What comes next is a few hours of collaborative jigsaw puzzling. As they go, Ellyn works on getting a feel for what the wards embedded in the bones are like and how they're interacting with each other, describing the commonalities and differences for Gideon. By the time they get the first three together, they're getting pretty good at predicting whether a piece will fit with the others or not.

Time to try the chairs again? 

Could. Or if they wanted to do this the hard way, they could figure out how to fudge the wards so they can finish putting together the last two skeletons.

She likes the hard way, usually, though it might be good to double check they're on the right track first. 

Places then, skeleboys and skelegirls. (Their movements are a little jerkier than Ellyn's usual standard for constructs as she maneuvers them into the chairs.)

Possibly they're not fully synced yet...

Does anything happen when they sit down? 

A trapdoor in the floor opens up to let a familiar style of box on a pedestal emerge.

So they are at least at minimums - now to improve! 

Don't need the box itself since the key's already been looted, so back to the puzzling.

And they need to think about it as a part of Lyctorhood, too - that might be easier once they enter the associated study, but for now... It's clearly focused around mutual reconstruction, taking parts of two bodies and making them move as one...

Okay, so- hm. Mutual reconstruction. What if rather than putting the bones together in their whole state, she dusts them all and rebuilds the bodies all at once, with the disparate pieces already integrated.

Could work...

The problem, it turns out, is that this is actually very difficult. Ellyn may need to sit down for this one.

She could draw energy (thalergy, thanergy, she's not picky) off of Gideon. Especially if they close the door so Gideon can get wiggly about being siphoned.

Hhhhmmmrrgghh.

Fine.

Close the door and she had better tell Ellyn the instant it feels bad.

Yesss. (And hey, she did say she wants to experiment even with things that make her a little uncomfortable. Also Gideon has maintained for years that Ellyn would be even sexier with a human battery, so she very much appreciates the chance to prove that.)

Gideon does as ordered, and promises to be super proactive about her feedback. 

Right. Then... here goes.

The pain is not like anything Gideon's felt before, like every fiber of every muscle is freezing while her blood tries its best to boil off inside her veins.

She bites in the screams as long as she can - curls up at Ellyn's feet - 

She still likes it, though, in the spare moments she can manage to have thoughts.

Gideon's screams when she likes it have a slightly different tenor than when she doesn't. Ellyn reminds herself of this and works quickly to pull the complete skeletons up. It's much easier, tapping Gideon like this. She can pump enough thanergy that it's like molding putty instead of chipping at stone. She knows what parts come from where, so each body flows together like water.

And she ramps Gideon down from the siphon.

She drags herself to where she's kneeling at Ellyn's feet, forehead pressed to her necromancer's knees.

"Oh Gideon." Pet pet. "My Gideon."

Snuggle. 

"My queen," she breathes out with another shiver. (She's never been this hard into subspace - even as she's slowly coming out of it.)

"You are so much a good girl."

Happy shiver!

Ellyn will continue administering love and affection as Gideon comes down.