Senkha, Apophan, & Ariadine: February 13

Senkha is still causing the wasps around her to dance. Right now, it's a lazy waltz. She's too tired to produce much more than that.

Doombolt says: Hmm, curiouss.

Senkha glances up halfheartedly. She doesn't respond at all to Apophan's comment.

Doombolt eyes the insects with amusement.
Doombolt curls a claw towards the bugs. Their dance slows and they shake their heads before buzzing off, literally.

Senkha frowns slightly but still says nothing. Instead, she simply stares off into empty space, almost angrily.

Doombolt lets out a long, drawn-out sigh.
Doombolt says: You know, what the Inquissitor ssaid wass true. Jusst accept what we offer and you will find your life much eassier here.

Senkha still glares into empty space. If she could, she'd be folding her arms across her chest, but seeing as she's cocooned, well. She barely focuses when she sees Ariadine approaches. She lets go of focus, however, and simply glares into space.

Doombolt says: Ariadine... I undersstand you've already vissited your former caretaker?

Senkha says: I never took care of -that-.

Doombolt says: Oh but you did.

Ariadine nods slightly, "Yes, I did."
Ariadine smirks slyly at Doombolt.

Doombolt says: You ssee, what you thought wass the daughter, wass the sshadow.

Senkha says: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Destiny, blah blah, bullshit about fake gods, whatever.

Doombolt chuckles, "Only the one who does not understand would call them fake, but regardless..."

Senkha rolls her eyes and goes back to glaring silently.

Doombolt says: Dizzy never exissted at all, SShe iss merely ... a sside effect.

Ariadine keeps a passive expression on her face. But anyone could tell from her body language she is not pleased to see Senkha today.

Senkha ignores Apophan's words, still glaring into space.

Doombolt looks at Ariadine.
Doombolt says: Alright, child, sshow me what you can...
Doombolt motions to Senkha.
Doombolt grins wickedly at Ariadine.

To Macglynn: Apophan has said that Dizzy never existed...that she was just a side effect. Senkha is pretending it doesn't bother her, but it bothers her greatly, to the point where it's only her intense focus that's keeping her from screaming.
Senkha closes her eyes.

Ariadine looks at Senkha, and slowly brushes a loose strand of her dark hair to the side.

Senkha snaps her teeth at Ariadine's hand.

Ariadine jerks her hand back, and wrinkles her nose in disgust.

Doombolt looks at Ariadine.

Senkha keeps her eyes closed, expression almost forcibly serene.

Ariadine tightly grips Senkha's jaw with one hand and brings her other to rest on top of Senkha's forehead.

Senkha continues to snap her teeth at the other girl, wrenching her head back and forth. She's not going to make this easy.

Doombolt eyes Dizzy oddly.

Ariadine hisses crossly at her resistance. Her grip tightens and an almost oily shadow circles Senkha's face and try to keep her still.

Senkha laughs, kept still by the oily substance. "Amateur," she chuckles, as much as she can with her head held still.

Ariadine bristles at the jibe, but remains silent. Quickly, she brings her hand to rest over the woman's forehead and attempt to delve into her subconscious. "What do you search for, Sovereign?"

Senkha keeps laughing; at this point, it's almost disturbing how amused she is by the process.

Doombolt flicks his tongue, his presense looms into Senkha and Ariadine's mind. "Honestly... you need me to tell you?"

Ariadine glares at Senkha. The manic laughter unnerves her more than she cares to admit. Slowly, she presses deeper into Senkha's mind.

Senkha allows the other girl to search through her mind. She'd find all sorts of horrible memories, wonderful fodder for torturing someone. At the same time, however, another presence seems to be sitting nearby, watching the entire process with something between annoyance and amusement. It doesn't aim to make itself known, either way. As for Senkha, she's still laughing.

Ariadine ignores the memories, the presence watching her is far too enticing. Instead of concentrating on the pockets of memories and thoughts she delves deeper into Senkha's subconscious.

Doombolt eyes the interaction between the two, he wonders about the other presence but simply is fine observing.

The further she delves, the more a sense of fear and wariness would press on her mind. It's the sort of feeling you get when you know something bad is about to happen, but you don't know what. The hairs on the back of her neck would begin to stand up, and something like lead would settle in the pit of her stomach. She might notice a clamminess developing if she delved any further and would hear a sort of laughter--not quite Senkha's and another, not quite human.

The mixture of Senkha's laughter and the new voice makes the girl shudder slightly. But when she feels close enough she abruptly stops the dive. This is where she begins to search through Senkha's memories. But oddly enough, she ignores the more obvious choices. Instead she gently begins to prod and search for any hint at the connection Senkha had with the outside world.

Senkha seems to have no connection to the outside world. The more the other girl searches for it, the more pain and fear she would feel and the louder the laughter would become.

Abd'Zoth peers into Ariadine's progress, still more of an aloof observer than a weighted presense. He's rather interested to see what happens...

The hand over Senkha's forehead begins the shake slightly. After a moment longer of searching she stops. Out of sheer petulance and fury at being taunted she unleashes a wave of pain within Senkha's mind.

Senkha hisses with pain at the attack, though the hiss turns into a weak laugh. She seems like she would be shaking her head if she was capable of doing so.

Ariadine doesn't want to be careful or gentle. She goes straight for an odd cluster of memories... The musty smell of Oliver, the feeling of sitting on the Quel'Talan and the ocean beneath her feet rocking her. She tries to tear them away.

Oddly, Ariadine wouldn't find any of these memories. They seem to have been torn away already.

Abd'Zoth chuckles, a rumbling echo through the minds.

Senkha says: Looking for something, little girl?

Ariadine 's rage rises. Now Apophan laughed as well. The feeling of Ariadine's presence takes an almost desperate feel as she reaches for something, anything to tear away.

Almost in response to this, a pad of sticky notes from Senkha's office appears. The notes have words on them: Worthless. Failure. Coward. Child. All of them quite tearable.

Abd'Zoth rumbles, "Ariadine... Sshow your masster a different trick... if tearing away doess not work.... what do you do next?"

Ariadine hisses with fury at this. But her small form stops trembling with rage at Apophan's words. Her shoulders relax.

Soon Senkha would start hearing something: her own name. It's only as loud as a soft whisper, but the chant remains constant. Senkha, Senkha, Senkha. "Ever notice how a word has no meaning once it's repeated too much?" She says so softly.

Senkha actually smiles at this, almost thoughtfully. "A consummation devoutly to be wished," she murmurs. With every repetition of her name, something echoes back at Ariadine. Worthless. Shadow. Weakling. Lesser. The words seem to attach themselves to the name and dissipate with the meaning of the word. Meaningless. Meaningless. Meaningless.

Ariadine tears her hand away from Senkha and steps back, panting. Her large eyes even wider with fury and fear. Quickly she brings a hand to her dagger and draws it. "Don't push me!" she shrieks.

Senkha raises an eyebrow at Ariadine, a surprised smile on her face. "Really? -That- was pushing you? I wasn't even -doing- anything."

Doombolt 's tail reaches out and lashes around Dizzy's arm, tearing her off her feet and into the air near Apophan.

Ariadine stares at him, "A-apologies, Sovereign." Her dagger clatters to the stone stairs below.

Doombolt simply says, "Good." And he sets her down.
Doombolt says: Of coursse...
Doombolt says: Thiss little excurssion hass left me rather... unssatissfied.
Doombolt says: After all, I've yet to pry around in thiss little brain mysself...
Doombolt strolls over and taps Senkha's head with a single claw.

Ariadine glares at her feet.

Senkha flinches at the claw-tapping, eyes falling closed again.

Abd'Zoth condenses into a more mentally flexible form and squirms into Senkha's mind. Not for the voice or the depths that Ariadine saught, but the other memories, the ones that likely... she didn't want to safeguard... such as her mother.

Her mother could be found easily and without much resistance. Senkha's brow furrows slightly, but something in the back of her mind laughs again, almost excitedly.

The presense latches onto a memory of Senkha's mother, then another, then another, almost to the point of obsession. It coils them together and slowly bleeds them into the forefront of Senkha's mind.

An odd flicker of emotion passes across Senkha's face, but it's gone before it can be recognized as anything but a passing of shadow. Her brow remains furrowed as if in fear of some sort of pain.

As the memories are bled in front of Senkha's consciousness, it would throw the words of worthlessness back into her face.

The sound of a whip cracking begins to play, louder and louder with each repetition of the word worthless. A laugh that sounds like Selvaggia or possibly Senkha's mother seems to come from behind the whip cracks. Senkha's face twitches with each crack and repetition, as if feeling the injury anew.

The presense would sift through the memories before and after they pass before Senkha's mind, "Hmm," it would say some times. "No," it would say other times. It was definitely searching, but for what, it was unclear.

Senkha just continues to sit there, face twitching, expression screwed up in apparent pain. The laughter and whipcracks grow louder every minute, even pressing on Ariadine's ears and mind.

Ariadine watches Senkha's face quietly, her pouting expression slowly turns to a smile as she hears the sounds of a whip and Senkha's pained expression.
Ariadine tries to slip back into Senkha's mind. She wants front-row seats.

Senkha allows this; the whipcracks and laughter growing louder still, almost unsettling here in Senkha's mindspace.

Abd'Zoth suddenly ceases the repeated images and they all fade away, leaving just an empty void. In the distance of the mindscape, the massive presense is ... creating something.

The laughter and whipcracks stop obediently as the repeated images fade away. Everything seems to stop, watching.

Abd'Zoth returns with all the fanfare one such has himself rather enjoys, Lightningstorms, rumblings, you name it. Except braneconfetti, god he hates that shit.

Senkha cringes again as he returns, apparently pained by the entire ordeal.

Abd'Zoth uncoils himself and pushes a homunculus of memory at Senkha's mind: It's her mother, created entirely from all the negative memories of her.

Senkha 's cringe deepens, but somewhere, something is amused by all of this.

Abd'Zoth leaves the homunculus to perform an exaggerated function of the memories and images, meanwhile... he slinks off to find this.. amused portion of her mind.

The homunculus continues to perform at full strength for a while as the search goes on; Senkha's face remains screwed up and, after a moment, tears are streaming down her cheeks. She's biting her lower lip, as if to suppress a scream. But after sometime, the homunculus would give an unearthly shriek and its head would hit the back of Ariadine's. Whatever destroyed the homunculus remains unseen.

Abd'Zoth pauses, curious at the destruction of his toy. "Hmm, full of surprissess aren't we?"

Ariadine falls to her knees, and quickly rises. That didn't happen no way. Her eyes narrow as she peers into the dark recesses of Senkha's mind, "Come out and play, maybe?"

Abd'Zoth hisses, "I would assssume ... ssomething akin to that fragment the old elf left?"

Senkha 's mind remains dark and blank, almost echoey, like an abandoned church.

Doombolt sinks a talon into Senkha's shoulder. He calls out sweetly, despite being a giant hell-worm, "Come out and pla-ay."

Senkha sobs in real pain, trying to tear her head away from the taloned hand. "Let -go- of me!" she screams.

Doombolt channels a very small pulse of lightning into the wound, then again, slightly more. Then again. "Well?"

At the same time, in the back of Ariadine's mind, a brief thought passes: Senkha will be Ariadine's replacement. Ariadine has failed. The thought is gone as soon as it comes. Senkha screams again in agony, trying to fight against her bonds for the first time since she was taken. Blood leaks through the cocoon, as does the acrid smell of burnt flesh. Still no sign of whatever they're calling...except, faintly, a laugh.

Doombolt stops the pulses but keeps the talon embedded. "Hm...."

Ariadine pulls out the collected laughter of her close friends: Arubrey, Marius, Oliver, Nialos, and Shepard. But none of their laughter is in good fun. It's all be warped into a cruel and jeering laugh. Look at the weakling cry. As the thought of being replaced flashes through her mind, she lashes out at Senkha again, and tries to replay the memory of being torn by Oliver's pauldrons in Borgen Alectus' basement.

Oddly, their laughter seems missing from Senkha's mind. All that remains is the laughter of her mother, her sister, and (strangely) Dizzy. That laughter comes a bit too far forward and surges into Ariadine's mind. Senkha gives another cry, but the previous laughter grows louder.

Doombolt narrows his eyes at Senkha.

Ariadine tries to pull away from the onslaught. Failure. Failure. You will be replaced.

Doombolt rips his claw from her shoulder.

Senkha gasps in pain as the claw is removed but says nothing.

Doombolt holds his palm over the wound, electricity flickers at his shoulder. The lightning surges down his arm and into the wound, smoke rises from the tauren's massive knuckles.

Senkha 's body jerks at the surge of electricity sealing the wound. Once again, the smell of burnt flesh permeates the air.

Doombolt leans in to Senkha's ear and whispers. "I know you're there... And before thiss iss over... you'll be my plaything... laugh, the sstronger you are, the sstronger you'll be for the Godss..."

Ariadine stares at Senkha hungrily. SHOW ME. SHOW ME. Jealousy and fury surrounds the girl.

Senkha flinches away from the whisper but gives no other response. At least to the Apophan. Ariadine, on the other hand, would start hearing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" playing excruciatingly loud.

Doombolt narrows his eyes at Senkha, then at Ariadine.

Senkha says: ...up above the world so high...l-like a diamond in the sky...

Doombolt moves his claw over to Ariadine's head. Dead Silence forms in her mind, only her own thoughts permeate her mindspace. He wraps his other claw around Senkha's head.

Senkha finishes the song quietly, her voice muffled by the claw around her head. "...how I wonder what you are."

Doombolt hisses a word in an abyssal tongue, The Arcane cocoon would start expanding, lashing up around Senkha's jaw.

Senkha is silenced by the cocoon around her jaw. She closes her eyes once more, forcing her face to relax.

Ariadine 's shoulders relax again. "I won. I won." She keeps muttering to herself.

Doombolt says: I find your attemptss to be sstrong amussing, SSenkha.
Doombolt says: But let uss be perfectly frank.
Doombolt says: If the old elf had not done anything to your mind, you would be one of my thrallss before the third ssunrisse of thiss... ordeal.
Doombolt says: Ass it iss... it sshould sstill only take...
Doombolt eyes you up and down.
Doombolt says: ...another eight.

The wasps above them begin to buzz and hum "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Doombolt says: But, I'm afraid you're not allowed to sspe-
Doombolt looks up.
Doombolt hisses a similar word in the abyssal tongue. The wasps' buzzed falls back into the monotonous buzz.
Doombolt sighs at you.

Senkha sits quietly because she has no choice.

Doombolt says: Musst I put you in a chamber where your only thoughtss... are your own? And whatever -I- want you to hear?
Doombolt says: Would you like that?

Senkha continues to sit quietly because she has no choice.

Ariadine would like that.

Doombolt looks up at the bugs.
Doombolt says: And if you are going to make my children ssing ssomething, do make it ssomething.... with a little... bounce to it.

The wasps start singing "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts."

Doombolt hums along, "Bum bum bum..."

As soon as he gets into the song, however, it switches. "IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL."

Doombolt yells: NO!
Doombolt says: No, -ANY-thing but that.

It's hard to tell, but Senkha's closed eyes look amused.

Doombolt taps his chin, 'But what to do with you for tonight."
Doombolt says: SSince my creationss are a bit ssusssseptable to your influence... we'll have t-.... ah... yessss...
Doombolt says: I know -exactly- who can keep an eye on you.
Doombolt takes a few steps back and tugs on his robes. Slowly, something seems to squirm underneath the cloth, then another something, then more somethings. Dark shapes poke out of his hood, sleeves, and robes.

Once Apophan removes his hand from Ariadine's head, another thought would flit at the back of her mind: second best.

Ariadine flinches.

Senkha 's eyes remain closed; if she notices the slithering, she gives no indication of it.

Doombolt says: Thessria, Hyaku, Yssthem, Jik'thu, Gulkat, Zurassh, Barika, Niobu, Ocaram, Urika.... Your masster callss...
As he says each name, a dark form slithers from the mass of blackness at his hooves and coils up near Senkha's body. Each of the forms has bright glowing eyes, each with a different color, casting almost a twisted mockery of a rainbow on the woman.

Senkha continues to sit. Another echo of a laugh sounds, seemingly coming from all around them.

Doombolt says: The Ten of you, keep an eye on her, and if sshe managess to bring any mo-
Doombolt snaps at nothing, the echo of the snap causes the laughter to instantly dissipate.
Doombolt looks at you.
Doombolt says: I don't think you have an appreciation for where you are.
Doombolt says: You are begining to bore me.
Doombolt says: Ten, do keep her... occupied.

Senkha's expression remains neutral.

The Ten Snakes bite into Senkha as one.

Senkha gives a muffled screech under the cocoon, eyes flying open for half a second before they flutter closed again.

Doombolt says: I'm ssure you'll get more creative ass the night goess on.

Thesria's purple-eyed head rises up, "Of courssse massster..." it hisses.

Ariadine shifts from foot to foot, staring at the ground. In her own mind, she wrestles with snuffing out the whispers in her own mind.

Doombolt folds his claws together, "Your mind will find them completely immune to any presense that thing inside you has..."
Doombolt chuckles at you.
Doombolt says: Come along, Ariadine, dinner awaitss.
Doombolt says: SSome night elf got too closse again...
Doombolt cackles maniacally at the situation.

Senkha's head lolls forward slightly; to all intents and purposes, she seems to be asleep.

The snakes bite her again to wake her up.

Ariadine's gaze goes up from the floor, to Senkha, and then to Apophan. "... Yes, Sovereign."

Ysthem's red-eyed head rumbles, "No sleep for you tonight."

Senkha twitches awake, though her eyes remain closed. She laughs quietly behind the cocoon.

Doombolt looks back and narrows a single burning eye at Senkha. The faintest smile can be seen grow on his lips.