melodiesofeternity | Anniversary Event: Defying Fate

When they go forward to find the two adventurers— They don't find them. The fog covering the city grows denser and denser, until seeing two feet ahead would be a feat in and of itself. So long as Serge and Sephiroth would stick together, they wouldn't be separated. But should they move further than seven feet away from each other, they be separated.

"Hihihihihi..."

They could hear a feminine laughter coming from around them. The voice came from somewhere in the fog... And then Serge would feel a hand upon his shoulder. Is it Sephiroth? Or something else?

For some reason, Serge doesn't think that Sephiroth is the touchy-feely type. That, and whenever the main character of a ghost story hears creepy laughter and then feels a hand on their shoulder, it's never their companion.
He does not turn slowly around to find the source of the commotion. "Sephiroth, wait up."
He turns around, then, quite quickly, to find what's touching him, but half-expecting there to not be anyone.

Most unfortunately for Serge, there was someone. It was an undefined, white and translucent figure. A woman by the look of it, one that may have been considered very beautiful if not for the crazed smile and shiny blue eyes, the only part of her that looked solid. Her hair were very long and reached down the ground, why, it looked as though she floated and the hair was actually what kept her up.

"Heroooo of Liiiiiiight...."

Her grip upon Serge strengthened and he would find himself frozen as her touch literally appeared to drain his life energy. Sephiroth would hear the voice as well and he could probably fend her off, but he wouldn't be able to see the ghostly form.

While he's certainly not the touchy-feely type, he's sharp enough to acknowledge that the fog is becoming denser at a rate that can't be anything normal. In fact, Sephiroth stopped -not far from Serge at all- as soon as it was clear that the two adventurers had vanished, cursing lowly under his breath; his intention had been to see what exactly befell them, the loop might now need to come around again to get another crack at it. Or if he might be so inclined; he knew the short cut.

He focused up on what all of his other senses were telling him, listening hard to try and pinpoint the laughter first but once something was clearly interfering with Serge, Sephiroth reached out to the young man's forearm and sharply jerked him towards him, stepping forward as if to put himself before Serge and the invisible assailant.

The sing of sharpened steel within the fog echoed as Sephiroth drew his katana.

"Show yourself-"

The creature disappeared the very moment Sephiroth reached out for Serge. However, her voice could still be heard.

"Accursed...."

There was no clear source to the voice around them.

"Harbinger of the Calamity... What do you seek?"

Serge breathes again, when the specter vanishes. "Wow. Uh. Thanks, there was a... ghost. Lady. Couldn't move." He draws his weapon, looking around at the fog with a frown. "We want to stop the Calamity. But..." He steels himself, inhaling.

"I want answers. About Crystallis. About my connection to it and who I was."

"..."

There is no answer from the voice, but a path clears up in the fog. It leads toward the opened door of an abandoned building.

If it were possible, the immediate shift in tone from the voice when Sephiroth intervened might have caused him to line-face even more. As it's pretty much his base neutral in such situations, however, only the tiniest fraction of his expression tightened further. He wondered if the reference to him -as it had to be him- as a Harbinger of the Calamity might be due to his chosen asterisk; or something else entirely more on a personal level...

Serge broke into those considerations, though, and Sephiroth looks over his partner once more before casting his gaze towards the path in the fog that's been created for them.

"Couldn't possibly be more foreboding..."

"Yeah..." Serge nods. "But I didn't get this far to chicken out at the last minute." He starts forward, if Sephiroth comes with. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen? If this is a trap, we can just try again."

"Exactly right."

Sephiroth really didn't want to lose sight of those two adventurers they came into this place with, as it was his intention to come and see what happened to them first before getting so involved like this.

But perhaps some events really can't be changed.

He'll silently follow Serge into the door opened for them, slipping his katana back and up behind his left arm; flexing his hand around the handle keenly. Ready for anything.

Should they step in the abandoned building, they would find themselves in a completely different place. The ghost city? Gone. The fog? Gone as well. They were in a castle that looked suspiciously similar to the the castle of Sen Riqeaux, but something was different. Looking by a window, the city surrounding the castle wasn't the same. More importantly, the land they could see on the horizon was not unusual. It was all covered by blinding white crystals, as if the earth itself had been crystallized.

There were no noises around them, as if the place had gone completely empty. To their right, they can see a treasure chest, again. The path on their left is blocked and backward leads toward the throne room.

Serge stops, frowning as B'alesia is replaced... "This... isn't Sen Riqeaux. But it looks so similar..."
The world, frozen in crystal. For a fleeting moment, he thinks he sees an ocean, frozen in a single moment forever- but then it's gone, replaced by this world of crystals and silence. "What happened here?"

Sephiroth spends almost too long being transfixed looking out first on the city surrounding where they've been transported to and eventually to the shining white on the horizon. The silence felt as if it could have been shattered by a pin drop.

As a result, Serge's comment is louder than normally would be heard and is more than enough to rip Sephiroth from his thoughts.

"Hm." He takes a pause to better survey their specific surroundings again. "...abandoned, perhaps-"

Sephiroth looks to the treasure chest on their right, narrowing his eyes at it as if it's been put there on purpose to test them.

Is the treasure chest there to test them? Perhaps it is, perhaps not. Whether or not it is doesn't matter ultimately as ere long, they can hear noise originating from the throne room. Should they approach, they may get to see three people in the room. One is a blonde young man, looking quite serious and wearing a white suit as he stares by the window.

Another is tall woman, looking quite a lot like the ghostly woman Serge saw outside, standing by the throne.

... And between them is the spitting image of Serge.

This isn't the first time Serge has seen another him.
Even so, it's a shock, seeing himself standing there, bold as brass- though not quite. The scar's missing. Not quite the Serge from El Nido, either, something subtly... different, about him, though he can't put his finger on him. "Another one," he mutters, under his breath.

As Sephiroth inevitably leaves the chest and approaches the commotion coming from the throne room, he approaches slowly, drinking in as many details as he can from looking around as he does so.

Similarly for the three people; it seems to be a royal pair of some sort? Does it seem they're noticed here or just spectators?

Though initially confused about Serges' apparent-self being there in the scene as well, his adventuring partners muttered comment clarified something in an instant; Serge perhaps is as aware as he himself is, in regards to the existence of alternate realities, the potential for any number of versions of a person. It had been a concept thrust at Sephiroth by his own interest, by Takeshi, pretty early on in this Vaikunthan saga.

"Hm-"

The blond arrogant-looking young man by the window, the ghostly woman, and the copy of Serge do not react to the two intruders. Rather, the blond man flicks his combed hair and turns to the woman with an impatient look.

"Well? Are you going to give us any news? Garland decide to keel over from a heart attack, every else die trying to stop the Calamity? God, I thought the end of the world wouldn't be this slow."

The woman frowns at him, but her body language betrays no hesitation or fear. Serge - the one in this vision - looks between them and stands up.

"Hey, hey, let's not get into another fight, alright? We might finally get some answers, and we really need to focus. Got it?" He aims that question specifically at the blond man.

The woman speaks up. "The party sent to kill Garland has not yet moved into position, but they will fight him soon. We don't have much time for this."

Serge watches, frowning. Who's Garland? He glances up at Sephiroth, searching perhaps for a hint that the older man knows something, maybe some recognition...

Garland

That name...rings somewhere in Sephiroth's memory as significant in some way, but for all of the mental concentration in keeping it together through various loops thus far, the connection is frustrated. Did he read that, somewhere? Perhaps. Those notes he's kept from Takeshi concerning Crystallis? Possibly. Not immediately coming to the forefront, however.

As a result, while Sephiroth doesn't make eye contact firstly, the deepening crease to the skin between his eyebrows is enough of a tell; the silver-haired warrior is trying to rack his brain at the same time as keeping his present-attention at what is presented before them.

After a few moments, Sephiroth blinks and catches Serges' glance only briefly, before proceeding to cast his awareness wider around them rather than specifically to those parties talking, trying to pin down something in the throne room that might give a clue as to the when, but more crucially which world they're bearing witness to.

"And? Are we contacting the Calamity or not?" The blond mans crosses his arms and glares at the woman. She ignores him in favor of speaking to Serge.

"Have you readied your Crystal?"

Serge nodes and pulls out a blue crystal that glows as he grips it. A strong magic within had it glow. "Ready. Hey, Rufus, you too."

The blond man grips his arms to hold back whatever retort he had, sighs, and walks to Serge.

The throne room appears to have been empty for a long time. Months, possibly years. Tapestries depicting some familiar Eidolons adorn the walls but some details differ from their manifestations on Vaikuntha. A long table with dusty ornaments sits on one wall opposite of the grand windows overlooking the crystallized landscape.

Serge frowns, looking at the blue crystal... is that the Dragon Tear? It definitely looks kind of similar. "Contacting the Calamity... but I thought the Calamity destroyed worlds, why would we be contacting it?"

Rufus.

Even if Sephiroth hadn't been so intensely looking everywhere else that name gives him pause immediately. Before sweeping his gaze back to that blonde man; quickly picking up on familiar traits to the man he recalled; the white suit unmistakable. Rufus ShinRa...but what he was doing... here? Wherever here is.

The crystal almost seems secondary as Sephiroth makes a concerted effort to roll back the tension creeping into a deepening frown as he tries to get his head around-

Serge helps immensely by drawing attention to the dialogue rather than those speaking it. The silver-haired warrior even seems to become more relaxed as he much more naturally recalls the answer to that particular question. It feels good to know that his recollection of facts isn't degrading through being stuck in a loop.

"I read about that...if memory serves. On Crystallis, as a result of a previous cycle the Calamity gained an interest in the offworlders brought in. So much so, that in the following cycle of existence it made avatars of itself to interact with them in different ways-

"-this could be one of those first contacts-"

"Ready?" Serge looked at the woman, who nodded in response, then Rufus, who held out his own blue crystal. The three brought their glowing trinkets together. Then, the woman spoke.

"Narayana, we, the Heroes of Light, request to speak with you. As you cross worlds, we also cross worlds, and after the past few months seeking you, now is the opportune moment to talk."

The three look at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen. While they were focused inward, the landscape outside grew darker.

This... this is it. This is what he came here for, he knows it. He hadn't ever thought of Narayana as something that could be communed with, but here these people were, trying to... what, negotiate?

As the three crystals were brought together it drew all of Sephiroth's attention towards the center of these proceedings too, and silence fell deep enough even to quieten his internal thoughts some.

He found that he too was staring at that point on the ceiling until the light that was pouring in from the landscape and through the open door did indeed seem to be getting darker. To begin with, it seemed it might be an optical illusion; dark spots brought on by too much light in the room but beyond a certain point the difference was obvious.

Something was undoubtedly happening.

Anniversary Event: Defying Fate

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