Untold Stories, Unsung Words
Series Summary: (A series of one-shots, some of them being connected, based on headcanons.) The story of the Bionis and Mechonis, the Heir to the Monado, and the creation of the new world has been revealed. But among that story are smaller stories that haven't been shown. To have it accepted to be as truth is an option, but the existence of them being a possibility is undeniable. These are stories untold, words unsung.
7. Entire Party - Archiving Memories
Summary: It was past dinner time on the Bionis' Knee and Melia notices Shulk writing on a large book, completely focused and determined to finish whatever he was writing to the end, even if he had to stay up all night. What could he be writing about at this time of day? (Takes place after the events of Prison Island - First Visit and before entering Valak Mountain for the first time.)
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
It was about 11 PM in Traveller's Rest on the Bionis' Knee. Melia gazed up at the billions stars lying on her back against the grass after a good meal that Riki and Dunban prepared, with Dunban skillfully cutting the Armu meat into even pieces and Riki quite literally using burninate on them. After the delicious meal, they cleaned up for the entire party, and not surprisingly Riki was eating everyone's leftovers.
Melia was overhearing the loud conversing between Reyn and Sharla to her left. Sharla was getting fed up with Reyn's lagging evasion and accuracy that she had to constantly monitor him in battle and lose focus on the others. Reyn couldn't help it, retorting that he got at least 10 monsters on him at a time. (He did once, literally against quadwings and ferises alike in Satorl.) It was a stagnant debate that had been going on for a good hour. Melia listened in the first five minutes, but decided it wasn't worth it and simply stared up at the night sky.
The party needed to spare themselves a break after the chaotic events of Prison Island. And traveling Valak Mountain would be hellish in itself. Dunban suggested the party to rest properly, in body and soul alike. But they couldn't completely waste their time or slack off in combat either, hence they busied themselves by doing errands for the Homs of Colony 6 and 9, the Nopon of Frontier Village, and the High Entia of the Alcamoth. After gathering enough errands, the party would work their way from the Bionis leg to head fetching all the materials and killing the monsters needed to minimize travel time. But it was late at night and the party was winded from the heavy walking and fighting, so it was time to call it a day.
Everyone was busy except one person. Melia sat up and looked to her right a bit to see the individual sitting by himself near the campfire. He was looking down at his lap and staring intently at it. Melia raised an eyebrow and curiosity made her stand up and approach him.
"Shulk? What are you doing?"
Melia stopped as she was a few inches away from him and looked down to see the Heir to the Monado writing vigorously on a large book. It was about 10 inches by 8 1/2 in length and width, and height was about 4 inches. Shulk had very neat handwriting to the point where Melia almost mistaken it to be actual print of a book itself as opposed to it being handwritten. The spacing was small to about 2 cm in between words and lettering was 3 cm long. It was even more baffling that even though the book had no preengraved lines, Shulk wrote his sentences nearly straight.
Shulk quickly looked up to his left to see Melia looking at his writing. He returned to facing his half-completed page and continued to write, replying, "Oh… er… writing about what we found recently. Anything that we find unique to each part of the Bionis catches my eye so I'd like to observe and write about it. It's a habit of mine… it drives Reyn nuts."
Melia chuckled at the latter statement. She experienced this a few times already. At times, Shulk would stop walking, getting weird looks from the party and pick up something off the ground. Then he'd look at it at all angles and use all of his senses to get a general idea of what he's looking at. For example, he'd smell any fruit or vegetable, then have another party member eat it. (His disdain for the food groups knows no bounds.) If it was an animal, he'd watch it for a while for its behavior towards food, other animals, and so forth. And all in doing so, Reyn would yell at him for wasting time.
"You being the curious type and the research in the Monado… Dunban told me a while back. It's quite admirable." Melia complimented, trying to hide the shade of pink she was turning.
"Huh? Really?" Shulk stopped his writing to glance at Melia after hearing that statement. Besides Fiora and a bit of Sharla, Melia was impressed?
"I think so… Oh-" Melia cut herself short to stop the awkward feeling she was getting. She didn't want to slip up any weird words to him… She sat next to the boy and peered close to see what he was writing. The left page was full of sentences divided into four large paragraphs. The right page had a sketch of a ladybird at the top. It was then Melia realized what she was looking at.
"That's… the ladybird we saw in the High Entia Tomb after you saved me. You remembered what it looks like?"
Shulk nodded. "Yeah. I have photographic memory for some things. Ugh… bugs… for some reason they stick to my head as good as machine parts do. Maybe cause they're so terrifying."
Melia giggled, even more impressed at the boy's memory. She glanced at the sentences beneath it.
This ladybird traps air in its hairs so it can even breathe under water.
Right below the sentence was the beginning of a new paragraph. Shulk wrote the following:
Thanks to Reyn's impulsive curiosity, we fell into the Tomb Robber's Pool of the High Entia Tomb. Additionally because of Reyn and Riki, I couldn't resurface from the pool as fast as I wanted to. As I was about to do so, I noticed quite a few of these insects beneath the waters of the pool. How strange… Insects usually avoid being submerged in water. After saving Melia from Tyrea and the Telethia that ambushed her, we had a short reprieve before meeting up with the Emperor. I decided to return to -
It stopped there. Melia concluded Shulk didn't even get to finish writing his thoughts since she interrupted him. But goodness, he even wrote the backstory as to how he found such a thing. And he didn't even reach to his observations? Melia shifted her gaze onto the left side of the book he was writing on. It was enormous… the book was already almost completed, with the right side bearing only a few centimeters left of empty pages.
"This really is amazing Shulk… I would find it really difficult to write about the smallest things. You make it seem so easy."
"Really? Tha-"
"Geez Shulk, you writing in that hunk of junk again?"
Reyn was kneeling behind the boy as he took a quick look at the current entry he was writing in. He peered in a bit too close, to the point where Shulk felt his breaths at his neck. Shulk flinched and frowned, correct his best friend, "Excuse me, this isn't junk. And please space yourself."
Reyn crawled and sat to Shulk's right crosslegged. He already got disinterested by seeing the wall of text that Shulk currently wrote, so he didn't bother. He glanced at the picture of the ladybird instead. "Ah! It's that bug you said you saw in the Tomb! Wait a minute... that's why you ditched us for some time after saving Melia? You literally went back to the tomb, then to the pool, and took a dip to watch them?"
"I... did..."
Reyn groaned. He got an earful from Dunban and Sharla as they said to keep tabs on Shulk. It wasn't pretty getting scolded from them for a good thirty minutes. And when Shulk actually showed up, he was soaking wet, trailing water into the guest room of the Alcamoth. He got funny looks from the party and even the High Entia in passing. "No wonder you look exhausted and were soaked when you came back. And thanks to you, I got an earful from Dunban and Sharla!"
Shulk scratched his head. "Sorry, sorry. I know. It's not easy holding your breath for about a minute with 15 second reprieves consecutively."
"That's not safe, you know." A certain medic replied after Shulk's comment. "Shallow water blackout, you heard of that? And in relation, surface blackout?"
Everyone turned to see Sharla, peering closer at Shulk's writing as she stood above Melia. She sat next to her, taking point with Reyn crossing her legs. Reyn shrugged at the questions, and Melia tilted her head in confusion. "Blackout?" Melia asked. "Losing consciousness I presume?"
"And with your context..." Shulk continued. "It has to do with holding your breath for far too long in water due to the lack of urge to breathe...? It leads to drowning, of course."
Sharla never ceased to be impressed with Shulk's ability to put two and two together. "You are absolutely correct. I won't bother with the details, but if I catch you doing this, I will personally punch you."
Melia giggled as she saw Reyn and Shulk's faces turn to dismay. Those threats from her are not to be taken lightly. Reyn got hit from her far too many times with the "What did I tell you?" and "You heard me say it and you didn't listen to me!" retorts.
As Shulk was fixated onto Sharla's warning, Reyn took it upon himself to take the large book from Shulk's lap and flip through the pages quickly. Shulk groaned, wondering what his friend will scribble on there. Occasionally, he would write silly comments under his entries. Yet, he would feel guilty erasing some of them. (Except his suggestive and near explicit writings. That was an instant cross out or erasing.)
"And you still kept my comment on the Heart Peach looking like a butt!" Reyn grinned widely as he held the with his left hand, pointing at his quick scribble beneath Shulk's paragraphs of text. He redrew the Heart Peach which looked more like a heart upside down with only an outline and absent shading of lighting. Beneath it was a curved arrow pointing to the crease of the peach and a scribble saying, Hey, it's a butt! Even worse, Riki also appeared to have written beneath Reyn's comment with his extra large capital letters that filled up a fourth of the page, writing: RIKI LIKES REYN'S THOUGHTS FOR ONCE!
Sharla groaned and Melia shifted her eyes away from the sketch. Shulk snatched the large book from Reyn and proceeded to cross out that commentary with a single straight line. Beneath it, he writes: Excuse Reyn as usual. Unfortunately, Shulk didn't notice this because Reyn must have written this after finishing collecting all items from the Alcamoth, which was a few days ago. Then he realized that he might have scribbled other silly comments throughout the book and he'd have to go through every single page...
"Even more reason to stay awake... Thanks a bunch, Reyn..." Shulk muttered quietly. But he didn't cross the comment out completely as opposed to those suggestive comments...
"Ah, lively as usual in the crowd. What's going on?"
"Riki wants to know! Riki wonders what friends talk about!"
And now the whole party is gathered. Dunban proceeded to kneel behind Reyn and Riki jumped onto Melia's lap. Melia began to rub Riki's stomach in return, getting silent "Oooh"s and "Aah"s from the Heropon.
Melia offered her right hand out and asked Shulk, "May I see the book? I'd like to quickly scan through all of things you've seen on the Bionis so far that caught your attention."
Shulk nodded and gave the book to Melia. Melia underestimated the weight of the book as her hand was lowered as soon as she received it. "Wow... this is indeed heavy."
"You should have seen it before... Reyn and I used to put the objects we collected on here, but it became too heavy. So I opted to draw instead. Although... I have everyone else draw animals and some insects. They are not my forte."
Melia opened the first page to see a Table of Contents. To the left was written the locations of Bionis: Colony 9, Tephra Cave, Bionis' Leg... up to the High Entia Tomb. And to the right of each location on the opposite end of the page was a number. It must be the page it started. And goodness, to think Shulk even kept track of the pages? She didn't see a page number written anywhere on Shulk's entries. To think he counted and kept track of them...
She then proceeded to turn to a random page further in the book. She turned to the entry about the Crimson Citrus, which was found in Frontier Village. Shulk did the sketch, as shown with his accurate shading and outlines. As usual, he made a short description of the fruit as follows:
Looks hot because of the red pulp, but it's just bitter really.
And then following the short summary was a paragraph of its findings and afterwards paragraphs on its influence on Nopon cuisine.
"I remember this! I ate this because Riki gave me one! I loved it!" Melia said to herself.
Melia turned the page to find something peculiar: someone else's handwriting. It was clearly not Reyn's handwriting, as it was neatly written, but it differed greatly from Shulk. The letters were large and the spacing between the letters and words were quite big. The sentence was as written:
This fruit was delicious! To think something this bitter could taste so good... I have to thank Riki and Oka for giving this to me. And Reyn's face when he ate it... I never seen him flustered ever eating a fruit!
Melia heard giggles to her left. Sharla was grinning as she noticed the entry she was reading. "I wrote this about five days ago. Hey Melia, didn't you like this fruit too?"
"It was marvelous! I could eat a whole crate of these fruits!"
Riki was wiggling happily on Melia's lap, hearing the compliments of the fruit. It was one of his favorite fruits too that he loved to share with Oka and his children. If Sharla and especially Melia loved the Crimson Citrus, it was an instant thumbs up to himself.
"Riki is very happy Melly and Sharla love fruit! Riki will give large crates to Sharla and Melly when travels is finished!"
As Sharla, Riki and Melia were small talking about the fruit, Shulk noticed looks of disdain on Dunban and Reyn. Shulk chuckled. It was pretty obvious for their reaction towards the girls' conversation. It was more intriguing that Dunban didn't like this fruit either.
"I couldn't eat a single fruit two days after that..." Dunban muttered.
Meiia continued to flip through each page of the book. As she scanned them, she noticed that the commentaries after Shulk's plethora of words became more common with the latter entries. In the entries on Colony 9 to Colony 6, there were rarely any comments except for Reyn's sporadic words. But from the Ether Mine onwards, comments from Dunban and Sharla became more prevalent. Even Riki began to write comments here and there after entries on Makna Forest.
She turned to an entry on the Empress Beetle that was from Makna Forest. Melia saw the final comments of the beetle were from Dunban. His handwriting was rough and somewhat messy, but it was forgivable since Dunban was forced to use his opposite hand to write. His writing style was quite unique... As opposed to simple commentary, he wrote his thoughts on a poem form. Centered in the middle of the page and lines spaced out beneath each other, his entry read:
At its final hour
crossing the line to the world beyond
it brings forth its ethereal radiance
as its final cry
imprinting its existence onto Bionis itself.
"Your poems simply never cease to amaze me..." Sharla commented, nodding her head as she read each line again in her head.
"Oh my... how thoughtful of you, Dunban! I didn't know you write poetry." Melia complimented as she began to skim through the pages for more of Dunban's writings.
Riki wiggled again as he finished reading the short poem. Impressed, he yelled, "Dundun is very good in writing! Riki must learn how to write from Dundun!" He crawled onto Melia's right leg to get a better view of the book. He too kept an eye out for Dunban's poems.
"Thank you both. At least you two and Sharla have a great taste in writing..." Dunban replied, then leered at the two youngsters in front of him. "...unlike these two, with one solely writing far too straightforward and the other not giving a care in the world about artistic writings!"
"You write like a girl, Dunban!" Reyn bluntly commented at loud. Shulk added in a polite tone, "I'm sorry Dunban... it's just that... the fact you started writing like this because Fiora was excited for reading your poems... It's... endearing?"
Dunban felt like Shulk struck a nerve more than Reyn. He laughed sarcastically. "Haha. Don't make me say all of the embarrassing things you've done for Fiora's sake. Shall I tell everyone here about them?"
"N-No! Please don't!" Shulk waved his hands back and forth. "Please...!"
"Thought so..."
Melia, Sharla, and Riki found two more of Dunban's poems and were still taken aback by them. As Melia continued to browse, an overwhelming urge began to set in... the urge to contribute to this large book of observations, memories, and artistic skill. Melia wasn't the type to write personal things at all. She never had a journal or diary. She only wrote when it was necessary, whether it be for learning or imperial writings. But to see everyone write their thoughts together in one place... maybe it was an outlet to learn about herself too in addition with this lively group of people. "Is it possible...?" She asked herself.
"S-Shulk...?"
"Mm?" Shulk placed his full attention to Melia, who stopped turning the pages of the large tome.
"Is it possible that... I could start writing in this book of yours? I absolutely love how everyone is writing here, whether it be serious or not. It's so entertaining to read... And I never wrote about such trivial things before..."
It was an immediate answer. "Of course you can! It wouldn't hurt if one more person joined in on this anyway. I'd love to see what you would write here, Melia. I'm looking forward to it."
The High Entia princess turned a shade of pink and she looked down quickly to hide her face. "I must thank you. Well then... I-I must read a few more entries so I may start writing about them!"
"Ooh! Ooh! Riki wants to help Melly write!" Riki went back to sitting between Melia's crossed legs and folded his ears. He leaned back a bit allowing Melia to be able to write easily.
"Of course, Riki. You may join me in reading and writing."
Sharla yawned and stretched her arms up into the sky. The large dinner the party had earlier was taking a toll on her. "It seems I've reached my limit. If you three will be awake, I will sleep now."
"Same here...!" Reyn yawned too. "Some shut eye will do me good!"
Dunban stood up nodded to the party. "I will also rest too. Shulk, be on lookout. We'll switch later."
"Understood. Please rest well, you three."
As the three proceeded to leave. Shulk stood up as well. He faced Melia and Riki, saying, "I'll have to be on a lookout, so you two can stay here and write. I'll come back in a bit."
"Okay. Be careful." Melia replied, smiling. She then returned to the book, ever excited to see the next sentences that were waiting to be read.
—
It has been about an hour since Sharla, Reyn, and Dunban left the three to write on Shulk's book. Shulk was already feeling a bit sleepy from keeping an eye out around the area as Melia and Riki diligently wrote on the book and Reyn, Sharla, and Dunban were sleeping. There was no sign of monsters approaching the vicinity from all directions. Even his inner thoughts of what may happen the next day ran dry, hence drowsiness. To keep himself up, he might as well check on Melia and Riki. He stood up from the large, flat rock he was on and stretched his arms out, facing Melia and Riki. They haven't budged. They were still reading the book.
The boy proceeded to approach to the two to check progress. As he got close, he asked, "What do you think? You wrote anything yet?"
Melia heard Shulk's voice from her right and looked up. He was now kneeling next to her, scanning to see if she wrote anything. "No. I read the entire time. Riki fell asleep in the process."
Riki was drooling cuddled under Melia's left hand. She didn't seem to mind at all.
"Haha..." Shulk chuckled at Riki's sleeping position.
Melia realized one thing as she was reading. It finally got to her as Shulk approached her. She cleared her throat and asked, "Um... this book... did you name it yet?"
Shulk raised an eyebrow, and then it hit him. Goodness. He had this book for so long and he realized he never named it! "I-I didn't actually! Good point... it needs a name..."
The boy's habit of crossing his left arm and touching his chin with his right hand occurred again. In awkward silence, he tried to think of a name... but nothing. Then something got to him after Melia blankly looked at him for a good twenty seconds. "Why don't you name it, Melia? I wouldn't mind if you name it."
"Y-You sure?" She asked, surprised. "It's all so sudden..."
"Really. You can name it."
"Hmmm..."
Melia stared down at Shulk's blocks of text. Words and thoughts filled her head to get a decent name for this large book of colorful things. "Collecting objects... Shulk writes as if it was a scientific journal... everyone's thoughts are gathered here... Collection... Encyclopedia... Oh!"
"I got it!" Melia clapped her hands once in excitement. Shulk was amazed Melia thought of a name so quickly. "How about... "Collectopedia?" It combines the words collection and encyclopedia."
"Wow... I really like that name!" Shulk complimented Melia, smiling widely. He never would have thought of that name. And it was catchy too. "I'm sure everyone else will like it too. Good job, Melia."
"T-Thank you!" Melia felt her cheeks grow pink again. "This book is far too amazing... It's like a textbook that's actually quite interesting to read, as opposed to the dull history books back at home."
"I-Is that so..." Shulk laughed lightly at her compliment. He himself was feeling a little nervous from that too.
"Actually..." Shulk cleared his throat. Melia closed the Collectopedia and faced him after she felt her pink cheeks return to normal.
"The reason for this is... well... after my recovery following the ether deficiency illnesses I suffered, doctors, and even Fiora and Dunban asked if I can write a journal to keep track of my memories. Considering I suffered amnesia, they believe it may happen again, so to ensure I'd retain them or at least fragments of them, I can write about it. It didn't sit well with me to write personal things... especially since Reyn and Fiora at times could read them so... I decided to write about objects instead. And then this Collectopedia came about. I thought it would be nice to have everyone pitch in their thoughts to make my writings less dull, hence everyone's work within this book. Even if your comments are silly, as long as it is not inappropriate, it'll be kept here."
"My..." Melia was amazed on how this business was all from his childhood too. She thought this was recent, but it wasn't the case. And how nice of him to have everyone, including Reyn and Riki, to write on this book of findings.
"Additionally, it was good practice to write up my reports for the Monado. Fiora would read them over to see if my writing was correct. Now, Sharla and Dunban proofread them."
"Oh... well... do you mind if I can proofread your work?"
Another immediate answer from the Heir to the Monado. "Not at all. I'd be glad to have three people to make sure my writing is accurate and correct."
"Thank you. It would be nice practice for myself to for the paperwork I must do soon for my people."
"Right..." Shulk nodded. Melia was heir to the throne for the High Entia. It must be tedious to be writing so much too. This would be good stress relief for her as well.
"My last request of you for tonight... May I ask?" Melia asked shyly. There was so much she asked of him lately. Hopefully it wouldn't bother him...
"Of course. Let's hear it."
"If you're not that tired, do you mind reading your entries out loud as we read along? It's interesting to hear writing out loud, especially from the author themselves."
"Hm... I never thought of doing this before..." Shulk admitted. He wasn't the type to read his own work aloud anyway since he obviously assumed no one would be interested in his "geeky" writing. (Thanks to Dunban back in Believer's Paradise on Bionis' Leg. He appeared to seem uninterested when he spoke this way, even though he was paying some attention.) But to think one person would take a liking to his overly analyzed observations...
"I'd gladly do it. This is a new thing for me. I'd like to see this for myself. So..." Shulk sat to Melia's right, leaning in on the newly named Collectopedia. "What entry would you like me to read?"
"Hm..." Melia turned the page to the beginning. Who knew, it was the very first entry: The Sweet Wasabi.
"All right... Brace yourself Melia. You'll be sitting through this class all night long. It may take a few days, actually." Shulk smiled, placing his finger on the short description beneath his sketch of the wasabi.
There was nothing to do for Melia but grin. Hearing Shulk's voice all night was already a reward in itself. "I'm all ears."
Headcanons:
1. The collectopedia the party brings along with them initially had some objects preserved, but the weight that came along with became too overbearing. It was then simply written in detail and in sketches.
2. Shulk has good writing and drawing abilities, mainly from his Monado research. He puts most detail into drawing mechanical parts. The only thing he can't draw is animals and some insects, which he leaves the rest of the party to do. He writes far too much in writing every entry though, even to the point where he writes a short summary beneath the sketch of its unique features and then a whole page or two beneath into full detail of what was being collected.
3. Reyn and Riki write silly comments and doodles throughout the Collectopedia.
4. Fiora and Dunban suggested Shulk to write a diary of sorts just in case amnesia were to happen to him again. (Applying his blurred memory from events prior to returning to Colony 9 from Ose Tower). He didn't like writing personal things, so he opted to write about things to collect instead. Fiora would usually read them to proofread his work and to make sure his writing was accurate and grammatically correct at the observations section. This job was taken over by Melia, Dunban, and Sharla.
5. Dunban sometimes writes poems and haikus beneath the collectopedia entries. This was due to Fiora's interest in poetry. He gets teased by Reyn and Shulk for this, but Melia, Riki and Sharla are awestruck by his poetic skill.
6. Melia loves to hear Shulk read the Collectopedia entries aloud, as well as how he wrote about each item. They do this every night if they are not exhausted from the long day's travels and fights.
A/N: HOLY CRACKERS, SO MANY HEADCANONS IN ONE ONESHOT. I've always wondered what the collectopedia in the game had any significance to the party and then… these ideas happened. This also came about after doing some random doodles of collectopedia items on Miiverse. As to what object to use to introduce this, I always found the "lol what does this button do" scene hilarious, and I wanted to include it so... yeah. And also for the shallow water blackout thing, I made it tie into an entry and a reminder that it's pretty much feeling like summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, so don't do it people!
The other two oneshots I said I write were in heavy writer's block, so this came about and was written beforehand.
As a reminder, these are the following oneshots in development:
-Reyn, Sharla, Melia - Babysitting / Summary: Sharla proposed that Riki should spend time with his wife Oka through a date, and this meant babysitting their kids. Of course, it won't be easy with 8 littlepon running around...
-Entire Party - Dress Up / Summary: After the events of Prison Island, the party is invited by Melia and Kallian to have the late feast for Melia's succession to the throne. Thing is, they have to dress up in High Entia attire. That won't sit well with some party members...
-Egil, Vanea, Meyneth - Determination / Summary: His brethren slaughtered and his goddess weakened and forced into a state of long slumber. It was then Egil decided to use his talents to bring his wrath upon Zanza and Bionis.
-Reyn, Fiora, Shulk - Unbreakable Bond / Summary: Reyn and Fiora were close friends. And now a shy four year old moves into Colony 9. From his scared and sorrowful eyes and the pain he endured, there was only one thing the two could do: to be by his side.
Sketches of some collectopedia entries are now added on my profile. Be sure to look at them.
Once again until then, I'll accept and take into consideration any reviews and criticism.