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

[unyieldingspirit]

"They're like family. Aren't they?" K'pandolu concluded. It was a painful thought- she'd always loved and cared for her blood relatives, and with everything they'd been through, the Scions held their own place in her heart. To turn her strength against them in a serious fight…

That startled her, though, and she looked at the scene anew, hand dropping. "Set up? Who by? How was that in aid of creating this weapon- or was there something else to it?" Questions that might well be answered, if she waited.

[makingfriends]

Another brief nod. For Ven, "friends" and "family" weren't mutually exclusive -- they were interchangeable.

At the question, he hesitated, partly because the mention of the X-blade still managed to make him uneasy -- largely because he had to be careful with how much he said. "...Xehanort," he said finally, quietly. "He was after the X-blade. If I'd died here, that would have ruined everything for him." As far as Ven knew, anyway. But then why send him back to Eraqus in the first place? Why take that risk?

Now, it was starting to make sense. He didn't have to see how this fight ended to guess Xehanort's intentions.

He shook his head. "He had to back me into a corner -- force me to help him make it. This... this was all part of that." It was complex and he still didn't have all the answers, but he had enough.

His focus was on the fight again. He had never looked away, but now he really looked at the two of them, as uncomfortable as it made him. He'd never seen Eraqus fight in earnest before, and Terra... Ven had fought alongside Terra, but not like this. Not all out and desperate, not forgoing his usual fighting style and leaning on darkness to do it.

[unyieldingspirit]

As incomplete as that answer might be, it answered enough for K'pandolu. "What cruelty," she said softly, settling back on her heels, arms folded.

She followed Ven's gaze after a moment, frowning. "This fight- it was another part of that? And- that power…?" She wasn't familiar with Terra's style of fighting herself, but the darkness that rose from his body set her teeth on edge. What could make this rise out of the desire to protect? A thought struck her, and she turned to Ven, arms falling.

"Ven- who is this Xehanort?"

[makingfriends]

Ven didn't answer that first part -- he didn't want to admit that it was darkness aiding Terra in this fight, the very thing they had all been raised to oppose and be wary of. He didn't want to admit that he himself was partially the cause of it.

Xehanort wasn't a much better topic, but it hurt less, at least. Regret simmered into old anger, and as Terra's and Eraqus' fight drew to an exhausted close, Ven replied slowly,

"Xehanort... he's another Master. Or, he was." He wasn't sure how the technicalities there worked -- whether one retained the title after betraying the Keyblade's purpose. "He was... my master, once. A long time ago."

Ven fell silent then, listening to Terra's and Eraqus' exchange. The regret, the sorrow, the pain on both their faces... Ven's heart had been broken more than once, in the most literal of ways -- but neither occurrence had hurt as badly as it did right then.

But before Eraqus could finish speaking, Ven caught a glimpse, a flicker of movement behind him -- and even before he recognized who it was, his heart sank.

"No--!"

The warning, in vain though it was, wasn't even out of his mouth when Xehanort struck: there in the blink of an eye, hitting Eraqus square in the back. No warning. No mercy. No fairness about it. Wrong, everything about it was wrong--

--and then Eraqus fell. Vulnerable, for the first time Ven had ever seen him -- and just like that, he was gone.

Struck down.

It took Ven several breathless moments to realize that he had run forward on impulse; his Keyblade was in his hand, although he didn't remember summoning it. Now he only stood there, watching Terra mourn. Useless. Always useless.

Ven's fingers stiffened, loosened, and his Keyblade hit the ground in a flash of light, disappearing once again.

"What a sight. Why do you trouble yourself with remorse, Master Terra? The man was bent on doing harm to your friend, his own pupil!"

Xehanort's voice, suddenly too close, broke Ven out of his stunned pause and he took a step back on reflex, watching the old man approach. But it was Terra who spoke up.

"Master Xehanort! Why?"

If K'pandolu was still curious about Xehanort's identity, then there it was.

[unyieldingspirit]

"Yours?" K'pandolu stared at Ven, head going to one side for a moment, ears twitching. It didn't seem so unlikely that there was more than one master of the art- but for someone like that, from the sound of it, to have been Ven's mentor…?

She almost missed Xehanort's movements herself, but moved forwards quickly once she did. It took her mind a few moments to catch up and remind her- could she do anything here? If so, what? She clenched her hands into fists, ears back as she stared at the scene. To go so far as to kill for all this-

"He is truly wretched," she muttered. Keeping her eyes on Xehanort (he still cast a shadow- but still-), she moved closer to Ven. At least that might serve as reminder that he was not alone here.