Memory Blooms

Set Up

"Come on, there's got to be something..."

Snatcher paced back and forth feverishly, leafing through a large book as he paced within his study. A large, arena-like area with a vat of bubbling, questionable green liquid in its center. The whole place located past the enormous chasm at the back of his forest, putting it far away from any possible prying eyes. It had also functioned as the arena they had used to fight the Hat Brat in, although, given how much of a mess he was making, it could hardly be called an arena, much less a study.

He leafed through another book, and then another. Each one pertaining to anything related to the subject of magic. When one had nothing of interest, they'd simply throw it onto a pile, before grabbing another one and repeating the process.

He slammed another book shut. Magic and You: Beginner's Edition, it was titled. Misleadingly, that is, as it had literally nothing to do with actual magic, but rather about cheap tricks and sleight of hand. Seriously, what a waste of time! Why learn trickery when you could learn the real thing? Some people just have no respect for the magical arts, it's like they don't even know it exists!

But... then again, here he was. Looking for books on the topic, because, frankly, all he knew of it was what he had learned from experience. Not to mention that all he really knew was how to use it, not necessarily how it worked, for him or for others. So how could he know how witch magic worked?

He had gone through hundreds of books, and the toil of such a methodical task was, honestly, getting to him.

All for nothing, it seemed.

And a lightbulb went off.

Snatcher snapped his fingers.

In an instant, he conjured a jar. Watching as a wispy little ball of a thousand colors zipped around wildly, ricocheting off the walls of the jar in a panicked, futile frenzy.

They held the jar closer to their face, observing it. Making note of the hints of lime green that stood out brightly through the near-psychedelic flame.

As he did, its hysteria slowed to stop, noticing him, before retreating to the back of the jar in a vain attempt to put distance between itself and him.

He grinned.

"Alright listen up." He started, "I'm going to let you out for a second, but if you even think about running. You can say goodbye to your pathetic little existence, got it?"

The soul, of course, didn't respond. It didn't even give any indication of a nod, but... it did relax a little, moving to the center of the jar.

That was... strange. You had been nothing but difficult when it came to taking orders this whole time. Shouldn't your soul reflect that? Or– maybe this just another grandiose show of over-confidence that you had grown accustomed to responding to his threats with. Either way, it was irritating, you were irritating.

All the more reason to understand you.

N-not in a "oh you're interesting and cool!" kind of way. Definitely not like that, more like a "if I have to take you down at a moment's notice, I'm gonna be smart about it and identify your weaknesses first" kind of way. Obviously.

He unscrewed the lid of the jar and tipped it over, the little soul tumbling out into his hand, shaking slightly. As he held it up, he could sense immense aura wafting off of the little lifelight.

Resentment, hope, regret, sorrow, anger, fear–

He flinched back, that...that's a lot of emotions, was this really what you felt on a daily basis? Why?