10-15-2017, 05:22 PM
Too much.
Minds merged, shifted, sorted, shared. Knowledge. Information. Power. Everything.
And then it was gone.
Split, separated, reconstructed.
Dane could hardly have been called himself in that joint state, yet upon his exit, and the time shortly after, he clawed. Leaving was a necessity, but that didn't mean he couldn't bring something else out with him. Others may solely focus on reclaiming themselves, but Dane was greedy. So what if he forgot how to cook spaghetti? He was confident enough to fill in the gaps, and if someone was lost for good then it couldn't have been that important. He forgot most things at the end of the day, anyway. Why should this be any different?
Striving to make the most of the circumstances, Dane pulled together all he could, replicating it, filling his brain to the brim. A clump here, a fragment there, little glints of information that caught his mind's eye in addition to those accidentally slotted within his prior knowledge during the reformation of his mind.
He hated it.
It was cheating.
He didn't discover this himself.
It wasn't his knowledge.
Nor did he learn it, go through the fun road to understanding.
No, he just took it.
For the first moment in a long time, Dane was angry. Fueled by entirely arbitrary and irrational reasons, he despised his choice, and he hated Tearen for pushing his mind into that. Dane's brain was his sanctuary, an impenetrable place. Yet this was the second, perhaps third, occasion someone had manipulated it without his blessing, although one of those was potentially of his own accord, the other two were breaches by Tearen.
He had to get better.
And in a strange way, through a headache, anger, and swirling thoughts in his mind, he felt good. A motive. It had been a while since he'd had one of those. Sure, developing actual magical ability would be nice, but he'd long since come to terms with his mana deficiency. Although reaching the conclusion of the research he'd started over a week ago would be nice, it probably wouldn't be groundbreaking.
But first.
Think.
Trains of thought swarmed Dane's mind. It was like trying to juggle a liquid with a tennis racket.
Think. What can you use?
What do you need?
What do you want?
More magic, no. He didn't care for that. It would either be unusable to part of his existing knowledge.
Wrong.
Just because he couldn't use it, didn't mean he couldn't rework its principles to create something else. Something new.
Prioritise.
Destruction. Raw power. He grabbed the knowledge. He was lacking in that department.
Think.
Subterfuge. An area he was familiar with. Copying, pretending. He filed it away for later.
What would be useful? What did you come here to know? Think.
I have no need to.
Why?
He wants us to know. Sparing effort to fight for it is pointless.
Dane left Tearen's knowledge alone, ignoring it as he sifted through the ever decreasing information at the forefront of his mind, going back to work, filing away some of what he worked to bring back while the rest melted away into oblivion.
He pushed himself to his feet, staggering as the black spots cleared from his vision, blood rushing through his body. Glaring at Tearen's prior location, he shrugged before looking about the room. The other primes were mostly doing the same. He wasn't the first to compose himself, nor was he the last.
Dane was at his limit. With a biological brain came limitations to memory space, read speed, and write speed. As fast as he was at thinking, perhaps even with slight passive magical assistance, there was only so much he could take on. In the long run, he mused, it wouldn't matter. He was immortal here, to his knowledge. All the time in the world to discover stuff himself. Yet, at least, this could serve as inspiration.
He had an explanation, of sorts, for what Tearen did - and he was sure the god-mind would tell him it was false. That he was wrong. Not that Tearen could prove his claim, at least sufficiently for Dane to believe it.
There was actually a name for it in the mythology of Dane's world, psionics. Either its own discipline or a long lost branch of magic - in this case, it was the former. Essentially, manipulation with, on, and using the mind.
And what did Tearen do?
Put everyone's minds together.
It wasn't omniscience.
It wasn't omnipotence.
It wasn't god.
Dane refused. It was a stupid idea, he decided.
Yet, the connection did seem like all those things.
But that was only logical.
Why?
Experiencing the true capabilities of multiple minds, bodies, and powers working together in fullest. No resources spared. Like a singularity when compared to less dense matter. When contrasted with everyday feelings and tasks, it was only natural that it would seem like 'god'.
Dane had the feeling his teacher would be disappointed to hear him say that. Perhaps say his mind was too static, in denial. He didn't care, if someone wanted his opinions or conclusions to change, they needed to bring proof, logical reasoning, deductions or evidence.
What was more likely? Tearen possessed an ability that worked proportionally to willpower, and had taken to calling it 'god'? Or that it actually was a god in every sense of the word, at least when fully manifested.
Obviously, the former, at least to Dane.
Anyway, he was fairly sure he was proficient with using at least some of it, and even before Tearen mashed everyone together, he'd accidentally used some of it. It irked him that, even with this experience, he still viewed the power more akin to cause and effect. If he did X, Y would happen. All concepts broke down to that eventually. The laws of the universe. Mathematics had similar things, although those were always correct regardless of what universe they were in.
And he was going on tangents again.
The real question was what he planned to do next. Head back to Camelot, stick around with the others, or do something else.
Give it five minutes.
A short wait. He could think more on the way, but maybe if he stayed he'd get to test out some things. Practice makes perfect, after all.
He glanced around the area, stepping back to the side. Perhaps he'd wait for Malon, or Maru as she went by currently. Allies were useful, and, as far as the present company went, besides the new guy, he didn't much care for them. Not that he knew anything about the new dude - just that he didn't seem angry and he wasn't a little girl, like the other new member.
That was probably why he didn't have many friends.
He shrugged, forcing himself to take on natural mannerisms.
Casual.
Insignificant.
By his standards, he was probably the most 'normal' of the group. It was hard to blend into a crowd when there were so few people. But he definitely wasn't at the front.
Minds merged, shifted, sorted, shared. Knowledge. Information. Power. Everything.
And then it was gone.
Split, separated, reconstructed.
Dane could hardly have been called himself in that joint state, yet upon his exit, and the time shortly after, he clawed. Leaving was a necessity, but that didn't mean he couldn't bring something else out with him. Others may solely focus on reclaiming themselves, but Dane was greedy. So what if he forgot how to cook spaghetti? He was confident enough to fill in the gaps, and if someone was lost for good then it couldn't have been that important. He forgot most things at the end of the day, anyway. Why should this be any different?
Striving to make the most of the circumstances, Dane pulled together all he could, replicating it, filling his brain to the brim. A clump here, a fragment there, little glints of information that caught his mind's eye in addition to those accidentally slotted within his prior knowledge during the reformation of his mind.
He hated it.
It was cheating.
He didn't discover this himself.
It wasn't his knowledge.
Nor did he learn it, go through the fun road to understanding.
No, he just took it.
For the first moment in a long time, Dane was angry. Fueled by entirely arbitrary and irrational reasons, he despised his choice, and he hated Tearen for pushing his mind into that. Dane's brain was his sanctuary, an impenetrable place. Yet this was the second, perhaps third, occasion someone had manipulated it without his blessing, although one of those was potentially of his own accord, the other two were breaches by Tearen.
He had to get better.
And in a strange way, through a headache, anger, and swirling thoughts in his mind, he felt good. A motive. It had been a while since he'd had one of those. Sure, developing actual magical ability would be nice, but he'd long since come to terms with his mana deficiency. Although reaching the conclusion of the research he'd started over a week ago would be nice, it probably wouldn't be groundbreaking.
But first.
Think.
Trains of thought swarmed Dane's mind. It was like trying to juggle a liquid with a tennis racket.
Think. What can you use?
What do you need?
What do you want?
More magic, no. He didn't care for that. It would either be unusable to part of his existing knowledge.
Wrong.
Just because he couldn't use it, didn't mean he couldn't rework its principles to create something else. Something new.
Prioritise.
Destruction. Raw power. He grabbed the knowledge. He was lacking in that department.
Think.
Subterfuge. An area he was familiar with. Copying, pretending. He filed it away for later.
What would be useful? What did you come here to know? Think.
I have no need to.
Why?
He wants us to know. Sparing effort to fight for it is pointless.
Dane left Tearen's knowledge alone, ignoring it as he sifted through the ever decreasing information at the forefront of his mind, going back to work, filing away some of what he worked to bring back while the rest melted away into oblivion.
He pushed himself to his feet, staggering as the black spots cleared from his vision, blood rushing through his body. Glaring at Tearen's prior location, he shrugged before looking about the room. The other primes were mostly doing the same. He wasn't the first to compose himself, nor was he the last.
Dane was at his limit. With a biological brain came limitations to memory space, read speed, and write speed. As fast as he was at thinking, perhaps even with slight passive magical assistance, there was only so much he could take on. In the long run, he mused, it wouldn't matter. He was immortal here, to his knowledge. All the time in the world to discover stuff himself. Yet, at least, this could serve as inspiration.
He had an explanation, of sorts, for what Tearen did - and he was sure the god-mind would tell him it was false. That he was wrong. Not that Tearen could prove his claim, at least sufficiently for Dane to believe it.
There was actually a name for it in the mythology of Dane's world, psionics. Either its own discipline or a long lost branch of magic - in this case, it was the former. Essentially, manipulation with, on, and using the mind.
And what did Tearen do?
Put everyone's minds together.
It wasn't omniscience.
It wasn't omnipotence.
It wasn't god.
Dane refused. It was a stupid idea, he decided.
Yet, the connection did seem like all those things.
But that was only logical.
Why?
Experiencing the true capabilities of multiple minds, bodies, and powers working together in fullest. No resources spared. Like a singularity when compared to less dense matter. When contrasted with everyday feelings and tasks, it was only natural that it would seem like 'god'.
Dane had the feeling his teacher would be disappointed to hear him say that. Perhaps say his mind was too static, in denial. He didn't care, if someone wanted his opinions or conclusions to change, they needed to bring proof, logical reasoning, deductions or evidence.
What was more likely? Tearen possessed an ability that worked proportionally to willpower, and had taken to calling it 'god'? Or that it actually was a god in every sense of the word, at least when fully manifested.
Obviously, the former, at least to Dane.
Anyway, he was fairly sure he was proficient with using at least some of it, and even before Tearen mashed everyone together, he'd accidentally used some of it. It irked him that, even with this experience, he still viewed the power more akin to cause and effect. If he did X, Y would happen. All concepts broke down to that eventually. The laws of the universe. Mathematics had similar things, although those were always correct regardless of what universe they were in.
And he was going on tangents again.
The real question was what he planned to do next. Head back to Camelot, stick around with the others, or do something else.
Give it five minutes.
A short wait. He could think more on the way, but maybe if he stayed he'd get to test out some things. Practice makes perfect, after all.
He glanced around the area, stepping back to the side. Perhaps he'd wait for Malon, or Maru as she went by currently. Allies were useful, and, as far as the present company went, besides the new guy, he didn't much care for them. Not that he knew anything about the new dude - just that he didn't seem angry and he wasn't a little girl, like the other new member.
That was probably why he didn't have many friends.
He shrugged, forcing himself to take on natural mannerisms.
Casual.
Insignificant.
By his standards, he was probably the most 'normal' of the group. It was hard to blend into a crowd when there were so few people. But he definitely wasn't at the front.
Quote:Take anything you want from Dane's current. I don't mind. Although, with regards to memories and stuff, most are probably going to have a highly objective outlook. And I'd rather you don't learn loads, and more of a general outline. PM me if you're unsure, I guess.