MCYT Oneshots

A thousand words are left unsaid

CAUSE NO ONE LISTENS TO THE DEAD-
(Enjoy my yearly genuine upload.)

Also some quick information: This was first posted on AO3 under Intelligent_Mars. Second, this is Smallishbeans (Joel) centric. I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading this if you don't know who he is or haven't seen empires or any of the life games. But also, you can still read it. I'm pretty proud ngl. Anyways, take the food

____________

Joel remembers.

He can still vividly see the red sand and colorful buildings of the Mazelean Kingdom when he closes his eyes. He can feel the beating sun, the old clay hardening on his skin, even the Mother Tree's bristling energy-magic, rather, but he has a hard time reminding himself of that.

He can recall the moment everything went skyrocketing down.

His palace splits in two, his wife forgets everything without the ocean's blessing. Stuff explodes elsewhere, most rulers go missing, save a few. Pearl cries in his presence for the first time. He and Pix watch the too many flickering candles at the Vigil.

He begs desperately for Lizzie to say something to him, to comfort him, but she only looks at him with the pity of a stranger before leaving him to his misery.

He hugs Pearl tightly despite the wetness on his shoulder. She smiles sadly when she goes, and she believes they'll never see each other again. A small part deep inside his heart knows that this is not the case.

He gently holds a candle in his hand and blows it out. Pix says nothing. It isn't a candle for the dead. It's for Joel and Joel alone. The prophet does say that he's sorry when it's too quiet for too long. This time it is Joel's turn to say nothing.

A breeze nips at his beard and Joel opens his eyes. In front of him is a fountain, the Fountain of Lore. He stares blankly into the pure water, afraid to touch it and risk adulterating it with his memories.

A droplet lands in the fountain and Joel watches with guilty eyes as the pristine water ripples ever so slightly. He brings a hand up to his face and feels how wet it is. Tears. He is crying. Quickly he pulls away, not wanting to tarnish the Fountain of Lore anymore than he already has.

Another memory surfaces. Someone looks down at him-Joel finds it only a little odd that he can't remember who it is-with crimson eyes and a curious look on their face. They bring a hand to the king's cheek and Joel does nothing because there is nothing to do. He feels the finger dig into the gash gently, but he barely feels it. Or maybe he really feels it, Joel can't tell.

When the hand pulls away from his face, he brings his own hand up to brush as the spot and this time he can definitely feel the sting, but mostly it just feels wet. Sticky wet. Blood coats his fingers. He's sure it coats his companion's as well.

He doesn't bother to check.

Wings flutter subconsciously as Joel snaps out of the slight trance. A heavy sigh leaves his lips, lips that shortly after form into a deep frown.

He curses the world for giving him the burden of remembering.

Eyes look up to the heavens. Once he was up there among the deities. He doesn't miss it. They weren't his people. He didn't-doesn't-know them. Pearl is a small exception. She is-or is she not?-a god. Joel doesn't know what happened but now she isn't there and that is that.

He can't even ask her if she remembers.

He has tried before. To see if anyone remembers what he does. He still tries sometimes.

He talks to them, mentions old things, but none of them say a word about it. Pixl looks at him eagerly when he brings it up, hungry for knowledge of the past. The man hounds the god, shows him items that maybe Joel has seen before. They aren't anything more than small trinkets either he or fWhip collected a long time ago. For the most part.