darkinferno | [ic inbox]

[That's a snort.]

I couldn't tell you. If it weren't for both of us remembering all this Retrospec shit, I'd make sure I never had to see his face around this city.

[Definitely bad memories here.]

As bad as Gabranth and I?

[She's curious now, mostly because Sora seems like...a really sweet if really naive kid.]

Edited 2017-09-01 17:09 (UTC)

[A pause... and then he nods.]

I've got at least one memory of the two of us fighting. When he won I... [Dante lifts his free hand, looking at it as though he might fade away just by talking about it.] I was fading away.

I don't know what happened after that.

Fading away...?

[That's an oddly specific way to phrase that.]

Think it could have something to do with whatever powers you have? I assume he's similar, jumping around like that.

I don't think so. It didn't feel like that at all. [But how can he explain what it did feel like?]

There's another memory I've got. When I first remembered it, I didn't know what was going on--I thought I'd remembered dying. I was walking in this place called the realm of darkness, and it felt like something was leeching away my strength. [Almost instinctively, his free hand comes up, resting over his heart.] If I'd let it, it would've eaten away at me until there was nothing left. I would've faded away into the darkness.

That's kind of what it was like. I could feel myself fading, like the strength was being sapped out of me. Like the fight had taken everything I had.

[Silently, Penelope takes a bite of more pizza, leaning forward a little to consider what he's saying. That's...pretty heavy. Especially heavy, coming from a guy like Dante. He never really seemed all that serious about much of anything, but this? Well hell, Intense is definitely what she'd call it.]

So, you think that this other you started to fade out after the...other Sora fought you. And you don't know the motivations behind either person, I guess?

[The realm of darkness sounds a little like a place she remembered, almost. A foggy, dead place filled with shadows and beasts and traps. Deadly, some sort of...necropolis, she thought. Or a dead city.

But there was more to it than that.]

Did he say anything? Seem more emotional?

[Dante shakes his head firmly as soon as she mentions that he probably didn't know the motivations of either of them. No... no, he definitely remembers that--at least, part of it.]

What all did Freya tell you about Hell Manor? Did she tell you about everything that happened while we were fighting the wraith?

[Surprisingly, it's not entirely an attempt to dodge the question!]

[Shaking her head, Pen closes her eyes and blows out a breath.]

She said ghosts, and she told me the gist, but I didn't pry. The wound from Ryoji was pretty raw, and I didn't want to do that to her.

Why?

[He's not going to throw Freya under the bus then.]

The ghosts... they could possess people. They could force you to attack other people against your own will and you couldn't do anything to stop it.

The same thing happened to the other me. He was fighting Sora, but it wasn't him--it was something controlling him instead.

[That. Actually she understands.]

Possession I get. So you think this...shadow world had something to do with it?

[Again, he's shaking his head decisively.]

No. That came after. Once I was in that shadow world... [Okay, give him a moment. Dante runs his free hand through his hair, trying to figure out how he could phrase this better. It's hard, because he doesn't know for certain what the chain of events was--he can only guess based on the little information he has.]

I don't... really want to go into the details, but when I was in that place, I was trapped there. I'd... [A sigh. This is actually something he hasn't told anybody yet, not Togusa, not Prompto, not even the prof.] I'd died. There was a voice that told me I'd lost the battle for my body, but my heart had survived. That's why I was there. He called it "this place of darkness where hearts are gathered."

It felt the same, though. I started fading away after fighting Sora, and when I was there I was fading away again.

[Quietly listening, Penelope takes in the information with only a little flinch. It was a little surreal, hearing about it, and she wasn't even entertaining prying any deeper even if he had just cut off at not wanting to go into details. This was clearly incredibly personal for him, and it surprised her in a way, that he'd go into it at all, so the least she can do is listen.]

Okay. [She reaches for his shoulder, giving it a hard, tight squeeze.] I understand. I'm sorry that you went through that, that you...remembered that. [As sorry as she'd been to Freya earlier that day, when she'd woken up screaming.]

I...don't really know what to say, but I'm sorry your other self has such a raw deal. Way worse than other me.

I didn't mean to push you, and I'm sorry for that too.

Edited 2017-09-04 22:11 (UTC)

[Any other time and he wouldn't have gone into it. When it comes to the stuff he's remembering about his other self, Dante's been keeping his cards close to his chest. There's too much bad, too much he doesn't want to acknowledge as being real. But with everything that's happened over the past few weeks (and the help of the gin he's been drinking)... it slips out easier, just one more bad thing to add to everything else that's gone down. But even so, he's shrugging, trying to wave off Pen's concern.]

Whatever. It's no big deal, I'm doing fine. He's not me, right? We're different people.

[Not that he really believes that. How many times has he worried that he'd repeat the other Dante's mistakes? That he'll fall prey to the same traps and end up in the same place in the end?]

But there you go, the reason I don't like dealing with Sora. Every time I do it's more of these memories, and they're never good. Especially when he's in them.

[Quietly, she nods. She...definitely gets that at least a little. Memories with Noah were never pleasant.]

Sure. Yeah. I feel that.

[Shaking her head, she goes back to the soft drink. May as well brighten the mood some.]

There's no way I could be like other Pen. I swear, she's got to be some special kind of insane. Absolutely fucking nuts.

[Dante's more than willing to follow her into a subject change.]

Oh? Why's that?

I'm not nearly so adventurous for one.

[Going along with it then.]

Half my memories are of these crazy places, and others are full of monsters.

You too, huh? [Not the adventurous part, but...] What sort of crazy places?

At least two different mines. A desert, where the sand sort of flows like water in some places. Full of oil rigs too, which is weird.

[But the one she remembers the most...]

And a city. A dead city. Just...empty. Covered in a thick fog. I've never seen anything like it, but a man I hear in my visions sometimes called it a Necrohol.

[Shivering a bit, she drinks more of the soda.]

Ever seen pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the nuclear bombs hit? It looked a lot like that. Only, with monsters.

[Dante shakes his head, taking a drink. What is there he can say to that...?]

Any idea why you were there?

Couldn't tell you. Other me was scared but seemed like she knew what she was doing, and there was clearly a purpose for it. Treasure hunting maybe.

...do you ever wonder why we're getting these memories?

[Dante's staring out at the ocean as he speaks, recognizing how he mimics his other self in that moment.]

Why we're the ones getting them, or what they're trying to do.

All the fucking time?

[She can't keep herself from chuckling a little. It's an unhappy, ugly sound...because she really doesn't want any of this.]

I mean, I heard in Unreality that they are ours. That we have a claim to them. But I don't really know why. Like, what makes us more special than those other people in town.

[That they have a claim to them... it makes sense, if Ardyn's reincarnation theory is true. And it's something that he's known himself for a while, that everything he's gotten back is somehow his... it's like he told Alison; he would much rather know he's reincarnated and that what he's seeing is his than to think that it's all at random.]

Our names got drawn from the hat?

[It's dry, sardonic--the best he's got to offer.]

If they do have a reason, I'd like to hear it. But I haven't seen anything to make me think they're organized enough to have a system of who they "wake up."

A part of me thinks it's just who they can catch, at random.

[Which is pretty fucked up. But what can you do?]

But I have a feeling that this is our stuff. That this was our past self, or something.

[A nod.]

A while back, the prof and I talked about it. Both of us think it's probably a past life too. It just feels too... right to not be.

[And then he snorts, sitting back on his rock.]

Though who knows? Maybe I'd be saying that if I was remembering the stuff Noah was, too. For all we know it could be Retrospec making us feel like this is ours.

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