Jema'grethy: Memory Cave

[voidtreckermods]

Passengers see a vision, an instance of someone's life, before just as suddenly - they find themselves inside 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're not alone. In the cave with them is another voidtrecker; maybe someone they know well, or maybe someone they've only seen in the aisles of the train. But they are together in this cave, and they will come to find out that it was one of their memories that the other witnessed. And them, one of yours.

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: Memories can be written either in this post or over here)

Comments

Alice | Allen

[voidtreckermods]

[irrationally]

None of this is unfamiliar to Alice.

Maybe the exception is the fact that she doesn't recall having gotten the first memory like this. She remembers how it went down last time around - the memory directly being blasted into her head when she got off the train, leaving it uncertain whose memory exactly it was, since she was watching it through their eyes.

But now she knows. If Timcampy hadn't been a dead giveaway, then Alice still would have known, thanks to the fact that she willingly entered this entire ordeal all over again. She just couldn't refuse Allen when he asked.

.. maybe she's just looking to fill up the hole that was left behind when her previous bond from this place was finally broken. And Allen, despite his faults, is someone she trusts. Someone she cares for.

And.. someone who had a whole lot of debt to pay, apparently, if the memory she just saw was anything to go by.

Not that the girl addresses it just yet. She instead blinks at the mossy light in the cave, looking over to find Allen. ".. Allen, are you alright..?"

Look, he's the one who's helping her out by bonding with her. The least she can do in return is ask that, especially when she isn't too sure what memory of hers he saw.

Tidus | Inigo

[voidtreckermods]

[flatteries]

Inigo had an idea that this would happen.

Not that he was going to back out over it, not when Tidus was the one to ask him to bond in the first place, when he was actually glad for that - but Inigo kind of figured what it would lead to. After all, when he bonded with Gyousou last time, Inigo remembers the very first memory of the other guy that he saw, the same memory that still makes him sick to his stomach when he thinks about it now, especially with its many implications for the king and for Taiki.

But since it was his last memory before showing up on the train.. Inigo already thought he'd see Tidus's last memory before ending up at the train.

And what could that have been but this?

It feels overwhelming. Even though Inigo knows of Tidus's fate, it's still so much, especially when Inigo feels like he's experiencing every single emotion the other must have felt back then. Even when he's out of the memory and in the cave, Inigo can feel every instant in that memory. Tidus's love for Yuna, his care for all of his friends. Not a feeling of regret in there, but a feeling of-- of wanting more, yet knowing that you're unable to get it.

Inigo knows what's got to be waiting for him in the cave. He knows that Tidus has got to be right there, but he can't even bear to look. He can't even force a single word out of his throat.

Overcome with all of the emotions embedded in that memory, mingled with his own feelings for Tidus and the other's ultimate fate, Inigo can't do a single thing but double right over, bawling his eyes out, his sobs audible.

His heart just aches too much for the other to do anything else.

Madoka | Jiang Cheng

[voidtreckermods]

[happyends]

.. oh.

Oh!

For a moment the girl had absolutely no idea what was happening to her. One moment she had been on the island, and suddenly the next she had been drawn into something.. Something that almost felt like a dream, but different. It wasn't like she actually recognized anything in the dream, after all. It felt like she was in a different place, one that felt weirdly familiar yet entirely foreign to her. The people there training, and it had been like Madoka had been looking through someone's eyes as that person moved around to instruct all those people..

It clearly couldn't have been herself. She can't instruct people like that - especially not on swordfighting of all things.

But it makes sense now. As Madoka slowly blinks and opens her eyes, seeing the cave around her.. She knows what's going on. She went through this once before, after all, with a girl who was no longer on the train.

She was seeing someone's memory.

And when she looks even more around her and sees the other person in the cave - she even knows whose memory it was. Of course. It makes so much sense. The person going around, instructing those people, feeling so fond around them.. It had been Jiang Cheng and his sect.

As she's processing that thought, though, Minako realises something else. She may know what's going on here, but Jiang Cheng.. he wasn't here the last time they visited Jema'grethy, was he? This must be so much more out of the blue for him, so much more startling.

"A--" Madoka starts, squeaking as she pipes up, part of her mind still lingering in that memory she just saw. "Are you okay..?"

Xie'er | Buttercup

[voidtreckermods]

2nd memory

[knifewithnoname]

She had been here the first time. So when she gets a random memory, scenes through another's eyes she knows what is happening. Even if the train said it would only happen if they chose. When did the train ever keep its promises?

So she was braced for the second time and the cave after. She had no idea what he would have seen of hers and she was still processing what she had seen of his. She sat crossed legged, watching him.

Usagi | Kyoko

[voidtreckermods]

Kairi | Nozomi

[voidtreckermods]

Masumi | Eva

[voidtreckermods]

Katsuya Jonouchi | Seto Kaiba

[voidtreckermods]

[blue_ice]

Seto's spent the time since their arrival dreading one thing: the mingling of memories. He's been there, done that, has the heartbreak to show for it---and worse, there's a high chance that he'd end up revealing the worse parts of himself to a stranger were it to happen again. When the chance to bond voluntarily is offered, he refuses.

But once again he finds himself seeing through someone's eyes. An idyllic scene of someone happily grooming and playing with creatures. Wait...does he recognize some of them? This is---

His eyes open in the cave, and he immediately presses a hand to his forehead when he sees. "...of course it was."

Jonouchi already knows the worst parts of him, but that doesn't make this much less awkward.

Kiyoiri | Sebek

[voidtreckermods]

[zigajoule]

[ Sebek's bonding memories and Kiyoiri's bonding memories for easy ref ]

When Kiyoiri's memories first overtook his attention, Sebek was more startled by what happened more than what he saw. He wasn't taking part in any of those bonds some were. The scene itself seemed nothing too out of the ordinary for him. The eccentric staff and student body were familiar, and once he figured out that he had seen one of Kiyoiri's memories, he complimented her and her classmates' intelligence as they were much younger than most of the others. Kiyoiri didn't ask many questions about Night Raven College, likely for the same reason as him, he thought. it seemed familiar despite not being hers.

The moment came and passed, and Sebek didn't think much of it until both he and Kiyoiri ended up in a cave and experienced another memory from her perspective. He saw a happier memory of her helping to decorate a room with her friend--girlfriend, Ayumi. The background for the scene hadn't been pleasant as many had been lost and thus freed up rooms. Yet, he could feel how happy Kiyoiri was to help her friend. On the other hand, Kiyoiri complimented his family and listened to him boast about his mother. He only touched on his father a little, quickly reverting to talk of his mother and also his grandfather, both great Zigvolts. (His father took his mother's names as he should.)

Those memories don't prepare Sebek for seeing the scene between Kiyoiri and Conan. He balls up his fists as Conan spoke so insensitively to Kiyoiri. Was the boy supposed to be smart? All Sebek sees is an ignorant fool.

"The nerve of that boy! He deserved every slap and yell! I dare say it would have been your right to do more to him if you hadn't been so exhausted!" Sebek turns to Kiyoiri, not thinking that they had also just seen his memory with the fae calling him a human. He trembles as if a powerful storm shakes the air. "Is he always so insufferable? To take away your observations, your efforts just like that."

Sebek scoffs and motions to where Conan had stood not moment earlier. "He wasn't there. He simply took credit for what you did as if he would see just as you! But he clearly can't see what was right in front of him, so I highly doubt he'd match even half of your observational skills!"

Lan Jingyi | Idia Shroud

[voidtreckermods]

[jingyeets]

Jingyi stood, arms crossed over his chest, staring at Idia. The first day, whatever. That'd been strange, but no more strange than stepping into the maze itself, and something like the monastery where he'd trained for illusion resistance. Techniques he continued to practise even now.

The second? No. This pattern, at this point, is prodding him toward something he resents on sheer principle. He doesn't appreciate having someone else's memories offered up to him like this, let alone from their perspective.

This time? When it was the last, considering they were heading out the next day, or this day, or whatever was going to happen, was frustrating.

"Since the memory didn't already happen, it's going to now. Unless you already had another one."

He waits on an answer, confirming or denying. This is the kind of test he isn't fond of, certainly, but he'll deal, and worst comes to worst, he'll see if he can... burrow out of a sacred cave.

For Heaven's sake.

Bulma | Vegeta

[voidtreckermods]

[renegadeprince]

By the second day of this all... Vegeta has accepted this is just something that is going to happen on this stop. It was a surprise, certainly not something he planned or would want to have happen normally, but out of all the options for this to happen to he at least was lucky in who this location had placed him with. Even then, even if it was his wife, Vegeta was still very private with his thoughts and history. She knew more than most did, but even with her... he was rather quiet on it all. The first day had been difficult to see and for her to had seen what he had been through. This time around though had been...

Interesting. Seeing the memory from her perspective had been...

Well, he can really understand why Bulma had been so excited about Whis' abilities now.

Coming to in the cave after going through that memory, he looked around to find her, expecting this all to play out as it had before.

Ryo | Ryou

[voidtreckermods]

First Memory

[rolltoavoidpossession]

[He wasn't even trying to take part in the memory sharing part of this stop, and yet he got a memory that isn't his out of nowhere. A memory of a very awkward dinner, with people he doesn't know. It's...unsettling.

Ryou doesn't want to ignore this, so now it's time to go find the owner of the memory to talk about what just happened.]

Wash | Devero

[voidtreckermods]

[unrecovered]

If Wash had realized that shore leave was going to be this much of a monkey's paw, he never would've requested it in the first place. It's one thing to be going to a tropical island; it's another thing completely to wind up with someone else's memories in your head, and Wash has way too much experience with the latter to ever be comfortable with it happening again.

And yet, here he is. Two memories in with Devero (they'd at least been relatively good ones, and he is absolutely counting that blessing, even if the desire for approval from an authority figure had hit a bit too close to home for comfort), and when the memory fades and he opens his eyes, he's stuck in a cave with the man. No windows, no doors; no way out. Thanks, he hates it.

"Do I want to ask what you saw?" Because Wash's mind is a goddamn minefield, and he's probably got some explaining to do.

Xion | Roxas

[voidtreckermods]

Re: Xion | Roxas

[nobodys_puppet]

The world had been familiar enough that she had planned to go look for Taiki. To tell Axel that was the plan. Roxas needed to meet Taiki anyway. For lots of reasons. She still needed to figure out how to explain the odd connection between her and Taiki to Roxas. She didn't want Roxas to think Taiki had replaced him, and that was part of the difficulty. The other part was that she didn't fully understand it herself. But before she could tell Axel and Roxas that she wanted to find Taiki....

She was in a cave.

Not again! She had wanted to find Taiki but with Roxas, not on her own. Before she could turn to face the other person in the cave, sure that it was Taiki, the memories swapped.

Apparently everything happened all over again...

She didn't know what memory was being shared, but if she could have picked, it would never have been this one. Not after what happened when she spoke to this strange Somebody again on the train and he tried to get her into trouble with Axel. But she didn't see her own memory. Instead she saw...

Najaran | Sonic

[voidtreckermods]

Part 1

[najaran]

Najaran had been looking to relaxing on the beach. And checking out what new foods she might find this time. Last time she'd been here she had been a little distracted, after all. She had gotten stuck in a....


...cave. This cave, or on just like it.

Oh for Culdra's sake, not again! She turned to see who she was stuck with this time when his memory hit her. And hers... hit him.

---

Home at last! Najaran was glad to be home. And better, her mission was accomplished. It had been grueling and so much more than she had expected when she last left home, but she'd learned a lot and made new friends. And.. Lost new friends. But she refused to think about that. She was determined to smile brightly and earn her master's praise.

"Master!" she called out cheerfully after one more lungful of air scented with both ocean and smoke. The familiar smells of Gilman Isle. "Master Horowitz!! We've returned, my lord," she sang out cheerfully. But no reply came. Odd. She left Goligan in the hall and walked into the kitchen. Seeing no one there she opened the tea canister. Full enough that he was here recently. It all smelled fresh, anyhow. "Master?" she called.

"He's not here!" Goligan, the man faced cane said, balancing himself in the entry way to the kitchen. "Perhaps he is out on an errand." Unlike Najaran who until recently rarely left the isle, her master constantly wandered abroad leaving her to her training.

"That's terrible," Najaran said, not seeming as upset as her words might imply as she grinned and opened a rounded case. "I mean, him not being here when we just got home and all--"

Goligan hopped his way around the corner and spied what she was doing, cutting off her words, but not her actions, with his shout. "AH! Sneaking into Master Hotowitz's secret snack jar again!! You'll find yourself in a fix if he finds out!!"

She smiled brightly lifting two happy faced star cookies to her mouth. "No worries!" she insisted. "I'll just make sure I don't leave any evidence behind." Finally a task she would enjoy from beginning to end. Her master might not seem the type to most, but he had the best taste in sweets of anyone Najaran had ever met.

Shen Qingqiu | Wei Wuxian

[voidtreckermods]

Fai D. Flourite | Rezo Greywords

[voidtreckermods]

[redprayer]

Rezo comes to slowly, his brain buzzing with unfamiliar sensations and emotions lingering from someone and somewhen else. Kuro-sama… That man with the red eyes-

-Is that what a man’s face looks like? Rezo had felt the distinct shape of a skull when he’d slammed his fist forward, a punch powered by adrenaline, annoyance, and simple anger that had been carefully bottled up, building the pressure, then released at the moment he- at the moment someone had calculated would be most effective.

Someone. Because that vision sure as hell hadn’t been Rezo’s, and as that chilling realization seeps in he also comes to realize that not only does he not know where he is, but he can hear someone else breathing somewhere nearby.

“Who…”

Rezo’s hand slides shakily up the rough stone wall behind him as he gets to his feet.

“Who are you?”

Congratulations Fai, you now have a 6’3” tall, very agitated blind man to deal with, on top of however you feel about your own recent vision.

Lan Wangji (AU) | Edge

[voidtreckermods]

Pahja Nyancoya | Romeo

[voidtreckermods]

2nd memory

[myblueskies]

Romeo hadn't tried to bond with anyone or tried to share his memory with them. It was tricky because he barely knew any of his own memories and learning them could be dangerous. But it had been okay last time with Xander...

He doesn't know who it is whose memories he is seeing and so when he arrives in the cave he looks around, looking for them.

Esteban Drake | Molly Hayes

[voidtreckermods]

Q'uila Sunrise | Ruggi Bucchi

[voidtreckermods]

Faux/CLU | Zelagadis Greywords

[voidtreckermods]

Emporio Alniño | K'zeka Tia

[voidtreckermods]

MEMORY 2 AFTERMATH - THE CAVE

[seacub]

When he first woke up in this cave...

...Emporio was crying. For one of them, the last 48 hours had been a thing of resolution. Happiness, and relative peace with a dash of chaos.

For the other, it had been nothing but chaos magnefied, a wound torn violently open and relived through his eyes.

This second time is...better.

Their memories are both positive, and perhaps that's by design. Perhaps not- Emporio didn't intend to join others in any kind of bond after all, so he hadn't put much into learning about the process in the first place. He's regretting it now, but only a little.

He can find out later.

Happy as the memories are though, Emporio can't help but hold himself close anyway. Both memories were of family, in a sense- but Emporio has never known family by blood, not really. He was too young to remember even his birthday and age when his mother was gone, and she was the only family he'd had in that regard. Everyone in his 'family' since then...

It was the people in his happy memory, people gathered under bizarre and life threatening circumstances.

Emporio doesn't know what to say, not really, when they wake up again in that cave. It's awkward, it feels. Invasive, maybe. Emporio swallows, ducking under his hat.

"I... ...I guess...that went better, at least..?"

He has no idea what to do.

Thomas Price | Zetta

[voidtreckermods]

Genjo | Koumyou

[voidtreckermods]

Nothing Like Reliving Your Childhood Trauma Twice In One Event! :D

[smithandwesson]

Genjo didn't mean to end up in this sort of situation. Truthfully, he would have preferred to keep his memories and thoughts as far away from everyone. Not even those who knew him the most had understood the full details of everything he had experienced throughout his life.

But this was different. Somehow, Genjo saw something that he already knew. Something he had already seen. But this time, he had not seen it as himself but from someone else's eyes.

He had felt the pain as it occurred. He had felt the strange, jarring emotions Kumyou had. But worst of all, he had felt the bittersweet love Koumyou had. The familiar thoughts echoed out in his mind once more. Those final words that he had heard so many years ago.

A voice.

"Live Genjo Sanzo."

He awoke with a startle. His heart was racing, and sweat covered as his body reacted in a way it hadn't in years. It was just like those old traumatic reoccurring dreams from long ago. Except for this time, it was different.

It wasn't vague or foggy or twisted in the way dreams often were.

It felt so real.

It had caught him so off guard that he hadn't even noticed that he was no longer on the train at first. Nor did he immediately see that he wasn't alone. Instead, he shivered as he curled in on himself, doing his best to cope with reliving what was probably one of his most traumatic memories from an entirely different point of view.