shardbond | Party Rock Anthem only it's played on kazoos

[Oscar is a practiced master at Coping (tm) in the face of things he would prefer not to address in any sort of healthy or rational manner. After the events of yesterday, he's somehow getting the feeling that he isn't the only one, which means that in his mind there is only one thing to do: this translates to yet another Walmart booze heist (even larger than the original), a few side trips to amass snacks because RIP his kitchen, and some haphazardly erected decorations in one of the spare rooms to try to at least give off something of a celebratory atmosphere... but let's be real here, this is just Misery x CPR x Reese's Puffs + alcohol.

Sunday morning will find handwritten notes tucked under everyone's doors inviting them to a party that evening, snacks and drinks (that particular word underlined a couple of times, just in case people didn't pick up on the meaning of "party") provided gratis.

There's alcohol, there's soda for the minors, there's plenty of junk food to eat, and there are a whole bunch of other people who are also Going Through It. What better recipe for a party could you ask for?

... don't answer that.]

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It might actually be a good time for it. I have recently regained the rest of my memories. Though I had retained common knowledge about my world even far before any recollection returned to me, it does feel like I have a much more complete picture now.

Regained?

I... I was not aware you had amnesia this whole time, my friend. What happened??

[ ........... oh. He's mentioned it to so many people, he kind of forgot Vakama did not know.

This means that somehow Vakama is now the first person to actually get the full explanation (because More finally remembers it)... ]

Yes, I... when I came here, I did not know much more about myself than my name, occupation, and a few vague ideas. I had thought it to be regular amnesia, and myself to be someone who was imprisoned for political reasons, but... It turns out matters were a tad more complicated.

I am... essentially a construct made of a part of someone's soul. A version of a past that he failed to hold onto.

[wow why are so many of us in trouble with the local police :pensive:]

A construct...?

In what way? Time... it isn't such an easy malleable thing.

[ Putting words to this is...daunting, because he doesn't fully understand it himself. (He's not from the canon point where this would make full sense to him, rip...) ]

I'm a being made of magic, produced from the long-lost idealism of a dead man. I wish I could tell you how precisely I came to be, but even with my memories unclouded... It would require further study I cannot perform here.

What I do know is that the man who's memories I share died bedridden and aged, months ago. Meanwhile I am, in appearance and mind, as he was two decades ago. I'm the cast off ideals he used to once believe in.

Maybe it would be apt to describe me as my own regrets, given physical form.

[That's... a wild concept to take in, honestly. People being possessed by other people? Masquerading as others? Yeah, sure, that happens sometimes. But making copies, let alone sharing memories between them?]

...You clearly have a separation between the man who has passed and yourself, despite the supposed link. It sounds like a mirror image, of sorts, rather than... an extension of someone who could have been you. [Or, rather, a More who could very well be them in different circumstance.

Still, this is getting a little Whoa for a room full of slightly drunk people, so he kind of tries to put a pin in his questions that are already starting to pile up in his mind.]

...If this is not topic for such a place, my friend, then we may speak on it another day, but... I do hope it does not change how you feel, in your place with us here.

[ More smiles softly, a little forlorn but still very much genuine in sentiment. ]

It does not. I admit that it was a shock, finding out that I was not the fully realized person I had believed - or maybe merely hoped - myself to be... but it was my place here that kept me from despairing fully.

[ Sometimes you only stay alive because you owe a debt to Sonic the Hedgehog. Sometimes that's how it is. ]

I... like the way you phrased that as well. "Someone who could have been me." It hangs heavy over me that I have that potential, that that weakness of character is inherent to myself, but the actual memories of it feel distant, not quite mine.

Then I would hope that you can allow it to remain at a distance.

Even those who see the future must let time act as it does, without allowing possibility to plague the present. If it is not something you wish to return to, a person you do not want to become... then perhaps it can stay as only that. A warning of mistakes, and a hope for the future you do decide to chase instead.

As much as this is advice I'll gladly follow, I do have to correct it a little. I may not be like Hythlodaeus V, not yet, but... that does not render his a reign a hypothetical that I can still prevent.

Would that it was a forward vision of the future that still allows me to return to a present not yet tarnished.

But no, it is not just possibility, it is fact. What I remember are not visions, but an inescapable past.

[Huh.

That has him dumbfounded for a second, leaning forward with his elbows against his knees and his glass held almost as an afterthought between his fingers.]

I... can't say that I follow. Where does the line between what is his past and your present decide to separate? Must you simply let it repeat?

They are the same line. My present lies beyond his death. Hythlodaeus V is history, and I came into being just when he passed from this world.

For a lack of better terms, you might describe me as a ghost...?

[Ah... okay, he believes he can see where the misunderstanding happened.]

As in, you now exist in the present that he left behind.

I would say my statement still stands, then. Even if you walk now where he has stopped, I would still stay the choice lies on you what you choose to do with those memories, where your future is shaped from your fresh steps in the sands of time.

[Bringing his glass to his mouth.]

Ghost or not.

[ More exhales slowly, and then a smile returns to his lips. ]

Yes... All that remains to me is to take my past failures and let them teach me a brighter path forward. For the sake of those who rely on me now, I must strive to become a better man. Better yet than even the ideal my old heart clung to.

It is all that can be done, at the end of the day. I wish you the strength to follow through.

Do you know what it was that brought those memories back to you?

[ More sighs. ]

It pains me a little to say, but all the violent invasion of our minds that was perpetrated by Infinite and Shadow may have worked out in my favor. They quite forcefully broke down barriers that I might not have surmounted on my own.

Mm... as in, you believe the memories had always been there, rather than being lost entirely?

I'd be a little unsettled to know either of them had that sort of reach into what makes us what we are. But... perhaps if they can do as much, then so can Robotnik.

Better that it came to you now, than to be used as ammunition by our enemy.

Party Rock Anthem only it's played on kazoos

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metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers (ill just keep this up until u say otherwise)

metaphor spoilers (we'll be here for a while)

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

metaphor spoilers

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metaphor spoilers

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