Memory One You've found yourself taking on work as a Hunter around Lestallum for a short while, until today, when you took a job ridding the Lestallum EXINERIS power plant of daemons. The platform you're standing on is rusted, but solid. Not that you can see it clearly through the tinted faceplate of your hazard suit. It's ill-fitting and stiff, but better to have it than not.
Wait for your partner, you've been told. They're sending another hunter in. When he shows up, you're not impressed.
"You my backup?"
"I thought we were partners." The guy sounds defensive. You push away from the chainlink fence you were leaning against.
"You sound familiar..." the hunter murmurs, and you snap at him to save it. You have hunting to do. There are daemons everywhere, and the moment you reach the first group, your partner flickers into a distinctive teleport.
You pause only a second before taking out one of the other daemons with your sword.
"Those are some fancy moves you've got there," you try, voice low. "Reminds me of a certain king I know."
"Fancy that," the hunter's voice is level, amused, even as he kicks out at a monster and slams it over the railings. "You're not too shabby yourself. You'd make a good sparring partner."
"You think so?" You're openly smiling now, even if you can't be seen behind your faceplate, but your communicators buzz to life, interrupting any further discussion.
"Red alert, you two! We're detecting a major power surge! She's gonna blow! Abort the mission and get outta there!"
You take off at a sprint, the hunter beside you. Not away. No. Further in. "I'm not one to leave unfinished business. Can't speak for him though."
He tilts his helmet, still moving in the same direction. "Then allow me: 'I got this'."
It devolves into a familiar rhythm of slashes, spins, counters and lunges, until the two of you stand alone in the reactor.
"Nice job," the hunter calls. "You didn't disappoint."
"When have I ever?"
He laughs. "Keep it up."
"Will do. Now, let's scram."
It's as you're walking away from the plant that the memory ends abruptly.
Memory Two A confusing blur of combat, a shifting, rusted world of crystal and ancient blades planted in the rock of your battlefield. Your opponent, a masked figure almost twice your size, in a ragged cowl and ornate armour. I ain't afraid of you, you snarl, to the blademaster's taunts. Fire and blood, the clang of blade against blade. The fear in your heart grows with each moment, he states, implacable. It's true, but that's never stopped you before. You came here to prove that you're worthy, where all others fell. Your muscles burn with the exertion, your heart thrills with the fight.
When it ends, you remain standing, and the blademaster Gilgamesh has fallen.
Your battle with Gilgamesh is your most victorious, triumphant moment! You are the only one to have ever beaten Gilgamesh. Where others had died or run away, you won your fight against the ages old adversary of the Royal Shield. In winning your battle, you earned yourself a selection of new scars (one across your chest and one upon your face) as well as a sword. A sword that turned out to once belong to Cor, the Immortal, who had abandoned the sword when he failed to defeat Gilgamesh during his trial.
Memory Three Gladio is nine, and his mother, Ixia, passes away. His sister, a baby, doesn't remember her mother much at all.
She passes away after a long, drawn out illness. The starscourge, a plague that has been around for thousands of years. Only the Oracle can keep this plague at pay, and cure it within those afflicted.
Gladio has tried so hard to be strong for her, but seeing her wasting away after she had been such a strong, beautiful woman kills him inside. He cries himself to sleep at night. Praying that his mother will pull through. That someone can help her. But nothing does help her. She dies in hospital, isolated. He isn't able to see her during the later stages of her illness for fear he'll catch it, after she begins to exude a black mist known as 'miasma'.
His mother dies alone and that fact haunts Gladio to this day.
He loves his mother dearly and tries to remember only the positives, the good things she left him with. He tries so hard not to remember the broken shell of a woman, laying there on a hospital bed that seemed far too big for her small frame... so far gone that she can't even remember who he is half the time.
Gladio's last words to her are words of love... He loves her and will miss her. So very much.
Gladio | Theo
Themes: family, battle
Memory One You've found yourself taking on work as a Hunter around Lestallum for a short while, until today, when you took a job ridding the Lestallum EXINERIS power plant of daemons. The platform you're standing on is rusted, but solid. Not that you can see it clearly through the tinted faceplate of your hazard suit. It's ill-fitting and stiff, but better to have it than not.
Wait for your partner, you've been told. They're sending another hunter in. When he shows up, you're not impressed.
"You my backup?"
"I thought we were partners." The guy sounds defensive. You push away from the chainlink fence you were leaning against.
"You sound familiar..." the hunter murmurs, and you snap at him to save it. You have hunting to do. There are daemons everywhere, and the moment you reach the first group, your partner flickers into a distinctive teleport.
You pause only a second before taking out one of the other daemons with your sword.
"Those are some fancy moves you've got there," you try, voice low. "Reminds me of a certain king I know."
"Fancy that," the hunter's voice is level, amused, even as he kicks out at a monster and slams it over the railings. "You're not too shabby yourself. You'd make a good sparring partner."
"You think so?" You're openly smiling now, even if you can't be seen behind your faceplate, but your communicators buzz to life, interrupting any further discussion.
"Red alert, you two! We're detecting a major power surge! She's gonna blow! Abort the mission and get outta there!"
You take off at a sprint, the hunter beside you. Not away. No. Further in. "I'm not one to leave unfinished business. Can't speak for him though."
He tilts his helmet, still moving in the same direction. "Then allow me: 'I got this'."
It devolves into a familiar rhythm of slashes, spins, counters and lunges, until the two of you stand alone in the reactor.
"Nice job," the hunter calls. "You didn't disappoint."
"When have I ever?"
He laughs. "Keep it up."
"Will do. Now, let's scram."
It's as you're walking away from the plant that the memory ends abruptly.
Memory Two A confusing blur of combat, a shifting, rusted world of crystal and ancient blades planted in the rock of your battlefield. Your opponent, a masked figure almost twice your size, in a ragged cowl and ornate armour. I ain't afraid of you, you snarl, to the blademaster's taunts. Fire and blood, the clang of blade against blade. The fear in your heart grows with each moment, he states, implacable. It's true, but that's never stopped you before. You came here to prove that you're worthy, where all others fell. Your muscles burn with the exertion, your heart thrills with the fight.
When it ends, you remain standing, and the blademaster Gilgamesh has fallen.
Your battle with Gilgamesh is your most victorious, triumphant moment! You are the only one to have ever beaten Gilgamesh. Where others had died or run away, you won your fight against the ages old adversary of the Royal Shield. In winning your battle, you earned yourself a selection of new scars (one across your chest and one upon your face) as well as a sword. A sword that turned out to once belong to Cor, the Immortal, who had abandoned the sword when he failed to defeat Gilgamesh during his trial.
Memory Three Gladio is nine, and his mother, Ixia, passes away. His sister, a baby, doesn't remember her mother much at all.
She passes away after a long, drawn out illness. The starscourge, a plague that has been around for thousands of years. Only the Oracle can keep this plague at pay, and cure it within those afflicted.
Gladio has tried so hard to be strong for her, but seeing her wasting away after she had been such a strong, beautiful woman kills him inside. He cries himself to sleep at night. Praying that his mother will pull through. That someone can help her. But nothing does help her. She dies in hospital, isolated. He isn't able to see her during the later stages of her illness for fear he'll catch it, after she begins to exude a black mist known as 'miasma'.
His mother dies alone and that fact haunts Gladio to this day.
He loves his mother dearly and tries to remember only the positives, the good things she left him with. He tries so hard not to remember the broken shell of a woman, laying there on a hospital bed that seemed far too big for her small frame... so far gone that she can't even remember who he is half the time.
Gladio's last words to her are words of love... He loves her and will miss her. So very much.