synopsychic | Psychic Bridge II to everyone jauntside

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.]

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That depends. Do you have sensory livestreaming?

I. That was... a joke?

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

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

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?

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.

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.

...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.]

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?

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!

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.

Edited 2017-10-02 17:26 (UTC)

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.

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.

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.

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.

[He closes her eyes and concentrates, before a faint mist starts rising up out of nowhere around them, then intensifying.] ...It's good to know Color Magic works. Do you have any other magical abilities I might be able to duplicate?

And that is indeed... limited. But I don't think it should present us with much of a problem, if she stays where she's been. Out in the open, with no barriers except the poltergeists, our physical form won't be that important, except that it's necessary to be a ghost to be able to bind one.

As you say...

Honestly, I can't be sure. None of my magic is exactly specific to my form except for S. Tech's biological source. I quite prefer it that way. I worked hard on the form you're using now, but it's hardly my only one.

Psychic Bridge II to everyone jauntside

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