It appears so, yes! At least the artist paid him? Admittedly by shuffling a bundle towards him while not looking at him and muttering something about the essence of the deceased, but. Still. It's better than nothing. And this strange quest is probably relevant to the OVERALL MYSTERY OF SAGUS CLIFFS. Because, clearly, there are some overall mysteries going on in this city.

But it's not immediately obvious how to disentangle them just yet, so he is left to his own devices for a while without any obvious quests to complete.

Fortunately, by this time Aleks and his castoff have ventured out from his apartment! Here they are, venturing forth or something.

"Aleks! Vetmera! You are walking in a direction! Is that direction perhaps aimed towards the psychic bar?" And... it seems the quest reward bundle he got as a quest reward included a fairly peculiar cape. It has no defined edges, like a wrapping cover, but someone seems to have fitted onto it a dozen metal hooking fasteners. It has an ethereal and mistlike quality, entirely white except almost not...?

GHOST CAPE GHOST CAPE we can almost feel the death emanating from it GHOST CAPE

"Oh, hello. We are, and it is! How'd you guess?" She spots the ghost cape and smiles. "Oh, and that's pretty!"

"It is fate! For I, too, am heading in that direction."

QUEST HOOKS LED US THERE the trail of death led us there

Why is he always so loud.

Poor Aleks. She reaches out to take his hand and give it a comforting squeeze. Sorry, dear.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I am investigating! There is a mysterious psychic phenomenon that afflicts young women in Sagus Cliffs and turns them into someone else!"

it is like death but without the good parts IT IS MOST MYSTERIOUS

"Huh. That's... weird. Have you talked to anyone that's been turned into the someone else? Is it the same someone else each time? What's the criteria for picking young women, clearly not all women are affected."

"I have not, yes it is, I do not know!"

"And you're going to the psychic bar to consult a bunch of experts on the subject and see what they know?"

"Exactly!"

we also heard about a ghost GHOST CAPE GHOST CAPE

Maybe Aleks should actually consider that despite the... way... this man behaves... he may actually know what he's doing. Maybe.

It's actually really impressive that he's this functional while being possessed!

"Reasonable! Do you know how long this phenomenon has been going on? It's, uh. Kind of alarming."

"It seems like it has been at least many decades but I don't actually know."

so many wasted deaths WE COULD HAVE COME TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM SO LONG AGO

"Eugh. Okay. Well. I think I want to solve that too, then, people are dying and I have some psychic nonsense going on."

"All the more reason to go, then."

"Yes, I was just verbally acknowledging that regardless of any of our intentions, we seem to have nonetheless become an adventuring party."

Hooray.

HOORAY it will be easier to eliminate the competition if we keep her near WHAT WAS THAT nothing

Vetmera snorts.

To the bar!

To the bar! At Cliff's Edge is where it is, and Tahir strides in before the other two.

...and then freezes as soon as he gets in.

WHAT... IS... THIS PLACE it is doing... something to us... WE DO NOT LIKE IT LET US GO AWAY

"Hmm," says a beautiful and timeless looking woman with unblemished dark skin and a cloud of black, wavy hair. She looks at Tahir, critically. "Think this one's mine, Dhama."

And then she vaults over the table she was sitting at to leap towards the door and grab Tahir by the scruff of his neck before he can run.

This is precisely when Vetmera makes it into the bar. "Wh—"

"Sit tight, I'm a professional and I'm here to help!" she barks, and then drags Tahir forward to take his face in both of her hands. "Shhhhhh. Shhhhh."

NO no

But Tahir's signature glow diminishes to a faint shimmer and then winks out altogether, leaving him looking human, tired, and...

...blissfully quiet.

...what the fuck.

The one called "Dhama" looks somewhat surprised by that, but then smiles when they notice what's happening.

And the way their eyes glance over at Vetmera when she walks in suggests they may recognise... a bit... of her spark, there. That is an interested smile.

"Got him," says the woman, releasing Tahir's face. "Okay, don't leave the bar without talking it over, I need the suppression field here to help keep your little bastards down. Welcome to the Fifth Eye, sit down, maybe have a drink, and then tell us about your psychic skist."

She steps away from him and returns to her seat, looking faintly pleased with herself. "Ha!" she says, to 'Dhama' and the third person, a man in a fancy hat, at their table, as she sits. "Look at me, actually participating in the psychic skist!"

Vetmera is... maybe in some kind of shock? Everything is so quiet. So, so quiet. It's kind of frightening. She edges nervously towards Aleks, but... no, if she listens she can still hear him. It's just not automatic. It's only if she's listening, not... background noise going on all the time.

"... Hi," she says, lamely, feeling like a small child that has wandered into the big leagues. One of them is looking at her and smiling?? They totally know she's a mind reader, don't they. Wow, that was fast. She was expecting to have to explain herself, but she guesses that was silly of her. She gives a little nervous smile back.

They smile at her for a moment longer before turning back to their companions. There's something in their demeanour, though, or in their face, that seems to be... expectant.  Almost as if they know they're going to be talking, and sooner rather than later, so this is not goodbye, merely see you in a bit.

Tahir, meanwhile... seems to be reeling. His mind, too, is eerily silent for a moment... until he releases a shaky breath and thinks, properly thinks his own thoughts, for the first time in years.

His first proper thought in years is that it's kind of hilarious that his first thought in years is about thinking. So meta.

"I wasn't actually expecting the bar of psychics to just immediately handle your nano demons, but. In retrospect I really should have," says Vetmera with a small laugh, eyeing Tahir. "Hello, Tahir, nice to properly meet you."

"I'd say suppressed, not really handled," clarifies the woman who shushed the nanites. "Handling will be a whole new mess, but you've got some space to actually think."

He tries turning around to look at his companions but stumbles a bit and has to catch himself on a little elevated railing. Laughter bubbles up from deep within his chest—this is the first time he's properly lost his balance in what feels like forever—and he turns his smile up at them. "Can we sit? I am..." And he laughs again, because what the hell even is he, what kind of adjective could he use to describe what he is? "I am."

O...kay, it seems like Tahir needs some help there. He gives Vetmera a small apologetic smile then in two hops teleports himself and Tahir to an unoccupied table.

Tahir laughs again, and allows himself to drop onto a chair.

Vetmera giggles a little, then follows at a more reasonably sedate pace to sit in a nearby chair.

"There's a cot in the back if you need a nap," calls the bartender, from the far end of the bar. "And I've got a tap that does an energizing drink if your metabolism's anything close to normal. No rush, none of it—or us—are going anywhere."

"My metabolism is not normal, at all, and while that nap is tempting I think one of the many parts of being possessed I like is not needing it."

...huh. He has an actual personality under there.

"Suppressing the possession might be suppressing the no-sleep thing too, so you might still need it. Fortunately Ziobe doesn't sleep either, so you're not on any kind of time limit there."

  "Waste of time," says the woman from her table, with a wink.

"Absolutely a waste of time," he agrees. "Skist I haven't felt this... dead? unalive? In so long, it's invigorating."

"That sounds like an oxymoron," notes Vetmera.

"Doesn't it?"

"So the demons possessing you have been shut up for now," confirms Aleks. "And you're... fine?"

"Not the word I would use!" he says cheerfully. "But close enough."

"You seem... remarkably not traumatized??" says Vetmera, sounding fascinated. "Oh, oh, should I not look, because I don't have to now, it's super weird! Probably it's uncomfortable to have a psychic staring at your brain when you literally just got it back, sorry."

"I don't care," he shrugs. "And no, not traumatised, not as far as I can tell. I may have forgotten how to properly be a person but honestly I think that ranks pretty low on the list of problems to have!"

"Most people are terrible, not being one of them doesn't sound that bad to me."

"I will not flirt because I think I forgot how and we have not established the boundaries of our and your relationships but let it be known that once upon a time I would have taken that as an opening to flirt."

—what.

What???

Okay this man is no less bewildering when he is not possessed by demons.

Awwwww Aleks is so cute, lookit him!!!! She leans over and pats his hand.

"So the impression I'm getting is that you do not want to figure out how just toss your nano demons out forever and be done with them? You seem like you want more space to be yourself and otherwise... kind of miss them???" If she sounds astonished its because she is! Pause. "I'm sorry, I help Aleks with his complicated hard to put to word feelings, too."

"Sounds handy! And yes, right in one. I also don't want them to consume my life force until I am a husk of a person and then die of it, that would be nice if we could avoid that part."

"They what."

"Yeah see the main reason they don't want to let me out as I understand it is that they think I will obviously want to get rid of them since they will definitely be the death of me otherwise, one way or another. They were not designed in the friendliest of ways."

"Uhm. Wow. That. Okay. Yeah, that. That sounds like a problem," says Vetmera, reeling a little.

"And... the reason you don't want to get rid of them...?"

"Super strength and durability, great regeneration, I hate sleeping, and having interesting impactful adventures is the meaning of life."

Those nanites were made for him, other than the thing where they suck him dry.

"Awwww," coos the table's psychic. "You want to teach your nanites how to be people and then keep them forever!!! That's really cute???"

"Ideal world, right there! And then an eternity of heroics, give or take a year."

"Heroics."

"Like the murder mystery! I like helping people!"

"Makes perfect sense to me. Okay, how do we do that, though..." She drums her fingers on the table, then looks at the other table of professionals. "Hey, are you a nanite expert?"

"Nope!" says Ziobe, cheerfully. "I can keep sitting on them and consult, but proper solutions are much harder and more eclectic."

"Hmmm. Okay, so, I hear two voices when they're talking. Do you know why? Are there two different types of nanites, in there?"

"...wait, you can hear nanites?" says Dhama despite themself. "—no, your quest. My apologies."

Tahir laughs, once more—he is in extremely high spirits, it seems, or maybe a bit drunk on not being possessed. "No, sorry. I... found them in a, I guess I will call it a box, in the Valley of Dead Heroes, when I was hiding from rain. And then... they got in."

Vetmera giggles, too. "It's fine. Actually, feel free to come over and help, if you want." Then, to Tahir: "Okay. Well. If there are two sets of nanites the obvious thing to do is to add a third set that's supposed to keep you alive, and having them reach a balance. Since they could demonstrably already make nanite friends instead of having a nanite fight that ends up killing you. It wouldn't be a very elegant solution, admittedly, and you'd probably need to eat a truly insane amount of food to feed them all. But. Maybe? Hm."

"Hey, if you can find a third demon to cohabitate, it's still a party not a crowd."

Why is he like this.

"And nutritional sludge is cheap anyway," he adds.

"This is true. Okay. So, maybe. If they work like I think they work. Which they might not. ... Actually! Would you be comfortable if we brought your nanites back up a bit to chat with them? If we could keep you in the bar? And preferably with you still able to think in there, too? Since you don't actually want to toss them out forever and be done with them, we might actually just be able to negotiate with them."

"I was going to suggest just that! I am sure they and I can reach an agreeable solution, here."

"I hope so, anyway!" She looks over at the table of professional psychics. "Hey, could you..."

Ziobe snorts. "Dhama, 'boros, I think waiting for them to come to us is just not going to happen. Look at them, they're clearly not the normal laypeople that wander in here complaining of ghosts haunting their thoughts. Come on, this is silly." And up she gets, hooking a finger towards her two companions.

They follow.

Dhama, upon reaching them, finally blurts out the question that has been burning in their mind: "What is that place in your head?"

She blinks, then understands. "Oh! I... don't know. It's really malleable and confusing, though? I guess it could be described as a labyrinth?"

"A labyrinth!" they—now that they're close enough she can make out their features, a pudgy person with a comical mustache and eyes deep enough to swallow continents—exclaim. "I have seen many constructs, palaces and mausoleums and safeboxes and banks and castles and cities, but a labyrinth... That's novel. It speaks of cunning and guile."

"Well thank you! I didn't think of it or make it!" says Vetmera, brightly. "I'm about a day old and all of my neat toys are inherited, I figured out my name this morning. Vetmera, hi."

"I am Dhama. Dhama of the Bloom. These are my companions, Ziobe," friendly girl, "Theboros," grumpy old dude who hasn't quite finished walking towards them, "Leto," girl by the bar, "and Feriok," dude tending the bar. "We own the Fifth Eye, jointly."

They turn to peer at Vetmera again. "Once you're done with your... little problem, here... do you mind if I take a quick look into your labyrinth?"

And since apparently Aleks isn't going to introduce himself and Tahir is distracted, "This is Aleks, and this is Tahir," she says, motioning to them both in turn. "And yeah, sure, I actually originally came here to try and figure out my psychic nonsense, so someone else looking at it would actually be really appreciated. Don't break anything, please."

Tahir turns his nigh-omnipresent grin to the new arrivals and raises a hand in greeting.

Aleks is scowling, though. She's gonna let a stranger just go rummaging inside her mind?

She pats Aleks's hand.

"It's okay," she soothes. "Really. If he were hostile, he could admittedly get in an excellent opener in that would absolutely scramble me, which would suck! But that would also do absolutely nothing about you being extremely upset about my treatment. The whole thing would devolve into a huge fight, which would be pointless and stupid, and opening one with knocking me out would be kind of dumb. I'm kind of the most harmless one here. And... there is something valuable to be gained, in openness and honesty and cooperation."

Grumble grumble.

"It doesn't need to be now!" Dhama assures her. "Like Fiorek said, we're not going anywhere."

Giggle.

“Then it can wait for a bit. What were we talking about? Sitting on Tahir’s nano demons slightly less so we can negotiate with them?”

“Can do.” She stretches, cracks her neck, and wiggles her fingers in anticipation. “I’m going to let up slowly, because I’m not going to be able to blindly guess the right level of suppression. You two pay attention and call it if you start to lose control,” she points at Tahir, “and if they’re still too soft to hear,” and then she points at Vetmera.

Then, after a nod from Tahir, she begins.

“Starting… now!”

Couple of seconds later:

THAT WAS AWFUL who do we need to kill WHAT HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE OUT

"Hello, you two. I think this is about enough," he tells Ziobe.

"I agree! Tahir can you hear them too, or do I need to play interpreter?"

Ziobe agreeably leaves the suppression there.

"I can hear them."

HE CAN HEAR US more importantly he can talk

"Yes, I can talk."

STOP HIM kill him BREAK HIM we can't do anything why can't we do anything

"Will you guys chill?"

...okay Aleks is kind of curious about what's happening there.

Vetmera giggles.

"They're freaking out and immediately plotting murder. Guys. Guys calm down, Tahir wants to keep you."

WAIT WHAT why would he do that WHAT IS GOING ON he does know we're killing him right

"We want to figure out a fix for that."

why would we want to fix that killing is part of the point THEN WE JUMP SHIP AND FIND A NEW HOST AND HAVE NEW ADVENTURES

"Oh yeah? Hey, question, how long did you guys spend inside that box."

SO LONG decades... maybe centuries. maybe longer. SO SMALL SO CRAMPED SO DARK there was nothing in there SO BORING NOTHING TO DO NOTHING TO SEE no one was suffering but us

"Uh huh. Yeah I thought so. So what's your plan for when you consume me?"

JUMP SHIP find a new host NEW PERSON NEW ADVENTURES watch you suffer and die find someone else to suffer and die

"Yeah? How'd that work out for you guys last time? Actually, scratch that. Do you think I'll let you guys do that?"

you have no power OUR PUPPET FOR HEROICS we will make you do it OUR TAHIR

(This is fascinating even if Dhama can't really keep track of everything that's happening there.)

Vetmera snorts, then looks at Dhama.

"Hey, can you read my understanding of them, and either project it to everyone or show me how to do it safely? I probably have the capability but I was almost certainly built with the opposite of safety in mind."

"Oh, yeah, I can actually—"

And now the nanites have actual voices.

"There we go! And now everyone can listen. Tahir seems to have this in hand so far, so. Sorry to interrupt." She makes a 'go on' motion with her hand.

Tahir grins at her but then turns his attention inward again.

"Well, see, this is how it's actually going to go. You guys can't actually puppet me that well. You spent a lot of energy yesterday when you tried to distract me from," gestures at Vetmera, "her questioning. You can't keep that up forever. And I have a lot more control than you guys think." He waits for them to reply, but they are for a change very quiet now. "Uh huh. I think you see where this is going? I'm gonna give you a few years of fun and suffering and whatever else, then I am going to burn out in a blaze of glory or jump into the ocean or whatever, and you will find yourselves inside a box or worse once more. For centuries."

NOT CENTURIES we will kill you right now THAT'S MORE THAN DECADES

Well these are some violent nanites.

"The quiet ones have a crush on you and are plotting to murder me," murmurs Vetmera to Aleks. Helpfully.

What the fuck.

"You can't kill me right now. You can barely make me glow right now."

kill you maim you torture you THE GLOW IS THIRTY PERCENT OF THE AESTHETIC

"But we could reach an agreement."

kill you mai—what? DOES IT INVOLVE BACKFLIPS

"So depending on how you guys work, I was thinking we could maybe find a third set of nanites to join you in there, because I bet nanites for making someone immortal was invented sometime in the past, uh, however many apocalypses we've been through by now? To undo the killing Tahir part of what you do. So you could all just hang out in there forever. But that's only if you two can make nice with another set, which I only assume because it seems like you're two sets of nanites."

BUT WE LIKE GOING TO NEW PEOPLE new people to torture new people to kill

"Oh bullshit, I'm the most fun you guys have ever had even when ignoring the centuries of boredom in the darkness." It's a hunch, but he's pretty sure he's right.

BUT... VARIETY we could ambush you

"You're not very good at this whole misdirection thing, are you? Ambushes need to be done in secret to work. Whatever, I trust you see where I'm going with this, but I'm going to spell it out for you guys: you stop killing me and I stay alive forever or very very long, and in exchange you guys get all of the adventures you will want."

ADVENTURES what do we get

"I'm sure many of the adventures will involve hurting or killing people—people who deserve it, no innocents and no me."

And now they're quiet.

"Also a way to get new hosts without the risk of being boxed! I bet lots of people would happily share a body with some nanites that made them immortal just so they could go adventuring. You could just be consensual instead of... not."

consent doesn't sound like suffering WE COULD GET THE OTHER NANITES TO TEACH US HOW TO MAKE NEW ONES OF US AGAIN THAT WAS GREAT WHEN WE COULD DO THAT ...that would be good

"Look, you have been inside my head for however long now, you're just being a brat, I know you like other people's suffering just as much as my suffering. And I'm sure I am going to, I don't know, break a leg at some point, too, if you are also masochistic and like my own pain receptors."

we are feeling manipulated

"It's not manipulation, it's persuasion. And persuasion happens best when the person doing the persuading is right. Which I am. Aren't I?"

TAHIR IS A LOT OF FUN there has been... much suffering

"Splendid! Oh, also, now that you guys know that I don't want to get rid of you, can you please let me have thoughts?"

WAIT WILL YOU WANT TO SLEEP

"No, I can sleep when I'm dead."

that sounds... agreeable

"Also no killing either Vetmera or Aleks. If either or both of them are love interests I would like to figure that one out for myself."

BOTH?

"Y'all ever heard of nonmonogamy? I swear to the ancients, why must you be so dramatic."

Aleks makes a choking sound at that.

Vetmera is giggling uncontrollably.

Dhama nearly chokes on their drink, too, and Theboros looks... like he does not want to deal with these children.

The nanites spend a few more seconds in silence, but eventually:

OKAY WE AGREE TO YOUR AGREEMENT as do we FOR GLORY for pain

"So dramatic," sighs Tahir, but he's smiling.

"Okay but you maybe should make sure they don't figure out how to replicate out of control and start a nanite plague on the world," says Ziobe, seriously. She seems completely unconcerned by the conversational topic.

"Yeah, definitely. But it does sound like they think they can make friends with other nanites at all! Which is good, trying to figure out a different solution could get much messier much faster, at least with a bunch of types of nanites in one body there's a faint hope of everything actually communicating and working within the same system."

"Heh. And you're only a day old. You're going to be scary with more actual life experience."

LAST TIME WE WERE A PLAGUE WAS VERY GOOD THOUGH they can all hear you why are you saying this out loud

"See, I think they're kind of too daft to be a proper threat."

"I'd rather err on the side of caution, though."

"Oh yeah, certainly, I just mean that probably erring on the side of caution will be enough."

She nods.

"Also if you fight the other nanites and kill Tahir in the process Aleks and I will definitely box the lot of you, so. Try to be honest with us about whether or not you can maybe get along, okay?"

Wait, he will?

...damn it, yes he will, why does he keep getting roped into these altruistic projects.

YES MA'AM we are threatened and afraid

"Oh are you learning sarcasm? Good job! She means it though."

"I do! I do mean it. And my mind is housed in a place that is sort of outside my body, so if you jump into me, I'm pretty sure you will not only not be able to shut me up, but also I could figure out a way to purge you entirely without risking my own life at all! And that's if I don't have something in me for fighting hostile nanites already, which I probably do. And if you jump into Aleks he could teleport himself away from all of you and leave you to starve on, oh, I don't know, maybe a moon." She smiles pleasantly. "So we could actually do it, too."

"And you're the harmless one," says Dhama, shaking their head with a smile.

"I am! But comparatively. So, everybody wants you to not get into a war with other nanites over Tahir, yes, we are all agreed and will work towards this mutually beneficial goal?"

YES yes

"So nice when everyone agrees."

“Okay, good!” Pause. “I have no idea where to find an appropriate dose of nanites that might be friendly.”

“There’s a Chirurgical Parlor nearby that does nanite injections. Regenerative, even. But super expensive and apparently agonizingly painful.”

“Well, expensive probably isn’t a problem…” but she looks at Tahir about that other part.

yes pain REGENERATION MEANS BETTER ADVENTURES

"You heard 'em."

"You sound awfully cheerful about it."

"Maybe I like pain a little bit, too. I could show you how much. Hey look I remember how to flirt!"

"Am I still needed in this conversation or can I just stand over there looming menacingly?"

"You can absolutely go loom menacingly," says Vetmera, fondly. "Thank you."

So he teleports over there to loom.

"He does cut a very menacing figure, doesn't he?" Tahir turns to Vetmera. "Just for show, though, of course. You say you are harmless but I think that's a lie."

HE IS FLIRTING WITH BOTH OF THEM we feel ashamed for not having considered the possibility before

"That's what you miss out on when you keep me shut in a box. And now we're learning!"

"I said comparatively harmless!" she corrects, brightly. "Which is not the same thing as completely harmless.

"Okay, since we've got a vague plan mapped out let's work out particulars. Apparently being able to mindread clouds of sapient nanites is weird? Which makes perfect sense now that I think about it, I don't know why it didn't occur to me before. So since I'm weird, I kind of want to get some kind of basic psychic training," she motions to Dhama, "for this and other reasons, and see if I can mind read whatever new nanites we inject in before we do. Since that would imply some level of similarity on a mechanical level—third civilization nanotech and eighth civilization nanotech differed wildly. Which would be almost as bad as if I, uh, I don't know. Hooked you up to an outside device that transmutes dead matter into new cells to match what you've already got, which might copy your nanites and burst their cap wide open. ... Maybe I can learn to project at nanites, that would be so cool and useful!"

"You lost me somewhere there!"

SURE SOUNDED COOL THOUGH too many words we do not like it HEY BOTH OF THEM CAN BE LOVE INTERESTS REMEMBER we were not plotting anyone's murder WE THINK YOU WERE not aloud

"I think this is the point where we don't need to focus so much on keeping track of what's going on with our friend Tahir, here, right? Maybe his nanites will behave," Dhama tells Ziobe.

"It's not really difficult for me to keep this up if you guys want longer to build trust or something," she shrugs. "But yeah I can let off if you're comfortable with it."

"I'm going to need to work on brevity, aren't I..." sighs Vetmera.

"I don't think we're going with 'trust' so much as the promise of mutually assured destruction, here."

that was beautiful WE DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT

"Letting nano demons loose in one... two... three! There you go."

And the glow returns, and brightens and brightens and brightens until he is a veritable mini-sun...

...and suddenly dims back to its normal intensity.

"Nice," says Tahir.

victory is ours WE ARE READY FOR ADVENTURE

"Okay you guys are loud. Not, not complaining, to be clear, just, first time I get my own thoughts and you guys at full speed."

don't get used to it WHY NOT it just seemed like the appropriate thing to say

Vetmera snorts.

"Hey Aleks, is it okay if I let people look at my mindscape thing now?"

He grumbles a little bit but nods.

It's kind of adorable how much the grumpy teleporter man likes the castoff, in light of how little he seems to like everyone else and how little time they've objectively spent together.

having your thoughts here is strange MAYBE YOU COULD THINK A BIT LESS

He doesn't think how much he thinks is something in his control.

THAT SOUNDS LIKE A DRAWBACK we could make you stop again it wouldn't even be hard

Thanks but he'll pass on that, thinking is nice in his opinion.

"May I?" asks Dhama.

"Yes, go ahead."

we still do not like it here IT'S CRAMPED AND SMOTHERING

Yes yes Tahir realises the psychic bar is cramping their style but they'll have to deal with it if they want to stay, his adventure party is doing adventure stuff.

Dhama smiles, breathes in and—

—Vetmera is a mote inside a gigantic prism, eyes peering in at her from all around—

—held tightly in an enormous fist—

—a flimsy piece of glass held up to the light—

(—but she is not afraid, this is... not hostile—)

The psychic's words come from everywhere and nowhere, infinite distances crossed instantly by sound. "A shared space? Such depths, such twists... It builds itself around your experiences, around those who share it with you. Ah, and you have people there, already, four little motes of light... Yes, yes, but shared spaces can be dangerous." Their voice draws closer, and the pressure eases and disappears. She is back in herself.

"I'm sorry, I know I said I wouldn't mess with much, but I sharpened a part of your mind. It should help keep your... visitor spaces... more solid, yes. But what an excellent space, an excellent battleground. If you lured a foe into you, you could trap it within your mind... you could destroy it."

...

Vetmera frowns.

"Excuse me," she says, irritated, and when she looks at him it's got weight behind it. She had been cooperating before, holding still and keeping small and letting him look. But that's what she was letting him do. Look. And then he couldn't resist touching.

"While I appreciate your intent and can tell that you helped, that that was ultimately for the better, that is mine. You should have asked. You should have explained, instead of moving to directly meddling. This is cooperation, and therefore my opinion matters very much. That," and there's a flash of something in her eyes, a flash of but I could be very dangerous if I wanted to be, "was extremely rude. Frankly, how dare you."

Theboros explodes in laughter while Dhama blushes very red and stammers a profuse apology. "And that is what you get for being a meddlesome busybody," says the old man who had been quiet until now. "She's right you know."

Yes she fucking is, thinks the teleporter who is now looming very menacingly around Dhama.

Though Vetmera is still closest to the psychic because Aleks does not want to draw from her spotlight and honestly she is so hot when she's being threatening.

On that they are all in agreement.

"Yes I am," she sniffs, a trace of smug, and if she's agreeing to her companions' thoughts or Theboros's words, it's not clear. "But your apology is accepted. Though for the record if I'd retaliated I would have been entirely justified. Aleks, thank you dear, but I do not want his heart presented to me at this time. He really did mean to help, just. Was very rude about it." Then, at Dhama: "Do better, good intentions do not result in good results."

"Y-yes, my, um, my apologies," they say for probably the tenth time, "I will do better."

    "You got some spine, kid," says Theboros. "I like it."

Ziobe leans over and pats Dhama's shoulder. Poor meddler. Lying in the bed he made for himself. And meanwhile, she eyes Aleks. They're fine, yeah, this isn't about to be a fight where she needs to defend Dhama from an angry teleporter? Because she'd do it, but it would suck.

"Thank you." Theboros gets a smile. Then she looks back to Dhama. "Now. You said there were four people in my mindscape. Not counting myself, I assume?"

Yeah yeah he was doing it mostly out of principle he'll back off.

"Y-yes, I don't think you could be said to be in your mindscape right now," they say, trying to get their stride back. "Were you expecting more? Fewer?"

"Fewer. Were three together, and the last off by itself?"

"Yes," they say, frowning a bit.

"Mm. Well. That'll need looking into. I expect I can probably get to my mindscape on my own, but I haven't done it on purpose before. And I think I'd like to get some practice at projecting before I go poking at strange people hiding in my head. The whole rhetoric of wanting to be able to defend myself before looking for trouble."

"Ziobe might be the best of us to help with that."

"Mmmm depends on the type of projection. I just do physical stuff—telekinesis and whatnot. Is that the kind of projection you're talking about?"

"Oh. No, I meant projective empathy and thoughtsharing. Mind to mind contact. If I'm telekinetic I don't expect I'd be good enough at that to defend myself anytime soon."

"Oh!" exclaims Dhama. "Yes, that is more my area of expertise."

“Right! So, my major concern is that my sire probably didn’t put any… safety limiters or anything. And I am a bit worried that if I try anything, and can, I’ll reduce everyone around me to vegetables. Which I would not like to do. Is there a way to safely ramp up, or, I don’t know, add in some safeties so I don’t break brains by accident?”

Dhama rubs their chin then looks at Theboros. "Actually I think he can help with the safety part."

    "Can I," Theboros says, dryly.

"You could help partition a part of my mind and then I only use that part to instruct our new friend, here, and if worst comes to worst it's only that part that gets turned into a vegetable."

    "...I would not have expected you to offer it just like that," admits the old man, sounding surprised. "But yes, that's something I can do."

"Oh! That'd be great, if you didn't mind uh, maybe having some portion of your mind made useless. Can we work our way up in size, start with something that can just register a yes/no?"

"Most certainly! I don't suppose you would want to do this inside your labyrinth? I have my own mental construct but yours is... rather superior, I admit."

"Mmm... I'm concerned about how it's a shared mental space, and there's at least one person I don't know bouncing around in it. Will the superiority of the structure affect the teaching much, or the amount that you might potentially lose if I turn out to be a dangerous mind bending weapon?"

"I was thinking more about your ability to create isolated spaces within it... but you're right. I am perhaps a bit biased by my curiosity about it."

Vetmera snorts.

"We can poke at it when I have more practice at not melting minds. I'm curious about it, too, but. I want to be systematic about this."

"That's sensible. Well." Dhama offers Vetmera both hands across the table. "Hold them and let's get some basics out of the way. I can't make you a professional but I think I can at least show you where the 'on' button is."

WE ARE SO BORED how long is this going to take

Tahir thinks they are going to need to learn how to deal with not having constant action all day long 100% of the time.

THAT SOUNDS AWFUL we are starting to rethink that deal WAS THAT PART OF THE DEAL maybe it was in the fine print WE CAN'T READ

Do they even have a suggestion for what to do?

sitting here is probably the first thing that has to stop YES LET'S GET OUT OF THIS STUPID BAR we can find adventures outside

Really? Do they not even want to solve the mystery with the erased women?

...maybe YES HOW DO WE DO THAT

Sit. And. Wait.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING

She takes Dhama's hands, smiling.

Her worries about melting brains turn out to be well-founded. She is not the weapon of psychic destruction that she feared, but neither is she precisely safe. Simple projection of speech turns out to be both easy and harmless, but projection of strong emotions or full experiences is a bit more hit or miss. While she can push harder if she means to, feeling something strongly magnifies the strength as well. Accordingly, she'll need to be careful about anything she feels particularly strongly about. Fortunately, the minor damage from these experiments is recoverable—Dhama's isolated mindspaces start unscrambling themselves slowly, and do so more quickly when reconnected back to the rest of his mind. Interestingly, as they scale up the size of the isolated fragment, it withstands the force much better. A complete mind will probably hold up even better than these safer experiments.

And with that Dhama thinks they're done for now.

"You will probably need to practise some on your own. Each mind is unique, and I can't directly teach you everything I know, you'll need to figure out how your own thing works. I can probably give you some pointers for what to try, later, once you're more familiar with yourself."

"Okay! Thank you very much." She's going to go find and hug Aleks, because she's excited.

"I can project!" she says brightly. "Without melting minds, even! I shouldn't right now because I'm excited about it and that makes it a bit dangerous but still!"

Aleks laughs and pets her hair fondly. "Congratulations."

“Thank you!” Pause. “… okay just words would be fine, it’s shoving my glee at you that would be dangerous.”

A voice speaks in his mind, in words-but-not-words. It might in other circumstances be a little disconcerting, but its flavor is very recognizably her, and backed with warm affection.

::And this way I can talk to you silently! Oh and also relay what the nanites are saying directly and stuff. It sounds a bit tedious, but no seriously they’re hilarious, and…:: She tails off, and he gets the impression she wanted to send a more complicated thought concept, but thought better of it. ::… this is friendlier/more cooperative/I care about your perspective? We’re a team.::

He starts when he hears her voice but relaxes a fraction of a second later when it's clear it's her. Anyway he doesn't know what his perspective would add, in the ten seconds since they started speaking aloud they've just sounded like nuisances.

WHY DID THEY SUDDENLY GO SILENT probably telepathy THAT IS NOT AN ADVENTURE

By the ancients just sit still for five minutes

MINUTES???? THAT IS TOO LONG!!!!!! weren't you meant to be killing missing girls or something SAVING THEM saving missing girls or something

::So, yes, but also: :: and then she relays what's happening in Tahir's head. ::Hilarious.::

"Sorry guys. We should be done with the boring sitting around bit for now, there's other mind stuff I want to check on but I should probably have a better handle on projection before I get to it. Do you want to handle the girls getting overwritten or getting you some nanite friends first, since we made you wait so long?"

GIRLS girls

"I am outvoted," laughs Tahir, who is also of a mind with them anyway. The nanites can wait, he'd have years still regardless of Vetmera's help.

“As our nanite contingent commands!” She turns to Dhama and his companions. “So! Apparently a bunch of girls are getting their personalities overwritten? What’s that about?”

“Oh! That,” says Ziobe. “So we're not entirely sure how it picks people to replace, it seems to be a mix of physical similarity with someone-that-was and similarity of personality. All at the same age range, getting worse as they get older, until they die from it or, you know, related trauma from losing who they are. The source comes from somewhere in this city, but wherever it's coming from is hidden well enough that we can't find the damn thing, and neither could anyone else that's tried in the past couple hundred years. Apparently. But if you will look to that dark and ominous corner over there..." She motions dramatically. "You can see my and Dhama's pet project to try and figure it out."

... Yep. That's a ghost in the corner. Only not notable in this bar of people because, well, it seems to be the kind of bar that has a lot of weirdos, most of them passed over by narration until now.

"Your pet project is a ghost," Aleks half-states, incredulously.

"More like a conglomerated composite of the person that had been replacing all of the victims, carefully pulled off of them and arrayed on a suitable telekinetic mesh that can hold everything up and keep the puzzle pieces together and figure out just who is replacing them. ... But, basically, yes. Pale blue and transparent seemed less presumptuous than deciding any specific coloration or features. Also, fun."

"If I may ask, the reason you believe that will work when the past however many years didn't...?"

"Eh. Truth be told, we don't?" she says, with a shrug. "But it seemed only decent to give it our best shot. And 'recreate the person that keeps getting shoved at people to ask her questions' is a weird enough solution that presumably no one's tried it before. She won't say a damn thing, though."

"I feel this may be above my paygrade."

MAYBE WE COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE HER TALK with torture SHE'S AN INNOCENT we don't know that yet, we should torture her just to make sure

Tahir makes a face like "I'm sorry they're Like This."

"And talking instead of mindreading is because... Dhama can't read her? Should I go try, with my weird nanite reading abilities?"

"Right in one, and that might be pretty helpful actually!" says Dhama. "I can see that there's a mind there but can't... really... interact. Much."

"Huh. Okay. Let's see if I am in fact the protagonist, I guess."

Towards the ghost she goes.

The ghostly woman stares listlessly into the distance, not even responding. Presumably this is why she's kept in the corner.

"Hmm," muses Vetmera. "Well I don't think she's thinking, for one. Which is most likely a mercy. This is more like a sleeping mind than a waking one. Helloooo, oh ghost lady, do you respond to stimuli at all..?"

Maybe it's the result of this ghost being made up from lots of pieces pulled off of lots of victims, but it looks strangely... familiar. That's probably bad, right?

You know what else is probably bad? The ghost suddenly focusing its (her?) full attention on Vetmera, her face twisting into a mask of rage. She snarls silently, then lunges forward to wrap her ghostly hands around Vetmera's throat, clearly intent on murder.

No you fucking don't, if this speedster teleporter has anything to say about it. Which he does.

Ghost versus speedster teleporter, speedster teleporter wins! The ghost is pulled away from the castoff and turns limp and listless near immediately.

"What the fuck," says Ziobe.

"Oh, damn it," sighs Vetmera, who is honestly way less freaked out by the attempted murder than she should be, really. "Thank you, Aleks. Who wants to bet that sire-dearest is responsible for this, somehow."

"Oh. Oh, that would make sense."

"Everything is their fault," grumbles Aleks.

WHAT WERE WE SAYING about what ABOUT LOVE INTERESTS

Yes, nanites, Tahir agrees that Aleks is really hot but this is not the time.

"But how did it do that, I didn't make the body with anything to move it, it's just the appearance of one except for the bits that might make it talk, how did it...?"

"Tidal bullshit, I bet. It seems to be a theme, with them. Who wants to take bets on if I eat it with my brain and fall unconscious to have exciting mind times if the ghost loses its scaffold?"

ADVENTURES I don't think we can follow her in there BUT WHAT IF WE REALLY WANNA

Aleks just frowns at the ghost some more, silently.

"That... seems like it might be the sort of thing where you should get some backup?"

SEE? ADVENTURES! you may have a point

"I would love backup. How do I have backup with mind bullshit."

"I can... probably... link our minds together. And create projections of our selves into your—I believe you called it a shared space, did you not, that would help."

"Oh!" Vetmera perks up. "Well, I feel compelled to preface any attempt with the clarification that we're doing the equivalent of throwing a couple strange numenera together and hoping they play nice just because they look alike, not because they work on the same systems. It could in fact explode and might literally unravel minds if given the chance or something, but. ... I would really love backup. So. ... Yes, if you think it'd be safe, but probably only with knowingly expressed consent that this could in fact be a horrible disaster, somehow. And also, regardless, you should probably stay out of the link so we have a spotter if it all explodes."

"Yes, I was going to say, one of us should definitely stay out and under the circumstances it should probably be me. I'm more confident than you, though, I did manage to interface with you earlier and with the, uh..." They blush a bit. "Little unasked-for thing I did earlier, it should be stable."

Dhama was sufficiently penitent about that that Aleks does not feel like further threats of punishment are needed but he does look over his shoulder to frown at the man. It would end very poorly for him if Aleks thought he was doing more unasked-for things in Vetmera's mind.

Vetmera snorts.

::Affection:: she sends to Aleks, privately. More the word, than the feeling, because he gets the impression she is still trying very hard to be gentle, but he can definitely feel the affection.

"Volunteers for a mind adventure, then? With the knowledge that this is absolutely risky and mixing numenera and could explode and whatnot."

"Pass, it's probably bad if I get brain eaten while being the person sort of... holding it together." Also, someone needs to keep the squishy caster telepath safe. That is, typically speaking, her job.

do you need to ask PICK US PICK US PICK US

"Ya heard 'em," says Tahir with a shrug and a half smile.

"...I think I might actually be of help," says Theboros, despite himself. Dhama doesn't smile at it but Theboros shoots them a half glare as if they had.

Aleks is... uncertain. On the one hand he wishes to be better able to protect her, but on the other that would leave no one from their party outside.

...is he considering Tahir to be in their party now. Fuck him.

Aleks is adorable, and Vetmera will go over there and hold his hand over it. Carefully avoiding the ghost's line of sight, because another murder attempt would rather kill the mood. Fortunately, she's back to staring at the corner, so this isn't hard.

::I could see either being arguably the best bet, depending on how much we do or don't trust these people::

"It does matter if you want to go," she points out to Theboros, a little wryly. "Yes, you could be of help, but. Don't feel obligated to tangle with strange numenera and mind bullshit for some random stranger you've never met?"

    Theboros snorts. "Hey, helping someone who's allowed to know I did it and might be grateful, 's a nice change from the usual."

        (Dhama does not bring up the fact that actually mostly they're helping the random girls getting mind replaced, not Vetmera. Whatever Theboros needs to believe to feel good about helping other people.)

"I'll stay here," Aleks decides. He does not in fact trust these people and he feels like his comparative advantages work best in the physical world.

"Sure." Handsqueeze. "Well, thank you, Theboros. I appreciate it. Is there anything in particular we need to do for the mind link thing? Hold hands or something?"

"Holding hands helps but isn't necessary, I mostly just need the mental motion of, hmm, giving me permission."

"Permission granted," she agrees, just a little wryly.

The mental motion of giving permission is reasonably intuitive once Dhama comes knocking.

ADVENTURE

"We should be ready. I believe it is your show now," they tell Vetmera.

"Right. Time to go fall unconscious again. Aleks, please keep her from strangling me while I attempt to eat her. With my brain."

Back in front of the ghost lady! Knock knock, she wants to eat you, nom nom!

Ghost lady twists in Aleks's grip, but is held fast, glaring venomously. When nothing immediately happens, Vetmera gingerly touches her cheek, and then she disappears.

And down goes the castoff! Again! This time with friends!

The castoff and friends find themselves on a cross-shaped metal platform floating in the middle of a green void. The four arms of the platform are not all the same size, and they all vanish into the void in a way that looks—glitchy. Like the platform is fighting to keep existing, and its edges occasionally flicker out of sight before reasserting themselves.

The ghostly woman is in the middle of the platform, no longer looking angry—merely very confused—and behind her is a strange cyllindrical machine with a strange symbol glowing green on the flat side and a computer terminal on the curved side.

"... Huh," she says thoughtfully, looking around. Then, like a good hostess, she immediately checks on her guests. "Everyone get through okay?"

"Fine here!"

time to kill RESCUE when do we get to the killing TRUST TAHIR ...sounds bad

    Theboros rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Yeah, fine."

“Good! Glad to hear it.” She looks around thoughtfully, notes the flickering incomplete maybe-paths, and decides this implies she probably needs to find additional… mind shard things… to fully complete this puzzle. That seems like how this logic goes.

“What about you?” she asks, of the ghostly woman. “Are you more coherent in here?”

The ghostly woman looks... confused. She's looking at a nearby machine with a puzzled expression on her face, wondering how she knows it and why it frightens her so. When addressed, she startles a little.

"Ah? ... I don't know, this is so confusing. Where are we? Do you know?"

"My mind. Or, well, a construct my mind is attached to and has some control over. What it's representing, I don't know."

"Oh it's representing the Changing God's lair!"

"It is? Oh, of course it is. Thanks ever so, sire dearest."

"In... Sagus?" says the ghostly woman, softly. "Why do I remember that name?"

"In Sagus Cliffs, yes. What else do you remember?"

"I... know that women like me are created, repeatedly. Against their will. I know I was angry, it's, it's. It's not right. Wrong."

who do we kill PERHAPS WHOEVER DISTRESSES THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS SO ...acceptable

(Theboros, meanwhile, remains his taciturn self, watching everything with a frown and... well, looking like he's ready for a fight to break out at any moment.)

“Right, uh. So there are a couple of obvious things we could do. The most obvious and straightforward being ‘go to the place we see here and poke stuff,’ but knowing my sire, it’s all rigged to explode if sneezed on incorrectly, so that should not be the first thing we do. Do you think you might remember more of what’s going on if we went and collected more, uh, fragments of you? Because you don’t look… complete, to me.”

“I don’t think I am. I think I’m… all of the parts that didn’t break in trying to make other people, well, me. I think you should try to find other girls that are, um, in the middle of becoming like me? And see if the pieces there remember some of the holes I don’t.”

“Right. Quest to find other victims to steal their pieces and see about putting this puzzle together. Straightforward enough. Which is admittedly surprising, but I’m not complaining. Do you think it’s this machine that’s, um, doing the thing?” She motions to the big machine that terrifies the ghost.

“I… don’t know. It’s just terrifying. I don’t remember why.”

“Damn. My plan to blow it up if we don’t have any better ideas will be tabled for now, then.”

WE COULD BLOW IT UP we might die NOT IF WE DO HER PLAN OF MAKING US IMMORTAL ......also acceptable WE MAKE MANY ACCEPTABLE PLANS that is not the achievement you think it is

Her mouth twitches a little, but she doesn't comment on the nano peanut gallery.

"I guess that's... all we need to do in here, then. Related to this, anyway. Do you, er, want anything in here to make your stay more comfortable?"

"Like what?"

"... Like, uh. Cards or a training dummy or blank journals or something. To keep from getting bored."

"..... I don't think there's enough of me to get bored."

"O....kay. Then we'll just, uh, let you hang out here, I guess. Maybe try to remember more of yourself."

ARE WE DONE HERE we think we are DID WE SAVE THE GIRL we did not save the girl WHAT WAS THE POINT THEN

"Information-gathering, my artificial buddies."

THAT SOUNDED FANCY it sounded like excuses ADVENTURES HAVE INFORMATION GATHERING on the whole anticlimactic

"Should we try poking the mental construct of the machine over there and see if it is informative?"

    "That sounds like needless danger," opines Theboros.

"Probably less danger than the actual machine that we're probably going to go poke eventually! So I vote yes poking. And there's also the whole thing of, while we're here, in a bar of psychics and with people guarding our meat bodies, we go poke the mysterious fourth person apparently contained in my head. Which is a thing I think we should do once we're done here. If Theboros is up for it."

    He sighs. "I'm here, might as well."

"Machine first, though, I'm curious."

WE ARE TOO ...we must admit to that also

"Yeah, definitely." She takes a step towards the representation of the machine....

... then stops, frowning.

Why... is it so terrifying? Why does she feel like she can't get any closer to it, like it's too big for her, like she couldn't ever possibly understand or touch it??

"Are you having a castoff moment, should I be the one to touch the machine instead?"

sounds dangerous SOUND EXCITING potayto, potahto

".... I'm absolutely having a castoff moment, yep. Damn my sire to the deepest pits of multidimensional hell, by the way."

"Roger that, on my way," Tahir says, cheerfully, and skips over to the machine. Theboros hangs back, watching, ready to... do something... in case something needs to be done.

The device is large, and giving off a faint hum. It looks like it was once part of a larger device, or perhaps a network of devices, embedded in the rock beneath the city. Thick cables disappear into the void beyond. A glowing blue interface floats above the etched surface.

Unfortunately for Tahir, his hands pass right through it.

"Oh bugger," says Tahir, while his quiet nanites swear profusely and his loud nanites whine.

    "You can't interact with the machine and probably only the castoff can, but the castoff is having issues with mental blocks placed here by the Changing God preventing her from actually doing that," drawls Theboros as if he sees this kind of stuff happen every other Tuesday.

"That's my guess!"

"Of course that's the sort of 'solution' my sire would come up with," sighs Vetmera, irritated. "Fortunately there's an obvious workaround. Grab my hand and make me poke it?"

"Yes, ma'am!" 

IS THIS IT is this what THE MOMENT WHEN WE FINALLY HOLD THE LOVE INTEREST'S HAND AND— she is not the true love interest

"Man y'all are really poorly socialised, huh?" He walks over to Vetmera to lead her to the machine.

    "Who programmed nanobots with romantic feelings," Theboros mutters.

"I think they're just moved by the drama of the story this tells," Tahir replies.

NO WE ARE NOT THIS IS TRUE LOVE true hatred

She's perfectly pliant at first, keeping her eyes (well, mental representation of eyes) closed and trying to think about something else. But as she gets closer, she begins trembling, and then eventually trying to squirm away from the machine.

"I'm, fine, actually," she whines, high pitched and unhappy. "You, can, fuck I can't even say it out loud, I hate my sire so much!"

Fortunately, Tahir is significantly stronger than she is, even in a mindscape. He can, for the briefest of moments, force her hand onto the interface. It flashes affirmative, and some of its interface changes to display what looks like a network of some kind...

... And then Vetmera whimpers. Something around her twists, and she flickers away and is several feet away from the machine, and Tahir himself.

There's a burst of psychic energy as she does that, expanding outwards in all directions and of course most relevantly in Tahir's direction—

—she didn't flicker away, her mindscape itself moved, and everyone else with it, while she stayed still, and that created something like the mental equivalent of a gravitational wave—

—and then it's gone, or neutralised, or something, and Theboros is holding his palm up with a frown of concentration on his face.

...perhaps you are onto something YES WE ARE WAIT WHAT ARE WE ONTO her having potential

"Did you guys already forget about the 'both' part?"

oh right OH RIGHT

    "This is getting ridiculous," says Theboros after he's made sure that the place isn't about to collapse in on itself. He looks at Vetmera to ask: "How are you feeling?"

"Mmmnnnnrghhh," she enunciates hoarsely. "S-sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't, uh, even know I could do that, I definitely didn't mean to, um. I, fine, I guess, terrified and dizzy and sick and, again so incredibly sorry."

"You don't need to apologise!" chirps Tahir. "That was an interesting experience."

    Theboros shoots him a look then looks at Vetmera again. "I have a suggestion, but it would require rather a lot more trust in me than you extended even Dhama."

"Mmnnh okay, let's hear it?"

"I can split you from yourself. More specifically, I could cut you off from your emotions and instincts, keep them contained and at bay in a partitioned area of your mind. This would hopefully cut off your automatic flinches... but it would also sap you of motivation to do anything and ability to make choices. You would need to trust Tahir also, as it would take all of my attention to keep this partition up from within your mindscape."

"Oh. Hm."

She looks at the device, then nibbles at her lip.

"I'm not sure we're going to get much of anywhere poking at a representation of a thing, in a mindscape that's not even complete. We know we're missing," she waves to the ghostly woman, "ghost women collectibles. Possibly I'm making excuses because I'm, well, emotionally freaked out and upset??" Then she furrows her brow and gets a stubborn look in her eye. "... However, if you can do the same thing in the real world, to actually turn this damn thing off, then yeah, that sounds great."

WE ARE SO RIGHT perhaps we should apologise to you YES YOU SHOULD ...nah

    "I can—it will if anything be easier to do in the real world, within here I am in your proverbial power and your mind is exerting a lot of pressure that I'd need to fight."

She nods. "Okay. So we investigate more until we have a better idea of what to do with the machine, and then we strike. In the real world, where this actually matters. If you're still willing to help, that is. Thank you, by the way, for keeping me from horribly blasting Tahir and company right in the brain."

"You're welcome. Though I'm not going to follow you on your adventures, I'm retired, come back to the bar when you're done with whatever it is you need to do."

"That's very reasonable, we can spare you the annoying footwork part of the adventure," she agrees, easily. "Off to go poke the mysterious stranger hiding in my head, or does anyone else have any good ideas related to the shitty mess my sire left?" She looks at the ghostly woman. "... no offense."

The ghostly woman just shrugs, clearly not offended.

    "Let's get it over with."

"We're ready."

HE SAID WE is this character growth IT'S RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT

"Right then. Let's see if I can find them."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and starts looking. It's not, actually, very difficult to find. And then the labyrinth shifts and twists, and they're somewhere else, in front of someone else.

"Hey there," she says, pleasantly. "What'cha doing?"

This person is dreamlike, less solid than that transdimensional clock and the castoffs that were absorbed into Vetmera's mind. Less solid even than the ghostly woman, who at least had defined characteristics. This person, though, is more the idea of a person, a hazy blue silhouette made of memories of smoke, piercing eyes set into a face that is... both familiar and not. Both familiar and not, in a similar way to how various memories of Vetmera's have been, people and places and things her sire's run into that are now etched into her mind despite not being hers.

"Oh," they breathe, their voice a whispering echo. "Hello."

And the place they're in is not really that different from everywhere else in Vetmera's mind: another floating platform in the void, this one a glossy black reflecting the unearthly light coming from an imaginary galaxy in the distance.

"Hello," she says, even though she technically already greeted him. "Do you have a name?"

"I... probably did, at one point," they say, projecting an impression of thoughtfulness and dismay through their lack of a face or body language. "But I don't remember it. Or... much of anything. I've been calling myself a Spectre, for, well, obvious reasons." A mental impression of gesturing down at their non-body. "I'm sorry, this can't be what you were expecting. ...or can it? Who... are you? And where are we?"

"I don't trust them," Theboros says, mostly just to be thorough.

She doesn't either, but that's no reason not to be polite.

"We're in a mindscape for castoffs, and castoff related... stuff. Uh, what do you remember?"

"Oh! That word! I know that word! That's... the Changing God, right? Or the, the... I think I'm one of those. ...maybe. A mindscape? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

"Work harder on the act, buddy, you're not fooling anyone."

"...fooling? I'm not..." They look down at their not-feet and give off the impression of, again, thoughtful dismay. "I don't think I am? But it's strange, I... can't tell."

(Tahir over here is actually for the first time having genuine trouble with this interaction. He's noticing that actually apparently he runs a lot of his ability to talk to people on being able to see them? This not-a-body is really throwing him for a loop.)

"Uh... huh," says Vetmera, deciding to conjure some chairs so they can have this conversation sitting down. She includes chairs for everyone else, because she's polite. Even though this spectre is avoiding answering her questions. "Well, this is... sort of a web that catches errant minds. You're the fifth mind it's caught, and unlike the others I'm not sure how you got here. Which is why I ask if you remember anything that might explain that."

"No, I... I understand, I'm just... Sorry, I know it must seem so strange that I'm not answering, it's not that I'm, I don't, I don't really remember... much. And I'm trying to. Being a castoff, though, I think I do. This is... your mind?" They give the impression of sitting down but all that does is make the chair also look really strange and indistinct. "I don't know. I'm sorry. ...I could leave? It must be uncomfortable, having someone living in your mind who acts so suspiciously. I wouldn't want to impose. I've nothing to offer." They fidget a bit with an imaginary hem of a shirt, then grimace. "I'm pretty sure I did, at some point, but I don't know what or when."

See the most suspicious thing here is that he can't see what the game is and games you can't see are the ones you lose.

"I'm all right, it's not particularly uncomfortable to house you." Also she's not really sure she should let this person... out. But then, she's not sure if they should be in here, either. "Uh, slight problem with leaving, that might kill you if you don't have... something else to house your mind in. So. Uh. My going theory is that you're a recently deceased castoff of some kind, and you ended up here instead of dissipating." Or some kind of something or other from her sire, but she will avoid accusing them of that to see what kind of game they want to play with this... whatever this is.

"Oh. I'm dead? ...that makes the name even more appropriate, heh," they say with a slight self-deprecating smile. "...but then, I... I am thankful. I don't know anything else but I know that I don't want to die." They look up, then, suddenly fierce. "What can I do to prove myself? That I can be trusted? I'll do it!"

"'S not how trust works."

"It isn't?" They deflate again. "Oh. I suppose it's not."

(This person isn't literally the most emotionally unstable one here but it's a tough competition and Tahir feels like that in itself is very impressive.)

"No, it's not. Sorry. I can, uh. At least set you up comfortably in here? And try to verify where you came from? Is there really nothing at all you remember?" She is not going to offer making this person a body, not without verifying that they're, you know, actually a castoff instead of sire-related bullshit.

"I... I can try to remember. There's, um... ...I don't suppose you have a map of places that exist? That might jog my memory—oh, but then I could just be making it all up, hmm. This is a tough problem. Let me think."

"I don't mind giving you a map," shrugs Vetmera, who has actually managed to see one between the margins of the narration. A local one, granted, but still a map. "It's not a map of a particularly large area, mind, just of Sagus Cliffs and the surrounding areas, but..." Map! It's a little fuzzy, because it's being made by her memory, but, uh. ... It's as accurate as she can verify. "It would at least give me somewhere to look to verify your existence outside of here, you know?"

"Oh. Thank you. Sagus Cliffs, that name doesn't really ring a bell, but..." They pause and frown thoughtfully at the map. "No, I do. I... do I have a way to, um. Draw? Or, or alter the map in any way?"

Sure, have a pen.

They take it and immediately start scribbling on the map like suddenly possessed by the muse of mapmaking, adding detail and corrections all over everywhere and... making the map more accurate. 

Eventually they're done and, when they stop, they give off a the sense that they're kind of confused and alarmed by what just happened. "Um. I think I. Remembered something?" they say, looking at the strange impressionistic version of a pen that's what's become of the pen Vetmera have them. "I think I lived here. Live here? Your map seemed wrong but maybe it's mine that's outdated..."

"It's the memory of a map, more than an actual proper copy of a map. I wouldn't be surprised if it were wrong, I haven't systematically committed any maps to memory yet." She makes a copy of the one they've made changes to, and peers at it. "Hm. I can probably work with this. Any other ideas?"

"Oh, um... No, not really. Or, oh, or maybe you could show me some things you see when you go places? Can you do that? It doesn't need to be everything but maybe if I saw somewhere familiar—ah." They withdraw into themself again. "Sorry. Don't worry about it."

She absolutely does not want one of her siblings watching out of her eyes every minute of every day. She especially does not want her sire (or some associated something of her sire) doing so. ... But then, it would be rather boring in here, all alone, wouldn't it.

"... You can ask for stuff," she says, softly. If admittedly because what they ask for is likely to be very indicative, but also because she wants to treat prisoners or semi-prisoners or innocent people under her power well. "I don't mind showing some memories of places." Here: view of the market, when she went shopping with Aleks. Just a vague overview of the market, none of the personal stuff like what she went shopping for or who she was with or how she felt about any of it.

They peer at the memories as if trying to glare their secrets out of them and burn every detail in their mind. But... "No, sorry," they sigh. "I don't recognise those places. But... thank you anyway. I wish I had more to offer."

Ugh, this framing is so irritatingly transactional.

"It's not a matter of you giving me anything," sighs Vetmera, "I don't... if you really are one of my lost siblings, saved from death by my weird physiology, then I don't... want things from you. I want to verify your situation so I can be sure you're not some kind of trap or something, but. I don't mean you any harm? You don't need to pay in valuable information to be worth the risk of keeping you in here, or something, just. ... I do need to be careful?"

They flinch at her mild annoyance like they'd been slapped. "R-right. That's... you're very kind. I think I'm not... used to that. I'm not sure what I'm used to instead..."

"Spare us the sob story at least until you've figured it all out, will you?"

They flinch again and sit back down and nod at their feet.

She's now a little bit irritated at Theboros, but she clamps down on it instead of giving him a look. His perspective is pretty fair, this is objectively suspicious and concerning!! Just. ... She wants to be kind.

"... I'll leave you some empty books for you to write down anything you remember in, all right? And give you some time to sort things out. Um. Is there anything you want before we give you some space?"

"I... don't know. I think it's... probably fine. Books are good? But when you weren't here time was... strange... so I don't think I'll get bored. Or wait long."

"Oh. Okay." That doesn't make her feel any better at all, actually! Blank books: exist. Along with a desk, and a bed, and a deck of cards. She sets the map floating against the void, then adds a set of colored pens to go with the singular one already present. ... Then she adds a decorative rug, so the place feels just a smidge less, uh. Like sad solitary confinement.

The afterimage of their body language looks kind of tense and shy but curious, and when she's done they say another small, "Thank you," and visibly cut themself off before apologising for being unable to pay again.

"You're welcome," she says, gently, and then they can go.

To another part of the labyrinthine mindscape, instead of out of it entirely.

Where she looks at Theboros and says, very seriously, "Could you use your abilities to make sure that section is neatly isolated from the rest, please?"

"Done," he says in a drawl—but there's a glint of approval in his eye.

"That was so uncomfortable."

EXTREMELY BORING we were surprised you managed to stay quiet that long WE WERE WAITING FOR THEM TO DO SOMETHING INTERESTING in vain MAYBE NEXT TIME don't get your hopes up

"Wasn't it just! No wonder castoffs constantly try to kill each other, it's much easier than the mind games..." grumbles Vetmera, clearly upset.

"Thank you," she adds, to Theboros. "For the record I agree with your assessment, and don't trust... any of that, just..." She waves vaguely.

"...now that we're no longer around them... consider the possibility that they're speaking the truth. There are many ways your sire could choose to fuck with you and one of them is leaving you an unpoisoned gift just so you could poison it yourself."