Gwaelin LDL
06-04-2007, 03:28 AM
<i>I was trying to think of a legitimate reason why when you betray over to another city, your class changes. Aside from the Paladin / Shadow Knight swap, I really couldn't come up with one that actually made even the slightest bit of sense. That's when the idea for this brief story popped into my head. I hope you enjoy it.</i> "Next, please." Raxtull walked up to the desk and handed over a large stack of parchments to the receptionist. The receptionist shuffles through the papers, checking them over through those small spectacles that seem to be standard equipment for the job throughout the universe. "Well, all your papers seem to be in order, along with the proper endorsements." The receptionist licks her thumb and pulls another sheet from a file folder on the desk next to her. She fills in a couple of blanks on the form and hands it across the desk to Raxtull. "Take this form down this hall, left at the third corridor and follow it all the way down. Give it to the gnome in that room and follow her directions, then your immigration will be complete. Welcome to Qeynos. Next, please." Reaching the designated room, Raxtull looked about apprehensively at the various gadgets and gizmos littering the space, and the enclosed metal cubicle in the center of the room. A wizened gnome lady with fiery red, obviously dyed hair and wearing a smaller version of the spectacles the receptionist wore was sitting at a metal desk covered in buttons, dials and levers, hammering away at a box on the desk. Raxtull cleared his throat to get the gnome's attention, which surprised her enough to cause her to tumble off the stool she was sitting on. "Oh, dear me. Hello, I'm Ms. Doohickey. I'll take that form you have there, and if you would please take a seat inside the cubicle, I will get started." As the door shut behind Raxtull, he heard a soft click of a lock engaging. "Excuse me, but what exactly is going on here?" "Oh.... This is just the Memory Replacement Chamber I invented some years ago. Standard procedure. Don't worry much about it," Ms. Doohickey replied, fiddling with some dials on the desk. "Wait a minute... Memory Replacement Chamber?" "Well, we can't exactly have a trained assassin running around Qeynos, now, can we? This little device just erases your memory and then replaces them with stock memories, you know, in the interest of public safety." She glances at a chart next to the desk, and mumbles to herself, "Let's see... assassins get replaced with rangers." Then she pulls a small card filled with seemingly random holes from a file folder and feeds it through a slot on the desk. Then, she speaks up again, "It works most of the time." "What do you means most of the time?" Raxtull replied, greatly alarmed. "Well, Dear, there have been some cases of permanent memory loss, and even death. But what are the chances of something going wrong?" "It's your machine, you tell me." "One in five actually. Much better than the previous models," Ms. Doohickey replied nonchalantly. Raxtull stood up and started banging on the door. "That's it, I'm out of here. I'll take my chances returning to Freeport. Prison has a better survival rate." "Won't do any good, Dear. Once the door locks, it won't open again until the process is complete. Just sit down and relax, and it will all be over in a minute. There we go." Ms. Doohickey pulls a final lever and the room fills with the whirring, whining, clanking and rumbling of all the various gadgets in the room coming to life and different colored flashes of light spill out from inside the cubicle. A short while later, the noise and lights stop and then a faint click can be heard of the cubicle door unlocking. Ms. Doohickey drops down from her stool and wanders over to open the door and glance inside. "Oh, dear me. That's a first." She walks over to a bronze speaking tube mounted on the wall and removes the cover. "Anya, Dear. Please cancel the immigration forms of one Mr. Raxtull. Oh, and send the janitor in with a broom and a dustpan." "Yes, Ms. Doohickey."