【 Ⅲ 】𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐋 💎 Passive Dream

[crystalized_hope]

Sender: G'raha Tia
To: Everyone
Subject: Passive dream recording

[OOC:There are heavy Shadowbringers spoilers in this nightmare.]

For anybody who's seen G'raha's previous dream, the location may or may not seem familiar as the dream is broadcasted. Though the exact location hadn't been shown previously, that blinding bright light should be easy enough to catch as soon enough as the the vast night sky was swallowed whole by light once more.

With Vaulthry's defeat, and the last lightwarden in turn, that should have been enough to save Norvrant. Too bad things were never that simple. At the front of the pack was a sillhouette of a figure growing bright. All of the collective light from the defeated lightwarden had become too much for the Warrior of Light to handle. It threatened to push them over the edge as the light poured out of them. They were on verge of turning into the next lightwarden, more dangerous and powerful than any other thus far.

"The combined power of every lightwarden is too terrible a burdan for any one should to bear. And so I will relieve you of it," a familiar hooded man spoke out as he started to transfer the light to himself.

"Exarch?! What are you doing?!" a possibly familiar girl called out. Some people here may or may not already know this individual as Alisaie Leveilleur.

"I will channel this perfusion of power to the Crystal Tower and use it to travel to other worlds. As I have dreamed of doing ever since I first learned of their existence!" he stated, "Who would chose to remain here, in this dying realm, when they might go elsewhere and begin anew? Not I. And thus... thus did I use you!"

"No... No! I don't believe you! It doesn't make sense!" a girl with red hair cried out.

"Damn you! We won't let you do with them as you please!" Alisaie retorted.

"Do not interfere!" a tall Elezen yelled out in a pained expression, "Please! I beseech you all. Let him go!"

"You knew of this, Urianger," a Miqo'te woman said as she looked to the man who spoke out, "'Tis all a fiction. Such vaguely defined acts of teleportation stand no chance of success. The Exarch will never live to see another world--as he knows only too well."

The boy who looked similar to Alisaie spoke up finally, "Then... What does he mean to do?"

"He means to take the Light with him into the rift... where he will die. From the beginning, he intended to sacrifice himself to save our friend and Norvrant," the Miqo'te woman explained.

Turning his complete attention to the bright figure, "At journey's end, an opportunistic thief makes off with the hero's prize. A paltry way to end a chapter, I concede. Yet your tale will continue, and my role will scarcely be remembered."

With a short pause, "Worry not. Whatever should become of me, I will be happy and free, safe in the knowledge that I have played my part."

With enough force due to the gusts around them, the Exarch's hood flew back, revealing a familiar Miqo'te. His red hair looked slightly different and there is one detail that's is not present otherwise here. The one arm, neck area, and partially creeping on his cheek is what looks to be crystal.

For anyone who has seen G'raha thus far, he'll look a little different, but he is undoubtedly the same man who had proposed the aetheryte project here.

If there are any doubts, the Warrior calling out his name should clear all confusion. It was just a name, and yet he found such comfort in hearing it for the first time in hundreds of years.

"Thank you for fighting for this world. For believing. Fair you well, my friend--my inspiration," at this rate, his plan should be a success. That was until a gunshot rang out as he collapsed to the ground.

The man responsible made his presence known. "Only those who possess the Royal Eye of the Allagan Imperial line are capable of controlling the Crystal Tower. Such individuals do not exist in the First."

"Therefore, in all likelihood, the Exarch arrived here with the tower. This much I had surmised, yet I could not discern his grand scheme," approaching him, he continued, "To think he went through all this trouble for the sake of a single hero. It's almost admirable in its absurdity."

The Exarch, or rather G'raha Tia, tried to move, but found it difficult. The man looked to him struggling, "Alas, it is not your grand scheme that will succeed, but ours."

Turning his attention to the Warrior of Light, struggling to hold in all of the light. "What a disappointment you turned out to be. I placed my faith in you. Let myself believe that you could contain the Light. But look at you now, halfway to becoming the monster. You are unworthy of my patronage."

A gunshot couldn't be what held G'raha down, he refused. Struggling to push himself back on his knees at the very least, "You're wrong." He reached for his staff, using it to prop him up, "I won't allow it. I will not allow you... to point my friend like a weapon."

The man rose a brow in response, "Oh? And how exactly do you plan on stopping me? By all accounts, you don't have much time left and I don't intend on letting do your little parlor trick a second time."

Gesturing over to the Warrior of Light, spitting out more white liquid, "It's almost comical. You're playing a rather risky game of chicken, don't you think?"

G'raha gave him a glare as the man shrugged in response. "It seems like our time is up. Do seek me out later once you're able. Perhaps you will be able to complete your descent in privacy," he said as he nonchalantly waved them off, existing through a dark portal.

"N-No!" Turning to his friend in urgancy, "Please! You must hold it in for a little while longer. I-I'll save you. I'll save you all."

Panic spread through him as he tried once more to take the Light from the Warrior of Light, but to no avail. It was a nightmare. It was something that he had gone over in the back of his mind on a few occasions while trying to figure out plan. The Warrior of Light changed before their eyes, G'raha petrified as all of his fears bubbled to the surface.

"N-No...This... This cannot be happening...," taking a step back, the newly formed lightwarden snaped their gaze to him as he looked on in horror. He found it difficult to breath suddenly as he tried to remain calm. That was much easier said than done when all of your worst fears bubbled to the surface with all of his regrets.

"Exarch!" another man with a gunblade shouted out to snap him out of his thoughts. He charged forward to try to help, but the lightwarden easily flicked him away, sending him flying into a wall.

"Thancred! Are you okay?!" the red head called out as she rushed over to him.

It was no use, G'raha's brain was shutting down. He was going to save them... How could he fail something so important. Hands shaking, holding his staff towards his friend.

"I... I'm so sorry, my friend. I...," he found himself choking over words. That hesitation was enough for the lightwarden to grab him as his staff clambered to the ground once more, mouth open wide as if to eat him.

"I've failed you... I've failed everyone... Pray forgive me...," he muttered under his breath.

Just as he was about to be devoured, the dream ends there.

Comments

[songbird_slayer]

[So many awful dreams... what was happening? Where were all of these terrible visions coming from? But to see someone so dear have everything slip through their fingers, meet such a terrible end-]

G'raha?!

[Steady. Don't drop the lantern. Focus. She'd seen something like this before, but... but this was different. Right?]

Can you hear me? Gods, I hope this is coming through...

[crystalized_hope]

[He's at least woken up from the nightmare, but he didn't seem to be responding. At first, he hadn't even heard hear calling out for him.

He was so lost in his thoughts, trying to calm himself down. Even after waking up, he hardly noticed how much he was shaking, instead taking note to his arm being completely normal.

...Work. He needed to do some work. Anything to get his mind off of his fears. Thankfully he does notice that voice finally, not entirely sure that he wanted to answer.

Not because he didn't want to talk to her, but rather he didn't want to worry her. Well, not saying anything would only do more harm than good. So finally she'll get a voice reply from him, but it's clear that his breathing was ragged.]

I...I'm fine. I apologize for worrying you.

[songbird_slayer]

It's alright not to be okay. I dare say it's also my duty to worry about you.

[You were shot and eaten, honey. No apologies. If you think she was staying home at this point, you'd be wrong. She can bundle up, rouse her sleeping yol and carry her lantern at the same time. She couldn't help but think of the crystallized skin again. It was creeping up his body, his neck, his face... it was worse than what she'd seen before, in that dream that took place in a time many years before.]

What cruel embellishments these are... the end especially. Why the mind chooses to be this way to us sometimes, I'll never understand.

You've been through so much...

[crystalized_hope]

[He was silent for a moment, letting her message sink in a little.]

So it is.

[Saying he was mentally tired was an understatement. Younger body or not, sometimes he felt the years weigh on him. They hadn't been quite so bad up until now.]

Whatever I've been through, it hardly even scratches the surface as to what they've been through.

[Thinking of the Warrior of Light is a little sensitive right now and he feels that pain of guilt more than ever.]

Needless to say, only about half of that dream is accurate. Thankfully, nothing so fire has come to pass in reality.

[But it really just makes him think about what would have happened if he wasn't able to step in on time. If he had bungled things up more than he had.]

[songbird_slayer]

[Memories of home of late pop to mind, but she gave no voice to them. These were things he didn't know of yet, but the knowledge of them wasn't important right now either.

But to speak so little of himself, to even take in everything and die in some suffocating rift in the sea of stars... she wasn't going to stand for it.]

Thankfully. I meant it when I called you 'hero'. I'd do it again and again without a second thought.

...Speaking of 'without a second thought', I'm going to do the thing. There's your warning.

Sender: Vanitas

[darkcharge]

[ It's one thing to hear about it and another to see it - or at least a version of it. Interesting that so many nightmares feature things that have happened or people are afraid of happening. It makes sense in a way, he supposes.

Though Vanitas clicks his tongue and keeps from saying what's always been on his mind: this is your fault anyway and maybe don't use people you call "friends" as tools without their own agency. You get what you deserve. Because he's thought that ever since he had been told about it from the very person that had been receiving the excess amounts of Light.

Instead he settles on: ]

Too bad I can't save this for future use if a particular Master shows up. Wouldn't she be so tickled to know that Light is just as deadly as Darkness.

[ Because everyone always focuses on how Darkness is the problem where he's from. ]

Good thing it doesn't play out that way, right?

[crystalized_hope]

[He would be right to say it was his fault. Look how close to the sun he was, so to speak. He'd once told Emet-Selch he did not want to use his friends as a tool. And what had he done? That very thing. He wouldn't have if there were any other options. Even so... it just made it all the more real of just how close he came. How things could have transpired. And if he had failed back then, how could he possibly bear the idea that it was his fault that he'd put everything in jeopardy for a chance of victory?

His friends would eventually be dealt with, he'd likely fall, his dearest friend of all turned to a lightwarden, unlike anything they could ever fathom, and both the Source and all of the remaining shards lost. He felt the weight of the world on his shoulders more than ever.

He's silent for a while, unable to voice his thoughts through words. Not in the state that he's in now. So instead he settled with this.]

Right. 'Tis only a bad dream.

[He doesn't even begin to touch upon the first comment. He has some thoughts about that, but he was hardly in the right mindset to settle on them, much less voice them.]

[darkcharge]

It's a bad dream of something that didn't happen. Maybe it could have, but it didn't.

So why would you be scared of it now when it's not a situation you'll end up being in again?

[crystalized_hope]

[Vanitas had been more in tune with what had been going on due to his past experience with people from Eorzea, but it still didn't make G'raha want to discuss such things.]

... Do you ever feel regret? Something you should have done differently somehow, but now it's too late? No matter how unlikely it may be, fear is not so easily shaken.

[darkcharge]

No.

Regret isn't something I really feel. That's something that people who have choices feel.

Sender: Zelda

[multidisciplinary]

[ Zelda tosses and turns fitfully throughout G'raha's dream, as her lantern shares his nightmare with her while she sleeps. As the Lightwarden's jaw opens wide, displaying all its long and wickedly sharp teeth, Zelda jolts upright in her bed with a scream.

She clutches her nightgown to her chest, just above her racing heart. What was that horrible monster?! How could Light, the essence of all that is good and holy, corrupt a person into such a gruesome beast?

Wide awake, Zelda grabs her journal from the nightstand and scrawls a hurried message to G'raha. ]

Are you all right?

[ It's a stupid question considering the nightmare, but she asks anyway. Her penmanship is noticably shakier than normal. ]

[crystalized_hope]

[Shaky handwriting or not, it matters naught to him. He was taking deep breaths as a means to try to calm himself down. It takes a little time for her to get an answer back, but eventually she'll receive something back in his own disheveled writing. Hopefully, it was legible enough.]

I've... been better.

[Worse off, of course it had to be seen by everyone. His mistakes.]

[multidisciplinary]

[ Zelda waits impatiently for G'raha's response, bouncing one leg up and down in a jittery motion while she sits in bed. When his words finally appear, she settles her leg again so she can write with her journal in her lap. ]

Stupid question, I know. I'm just glad you're there.

Was it a memory?

[crystalized_hope]

Something like that. The first part of it was a memory... The outcome was not, thankfully.

[Thank god for that.]

[multidisciplinary]

[ She wonders where the division is between reality and fiction, but decides not to pry too much further for now. ]

Light [ There's a long hesitation. ] corrupted them.

Anon, still

[voidbug]

[A whole other world plagued by light, yet this one did not seem to spread through dreams. How interesting.]

[And yet, it would seem a vessel was still used to contain it. And yet again it would fail. A chilling feeling. Nothing is meant to hold that much power, not forever... But then, that is why it was being transferred, was it not?]

[...Though somewhat another chilling feeling.]

The Infection?

[It wasn't exactly it, but close enough. That and they couldn't think of another word for it.]

[crystalized_hope]

[At least by this point, he had begun to regain some of his composure. Madhuri's comfort had definitely helped; though it doesn't take away the awful feelings that the dream left him with.]

You could say something like that. Light and darkness must have balance.

[Unfortunately. Who knew that too much light could be a bad thing? Not them anyway.]

[voidbug]

Difficult to have balance if they are against each other.

[If there had been no need to trap that light in the first place though...]

Shadow hates light and light hates shadow.

[crystalized_hope]

Alas, I saw we've learned a valuable lesson; Despite our best intentions.

[He says we, but that falls more upon Ardbert and the other Warriors of Light of the First.]

'Tis never a simple task to judge what is just or hostile with varying reasons on each side. All you can do is what you think is best for the world around you.

[voidbug]

[Perhaps. Though maybe they never did consider one objectively being better than the other. Enemy or no. Even if one caused a plague, the other could likely do the same if it wanted.]

You sealed it away in a vessel too.

Sender: Kor Meteor

[spirialink]

[It was a painful nightmare to behold for Kor, watching as a man tried to sacrifice himself for his comrades, only for it to all go awry in the worst ways imaginable. A man used and betrayed for someone's greater machinations, left to watch as everything crumbled around him, powerless to avert even the smallest bit of the tragedy that was unfolding. It was a nightmare that parts of maybe hit a bit too close to home for Kor. That feeling of helplessness over losing someone dear to you is something resonated far too well for him.

And at the center of it all... Light was to blame? But how? It was the darkness that lurked deep in the hearts of men that was dangerous, so how could light be just as bad...?]

Umm... Are you alright? That was a lot to take in.

[crystalized_hope]

[By now, he's calmed down quite a bit thanks to some time and comfort, but it didn't make the nightmare any less impactful. There were so many things running through his mind. So many questions as to what he could have done better or different; none of which mattered now that it had long passed since then.]

My apologies. I... had hoped no one else would have to see that.

[For his own pride? To shield people from partial truths? To refrain from causing unrest? It was hard to say exactly what it was. A little bit of everything really.]

I'll be okay. Bad dreams come and pass.

[spirialink]

Mmm, maybe...

[Kor isn't too sure about that, though. He knows nightmares like that all too well. He's haunted by a few of those himself.]

I don't know what happened in your life, but your dreams are affected by your emotions, and dreams like that come from the regrets you carry. They don't go away so easily.

[crystalized_hope]

[Man does he have a lot of regrets...]

There are plenty of things I would love to change. Maybe regrets -- as you say -- that I have. IF anything, this nightmare has made it painfully clear how close I came to ruining everything.

[spirialink]

But, in the end, it must have worked out, right?

[That's how Kor, who is ever the optimist, chooses to take G'raha's words. He came close to ruining everything means he didn't ruin everything.]

We all have our things we regret in life, moments we wish we could go back and change. But it's those moments and how we learn to move past them that makes us stronger. They're what makes who we are today!