Outside 41: Inside Outside, outside Inside

[Devixer]

Peaceful Fields

"We just need to find that hill to head downward," Vemnon says. "All I see is flatland."

Korine might just feel a *crunch* as she steps on some grass.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe nods and says, "Alright. I'll be there in a moment," then, closes her book, packs up a few things in case Elestra needs help, then heads up to the fifth floor.

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

On the fifth floor Pheobe will be met with an... interesting sight.

There is a pegasus standing in the binding circle.

Now, we're not talking a pegasus in the sense of one of those big, majestic winged horses. This is no pterippus. No, this is one of those little pony-like creatures that one might see trotting around the Nexus now and again. Those people with big, bright eyes and colorful pastel fur. She looks really out of place given all the macabre elements of the binding chamber.

Even more surprising is the fact that she's very much alive.

Or at least she looks very much alive.

That might dash Pheobe's hopes for seeing a zombie pegasus.

The equestrian looks a bit nervous, but she's probably trying to hide it. Elestra doesn't comment on Pheobe's entrance, though Corvus gives a caw from his perch atop a nearby skull. Ravens perching on skulls sitting on desks is just too classic of an image to pass up.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe nods to Corvus in a friendly manner, then bows her head to Elestra and asks, "Lady Elestra, if I may ask, what's going on?" before looking around the room quizzically, trying to guess what's planned.

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

It should come as no surprise that Elestra doesn't answer the question in a satisfactory way.

That really isn't her style.

Instead?

She answers the question with a question.

"Have you mastered the spell Detect Undead as yet?" she inquires.

The command here should be obvious.

Use the spell and tell me what you see. And if not? Then Elestra might tell Pheobe what she's doing.

Maybe.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe nods and says, "Yep," as she rubs a small bit of grave dirt on her eyelids, then whistles and says, "Wow. So...How is she undead?"

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"That is in intriguing question, is it not" Elestra replies. "This is Sunder, a person I had the fortune of encountering while collecting reagents within the Misspelled Cemetery. She is a living nightshade, a rare condition caused by the attempted resurrection of a person whose body has been transformed into a nightshade."

Sunder fidgets a bit uncomfortably at that description of her.

"For this to be possible, a nightshade must be destroyed before it has wholly consumed the soul of its host. After the resurrection the soul consumption is completed and the undead soul continues to exist within a living body," Elestra continues. "The result is a creature both alive and undead, though rarely in equal measures. Please tell my student of what you told me."

"Uh... You mean the temple stuff?" Sunder asks uncertainly. Elestra nods. "Well, a friend of mine pulled this little chunk of Sweet Spring's (that was the filly I was made from) soul out of me. We went to that fox temple in the City and they showed me how to take nightmare shape so I could make the soul bit part of me."

She refrains from many of the embarrassing details.

"It is unusual that a living nightshade is able to express its undead nature without complex spellwork to first strip away its living flesh. Today we will be determining how our subject is able to accomplish this of her own volition, as well as making observations regarding the interaction between the subject's living and unliving tissues," Elestra summarizes. "Do you desire to aid me in this research?"

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe nods excitedly and says, "Of course! This is fascinating! It's a shame she doesn't retain more of the original personality, but I suppose that can't be helped."

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

Sunder winces a bit at Pheobe's comment. She looks almost... ashamed? The living nightshade has felt pretty awful about the fact that she ate Sweet Spring ever since she discovered that's how things went down. She gives something of a hollow, broken laugh. "Yeah... too bad about that..."

"Unlike vampires and draugr, nightshades do not retain the original soul in an enslaved state," Elestra explains. "Instead they consume it and pattern their growing identity based upon it. When destroyed most undead simply cease to be. All of what they were is undone when they are absorbed back into the heart of the motive plane. Nightshades and devourers, however, because of their ability to incorporate material from living souls into themselves, are able to persist after destruction. Given time, they can rebuild their bodies within the Gloom."

"The Gloom is bucking awful," Sunder mutters. "Worst place you can imagine..."

Seems she really didn't enjoy her stay all that much.

"Mm," Elestra mumbles. "We will begin with basic probes of motive energy and note the results when the subject's living body is outwardly manifested. Please injure yourself so that we may observe the effect."

Sunder grumbles a bit as she picks up a nasty looking knife with one hoof and draws it across her foreleg. Her face jerks a bit with the pain, but otherwise she doesn't really react.

Then Elestra blasts the pegasus with a bolt of negative energy, causing the wound to seal up with black undead flesh and fur.

"Again."

Sunder sighs and repeats the process just above her previous wound and this time Elestra uses a bolt of positive energy. The result is more or less the same, though the undead flesh doesn't spread quite as far.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe observes the process silently, fascinated by the way the living flesh is replaced by the undead, but, since she has nothing to add, merely observes.

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"Note that the subject is able to metabolize both phases of motive energy," Elestra says. "In normal creatures, one phase of motive energy has restorative properties to the creature's ordered state whilst the other destructively disorganizes it."

A living person getting destructively disorganized by negative energy is generally pretty awful.

Seriously.

"Please assume your nightmare form."

Sunder takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. This time around she doesn't molt everywhere! Her body just darkens as her limbs snap and grind as she takes on the body of a nightshade. It only takes a few seconds, much faster than at the temple. The nightmare now regards those looking on with eyes of icy blue lichlight adrift in pools of gloom.

With the detect undead spell active, it will appear to Pheobe as though Sunder has been inverted. Before she was all alive and bright on the outside with a murky, undead interior. Now her outward body is a thing of deep gloom while within she glows pure and bright like the full moon shining between clouds.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe tilts her head and says, "Amazing...When she's like this, it seems like she still has the core of a living being. Whereas when she's alive, she seems living on the outside, but undead within."

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"Indeed. It is an unusual state," Elestra agrees. "Tell me, student, how might you explain the subject's ability to exist in such a state when the phases of motive energy cause each other's mutual annihilation? Please feel free to speculate. There is no wrong answer."

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe considers for a few moments before speculating, "Well...It clearly has something to do with her dual natures. My guess is that each possible motive force is a nearly purely restorative force, drawn to compatible receptors in a being, then, if it has no viable receptors, causes feedback, which, as you said, causes destruction. And since she has such a dual nature, she has a way to accept both motive forces, rather than just one, like most beings."

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"An interesting hypothesis. There is an analogy one might draw from machines powered by electricity. Electric power comes in two forms, direct and alternating. Both serve as a motive force for machines, but a machine designed to run on one when fed the other will not function. It may even be damaged. In like fashion, when a living being is fed unliving motive energy the result is disruption and destruction. They have no way to harness it, and so the energy is wasted upon causing havoc."

Sunder really has no idea what they're talking about.

She is not a clever pony, after all.

"A being that can safely utilize both? This proves that the two are not annihilatory opposites at all. They are simply two different expressions of the same energy. And like any form of energy, motive energy is destructive if the body can not harness it toward constructive purposes."

It sounds like Pheobe was really close to what Elestra suspects.

"However, the subject's metabolism of motive energy is not in balance with itself. Observe."

Elestra blaps Sunder with a negative energy bolt again, to little real effect. Then she uses a positive energy bolt. Again, nothing. Well, nothing aside from Sunder grimacing at both. Oh! And both cause the brightness within her do diminish slightly. Just as the brightness without diminished when she was healed earlier.

"Motive energy is causing the growth of undead tissue to the exclusion of living tissue. This is the so called 'death curse' of the nightshades. Given time, all of her living flesh will be consumed if it is not separated from her and properly restored. Such a result would be a grave loss, as she would cease to be a hybrid of both living and undead and become a purely undead being," Elestra explains. "How would you advice that we address this issue?"

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe puts a thoughtful hand to her head as she thinks, before eventually saying slowly, "Well...It seems like she has a problem using the motive forces she's given. So...Perhaps something is wrong with the biomagical mechanism that processes them? Would there be a way to fix that?"

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"Perhaps," the necromancer replies simply. "Subject, please describe for us the present state of your hunger for life energies."

Sunder blinks at that. Or at least the blue light in her sockets winks out and then back on. ~Well... right now it's like I'm really bucking thirsty. It's not terrible, like, I could ignore it. Probably.~

"And when you were under the effect of the calm undead charm?"

~That was more like... like my lips were kinda dry. Like I could go for a drink, but it wasn't a big deal.~

And then?

Elestra points her staff at Sunder as she mutters a spell, causing living flesh to ripped away from the nightmare and pulled into another nearby binding circle. The nightmare gives an inarticulate mental scream that might be rather uncomfortable to hear. Sunder's body is purely undead now while all her previous life has been contained in the gross looking flesh mass nearby.

"And now?"

The nightmare slams her hooves into the edge of the binding circle, the barrier flickering as she fixes hungry eyes on Pheobe. ~Feed... I have to feed! Give her to me!~

"Fascinating."

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe takes a subconscious step back and says, "I agree...The way she simply switches from...Relatively...Mild-mannered to a being ruled near-purely by instinct and hunger is fascinating...I wonder if there is a way to have her retain her living consciousness as she changes forms."

[Bonnie the Cat]

Peaceful Fields

"We just need to find that hill to head downward," Vemnon says. "All I see is flatland."

Korine might just feel a *crunch* as she steps on some grass.

'Well, so long as we're not out in the wilds, we should be fine. Arable land means we're at least close to civilisation, and there are still plenty of other landmarks we can-'

The woman stops abruptly, before slowly lifting her boot-clad foot to inspect what she might have crushed.

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"The hunger many undead experience can be overwhelming," Elestra states, showing no signs of distress from Sunder's outburst. "It grows in strength the longer they have gone without feeding on the living. While an undead may continue to exist without feeding, their rational mind will degrade. Assuming, of course, they possess one to begin with. It is my understanding that the subject has not fed on the living since Atropus was repelled. Is that correct?"

Sunder replies by rending her mouth filled with razor edged darkness open and gnawing at the barrier, trying to chew her way to Pheobe.

"Quite. I have a hypothesis I wish to test."

And then she raps her staff against the floor three times.

The door to the binding chamber opens and in come to draugr with poor Jacob carried between them. He was thrashing and pleading to begin with, but as soon as he spies the crazed nightmare he begins thrashing all the more. "No! Please! Mercy!"

"While the subject is feeding, pay close attention to the effect it has on the living flesh that was removed from her."

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe simply watches, curious about the nightmare's feeding method and the effect it'll have on her skin.

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

The two draugr pull the human up to the binding circle and toss him inside. As soon as he passes the barrier he's seized by the nightmare's mane of liquid darkness and pinned to the floor. The undead monster looms over him and yawns her mouth wide with a sound like stale air being drawn into the bleak blackness of a tomb. Something akin to fog flows from the poor human's eyes and mouth into the nightmare's hungering maw.

And then?

He falls into a fitful slumber.

The nightmares doesn't stop feeding, though. Even as she continues drawing the fog from his head pinpricks of light are being pulled from his body and into the nightmare's mane, making it appear for the time as though it were a window into the moonless night sky.

All the while Sunder's living flesh is jerking and contorting as it greedily soaks up the vitality the nightmare is consuming. Both the deepness of the gloom in in the nightmare and the brilliance of the radiance in the living flesh are growing, but the light grows all the faster. Before gloom was greater than light, but now they have become closer. The balance between the two is moving toward equilibrium.

When she sees this taking place, the faintest hint of a smile pulls at Elestra's lips. "Glorious."

Jacob's motions gradually grow increasingly stiff until at last his body becomes completely rigid as though from rigor mortise. The nightmare slumps back onto her haunches and gives a contented sigh, her eyes lazily drifting closed.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe says in a voice, equal parts amazement and shock, "Wow...Her living self grew as she fed, even moreso than the undead part...Amazing."

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

"Indeed it has," Elestra confirms. "By removing the subject's flesh I have been able to isolate it the subject's feeding mechanism. Undead which feed on the vitality of the living all possess... an inverter, we shall call it. This inverter changes what is commonly called positive energy to negative so that they might metabolize it. Normally the inverter only alters energies that they consume, not those that might be directed at them from the outside. This is why positive energy harms undead when used as an attack. Because the subject's living tissue is able to naturally metabolize positive energy, this leaves the energy available to the inverter to harvest and convert, thus leading to the growth of undead flesh even when one applies positive energy to the subject's wounds."

Neat!

"A portion of the positive energy the subject has just consumed was likewise metabolized by the subject's living flesh. Because it does not require an inverter it consumes it more efficiently. I believe it may be possible to alter the subject's inverter so that it splits any energy consumed evenly between both phases of motive energy, thus placing the subject in a state of stable equilibrium between both alive and undead."

Is that... Is that actually excitement creeping into Elestra's normally dead tone?

"Research will be required on more common undead specimens. The living nightshade subject is too rare to risk potentially destructive experimentation on."

The nightmare, meanwhile, is feeling much better. She can think straight again and that awful ache of hollowness inside her has been filled. Not only that, she has grown a little bit closer to the full size of a proper nightmare. Her previously rounded features have become ever so slightly more angular and predatory. The fluid darkness of her mane and tail seem somehow more malevolent than they did before. The icy blue glow of her eyes returns once again as she gazes down at the ridged corpse at her hooves, its expression locked in a mask of horror.

When she looks at that cadaver she feels...

Nothing.

Rationally, she knows that she should be feeling something. She just devoured someone and she should feel bad. But she doesn't. She feels filled. She feels no kinship with the thing laying on the floor. It's just a thing. A strange, alien sensation wells up inside the nightmare as her jaws snap open wide and she begins vomiting out a roiling, greasy mass of gloom. She continues wrenching, her sides heaving, torrents of darkness spew from her mouth as all the while her mind tries to comprehend what's going on.

When the gloom begins to twist and contort into a horrifying shape of malevolent darkness understanding crystallizes in the nightmare's mind.

She's siring a spawn.

Congratulations, Sunder!

You're a mommy!

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Oh, man. Hikari is going to be so annoyed if Sunder comes home with that thing.

Pheobe grimaces at the vomiting and says, "Well...That's one way to create a spawn I suppose. But you can really do that...That would be amazing...Perfect equilibrium between life and undeath...That would be incredible."

[Rebonack]

[Elestra's Tower]

Elestra doesn't dignify the spawning comment with a reply.

"It would be, yes. It is a long-standing goal of mine to determine a means by which such a state would be possible to create," Elestra says. "The greatest strengths of both life and undeath with none of the weaknesses. Such a creature, if in perfect harmony with itself, would be invisible to magics used to detect either living or undead. A world in such a state would be invisible to the roving eyes of the World Born Dead..."

Atropus would never find them again...

"I believe our experimentation upon this subject is concluded for the time being," Elestra says as she makes a motion and mutters a word at Sunder's as she holds up a vile looking black rib of monstrous size. The bone disintegrates and flows into the flesh as the flesh in turn flows back into the nightmare. Again the undead gives a telepathic hiss of pain as the living part of her body is reintegrated with her.

And then she recoils from the spawn she had just sired a few seconds earlier. ~This wasn't part of the bucking deal, you piece of ****!~ Sunder yells. ~I never agreed to kill anyone as part of your skeevy tests!~

"You agreed to whatever tests were necessary provided that I neither enslaved nor destroyed you," Elestra replies matter of factly. "And you chose to feed upon that human until he perished of your own free will."

~I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't ripped my bucking conscience out first!~ Sunder growls back. The shape of gloom she had just vomited up reaches out to touch her with one of its greasy black limbs, only to get swatted away by Sunder's wing. She glowers fiercely at her spawn, though the look of hate quickly gives way to one of shame. ~Hands off you... I-I haven't decided what I'm doing with you yet. Just stay there and don't touch me.~

"Of course, mistress..." the gloomling gurgles. "Anything you desire."

~Who the hell was he, anyway? Who the buck did I just EAT?~ Sunder asks, her mental voice trembling.

"A criminal sold to us by a local baron. His life was of no consequence," Elestra replies dismissively. She releases the binding circle around Sunder and her spawn.

~Don't you DARE ever bucking do that to me again, you hear me?~ Sunder growls, spreading her wings aggressively. ~No more ripping my meat out and then tossing people in with me, got it? I'm NOT doing that again!~

"You wish to change the terms of our agreement?" Elestra replies.

~Like HELL I do!~

"Very well. However, as compensation for the change of terms I request that you release your spawn from your control. I shall take it as payment as I believe I may be able to glean useful information by experimenting upon it," Elestra says cooly.

Sunder glowers at her before glancing back at her spawn. If she gives her spawn to Elestra then there's no way Elestra would allow her to try getting him raised back to life. But if she submits to... eating more people... at least she would be able to take them to that fox-temple to be healed. That damn witch had her in a vice.

~I'll... eat whoever you want as part of your tests. I'm not giving up my spawn,~ Sunder says, her tone sounding defeated.

"Very well. You are free to leave. When I have need of you again I will contact you in the same fashion," Elestra replies.

~C'mon. We're leaving,~ the nightmare growls as she stalks out the door, her enslaved spawn close behind her.

[Ionbound]

[Elestra's Tower]

Pheobe nods and says, "Alright. Well, Lady Elestra, I'd love to help you with that ambition in any way I can...But, if we're done for now, I'll return to my studies." And, unless she's stopped, Pheobe does just that.

[Devixer]

'Well, so long as we're not out in the wilds, we should be fine. Arable land means we're at least close to civilisation, and there are still plenty of other landmarks we can-'

The woman stops abruptly, before slowly lifting her boot-clad foot to inspect what she might have crushed.

Korine didn't crush anything special, just some frozen grass. In fact, if she looks around, she may just see some patches of ice among the field. And is it snowing?

[Arkhosia]

((OMG SO SORRY FORGOT ABOUT THIS APOLOGIES FEEL FREE TO PM POKE ME CUZ THAT'S REALLY THE BEST WAY TO POKE ME!))

[Darkwater Mine]

"Who do you take us for?" Wenomir asks, dismissively. "I'm not interested in your bribes. What we're interested in is that the mine remains with its rightful owners. But since you're so eager to spend some money, you're going to give it up to the miners' families."

[Darkwater Mine]

Negotiations are not Wraal's field, so he remains silent...it's easier to settle things with headbutts, if you ask him. He continues to hold the goblins at gunpoint, anyway.

Deal.
Sophia replies, a greedy look in her eyes. She walks towards Wenomir, an irritated, intimidating "I'm the Leader Here" look in her eyes. Once she's close enough for it to not be noticed by the goblins and co, she looks towards Wenomir and winks, tapping her blade hilt.
It's not my problem if you disagree, you'll listen to my orders. got it?
She says to him in a strict tone, keeping up the charade. She then turns to the boss as if waiting for her to lower the shield to give her the money.

[Rebonack]

[Beware the Forest Mushrooms]

Trees, ancient and gnarled, loom all around our...

Well...

Perhaps heroes isn't so fitting today.

We'll go with protagonists.

Trees, ancient and gnarled, loom all around our protagonists as they enter the enchanted woods, its air thick with drifting spores and ripe with the untamed power of the Astral Wilds. The division between worlds is thin here, little more than a gossamer curtain ready to be drawn back at the slightest touch. Life teems here, boundless and beautiful and mysterious. Colors are brighter, sounds crisper, scents sharper. It is as though sensation and growth and being have all been pushed to the limits of what mortal life can endure.

Corvus ruffles his feathers as he hops from branch to branch, sticking to the lower reaches of the trees so as to remain in sight of Pheobe.

"This place is unnerving," the bird croaks. "Too much positive motive energy for my taste. But Elestra needs some mushrooms that grow here and so mushrooms we'll be collecting. Thank heavens this is our last errand."