#mnemo interaction

What was that? Was that.. my memories? Someone else’s? It wouldn’t occor to her until much later that they could not have been memories of someone else, but it seemed an option at the time, considering what she saw from Melody. What does it mean? Who was that? When…when was that? 

She tried to recall something, anything about those memories. A couple of words. Memory. Tratior. Heir. Throne.

Ah. My second child remembers something of me. Her time runs short. 

Huh? Was someone?

Speaking? She couldn’t remember. Everything was very foggy. And warm. Disgustingly so. It had been getting warmer lately, and she occasionally had passed out for a couple of days at a time, but.. it was getting very very hard to keep her eyes open. Her head hurt. Everything hurt. Her wings itched. Her vision was hazy. She should get help, she decided. Help…

Oh- my my. Someone’s sick, aren’t you? Satin, would you be a dear and help get your sister to someone who can help?

But mooooooom, she’ll be fine! There’s so many people on mount fay and I don’t-

Satin, that’s your sister. Passed out. Suffering from molt-sickness. I would move her myself if I could but that might accidentally kill her. You know that.

Hmph. Fine.

Thank you very much, Satin. If everything goes well, we’ll both get free reign of where we go very soon, my children.

———

Voices… familiar ones. Boredom, quickly turned to panic. She tried to speak, tried to move, to say she’d be fine, but her eyes were so heavy…she wanted to sleep again. White…

———

Cloth again. Again? She didn’t remember the last time well. Comforting. Fluff…seeds? She didn’t know… it filled the small space, cooling her down. She tried to speak. 

…where…

Suddenly, the cloth stopped moving. She hadn’t realized she was being carried. Worried words. Melody’s bell shone very harsh-bright. It had two streaks down from the eye. Void, some part of her said. She was too tired to think about what. Melody started hurridly talking with something like releif in her voice.

“…emo… Mnem…an you hear…..lease…answe…”

She wanted to say something. Something, anything. Melody shouldn’t have to worry-scared about her.

…m…okey….

Melody perked up, and then started berating her about something. Mnemo tried to pay attention, she really did, but the buzzing and heat and pain and itch and dizzy and her vision faded into white once more. She liked the white color, it reminded her of ….someone…

And then the white void took her consciousness once more.

———

Someone untied the soft cloth bundle she was in. He spoke quietly, as if he were afraid of being overheard. “Do not fear, child, mnemo. I…am taking you away so you can grow in peace, before the politics of the temple tarnish your beautiful innocence.” He said it so softly she wasn’t sure he was really speaking- he didn’t have a moveable mouth, so she couldn’t tell. “One day, can you return to me? I want to see the fruit of my labors, and I doubt your first molt will go well at a higher temperature than here. Lucky that I don’t have temperature sensing in this body, I guess.” He seemed nice. Tired too, if his demeanor was anything to interpret. “But if it keeps you away from the hell that is the village, don’t come back. Unless you absolutely have to. Promise?” She didn’t respond. She didn’t know how to speak at that point, she thought. That was a long time ago. The white begins to claw at the edges of mnemo’s vision as she desperately tried to hold onto the memory, just as the figure looked straight into mnemo’s eyes. “Oh. I really didn’t think there’d be anyone holding onto this memory other than me. It’s very nice of you t        visi         me,   or     ot,”

And then the white claimed her consciencness yet again, despite her despration to hold on.

———

“Ah! Found you again. You leaving was not very kind.”

I didn’t want to, she wanted to say. But her eyes were so heavy….

“Ohhhhhhh, I understand. You’re not supposed to be here. I thought you were stuck here because well, you’re quite far from your body. That’s not incredibly healthy, you know. Though you are approaching the village quite rapidly. That’s not good.”

I am..? She wanted to speak again but really was tired. She wanted to sleep…

“Hey. Kid. It’s gonna be really annoying if you leave again- oh. More wings. Molting sickness. Has it already been a year since you hatched? Maybe the temprature being so low for you caused early molting? Hm.”

Molting..? She just wanted to go to sleep, and the white static began creeping into her vision.

“Well! Since you’re coming, I do have to tell you that your mother wanted you to know that she regrets not being able to contact you directly as tha   w     d ki       ou,”

Sleep, she decided would come now. The white claimed her once more, much to the figure’s annoyance. She would deal with that later, she thought. Later…

———

Hey. Kinda need you to not be dead right now, nehmo. Please. I want to do something really cool.

Mnemo figured that since she asked very nicely she could open her eyes. It was very bright and it hurt her eyes really bad, but the wall of coldshard was really impressive, even with the light refracting off of it into her eyes. It gave her a worse headache that she already had. She started to close her eyes. She wanted to go to sleep…

Mnemo. A sound like snapping. A snap of ice? Stay with me. Two more minutes then you can sleep.

Mmmkay. Sleep sounded good, she thought. But after two minutes. How long was a second anyways…?

Can you lift your wings up as much as you can? Not tlike that, to the sides, not your fro- yeah there stop wait- yeah. There.

She didn’t recall moving her arms, but she did recall how much she wanted to sleep. Badly. Her arms hurt…

Almost there, can you imagine the ice splitting? It’ll help the headache,

A sound like a crack of thunder, what even was thunder? But it did help with the headache. She liked that the light wasn’t in her eyes anymore. It would be nicer if it was colder though. And then suddenly the wind picked up. She thanked the wind.

The voice was saying something, but she didn’t want to listen. 

Mnemo, you’re freezing Melody. Stop the wind. Now. Please,

Mmmm. Okay. But only if I can go back to sleep, okay? She very politely asked the wind to maybe stop, because it was hurting her friend. The wind was very understanding.

Thank you. You can sleep now.

And she blinked once slowly, before closing her eyes and welcoming the white.

———

This isn’t the white she was used to, she thought. That one was static. This one was a cool white mist. With undertones of blue, she thought. How pretty.

You need to wake up, he said. Who was he? A bug with a beak, she thought. What was a beak? 

As aluring as this place is, you will die if you stay here too long. You have somewhere to be, promises to keep. She didn’t want to wake up, she thought. She wanted to sleep, to succumb to dreamless white. 

I know you don’t want to, sprout. You have to, though. Your friends wait for you. They have traveled far to find you help, and to bring you home.

Her friends? Plurl? She had that many? She did! It was starting to come back to her. Glacier… Melody… her pen pals… her pen pals! She still had to write a letter to someone. Who? Oh yes, the verdainia person! She quite liked their letters, she awaited them with bated breath. 

Sprout, could you come with me to our home? He held his hand out, his braids? Hair? Swinging side to side in the breeze? Or something. She didn’t know where they were going. 

———

The light wasn’t so bright anymore, was the first thing she noticed. She decidedly liked it when her head didn’t hurt. The small room she was held in had three people- the strange braids guy, another bug? Of the same species, and an antennaed child, with a mask on that radiated power. It had three small dots around a bigger circle in the middle of her mask, and her eyes and posture looked releived. The third thing she noticed was how much nicer it felt outside- not muggy and warm at all! In fact, she felt much better than she had in a while. 

“Hmmmm!!! It’s much nicer now. And cold, as it should be.” The masked girl looked surprised.

“You can talk so soon after being in the mind-realm?” Surprise. She could see it barely in the way her crown squinted. Mask. Not crown. What even was a crown?

“Areee you not supposed to?” Another way she was a freak different. Greeeeeat. “I think it’s very normal to be talking.” Now that she was properly looking around, she noticed that the braids guy was bent over, in what looked to be pain or exhaustion, or something. Worn to the bone would probably describe it best, she decided. 

“You’re rather an impressive child. I’d belive the claims of you being Mem’s kid.” She spoke awfully maturely for a kid. She seemed almost like an adult with how she carried herself. How had mnemo known she was a kid anyways? This bug seemed like they could pass as an adult. Another oddity about me. Yay. Glacier would probably have a heart attack if they could hear my thoughts right now, haha. Tired, she felt. Very very tired.

“You slander her name-“ he huffed, his tired demeanor still weighing on his speech, eyes alight with almost rage, “-in front of the high preist? You will not-“ 

“Be forgiven, bla bla bla, excetera, excetera. I honestly think it’s really funny that for all your bravado about Mem, you’re not even on first name basis with her.”

“Well, the respect she deserves means that I shouldn’t be requesting such a grand thing from-“

“Do you even hear yourself? I literally have known her for a few cycles, and she literally would not care about you talking about her using her actual name.”

I have a feeling she’s pulled this before, Mnemo thought. She liked the funny lady, she decided. The two continued bickering.

The attendant began to silently fuss about her, pulling a brush of some kind onto her new wings on her back. She had wings. On her back. Huh. That was new, I guess. For some reason that didn’t surprise her.

The attendant started to brush out all the loose feathers and fluff that had been frozen onto Mnemo’s wings, and to say it felt nice was an understatement. Not only was she lighter, but she could feel the breeze better. The wind seemed to be greeting her, whispering welcomes and soft complements. She closed her eyes, relaxing. She could get used to this, she thought.