PHOTO | He found the snitch??

[redarm]

Noah Robin Catbell shared a photo. 4/01 near The Towers

can anyone tell me what the duck this is??
it showed up in a package from retrospec.
i wasnt gonna open it but then it ducking CHEWED its way out of the package.
what the heck kind of animal is this??

[Uh yeah he hasn't noticed the parental filter yet, or the pun name.]

Comments

[redarm]

...Alright.

[To Tim:] Timcanpy, can you show us that other memory?

[Like before, Tim responds by opening its mouth wise and putting on another image. This one, has an extremely different setting. It looks like they are in some room. It's nighttime, and it's raining outside. In the background, you can see weird glowing rectangles- like sheets of paper- that line the room with glyphs on them.

Closest to Timcanpy, is another man with red hair, older than Lavi and smoking a cigarette.

Further away, Beansprout is sitting on the floor. He looks different too, a little older. Instead of the black coat before, he's wearing what looks to be prison garb, with his left arm heavily tied up. From the parts that aren't covered in binding, it's clear that there's something very abnormal about his left arm- it's red as blood with black nails and deformed. More of those paper seals float around the wrists of both his hands like some sort of handcuffs. There's a early signs of a bruise forming on his cheek where he's likely been hit. But from the expression his face, the physical blows are not the worst blows he's experienced before this.

The redhead speaks first]

"You've already seen the signs, haven't you?

[There's a pause, and Beansprout seems to be thinking about it, and not in a happy way.]

So that's...that's why...

[His face lowers, his expression is one that doesn't seem to know if he wants to cry or scream. Whatever these signs were supposed to mean, they weren't good. They weren't good at all.]

...What the hell...?

[Like before, the video cuts out there. Timcanpy closes his mouth and looks at Ryoji and Noah silently. Noah looks a bit more troubled by that memory. The video didn't show what was going on in Beansprout's head like his own vision did.]

This came when I was talking about these visions with Dante.

I dunno if it's for sure but .... whatever's going on, maybe it's happened before.

[appraiser]

[ Oh... It's unsettling, to watch something that he isn't sure he should be. It isn't like the other memory, which was fun and happy despite the words exchanged; this one is more serious, solemn, with a gravity that makes Ryoji touch a hand to his own heart as if he could feel the hurt just as well, although he can't understand it. What is that arm? Those glowing sheets? Signs of what? Noah probably couldn't explain any better than what Ryoji can guess, so he simply presses his lips tightly together and frowns. ]

Beansprout... [ Whether the hallucinomemories are of the past of the future is something he's discussed with others before, but Ryoji still isn't set on which one he believes in, or which one he would prefer to be true. ] You were just talking and it happened? For me, sometimes they come through a dream, but the one time it didn't... it did feel like something that had happened in the past. A memory. I haven't heard of anybody else seeing another person's memories though.

[redarm]

[Noah remains silent about his own emotional reaction to the video. It's not an easy one to see, even if he doesn't think him and Beansprout was the same person. It didn't change the fact he got to see it through Beansprout's eyes, and feel all his feelings along with it. The fear, the pain, the sadness...

Whatever they were talking about, he had a feeling things were drastically changing for Beansprout]

Yeah. It was like I flashbacked to it. One moment I was talking, the next it was like I was in that room, having that conversation. [He rubs his head] It's all fucked up.

[appraiser]

That sounds tough... I'm sorry you had to go through it.

[ Sorry because Ryoji can't help, because he doesn't know any way to help either the situation or the emotional burden that comes along with being forced to experience them. ]

Do you think it could get better now that you have Timcanpy? Maybe if you have to watch them, you can watch them with Timcanpy instead of in your own head.

[redarm]

Whatever, lots of people are getting this shit. Not just me.

[He shifts a little uncomfortably, unsure how to take the genuine sympathy.]

I dunno, I doubt it. Can't see...whatever the fuck this is, letting people get off so easy.

[appraiser]

Other people's troubles don't invalidate your own...

[ Ryoji is a strong proponent of people sticking together, but in suffering through Retrospec's whims together... the emphasis is more on the suffering than the together, because he agrees that things getting better and the problem getting solved is so, so far off that it might as well be impossible. ]

But there's happy memories too, right? That first one you showed it, it was happy?

[redarm]

Tch. Tell that to other people.

[Sorry Ryoji, Noah's a strong believer that the world doesn't give a single fuck about other people. Showing weakness from your own problems? Can only get you hurt.

IN OTHER WORDS, THE WALLS. THEY ARE HIGH.]

I guess so? His mind seemed to be on other stuff when I sat in the vision. Not sure what.

[appraiser]

[ BANGS ON THOSE WALLS, LET HIM IN
Ryoji will chisel his way through someday, one pebble at a time ]

I'm kind of curious about how everything unfolds. How he got from there [ he holds his hand out to his left ] to here [ a hand out to his right ]

For everything that could have happened in between then, there's certainly a lot to have on one's mind.

[redarm]

[You can do it Ryoji I believe in you]

Yeah...me too.

[It's weird and hard not to be curious, when you only receive snippets]

Well, we'll probably find out later whether I want to or not.