Memory Shares

[voidtreckermods]

An archive of the memories used in the Healing Waters Event.

Please note the content warnings at the top of each set of memories!

Comments

Samata Mahto | Eric

[voidtreckermods]

Warnings: violence, riots, talk of execution, limb loss
Themes: Magic, fighting the powerful

Memory One You peek out the curtained window of your hideout at the city skyline. It is familiar and alien at the same time. Just down the street, you can see the bakery that made those garlic and artichoke stuffed pastries you love so much, and it looked fine, but across the street from it was a park that looked like a hurricane had blown through it. The site of a clash between your wizards and some particularly nasty inquisitors. Columns of smoke are rising here and there from the fighting and rioting. All this violence was supposed to be something that happened in OTHER places. Not here. Not home.

Deep down, you still feel like all of this chaos is your fault. If you had just shut up at ANY point in the last two months, everything might still be normal. Would that be better? You'd still be short an arm, and Eberhart would never have had to face the consequences of his actions, but hundreds of people would still be alive and your home wouldn't be on fire.

You let the curtain close and step away, back towards Valrissa. No sense in wasting time on might-have-beens. The past was the past, and couldn't be changed. The present, however, had some interesting things going on. "They seriously want to...?"

The little elf rolls her eyes at having to repeat herself. "They want to talk. The inquisitors want to talk terms."

You look down and bite your lip thoughtfully. "It's probably a trap."

Faust stands up in his seat and slams his hands on the table. "It's definitely a trap! You're not seriously considering this, are you!? They'll wait until you're separated from everyone else, then tie you to a stake and break out the torches and oil!"

"Maybe." Definitely. But... "But they're on the ropes. If we're ever going get the church to acknowledge us, we have to talk to them eventually."

The elven thief looks at you doubtfully. The burned sorcerers both look at you incredulously. You hold your hands up defensively. "Don't worry, I'm not going in there without a PLAN..."

Memory Two You wake up from an unexpected nap on your desk. Your head is pounding from spending all day peering at long lists of formulas and calculations. You wipe the drool off your face and look around in confusion through the dark room before realizing it is night now. You stumble around the room until you find a lamp (which you almost knock over. The mechanical arm works, but it took some getting used to. You keep on over shooting things because it was slightly longer than your other arm.

Light. Better. You stare at the pile of notes on your desk. You've failed a dozen times today already. You will try this one more time, then give it up as a bad job until tomorrow and go to bed.

You look over the diagram one last time, then close your eyes and take a moment to ready yourself. The flow of magic is there all the time, even if you can't see it. It reacted to living things, like a river reacted if you waded through it but MORE. You couldn't talk to a river, or tie the current in knots. You could with magic, though.

In theory. You haven't actually managed it yet.

You open your eyes, and imagine the flow around you. Your hands dart like they are working an invisible loom while you mutter a rapid fire barrage of nonsense syllables. She can't tell if it is working, but....

When you get to the end of the ritual, there is a FLASH of light as a wall of shimmering blue energy appears in front of you, dividing the room in half.

It only lasts a few second, but that doesn't matter. You have DONE it! You aren't a sorcerer but you just used magic! You burst out of the room, causing the little elf girl on the couch to go straight from sleeping to flailing in the air like a startled cat, and shout "IT WORKS!"

It isn't USEFUL yet, but you've proven it is POSSIBLE. And if you can do it, anyone can! Everything else is just refinement. In a cluttered room in your cheap apartment, You have just changed the world, forever.

Memory Three People laughed and shouted and danced at the Loaded Stoat, a slightly disreputable tavern not too far from the university that students went to when they wanted to get pissed. Samata, proud owner of a degree in Natural Philosophy so new the ink had not yet dried, lifted her glass of wine in a toast, and all her friends followed suit. "To all the professors we hated! May they all get hemorrhoids!"

There was some laughter but everyone drank to her toast. The world looked manageable, through a slightly rosy alcoholic glow. She was smart, she was capable, and she was beautiful. She could handle anything life had to throw at her!

Samata started to lift her glass again, and then felt a slight sting on her shoulder, like a paper cut or a bee sting, as some kind of light blurred right past her head. She said "Ow."

She turned around to see what that was, and felt a kind of weird sloughing sensation. A weight fell from her shoulder, and everything felt lighter, though her clothes suddenly felt wet. She looked down to see if she had just spilled her drink on herself and everything was red and someone was screaming and she was screaming and that was her ARM but it was lying on the FLOOR and what was happening!? She felt light headed, but was vaguely aware of someone bundling something against her shoulder. She could still FEEL her shoulder, so that must have been someone else's arm. Everyone was making a big deal over nothing!

Everyone was making so much noise, but she was starting to feel tired. Maybe she could just...close her eyes. Just for a minute...