video; un: photocutie

[trailblazingspirit]

WHO: March 7th and you!
WHERE: Libra and Gemini
WHEN: end of July
WHAT: March finds the hot new cartoon taking Kaisou by storm!
WARNINGS: none beyond HSR 2.1 update spoilers!

[The camera opens on a TV in a store window’s display, playing a cartoon. It’s strange, though—you’d expect them to be playing something like Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse, except the main character seems to be…a talking clock? A mischievous and heroic one, pulling the rug out from under a great big alligator’s feet, literally.

As this is a store display, there’s no sound or music accompanying the cartoon, but the art style looks rather retro—with rubber hose animation and a hint of grain over it.

Then the camera turns around to show March’s very, very confused expression.]

When did Clockie make it off Penacony to here…?

Comments

un: musicologyminor

[youwouldntdownloada]

[wait]

Isn't this that cartoon you told me about..? How did it start broadcasting here..?

Do you think someone with a pastlife remembered it..?

[Except, everyone not on the app from the mundane end will be insisting it's been airing a while...]

[trailblazingspirit]

I don’t know! Maybe it just took a little bit to reach this world. Clockie cartoons do exist off Penacony, they’re just not as popular as they are there.

[That makes the most sense to her, anyway.]

It could be, I guess, but I’m not sure. Back on Penacony, the person who made them was called the Watchmaker—and the credits here are saying he’s the same person who made them here too.

[youwouldntdownloada]

Through a gate though..?

[Oh, to be as direct thinking as March...]

Geeze, I guess that confirms it's the 'same cartoon' though. But what an on the nose name....

[trailblazingspirit]

Maybe...? I don't know how those gates or those labyrinths work.

[That -1 INT modifier really shows sometimes.]

It's not his real name, it's really just an alias. There's—oh, there's a lot to explain, and I'm not sure how much I can really talk about. You know how detectives can't talk about their cases to outsiders? It's like that.

1/?

[consonanter]

[You know, most of the time, he'll look at the network to see what's being talked about- but ultimately, he doesn't really know how to answer them. And after last month's taunting post with the zealots, Noah isn't exactly willing to throw himself out in the open.

But this post grabs him, if only because the art is a familiar one. Where has he seen it before?

And then March mentions Clockie and Penacony.]

2/3

[consonanter]

[The stage is a small one, a single light in the room being used as a spotlight. A grouping of stuffed animals are arranged in rows, an audience for the lone singer for the performance. She steps onto the makeshift platform, and Robin begins to sing, living out a dream as a child. It was a time when they were unafraid and carefree.

Noah knows this. He remembers this as what he used to do with Robin when they were children in this life. But somehow... no, this isn't this life. This was him as Sunday. He did this as Sunday? With Robin?

...why does this ache feel so strong, like a knife going through his heart?

("She's all I have left of my family, and I nearly lost her. I can't lose her again.")]

text; un: fourseasons

[consonanter]

...I've seen that mascot before. There was a statue of him in a place called the Golden Hour, wasn't there? He had plenty of friends and foes, too.

[Brother Hanu, the Origami Birds, Old Man Wood, Mr. Soda... Noah knows there's more, but he can't quite picture them at this point. What hits him more is how this person knows Penacony, and even knows that Clockie exists.

Are they just like him, reborn into a new life to live? Or are they actually from Penacony itself?]

text;

[trailblazingspirit]

Yeah, a pretty big statue at that! Plus a theme park, although I don’t know if that park’s even still standing after Acheron slashed the movie screen in two…

[Somewhere on the way to Kaisou Acheron sneezes.]

I’m pretty sure there’s other statues of him in the other Dreamscapes besides the Golden Hour, but we were kind of busy with an investigation, so I didn’t get to do all the sightseeing I wanted to. :((

[consonanter]

[The Clockie Theme Park is a familiar name, full of gardens, a maze, and a rolling red carpet that traveled like a wave in and out of sight. There's laughter, the image of children skipping about and tugging their parent’s hands towards more interesting prospects.

But the name said next is one that doesn't sound familiar, yet he feels like it should, in some ways.]

…Acheron?

[Noah expects, perhaps, to get a memory of her next, but the words that resonate back to him are anything but.

"Different Dreamscapes."

A lighter, the sound of a gruff and tired man's voice, one that called him "Brother." The scent of alcohol, and a blinding, seething rage.

"Why did you kill my sister?"

He doesn't remember what Gallagher said to him after- either Sunday forgot or was too blind in his vengeance to care. What he does remember is the meme suddenly appearing, razor sharp eye claws stabbing straight through his back, his loss of breath and the sight of his own body being pierced through. The Dreamscape fluid spattered across the floor like blood, the world going dark as Sunday was positive he was dead.

…How he awoke again later, in the Dreamflux Reef.]

…Suddenly Unto Death.

[Noah pauses, realizing he should clarify. Thank god no one can see how hard his hands are shaking as he writes a reply.]

Sorry, my memories of Penacony tend to be all over. I don’t have a ton of them, but I do know it was my home in my past life.

text | un: chaosraccoon

[actnormal]

What the heck

text;

[trailblazingspirit]

I don't know! Have you started seeing Clockie around again??

[actnormal]

Nope. Maybe because there's no theme park or hotel here?

1/2

[mediocrites]

[Glitz and glamour, lights and noise. People celebrating everywhere, the smell of sweet soda and salty popcorn on the breeze, flashing signs and billboards and advertisements and flyers all demanding attention simultaneously. It had been so busy he had to put his bust on as soon as he walked out onto the main thoroughfare, just to keep his equilibrium, shield himself a little from the sheer sensory cacophony. A perpetual festival of every kind of indulgence, every sort of distraction that could keep people from reflecting on something true, and all over the image of a smiling cartoon clock inviting, offering, encouraging, cajoling people into slipping away from themselves into the fantasy.

What a wasteful monument to idiocy. What a shame that he had a mission he couldn't just walk away from and avoid the shimmer and shine of perpetual consumption.]

text; un: absolutenumber

[mediocrites]

[He spends a bit staring at his phone after the memory fades away, wondering if he should even respond. So then, Penacony must be the name of the place where all that happened, Clockie the name of the mascot. Knowing these things doesn't require him to take action about them. But he does want to learn more, and this person must be another piece of the puzzle he's trying to unravel.]

You're familiar with Penacony? [He's seen this person on the network once or twice, but he didn't know she was related to whoever he'd been back then.]

[trailblazingspirit]

[March, completely unaware of the turmoil she’s set off and honestly slightly disappointed she can’t get a boba tea discount via Clockie magic, responds as blithely as ever:]

Yep! I actually came here directly from Penacony. It’s a pretty neat place! I’m just surprised Clockie’s here too, since Penacony doesn’t really exist here.

voice, un: thedancer

[dancedwithplenty]

[Gasp!]

The cartoon ghost escaped your camera!

[CONTAINMENT BREACH]

voice;

[trailblazingspirit]

What—Oh! No, if it was the ghost or heliobus that possessed my camera ages ago I don't think it'd be like this. It's okay, it's just Clockie.

Re: voice;

[dancedwithplenty]

Ohhh, you think? So whatever haunted your camera just took on the appearance of a cartoon you knew? Got it, got it.

[Seems feasible for some ghosty or spirit. She thinks? Don't look at her, she's no expert.]

Clockie, huh? I don't recognize that one.

text; un: allin

[neverchanged]

[While everyone else is suffering trauma, Aventurine is... also suffering trauma but he's shoving it so far down that he'll just deal with it later. He's had a bad time since finding people locked up in Meropide to be used like... batteries, or slaves, or something, and he just really isn't feeling great.

The whole reminder of Penacony and its... gilded glamour... also brings back a lot of memories, and they aren't great either. He feels his stomach twisting. An uncomfortable sense of vertigo, a sensation like he's absolutely going to die. Acceptance. He might die for real, but he also might not, and the latter is what he's aiming for.

Maybe death can bring freedom.

Maybe...]

Oh. It's that thing.

[Temu Mickey Mouse is here to... what, subvert capitalism while undeniably bowing down to it?

He never paid attention.]

text;

[trailblazingspirit]

[Man, March never really paid attention to the themes either. Mostly she just appreciated the retro art style. But she squints again at the username, then at the picture accompanying it.

Is that...?]

Wow, there's a lot more of you who remember Penacony than I thought there was. Did you get to see the theme park? [This is a very ham-fisted attempt at subtlety, all but going hey do you remember nearly killing me and my friends.]

1/2

[neverchanged]

['Did you get to see the theme park?'

An innocent enough question. Unfortunately, it triggers a bunch of different memories he has gotten close to but not precisely touched on before.



Please hold.]

2/2; text;

[neverchanged]

I had no idea you could get a migraine from having a bunch of memories flood you at once. It blows. Can't recommend it

You're one of the slightly recent arrivals, correct? You came here through a labyrinth? In that case, let me make something clear:

If you want to hold a grudge I won't stop you, but that was quite literally a different lifetime for me, and I have enough problems on my plate without adding yours

If you want me dead (again), you'll have to take a number, get in line, and wait your turn

We're trying to avert an apocalypse and I'm not getting paid overtime, nor am I getting paid enough to deal with this

1/2

[vanescere]

[The imagery is what catches Faye's eye first -- a clock character that felt too familiar. It's unsettling at first, to say the least... but it's when March mentions Clockie and Penacony...

A large statue of Clockie in front of a beautiful skyline in a fantastical city... a view from the rooftops in the presence of... someone that she can't see at her side -- someone important to her, before the image flickers and is gone -- replaced by a broken room that was surely once full of expensive decoration and bustling people.

It's dark and eerie... and suddenly she isn't alone. She turns, getting a glimpse of familiar faces that Faye can't quite make out -- the same feeling of someone important being there -- and the moment breaks. She remembers being thrown -- remembers a blade sticking out of her chest, falling... and then darkness.

The memory ends and Faye sits a while, staring in unsettled shock at the paused video on her phone, Clockie center screen.]

text | un: fairylights

[vanescere]

I remember these characters... there's a statue of Clockie, right? And that's Boss Stone in the cartoon?

[This isn't the only memory she's had from this past life of hers, but... she died? Surely nobody could survive a blade like that. Even if something about that seems wrong.]

You were on Penacony, too?

[She knows there was a sense of familiarity to March, but they were sort of busy trying not to be shot or blown up so Faye had pushed those thoughts aside and forgotten about them.]

text;

[trailblazingspirit]

[The last thing March remembers of Penacony, before she woke up in her labyrinth, Acheron had ended the fight with a single, decisive strike of her blade. The world had flashed black and white and red, poker chips glinting as Acheron’s blow pushed them and Aventurine back, and—

Well, her memory gets fuzzy after that. Firefly…she’s only known her as a girl that her best friend mourned.]

That’s right! That’s Clockie on TV, and Boss Stone too—I don’t know how the cartoons got there, I just know this TV’s been showing three on a loop.

Yes, I came here straight from Penacony. Really I’m from the Astral Express, but I was just on Penacony at the time I fell into a labyrinth.