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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Vincent watched, holding himself still as professional calm and cool detachment let him take in the situation at large. He heard the questions, but did not respond immediately. It was not that his answer would change, merely that he wanted to give the questions full consideration. Consider the hidden subtext, what wasn't said, and the words that were chosen.

His expression was stoic, posture tall, ignoring the screams as the memory played out. His own greatest sin, his deepest regrets, had been that he had watched. Done nothing. He could not change that, anymore than he could change this woman's memory or past.

She looked young, but there was wisdom and pain that belied her appearance in her eyes. A similarity that he recognized would fit himself. "I never blamed her, Miss Himemiya." Sure-voiced, not answering the question the way she expected perhaps, but it was the answer he gave all the same.

Through it all, he still did not blame Lucrecia.

Carefully, deliberate, he extended his right hand to the woman even as she grit her teeth. He had watched before. Perhaps this time, he could do more.

Heartbreak was the only word for her sudden change of expression at his answer. Anthy had been willing to suffer the pain of the swords, such quiet sincerity seemed to take her heart. She almost begun to back away when her vision tunneled and she bit back a sob as the carnage in the sky disappeared suddenly. Unable to see properly, Anthy dropped completely to the ground and screwed her eyes shut.

"Perhaps you should."

Behind her, the pink haired girl rose - bloodied and defiant as she limped to the gate and began to tear at it with bare hands. The pale haired boy's attention snapped to Vincent as his dark skin began to grow clammy with sweat. His elder, too far gone as a participant of the memory watched with growing horror as the gate opened.

As the swords buzzed angrily, Anthy looked up to Utena's tear streaked face and bloody hand - no, not Utena. The disorientation chilled her as her Prince's screaming filled the air.

HIMEMIYA

He barely knew her and surely, he was not fool enough to ignore the unspoken admission in her words.

Please, take my hand!

But Utena had known the truth too, still she'd reached. And someone else was doing the reaching as rose flickered to black and red-orange flickered into blue.

For a single moment, Anthy's faith won over guilt and she took Vincent's hand. As the swords crashed into the arena around them, she clutched to the visitor of her memory in fear, as the blades blotted out all light with an angry crescendo of metal. At the end of it, she continued to shudder, quiet sobs wracking her small form.

It was merciful that Anthy was still too fearful to look at the arena. Instead of resetting, the Dueling platform remained pitted with weaponry. The boy looked to the two with clouded, sick eyes and as pale strands stuck to skin, he began to open the first few fastenings of his uniform - ravaged by what Vincent would recognize as fever.

"Why did you help her?" The Phantom of Dios began, eyes no less hateful despite their cataract looking appearance. "Did she lie with you too? Did she tell you sweetly she would make it better if you would just let her touch you?!"

Behind him, the rose haired girl stood - body ravaged by steel and seized with the effort. Slowly, she withdrew a sword from her body with a slick, grinding noise and the other weapons clattered to the ground. The wounds all scarred immediately save the witnessed backstabbing from earlier and she turned, it was clear she shared the same dead eyes as the boy.

"I gave you everything! I tried! And you let me die!" she howled.

The two phantoms began to advance on Anthy, weapons brandished and ready to kill and all she could was cry at the monsters she had created.

Vincent was stronger than he looked, as he moved. Placing himself between Anthy and the others, pulling her up as his grip shifted to her elbow and upper arm. Carefully, but still firm, getting her to her feet. Careful as he moved, pulling her with him, to get some distance from the pair advancing.

It was not a run, as that would provoke the phantoms further. This was a quick and purposeful walk, and he kept part of his attention on the others as he ignored their words. Spearing Anthy, once they stopped, with crimson gaze. His voice was quiet and non-judgmental, but demanded an answer. "Do you regret it?"

He understood regret very well, sensing in her an unwitting kindred spirit.

The phantoms eyed them both as Vincent pulled the witch...the girl to her feet and Anthy couldn't keep them straight. Where the girl-prince stared at them balefully as she approached, the phantom of Dios stalked forward. He seemed to look more like Akio with every second and his longer hair clung to him more pointedly.

"You know she's not worth this," Anthy flinched at his purr - not quite smooth as she thought, turning bad memories in her mind - but it was terrifying all the same. "Spare yourself the trouble of dealing with another woman that doesn't know what love looks like."

"Stop it!"

It was easy to try boldness under someone else's protection, but blue eyes of damning paleness met her own and suddenly all resolve was lost. Later she would be grateful for her interloper's astute senses, but for the moment, she followed him dumbly and only barley avoided a swipe of phantom Utena's sword.

"Those pretty doe eyes of yours won't save you now, Himemiya! Nothing will save you. You won't let us!"

Suddenly, he divided his attention and asked a question that made her heart drop to her stomach. Anthy wilted as if she'd been struck. It would have been easier to recover from at any rate.

"I wish I would have trusted her more. I thought she was going to betray me. If I would have known-"

"Liar!" the phantoms pressed.

"No!"

In hindsight, Vincent should have realized her reaction to his question. But her sudden wilting didn't help them moving to gain more distance. Necessary distance to be most effective, given he was a gunslinger. Not that he was helpless, just surprised as Anthy's weight shifted when they had been moving at a steady quick walk.

It was harder to move with someone like that.

Reflexes, never mind that he'd only been awake for a several months after a 30 year sleep, were still sharp though. Letting Anthy drop if she wanted, his right arm moving for the Death Penalty at his hip. Hearing her answer, but focusing right then on ducking. Dropping low himself, as he pivoted and brought his gun up.

Cold, stoic, professional as the barrel aimed at the phantom male who said such cruel things. It was her brother, Vincent's mind supplied as he calmly pulled the trigger. Not quite a point blank shot, but the phantoms were still closer than he would like.

The crack of the gunshot sounded through the air, shaking the arena where swords reigned. A clean break between the clatter of metal and shouting of angry words. Changing the rules, as Vincent placed himself between Himemiya and her memories. "Then that is what matters." Calm, resolute, his voice for the owner of this scene as he drew himself up to his full height. Death Penalty in his right hand, and the claws on his left hand flexing carefully in readiness.

Anthy dropped from shock, eyes wide as Vincent drew his gun. Her experience with them was limited but here in the arena, it was the herald of something new. Strange thing to see him, mantle billowing out behind him as if there was something princely in a killer. The absurdity of this moment made Anthy laugh, quiet but no less hysteric. Phantoms bore down on the two, sizing up the the gunman and his charge when Vincent fired.

She screeched, covering her ears as the phantom of Dios barely managed to raise his sword to block the attack. There was a brilliant flash with a hellish screech to match and as the light faded, the Phantom of Utena could still be seen buckling under the strain of the narrative being shattered. Dios appeared in his earlier position, seemingly reset to the beginning lines of his role. His body jittered strangely with the effort to turn his attention back to his prey, one eye clear and green and the other familiar and deathly pale.

"How?!" Dios began, brows furrowing.

"She'll be the death of you too, you know."

It was a simple statement that Utena's phantom made and for the first time since this nightmare started, Anthy met her eyes.

Vincent was saying that her regret was what mattered, but it was more than that - wasn't it? Barely able to push to her feet, she watched as the Phantom of her Prince bare its teeth at her and began to cry. It was a shaky step she took, knowing that there was one way for this to end, when in the corner of her eye, she noticed Vincent hadn't lowered his weapon.

"No!"

Anthy threw herself at Vincent, trying to keep him from getting the monster that wore her love's face in his sights. There were good odds that he would strike her or abandon her for this ungratefulness, but she couldn't let him shoot. Not Utena.

"Please! He's a monster of his own making, but she isn't! I hurt her and I can't take it back no matter how badly I want to," Clutching to his mantle, she prayed that he was still the sort of man who could be swayed by feminine distress. "She's guilt made manifest and I can't go back to make it right. I've hurt her enough, don't hurt her anymore on my account! Please!"

"It will kill you, if you let it..."

Anthy in her panic did not hear the voice behind her or the change in it, too concerned with putting herself between Vincent and his target. Utena's Phantom dropped its sword and began to clutch at its head, eyes fading back to something close to what they were like if she'd been alive. Around them the arena began to crumble away, dissolving away from every single point where the Swords of Hatred struck. The Phantom of Dios howled impotently as he began to fade, flickering as he tried to find something - anything to affect. But Utena's phantom was bleeding badly as she started to fade, noticeably slower than her compatriot.

"Don't let her see this, please..." Utena's Phantom asked simply, in a voice noble and kind - but strangely wise, like Anthy's.

The gun remained out, Vincent holding it ready and every inch a professional. It did not become trained on the phantom of the rose-haired girl, so long as she did not threaten them.

Vincent had been unwilling intruder into this play, and had just changed the rules. But it was not his story, and while he wasn't swayed by Anthy's distress, he recognized the kindred regret and guilt to his own. The recognition that this was a punishment, her own sin.

Crimson eyes flickered around, noting the crumbling landscape, the impotent phantom who howled as the act came to climax. Aware of his hosts' clutching at his cloak, her plea.

But it was the phantom of the rose-haired girl, her voice deathly quiet, that drew his attention most. Vincent's gaze flickered to meet the pale eyes that were ghostly. He nodded once, simple gesture acknowledging her request and intentions.

Only then was the Death Penalty replaced at his hip. His left arm, ever mindful of the wicked claws at the end of his gauntlet, moved to Anthy's shoulder. Encouraging her to let him be, to move away from this denouement. "You will never forget it, Miss Himemiya." The deep voice was oddly kind, as he said that. A thread of recognition, kindred spirit, as he knew how it was. "That is how we continue. We do not forget." Drawing her further from the crumbling stage.

Anthy swayed with relief as the gun went away, eyes meeting his as he gently began to move. As more than half of the arena fell away, she followed Vincent's lead with timid steps.

"We don't forget..." she repeated numbly, hesitating at the steps down from the arena.

"You can do it. I mean you already have, right?"

For a moment, Anthy's brows knit and she began to turn her head towards the one who addressed her.

"You won't forget." Vincent reminded her, tone sharp and drawing her attention back. Following the phantom's last words, as they moved to the gates, down the steps. Careful of the claws, his gauntlet covered left arm at her shoulder, steering her.

Beginning the long ascent, the denoument playing out in this story that was made of sad memories and guilt. "I do not forget. My punishment. I still do not blame her, only myself." Once more the deep voice was quiet; sympathy in the tone even as it was neither cold nor warm. "Many would say we should forget. Let it go, move on, that it is in the past. They do not understand that this is our punishment. We do not forget." A deep breath in and out, a sigh, even as they descended further down the stairs away from the crumbling stage behind them. "It is punishment, but also atonement."

Edited 2015-06-20 06:31 (UTC)

Anthy's gaze snapped back to Vincent, eyes shining with un-shed tears. She'd taken the first step away from Ohtori lifetimes ago, it felt like, and yet she was still stuck there. For a moment, she'd almost began to sob again - grief stricken that she'd be returning to her new cage. But she'd done this before and the hard part had already begun.

Straightening her posture, Anthy opened her eyes and smiled. It was tinged with sadness around the edges, fragile calm in her eyes. The long nightmare only persisted because she did not remember the truth of her Prince's actions. It would not be a mistake made twice.

"We do not forget."

It was quiet and a little raw, filled with simple, honest acceptance.

With Anthy's step forward, the arena behind them seemed to light up. For a moment in the fluorescence, Vincent could see the rags that had been covering Anthy's modesty burn away. Almost too bright, he only just make out their replacement - a jacket that matched the rose-haired girl's slung across her shoulders before the world went dark once more.

Vincent's eyes squinted with the sudden brightening, before he turned his gaze. Letting her have her privacy, and continuing to keep her moving forward as darkness surrounded her. He honestly wasn't sure why or how he'd stumbled into her memory.

Only acted, once he was there. Perhaps the rest of Avalanche and their altruism had been rubbing off on him. For this time, he had acted. Moving to intervene, and not repeat his own sin. Continuing to move through the darkness, noting at some point her presence had faded.

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Event || In Your Worst Memory

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