Private Finished messages from beyond

Hyper · Mar 14, 2020

Michi shook her head at Adelaida's follow-up question. Lizzy never told her anything, but she mentioned she was relieved to have been out of her head, which let Michi assume the voices didn't follow her. "Not that I know of. She mentioned it was back to silence when she returned, so I'd assumed whatever was making the voices was directly linked to me or the curse I got." Adelaida revealed her magic to Michi which impressed her, seeing how masterful Adelada was at her ability. Then again, maybe she'd had more practice compared to any of Michi and her friends, who'd only had their abilities very recently. But as Adelaida continued with her explanation, it made her squint her eyes. "A soul?" she echoed, looking back into the possession incident. She seemed lost in thought for a moment, sifting through the memories and voices. "Actually, two of my friends also have voices, and they're not like mine either," she casually admitted, though choosing not to mention them by name. "But we all got it from the same... source. So what do you mean... about still having a soul?"

a song from beyond

foggydoggy · Mar 14, 2020

"I don't have a soul anymore," Adelaida said simply. She didn't exactly care whether people knew it or not, and if it helped open up the conversation, there wasn't much point in hiding it. "I got my power through a ritual that connected me with the Elemental Plane of Fire, but I didn't prepare properly so it... burned my soul away. Now, I'm just a hot portal with a brain."

The flames went away. For a brief moment, she moved her jacket out of the way to reveal burn marks on her neck. "Of course, I can't prove any of this unless you have something that interacts with spirits, and try to use it on me. Trust me, it'll fail because there's nothing to target."

She had a few theories as to why there were voices in Michi's head, and none of them were things she could test. Adelaida hated that fact. She wanted something concrete.

"I'm assuming you and your friends... some specific event happened with all of you. Recently, is my guess, since you don't seem to be as comfortable with the voices or your abilities as I am."

Hyper · Mar 14, 2020

Michi would have said she was surprised when Adelaida confessed to not having a soul. She would have, it weren't for the fact that she was more surprised it was possible and she hadn't lost hers. She'd done her research: she probably shouldn't have one either considering her own circumstances. She looked at Adelaida's wounds, reminding her briefly of the fire at the corner of her eye after the ritual. From the mere memory of it, she found the chatter bubbling up again. "I see... I can't interact with spirits, but I'll take your word on it." The question she expected finally came up and Michi knew it was coming the moment she signed up for this. Not like she was keeping it a secret. "Actually, I could say ours was.. similar," she began, the voices in her head seem to only grow in number. "We didn't prepare either--I don't think any of us knew how. It was a ritual to kill--" A loud shriek cut through Michi, stopping her words with a visible wince. Adelaida could only see Michi curled into herself, shaking in pain from whatever interrupted her. On the brink of tears, Michi struggled to say: "We tried to kill an elder god."

a song from beyond

foggydoggy · Mar 14, 2020

It was Adelaida's turn to be surprised. Never before had she met anyone with the sheer audacity to challenge such an undertaking - well, aside from herself. Naturally, an event like that would change anyone.

"I'm going to guess it didn't quite work, and a bit of this elder god of yours is on you now, but I don't really have enough info to draw conclusions," Adelaida said. It wasn't too far from what she did, though in her case she wasn't intending to try and subdue the Living Flame, but rather, just connect to it and harness its power.

"It's remarkably similar to my case. We both tried to tap into powers far beyond our control and got burned, with voices now in our head. You got out with what I'm assuming is taint on your soul, and mine's gone. Maybe like I did, you should try and find a spiritualist or a priest of some sort, try and see what they can do for you."

Adelaida reached out and patted Michi on the head. As people who went through the same sort of traumatic incident, there was a strange kinship she felt with this troubled girl.

Hyper · Mar 14, 2020

Michi whimpered, trying to keep herself functioning despite the turmoil in her mind. She'd heard far worse, quite honestly, but it wasn't any less distressful. Michi had some difficulty even discerning Adelaida's voice through the noise just because of how messy it was. "It was killing everyone. We had. To do something," she said, trying to keep her voice levelled. She had no reason to raise her voice since Adelaida could easily hear her well, but she couldn't hear herself. Michi on the other hand felt like her head could just pop. She couldn't make the voices stop -- that would only make things worse, so the only thing she could do was trying to focus on Adelaida's voice as she spoke. Michi let out a whine, feeling the contact on her head. If only it was possible to switch the voices off. Michi spoke weakly, her face hidden away from Adelaida. "I just wanted mom back, I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for power. I didn't ask to get corrupted."

a song from beyond

foggydoggy · Mar 14, 2020

For all the similarities she pointed out, Adelaida was a rather different case. She had no hard feelings for her incident despite the severe losses she suffered from it. Maybe it was the lack of a soul coming across.

As such, she was perfectly calm even as Michi went through her worst memories in front of her. But as calm as she was, she wasn't completely heartless.

She took Michi's hand and moved it so that it was squeezing her own. "We don't ask for any of these things. All we can do is live with the consequences, and try to make them better. If it helps, I know loss from that kind of incident all too well... it's a story that's a bit heavy for most people."

All the while, she kept taking mental notes. Even with a breakdown going on, she would not forget her original purpose of collecting information from those who heard voices other than their own.

Hyper · Mar 14, 2020

For all that it looked like, voices aside, Michi would have been perfectly fine. She lost her mother to the whole missing people incidences, true, but it never felt like it was real to her. The disappearances, her assumed death. She'd felt disconnected from those moments. All except for the ritual which, while it had a lot of trauma attached to it, she barely remembered. Those were moments buried deep into the recesses of her mind leaving only dreamy impressions, far out of her reach. It was just horribly noisy, she could scream. Adelaida held her hands, which made Michi realize she probably looked worse on the outside. "I know," she said, the voices starting to ease up as she focused solely on better memories of her mother. "They told me this isn't easily reversible. Right now I just want to put it under control." The voices were still loud, and angry, but relatively more manageable. Slowly, Michi straightened up without letting go of Adelaida's hands, but the shock of the scream left her shivering a bit. "I'm sorry about that. The voices don't like talking about that part."

a song from beyond

foggydoggy · Mar 15, 2020

"I get it. My own voices want me to commit arson non-stop, so I get it. It gets easier, but it doesn't stop being tiring."

Adelaida had more than enough experience with this to know that it was never easy to get rid of the voices. In her case, the moment the voices left, she would just die.

More important was that there was something to drown out the voices. Whatever it was, it varies from person to person.

"Take it day by day. Little else you can do, honestly."

Hyper · Mar 15, 2020

"I just wished having the voices were a little easier," she mumbled. She wished it was as simple as being told to off someone, or narrating everything happening around her. But unfortunately she ended up with unfiltered noise. She could never really tell if it was just her trauma speaking through to her or something else. Something else that was angry about that incident. Michi sighed weakly, evidently exhausted already and they had barely been talking. She kind of felt bad about taking a detour in their discussion just because the voices in her head were absolutely moody. "Sorry," she apologized again, "I know this is supposed to be for research. I got us sidetracked."

a song from beyond

foggydoggy · Mar 16, 2020

Adelaida had no real rush, and she wasn't going to let being literally soulless rob her of empathy. She knew the struggle intimately herself, and this person was only getting started with adaptation.

"I've been where you are and I'm not going to be so harsh that I'd pry immediately. Take a bit of time, relax, see if you're still willing to talk. No pressure. I'm soulless, not heartless," she said dryly.

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Private Finished messages from beyond

Hyper

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foggydoggy

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Hyper

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Hyper

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Hyper

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Hyper

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