we begin vindicated [open]

[hauntedsavior]

Who: Anna Amarande and you!
What: Event catch-all
When: Throughout December
Where: In Trench, in the sixth layer of Recollé, and 9,920 years in the future

Content Warnings: Eye trauma, explosions, hunting, blood, likely mentions of sacrificial death and depersonalization

Creating a Winter Mourning comes as an easy feat to Anna. She's been doing more than enough of it lately in a much more literal sense. Having a blessing towards some of the Pthumerians she hasn't had the chance to commune with yet probably can't be a bad thing.

It's glowing, the light serving as a gently pulsing beacon outside her window. Looking at it is almost mesmerizing; for a moment, it feels like it's going to bring peace to the torment that she's been feeling inside since the month turned. She reaches out and touches it, and in an instant...

a. we forget who we were meant to be

It's 2019. From the other wall of a glass jar, a white-haired woman with one eye is crawling through a ruined, sickly-green lab. She is not screaming in pain, but she is crying. No blood spills from her face, but she still would never wish anyone to see her like this. Her hand comes down on shards of broken glass, but she barely registers it. The air around her swirls with white souls that, in the flickering light and the ambient energy, almost seem to take form around the pathetic, destroyed woman.

Anna never wondered what she looked like when this happened. She knows everything about the events that just transpired, and her spectral head looks to the area that her younger self is crawling from. The brain that stole her eye is dead, and within this sixth layer of reality, the boundary between Anna, A2, 2B, and Kainé is thinner than ever. It's a wonder that she's able to maintain her own form even as a memory, because as she thinks about it all, she can feel her body flickering to take on the shape of the other women. She looks around to see if anyone followed her down—if she's experiencing her own memories then it makes sense someone else is there with her—and mutters somewhat musically, "Pay no attention to the ghost that follows."

b. a broken image of how it should be

It's 11,941, give or take a year, and two YoRHa units stand off to the side watching an enormous explosion in the distance. Anna, or at least the person who people have come to know as Anna, stands behind a cleaner, less ruined version of the android she's turning into. That android is on her knees, almost ready to weep, in front of a massive army of bronze-bodied, red-eyed machines. In an instant, the android shoves herself to her feet and screams a battle cry. A wave of debris follows from the explosion, taking out nearly everything between her and the epicenter. The shockwave stops before it can reach the android, but she won't let that stop her from trying to take down every last machine in her path. Her sword, less elegant than the one on Anna's back, flashes as she goes on the attack.

Anna stands there, her eyepatch fresh and new in black, her clothing an elegant, meticulously-stitched dress, her heels adding even more height to her form. She is not moving, though, not joining the fight. Because she knows full well what this is and what just happened. The person next to her may elect to join the fight with the not-truly-nameless android, the one whose appearance would match Anna's perfectly were it not for the eyepatch, or they may wish to stand back and speak with her. The bloodlust that often fuels Anna in these battles is not present at the moment; instead, she almost seems relieved.

c. crack a smile and lie through our teeth

Or, perhaps, she doesn't touch the Mourning. She leaves it to rest in her home and takes her blade out with her to the streets. Her longcoat high, the brim of her hat over her face, her eyepatch gone revealing the intimidating black-gold glass beneath it. Her blade stays in one hand, and the gun that Ruby Rose has been training her how to use is in the other. Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.

She stalks the streets in the pale moonlight, succumbing to the vengeance deep within her. Emotions that should be directed inward are ready to explode outward, and she is fully prepared to become a creature of persistence. An android designed only for combat, ready to lash out at the world that has stolen her from the city she loves.

A hunter must hunt. She has no need for traps, for subterfuge. The Amaranth's strategy has never once progressed beyond having a sword. She stands there on the wet cobblestones, stock still in front of what may be prey or what may be an ally, insofar as there are any allies to be had in this wretched night. She tilts her head up and sniffs the air. "What's that smell?" she rasps out. "The sweet blood... it sings to me." It may be gauche to tell someone your blood type, but are you willing to risk silence?

d. in the end we would rather be anything but lonely

((more prompts to be added. if you're interested in more, DM me or hit me up on roseward!!)))

Comments

[hauntedsavior]

This time, though, she will say it. She wants to speak up. Her hand tries to brush back her own hair to reveal what's underneath it, but the ghost that she is, the ghost Yuri's speaking to just can't touch it. When she talks, it's slow, almost in wonder.

"This is a lab. Under reality, where they experiment on souls." Her form flickers and her voice becomes rougher, and in that moment the ghost shifts to a different woman. Similar build, similar stature, but clad differently and with both eyes. Anna doesn't seem to notice the change. "I came down here on a mission from my boss to learn more about soul research. To get in, I had to give up all my memories of the person I loved the most."

She's trying to come up with the name, but right now, it's difficult. She can't tell if it's because the name just isn't there in her memories or if it's due to some outside influence. This lab is... strange, and her body shudders, and she doesn't like it. "The barrier between who I am and who I should be broke down. And the lab... reacted. It took what it wanted to take from me."

The girl that she's failing to tend to pushes herself up and tilts her head to the sky. Her hair falls from her face, revealing one eyelid drooping over what appears to be a clean, bloodless nothing. She wails, and nothing in the lab responds.

"That's what happened here," the present-day Anna continues, like a realization, and her form stabilizes back to who it should be. She turns to her friend, her friend who is here with her, and tries to grip his arm instead despite her ethereal, soul-like nature right now. "Yuri. Please. I don't remember how I escaped. Can you touch her?"

[vibing]

All of this is so much over his head, but he pays attention as best he can, eyes going wide as her form shifts to another woman, then back again. All of this talk of memories is too much to take in, so he focuses on what's important right now. She's asking him for something, something he can at least try to give her.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."

This Anna, the one with him, can't touch him for some reason. Which would make it stand that maybe this other Anna, the one on the ground, devastated and hurting, maybe he can touch her, help her.

He kneels down next to her, murmuring softly, "Anna? Can you hear me?" and reaches out a hand to gently touch her shoulder.

[ ooc: if you want to swap it so he can't touch her, you let me know! ]

[hauntedsavior]

The Anna on the ground, the younger one, she only barely doesn't react out of terror and shock, but the Anna that's floating in the air as a soul amalgamation watches Yuri's hand make contact with her shoulder.

"Good. Maybe it's because you weren't here in the first place," she muses idly, knowing that speculation is useless and the realm of memory is already so bizarre down here. "If you pick her up, I can lead everyone out of the lab."

The one that Yuri's touching raises her head and speaks wearily. "Help," she says like she's on autopilot. Like she doesn't even fully process what's happening to her. The man in her vision isn't even clear, but she has a feeling that Vanderweele wouldn't be taking his time with her like this.

[vibing]

Yuri takes Anna's advice, reaching down and hefting the younger Anna into his arms with a soft grunt. If he can help, he's going to. Even if it's a memory and it won't change anything, it still feels important to help her, to do what he can to help make this awful experience less terrible.

"I got you. Hold on, we'll get you out of here," he says it to the younger Anna before looking up at the Anna he's familiar with. "Let's get you out of here."

[hauntedsavior]

Maybe it's a memory, maybe it's something more than that; Anna doesn't know anymore. Neither of them, though of course the one in Yuri's arms wouldn't know one way or another. She looks up with her hair messy, and at this distance it's obvious that where there should be an eye there just isn't. Her mouth is hanging open, and her other, crystal blue eye stares at him in confusion, bewilderment—shock, mostly. "You're... I..." She can't form the right words.

The other, spectral Anna isn't getting involved, though, instead floating towards the door in the lab that she remembers so clearly. It's the door that she poured her memories into, the memories of the woman she loved who right now she's not sure if other-she can even think are missing. They glow faintly in an open lockbox below the knob of the rusted, swung-open metal. Outside is nothing but pitch blackness, like there's no possible way the world could exist beyond this door. The only sign that something could even hold a stable form against the encroaching darkness is a tear in the sky, a jagged doorway that holds in place as a beacon. It's too far away to see clearly, but there's definitely some grey-white light coming from it.

"It's this way," they both say at the same time, though one is shakier. The one that Yuri's carrying continues. "How... did you see it?" And it starts like a stammered question, but really it's all one sentence. "The way down here... I didn't tell anyone else..."

[vibing]

"Uh," Yuri glances down at her, hating to see that gaping hole where her eye should be. He knows the Anna he knows doesn't have hers, he knows that, but it's different seeing it fresh. Like when Repede lost his, even if he's used to it now, that was awful, horrible, he can only imagine how the Anna he's holding must feel. "Got a tip. Don't sweat it, no one else knows."

In case that's what she's worried about. She doesn't need anything else to worry about right now. "We'll keep you safe."

[hauntedsavior]

"We...?" she asks, like she can't see herself floating there, but it could very well just be a response to the trauma. It's not important. She turns her head against him and closes her eyes (wrong) and just starts talking in a low, haggard voice.

"The brain took my eye... it wanted more. We can't let people come down here. They'll die." She sounds so frightened of the idea, of losing more to this eerie lab that nobody can properly comprehend. Or maybe they can, and this is just her bad luck. Or maybe Zee lured her down here. "I don't care how much we have to stop him. I can't lose anyone else to this."

She pulls her head back and squints her eyes (no!) and all she has the brain to process is purple hair. "Kasen...?" she asks, trying again and missing the mark.

[vibing]

"Hm? Oh, no," he glances at her again even as he tries to keep moving, intent to find some kind of exit, some way out, to stop what she's worried about from happening. He sure as hell doesn't want to die in here, it reminds him too much of the places he almost died back home, like the Shrine that nearly collapsed on all of them. "Yuri. You don't know me, yet. Look, this is gonna sound really weird, but I know you, in the future."

His eyes glance at the floating Anna again, lips quirking in the smallest flicker of a smile. "Anyone wants to get to you now, they're going to have to go through me, okay?"

[hauntedsavior]

The floating Anna smiles back at him. You know, she never really did remember when the idea of time travel had manifested in her head. Yeah, Zee had mentioned it as a possibility, but going all in on it like she had always felt like a little bit of a hail Mary. Maybe this would fill in some gaps. Or maybe it's a coincidence.

"Thank you," the real Anna mumbles out against Yuri. "Just had... five people inside me," the muttering continues. She's trying so hard to remain disaffected even at a time like this. Even when it's never been less possible to pretend she's fine. "Nothing's weird." She's not a child but it sure as hell feels like she is right now. She's been teleported back in time before but only in the context of visiting old memories with people. This is too real to be that. Someone—Yuri found his way down here and rescued her. And he's going to protect her. And she's going to let him, because it's the only thing she feels safe enough doing.

"C'mon," says the floating one from the front of the lab. "It's this way. It's gonna look like absolutely nothing is out there, but just keep walking. If you go the wrong way, your footsteps will start to turn pink."

[vibing]

"Yeah, you just relax," as well as she can when being carried by a stranger. Yuri pushes on, not quite in the mood to make a joke about all of this. He heads toward the floating Anna, focusing on his feet and on keeping the Anna in his arms as steady as possible. Sometimes, it's best for him to just shut up and get it done, and this is one of those times.

"Pink, okay," he murmurs as he finally leaves the lab, struck by the nothingness, but he doesn't stop, keeps going, trusting the Anna next to him to help him if he gets lost. He trusts her to get all of them out of this.

[hauntedsavior]

It's a buried memory, a painful one, but as they begin the trip back to the hole in the sky, Anna finds herself recalling the path far too easily. Yes, there's metaphorical guardrails guiding them back to safety, but even without them, she's navigating Yuri and herself with very little hesitation. All that's really distracting her is the empty tree line loosely bounding the path. She's trying to find something out there, and if it's there, it's not showing itself.

If ghosts can hold tension, she seems to let it go. "All right. Looks like the thing that was stalking me out here is gone. Maybe 'cause it knows I won." There's no bluster behind those words, though; she's just hoping she's right. "The sooner we get to that rip in the world right in front of us, the sooner we get back to Recollé. And that's... probably the end of it," she says, but she's not sure. She does remember getting back to Zee's place once she's safely tethered to reality again. "Then I can fill you in on whatever you want to know."