A sharp pain in her temple forced her to consciousness. As her senses returned, she heard a cacophony of voices whispering in her head. It was as if a room full of people were all trying to order her body how to act. She had to struggle against the voices to lift her leaden eyelids, and when she did was greeted by a world full of static.
As she struggled to regain her senses and silence the voices, one particular voice grew stronger. While the others tried to control her, this one told her who she was. It was like a recording on repeat. “You are Cerra. This is your body. You are in control.”
Focusing on the voice allowed her to mostly silence the others, though the murmuring remained in the background. It was then her memories started flowing back in. It was like watching an old film, tattered and worn. It felt true, but it also felt like something wasn’t quite right. Even the strong voice carrying her memories was fragmented, as if before all this she lived multiple lives.
There was the life of a college coed. A girl studying both science and magic at a prestigious New England university. She knew how to control the elements, to bend them to her will. While she didn’t know the finer details, she was well versed with cyberware and hacking. Of the two disciplines, she was far more versed with magic, but she had initially gone to the university to study the sciences.
Then there was our life in the shadows. How our chance encounter with a toxic spirit on the way home from school permanently twisted our aura and awakened our magic. How we lived a second life as the face for a team of runners. There was someone we belonged with, though our memories failed to reveal their face.
We also led the team, a powerful leader who sometimes seemed to be more machine than man. We pulled strings in the shadows, we ran jobs, we tried to make a difference in our home rather than let the corporations rule. We had friends and allies. We had faced death. We were dead.
Though her mind was still a jumbled mess she reached up to try and clear the blurriness from her eyes. Rather than touching warm skin as she expected, she felt the cold touch of metal. This was expected. This was wrong. This was completely normal. We asked ourselves, “how did we get here?”
The crash. The infection. The chaos. Something fell from the sky in a glittering shower. It destroyed a huge section of the city and we went to investigate. But we also stayed away, sheltered from the madness. Then the voices began and the rest was a blurred rush of motion and memory. We fled through the underground before they quarantined the area. We made it but we didn’t make it.
Pain. Blood. Darkness.
The voices grew stronger and she started to scream.
Hurried footsteps were soon heard as a shabby looking man in a white lab coat came rushing in. Her blurry vision was not fast enough to follow him, and she heard the quiet hiss of a pneumatic injector before she could react. She welcomed the return to nothingness.
We welcomed the return to sleep.
This was inspired by the Boston Lockdown Campaign for the Shadowrun RPG and takes place in a world with both advanced technology and magic.
At this point, this teaser of a story is little more than fanfic. I would love to truly expand and develop my vision of a future where science and magic are joined.
Thanks for reading!
