AUDIENCE: SORA

[retellers]

Comments

[retellers]

Even if it had been your fault, I'd still have wanted to see you! You got hurt! [ they slump a little ]

[reconnective]

...sorry. [he does look like he feels bad, at least.] I also didn't want you to worry more than you had to with everything going on here.

[retellers]

How was that going to worry me less when I knew you got injured?

[ POUTS ]

[reconnective]

I don't knooow, I'm sorrryy. [they're both the same brand of stupid because he pouts back.] I already messed up on the moon, and then that happened so it was just a lot.

[retellers]

Exactly! You got injured twice!! And then it was like you only came to see me because I told you to with the Queen thing, so I thought maybe you were mad and I'd pressured you or something.

[ :( ]

[reconnective]

...don't be dumb. [don't be rude?] We're friends, aren't we? I didn't want to make things worse, but that doesn't mean I was mad or that I'm forcing myself to spend time with you.

[retellers]

Then that goes for you too. [ forcefully? ] You're not going to burden me by telling me things, okay?

[reconnective]

Yeah...okay. [he'll sit on the ground and stare at the sky.] There's a lot that happened this week that was kind of messed up. I'm still trying to figure out what to do next.

[retellers]

[ they sit on the ground next to him, immediately leaning because it is now cuddle time since sora isn't mad ]

Talk about it? Maybe I can help you figure it out.

[reconnective]

[i'm glad every swan thread is just cuddle hour. but he lets them and leans back against them.]

...how much do you already know if you can see stuff?

[retellers]

I don't like, spy on you, promise! I know the big picture stuff. And I couldn't totally see what was happening when you were stuck in that... whatever. [ they shrug a little ] But sometimes even just talking through stuff can help, so you can pretend I don't know anything at all if it helps? Or just assume I know enough.

[reconnective]

...well I think you know about the moon. Izumo and I went past the barrier and followed these voices...but they got so loud they were screaming until our ears bled and we almost blacked out. There was a monster down in a canyon, but not the alien Taako and Won and Shima saw.

There isn't a way to fix our hearing, right? It's just like this now?

[retellers]

I don't think there's even medicine for busted eardrums. And since we don't have access to healing magic...

[ they sigh a bit and lean on him harder ]

Um, it'll fix itself, but it takes a couple of weeks, I think.

[reconnective]

[they can lean...he doesn't always let himself relax but he's learning and letting it happen.]

That's okay. Nobody else went out there that far so my signs worked. [but he frowns.] Hopefully the screaming stops soon, too.

[...he goes quiet again instead.] ...the other thing was...strange. I still don't know how we got there, but one of the other leaders says it sounded like we ended up in a memory. But I don't know how when it wasn't familiar to me except for the parts that were. It was like they were taking my memories to make me see people I knew. And the burns are real, so...how could it only be a memory?

[retellers]

Well, the space station and the moon, all of that, that's just a memory, too. The Realm only connects to places and people through nova, and that's all memories.

[ they make a small ball of light, about as big as a firefly and let it float for a second ] The memories we make connect to one another. [ they make a few different balls and then make them go around in a circle, faster and faster until it's just a circle of light ] And all of that flows from one place to another through here. So everything we see in this place, everywhere we visit, those are memories. And if there are any gaps in the memories, it fills it in with something else that's similar. That's why it's not an exact copy of a place.

[ they pause ]

So maybe, you went in someone's memories, and those bits that were familiar to you were the Realm trying to fill in the missing gaps of the memory. Does that make sense?

[reconnective]

[he watches the light go round and round with a tiny little "oh" noise like he's surprised.]

Yeah. I remember what you said earlier. And I asked one of the others and they said that the bridge is going to connect us to somewhere else later. A different memory. It's weird though.

[it's not weird, it's the plot of chain of memories.]

But that makes sense. I guess what I want to know then is whose memory was that? There's really no way of us knowing, is there?

[retellers]

I don't think so. Everyone's losing memories and the Realm's flow is disturbed, so honestly, it could be anyone's memories. [ they keep up the spinning for a bit because they can. ] Is it important, whose memory it is?

[reconnective]

Probably not, but I thought maybe if we knew, we could help return them somehow, or find a way to use them to make things better. [he watches the spinning.] Like...I don't know, what if maybe they were yours, but you don't know it because you don't remember at all?

[retellers]

Oh. Maybe? [ they tilt their head, and now they are just making the light show spin in different directions ] I guess I don't have any proof that it isn't mine, or one of the other Leaders'. But even if that's the case, you can't just grab those memories and give them back.

[reconnective]

[he's very fascinated with this light.]

Why not?

[retellers]

I told you, it's a flow. [ now they are just. making shapes. ] Even when your PHS is collecting nova, it's just putting that back in its place in the flow of the Realm. It's not like, a tangible thing you can grab and shove it at someone until it fits.

[reconnective]

So it's more like it's all just mixed together and can't be separated by person. Something like that? And the more we collect, the bigger the flow gets so it's something constant.

[retellers]

Something like that, yeah. [ close enough, anyway, that they stop their light show to lean further on sora ] And you might've seen it with the memories here, but even just telling someone something they forgot doesn't always work. Like that guy's name.

[reconnective]

[cuddles for swan and swan only.]

There has to be a way to make stuff stick. Killing people can't be the only option to get our memories back. Right?

[retellers]

[ it's sunday but yes this is true for all the week. ]

There is. Once everything is back to normal, the flow will bring them back naturally. Right now it's like... instead of a straight river, it's got a bunch of little streams that end nowhere?

[ there's a beat ]

Also, I should tell you, Wolf and the others found out the disturbance itself is something that's eating the nova, so. That explains why you guys are leaking.