Home 18 - Where Everybody Knows Your Name

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Apartment

"You discussed this?" Kate asks, uncomfortable again.

"Don't you discuss what to do if your sniffle turns out to be the flu?" Copi counters.

Kate leans back. "I don't want to do it."

"But?"

"...but maybe last night was a one-time thing."

"Or maybe it won't be. Maybe it will get worse. Maybe they really will become nightmares. Maybe they'll start to be about your sexuality."

Kate shifts uncomfortably.

"...the transformy dream gave you an hourglass build, didn't it?"

"I kept peeling it off and it kept coming back, a little bigger each time..."

[Halae]

[Kate's Apartment]

"It won't get better Kate, I promise. I'm connected to the Fiske mind network myself, and getting even a few memories from Julie can stagger me at night. You have an entire other mind invading yours, and too much at once may cause severe psychological problems. We won't do it if you say no, but it'll be like a doctor fixing a wound; it's uncomfortable now, but necessary for proper healing to start." Eric is all understanding, but slightly pushy

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Apartment

Kate is quiet. "Okay... what would you do?"

"I think that we put you to sleep, and then go into your mind and look at things. We'll likely fix things if it's really necessary, but I don't want to make not-needed changes without your permission."

[OrchestraHc]

Jace's Place

The Hidden Manor

Well, that's no problem then. Tep really isn't organizing the temporary stacks, and none of the stacks are very close together to avoid mix-ups. Once everything has been pulled off the shelf, the final subjects can be chosen, the final map can be drawn, and then they can start putting them on the shelves.

The Hidden Manor:

Three floors of books? No way he'll be finished before the Romeo's lesson is done. It's less than an hour before Romeo comes down the stairs, head stuffed full of new knowledge, and apparently low energy spells he'll fiddle with later.

"Tep?" Romeo calls as he walks down the stairs. "Are things going smoothly?" He's probably been getting annoyed mutterings from Tep through their link the whole time.

[UncleWolf]

Jace's Shop => Pizza Place

Veronica leans against Jace's shoulder with a sigh, holding her paper bag and purse in her hands. "I know, just...I also know it's not ideal. Maybe we can arrange something for the future though? I'd rather not give up on this if you're willing to keep going. But I guess that really depends on what you think of me." She says with a shrug, not really wanting to know.

After a bit longer she gives a nod towards what looks like a cave up ahead. "That's the place. Pepper-Oni's. Anything you want and it'll be whipped up for you not matter how complicated or rare it might be." She explains before stopping in her steps and groaning. "After last night I'm not sure wishing for anything is a good idea. Especially if it's going to happen."

[Deathkeeper]

Pizza Place

Jace just smiles and lets her lean on him. "That sounds fine. We'll work something out later." he says softly.
Why was he thinking this way anyway? He hadn't ever actually thought over her as a means to an end, but he hadn't ever really intended on getting into a relationship with that date. Maybe he'd been kinda hoping, but he'd really just thought it'd be a harmless way to beat Libra. A nice day or two, letting it fall apart when the girl inevitably doesn't' like him and his weird magic and little brother tag-along. He hadn't ever really thought that it'd end up as really anything, but she actually came back after all that crap, and he feels glad about it without just not wanting to have hurt someone. It's not really what he thought he'd have thought about anyone who-
[Boss?] Yeah? [Shut up and go with it.]
Jace just smiles. And eventually, he laughs at her comment. "Well, we'll just have to remember to only ask for things that seem reasonable. I will warn you now though, I am a person involved with magic. My life can get strange, although it's never been so in-my-face as last week. Usually it's just meeting people with odd problems and a minor hex here and there. But come on, your brothers are probably holding a seat for us." he says.

The Hidden Manor

Maybe not the whole time. The minor inconveniences might not be able to outweigh the joys of working with books.
"Fine, fine. Only got a third of the floor labelled, too. Gonna take a while. Hey, can you fetch me some colored paper or notes or something? Might make this go a little faster."

[OrchestraHc]

The Hidden Manor:

"Sure I'll go look in the- Actually wait." He takes a knee and looks under a table. Standing up unsatisfied, he frowns. "Never any help when I actually suspect it. Okay. Now I'll go look in the office."

A few minutes later, a pleased feeling will flow through link and he will return with a blank notebook, a ream of multicolored paper (yellow, pink, blue), and pack of sticky notes in the same colors. "Will these do?"

[Halae]

Kate's Apartment

Kate is quiet. "Okay... what would you do?"

"I think that we put you to sleep, and then go into your mind and look at things. We'll likely fix things if it's really necessary, but I don't want to make not-needed changes without your permission."

[Kate's Apartment]

Eric nods, not having much more to say on the matter.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Apartment

Kate is quiet for a minute. "You know just how to talk me into this, don't you?"

"The same way you can talk yourself out of it, but turned around."

"...I don't like it."

"That's not a terribly logical position."

Kate is confused for a moment, and then realizes that it's a Star Trek reference, something that she was fond of in... something that Ky was fond of.

Kate lies down on the couch, and closes her eyes.

[Halae]

[Kate's Apartment]

Eric nods to Copi, and opens a mental channel to her mind, I'll just be sitting in and watching, giving advice here and there, like I said before. I can probably also insulate Kate from any excess damage, but I'm not sure if it'll be necessary. We'll have to see.

This time, he'll actually appear in her mindscape, as a sort of liquid silver being of pure energy. every time he speaks, his entire form vibrates. It's really quite odd.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Apartment

Copi lets Eric in, and he finds himself... in a white space, Copi standing nearby. She looks like she does in real life.

He likely doesn't need to be told that these are both constructs for him, he isn't actually in her natural mindscape.

"I can protect her from most damage myself, I think. You're more experienced, but I'm a master of seeing what the mindscape is really showing, and I can be at multiple places at once in a mind. I've put her to sleep, ready to enter?"

[Halae]

[Kate's Appartment]

Eric makes a nebulous nodding motion, "I am indeed."

He doesn't mind that Copi didn't want him in her natural mindscape; the woman's gone through a hell of a lot of trauma, so it's likely a warped place. You don't go around showing scars when there's more pressing matters to attend to.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Appartment

The white plane shifts, and Eric is in Kate's mindscape. By proxy, but it looks and feels like he's really there.

That said, this first area isn't all that impressive. There's Kate, asleep at a desk. There's a multiple-monitor system in front of her, currently off. The room is small, the only exit a manhole near the back of the room with a ladder going down.

"Here it is, I just slipped into the logical place. Here, right where her actual consciousness is. If she were awake, it's possible she could hear us right now."

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

Eric nods, "We should head deeper then, yes?" he asks, motioning towards the manhole and ladder. if Copi agrees, he'll begin floating towards it, intending to head down.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Precisely," Copi says. She'll be on the next level when Eric floats down. This one looks more like a board room, a large table in the center of the room with chairs around it. It's empty, the 'board' not being active while asleep. There is a hole in the table, and a ladder down on the other side of the hole from the manhole...

That is, the manhole is right above the hole. If Eric dropped, he would keep going down into the lower levels. However, the ladder down is on the other side of the larger hole on this level.

"Internal debate," Copi narrates, "Currently non-active due to sleep. Nothing useful here."

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

"So, do we take this path, or that one?" he asks, indicating either manhole. His silvery form is taking on a bit more definition; one can see his normal features in it coalescing.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Down at least one more level," Copi directs, "We're almost to the good stuff." She will be on the next level down when Eric gets there. This level is more like an office, like the inside of a large building. There are hallways going off from the main area, some desks with papers around, and even a Kate or two walking around. The hole in this level is much bigger, about the size of a room by itself. Eric might notice there are no safety rails of any sort. "This is the upper part of the subconsciousness," Copi states, "And where we might first be able to find the memories. We will mainly find skill memories here, how to do things, directions she's memorized, passwords. Not quite what we want, but the useful stuff. It might be a good place to start."

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

Eric nods, his form gaining more definition as he looks around. Assuming there's a bookcase or filing cabinet, he'll begin there, looking at different files or books.

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

There are!

'Coding' one is labeled. It's full of computer codes!

'Writing' one is labeled. It hasn't seen use in a while. There's a few story ideas in it, but none of them are recent or, truth be told, very good. Most of these are likely years old.

Now, if Eric is attentive, he'll notice that the files are mixed up. The coding tricks are for several different languages, some of which are blatantly more advanced than others. The stories, similarly, include things that would be written by a normal earth girl and a normal girl living in a Sci-fi world. There's no separation or filing. That is to say, none at all; there's nothing that would imply organization of any sort inside the file cabinets.

"Not terribly useful," Copi muses aloud. She's going through one marked 'Passwords.' "Interesting to know that she uses the same passwords in both lives. That feels like an anomaly."

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

"We may have to manually separate these, I think," he says. Quietly, he moves the writing folders a bit closer to the front of their cabinet, perhaps to encourage their use; perhaps it's messing with her head a bit, but he's simply encouraging her to do something she enjoys.

"We should move on. This isn't terribly an important place for us to be."

[Beans]

[Certain's Home.]

Certain cries out, doubling over as her tail shoots out of her rear, and her wings unfurl, bursting her robe. Her hair, as it comes to life, begins to writhe and twist, and as her claws and talons grow, her nice, black boots and gloves break under the strain of the growth as well. She pulls herself up, just in time for her eyes to burn. She screams, subconsciously retracting her claws as she paws at her face, desperately trying to stop the pain, until, eventually, her eyes seal, and her new magical senses awaken. She then moans as her tongue snakes out of her changing mouth, and she says, "It feels...Good."

Hretka blushes, shifting on her hooves. ... Oh dear. I wasn't expecting you to be this... er...
Enthralling...

... I will miss the glasses, though, they were very cute.
She helps her girlfriend steady herself, getting her seated as she looks over her. But... I suppose this means you're safe now, from...

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Quite,"Copi says, closing her own drawer. "Next level down, it is." This time, Copi jumps into the pit, falling slower than she should. The next area is much, much larger. It's more comparable to a city, situated in a ring around a great pit in the center. The pit goes down into some kind of roiling fog, and this time has a simple (if a bit short) fence around it. The main boulevard of the city rings the pit, a wide street along which Kates bustle and move and occasionally bump into each other. They tend to avoid the part near the edge, though.

"Ah, the subconsciousness."

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

Eric takes a small look around, having floated down after Copi, "Interesting place. should we attempt speaking to one of the Kates running around? I imagine each of them represents something different."

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Indeed, but there's a lot of overlap. That said, they can only see us because I let them; I can make us vanish, or nigh-immaterial. That said, please avoid pushing too much power around; I'm acting as a proxy, you're actually pushing me."

Copi will land on the street, near the edge. "Invisible right now. I can tell which Kate is which, who should we ask?"

[Halae]

[Kate's Mindscape]

"I know. it's why I'm avoiding really doing much of anything." Eric says lightly, "We need to discuss memory organization. there should be more than one around here that covers that; if we can separate the two Kate's memories, that should solve most of the problems."

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Metaphorically, though, it's all in one place. This way." Copi zoops off in the direction of what looks like a library. It has the word 'Archive' on front. Inside is file drawers. Lots of file drawers. A maze made of filing cabinets. And very, very few labels.

"The issue with organizing Kate's memory is the existing level of organization..."

[Halae]

[Trick's Home]

After coming back from Mallside, Trick is preparing in her ritual room in the basement. She's decided to summon something - she's not sure what - but entering into the parameters of the spell that it needs to be able to change her as she is now. It's not a terribly difficult spell, just annoying to attempt, since you don't exactly know what you're going to get out of it.

As she finishes the spell, she casts silver powder into the ritual circle, to empower the circle to keep whatever's summoned within.

[Lost_Deep]

Trick's Home

For a moment, it seems like there's no response, but then a pair of figures appear in front of her. Each one is a vaguely feminine body, pure white, with a foggy suggestion of a mass of hair. One blue, one pink. When they appear, they are wrapped together, each one seeming to hold the other close, but the pair of heads turn toward Trick.

"Oh! Look! This one is red!" The voice comes from the air, instead of the bodies.

"And she has horns!" The pink one disengages, and reaches out to run the tips of her fingers along Trick's horns. They don't seem to notice the summoning circle or the wards.

[Halae]

[Trick's Home]

Trick moves her head away from the attempt at touching her. whatever these things were, they were capable of blithely ignoring magical precautions. She doesn't like that.

"My name is Trick. Who are you two?" Enter into a discussion. Keep them from getting touchy feely. That can prove disastrous when dealing with extraplanar beings.

[Lost_Deep]

Trick's Home

"Oh! We should get names." The pink spirit effortlessly encircles around behind her, close to her back. However, it does not touch her.

"I know, but I don't like names. That's okay, right?" the blue spirit slides forwards, and takes up a position to sit on Trick's lap (if she has one), again not touching her or her clothes but coming very close.

"I don't like names, either," the pink one says.

"Trick it not a very good name. You are not a trick at all."

"Maybe it's so she doesn't have to tell us her real one! Some creatures eat real names."

"Oh! That's smart."