timeandtides_backup | Let the Memory Live Again

Current Location: Memoria

Entry tags:

Let the Memory Live Again

Characters: Vayne, Rinoa, Zidane
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Trapped in Memoria are three potential enemies.
Location: Memoria
Date: February 1st, 1804
Warnings: Vayne? Memories of violence?

How peculiar. For a moment, Vayne could have sworn everything around him had turned bright and a shade of pink. Yet such made no sense whatsoever. Still, he could brook no complaints, as he immediately recognized where he stood. This was the Imperial Gardens in the Solidor estate, in the heart of Archades. Only for a brief moment was he struck with confusion as to how such could be, before an immense sense of satisfaction sunk in. He had been returned. Perhaps not to his Sky Fortress, but then, it seemed unfitting to begrudge a return to where he belonged. With any luck, that wretched Ondore and that shrewish princess were left behind in Gaia.

Gaia. He would not miss it. Except perhaps Garnet, but even she mattered little now that he was returned to Ivalice. There were more pressing matters at hand. Obliterating that insurgence over Rabanastre to begin with.

He strode across the Gardens with purpose, with a vague sense that something felt off. No servants or judges lingering nearby that he could see. The plants appeared different as well, but in a pleasant way. The trees stood in full greenery and the flowerbeds perfectly tidy, with nary a weed in evidence. Galbana lilies at the far end of the gardens graced the burbling fountain. Everything was indeed in order.

Or not. For there stood the Lady Rinoa and some short... person with whom Vayne was not familiar. A blond with a furred tail? How unusual. Still, they were in his home, and it would be impolite not to greet them. He would attempt to ascertain why they were present and then depart to handle business. Placing a hand on his chest, he dipped his head politely. "Lady Rinoa, it is a pleasure and an honor to welcome you to my home. You as well, sir."

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Rinoa frowned at Zidane. "How do you know all this stuff?"

She was distracted by Vayne snapping out of it and becoming his usual courteous self again. "I don't want refreshment," she said. "I wanna go back!"

"I was here before, a couple years ago. We were trying to stop Kuja," Zidane wasn't really sure he trusted what was going on...if only because Memoria had been so very good at playing tricks on everyone.

When Vayne seemed to tug himself out of his memory, Zidane shook his head at the taller man. "None of this is real, we're in your memory." Although this was a lot more...stable...than the visions had been, really. That was probably something to worry about. "It's very hard to tell the difference between memories and reality, so...you may want to brace yourselves."

Vayne took a long moment to consider what this monkey-person was saying. He was disturbed, and quite put out, by the information, yet he remained stoic, not betraying his thoughts by his expression. He wasn't entirely sure he believed the stranger either, although he could not deny his experience was strange enough. And were it true, that this was simply a memory, he quite wanted out of it. There were ample memories he would just as soon leave in the past where they belonged.

"Since you seem to be informed as to our whereabouts, perhaps you could direct us to the exit then. I would know how this has come to be, if you know, as well."

Zidane's explanation made a strange kind of sense, but Rinoa was still confused. "If this is Vayne's memory, then why are we here?"

"South," he shrugged. "or down. When we were here before we had to move up to get where we wanted to go, so down should get us to the exit. Although it could have changed, I don't...really know why we would even be here." He shook his head, frowning.

"Oh, we can see where they are. Kinda." Zidane shrugged. "When I was here before, the memories, the locations showed up for everyone. But the details, the people and words and stuff, only the person who had seen it before could see it."

He remembered how confused poor Quina had been when all that happened. "If we move around, we'll probably run into my memories, and yours too." He waved a hand towards Rinoa.

How unpleasant. He had no difficulty in walking through the memories of others, if he must, but no true desire to relive his own. Well enough that they could not see them at least. Vayne knew it would be best to exit, quickly, before more trickery began.

"This way," he told them, motioning towards a doorway at the far end of the gardens. And without another word, took to walking there.

Rinoa chased after him, more because she couldn't see any other way to go than because she really wanted to do what he said.

"So... What we just saw... That was you playing with Larsa when he was little, right? You must have really cared about him."

She caught up, ducking through the doorway ahead of Vayne, and then forgot what she had just said. Zidane had told them to expect to run into their own memories. Hearing that wasn't quite the same as actually seeing it.

From the open air of the gardens, Rinoa suddenly found herself in a dark and scarily familiar room. Inside the Sorceress Memorial. The machine that had trapped her, contained the sorceress-

She was inside that machine again, suspended at the centre of a metal arch. Trapped of her own free will. Then, a disturbance. The flash of a sword, threads snapping, falling, falling...

And Squall caught her. Her knight had come to save her. Rinoa hugged him tight, tears of joy squeezing from her eyes. She had never felt so happy-

She snapped out of the memory, blinking. "Oh... That was strange."

Zidane followed after them both, at first trying to make a point of remembering where they went but what was the point? It wasn't as though Memoria wouldn't change it on them if it wanted to. Man he hated this place.

"I think we should..." he cut off as the next room was very obviously different from the last, watching as the young woman hugged someone who very much wasn't there, his eyes slightly narrowed. He didn't say anything, he wasn't going to pry on memories that weren't his.

When she came out of it, he offered her a bit of a grin. "You kinda...get used to it. Which is pretty weird." He shrugged at the both of them.

Vayne was on the verge of replying to Rinoa that it had indeed been Larsa and that he still cared a great deal for his brother, both then and now. Yet it seemed entirely a moot point when from all appearances, she seemed to have taken leave of her senses. Realizing he must have looked just as foolish, he turned his back, giving her privacy to experience her past without an audience.

Once she spoke to them again, only then did he turn to face her, and speak to the other member of their traveling party present. "I will take you at your word." Vayne didn't much care for getting used to it, but accepted that adjustment would come from exposure to the unusual.

Resuming the previous conversation could wait until he was certain that she would be aware enough of her surroundings to hear the answer to her query.

"Oh, God," said Rinoa. "Oh, God. That must have looked so weird to you guys. I don't know how I feel about you seeing that... Well, at least it was a good memory. Like yours, huh?"

She looked at Vayne, wondering how much he would be willing to tell her. His memory had seemed harmless though. If Zidane or Vayne figured out just why Squall had rescued her from this room... Rinoa shuddered. She really didn't want them to find that out.

Zidane gave Rinoa a moment or two to adjust from her memory before he turned to start moving in the direction he was pretty sure they needed to go. "Sometimes they're good memories, sometimes they're not. It...I guess it's pretty random? Last time one was from my childhood and another was from when bahamut attacked Alex-"

As he spoke, Zidane pushed the door at the far end of the 'room' open...and stepped out onto a large wooden stage, falling silent as he did so. The stage was set on the rear of a massive airship, and the backdrop was that of a slowly rising dawn with two moons hanging in the distance, though it was obviously day everywhere beyond the stage. Beyond the stage were rows and rows of stone and wooden seats, and past them the front of Alexandria castle, and the viewing area for the Queen and her guards.

Zidane's whole demeanor changed as he stood there, from one of relaxation to concern as he moved across the stage slowly, pausing to stare up at the distant false sky.

"The time of our departure is long past...Where is Cornelia?" He spoke in the fake-whispers that were used so often in plays to convey inner dialogue, his body turned away from the front of the stage without actually looking away from it.

He did not turn as Cinna moved up behind him, "Marcus, the ship soon embarks! Board ye this boat alone, and peace could come to both kingdoms, as Blank so said. Speak, Marcus!"

"She told me that she could not live without me..."

"I assure you, Lady Rinoa, that I saw nothing that you would not wish to be seen." That much was entirely true, as he had turned away as quickly as possible. However, to dispel her discomfort and as a distraction from their change in location to Alexandria, he issued a brief nod. "Mine was indeed a most pleasant memory. Larsa when he was two. He was something of an escape artist then as well. He gave some number of his nurses quite the fright with his disappearing acts."

A rare smile flitted on his lips at the memory. He was not about to reveal the bittersweet timing of it. That it was mere weeks before he would find himself tasked with being his elder brothers' executioner. Those were the happy days when their family was whole and not a political arena of its own.

Meanwhile, Zidane appeared quite engrossed in what he was experiencing and yet again, he wondered had he looked so foolish?

How would you know? Rinoa thought mulishly. But she couldn't help smiling back when Vayne described Larsa's antics as a toddler.

"He sounds adorable. No different, then."

She tilted her head to watch Zidane, amused by his odd manner of speech. "He's starting to sound like you, Vayne."

As Zidane stands there, the stage got a bit brighter, and a number of birds appeared on the false evening sky, as if the dawn had come.

"So the sun is our enemy too. The eastern sky grows bright..." He took a few steps towards the false horizon. "Will we not spread our wings as yonder birds in joyous flight?"

"Hark, Marcus! They cannot wait any longer!" Cinna turned and walked of the stage. "The ship departs!"

Zidane stood silent for several moments, "Could she have betrayed me?" A pause before he turned and walked to the center of the stage. "Nay. Ne'er would my love speak false. I must have faith! She shall appear if I only believe...as the sun lends me no ear, I pray instead to the twin moons."

His voice got louder as he spoke, turning to face the false moons in the backdrop. "I beseech thee, wonderous moonlight! Grant me my only wish!" He turned then to face the front of the castle and the royal balcony, a flourished move, arms yanked out as though tugging something heavy off his shoulders.

"Bring my beloved Dagger to me!"

He was still grinning a moment later as the vision passed, though it faded into a puzzled sort of smile after a moment. "Okay...that was weird..."

Vayne's attention was drawn to Zidane acting out his memory. As he listened, the words became familiar to him. He had seen this play during Garnet's birthday celebrations. Rinoa was correct, the language was very similar indeed to what he was accustomed to in Ivalice. "Had he but the accent, I might well believe him to be Archadian," he replied to Rinoa, somehow amused by her observation.

However, he was fairly certain the female lead's name was not Dagger. How unusual. One of his eyebrows quirked upward in question, making him look very much similar to his brother when he responded with like behavior.

"An excellent performance, if I may say. I had not realized you were a mummer."

"That was really good acting," Rinoa agreed, applauding him. "Especially with nobody there. So we definitely can't see each other's memories... That makes sense."

It was also a relief. Rinoa would rather look weird talking to herself than have her most cherished memories on show for all to see.

Zidane twisted back around to face them, smiling sheepishly and reaching up to scratch at the back of his head. "Thanks. I'm kind of...a little bit of everything, I guess. Whatever the situation calls for." He shrugged, letting his arm drop back down to his side.

"This is different from last time, though. I don't remember it being so...intense. I could see everything, the crowd and my bros and Dagger and Rusty..."

You still understand nothing.

Zidane froze up at that voice for a long few seconds before he twisted around. What the...That can't be right...

Well. Dagger had said she thought he was still alive.

"Hey! Is that you Old Man?"

Yes, Zidane is currently speaking to the ceiling.

Rinoa stared at him. Zidane was apparently talking to thin air again despite having just snapped out of it. "What? Is he seeing another memory again?"

Why do you continue to defy your fate?

Vayne took a step closer to Rinoa. There was something off about his response and he would protect the young woman, should the other have delved into madness. "Perhaps so. Shall we wait for him?"

"I don't have a fate!" He shouted, sounding rather annoyed, and then he shook his head, not bothering to wait around for the voice to speak again.

"We should keep trying to find a way out of here." He muttered, turning to look at them. "There are some people I need to talk to."

"Was that another memory, Zidane?" Rinoa asked. She was curious about why he seemed to have experienced two in a row when she and Vayne hadn't.

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Let the Memory Live Again

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Only heard by Zidane

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Heard Only by Zidane / Done For Now

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