Ghost Love Score [Animositas]

[Aerith]

Welcome to my home. Well, former home.
--------
[August 5th]

Coming back here flooded Ethan with memories, most of them unpleasant. But he wasn't here for the unpleasant memories. He was here for the one bright spot that had finally been extinguished, the last shred that had died and taken any remaining sense of dignity with it.

Sophia. This is the closest I can come to you now. I'll be there soon.

Once he had discovered that Animositas could travel between the worlds through a similar method to the Corridors, Ethan had asked the armor to bring him here to Neverland. He could spare a little while away from the others. Besides, Notre Dame had grown steadily more boring.

"Welcome to the world I once called home, Animositas."

He cared about seeing only one thing--Sophia's final resting place. Thankfully, it was night in the city, so there were far fewer people about than there would normally be. His shoes were loud against the cobblestones, and the familiar smells of ale and pipesmoke curled out of the pubs they passed. A cloud covered the moon. All the better to avoid detection.

"I hope you do not mind indulging me for a little while. I am not usually so sentimental as to need to come back here."

He had been considering the prospect of allowing Animositas to absorb Sophia's memories from the ring. But he felt he needed her permission first. Well. She was dead, of course, but he could at least assuage the guilt involved by voicing his request over her grave.

[Lagunamov]

Eternal persistence.

This was a change of pace. Notre Dame and its people had grown tiring, so Animositas paid no mind to let his partner lead the way somewhere else. Exploring other worlds would help take in more faces for moving about unnoticed. As fond as the Sentiment was of wearing the skin of the Princess of Heart – it did provide one appearance so innocent it helped as an advantage for fights - the chance of getting new faces was always enticing.

Taking in the new sights around it, the armor couldn’t help but notice the large tower that looked down onto the city. Or, what remained of the tower. The entire top part was missing, but efforts to restore it seemed to be taking place already. “I had grown tired of Notre Dame, and watching Aerith heal peasants,” it commented, the illusion cast fiddling with its hair with its right index finger, the appropriate bored face in place. “I don’t mind joining you on this small trip down memory lane.”

Certainly, this was a night with high prospects. If Ethan managed to deal with his past and put a lid on it, they both would be able to become even more effective. As of now, the dynamic hadn’t properly set down. Something was still off. Still missing. Hopefully, whatever he needed to do would help establish a proper one. “So, where to my friend?”

[Shadow Facade Active. Kairi's appearance.]

[Aerith]

How long has it been?
--------

Smiling, Ethan glanced at Animositas as they walked. “You are improving most excellently. If I didn't know better myself, I would think you truly were a bored girl walking down the street.”

This made him happier than he had been in a long while. Although hearing Animositas call him her friend was even more astonishing to him. He arched an eyebrow. “You think of me as your friend, do you? I must say that this is unfamiliar territory for me. I cannot remember the last time I called someone that.” Except in the case of Jericho, but they had hardly spent enough time together to develop any sort of connection beyond a professional understanding.

Certainly, Ethan saw the strangeness of calling an empty suit of armor a friend. But perhaps that is why they matched so well. Ethan could not stand humanity, and Animositas was far from being human. Besides, there was a certain joy he got from seeing the armor in the guise of that girl and covered in blood.

“As for where we are going, we go to visit the dead. Or at least, what is left of them.” He couldn't help but grow bitter as he spoke. “Particularly, one person.”

He pulled his hat down a little to shield his eyes as they passed a few gents with cigarettes lingering outside a pub. Anonymity was preferable while he was here, and he did not think he would be recognized, considering he had hardly returned to visit with regularity. But there was always the chance, and for once, he was not here to kill. He only wanted to see her.

Eventually, they came to a small, gated path that wound around the back of a church. The squeak from the rusted hinges was noticeable, but he was not worried about attracting unwanted attention. Most of the people around here were far too suspicious to enter this place at night. Ethan found it soothing.

“They refused her a proper burial because suicide is seen as a sin. She has no elaborate headstone or even a small marker. But I know where she lies. It is simply a matter of finding the right signs.”

The landscape had changed a bit since he had been here last, so he took a moment to hunt around amongst the graves and left Animositas to her own devices. After getting his bearings, he moved outside the graveyard proper and drew closer to the trees bordering it in the back. There. The intentional scratches of a knife in the bark of one. To the right of that tree was a patch of grass that was slightly healthier than the rest around it.

Ethan crouched down and ran his hand over the grass as gently as if he were touching some fragile newborn. “Sophie,” he said softly. “Forgive me for not coming to see you more often.”

[Lagunamov]

Your politeness is starting to rub on.

As flattering as Ethan comments on Animositas’ improvements in mimicking a regular person would be if they were said to anybody else, they were still… reassuring to a certain extent. It probably reassured him more than it did the Sentiment, showing that he was actually good at teaching how to keep a façade around people. Certainly, had it not been for him, it may have taken it several dead people’s memories to fully form an idea of how to act in general so as to not raise suspicions. Which was necessary, considering at this point in time, all the Sentiment had were memories from a princess and a moron.

“I don’t know what else you can call it,” it commented back at his comment about friendship. Considering his disdain for humans, it wasn’t surprising at all he had no friends aside from a suit of armor. “A partner you don’t ask to accompany you to the cemetery. Friends is the only term I can imagine that could describe our current situation. Granted, there are probably more healthy friendships than this, but our nature limits us so,” it started to explain, gazing upon the world, the stores, the bars, and what little people passed by.

After not that long, Ethan had finally leaded them to their destination, a graveyard at the back of a church. Those cursed buildings, used to control people through the fear of an afterlife of suffering. “An afterlife of suffering is better than non-existence. How can that be a threat?” it thought to itself, following its partner further into the graveyard, until it was clear that he needed to find the right place. And, more likely than not, needed his space. Animositas simply stood there, some meters away from the tree and the resting place of Ethan’s significant other.

[Aerith]

Request.
--------

The world around him seemed to fade as Ethan spent a few quiet moments with his dead lover. The coolness of Sophia's ring reminded him of the reason for this visit.

"Sophie, I need to ask you something. If I have found a way to have you with me, even if not completely, would you allow me to take it?"

Withdrawing the chain containing the ring, he removed it from his neck and placed it ever so gently on the grass. "I'll still have this, but someone else will need to borrow it for a while."

He knew she wouldn't answer him, but he waited several beats of silence before speaking to Animositas without actually looking at her. "Would you like another skin to wear? Another voice to use?"

[Lagunamov]

Laying down the rules.

The armor watched from beneath the facade of the Princess of Heart as Ethan requested permission from the dead. His curiosity, no, his desire to see his lover’s face once more than caused him to succumb to the temptation of having Animositas wear her skin. The offer was more than tempting, but terms would need to be settled on it first. As much as it valued memories, the proof of existence of people to the point it wouldn’t let them simply fade into nothing, this was an entirely different case.

“You already know the answer to that,” it walked closer, the girl’s hands behind her back as it stood next to Ethan. “But do not be fooled. I may take her voice, appearance and memories, but I’ll never be her,” it started to explain, Kairi’s voice as gently as it could. The situation was delicate, after all. “I may pretend for your… amusement, but that is the extent of my power. She is not coming back to life within me.”

[Aerith]

I hardly have the words.
--------

Ethan heard Animositas approach and explain what he already knew. No one could bring the dead back to life, no matter how hard one might try. But this would be the closest thing. Being here in this place, so near to his former life, might be clouding his judgment. He was beginning to run completely on base instinct and desire. The thought of hearing that voice again was already a drug pumping through his veins.

"I understand, my dear armor. I am well aware of the limitations." A faint smile ghosted across his face.

"You'll need this, then..."

He reached for the ring, and several things happened at once.

"Ethan."

He froze. No. That was impossible. He had finally snapped. Hearing things. That must be it.

"Wouldn't you rather have something much closer to the real thing, my love?"

The ring vanished suddenly into the ground. Ethan did not react, could not react. His pulse was pounding loudly in his ears.

A slender, ghostly, and very familiar hand slid out of the grave slowly, followed by a form forever burned into his memories. And still, he did not move. He was barely breathing.

"You have nothing to say? Ethan Hargrave? The one they all said could never stop talking?"

He swallowed, trying to find words. "So...Sophie?"

The spirit of his lover smiled. "Yes, my darling. I'm here."

She leaned close to him and raised an ethereal hand to touch his cheek, but it passed through him. There was a brief pause, the calm before the storm. Then, she changed.

Fury twisted her expression into a corruption of her beautiful features. Darkness flowed around and through her, mingling with her otherwise pallid figure.

"They took my dignity, Ethan. They took my status, they took my friends, and they took you. They took you away from me. I couldn't..." She grew sad, then quickly resumed the air of a deadly viper, her whisper bordering on a hiss.

"Kill them, Ethan. Kill them for me."

She abruptly shifted her attention to Animositas, as if measuring the girl. "You need something better than the ring if you want to play at being me..."

She moved quickly, passing through Animositas, then twisted back around to hover next to Ethan again. Her laughter was playful, beautiful, and so very, very dark.

It enthralled him.

[Lagunamov]

That was very much unpleasant.

It was reassuring to know that Ethan was fully aware of the consequences of trying to mimic his dead lover. This was truly him, simply speaking out of the one weakness in his heart, the one thing that would most likely keep him going. And for that, Animositas needed the ring.

The ring that vanished into the earth. Surprise struck the Sentiment for the first time since its awakening, witnessing something it had never thought could happen. Sophia had risen from the grave as a ghost, and was now among right in front of them. The thought alone was impossible to understand, but the fact remained the same. Ethan’s presence on her grave had somehow brought her back, twisted into a dark phantom of its old self.

Her attention was then drawn to Animositas, making it very clear that the ghost was entirely aware of the exchange only moments ago. It lunged at the armor, and as it phased through it, its mind collapsed momentarily. The illusion of Kairi faded, returning the Sentiment to its original for, slowly falling on the ground to its side like a lifeless ragdoll.

The phantom phasing through the armor had caused a massive imprint of memories on its mind, similar in nature to Shadow’s Façade memory extraction, but much more powerful, and most importantly, unexpected. Animositas’ mind remained in shock as it tried to reassemble itself into working function, and as it started to get closer to regaining its self, flashes of people’s images kept coming up on its body and their surroundings, echoes of their voices filling the graveyard with an ever eerier mood.

And then it all settled into one. The one that it had just met and gained its memories from. “I will kill that bitch if she ever tries that again,” it uttered from the ground, the new image’s wavy blonde hair getting dirty with the mud below, same with the white dress it was now wearing, accenting the woman’s figure. “I don’t care how, and I don’t care if it does nothing, I will still find the way to kill her if she tries that again Ethan,” the stern look given by the Sentiment under the female’s guise showed its determination in its threat.

[Aerith]

When will the surprises end?
--------

Suddenly, he was seeing double, in a sense. Sophia had given her appearance and voice to Animositas. Ethan had expected to feel the pang of loss once again as Sophia faded back into whatever realm she had come from. But she remained a constant presence by his side. His joy was not going to die again tonight.

"I doubt there will be a reason for her to repeat that." Ethan chuckled while giving the armor a reassuring look.

If Sophia noticed the venom that pervaded the echo of her own voice, she did not acknowledge it. Her focus was entirely on Ethan. She could not stop looking him over.

"I can stay with you, Ethan. Always. And I can help you kill them. You can help satisfy the need for revenge that ties me to this reality."

It was an insatiable need, thanks to the darkness that had chained her here. But she did not tell him that. Not now. But it lent truth to her assurances that she would never leave him.

"There are many others like me, other souls caught in a tapestry of darkness that fuels our hatred for those still living. You called to me. You can call to them, too."

Her hand opened to reveal her ring, which she could somehow hold. Some of the darkness from her had entered it. She placed it around his neck again.

"Call them, love. Call them to you."

Ethan felt his eyes opened to a layer of reality he instinctively knew very, very few ever saw. He could see the darkness woven loosely into a tapestry as Sophia had said, and he could see hundreds of souls, their glow muted in their hatred and jealousy of mankind. They were trapped here.

Once the first one noticed him, the rest immediately latched onto his presence, realizing that one of the living could notice them. Wordlessly, he called to them, and much to his and Sophia's delight, they detached from their shadowy prisons and floated to him.

Sophia practically beamed with pride. "They are connected to you now, and as long as you choose to maintain that connection, they can be seen by others not gifted like you."

Such a power, to be able to make puppets of the dead.

Ethan could not help himself and laughed.

[Lagunamov]

Well, this has turn from a duo to a multitude.

Standing up from the mud, the armor looked at Ethan as he tried to reassure that nothing of the sort would ever happen again. Having memories forcefully injected into its mind was anything but pleasant, so it’d be better if no other ghosts tried that again. Particularly now that Ethan seemed to have become some sort of Necromancer. Spirits were starting to gather in the place, Animositas’ partner acting almost as a magnet to them.

“So…” it started, looking around. No one other than them and the dead were around, that was good. “It seems you got much more than you were expecting from this night. How does that feel?” it asked, curious after seeing him laugh almost like a maniac right in front of it. This had been a strange night so far, and it didn’t seem to get any more normal any time soon. Between the trip down Sophia’s memory lane Animositas had been forced to take, and this gathering of the dead, it seemed things had taken an interesting turn.

For them. Anyone in their path would be best off running away. Preferably starting now.