Memory Cave

[voidtreckermods]

After the passengers see a glimpse of a life that is not their own they appear in a cave. It is light, a strange moss glowing on the walls and ceiling illuminates the cave nicely and it is large enough for them to pace around in without trouble.

They are not alone. In the cave with them is another voidtrecker. Maybe someone they know well, maybe someone they have only seen in the aisles of the train. But they are together in this cave together.

The cave has no exit, at least not yet. They know that it will, eventually. When the time is right.

But for that time to come, they first must talk...

(OOC: For reference: memories!)

Comments

[carrythetorch]

There's a strange moment as he wakes from the -- dream? memory? some strange combination of the two? -- vision that Lio isn't sure where he is. It's not home, though it's not all that dissimilar from the cave where he'd hidden with the other Burnish for a while. It's not the train.

And he's not alone.

A frown at the question and he shakes his head. Beats him. Lio stands, moving to walk slowly around the perimeter of the small space. No exits. But he already knew that, right?

His gaze circles back towards Danny. "Was that yours? That memory just now. A kid at school with his sister. And a secret." And if he saw that, what did this boy see?

[schrodingersghost]

"Uh, maybe? I mean, I do have a sister and a school. And a secret, although its not really much of a secret any more."

A few months of life on the train had seen to that. And even though he'd gone through a massive panic attack at the time, Danny couldn't argue that life was better here now that he didn't have to hide. Even if it sometimes made him feel incredibly guilty that he often felt safer here on the train, even fighting monsters, than he'd ever been able to manage at home.

And wait a moment.

"So does that mean that the fire and the people and the city and everything were yours?"

[carrythetorch]

Lio makes his way back to take a seat across from the teen. For a long moment he regards him, considering what he saw, beyond the most recent flash of images, that first jolt of a memory that had felt like a fever dream crammed into a fraction of a second.

One corner of his lips quirks up into brief flicker of a smile at the question. "If there was fire, yeah. Probably mine." But that begs the question. "What did you see?"

Lio has been keeping what he is and what he can do mostly under wraps since arriving on the train, until he sussed out just how his fellow passengers would react to the presence of a Burnish. Of course, Galo is here and knows who and what he is, and he'd never deny being Burnish if it came up.

"You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."

[schrodingersghost]

"Just now? There was a city? And some people hiding from someone who wanted to experiment on them, I think." Danny grimaces. "Which let me tell you, I am completely on board with."

One of the best parts about life on the train is that no one had threatened to dissect him in months.

[carrythetorch]

The fact that he says just now is enough to make Lio certain they've both seen two flashes of memories that aren't theirs at this point. He nods.

"The Burnish. Our settlement. We'd rescued as many as we could, made a place we thought could be safe, for a while." They were wrong.

"Glad to hear it. You have some experience, right? What I saw just now was a conversation with an older sister outside of school. Jazz, right? About her knowing your secret. But before that..." Before that, the memory had been considerably darker. "Before that, whoever's memory it was, they were captured, strapped to some device, trying to get help for someone named Danielle, someone who was a ghost but also human."

[schrodingersghost]

And at that Danny winces. He had a pretty good idea of exactly which memory that was. And it was something he hadn't meant to talk about. To anyone. Ever.

"Yeah... both of those are mine. But it wasn't actually as bad as it looked? And everything turned out okay. I think."

That was a pathetic attempt, and he knew it.

[carrythetorch]

"It looked terrible," Lio informs him, bluntly but not unkindly. There's a sympathetic note to his voice. He's been in a similar situation before himself. "However it turned out, doesn't diminish what happened." What was done to this boy... to either of them.

"You were able to save your friend, then?"

He frowns. "So are you a ghost? You look very alive." How exactly does that work?

[schrodingersghost]

Danny waves that off. "Oh, yeah. I finally managed to get Val to listen to me. We broke Dani out, and I got her the medicine she needed. Val even decided to let me go after all that."

He shrugs, a little uncomfortably. He'd honestly been trying not to think too hard about that day since arriving here. His ex-girlfriend, a girl that he still considered a good friend, had tried to torture him for information. And she hadn't even seen anything wrong with it, because he'd been a ghost at the time.

What was he supposed to feel about that?

"And yeah, I'm half-ghost. Its kind of a secret at home, but there isn't really a point here in trying to hide it. And no one's shot at me in months, so, you know. Everything's cool."

[carrythetorch]

"Sounds like a nice change of pace," Lio opines quietly. It's meant to be light, but it doesn't quite sound that way. Oh well, he tried.

"I haven't been here months, I just got on at the last stop. Back home everyone knows what I am." He holds out a hand and a little flame springs to light in his palm, a strange fuschia color, but unmistakably fire. "Burnish, therefore dangerous. Hunted. I haven't exactly advertised what I am here. I won't hide it, but I haven't learned the lay of the land yet."

He has talked to one woman who was fairly adamant about fire being a problem, and didn't taket hat as a good sign.

[schrodingersghost]

Danny peers at the light in fascination. "Oh, so that's where that dream about fire came from." He holds out one hand, and in a quick rush of cold energy creates a crystal of ice that floats above his palm. "My core is ice, so I kind of had the feeling that that wasn't mine."

He shrugs and lets the the ice crystal disperse back into the room. "I don't really know what a burnished is, but the thing that everyone kept telling me here for the first few months is that here on the train? We're an entire universe away from our problems at home. I know its hard to believe when you're used to being hunted. I still kind of expect people to freak out at me. But it is better here."

[carrythetorch]

Lio can't help a brief huff of something like amusement. It would figure that he'd get caught up with someone with ice powers. Fire and ice. Why not. "Ice is what they use to fight and suppress the Burnish back home. And fires in general. Galo would appreciate that power."

But now that's curious too. "What sort of dream about fire?" Because that could be so many instances in his life.

He nods. "I've been told that before, that people seem to accept the different here. I'd like to believe that."

[schrodingersghost]

Danny sighs."Yeah, it took me a long time to believe it too. It still kind of seems too easy."

And sometimes he still felt really guilty about how comfortable he had started to get here. He shouldbe trying to get home, even if no one here had discovered a way yet. But... it was really nice not having to worry about hunters, or accidentally setting off some kind of anti-ghost weapon in his own house.

A wince."Ouch. Well, I can definitely promise I'm not here to suppress anything. Though if you ever do accidentally set fire to the train I could probably do something about it?"

Danny frowns a little as he thinks back. "It was really weird. It was like I was frozen, and then I was really angry. And also on fire."

[carrythetorch]

"Most fires I set are on purpose. But yeah, if it comes to it, good to know you can help out. Like I said, Galo would appreciate it. He's from my world too, but he's a firefighter, not Burnish." Big difference there, but Galo is still a stand-up guy.

Lio frowns as well at the description of the memory. "Could be a few times, but definitely mine." Frozen and on fire at the same time, he hums. "Was there a dragon?" Of course it'd be the memory where he lost all control and rampaged. Not his best look.

But he'd had good reason, though he wonders how much that counts for.

[schrodingersghost]

"Actually, I think there was something about turning into a dragon in there? I thought I was maybe confusing it with the dragon amulet thing back home."

[carrythetorch]

"Dragon amulet?" Lio repeats, because that certainly gets his attention. It gives him a moment to consider what it means that Danny saw that memory of his. He still has barely had time to really think about that time himself.

"What's that?"

[schrodingersghost]

"Officially its called the Amulet of Aragon," Danny tells him easily. "But I don't call it that, because Aragon is a massive jerk and the last thing he needs is anything that props up his ego. Anyone who holds it turns into a dragon if they get angry." He makes a face. "Super annoying to deal with."