MEMORY SHARE: 12 OF BEETROOT EVENT (May)

[voidmissions]

JEMA'GRETHY MEMORY SHARE

The caves of Jema'grethy will allow for a few different ways for memories to be interacted with. But for most, such as those entering in bonds, it will be seen like a vision in their head, putting them in the position and perspective of whose memory it is.

For people sharing bond memories, and also memories being shared while moving through the Memory Cave, this is the spot to place said memories! It's not necessary if you'd like to write it during the thread, but hopefully convenient for others. Just make a toplevel with your character's name in the header, and remember to include any content warnings thereafter for each memory, as applicable!

Comments

Xie'er/Scorpion King

[scorpionsect]

K'zeka Tia

[catti]

Bonding memories for Emporio

[catti]

Memory cave

[catti]

48 hours

[catti]

This cutscene. Warning for end of Shadowbringers spoilers.

Elidibus

[wewillwewill]

Memory Threads

Taiki

[longforgottenpromise]

Koumyou Sanzo

[its_dad_sanzo]

[ Koumyou's memories are from his POV, complete with his thoughts. ]

Apologise ~ For Wash (cw: mob violence)

[longforgottenpromise]

There is a classroom full of students, older high school students and the air is ugly. Some students have bruises, some cower by the wall, others are urging a man, a teacher if a very young one, through the crowd.

"Stop them!"

The man frowned. "Takasato!" He called.

There was a teenager in front of a wall of students, who were tugging and pushing him.

"Hey stop it!" The man tried to get through but the closest students turned on him, hitting out with fists and kicking him once he was down.

Takasato was shoved again "You killed him, didn't you?"

"It was you, wasn't it?"

"What the fuck are you, Takasato? Are you really human?"

The boy is driven nearer to the window, despite the shoves and the blows he doesn't raise his own fists, doesn't fight back.

The man is still fighting to get to him. "You guys stop it!" He is rewarded by another kick.

"Are you friends with this monster? There's no use helping him. Iwaki's already dead." one student yelled.

"Apologise" Someone pushed Takasato to his knees, another grabbed the collar of his uniform.

"Apologise to Iwaki! It's all because of you that we're all involved!"

"Kneel down and swear that nothing like this'll ever happen again!"

Someone tried to push Takasato over and forcefully make him bow down. Someone else took hold of his hair, wanting to push his head down.

Until this point Takasato hadn't resisted at all, letting them hit him and speaking not a word. But as they tried to press his head to the floor he twisted and yelled. "No." He batted the hand away, pulling himself away from the hands that were restraining him and backing away from them. He looked deeply shaken.

"Why not? You mean you're not gonna apologise?"

"You killed someone! Don't you feel anything?"

Takasato's eyes widened. The blood drained from his face, but he cried out. "Don't push me! I can't!"

The boys around him sneered, yelling at him, more blows rained down on him and once again he didn't fight, staggering with the blows and never lifting a hand in retaliation.

"Stop." The student teacher was still trying to get to him, but he was injured too and could barely stagger to his feet.

The boys had pressed Takasato up against the open window now, the room was filled with jeers and anger and the teaching pleading for them to stop. It was too late though, as they bundled Takasato up and out, watching him plummet to the concrete below.

The Door (cw: parental death, gore, horror)

[longforgottenpromise]

A teenager gets out of the car, he doesn't look familiar and he has an air about him that wants to be forgotten. His eyes are downcast as he slings a school bag over his shoulders and moves to the gate, unbarring it...

Sports gone wrong (cw: death of a teenager)

[longforgottenpromise]

A group of boys dressed in school sports uniforms are in the middle of a game of kibasen. Unbeknown to any of the players or teachers but just visible from a distance there is a strange shadow on the floor, growing around them. Perhaps a trick of the eye?

Hospital Room

[longforgottenpromise]

It is a modern hospital ward where a teenage boy lies, one arm hanging off the side. He is waking up to a man who is straightening up, having been looking under the bed. Indeed for those with sharp eyes it had looked for a moment like the boy was holding a porcelain white hand, but there is nothing there now...

Hide and Seak

[longforgottenpromise]

"Youka!" A small child of about ten, recognisable to anyone who knows Taiki, runs through a meadow of flowers towards a group of women dressed in simple uniforms, folding laundry.

Taiki is almost breathless with laughter. "Hide me! Hide me!"

Thirteen Hours

[longforgottenpromise]

"Sir Gyousou?" A woman's voice.

At a campfire a man and child sat. A red haired woman, dressed in armour and riding on the back of a winged dog appears, a torch in her hand.

"Sir Gyousou, I've discovered a suspicious cavern."

A False King (cw: blood, cruelty)

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki is dressed formally and sat in what look to be imperial quarters. Stood before him are a girl, looking a few years younger than Taiki and a man, both dressed formally also.

The man was speaking. “I will discuss the matter with Chou’un-dono.”

"If you will." Taiki nodded formally. The girl startled, looking to the side. The man turned and froze also. Taiki bounded from his seat as if he had been pushed off. He stared wide eyed at a man who had appeared at the entrance...

A New Name

[longforgottenpromise]

"Taiho, why do you look so unhappy?" Gyousou, dressed formally, speaks as Taiki, a child of about ten, enters a room, accompanied by a young woman.

"It's nothing..."

"It seemed like Risai also felt uncertain... Every time I look at you, I feel as if I had kidnapped you."

"No..." Taiki shook his head.

The Yard (cw: child cruelty)

[longforgottenpromise]

Snow drifted from the sky. In the yard of a house there stood a child, no more than ten years old.

He was barefoot and in pajamas, his hands and knees exposed to the cold, white breath could be seen in the air as he shivered and stared sadly in the direction of the house.

Remembering (cw: building collapse, talk of death and vague mentions of a suicide attempt)

[longforgottenpromise]

A man and a teenager are sat watching a television. The news is reporting on a disaster in the local area, a bird's eye view of a school appeared on the screen.

The courtyard had caved in severely, and the buildings built around it had collapsed as if they had fallen towards that hole. The destruction was astonishing.

The boy gasped. The man said strongly, "Don't overthink it."

"But..."

"But nothing." his tone remained firm. "A lot of people died there. At a glance, it looks tragic, but those who are going to die have no choice but to die. The meaning isn't any different from that of one person dying. Someone can't comfort themselves on the death of their own child by saying that so many other students have died too, right?"

Recent (CW blood, gore, more angst than you can shake a severed arm at)

[its_dad_sanzo]

I had gone out onto the narrow deck around the temple's main building, drawn out by all the noise. The center of the confusion is easy to see from here -- a young Kouryuu is standing in the rain, locking eyes with a huge bear up on her hind legs. Staring, and speaking. After my boy finishes speaking, the bear drops to all fours, and just... turns and walks away.

Tenkai Sanzo turns to me, not long after we'd begun wearing our new uniforms, and our new charges. The little youkai has his brow furrowed Ah, I think, we must have brushed hands when I handed him his tea.

"Yes, Gen-- Tenkai?" The names are still throwing me off a little. It doesn't help that Genkai and Toudai's new names had just swapped the first letter. Tenkai and Goudai. Right. I have no idea why Jikaku and his eyebrows chose 'Koumyou' for me. All three of us could have traded a letter! I could be Toumei, or Goumei.

I picture the kanji of my new name, 光明. Individually, they mean ray; light, and bright; light. Together as a name, it means 'glory; hope; bright future'.

Weird.

"Ho-san? Um, I mean Koumyou-san? Kou-san?" Tenkai's voice cuts in, and I realize I'd begun staring off into space while my thoughts run away from me.

He still looks concerned.

Skin contact, a background thought says, I wonder what he saw this time?

"More of that 'darkness and light' kaleidoscope you get from me, Tenkai? Or was it different this time?"

The little youkai's furrowed brow is joined by a frown. "Different. I-- I think I saw both of our deaths, Kou-san."

My eyebrows go up. This is the first time Tenkai's gotten any specific visions from touching me, usually it's a confused jumble of moments yet to come in my assuredly very strange life. Darkness, and light. Makes sense to me. Aren't we all darkness and light?

Tenkai nods, and continues, "When I die, you must take the Maten sutra. The night you see your son talk down a bear, you will know it's time."

Strange, I don't have a son? I'm only twenty four and not interested in any relationships, so...

I realize I've been staring after the bear, my hands gripping the railing hard enough I can feel the wood creaking. Behind me, a monk asks if something is wrong, and I let out a sigh as I carefully loosen my grip.

"Nothing... unexpected," is all I tell him.

I call for Kouryuu to come to my room, and meet him there. He's so young, too young for what has to happen next. My time is up, and he must now inherit the Maten, and... the Seiten, I suppose.

Fuck.

I hand him the scroll-form Maten, watching his little hands curl around it. This can't be right, right? Maybe it's another bear? When he's at least eighteen or nineteen, right? That was totally the wrong bear.

I just gaze at Kouryuu for a long moment, and he's so used to my thoughts wandering off that he just waits patiently for me to tell him what is going on. I haven't even opened my mouth yet when I feel it. The Muten is here, tugging at the back of my brain like a sucking void trying to pull me into it.

Just like its current bearer. That wasn't the wrong bear.

The door to the room slides open, and I turn to glimpse the youkai slipping in, weapons drawn. A stealth mission, then? Here for the sutras?

No. Ukoku is here, and everyone knows I can murder this many people without a thought.

This is cover. But he'd never kill me, he wants me. He wants me to travel the world with him, entertain him for the rest of our lives, but not only am I not interested, I have...

Kouryuu.

I have Kouryuu. He can't--

I feel the spell snapping through the air, passing through everything that isn't human without harming it, laser focused on--

He is. He's trying to--

It happens in an instant, the spell slicing bodies apart without a single word or gesture from the one casting it. Goudai's students fall in a spray of blood, and all Ken'yuu does is step past the bodies as they hit the ground, not paying them any mind. They could be bags of raked leaves.

Goudai steps forward, too. Then he charges the boy, and I already know how this will end.

It was... I will miss you, Goudai. Muichimotsu. Is this why you asked me to come? Are you giving me this brat to watch over?

Ken'yuu leaps right over the body as a crow cries out, as Goudai falls, the huge man's blood spraying into the air like a geyser. I already know that he's gone. At least it was fast. Unlike Tenkai. Or the rest of us.

The boy doesn't approach me. He just stands there, coated in Goudai's life, and I'm certain I can see tears cutting trails through the blood. Muichimotsu, muichimotsu. I have a duty to do. Hold nothing. Do not mourn. Let it go. Just let it go.

It's so hard to let it go, he was the last of us! And one of my only friends, the only one still alive!

I squash it. Muichimotsu. Enjoy what you have while it's here, then just let it go.

I step forward.

It's coming, that spell. I lock Kouryuu into place with one thread of chi. If I use the Seiten this spell will just cut right past it, like the walls and doors, like the youkai attackers who are just sort of... here. To distract me?

Everyone underestimates me, even my stalker.

Kouryuu's yelling at me, he can't move, undo this spell, let him go.

I can't. I have watched everyone I ever cared for die before me and done nothing. At first, because I couldn't do anything at all. Then, when I picked up muichimotsu and wrapped it around myself like a blanket... because I must let it go. Ryūzen, Jyoan, Gichou, Ganpuku, Soujin, Doutaku, Seiran, Shòun. A flash of each face in agony and blood. Tenkai, coated in it, reaching a hand toward me while I just stand there, while Goudai panics and yells his name and Tenkai just, locks eyes with me.

And I just stand there. Muichimotsu...

I can't! Not anymore, not when it's Kouryuu!

I'm in the way, and I stay there, opening my arms wide. No time for a barrier that could even have a slim hope to block this. No way to outrun it if I snatch my son up and run. It has to hit a human.

And I'm right here.

I drop every defense I have, opening just like my arms so that the spell will definitely hit me, and not just pass through me to my son.

I love him too much to let him die like this, cut apart. I'm not strong enough to be covered in his lifeblood. I doubt I would make it out of this room alive if I had to see that, feel that. I regret that it's about to be something he endures, instead. But if I'm out of time, then I can at least save him. It doesn't have to be both of our times.

A fraction of a second later, the spell hits me. It feels... memorable. I immediately latch onto myself with my chi, pouring life energy into keeping myself held together for one more moment. Two more moments. My lungs haven't given out yet, but they will. I have moments, at most.

Even as I speak, I know what to name Kouryuu. Genjo -- to actualize, to get shit done. A wish, a hope. My boy is so strong. So, so strong. He'll make it. He has to. He has to get shit done. I love him so much.

I'm so sorry I couldn't keep you safe.

My chi has run out, holding myself together taking more than anything ever has. The parts are slipping, grinding inside me. My guts are definitely-- I'm only upright because of my chi. Life energy. It's not like I'm going to need it anymore in a second.

My last words, "The rest is up to you, Genjo Sanzo."

My last thought, Live!

I feel the last of the chi run out of me like sand flowing to the bottom of an hourglass. My last sensations are of falling, blood gushing out of my many wounds, one arm falling clean off. The last sound I hear is Kouryuu screaming for me-- and my last feeling...

Is love.

The Good Old Days - Positive

[its_dad_sanzo]

The moon is just a sliver tonight, but curved in the way that means it will grow over the coming weeks. I'm comfortable, sitting on the stoop of the little temple, smoking from the elegant kiseru pipe my former mentor and his eyebrows had given me, so long ago, when he'd gotten me to start smoking with him. It's a nice night, a little cool, but the air is crisp and clean. The crickets are out singing, and almost no one else is awake at this hour. It's quiet.

And on cue, the silence is punctured by a piercing wailing from the room behind me. I immediately tap the ash out of my pipe and tuck it into my sleeve as I rise from my post. It only takes a second to sweep into my (entirely smoke-free) room and to the simple wooden crib a villager down the mountain had made for me, after hearing of my new charge.

For someone so small, Kouryuu has incredible lungs.

"It's okay, it's okay," I whisper, scooping my hands under the little bundle of baby, only a few weeks old now. So tiny. "You're so loud, little baby! It's good. You show the world you're still breathing, won't you? No drowning for you."

I pull him against my chest and shoulder, and fold the sleeping robe I'm wearing over him, bundle of blankets and all. I don't wear my whole uniform even during the day, now. The old women in the village told me he needs contact, and not with cold, smooth bamboo. I don't have what he's probably looking for by instinct, but I do at least have skin. Scarred and bruised as it is, it's at least that much.

One of the few people awake at this hour is one of my attendants, who quietly slips into the room to offer me a bottle, freshly warmed. I give him a smile, taking it, and he's gone as quickly as he'd come. No one here is quite sure what to do with me, yet. I am a Sanzo priest, the youngest ever, bearer of two sutras. I could go anywhere, and I'm here in this tiny, remote mountain temple, wandering around smoking tobacco and throwing paper airplanes.

And now, I've gone and dove into a river in all of my ceremonial finery, and returned to shore with a half-drowned baby, right in front of everyone. And even after I coaxed the water out of his lungs and he'd begun screaming into the air, painfully shrill, I wouldn't hand him off.

"They must think I'm the strangest Sanzo to ever walk the earth," I tell Kouryuu, as I sink down to sit cross-legged beside the fire-pit. There's still enough heat coming off the coals to keep the room warm for the baby, but I nudge it a little higher with a spark of chi. Somehow, I don't light the pair of us on fire doing it. Goudai would be so relieved.

I offer the bottle and now Kouryuu's mouth is too busy for crying, and I smile a little and offer in a conspiratorial whisper, "They have no idea how strange I am, hm Kouryuu?"

I suppose the baby doesn't either. But he has a fantastic excuse for that; he is a baby.

"We haven't found anyone looking for you," I say next, pulling the bottle away a little bit to make sure he doesn't go too fast. "So I guess you're like me, hm?"

Only, I'd been abandoned on the steps of a temple, placed there by hands glad to be rid of me. Kouryuu had had those prayer beads in his toppled basket; someone had cared. Someone had wanted him to be safe. It's a lot more heartbreaking; he'd been wanted, but something tragic had happened, and there's no doubting that. The world is a tragic place.

Kouryuu's slowed down on the bottle enough that I pull it away and set it down next to the coals to stay warm. I shift him up more onto my shoulder, rubbing his back. "Will you settle for me, little one? Or should I try to find you some proper parents?"

It's a thought I keep having, guilty for wanting to keep him here when I know what temple life is like for people like us. But... I'd heard a voice. I still hear it, I think, but it's not screaming in terror anymore.

A little hand has wormed its way out of the blanket cocoon, and has latched onto my ponytail.

"You're not terrified at all anymore, are you?" I sigh, wincing a little as Kouryuu gives my hair a good pull. It's good that he's not very strong yet. I definitely don't want to go bald.

"Are you going to sleep now, if I put you back?" I ask, distantly aware that I ask this tiny little person who probably doesn't have any complete thoughts of his own yet... an awful lot of questions. But it's not like he can get annoyed by it yet.

Near my ear, Kouryuu gurgles.

I heave a great, dramatic sigh, and rise to my feet. "Very well. Stories, or singing?"

The warm bundle of blankets and skin against my thin chest and sharp collar bone actually kicks his feet a little inside the bedding, and I laugh. "We'll start with stories, then. So bossy, Kouryuu."

I couldn't feel more affection if I tried.

So I bundle us both up in a second layer of robe, making sure his head's still sticking out of it near my ear, and we go walking around in the garden. I point out the stars with my free hand, making up stories about the absurd constellations I've made up over the years. Fairy tales, mostly. That one's a dragon! The shield of a brave knight. The ear of the youkai prince the brave lady knight will save from the dragon.

Only, it turns out the dragon is also a captive! And they must work together to get them all free!

I spare no ridiculous flair, other than keeping my voice down. Kouryuu's quieted, as if he's listening. He's definitely still awake. I head back toward the room.

"That won't do it tonight, I see. Perhaps some singing to finish you off, my tiny adversary?" I get whacked in the cheek by a little squishy baby hand, and stumble through the door into my room as though punched by a great force. "You may be too strong for me! My evil plan!"

Once the door's slid shut again to keep the heat in, I extract him, make sure he doesn't need changing yet while I bundle him back up properly, and return him to the crib. I sink down into a crouch next to it, one skinny arm snaked through the polished wooden bars so that my hand rests on his little chest through the blankets.

Quietly, quietly, but without my usual silly swerving off key to make people laugh, I sing until his breathing has gone even and slow, little violet eyes slipping slowly closed in the dim firelight.

I leave my hand there for a while anyway, watching him with all of my focus, with none of my thoughts wandering at all as I examine this tiny life under my palm. He's nestled in among his prayer beads, left by a desperate someone who probably isn't out there, anymore. I'm probably not the least qualified, really, but...

Here, he'll at least have someone on his side, someone looking out for him, someone who loves him. I can do that. Surely, even I can do that much. I can't help but try. I'm already so attached, feeling a warmth I thought myself no longer capable of, and I know that if I had to take him somewhere and leave him behind, it would break what's left of my heart.

And I'm... happy? About it? I've never felt so at peace as I do in this tiny infant's company, taking care of him. I don't think I've ever dared.

Even as I take my hand back, I whisper a promise, "I will keep you safe, Kouryuu."

And then I lean in close to the bars, and add, "...And we're going to cause so much trouble, you and I."

Like Fire

[longforgottenpromise]

A man and a small child are by a campfire. The child is recognisable as a young Taiki and the man is, for those that knew him on the train, Lord Gyousou. He is leaning on a large creature.

Gyousou speaks. "Kou? Would you like to rest?"

The Bad Old Days - Negative

[its_dad_sanzo]

memory 3 pending writeup

3rd Memory: Negative (CW: Violence and Death)

[mynameisallen]

When Allen killed Akuma!Mana

Negative Memory for ButterCup

[scorpionsect]

You sit down next to a young woman who appears to be partially dressed as a man. Her disguise partially removed from having paraded around as another person. You listen intentially as the other woman quietly explains what she had just learned from Yufi. Your eyes widen and you frown. She quietly explains how Yufi admitted that he was going to kill Xie'er for having used the Drug Men he should have destryed long ago and disobeyed him. She goes on explaining how the other needed to appease the sect leader in order for him to cooperate in his big scheme.
Eventually you tone her out and just dwell on the fact that Yufi wants to kill you. You've acted out before and only been punished or scolded. This news was shocking and hurtful. You begin to admit that maybe Luo Funmeng was right all along. You were merely just a pawn to be used and dispoosed. The glazed armor hanging around your neck was just a trick to win you over and make you feel important.
Eventually you dismiss the young woman and go to walk off and dwell on the news.

First memory- Last 48 hours

[ranoutofbuts]

Slouched back on the dark couch, you notice the iridescent blue sloshing in your glass is almost all gone now.

And you know you've done it, waking up won't be pleasant. It's your third and you've started to regret consuming this last one. Exactly as the other two had warned you against, including your own better judgment. A chuckle almost escapes you at the prospect of your glorious judgement only three milicycles before had been a bungled assassination attempt on your code brother, Clu.

You catch Clu peering at you out of the corner of his eye, and like the three milicycles so far, probably disappointed with your choices after giving you this chance. Taking another sip of the glass, you pretend not to see the admittedly subtle look. It's the better option, as not to let the action leech further into your thoughts.

The conversation drags cheerily on between Britt and Clu in front of you, and you’re not quite sure what it's about now. Something about clothing? It’s not even the content he’s fixated on, it’s just watching them chatting, so perfectly fine, it’s normal. And you're here, on the couch, amongst them but not of them, not knowing what else to do with yourself.

Staying in your apartment would have been the better option. But you couldn’t say no to Clu cause you owe him. So you sit here, like a light cycle with an extra wheel. Redundant.

A few more nanocycles pass until a nudge in the form of Clu asking for an answer to a question you mostly didn’t hear.

"Shop? Why would I want to-" It's been so long, you've forgotten what it's like to simply do something without a reason behind it.

Clu turns to you quizzically, wearing and expression he can’t pick out despite sharing the same face, “So, is that a yes?” You know he isn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Sure,” you respond, unimpressed but not unwilling. Clu seems satisfied with the answer, after which you polish off the rest of your glass and place it on the small table adjacent to you. You don’t feel any better, if anything the buzzing in your circuits is making this all the worse. Yep, you're definitely regretting that third glass.

“But for now, the only place I’m heading is a flat surface.”

Taking a stretch, Clu quickly chimes in with a, “Try to sleep well,” after which a snide, “Not after that,” comes from Britt. A comment not undeserved.

Moving off towards the apartment next door; your apartment, at the cusp of entering the residence, the sudden thought that you'd rather be anywhere but here. This place where you can’t escape, and everyone knows your face and can see your sins.

You step in.