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

a

[vibing]

Yuri has no idea where he is, but his first instinct is to help, especially when he recognizes who it is. She looks a little different, younger, hurt, and he lurches forward with a cry of, "Anna!"

He doesn't quite think about the fact that the Anna he knows already has an eyepatch, that she's older, that he was just in his house and drawn to the wreath of antlers that Flynn put together. That she's standing right next to him. She says something, and Yuri jerks his head at her words, stumbling over his feet.

"Anna?"

He looks between the Anna next to him, and the Anna on the floor, trying to process this. He still wants to help, still needs to help. "The ghost..?"

[hauntedsavior]

It's really noble, is Anna's first thought, that he actually wants to help her. Past her, from this journey that took her eye. Her own form shifts into the one that he knows, stabilizing in her own voice while she talks. The version of her on the floor doesn't seem to react, but maybe she's in shock.

"It's a song. The 'ghost that follows' part happened earlier, actually," she says just as mysteriously. But maybe she's just doing cryptic bullshit to take her mind off seeing this from the outside. Hovering there in her difficult-to-maintain form, she's perfectly fine just watching and talking. She's not sure she can change this anyway.

"This is right after I lost my eye," she explains. She's told him a little about it, sure, but not the immediate aftermath. "But I didn't know my brain kept this part. The next thing I remember after it happened is getting outside and staggering home." A knowing pause, a glance towards Yuri. "I don't even remember how I found my way out."

B

[onekindsoul]

Ruby's been pulled into enough memories to sort of recognize it at this point. She glances around at the battle happening before her- Then tilts her head toward Anna and notes the relief on her face. While part of her wants to rush off into the fray she's not exactly sure what good that could actually do. So she takes a step back and joins Anna at her side.

One hand sheepishly grips the bicep of her other arm.

"...So- Do you happen to know what's going on here?"

b

[entreats]

At this point, these things are no longer a surprise to Ange.

After all, she has been going around and recklessly touching these things, just because it was said to bring relief in the long run - even if the price for it is witnessing things out of the blue. Sometimes even without her realising what she is witnessing, who the sight belongs to.

This time, however, it's a little easier. Despite the sheer chaos of what she is witnessing, it's very obvious who this particular memory belongs to. After all, the android fighting over there looks pretty much like Anna. Enough so that - even if it was not Anna, but a sister or something - it is a memory that couldn't just belong to any other world.

And Ange's suspicion is confirmed when she sees the actual Anna standing there. Despite nothing about this intense situation seeming to touch Ange, like she's little more than a ghost here, her steps are still taken a little gingerly as she makes her way over to the actual Anna's side, like she's worried about getting caught up in it all the same.

".. Anna?" Ange says. Her tone is neutral - the way she calls out to the other meant more to make Anna aware of her presence, something that might not have been immediately apparent in the middle of everything that's going on here.

After all, even if Ange - accidentally - entered a private memory, it's not like it's her intention to spy on it without the other person knowing. Especially since she likes Anna so far.

[hauntedsavior]

Hey, it's Ruby. It's for the best that she's not deciding to get involved in the battle. Bad things would happen to her in there, no matter how good of a fighter she thinks she is. That's Anna's immediate impression, at least. She looks down from her now 6'2" stature and god help her she's almost smiling. Which is a terrible thing to wear on her face given what she's about to say.

"This is a memory from A2. Right when she lost her squad. That explosion out there?" She jerks her head past the fray, towards where the scent of fire is spreading. "That was one of her own, sacrificing herself to save A2." A pause. "Her name was No.4. I think A2 loved her."

[hauntedsavior]

Anna barely notices Ange's approach until she hears the familiar voice call her name. The voice that she should, maybe, be a little sheepish about hearing given the conversation from the middle of last month. But that's not happening, because it's more important that Ange is out and about and seems to be recovered from being kidnapped.

So when Anna turns her head and looks down at Ange, there's a gentle smile on her face. This memory is far from private; she's glad, actually, to have other people experiencing it with her. Miserable though it may have been for A2, for Anna it's an affirmation. It's confirmation. And she will not explain why, but anyone who's been paying attention, she's certain, already knows.

"Good to see you out and about again, Ange," she says. Her head turns to the battlefield again. It's going well for the lone android who shares Anna's body. "If you wanted to learn more about A2... here she is."

[vibing]

"Uh... huh," Yuri glances between them again, his mind catching up with what's happening. That isn't real. Or it is, but it's already happened. She remembers this, sort of. "So why's it, why's your mind showing us this? If you don't remember it?"

He asks it like she'll know the answer. He takes a step back, straightening up, even if part of him wants to go down there and help.

And then there's the whole floating thing. He glances at her, then away, then back. "There's a lot happening right now."

[entreats]

It's a little surprising to see the expression on Anna's face. That gentle smile. Maybe it's since Anna is usually so.. Anna-y. Certainly not unkind, but a lot like Ange, in the sense that she's guarded. That she doesn't show these sorts of expressions easily.

And yet here Anna is. Gently smiling at Ange, even though Ange - accidentally, if you want to get technical about it - intruded on the other's memory.

It makes her pause for a moment before she replies to the other, but that also gives her time to fully walk up to Anna's side, only stopping once she's there. And only then casting her gaze back out at the other Anna - no, A2. The fighting android.

"Is that.. what you were? Before?"

It's not asked awkwardly because Ange thinks that's an awkward idea, mind you. She's more just hesitating because it's hard to find the line here. What is okay to ask Anna about? What isn't? Ange is curious enough to ask her just about anything right now, especially while staring at this - but at the same time she doesn't want to dig up stuff that's too painful for the other either.

So she will just gently tiptoe over this line until she can find out what's alright and what isn't under these circumstances. Anna has been kind enough that Ange wants to put in this much effort in return.

b

[thinkfirst]

Flynn is more than familiar with scenes of war. He's been on battlefields, he's been in forests and plains with too many monsters and not enough hope, he's faced down armies of mechanical things swarming the distance between himself and his dying home.

This, though—explosions and the scream of someone throwing themselves into combat—this is beyond what Flynn has seen. It catches at his breath, and he raises an arm against the shockwave even though it doesn't reach him, watches not-Anna fling herself into the fray with sword flashing, and swallows.

"What," he says quietly, turning to the Anna beside him, "what battle is this?"

[hauntedsavior]

"I don't know," she says, helpfully, and floats down closer to her body that's struggling to pull itself forward. She's almost close to passing out, and from this distance it's a little clearer exactly what happened to her. This is how it looked from this side of things, huh...?

"Maybe it wanted me to see. Maybe I just didn't know how much this hurt." She inhales as she reaches out to touch the crown of her younger self's head, then stops in place when she sees her spectral hand shift to a different woman's, one who is definitely not her. It chills her spine. Her voice doesn't sound different outside of her own ears when she asks, "Is this really me...?" Her jaw falls just a little slack as her ghostly hand runs through—past—her own hair.

[hauntedsavior]

The care is noticed and appreciated, and Anna decides to recognize it by opening up a little more. Ange is allowed here; she's allowed to see some of these things. And it's not like anyone or anything can stop her from seeing it now in the first place.

"Not sure if that's right," she says carefully, no longer needing to watch A2's swath of destruction. She's not sure if a lot of this is right, really; other memories she's shared have been painful. Harrowing experiences that actually happened to her. That they're both here now means...

"This is about 10,000 years in the future, for one," she continues, stopping her thoughts before she can overthink them. "But it's more like she's part of who I am. We're close enough to each other that the huge, cosmic collection of universes," and she elegantly extends a gloved hand to the heavens, towards the moon that she's told the humans live on now, "Decided that we would share a soul together inside of my body."

[hauntedsavior]

Does she remember the name of it? Her eye closes, and she tilts her chin downward in thought. Her hand, wearing a white glove with a careful frill pattern around the wrist, touches her chin.

"The Pearl Harbor Descent. 12,000 AD, or around there." She isn't speaking clinically, but with the knowledge of someone who's spoken on military conflict before. "Twelve YoRHa units were sent down to Earth to destroy the enemy server. Anti-air forces took out two-thirds of the squadron before anyone could even touch down. A2 and her partner No.4 were the only ones who made it to the server. And eventually..."

She turns her eye to the fading cloud of the explosion. "No.4 found a way to destroy the server. And A2 was left behind."

[entreats]

It sure is something to wrap one's head around. Time travel isn't even the weird thing to Ange. She's used to that - she's gone through it herself. And people being connected across worlds also isn't too strange to her.

It's just.. the idea of two souls in one body. That's the part that feels a little newer, a little more odd. Especially since Ange has always just seen Anna as.. well, Anna. Where is A2 in all of that? What role does she play? Is she part of Anna's personality, or does Anna only have A2's memories, and nothing else?

.. would asking about any of that be weird?

Ange has no clue. It leaves her staring at A2 in the distance for a moment, and then back at Anna. Still thinking, still trying to get used to this odd, overwhelming memory.

"She's strong."

It's a bit of a simple observation, isn't it. But what else is Ange supposed to say, given everything that's going on here? It feels like the most obvious thing to note in the face of all of it.

[hauntedsavior]

"She is."

There's too much silence between them for that to be the only thing on Ange's mind, Anna thinks. But Anna's also not really giving much else to go off. That's a good little starting point, she thinks. A2's strength.

"She wins this fight, you know. But she's already lost everyone." She's looking away, up to the mechanical ring floating in the sky in line of sight with where the moon would be, easy to miss if you don't already know it's there. "Everyone she loved is dead. Everything she thought was true about her world was wrong. She can't go back to the way it used to be, so she stays here, on Earth."

And back to the carnage. There's a break in the machines. A2 stands still, her body shaking, the ground wet at her feet with motor oil and blood and tears. The steam escaping from her chest as she comes out of B-Mode evaporates quickly. Anna's seen it enough times.

"And she never finds anyone else. She's branded a runaway, a traitor. People come to take her in, or maybe to befriend her. And she never lets them get close enough to try. The only way she knows how to react to the horrible pain she's in is to suffer with it alone." A whisper in the back of her mind as she looks to Ange again. Do you get the gist of this song now?

[thinkfirst]

"Alone?" Flynn has to ask, because he knows the terror of fighting against a wave of enemies, full to the teeth with the knowledge that there is no way out. And then, the natural follow-up question, his hand already going to the hilt of his sword: "Will she make it?"

Flynn can't leave her alone, not knowing that these memories can be changed. Perhaps it doesn't change anything in the future. Certainly Yuri still remembers nearly dying, and Flynn stopped him from falling into the ocean just a day ago in a memory he had no idea existed. But that moment when you think you're alone and then reinforcements arrive, injecting a hope so painful you almost don't want to feel it—

If he can help, he must.

[hauntedsavior]

"She makes it out," Anna says. "She doesn't die here, no matter how much she wants to."

A2's body is starting to shake on the battlefield. Anna knows how this memory plays out, knows that Flynn doesn't need to help. But when she sees that shuddering, red-tinged stagger that the woman who would share Anna's body is taking towards another wave of machines, and she sees Flynn's hand moving towards his sword, it's hard to say no. She draws her own katana with a smooth elegance that fits her dress and stature, and she smiles at Flynn.

"But it's close." The machines are regrouping, forming another assault. The small, stubby ones aren't playing as much of a part in this one. Instead, they're sending a platoon of machines that stand as tall as Anna with thorny shields and electrified axes. It's rough for A2 after this one, but it doesn't have to be. Anna assumes a ready stance, one foot behind the other. "Let's be knights."

And she's jumping into the fray to save herself.

[vibing]

"The, uh... that one?" The girl on the ground? He follows after her, unsure of what's happening, of what he can do for her. He watches her hand shift, and glances up at her face, then back again. "Is this a corruption thing?"

That's something he sort of understands, at least. It's happened to him, he's seen it in others.

But he refocuses on the Anna on the ground. "I guess we can't help her. You. What happened to you?"

He doesn't know the details, didn't want to ask, before. It's her business, and if she doesn't want to say now, either, that's her choice.

[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?"

[entreats]

"Sounds familiar," Ange softly says. After all, she thinks it wouldn't even take someone particularly sharp here to see where Anna is heading with that. It's pretty obvious, considering the last conversation they had. A2 and Anna - they both operate by the same standard. Ange doesn't know if it's because of their connection, or if their connection is because of how similar they are.

Perhaps it's the same as asking whether the chicken or the egg came first.

But there's no doubt that Anna is saying all of this not just about A2, but herself as well. Not wanting or daring to let people close. Trying to suffer all by yourself.

And this scene seems so unbearably lonely to look at, more than anything. Someone fighting so desperately, despite everything and everyone being gone. Even though it'd be so much easier to just lie down and give up.

.. perhaps it's not too dissimilar from what Ange herself was trying to do back home either.

"Do you think things would have been different for her if she would have tried to let someone in after all?"

The question is about A2. But it's not just asked for A2's sake.

It doesn't take someone too sharp to realise that, either.

[hauntedsavior]

Mm. Would it have? They're talking about two people who are the same person right now, of course. Anna takes a long moment and watches A2 fight. There's rage in her strikes, there is sorrow, there is pain. This is her genesis. The woman in her nightmares who terrified Anna, one of the deeper fears that she thought one day she would have no choice but to turn into.

But by listening and learning about A2's pain, Anna learned to accept her. Even to love her, as much as one can love a part of oneself that feels so foreign that your body has screamed its rejection and been silenced.

"I think so. Someone did get to her, once," she says, beginning to play with the edges of metaphor to soothe her anxiety. "Listening to whatever she decided to reveal, whenever she decided to do it. Waiting patiently for her to say what she wanted out loud. But by the time they met, A2's story was already over."

Without saying it outright and shoving a blade through this paper-thin curtain they've formed around the actual issue, Anna struggles to form a complete sentence to punctuate that. There was never anything she could've done to truly change the way A2's story ended, no matter how poetically she liked to think of it.

"But other stories are still being written. And there's a few people around here holding a pen."

c.

[13thcommander]

Another day, another walk around the city. Erwin is starting to learn it, to feel more comfortable in its confines. Even as things start getting strange, he keeps up with his walks. Always learning, always gathering information.

He sees Anna standing on the street corner, and something about her triggers his memory. It takes a moment, because they've never seen each other in person, but then he remembers the woman he talked to over the network, and her description of herself.

"Anna?" He approaches, very much of her posture and the threat radiating off her. "Anna, is that you?"

[hauntedsavior]

Anna sniffs the air theatrically. She can't actually tell by scent; it all smells like metal and death after a while. But this man recognizes her, and she can't begin to guess at who he is. She's spoken to a few men she's never seen before lately. There's this thrum in her head, in her veins, in her heart that says that she doesn't need to be worried about this man, and she'll realize later that it was her own blood type trying to send a calming message to her brain.

"How do you know who I am?" she asks, voice gritty with smoke. Her teeth flash. "Don't you think you should be running from me?"

[13thcommander]

Erwin startles just a bit when she sniffs the air; he actually had known someone who could figure out all he needed to know about a person based on their scent, so her attempt at sniffing him out is taken seriously. Whatever she smells must not be too offensive, though, because she doesn't start towards him.

"We spoke before, on the network." Erwin keeps his distance, but his voice is calm and placid. If he has to fight, he will, but he'd really rather not. "I'm Erwin Smith. We talked about Eren, who you knew on another world. You told me a little about your world as well."

As for her second question, he shrugs his shoulders. "I didn't think our last conversation went so badly that I should fear you. As I recall, you weren't against the idea of meeting in person."

[hauntedsavior]

"Erwin." She says the name slowly to get the feeling of it in her mouth. Yes, she remembers him. She remembers the conversation they had, the one that took Anna's mind off of the death of Lillian and taught her just how strange the universe can be. Her shoulders slacken, and the pistol she's holding goes into a holster on her waist. The blade stays out, at the ready. It's the one she's more confident with, if she needs it.

"Tell me. The boy who changed." She can only assume that's what happened with the person she never recognized as Falco. The way the creature looked was too similar to Eren to not be related. "Is that your fault?"

[thinkfirst]

Flynn jumps after her, smooth as anything: he has put fighting into his blood, or perhaps it was always there. His father was a knight, after all, and an excellent one until he did something very like this. Flynn thinks briefly of the pieces of his armor the way he does sometimes at the beginning of battles, and then banishes the thought in favor of falling behind Anna. Let her be Captain here: she knows this fight better than anyone, after all, and certainly better than Flynn.

No matter how much she wants to.

Flynn grits his teeth, takes in those electrified axes, and calls to mind the thudding words of a spell. The ground under his feet lights up with complex magic as Flynn focuses, his hands on the hilt of his sword like a staff. He shouts only half the incantation— "Begone!" and then light lances through the air, slamming into one of the taller machines like a piercing star.

"Why," he grits out, charging into the slightly-stunned void a spell like that always leaves, "does she want to die?"