Memory in the Sand [Jt, Val]

[Santa Ajora]

How long ago had it been since she'd found that damn place? Wandering hueco mundo was always a surreal experience, especially when trying to navigate the sands that seemingly were endless. But of course, there were places you could find. And she remembered one such area. An area she had found herself in by accident. Or rather, had been brought to perhaps by such an accident. A task that was....difficult as she could not control her garden in the wastes of Hueco Mundo. The rich, reishi-infused sand was all too delectable for her garden to ignore. As she went, she left a wake of black flesh and bone behind her. Scarring the desert until stray hollows no doubt would find it upon themselves to try and eat it. She paid them no mind as she continued her search.

She did nothing to hide her reiatsu, it was superfluous after all. Not once had she ever met something that could contend with her in these deserts. Overconfident as that may have made her, she still moved with confidence and resolution. She was far too close to what she needed to go backing down now. Even with the crowds of hollows giving her a wide berth as she moved, she never slowed down, not even caring to try and attack them for food at this point. No she was looking for something....specific. Soemthing that from time to time, she had questioned it's reality, if it had simply been some sort of dream she had been stuck in. But as she had grown she grew surer and surer that she had not been imagining it.

That place. The chasm buried in red sand. With the pillar of glowing stone that seemed to touch the sky. The place that strange arrancar had tried to take her so long ago. Promising her an end to her suffering. An End to her hunger. Ironic that she had been simply driven to kill and eat her. But now at the zenith of her evolution, she couldn't help but feel that perhaps that place was made for her to return to. She never planned on joining those strange beings. Those weird stones they carried with them never....quite made her feel comfortable. But surely those idiots couldn't still be around? If nothing else, she could clear them out and devour them, and find that place again. All she needed to do was find one of those damned ships.

A sound made her pause in her travel, turning her head as countless eyes in her garden turned to the source of the disturbance. Not far behind her, some of the hollows had begun fighting over the trail her garden left behind. She couldn't resist the contemptful look she threw over her shoulder in their direction. The fat that she had once been one of them was something she didn't much enjoy thinking of, let alone abiding. She pushed the thought out of her mind and focused on the path ahead of her. The path that meant getting back what she'd lost countless years ago. And in her irritation, three skeletal figures dragged themselves from the depths of her garden, rifles in hand before rpomptly firing into the crowd of hollowsd behind her, the loud CLAK of their discharge punctuating the sudden screams and dispersal of the fighting crowd as they scattered. She gave one last derisive look in their direction before continuing her walk.

Disgusting things.

[Valentin Acciai]

The former hollow had been in a state of euphoria for days now, he was powerful, beautiful and above any creature that could be found in the realms of Hueco Mundo. In fact such had his confidence grown that he'd dare think himself a match for that shinigami usurper who toyed with his pretend Vasto Espada but he was not quite that maddened as to actually pursue such a battle. The likes of them could keep rotting away in Las Noches, a relic of bygone days. Valentin had far better things to do than prove his superiority to such cowardly dregs. The mighty arrancar that was now Valentin, fair hued and haired was only here to freely test his abilities to his heart's Content as to not bring harm to the true place he had wanted to be.

Wrapped in little more than a light brown cloth of what was in fact the wing leather of an avian hollow that bound around him like a toga the fair hued humanoid stood atop a great mountain peak enjoying the soft light of Hueco Mundos moon for what could possibly be the last time. He grinned widely as he looked upon it, no predators maw to savagely bare its teeth but instead white, blunted teeth like that of a human hidden behind plush lips that formed his face to that of happiness and cheer. Oh indeed it was hard for him to control himself whenever he found a mirrored surface, a struggle to keep from grinning at himself for hours and prodding his skin.

But there were no such distractions now, on what time he could focus the fledgling arrancar had been practicing, trying to get used to his own abilities such as the layer of hierro invisibly around his skin, the sonido which was quite similar to those quickened steps of shinigami and pesquisa to feel the signature of all creatures near and far from him. While these were now things he innately had learned to use he'd lost a great deal of abilities in return as if rubbed away from his mind. He figured he'd still come out on top all things considered, many abilities could be relearned and those that couldn't would be replaced by more powerful arrancar variants. Fortunately he still recalled the method of redirecting such things as ceros or even eating them to top off his reiatsu stores after too much training, goading dim witted hollows into trying to annihilating him with cero and bala alike.

Having been through such a game he now sought more game to toy with as if a child with a magnifying glass hunting ants. Standing on that mountain top he made use of another pesquis to navigate what life still roamed this particular part of wasteland, lifesigns pinging in his mind like a ships radar finding hundreds of submarines. But not only could he find them, he could tell them apart, so much riff raff around that could barely amuse him he thought until… That was a familiar signature… He thought, incredibly familiar the arrancar decided. Curious, nay Intrigued he turned towards it in a great dash of speed as dunes and crystalline treetops passed him with quickening regularity. If it was whom he thought it was then she’d be in for a surprise. Though not the sneaky kind as Valentin wasn’t being stealthy about his approach whatsoever, just encouraged to beeline in her direction with even more vigour once he spotted her familiar stag-like horns poking out of the horizon.

’’Santaaaa~ Saaantaaa~!!!’’ he kept yelling to catch her attention though he was still quite far off, little more than a blotch of brown leather and pink waving hair bobbing up and down with every quickened step. The thought had not struck him to be more careful in approach about greeting another in the wastelands, at least not charging right at them like a particularly foolish enemy might have but Valentin wasn’t much for thinking once something got him distracted and worse yet the high of his power was still with him, clouding his instincts towards caution as he kept yelling her name across the vast emptiness between them.
Even if she mistakenly did attack him which could be nothing but a mistake he was certain by now he would well enough survive anything thrown at him, which too might have been the high talking again.

[Santa Ajora]

She had been making fairly good progress when she noticed something.....odd. A sensation she recognized. Her head turning for a moment as she heard something calling her name, her head quirking to the side as her garden rustled around her, countless forms within that area shifting their attention to the incoming being. It was obviously an arrancar, that much was certain, but they seemed to know her? Odd, the only arrancar she had ever dealt with and not eaten had been a part of LAs Noches. And this one wasn't garbed in their typical white uniform. In fact he looked like a stray. All the same she watched him carefully. A line of forms growing out of her garden and leveling rifles in the direction of the approaching arrancar, ready to fire and perforate the incoming hollow at a moment's notice. however she was....halted.

As he grew closer and closer to the edge of her garden, she got a better look at him. and something seemed....familiar. She still kept those weapons levele d at the incoming arrancar, but she remained....cautious. Pensive as he closed in. She herself remained at the center of he garden, and formed one of her dolls from the growth, allowing the mostly human-seeming figure t step from the edge of the garden, the marionette peering a bit incredulously at the arrancar as they moved in. "You seem to know me. Who might you be?" She asked through her doll calmly enough. She made no effort to attack or seem hostile for the time being.

But she still kept her guard up. This....strange...bubbly arrancar could have any number of little tricks up their sleeve. For now, she would wait expectantly. Eyeing over their strange garb. Were they a fresh arrancar? Or maybe part of some little tribe that hung around in heuco mundo? She didn't actually know what arrancar would do for clothing outside of being a part of las noches. They seemed fairly rare outside of the place. She made a mental note to look ingo that. It might behoove her to be a bit more familiar with themm as time went on and her plan got closer to fruition. She might even ask this ....strange woman if they seemed amicable enough. The lass certainly seemed friendly for some reason. Perhaps she was a fan of Santa's? Doubtful, but still more likely than most other notions.

[Valentin Acciai]

If there was one thing he hadn't expected Santa to do it'd been to level rifles towards him, the arrancar doing his best to break his stride kicking up sand as he did so. "Waiiit! Wait wait wait waiiiit!!" was the second thing to fly out of him as arms raised high in an attempt to deescalate. The hollow still keeping the guns trained at him she at least hadn't shot him which gave him the daring to get a bit closer at a slower pace as the familiar doll made it's exit from Santa's garden. A sigh of relief to know that it was indeed Santa he'd approached escaped him, worrying that he might've disturbed the wrong hollow.

Still, rifles aside he smiled brightly at her expecting a warm welcome and maybe a hug with the softness of skin as the arms raised went to the sides to become arms extended for the incoming embrace. At least… Until her words broke his spirit, shattering like glass in his expression of shock and disbelief. Arms sinking to his waist, shoulders slumping he rapidly went from shining bright to borderline depressed looking as he was ready to just about bury himself in the sand. "Y- you don't know me? Y- you forgot about me?" a dispairing sadness was in his shivering voice, as if he was a puppy that just got kicked.

Though as was a trait of his those emotions quickly shifted to accusatory disappointment "You can't just go forgetting about me! That's too cruel, especially for you Santa! Didn't we promise to both become Vasto Lorde?" he said as feet stomped unimpressive against the soft sand, fists bundled. He then forgetting about the rifles that had been aimed at him threw himself against the doll, taking a hug if she wouldn't give him one, sniffling as his eyes fogged and arms tried to clasp around the mastercrafted puppet. "I- I finally got to show you my face! You can't forget about me! It's not allowed!" the arrancar said in his over emotional state, he'd always been a storm even as a hollow but now that his emotional range had reached his zenith by abandoning his hollow nature he found himself lacking in self control. The old Valentin would have been collected enough to at least reintroduce himself before acting out.

[Santa Ajora]

She paused. Her brow furrowing through her doll as confusion was written across it's pretty face. But as he spoke about their promise, she balked, a bit taken aback. He ....he had DONe it? Val? The small, tiny, weak little precious thing she had so often protected in the layers of her garden? That she had shielded as best she could during those moments of triumph trying to invade the soul society? The line of rifles lowered as her doll stared a little at the arrancar before her.

"you really did it...." She murmured softly. And she .....she could not help but see it, and feel envy. Her own desire for her own humanity. to get rid of this...THING she had been made into. To see Val having evolved so ...beautifully. She stepped forward, meeting him halfway as he lunged, promptly the doll caught the leaping Arrancar and held him, closing her eyes for a moment and ....her hands roved without thinking. Patting him over. As if almost expecting some illussion to fall to pieces. But he was so very....whole. Unbroken. No faults or imperfections in the slightest. "Val." She affirmed softly, making it clear that she had realized who he was.

She furrowed her Doll's brows as her real body began....pacing around her garden. Thinking. Thinking VERY intently. as she thought about her plot. Her plan. to exhaust, to burn everything and ell that she was. To obliterate her hollow powers, exhausting them in entirely for the sole purpose of marring the soul society. and.....And she faltered. Even as her Doll smiled warmly. "I'm sorry Val. I just didn't recognize you. You look fantastic." A smile. Warmth even. all of it a gentle little puppet show put on for the arrancar's benefit as she stewed in her own uncertainty. Was......was she going about it the wrong way? For all of her ambition. Would.....would it not....be easier to just.... She reached up, and slowly ran her clawed fingers along her mask. And she wondered. If she broke it......would it stay that way?

Her mind snapped back. she raised her head and remembered why she was out here in the first place. Her hand slowly closing, turning, looking pointedly at Val as her Doll suddenly put on a more....serious expression. "It's.....wonderful to see you Val. But ....I'm afraid that it isn't....quite the time for Reunions." her doll said softly, and then looked to the east. So very far in the distance. Was a cracked sky. Not the tips and parchment-like tears of garganta. but the tattered slim fractaline slivers of bent light that hung in the air. As though some great window had been shattered, it's remains left in the air splitting the moonlight of hueco mundo. "There's something I have to do."

[Valentin Acciai]

"You really did it…" he heard like a whisper, unsure if it had ever been said at all as he'd lunged at her. Given her words he hadn't expected her to try and catch him but when she did he latched on hard as if worried she'd fade as if some desert mirage. She did prove to be quite real however, or as real as a meat puppet could be anyhow as Santa started touching and prodding at his form. He didn't really understand why but he was a bit too preoccupied wailing and sobbing to much ask. "Val" This however the short arrancar was sure that he had heard and it had made him deathly silent as he calmed.

Slowly he was letting go, putting his hands on the doll's shoulders while looking it in the eyes brightly, a large smile plastered over his face "You remember me!" he said with newfound comfort, a softness in his tone that he had never possessed as a hollow. She apologised for not recognising him for which Valentin tightened into a hug once more as he quietly spoke in her ear "You worried me half to death... And.. Thank you, this body is everything I've ever dreamt of and more." He hadn't noticed what Santa's real body was up to, if he had seen her considering breaking her mask then he'd have panicked and tried to stop her.

But he hadn't seen it, it had been far too comfortable to cling to her false body, a body which Ajora herself had told him to treat as if it was her. He didn't know if she could even feel his touch through it but she was warm and expressive so he could certainly feel hers. He did notice that the previously soft expression of hers had grown more seriousness as the embrace was undone allowing the two to converse more easily. From what she told him it seemed he had shown up at an inappropriate time. When she looked eastwards Valentin mimicked the motion and saw that which had taken her attention, a peculiar sight to be true.

He had no idea what it was, nor why Santa had business with it. All he could say for certain was that he had no intention to allow her to head of alone. No instead his purple eyed gaze wandered over to the hollows true body, the great stag of decaying flesh and bone. He smiled once more at the doll as he let go of it and took some steps aside before jumping high, aiming straight for the top of the hollows head atop her mask, planning to get himself comfortable between her horns. Whether she'd have permitted him to land undisturbed or not he'd tell her the same thing regardless. "Then I'll come along and help you of course!" he said with confidence "I'm not so weak as to need protection anymore, if anything I'd want to be the one to protect you~" He told her, and if atop her head would stroke his hand against her skull.

[Santa Ajora]

A brow raised slightly and she shook her head. " Of course I remember you. I simply didn't recognize you. You don't exactly look anything like you used to." She pointed out with furrowed brows on her doll's features. She watched as he seemed to follow her gaze, and then launched himself toward her real body. A startled shift on her form as he landed atop her head and planted that little twink butt of his on the spot between her antlers, her mask being the only part of her that her garden didn't grow on. Of course, she wasn't sure how she felt about his ass being so close to her face.

She....considered his offer. And kept her gae on that twisted etched air. Falling quiet as her doll fell to pieces as he seemed not too keen on continuing to respond to it. Her voice now escaping from the entirety of her garden, a symphony of rasped, strained voices. "It is a place that tried to tempt me. Once. They offered to help me breal my mask for good. They offered me a place to belong. I killed their messenger and ate them." She noted calmly enough, not bothering to explain the reasoning. It was from her more.....unstable....ravenous days.

"The place they tried to take me. Was special. It was.....different." Shw rasped, slowly starting to walk toward that shatterd air, the lines of bent light slowly shifting as they walked right up to the barrier itself, and right through one of th e massive holes outlined by those broken lines in the air. And once they did, Val would see that the desert on the other side was.....very different. The sand was a bright, deep crimson. Making the entire area glow that same malevolent color. And off in the distance. there was a rupture in the ground. Massibve sections of the ground beneath the sand curved and seemingly bore teeth toward the sky.

And in the very center. Was monolith like a broken blade. At first it seemed large. But once Val actually looked down ,and followed the pattern of the sand toward where it began. He would see it was TREMENDOUS. So large that it seemed almost comparable to Las Noches in it's sheer size. She stared at it from her potision with Val sitting on her skull. "I found this not that long ago. A hollow I had maimed traded his life for showing me this. Soemthing has happened here. And I intended on investigating." She rasped, then glancing up at Val from around his thighs. "Are you sure you intend to join me?"

[Valentin Acciai]

She had a point to be fair, the only things similar about his new look was the braided pink hair and his purple eyes which wasn’t much to go on so he conceded just a little with a noncommittal "You may or may not have a point there" whilst momentarily avoiding eye contact. Then later once atop her head which he hadn’t fully expected Ajora to permit he could see a great deal more from up high, the turning of her head shifting him alongside with it making it easy to spot what she spoke of. The group she spoke of sounded strange indeed, few in Hueco Mundo would invite strangers to their communities, much less so offer to help someone with anything. To Valentin it sounded very much like a rather hollow scam and from what Santa had told him it seemed like she had drawn the same conclusion, punishing the messenger with becoming her meal.

As to the concerns she had of which the arrancar was very much unaware Valentin in his mind was just very comfortable with the Adjuchas, he'd once hid in the muck of her garden to escape a rain of fire, and another time he remembered Santa had hidden his head and body within her ribcage when he'd been decapitated by an arrancar ambush. Granted all hollow were rather touchy about anything coming too close to their masks but he figured the two of them were beyond such hollow fears such as betrayal. That and Valentin failed to realize the potential rudeness of his act as it had been a rather long time ago since he'd had such a thing as an ass to seat himself comfortably with. More importantly before he managed to get distracted by the intricate shapes of her horns she began speaking of the subject matter at hand which focused his mind somewhat.

The crimson sands were certainly new, bringing him to wonder just how much blood it would have taken to paint the sands as such though realizing the sands should have been black then rather than crimson. A short and wonderfilled "Wow…" escaped his lips as his eyes focused on the immensity of the blade like structure in the distance. Noticing the eye looking up at him he leant over and smiled at her "Of course I'll join you, had i found this place on my lonesome I'd be all over it myself!" he said with fingers pointing towards adventure. Coming to his feet one of his arms clasped around one of her horns as he leaned slightly sideways "It sure does look like a sword, do you think it might've been the blade of some ancient Vasto Lorde king?"

[Santa Ajora]

Santa was not too surprised when Val took it upon himself to express his interest in joining her. A stare into the vast red sands before them was more than enough to make her shift from hoof to hoof thoughtfully, rolling her shoulders as she wondered what sort of things might lay buried in the distance. But it was.... a considerable distance away to be sure. She continued scanning the area, even looking behind them. It was at this point that she found something....interesting. Something they hadn't seen from the other side of that fractured barrier.

Some sort of ....wurm. A beast, massive to undersell it. Was not that far behind them. Bodies strewn all about it, practically hugging the inner curve of that barrier that separated them from Heuco Mundo in general. Whatever broken lense had been keeping this place from being seen from the outside, had hidden them as well. And she couldn't help but recognize something. One of the bodies, had something shiny on their chest hanging about their neck. And just the sight of it made her....tense. Lax sortof. And she thought back to that strange arrancaress that had approached her so long ago. And the long, worm-like vessel she had had.

Santa slowly turned to face the monster, turning Val in the process, so that he culd see the beast, that seemed to be chewing on a pile of dead bodies. The thing was massive. More than forty feet long by her measure. "I don't suppose you've any experience in taming wild beasts?" She asked calmly enough, and saw thatthe beast was now looking in their direction. Or ...specifically, her garden that was still growing and spreading along the landscape around her. It was starting to approach it, and she already had ... a semblacne of a plan. This one...she would not eat. This could be useful. Hopefully Val was strong enough to help in the endeavor.

[Valentin Acciai]

She hadn't answered him but, well, that was fine. Her horns had made for an interesting enough distraction to hang from as the newborn arrancar greatly lacked for any measure of discipline or patience. The wurm as Ajora thought of it as Valentin hadn't paid much attention to, expecting it to if anything at all just be another meal for the Adjuchas from which horn he was hanging on. Though as he noticed Ajora's focus towards the beast he deigned to do the same and in so doing saw the bodies scattered about. Now bodies being a strange thing to spot in the sands of Hueco Mundo for long as hollow usually disintegrate once left dead for long enough or are swallowed up by either sand or other hollow which made it curious indeed, or recent.

Her question to him was a curious one as the two of them observed the gargantuan thing slowly eating of the bodies and so he gave it a think finding little to answer with. But, he would answer with the closest comparison he could think of "If by beast you mean animal and by animal you mean cats I've found that any attempt to befriend them has proven fruitless when lacking of a physical live body. They mostly got frightened when touched by something they couldn't see. " but somehow he figured this was not at all the answer she had sought so giving it another think with another glance at the creature in the distance he clapped his hands together, promptly falling and landing onto the flesh of her shoulders as he'd let go of her horns.

"Ah! Hm… No, I haven't a clue how to tame that thing over there, sorry." he said with shoulders slumping in disappointment of himself "but" he then added as he just as quickly straightened his back and made a confident pose with his shoulders wide and arms at his hips. "It's never a bad time to learn! This one can at least see us!" he confirmed, being able to be seen in his mind made cats a far harder thing to tame than any manner of hollow creature that could actually see the arrancar, thusly this would make for ample training before he could next try with a cat. "So uh, got a plan or we improvising? I'm pretty confident about improv."