iattractmushi | ❦ 13th Record

[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...

[Sniper looked relieved when Cloud appeared to be able to finish his thought for him--maybe it wasn't safe to say out loud, but it was certainly an idea he'd like to discuss, even if it was only speculation. At this point, it didn't seem entirely inconceivable that it was the cocoons doing this to them.]

But it's still a possibility, right? I mean, nobody knows how long we were inside those things for.

[He shut his eyes, tapping his finger thoughtfully against his chin.] There's no way to tell for sure. So if memory crystals give us specific memories, then that mushi stuff you were talking about takes specific things away?

[Sniper did agree that the theory wasn't a very comforting one; after all, what could be scarier than lying motionless in an encasing that was slowly sucking your memories away? But the truth was often a frightening thing, and in this sort of place he craved answers.

But not enough to get killed. The running commentary going on in his head argued that going out to find the truth and save everybody in the process even if it meant going into danger was what a true man would do, but Sniper found that he valued his own skin more than that. He'd leave that stuff up to reckless people like King.]

[Cloud shook his head, not because he disagreed but because he didn't have any answers to give Sniper.] Specific things, yeah, but random ones. From what I was saying, the kagedama--that's the mushi's name--chooses something like the memory of a sneeze, or dango, and eats that. The woman would have lost all memory of what a sneeze was if that happened. The memory crystals seem to be... a lot broader than the mushi in their effects, returning entire pieces of our memories instead of just one specific thing.

[Cloud stopped talking for a second. He hadn't meant to go on like that... he cleared his throat, and muttered,] Anyway... there's no way to tell if that particular mushi is in the cocoon or not, but I don't think it is. According to my memory there's no way to remove that one... and we're gaining memories, not still losing them.

Edited 2010-09-27 03:46 (UTC)

The kagedama... [Sniper repeated slowly as to keep it preserved in his mind. Anything to do with memories was important in this place, and he would spend ages berating himself if he forgot something through sheer incompetence alone.] So that can't be it, but that doesn't mean it's not here somewhere.

If there's one that eats memories, then could there be one that restores them? [He wondered aloud, then gave a reassuring smile to Cloud.] This stuff's pretty creepy, but the more we know, the more likely we are to actually figure out what's going on here, right?

[Assuming that they did, in fact, want to know.] It sounds like your memories are pretty useful.

[Cloud shrugged.] I'm not ruling anything out. [Though he still had the nagging feeling that if there was any kind of mushi in Edensphere, he would know about them by now...]

...I guess there might be? [Cloud sighed, a touch exasperated, and rubbed his hand through his hair.] I just don't know enough about... yeah. Yeah, every little thing helps. [He shook his head, smiling slightly.] Sorry. It's kind of frustrating... I should know this stuff.

[He chuckled.] Now if I only had a few more, it might let me put the pieces together... or maybe not, but at least I'd have other pieces then.

[Sniper shrugged, and gave Cloud a reassuring half-smile, more helpless than happy but more wistful than sad.] We should know a lot of things. But maybe you'll get more memories about it, especially if it was that big of a part of your life.

[He knocked his heels together.] And I'll get more memories of that ship. [He hopped off the table in a smooth motion and clapped Cloud on the back in a friendly sort of way.] What are we doing sitting around here talking about such gloomy things when we've still got a huge castle to explore? You like learning about things, I can tell--so let's look around here. Maybe we'll even find a book on mushi.

[He nodded, certain that he would--it wasn't just important, it felt like it was his life.] The one you drew in your journal? [He smiled as Sniper hopped off the table, straightening up from his slouch against the bookshelves just in time for Sniper to clap him on the back.]

Heh. Sounds like a plan to me. There are so many books here, I'm sure we'll find a few worth bringing back to Edensphere. [Hopefully they wouldn't run into that crazy painted knight again, but if they did, oh well.]

❦ 13th Record

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