daybreakacademy | Memory Sharicus

Memory Sharicus - Oh No, not again!

About 8 am on July 15th, Rex does something stupid in his usual genius way. It was meant to be a small, simple test run of a method to scan a person and instantly gain all the data he needed to produce a Phantom.

The small field the spell was meant to spread just kept growing, until popping like a bubble with the most counterintuitive sound of all- two seconds of white noise, sounding as if it was coming from inches away. Not everyone heard it. But everyone who did...

It's a painless process, almost ticklish and instantaneous as numerous coloured orbs fly out from their chest, taking wild curving trajectories that launch them all over the academy and some of Soleil, coming to a sudden stop and hovering silently for just a few seconds.

That's when they start to slowly float towards the nearest possible recipient of the memory they contain, accelerating as they get closer as if thought and mind have a unique sort of magnetism.

It's sort of beautiful to see, really, not that Rex will notice because 60% of his mind is consumed with fear he will get into trouble and the Phantom project will be compromised. On the other hand, the Phantom project could provide the perfect scapegoat. So about six hours after the initial event, he released his latest creation- the Phantom mischief-maker, Waggery!

What a disaster.

(( ooc: The planning post is here! Be careful to warn for the nastier memories! If you already have memories planned to share, feel free to write them as a top level or just put up your character and link to the planning/make it a free for all. There'll be a post below for Waggery shenanigans and random NPC memories up for grabs. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Green Skeles like we decided,]

You're not on watch tonight. Not assigned for split off, none of that. Tonight, for once, is a nice night. There's a tension in some of you-- there always is, always the background need to be ready to run, just in case of something-- but for the past few nights, things have actually been clear.

Your familia also found some of the good stuff, an outland plant the squeezes out some kind of liquid the lot of you can actually, somehow, drink. You joke every time about what skeleton was able to figure that one out. It's nothing you need, doesn't do anything for any of you, save for loosen you up and bring you some small bit of comfort and ease. You fill bottles with it and spread it around. About two months ago even, you found another guitar. The luck is good, and maybe that's a sad thing, that drink and song alone are considered lucky, but out here it's enough. It's good enough. Those three things together call for celebration.

A fire's been lit for the sake of comfort alone. You're gathered around it, some skeletons sitting in the sand, some pulling up bits of cloth (usually draped around them, carrying things or even each other) to sit together, couples and family leaning on one another, only rarely knowing each other in life. The stars shine above and if you squinted at the scene, you could imagine you're all back on earth somewhere.

"And he says-- I tell you-- he says; I'm sorry, but until that pig is out of the drive, I can't help you!" The big skeletal man bellows without laughter at his own joke. His rib cage rattles, and you hear the guffaws and laughs of others joining in. Soft laughter and wheezing breaths and everything in between. None of you are alike.

Weaker laughter comes from two of the newer skeletons, their first rest and first break since they woke up dead. But you see your Tío, speaking in hush to them both. He points out to three smaller skeletons-- children, it was horrifically easy for children of all people to fall into the outlands and disappear forever-- laughing together as they race about. Something in what your Tío says seems to ease the newer skeletons and you smile softly.

It's then that your Tío spots you looking. You start but he only looks fond right back, going over to ruffle your hair. He treats you like a kid. Sometimes you don't really mind.

"Notice you haven't spoken up yet," He says. "Why don't you give us a song?"

"I--" Before you can even protest, another voice calls out.

"Juanita!" It's Chicharrón. You should've known.

"Juanita!" Another chimes in with a laugh of delight.

"Juanita?" Says one of the newer skeletons, a man in an office uniform. The teenage girl in bright colors and wrist bangles looks just as confused.

"Oh, you don't know Juanita?" Your Tío says, amused. "Everyone knows Juanita."

"The love of Chicharrón's life," You tease.

"Shut your mouth and sing the song!" He growls back, jostling his pile of junk that he's gathered on his own little cloth patch.

"Can't do both~" But your Tío gives a nod to urge you on, and so you relent. In short moment, you start to play. And then you sing.

"--Her teeth stick out and her chin goes in... and her--" That little group of skeletal kids cuts through the lot of you all, jumping over and even through in some cases. You pause. Then correct the words behind your teeth. "Knuckles they drag on the floor."

You go on to finish the song, contentedly singing more through the night.

[Reira doesn't know much about the details of her life in the outlands; most of it comes out in tiny little anecdotes about how the sky was upside down and purple, or similar. But when she grabs hold of this bubble, and sees...This...

Well first off she is Fairly Certain she recognized one of those voices. For that matter, she swears she's seen cool fun skeletons before and now she needs to compare notes.

Reira's notes are only That Note, it counts.

Regardless, she's running. Shouting. Looking-

AHA.

Héctor will be met with a small and oh so accusing point.]

....You knew the music bones!

[That came out not quite how she wanted it to, English is stupid.]

[He's just making his way through a hall, when suddenly there's a little girl charging around the corner.]

Oh hey--

[And just like that, he's being pointed at with a stern accusation. That he doesn't understand. He glances around them and then looks back to Reira.]

Uuhhh... Pardon? The music bones?

[She should have thought of a BETTER WORD...] ...The bone people! [She insists, nodding her head.] ...I saw them in the bubble!

Like the bones I saw in the other place, where it was dark and bright at the same time! [So this is making as much sense as usual,

She points again.] But I heard you in the bubble version, with the other bone people!! You had a song about a lady with weird knuckles!

[oh no]

[Bone people... bubble... dark and light...he's following along as best he can. It's the part Reira claims to be strangest that clicks the best.

He manages to choke on air. He splutters.]

Juanita!?

[Juanita and her dragging... knuckles. Yes. Knuckles. Wait, hang on, that meant--]

I...that's not my song. It's just a song! That I... might know. That doesn't mean it was me!

Oh, that was her name. [Aha, there they are. And hey.] Yes it does, you knew her name and it was your voice. So even if everyone knows her, your voice means you're the one who knows the other bone people!

...I don't know if they're the ones I knew, but... [She looks down for a moment, before turning her attention back with determination.] I saw them somewhere! So it's important!

[also, actually, a good question,] ....

How come you knew them, anyway...

[She... doesn't know. She hasn't worked it out. Maybe he hadn't been looking at himself. It's very possible he hadn't. She could've just heard his voice and saw everyone else.

Okay. Okay...]

I- well- they found me. I fell into the outlands and they found me. We traveled together. For a long time.

[Wait.]

Hang on a second, you met those guys?

Edited 2019-07-20 08:47 (UTC)

I don't know, they just looked like the bone people I've seen before... [She grumbles, frowning.] There was lots of walking, and talking, and then one day I woke up somewhere else again, like every other place.

[Which is to say, Stuff Happened, so the sprites skedaddled, as they always do. Anyway.]

...I guess that makes sense. How do you fall into those places instead of just walking though...

[Sometimes trying to follow Riera's thought process is like trying to put together a puzzle that's been painted black. The pieces fit together. He just doesn't know how. He sighs. He'll just have to accept the answer he's been given.]

It's a figure of speech. A metaphor. You say "you fell in" when you wind up in a place you didn't mean to be and weren't trying to go to. An accident.

...that's a strange way to say it, [she mutters. Anyway.]

...Why was it so hard to find a different place? [She is, of course, Assuming in the way she does that Héctor just sort of wandered the same chunk of outlands for many many years. What do you mean bone-people can go to other places. That's fake. That's totally fake Héctor.

This puzzle is more than painted black. This puzzle is painted black and also now upside-down.]

I... don't know what you mean, niña. Can you explain it to me?

[Because it's not as if he doesn't understand the Outlands.]

The only reason this place isn't the outlands is because everyone keeps saying it isn't the outlands, [She explains, somehow.]

There were lots and lots of different places before, but everyone said those were all 'The Outlands'... ...there were nice places, even if they weren't nice for very long, so...

...If I was able to see so many different places, why did you only get to see one? [She's assuming of course. Assuming that Héctor being stuck means being stuck in one region within that realm.]

[He frowns even deeper. He's not getting much of anywhere.]

This place is different from the Outlands because it's a place where humans aren't supposed to be. It's for fae and daemons and magic stuff. Like how there are fish and things in the ocean. You can go in the ocean or the Outlands but it's not where we're meant to be. We're not made to survive it. It's not our home.

[He hasn't answered her question. He's not sure he can until he understands, which means making it so she can understand too.]

....Why did we then.

[That's a very dry way of forgetting entirely about her own question to make accusations instead, wow.]

There's a lot of places that aren't like the ocean there too, they're all really different...

[It would be more helpful if she was not so literal about these things.]

They're still not places that humans are supposed to be, niña. Even if some parts are nicer it's still all really dangerous. You had to keep moving out there, didn't you? Why do you think that is?

[She's a child, he wouldn't be surprised if it was just something she hadn't thought about.]

We made it through because of luck and because we kept moving. Maybe a little help from others. It's like how some people survive being struck by lightning. A lot of people who go through that world never do survive.

[Reira's eyes have narrowed into a squint. She has, admittedly, acknowledged that each place is dangerous.

It's just, this place seems pretty dangerous half the time too. The sprites might not think so, but that's more because none of the danger has been directed at her specifically.

Also by the time they fought that first Herald, she'd convinced them not to just book it the minute something went on in the tower they were infiltrating.

Regardless.

She is 100% back on her B-S,] So you DID see different places!

...I didn't know the bone people went to different places too...

[REIRA]

[He sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. Despite some people's impressions, he's not an endless well of patience. Far from it.]

Everyone moves in the Outlands. It's a necessity. The only way to settle in one place is if you've got a lot of power and a lot of help. The work it takes is monumental.

....

Did you like any of the places?

[His expression softens, hand dropping down, but he doesn't look happier. Not at all. He's silent a long moment.]

... I wanted to go home, Reira. It could've been heaven and I wouldn't have been happy.

[It's the reality of it. It's something he knows is true in the core of him.]

Maybe if it hadn't been dangerous for me and my... familia. Maybe if I'd never had a home before. Then I could like it. There were a lot of beautiful things there, as well as the scary. But it's hard to think about liking it with everything that went on.

Edited 2019-07-31 12:38 (UTC)

[Doesn't look it, doesn't feel it... She frowns, and after a few moments-]

What makes something 'home'?

[It's a sad question to ask. It's a question he mulled over long ago, to a lesser degree but all the same.]

It's the place where you're most safe. You're safe to be you. Safe to relax and be still. Where you have good memories. It's the place where you're closest to the people who love you. And who you love too. Your family. It's the place where you're least afraid. Or lonely.

[A place where you're 'most' safe. As Héctor explains more and more, Reira only feels more and more confused. Home doesn't feel like the right word for Daybreak after all. But she's been here so long, it's surely the safest place isn't it? And she's learning to stay awake while possessed, so that's pretty Her. And there's good memories. And people who like her, she thinks. And.

...] ...how do you know though?

If it's the right place?

Do you remember we talked about friends? How it's something you'll just... know? This is kind of like that. Some people are born with it right away. For others, like you or me, it takes longer. And it's something we have to find first.

[And that part is hard. He can't make that part easier. It feels like forever. But...]

There may be people, friends you love more than anything in the world someday. They can be your family, if you all want to be. And then, when you find a place you love too, where you know you're safe, as safe as you can be, you and your family... When you know there is nowhere else in the world you want to be, where, being away from it breaks your heart a little, and being away from the people there breaks your heart a lot...

That's how you know what home is.

[Reira does little more than nod, when he asks about that last conversation. She remembers it quite well. (He seemed very sick after all)

But it doesn't make the answer any better of course. All she can really do is turn her head down, brows furrowed in thought.]

...Why are the important things all like this? Where you don't have the answer, and you just 'know' when it's right? ...it makes things too hard.

Memory Sharicus - Oh No, not again!

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should we wrap up around here?

Works for me