COLLAPSE THE WAVE MEME

[rampantfantasy]

Collapse the Waveform Meme

A meme for characters CRAU'd to heck and back.



image source

How many times now have you used that journal? How many places have you played that character?

How many friends, lovers, families have they found?

Well, here's some headache-inducing news: Ultimately, they're all the same person.

And now, the wave form has collapsed, and they actually are the same person. All of those memories, plus any new abilities and scars, smashing down into a single soul, a single incarnation.

On the bright side, at least whatever universe this is, you're not alone in it. On the less bright side, good luck navigating your relationships now.

Any CRAU character can respond to this meme, though of course, it's more interesting for characters who have been to at least two games. Meet your old friends, your new friends... Your friends' friends? Whatever. Consider noting down not only what games your characters have been to, but if you're open to three-people threads, for extra juggling-of-memories fun!

Comments

[missleadingquestions]

Prompto!

[Maya replies reflexively, kneeling down in front of Prompto to take better care, and puts her hands together in half-surprise and half-enthusiasm.]

I know you! Jeez, good thing I'm still good with names.

[And then, with less hesitation, she reaches out to touch his arm. It's weird, because she knows-and-doesn't-know him, but a good part of her brain tells her he's one of her friends, at the very least. And really, that's all she needs.]

I can't believe you just spook-talked me!

[burninglight]

It's...there's something here that shouldn't be. I should have been rid of it, Kip swore it wasn't-

[Was...that right? In one reality, bargaining to be rid of a darkness that was only manufactured in a recreated body. In another, bleeding out in black and red on the Citadel floor. In yet another, he remained rage and fury barely tempered by some divine power apart from the Astrals.]

...I don't know if I am human or not, at the moment.

don't worry gramps is here

[founderinglight]

[Hey Prompto you're doing just fine.

You know who else is doing just fine?

Izunia (or Caster if you'd still prefer to call him that), who recognizes your shape and is starting to carefully approach, ignoring the memories too thick in his head (nothing new, there!) -

Until he sees what you're... sort of turning into and then there's just the sound of a 6'5 man hitting the floor with his ass first and trying not to hyperventilate okay this isn't working]

[photoshooter]

[His arm is sort of there? Sort of not. She touches something, but it has a lot less mass than an arm really should have. Prompto shivers, scoots back, and rearranges himself into a sitting position.]

Haha, Iiiii guess most of me can't believe that, either? [He looks down at his hands.] This is really, really weird. How much do you... Is this happening to you, too?

[Prompto makes a meaningless gesture over his face and head.]

All the... everything?

proceeds to almost reply to my own comment

[founderinglight]

[HERE'S A FAMILIAR FACE.

Not a happy one, mind, but a familiar one. Like looking in a mirror.

...Except the tattoos, those don't match, but might well be familiar. Depending on the universe. Other than that, though, it seems that Izunia doesn't much change.

There's a hesitation, though, and why wouldn't there be?

There is no universe where Ardyn and Izunia get to live happily.

... Or wait no Clarita exists that's technically a thing.]

...Ardyn?

[STILL. HESITANT.]

[bloodyashes]

[Still human enough.]

...Well, if you want to check...

[There must be a pocket in his tunic somewhere because he pulls out a folding knife and offers it to Ardyn.]

...And I can heal it without any of the side effects that yours comes with, before you ask.

[burninglight]

[If there was one near universal constant, one single anchor point in too many parallel lifetimes to focus on, it was that which grounded Ardyn in reality. A hatred of his brother that fluctuated wildly between bitter acceptance, cold fury, and monstrous shrieking rage, in nearly every iteration where there had been an 'Ardyn Izunia' for even an instant.]

You.

EVERYTHING IS DAIJOUKAY

[photoshooter]

[The noise startles Prompto and he scrambles back with a stifled whimper until he sees who it is and freezes. And then he sees who it isn't, unfreezes a little, and says, tremulously, in a faint whisper-voice:]

Cas... um... I...Izunia? That's you, right?

[Please be Izunia please don't be Ardyn please be Izunia dear Shiva please]

[burninglight]

I don't...think so. Better off not knowing. Or perhaps I simply don't want the confirmation either way.

[missleadingquestions]

[Maya pulls her hand back when Prompto shivers, fingers curling in before she puts her hands in her lap.]

You mean the really-weird-video-game-past-lives-thing. Right?

[That's how it registers to her, anyway.]

Does it feel like you don't actually know me, either?

[founderinglight]

[Hands, held up in front of him, in the universal 'not doing shit' posture.

Other than that? He looks unsurprised, and as tired as Ardyn feels.]

Yes, me. How many times have we done this, now?

[photoshooter]

I definitely don't. Um, in some places. Does that make any sense?

[He holds his head in his hands and breathes out, the wispy edges of his bandanna and his hair waving like slow candle flame.]

I... I met you in Insomnia, we had a whole adventure together. But I also met you somewhere else, and I'd never met you anywhere on Eos at all, it was just me and Noct and the guys? It seems like most of the time it was just me and Noct and the guys, but then sometimes the guys weren't there, only I met them later, and... and this is soooo messed UP!

[Prompto laughs helplessly, borderline hysterical.]

What about you, do you remember not-remembering me?

[burninglight]

[Too many. Enough to make his head hurt. The rage briefly overtook all other emotions, and Ardyn drew the sword at his belt to point at his brother-]

[...only to blink at the weapon in his hand as if he didn't recognize it to begin with.]

[founderinglight]

[The voice at least is the same. That much is. It's okay, it's the same. If he just keeps his eyes closed...

There's furious nodding, briefly, before Izunia pushes his face into his hands and starts trying to control his breathing.

On what may or may not be the bright side, there does still seem to be some fragment of their contract in play, if the red marks on Prompto's arm are anything to go by.]

[bloodyashes]

Okay.

[Simple acceptance, and he puts the knife back into... whatever pocket the damn thing belongs in, how do JRPG characters without canonical hammerspace carry shit?

Anyway if Ardyn wants to risk running around not knowing how mortal and infectious he is, that's his prerogative. At this point, Asch has dealt with more than a few incarnations of crazy, isolated, pained anger. They don't scare him anymore.]

Is touch okay? Does it help?

[burninglight]

...occasionally, I think. But I don't know if this body is dead or alive. You might well feel as though you're touching a corpse.

[founderinglight]

[...Yeah that one's. New. And also weird that Ardyn would go for a sword worn at his belt - that he would even wear one like a normal person - rather than going for the Armiger.

Izunia just looks down at it with a faint expression of 'that's a thing.']

...I don't think the roses suit you.

[photoshooter]

[Those look much more alarming on his skin when he's halfway... whatever he is, than they did on his skin when he was all the way what he's supposed to be. Human. Or... not, as the case may be, sometimes. Prompto gulps and changes the way he's holding himself, going from scared and defensive to sitting cross-legged, aping calm, making himself small and innocuous and not a threat.

It's easier, it would be easier, to speak psychically--or magically, or whatever--but Prompto doesn't think that's a good idea right now.]

It's okay. I won't hurt you. I, I'm not a daemon.

[That much he can say with confidence.]

I-I might be a ghost? Um... I got summoned like you did, too, I'm an Archer, but I'm also... [He trails off, then gulps and shakes his head.] W-well, whatever I am, I'm still me. Just me.

[burninglight]

Sh...shut up. I don't want to hear a single word of criticism from you of all people.

[missleadingquestions]

[Maya, for the most part, seems focused. All the while though, it might be evident in the flashing of her eyes and sudden flickers of a frown; it's super disconcerting to have someone talking in her head! She adjusts as quick as she can, focusing on Prompto to push the feeling of his voice back to him, to imagine that it is coming physically from him like a speaker instead of ringing inside her ears.

...She also tries not to be distracted by how anime he looks all half-ghost like that. If that was a video game, she'd totally play it. (She's coping, okay.)]

I do! I mean, I remember remembering you, too. I met you in Insomnia too! But if I'm being honest, there's a lot of places I feel like I don't remember you at all.

[She pushes her hair behind her ear and purses her lips in a bit of a pout, because in her mind that almost sounds a little meaner than she intended.]

But you mean, there was a time when you'd been from Eos, and you met me somewhere else? I wasn't from Eos either, right? And there were like, really weird cultists?

[you're one to talk]

[bloodyashes]

...And that's not something I had a problem with before, I don't see why you think it would start being one now.

[So, gently, in hands that are still gloved in worn black leather, he'll take one of Ardyn's hands in his. Figure things out from there.]

[photoshooter]

Yeah! And a bunch of other people got kidnapped, and--oh, man, I hope they're okay. Some of them were just kids.

[You're one to talk. Prompto sighs, sort of relieved. They've got those two in common, then.]

I don't think I met you any other time. Just those two--Insomnia, and that other world where they locked us up. But there's a lot of other stuff that doesn't fit.

[missleadingquestions]

Oh! Good. So you don't know me there, either.

[Now she feels a little less bad.]

There's tons of places I never met you, like, I was stuck in this weird city with a big red gem for years!

[founderinglight]

From personal experience, ghosts don't usually look like that.

[As long as he keeps his hands over his face, breathing's... easier. Snarky deflecting comments are also easier, because oh hey his political background is very nearly a constant. The only thing that's more certain is, of course, Ardyn.

Breathe, Izunia, breathe.]

...I know you're not. But it doesn't make it any easier to look at. I haven't been able to so much as look at tar in any quantity since...

[Since the thing they don't talk about because they don't talk about Ardyn!]

[founderinglight]

Well it's that or point out that you have an entire fucking Armiger full of weapons and you still went for the stupid mall toy, which I know that you sharpened by hand both because they broadcasted you doing it and because I've sold no less than four of the exact same stupid replica sword, but here we are!

[He's tired and cranky.]