weep not for the memories

[brushoff]

WHO: Everybody!
WHERE: all cities
WHEN: March 4 - March 6
WHAT: it's a catch-all log, sucka! Tag here and thread around for the Dorian Ruins Everything Guilt Extravaganza part of the overall March plot. Please check out this ooc post for details!
WARNINGS: Traumatic memories. Possible talk of murder, death, blood, other nasty things. I'll try to update if the warnings needed but please use content warnings if it gets super nasty!

It starts off on March 4th, the early morning before the sun's even risen. You know those weird mirages that were hanging around the day before? Well now it's getting a little personal.

These mirages come and go seemingly for no reason. They might stay for a minute, they might stay for an hour. The images vary between person but the unifying factor is that the mirages consist of people the player characters have hurt, whether people in-game or from their homes. Whether they murdered them, slandered them, or even had a petty little argument, the unifying factor is the guilt each character feels towards or about this mirage. After all, you know you hurt them somehow. You know their existence somehow makes you feel guilty.

Another unifying factor? The creepy way these mirages just seem to stick to you. They'll follow you if you try to leave, staring you down with their creepy unblinking mirage eyes. And whoops: everybody can see said mirages. Hopefully you're not being stalked by someone you and somebody else both know, wouldn't that be awkward?

Have fun confronting your traumatizing past and/or wondering why your buddy's got some creepy ghost guy following him, imPorts!

( ooc: this is a catch-all log! Make starters of your characters getting haunted by their creepy mirages, have other people react to said creepy mirages, ???, profit. Hit me up on the ooc post if you have any questions! )

Comments

[dun_moch]

[Dooku frowns, as though he were concerned.]

I knew there was strain. But I did not realize there was such distance between you.

Perhaps that is part of the reason why you are seeing this spectre now.

[All the other apparitions Dooku has heard of have had some kind of emotional bond to those they are stalking.]

[resipiscent]

["I did not realize there was such distance between you." Riku looks away. He thought Dooku would have known, but now it seems he's given him information that's kind of on a need-to-know basis. He raises a good suggestion. Perhaps he's right, but...]

Maybe. It's not only him that I've seen, so I'm still working out the correlation.

[dun_moch]

Hm.

[Kagami is prickly, and Dooku has learned it does not pay to pry where Namine is concerned. Still, he knows enough to recognize that things have changed between the brothers.]

Might I ask who else you've seen, then?

[resipiscent]

A long list of people. Most of them haven't been here. Some are friends of mine. But I know all of them.

[Riku shakes his head, gets up from his seat to stare the silent image of Kagami down.]

There are a lot of reasons I can imagine for their presence.

[dun_moch]

From what I have witnessed, those who are visited by these images are rarely bound to feelings of happiness. It is more common to see mirages associated with loss... and regret.

[The Count steps up beside Riku, looming over both he and the illusion with his height. He looks at 'Kagami' as though he and Riku were both examining an art exhibit at a gallery.]

[resipiscent]

[Ah, so he knows. Riku lifts his head to peer up at the Count -- it's rare that he has to look up at someone, which is notable in itself.]

Well...

[Back when he'd been killed, Riku remembers telling Naminé that he and Kagami were even. An eye for an eye. But just being even with him doesn't erase the fact that he killed him first.]

There's probably something about most people I know that would fit one of those criteria. So I'm not sure.

[dun_moch]

Yes... loss is a shared experience for almost all beings throughout the universe. Sorrow, guilt, despair...

[Dooku's voice sounds like he's intoning a eulogy at a funeral. He would have made an excellent preacher in another life.]

If my guess is right, I suppose there is little mystery why Kagami would appear to you now. I know what you were... forced to do to him, in your own world.

[resipiscent]

[How much did his replica tell Dooku? he wonders suddenly. How much does he know about him? Not knowing the answer to this is frustrating.]

He told you about that, huh? So then you know he evened the score.

[dun_moch]

I know.

[The Count looks down and gives Riku his most sympathetic expression.]

I also know that you are standing here now, but when he returns to your own world, he will go back to oblivion. I must confess, it is a rather troubling thought.

[resipiscent]

That's right as well.

[Riku looks away from him again, back to his tail. The replica's eyes on his. Riku stares back. Without looking away from them, he replies to Dooku.]

But he's not the only one I've sent in that direction. It can't be helped.

[dun_moch]

I suppose you did what was necessary. He was dedicated to your destruction, after all.

['It can't be helped.' Just like that. It's a colder stance than Dooku might have expected from someone who acts as kindly as Riku does. He's actually a little impressed.]

[resipiscent]

I did what I had to to survive. Looking back on it, maybe there was a way to just disable him, but it didn't work out that way. It was kill him, or die myself, and there were things I still needed to do.

[That's it. He can't let feeling guilty over it stop him, couldn't let it then and couldn't let it when he captured Roxas. There was just too much that he was necessary for.]

[dun_moch]

[Dooku nods appreciatively.]

You have a strong resolve. Others might not have had the will to make such a choice. Could I ask what purpose was so important to motivate your survival?

[The Count hopes it's something good, like 'attaining power' or 'revenge.']

[resipiscent]

At that point it was just 'get out of that castle'.

[Sorry, Dooku, that's not very exciting. The next part is slightly moreso only because he captured Roxas and gave into something not-heroic to do it. But Riku's not keen on admitting how he let DiZ use him.]