Nobody's Memories
Chapter 8 - How to entertain yourself while waiting [For Idiots!], Vol.1
Well, I was done plotting and renovating. There were no more blue markers on my world map. The cats were bored, having left giant gauges in the caves wall and their scratching posts I had bandied together. They had also been housebroken, meaning I had used reverse psychology to ensure they left the cave whenever they had 'business' to attend to by trying to get them to do so in the first place. I had taken stock of each and every item I had looted, taken from every ancient crypt I could find, and gotten as close to a city as possible before returning to the Lootcave based on the premises of it being a terrible, terrible idea to try and go into the city at the moment, alone and without a believable story. I also recalled several cities being strictly monitored at the time of the third game in terms of who could and could not enter, meaning I wasn't likely to get in without a fight.
To summarize. My plans were currently placed on hold by necessity and the fact I would prefer not to build up a negative reputation. I had nothing to do but casually sit in a chair, petting a black and white tabby cat that just loved to be scratched and reading through The Conjunction of the Spheres by the candlelight. Plenty of interesting cosmic mumbo-jumbo operating off of medieval-aged astrological nonsense and ramblings that I picked apart with 21st century science, but beyond that…
A book talking about an awesome, world-shattering apocalyptic event? Surprisingly boring, especially when I couldn't actually get relevant information from it. Sure, there were plenty of historical nuggets and lore-lite tidbits in here, but they were few and far between. I would certainly read through it later, but I had to have better books than this.
…A quick spinecheck told me no, I didn't, not unless I was willing to judge these books by their covers. My current best bets were a small novella that also existed in the game about a dying older woman spilling her secrets of her time spent with an High Vampire, which was hopefully not a twilight expy, and a collection of the great Bard and Poet Dandelion's works from a decade ago.
….Twilight, Dandelion's poetry. Twilight, Dandelion's poetry. Twiligt, Dande- Fuck it, Twlight ripoff. At least that added a Bestiary entry in the game, I might get more out of it than I would flowery medieval-aged poetry spoken in limerick. Pulling the thin, purple book – clearly well kept, despite its yellowed pages – from the shelve, I begin to flip through it on my way back to the seat. A quick shove to shoo a different cat than I had previously been petting off the seat, and then to keep its claws away from this really nice chair I had found in the man whose home I had crashed into, and I had settled down. The book was thin, so perhaps the least of two evils would be over quickly as well.
The Intro was the same text provided to you in-game should you choose to 'read' the item, followed shortly by a table of contents. It was somewhat worrying that they seemed to share my sense of humor in the table of contents, but ah well. Fiction or Non-Fiction, this book would alleviate my boredom one way or the other.
Reading through, to my great, complete, and utter surprise… the book was good. Just…. Really, really fucking good. It wasn't some horrendous medieval Twilight equivalent or trashy romance novel – it was a goddamned amazing story of maturity, aging, and –well, by nature – love. Maturity and issues of the heart, and writing that would fit right in at home in the 21st century and have lead me to praise the book then, even if it wasn't as unique a book there as it was here. It wasn't all boo-hoo death and sobstory, either; it had the wittiest, most charming humor I had read in a while. It… what the hell was a book this good doing here, amongst medieval aged ideals in a deathworld?
The characters had flaws, ideals, hopes and seemed human – they were even subject to the same logic Game of Thrones used when it came to character death. Rapidly turning my gaze to the top of the paper, I had time to realize…. I…. I was only a hundred pages in?! The print was tiny, sure, but seriously? The book was one of the thinnest I had ever seen!
….ok, this was a decent way to kill time. I… I cant stop myself from reading this. Even with the cheesy romance scene I'm on, the writing shines through. By this point in the book, I was fairly certain it was responsible for raising literacy rates. Can't...look...away... and I'm a Nobody...
Thunder cracks, and I feel the back of my spine rise, shivering in response to the cold rain. Perhaps he wouldn't arrive? I had thought him better than that, learned him to be better than that; he would not lie. This would not be a trap, I knew; turning to face the glassless window frame, I take a few steps forward, wincing at the loud crunch of broken glass and plates. If he had not yet arrived, what might be keeping him? The list of things that could keep him from attending a meeting, no matter how illicit or private, could be counted on but one of my hands - and that was simply viewing him as a man, rather than account for all his wealth and influence.
Running a finger alongside the dusty windowsill of this old ,ratty house, I couldn't deny the place had charm. Nice, pleasant thoughts - that should do well to distract me from any negative thoughts concerning Earnest's well being. The clouds - they're beautiful tonight, just barely hiding the moon and allowing light to filter in, draping itself over me. A sigh. Yes, this is certainly working! Not simply sinking youself deeper into-
*Kr-Thrak!*
"Morgan..." Jumping, I turn to meet Earnest's gaze as he stands in the doorway.
"Oh Earnest do you re-" I stopped midsentance, my efforts towards storming towards him ceasing. He is bloody, cuts and tears that run deep tearing apart his normally fine clothes, blending together with the deep red he normally wears.
"No, Earnest! No!" I bemoan, cats surrounding me, clearly using me as their own personal sitcom. I didn't mind. They were mine, and clearly enjoyed the show I was putting on for them.
*Kr-Thrak!*
...It also appeared it was raining and thundering now, and it suddenly occurs to me that I had forgotten to build this place with the rain in mind.
I was already up, time having slowed as I gently placed the book aside; Ok, plans. Count the cats-
9..10...11, all here. Open a Gate...
...step out right next to a large number of rocks. Rain moving so, so slowly that I'm literally running through it, Eenie meenie mini mo... you look about the right size...
...And then I'm back, already having gone through the portal, closing it behind me to prevent a kitty escapade as I jam it into the cat's makeshift kittydoor I had made amongsts the rubble that had been the caves only entrance. No use having an entrance if you could teleport without needing line-of-sight. Lets see, rains seeping through the cracks int he rubble -
Tents! Use the tents as makeshift towels. Bottom shelves, right over there, shove them out and up, roll this one out... oh goodie, they aren't affected by my time alteration for more than a few seconds once I let go! Lets see, I put the repurposed chain mail to chains right over... here! Run right on back, shove them in and to the sides with enough force that things start to crack...
...and I have a colorful, yet distinctly terrible, patchwork of stretched out tents where a rock wall once was. Well... better than nothing. If I ever have a guest I can just claim its modern art. Time begins to accelerate, return to normal now that my moment of flurried activity has expired; I take note that I apparently both instinctively and subconsciously urged my perception to slow, doubling the effect, for its taking for longer than it has any other time, with twice the effect.
Hm.
Now I'm bored again. And I haven't experimented with my conveniently slowing perception of time yet... which I seem to constantly refer to as 'Slowing Time' while its occurring rather than as my perception of time having accelerated...
...oh, this was going to be fun.
-0-0-0-
Observing the arrow five feet from my face, I tipped it upward. Time's flow returned to normal, and I observed it bounce around the rooms many flat surfaces harmless. My perception had returned to normal, and - ha! there it is!
"Again!"
Perception Acceleration Perception Acceleration Perception Acceleration-
Everything begins to slow once more as my perception is altered, from the bemused cats with twitching ears standing behind the crossbow they had just armed again to the arrow they had just launched, flying towards me at mildly eye-disrupting speeds..
- Time Slow Time Slow- Ha!
Grabbing the arrow, I nodded as time returned to normal once more.
"I was right. Teaching Cats to use crossbows to help me experiment was fun!"
"Mrow!"
"You certainly don't disagree. And it only took me the better part of 6 hours!"