Another history

[SolitaryTurnip]

Alright, I've had the story of my character in my head lately, so I guess I'll put it out here. I'm not that great of a writer, but I can get a story across... kinda.

I've got the whole thing written, but I'll post it in parts in here.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Summons

"Brayic - I have a special assignment for you. I will explain more later. Tell no one.
-- Riley."

A special assignment? Why did Riley want Brayic k'Vocran, of all people, to go on a special assignment? He was by no means the strongest or smartest or best trooper around. Well, Riley had his reasons, and he wasn't about to tell them to anybody else.

"Ah, Brayic, you got my letter. Here, come with me," commanded Riley, leading him through down the streets of Llanfair.
"What's this all about? And why am I the one to go on a special assignment?" He knew he wasn't going to get a suitable response, but he had to try at least... and where were they going?
"I'll explain later," he said quickly as they came to a stop in front of a rather nondescript house. Riley glanced around, unlocked the door, and rushed Brayic inside.
"Your house?"
Riley nodded and motioned to a chair. "Sit down and I'll explain. I chose you because, well, I think you're the best one to do the job."
"A typical Riley answer..." Brayic thought as he sat down, nodding to Riley to continue.
"I need to you find Mtude Zgih."
Mtude Zgih... "Sounds Darju"
"Right. Well, he was Darju... hard to say what he is now, he's so twisted from his worship of Rihdtu."
"Ah hah... So, what has Mtude done to bring your wrath upon himself?"
Riley shot him an icy glare. "This is serious. Mtude is a rogue Psionic, obsessed with his twisted experiments. I want you to find him and bring him to me." He stood up, opened the door and nodded to Brayic.
Brayic rose, "well, I'll try. Any idea where I can find this guy?"
"He's got a tower somewhere to the north. That's all I know. Good luck."
"I'll have him here within the day," he said as Riley closed the door behind him.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Search

A tower to the north. Well, at least he had some idea. Of course, today had to be foggy; he couldn't see more than 30 feet in front of him. He wouldn't be able to find the tower until he walked right into the side of it.

"Alright, if I were a rogue psionic conducting twisted experiments... where would I be?" Yeah, that never worked. Definitely not the flowery northern road, and a tower wouldn't bode too well in the swamps. "Well," he thought, "I'll find it eventually."

A full hour of walking north and no sign of a tower anywhere. Just as Brayic was about to turn back, he noticed a figure stumbling about just ahead. He ran towards them "Hey! Hey you! I'm looking for a tower, have you seen one?"
As the figure emerged from the fog, Brayic actually got a good look at it. It was a female Eolai, clothes tattered, looking very confused.
"Um... I'm looking for a tower. Have you seen anything like that around here?"
The Eolai glanced at Brayic for a second... looked around the area... glanced back at Brayic... and walked away. "Well, I must be getting closer," he said to himself, "I doubt she even understood what I said."

As he continued his trek northward, sights such as the Eolai became more and more common. Some glanced at him, as the Eolai. Some responded, but apparently didn't quite know what was going on, and they certainly knew nothing of any tower. Some screamed at nothing visible to his eyes. A few clawed at their face, screaming to make it all stop...

Finally, he saw a tall shadow off in the distance. He took off at a run, desperate to turn all these people into vague memories. Standing at the base of the tower he adjusted his armor, removed his rifle, took a deep breath, and silently entered.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Capture

"I don't get it. Why build a tower if it's 50 feet of stairs and a single top floor? Why not build a house or something instead?" Brayic sighed to himself as he slowly, silently worked his way up the endless spiral of stairs.

Finally the stairs stopped at a single, partially open door. Brayic stopped and pondered his options. He could kick open the door, jump and roll in, firing at anything that moved, in a totally badass fashion. He could quickly open the door, find the Darju standing over an operating table, fire a warning shot, and proceed to capture him in an orderly fashion. He could even sneak up behind Mtude, stun him, tie him up and drag him to Riley.

He went with choice one.

Unfortunately, there was nothing moving... nobody in the room at all, thus ruining his grand entrance. The room wasn't at all as he expected. It was basically empty, save for several shelves of books lining the wall, a single table somewhat off-center, and another door just ahead. Discouraged by his failed entrance, he decided to take the simpler route. Easing the door open, he noticed a gaunt Darju bent over a desk, apparently engrossed in some text.

"MTUDE ZGIH! I am Brayic k'Vocran of the Llanfair Troopers! I've come here--" He broke off as Mtude turned, staring at Brayic with pure white eyes, his hideous face twisted and scarred. Brayic was nearly paralyzed with fear as he tried to continue, "under o-o-orders of the High G-guard R-r-riley Jecu-qu-q-q-qui..."

The white-eyed Darju simply laughed. "You have, have you? How nice of him to send a subject to me instead of me having to seek a new one out. Once you tear their mind, they're basically useless," he cackled in a high-pitched voice, "I'll have to thank him, whoever he is."

Brayic fired a shot, hitting the wall behind Mtude. Mtude laughed again, "fiesty, aren't we? Well, don't worry. It'll all be over soon enough."

Suddenly a screaming filled his ears, leaving as quickly as it came. His body writhed in pain as he felt fire cover his body. The fire left, replaced by a feeling of all his limbs being torn off. He blacked out to the high-pitched cackling of the insane psionic.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Revelation

Brayic awoke, lying on the table he saw earlier. His first thought was to escape, but he hadn't the strenth to move his limbs, and in any case, he was bound to the table. He glanced around, noticing Mtude off to the side. Apparently feeling Brayic's gaze, he turned around.

"Ah, so we've awakened? Amazing what one can do with knowledge of the mind... you lost consciousness before I could really have any fun."
That cackle again... it was enough to drive anyone insane. Brayic attempted to speak, but something was holding his mouth shut.
"Yes, I tire of the screams of my subjects," Mtude spoke as he held out a mirror. Brayic opened his lips, revealing a jaw fused shut by intricate cybernetics. He tried to mumble something, but no noise came out. "I desire total silence from you." Mtude spoke as Brayic weakly struggled at his bonds, to no avail. Mtude cackled, walking around the table.

"I assume you care to know exactly what I'm doing here. Not that it matters; if all goes according to plan, you won't remember being here at all. The story of my life is long and dull, all you need to know is I trained as a psionic for several years, until I grew tired of my teacher and set out on my own. It was then that I discovered the teachings of Rihdtu. I found this tower, apparently abandoned and began my studies of the mind. Of course, books can only teach you so much, so I sought out subjects to test my theories.
"Your purpose is to test my latest hypotheses regarding compulsion and the mind. With any luck, I can have a silent servant to fetch new subjects for me." Mtude grinned wickedly, coming to the head of the table. He placed his hands on Brayic's head.

Pain shot through his body once again. "This will probably hurt," Mtude cackled as Brayic tried to scream.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Beginnings

"Damn!" Mtude said as the pain subsided, "Why isn't this working?"

Through the pain Brayic was able to feel Mtude slowly caressing his mind. He was unsure what was happening, but he knew he had to stop it.

Mtude's twisted face appeared thoughtful for a moment. "It appears that your will is stronger than I anticipated. I may be able to compel you once you sleep, but there may be the chance that you'll break my bonds of compulsion.
"However, this doesn't mean that I'll let you leave as you are. And I don't want you wandering around outside my tower as all the other broken subjects are. I'm sure that Riley will send me another subject soon enough." He fell silent for a moment. "I can't send you back with a broken mind... people will certainly become suspicious. I can, however, send you back with a new mind."

The pain returned with greater intensity, and Brayic was unable to fight this new, different caress. Before he blacked out for the second time, he vaguely heard Mtude cackling, "Goodbye... Vhen Dmar."

He awoke face-down in a tunnel, stripped, save for a pulse rifle, backpack, and scant clothing. Aisobs slithered around him as he tried to stand. He tried to speak, but found that he couldn't open his mouth. He looked through his backpack, finding only a rolled up parchment.

"Who am I? What happened? Why am I here?" he thought to himself. He looked and felt himself over. Everything seemed fine except for his jaw and a strange scar on his neck. He tried to think back to what happened earlier; colors swirled through his mind, and he fell to his knees. "I've got to get out of here," he thought to himself.

He wandered out of the tunnel, onto the streets of... of... wherever he was. He noticed a building marked "Llanfair Financial Centre." "Llanfair? I guess I'm in Llanfair," he thought. He continued walking the streets, taking in the new city.

"Brayic! Brayic!" A spiky-haired human yelled as he ran towards him. The human was wearing a full suit of telyron armor and was carrying a shield and rifle in his hands. "Brayic?" he thought to himself, as he continued walking, "Am I Brayic?" He turned and looked at Riley with a puzzled look on his face.
"Brayic, is that you? Did you find him? Brayic, what happened to you?" Asked the human desperately. "Brayic! I'm Riley! Brayic, what's wrong?"
"Riley? Brayic? I want to remember these names..." he thought. He glanced at "Riley" and shrugged. He thought to himself, "you can't get any answers if you can't ask any questions."
"Brayic? Damn it, Brayic, say something!"
He glanced over at Riley and opened his lips.
Shock flew over Riley's face, "Oh. Oh... I-I'm sorry sir. I had you mistaken for someone else," he bowed deeply and backed away, "I'm terribly sorry."

After walking through the city for a bit longer, he remembered the parchment he had found in his backpack. "Maybe I can find some answers here... something that will lead me to the man who took my voice, as well as my life," he thought. He removed the parchment and slowly unrolled it.

"The Honorable Mercenaries of the City of Llanfair

This hereby assigns the honorable mercenary Vhen Dmar to the task of ridding Llanfair of the presense of Isaiah James. This may be accomplished by any means necessary. The honorable mercenary Vhen Dmar will be in no way held accountable for the actions taken against Isaiah James, and the full blame will be placed on me, the undersigned.

Mtude Zgih
Head of the Llanfair Mercenary Guild Ghotra Foddul
Honorable Mercenary Vhen Dmar"

"I must be Vhen Dmar. Vhen... Dmar." He rolled the name over and over in his mind. "I'll have to speak with this 'Ghotra Foddul' later," he thought, "so this it it? This is all I have?"

He shrugged, "Well I don't know who did this to me, but someone's going to pay. I guess today... Isaiah James will pay," as he silently set off through the streets of Llanfair.

[SolitaryTurnip]

Yeah, I told you I wasn't a very good writer, but I think it turned out alright. Any thoughts?

[senseandviolets]

Hey-

Took me a while to find the time to read it throuhg, but I like. I got a couple chuckles from it, and I think the ending gives Brayic some interesting motivation for fulfilling the mysterious contract.

Only negetive thing I would say is that there seems to be alot of him wandering about in search of the tower, then all of a sudden he's there. I'd like to see some sort of character or circumstance introduced to give him a hint to its location, or the fact that he's ready to give up not emphasised.

We got further additions on the way?
_________________
Behind every optic is a mathematic.

[SolitaryTurnip]

[the blue fairy]

Very intruiging Vhen Dmar. Although I was hoping for your story over that bottle of wine. <G>

The Blue Fairy

[SolitaryTurnip]

*grins* Well, you know you wouldn't have gotten it, because Vhen can't remember it.

[the blue fairy]

Well I never knew Brayic. It was Vhen that owes me a story over some wine <G>

[SolitaryTurnip]

Just to make things clear...

The history is so PLAYERS understand why Vhen does what he does. Strictly speaking, nobody in-game knows this story; Vhen's lost his memory, and nobody IG knows about what happened.