[color=#1A1A3B][b][u][h1][sub][sub][sub]Farren[/sub][/sub][/sub][/h1][/u][/b][/color]		    sank into the memory and for its duration lost himself in the experiences of the man to whom it had belonged. No thoughts plagued his mind in those moments beyond the ones sourced from ‘Izzy’, and similarly none of his own emotions affected him for the duration. He’d expected it to be more like watching someone else from afar, an aloof sort of observer, but as Farren regained awareness of his own condition–the Memory fading into the past where it no longer captured the entirety of his attention–he found himself somewhat unmoored. Rather than having been an unseen, unfeeling observer to someone else’s experience, he felt strange in his own body. The strange phenomena allowed him some respite however, and the Memory a greater perspective than he’d had before. As frightening as some of the experiences had been while he was in them, now they only made some of his own problems feel small and far more tenable than before.

His heartbeat grew calmer and though that same thread of insidious ‘twisting’ gold remained, it did not seem nearly so bad as before–though indeed its intensity had not waned in the slightest. Straightening up from the position he’d had to take to share the Memory alongside the others, Farren glanced between them briefly, finding himself strangely grounded in that moment. Then he heard his name and so his eyes turned to Ophelia as she spoke, demonstrating how to show her–and perhaps the others–the rune that Skinner had given them.

[i]‘So strange,’[/i] he thought absently as he took in her words, [i]‘...that this is my life now….’[/i] When she had finished explaining and demonstrating to the best of her ability, Farren simply nodded and took the projection case, aligning it as she had shown him. It didn’t take him long, but that was the easier component to the process.

For the rest, Farren closed his eyes and focused. At first all he felt was the rain and wind on his skin, his clothes and hair plastered against his body or hanging heavily from his form. However, as he recalled the moment that the rune had imprinted itself into his mind, Farren found those sensations fading. His thoughts shifted from a more natural quiet to something more clamorous and feverish. He gritted his teeth, then bared them without realizing. His brow screwed up in a frown and a low sound his throat–not quite a growl–became apparent, something like a rough humming noise. Farren’s feet shifted slightly and his muscles grew tense, then relaxed, then tensed again like those of a predator preparing to pounce. Finally he [i]felt[/i] more than saw the rune manifest in his Mind’s Eye. It did not appear gradually, but instead all at once, as if it had been clawed into his brain by a series of clawed swipes from some unseen beastial entity tearing at his mind. Yet, it didn’t hurt, instead…he just felt a rumbling, vibrating heat and a pang of hunger roll through his body. In that same moment the rune would become visible to Ophelia and any others who were close enough to see.

Once he had held it for a few seconds–long enough for the others to learn it–Farren relaxed. For a moment he regarded the projector case. Something tickled at his mind…a curiosity that he’d been suppressing almost since he’d awoken some hours ago. If Ophelia moved to take the case from him, he would hand it to her–his attention seeming to be elsewhere for a moment before he answered an earlier question she had implied. [color=#1A1A3B][b]“I’d gladly learn whatever you have to share. Such things are perhaps far more valuable than I had thought…”[/b][/color] that said he fell silent again. If she chose to show him what Runes she had acquired, he would pay attention, allowing them to be imprinted on his mind, but as soon as that was done his attention would begin to drift once again.

Something was pulling on his attention….