Dani speaks up after you are done speaking. "This epidemic is worldwide, and while we don't yet know what caused it, King Adam has decreed you all work together to keep the city running and take care of the children. Your liege must be leaving now because he has much to do, but he will return to see how you are doing."
With that Dani drags you and Val off the stage, and hisses irritatedly but quietly at Val, "Good going, herald, there go our chances of blending in here."
The sheep are dispersing, glad to have someone in authority tell them what to do.
Hang on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride
Let me see you bump it! Bump it good!
*To Dani and Val*
"Ok enough you two, what is done is done, if this is a big city, we should worry about the needs of the many before thinking of leaving. If a city cannot operate, how can the towns and farms nearby operate. If we see people in armor, they guard, if we see people with tools, they build, if we see people with farm implements they farm. We obviously have abilities, and authority comes naturally to us, so let's do what we probably do best, and get these people working for each other."
J
Dani is irritated, but makes no argument.
§
The rest of your day is spent organizing people and assigning them tasks. The people seem to have unanimously accepted you as their king, or else not thought to have argued. By the end of the day, you are weary and worn with a headache, but the man you set up as innkeeper offers free room and board for the king, his herald, his advisor, and the prince and princesses. He says it would be his honor to put you up.
*To Dani*
"All our tempers are short, none of us like not knowing who we are, and who we are to each other, but we have to be more open minded, knowing everyone is the same position."
===========
*nods to the man*
"Thank you for your hospitality, I feel it will be trying days for all until we regain what we were.
*make sure everyone is as alright as they can be, and make sure the kids are tucked in for the night, and that they are sleeping*
*To Dani and Val*
"I don't presume to be the boss of anyone, but with what happened out there today, one was needed, and action was taken. For better or worse, someone had to, so let's resolve not to go to bed angry with each other, we have hard work ahead of us to get this area working while we give ourselves time to remember."
J
Val says, "By all means. The people needed a leader, and you were the first to come to mind. I guess Dani could have come to mind as well, but you have to admit, you cut an impressive figure."
Dani doesn't say anything. Could be she's still sore at you, but the way she looks at you seems far from irritated.
Val eventually goes to bed with the baby.
Dani, meanwhile, makes a move on you in private that probably shouldn't be discussed in public fora.
As she does, she tells you, "I definitely couldn't be mad at you. I'm not really a self-interested person, but seeing how caring you are for all these people and watching you help them... I don't just want you. I need you."
((It's like dejavu all over again))
*Makes sure Val and the baby are sleeping well, and going back to his room to get moved on*
*grins at her*
"Good, I find both you and Val attractive, I think once we remember, it will be quite the interesting story. I need you as well Dani. *making an equally non public forum discussed move on her as I assume things will fade to black*.
J
Yes, fade to black is a good thing.
§
I would say after you're done, but that's more a matter of when the sun comes up in the case presented. You recall being alone somewhere; you aren't sure where, but you know that you spent a long time alone. Years; decades, even. Human life being what it is, it's kind of nonsenical, but it is what it is. You remember devoting a lot of your time building some machine that was to be your companion, but you can't remember how it turned out. All things in time.
*Wakes up sometime in the morning, hopefully next to someone warm, female and an adult. Yawning, and getting dressed, and getting his weapons and equipment on and sitting on the bed a moment.*
"I remembered something, not much, very weird."
J
Ah, yes, there is no waking up; you and Dani do not need sleep, you've found, for some reason. Dani is in bed with you at the time that you remember, talking about how she'd never want to have kids and how she'd rather be alone forever than raise kids.
"What did you remember?"
((Nods, just playing it up like I know I should need sleep))
"I was alone for a long time, so long in fact, I was making a construct to be my companion, and that's all I got. It's a start, it means it will come back, which I am happy for."
*smiles to Dani*
"We all change, Dani, what you feel today, you might not feel tomorrow. Who knows it may take awhile to find out who we were, and we may decide that we didn't like how we were, and follow the path of our new selves. I know that I spent a lot of years alone, and it was torture."
J
Dani smiles to you, and tells you, "You don't ever have to be alone again. I remembered something, too. I was a child, and a girl not much older than me abused me for a long time... centuries, or even millennia, maybe longer. I was too scared to say anything about it, though... so, in a sense, I was alone, too. At any rate, I'm glad to have you."
*smiles and hugs her and holds her close*
"I am sorry for that, no child should have to go through that. I can see how that would have an effect on you in your adult years, not wanting to have kids, so they won't have to go through what you did. You are not alone anymore either, and we'll work through our issues together. We should get Val and the kids and see if they remember anything, maybe piece our connections to each other together a bit more."
J
Dani nods to you and rises and leaves the room with you.
§
Successful difficult intellect check.
§
As you are leaving the room, you remember introducing yourself to someone as Jhiaxus, but you aren't sure who it was. The name tickles another memory, of playing a science fiction role playing game ((unrelated to this one)) on a forum on the internet where one of the moderators was a co-author of this game, where Jhiaxus was your handle; and you remember dying from touching the golden liquid. Scriff. And it's inside of you. And you remember the smug smile on the man's face, right before the lightsaber melted it off, and you died in a vacuous place, like space. Other than that... which is a fair bit... you remember nothing more.
*pauses for a moment*
"I just remembered something else, I called myself Jhiaxus to someone, and that was a handle, a nickname for a game on a forum. I remember dying from a golden liquid Sciff when it came in contact with electricity. I remember a man smiling smugly before a lightsabre melted through his face and dying in a vacuous space."
J
Dani doesn't seem to understand, but says, "Jhiaxus. That's familiar. Yeah. You're Jhiaxus. And I'm Tan." Yes, that sounds right; Tani, you call her, but she had another name, too; you can't place it. "The memories are starting to come back. Hopefully those of the others are, too!"
§
Unfortunately, they haven't. Somehow, it would seem that the memories of yours and of Tan's are coming back, but the others claim to have not remembered a thing.
*Happy I remember Tan*
"Wait if you know my name, and I know your name, and I have a nickname for you Tani, but you had another name that I can't recall. I would make the assumption that we were not enemies, and in fact quite close, if I had a nickname for you, and you chose for yourself a name close to that nickname. I do feel Adam is my name as well. Making progress is good."
*a little less elated that the rest don't*
"Dani is Tan, and Adam is Jhiaxus, but Adam is my old name. Since the town knows me as Adam, I am not going to confuse them. I am confident we will all get our memories back, with time and enough sharing of knowledge."
*Checking on Val and the baby*
"How are you two doing, I didn't want you think I had forgotten about either of you."
J
Val answers you, "Jhiaxus? The name sounds vaguely familiar." Jessy seems to agree that your name seems familiar; Elly doesn't.
Tan suddenly says to you as if she's had a thought, "Why don't we go to a city hall or something? This is a big city. Maybe we can learn something about the history here, or maybe find records that people can go through to try to jog their memories."
*smiles to Tani*
"That is a good idea, let's get out there, make sure people are doing what they need to, and we'll sift through some paperwork, and see if we can get some sense on who is who."
*We will head there post haste*
J
Many people are seen performing the tasks you assigned them yesterday; others who you haven't spoken to have chipped in, and it seems that the city has already resumed functioning harmoniously without your assistance.
You arrive at the city hall; the guards outside it allow you to enter.
Inside, there are mountains of paperwork filed poorly or not at all; there's also a computer system, but it seems to have been a work in process, as the system hasn't been hooked up completely, and has no power running to it at the moment. A few hours later and you have yet to find any documentation regarding births, deaths, weddings, licenses, or anything of that nature.
*sighs and looks at the computer system*
"Well someone is going to have to hook this up, file and enter the paperwork, so it looks like we got elected."
*Let the guards outside know if there is a problem, this is where I'll be, working on the computer system, and getting the kids to help when possible with the paperwork with Tan, with Val, looking after the baby, and being the general taskmaster.*
J
Jessy is very apt at sorting the paperwork, and seems to be an extraordinarily fast reader. A glance from her seems to be all it takes before she knows which stack to place it in, alphabetically.
Ned applies himself and tries his best, but is nowhere near as capable.
Tan helps with the paperwork, cursing under her breath from frustration every ten minutes or so.
Elly barely even tries, it seems. Her mind always seems to be somewhere else, noticing little details like the butterfly out the window and doodling (very good doodles) in the dust on top of the filing cabinets.
Val is busy caring for the little baby.
*Working on this computer system, been a a thousand years and more since he has worked on something like this*
J
Thankfully, the information comes back readily as you tinker with the system; not so thankfully, whatever idiot who was trying to set it up completely messed up, and half of your time spent setting it up is used on undoing everything that person did.
§
Difficult intellect check passed.
§
It occurs to you that Mark could probably fix this and have it set up in minutes. The thought more skitters across your brain than anything, but it bothers you enough to distract you with thoughts of who Mark is; then a flood of information, all knowledge regarding inside the Between, comes back into your mind.
*pauses and looks at his sword, and cuts a path to the In Between, looking for people, seeing if I know how to get to mark as part of that information. Looking for people first, then Mark*
J
You don't have any trouble finding Imidge, the go to guy for how to get to where and when in the Between; he's always in roughly the same place, and you're finding it easier to get your bearings in here by yourself. (It's several days journey to where he is from where you are; but we're just going to skip over that boring part.) The ninja around the fire nod to you in acknowledgement when you walk up.
*walks up to the campfire*
"I sorta remember who I am, I am Jhiaxus, and I remembered how to get here, and a few other things are hazy, everyone on that world is the same way but usually much worse, just thought I'd stop by here to see if people can job my memory on just what I can do?"
J
A ninja you don't know rises, and says to you, "My name is Moon. These things are something of my area of expertise. Hold still."
§
You remember everything.
*Remembers all what happened and sits down*
"Man, from the way everyone was talking, I thought Eria could just draw the world the way she wanted to, I mean the first one worked. Thanks Moon, well I am here again, I am Jhiaxus, you said those things are in your area of expertise, might I inquire what else is?"
J
"I'm also an Eldest among the Black Ninja, and know how to use all of our weapons and martial arts with more proficiency than anyone other than Crescent, my twin brother." Crescent nods to you. "Crescent and I were originally the two who put the ninja in the Black Ninja."
David says to you, "With the influence of the Four gone, magic is a lot tougher for everyone to use, including Eria."
We're not gonna bump it! No, we ain't gonna bump it! We're not gonna bump it anymore
You gotta fight
For your right
To bump it
*Nods*
"It is good meeting you two, so would it be too much to ask for a lesson on how I can do that for others? I might as well do some training while I am here to get my abilities up, I am on the cusp on some of them, and might as well, reach the next level. So how does one know when they are Eldest, is it like the test for Elder?"
J
((Working on Density with my box, Intuition and Hand Eye with paddleballs(s), Resistance with holding energy to my breaking point, Agility with constantly moving and dodging doing the above except for Density))
In response to your final question, Imidge responds, "We Eldest are also the founders of the Black Ninja. The only way you could possibly become an Eldest is to return to the time before we formed."
Moon tells you regarding the ability he used, "My method is more difficult, perhaps, than one you might devise on your own."
Imidge asks, "Have you spoken to Mark? Chances are good that whatever amnesia is afflicting you, he has already come up with a method to combat it."
*To Imidge*
"I was just wondering if it was a power, skill or founding title. As for Mark, yes I was thinking that, but I was also thinking on the off chance that he too was affected. Either way, I am here, might as well train ((see above)), and come back, and get things moving."
*To Moon*
"I will figure something out, thanks for helping me out."
*Training till those skills can't be trained anymore then to Mark*
J
So, for clarity's sake, you're going to train here indefinitely, until you achieve 3@10 in those attributes listed?
((Yeah, it still leaves my social attributes as well as incidentials like flexibility at a state that I will work on them. I want to work on those naturally, through social interaction and time))
J
OOOOKKKK, just make suuuuure...
§
A mission comes up, and Imidge asks you to go on it. "Several novices are also going, as well as full-fledged ninja, but we were hoping an Elder such as yourself could go." He waits to see whether you will accept or not.