Tainted Memories

[cityship]

Sometime during the regular comings and goings aboard the meatship, an announcement rings out across all portions of the ship.

||Attention crew,|| Stacy's voice says, ||As significant interest has been shown for it, and enough time has passed since the Nightmare King incident to prevent unnecessary mental issues, the procedure to unlock the memories of the destruction of your homeworlds is now available to all crew members. If you are interested, please proceed to any empty sensorium and I will begin the process.||

A slight pause, then...

||If you have a history of mental issues, please use extra consideration when deciding on whether or not to take the procedure. That is all.||

Should anyone decide to take her up on her offer and head to the sensoriums, they'd find a clean, clinical-looking white room with a dentist-style chair (sans scary drills, of course) in the middle.

||Please, take a seat.||

[OOC:Instructions.]

Comments

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

Fate held her tightly, rubbing her back as she tried to calm her down. There was no way she could know what Nanoha just saw, but it had to be horrible if it affected her this much.

"It's okay..." And it kind of wasn't, but Fate needed to offer some kind of comfort. "We're alive, so is our daughter, and our friends..." She pulled back just a little, so she could look Nanoha straight in the eye.

"We'll definitely find a way to defeat the Ohm and make sure nothing like that happens again."

[starlightace]

Nanoha tried to stop the tears.

She was a stubborn person, and she really, really did. But she couldn't stop them entirely, and soon bitter streaks of grief were running down her face. To know that her world was gone was one thing, but to see it was something else.

It was true, what Fate had said, that they were alive and their daughter was alive and that their friends were safe but everyone else - the people she smiled at in passing at the street, the people she met at stores ... that was all gone. And Nanoha just felt smaller and more powerless than she could ever remember feeling before.

She tried to meet Fate's eyes but couldn't through tear-blurred vision.

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

There was a horrible twisting feeling in Fate's chest as she watched the tears fall. She absolutely hated to see Nanoha cry; the other girl was the strongest person Fate knew, so to see her so close to breaking down right now...

It was like when Vivio had been kidnapped. She could promise to punish those responsible, and she could hold Nanoha and offer her as much comfort as she could... but that's all she could do right now. And she hated it.

[starlightace]

You don't have to do anything right now, Fate.

Just hold her as she clings to you and sobs. That's all she needs right now.

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

Fate will do just that, then. She won't be letting Nanoha go for a looooong time.

[starlightace]

Eventually, as she regains control of herself, the tears become wet sniffles, and her body stops shaking quite so hard. But her hands are still very tightly clinging to your shoulders.

"I..." her voice sounds hoarse. "I saw it."

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to tell me about it," Fate said, reaching up to wipe the other girl's tears away. "Not if you don't want to. I won't make you go through with that again."

[starlightace]

"I..." she swallows, trying desperately to get a hold of her emotions. "...I will. But just, not - not now, okay?"

Suddenly, Nanoha feels drained more than anything. It's hard to explain, but she knows beyond all doubt that what she saw was real.