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SILVER: Tales from the Fringes of Reality. Episode 23 – Whim, Lost and Found.

MARIGOLD: It just doesn’t make any sense, Memo!

GUILLERMO: You’ve said that already, Mari. Multiple times. 

MARIGOLD: We were able to fix Saph and Opal’s heartline, so why are all tests failing on Whim’s? Me and Al have been at this for ages now and I just– Oh, Whimsy! Good morning, we were just talking around you.

GUILLERMO: What my dear sister means is we’re still not sure why your heartline is broken. (tapping) ‘Alasdair told me a few weeks ago. Did a spell to ease the pain’. I’m glad to hear it, however Mari has continued working since then and is both closer than ever and farther than before.

MARIGOLD: Alasdair probably told you we figured it wasn’t a shatter spell, but it has to be some spell because it did damage and she doesn’t have a physical form. And we’re confident she doesn’t have a physical form which means it has to be magic and if it’s love magic I can fix it I just need to figure it out.

GUILLERMO: (whispered) She’s throwing more focus into this because we haven’t made much headway on anything since Alasdair figured out Minerva doesn’t have a physical form.

MARIGOLD: I can hear you! (sighs) I just… I just want us to figure something out. That’s all. But it feels like for everything we discover, we immediately face another setback or twelve and just for once I’d like things to get better. 

(tapping) ‘Things are already a lot better than they were’ Whimsy, your optimism is truly inspiring. You shouldn’t have to be comforting me.

GUILLERMO: Well, you don’t listen to any of us when we try to comfort you–

MARIGOLD: I know, Memo, I know. I’m sorry.

GUILLERMO: No, wait, Mari, that’s not what I meant. You’ve been here for me this whole time, trying to make me feel better and less like a failure of a father–

MARIGOLD: Memo–

GUILLERMO: And you put everyone’s pain before your own. You lean into righteous anger but I know that you’re hurting and you deserve to be comforted just as much as any of us, okay? Minerva has taken from all of us, but she’s only tampered with your magic. I know how much that hurts you, and I don’t like seeing you hurt like that. 

MARIGOLD: I’m being foolish.

GUILLERMO: You’re being human.

MARIGOLD: Which we aren’t.

GUILLERMO: Maybe not, but you’re still a person, Mari. 

MARIGOLD: (fondly) You’re both ridiculous. We were heading your way on purpose, Whim, not just to complain about the lack of progress being made. You know how your memory was a bit scattered when you found your way here? We think we’ve figured out why.

GUILLERMO: Well, how at least.

MARIGOLD: The testing we’ve done with your heartline seems to indicate some wild form of magic hitting it, right? And we’ve been operating under the assumption that that was how your memory got all jostled about. It appears we were right.

GUILLERMO: One of the things Mari and Alasdair tried recently was seeing how a memory spell would impact your heartline; Minerva knows how to alter memory as part of her role in putting people back in the correct reality. The line doesn’t shatter like yours did, but it would explain why you could remember bits and pieces of your life while forgetting major things.

MARIGOLD: Like your mom.

GUILLERMO: Or like the fact that you had lived on the moon at all. But what you forgot isn’t what’s important. What’s important is we think we can get all of your memories back up to you now. It’s… experimental to say the least but it should work.

MARIGOLD: It relies on the smaller heartlines that connect you to those you care about: your family, your friends, even us to a certain extent. Memo makes a pseudo plane of reality for us to pull the heartlines through leading back to you. It won’t pull people unfortunately but if all goes as planned it will pull the memories of these people back to you. 

The only real problem is that this is memory. Not every memory is a good one and you may have to relive some things that are less than stellar for you in order to get back those good bits. I know you remember some now, and some is better than nothing, but if you want everything…

GUILLERMO: Whatever you choose, kid, we’re here for you. (tapping) ‘And it will work?’ We can’t test it on anyone else, but Opal is very confident. And when they’re confident, we all are. (tapping) ‘Okay, let’s do it.’

(sharp sound)

LUNA: Whim! Whim you need to be careful.

WINSTON: Oh, let them run Lulu. It’s not like they can fall off the face of the moon.

LUNA: You don’t know that for sure–

WINSTON: I haven’t fallen off yet, have I? (laughter) Luna my love, I know you’re worried about Whim but they’re a strong kid. And kids are much more sturdy than you think! I promise, I won’t let anything happen to them, okay?

LUNA: I know, Wind, I know. I just… Never thought they’d happen. Never thought you’d happen either, but here we are, together, a family and I– I can’t bear to lose that.

WINSTON: Luna, I promise that as long as I’m living, I won’t let anything tear us apart, okay?

(sharp sound)

CL: You don’t talk much, do you? (writing) ‘I prefer not to’ I guess that’s fair. All of the other ten year olds say I talk too much, but you don’t seem to mind. That’s why I like hanging out with you. (writing) ‘You fill the space so I don’t have to talk’ and you listen so I don’t have to be worried about talking too much! (giggling) 

Are you really from the moon? I know everyone thinks you’re joking but I don’t; you don’t talk much which means you’re not a liar. (writing) ‘My mom’s from the moon. My dad wanted me to go to school for a bit down here but I think I’ll go back soon’. Go back? As in… As in leaving me here? (writing) ‘I don’t want to but I have to’. But if you leave then who will spend time with me? We’re best friends, aren’t we? (writing) ‘We’ll still be best friends even if I’m on the moon’ you promise? (writing) ‘I promise’.

(sharp sound)

WINSTON: How are you adjusting, kiddo? (writing) ‘I miss CL’ I’m sorry, Whim. Really, I am. I don’t know how to explain… 

Your mother and I made a deal with a friend of hers. It allows us to live up here as a family, together, but it… It also makes living on the ground a little harder on us, a little less safe. You know the magic you can do? That all comes from being up here, from being so close to the magic. When we’re on the ground, that magic is a bit harder to come by and we get weaker. You were getting weaker, Whim; I know it didn’t seem like it, but you weren’t as vibrant as you usually would be which is why… Which is why we had to come home. 

(writing) ‘What if I don’t want to be magic?’ Oh, Whim… I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that kiddo. We are how we are because it’s what we needed to survive. I learned magic to find your mother, and she learned magic to find me. I’m sorry that doing this has caused you pain, Whim, but I promise it will get better, okay?

(sharp sound)

GUILLERMO: (muffled) I’ll talk to them alone, L. Not sure having their mom hovering about would lead to the most honest conversation. 

Hey there, Whim. It’s good to meet you; my name is Guillermo, I’m a friend of your mom’s. (writing) ‘Are you the magic man?’ I suppose I am. (writing) ‘Why do I have to stay here when my friend is down there?’ …You could stay down there if you wanted to, Whim. But you wouldn’t be able to come back to visit your parents if you did. (writing) ‘Explain.’

I’ve got a kid about your age. She’s my shining star, my light in the darkness since I lost her mother. Like you, he’s more magic than person; being related to me infused him with enough magic to live safely outside of reality. Your home here on the moon intersects with multiple realities, creating a reality of its own. Going down from here means going to a different reality, one that your body isn’t meant for. I… I could make it so you could stay there, could become part of reality itself but that would mean giving up some of your magic. It would mean being unable to come back here to your home.

The moon is right on the cusp of the plane of magic, the place that gives everything and everyone in every reality life and power. You need a lot of magic to survive up here, something that your mom naturally had and your dad managed to give himself. They would let you go, Whim, if that’s what would make you happiest. You just… You just have to ask yourself if that is truly what would make you happiest.

(sharp sound)

LUNA: Do you remember when you wanted to leave here? (tapping) ‘Of course I do’. I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you the life you had wanted. You know how dear you are to me and if I could, I would give all of this up for you but I just… I’m unable to. And you were so young then, it was hard to think about letting you go to live in the world below on your own. I know Guillermo would’ve found a loving family for you, it just… It wouldn’t have been me and your father.

(tapping) ‘I don’t resent you for it, mom’. I’m glad, Whim. Every day I worry that I made the wrong choice for you. You were so forlorn when you decided to stay, like you weren’t sure and so I did everything I could to make you sure but… I suppose I wonder if that was right for you. (tapping) ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to live without you and dad’ Whim…

You are the light of our life, you know that? Every day that you’re here is happier than the last. And I know we don’t always see eye to eye, people rarely do, but… But I’m glad you’re my child. And I love you so very dearly. 

(tapping) ‘I love you too mom’.

(sharp sound)

SILVER: Woah, hey, don’t try to stand up! You just passed out, please just stay still while I get my dad over here– (wiggling) Look, wanderer, I know you’re scared but it’s all going to be okay. Help is coming, we’ll find out how you got here and how to get you home.

GUILLERMO: Silver? What seems to be– Stars above. Silver, help me pick them up, we need to get them to Opal now.

(sharp sound)

SILVER: Easy, wanderer, easy. You’re alright, you’re alright. (pause) Oh! Here, you can use this to communicate with me. (tapping) ‘Where am I?’ You’re in the infirmary on the Fringes. (tapping) ‘Fringes?’ Yeah! It’s… Well it’s a little hard to explain… Wherever you’re from is one of millions of realities. Where we are now is on the fringes of those realities– here, look! See down there, all those swirling circles? Those are the different realities; we kind of… hover just off of them. (tapping) ‘Do you know how I got here?’ …Unfortunately not. But my dad did tell me your name is Whim if that helps? (tapping) ‘How did he know my name?’ …He wouldn’t tell me, but he seemed rattled. He’s looking for how to get you home right now, though! And he’s really good at that, I promise. In the meantime, you can hang out with me! 

(tapping) ‘Do you have a name?’ Oh, where are my manners? I’m Silver. It’s really nice to meet you, Whim.

(sharp sound)

(faint beeping)

GUILLERMO: Stars above, what was I thinking putting them through that, Mari?

MARIGOLD: They knew what they were getting into–

GUILLERMO: We barely knew what they were getting into– Whim? We need to stop ending with you in the infirmary. (tapping) ‘It worked.’ It did? I… I’m glad it worked, Whim, but stars, we thought we lost you again– (tapping) ‘But you didn’t.’

MARIGOLD: I see the near death experience hasn’t changed your sense of humor. Glad to see you’re awake again, Whimsy. We were worried for a little bit there, but all your vitals stayed how they were meant to. And you got your memories back! That’s one thing we can count as a win.

(tapping) ‘I can’t believe I forgot they had found me.’ Whimsy…

GUILLERMO: It’s not as though you chose to forget. They didn’t choose to forget either, mind you. What Minerva did to both of your memories… We know we can undo it. That’s all that matters right now.

(tapping) ‘They found me. Time and again. It’s my turn to find them.’ And you will, kid. You will.