Utterly Mad

The day had gone relatively peaceful for Victor. He was currently taking inventory and seeing if the materials he needed for a project in his journal were to be found in his an Helen’s shared arcane storage. Helen was off taking care of some business while Clara had gone off with Christina for some “quality time” in the woods; to each their own he though. Still, things were indeed peaceful right now; furthermore, he had a family, one he now remembered. He had a home, nothing was actively trying to harm his or those he cared about, he had enough resources to pursue his own projects and the general outlook for the future look bright.

In the back of his mind one thing always lingered: his memory loss. Sure, many of them had been given back from various sources but many of them still remained a mystery. The man he was before the accident, if what others said could be trusted, how he ended up here, what was he working on and who a lot of the people here were. Those questions still lingered but it didn’t matter too much, he remembered enough including Helen and Thomas which right now is what he most cared about. One day he would get his memories back and face his past a new man but even if he didn’t, that was ok. Yes, times were good, he could get used to this.

That had been about an hour ago. Right now he was walking into walkerville for an impromptu meeting. His expression was of annoyance and concern for he realized a few things from this last hour. It had begun with his portable radio he kept on his hip. It perked up and he grabbed it to answer whoever was on the other side.

“Hello?”, asked Victor

“Heyyy, missed me?”, answered back the well known voice of Eris. He knew how to distinguish the two simply by the inflection of their tone. Luna was more carefree and outgoing while Eris was more cold and calice, and at times, even a bit sultry. Victor gave a deep sigh prompting Eris to laugh. Wow, I just said hello and you already react like this. Is my reputation really that tainted?

“Eris, get to the point. What do you want.”

“Ahhh, what makes you assume I want something? Can’t a girl just talk to her friends?”

“You and I both know you wouldn’t be using the radio if you just wanted to talk. What’s on our mind?”

A bit of silence before Eris spoke up again. “Already picking up on my tendencies huh? Interesting… Anyways, fine, I just wanted to ask you to come to my room for a little meeting. I need to discuss something with you… it’s important so come alone.”

That last bit sent a shiver down his spine. With what little he knew of her since the memory loss, that could mean anything. “Important huh? What about?”

“Can’t say it right now. Please, just meet me in my room in an hour ok? I think what I have to say will interest you… Have to go now, sorry, an hour ok? See ya then!”

“Eris wai-”

Before he could respond, she had disconnected already. Victor gave another deep sigh and put his radio back in his belt. “Jupiter have mercy on me.... Roxanne, you are going to be the end of me one day...”

Yes right now he was on his way to the meeting held in Roxanne’s room. But there was something that this little incident resparked in him; a memory he sought to ignore until now: Just who was Roxanne? From little memories she gave him back, and from what others had told him, they were apparently rather close friends. Then way was he always so hesitant around her? Why did her ideas sound so weird and dangerous? Was that really how he was before the accident? What was Roxanne hiding from him?

All this questions and more lingered as he walked. He had tried his best to ignore this calling to find out more and focus in his life but something just kept nagging at him. “Just who the hell are you Roxanne?”, he whispered to himself. Maybe it was the ridiculousness of the whole ordeal, maybe it was how uneasy he felt around her or maybe how carefree she was about everything all the time. Sure, she had explained and reveal quite a whole lot to him, and they had that deep conversation on how much of a fuckup they both were, but he felt there was more. Whatever it was, right then and there Victor decided he would find out the truth; find out who he was and who Roxanne really is.

Soon enough he reach the door of Roxanne’s room. Walkerville was both busy and seemingly quiet in its own way; sure there was plenty of noise as everyone went around their work but it all felt as if it was background noise, nothing stood out. Victor reached out to knock but before he could a familiar voice spoke up beyond the door. “Come on in, its open.”

“Melody?”, Victor whispered to himself once more. Yes, the first person he meet after losing his memories. Apparently they were on an adventure that had gone wrong and because of it she lost her sight and her his memories. He was her mentor of sorts as well but no lessons had emerged yet. What was she doing in there?

After a single shrug, Victor opened the door to find Roxanne serving coffee to Melody and the person he recognized as Rey; the 6’2” man nodded his way and Victor nodded back. He didn’t know much about Rey and now he had also gave up giving up on explaining why everyone was here.

“Victor! Glad you could make it!”, exclaimed Roxanne.

“Got busy hands I see. Anyone else in here I need to know about? Half the farm is in here...”, Victor joked back. His attempts at humor a way to seem normal and not betray how on edge he was.

Roxanne gave a light laugh and shook her head. “Nope, just us. Now we can start the meeting. Coffee?”

Victor accepted a cup and found a spot to sit  on the bed next to Roxanne. Rey and Melody had grabbed a couple chairs and sat adjacent to them. “Right, so why did you call me here Roxanne?”

“My my, so impatient. Don’t you want to catch up first?”, Roxanne asked almost rhetorically.

Victor gave a deep sigh.“Like I said before, if you just wanted to talk you wouldn’t have invited me under such shady circumstances. You would’ve probably just barged into my room; I know that much about you at least.”

Roxanne smiled and nodded with her eyes close. “Alright, fair enough. Then I guess we shouldn’t waste any more time then.” She put down her now empty cup of coffee. How she was able to drink it so fast or the logistics of how a ghost could enjoy coffee beyond taste, those were things Victor readily avoid thinking about. “Melody, if you will.”

Melody jumped in place as Roxanne called out for her; the entire time she had been nervous and fidgeting to herself seemingly lost in thought. That was quite interesting given the fact she was going to say what this whole thing was about. She cleared her throat, adjusted her blindfold and began to speak.

“Well, it’s hard to explain but I’ll do my best. As you guys know I am the wielder of despair. Because of it a lot of weird stuff has happened to me; I’ve had weird dreams, artifacts appear on me… certain ghosts hit on me…”

“Guilty as charged~”, Roxanne said with a smirk before Melody resumed speaking.

“Anyways, the latest weird thing is what I want to talk about… I’ve been hearing voices.” At this revelation Roxanne perked up; Victor and Rey simply listened on. “They been telling me things about a trial and how I must report to get my score. Something like that… And how I must bring the ‘broken man’ with me…”

“Ok, but what does this have to do with us? You need help getting rid of this voices?”, Victor asked from both impatience and curiosity.

“Well, not exactly…”, Melody continued, “You see. I was discussing this with Roxanne and Rey before you got here Victor and we came to a conclusion.” Melody went silent seemingly leaving the statement unfinished.

“And that is?”

“You are the broken man Victor and Melody here needs you.”, Roxanne blurted out before anyone else had a chance to speak.

“Excuse me?”, Victor asked not sure how to feel about that.

“Roxanne!”, exclaimed Melody rather exasperated.

“What? You weren’t going to say it and it needed to be said. Rey here really has no stake in this so he is going to state quiet and mr.mage here is too dense to figure it out. I did us all a favor.”

Melody stayed quiet for a moment before speaking up again, her words stuttering, “B-but… you didn’t have to be so blunt about.”

“Hold on a moment...”, Victor interjected, “What do you mean by ‘broke man?’”

Roxanne tapped a finger to the side of her head as she spoke, “Your memories. We are our memories after all and given your amnesia...”

“Wait, but wouldn’t that make me a new person then?”

“It would have but… I did give you a portion of them so instead you are on the path to be your old self. So now you are simply a man with a piece of him missing; a broken man… Don’t look at me like that, it was the voices Mel’ here keeps hearing that said that!”

“Don’t put the blame on me like that! That is not fair!”, Melody exclaimed in Roxanne’s direction and Roxanne could swear her eyes were piercing her despite her blindness. For whatever reason this unnerved her so she reached for her wooden mask and put it on; she did so in the same way a someone would hide behind a blanket for comfort. That’s when something unexpected happened that threatened to derail the meeting.

“Huh? Roxanne? Where did you go?” Melody began to turn her head in all directions seemingly looking for Roxanne. Despite not being able to see her eyes behind her blindfold, what was seen revealed her face was full of confusion.

“You have to be kidding me...”, Roxanne whispered to herself smirking a bit. She got up and slowly approached the confused girl; her training in SoA came in handy as she sneaked behind Melody and wrapping her arms around her keeping them an inch from touching. Rey simply facepalmed as he was still here in the promise that his participation on this would grant him souls to feed. Victor meanwhile seemed lost in thought and was paying no mind.

“Roxaaaane, this isn’t funny! Where are you?!”, Melody asked seemingly a bit concerned now.

Roxanne leaned in and whispered in here ear. “Right behind you...” At that Melody jumped in place giving a high-pitched squeak but before she could get away Roxanne wrapped her arms around her; Melody trashed about confused and scared. “Stop! Get away! This isn’t funny!”

“Oh, I can do much worse...”, Eris whispered. Her hands soon started to trail up her body and sought to grope at her chest. Melody’s trashing stopped for a moment as she realized what was going on and promptly resumed; she recalled being a similar situation back when Roxanne was trying to coerce her into giving up Despair. “I am not giving you the sword!”, Melody shouted.

“Nah, we don’t want it anymore...”

Rey tried not to look at the scene in front of him choosing to distract himself by examining Roxanne’s altar closer and trying to ignore Melody’s pleas for her to stop. Victor on the other hand was still lost in thought; something was bothering him but he couldn’t pinpoint what. Was it something in his lost memories? Why did this whole thing feel so wrong? It was as if something was screaming for him to get away but another part, something more primal, insisted they saw this through. In his mind the latter idea prevailed and he resigned himself to at least hearing out what it was they needed him for.

“Alright, I think I get it now. So what do you need me to do?”

Eris looked back at Victor as he spoke and stopped her teasing on Melody who in turned took the opportunity to elbow her in the shoulder so she could get away. “Ow, easy girl. I can feel pain again you know?”

“Yeah, that was the point! Do that again and I will do much worse!”, Melody exclaimed to Roxanne as she sat down back on her chair. She huffed and crossed her arms while still blushing bright; it seemed that the whole ordeal was only a mild annoyance to her. Melody then shifted her would-be gaze at  again. “Well, he asked you a question. What are you waiting for?”

Eris smiled at that as she too took her seat taking off the mask.“Me-ow~ Look who decided to become bossy all of the sudden. But alright, I do guess it is my turn.” She took a deep breath to calm her amusement from her previous actions. Her expression turned serious and so did her words; the meeting was back on track again. “A long time ago Victor, you and I found an abandoned building. It looked like a regular house until we reached a particular room; inside said room it looked like some sort of shrine. In this shrine we performed a certain ritual and ended up angering some sort of wanna-be deity. He place some curse on due to it and we have been recovering from it ever since..”

Victor was about to ask something; Eris preemptively put out her hand to signal him to let her finish. “I’ll get to that; believe, it’s important to me too… Anyways, so here is what Melody told me happened that day. You took her to explore her first location with magical anomalies; you had Luna scout the place before hand and she gave the all clear but of course what the fuck would she know about properly sweeping an anomalous place? The two of you go in and loot the place then find a mysterious room. Once inside she finds Despair on the ground after apparently Luna lost it to some fuckboy that defeated her in combat. She takes the sword and the place is swarmed by shadows. The two of you fight and some wannabe all powerful deity shows up, gives you a lecture and curses the two of you. Does this sound familiar?”

Eris stops talking so Victor could process this; it didn’t take him long and he nods in understanding. “Ok, so that explains why I am needed and what this thing is I suppose. Melody here said the voices told her to report back with me. So we go and meet this asshole and get the curse over with?”, Victor asks.

This prompted laughter from Eris. “Oh Vic’, if it only were that easy. See, none of us know where you two went even is. Besides. This is a trail, the spirit there has to judge you and see if you have passed his bullshit test.”

“Than what the hell are we doing here? I am getting really impatient, get to the point already!”

“Woah! Calm down there… Jeez, I’ve only seen you like this back wh… never mind that. I am getting there ok?” Indeed Victor seemed a bit agitated and Eris could guess why but she didn’t know the full story. Melody was a bit confused herself but still following along. Rey on the other hand was enjoying this comparing the mistakes of Eris and Victor to his and Luna’s. After another series of deep breaths Eris continued.

“Sometime in our travels together after the cataclysm, before we meet anyone else… before a certain incident… We found another one of these shrines. At that point we knew better than to mess with them so we simply took steps to make sure no one would ever find it and we simply left. It is still there you know? And I know how to get there.” She smirke a bit as the realization of this hit Victor. “You are thinking right. I propose taking you there and getting this over with. I have experience with this you know? I can make sure we do this right and safely; find out about the curse plaguing your mind and Melody’s sight and hopefully end it.”

Silence took the room as everyone pondered their own thoughts. Victor looked around and all attention was focused on him. “What about you Melody, are you down for this?”

She nodded. “This was my idea in the first place, Eris here was the one who came up with the plan. It is a literal calling! I want to do this Victor, please?”

He then looked back at Eris who simply smiled; it was a sincere smile, something he deep down knew was rare. She spoke up before he could. “Don’t you want to know who you are? Who I am? What this all means? Our curse? I want to talk to you about it Victor, a conversation we needed to have had years ago… but for that I need you back...”

“I don’t know… are we even ready to face trial to this thing?”

“One way to find out right? Please? Listen… I can’t believe I am saying this but… I am asking you as a friend. I know you don’t truly know me but you will, I promise. Just this once, trust me ok?”

Those words, they resonated with him a bit. Inside of him what seemed like every alarm bell in his body going off. What appeared to be a seething hatred welled up urging him to take up arms and strike her down. However, there was a third feeling, one he didn’t want to even acknowledge but that was present; one that told him he could trust her and to this feeling he clinged on.

“I don’t know… give me an hour ok? Just need to think about...”

“Alright, I can respect that...”

An hour passed, and then another. Finally the meeting ended and Melody opened the door. She and Rey stepped outside wandering off together seemingly having struck a conversation. They didn’t bother saying their goodbyes the Roxanne or Victor simply wandering off to the next adventure. The sight of the 5’4”young woman with the 6’2” man was quite amusing to Roxanne. As they walked he materialized a sword and handed it to her in turn handing Despair to him.

Victor exited the room soon after them giving a deep sigh; his shoulders were slumped and he walked seemingly defeated. Roxanne patted him on the back which straightened him up. He looked back at her before she spoke. “You did the right thing Victor, you’ll see.”

“And how the hell am I going to explain this to Helen?”, Victor answered back

“Just tell her the truth and everything will fall into place. I too will have to let Hector know about this… We’ll see who has more luck in that department.. Anyways, safe travels and see you tomorrow if not sooner.”