anemoi | (no subject)

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[ACTION]

*By now it's not particularly a secret that memories are getting mixed up. If anything, Kotetsu's marveling at the luck he's had not dealing with that situation himself. So NATURALLY, within a half hour of that thought, in comes the Doom Train! Well. Shit.

Well, no big deal, right? If he remembers something weird, it won't be hard to figure out it's not him. Just a matter of figuring out whose memory it really is. He yawns, and leans back, lounging on a couch in the Justice League Building. Might as well take a nap while he waits for it.

And then it comes. And his eyes shoot open -- and narrow.*

[ACTION 2]

*There is someone pounding on Shen's door. Hard. And angrily.*

SHEN! I'M CALLING YOU OUT, YOU MASS-MURDERING SON OF A BITCH!

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Of course, he has no idea what Kotetsu is on about.

So, of course, he opens the door.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

*And Kotetsu, in all his rational thought, opens up with a punch to the schnozz.*

All those pandas! You had them all killed! You bastard, there was NO REASON for that!

It was the last thing he expected, so down he goes in a flapping mass of silk and plumage, a few stray feathers still floating in the air.

"Wha--what pandas?" he demands cluelessly from his dignified position on the floor. His speech is a it slurred by that blow to the beak. "What the blazes are you talking about?! I--"

He stops. "You... oh, no...."

Not too many other people who'd fit into a place you can sic a bunch of wolf people on an innocent village! I sure as hell know you don't remember this yet, but damnit, I'm not going to forget this! The only thing keeping me from wiping the floor with you and dragging your ass in to be locked up IS the fact you don't know what I know right now!

Shen drags himself to his feet, beyond flustered and confounded. "Why would I--what did you see, anyway?"

[The yelling and sounds of fighting would draw anyone out of their apartment, including Gordon. The scene with Kotetsu livid and Shen crumpled on the floor only confuses him more.]

--the hell's going on out here?!

[And there's Shen's equally bemused roommate, exiting the bathroom.]

I'd like to know that too! What was all that about pandas?

*An audience. Fine with him.*

You wanna know? Lemme tell you! See, that damn train hit me today! You know, like it's been hitting everybody else? So of course I get someone else's memory, and you know what's in that memory? I'm standing there, ordering a bunch of wolf guys to slaughter every. Single. Panda. And we're not talking just the pandas we know, which would be bad enough! We're talking people pandas! Men, women, children, all just trying to live their lives -- and he ordered his men to wipe out every. Single. One of them! Do you know what it's like, getting somebody's memory of ordering the death of innocents?! And don't tell me it could be anybody! The only totally not-humanoid thing I know of here is Mokona, and she's definitely not gonna be ordering THAT sorta thing!

Shen scarcely appears to breathe right now, staring wise-eyed.

"But... did you see why it happened?" he asks breathlessly.

Who the hell cares WHY it happened?! No matter why you did it, there's no freaking excuse for it! NONE!

"Right now I can't imagine any reason for me to do such a thing, either, so you'll forgive me if the cognitive dissonance has rendered me less than suitably repentant," he flusters in wing-flapping agitation.

Well hopefully sooner or later, this crappy memory is gonna leave my head and get back into yours, and THEN you can tell ME why the hell this memory even exists! I'm watching you, pal!

*He storms out, slamming the door behind him.*

Kotet--

[He doesn't finish it before the door slams. He shakes his head a little in frustration then looks down to the bird.]

...Shen, you really have no idea what memory he's talking about?

He just said he didn't, didn't he?

[This is distressing as all fuck! Joachim doesn't like to think that he's been living with a possible heartless murderer for months. Maybe there's some... misleading backstory or something.]

"None whatsoever!"

Right now Shen really is as innocent as the day is long as only an amnesiac can be.

"I literally can't think of a reason why I would do that--I can't even remember Gongmen City having any contact with any Pandas beyond knowing they existed..." He paces back and forth in a soundless manner that suddenly seems incongruent to him. He suddenly and inexplicably found himself missing the sound of his metal talons against the floor; the sensation of the armour encasing his feet. He shakes his head but the bizarrely vulnerable feeling doesn't disperse. There's something horribly, horribly real about Kotetsu's story and Shen feels his blood chill at the thought.

"I've the dreadful feeling there's something to what he said, though.... I can't remember any details but... something about it feels... real."

He stops and wraps his wings around himself. "I... don't think I want to know, now...."

[He knows the feeling Shen. He's had it too. That feeling that the jigsaw pieces of your memory were starting to paint a very nasty picture that you don't really want to see the rest of. He lets out a small sigh and moves over to him, giving him a pat on his feathery back and muttering.]

Look... you're going to find out eventually, one way or the other. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself for it now. Far as I'm concerned you're not the kind of bird that would do that... At least, not now.

He really is more feathers than bird.

"How d'you mean, 'not now?'" Blink blink.

If Kotetsu is right... then that was a monstrous thing for anyone to do, pandas, people or whatever. But... that was probably a hell of a long time ago, and in another world. Whatever reasons you had back then, you probably wouldn't use now.

[He seems pretty conflicted about the whole thing himself. Talking animals tend to morally sterilize the whole thing for a guy like him. Call it the Watership Down effect. But even so, we're talking genocide...]

Shen isn't terribly happy about it, either, cognitive dissonance aside. He sits on a nearby floor cushion that seems placed in the room for that very purpose.

"I don't know. I just... don't know. We've never had any sort of quarrel with them that I can recall, but that aside... slaughtering civilians... that isn't how it's done. It isn't how a proper ruler solves conflicts. It's immoral and... barbaric." He stares into the distance for a beat or so, appearing to catch his breath. "But what worries me is I have no idea what could have driven me to do such a thing and I'd like to think it would have been something drastic." After all, he may be short tempered, but there's a line, people. "Why do I have no clue as to something that... big?"

[Gordon follows Shen into the apartment, and Joachim is free to follow him in turn. He parks himself on the sofa, leaning towards Shen as he speaks.]

None of us really know what we're in for when it comes to what we did in the past. But from what you just said? I know you wouldn't let it happen again. Like I said, you're not that kind of man. Bird. Whatever.

If Kotetsu does follow through on his threat to take it to the authorities, I'll do what I can to help you out, but in my position right now it might not amount to much.

[Joachim settles down on the far end of the couch. To say that he's not good with all these heavy emotional issues would be an understatement, and he's been keeping quiet. For all he knows, saying the wrong thing could turn Shen into some kind of monster - who knows what set him off back then?]

You had to have thought it was a good idea at some point.

He looks sadly at Joachim. "That's what worries me," he murmurs before returning his attention to Gordon.

"Thank you, Gordon. It's the thought, at least, right?" He manages a flicker of a half smile before returning to his rather wilted mein. He looks too old and tired and distracted to be any kind of a monster, really, apart from the kind that spreads gloom and stray feathers everywhere.

"I think... I think I should very much like to be alone, right now," he finally mumbles, standing. "I need to put my thoughts together." With that, he shuffles into his bedroom and quietly closes the door behind him.

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