Psychic Bridge II to everyone jauntside

[neverfeltthatway]

It's Armin.

[The text is somehow bigger and bolder than usual when the network is like this, attracting your attention even if you'd usually try to filter it out or ignore it.]

Yes, I'm dead. Well and truly dead, not just a ghost, but I can still access the network. I'm not really sure how. I'm broadcasting to both sides right now, so this connection will only last about half an hour. But everyone, please listen - this is important. Before she tortured and killed me, I recognized the being inside Bernkastel.

It's Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. One of the outer gods. I think the ghost Bernkastel was in is essentially his overlay now - merging with her didn't give him access to the network, at least. Don't approach the lakebed - not yet. You don't stand a chance on your own, any more than I did.

But I have a plan.

I can teach the living to make talismans that will repel the god. If we have groups to distract and repel him, there's a brief ritual that can separate him from his host, and do to the witch what they've been doing to other ghosts, stripping and consuming will and power.

Doing that should leave him adrift - as long as he's being repelled, he'll have no choice but to return to where he came from. If he's not being repelled, he'll be free to do as he pleases. This is all if there's someone ghostside willing to lend me your form in order to perform the ritual.

It will be hard, and incredibly dangerous. We'll need to coordinate and work together, and I can't promise we'll all survive. But it can be - it must be done.


[ooc note: in game, this post takes place after Malik will have reported Armin's death to everyone lifeside, even though Bix hasn't thrown it up yet.]

Comments

[awitchdidit]

So she has a name. I never thought I'd meet someone more powerful than Bernkastel's patron in my world, but...

[Private, Protection II]

If you'll forgive me a quick question, Armin...who did we talk about when we danced?

[private, psychic protection ii]

[neverfeltthatway]

When we... danced.

[The answer comes slowly, as memory from before Harrogate is hazy and fleeting, at best. The general shape of things, the great events of his life - those have become clear. But the small details... they're harder to grasp, always slipping through his fingers.]

We spoke of... our patron. Magician. [Was that the name? He seems to recall another...] Rose.

What they needed from us, and why. How they interact with us, from within their spheres. [The text comes more quickly now, as the memory returns and becomes clearer. It's more than she asked for, but he can't stop, as it's giving him something to hold on to. A past. Context.] Whether I had asked my question. What her ideals are, and how she thinks, and what she wants.

Whether people should be able to return home. [And then, silence, as Armin realizes he doesn't even know what that is anymore.]

[private, psychic protection ii]

[awitchdidit]

Good.

Our opponent claims to have a thousand faces, you see. It didn't do a very good impersonation of Bernkastel or Featherine Augustus Aurora, but it still had that ability. It seemed worth checking to make sure you were who you said you were.

[private, psychic protection ii]

[neverfeltthatway]

She's not currently connected to the network, in any case. I... I tried to take her down that way, before I realized who her passenger was.

[awitchdidit]

[private, psychic protection ii]

I considered a combination of that and pushing her into a living form, but I didn't have any indication that would actually disrupt the problem, or even not make it worse. Now that the ghost is herself possessed, it would obviously not be effective at all.

[Public]

In any case, though...you said you needed a ghost form to enact the banishment ritual for this ghost-puppeteer, yes?

[neverfeltthatway]

[private, psychic protection ii]

Binding her is the only way I can see to solve the problem. However. After what they did to me... I am not positive I am yet wholly sane. It took me a long time to pull my mind back together. I know I don't yet have unfettered access to all my memories, especially the earlier ones. I cannot be sure there isn't a solution I cannot remember.

[Public]

I do, yes. A ghost is needed to bind a ghost. I cannot affect anything outside the network as it is, without a form that still exists in that world.

[awitchdidit]

Well then...I know when some kind of magic is outside my specialty, and this is certainly it. I'm rather possessive of this form, but...I think in this particular instance, I'd be willing to make a compromise.

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin would sigh with relief, if he yet had a form to sigh in. He'd been getting worried there would be no volunteers - not that he wouldn't understand, but it would be hugely problematic, under the circumstances.]

Thank you. I'll do everything I can to take care of your form - but you know we might become a target if they realize we're the ones doing the ritual, yes?

[He assumes so, but despite the urgency, he won't have her going into this not realizing the danger, and the target he's putting on her by possessing her for this.]

[awitchdidit]

I don't fear death, Armin. Even double-death or obliteration, in this case.

[Admittedly, Armin's mind hanging around even after being devoured is helping a lot with that.]

And I've long passed the point where I need to worry about maintaining my sanity or even my sense of self. The important thing isn't our safety, it's maintaining control of the situation until the very end...and keeping this shithead out of our game.

[neverfeltthatway]

I didn't think you did. But I had to make sure. I wouldn't possess someone without them knowing the risks.

[And then she continues, and Armin finds they're more alike than he perhaps realized.]

All right, then.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

I... I've been assuming I could do so. But with my discorporation and the changes to the network, we should probably to make sure such a possession is even still possible.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[awitchdidit]

A test run, then? Do I need to do anything to prepare? I'm going to go ahead and assume this isn't something where I need to get consent from my husband, seeing as you don't even have the shape of a body right now.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[neverfeltthatway]

That depends. Do you have sensory livestreaming?

I. That was... a joke?

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[awitchdidit]

It was. Remember those? They help a lot when you're dead.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[neverfeltthatway]

I... vaguely. Those memories don't make a lot of sense to me right now.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[awitchdidit]

It will come back to you. If you were going to forget everything and rest in peace, you'd have done so already.

And no, I don't have Sensory Livestreaming, which is one reason I keep bothering Thorne to be my cameragirl. Does that make a difference?

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[neverfeltthatway]

There are two skills that can allow me control of someone else's body, with their permission. If you had livestreaming, I'd use Consciousness Transfer - I'd be in control, and you'd just be a passenger in your head until you decided to take control again. But since you don't... I have to use Consciousness Swap. And that means you may turn up where I am now. Which is nowhere, as best I can tell. A formless, senseless void.

Or, since I don't have a body for you to jump into, maybe you'll remain in the back of your own head, like you usually would with transfer. Or maybe the attempt will simply fail altogether. I don't know, I've never tried it like this before.

Anyway, for the attempt itself, you need to nothing but not resist when I try this. But I though I should warn you, in case you wanted to prepare yourself to be sequestered in the void.

[Private, psychic protection ii]

[awitchdidit]

I suppose it's nowhere I haven't been before...or rather, a nowhere I have been. Thank you for the warning, though. I'll attempt to relax my defenses. And now I'm really glad I made sure you weren't Nyarlathotep.

[Private, psychic protection ii] -> [Action??]

[neverfeltthatway]

...All right. [He won't ask for details, already having too many himself.] Are you ready?

[Once he receives confirmation that she is, he takes a moment to make sure he's calm and steady, then sends himself - literally all he is, at the moment, making this process rather easier than it used to be - through the network and pouring in Beatrice.]

*****

[He gasps - she gasps - as he suddenly inhabits a body again. Even as a ghostly one, it's full of feeling, of sight and sound and interaction with the world around them, everything he has been denied and forgotten. She stands still, just staring around her in wonder, slowly flexing her hands for no other reason than because she can.

Beatrice, thankfully, is currently a passenger in her mind, and not trapped in the void. She may have to remind Armin that she's there, however, as he is currently overwhelmed at simply experiencing the world once again.]

[awitchdidit]

My my. We're back to this then. I have to say, no one's ever taken over my form who wasn't also me, so that's new.

Enjoying the ride already, Armin?

[neverfeltthatway]

Beatrice! [Yes, in his sensory overload, he'd essentially forgotten everything else.] Are you all right? Are you... where I was?

I... I'd forgotten what it was... everything is so vivid!

[awitchdidit]

Ahaha, I know, right?

I think I'm still here. Observing with my own senses, but unable to move my body. Normally that would be horrifying, but I've shared a body before...I can wait my turn. It certainly beats being alone in the void.

[neverfeltthatway]

I... I'm relieved to hear you're not in that place. All right then. [And just as suddenly Armin refocuses on why he's hear, doing his best to block out the world and unnecessary distractions.] Let's see what I can do in this form.

[awitchdidit]

Enjoy. I worked hard on it.

I'm assuming any useful skills would need to come from you, though. Free-running is a bit pointless as a ghost, and I'm not sure turning into a man would work without my actual, physical, X-PRESSURE-infected cells. Most everything else I know is mental in nature.

[neverfeltthatway]

Yes. But I'm not entirely clear which of my skills rely on a physical body even if they don't rely on my physical body. My eldritch abilities should be unimpeded, which is all we should truly need. But conflict rarely cares about should. About what we expect.

So... Can I use color magic in this form? Power replication? These are things I should know before it becomes relevant in battle.

[awitchdidit]

Color Magic is definitely viable, it just won't affect the living world. I didn't gain any abilities from Newport to test it out, but I think that any that didn't rely directly on your physical body should be fine.

I should warn you that this body lacks a lot of the normal abilities of ghosts - physical barriers still block you, and psychokinetic levitation and the like takes a great deal of practice. You might be able to shift something with my abilities, but I think those are again tied to my mind, not my form.