[Nexus] GLoG 84: Goblins and catgirls and dryads, oh my!

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

As the sun is setting, faint, high pitched whimpering coming from several small bodies can be heard coming from inside the den. When the sun disappears over the horizon is when things get interesting.

Some black ichor pours out of the den, and a louder, fearful whining replaces the others. A harsh wind whips the trees and black clouds roil in the sky.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Going to have a guess that the ichor spewing is bad. Copi hits the ground, and is ready to react... but she doesn't know whether she has to save the foxes, or... no, either way is a risk, tend toward non-aggression.

She watches for now.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

The ichor moves around the trees and travels up their length. Thunder cracks, but there is no lightning to cast any light. Suddenly, a tree topples over, falling right toward Copi.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

I don't know what you're talking about Copi is clearly two feet to the right. She feels that given her freedom in the realm of the mind, there's no reason to follow the rules of physics in their entirety. They're just metaphors in here, anyway. Maybe not even metaphors, but rather illusions conjured to give a mind a kind of grounding.

Copi will take a moment to examine the Ichor. Is it actively harmful to the mind? Or is it maybe some bizarre natural going-on that should not be disturbed? Would it be harmful to her?

Well, could it be harmful to her in theory. It would take something really nasty to actually harm her, given that she's just projecting into Kitty's mind.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

That's not all that's in store for Copi. She has little time to examine the ichor, though there's nothing readily apparent in what time she does have. The ground heaves beneath her feet The dreamscape is tearing itself apart trying to get at her. The strength of emotion is so strong that Copi can feel it in the air. Pure, unfiltered rage. But behind it, and much more distant, there's a sense of simple pleasure and happiness.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Is the landscape reacting to her?

Copi makes her avatar disappear... not just invisibility, but an utter hiding of all evidence that she is in the mind. It should be effective unless Kitty has some kind of mental sense... but at the same time, Copi is kept from doing anything other than moving or watching. Which is okay, since that's what she's been doing.

However, she is worried. She splits her attention (it's easy enough for her) so that she can both watch Kitty in reality and watch her mind scape. If real kitty begins sobbing or gibbering, Copi wants to know.

[McBish]

[Infirmary>>Lake Shore>>Infirmary]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

"That is good to know, Your Holiness. Could I perhaps have the ledgers, the green ink and the quill as soon as I can, please? They should be inside the chest, Your Holiness." The Sea Elf isn't going to stop calling Yuki 'Your Holiness' for a while. Where he's from, the City Elves worship angels, and he's assuming he's in a City Elf community because very few other races would let a Sea Elf live.

"Of course, I will go and get them. I will be right back."

While she may be confused by being called holiness she isn't going to say anything about it. She stands up and quickly and heads back to the lake shore and heads to the chest. She quickly opens it up taking out the stuff he asked for and carefully carrying it back to the infirmary for him.

"Here you go."

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

There's no change when Copi vanishes. In fact, it only seems to be getting worse. The only sanctuary in a sea of rage is around the fox den.

Back in reality, Kitty just looks angry. She's glaring at Copi, but isn't taking any action. She seems to be growing more and more agitated along with her mindscape.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Upsetting.

Copi makes a beeline for the fox den; she made a gamble and may yet regret it. If she has to go through the anger ichor, she will. She needs to get to the core of the matter, NOW.

[Earl of Purple]

Infirmary

"Thank you, Your Holiness." The Sea Elf will smile and open one of the ledgers, dip the quill in the green ink and start making a symbol next to every entry in the list, bypassing only one entry.

[Slii Arhem]

Originally Posted by Morty

"Hi girls," Sophie says, smiling brightly, as she enters the room. "This is my cat Nicholas," she adds in response to Prism's question. She crouches and sets the cat down on the floor. Nicholas takes a few steps towards the twins. They smell strange...

Rowan Cabin - Kids' Room

Prism sits quietly as the cat approaches, staring at Nicholas with wide eyes. Scylla, however, reaches out with both hands, willing the cat to come closer so she can touch it.

"He's really fluffy." Prism says finally.

Originally Posted by The Bushranger

Rowan Cabin - Living Room

The door opens, and in steps Patty, wearing a comfortable tank top and knee-length skirt, both in purple. And she'll head to the kitchen with a smile. "Hi, Julie. It's good to see you again! Need any help?"

Rowan Cabin - Living Room

"Don't worry about it, I just planned on something simple tonight anyway. So how've you been?" Julie's washing and chopping peppers in a beige apron and some street clothes that she hasn't bothered to change out of yet, but she turns to Patty with a smile as the priestess walks into the kitchen, taking her hands off the knife and letting her telekinesis take over the job.

[Dimonite]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

Infirmary

"Thank you, Your Holiness." The Sea Elf will smile and open one of the ledgers, dip the quill in the green ink and start making a symbol next to every entry in the list, bypassing only one entry.

[Infirmary]
"What's that you're doing?" Lume asks, intrigued by the ledger.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin - Kids' Room]

Nicholas walks up to Scylla and nuzzles her hand a little, looking up at her. The two babies do smell weird but he's used to strange smells. And there are pets to be had.
Sophie, meanwhile, crouches and looks at the two far-children and her cat.
"Yes, he is. I got him a while ago as my pet. Isn't he great?" she asks with an encouraging smile.

[OrchestraHc]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

Abandoned Camp- Cabin #1

The front door has fallen off its hinges, and is therefore easy to open. Inside is quite well lit; the windows aren't boarded up, and there's a hole in the roof as well. The first room is a combination kitchen/living space. It has a sofa buried under slates and rotting wood from the roof, a T.V. with a cracked screen bolted to one wall, an end table, a small cabinet and two doors leading away in the living room section, whilst the kitchen section has a row of cupboards, a microwave, a dishwasher, a sink, leaky plumbing resulting in a small pond forming in the centre, an oven and a refrigerator. No doors lead away from the partially-enclosed kitchen space, and a frog is in the pond.

Abandoned Camp- Cabin #1

Not much of any use to him in here. He shuffle-clanks himself through the first door in the living area.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp- Cabin #1

He hasn't searched the cupboards; might be there's something in one of those.

Regardless, through this door is a bedroom with a double bed. There's a large hole in one of the walls leading to the outside, and there's a wardrobe open in the corner. In the bottom are some pieces of brightly coloured plastic, and on the rail are some plastic coat hangers. Underneath the bed, a black laptop bag peeks out.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

Copi can get to the den with little trouble, just so long as she can navigate the boiling mess the mindscape has become. The space around it is utterly calm, the eye of the storm. The ichor is still flowing freely from the den. Whatever is going on, it has something to do with whatever's inside there.

In reality, Kitty looks like she's about to explode any second now. If Copi wants to do anything she best act fast.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

...well, sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness. Copi will drop any pretense that she follows the rules of this world and start actually pushing her influence, removing all the excessive anger she can.

By that I mean that she becomes a green vortex that attempts to forcibly remove the anger from the environment and make it go away. The law of conservation of matter does not apply to emotion.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

The vortex seems to be doing something, but at the same time there looks to be no improvement. The vortex of rage closes inward, as if intent on consuming Copi.

At this time, Kitty can't take it anymore. She screams wordlessly and lunges at Copi.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

No.

Kitty will find a green barrier between herself and Copi. "I'm sorry Kitty, but I believe that to leave you in this state would be irresponsible of me."

Nice words for what is going on inside the mind.

Trying to consume Copi is about as effective as trying to consume a clown tank full of badgers: It's entirely too durable for it's size, much more dangerous than the appearance would lead you to believe, and it's full of an infinite flood of claws and teeth and rage.

Except instead of rage it's No.

Copi is telling the anger that No. Copi's mental defenses are a veritable fortress, she has too strong a hold of herself to let herself be hurt... and she's optimizing her defenses against it even now.

From there, it's a matter of putting that No into Kitty's mind. Copi reaches out, and doesn't bother taking up a proper avatar. She is shown as what her mind really is: a mental impossibility.

The swirl of utter madness, with the gears of unrelenting logic. The wild energy of a tornado, with the reasoning capability of a careful debater. A thing that is now operating within the realm it was broken, shattered, reforged, and refined in: the mind.

The truth of the matter is, Copi isn't a human being anymore: she's a psychic anomaly in a body.

That is also a simultaneously a clown tank full of badgers of No and a psychic fortress and a psychic abomination cyclone. You're in the mind, impossibility is for the weak.

Albeit, Copi is being very careful to not hurt anything other than the rage. The rage is the only target: Copi is trying to systematically remove it with the utmost efficiency.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

Kitty batters her fists against the barrier, trying to get through. Her efforts cease in a moment when she collapses to her knees.

In the mindscape, the roiling rage has suddenly ceased, leaving nothingness all around Copi. Below her the den is the only thing left, back to how it was before the ichor and the storm. The pitiful whining starts up again, but quieter than before.

Back in reality, Kitty throws up in the grass and falls over on her side.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

"If you can hear me, then take note that either your subconscious is really messed up or whatever it is obviously puts it's own defense before your wellbeing."

Copi's mental avatar will stop being quite so utterly impossible and instead form into a bizzarre rolling mist-like substance that heads down into the den. On the way down, she tries to figure something out: was that ichor part of Kitty, or was it something else?

Is she walking into a fight against Kitty's subconsciousness, or is she saving Kitty from an outside source?

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

Kitty doesn't do anything to indicate she heard Copi. She shifts a little bit, but it's unclear if she's entirely conscious.

Down inside the den, Copi can see what appears to be the inside of a regular fox's den. Nothing seems quite out of place. That is until she sees the pair of foxes lying there. One is a female red fox with three tails. The other, however, is a baby fox curled up against the first. Her fur is as inky black as the ichor. She shakes and whimpers, and presses up against the larger fox for comfort.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

What? This is odd...

Copi will try to analyze the little fox, not being immediately hostile toward it. What is the exact problem here? Is this little fox sick?

Is this little fox the sickness?

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

Neither fox pays Copi any mind. It will be difficult to tell anything with a simple examination. The little fox is a pitiful thing, helpless and not happy. The larger fox actually doesn't seem to be aware of the little fox at all, despite that they're touching.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Copi isn't using her (metaphorical) eyes. She's analyzing the pup mentally; effectively trying to figure out what it actually is using her mental senses.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

In that case, Copi will first be struck by how utterly wrong the little fox feels. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be in Kitty's mind. It shouldn't even be in this world.

That said, it feels very weak right now. It's hard to believe that it would be what causes the earlier rage.

It's also not truly a part of Kitty's mind. It's an outside influence, though a very strong one.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Ah, and it's taking the form of a little fox so that mind doesn't reject it, permitting it to feed off of Kitty. Good thing they found it while it is small. It's still a psychic parasite, though.

Now, it's like disarming a bomb that is surgically implanted in someone. Copi tries to figure out how exactly it's intertwined with Kitty's mind, so that she can go about removing it with the least collateral damage. Surgery is necessary to remove this parasite.

[Gulaghar]

[Lake Shore - Mindscape]

There does appear to be some link to Kitty's mind. It's very subtle, however. Copi can't easily identify exactly what it is, or how to begin picking it apart. Just that it feels the same as the little fox. Whatever it is, it's very good at entrenching itself in the mind.

[Lost_Deep]

Lake Shore - Mindscape

Copi thinks for a minute. Very fine mental entanglement... this is going to take a lot of concentration to pick apart the...

Hmm. This is a situation in which a different angle of observation might be useful. She is a plastic entity within a fox's den. There is a fox here (representing Kitty?) and a horrible wrong thing disguised as a fox kit. The fox kit is entwined with the world/fox on an innate level...

Ah. As the movie "inception" said and was echoed by the internet for a few years after, she must go deeper. The question is, the Kit or the "Mother"?

Choose a third option: simultaneously attempt to enter the mindscapes of both mental entities and then attempt to unwork the connection from both ends. That sounds like a good idea.

(Fyi Copi is insane)

Copi will attempt to that exactly, simultaneously entering both of the "minds" inside Kitty's mind.

[The Bushranger]

Rowan Cabin - Living Room

Originally Posted by Slii Arhem

"Don't worry about it, I just planned on something simple tonight anyway. So how've you been?" Julie's washing and chopping peppers in a beige apron and some street clothes that she hasn't bothered to change out of yet, but she turns to Patty with a smile as the priestess walks into the kitchen, taking her hands off the knife and letting her telekinesis take over the job.

"Oh, I've been alright. Just a little bored," Patty admits with a smile of her own, going to give Julie a quick - but non-TK-disrupting - hug. "So how are the twins? Still keeping you frazzled?" she asks teasingly.