Spirisection [23 Consimbs 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

On the advice of various friendly monsters, we waited for several days, making soul maps regularly, watching the prime soul and demon soul wrestle around. We tried this and that to segregate the souls more. Gentle application of Ruloc Spiridor spells. Playing Feralan’s favorite music, but only into his right ear, whilst whispering comforting geometrical theorems into his left. That sort of thing.

Feralan: “I’m waiting as patiently as I can, really, but are we on a geodesic?” Which, it turned out, meant ‘are we on as direct a path as possible to fixing things.’

The choices got worse, and worse, and better than the day before but worse than when we started, and worse, and worse, and better, and better, and better — a touch better than when we started, that last ‘better’. So we argued about what to do: take the best that we had ever seen, or wait and hope for better.

Everyone: “Argue!”

Everyone: “Peer miserably at the obscurely-changing soul maps!”

Vae: “The I alone avoid the disputations; instead I writhe miserably in serpent form.”

Everyone: “Discuss, dispute, disagree!”

The new soul map’s best slice was loosely similar to the best of last week. The “slightly better” part was that, probably, Feralan’s ability to understand emotions would grow back, with practice, over time. At least, that was slightly better from Feralan’s point of view. From hCevian’s, it was worse — Feralan’s ability to understand emotions would grow back in hCevian’s soul as well, but there it’s more of a spiritual cancer.

Everyone: “Reluctantly decide try this one.”

Feralan: “I guess it’s time for me to lose my ability to understand emotions?”

Me: “I’m afraid so.”

We repaired to the Surgical Parlor of Strayway. Vae writhed miserably in serpent form.

Feralan: “I made myself a chart of emotions last night.”

He showed it to me. It had entries like “Fear: A bad-feeling emotion that makes people run away. People who are afraid often tremble, tuck their ears flat, lower their tails, or stutter.”

Me: “This should help you a lot.” (I have no idea whether it will.)

hCevian: “Shall we now start?”

Me: “I think we must.”

The spirisector is, at least, a very careful and precise instrument. The cutting blade used to be sharp, sharp glass. It has been transmuted to the mere ghost of glass, while retaining its sharp, sharp sharpness. It is is mounted very carefully on an ivory circle, which it can slide neatly across without a thousandth of an inch of wiggling up and down. The ivory circle is mounted on ivory gimbals, I suppose they’re called. The circle can be tilted around nearly any-which-way. Then tight thumbscrews and locks can be applied, rendering the circle rigidly fixed in its position.

This, of course, would do no good without two other features. The first is a co-mounted oval lens that was once glass, but is now the mere ghost of glass. Through it, with certain spells, one can see the spirit of the patient, though not as clearly as with the soul-maps. The central green dot of the soul-maps is not visible, but the lens warms up somewhat when the knife will pass through the center.

The second, and more important, is that the patient must be still while the spirisection is being performed. This is accomplished by paralysis. The doctor must paralyze the patient’s body personally. The patient’s mind and spirit must be paralyzed as well. Most doctors cannot accomplish this, so a pair of ugly little talismans tied to the frame of the spirisector do so. They are not very good talismans; they only work once a day, and not for very long. (I suppose ‘not for very long’ is fine, since the patient shouldn’t stay paralized after the spirisection. But if the operation is not performed quickly, the opportunity is lost. Or, if the patient is nervous and accidentally resists either spell — resistance being automatically successful — the power of the device is wasted for the day.)

Well, we were quite nervous. Prof. Czirsnatch was not there to assist and guide us, but his assistant, Vareltree, was, and had studied the theory of the operation for a great deal of time, and had even done it once or twice on animals.

Anyhow, Feralan and hCevian cooperated just perfectly, and allowed themselves to be paralyzed in all three dimensions — by me, not by the ugly talismans, so that they would stay still long enough for us to be very careful about the arrangements. We spent a while being very careful about the arrangements. Vae writhed miserably in serpent form.

Eventually, we couldn’t delay any longer. Vareltree carefully slid the sharp, sharp ghost of a knife through Feralan+hCevian’s immobile and carefully unresisting psyche.

Then, of course, things got rather rushed. Six bound spirit-healing spells hurled themselves at the two newly-freed patients. I broke the paralyses. Saza produced a new soul-map of Feralan — hCevian was nowhere to be seen — to measure the damage. Vareltree gave Feralan a chilled tisane of something that smelled medicinal to drink. Vae writhed miserably in serpent form.

Feralan: “Are you worried?”

Vareltree: “A little bit, until I see the results of the surgery. Why do you ask?”

Feralan: “Your antennae are a bit down, but your tail is sort of up. Doesn’t that mean worry?”

Vareltree: “Well, yes, I suppose it does…”

Feralan: “I can’t tell anymore. Not in the usual way. So I’ve got to study it and study it!”

Saza: [quietly, to me alone] “Well, he certainly sounds quite Rassimel.”

(Incidentally, we don’t think Feralan could tell the condition of his soul that precisely, that fast. We’re pretty sure he’s just going by what we said would be the case beforehand.)

We peered at Feralan’s soul map, and measured this and measured that. We seemed to have given Feralan a slightly larger section of the shared soul than we had intended to (“But well within normal medical variation,” said Vareltree). But a few bits that we hadn’t intended to damage had been partially cut off, and we argued whether they corresponded to his drive to propagate the species, his pancreatic function, or his devotion to the elemental gods.

Vae writhed miserably in serpent form over to my foot. “And Sythyry? The I think we’re lost.”

Me: “What, lost?”

Vae: “Not a bit do I know where we are. The outside is not Lenkasia.”

I left the discussion and fluttered three parlors away, where there was a window, and we looked out. Strayway was in a gleaming black cavern, festoons and swags of curved ebony spikes shining in the light of an irregular net of dismal flames that flowed and pulsed all around. The plangent, astringent sensation of Locador beat upon us from all sides.

Me: “Great staring gods. We’re inside hCevian.”

Comments

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

It seems someone either does not appreciate the section that was decided upon or lost any loyalty he might have had. Or, um, who knows how any of those additional partly-lost bits might work in their new host?

Either way - oh, dearie.

[rowyn]

HCevian might just be confused. If he was actually trying to hurt them he could probably do a good deal worse than this.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Group hugs are easier when you're a Locador demon.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

Oh bother.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Weelll.... the journal thing is getting 'out'. Follow that?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I do, indeed, attempt to follow my own journal. Though the foolishness of the central character is so incredible as to render it clearly a work of fiction, and quite poor fiction at that.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

No I mean the magical workings of it, its obviously LEAVING somehow... and getting elsewhere, right?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

“Great staring gods. We’re inside hCevian.”

hWoopsie.

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

Except all his entries are after the fact. So either he got out of this predicament, or it's one that still allows his journal to function.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

It seems that Ferelan was not the only one to gain experience during that merging...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Follow the yellow brick road?

Is this Plato's heebie-jeebies or just existential blues?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

....Okay, yea, I didn't think of that. But zie could still be in, even still! Even if the current events taking place will be described three entries hence! :)

[rowyn]

I can't agree! I find it most entertaining, so it's certain not a poor piece of fiction.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, a lot of people feel that way about their own lives.

O_O

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

As complications go, that's a doozy, all right. Good luck getting out of there safely-for-everyone.

It occurs to me that the result of focusing Rassimel study-obsession on "emotions" is likely to turn Feralan into a very knowledgable psychologist, especially if his emotional awareness grows back properly. That might be useful in helping hCevian figure out how to cope with emotional awareness for the first time (which, hopefully, will stop growing in at the same time/size that Feralan's stops growing back). Not pleasant, but hopefully not crippling and perhaps even useful.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

His body was 'in abeyance' so it probably just came back where his spirit was. Poof! And since he's a locador demon size doesn't matter.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

And with hCevian's newly acquired empathy, why wouldn't it want to give you all a hug?

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

Inside of a Locador entity which has, effectively just suffered its own version of a psychotic break. Well done, sir, you have effectively topped any and all of my own transdimensional gaffes for all eternity.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The first emotion it experienced might be 'anger'? Followed by a lust for vengeance...

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, you've accomplished one of the archetypal vacation goals with a vengeance - to go to strange places. This is a strange Place with a capital P!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It gets worse! Stranger, at least.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

[OOC] Ha! Nice twist. The first part of the scene reminds me of the creepiest part of "The Golden Compass" (movie version), and the end something from another RPG I was reading. That RPG setting involves a primordial titan whose soul was surgically damaged, who then turned inside out into an infinite hellish dimension. Now if there's a green sun inside hCevian, Sythyry's in for one high-level encounter!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[OOC - what game was that?]

[foomf.livejournal.com]

How very interesting. That puts you into a place where you might have easier access to those unwanted bits of emotion-soul, whereby you might be able to elide them, or mutoc them into something more apt for a Locador daemon.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

"Exalted", of which it's said you're playing it wrong if your character isn't a Mary Sue. I like the setting and the heavy use of "Rule of Cool" (you should do whatever is most awesome, plausible or not), but the mechanics are cumbersome and baffling. It's also focused on extremely high-powered characters (who basically start at peak human performance, and then some) with extremely ambitious goals (punching out gods is well within canon). While that's pretty cool, it also strongly discourages you from doing any more human-level story, so you're limited in storytelling if you're not at least conquering nations. "World Tree" lets you do some fairly epic stuff if you want, while allowing for sub-ludicrous power levels.

AAAAAA!

[waywind.livejournal.com]

O_O I actually screamed out loud a little when I read that last bit.

Re: AAAAAA!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that you were so alarmed!

(Actually, um, I screamed out loud a little too.)

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Trapped! Just like Swedbank AB

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard explodes laughing!]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

hCevian loves you <------------------------this------------------------> much.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Dude, this is a strange Place with a capital Q!

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Have you everplayed Paranoia?

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Exalted deities are second-class entities at best, to the point where they're "gods" only in the sense that they are metaphysical creatures with narrowly-defined functional portfolios. They're functionaries and little more. The Exalted are the end-all of power in that setting-- Even the aforementioned Green Sun is just waiting for a sufficiently high-Essence Exalt to punch his face in.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

No, but it sounds like fun. Which is good because that's mandatory.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

The Green Sun's only an aspect of a Yozi, right? As I understand the setting, the real "gods" are the Primordials, who're almost all either mostly-dead (the Neverborn) or damaged and violently insane (the Yozis), or exiled and unconscious (Autocthon); and the Raksha lurking outside the fringes of Creation. And the "gods" they created are stuck playing an addictive video game. And 9/10s of Creation got annihilated including concepts, possibly twice. That's one messed-up setting! I keep imagining World Tree as more like a computer simulation, which would make its gods truly beyond any possible face-punching. The Exalted gods seem to rely on having Creation around, so they're never completely safe.

Re: "Paranoia" above, Autocthon is a communist machine world, so fans' "Things One's Not Allowed to Do" list mentions "Friend Computer" as well as "Portal". Some developer commentary I read is divided on whether the Yozis' Exalted (Infernals) are irredeemable monsters or anti-heroes who can trick and subvert the mightiest demons just by violating the "Evil Overlord's List". Apparently the portrayal's not even consistent within one book. Even the "good guys" like the Solars and Lunars look pretty nasty much of the time.

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps hCevian is hurt much as Feralan was from the operation. Still, agree that it is likely not caused by active malice.

Additionally, I would think that Here could find some diplomatic use for an empathic angel. Dealing with priests maybe, or in a "good cop, bad cop" gambit.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Example scenario: your troubleshooter team has been assigned to guard The Computer's new top secret invisible train for an eight hour shift. Shortly after arriving on duty, it becomes apparent that there is no invisible train. It's not clear if this is because it was stolen prior to your arrival or if it never actually existed and someone just pretended to have invented it to keep the computer happy. Of course, if you cause the computer to become aware of the fact there is no invisible train, it's going to blame you for it, since you were supposed to be guarding it.