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Scared into Realization

Lore, history and other content by the citizens of Underlight preserved for posterity.
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Starling
Dreamer
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2018 7:01 pm
Character Name(s): Starling

Scared into Realization

Post by Starling »

A fictional story about the importance of fear.

There once was a proud GateKeeper who would constantly brag to the entire city that he possessed absolutely NO FEAR. He wasn’t afraid of mares – day, dark or night. He wasn’t afraid of any other dreamers, no matter what special marks they possessed. AND he wasn’t afraid of Chaos. He would brag about how well he was able to Resist Fear not only with the art - as his art was at level 79 and possessed a duration of 8 minutes – but also mentally. He would brag about doing things other dreamers would consider terrifying, such as standing in front of a Dreamstrike Master in a collapsed soulsphere form, without assistance or asking for help.

Of course, everyone in the city would just roll their eyes every time he’d enter the room, as they knew exactly where the topic would be going as soon as he opened his mouth. Whether or not his tales were tall, his ego was certainly large.

One dream, a wise, old FateSender happened to be listening to one of his stories. He asked the GateKeeper, “Keeper, I hear you boasting about how brave you are and that you aren’t afraid of anything! To me, fear is an important part of who we are as dreamers. What are your thoughts on that?”

The GateKeeper scoffed. He said, “Fear is for the weak. Fear is stupid. I have no room in my dreams for fear.”

The wise, old Sender paused in thought for a moment, and then evoked his art of Scare (which was at level 79, with a duration of 32 seconds) on the GateKeeper, several times (using 5 lucidity each time) – just in case he needed to use his hinder bonus, a bonus specific to FateSenders that removes the duration of protective arts on the target dreamer equal to three times the amount of time the Sender offensive art inflicts, to break through the GateKeeper’s protective arts.

This caused the GateKeeper to run around, uncontrollably, and he suddenly became completely quiet as he began to feel fear enter his dreaming mind.

The wise, old FateSender followed the Keeper around for days, constantly evoking scare on him and observing the emotions he was experiencing and the actions he was taking.

The GateKeeper started to avoid some of the dangerous situations he would otherwise thrust himself into. He began to proceed with caution and think about the consequences before jumping into battle. He found himself asking others for help with some scenarios he would have otherwise faced alone, and in doing this, they drafted battle plans and formed friendships.

After one full week, the wise, old FateSender ceased his evokes and talked to the GateKeeper once more.

He asked the GateKeeper if he had learned anything from this experiment.

The GateKeeper replied, “I have learned that if you go about your dreams and nothing makes you a tiny bit scared, such as big things like fighting a Darkmare with DreamStrike or little things like asking out the dreamer you have a crush on, then you’ll never really understand how much weight these types of things have within your dreams and you could begin to feel apathetic – toward the city, your dreams, and most especially, other dreamers.”

The wise, old FateSender smiled to the GateKeeper and replied, “With fear comes growth; not only in helping one find courage and strength, but also in recognizing what’s important to oneself. Fear also has a way of bringing about interaction and teamwork. Before this experiment, you would have never asked for assistance in taking on a Darkmare, but now you have a group of people you go to and you have made friends – discovered their strengths and in turn, you help them out in their weaknesses.”

The GateKeeper and the wise old FateSender became friends after this experience and would often be seen standing in threshold together discussing their latest encounters, how that made them feel, and why it was important. The GateKeeper never boasted about being fearless again.
Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days, a purpose.
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