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

[deductiongeek]

Now this was a little more familiar territory. As Jounouchi starts to come out of it, Conan crouches down in front of him, making sure that he could be seen. "Breathe," he tells him. "Take deep breaths and count them."

[luckydragonsfoot]

Okay. Okay. He can do that. They're fairly awkward breaths, more audibly like gulps than anything, but they're calming down.

If only because it's, well, it's difficult to breathe and speak at the same time. "Gh-h...One...h...hk...two..."

Well, it's probably an improvement.

[deductiongeek]

Conan listens to his breathing with a worried frown.

"Try to breathe slower," he advises.

[luckydragonsfoot]

Well, whether he heard him or not isn't very clear. He's just. Breathing for a bit, eyes wide and partly vacant. But there's some clarity coming back. Brown to replace the grey. Breathing in...breathing out...breathing...in...

"Hhhahhh...hhahhhhahhh... I don'....t...think I've done tha'...s...since I thought I was gettin' tossed 'n a pit again...hhaha..."

He might not quite have his head straight yet.

[deductiongeek]

"You were having a panic attack," Conan informs him. But he relaxes as Jounouchi's breathing comes closer to normal. "I don't know what the rest of it was, but I could recognize that much. And the other you in the memory. Was that a seizure? Will you need a trip to the medical car when we get back to the train?"

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Seizure was ages ago," he answers numbly, rubbing at his face. "It's...fine tha' was jus' th' fuckin'...evil gods, nothin' that's repeat..."

Ahh, right, all of this. He takes a shuddering breath, leaning against the rocks. "...That memory... ...I had some flash's in tha' one, huh..." he mutters, narrowing his eyes and staring upward in thought. "...Make anythin' of it yerself?"

[deductiongeek]

Conan sighs as he sits back.

"I could tell by your reaction that it was bad. And a lot of what I saw in there was concerning. But honestly, very little of it made any kind of sense to me."

He came from a world without evil gods,monsters, reincarnations or magical card games, after all.

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Yeah, don' really make a whole lot 'f sense in th' momen' either," he huffs casually, trying and failing to cover up the residual jitters and panic.

"I c'n like. Try explainin' shit I guess. I dunno. ...be jus' as weird f'r anyone else fr'm home, so."

[deductiongeek]

Conan gives him an assessing look.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm a detective, of course I want to know what just happened there. But you just came out of some kind of panic attack, combined with something I don't even know how to describe. Are you really okay to explain anything right now?"

The last thing Conan wanted was to send him into another panic attack like the last one.

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Nh-! I'm fine enough!!"

The protest, of course, is weak. He knows it's weak, and looks away with a scowl. "...cave ain' gonna let 's out until we talk 'nough anyway, righ'?" he manages after a moment, voice quieter.

"...Plus, I... ...I think 'f anythin', talkin' 'll help keep me grounded in what's 'now', y'know? ...Th' stuff tha's happenin' in th's life, not... ...whatever was goin' on a few thousan' years back..."

[deductiongeek]

Conan frowns at him some more, but sits back.

"Okay, then I'm listening."

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Nyhhhhhh...." Oh. Well. Hm. Okay.

"...Well. Okay. ...I don' really know where t' start on all th's, t' be hones'..." Hm. "Uhhh... ...what's th' firs' thing buggin' y' after seizures, I guess?"

[deductiongeek]

"What was that doubled vision experience about?" And the person who'd clearly been murdered. That was the part that really bothered him, but even Conan could be a little sensitive about some topics.

[luckydragonsfoot]

Ah.

That one. Yes.

The worst one.

That thing. Katsuya grimaces, but he doesn't seem to be slipping into any panic- there's no real reason, now that he's not viscerally witnessing the event in question. "...I dunno why it w's doubled," he admits. "Much 's everythin' really happen'd while I was in tha' buildin', everythin' from th' past felt... ...real, more than anythin'. Like everythin' else disappeared, or never ev'n was," he clarifies with a swallow.

"Maybe 's because we watched...from th' outside, mos'ly. There was th' shit from 'now', from inside KaibaCorp...but then there w's the shit tha' I lived through b'fore. ...A few thousan' years ago," Katsuya adds, frowning at how bizarre it undoubtedly sounds.

"It uh... ...I can' say I haven' seen some bad stuff from tha' time, outside 'f th' shit at th' tower but... ...tower was th' only time there was anythin' real bad, y'know? Like. Seizin' bad. Like I said, tha' stuff was th' Jashin."

[deductiongeek]

Conan misses the days when someone talking about their past life was a sign of an attempted hoax, and not a plausible explanation that needed to be taken into consideration.

"I've never put much trust in people claiming to have past lives," he says aloud. "But with everything else that has happened here, it isn't as implausible as it used to be. And that memory was very convincing." He frowns as he considers the rest of it. "So you could potentially have a seizure like that again, but its not likely outside of very specific circumstances."

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Yeah, same deal, imagine how it felt bein' on th' end of someone who kept seein' visions of a past life anyway," Katsuya snorts. "I know it ain' makin' sense, but it's what happened! Got t' see how I died on New Years, froze up in th' middle of th' hall f'r a solid minute, leas' tha's what my sister said!"

It's a touchy matter.

"Real specific. Jashin are good 's gone, an' I'd bet they'd have t' work 'xactly th' way mine did anyway. ...Plus I didn' have a seizure now so..."

No, just a panic attack. Which is still bad.

[deductiongeek]

Conan frowns.

"So all of that second set of memories in that moment? That was all from your past life?"

[luckydragonsfoot]

A grim nod. "Yeah- probably th' firs' time I've seen it tha' clear though. It's...differen', relivin' versus watchin', y'know? I mean..." He shakes his head, taking a deep breath. "It...felt like I died man- I could still...see f'r a bit, but I was dead, leas' until tha' dragon did his thing..."

Katsuya sighs. "...guess ev'ryone I knew w's mos'ly pricks back then..."

[deductiongeek]

Another frown. "What was it that the dragon did?"

Conan sighs. He wasn't good at comforting, and he knew it. He'd developed his skills to uncover the truth behind a death when everyone was telling lies. Not to reassure someone who knew that he'd been murdered.

"Those people....Did you know them?"

[luckydragonsfoot]

"...Back then, they'd have been family."

Katsuya's voice is distant, and so is his gaze- but it is distant in the way that those who have seen things can be. He is stable, and grounded, but mourning in a way that cannot be described. "...Th' kid was my best friend. He's th' one who got me outta there after, an' got me 'nough stuff t' run off and start life somewhere else. He'd wanted t' help. ...'nstead he watched 's grandma, an' all th' other oldest in th' village rip out my soul," he hisses, the sound cut short as he swallows.

"...Or part 'f it, anyway. ...D...Dragon..." Katsuya's voice cracks- his eyes water, and he holds them back. "...He replaced it...w'th himself...he didn'...he couldn' exist again, all there was, was like...some kind 'f pet, 'r animal, livin' in my shadow...'cause he replaced part 'f me, an' he couldn' take tha' back... ...'cause t' him I guess...watchin' me die was worse than 'f he pract'cally did th' same," he whispers, wiping at his face.

[deductiongeek]

Having that done to you by your family was horrible. Worse that he'd obviously been a child when it happened. But... Conan had spent his entire life teaching himself how to remove emotions when thinking about murder. And this was not the first family murder he'd seen.

He suspected that revealing that fact would not be helpful right now.

But all of that is immediately put to the side, as he takes in the latest reveal.

"....You have a dragon in your soul," he says blandly. The sheer illogic in that would catch up to him in a moment. "Is he still there?"

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Hah?" What. Katsuya blinks. "Gettin' technical everyone's got 'somethin', jus' a matter 'f it bein' awak...e..." As quickly as he starts saying it, he slowly realizes what he's saying. And technically he knows he's right. It's what the past life self lived by, but. Well.

"...Huh. ...I...guess it might be..?" He rubs his head. "...I...I don' know, I guess. ...Hones'ly 's like I said. Most 'f th' stuff fr'm back there...'s all kinda fuzzy, or at leas' it was. I could r'member bits, but it'd be all vague. Rewatchin' tha.... ..." Katsuya shakes his head, and shoves it aside. "I'm gonna be real, I don' know what t' do w'th tha'. I mean....duels bein' 'real' w's one thing, same as seein' shit b'fore it happened but..."

It's all just a bit much. "Jus'...a lot, y'know? I mean shit, yer takin' it better than I am!" Which in hindsight isn't a very good sign, he should probably ask about that.

[deductiongeek]

"That kind of seems like the kind of thing you should check." It probablywasn't a problem, since Jounouchi had obviously lived through his life so far without anything showing up. But still, that was a big thing to not be sure about.

Conan shrugs. "That was your life, once. I'm just an impartial observer here."

[luckydragonsfoot]

"Oh yeah, great idea," he snorts, tone dry. "Got any plans on how t' check f'r magic soul dragons?"

With an added huff, he scratches at his ear- one brow raised quite high. "Give y' tha' f'r th' shit on my end, sure. But what abou' th' stuff on yer end? I wouldn' say y' took it great, but y' took it pretty clearly, tha's f'r sure."

[deductiongeek]

"I'm a detective from a world with no magic or dragons. You're probably be more successful asking someone else about that." Conan knew his area of expertise, and souls were definitely not it.

He moves to shrug a little."It was painful at the time, and the situation was dangerous. I don't recommend trying to navigate a cave with that much blood loss, and I'd rather not do it again. But that's all long in the past now. The kids got me out of there in time to reach a hospital, and the police were waiting at the exit to arrest those people." He frowns a little, but it quickly settles into stubborn resignation. "With my life, I don't have time to linger over a situation that ended well enough."