Forgotten Memories will be a (hopefully) short series about stuff that happened in the Connection AU before my Narrator showed up to poke around and tell stories, mostly focused on these two and a couple of others. (It's also know as "doing anything but writing my main story")
Pattern (green petal cape): she/her, fell in Season of Dreams. She's a bit of a wildcard all of the time, she loves causing a bit of chaos and making people laugh. She is fairly agile but a pretty clumsy flier. She is an Outsider (and this was all before Outsiders got the bad reputation, so she didn't hide it) and she had her book out a lot to write everything down. She is also a part of the Beta Kids, a secret (ish, a lot less secret back then than it is when the rest of my characters are around) and exclusive group run by a team who call themselves the Devs (who aren't sky kids btw, something closer to a deity). They help make sure the realms don't fall apart. I'll probably (hopefully) explain the devs and the beta kids better later.
Neptune (blue cape and ice cream hair): she/her or they/them, fell in Season of Prophecy. She is very dramatic and loves to be the center of attention. She loves theatre and performing, and came up with several scripts to wrangle her and Pattern's friends into acting out. She is also an Outsider, but mostly used Light Paper to record her scripts so their friends could read it. She used her book to keep track of ideas and drafts. She is also a part of the Beta Kids.
(Neptune does not know about the flower stuck in her hair Pattern put it there without her knowing :D)
And now meet the reason why it's called Forgotten Memories!
:D
Anyway character introductions under the cut
Starting on the top row, Tivvo! Tivvo enjoys playing and teaching music. They are a beta kid but spend most of their time in the Realms teaching their students.
Then we have Neptune, who y'all already know (she and Pattern were introduced here), but just to recap she enjoys theater and creating scripts and stories to drag the rest of the crew into acting out. She wants to create an official theater group with the help of the Rhythm Guide. She is a beta kid and an Outsider and often uses her book to draft ideas for scripts.
And then Pattern! Another y'all should know. She enjoys causing chaos, specifically with or towards Neptune. She is a beta kid and an Outsider. She looks up to Sho kind of like an older brother. Bell is her moth, in the sense that she met them first and brought them into the group.
Sho, or as known in this group, the Fool King! More on him here, but to recap he acts like an old man most of the time, fully leaning into that act. He refuses to take off his crown despite most of them teasing him about it, leading to the nickname "Fool King" which he loves. He enjoys guiding moths and others.
Bottom row on the left, we have Bell, the youngest! They were found by Pattern, but Junebug and Sho end up taking care of them and showing them most things. Everyone adores them and think they can do no wrong. Bell can get away with almost anything due to this reputation.
Junebug! A chibi who loves to sing and dance, often ends up taking the lead role in whatever script Neptune comes up with. Mole calls her Fish because of her cape.
Then it's Mole, another chibi. He likes exploring oobs and racing around the Citadel. They also enjoy hiding just oobs to jump scare sky kids walking by. Him and Pattern get up to lots of chaos! In the future after the events of Forgotten Memories, they become Jam's mentor.
And finally, Ink! Ink is one of the moths Sho guided through Eden one time, who followed him home. He acts like an annoying younger sibling, and all of the others treat him like an annoying younger sibling. He loves theater.
messing around with lineless art, idk if I like it or not
We got Sho (Neptune and Pattern's friend), Neptune, and Pattern! Quick intro for Sho, he fell like a week before Neptune and finished his first journey, then met Neptune on her first journey. Pattern fell only a couple of weeks after that, so it was two butterflies trying to lead a very distracted moth around. Sho is not an Outsider. He enjoys telling stories and guiding sky kids (even if he doesn't know where he's going).
Story below! (Unedited and quick quality, finals are killing me, apologies)
“Sho! Sho, help me! Pattern’s gonna break my arm!”
“No I’m not, you crab! Stop moving!”
Neptune scrambled over the hill, sprinting towards a lone sky kid. Behind her, Pattern darted through the air, trying to keep up with her.
“Help me, Sho!” Neptune cried out between laughter, ducking just in time to avoid Pattern’s clumsy dive. Pattern barely managed to pull up before hitting the ground, flapping her cape desperately to keep from crashing.
“You’re supposed to be catching me!” Pattern called out after regaining her balance in the air. She glided away, towards where a group of butterflies were gathered.
Neptune leaned heavily on Sho, exaggerating her breathing. “Can you pull out your candle or something?”
“I thought you had-”
“Had to run Eden with Pattern last week.” Neptune cut him off with a ‘don’t ask’ look. “Haven’t gotten all my winged light back.” She turned to watch Pattern call out to the butterflies. She took a step back when Pattern launched into the air again, trying to duck behind Sho.
“What happened to candle-running today?” Sho asked with a laugh, stepping away.
“Pattern happened, what did you expect-”
Like the words had summoned her, Pattern slammed into both of them. The impact sent them tumbling down the grassy hill, ending up in a tangled pile of bodies at the bottom.
Neptune popped up first, immediately turning to yank Pattern’s cape over her head. “And this is why I was convinced you were going to break some part of me!”
Pattern sputtered, pushing her away and straightening her cape. “If you had caught me that wouldn’t have happened.”
“Catch you how? You were flying like a light-blind moth!”
“You were moving around!”
“You were going to break my arm! I don't want to go to Eden again!”
“First, that time was your fault, and it wasn’t like you had to go to Eden with me, you chose to do that. And it's not going to break your arm, the Connection will make me lighter—”
“Can you two get off of me?” Sho's voice was muffled underneath them.
Pattern and Neptune scrambled off, sheepishly smiling at him. “Sorry, Sho.” Neptune said.
Pattern snickered. “Yeah, Neptune, you gotta remember to be careful with Sho, he’s so old a fall like that could take him out!”
“I’m not that old! I barely fell before Neptune!” Sho protested.
“I don’t know… that beard makes you look pret-ty old.”
“It’s from the Isle Elder! I just finished up the constellation, and I-” He sputtered, then groaned. “Aren’t you supposed to treat your elders with respect anyway?”
“Nah.” Pattern chirped, smiling brightly.
Neptune shook her head. “You’re supposed to treat Elders-capital-E with respect. Not people from the fossil record, they aren’t important enough.”
“What about mentors?” Sho tried.
She waved her hand through the air. “Please, you were hardly a mentor. It was more like a second-journey moth leading a first-journey moth. You had no idea what was going on.”
“And yet you call me old?”
“And even with me, I think you led me to more dead ends than Neptune did!” Pattern chirped, completely ignoring his question.
“And yet you inherited his flying abilities.” Neptune elbowed her.
“Hey!” Pattern turned and shoved her into the grass, but Neptune reached out and caught ahold of her cape, sending them both to the ground wrestling. Sho signed loud enough to make sure they could hear it, settling down and picking some flowers. If they weren’t going to candle run, might as well do something to keep his hands busy.
After a couple moments, they separated enough for Neptune to catch sight of what Sho was doing. “Are you making a flower crown?”
Pattern perked up, darting over to investigate it. “Ooo, can you make one for me?”
“If you get the flowers. And stop calling me old.”
“I can do one of those things!” Pattern darted off before Sho could respond.
“Can you show me how to make one?” Neptune asked.
“If you stop calling me old.”
“If you get rid of the beard.”
Sho huffed. “Well, maybe I like the beard.”
“It looks so out of place right now. You look like one of those sky kids showing off all their stuff.” Neptune complained, picking nearby flowers.
“What if that’s what I was going for?” Sho smirked at her dismayed face. “Besides, I think I look cool.”
“Sho, I am going to disown you.” Neptune shook her head. “If you’re going to keep the beard, I think you should lean into it. You can’t just throw whatever together, you have to plan out a style. Otherwise you're just a sky kid with a beard.”
“So are you saying I should act old too?” He asked, amused. He cleared his throat, then spoke in a gravelly, wheezy voice, “Ah, you young whippersnappers, back in my day we had to avoid krill everywhere and we lost spirit connections in Eden instead of winged light.”
“Hey, I’m almost done with a new script, you seem to be the perfect sky kid for the old man…” Neptune teased. “That audition was perfect.”
“Role of a wise old mentor, I hope.”
“Might be more silly old fool. But don’t worry! It fits you better!” Neptune laughed as he tossed the half-made flower crown at her. “So, flower crowns? Can you teach me?”
“After that? You’ll be lucky if I even lead the candle run at this point!”
“Please?” Neptune tried. “I’ll stop Pattern from stealing all the rolls at Grandma’s.”
Sho tapped his chin, pretending to think. After a moment, he heaved a long, drawn-out sigh. “Fine, I suppose I can teach you.”
“Perfect!” She held out the flower crown to him.
Sho pushed it back towards her. “Here, it’ll be easier to learn on one that’s already started. You’ll want flowers with long stems, to weave them in.” He quickly started another one, then showed her how to weave the stems in.
They continued in mostly silence, occasionally interrupted by Sho giving her tips or Neptune asking him a question.
He finished up the base of the flower crown, then started weaving more flowers in to add more color and help keep it together. Neptune slowly made progress on her own, cursing under her breath as some of it came apart. Sho helped her put it back together, showing her how to tighten it as she worked, then how to tie it together.
“Once Pattern comes back with flowers, you should be able to just add those to the base to create a fuller crown.” He showed her how he was doing it on his own.
Neptune nodded, scowling at the flower crown in her hands. “Show me how to start one.”
Sho nodded, helping her start again, then focused on weaving flowers into Neptune’s abandoned one.
It was almost peacefully quiet for a moment, then Pattern came rushing over the hill. “Got the flowers, elder!”
He heaved a sigh, then took them. “Thank you, moth.”
“I’m not a moth!” Pattern protested, sitting down next to Neptune with a huff.
“You have the flight skill of a moth.” He noted.
“Learned from you.” She threw a fistful of grass at Sho, but the wind picked them up and sent them straight towards Neptune. “Oops. Sorry, Neptune. Here, let me…” She started plucking the grass blades out of her hair.
Neptune froze for a second, then continued weaving flowers into the crown like nothing had happened. “So, Sho, got any stories?”
Sho eyed them, then shrugged. “Sure. Have you heard about… the time I met the krill king?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, it happened while I was exploring the Golden Wasteland. I had gotten a bit lost, you see…” He started weaving the story together, piecing parts from stories he had heard around bonfires.
As he spoke, he noticed Pattern switch to sticking flowers into Neptune’s hair after getting the grass out, Neptune far too focused on the flower crown to notice.
“...and I never saw the krill king again. I tried finding my way back once I recovered my wits, but the cave had been blocked by rocks. Whether on purpose or through a landslide, I don’t know. I’m just grateful I was able to escape with all my winged light.” Sho finished.
Pattern applauded, finally sitting down and leaning against Neptune, who froze again for a moment, then started weaving more flowers into the crown despite it not really needing any more. “What happened to the krill guards? Did they just disappear?”
“Oh, they were… hungry for lunch, and snuck away because they figured the krill king could easily take one sky kid. I was very lucky for that.” Sho said, shrugging.
Pattern nodded, hiding a smirk. “What about the crab pits that were there on the way in?”
“The crabs were hungry for lunch too. Anyway, are we going candle running?” He changed the subject before Pattern could try to poke more holes in his story. "Come on, if we hurry we can make Grandma's." He took off with one big flap of his cape, gliding away.
She sighed. “I suppose…” She stood up, stretched, then offered a hand to Neptune. “Come on! We can finally get the winged light you’ve been complaining about.”
Neptune took her hand, then plopped the flower crown onto her head. "For you!" She said, immediately turning away after. "...I know you wanted Sho to make you one, but-"
"I love it." Pattern interrupted her. There was a beat of silence, then she turned away too, pulling Neptune along. “Come on, if we’re too slow, Sho will just leave! Old people are very impatient.”
alright no drawings this time cause my stylus died :(
6. how do they wear their hair? do they care a lot how their hair looks?
Pattern always has her hair down, she can't stand having it tied up. She doesn't mind when it gets in her face, though she keeps it shoulder length so it's not too long and in the way. Beyond that, she doesn't really care. Neptune sometimes tries to fix it, and sometimes Pattern lets her braid it for when she performs in one of her plays.
She likes wearing flower crowns, even if they're messy and falling apart (especially if they're from Neptune)
22. do they sleep well at night?
No :)
She's an Outsider (an Outsider is a sky kid who was previously from another world who doesn't remember it at all but sometimes gets glimpses/muscle memory/songs stuck in their head. Part of bringing them into the sky realms makes their soul an almost blank slate). When she sleeps, she dreams of things she doesn't remember fully and it usually leads to nightmares, and when she wakes up she only remembers a bit of it. She records anything she remembers in her book, which leads her to remembering more half-dreams.
She enjoys naps throughout the day because they're short enough to not really dream, and she likes napping with Neptune because Neptune wakes her up if she's having a nightmare.
2. what sort of music would they like? have you thought about what genres or bands do they lean towards? do they have a favorite song?
"I like fast music! Stuff that gets you moving"
She would love video game boss battle music tbh, super high energy music. The song I always associated with her is Enemy from Arcane because of several reasons I don't want to explain yet :D
7. favorite animal? why?
"fireflies"
She likes their glow :D
21. their favorite place to be?
Daylight Prairie, just any of the flower fields. She enjoys hanging out with Neptune there. Her favorite place to cause chaos though is the Valley or anywhere with snow.
Context: Pattern is picking out grass from Neptune's hair (that she threw at her) and they are both being perfectly normal about it. Sho (yellow cape) is very confused why his friends are acting so weird but determined to not bring it up and just keeps showing Neptune how to make a flower crown (even though she isn't paying attention anymore)
Transcript
Sho (thoughts): why are they acting so weird...?
Neptune (thoughts): this is normal behavior obv. this means nothing act normal act normal can't ruin this friendship
Pattern (thoughts): if she doesn't react I'm just going to pretend this never happened I don't want to ruin our friendship
