Scenario:Caim - Extending Hope
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Extending Hope
The primal beast calls out to Caim casually, to which he responds in disgust. The primal is not the least bit shaken, and proceeds to strangle Caim in order to give him the peace he desires. It then remarks that it loves watching people overcome the injustices of the world and attacks the crew.
The crew looks on in stunned silence at the strange light emanating from the card.
Caim calmly approaches (Captain) to retrieve the card himself.
Caim: There's no longer any reason for you to have that card.
Vyrn: Hold on!
Caim: If I may.
Caim pulls the card from (Captain)'s hand.
Caim: Happy now, Hanged Man?
Caim unhappily flicks the face of the card.
Lyria: Eek!
???: ...
Vyrn: W-wait, isn't that one of the Arcarum?
The Hanged Man: I'm finally free!
Vyrn: He's a primal beast... right?
Lyria: So it was an Arcarum primal that was trying to recreate the world!
The Hanged Man: Howdy, Caim.
The primal beast stretches a hand towards Caim, seemingly without a care in the world. The crew, meanwhile, stares on in disbelief.
The Hanged Man: You really busted me out of a jam this time. Thanks, seriously.
Caim: Shut up.
Caim pulls away from the primal beast's hand just as it nears his cheek.
The Hanged Man: Ha ha, listen, I get it! You hate me!
The Hanged Man: But that job I asked you to do sure turned out great, didn't it?
The Hanged Man: Simulating history, gathering and analyzing data... You really got into it, from where I was sitting!
The Hanged Man: And hey, you even got to forget about your sad little delusional world for a while!
Caim: I told you to shut up!
Caim slaps away The Hanged Man's hands as they reach for his cheeks.
The Hanged Man: Ah well, it's all thanks to you that I'm here, and with tons of data too!
The Hanged Man: I've really gotta thank you properly. Like this...
Caim: !
The Hanged Man's hands suddenly reach for Caim's neck.
Lyria: Oh no!
The Hanged Man: I promised, right? You wanted serenity, and I'm going to deliver.
The Hanged Man's fingers slip inside Caim's neck.
Caim: What... are you... doing...
Caim: ...
Caim's body soon goes limp.
Lyria: No way... Caim?
Vyrn: What do you think you're doing?
The Hanged Man: Sorry to keep you waiting. You're next.
The Hanged Man turns toward the crew, hand extended.
Vyrn: What are you anyway?
The Hanged Man: Oh? I think Caim introduced me already. I'm one of the Arcarum.
Lyria: Are you trying to create a new world? Why?
The Hanged Man: Hm, why indeed? I'm not particularly interested in the end result, honestly.
Vyrn: Then what do you want? And why did you treat Caim like that?
The Hanged Man: Because this world's unfair. Doesn't make sense a lot of the time either.
The Hanged Man: But dealing with that makes people stronger. Helps them evolve.
The Hanged Man: Not that I'm people! I just love seeing other folks deal with that junk.
Lyria: What do you mean?
The Hanged Man: I mean, having you guys around made things pretty fun for that very reason.
The Hanged Man: Anyway, let's bring this to a close.
Vyrn: This is bad! If we don't do something, who knows what's gonna happen!
Lyria: We'll just have to try to stop him! Let's go, (Captain)!
Extending Hope: Scene 2
Weeks pass after the battle with the primal. The crew learns from Sierokarte that Caim is awake and goes to meet him. They are surprised to see that his mind has reset to a blank slate; with no memory of who he was, he now behaves like a normal child. (Captain) and company can only pray that he has found peace.
A few days have passed since (Captain) and the crew fought against The Hanged Man.
Sierokarte: Guess what, everyone! Caim's finally awakened!
Vyrn: Really?
Lyria: Oh, thank goodness! Let's go see him!
Vyrn: Sounds good!
Vyrn: It seemed like he wasn't gonna pull through for a little bit there, but I'm glad to hear he's come to!
Sierokarte: Actually, about that. He may have opened his eyes, but...
Caim: Oh, Siero! Where'd you go? Please don't leave me!
Sierokarte: Sorry about that. But I brought some people who want to see you, Caim!
Caim: Me?
Lyria: Uh, hello...
Caim: Who're these folks?
Vyrn: Seriously?
According to Siero, Caim appears to have lost his memories.
On top of that, his psychological state seems to have reverted to well below what his actual age would suggest.
Caim: Sob... Oh, Siero!
Sierokarte: It's okay, Caim! Don't be scared. These people are my friends.
Caim: They're your... friends?
The frightened Caim doesn't appear to have the intelligence or personality he once had.
Lyria: Um, hello, Caim. My name's Lyria.
Caim: Who're these folks?
Lyria: Yes. I hope we can be friends!
Caim: That sounds... nice! I wanna be friends with you too, Lyria!
Caim's eyes give off a pure, radiant sparkle untainted by the trauma of his past life.
The crew entrusts Caim to Sierokarte and promises to visit again someday.
But as they return to the Grandcypher, a sadness lingers.
Lyria: Was that the serenity Caim wanted?
Vyrn: You mean, what the primal beast said he promised to Caim?
Lyria: Yeah, I wonder if Caim's happy the way he is now.
Vyrn: Beats me...
Vyrn: We don't even know why he decided to help that primal beast out in the first place.
Lyria: Did he? It didn't look like they got along very well.
Vyrn: I wonder. He sure seemed to be aware of what he was doing at the time, didn't he?
Lyria: Yeah, but why would he help out the Arcarum if he hated them?
Vyrn: We can't ask him anything about it now, that's for sure.
Caim lived a life of extremes, pushed to his limits by an intense intelligence.
What did he fear? What did he want? And what, ultimately, was the end result of his pact with the Arcarum?
There's nothing (Captain) can do to find out more, and the primal beasts within Lyria offer no suggestions.
All they can do is wish happiness upon Caim, who traded everything for a chance to experience serenity.
The Hanged Man: Heh. Well, that was fun. (Captain), was it? Something tells me there is more where that came from.
The Hanged Man: My orders as an Arcarum aside, of course.
The Hanged Man: For now, I might as well just kick back, relax, and wait. The time foretold will arrive soon enough...