iattractmushi | ❦ 13th Record

[As Sniper poked the painting, the little knight swung with the sword, missed completely, spun around like a top, and landed squarely on his back with a crash of metal-on-metal from his armor. The sword went flying, startling the pony, who sort of waddle-trotted away to the edges of the painting.]

[The knight lay on the ground for a moment or two, either regaining his breath or figuring out how to stand back up in the armor. Finally, he got to his feet with many clanks, clatters, and groans.]

A foul blow, by gad! Zounds, I'll see you pay for that! [He ran over to where his sword had landed with his armor clanking all the while, puffing a little. When he reached the sword, he gave it a few tugs... but it seemed to have gotten stuck in the ground somehow.] Wizardry! Your tricks will get you nowhere, for Sir Cadogan needs no weapon to defeat ones such as you!

[Cloud sighed a little.] Right. I'm sure you'll defeat us no problem. You are aware you seem to be stuck inside a painting, right?

[Turning back to Sniper, he smirked slightly.] Sure, wandering is much better than sitting still. Though I don't know about raining on bad guys... why do there have to be bad guys in this story, can't it just be, I don't know... people?

[As the knight moved, Sniper stared at it and to even his own surprise, burst out into gales of laughter, soon fading into helpless giggles as he clutched at his stomach and wiped the tears away from his eyes.]

Y-you're...

[He paused for another sharp burst of laughter to fall through. Eventually calming, he grinned at the picture.] Okay, so you're not so scary after all, Sir Cardigan. Why do you want to fight us?

[When Cloud pointed out that there didn't have to be bad guys, Sniper shrugged, still too amused to provide much of an argument.] Because that's how stories are.

[Cloud sighed.] Come on, let's just go. Exploring the castle is more interesting than an argument with a... an animated painting.

[Said animated painting suddenly stopped shouting about cowards and clapped his hands together.]

A quest! A mighty undertaking, from which no true man would shrink! And I shall be your guide!

[Completely ignoring Cadogan, Cloud fiddled with the necktie of the outfit he'd been forced into, managing to undo it completely. Much better.] They don't all have to be.

I dunno, [said Sniper, grinning.] I think animated paintings are pretty interesting, but if this appears right when we step in, I wonder what we'll see next. [He waved cheerily at Sir Cadogan, every trace of fear now completely absent from his face.]

See you later, Knight-guy. I don't think you can be our guide, 'cause we're moving away from your painting but it was nice dueling.

[He trucked eagerly onwards, too distracted by his delight with the painting to feel much apprehension about the admittedly creepy halls that greeted them.] I've never heard of any stories like that, [he reasoned. Idly, Sniper ran his fingers across the textured walls and found himself momentarily distracted by a suit of armor sedately walking down the hall.] What sort of stories are those?

Not to worry, my noble comrades! For I shall accompany you wherever our quest might lead! [The knight clumsily ran over to the edge where his pony had taken refuge, but when he tried to catch the animal's bridle it ran right off the edge of the canvas. Cloud found himself staring at the wall for a moment, wondering if the pony would actually appear in the corridor... but when that didn't happen, he turned back to the painting, where the knight now stood alone.]

On foot, then! Forward! In the name of Merlin! [And with that, the knight charged off the opposite edge of the painting than his pony had gone. Much to Cloud's bemusement, he turned up in the next one--actually, now that he was paying attention, there were a lot of paintings in this corridor... and most of them appeared to have moving things in them.]

...he's, uh. Following us. [As if Sniper hadn't noticed the clashing of the insane knight's armor on his own.]

[But the walking suit of armor in the corridor was very distracting. Cloud peered at it, wondering if there was someone in there.]

Stories, [he said, a little vaguely.] You know. About... people, living ordinary lives. And maybe someone... helps them with a problem that was making them unhappy, not a bad guy just a... like a sickness, maybe, and then once they're cured they're... [His voice trailed off as he thought of the woman from his memory. He'd told her there was no cure for her 'disease'... is that what mushi were, diseases? He frowned. It made a certain amount of sense, but at the same time... it wasn't right at all.]

Edited 2010-09-12 06:02 (UTC)

[Sniper's eyes gleamed in awe as the knight followed them, and beat his chest a couple of times, catching Sir Cadogan's eye from behind his armor.] Hear that, Cloud? We're noble comrades. [He pumped his fist into the air.] Pursuing danger and adventure without fear! Brave warriors of the castle, questing for glory, accompanied by a fat pony!

[He ducked his head when he said that and realized that he was ducking his head to dodge a fist to the head that never came. He rubbed the back of his head, still half expecting it, but continued on. That was something that had always struck him as odd--he had regaled many people with his lies already, but none of them had actually hit him.

This was a source of some disappointment to him. It wasn't as if he particularly enjoyed getting hit as he generally attempted to avoid pain, but he liked annoying people to that point. It was one of his main sources of entertainment. Still, he cocked his head to listen as Cloud told him the stories he knew.]

Well, yeah, those stories exist, but there's not much of a point in them, is there? [He shrugged.] All that stuff's just like real life. [He scuffed his shoe against the ground.] Except the healing part, I guess. In real life, people die.

[Cloud chuckled a little at Sniper's obvious excitement.] I think the pony ran away. And I'm just questing for a map, if that's not too much to ask. [He didn't miss the way Sniper ducked his head, as if expecting a blow--he had to look away a little, feeling oddly hurt, though he was careful to keep his face from showing it. Did Sniper think he was going to hurt him?]

But that is the point... [Cloud started to protest, but then stopped and shrugged his shoulder a little awkwardly. That was why he liked those kind of stories, he realized suddenly--it was like real life. They were real stories... and of course, people died in real life. It was something to be avoided, obviously, but... that was just the way things were.] ...no one should live forever, you know. It'd be... too difficult. [Too painful.]

Well, stories aren't about living forever, [Sniper replied, excitement vanishing from his voice only to be replaced with the thoughtful tone that he notably lacked when spewing out nonsense.] But why would you want to hear stories about that sort of thing when all you have to do is look out your window?

[Sniper understood that he was missing something integral to a point--of course stories that echoed reality had a point. He could see that much. But what he couldn't quite articulate was that people needed stories, in much the same way that people needed dreams. And these stories had to be fantastic, too fantastic, larger than life, even because people needed something great to believe in. Because if people could believe in that, then people could believe in anything. Like that King would find a way out of this place, or that everybody who disappeared went back home, or that he, Sniper, had once been a pirate.

It was about faith.

Of course, it was also about fun, and adventures--why else would he craft such ridiculous stories to regale the youth of Edensphere with? He fiddled with the zipper on the bag at his side.]

In stories - the ones that aren't like real life - the heroes die eventually, sure, but not like in real life. [After all, you didn't have to read to the very last page. And when they did die, it meant something beyond being a cruel twist of fate.]

[Cloud opened his mouth to answer, then shut it and shrugged again. He couldn't really explain to Sniper why he liked those stories, not when he didn't understand it himself, and the guy did have something of a point. Ordinary stories about ordinary people happened everywhere--to people with ordinary lives, who didn't wander from place to place. Maybe that was it...?] ...maybe. [If you had a window to look out of.]

Bah! Words on paper, impotent and useless! Stories matter not, it is in deeds that you must prove your worth!

[He shook his head (ignoring the insane knight) and smiled a little. This was a pretty stupid thing to get into an argument over, so Cloud changed the subject while it was still a discussion... though in his opinion death was death, and it didn't matter how noble the goals of the heroes had been or if they died for a reason. Once a person was dead nothing they had done in life really mattered, not to them. That said, of course there were perfectly good reasons to give up your life for others--but he couldn't think of any just at the moment.] You know, I bet this place has a library somewhere in it... it looks old enough. Wanna find it?

[Sniper hesitated when Cloud suddenly changed the topic, but it only took him a moment to get back on his feet and buoy himself back into good cheer. As important as stories were to him, diversions were occasionally even more important and nobody was quite as good at them as he was. He cheered at the thought of going into a magical library, and pointed one derisive finger at the knight following them.]

Oi, oi, don't badmouth stories, Sir Knight. [He leaned over and squinted at the painting in a way reminiscent of somebody intimidating another. On Sniper, it simply looked ridiculous--and as was the case most of the time, it was supposed to look ridiculous. That was the charm of stories.]

Can you tell us where the library is, story-hater?

[Cloud smirked a little at the sight of Sniper attempting to intimidate the painted person. It wasn't really working--Cadogan didn't look the least bit worried--but Sniper seemed to be having fun anyway.]

The library! A noble goal! [The knight seemed to forget his dismissive words of a moment ago, springing into an ungainly run. This way, this way! Follow me! Sir Cadogan will take you there!

[Cloud sighed, and glanced at Sniper.] Want to run after him? Or let him go alone and find some other 'worthy goal'? [Cloud kind of hoped they'd seen the last of the clearly crazy guy in armor, but if Sniper wanted to go after him, Cloud would come with him. The last thing he wanted was Sniper to go poking around in a dark corner somewhere in the castle without thinking, and run into something big and nasty, probably with lots of teeth. This place seemed the type to have those kinds of things.]

Edited 2010-09-18 05:21 (UTC)

[Seeing the knight suddenly leap into a run, Sniper cackled to himself and clapped his hands together in mirth.] Sir Knight can be kind of annoying, but we said we'd go find the library, right? Who knows what sorts of things they have in there!

[He charged after the knight--and not much more gracefully, but he was fast about it. He waved one arm in the air behind him, and instead of the dull sullenness that had been apparent in his voice only moments before, it was now lively with laughter.]

Come on, Cloud! You heard the knight! We're on an adventure!

[Cloud stared after Sniper as he ran off after the knight.] Oi, oi... don't be so... [He sighed, and started to run after Sniper himself.]

Slow down, dammit! [At least they would be easy to follow, between the knight's armor clashing and Sniper's laughter.

He followed it down a few stairways, along several corridors, up another staircase for some reason, and finally down four more sets of stairs. By the time he caught sight of Sniper, he was completely out of breath and moving a lot slower--you couldn't really call it running anymore. He slowed further to a complete halt, leaned over and rested his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. The knight was nowhere to be seen, apparently having run off to who knows where before Cloud arrived. Cloud coughed a couple times, then looked up, wiping at his sweaty forehead a little with his left hand, brushing the fringe of hair over his eye almost out of the way as he did.] This... [Gasp, cough. His voice was, not too surprisingly, rather breathless.] This the place?

Edited 2010-09-19 05:52 (UTC)

[Sniper was not good at a great amount of things, but one thing he was good at was running. By the time Cloud caught up, he was already jogging backwards into the entrance of the library, a spark to his eyes suggesting he was subtly amused at how out of breath Cloud had gotten.]

It looks like you're going to have to try jogging sometime, [Sniper teased, but calmed down nevertheless to patiently allow Cloud to catch his breath.] Just don't let Youth see you running, or else he'll make you do ten laps.

[He pointed off into the distance.] The knight guy ran off into another painting shouting about something, so it looks like we're on our own again.

[He turned tail to open the doors to the library.]

And yeah, he said this was a library--whoa. Hey, look at this!

[Having mostly caught his breath while Sniper talked, Cloud straightened up and followed him into the library.] I won't, trust me. [Unless there was a very good reason for it, no one would catch him running anywhere, ever. Walking got you places just as well, if a little more slowly, and it had always served Cloud well.]

[He grunted a little.] Good. Annoying little... [He broke off to stare at the contents of the library. So many books... it was actually kind of familiar in one way, but it was distinctly jarring in another. Interesting...] Wow... how far back does it go?

Dunno. I guess we'll have to see. [He walked down one of the rows, fingers trailing lightly across the books, a thoughtful expression on his face. He wondered if there were any fictional books here, or if they were all history books, as the one he was looking at appeared to be. Sniper was convinced that he knew somebody who would have loved this place... but he couldn't remember. He took the history book off of the shelf on a whim and opened it to somewhere around the middle.]

Hmm.

[He looked up at it, apparently remembering their last conversation after allowing himself some peace of mind to think.] So, [he said, conversationally.] What are mushi, anyway?

[On the other side of the main aisle, Cloud mimicked Sniper without realizing it, picking a book off the shelves at random and peering at the title.] Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? [Interesting... the cover was a little torn by what Cloud would judge to be something sharp--a knife, or, going by the book's title, maybe claws. There was also a square bit of white paper stuck to the cover. It had 'Property of' written across it in extremely neat, regular words, and beneath that, a scribble of a name. He squinted at it.] Harry... Potter. Nnnn.

[He opened the book at random, seeing a picture of something that looked like the head of a horse, but glanced over when Sniper spoke.] Hmm. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about that. [He closed the book again, and tucked it under his arm. He'd read it later--no one was here to stop him taking it, and it looked interesting.] I... don't exactly know. [That admission was a little painful, almost. From what little he'd seen in his memories, he should know more about whatever these mushi things were. A lot more.]

I visited a library dedicated to the study of them, in one of my memories... it must have been at least this large. And in another, I helped a little girl whose eyes were infected by one particular species of mushi... there must be thousands of different species. [He frowned slightly, thinking of the last memory he'd received.] ...some of them are worse than others, I guess.

Edited 2010-09-22 01:36 (UTC)

[Sniper had let the thought leave his mind for a little while there, but he hadn't flat out forgotten it--more pressing things had just entered the foreground of his mind. Like talking, moving knights within picture frames. Still, he was curious about whatever Cloud was willing to tell him; he seemed like the secretive sort and Sniper always enjoyed hearing others' stories.

As Cloud spoke, Sniper allowed his gaze to stray from the book he held loosely in one hand and stared attentively at him, speculating about what he was talking about. A little girl whose eyes were infected...

He had to place one hand over one of his own eyes at the mental images that immediately sprung to his all too imaginative mind, fairy tales of insects coming out of eyes and black bile and all sorts of creepy terrors that sprang into the night. He shuddered.]

Some sort of... parasite then, maybe?

[Cloud kept his face impassive as Sniper covered one eye--it was just a reaction to the story. He didn't think the three or four who knew had gone around talking about him missing an eye.]

...maybe. [It certainly seemed that way, but then... hadn't he used another kind of mushi to help that same little girl? Though he hadn't seen the results of that...]

Like I said, there must be thousands of different kinds. They can't all be parasites. [After all, the thing living in the place his eye used to be, if he was right in assuming it was another kind of mushi, had never bothered him.]

[Sniper frowned, considering Cloud's words. Unlike most of the other titles he had heard around here that sounded familiar but he couldn't recall the meaning of, the word mushi sounded entirely foreign. He wondered what sort of place Cloud came from, what stories he could tell had he still had his memories--from the sounds of it, he had an interesting life. Maybe not as interesting as being electrocuted and climbing up a flying ship, but interesting enough.]

Mm, [he said, making a sound to indicate that he was listening more than anything else. He glanced down at his book and skimmed the words without much thought put into it.]

Like bugs, then? [He hazarded.] I mean, there's lots of different kinds and even though some can kill you, others are pretty harmless.

[Cloud fiddled with the hair over his left eye, his gaze drifting away from Sniper a little to skim over the bookshelves. Briefly, he wondered how long this place would stay. He wouldn't mind spending some time here, later... but back to the matter at hand.

Bugs, huh... when Prince had told him that the creatures he drew in the journal looked like some kind of insect, for a moment Cloud had thought he had written mushi. On second glance, he realized the man had... but it had been written in a way that meant 'insect' instead of... well, mushi seemed to be something fundamentally different, that much was clear, but the fact that they were pronounced the same way was something. Cloud had no idea what, but even an unclear something was better than nothing at all.] Sounds about right... [He sighed, wishing for a cigarette... the voice from his first dream echoed in his ears, briefly. On second thought maybe it was better he didn't have one in this place.] The one I learned about in the memory I got had a pretty interesting ability. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say 'interesting eating habits'..."

[Sniper took a few steps backward until he ran into a table and settled himself on top, his skinny legs swinging idly as he listened, fiddling with the corner of a page in the book all the while.] So what did it do?

[As flighty as he could be, Sniper was often the perfect listener--he had a tendency to sit quietly and attentively stare at whoever happened to be talking at the moment. This instance was no exception.]

It was... [He didn't really need to tell Sniper where it had apparently been living. This story was a bit to close to their own situation... Cloud himself felt somewhat unsettled when he thought about it.] ...eating her memories, slowly. Bit by bit.

[He leaned back against a nearby bookshelf, idly flipping through the pages of his new book for lack of anything to do with his hands.] Apparently, it was a kind of mushi that liked living in the shadows of trees until it found a host.

Eating her... memories? [The story was clearly an unsettling one, and its similarities to their current home was uncanny. He shut the book entirely this time around, not even bothering to mask his unease with his incessant fiddling and placed the book neatly off to the side.]

I guess you don't have to say what that reminded you of, [he said, the corners of his mouth turning up briefly in an uncomfortable smirk. Sniper looked down at his hand for a moment, running his nail down the hardened callous on the tip of his thumb that he was born with. He realized now that it had been from using his weapon, and practicing with his slingshot was starting to wear down at his skin again but it had softened considerably during his idle months. What else had they forgotten? What else had the tree... eaten? That was as good a word as any, but it did make him wonder.]

I wonder if that memory eating mushi is here?

[What if the cocoons were covered in that stuff, and they were stuck there until the mushi had had their fill? Was that possible? It probably was. How long were they in the cocoons for?]

Do you think that that mushi was in the--

[He cut himself off abruptly, wrinkling his nose and glanced quickly around the library, as if checking for some mysterious force that would suddenly come and whisk them away for even daring to think about it.]

[Cloud flipped the pages a few more times then stuck the book under his arm.] I don't know... I haven't seen any of the... symptoms I was describing in the memory. [Not yet, anyway.] ...but the memory crystals seem to work exactly the opposite way that mushi does.

[He looked over sharply at Sniper's half-asked question, his mind completing the sentence--'in the cocoons'.] I... heh. I have no idea. [A half-swallowed sigh.] ...it's one theory. Not exactly a comforting one...

❦ 13th Record

QUICKLOG - of what, derpville?

QUICKLOG - sounds about right

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QUICKLOG - Yeah sorry about that. XD

QUICKLOG - s'cool!

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