Who: Ulquiorra Cifer, OPEN
When: Saturday evening
Where: Around the southwestern part of Anatole.
Format: Starting prose, open to whichever preference~
What: A past not quite forgotten but long since recalled, revisited in form. Thar be Vasto Lordes present.
Warnings: Potential violence? We'll see how things go!
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And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me )
Stranger still, the girl spoke to him. Wasn't she afraid? Or had living beings just become all that much bolder..?
It had been so long since he had last spoken to anyone, or anything. Days, weeks, months and years- they meant nothing in Hueco Mundo. Survival was measured by strength, and once you had managed to claw your way to the top of the food chain, there was nothing but a vast emptiness. Those that reached that plateau found those few that like them, had surpassed the need to struggle amidst the barbaric souls that continued to live under an "eat or be eaten" mentality. They had risen from monsters, but even so, they were still...
"...a Hollow..."
The response took effort, occupying the thin space between being directly spoken and simply being heard.
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She thought back, but the name didn't match any of the aliens she'd encountered. Maybe he was native to the place. "Were you brought in by the Door, or are you native to this place?" She asked warily.
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"....I do not know this place." Nor did Ulquiorra know what the girl meant by this "Door." Surely he would have realized that he'd passed through some portal, and indeed with the differences between Hueco Mundo's atmosphere and this, he couldn't figure out how the transition had gone unnoticed by him.
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"So you were probably brought here like everyone else." Maybe just recently - she thought she would have sensed that choking feeling from this one before. She shifted her weight, her legs feeling heavy. "When they're first brought here, it's not of their own choice. Do you ... have a name?"
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"Where is here? It is like the realm of the living... And yet...." It had been a long time, so he supposed he could possibly be mistaken. But his instincts were usually quite reliable. His eyes were searching, scanning the surroundings again before he brought his attention back towards the girl. Something...brought him here? Something powerful enough to reach between spiritual planes of existence?
His questions were momentarily dispersed by the question Gwen asked next. Such a simple question, and yet it brought with it a myriad of things- feelings, perhaps, memories, maybe.
A name. Had it ever been asked of him? Had any of the others cared? Years could pass and he would never forget their cold, toothy grins and even colder eyes as they sent him away. A flicker of that hurt manifested in his own eyes but for a brief moment.
His name. It didn't really matter, did it? Names faded, just like everything else. Names meant nothing, words meant nothing, company and lonesomeness all dwindled to the same.
But still... He found his name, buried in the sifting memories of decades, perhaps even centuries that all blurred into one mass. He brought it up, held it close. A name. Even objects had names.
"....Ulquiorra..."
It sounded both foreign and familiar to him, to say it.
"...it's Ulquiorra."
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"This place is called Anatole. It's ... sort of another dimension from your original world." She folded her arms thoughtfully, watching the Hollow as he worked his way to remembering his name. "Ulquiorra. Okay then - my name is Gwen. Gwen Tennyson. Do you remember how long you've been here, Ulquiorra?"
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"Anatole." Not a familiar name, that much he knew. The girl- Gwen? He tilted his head at that. She'd given both names without hesitation. Ah yes. Protocol for mortals. A right earned by Hollows, the stronger ones at least. If you were weak, you vanished without anyone knowing your name.
Ulquiorra shook his head. "Not long..." He thought. Nights were all that existed in Hueco Mundo. He recalled seeing the light of the day here, before it had sunk into the more familiar darkness.
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"Where are you from?" Curious little thing isn't she?
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"...it's called Hueco Mundo. It is not a place known among the living," he added after some consideration.
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"Wait, what do you mean, 'Not known among the living'."
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The unblinking green eyes stared at her as though they could see straight through to her own soul. "It is a place where souls dwell... The bitter.... The hateful.... The restless..."
The bad ones. Hollows. Those that had become monsters because they could not leave the world in peace.
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