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 Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:15 am
The initial silence from Riley was unsettling, and when she was brought to sit down she was downright scared. She'd never had someone poke at her mind before! It...it technically wasn't even her mind! What if something bad happened? This body trapped her, there was a slight chance it could -- well, nevermind, Riley was clearly more powerful than she. The body could try though, and that was the point!
Swallowing hard the Vetala did as she was told, leaning forward and clutching the scarf and parchment as tight as she could against her chest. She was doing everything she could to not shake when she felt their foreheads touch, but she couldn't resist squeezing her remaining eye closed; she didn't know what to expect, and she couldn't help expecting the worst.
Of course, the moment Riley would begin she would find Amrita's mind groggy, like being constantly tired; or at least like trying to look through dirty muddled water. Perhaps even both.
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:05 pm
Fatigue was starting to hit the hunchbacked boil, it would seem, as he shifted to sit himself in one of Malodore's comfy chairs, slumped to lean on his knees as he watched his Mistress tend to their subject. It was nice, he mused quietly to himself. This felt right and natural. He was excited to start finding parts immediately (the ones he had set aside for himself in his dorm wouldn't be nearly the right measurements- most of them were male, after all.) But even Igors had their limits, and while Riley did her magic, it seemed the Igor had lost his steam, his head slumped onto the arm of the chair.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:28 pm
Malodore sat down as well, politely looking away from Riley and Amrita so the ithilid could do what she did best in relative peace.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 5:30 pm
Riley took her time preparing herself before even attempting to try and enter Amrita's mind. She wasn't looking forward to it, and that just made it harder. Once she felt she had psyched herself up enough, Amrita would feel the faint pressings of her clearer thought as she slid into the muck of a rotting brain.
Physically, Riley's skin paled. She couldn't force down the feeling of disgust, and she had not strayed far enough from her own self to keep a physical reaction from showing. This would be harder than she'd expected - and that was hard enough on it's own.
The slow, hesitant merge continued, as Riley's only focus was to make herself completely present in Amrita's psyche. She did not attempt to glean any information, she only moved into a comfortable position of awareness - where she could sense both her own mind at work, and the slower, muddled mind of Amrita's.
Riley's skin returned to it's normal color, as she slowly slumped forward. She managed to slump down to one side as the last action she could physically control, before pouring herself into Amrita's mind. It no longer required the press against the forehead - both minds were now focused solely inward.
Riley felt.. dirty. She couldn't shake the feeling. She felt like something was creeping up all over her thoughts, trying to coat them, and cover them. Forcing herself to retain a sense of clarity, she looked for any sign as to why Amrita was stuck.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:48 pm
While there were no marks, Riley would probably find a plethora of things that could be either one or just a part of the culprit of the girl's situation.
There was a tiny piece of the original owner's soul left over it seemed, or at least a clinging sense of life. But it was tiny, weak, and probably not the actual culprit. Further still there was the Vetala herself; weak by her people's standards, vaguely inexperienced with more complete bodies. At the time she possessed the body she had taken one that was way out of her scope of ability, which was the initial culprit that had gotten her stuck.
However, it was more than likely an overwhelming lack of self-confidence that was the root cause. There was a chance that her time at the Academy, and everything she had participated in since arriving, had actually made her strong enough to be able to get out...but in the end, it really was all in the mind.
She was positive she couldn't get out and that she was a sort of failure; she had little to no confidence in her abilities and even when she proudly displayed her trick as she had earlier, there was the underlying thought that it would be all she could ever do.
Her problem, it seemed, was nearly entirely mental. Amrita was keeping herself back with all of her insecurities, no matter her accomplishments.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:49 pm
Riley could not sense the piece of soul in Amrita, this time. If it had any thoughts of it's own, it did not share them with Amrita at this time - therefore, Riley was left wholly unaware of it. She did, however, feel the strain of a weaker being trying to do something it wasn't yet ready for - and more importantly, the overwhelming sense of failure that dominated Amrita so potently. It stunned Riley as it swept her up with it, threatening to pull her down into the depths of self-deprecation. Thankfully, Riley was of a strong and willful mind - she fought herself free, only to feel the essence of Amrita's mind caught in the dark muck that had tried to pull her down in the first place.
She couldn't reach the ghoul, because she refused to dip down into the recesses of a person's emotional trauma. She would be lost herself in those recesses, weakened by it's forces, and unable to retu- wait a minute..
Amrita. Can you hear me? She tried to reach the ghoul, but her thought just echoed off the deep caverns of Amrita's subconscious. Amrita. She repeated. She thought she felt a stirring, but heard no response. She was too deep, too lost.
And there was her answer.
Riley hadn't needed to be in Amrita's mind long. Her breathing had become shallow, but her heart hadn't even stopped. She began to slowly pull away, constantly pausing when she felt the tendrils of negative thought attempt to pull her back down into the depths that Amrita's own mind was imprisoned in. It was an uphill battle, but eventually Riley was able to shake off the last of Amrita's mind, and returned only too happily to her own. She remained resting with her head beside Amrita's, on the chair cushion. Her eyes did not open, as she tried to compose herself.
She still felt dirty. She needed a bath. For her mind. She needed high functioning processes. She needed intellectual stimulation. She needed Malodore. She let out a little whisper of distress.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:41 pm
Malodore straightened in its chair as Riley... came back. The shift from her being elsewhere (brain-wise, anyway) and being back in her body was subtle, but the plague doctor had seen it before and recognized the signs... confirmed by a vague emanation of distress. "How is it?" it said, quietly, glancing up at Amrita as well. It put one hand on Riley's shoulder, as she'd seemed to appreciate that last time.
Christof was apparently quite comfortable in the chair, and Luce had padded over and rested her chin on the patchwork's foot.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:14 am
Having Riley in her mind was...terrible. The ever-lingering sense of failure seemed, for a short time, to amplify into pure despair driven by a near lack of self worth. At one point she thought she could hear someone call her name, but every attempt she could have made to try and answer back was too easily swept up with the single thought of 'Why Bother?'.
Riley's mind started to make an exit from hers, and somehow the deep pits of depression grew shallow; before she knew it she could recognize where she was again, think things that weren't ultimately self-destructive. All that was left was an unsettled feeling deep within her, and a watery eye from the previous wave of emotion.
"I-I'm sorry." She murmured out, primarily because she felt terrible for being the cause of that distressed whimper; really, what else could it have been? The Vetala didn't feel even remotely as terrible as she had earlier, thankfully.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:55 am
Tottering n the edges of sleep, the hunchback could vaguely hear voices now- were they done? It paid to be a light sleeper in his line of work, you never knew when you would be called. He shifted, nearly kicking the poor white puppy at his boot but thankfully stopped himself in time, groggily reaching to pat it. Mistress Riley was doing something to Miss Amrita that he wasn't sure he entirely understood... but the small ghoul seemed alright. He wasn't entirely sure what she should be sorry about, though.
Hoping he wouldn't be in the way of anything important, he shifted his foot out from under the little dog carefully to lurk up to Amrita's side, just to be sure she was alright. If he broke her in the process of their experiment, her friend Lizzy would no doubtingly scatter his parts across the whole of Halloween.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:01 am
Riley's brow furrowed when she heard the apology, and she tried - very hard - not to look like she deserved an apology. She finally resigned to just nodding softly, and reaching her hand out to Amrita, dropping softly on her lap. Her other hand reached up instinctively, resting against Malodore's along with the side of her head as she tilted it. It was a rare event when Riley found herself actually needing some physical reminder of comfort. This was a unique exception, if only because feeling things with her body helped her pull away from the muck that still echoed in her memory. She focused on the feel of Amrita's cold body against her warm hand, and the cool metal of Malodore's claws as her fingers wrapped around them. It helped immensely.
Her eyes finally opened, and she lifted her head to give Amrita a worried gaze. Are you all right? She asked, trying to read the ghoul's expression for any signs of emotional trauma. That was .. pretty rough. But extremely helpful, if it makes you feel any better.
Without looking up at Malodore, she sent a private thought up. I'm going to need to borrow you, later. For recovery. Her inner voice sounded shaky, and definitely not as strong as usual. Entering Amrita's mind had taken it's toll.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:45 am
Malodore's brow furrowed with concern - though, since said brow was hidden from sight under both bandages and mask, nobody else would know about it unless Riley caught the mental echo. "Don't apologize," the plague doctor assured Amrita. "How are we to help you without such measures?"
Luce gave Christof a sad look - where had her nice chinrest gone! - and jumped up onto the chair the patchwork had vacated.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:21 am
The little Vetala wiped her eye on the sleeve of her sari, making a rather odd sniffling noise through what was left of her nose. Part of her then felt bad for apologizing, but then again she couldn't help that. However, the wave of intense emotion from Riley's mind intrusion brought back to the surface a couple of thoughts that had been lost in her excitement.
"But...What if this doesn't work?" She questioned, pausing a moment before lifting her hands to wave them frantically. "NOT THAT I DON'T THINK YOU CAN DO IT it's just...you could all be doing your very best and in the end...I screw it up somehow. I just...don't want you all to go through all this to help me only to have me fail at the last step..."
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:49 am
Christof shifted uneasily, glancing from one emotional ghoul to the other, to Malodore anxiously and back again before gingerly skulking over to the body-snatcher, anxiously lifting a hand to rub her arm in what he hoped was an assuring way. If his Mistress was confident they could do it, then they could, plain in simple. Hopefully Amrita would get a bit more confidence in the mindflayer and the doctor's abilities. He wasn't sure what all of the tears were about, but hopefully it was just a side effect of... whatever it was Riley had done.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:29 am
Riley showed little reaction to Amrita's flailing and loud exclamations. She just remained rested against the chair, and Malodore. Surprisingly, Amrita, it is exactly that kind of thinking that is the root cause for all of your troubles in the first place. What I plan on doing is far less than you might expect - you, however, must begin to believe in yourself more. We will work on helping you achieve this.. just not today. Soon. I promise you.
Both of her hands rested on Amrita's hands, and she curled her fingers around them. The solution to your problem is much simpler than you might think, and at the same time infinitely more difficult. You can be rest assured, however, that I will not give up on you. So you need to stop giving up on yourself before you have even given it a try. There will be no 'end' to our work, without success on your part. I promise you this.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:31 pm
((Malodore has nothing to add, go ahead. XD))
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