[Being made of Echo's memories, Oz hasn't clued in to what she hasn't noticed herself.
Echo is undoubtedly frowning now, gazing at the table like there's something she's ashamed of. She mutters something, but it's not comprehensible at all.
It makes it very odd when Oz is suddenly grinning in a very carefree way again.]
Eko-chaaaan~! You know, right? Eko-chan!
[Echo's eyes are suddenly as wide as they can get and she stares back at Oz. She's supposed to be remembering something, isn't she? It's not coming to her.]
[Frowning at Oz first in clear confusion—what's with this guy? He can't get a read on him—he turns and leans against the table to get more into her field of view, putting a hand on her shoulder.]
Hey, you alright?
[Observant as Zekarion is, the shift in demeanor for the both of them is concerning, to say the least. The Akane of his memory would have been more than bright enough to notice it, too, but he's taken charge now, and she's always been content to follow his lead in those situations.
No, [Rion insists, casting his eyes to Oz and back.]
What's actually up with you two? You're zoning out over a sandwich and he's like a—I dunno, some weird switch is being flipped.
[He doesn't know why he feels inclined to direct the question so much towards Echo, but that's what his instinct is telling him. The guy's not even blinking at being referred to. Should he be worried about Akane sitting by him...? Meanwhile, the redhead keeps her eyes on him rather than the oddly-behaving stranger.
[When Rion turns his gaze back to Oz, it's not only his behavior that's of concern; as the cheerful girl who'd been at the blond's side has disappeared.]
Akane? What—
[A sense of panic grips him and he surges to his feet, hands flat on the table. Akane has always stayed close when they've been together—except for once, his memory whispers. What does that mean? Whatever—he doesn't have the time to think about it, when she could be in danger.]
Hey! Where'd she go?!
[His accusatory attention only stays on Echo and Oz briefly. Waiting around for an answer will probably only waste precious seconds when he could be looking.]
[Worries about Echo and Oz dissipate immediately. They're helping him look—that's all that matters. Maybe they could be pawns of Chaos, but he doesn't have his team members here to remind him of that. Finding Akane is all that matters.
But even though he looks for broken branches or footprints or some indication of her departure as he moves away from the table and into the trees, he sees nothing.]
Why would she...
[She wouldn't just run off. Would she? Her meal was left neatly on her plate, half-eaten. She didn't make a sound.]
No. Something took her. That's the only explanation. I—
[He stops, spotting something brown in the grass and leaves. Kneeling down, he picks up a hair clip in the shape of a bear in a shaky hand.]
[With her honed senses, Echo takes note of both his comment and how he is currently looking at a hair clip. She...knows they can be meaningful. Sometimes. Cough.
She frowns.]
Echo will perform a search of the area. Do you have information on what may be worth looking for?
[He hears Echo's words, but when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out, and a sharp sense of wrongness strikes the dream. The sky turns to dusk; leaves wither off the trees. Rion stares wide-eyed at the remnant of the girl in his palm, then slowly up into the air as realization sinks deep into his bones.
He was too late, again. Took his eyes off her for a moment. Was too concerned about something else, and now she's gone, and it's his fault. Under his breath:]
[Feeling drains out of him, leaving his expression dull and tired in a way that doesn't suit a teenager. His shoulders bow under the weight of failure.]
Echo.
[He... knows this girl, he thinks. Knows of her, at least; recognizes that he's seen her before today. He doesn't look at her as he speaks, his gaze on a distant spot on the wooded horizon, hand curled around the clip.]
[Echo's rather taken aback by this, though for her this just means an obvious change in her expression.]
...Why isn't there? She must be somewhere.
[This is starting to border on...something in Echo's mind, but she's still not sure what. It should clear up her confusion once it comes to her, right?]
[Rion hangs his head, answering with a plain truth, his voice subdued:]
She's been gone for a long time. Nearly twenty years ago, she... disappeared, and we never saw her again.
[For now he's too focused on that singular fact to consider much else—why he's so young again, what someone else is doing inside his memory, the way it changed in subtle ways, the oddity of those who've stepped into it. All that matters in this moment is that they didn't even have a body to bury.]
[There was a lot for Echo to unpack in that answer, not the least of all being the time frame he mentioned. Within her circle back home, someone young appearing to not age for twenty years actually wasn't unheard of. She's quite certain that there was no possible way that much time had passed for her, though.
Disappearing without some possible explanation also didn't make sense to her. Were she really home, it would either have been due to the Abyss or if not, someone in a position like hers would have gotten the information in case it involved an Illegal Contractor. So if this couldn't be that world, then where were they?
There's so much she's trying to figure out that only her pure confusion is actually coming out of her.]
[The young man takes a moment to drag himself out from his mourning—no, he's a full adult now, isn't he? Simply stuck in this memory's form, nearly seventeen with none of his rough edges smoothed away yet. The solid realization of Akane's sacrifice serves as the foundation his mind can use to rebuild the truth, piece by piece.]
This is a memory. Or something like it...
[Because... this isn't how it happened. She didn't simply run off into the woods; he saw her dissolve into light before his very eyes.
He turns an amber eye towards Echo over his shoulder, trying not to focus too hard on that image. It's the last thing he wants to share with anyone.]
[Luckily (?) for him, Echo is too busy trying to figure out how to make sense of this to pay much attention to any new details around her.]
Lord Oz said he wanted to have tea and grabbed Echo's hand. But then he led Echo into this forest. If this is a memory...
[She brings a hand to her mouth, effectively hiding the bottom part of her face behind the large sleeve as she tries to arrange her own thoughts. It's gotten the Oz with her to finally stop calling for Akane, though he's still hanging out in the distance at the moment. Things are starting to come together finally for her, at least.]
That's right, this happened...several months ago. Not twenty years, however. Then why is Echo– that is, why am I in your memory?
[She's remembered that far, at least. Up to the reason why Oz kept saying her name before. But she's having quite a lot of Feelings about this fact that she can't quite make complete sense of.]
[So they're both in the dark as to how they came to meet like this... A faint furrow comes to his brow past the exhaustion his own memory brings. A sense of discomfort has taken hold of him, an uneasiness from being seen in a moment he never would have shared with anyone. Still, he tries to think. Where were they before this? A strange city unlike his home... maintained by an entity that only communicates in riddles...
If you could return to one specific moment in your life, would you?
He says the next line he remembers, distantly:]
"How do you wake up from a dream?" ... We were warned, weren't we.
[He turns to look to the other young man through the trees, some ways away—Oz must be an image conjured by Echo's recollection, the way that Akane was by his, he surmises.]
[...Yeah, that was entirely unhelpful. If Echo weren't so confused he'd probably be getting quite the glare from her.
But her memory is coming back to her mostly chronologically, which has gotten her to her arrival in Trench and the first few months there. Now she remembers a time she definitely was in the woods with Oz. Maybe that's what this was supposed to be?
As "Rion" looks at Oz, he'll probably notice a very drastic change in his appearance. It's not just his clothes and the fact that it looks like he's been fighting. He's suddenly holding a very large scythe and his emerald colored eyes are now a striking red. Oz is running toward them now as though they're in grave danger and he wants to help.]
Echo!
[Hearing the correct pronunciation of her name catches Echo off-guard, and interrupts her train of thought. She starts to blush a bit, and it seems like she might be considering smiling for once.]
Echo!
[At this second call, her eyes suddenly go wide as a look of pure dread comes to her.
[Evidently she's too late, because suddenly a slew of chains appear out of the ground and start to circle him. Anyone who tries to peer in through them will see the figure inside go from being Oz to a gigantic black rabbit in a red and white suit, also holding a similar, even larger scythe. It's roaring, and it's hard to tell if it's angry, in pain, or both.
Echo, meanwhile, is watching in horror with tears streaming down her cheeks.]
[Sorry, Echo; had he been given another moment he might have found the proper words to explain, but the situation changes rapidly, and the sight of the weapon in Oz's hand gets him to surge back to his feet. Oz's first call turns his attention to the girl, whose expression changes inexplicably, and her clear terror turns his eyes back to—where the boy once was, but now there stands... something in danger. His own magical senses and a feeling from the dream tells him perhaps this is still Echo's Oz after all.
Even the thought that this is a memory doesn't stop him from taking a step forward as if to run ahead and assist. His tone marks him as clearly on edge, respecting the danger for what it is.]
Echo, what's happening to him?
[It's only then that he turns back to see her expression, and the tears surprise him. He closes the gap between them to put a hand on her shoulder, eyes moving back to the swarm of chains. Whether she stays put or moves to Oz, he'll follow suit to support her.]
[Echo jumps a bit at the touch; she'd already forgotten someone else was nearby. She looks at him silently for a moment before turning her attention back to Oz, shuddering a bit as she chokes back a sob. This was incredibly complicated and she doesn't have time to go into all of the details right now. Echo is desperately hoping she can find some way to prevent the ending this had before, even though deep down she knows it's a fixed memory and she can never change what happened.]
H...he has lost control of his power, be–
[Her voice catches. Echo clenches her fists and squeezes her eyes shut.]
...I was...too careless...
[She looks back at Oz again, or at least as well as she can while crying.]
I–We must calm him down somehow.
[Echo literally has no idea how they're supposed to do that, she just can't watch this keep recreating what happened. She hasn't seemed to notice that there's a younger teen girl standing by Oz now. She has long black hair and is wearing a very similar outfit to his current one. This other girl also seems like she's somehow totally oblivious to the mess going on right next to her, and even from a distance exudes an air of confidence.]
[Even if it can't be changed... even though he knows it's unlikely—what harm can it do to try? So he squeezes Echo's shoulder to try to reassure her, if nothing else, that she's not on her own here.
If Zekarion lost control of his own powers, what would bring him back? ... he doesn't know. He doesn't know that he could be brought back. Even so... he doesn't think they have the time to stand here and strategize. He calls out:]
Oz! We're right here, tell us what you need!
[He doesn't know what that other girl is doing, but she seems like a minor concern—at least for the moment. His attention stays on the struggling creature, but keeps his awareness open to the surroundings. Anything could happen at this point.]
[It's the other girl who responds to him, as Oz is too busy struggling with his lack of control. She crosses her arms proudly.]
Oz doesn't need anything!
[Hopefully she really is just that oblivious somehow. Echo tenses and her expression turns more hopeless.]
No! This is...it's all the same...
[She starts shaking a bit, but tries to regain her composure. It would also be nice if she could stop crying just enough to at least function. But Echo knows she doesn't have time for that. Oz is starting to swing the scythe blindly, and the other girl still doesn't show any recognition. Echo tries to shake off Rion's hand and run toward her.]
[He shoots the other girl an aggravated look as Echo murmurs her regrets, though he knows the figment might not even react in a logical way. Still—]
What does that mean? [is his accusatory answer to the black-haired girl. He doesn't have long before Echo's trying to pull away from him, however. She won't have full success shaking him off, but that's partly because he's coming along with her, closer to the obvious danger, as his hand closes around her wrist. He doesn't like being stuck in a situation with so little information...]
[The other girl points at him and laughs mockingly, though she's really just making herself look like a total idiot.]
You must be pretty stupid if you can't figure out something that obvious!
[Echo shoots him an annoyed glance, but she also knows enough to realize she's not gonna be able to stop him at this point. Her gaze turns more serious as she speaks.]
Lord Oz must not be allowed to hurt Miss Alice. Perhaps you can draw his attention.
[She's still aiming for Alice. Somehow they're gaining distance oddly slowly which is giving her time to say something. Oz is also moving slowly, almost seeming like he's waiting for a cue.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
expiationmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
expiationlogs2025-01-13 12:39 pm
no subject
[Being made of Echo's memories, Oz hasn't clued in to what she hasn't noticed herself.
Echo is undoubtedly frowning now, gazing at the table like there's something she's ashamed of. She mutters something, but it's not comprehensible at all.
It makes it very odd when Oz is suddenly grinning in a very carefree way again.]
Eko-chaaaan~! You know, right? Eko-chan!
[Echo's eyes are suddenly as wide as they can get and she stares back at Oz. She's supposed to be remembering something, isn't she? It's not coming to her.]
no subject
Hey, you alright?
[Observant as Zekarion is, the shift in demeanor for the both of them is concerning, to say the least. The Akane of his memory would have been more than bright enough to notice it, too, but he's taken charge now, and she's always been content to follow his lead in those situations.
(Almost always.)]
no subject
[She jumps a little and answers almost too quickly to have even properly registered the question. But after a moment, she can respond collectedly.]
Sorry. Lord Oz is...very confusing at times.
[He probably seems even more so when he doesn't react to that criticism at all.]
Please continue.
no subject
What's actually up with you two? You're zoning out over a sandwich and he's like a—I dunno, some weird switch is being flipped.
[He doesn't know why he feels inclined to direct the question so much towards Echo, but that's what his instinct is telling him. The guy's not even blinking at being referred to. Should he be worried about Akane sitting by him...? Meanwhile, the redhead keeps her eyes on him rather than the oddly-behaving stranger.
Something is starting to feel off.]
no subject
For a moment, she only gives Rion a hostile glare.]
...Echo doesn't know. This cannot be where Lord Oz intended to go, but–
[She glances at her companion, who's currently just munching away at his sandwich like a little bunny.
Echo finally shakes her head.]
This is unusual.
no subject
Akane? What—
[A sense of panic grips him and he surges to his feet, hands flat on the table. Akane has always stayed close when they've been together—except for once, his memory whispers. What does that mean? Whatever—he doesn't have the time to think about it, when she could be in danger.]
Hey! Where'd she go?!
[His accusatory attention only stays on Echo and Oz briefly. Waiting around for an answer will probably only waste precious seconds when he could be looking.]
no subject
I-I don't know! I thought she was right here!
[He scrambles upright and starts looking around the tree. Echo was immediately to her feet and is now scanning the area methodically.]
How is this possible...?
[Meanwhile, Oz can be heard calling "Akane!" nearby.]
no subject
But even though he looks for broken branches or footprints or some indication of her departure as he moves away from the table and into the trees, he sees nothing.]
Why would she...
[She wouldn't just run off. Would she? Her meal was left neatly on her plate, half-eaten. She didn't make a sound.]
No. Something took her. That's the only explanation. I—
[He stops, spotting something brown in the grass and leaves. Kneeling down, he picks up a hair clip in the shape of a bear in a shaky hand.]
no subject
She frowns.]
Echo will perform a search of the area. Do you have information on what may be worth looking for?
1/2
He was too late, again. Took his eyes off her for a moment. Was too concerned about something else, and now she's gone, and it's his fault. Under his breath:]
She's not coming back.
2/2
Echo.
[He... knows this girl, he thinks. Knows of her, at least; recognizes that he's seen her before today. He doesn't look at her as he speaks, his gaze on a distant spot on the wooded horizon, hand curled around the clip.]
Thank you, but... there's no point.
no subject
...Why isn't there? She must be somewhere.
[This is starting to border on...something in Echo's mind, but she's still not sure what. It should clear up her confusion once it comes to her, right?]
no subject
She's been gone for a long time. Nearly twenty years ago, she... disappeared, and we never saw her again.
[For now he's too focused on that singular fact to consider much else—why he's so young again, what someone else is doing inside his memory, the way it changed in subtle ways, the oddity of those who've stepped into it. All that matters in this moment is that they didn't even have a body to bury.]
no subject
[There was a lot for Echo to unpack in that answer, not the least of all being the time frame he mentioned. Within her circle back home, someone young appearing to not age for twenty years actually wasn't unheard of. She's quite certain that there was no possible way that much time had passed for her, though.
Disappearing without some possible explanation also didn't make sense to her. Were she really home, it would either have been due to the Abyss or if not, someone in a position like hers would have gotten the information in case it involved an Illegal Contractor. So if this couldn't be that world, then where were they?
There's so much she's trying to figure out that only her pure confusion is actually coming out of her.]
I...do not understand. How can this be?
no subject
This is a memory. Or something like it...
[Because... this isn't how it happened. She didn't simply run off into the woods; he saw her dissolve into light before his very eyes.
He turns an amber eye towards Echo over his shoulder, trying not to focus too hard on that image. It's the last thing he wants to share with anyone.]
How did you get here?
no subject
Lord Oz said he wanted to have tea and grabbed Echo's hand. But then he led Echo into this forest. If this is a memory...
[She brings a hand to her mouth, effectively hiding the bottom part of her face behind the large sleeve as she tries to arrange her own thoughts. It's gotten the Oz with her to finally stop calling for Akane, though he's still hanging out in the distance at the moment. Things are starting to come together finally for her, at least.]
That's right, this happened...several months ago. Not twenty years, however. Then why is Echo– that is, why am I in your memory?
[She's remembered that far, at least. Up to the reason why Oz kept saying her name before. But she's having quite a lot of Feelings about this fact that she can't quite make complete sense of.]
no subject
If you could return to one specific moment in your life, would you?
He says the next line he remembers, distantly:]
"How do you wake up from a dream?" ... We were warned, weren't we.
[He turns to look to the other young man through the trees, some ways away—Oz must be an image conjured by Echo's recollection, the way that Akane was by his, he surmises.]
1/2
But her memory is coming back to her mostly chronologically, which has gotten her to her arrival in Trench and the first few months there. Now she remembers a time she definitely was in the woods with Oz. Maybe that's what this was supposed to be?
As "Rion" looks at Oz, he'll probably notice a very drastic change in his appearance. It's not just his clothes and the fact that it looks like he's been fighting. He's suddenly holding a very large scythe and his emerald colored eyes are now a striking red. Oz is running toward them now as though they're in grave danger and he wants to help.]
Echo!
[Hearing the correct pronunciation of her name catches Echo off-guard, and interrupts her train of thought. She starts to blush a bit, and it seems like she might be considering smiling for once.]
Echo!
[At this second call, her eyes suddenly go wide as a look of pure dread comes to her.
That's right.....]
Kaito stop writing so much/2
Lord Oz, stop!!!
[Evidently she's too late, because suddenly a slew of chains appear out of the ground and start to circle him. Anyone who tries to peer in through them will see the figure inside go from being Oz to a gigantic black rabbit in a red and white suit, also holding a similar, even larger scythe. It's roaring, and it's hard to tell if it's angry, in pain, or both.
Echo, meanwhile, is watching in horror with tears streaming down her cheeks.]
N-not this...
never!!!
Even the thought that this is a memory doesn't stop him from taking a step forward as if to run ahead and assist. His tone marks him as clearly on edge, respecting the danger for what it is.]
Echo, what's happening to him?
[It's only then that he turns back to see her expression, and the tears surprise him. He closes the gap between them to put a hand on her shoulder, eyes moving back to the swarm of chains. Whether she stays put or moves to Oz, he'll follow suit to support her.]
no subject
H...he has lost control of his power, be–
[Her voice catches. Echo clenches her fists and squeezes her eyes shut.]
...I was...too careless...
[She looks back at Oz again, or at least as well as she can while crying.]
I–We must calm him down somehow.
[Echo literally has no idea how they're supposed to do that, she just can't watch this keep recreating what happened. She hasn't seemed to notice that there's a younger teen girl standing by Oz now. She has long black hair and is wearing a very similar outfit to his current one. This other girl also seems like she's somehow totally oblivious to the mess going on right next to her, and even from a distance exudes an air of confidence.]
no subject
If Zekarion lost control of his own powers, what would bring him back? ... he doesn't know. He doesn't know that he could be brought back. Even so... he doesn't think they have the time to stand here and strategize. He calls out:]
Oz! We're right here, tell us what you need!
[He doesn't know what that other girl is doing, but she seems like a minor concern—at least for the moment. His attention stays on the struggling creature, but keeps his awareness open to the surroundings. Anything could happen at this point.]
no subject
Oz doesn't need anything!
[Hopefully she really is just that oblivious somehow. Echo tenses and her expression turns more hopeless.]
No! This is...it's all the same...
[She starts shaking a bit, but tries to regain her composure. It would also be nice if she could stop crying just enough to at least function. But Echo knows she doesn't have time for that. Oz is starting to swing the scythe blindly, and the other girl still doesn't show any recognition. Echo tries to shake off Rion's hand and run toward her.]
no subject
What does that mean? [is his accusatory answer to the black-haired girl. He doesn't have long before Echo's trying to pull away from him, however. She won't have full success shaking him off, but that's partly because he's coming along with her, closer to the obvious danger, as his hand closes around her wrist. He doesn't like being stuck in a situation with so little information...]
no subject
You must be pretty stupid if you can't figure out something that obvious!
[Echo shoots him an annoyed glance, but she also knows enough to realize she's not gonna be able to stop him at this point. Her gaze turns more serious as she speaks.]
Lord Oz must not be allowed to hurt Miss Alice. Perhaps you can draw his attention.
[She's still aiming for Alice. Somehow they're gaining distance oddly slowly which is giving her time to say something. Oz is also moving slowly, almost seeming like he's waiting for a cue.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)