Memory Sharicus - Oh No, not again!

[heromedal]

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. ))

Comments

[unpocoloco]

[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?

[soft_focus]

[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]

[unpocoloco]

[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!

[soft_focus]

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...

[unpocoloco]

[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?

[soft_focus]

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...

[unpocoloco]

[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.

[soft_focus]

...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.]

[unpocoloco]

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.]

[soft_focus]

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.]

[unpocoloco]

[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.]

[soft_focus]

....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.]

[unpocoloco]

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.

[soft_focus]

[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]

[unpocoloco]

[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.

[soft_focus]

....

Did you like any of the places?

[unpocoloco]

[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.

[soft_focus]

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

What makes something 'home'?

[unpocoloco]

[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.

[soft_focus]

[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?

[unpocoloco]

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.

[soft_focus]

[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.

[unpocoloco]

That's a question a lot of people ask, Reira. No one really has an answer. But too hard sounds impossible. It's not. It just takes a lot of time. You live your life between all that. And you remember that when you finally do find it, it'll be worth it.

[He touches the top of her head just slightly, to keep her looking up.]

[soft_focus]

[There's not really a lot to say to that. She's looking up, but she doesn't know what to say.

...]

...It would be nice to know sooner. ...Then I wouldn't make people hurt by asking about things. [It's nice to know when what you say is going to hurt someone after all.]

[unpocoloco]

[His face still manages to fall, somehow.]

Ay, niñita, it is not your fault. You're not trying to hurt anyone. Some things will make people sad, but that happens. That doesn't mean it's not something they can handle or that you can handle together, if you need to. It's okay. We're both okay.