Eighth Drop: the spirit lighthouse (action/voice)
[Sorrow makes his way to the top of the lighthouse, padding up the spiral stairs with not a single board's creak. Suspended above him there, at the tower's height, is a huge double lamp with two immense reflectors. Down in the staircase, one or two curious ghosts pause on the steps to peer up at him; he focuses his mind on them for just a moment, clarifying the psychic blurs into actual translucent shapes. Once they notice him watching, they sit on the handrail, ignoring all physics as they lean at strange angles into the air. He sweeps his mind away and returns to his work, closing his eyes now and kneeling on the stone.
The girl's appearance and manner of death would suffice to find her; if he inquires about them into the spirit world, it wouldn't be as good as a name, but it would do if she would allow him her time. In preparation, he brings the image from the Network clearly into his mind.
A girl, crucified against a brick wall. Several precise gunshots ensure a bloody death, and red stains bloom out against the dusky rust-brown blocks. He traces out the exact outlines of the blood in his mind, the exact locations of the shots, the curve of her face and the peak of her nose and the length of her hair. Detail after detail, as strong a replica as he can manage, he locks into his thoughts and then opens himself to the spirit world.
A sense overcomes him like a film tearing away from his skin, a shield pulling to shreds and allowing in the auras and sensations of the spirit world. The room's temperature drops, though only he can feel it; currents of spirit energy pushing this way and that like streams of air. As they brush over him, an electric tingle rushes through his limbs, under his skin, until heat gathers behind his eyes. Focusing harder on the image, he projects the thought out into the spirits' realm, asking after it.]
I do not know your name, kind spirit, but I know of your plight and of your displeasure. If you will, allow me a moment of your eternal time, and speak to me across the threshold between life and death. In return, I offer my body, mind, and all abilities therein. Ask, and I answer. Request, and I will act. And in the end, I will do what I can to give you peace.
[A soft zap rushes up his spine, and the sense of rustling cloth traces across his shoulders and then over them. A massive rush of spirit energy, like a vortex forming before him, and the lightning sense strengthens until his glasses shine in a white flash and the left lens cracks once with a loud snap. He opens his eyes, and the world comes into view in brilliant blue-white gleams; with it is the figure of a girl hovering just above the floor at the very center of the lighthouse. Her lips move, but only his mind hears her speech:
"I'm not ready to be here...I don't want to die...it hurts so much..."
Trickles of phantom blood run down her body from the exact points he had remembered...but the wounds are conspicuously absent.]
I understand. But what is done, is done. All that I can do, is to give you whatever peace I can, by stopping this now. I will do everything in my power. Please, tell me whatever you can about your death.
[She bows her head, trembling and gasping now as her spirit recalls the pain, the fear, the sorrow. He extends a hand, and although he can't touch her, he feels a crackling, crushing sensation as if he had grabbed a handful of tin foil. A feeble shield. She was trying not to remember, but her mind couldn't keep it out. The mental shield was full of holes, and her soul hurt just as much as her body once had.
"I...I don't know anything...I'm sorry! I can't remember..."
He waits, but leaves his hand in the air like that; she feels his aura from him, a deep blue-violet warmth against her wild electric fear, and she calms a little, looking up.
"There were two of them. Two people killed me."]
Is there anything else you remember?
["No..." She trembles a moment more, then pulls away in a silvery blur. He leans forward on instinct, hand outstretched, eyes wide and pleading.]
Wait, please. At least allow me to make this easier for you, somehow. Stay with me. You are in such pain...
[She obliges, kneeling before him, throwing her arms around his shoulders in an incorporeal embrace that covers him in a sense of rolling water. Tears, in a way, but a rippling flood rather than a soft pattering rain. They stay like that for one, two, then four minutes. On the start of the fifth, her spirit begins to fade, the aura about him dimming. His mind senses it before his eyes notice.]
Thank you. May you rest easier, knowing there are many who wish to see you given peace. I will do what I can. You have my word.
[Whispering away, her spirit fades from view, pulling from his shoulders and mind and trickling into the air. Sorrow shuts his eyes and takes several deep breaths, closing himself to the realm of the dead, the film-like sense growing about him as his mental shields rise again. When he opens them once more, his glasses are restored to normal, his vision is as polychromatic as usual, and no traces of the blue-white glow remain save for the ghosts down the stairs.
He collects his device from where he had set it on one of the windows, stares at it, and frowns. It must have turned itself on; God only knew what spirit energies did to technology when they were this strong right next to it.]
...I see.
[OOC: Basically, the device caught him summoning the spirit of the girl who was recently killed. No one else can see much of what's going on; there's a faint blue-white light, something resembling a body that can't be recognized through the device, and the sound of Sorrow mumbling. If you're good, you can pick out what he's saying, because he's being really quiet. As for the girl, no one can hear her at all, because she's speaking psychically to Sorrow alone. Sorrow's chat is in gray for general differentiation.
Also, just as a neat touch, feel free to see the Lighthouse's lamps glowing blue-white tonight for a few minutes.
If you want to catch Sorrow mid-summon and come in afterwards, feel free, but I'd like you to be non-bad-guys only. Basically, the Bad Guys aren't supposed to know any more than what they can see through the device, but Sorrow is more than willing to have a chat with anyone else who was intrigued by the blue lighthouse and came to see what was going down up there. Just for plot's sake, thank you! :)
One more note: this was Murder Plot Mun Approved; both people involved specifically told me what I could and couldn't obtain from the spirit of the girl. So this is all kosher.]
The girl's appearance and manner of death would suffice to find her; if he inquires about them into the spirit world, it wouldn't be as good as a name, but it would do if she would allow him her time. In preparation, he brings the image from the Network clearly into his mind.
A girl, crucified against a brick wall. Several precise gunshots ensure a bloody death, and red stains bloom out against the dusky rust-brown blocks. He traces out the exact outlines of the blood in his mind, the exact locations of the shots, the curve of her face and the peak of her nose and the length of her hair. Detail after detail, as strong a replica as he can manage, he locks into his thoughts and then opens himself to the spirit world.
A sense overcomes him like a film tearing away from his skin, a shield pulling to shreds and allowing in the auras and sensations of the spirit world. The room's temperature drops, though only he can feel it; currents of spirit energy pushing this way and that like streams of air. As they brush over him, an electric tingle rushes through his limbs, under his skin, until heat gathers behind his eyes. Focusing harder on the image, he projects the thought out into the spirits' realm, asking after it.]
I do not know your name, kind spirit, but I know of your plight and of your displeasure. If you will, allow me a moment of your eternal time, and speak to me across the threshold between life and death. In return, I offer my body, mind, and all abilities therein. Ask, and I answer. Request, and I will act. And in the end, I will do what I can to give you peace.
[A soft zap rushes up his spine, and the sense of rustling cloth traces across his shoulders and then over them. A massive rush of spirit energy, like a vortex forming before him, and the lightning sense strengthens until his glasses shine in a white flash and the left lens cracks once with a loud snap. He opens his eyes, and the world comes into view in brilliant blue-white gleams; with it is the figure of a girl hovering just above the floor at the very center of the lighthouse. Her lips move, but only his mind hears her speech:
"I'm not ready to be here...I don't want to die...it hurts so much..."
Trickles of phantom blood run down her body from the exact points he had remembered...but the wounds are conspicuously absent.]
I understand. But what is done, is done. All that I can do, is to give you whatever peace I can, by stopping this now. I will do everything in my power. Please, tell me whatever you can about your death.
[She bows her head, trembling and gasping now as her spirit recalls the pain, the fear, the sorrow. He extends a hand, and although he can't touch her, he feels a crackling, crushing sensation as if he had grabbed a handful of tin foil. A feeble shield. She was trying not to remember, but her mind couldn't keep it out. The mental shield was full of holes, and her soul hurt just as much as her body once had.
"I...I don't know anything...I'm sorry! I can't remember..."
He waits, but leaves his hand in the air like that; she feels his aura from him, a deep blue-violet warmth against her wild electric fear, and she calms a little, looking up.
"There were two of them. Two people killed me."]
Is there anything else you remember?
["No..." She trembles a moment more, then pulls away in a silvery blur. He leans forward on instinct, hand outstretched, eyes wide and pleading.]
Wait, please. At least allow me to make this easier for you, somehow. Stay with me. You are in such pain...
[She obliges, kneeling before him, throwing her arms around his shoulders in an incorporeal embrace that covers him in a sense of rolling water. Tears, in a way, but a rippling flood rather than a soft pattering rain. They stay like that for one, two, then four minutes. On the start of the fifth, her spirit begins to fade, the aura about him dimming. His mind senses it before his eyes notice.]
Thank you. May you rest easier, knowing there are many who wish to see you given peace. I will do what I can. You have my word.
[Whispering away, her spirit fades from view, pulling from his shoulders and mind and trickling into the air. Sorrow shuts his eyes and takes several deep breaths, closing himself to the realm of the dead, the film-like sense growing about him as his mental shields rise again. When he opens them once more, his glasses are restored to normal, his vision is as polychromatic as usual, and no traces of the blue-white glow remain save for the ghosts down the stairs.
He collects his device from where he had set it on one of the windows, stares at it, and frowns. It must have turned itself on; God only knew what spirit energies did to technology when they were this strong right next to it.]
...I see.
[OOC: Basically, the device caught him summoning the spirit of the girl who was recently killed. No one else can see much of what's going on; there's a faint blue-white light, something resembling a body that can't be recognized through the device, and the sound of Sorrow mumbling. If you're good, you can pick out what he's saying, because he's being really quiet. As for the girl, no one can hear her at all, because she's speaking psychically to Sorrow alone. Sorrow's chat is in gray for general differentiation.
Also, just as a neat touch, feel free to see the Lighthouse's lamps glowing blue-white tonight for a few minutes.
If you want to catch Sorrow mid-summon and come in afterwards, feel free, but I'd like you to be non-bad-guys only. Basically, the Bad Guys aren't supposed to know any more than what they can see through the device, but Sorrow is more than willing to have a chat with anyone else who was intrigued by the blue lighthouse and came to see what was going down up there. Just for plot's sake, thank you! :)
One more note: this was Murder Plot Mun Approved; both people involved specifically told me what I could and couldn't obtain from the spirit of the girl. So this is all kosher.]