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

[nocawsforconcern]

... I don't get it.

[Enna rocks back and forth on her heels as she thinks, before starting to walk in circles.]

I dunno about hearts, but if people die and come back, then time travel might be involved there. But there's other ways for people to come back. But things repeating... I don't like it.

I don't understand what those people were fighting. Or what came in and ended everything there. But it doesn't matter. Speculating now won't do any of us any good.

[loveandduty]

By understanding the past can we avoid the mistakes that they make. Though I will add if time travel means a big sacrifice... then them not being able to come back might have been that major sacrifice. I mean for something as huge as time travel, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

[Minako honestly didn't like this and for people who know Minako usually, she seemed to have stopped acting like her usual self and had become a lot more serious in her speech and mannerisms.]

I don't understand the situation either, we don't have all the puzzle pieces, but we can tell a fight was going on, something came and stopped that and in the process, a lot of people died and they planned on going back to I assume try and fix that.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Putting it into context - maybe we're not supposed to speculate how that one memory is relevant to our lives?

[Bobo looks up at her, ears flicking and with all-around concern on his face.]

Just - to accept it happened. I mean, that time I spent in Nautilus wasn't all about AM, but I don't like to think about what happened anyway.

But that other memory - if it's from the train, it represents a time for it that was just as- as traumatic as what AM did was to me.

[And as much as those shadows concern their immediate future, they can't forget about the rest of it either, or the wider context in which they learned about it.]

[nocawsforconcern]

... There's a problem. Caw.

[Enna's stopped pacing, now, and now that she's thinking about it... She sort of slumps. She's wrapped her cloak around herself like it might protect her.]

The only one who would know is the train. But if we ask the train, then... If those were the train's spirits, then....

[loveandduty]

Oh, I accept my memory happened. I accepted it long ago.

[So she didn't think of why that would be the reason. yes it was a reminder, but she will always accept it happened and that she was okay with that.]

But... yeah if we try and talk to the train then...I guess I would worry about what would happen.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[And now, Nita finds herself looking around the cave again.]

It might not have mattered last time - that memory was of a mission that ended well, it sort of explains itself.

But, if we're fine talking about what happened to us, and the train's not, or it's just not here to do so - how are we gonna get out of here?

[nocawsforconcern]

[Enna shakes her head.]

It doesn't matter. If those people we saw were the train's spirits, then we should never board it again.

A ship's spirit will never appear to a crew embarking on a successful voyage. They will only ever be seen by the crew of a doomed ship.

[loveandduty]

[Minako listened and she couldn't help but shiver slightly. The way the other was talking was like there were ghosts on the train or something. Though that probably wasn't what they meant right? Right?!

I don't know... Isn't a door meant to let us out? Do you think we aren't meant to leave and are doomed to stay here because of it? I mean she did say spirits can only been seen by crew of the doomed and all.

[unfavorableinstigation]

... If that was a memory, then it was from before they'd died, right?

That's not the same as spirits, at least in my experience.

[Though it IS suitably ominous!]

[nocawsforconcern]

I dunno. But it's weird.

[She folds her arms, thinking.]

...

Are we sure the train only has one mind? Is it possible that maybe... Those people we saw in the memory became the train? 'Cause, what I saw...

No eyes. No ears. No hands. It can only keep moving forward, and it can't change direction, and it can only do what the purpose it was assigned is. It had grief, and rage, and despair, but those went away, 'cause it didn't have feelings anymore. It was just... empty.

No hands, no eyes, no ears, no changing direction, only moving forward. Doesn't that sound like the train? Rage and grief and purpose... Doesn't that sound like the people we saw just now?

[loveandduty]

[Minako folded her arms slightly as she was pondering the whole thing. What she said... made some sense at least. The first memory mentioned ...one could think of the train. Who else could it be out of everyone and everything they know?

She couldn't say for certain about the second point but...that just made it sound more creepy.]

I mean there is plenty of logic to that, but it also makes it sound really spooky to. Like...does that mean the people are still around somehow if that is true?

[unfavorableinstigation]

It's possible they merged into one identity - or they pooled all their memories, and their rage and their grief, into one person.

[Since that first memory, while vague, still seemed individual - and there was nothing from Nita's own previous contact with the train to suggest it was a gestalt intelligence of some sort.]

Though - mind if I go ahead and bring that first memory back up for us all, Enna? See if we can get anything else out of it for description purposes.

[She holds out her hand to Enna this time.]

[nocawsforconcern]

[Enna nods, and holds out her hand.

---

It is dark. Of course it is dark. You don't have eyes anymore. You don't have ears either. Gone. Taken from you. Lost.

Everything is gone. It is not despair you feel, not really. Some rage, some grief lingers but it is fading fast. That has been taken too. It is not even numbness, that would suggest feelings to numb. You have nothing.

But you do have a purpose. You know what needs to be done. Or rather, what must be done is clear and assigned to you. You can not change from this path, you can only go forwards.

---

That done, she pulls her hand back and sighs, flopping over backwards.]

This sucks.

[loveandduty]

[Minako just stayed quiet. Nita seemed to know a lot more than they did, so best was to let her see and voice her own thoughts before really taking other things into account.

Either ay she honestly thinks solving this will probably help them in the long run and maybe help get those that want to go home to actually be able to soon, perhaps.]

I know it sucks... But maybe our purpose is to put all this together and figure it out.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[And here, the last time they'd been here, they'd been all about letting the past be the past.

Guess that wouldn't work this time.]

It said-

[Well, thought, but no matter.]

That everything had been taken from it. Not like it had given them up.

[Time to start that putting-together; Nita, for her part, starts pacing.]

And that perspective... it was singular, though that doesn't rule out them pooling their memories or anything like that. Maybe it wasn't a consequence of the time travel?

[While it was the simplest excuse, time travel itself was complicated, entangling causality more than it already was, making events hard to follow or distinguish.]

[nocawsforconcern]

I dunno. I'm not smart enough for this.

[She sighs.]

Maybe they didn't mean to have it happen, and that's why it was 'taken'?

[loveandduty]

I'm not smart enough for this either. [That was a lie.]

Both of these thoughts have something to them though... and we know memories we have seen have been about our past both the good and...the bad. These extra memories are the only exception.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Have some side-eye, Minako. Remember, they know your secret now. It's okay to be clever.]

But it's still someone's past - either one of the people whose faces we saw in the memory, or of the train itself.

[Because mind-merging doesn't eliminate the possibility of the train HAVING sentience of any sort...]

They sure didn't know those shadows were going to be there, though - but the Voidtrecker Express itself sure knew to run. Kind of hard to determine the causality from that angle.

[nocawsforconcern]

Aren't you actually really smart, Minako?

[Enna's just. Squinting. Ignoring the rest.]

[loveandduty]

if you ever saw my grades you'd know.

{If it's school-related then yes, she's not the best. Strategy and things like this she is at least smart. That's what you have to do if you are meant to be the leader after all.]

But they didn't know the shadows were going to be there,m that much is true... But considering how quick they reacted the train knows what it is.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[She's pretty sure she's had this talk with Madoka, actually...]

There's all sorts of 'smart' Minako, and if that vision - that past - meant anything, you do have smarts.

But yeah; it could be a side-effect of a time-loop-

[And now she's thinking of what happened with Mars, back home; Kit would be furious if this all turned out to be another case of hwanthaet driving people crazy.

Nita stops there, giving what appears to be a conferring look with Bobo. Ultimately the Umbre-dexis shakes his head, and Nita sighs.]

Or the way those shadows interact with reality gives some sort of warning signal that only voidcraft could have noticed.

... Were there other voidcraft in that last vision? Or just those stations?

[And then a better question occurs to her:]

Wait, Minako: did it feel like there was anyone else watching that memory with you? You did show up in here after we did.