caughtinanetwork | 001. [video] intro.

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001. [video] intro.

[Gives the SFC a gentle flick, giving the camera a wry smile. Seems like he's managed to get rid of all signs of his wet arrival, minus his damp clothes. He's trying very hard to forget the whole incident for your benefit.]

So what, all I get for gracing you all with my presence is this booklet and this horrendous tunic? No welcome party, no parades, no nothing? Geez. Not to mention there's water in places you don't deserve to even know about.

[He pouts his pretty boy pout, looking very hurt indeed.]

Ah, well, I'll forgive you this time. I'm sure that there should be plenty of hunnies out there to cheer me up, yeah? We can have a party of our own now that the great Zelos is here!

Oh, and Lloyd and friends? That includes my dear, voluptuous hunny, my darling angel, my cool beauty, and my precious little one-- If you're here, you're invited, too. Don't leave a man hanging, hmm?

[With a wink and a grin, he turns off the feed.]

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Well, Rand's new. He came while you were gone, so I don't expect you to know about him. I guess Mat's name never stuck because I didn't talk about him to you much, and I just said you've never been to my place here. This isn't how I'm going to prove you've been in Vatheon.

[Sorry, Zelos, he's not ready to quit justifying the lack of memory, or admit it might really be a lack of memory. That possibility just hasn't sunk in.

Inside the building, the first floor looks like the common room of a fairly large but empty inn, with tables and an unmanned bar, plenty of room for people to mingle. Lloyd heads straight for the stairs on the other side, stairs that will take them to the second floor, which looks more like the first story of a house instead of an inn, then on up to the third.]

It's pretty cool here, though. One of their friends, Perrin, used to live here. He's a blacksmith and he let me use the forge. Mat figured since Perrin let me use it once already, he wouldn't mind letting me keep using it. I've been working on making stuff to build a boat with!

[He listens and doesn't really have much to add. Maybe if he just shut up for once, he could hurry up and get to the point - the point being that he's never been here before and people should just stop acting like it already.]

A boat? We're already underwater. Gonna need something that can go underwater, not on top of it.

I'm not going to build it down here. I'm going to build it on the island above us.

[Okay, they're on the third floor now. Lloyd makes a beeline for his room. When he opens the door, Zelos will get to see... a messy bedroom stacked with all sorts of craft projects, a few papers lying around that might be scrawled blueprints, and clothes left lying everywhere. Lloyd, of course, ignores all this, picking a way expertly along a trail through the room to a shelf on the wall near his bed. There's a picture in a frame there, which he picks up and brings back. The frame, if Zelos bothers to look at it, is clearly handmade.

But the picture itself might distract him from that, because the picture, from his perspective, would be impossible. It's a candid shot of two young boys, a redhead who looks like he might be preteen and a brunette who only looks three. The older boy is smiling while the younger boy climbs all over him.

The boys are Zelos and Lloyd.]

There. See?

[Okay, you've lost him. He's still not familiar with the new world yet, so he decides to let the conversation drop.

At the doorway of Lloyd's bedroom, Zelos doesn't bother to try to navigate through his mess. He leans against the open door and watches him closely.

When he lays eyes on the photo, he can't help but smile at how precious Lloyd is. He recognizes him instantly, those eyes are so distinctive, but the redhead makes his breath catch in his throat. He looks so... happy. The young redhead wears his face, his young body, but that expression is too foreign to truly be him. Right?

Zelos shakes his head, looking away.]

I don't know where the hell you got that from. It doesn't make any sense at all.

[Lloyd's heart had risen at the sight of that smile, what he'd thought had been a hint that Zelos remembered. He'd been the one to give Lloyd this picture, after all.

But that isn't the case. Lloyd makes a frustrated sound and shakes his head insistently.]

Yes, it does! It proves you've been here and that we both got cursed so that we were both kids again. I'm pretty sure Zelda took that picture. You remember her, don't you? You even lived with her!

[Alarm bubbles in his throat, but he squashes it down as quickly as he can, shaking his head more vigorously. He lived with that woman...? Just what happened between the two of them to get him so close to her?]

I talked to Zelda for a few moments before you responded. She claimed to know me, too, but I've never seen her before.

[His hands twitch by his sides as he turns towards Lloyd sharply.] Okay?! I don't know what's going on with her, or with you, or with all these damn people claiming that they know me! I've been here for a few hours at best! Why can't you get that into your fucking head!

[Alarm is shooting high inside of Lloyd, too, but for an entirely different reason.]

Because you've been here! Come on, you have to remember! What about the club thing for girls to talk to people? Or when you made me drink tomato juice after I got drunk? What about... What about when you helped make my new Key Crest? Don't you remember any of that?

No! How is that not clear to you?

[He's this close to strangling you, bro.] All these things you're dredging up-- it means squat to me. I mean-- [He fumbles for words.] Maybe they had? I still don't get this stupid-- time, memory bullshit--

But I don't remember. It never happened as far as I know. Come on, I know you're not the brightest, but you've never been this dense!

But they happened! I'm not just making things up! [He searches Zelos's face, desperate for some sign, anything, to hint that his friend is just pulling his leg. Nothing. Nothing but confusion and frustration. But that's the last thing Lloyd wants to see. His voice hits a strange, strangled pitch.] Did you... did you lose your memories?

Can't really lose your memories when you never had them in the first place.

[Lloyd's voice raises a red flag in his head, and Zelos tries to calm down a bit. He calms his nervous hands and folds his arms over his chest.]

I'm not-- I'm not trying to mess with you here, alright? Don't need to pile on more stress.

That you know about. If you forgot, you wouldn't realize you'd had them.

[His heart rate picks up, on the verge of real alarm. Zelos has a Cruxis Crystal, just like Colette. What if he's going down the same path that she did, slowly becoming an angel, in more ways than just getting wings?]

What about your sense of taste? What about what you can feel? Is anything different? Can you sleep?

[Though some of those may already have been the case, he's not sure. Mostly he just wants to know if anything has changed!]

[His brow furrows in confusion at Lloyd's inqueries, but eventually softens as he smiles slightly.]

Bud, that business has been taken care of already. An event behind the scenes that neither of us need to revisit.

Just-- look, think about this. I know it's hard, but you can do that for me, right? [Lloyd seems calm enough to think rationally, even if the rapid fire questions don't reassure Zelos too much.] Besides angel business, what else could have made me "lose" memories?

[Lloyd frowns, a line creasing between his brows as he considers that question seriously. Considering that he thinks his friend's soul might be on the line, he's not about to ignore any possibilities.].

I dunno... Maybe you got hit on the head?

[He gives Zelos a sudden, piercing look.]

Wait. You remember that we had to fix your Key Crest?

If I got hit in the head, I think I might have just played along with this whole shebang.

What? [Lloyd's expression is enough to make Zelos take a step back.] There's nothing wrong with my key crest. Geez, you looked like you were gonna murder me.

Of course there's nothing wrong with it now. That's because we fixed it. You... [He swallows.] You don't even remember that? You don't remember... dying?

[Though considering the thoughts that've been running through his head, that last remark earns Zelos a glower.]

I'm not going to murder you, Zelos! Sheesh! You're just... I'm just trying figure out how bad this is!

No. [He answers that immediately.] Nothing has ever happened to this thing.

Hey, I never said you will, just that it looked like you wanted to. [He sighs and crosses his arms over his chest again.] Come on, let's get back to my question. There has to be a reason why our memories don't line up, right? For me, the answer to that is plain and simple: it just never happened to me. But you seem dead set on trying to convince me that these events are real. So. Any thoughts?

Well, maybe you're from... before it happened...

[If Lloyd sounds unsure, that's because he is. He's used to Zelos being from farther forward in time than him. The idea that Zelos might somehow have come here from before the time he was here before...

Gah, it's confusing even to think about!]

What's the last thing you do remember?

The last thing I remember is having settled business with the king. No memories of this place. Sorry to disappoint.

[He says that all with a straight face, watching carefully for Lloyd's reaction. This entire ordeal could have been avoided if the damn idiot just asked about that first, or hadn't been so stubborn about proving this "truth" to him.

Then again, it wouldn't really be Lloyd if he hadn't bothered, would it.]

Edited 2013-03-31 03:57 (UTC)

[Or maybe some part of Lloyd knew that it would be an exercise in frustration from the start.

...actually, no, that's probably giving Lloyd too much credit, but the problem exists either way. The fact is that Lloyd is from much earlier on the timeline than Zelos. "Settling business with the king"? He blinks, able to think of only one thing.]

You mean, the last thing you remember is joining up with us?

What? No, of course not. This happens after the worlds are united, I just needed to make sure the whole system of the Chosen was abolished.

...What's the last thing you remember? Before coming here, I guess.

Oh. [That's relieving, and yet...] I don't know if that's before or after what you remembered before.

The last thing I remember is when we had to go through the Otherworldly Gate to get back to Sylvarant and escape from the Papal Knights.

[And he can only hope that that's a unique event. Otherwise, he'll have to figure out another point of reference to tell Zelos when he's from.]

[He shrugs.] Does it matter? As long as it's finally been drilled into that thick skull of yours that I really don't have any memories of being here.

[That's when he pulled Sheena away from Kuchinawa... That's even before they finished forging all the pacts with the summon spirits. That's far.] Geez, that's... that's pretty far back.

[Inconvenient, if anything.]

It matters.

[He says that as insistently as he can.]

It matters if it hasn't happened for you yet, or if it has but you don't remember. I don't know how I can figure that out, but it still ought to be important. If you lost them, then maybe we can get them back.

[He takes in a breath, then lets it out, rubbing the back of his neck.]

Is that a problem? I know some of what's going to happen because you told me. You and Colette and a few others. I know we're going to reunite the worlds.

[That's the biggest thing he can think of.]

[He's quiet as he absorbs that information. Could it really be that he just doesn't remember?] So even if it turns out that you're right and I just can't remember, what are we gonna do about it? What can we do about it?

No, it shouldn't be a problem. [It's just that he hasn't betrayed Lloyd ask far as the brunet can remember. If it's second hand information, it's just not the same.] How much do you know? I mean, what did they tell you?

Maybe I should check your Key Crest first, just in case there's any damage.

[He sets the picture aside on a small table, then takes a step closer to Zelos. Not quite invading the other's space yet, but clearly intent on doing so.]

How much do I know? About reuniting the world? Well, you and Colette told me I'm going to use the Eternal Sword to reunite the worlds. I'm not sure how I do that yet, but I'm supposed to practice and get stronger so I can. Pretty cool, huh?

[He grins. After a moment, though, the grin fades a bit.]

Though I guess... other things are going to happen, too? This guy named Richter said something about Ratatosk and needing his help to balance the mana, but I'm not sure what he meant or what went wrong. He didn't really want to talk. He just attacked me. I don't think I'd know even that much if you hadn't been there to help.

[He also probably would have gotten his butt kicked, but he doesn't like acknowledging that.]

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[Action] omg i'm sorry about the typos, mobile tagging is apparently very difficult for me

[Action] Haha, it's fine. We all make typos sometimes. XD

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[Action] I had that same problem this morning in another thread.

[Action] sighs i'll buy icon space for him soon.....................

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