he knew more about it than this intruder.

Crimson eyes narrowed, and looked over to spear the other. Daring him to explain, or apologize. The growl had been a warning.

"What?" Albel looked over in exasperation. Vincent clearly disagreed with her choice in the memory, why was he getting defensive now? "You know this is wrong!"

What was his problem? This woman was risking her child's life, her own life -- and for what? What sort of experiment could be so necessary for that sort of sacrifice?

Or -- was that it? Some sacrifice for the greater good? It didn't seem like it, no, not with the glasses-man's gloating face. But Albel didn't know for sure. It was clearly something the glasses-man was willing to kill for. Willing to stop any and all objections.

Wouldn't the father object...

Albel's eyes widened and his brow furrowed. "Don't tell me you...?"

The growl got louder, his eyes narrowing. Vincent managed to resist the pull his weapon, his will asserting itself to shove Chaos down where his demon had been awakened. Wicked claws curled into a fist though.

"I did not have that honor." Vincent replied through clenched teeth. Insulted that the other would even think that if he were, he'd have allowed it. Lucrecia had made her choice, it was true--and he loved her still.

No wonder Vincent was pissed.

Though Albel couldn't help but feel relieved to hear it. He couldn't respect Vincent if the other man had given his child over without fighting tooth and nail. But he could feel for the man, seeing that Vincent did care for Lucrecia regardless -- that he struggled between his desire to protect and his duty to remain distant. Respecting this awful decision -- her decision -- because he loved her?

What a choice to live with.

The warrior had never felt that strongly about anyone -- would he have done the same? Could he? In a way... he was almost jealous of Vincent. Albel wondered if Vincent wished it were his child, if only to have more of a say. The right to protest. The power to fight. But that was not for Albel to ask. He'd done enough damage.

Scarlet eyes returned somberly to the scene, repeating once again. "... I see. I'm... sorry."

He still glared fiercely for several tense seconds; then a calming breath. Deep breath in, holding it as he consciously relaxed and gained control of himself. Relaxing his fist, shoving Chaos away and locking his mind against the demon's disappointment.

Turning back to watch the scene unfold, as it has a million times over in his memories even before this strange panorama for all to see. "So'm I..." The voice was so quiet, so very very quiet, and full of hints of self-loathing and regret.

A few moments passed in silence before Albel spoke again.

"What... happened?" A beat. "To the child?"

He wanted to know, though he wasn't looking forward to the answer. Perhaps the child died... Not the happiest of outcomes, no, but at least it would not have had to face life as an experiment. Had it been loved? Or simply... used?

Had it become a weapon, like he'd seen on Elicoor? Like Maria?

Like Fayt?

He tried not to think about that. That was... different. Right?

There was quiet, save the noise in the background, as Vincent pondered if he wanted to answer. How he would answer, if he did choose to. It had hardly turned out in the best ways...

"I did not find out until 3 decades later. A group of travelers awakened me from my slumber, where I'd been forgotten. They informed me. The scientist in question, was still active and around. The child grew up to be more than they feared, and eventually a madman. Delusions of godhood, and when I was pulled here, we had finally all tracked him down to the Northern Crater. Hopefully to end it, and save the planet where he would destroy it and ascend. He was poisoned by an alien-influence that had been part of the experiment of his birth."

For all that Vincent could so far tell, Sephiroth was different here on Crystallis. His own quarrel, further, had always been with Hojo; that the silver-haired warrior was intent on destroying the planet came as a close second. Once Hojo had been dealt with, it had become priority one.

But he would not share Sephiroth's not-quite-future, when it was not relevant. Not to those to whom it did not matter yet. Perhaps it would never matter in this new world; that was Vincent's hope.

Albel didn't quite understand everything, but an "alien influence" ... that, as of recently, was understandable. That kind of unimaginable "newness," being affected by "something else" out there, having your perspective expanded -- exploded -- it changed everything. It changed everything for people, politics, a whole world.

"Delusions of godhood..." the warrior murmured, thinking of Luther. He shook his head again. So preventable, had the child not been born. But knowing another side of how that story could go, he kept silent, internally wrestling with his own conflicting opinions.

The only thing he could say with confidence was, "I hope you end it."

It was a rough sympathy, not pity--which Vincent would've despised. The sympathy, for their situation at large, he would accept. That Albel seemed to grasp enough, for all his brashness, also made Vincent more willing to accept it.

He nodded, his attention returning to painful memories being bared and repeated. Once more the emphatic rejection from Lucrecia, pushing him away. Accepting her rejection, even though he felt in his bones it was wrong.

"We will." They had to; Hojo was now dead, but there was one more task before it was finished. His voice was lower and dark with the promise.

In the background as the memory played, the crack of the gunshot echoed. Reminding Vincent of his failure, his ill-thought action, the shame and sense of futility he had felt that day as he fell. Hojo's mocking laughter tinged with deeper and deeper madness that rang in his skull.

"Do not feel, if you can leave, that you must stay to keep me company." It was bad enough others would see this. They needn't be subjected to his torment. He didn't want to be subjected to their witness to his torment either; that seemed out of his control however.

"If I can leave," Albel echoed. And he wasn't sure if he could. If there had been others here before him, he didn't know about it; and if they'd come and gone, he wasn't sure how. He wasn't sure how he'd even gotten here in the first place. Perhaps he'd simply be spirited away again, the same way he was to this place.

"I suppose we'll see. Until then, I will remain here."

Besides... he liked Vincent well enough. It wasn't fair for someone to be trapped here alone like this.

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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we can wrap up hereabouts