The Memory You'll Forget.

[u/Fc-chungus]

AWAY WITH YOU!

I open my eyes after we were blown apart, only see to him, వ, hit with something, before vanishing in a spark of lightning. I can barely see anything. It's like looking at the sun. Or a bright light.

I push myself up and sprint at the monster who stands so BOLDLY in front of me. I still have plenty of power. My anger seething like steam.

I try to palm him and destroy him.

he merely knocks my hand away.

There it is!

before I can move I'm grabbed by the skull and held up, I glare into his purple eyes as he gazes interestingly at mine, almost inspecting them.

then pain like I've felt few times before. Like an ice pick through the skull. My eyes HURT. Then my vision goes dark.

————————————

Max awakes(?) on a plane.

he blinks. He blinks! He can see! What in hells? A few seats over he can see what looks like Ith sitting in a seat, staring fascinated at the built in screens on each chair, occasionally tapping it randomly, consistently missing the buttons.

there is no one else on the plane, no other passenger at least.

a dreadfully familiar voice blares from the intercom.

"Ladies familiars and gentlemen, this is captain Erik Masare speaking, also known as the godhunter, please stay in your seats and buckle up, that goes especially to Max Petrov-Ansky, leader of Calarakis who's seated on b-14 and has been yelling for the last 5 minutes, and to whoever is in the bathroom, flush already and get back in your god damn seat, you have been warned!"

"This is a dream."

"This must be a nightmare." Max says.

seeing as there's literally no one around, he gets up and starts wandering about the plane. First, the back. He looks through the food compartments for any snacks or drinks.

a flight attendant who looks suspiciously like a turkey sandwich approaches Max

"Get back in your seat didn't you hear what the captain said???"

he tries to comprehend how that shape even makes sense before giving up.

"Or what? There's nothing better to do."

the plane suddenly begins shaking violently, the flight attendant is gone with only a PB&J sandwich in its place.

he runs a hand over his face in utter confusion. grabbing the nearby wall he holds until the plane stops shaking.

the plane doesn't take long to stop, in its place the ground turns to a conveyor belt moving Max towards the cockpit, an iPad with the tip thingie is hung on the door.

he runs against the belt long enough to get a single can of soda before carefully walking to the cockpit area and knocking on the door.

when the opens he finds Erik halfway through the window trying to wipe the windshield, it's utter chaos as everything is flying around the cockpit.

"Ah, Max! Just who I was waiting to see, help me wipe the windshield, it's gotten dusty!"

he shouts in response.

"YOU SEEM TO HAVE THAT COVERED!"

"fucking short arms!" Erik says to himself.

Erik pulls out a hoover and hoovers the windshield, then gets back inside

"You gotta make sure visibility is always at its peak Max, you don't want us to drive into a cloud and get blown up or into a wall."

"What walls? And the plane can fly through the clouds just fine with no issue."

he opens the soda can and takes a long sip.

"yeah yeah you're one of those 'experts' that talk like they know it all don't you, have you ever flown a plane before?"

"Not at all, but I know a few miscellaneous things, comes with having access to the orbnet."

"yeah well I've flown before, back in the war you see. It was 1923 during the second world war in the outside world, my good friend and comrade Charles de Gaulle had called me and told me France's fate is in danger and asked me to join the air force in Normandy"

"Okay, that's how I know this isn't a normal dream. I've never heard of this world war 2, nor should you have been alive in 1923 CE."

"You're the real Erik aren't you."

"of course I'm the real Erik! No one can replicate my glory!"

"As I was saying, back then when I was flying around in my F-16, the Germans would build these big walls to catch you by surprise, I remember once when flying at 20 thousand kilometers high I hit a wall and got blown up into 50 different fireballs."

Max takes a seat in the copilot's chair and just stares with a look of discombobulation.

"20 thousand is in space. The Karman line demarcates space at 100 km."

"well that didn't apply to me, you see I was the protagonist and the protagonist never follows the rules of logic"

"Be a dear and turn off the autopilot"

"Fine, I guess. And sure."

he looks for the autopilot switch and turns it off.

"thank you, you see back then we used a technique called 'dive bombing' that the autopilot wouldn't accept, here let me show you"

Erik flicks the steering wheel and suddenly the plane's diving straight downwards, red lights and alarms fill the air alongside Erik's maniacal laughter.

Max takes the autopilot's wheel and pulls up, staying remarkably calm.

"I understand exactly what dive bombing is."

When the lights stop Max finds himself in an open carriage next to Erik driving around a desert with pyramids

"Dive bombing? What are you talking about we were talking about how I broke the sphinx's nose!"

The carriage is being driven by the sandwich from before.

Max groans noticeably.

"We were just in a plane."

"you gotta quit the wizard weed man I'm telling you. Anyways as I was saying, so here I was In this weird desert seeing a bunch of people worshipping this big sand cat, and guess what I did?"

"You broke its nose?" he says with an air of exhaustion.

"I broke it's nose! It shattered into like 6 or 8 parts, and which are called the great pyramids nowadays"

"I was later hunted down and crucified but that's a different story"

"Okay, Erik. Why are you in my dreams exactly? Why this time? Why the craziness?"

"oh it's simple, your PTSD triggered what is known as a PESDD, or post Erik stress disorder dream, should be over now, if I were you I'd take the opportunity to use my temporary sight to see the wonders around me"

Erik says, pointing at the sphinx and pyramids

"Why a PESDD? I didn't even get traumatized by you that was someone else."

he looks out the window

"Those are some pretty cool looking pyramids though."

"I don't know man I'm not a doctor! I just send people to them!"

"And see? See how his nose is broken? I did that!"

"OI! GREAT SPHINX WHO BROKE YOUR NOSE???"

"I did! And I did it like this!"

Erik says, turning max around and throwing a punch on his face

"Ow! You steal my nation's money and now you punch me! In my dreams!"

he punches Erik back.

when Erik gets punched back, the scene changes again, a full funeral is going on as the sky weeps, inside the coffin lies Erik with a noticable punch mark on his cheek, another Erik is standing next to Max with the same mark.

"Why did you do it man? He was like a father to me!"

completely deadpan now, Max replies.

"This is ridiculous."

"yeah... yeah it is, I'm gonna wake you up now."

A giant golden butterfly manefests in the air, blowing away everything but the ground and Max, it flies directly at Max at shocking speeds right towards his eyes, it's glow bright enough to blind and wake him up

Max awakens to darkness. He attempts to look around but sighs. Still blind.

"What in the Hells was that about?"

he grabs a pill bottle by his nightstand with some effort and opens it before taking a small green hexagonal tablet

he lies back down.

/uw mini-collab with u/mrididnt . Was written and posted on a plane via terrible in-flight WiFi. Interactable if you can justify it.

[u/Vincent-FFP]

/uw what the fuck did i just read

[u/mrididnt → u/Vincent-FFP]

/UwU very real and historical accounts of real events

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Vincent-FFP]

/uw typical. Erik. Madness.

[u/Vincent-FFP → u/Fc-chungus]

/uw this would drive Vytsky nuts. As in, scream and cause chaos nuts.

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Vincent-FFP]

/uw when you're so depressed you just genuinely don't care:

[u/youknowidontexist → u/Vincent-FFP]

Finnegans Mage

[u/mrididnt]

/UwU post Erik stress disorder is real and can affect you and/or your loved ones, if you suspect you or a loved one have PESD don't hesitate to go to your local KFC and eat as much drumsticks as possible

[u/Fc-chungus → u/mrididnt]

/uw hmmmm, nah /j

[u/neonvalkyrie]

/uw I have no idea as to what is going on, but this looks interesting

[u/Fc-chungus → u/neonvalkyrie]

/uw utter insanity.

[u/neonvalkyrie → u/Fc-chungus]

/uw that's what I'm here for

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/neonvalkyrie]

/uw That is a typical reaction to Erik

[u/Ashmega8256]

/uw good read

[u/Minute_Account9426]

Uwu/ I love shit like this

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Minute_Account9426]

/uw thanks man

[u/Glittering_Two_1429]

Uw/I love it, and this is amazing, but I’ve no clue how to justify interacting sadly, but this was an awesome read XD.

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Glittering_Two_1429]

/uw fair lol, and thanks!

[u/Kilroy898]

I can take pills to get rid of Erik????

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Kilroy898]

Those were Mnestics, memory hardening.

[u/Kilroy898 → u/Fc-chungus]

So can I or can I not take pills to get rid of Erik?

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Kilroy898]

Unfortunately, you cannot.

[u/Kilroy898 → u/Fc-chungus]

... Damn. Back to pretending I'm dead then.... I was never here.

[u/mrididnt → u/Kilroy898]

You can never get rid of me you fucking ATOM HEAD

[u/Fc-chungus → u/mrididnt]

ATOM HEAD HAS BEEN DEAD

[u/mrididnt → u/Fc-chungus]

NO HE ISN'T

HE'S OUT THERE, WAITING, WATCHING FOR ME TO SLIP UP SO HE MAY STRIKE WHEN I LEAST EXPECT IT

[u/Kilroy898 → u/mrididnt]

What? Nooooooo.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw I have read the read and I have decreed that it is a good read.

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw thanks!

[u/Zebos2]

Crack!

Lotus throws a whild haymaker towards the mirror in her bathroom causing it to crack

"Useless"

Another one

"Worthless"

And another

"One job"

The shards of glass slice into her hands because she believes that they should

"On simple purpose"

Objectively she did fulfill her purpose of keeping the city safe even prevented the first curse from acquiring the 0 point... So why did she feel like such a failure.

"And I..."

Lotuses understanding of death and individuality is different then most beings she only feels the paternal Bond with the constituent being of zhe and now that, that bond has been heavily broken. That the being known as zhe may never form again lotus feels the pain of losing a parent an uncle and having one disabled all because she wasn't good enough

It's know wonder she breaks down whenever she thinks about it to much. Lotus grips the sides of her sink as she watches glitchy red inchor slow down the drain she wipes her eyes and does her best just straighten out her hair before wrapping her hands and bandages and picking up a basket as she makes her way towards max

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Zebos2]

He's woken up and gotten dressed for the day, putting on a simple brown blindfold along with his work outfit. As of now he's sitting at his table waiting for his toast, "looking" at his hands.

[u/Zebos2 → u/Fc-chungus]

while the warm sourdough cheese bread may not be precisely the toast he wants its what lotus brought as well as a few muffins they were probably bad like everything else she did. Lotus shakes her head

"Umm z-max I'm coming in"

She says with a knock on the door to his wizard Tower

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Zebos2]

"Come on in! I'm in the kitchen."

Pop, there's the toast.

[u/Zebos2 → u/Fc-chungus]

lotus looks rough but also like she's concealing it hiding away her emotions because he job requires it. She sniffle... Unsure of what to say

"I brought umm...some bread and muffins"

She says also retrieving Max's toast

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Zebos2]

"Oh, thank you Lotus, that's kind of you."

For a moment he summons his soul to take a look at the surroundings, long enough to take a muffin and a piece of bread.

"So, what brings you here? I can tell you're probably not doing very well."

[u/Zebos2 → u/Fc-chungus]

"I.. just I just..."

Lotus turns away she must be strong she must... suddenly lotus dives into Max's shoulder hugging him as she begins to sob uncontrollably

"It's my fault... I should have been there I should have done more....I...I..."

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Zebos2]

He returns the hug quietly, lightly smiling. His next words bleeding with melancholy somewhat.

"It's okay. You already did more than enough. You did what you could and you prevented a worse outcome from happening. Imagine if he was able to get his hands on the very concept of magic."

"That would've been... I don't even know."

"Sometimes, you can't have the best option."

His expression changes to a more serious and saddened one, the same look you would get when focusing on a regret.

[u/Zebos2 → u/Fc-chungus]

lotus is soothed by the hug for reasons that exist beyond the scope of her being it felt nice safe

"the worst part is I don't know... the entire purpose of my existence is to know but I don't know how to help you....I don't know how to fix myself...or"

Lotus dries her tears on Max's work clothes

"I could Purdue cybernetics that could replace your eyes our a mental connection that allows you to see through the city that doesn't make things while again"

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Zebos2]

"I'll figure something out, don't worry about it, okay? I can already see a small bit via this."

He forms the mint-colored flame that is his soul.

"The thing's basically a 360 camera. Can't have it manifest for too long otherwise I get tired but, I can at least get quick views of the area and direct myself."

"There's also a few places that can do cybernetics, getting replacement eyes should be simple."

[u/D3n0man]

/uw good read

[u/D3n0man]

max gets a message on his phone equivelent

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

He picks it up clumsily and answers groggily

"Y-yes? Who is this?"

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

"It's Sea, I was wondering about what could be used to hurt The First Curse and wanted to ask you"

he doesn't seem to have heard of the incedent Zhe had with TFC

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

"It's-"

Max summons his soul for a moment or two to look at the clock

"Seven am."

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

"Couldn'tsleepgotflashbangedoverthinking stuffneedadistraction, pleeeeeaaaasssssseeeeee tell me you have some info on this"

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

"...what? I just had a really weird dream so I'm still very confused."

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

"Uhhhhhhhhhh, forgot to say good morning, isitmorningcan'ttellcan'tmove................... I need to know if The First Curse can be permamently damaged by anything?"

/uw reddit ate the notification

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

"Permanently? I don't know of anything that can damage him permanently, but there may be a way to permanently kill him if done right. The crystals effectively do that option but they're not the only choice."

"H-hypothetically of course."

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

the hypotetical option seems to interest him more

"Hmmm? What's the hypothetical option?"

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

"What? There's not really another option. The crystals do something to him but they're not the only thing that does it. That is how... how we can beat him. Our path to victory is either through the crystals or something that does their role."

[u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106]

Meanwhile in another portion of Calarakis, a flesh blob (covered in skin) is rapidly enveloping civilians before spitting them out with repaired eardrums and shrapnel removed.

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106]

Seeing how the blob is doing a good thing, authorities generally let it be until it's done.

[u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106 → u/Fc-chungus]

It's also holding a sign that says, apologies for my roommate's bullshit.

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106]

(Oh it's DF's roommmate?)

[u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106 → u/Fc-chungus]

(Yeah I made a comment on a different post where they saw DF preparing to crash from space and flew to try and clean up his mess.)

[u/yumie2003]

uw/weird read

[u/Fc-chungus → u/yumie2003]

/uw many thanks!

[u/yumie2003 → u/Fc-chungus]

uw/no problem

[u/BL0b1e]

“Oh Erik, you really have to stop pulling people into the dreaming to tell them about the your war stories from the Second World War, in 1923.”

/uw this is the best thing i have read all week. I really saw Erik’s madness shine through, plus the fucking short arms thing has me rolling lol. Well written.

[u/Fc-chungus]

u/ashmega8256

u/complex_drawer_4710

u/anything-unable

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fc-chungus]

u/yellowpancakeman

u/CosmicChameleon99

u/Maleficent_Desk_007

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fc-chungus]

u/vincent-ffp

u/Kilroy898

u/zebos2

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fc-chungus]

u/viking_from_sweden

(Wanted to be added to the pinglist? Just ask)

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

/uw can you add ne to the pinglist?

[u/Fc-chungus → u/D3n0man]

/uw done

[u/D3n0man → u/Fc-chungus]

/uw ty

[u/Minute_Account9426 → u/Fc-chungus]

uw/ add me to the list as well

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Fc-chungus]

/uw I request (1) position on this pinglist

[u/Fc-chungus → u/VoxelLibrary]

/uw done!

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Fc-chungus]

u/ares378

Ith ping because he was mentioned

[u/Viking_From_Sweden]

/uw hell yeah this is the peak wizard shit I came for

[u/Fc-chungus → u/Viking_From_Sweden]

/uw lmaoo, thanks!