(no subject)
The wretched place was a complete and utter mess. To be honest, the Professor really could not stand it when things got this disorganized, though there was little that she could do about it... well, at least in a single day. Though she supposed, as she continued her searching on the terrain, it would take many days to get this place even moderately ordered again. Ah, such as the problems were.
There was a ringing ache throughout the space. There was something missing. A piece that had been snatched up and stretched to a place it should not have gone. Because of that ache, that pain... the Professor was forced to play the janitor yet again.
At least she would not have to be a nanny that time. That annoying Other Martel had taken care of that; those two were in a place where they would not get into any trouble. At least the Professor knew quite well that the Other Martel was capable from keeping trouble from getting into where they were. They were so painfully pathetic that the slightest little trouble would send them reeling into their corners, and it would take no little coaxing to get them to forget what they had seen, what they had heard.
Ah. Such was life, the Professor supposed. The First broke, she swept up the pieces, and glued back the ones that suited her purposes back together. Or at least that was what was supposed to have happened. The First kept getting her greedy hands on shards of thought, shards of memory that she should not have had. The Professor could not figure out which one of the others it was that was pressing those into her mind -- was it the thing, the child... or perhaps it was that irritating caricature of Martel? It didn't matter. Not right now, at any rate. It was a problem that would have to be dealt with later.
But for now, the pain. The Professor closed her eyes and grudgingly acknowledged the pain. She did not like to admit that she could feel it, but she could. To anyone else, the pain would have been unbearable, but the Professor was an old hand at dealing with pain. After all, wasn’t that her purpose?
What a strange mirror this all was. The ache throbbed all around her, sending echoes and waves to everyone involved. The trick was to find where it hurt the most, where those waves were coming from.
The Professor took a step forward, neatly stepping over one of the pesky waves that would have sent the First bowling over onto her face. She opened her eyes, dark as the stormclouds that rumbled overhead, glancing around the nearly colorless foliage. She ignored the dying screams of -- something.
Probably the monster. The others would scream higher... besides, the other Martel was more then capable of taking care of herself.
She focused on the pain. She made it a part of herself, held it tight to her heart. Show me where you are. Show me where that thing has wandered off to.
(This way. That way. No -- over here, over there. Everywhere and nowhere, the thing could not be found.)
She grit her teeth for a moment, then let the frustration pass as she began to move again. It was not as if the Professor wasn't used to ardous tasks; wherever the thing was, it would be found.
Another wave. And then another. Perhaps she was closer now; something seemed off, about this area. She paused briefly, lifting her eyes. Something wrong... was it? In the trees, in the forest, something flickered in the sky; almost lightening shaped and yet not, for it seemed... as if there was something torn, as if the sky was like paper--the ground was littered with splinters of one of the trees that had been caught and severed; in fact it had mostly been severed quite neatly...
She frowned. Really, such a thing should not have even been able to exist. But there it was; you could walk around it, see through it, yet if you moved the flap... there was a hole, a tunnel of sorts, crudely formed, all the same.
The Professor sighed. It was time to call on that Other Martel now, to inform her that yes, she had finally found what they were looking for. Perhaps by now she was finished with taking care of those other two.