As soon as Tim picks up the rainbow vial, the entire room swirls with light. It's not a blinding light, more like the light of a million stars in the sky all twinkling and glittering around him or the light and color of galaxies, hundreds of realities, all swirling in an ethereal pattern. It's mesmerizing and the memory fades in from that until the light is contained and then it dims, and then it's gone.
In its place is a large tank, like a whale tank, filled with a dark, opaque water that's lit from beneath. There's something inside, but looking at it is like looking at static - disorienting and confusing. The more Tim looks at it, the more his eyes just can't seem to focus on what's in front of him. Until suddenly there are four people in front of him: Taako, a gloomy looking bard in ridiculously colorful bardic clothes, a short dwarf with a long beard threaded with flowers, and a large human man with auburn sideburns and a scar over one eye. The bard seems fine, but Taako seems ill and his ears are pinned back in annoyance at the fact that he's also experiencing the same vertigo that Tim is undergoing at the moment.
The bard sighs and puts a roll of parchment into a sliding panel at the bottom of the tank, then pulls a lever next to it. "There goes another great composition."
The parchment floats up into the tank and some sort of tendril rolls out of the inky blackness, curling itself around the paper, and then sucking it up into that confusing mass of static. And there is a tremendous sense of loss, a memory gone, leaving only the traces of what it used to be in its wake. The parchment had some beautiful music on it, composed by the bard, but all attempts to recall it are just...gone.
"Okay, feeding time's over. Uh. You guys ready for stuff to get weird?" The bard says as he goes over to a spigot on the side of the tank and fills three vials with the viscous inky fluid. He hands one vial to each person and says, "Uh, this isn't gonna taste great. It sort of-- sort of has the consistency of Go-Gurt, um, so not a lot of people get down on that. Um. But I'll warn you guys, once you drink that, um, there really isn't any going back."
The tall human asks, "Going back from what?"
Which is followed by the dwarf asking, "Going to what?"
The bard replies, "From not- from not drinking it." And then Taako and his companions begin to bicker and hem and haw over whether to drink these nasty looking vials. Taako, honestly, isn't put off by the texture description so much as the whole "everything" about this. The smell, the fact that there is obviously something in that tank of water, the idea of drinking what could essentially be pois--
"Holy shit." He turns as the human just suddenly and abruptly downs his in one go. He goes stock still, eyes glassy for a moment, and Taako and the dwarf stare at him in horror.
There's a tense moment while they wait and then the human bounces back, steady on his feet like the bard and bursting at the seams.
"Oh my god, you guys. Guys, it's all clear. I remember everything. Here's the thing, you guys. So basically what's going on is-" And then his words devolve into static. Even though his mouth is moving, focusing on the lips, trying to read what he's saying gives off that same unfocused feeling again, like trying to read while nauseous - nothing gets through that and the loud crackle of static in their ears. "--and in the cave, when we were looking for the---" Back to static for both Taako, the dwarf, and now for Tim as well.
Taako's ears flick back, his eyes narrowing and he gives a loud sigh. "Well, that's just annoying."
He stares at the vial in his hand and tips it back while internally screaming YOLO.
If Tim looks at the vial in his hand, it's dimmed from the rainbow colors to that same inky black goo that Taako is currently taking like a shot of vodka. Does he drink too?
No such thing as a wrong one!
In its place is a large tank, like a whale tank, filled with a dark, opaque water that's lit from beneath. There's something inside, but looking at it is like looking at static - disorienting and confusing. The more Tim looks at it, the more his eyes just can't seem to focus on what's in front of him. Until suddenly there are four people in front of him: Taako, a gloomy looking bard in ridiculously colorful bardic clothes, a short dwarf with a long beard threaded with flowers, and a large human man with auburn sideburns and a scar over one eye. The bard seems fine, but Taako seems ill and his ears are pinned back in annoyance at the fact that he's also experiencing the same vertigo that Tim is undergoing at the moment.
The bard sighs and puts a roll of parchment into a sliding panel at the bottom of the tank, then pulls a lever next to it. "There goes another great composition."
The parchment floats up into the tank and some sort of tendril rolls out of the inky blackness, curling itself around the paper, and then sucking it up into that confusing mass of static. And there is a tremendous sense of loss, a memory gone, leaving only the traces of what it used to be in its wake. The parchment had some beautiful music on it, composed by the bard, but all attempts to recall it are just...gone.
"Okay, feeding time's over. Uh. You guys ready for stuff to get weird?" The bard says as he goes over to a spigot on the side of the tank and fills three vials with the viscous inky fluid. He hands one vial to each person and says, "Uh, this isn't gonna taste great. It sort of-- sort of has the consistency of Go-Gurt, um, so not a lot of people get down on that. Um. But I'll warn you guys, once you drink that, um, there really isn't any going back."
The tall human asks, "Going back from what?"
Which is followed by the dwarf asking, "Going to what?"
The bard replies, "From not- from not drinking it." And then Taako and his companions begin to bicker and hem and haw over whether to drink these nasty looking vials. Taako, honestly, isn't put off by the texture description so much as the whole "everything" about this. The smell, the fact that there is obviously something in that tank of water, the idea of drinking what could essentially be pois--
"Holy shit." He turns as the human just suddenly and abruptly downs his in one go. He goes stock still, eyes glassy for a moment, and Taako and the dwarf stare at him in horror.
There's a tense moment while they wait and then the human bounces back, steady on his feet like the bard and bursting at the seams.
"Oh my god, you guys. Guys, it's all clear. I remember everything. Here's the thing, you guys. So basically what's going on is-" And then his words devolve into static. Even though his mouth is moving, focusing on the lips, trying to read what he's saying gives off that same unfocused feeling again, like trying to read while nauseous - nothing gets through that and the loud crackle of static in their ears. "--and in the cave, when we were looking for the---" Back to static for both Taako, the dwarf, and now for Tim as well.
Taako's ears flick back, his eyes narrowing and he gives a loud sigh. "Well, that's just annoying."
He stares at the vial in his hand and tips it back while internally screaming YOLO.
If Tim looks at the vial in his hand, it's dimmed from the rainbow colors to that same inky black goo that Taako is currently taking like a shot of vodka. Does he drink too?