Soul: 2
Today absolutely sucks.
The first problem is that you woke up screaming.
You weren't supposed to.
Because you distinctly remember overdosing on heroin. And you distinctly remember getting run over by a truck. And now you also distinctly remember blowing your brains out all over your apartment wall.
something like that isn't just
fixed.
And thus, the screaming. And also the ensuing mental breakdown of undeterminable length. All you know is that by the time you had stopped screaming, your voice was raw, your face wet and your eyes red from tears, the bed you laid in had been messily torn up, and you had blacked out with your mind going blank at least three separate times. The only thing that shows that time has passed is the fact that the sun was just rising when you awoke, and it is now currently setting.
For some reason, after all of that, the only thing that you could currently focus on is the weird thought that despite knowing for a fact people lived in the apartments around you, no one had come to investigate your screaming. It was weirdly disquieting, and bothered you to an almost disturbing level.
Ah, now you remember why.
It is because you are currently John Johnson, the person for whom the descriptor Normal was made from. Your name might as well have been "Joe Human McEveryone", it would have fit perfectly. And that bothered you so, so much. Because no matter what you did or tried to do, you could never stand out. You knew many things, but never truly excelled in anything. You were the face people thought of when they said "just another face in the crowd". Jack of all trades master of none indeed.
It Burned. It burned so much. The thought, the belief, the Truth. That you would never be good enough at anything to ever stand out. It's what led you to buying an old, nearly rusted out 1911 for dirt cheap. And then cleaning the barrel with your mouth. You had hoped the spectacle of it might have gotten you somewhere, even just into a single daily news report.
You knew it wouldn't. Not in this city. Not with you. But you had thought that whatever would come after would at least be better than
this.
But now your here. Still alive. Or at maybe not, because you do still have the memories of a homeless man, and what seems to be a Specter from another world in your head. Maybe your in fact the ghost of Eric Mittlin, possessed by a soul from another world, and now possessing the body of a dead man. Or maybe your the Specter, thrown from all you know, with all of your personal memories erased, into another world for... For... What was it even for? You don't know. You don't know you don't
know you don't KNOW!
You... You just... You just want it all to
go away.
And suddenly, most of it does. The memories and ghosts of Eric Mittlin and John Johnson are moved out of the house that is your mind, and the front door is closed. You can still see them through the windows, and you know you could let them in whenever you wanted to. Letting them inside the house to become them once more, until you wish for them to leave once again. The only thing that remains are the memories of the Specter.
Well... At least you know who you are now. You think. Now you only have to deal with one existential crisis instead of three.
But where do you go from here? From what you know-and now you know it is definitely you-the city you are in, Brockton Bay, is fictional. Or at least it is supposed to be. But with you currently being here, that belief is obviously not true. The next thought that comes from that knowledge is the thought of using your knowledge to your benefit. How to do so is a complicated question, but you at least can use it.
That thought is nearly instantly snuffed out from knowledge borrowed from both Eric and John, the date.
It is currently March 18th, 2008.
Or, at least, according to John its the eighteenth. According to Eric it should be the seventeenth.
Hmm, is a day how long it took for you to... Reincarnate you believe is the best word.
You rest your mind on that topic for perhaps longer than would be considered healthy, before you are distracted from your once again darkening thoughts, by a simple piece of paper on the bedside desk. You are distracted for two reasons, the first being a sudden and inexplicable draw to the paper. A feeling, a need, to pick it up, and read what's upon its surface. The other reason is more explainable. It wasn't there last night.
you reach your hand out from the bed you were lying-now sitting-in, and grab the paper. Upon it is written two words, in a red so red as to be unnatural.
ENTERTAIN US
...What...?
Entertain us? Entertain!? Is that what this is!? Is that why this was all done!? For entertainment!? What if i don't-!
The thought is stopped as soon as it is formed, as a crushing weight is felt upon you body, upon your Soul. You want to fall to your knees and scream under the pressure, but you cant move. The weight, it feels like judgement. Disappointment.
Displeasure.
The weight ends, and you do fall to your knees. Not screaming thankfully, only panting.
Ok. Ok. Your going along with this, because it seems like you don't have much choice otherwise. But... What would beings like the ones behind this consider entertainment?
Once again, a weight settles upon you, but it is not crushing like the other, this one somehow feels... Informative.
Impact. The word is suddenly lodged into your mind. Impact is entertainment. It doesn't matter what kind of impact, whether it be in the stock market, or in fights, world politics, or local gang brawls, good or bad, impact is entertaining. It also gives you the idea that the impact doesn't have to be instant. Beings like the ones orchestrating this live and think on a completely unknowable and unthinkable timescale to people like you, they can wait however long they need, Be it minutes, or decades.
"..."
Well, looks like you got some planning to do, and some memories to sort out.
You have an impact to make after all.
...Fuck.
Plan:
[] Write-in
(Welcome to what I would consider the actual start of the quest! Now, I'm gonna lay out how the quest will mostly go. Mostly what is going to be happening is that you guys are going to be laying out things you wanna do, investigate, get, buy, steal, etc, in one big plan, and as we follow along in the plans steps we will take time out for all the individual moments and events that happen. Unless your plan is very simple and doesn't have much danger in it, expect it to likely not be followed all the way to the finish, as things will interrupt parts, or perhaps all of it. Necessitating the creation of a new plan, and new steps. (also I don't know if this would technically make this a plan quest, but from what I've seen those are different from how I'm going to be running this, so someone please tell me if I need to change that in the title.) You will gain more power and knowledge of what you can do as we continue-yes I will eventually explain what Soul is-and I also expect you to die quite a lot, but that's the fun part! The basic idea for this quest when I thought of it was to make it like a D&D adventure. I'm the DM-QM in this case-I've set up a world for you, filled it with things, given you powers and motivation, and now I've dropped you headfirst into that world, GO! )
