[EVENT] Memory Tapes

[vrdr_mods]

On the morning of November 21st, denizens in the Velvet Room will awake to a message on their phones or by their bedsides in an envelope. Perhaps even on their computer screens.

Greetings! If you've received this message, then you've been selected as a participant in a new activity to strengthen bonds within this community.

In order to facilitate connections with your fellow residents, we advise you to watch this video. Watch it and return the tape to its rightful owner. If you lacked the means to watch VHS tapes before, we have provided you with the necessary equipment.

Failure to do so may put your own memories at risk. Do not be selfish, lest you find yourself struggling to recall crucial moments of your life. You have no way of knowing which memories have been shared, so ask yourself if it is worth the risk to selfishly hoard another's secrets.

They will soon find a VHS tape, with a case that gives off a soft, blue glow to symbolize its importance. If they lack a TV or VCR, they will find one in their living space.

What they do is up to them, but they should heed the warning, if they value their own memories.


[For links to characters' memories, please see this post in the OOC comm. Have fun!]

Comments

[willowandoak]

All at once, he realizes: It's what he was going to do to Goro. He didn't have any kind of attachment to their world's Isshiki, but Falcon clearly did, and Falcon killed her anyway, because he couldn't do anything else. It would have been like that for him, after Niijima's Palace. The regret, the pain, and the total pointlessness of it all. Goro would still have been dead, whether Ren was sad about it or not.

He struggles for words, but all that he can find is, I'm sorry. And it doesn't matter. It matters that he changed his mind, that Goro might survive. That's all. He clings to that thought. Shido is how he is in every fucking world, and Isshiki is marked for death. But at least Goro is safe.

"I really wanted to kill him," he hears himself say. "Not just... as a way to survive. I wanted to."

[lakebrat]

Murder is wrong, he tells himself, almost conversationally. It carries no weight at all. I'm a Phantom Thief. I won't kill has a little more impact, inasmuch as it reminds him who he is, and what he is, and what he's chosen that distinguishes him from so many others. But it's Ren's turmoil against him, as tangible as the air he breathes, that has true weight.

He feels his pulse beat in his fingers, in his ears, in the arm that's still clinging to Ren; he doesn't need to ask if Shido was really that bad. He's seen enough to know that he was.

"He more than has it coming," Goro agrees, quietly. Would he do it, if the gun was in his hand? It's hard to push the blind desire aside long enough to know.

[willowandoak]

It's nice, hearing it from Goro. Even if he won't actually let Ren kill Shido, the acknowledgment that Shido has it coming... helps. Somehow.

After a moment, he sighs and turns to study Goro's face. "How are you holding up?" It's not lost on him that Goro takes it hard when Shido does this shit. Sometimes he still can't fucking believe they're related. But only sometimes.

[lakebrat]

Huh. He jumps a little, glancing quickly sideways, suddenly looking as unlike Shido as it's possible for an Akechi to look, like he's been caught with his hand in the murder jar. Almost, he challenges—I'm fine, let's talk about you—but then he sighs, feeling his way with difficulty.

"You know how he makes me feel. Shit, I didn't even know Falcon could make a sound like that."

And Wakaba, for fuck's sake. Surely Futaba's mother, the one she described so lovingly, can't have been like that? He thinks of laboratory animals, and of his own mother, and himself.

[willowandoak]

"I'm not surprised. I saw him just after Futaba... did whatever she did, I still don't really get it. He was panicking."

There's not much he can say. Shido does suck, and he is Goro's father. Those are just the shitty facts. He kisses Goro's cheek instead.

[lakebrat]

Warmth from the kiss ripples through him in a wave. He turns, brushing Ren's hair from his face, tucking it behind his ears with a deft hand. "Brings it home, doesn't it? No wonder he couldn't get over what Futaba did, even if he saw the necessity."

But there's an elephant in the room. He lowers his voice. "We're going to go back. And we're going to stop him, and make him pay for what he's done. I won't allow anything else."

[willowandoak]

Ren glances away. He thinks about saying something horribly revealing, something like, That tape was like watching Shido with myself. But the idea makes his skin crawl.

...But he can't think of anything else, either. "Okay," he says, quietly.

[lakebrat]

Goro gets it, though. It's in his eyes; it's in the touch of his hand, the depth of his promise; it's in the taste of bile in his mouth. He is going to pay that man out, for his mother, for Ren, for Futaba and Haru, and for every moment of his worthless life and every black act he's ever done.

He brushes Ren's hair from his eyes one last time. "Okay," he agrees, just as quiet. "Want to take a break from these damned things, or get it over?"

[willowandoak]

"...Do you want to take a break?"

Ren wants to get it over with, rather than spend more time than necessary dreading upcoming tapes. But maybe Goro needs a breather.

[lakebrat]

But he shakes his head. Anything could be lurking in there, for both of them. Or perhaps there's nothing for them at all—but he knows better than to expect such a blessing. "Let's see the next one."

He switches tapes, marking up the old one, and sits back down.

[willowandoak]

This time, the memory shows no one. Ren squints at the screen, confused and suspicious, until the camera turns abruptly to follow the bird, and it clicks.

"First person," he murmurs. Which makes sense, when you think about it, if these are memories. He glances sidelong at Goro.

[lakebrat]

But Goro recognises the room. He's leaned in, more curious than afraid, though with a tremendous sense of foreboding. Even so, there's a gasp, almost a laugh, as he recognises the book and the gun. Except then the camera turns to his mother, and his heart leaps up and chokes him.

She looks so... pale. Transparent. Like she could blow away. And the look on her face is almost alien—

Abruptly, the colour drains from his face. He leaps up and hammers the stop button, until the screen turns blue and empty; he catches his breath as his mind turns white. No, no. No. Never.

[willowandoak]

And there it is. One of their memories. He fucking knew it.

He follows Goro to the TV and touches his shoulder. "Hey," he murmurs. "It's not playing anymore. It's gone."

He could say, We don't have to watch it. After all, of all the tapes they woke up to, they can be sure this one is meant for him. If they don't watch it, it's Ren's memories on the line. But he doesn't want to lose them, so he keeps his mouth shut.

[lakebrat]

Breathing hard, he stares at the blue screen. He doesn't even want to think about that. She wasn't well. It was his fault. It isn't fair. And if they don't watch it, Ren is going to lose some memory, and it will be Goro's fault.

And Goro has already been through Ren's Palace. A violation he can never repay.

He whines in the back of his throat, presses back against Ren just to feel him there. "I'm going to shoot him. Right in the fucking face. What is the point of this?"

[willowandoak]

He pulls Goro close, staring over his shoulder at the TV and trying to keep his voice calm and even despite his growing rage. "He's lying. About the bonding thing. He just likes to fuck with us. That, or he's Maruki-level bad at understanding people."

The way to protect Goro is right there in front of them. They could just not watch the fucking tape, if Ren was a little less selfish. He kisses Goro's shoulder in apology, though hopefully it'll just look like he's trying to be comforting.

[lakebrat]

A tremor goes through him as Ren kisses him, fuck. He presses his cheek against Ren's mop of tangled hair. Even to protect his mother, he cannot force Ren to give up any more.

He presses the button, steels himself, but doesn't step back. He can already hear her, and forces himself to watch.

[willowandoak]

...Ren is glad Goro isn't looking at him.

He tries to keep his reactions to himself, and he succeeds, for the most part. But it was a mistake to hold Goro, because when his breath stutters and his body stiffens, there's no way Goro will miss it. I'm not your mother!

He has some fucking thoughts, put it that way. But he knows far better than to give voice to them. Instead, he leans his head against Goro's and gazes at the blank TV screen.

[lakebrat]

And Goro, for his part, has turned to bury his face in Ren's hair, all the air gone out of him like a popped balloon. His eyes are wet; he clings to Ren as if he's the one source of sanity and safety in all of the world.

[willowandoak]

"Shh." Ren cradles the back of Goro's head in one hand, murmuring in his ear. His attempts to be comforting sound something like this: "It's over. We can blow up the tape if you want. Use it as target practice. You're okay. Sharpen the corner and shove it right in Igor's freaky eye. I'm right here."

[lakebrat]

"No," he eventually murmurs, near Ren's ear with his face still buried. "I'll, uh. I'll keep it. Unless it turns to dust."

He feels like he's been beaten. As if someone picked up that overweight 90s television and slammed it right into his solar plexus. He feels like his body is outside his skin, like he has an exoskeleton, and nothing more besides.

"She's—she's not like that," he tries, hating the bleating sound in his voice. "She's really not like that."

[willowandoak]

"I believe you," he says, and he does. Goro acts a certain way about his mother, but it's not generally the way someone would act if their mother screamed at them like that all the time. That doesn't mean Ren doesn't have an opinion about the tape. But that's his own business.

"Do you wanna sit down?"

[lakebrat]

No, he thinks. And, though he hates himself for it, his hands betray him, clinging tighter, turning Ren's t-shirt into knots. But there's another question, too: What the hell is waiting in that pile for Ren?

"Might as well get it over," he says, forcing himself to detach, and not to say anything more like she's fragile, or she wasn't well, or it was a difficult time, and God, he knows the psychology, has written essays on it.

He sits down on the bed, still dead pale, eyes bright, face blotched red. "You want to pick the next one? Share the wealth."

[willowandoak]

Instead of choosing a tape at once, he leans down and gives Goro a kiss. "Once we're done with these, we'll go blow off some steam. We can fuck, or fight shit in Mementos, or have a bath or something."

He grabs a tape from the now-diminished pile and tosses Goro's onto the bed without looking. There. He fucking gave it back. As the next episode of this fucking shitshow begins playing, he settles grimly on the bed next to Goro.

[lakebrat]

"All three sounds good," he comes back, pressing closer to Ren than he intends. "You should probably eat something, too."

Assuming either of them can eat after this. But then he's leaning forward, stirring to life, because what looks like Leblanc quickly reveals itself to be only superficial, as a constellation of differences, of intrigue, lays itself out.

"This must be—Lotus's tape?" he says, touching his chin, turning sour. " 'The vulture', is it? Let me guess who that is."

[willowandoak]

"Yeah, it's Lotus. He talked to me about this one time." As the tape keeps playing, he tilts his head. "Not the Red Death stuff, though. That's kinda cool. He was, like... a fae Phantom Thief."

But even in Lotus's world, one of them is under Shido's thumb—because there's no way the vulture is anyone else, especially with the talk of Akechi's mother.

"Lotus wants to get Shido's name," he adds after the tape ends. "I tried to give it to him, but it didn't count."