What is real? Is reality only my perception? If I do not know something does it still exist? - Questions that cannot be answered without assuming the answer

Adrian

One can only cry so much, my friend is dead because I went to help fight. If I had stayed near the food court I would have caught the two goblins that snuck through. Some leader I am, getting my friends killed just so I could fight some of these smelly bastards. Maybe this is why people drink when their life sucks. Alcohol makes you not care, that won’t help though.

My tears have dried, I have no more tears left today. I’ll spend tomorrow digging a hole for Tomas, the yard of some house nearby will have to do. I’m going to kill any thing that threatens my friends, I’m not going to let another die.

After a while Abagail walks up and stands overlooking the entrance to the store. Its been a few hours I guess my watch is over. I walk over to where the sleeping bags have been laid down, I see Jason roll over on the floor. Worthless bastard, if he was awake he could have guarded the food court when I fought outside.

After a few minutes my fatigue claims me and I drift to sleep.

I am in a grey void again. This dream space thing again.

“Show me a character sheet of myself.” I may as well see if anything changed. Nothing happens, why didn’t that work? It worked last time, speak to converse.

A thought pops into my mind, this void resets to a default each time. That’s stupid it should hold whatever settings you left it on. Lets see, it can only hear questions in my thoughts. Will you resume the settings present at the end of my last visit here?

[Yes]

“Great show me the character sheet of myself again, display any changes that occurred separately.”

[Gain: Fight 5 (+25SP, +1 Attribute), DK: V 3 (+10SP, +50EP), Evasion 2 (+2SP), Sword 1 (+1SP), Dagger 1 (+1SP), Kill: Multiple Tainted Creature (+15EP)]

[

Adrian Human male, STR 14 DEX 17, CON 13, INT 18, WIS 17, CHA 15, APR 16

Class: Fight 5, Magus 2, DK: V 3, STAT (+1)

Age 17 HP: 106 MP: 18 EP70 SP114

Skills: Ranged 2, Firearms 2, Archery 1, Melee 2, Sword 1, Dagger 1,

Perception 2, Evasion 2

Arcana 7, Nature 5, Physics 4, Mathematics 5, Religion 2, Tactics 3, Technology 2, Chemistry 3, Planes 3,

Handle Animal 2, Empathy 2

Drive 3, Computers 3,

Cooking 3, Sewing 2, Leatherwork 1, Drawing 2, Carving 2,

Traits: Perfect Recall, Free Multiclassing, Party Leader, Reality Weaver,

Language: English, Spanish, Portuguese,

Magic: Arcane Might 3,

Space 2, Fate 1, Life 2, Death 1, Mind 1, Primal 1, Soul 0, Planar 0, Time 1

Matter: Manipulation 1, Telekinetic 0 Energy: Fire 2, Lightning 2, Light 1, Darkness 0,

]

Well, the sheet is somewhat better. I need to learn to heal more but that’ll cost too much. I gained the fighter class? I feel the answer of yes pop into my mind. Stupid realm, answering rhetorical questions.

“What is DK:V?”

[Dragon Knight Void variant.]

“Why do I have that?”

[One of your ancestors was one. The class is hereditary.]

“What is it about?”

[Waking up the power of the dragon inside of you.]

“Which entails?”

[You will become more draconic until you awaken the ability to shift between the two forms.]

That sounds good, void dragon. I haven’t read about those in any of my games or books.

“I assume Magus is the type of mage I am.”

[No, but it is the closest to what you are. We do not know a better name to call it.]

“Show me what I can afford with my EP”

[

Darkvision 30 Infravision 30 Keen Senses 15

BlindSense 50 ManaSight 75 Echolocation 40

[]Sense 45

Inc STAT (+2) 10M [Elem] Infusion 50 [Elem] Touched 50

Draconic 75 Winged 75 []Breathing 50

Demonic 75 Celestial 75 Scales 30

BreathWeap 50 Mana Infusion 75

[Special] Infusion 75 [Special] Touched 75

]

“I only have 70, why are you showing options that cost 75?”

[Your skill in Life makes it easier for you to strengthen, you do not need to pay the full cost.]

“How much is this discount?”

[You are about 5% easier to change.]

“I am assuming that I need to take draconic choses to continue in the Dragon Knight stuff.”

[Affirmative]

“Then I’ll take the Draconic option.”

[You only have the option of void, as you are already part of that lineage. Are you ok with that?]

“Sure” even if I’ve never heard of them I doubt that any dragon type is overly weak. Well except for maybe white. “What do the different types change?”

[The secondary abilities that will become available afterwards. It also affects the restrictions on other paths that could have been taken.]

Ok, makes sense. I guess then red dragons couldn’t grab some sort of cold option. What is the opposite of void? Hmm, no answer appeared whatever this realm is does not know. I don’t have enough SP to raise Life further. So, I can’t advance healing further, what should I get?

[Gaining a language is always good. If you are struggling in a fight perhaps a combat skill with a weapon or Death.]

“What is the language those three were speaking to me in?”

[Elvish]

“I’ll take Elvish and . . . Death then”

[What aspect do you want to use the Attribute point?]

“Constitution”

[There is no more we can help you with. We will stay connected to assimilate knowledge as you dream.]

The grey void blurs, how can it do that? There aren’t any objects to blur. I fall unconscious.

I find myself sitting in a chair. How did I get here? I try to get up but I’m tied to the chair? No there are no ropes I look down; my left leg is broken. When did that happen? The room brightens, it’s a stone cellar.

A door opens behind me. Someone walks in.

“Don’t worry Adrian, I saved everyone’s lives.”

I recognize that voice, “Tomas?”

“Yes, what were you thinking trying to blow up cars in the middle of the street! Do you even know what is going on?”

“Monsters, goblins showed up at school. We had to kill them to live. Then that giant . . .”

“Dammit Adrian, stop acting nuts. You know better than that. The only reason why you’re here is that I can’t believe that you killed so many people at school.”

“What I didn’t kill anyone at school. I killed some goblins, the goblins killed others.”

“Is that what you think elementary students are now? Goblins? Those aren’t real! Dammit you really did fry you mind with games didn’t you.”

“No, I’m not crazy. I’ve always known some magic grandpa taught me.”

“Not again, no you don’t know magic. Your grandpa’s a drug addict remember. Cut this bushtit and accept what is really happening.”

Am I mad? No, my thoughts are still clear. The decisions I mad had to be made.

“You don’t think that goblins and orcs walking around is being crazy?”

That does seem to be a good point. Why did I accept the goblins charging into the school as real? Is magic just a hallucination from my grandpa’s pipe? No, magic is how I go the gun past the metal detectors. It has to be real, but does that mean the rest of what is going on is real?

“Finally thinking about whether you are sane or not? Good, maybe now you can tell me what happened. Everyone at the school that was there today was shot. Cameras show you walking around with a drawn gun in the building. What happened?”

“Midgets attacked, they started to kill people.”

“The only corpses of midgets there were elementary students. That can’t be true.”

“I saw midgets attacking, I defended myself from them. Then I left, with you Bryan, Abagail and some jock. There was someone in the streets smashing cars, he charged at us so I blew up our cars to kill him. How come you don’t have any burns? Or your broken leg?”

“I wasn’t there, you ran your car into a dump truck and then started shooting at the two. You got caught in the explosion. Also, Bryan and I were sick that day, we weren’t there.”

“That can’t be right Bryan’s car broke the giant’s leg. That how I got it caught in the explosion.”

“Dammit you are mad. I kept telling the cops there is no way you could have done those things. I’m sorry.”

A light turns on inside one of the walls, no a room on the other side of a wall. I can now see two men, a cop and a man in a suit looking into this room. I’m in a police interrogation room? How did this happen? Did I go nuts, grandpa said that magic can make you go crazy? Or is this all a trip gone terribly bad? No, I’ve never taken any drugs. Grandpa smokes, but I stay away when he does that.

The door opens again, an officer walks in. “Adrian Ravnos, you are being charged with four hundred and seventy five counts of murder.” The officer uncuffs my legs from the chair. They weren’t broken? They were cuffed, how did I not know the difference? I am cuffed and dragged out of the room and thrown into a jail cell.

“In a few hours you will be brought before a judge, and tried for your murders.”

“I’m entitled to a lawyer. I want to see one.”

“Every lawyer in town knew some of the children you murdered. They all refused, while you were unconscious some judges decided that you would have to be tried without one.”

That can’t be true, and even if it were one would come in from out of town.

“Then I want to talk with my parents.”

“They were found dead at home, you shot them.”

“No, I refuse to accept this. Would never kill someone that I cared about.”

“Tell that to the jury later today then.”

The officer then leaves. This cannot be real, the only way I can get a gun into school would be via magic. So, magic is real. Were the midgets goblins or children? Does that mean the orcs were adults? Did I kill hundreds of people? Could I even kill so many?

If the midgets were children, then why were their so many at Outdoor World? What of the trio that I helped who were already fighting the orcs? Is this a delusion? Or are the events were Tomas is now dead real? All of my friends did seem to accept the monsters at face value. Is it really plausible for that to happen?

As I am caught in this cyclical train of thought I hear a door open, two officers walk in. They take me and I zone out caught in the scene of me morning over the death of my friend. Should I hope that happened and this is a dream or rejoice that he is alive though I am going to be judged a murderer?

Someone asks me something but I don’t respond. Once I look around I’m in a court room a man is talking to a jury. An argument as to why I am guilty, something about how I didn’t even bother to defend myself, overwhelming evidence of my actions, all while constantly calling me things like child killer.

The jury get up and leaves the room, why wasn’t I given a chance to defend myself. The man sitting at the table next to mine leans over.

“Thanks for making my career kid. Only prosecutor whose kid you didn’t kill.”

Dam, this is stupid. The law doesn’t work like this, or maybe it does. I have only every seen television shows of things like this. The jury walks back in and declares my guilt to the judge. This makes no sense but neither does what else I experienced recently. What is real?