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Matters of Knowledge (Cobalt) (PM to join) (Memory Alteration trigger warning)

Started by Arthuriel, May 26, 2015, 11:09:16 AM

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Arthuriel

Dro Thinh sat in her office, elbows on her wooden desk and palms pressed together. She'd just dismissed a Shade, a lesser demon who hadn't quite managed a physical form. The poor creature had just informed the demoness that her latest attempt to corrupt Thanati hadn't been... as successful as planned. She had been hoping that her own demonic presence would slowly turn the people but one demon, no matter how powerful, didn't seem to be enough.

The Shade had pointedly reminded her of this.

But it wasn't all bad news; the Shade had informed of a way to allow Shades and other evil spirits to gain physical form. This was a gamble though, as Thanatos was full of priests and exorcists and demons were not known for their loyalty.

A gamble worth taking, she thought as she summoned an Inquisitor and ordered him to summon a priestess from the morgue. More than likely it'd be a flesh-sculptor. Seemed like the temples were just overflowing with those.

The Inquisitor bowed to his commander and exited the demoness' office. Dro smiled as she considered how loyal the House of Justice truly were to her; how much they would do for her.

"Not even the Maharani has such loyalty," She said to herself quietly as she summoned a ball of fire, a small act of defiance against Thanatos but one that left a Chesire-grin on the demoness' beautiful visage.

Cobalt

Zea Misra--as usual--had been working on something important.

In this case, it was gallstones. One of the more alchemically-inclined of her colleagues had a line of inquiry about them, about some kind of correlation between the obsessions of the living and the little solid rocky bits that coalesced inside their bodies. As Zea understood it they were quite painful, and as she rolled three around on her palm she could see why.

And then had come the summons. Probably this was one of those periodic psychic checks to make sure she wasn't committing murder or practicing slash and burn agriculture. Zea did not go in for such inefficient farming practices, so the commute was the only really irritating part of the process resulting as it did in Zea standing while she was scanned and then immediately leaving again.

She did the Inquisitor and their boss the courtesy of washing the bile from her hands.

By the time she had allowed herself to be escorted onward to Dro Thinh, the outside heat and brought up a layer of sticky sweat that left her curly dark hair adhering to the back of her neck. The Inquisitor preceded her into the House Head's personal study.

Zea bowed once she was waved in. "Priestess Zea Misra," she offered, not expecting high-ranking officials to keep especially careful track of every member of her caste. "It's an honor to be given the privilege of a moment of your time."

Did her hands still smell like bile?

She thought maybe her hands still smelled a little like bile.

Arthuriel

Dro flashed a friendly smile and gestured for Zea to take a seat. She studied the woman for a moment, using her Psionics to allow a steady stream of memories and experiences to flow into the demoness' mind, mainly to distract herself from the revolting smell of bile.

"You conduct experiments," The Arbiter said, an observation more so than a question. More memories and knowledge flowed through, like a river. It seemed this woman could be exactly the person Dro was looking for. What luck.

"You wish to fix humans," She said as she sat behind her desk. "Why?" She already knew the answer, of course. That had been very close to the front of Zea's thoughts, but the demoness was curious how she would answer.

Cobalt

Zea dusted herself off and stared placidly at Dro Thinh as she undoubtedly sifted through what was findable in Zea's mind. Zea was perhaps a little heterodox in practice, but her beliefs were spot on and she did good work without embarrassing the temple. Any half-worthy Iniman official ought to be inspired by what they found in Zea Misra's thoughts, at least in her opinion, and perhaps someday one of them would be. Then maybe she wouldn't have to bear all the responsibility alone. Just most of it.

At the assessment that she conducted experiments, Zea merely raised her eyebrows in assent. Of course she did. She couldn't well teach anatomy worth a damn if she weren't willing to have a bit of a poke around inside of a corpse.

This question, though.

For a moment Zea blanked. The answer was so baldly simple that if Zea just said what she thought Dro Thinh might think Zea was being insubordinate or at least rude. How could she break it down beyond that, though? Her reasoning was so basic, so obvious, that it said more about the rest of the world than it did about her that Zea was the one who'd followed it to its natural outcome.

"Because they could be better," she managed. "When my roof leaks, I patch it. When we learn to make a better roof we make a better roof. A better human body would..." What the hell line of questioning was this? "...be... you know, better."

Obviously. What the hell. This wasn't nuanced stuff. Better things were better.

Arthuriel

Dro grinned inwardly, this woman was fantastic. There was the problem of her being a priest but in Dro's exceedingly long life, she'd learned all mortals had their price. Being able to sift through their memories certainly did help find the price, too.

"Zea, I am about to do something at great risk to the both of us," Dro said, standing from her chair before clearing her throat. She chanted a few words in a devilish tongue and a blood-red glow overtook the room. Suddenly the Arbiter did not seem so beautifully captivating. Her eyes were orbs of blackness, deeper than the night. Her white hair faded to a dark grey and rose upward, almost as if the strands were forming themselves into horns. Fingernails grew to claws and teeth to fangs.

"I am a demoness, Zea." She said when her transformation was complete. "And I'd like to make a deal."

Cobalt

Risk. Well, being trusted by someone in Dro Thinh's position was... oh wow.

She was doing something to the room. The eyes were nice and the hair floating was actually fairly compelling and attractive and Zea sort of wanted to learn how, but the fingernail claws? Zea would have to file that shit daily or she'd never get anything done. As it was, she kept finding little dark flakes under hers.

Fingernail hygiene and their impact on dexterity was not the point, though. The point was bigtime different than... than that.

"Ahhhhh...."

Zea closed her mouth, realizing that at some point it had dropped open.

This was bad. This was very very bad. Zea had worked very hard to avoid getting involved with demons and their conniving monkeyshit and somehow they always seemed to fucking find her. This was the worst. Why couldn't she just live her life in a lab doing her job? Why? Why was that not acceptable? Was Inima fucking testing her? Because if so, that was rude.

"Hey... so, uh..." Zea needed a way to let this thing down easy so that she could survive a few more steps out of the room to find the Maharani or perhaps a team of half a dozen assassins. Carefully she raised both hands in a placating gesture, avoiding any sudden movements. "Hey, I am flattered. Really. And I'm sure you've thought this through but with all due respect, no thank you. At all."

A dozen assassins. Were there guilds for that? Could she get a guild?

Arthuriel

Dro chuckled, changing back  to her more... friendly appearance. "Three dozen assassins couldn't kill me, Zea. And no, I'm afraid your goddess has no power in this room." She had underestimated Zea, the demoness realized.

The sheer stubbornness was undeniable.

"Calm down, Zea. At least hear me out, I do not want to hurt you, but I will if need be." Dro sat down, smiling friendly.

Cobalt

Oh well. Mind reading. Of course.

Zea tried to be polite. She tried to behave and be good. She was a civilized person in a civilized society who had a lot of good to do and could not do it if she was constantly alienating everybody and exposing herself to excessive scrutiny. She also couldn't do her job if some bizarre demon beacon kept drawing these fucking creatures to her no matter how well she behaved.

"Of course you will." No point in mincing words with mind reading going on. She lowered her hands into her lap and decided to be straightforward to save time and effort. "With all due respect, you're not my first demon. If you wanted to hurt me, you just would. But you want something from me that you can't get if I'm just dead, or else you'd be murdering people and badgering their spirits for bargains."

Harassing dead people would be an even worse idea than harassing the living. Zea did not intend to become a ghost ever, but she had little doubt she'd be an exceedingly talented one.

"So why don't you offer me whatever it is you think I'm willing to sell myself for and then I will tell you no, and then I can learn what you do with people who don't make pacts with demons."

Just... just... rude, Inima! Rude. Zea had work she could be doing.

Arthuriel

Dro nearly laughed aloud but held her tongue. She knew she wasn't Zea's first demon and doubted she'd be her last.

"I want to test your experiments." She said, pouring herself a glass of wine. "And I won't kill you or curse you, merely wipe your memory of this day and let you think it was a standard check up with the House of Justice." She offered a glass to Zea, wondering if the priestess drank wine.

Cobalt

Zea blinked once, slowly, and then stared down at the glass.

Was this demon serious? Was she really going to resort to Zea said no so let's see what happens when she's drunk?

"I don't want you involved with my experiments at all." Zea held up a hand between herself and the wine, because no. There was a more important matter to discuss, though, than whether having demonic assistance would help Zea. Transactional relationships were one thing--they were what made the world go round--but making her success contingent upon the assistance of an inherently treacherous collaborator? No.

By this point her thoughts were coming out the way they'd formed in her mind, layering on top of one another in nearly-synchronous harmony.

"And insofar as my consent is required for you to do your fucked up mind rapey bullshit, you should know I deny consent. So you're gonna do what you're gonna do but there is no way that I'm gonna make room for you to say that I invited your infernal mess into my life."

Demons. So goddamn insulting. They were all about unbalanced exchanges that they then blamed people for making with them. Shit like this was why nobody could have magically-granted nice things.

Arthuriel

Dro sighed loudly. Why did all mortals think it was only demons? The hells had a number of denizens; fiends, devils, fallen angels, the list went on. Even a demoness was incredibly different to a demon!

"Demons and fiends are liars and backstabbers, Zea. I'm a demoness, there's a legit difference." She drank the glass in a single draught.  "Mortal wine is just amazing, never'll get used to it." The demoness said more to herself than Zea. She turned back to the priestess.

"There isn't anything I can say to convince you."

Cobalt

Inima's tits. What the hell did Zea have that this creature wanted so damn much? Just her research? Of course, anybody would want that, but Zea wasn't all researchers. She shared her findings and should she do what so many of her colleagues did and accidentally kill herself in her lab, at least there'd be copies of her work out there to prevent others from repeating her mistake. In that way she would still be contributing to the forward march of progress. So of course, it was worth wanting. But why this?

"That depends." Fuck it. Politeness wasn't an option. It was like talking to her mother, only with more imminent psychic danger. So fine. Whatever. "How likely are you to agree to immediately and completely destroy your own essence and the essence of every other infernal critter on this plane? You going away forever sounds pretty appealing, especially if it's part of a species-wide extinction."

Arthuriel

"Had I the power, I would agree to the latter part of that because no matter how powerful, denizens of hell cannot destroy themselves," Dro explained, drinking straight from the bottle of wine. "I want let spirits walk around in the bodies of your experiments so that they can gain a physical form of their own quicker."

That wasn't exactly true, but Dro was getting desperate.

Cobalt

Maybe this thing couldn't destroy itself, but it could certainly turn its back and exit whoever the hell's body this even was, and let Zea rip it to shreds and scatter its essence to the proverbial winds. Clearly this wasn't actually on offer, which was a damn shame.

"What? No."

Zea leaned forward and counted off on one hand. "First off, you do not let anything do anything with my research. If you calling the shots was worth a damn academically this problem would already have gotten solved. Secondly!" Ugh. "It is unhealthy for spirits to get too attached to a world they aren't part of, and until I have a proper alternative to teasing them with temporary corporeality, it will remain unhealthy for them."

Spirits didn't deserve consideration any different from any physically manifesting sapient being, and that meant Zea was at least as responsible for them as she was her living neighbors. Dro Thinh wasn't a priestess. Hell, she wasn't a Khan. She was barely a person. She was just some body hopping demon.

"I mean, are you new here? Have you learned absolutely nothing from parading yourself around in a temporary meatsuit pretending you belong here? Spirits aren't toys."

She'd been intending to think of a third point and then had gotten too angry.

"Oh and third, please go choke on a barrel of cocks literally forever."

There. No proper rant was complete without cocks.

Arthuriel

Forever? A hundred or so years ago, Dro wouldn't have minded that at all. But now? She was growing tired of this priestess.

"Oh by the gods and the hells, you're an idiot." She all but shouted, knowing her warding of silence wouldn't let any noise travel outside the room. "Not, spirits, demons. If I let a demon possess a body that has no soul, they will develop their own bodies faster. For someone so brilliant you are godsdamned stupid, Zea. And no, I'm not just a body-hopping demon," She stood, fire burning in his eyes. She'd had enough of this disrespectful bitch.

"I'm a demoness from the dawn of the hells. I don't know if you're aware, but it's been around a long time and I've survived. So you're gonna show me some respect before I drag your soul to the abyss and devour it into the void!"

Cobalt

Zea leaned back as the pretender to the head of a House completely lost control of herself and had some kind of entitled tantrum. It was like watching a toddler scream, if that toddler could completely wipe her mind down to flat emptiness and flay all her skin while leaving her able to scream. So maybe not the average toddler.

Putting demons into temporary bodies to give them their own was... it was an idea that had merit, but Zea didn't particularly trust the suggestion from Dro Thinh. Even if it seemed from Zea's point of view to be a good way to circumvent demons taking possessions of mortals as a matter of necessity, it wouldn't stop them from doing it for fun, and for Dro Thinh to suggest it that meant there had to be some reason it was a terrible terrible idea. Zea tried to do as few things as possible that she knew from the start that she'd regret later.

"If I were more useful to you getting devoured in the Abyss, you would have done it already instead of trying to bully me into accepting your proposal. So in light of that."

Being juvenile didn't seem to sit right with this demon. If she flipped out and Zea didn't, that did sort of mean Zea won. She could absolutely still die or get mind-wiped, but moral victory did count for something if it was the only kind available. So Zea made a circle with her right hand in front of her face and pushed her tongue into her cheek, staring directly into the demon's eyes as she mimed fellating a nice big cock. First of the barrel! First of an eternity's worth of a barrel.

Wasn't as though Zea could actually win here anyway. Why the fuck not.

Arthuriel

Oh, damn it.

Those were the words running freely through Dro's mind as she sat down again. She'd lost her cool, she'd broken her composer. This little bitch had won, it was only a moral victory but still. It only increased the demoness' desire and respect for the priestess.

She narrowed her green eyes and grabbed Zea's mind in a web of Psionic energy. She didn't sift through her captive's memories this time. It was a contest of  wills and it wasn't long before the demoness had one--she found it worth noting that the priestess had lasted longer than expected. With her captive fully under her control, the demoness considered implanting a subconscious desire for the woman to obey her but dismissed the thought as easily as it came. No one owned Zea, Dro realized. That's what made her special. To take that from her would be to destroy the very thing Dro wanted, it simply wouldn't do.

Instead, let the memories flow again and did her work like only a Psionic could.

Cobalt

Zea Misra--as usual--had been working on something important.

Probably this was one of those periodic psychic checks to make sure she wasn't committing murder or practicing slash and burn agriculture. Zea did not go in for such inefficient farming practices, so the commute was the only really irritating part of the process resulting as it did in Zea standing while she was scanned and then immediately leaving again. She'd done Dro Thinh the courtesy of washing her hands, or else this would have been a very short and unpleasant meeting indeed.

Evidently she'd been summoned specifically, so at least she didn't have to introduce herself. They were already seated and everything, so hopefully they could just get on with it so Zea could get back to real work.

"Arbiter. It's an honor to be given the privilege of a moment of your time."

Arthuriel

Dro smiled toothily, friendly as ever. She cocked her head to the left narrowing her eyes curiously. She wondered that if, perhaps in another life, if she could've been partners or even friends with this woman. She liked to think they would've been.

"Tell me of your experiments, I'm very curious to hear your progress." She said at length, offering Zea a glass of red wine.

Cobalt

Now this was a privilege. Maybe now Zea could get a sense for whether people really did respect and appreciate her work or if they were just tolerating her because she wasn't far enough outside the lines of Iniman orthodoxy to be worth the conflict. Or maybe Dro Thinh was just trying to get Zea's research into her surface thoughts to make the sifting easier. If Zea were psychic, that seemed like the sort of thing she'd do to save herself time and effort.

So. Fair enough!

"No, thank you. I still have work today. So far I've just been retrieving components for colleagues, but hopefully later I'll be able to get a little progress made for myself. Let's see..."

Zea looked upward and thoughtfully tapped her index finger against her lower lip.

"The last thing I tested was whether a human body can be combined with plants more easily if I use carnivorous plants as a graft." She lowered her hand and her shoulders dropped before lifting again in a brief shrug. "Didn't have immediate success, but that doesn't always mean anything. I could have just done it wrong."

She'd been hindered somewhat by a rather uncooperative subject.

"But I'm going to work on something else for a moment. I don't want to get frustrated, then get sloppy, then fail more, then get more frustrated and get sloppier. That's just a waste of everybody's time. Hence me digging out gallstones for alchemists."

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