OK I'm through putting this off, time to finally do this chapter with the full Memory Song, or at least the version of the song I think is from the London Performance of Cats, it's more melancholic which is fitting given Grizabella's implied backstory as a prostitute and doesn't have the admittedly very twee 'Sunlight through the tress in summer' verse also this is the much more detailed vision compared to what we saw in the earlier chapter, including more detail of the Mizzer Humanimal Ghosts' various crimes but I realized for situations like this where I don't have the ideas for the details filled out all the way, have the POV be a character who isn't paying attention to that part so it can be filled in later, because for that character they might as well have been hearing whenever the adults speak in a Peanuts cartoon
This time, unlike the usual memory sharing, because this was a vision Marzipan was granted and not an experience from her own life the experience for those involved was different, they were like ghosts themselves floating invisibly in the Forest of Eternal Twilight where the ghosts of wild animals and domestic animals who never had the good fortune to have a deep and loving bond with a human roamed aimlessly seemingly for all eternity…
They found themselves floating down to see the Humanimal Ghosts standing before the Woodkeeper Spirit the Woodkeeper was listing the various crimes the Mizzer Ghosts did to their friends and neighbors when they were alive, but it was mostly Great Tiger and Piston Hondo who were paying attention to what was being said, Glass Joe was too busy looking at the various Humanimal Ghosts, all gray so it could be hard to tell what some of them were because they didn't have their species signature colors and their ghostly forms seeming to be frayed from 'psychic damage' Glass Joe also noticed this crown seemed to have more women and men...And that's when he saw the ghostly form of Dana...Or at least Dana's previous self...Seeing her as the ghost of an old woman, her her head-fur falling in gray curled and she seemed to be clinging to a woolen shawl in her ghostly form he felt a strange feeling seeing what the ravishing beauty would look like as an old woman...But then he realized standing beside her were two other Humanimals who he had met in Mutant form, there was a Garter Snake who he recognized as Lovelace, she probably looked the best out of all the Ghosts here but that was probably only because she was a cold blooded reptile who doesn't age like warm blooded mammals do...And one of the few males was that young Wolf Rover, seeing him as an old man leaning on a ghostly cane and with a goatee beard on the end of his chin really hit different for Joe as a man, reminding him even the most strong and athletic men must grow old...He also noticed a Tiger Woman who he felt pretty certain he had seen around town shopping but really he was struck by how he could recognize these ghosts of old Humanimals as the young Mutants they had become!
Dana was also looking but didn't know what to think of looking at the ghost of her previous self other than 'Huh, so that's what I'm going to look like when I'm older…' Like Great Tiger and Piston Hondo she was actually listening to what the Woodkeeper was saying about what they had done in their previous lives but she was thinking 'If I'm hearing what I did before, am I supposed to remember?' But no memories of her previous life came flooding into her mind.
And finally when the Woodkeeper asked the Humanimal Ghosts to give her a reason to believe they will be different in the next life
The Garter Snake slithered forward...And in a voice ironically fit for an angel despite being a Snake...She sang
"Daylight…
See the dew on the sunflower…
And a rose that is fading
Roses wither away…
Like the sunflower
I yearn to turn my face to the dawn
I am waiting…
...For the day."
And then all the Humanimal Ghosts began to sing the song they all knew
"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again…"
Then it seemed all the Humanimals were putting their heads down it seemed they were running out of breath despite the fact they were dead and they shouldn't have any breath at all...The Boxers realized given that they're spirits seemed to be starting to fray at the seems, was this singing physically strenuous for them? As Ghosts who seemed to have psychic damage to their spirits, were they weaker than the Happy Souls?
The Ghosts continued to sing
"Every street lamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamp sputters
And soon it will be morning…"
Then the Ghosts lifted their heads to the Woodkeeper on her tree stand
"Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin"
Then the Ghosts lowered their heads again, they were trembling it was clear the singing was physically hurting them but they couldn't skip a beat, they had to stay in tune
"Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale, cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning"
Then for the big finish the Humanimals prostrated themselves before the Woodkeeper Judge, with the Wolf, the Garter Snake, the Doberman and the Tiger all falling against the Judge's Tree Stand as the bellowed out in perfect tune but the strain had taken on their ghostly forms so much they could no longer stand…
"Touch me! It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun…"
And at that moment Joe felt an urge to reach out and touch the ghostly hand of Dana's former self even though this was just a recording and when Joe reached his own ghostly hand toward hers nothing happened…
"...If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun …"
Originally I was going to have more reactions from the Boxers but I think what I've written is good enough, and since this fic is about Glass Joe it's better to mostly have his POV mostly, also note the revelation that there were more woman then men ghosts. Further implying that the crimes were that of the kind of housewives that mean girls grow up into...Gossipy, nosy housewives who are too rich and have too much time on their hands kind of gives you the idea of the kind of people we're dealing with