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character thought retrieval on;;; current perspective
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1
There is nothing but darkness for a second, but then.
“Woah.” ; Jim. The landscape around him is completely engulfed in fire. As a matter of fact, it would seem that there isn’t anything that isn’t on fire, really. The gravel he’s standing on that stretches across the landscape as far as he can see, the giant mountains that extend into the sky, the many ashen trees, all dead and without any leaves, it’s all on fire, even if it that fact would normally defy the laws of science. But it’d seem that there is no conventional science that can be applied in a place such as this, even with just one glance.
The sky is a vivid red, and the sun is nowhere to be seen in the hazy sky. The outside world had never seemed so bright, yet dim simultaneously. Jim feels the uncomfortable warmth of the fire in all parts of his body, and it seems to only be getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter. The warmth becomes a mild sting, and the sting a sharp pain, as the fire approaches him.
“What—the hell! Shit! This damn fire!” ; Jim. And it only gets worse as the time passes by. Jim can almost hear every individual second.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. He must be having some sort of auditory hallucination, as he hears footsteps of some sort. Could he really be having a hallucination already, though? The fire sears his arms, and burns his head from the scalp up, his heart pounding in the back of his head.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The pain is so bad, he falls to his knees, unable to stand. He closes his eyes, and tries to think some sort of rational thought. How he can escape this dreaded, horrible place.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. And then he hears a voice.
“(just breathe, Jim.)” someone says (and you know, this might be a bad time, but I’ve just realized how ridiculous these semicolons are! Might as well just revert back to normal, conventional writing standards. Especially considering I have to work on not switching tenses, as a new narrator).
Did he imagine the voice? Was it another hallucination of the mind?
“(breathe. one at a time, now. focus on my voice. there’s a reason you’ve been brought here, to this place in specific. and there’s a reason there’s all of this fire here, too.)” says the person. Jim tries to speak, but upon opening his mouth, a new, searing pain emerges.
“(don’t speak. just focus. fire always tries to find a controller, a leader to follow. fire in this world is not just an element, or a chemical reaction here. it is a real force, albeit not sentient, which may be why it’s hurting you, it simply doesn’t realize it. but it knows you’re powerful, Jim. so if you’ll just accept it, one breath at a time, it’ll calm down.)” the person continues.
But the pain. I can’t. It. It just hurts. So, so BAD. This burning, I can’t, I. It hurts to think. It burns, Jim thinks (internal thought! Would you look at that! But. Jim . . .).
“(i know it’s hard, i’ve gone through the very same thing too. i believe what worked for me was, in my head, imagining, or picturing, rather, all of the flames around me, as opposed to on me. imagine the fire isn’t on your arm, but around your arm. it is not on your scalp, but grazing your hair follicles. it is not smothering your face, it is dancing around your lips, and in front of the very tip of your nose. it is not touching your legs, but flickering just in front, behind, on the sides of your legs. and breathe. always remember to breathe.)” they say.
One breath at a time. In, out. In, out. The searing slowly dissipates. In, out. In, out. It fades to a sting, he can feel the fire distancing it from himself. In, out. The sting fades to a heavy heat, which fades to an uncomfortable warmth, where the fire stays. He can feel the flames flicker in the air, all around him, each wisp dodging in and out, never touching his body, now. And yet still so close, still the flames surround him, besides the ones around his body.
“(there you go. i’ll separate the flames for you now.)” says the person, still unknown. All of the flames part, including the ones flickering around Jim’s body, revealing this mysterious figure.
“(you alright?)” the person asks. They have long hair in a neat french braid, with a little red lotus flower tied neatly into their hair. They’re a bit shorter than Jim, at maybe 5’6, and are dressed in a white top and skirt. Their eyes are a a deep black, and would resemble SBMIII’s eye color if she, well, had normal eyes. Their complexion is a pale brown, and they begin to approach Jim. What a contrast to the burning landscape, Jim thinks.
“Yeah. Or I think I am, anyway. If you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you part the flames while I was engulfed in the flames? Is it anything to do with the control aspect of it or whatever?” Jim asks, still somewhat out of breath.
“(partially, yes, which it seems you’ve gotten the hang of rather quickly. pretty impressive, really. but it was also because you need to learn to endure pain. because, like it or not, this game will bring pain. there will be many obstacles to overcome, many hurdles to jump, where others will lose. but you. you will win. you will succeed. keep that in your mind, in your heart. you will succeed, no matter what, no matter how hard things may get. and you will continue, you will persevere. can you promise me that, though?)” the person questions.
Jim feels a bit dizzy, with everything that just happened. He entered the door, escaped a fire, and now this person is asking him a question he doesn’t even know if he can answer. And yet, this person. They had an aura of hope about them. Or, maybe not of hope. But of something. And I think I’ll trust this person, whether I like it or not, he thinks. He reorients himself, and speaks.
“I—yes. Yes, I promise.” he says. The person nods.
“(good. now, we haven’t been properly introduced, have we? my name is Keahi. yours?)” says Keahi.
“I’m Jim. Nice to meet you, despite where we are right now.” Jim responds.
“(yeah, you get used the changing environment pretty quickly. a gguidant had better hope to get used to their surroundings fast if they are to be of any use, anyway.)” Keahi says.
“You’re a gguidant then?” Jim says.
“(yes, at your service. i’ll be here mostly to help you understand and be able to use your powers. get you going along the race track, if you will, to prepare you for the test you will have to take.)” Keahi responds.
“I see. How do we begin, then?” Jim asks.
“(eager, are you? well, would you mind opening your stat overview?)” Keahi responds. Jim presses the button on the control panel of his flamethrower arm.
STAT OVERVIEW:
Piece:
Specialties:
Supporting Element(s):
Spiritual Capacity:
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Fragmented Flame Generator
???
50% Fire/Magma, ?% Other
10.7 SBurn/m
“(right, looks like your supporting element fire/magma is at 50%. and your spiritual capacity is at 0.7. i suppose this is your first time using any of your abilities, then, huh?” Keahi asks.
“Yes, I guess controlling that fire was my first time doing anything magicky. How did you know?” Jim says.
“(well, usually people’s element percentages up by about 50% if they have two supporting elements and they’ve only used one. also, your spiritual capacity would never rise by that amount just because you used your powers once, assuming you started at 10 SBurn/m. that’s the result of your powers awakening, a subconscious feeling in your spirit that makes lets it become active. you may not have felt it awaken, though, due to the pain you were feeling in the moment.” Keahi says.
“Oh. Okay. What exactly is the supporting element and spiritual capacity? There was another person, Sam, that was explaining the first half of the chart to me, but he kind of had to stop, so I still don’t know.” Jim says.
“(sure, but let’s start walking in the direction of that mountain in the distance, over . . .” Keahi points to the tallest mountain that they can see “. . . there. That is where the test will lie. And because it is so far, you should be ready by the time we arrive.)” Keahi responds.
“Okay.” Jim says. And so they begin the trek, walking at a steady pace, heading towards somewhere where the dead trees get more and more dense until a forest of branches and trunks completely engulfs them, blocking the sky out. But that, too, would be a long way.
“(so. your supporting element is the element that you are able to manipulate and use in isolation or conjunction with your piece and whatever specialties you have, although it is pretty much always more useful and effective when used with the piece, hence the “supporting” in the name “supporting element”. sometimes you’ll unlock sub-abilities within your piece’s ability tree that can be used in special conjunction with your supporting element.” Keahi explains.
“What exactly is the ‘ability tree’? Where is that? And how do I actually use these abilities?” Jim asks.
“(it’s the button to the right of the middle one that’ll open up your ability tree. i’ll explain how to use them when you open it, as it’s kind of necessary to be able to use them at all.)” Keahi says. Jim presses the button (it is a symbol that kind of looks like a combination of the ^ and * symbols), and it opens up a new holographic menu:
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1000576851959369809/1157148823026671616/Untitled_drawing_1.png?ex=65178e52&is=65163cd2&hm=f4c3ffaafb94cd182707f0581a5dc69cf4e3655ade0467c900ed885c87903b21&]
Jim takes a moment to read all of the information outlined by the chart. His eyebrows crease slightly at some of the terms on the chart, such as {2f+} and {e}.
“I see now. So are the boxes on the left like the foundation of the actual abilities I use? Which is each of the forms I guess?” Jim asks.
“(kind of. the different abilities that you are able to use as a base will always be on the leftmost side, and say ‘[Actuated Ability], simply meaning you have to actually say something to use the ability, as opposed to the passive abilities, which are, as the name implies, passive, and don’t require any input to use them. but you still use a term on the leftmost box, the one in the middle, to activate the ability. the boxes on the right describe what form of the ability you’d like to use, which also have a term that you must say to complete using the ability.
“(so to simplify, i guess, the leftmost boxes describe a base of an ability, and are called that. the base. the boxes the arrows point to are each of the forms, and put together allow you to activate the entirety of the ability.)” says Keahi.
“So you have to say words from the base and form boxes to activate the ability? Which ones?” Jim asks.
“(you say the words that are not in any parentheses or brackets. so for example, if you wanted to activate the ability that has the top-left base that branches off into the top form, or form one, you’d say “metal break, form one”. it doesn’t matter how loud or quietly you say it, as long as you articulate it clearly, and with confidence. why don’t you try one, perhaps flame spark, form two.” Keahi says.
“Sure. I’ll try.” Jim replies. And so he whispers flame spark, form two!, and . . . it works. A small fire appears at the tip of his flamethrower arm.
“(nice job! most don’t get it on their first try.)” Keahi exclaims. But the fire keeps on growing larger and larger, and spreads to the rest of his flamethrower arm, the heat tingling his neck.
“It’s not going to spread onto myself, is it? Because one of those passive abilities said that the fire could spread to any solid.” Jim says, worriedly.
“(no, it won’t. your skin is not solid enough for the fire to spread to it. besides, even if it was able to spread to your skin somehow, you’ll always be able to control it because you have fire as your supporting element, which is rather lucky.) Keahi says.
“Mm. I guess I have to extinguish it with the powers from the supporting element now, then.” says.
“(yes. just picture in your head the fire shrinking in size, and eventually, blowing out, just like a candle might.)” Keahi advises. Jim look holds his arm out, and tries to do what Keahi has said to. It continues, though, even after about 10 seconds, a little more time than Jim would like to have had the fire there for.
Maybe if I were to think of something that’d put a fire out, it’d be easier. Like a fan, or water, or something of that sort. And breathe. Just as Keahi said.
The fire flickers out, slowly. The tingling on his neck has stopped, and the fire compresses itself into one tiny little flame, which Jim is able to simply blow out.
“(very good. it’d seem you have experience with fire before, no? perhaps some sort of interest in it. it could explain why your supporting element is partially fire/magma.)” Keahi asks.
“Yes, I guess you could say that. I don’t know what it is about it, the fire just, it draws me in. And I’ve uh. I’ve had experience with it before, too. A few years ago was when I really was shown how powerful it can be. How fascinating, yet dangerous it can be to see it burn something, to destroy it . . . even though that is pretty weird to think about.” Jim replies. His eyes intensify slightly, and Keahi starts walking. Jim follows.
“(yes, many that train in the element tend to be rather attached to it, including myself. while it may just be natural for humans to be drawn to fire, those who have it as a supporting element have a special connection to it. something indescribable, as you said.)” Keahi says.
“Yeah, it is very odd.” Jim replies. He then looks straight ahead and notices a large stone gate (on fire), and to its sides, tall, tightly packed dead trees (also on fire). So dense that they wouldn’t be able to go through them. The stone gate looks to have some sort of drape on top of it, flowing down to the floor, so neither Jim nor Keahi could see anything ahead.
“(it would seem we have arrived to the first dangerous place, i guess you’d say, in the ffakescient.)” Keahi says.
“Ah. Is this some sort of quiz, then, or precursor to the actual test at the top of the mountain?” Jim asks.
“(yes, although it will likely not be dangerous in the way that you think, because if I’m reading those glyphs at the top of the gate correctly, we’ve arrived at the flashback.)” Keahi replies.
“Flashback?” Jim says.
“(yes. when you go through, you will be transported to one of the most painful memories of your life thus far, and keep on repeating it, until you either eventually die of hunger, unable to act because of the pain, or overcome your emotions and find a way out. how you find your way out, however, is individual to each memory, so use whatever critical thinking skills you’ve got once you’re in there, and block out any emotion you feel. it will only distract you from what is most important. and if the pain does come, which i will say is almost inevitable, always, always, remember to breathe. if you were to have learned one thing from your time in the ffakescient, it should be to breathe whenever in trouble, whenever you feel overwhelmed. just one at a time.)” Keahi says.
It is a lot to take in for Jim, as could be expected receiving such information. Which memory could be the most painful? There’s, well. I guess it’s not a good thing that there’s a good few to consider, huh. I guess I’ll find out though. But for the first test, this seems pretty extreme. Either escape or die of pain? How hardcore is this game really going to be? First, my limbs are maybe permanently altered to this broken flamethrowing mechanism, and now there’s time travel and a different realm to consider. I guess just one step at a time, though, right?
“Alright, well. Do you think I should just go right in, knowing that?” Jim asks.
“(you can go in whenever you wish. i wish you swift and safe travels. if all goes well, you should only be in there for maybe thirty minutes to an hour. or, at least, that’s how fast it takes most people that succeed. don’t let that scare you, though, if you do take longer than that. everyone keeps with their own pace. but, yeah. whenever you’re ready, i’ll be at the end, waiting for you.” Keahi replies.
“Okay, thank you. Guess I’ll be off then. See you on the other side.” Jim says.
He walks through the gate, and prepares himself for the worst.