The voices in my head have convinced me I'm sane.
5
JUN/21
So, this is a continuation of the Star Trek story idea in that David has discovered some link between characters past and present through the glitch in the holodeck, but instead of understanding what is going on as some kind of simulation, this story attempts to explain how David explains to himself what is going on with a more D&D type feel to it.
“I thought you two didn’t need to sleep.”
“We don’t.”
“Then why is David sleeping so much?”
“He’s not really sleeping. He’s active psionically.”
“Do you know what he is doing?” Oni asked.
“I do. He is … having a group discussion.”
Oni raised a questioning eyebrow. “With who?”
“With the dead.”
“With people we knew.” It wasn’t a question.
Vashir paused before answering, impressed Oni intuited they might know with whom David was speaking. “Yeah, among others. How did you know?”
“Sometimes, when I am watching David I see things that remind me of Joe. A mannerism, an expression, a skill.”
Now it was Vashir who raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Take the Pegasus riding for example. No mean feat that is, yet when I watch him fly he looks like a natural. He’s a Psion empath city slave, no reason to expect him to handle an animal so well, yet there he is.”
Vashir nodded in agreement.
“Plus, did you see the helmet he made Arnia?”
“The one shaped and painted to look like a Silver Dragonborn head? The one that makes her look like Sora when she wears it?” Vashir was smiling as he spoke. “Of course I saw it, how could I not?”
“So, when did David get good at making armor or weapons? You’ve seen his other work in that regard.
But that helmet, that looks like Joe’s work. I don’t understand it, I’m just commenting.”
Vashir nodded again, thinking it over.
-—————————————————————————————————
David was in a dream like meditative state. In this dream state he saw himself seated in a tavern at a solid oak table, ale in front of him. 3 others sat with him. Kruger, to his left, was leaning into David. “I’m tellin’ ya mate, you ain’t crazy. We ain’t just random voices in your head. You didn’t just dream us up boy-o. We lived, we died, and we are linked.”
David glanced at the other two. Next to Kruger was another ranger, but rather than the dark green camouflage of the forest, the guy was dressed in attire more fitting for the desert. He looked a lot like Oni. His name was Joe and he was nodding his head.
The last guy, the one to David’s right, was a wizard type, staff in hand and the piercing eyes of a diviner. He also was nodding.
“Ok,” David said “explain it again, but like I am child.”
This time it was Fast Staff doing the talking. He seemed to know the most and had claimed that he had willingly let himself be turned to stone for 800 years, or was it 1200? He couldn’t remember. Anyway, a bunch of centuries just to reach the Yavapai. Part of some grand divination he had. All so he could see the tattoo on Joe’s back.
“Well, the theory goes something like this. Long before the rise of Tiamat 7 very young good dragons, through powerful divination, became aware of the plot of the Cult of the Dragon to Free Tiamat. Too young to stop the rise of Evil themselves, and unable to convince the more powerful of the need to act, these young dragons sacrificed their mortal lives to become near immortal spirits, capable of inhabiting the bodies of other races, capable of merging with them so speak. They didn’t take over the bodies, but joined in a way to become something more, a hybrid. Everybody they joined with would eventually be compelled to join the quest to defeat Tiamat. Also everybody would begin to exhibit the traits of the dragon spirit that had joined with them. If the body died, the spirit would move on to another body, usually in type with what the dragon spirit prefers. ”
“So, what’s our type?” David asked.
“Look around, tell me what you see.”
David looked around the rest of the tavern. There was only one other patron and two bards performing on stage. Well, one real bard, the other was just trying and generally not succeeding, although he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. He was currently telling a succession of terrible puns, with the other bard providing the rim shots.
The patron was dressed similarly to Joe, but his shirt was off. He wasn’t drinking and instead he was up and performing a serious of kicks and punches. After each one he yelled out “Yah!” He also resembled Oni, but not as much.
“I see all humans, well, except the good bard, he has some elf mixed in.”
“Yeah, that’s right. What else?”
“No, medium or heavy armor.”
“Yeah yeah, keep going.”
“No heavy weapons, no clerics, no fighters, no warlocks.”
Kruger smiled. “Rangers, Bards, Wizards. And now you. Guys who are quick, light on their feet.
“So, what do we call our dragon spirit?”
“Well, we don’t have actual names, I mean this is just a theory. But you are right we need to call them something, so I have taken the 7 dwarves approach with it. We call our guy The Impulsive. The others we have named The Warrior…”
“That’s Sora’s?” David interrupted.
“Yes, her spirit takes a human or dragon born, fighter, barbarian or now Paladin.
The rest are The Thinker, he rarely if ever takes a human as he likes a broad variety of races, he likes magical classes, is cautious in battle and always a Johnny on the spot with some healing.
The Aristocrat, he generally likes human lords and princes, although to be fair he did pick a swamp dwelling druid one time. He is a good leader and excellent problem solver.
The last of the surviving 5 is The Devoted, the last to run in battle, known for his excellent recall of previous events. He likes to pick a human usually but not always.
Of the two that are not with us anymore are The Sneak, a spirit know for stealth and lethality from the shadows. She was a good survivor, not one to cycle through bodies like our spirit. I’m surprised we haven’t seen her spirit return.
Lastly was The Reluctant. We know the least of this one, his spirit hasn’t been seen since before the rise of the deserts. We believe his spirit drifted away shortly after Bania’s and Rach’s death, or to say Toobee’s and Ethed’s appearance. We believe the last body that spirit inhabited was Euca.
“Ok, no offense to you Kruger, or the two bards over there, but you guys died 2000 years ago, you don’t much interest me and I don’t see how you can help. But Joe and Faststaff, and Kobra over there, you guys knew some of my companions.” Joe nodded. This was important. Through those three David figured he could try to prove the theory true, which he desperately wanted to do. Talking to the dead was much preferable to talking the voices in your head, and if true the theory meant that at least part of Sora was still alive, the dragon spirit part, and the dragon spirit had a type, and David had a type, so hope springs eternal. Just gotta prove the theory true.
“You know, if you need more evidence you could use your power on the tattoo on your back. You know, the tattoo you have no idea how you got. The tattoo we claim was on Joe’s back.” Kruger said.
“My back too!” the bad bard chimed in from the stage. “That motherfucker was itchy!”
Neither Joe nor Fast staff seemed to like the idea of seeing the last 10 minutes that tattoo was on Joe’s back. They hadn’t been alive to experience the skinning and blood draining of the Yavapai (see A.J’s story about the end of the Yavapai for a refresher if you are interested) but a sense of dread filled them nonetheless.
https://reignofthedragonqueen.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/tattoos-and-music
David ended the discussion and rose for the day although he still had a number of questions. Why couldn’t his companions sense the previous bodies their spirit had inhabited the way he could? Why had none of his previous bodies been able to sense each other when it was their turn with the dragon spirit? As far as David knew, he was the only one to experience this, and that gave him doubts. Had Sora’s spirit, the Warrior, come back as a human this time? It seemed to be the case, but he was still asking questions of Arnia and Ixen to make sure. If he could somehow link either one to a person from the past it would prove the theory true and let him figure out which spirit is which. And what made Oni and Vashir so durable in the desert world? According to the old guys in his head, the bodies of the dragon spirits Aristocrat and The Devoted died like his, The Impulsive, had back in the day, that is to say quite frequently. Their spirits had seemed to learn something over the passage of time, something his spirit had evidently not.
Which lead to the next question, if David died would the next body to be inhabited by the Impulsive spirit be able to sense David or Kruger or the rest?
No. Definitely not. David didn’t know how he knew this to be true, but he believed it thoroughly. It will be like when the spirit had Joe or Kobra or any of the others. They would have no idea. That saddened David on some level. The more he talked with these guys the more sense the story made and he had grown fond of their company.
“I better not die then,” he muttered. He could feel heads nodding inside him.
David spent the next days asking questions of the group while studying Ixen and Arnia. The way she moved reminded him of Sora, slow. Always near last to react. Her scale mail gleamed in the sun like dragon scales, and her breath had a nice icy mint tint to it. He had gotten close in a sparring session and it was lovely, very reminiscent of Sora.
But Arnia never raged when she fought. She was much cooler in combat, and while very strong, she wasn’t Dragonborn strong. More tactical, less flair, the result of not having trained in the gladiator pits. David missed the raging, but overall he thought they might be an even better pair in combat based on the sparring.
But it wasn’t with Arnia that David received the final confirmation he needed, it was with Ixen. He had followed Ixen as Ixen had followed the girl with the missing hand. When he finally caught up he had asked him a few questions. Listening to the advice from the voices David had asked Ixen about a number of names and if they had meant anything to him. It seemed to be going nowhere until he had let Kruger speak through him. When Kruger spoke he mentioned Bhalgod, and at that moment, for just a second, David saw a dwarf frozen in ice.
“I knew it mate.”
David then shook his head as if to clear it. “Ok, how about we ask this chick some questions Ixen, like what exactly had she been reading to get her hand chopped off?”