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memesofeternity2019-01-13 02:52 pm
eternitymods) wrote in memesofeternity2019-01-13 02:52 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive Meme VI
  A. RETRIEVAL
Dreams fade slowly, and awareness returns in increments. The hum of machinery, the smell of recycled air, the murmurs of others waking up around you. The interior of the ship has been outfitted with cots for those Biggs and Wedge, and some helpful Heroes of Light retrieve from the Dream Width. Outside of the makeshift infirmary, windows set into the walls of the worn lounge area offer a view of space. It’s time to meet your fellow new arrivals and your rescuers who have been brought together on Biggs and Wedge’s airship. The other newly-awakened people have no idea how they came to be here, but now's a good time as ever to introduce yourself to the others on the airship and glean what information you can. The experienced outworlders who helped pull you from your memories may be able to get you caught up to speed. B. CURTI CENTER
The researchers at the Curti Center are pretty used to this right now, though there's still no good explanation for the influx of interdimensional travelers from the Dream Width since earlier this year. "Please step into the lobby for a quick survey. We have just a few routine questions, it's invaluable to our research so we do ask you indulge us..." The staff will do their best to help the off-worlders settle in. They answer the questions they can, write down all proffered information they can about the arrivals' homeworlds, provide maps and pamphlets about Vaikuntha and the destinations within it, and even guide the arrivals to a neighborhood where housing has been provided for you. Yes, due to the strange influx of arrivals, you’ll be expected to share, but the Curti staff are doing the best they can, considering they have offered to permanently house all of the outworlders here. Experiences like these bring people together. Perhaps you are the only one here from your world, but at least you are not alone in this experience. Others are right beside you, learning the same information, planning trips to visit the same new cities, checking out these Job things, and settling in to their new homes. C. UP IN THE SKY
There’s a whole new world to explore. It’s almost enough to distract from the fact that there’s one place you can’t go- home. You are on an Airship, the main mode of transportation between the major cities of Vaikuntha. While the majority are owned by airlines, perhaps you hitched a ride with a friend that has their own. You can go anywhere in a matter of hours — One can only hope you don’t have motion sickness. D. GUILDS
Proud representatives of the Guild are lined up, ready to demonstrate their skills for the new initiates. Make sure to stay behind the designated line, this might get dangerous. So you want a new Job? You'll have to first travel to the Guilds, sign the papers, go through the orientation and introductory lectures, and get basic training. Afterwards, you can freely chat and practice with your fellow members, celebrating your new powers, and checking out your new wardrobe. E. LET'S BE ADVENTURERS
Separated from all of your material possessions, connections, and everything you know, and really, what you’re left with is time. Better try to make the most of it. Enough expository banter. It's explorin' time. Maybe instead of spending every day in your room, you'd rather spend it living it up in the city of Lavode, or betting on Chocobo Races in Sparks Goldsaucia. Or maybe you'd rather go and explore the caves and ruins near Arito. With Airships and Chocobos at your disposal, you can go nearly anywhere! F. SIDEQUESTS
Maybe you’re telling yourself, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ But wait, you did. At least it pays. It all started when you checked the Quest Board. All you wanted was a few gil to spend, and here you are in the wild, hunting for a Malboro Vine. Or maybe you are in some ancient and decrepit ruins looking for an artifact. Or you could be asked to be janitor for a week. Consider yourself lucky though, at least you don't have to do that alone. G. GET A JOB (THE OTHER KIND)
You’ve got a Job, but Claire keeps sighing and muttering about productive members of society and helping support the local economy, so it might be time to seek out Employment as well. There are plenty of opportunities to earn some gil in Vaikuntha, no matter where you choose to settle down. Your iMog slate includes listing for employment opportunities. Hopefully you can find something you can live with so that you can start saving up for an airship or the security payment for housing elsewhere in the world. H. MOGNET *Ding!* You’ve got Mog-Mail! Thankfully, you can instantaneously chat with your friends around the world thanks to you iMog Slate. And unlike old-fashioned Moogle Letters, you can even send messages to everyone in a blink of an eye! However, despite the change in technology, the old tradition of Mognet Strikes have never gone away. Nobody knows any more whether the Moogles have legitimate reasons to go on strike or if they are just lazy. But today, Mognet is down, and to get information you have no choice but going to the public boards or risk message corruption and mishandling. I. RANDOM ENCOUNTER
The ground trembles, and out of nowhere, something hostile appears! You were minding your own business walking around, and suddenly monsters attacked you! Time to put to use the skills you've learned with your Jobs! Will you try to fight on your own or seek help? And remember, you die in random battle, you die FOR REAL. There’s no shame from running from enemies that are a higher level than you. And they say, those that party up will live to party on! J. LOVE IS IN THE AIR
All the mistletoe would have come in handy here... As January gives way to February, stores and streets are decked in red, pink, and white. Posters line the Curti Center walls advertising Speed Dating events and offer to send flowers with anonymous or signed letters to outworlders and Curti Center employees - though there is some suspicion that a handful of received were never requested by the sender. Who cares! Some romances need an extra push! For the less adventurous types, the love-o-meters stationed at just about every hallway can predict your romantic (and platonic, if you so wish) future with just 100 gil, or even measure how good a potential match between two people will be. Is there any scientific backing to their calculations? That's not important. K. WILD CARD
Feeling inspired to create your own prompt? The power is yours! |
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He makes his way towards that particular table and perks up. "Oh no, the fault is mine. I should've started with my name first. You have my thanks for your assistance and my apologies for for being so improper."
Once he sets down the books, he offers the lady a smile.
"I am Kamui, from Hoshido. The pleasure is mine."
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Slowly, Corrin turns and finally looks at the man she's just been helping and her eyes go wide. There are some very noticeable differences, and yet...same hair colour. Same eye colour. Same pointed ears and-
She looks down and sees he is just as barefoot as she is.
Then she looks back up. "Corrin of Nohr." She says faintly. "...I don't go by my birth-name." She feels no need to elaborate on what that birth-name is.
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He's silent for what feels like an eternity. Kamui makes the same observations he does: the similar face, the hair...the complete lack of footwear. All of that pales in comparison to the name, however, and the nation she calls her home.
His eyes are wide. "How...how is this possible? Did I stumble far into the Deeprealms...?"
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Of course, that question is frankly irrelevant so she tries to push it out of her head for the time being.
"Uhhh..." She fumbles, badly. "Let's just...let's just have a seat, shall we?" She suggests, the offer of tea forgotten for the time being. The two of them are going to have a lot to talk about...to figure out. "I think we're both far beyond the Deeprealms we know." She offers. "If there's one thing I've learned since I got here it's that the multi-verse is...a lot, lot bigger than we thought back home."
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It's not said in accusation, yet thinking about it feels as if a weight is being dropped onto his shoulders. There was little making him doubt that she wasn't him...a version of him, at least. For this "him" to be a her? That's a superficial worry and he knows it. Perhaps a distraction from the rest of the girl's introduction.
He does take a seat, already feeling like he needs it. He wants to say something, he feels like he should say something, but if this is really another version of him, then what is there to say? His head almost sinks into his shoulders as this meeting takes a turn for the awkward.
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Which, actually, makes sense.
Her fingers drum on the table for a moment as she tries to think of something to say, to try and ease the anxiety they're both clearly experiencing. The fault is her's, she knows. Corrin has known for awhile that this was always a possibility and she should have done more to be prepared now that it's arrived. She's not making it easy for him.
"So..." She begins finally. "For the record, this sort of thing isn't actually unheard of." She explains. "Alternate selves meeting here, I mean. There's like two...maybe three actually versions of the same child who are also here. Or someone shows up who knows a different version of a person they meet here. Y-You know that friend of mine I mentioned, Serge? Well, there's another Hero of Light here who arrived the same time as I did, a girl named Kid, and she actually knows a version of Serge from her own world see, even though the Serge here is actually native to Vaikuntha so it's not-our situation, I mean, it's actually not that...unusual." She finishes lamely, realizing she's kind of babbling before putting her head in her hand.
"I'm sorry, I should be doing a better job of this and I'm really, really not." She sighs. "Gods, you'd think if there was anyone I should find it easy to talk to, it'd be myself, right?"
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"It's...not your fault..."
It's in response to her own troubles with this conversation, yes, but for all the things it can apply to? The same thing he tried to tell himself to no avail. She's had months here to accept her decision and what came of it. He's not so fortunate. It almost feels like opening old wounds of hers, leaving his head in his hand and darting his eyes towards and away from Corrin all at once.
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So, it feels like there's only one way to do this, the only way she thinks they'll be able to talk to each other is they just...get it out there. Hash this out. Once they're on the other side of it, then...then it should be easier. And if anyone could understand why she returned to Nohr, it'd be him. Or she could understand his reasons for siding with Hoshido.
She hopes.
"I guess you probably have a lot of questions for me." She says finally. "So, I'd be happy to answer any you have, as truthfully as I can." Her smile is still a bit shaky, but genuine; she's only just met Kamui, but they are the closest thing they have to family here, and it is suddenly dawning on her just how badly she needs to be able to get along with him.
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"I extend the offer to you, too...Corrin." That's the name she chose. That's the name he'll respect. As much as he argued with himself over his decisions and how well he followed through on them, beat himself up...he couldn't do the same to her.
"...Did you go back for your family? Camilla, Leo, Elise...Xander...?" The ones who really mattered. The ones he was afraid of hurting most. The ones he wound up hurting the most..
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"Yes." She says finally. "Not really for Nohr, and certainly not for Father. Just them. Even knowing that the war was unjust, or what Father...or, I mean, the thing that was pretending to be him, had used me to do, when the time came, I knew that if I separated myself from the others now, it was probably going to be forever, and the idea of that...even knowing I had family in Hoshido, who wanted me there-" Well, maybe not Takumi, but she knows now if she'd stayed, his attitude towards her would have changed; he'd said so at the end. "-I couldn't bring myself to part from the only family I'd ever truly known. I tried to tell Xander-tell myself really-that it was because I wanted an explanation from Father for what had happened, but I was lying to myself about that."
Corrin looks down at the table. The memory she's about to recount is still a fairly raw one for her. "I had only just accepted that Queen Mikoto was my mother, only for her to almost immediately die in my arms, because the man I thought was my father had used me to kill her and so many other innocent people, and I was grieving, confused, and scared, so I sought the comfort of the familiar. And because I didn't think I was strong enough to start over without them."
She looks back up at Kamui so she can address him directly for this part. "I was angry too, at the thought I'd been used in so cruel and heartless a manner, but on that ride to the border where Xander's army was massing, every time I felt that anger rising in me, I'd just...suddenly I'd think of those little private concerts Elise used to put on for me back in the Northern Fortress. Or Camilla teaching me how to sew, or...working on that little flower garden I kept while Leo fussed with that tomato patch he kept next to it to work on when he visited. Or how Xander and I used to relax together after one of those really long training sessions he put me through. In the end, my anger at being used wasn't enough to overcome my sorrow at the idea of losing them."
He'd offered to answer some of her questions, so she'd take him up on that offer. "I guess that wasn't the same for you, was it? As much as it would have hurt to leave them, after what Father had done..." Of course she sort of already knew that, from the vision the Dream Width had shown her a few months back...or had it? The Kamui she'd seen in that vision wasn't this one. She couldn't afford to take anything for granted with him. No, best to assume she knew nothing about him.
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And he turned his back on all of them.
"I still carry the sorrow from turning them away. Their looks of disbelief when I made my decision, how they begged me to come back home and try to talk Garon away from punishing me. There wasn't a moment through the war that I didn't want to reunite with them, to have them join me so we could all battle Garon's tyranny...but it wouldn't happen. Leo tried to convince himself he was jealous of me the whole time, Camilla was crushed, Elise wanted all of us to be back together...and Xander...he held true to his role as the next in line until the very end."
Elise died trying to protect him, to stop their fighting. Then he went and killed Xander himself. His older brother wanted it that way, wanted Kamui to succeed, but to still have to best him leaves his fist tightening and his teeth clenching.
"...You understand how much I didn't want to return to Garon after what he did. For me? I wasn't sure what the familiar was to me anymore. Xander and the others knew the whole time I wasn't their real sibling and...I don't hold that against them. It meant more to me at the time than it does now. I have no doubts that this influenced my decision.
But even that's not the sole reason. Our first time in Hoshido was brief, but it felt like returning there brought so much relief to...almost everyone there." With the exception of Takumi, really. Kamui completely understands why he was so doubtful. "They were people I didn't know, but their smiles after seeing me...it hurt as much as it did with Silas. They were people who loved me dearly and I couldn't remember them.
...They went to war for me. Their people died for me. Hinoka took up a spear just to save me and when we met...she broke down. It was so hard to believe that perfect strangers would do so much for someone they only knew as a baby, but one look in their eyes and I knew it was all real. They were ready to welcome me back for almost my entire life...and Garon used me to break this already fractured family apart."
Kamui's expression hangs and he shakes his head. "I couldn't turn my back on them, Corrin. They gave so much for me, they cared for me...yes I grew up away from them, but not once did they take me out of their family. After feeling that all at once...I knew I couldn't bear to leave them again."
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"Hinoka just couldn't believe that everything she had worked for for so long had turned out to be for naught, and Sakura...I think it was the hardest for her; she just wanted to love me and I was turning against them and she couldn't understand why. Takumi, well...he acted like this was a validation of everything he'd been saying about me, that there had never been any doubt in his mind that this would happen, but I know that was just him trying to cover up his own heartache and sorrow at my decision. Ryoma believed that I had been coerced, or was being manipulated and that my choice was not my own. He couldn't conceive that I would have made it of my own free will. He spent most of the rest of the war trying to save me. I think he thought if he could just get me back to Hoshido and keep me there, whatever spell he thought I was under would...vanish, eventually, and I'd come to my senses. It was the last day of the war before he finally came to accept that I had never been controlled." She momentarily shuts her eyes when Kamui talks about Xander holding to his role until the very end; she seems to understand what that means, but it doesn't seem to surprise her to hear that Xander did not survive his war. So that part was true for him as well. Which probably meant it was true of Elise as well, though she did not have the heart to ask about that.
"See, for me, the fact that Xander and Camilla had always known of my adoption...at the time all I could think of was that they'd always known and it had never mattered to either of them. I was their sister and that was all that was important. They never wanted me to feel like an outsider, or to be treated as such. Leo and Elise certainly didn't think any differently of me either once they found out, they were as committed to getting me back as the others. I took comfort in that knowledge. It helped make my decision to return to them easier."
Corrin looks up though a questioning look in her eyes. "You had to fight Silas?" She asks, and there's a great deal of trepidation in her voice as she asks this, as though she's afraid of what his answer of the outcome of that fight would be and she idly fidgets with a silver band on her right index finger as she asks.
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Kamui nods. He doesn't point out Corrin's fidgeting, knowing (mostly) where her concerns were. "He reminded me of our childhood and how dear a friend he's been ever since. I explained to him Garon's madness and why I couldn't return to Nohr because of that. Instead, I asked him to join me and he did. With him, Felicia and Jakob joining me, it was like having a part of home with me. I only wish we could've all been together..."
If it was in his power, Kamui would've taken the Nohrian siblings with him and lead everyone into battle against Garon. He ruined Kamui's life before he was really aware of it, he divided two countries that should've been allies in the first place...he used a young Hoshidan child as a bargaining chip.
"Xander...he always believed I would be the light to banish the darkness in Nohr. The irony is bitter and it hurts to imagine this is what he had in mind, but in the end, he was...proud. In the same way any older sibling would want their younger siblings to do better. It was his way of knowing how committed I was to my cause. Elise, she...she just wanted all of the fighting to stop. She wanted our family to be together again, so much that she...she took a blow from his blade for me..."
The memory is still fresh, still hurts. His decision had consequences, just as Corrin's surely did; his decision was no easier than hers. He gives a weak laugh. "Xander would scold me if he saw me grieving like this for too long..."
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But then the matter turns to the final confrontation with Xander, and Elise's fate. She merely looks away. Thanks to the expedition into the Dream Width a few months back, this is a pain they both share. Watching Siegfried bite into Elise and the look of dawning horror on Xander's face as he was unable to stop himself in time, and the confrontation that followed are all scenes that have wormed their way into Corrin's nightmares. The knowledge that it isn't her Xander and Elise that died are a cold comfort indeed. "...I know." She says finally, quietly. "I saw it happen. A few months ago, in the Dream Width. It was part of an expedition to see if there was anything we could do out there to slow or even stop Bahamut's arrival. The further out we got though, the Dream Width started to...I don't know, act up, I guess. It started showing people memories that weren't their own, events from either the past or the future. I didn't get that, though." She admits, and then looks him in the eyes. "I got your's. I saw your defection to Hoshido...I saw the final fight with Xander. Or I mean...I saw a version of those events." She rubs her eyes tiredly. "The Kamui I saw in those visions was me. She wasn't male, like you. I don't know if the Dream Width simply substituted myself for your memories just to make it easier for me to accept what I was seeing or if there truly is somewhere out there a version of me as I am that made the same decision as you. Or a version of you that made mine. For all I know there's a universe out there where we have pink hair and a squint." She offers a weak grin at the attempt at humour. "...But I was hoping because you're not the Kamui I saw in those visions, your version of those events might have been different somehow, that you might have been...spared that pain." She slowly reaches out and puts her hand atop his in a gesture of comfort and shared grief. "I'm so, so sorry."
She's not without her own losses, but she's had time to grieve and work past Ryoma, Takumi's, and probably Azura's deaths. She won't burden Kamui with that knowledge just yet. Maybe in time she can share more of her experiences with him, when he's ready. For now, she'll simply grieve with him.
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Kamui spent so much time wondering what if that he never stopped to wonder what it'd be like to learn the ramifications of both decisions. Dwelling on what-ifs is one thing; knowing about them is another. She did exactly that and dealing with one decision is heart rending enough. Still, that is an additional way for her to understand the way he feels.
Carefully, he'll take her hand into his, looking back at her. "Then there's not much else to be said, is there? We've spent enough time mourning our loved ones and looking back on our choices; we must never forget how we've come to this point in our lives, but we mustn't let that distract us from our current goings-on. There's a new world here with a new threat to match...and you have quite the head start there! I'll no doubt need to call on your wisdom until I've become acclimated, Corrin."
He pulls his hands back to raise a finger. "But in exchange, you mustn't hesitate to do the same should the need arise. Despite the technicalities, I can provide a second opinion! And I hope you'll use it wisely."
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Somewhat nervously, Corrin brushes a lock of hair back. "...I have many siblings as you well know, but I've never had a twin brother. Would it be...I mean, if you don't think it strange given we're technically the same person, but while we're both here...twins?" She asks, hopefully.
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"A twin sister...I like the sound of that! We look and behave enough like each other to make a convincing story. It'd be an innocent prank, for certain...ah, but you've been here too long for that, perhaps. All the time, I'm on board...sister."