Darkness clouded the dusk of a brand new night. A storm was raging that night, and it was getting fierce.
Torrential rains fell upon the Citadel Inn, thunder ricocheted across the halls like a bad concern, lightning strikes tore the sky in twain.. occasionally polarizing the darkness. This was no mild storm. Lightning strikes glanced off nearby rocks, not far from the Inn, leaving a ripple of energy in the air in its wake, a nearby tree falling by the force of the thunder alone. The sheets of water fell seemingly without end, a hum amid the electrical outbursts, bringing even more darkness to the sky. The moon and stars themselves seeming all but devoured behind the ensuing clouds. It felt akin to a world of nightmares.
None of the four slept deeply at this hour, but as if by miracle all four had found sleep. In the jarring restlessness of their sleep, all four had found dreams. In this storm that defied all reason, so too did their dreams.
Thanrie's dreams showed her a turmoil of anguish of a father who simply would not understand the wills of his child. The child suffered under the weight of expectation, but was relentless. Even against the wills of the world, the child would forge a new path.
Qheria's dreams showed her someone who would never back down. In pursuit of a goal, proven impossible, nothing would stop this individual from putting a foot forward to overcome simple impossibility. Even against the wills of the world, this individual would forge a new path.
Mhyl's dreams showed her a traveler who had done everything. In the face of everything, she became everything, and in so lost herself. This would not stop her, the world would be shaped by her journey. Even against the wills of the world, this traveler would forge a new path.
Lwyn's dreams showed her people who had been blessed by the kindness of a friend. This friend had formed a bond with people and had sacrificed everything so that others could benefit from it. The bond resulting had brought strength and hope for many others, and had saved them from disaster. Even against the wills of the world, this friend would forge a new path.
Lightning surged before the window of room 718, tearing across the sky as an electric beam connected with the ground below. Thunder rippled from the surge, bursting through the shutters of 718 and forcing the windows wide open in a rippling shockwave. With the last barrier of the windows gone, the lightning fully illuminated room 718 in a flood of white light. The grass where the lightning hit was engulfed in flames instantly, and then just as quickly put out by sheets of rain.
In that moment of absolute white, all four of them woke up. In that moment of waking, they were more awake now they they had ever been before.
"What the holy f~~k just happened!!"
That outburst was unusual for two reasons. The first reason was because it was Thanrie that spoke. Soft spoken, lady-like, naive, Princess Thanrie. The second reason was because it was all in English. Yes, not Izhaethyx, not even with an Izhaethyx accent, although there was a notable accent to her speach... but it was still English. Then she started mumbling something that wasn't English... and still wasn't Izhaethyx.
"So, considering everyone reaction, I'm not the only one, right?" Lwyn spoke out to the room, also in English. The others all nodded their agreement.
"Thanrie, what are you mumbling over there!" Qheria had turned to her neighbour, trying to figure it out. The other two felt, in the middle of everything else, mumbling would have no matter of coincidence.
"Oh. --------------------" Thanrie had turned to reply, and sounded like she was making sense, but very quickly everything after sounded like noise to the others, except for Mhyl.
"Ah, I get it, so you also know Japanese!" Mhyl's reply itself was also in english, but she was the only one who understood Thanrie's original statement of complaint. Thanrie had been sharing her opinion of all of this being absolutely ridiculous and her head was splitting right now... in Japanese.
"Wait, Japanese? So Thanrie knows Japanese as well?" Lwyn was shocked to hear how complicated things were getting, very quickly.
"I mean, I might not know Japanese, but I don't see any issues with knowing more than just English here. German, anyone else?" Qheria shared her opinion with the others, raising her hand at her own statement as she looked around.
"Not a problem." Mhyl shared this reply in fluent German instead of English.
"Oh come on! This isn't fair!" Lwyn was looking especially cheated right now in this show of languages.
After taking a moment to calm down, the four started to discuss the situation. It seems each of the four had the same occurrence, all of them have memories of being someone else, and that 'else' was someone from Earth.
"My head is a mess, it's hell sorting out the difference between the me from here and the me from there. Holy f~~k, I'm an airhead!" Thanrie being the first to share this was not anything anyone would have expected.
"So let me get this straight, all three of us now have memories of another us.." Everyone else nods to Qheria's comment ".. and all three of us all came from Earth .." once again, all three of them nod ".. and all three of us are coping with the fact that we have memories growing up as a girl here, but as a guy over there.." to which Lwyn and Mhyl stop as Thanrie continues to nod.
"Wait, your other you is a guy? Eww!!" Mhyl interjects while Lwyn chips in for the ending. Thanrie goes off explosively.
"Holy F~~k, you're both..." "Thanrie, shut up for a moment!" Even considering circumstances, this would have been the first time Qheria had ever interrupted Thanrie.
"Okay, lets look at this objectively. You two might have the misfortune of suddenly waking up to a gigantic gender conflict of memories. That's awful I know, but lets be honest here, you two have it easy. Some of us are instead coping with the idea that weren't not actually human anymore." Lwyn, the Lwyn from here had been bottling this up inside since forever, and given the circumstances, she was at her limits.
"Human, what?" Thanrie and Qheria were both immediately caught off guard by this. Mhyl only then started processing the idea, and the color was draining from her face.
"Yes, thank you. I mean, it's not like the me from here has actually taken a f~~kin moment to actually share these ideas yet, I know. The me here is honestly already terrified about what it even means. But if you two think your little mixup has your situation complicated, oh girl.. you don't know anything. Mhyl here has been suffering the whole f~~kin day because she's an elf and elves happen to have their own language, and being a f~~kin HALF-ELF is the only f~~kin reason I've been able to communicate with her at all, until this shit happened!" Mhyl gave Lwyn a shoulder to cry upon at the end of her outburst, leaving the other two speechless. All of them were aware at what all this elf stuff really meant.
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"Well, f~~k." the others were catching on by now, whatever else might be a thing for the other Thanrie, that self's dialog was kinda the opposite of the refined she had here. Thanrie's constant swearing had been a thing, but Lwyn's outburst showed she could certainly hold her own. Mhyl was even surprised, she suspected Lwyn was either also secretly an elf, or maybe a human that learned Elaethyx. Her actually being a half-elf, that idea didn't dawn at all.
"Okay, yes, I think there is something painfully obvious right now. All four of us just had things get really complicated, and no, I'm not going to even try making it a competition. Suddenly having a second set of memories is screwing up all of our heads, and that not a good thing. But overall, inevitably, we are now all in this together. I think we should bring to table an awareness of each of our second selves, our earth selves, so that we can all work out this tangled mess together, alright?" Qheria's statement made sense, and brought ration and reason back to room 718.
"Good, then I'll start." Qheria shared with the others her earth life as a guy in Germany, named Sebastian. He was trained for the army at a young age, joining cadets, but always had an appreciation for sports.
"So which kind of sport?" Thanrie was intrigued. "Football" "Wait, with all the padding and everything?" "Lwyn, he's German, that means football, like soccer. Are you American or something?" Mhyl once again shared her worldly awareness by clarifying things for Lwyn.
It seems, however, his dreams weren't meant to be. Football (again, soccer) requires some considerable foot ability, something his two left feet weren't exactly up to par with. He had practiced endlessly, showing no signs of improvement. The only time he could live his dream was through video games. Sports games were a personal hobby of his, initially just the one sport, but it evolved into many others.
"Nice! Yeah, I got me my game too! FPS pro right here, yeah! When I was in my game, landed headshots to everyone." Thanrie it seemed also had an alternate background with video games. Her earth self was a Japanese guy named Kaito. His father was a car salesman, a very successful one. Due to his own success, he's had some rather strict expectations that Kaito would follow in the same footsteps. Kaito however had other ideas.
"So, what exactly was your other idea?" "Uh, actually, I don't remember. I ended up pursuing a pretty important goal instead, but I forgot which one it was." "Ah, that's alright. Honestly, I can't even remember my family at all." The short exchange between Thanrie and Qheria brought to light some of the holes in their memories. Thanrie was still otherwise certain that as Kaito, there was a long period of being a delinquent, before Kaito had accomplished his goals. He was left to fend against his father, so in turn he started dismissing all the rules.
"I'm glad to know I'm not the only one forgetting something, because I wasn't sure how I was ever going to explain this." Mhyl started recounting her own story, about all the places she's been, and all the people she's seen... all the cultures she's experienced.
"Okay okay, wait, so, where on earth have you NOT been?" "I don't think there.. was anywhere. I have some pretty good memories of any country I can remember." "So wait then, which country did you come from then?" "Yeah... that's the problem..." As Lwyn tries to pin things down, Mhyl surprises everyone with revealing that the hole in her memories was the whole not remembering which of the places she was at was her home. She has no idea which country she was born in, and she had even taken up a new name to fit into each culture she visited, so her countless names only raised further questions on her origins. Her constant immersion into every culture of the world resulted in a perfect obscurity in her memory of which one came first. She was even fully fluent in every single language, to the point she could even use their own accents.
"Fully fluent.. you are totally not fair." Lwyn did nothing to hide her own jealousy.
Her travels had taken her everywhere, but in the process it didn't make her that many long term friends. She learned so many things, but spent so much time bored. She spent that time playing video games. In her case, they were typically puzzle or simulation games.
"Someone who clearly has never felt the struggle of waiting for your favorite game to get localized into your own language.. oh, actually, sorry." Lwyn was again getting jealous about language barriers, only to realize that her phrasing might hurt someone who was currently concerned that she couldn't remember where she called home. So instead, she shared her own story.
"So, the other me is.. was... this girl named Rebecca, see? And, so, she's kinda from Canada, and all the stuff like that. And her favorite video games were role playing games." "Oh, nice, so you know French?" "No, I do not know French, not every Canadian knows French.. if you've been to Canada, wouldn't you know that? Or were you only in Quebec? God, you wasted your time in Canada then, you missed all the good parts." "Good parts?" "Yes, out west. Much better than the other side, of course." "Oh, don't worry, I remember being all over each province too, but I felt I should ask anyway." Mhyl, who would have also been to France, was also fully fluent in both forms of French. Being able to converse to the other two in Japanese and German, she instinctively thought there would be something for Lwyn.
"No... no, that's it. I just got English, nothing else in my language kit. .. everyone else is walking around with English plus some, and... I've got nothing else to offer. Considering the accents you two have, correct me if I'm wrong, but English is your second earth language, right? German, Japanese, those came first. But, you're both really good still at English, and.." "Lwyn, don't worry about it, you and I can talk Elven here, so we still have a language just the two of us share. Everything is fine." "Oh yeah, you and your ability to use any language..." "No, not any language, I'm still missing the most important one, remember." Lwyn's jealousy over languages was boundless, even while Mhyl tried to lend comfort. Mhyl stuck to it right up to where Lwyn again missed something important. Izhaethyx. Mhyl was the only one here who couldn't speak in language of humans, and the earth side of her memories, as a human, that's going to be a really really rough point for her to consider. Lwyn realized again that she had made a mistake, and had gone quiet.
"Thinking about it, from an earth perspective, the languages here suck." "True, you two have... elven, for lack of better earth name for it. Humans.. our language, human language I guess." "I think the translation is 'normal tongue', if we translate to english." "Normal tongue?" Thanrie started them with contemplating the structure of languages between worlds. Qheria picked up the same thought, with Lwyn finally speaking up and providing further insight.
"F~~k it, normal tongue. How lame can you get." "Says the human." "Hey! I didn't make this stupid language. I mean, think about it, how would use say my other name in the languages here, I can't even figure it out." "Is it the same with humans? I don't think elves have the O-sound anywhere." "Yeah, that's the thing. People here would have just dropped the whole sound and made sound like an 'e' or an 'ae' or something." "Actually, yeah, probably." Thanrie and Mhyl break into laughter as they go over the finer details.
"So, while everyone else here seems distracted, Lwyn, please continue with your story." "Uh, me? That's it, I'm done." "That's it, what about your life, your struggles, your pursuits, anything." "Yeah, see, the thing is, what little I said about Rebecca there, that's pretty much everything I know. I remember a whole lot about her fr- about my friends, I can picture the faces and voices of my family in my head. I know my sister wanted to be a doctor... nothing... I've got really nothing for me. Look, you guys all forgot something, so you should understand. I remember I'm from Canada, that's not true for everyone. I remember I have a sister, not true for everyone. I remember so much about everyone around that me, and how much I worked every day helping them with their stuff. I just don't remember that me, myself."
The other three lent their support at that. Mhyl decided that to share the name she thought she used in Canada, in support of the Canadian who was feeling excluded. It seems there she was known as Jennifer. Qheria insisted this wasn't exactly fair, while Thanrie insisted on getting her Japanese name, to which she indicated that she wasn't exactly interested in sharing such a name with the boys. Qheria took nothing more than a moment to contemplate how this was suddenly completely fair, and Thanrie seemed to have decided that this was suddenly hilarious. Neither of them took personal offense, both were blessed with a local self that fully understood that side of girls.
Having came to better terms with their situation, after sharing with each other, they decided to settle back into sleep. The storm had gone away completely at this point, and it was getting quite late. They would all be very busy come morning, that was certain, and dawn would be soon approaching.