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xp_logsBackdated to last night.
Tandy is back at the mansion, but it's not over yet. Jean and Amanda combine their respective powers to try and contain the Dweller inside Tandy's mind.
The marker squealed on the metal floor as Amanda drew the last of the runes. "Basic containment spell," she explained to Jean as she worked. "It'll trap the Dweller physically here, even if we can't get through to Tandy. I used the same thing back when Meggan was possessed by Selene." She grimaced at the memory and focused on the spell.
"Right, that's done," she said after a few more moments. The spell runes encircled the Box, floor and ceiling, and around the walls, with Tandy's unconscious body lying on the bed, leather restraints holding her down. "Let's hope this works," she murmured to herself.
"We'll figure it out if it doesn't," Jean said. She had been quietly watching Amanda work, occasionally glancing over to Tandy. The realm of the mind and magic used to rarely meet, but in Jean's time at the Mansion it had happened more often than she liked.
But, one could say it made for good practice. And what was practice if not the method in which a doctor worked?
"Are you ready?"
Amanda took a breath and nodded. Even working with Emma and being connected with two empaths, her experience with Manuel still made her twitchy about anyone going into her head. "Ready as I’ll ever be," she replied. sitting down on the floor with her legs folded under her. "Let's evict this fuck."
Jean closed her eyes and their current world fell away from them. It was a haze at first before it became something like the outside of a building came into shape in front of them. Everything was dark, with no clouds or stars. The only light seemed to be coming from themselves. Their light shined upon what appeared to be an old movie theater, though the ticket taker seemed to be slacking on the job with no one there to man the ticket booth.
"Interesting," Jean said. She was wearing her X-Man uniform, her body shimmering with a warm, orange-gold light that seemed the most centered around her mind. Every mindscape on the Astral Plane had its own unique representation. This one was no different.
Turning to make sure Amanda had made it okay, Jean caught a glimpse of the scars on her body that emitted an unnatural glow. She paused a moment, then motioned toward the door.
"Shall we go in?"
Amanda nodded. Her astral form mirrored her usual appearance - jeans, t-short, leather jacket and Doc Martens. The image she was still most comfortable with, although her late teens were long gone. She reached for the handle of the theatre door and pulled. The door rattled a little, but wouldn't open. "Seems like someone doesn't want us to go in," she said wryly, giving it another yank. It opened slightly, enough to dump the surprised witch on her astral ass.
Jean blinked, reaching down to offer Amanda a hand up. She glanced over her shoulder at the open door.
"I'm waffling back and forth between Tandy being unconsciously helpful, or trap. Maybe a little bit of both," she said.
"Why not both?" Amanda said, (surely!) unconsciously quoting a Disney movie. "I'll go first - if it is a trap, I've tackled the Dweller before." Of course, that didn't mean she could beat it any easier. She pulled the reluctant door open the rest of the way and slipped into the empty foyer. The lights in their sconces were barely flickering and she waited a moment for her eyes to adjust - and for anything to jump out at her. Nothing did.
An electric lantern appeared in Jean's hand, and she offered one to Amanda as she trailed in behind her. Magic was Amanda's realm, but the mind was Jean's. Or at least, sometimes. Until it wasn't. But for now.
"Better to light a candle than to curse the damn darkness?" she mused with a smile, glancing around. The theater appeared to be in a state of disarray from what she could see, the glimmer of what it once was was marred. Like there had been a battle.
"I take it Tandy's a movie fan?"
The use of a theater seemed particularly curious but Jean didn't know enough about Tandy to determine if that was a choice she had made, or if it was the Dweller's. When dealing with a possessed mind sometimes the venue was an unconscious choice, one warped by the possessor.
"She is, yeah. Old black and white horror movies mostly." Amanda held her lamp high, trying to see in the dark corners. "We bloody better not get attacked by the Wolfman or Frankenstein." There were no monsters, but the place was as mess, with posters ripped from the walls and scattered in pieces on the floor, great cracks in the ceiling and a massive hole in the middle of the sweeping staircase that led upstairs. The witch nodded towards another door in front of them, that could only lead to the movie screen itself. "They'll be in there, I'm betting."
"Hmm, good call," Jean said. The electric lantern shifted into a gas one, a flame flickering beneath the glass dome, waiting.
"Dweller or Frankenstein's monster, I'm guessing they both won't like fire."
She motioned for Amanda to open the door.
"After you."
"So polite," Amanda quipped, but opened the door enough to slip inside - they'd be expected but there was no point announcing their entrance. The theatre inside smelled rank and sour, like mildew and rancid butter and fearsweat all mixed together. A movie was playing, images flickering rapidly over the screen and casting an eerie light over the seats. Another light shone as well, Tandy sitting way up the back of the theatre, the crescent over her eye and her hair and body glowing brightly, yet unable to illuminate the dark room. She was transfixed by the images on the screen.
Playing on the screen was the recent events of what Dweller had made Tandy do against her will. It skipped around, one moment showing the attack on the mansion, the next the night when Dweller was fully released, again turning SHIELD agents into his Shades. Other scenes showed Cullen and Skadi as they planned the attacks in what appeared to be a penthouse as they base of operations. The scene cut to a Cult with the Dweller Staff in the center, it looked like they were trying to destroy it before a flash of white and the scene cut to the next one.
Feeling more presences, Tandy turned her head towards the two and put a finger to her lips before pointing up. In the darkness above them the ceiling appeared to be moving, as if it was breathing softly. Several dozen light daggers appeared to have punctured it and kept it there, only flickering every several seconds.
The moment they walked into the theater itself Jean heard and felt a squishing noise with every step. Glancing down, the ground appeared to be soft, wet, fleshy...alive. She turned back to Tandy, then slowly looked up with dismay and a nod of understanding. Turning off the lamp, she held a hand up to Amanda for her to stay there, then tried to approach Tandy and sit beside her in the chair.
A notepad and pen appeared in her hand, and she scribbled "Are you okay?" on it, holding it up in the light of the screen for her to see, then offered Tandy the pen and notepad.
Tandy took the notepad and quietly wrote one word, "Tired." And then she began to scribble furiously, when she was done she handed the notepad back. "I've been using my light to keep him asleep, I cannot leave. Too weak."
Jean spared a look up at the ceiling, then turned the page.
"I understand. We're working on a way to try to help," she wrote. A moment passed, then another, before she added.
"Is there anything we can do right now?"
"Wards. When you leave, have Amanda place wards around me, the room. Don't let anyone near. Cul is dangerous, Dweller is addicted to the fear. If Dweller awakes...." She paused her writing and looked up at the screen where it switched to something of the past. Chaos. Destruction. Death. It was a memory of the first time Dweller met Cul. "That." This time Tandy's whispered softly as a tear traced her cheek. She went back to write. "I'll continue to use my light but I need something solid." She leaned forward to see Amanda and gave her friend a faint smile before looking back at Jean.
Jean fell silent a moment, then nodded.
"I'll tell Amanda. In the meantime, I'll send her over. Be safe, okay?" she said.
She wanted to do something to help but magic seemed to be the only thing that would do it at the moment. She could sense the psychic damage infesting Tandy's mind. That could be healed later once this was all over but there was something about Dweller that reminded her of the Shadow King. More than just a little something. She knew if she tried to battle the Dweller it would only turn out bad for Tandy.
Rising from the chair, she walked back to Amanda, then wrote something down on the notepad.
"We can't talk. He'll wake up. Tandy can't leave now. Keeping Dweller asleep. She says to put wards around her for now," she said, then offered her the notepad and pen and motioned toward Tandy.
Amanda nodded, her lips a thin line. She'd feared something like this, given the deep connection between Tandy and the Dweller. She took the proffered notepad and approached the young woman, moving slowly and quietly so as not to draw attention from the black fleshy mass around them. ~Wards are up around your body already,~ she wrote quickly in her somewhat childish hand - a throwback to Amanda's late acquisition of literacy. ~Got something to help you in here. Present from the Ancient One.~ She motioned for Tandy to hold out her hand.
Spells in the astral plane took on physical shapes, sometimes literal, others more metaphorical. The warding spell Amanda pulled out of her jacket pocket had taken on a shape to suit its surroundings... a small usher's flashlight, not much bigger than a pen. Amanda laid it in Tandy's hand, aware of the sudden shifting of the Dweller around them as it registered the magic. "And something from me," she murmured. Without a second thought, she plunged her hand into her chest, just as Rack had done to her so many years ago and pulled out a fistful of glowing energy which she touched to the crescent moon around Tandy's eye. It sank into Tandy's skin, disappearing rapidly without a trace. "Should give you a bit more oomph."
Tandy held out her hand to accept the usher's flashlight. Tandy felt Dweller shift as well but it was no more than that. Tilting her head to the side as Amanda pulled something out of her chest and then touched the crescent moon. Closing her eyes as she accepted the extra oomph and the lights above stopped flickering and held a stronger glow. Opening her eyes again and she nodded and mouthed "Thank you." She had no doubt that they were working on a way to pull her from this misery, even if Dweller already had made his home in every corner of her mind.
Tandy is back at the mansion, but it's not over yet. Jean and Amanda combine their respective powers to try and contain the Dweller inside Tandy's mind.
The marker squealed on the metal floor as Amanda drew the last of the runes. "Basic containment spell," she explained to Jean as she worked. "It'll trap the Dweller physically here, even if we can't get through to Tandy. I used the same thing back when Meggan was possessed by Selene." She grimaced at the memory and focused on the spell.
"Right, that's done," she said after a few more moments. The spell runes encircled the Box, floor and ceiling, and around the walls, with Tandy's unconscious body lying on the bed, leather restraints holding her down. "Let's hope this works," she murmured to herself.
"We'll figure it out if it doesn't," Jean said. She had been quietly watching Amanda work, occasionally glancing over to Tandy. The realm of the mind and magic used to rarely meet, but in Jean's time at the Mansion it had happened more often than she liked.
But, one could say it made for good practice. And what was practice if not the method in which a doctor worked?
"Are you ready?"
Amanda took a breath and nodded. Even working with Emma and being connected with two empaths, her experience with Manuel still made her twitchy about anyone going into her head. "Ready as I’ll ever be," she replied. sitting down on the floor with her legs folded under her. "Let's evict this fuck."
Jean closed her eyes and their current world fell away from them. It was a haze at first before it became something like the outside of a building came into shape in front of them. Everything was dark, with no clouds or stars. The only light seemed to be coming from themselves. Their light shined upon what appeared to be an old movie theater, though the ticket taker seemed to be slacking on the job with no one there to man the ticket booth.
"Interesting," Jean said. She was wearing her X-Man uniform, her body shimmering with a warm, orange-gold light that seemed the most centered around her mind. Every mindscape on the Astral Plane had its own unique representation. This one was no different.
Turning to make sure Amanda had made it okay, Jean caught a glimpse of the scars on her body that emitted an unnatural glow. She paused a moment, then motioned toward the door.
"Shall we go in?"
Amanda nodded. Her astral form mirrored her usual appearance - jeans, t-short, leather jacket and Doc Martens. The image she was still most comfortable with, although her late teens were long gone. She reached for the handle of the theatre door and pulled. The door rattled a little, but wouldn't open. "Seems like someone doesn't want us to go in," she said wryly, giving it another yank. It opened slightly, enough to dump the surprised witch on her astral ass.
Jean blinked, reaching down to offer Amanda a hand up. She glanced over her shoulder at the open door.
"I'm waffling back and forth between Tandy being unconsciously helpful, or trap. Maybe a little bit of both," she said.
"Why not both?" Amanda said, (surely!) unconsciously quoting a Disney movie. "I'll go first - if it is a trap, I've tackled the Dweller before." Of course, that didn't mean she could beat it any easier. She pulled the reluctant door open the rest of the way and slipped into the empty foyer. The lights in their sconces were barely flickering and she waited a moment for her eyes to adjust - and for anything to jump out at her. Nothing did.
An electric lantern appeared in Jean's hand, and she offered one to Amanda as she trailed in behind her. Magic was Amanda's realm, but the mind was Jean's. Or at least, sometimes. Until it wasn't. But for now.
"Better to light a candle than to curse the damn darkness?" she mused with a smile, glancing around. The theater appeared to be in a state of disarray from what she could see, the glimmer of what it once was was marred. Like there had been a battle.
"I take it Tandy's a movie fan?"
The use of a theater seemed particularly curious but Jean didn't know enough about Tandy to determine if that was a choice she had made, or if it was the Dweller's. When dealing with a possessed mind sometimes the venue was an unconscious choice, one warped by the possessor.
"She is, yeah. Old black and white horror movies mostly." Amanda held her lamp high, trying to see in the dark corners. "We bloody better not get attacked by the Wolfman or Frankenstein." There were no monsters, but the place was as mess, with posters ripped from the walls and scattered in pieces on the floor, great cracks in the ceiling and a massive hole in the middle of the sweeping staircase that led upstairs. The witch nodded towards another door in front of them, that could only lead to the movie screen itself. "They'll be in there, I'm betting."
"Hmm, good call," Jean said. The electric lantern shifted into a gas one, a flame flickering beneath the glass dome, waiting.
"Dweller or Frankenstein's monster, I'm guessing they both won't like fire."
She motioned for Amanda to open the door.
"After you."
"So polite," Amanda quipped, but opened the door enough to slip inside - they'd be expected but there was no point announcing their entrance. The theatre inside smelled rank and sour, like mildew and rancid butter and fearsweat all mixed together. A movie was playing, images flickering rapidly over the screen and casting an eerie light over the seats. Another light shone as well, Tandy sitting way up the back of the theatre, the crescent over her eye and her hair and body glowing brightly, yet unable to illuminate the dark room. She was transfixed by the images on the screen.
Playing on the screen was the recent events of what Dweller had made Tandy do against her will. It skipped around, one moment showing the attack on the mansion, the next the night when Dweller was fully released, again turning SHIELD agents into his Shades. Other scenes showed Cullen and Skadi as they planned the attacks in what appeared to be a penthouse as they base of operations. The scene cut to a Cult with the Dweller Staff in the center, it looked like they were trying to destroy it before a flash of white and the scene cut to the next one.
Feeling more presences, Tandy turned her head towards the two and put a finger to her lips before pointing up. In the darkness above them the ceiling appeared to be moving, as if it was breathing softly. Several dozen light daggers appeared to have punctured it and kept it there, only flickering every several seconds.
The moment they walked into the theater itself Jean heard and felt a squishing noise with every step. Glancing down, the ground appeared to be soft, wet, fleshy...alive. She turned back to Tandy, then slowly looked up with dismay and a nod of understanding. Turning off the lamp, she held a hand up to Amanda for her to stay there, then tried to approach Tandy and sit beside her in the chair.
A notepad and pen appeared in her hand, and she scribbled "Are you okay?" on it, holding it up in the light of the screen for her to see, then offered Tandy the pen and notepad.
Tandy took the notepad and quietly wrote one word, "Tired." And then she began to scribble furiously, when she was done she handed the notepad back. "I've been using my light to keep him asleep, I cannot leave. Too weak."
Jean spared a look up at the ceiling, then turned the page.
"I understand. We're working on a way to try to help," she wrote. A moment passed, then another, before she added.
"Is there anything we can do right now?"
"Wards. When you leave, have Amanda place wards around me, the room. Don't let anyone near. Cul is dangerous, Dweller is addicted to the fear. If Dweller awakes...." She paused her writing and looked up at the screen where it switched to something of the past. Chaos. Destruction. Death. It was a memory of the first time Dweller met Cul. "That." This time Tandy's whispered softly as a tear traced her cheek. She went back to write. "I'll continue to use my light but I need something solid." She leaned forward to see Amanda and gave her friend a faint smile before looking back at Jean.
Jean fell silent a moment, then nodded.
"I'll tell Amanda. In the meantime, I'll send her over. Be safe, okay?" she said.
She wanted to do something to help but magic seemed to be the only thing that would do it at the moment. She could sense the psychic damage infesting Tandy's mind. That could be healed later once this was all over but there was something about Dweller that reminded her of the Shadow King. More than just a little something. She knew if she tried to battle the Dweller it would only turn out bad for Tandy.
Rising from the chair, she walked back to Amanda, then wrote something down on the notepad.
"We can't talk. He'll wake up. Tandy can't leave now. Keeping Dweller asleep. She says to put wards around her for now," she said, then offered her the notepad and pen and motioned toward Tandy.
Amanda nodded, her lips a thin line. She'd feared something like this, given the deep connection between Tandy and the Dweller. She took the proffered notepad and approached the young woman, moving slowly and quietly so as not to draw attention from the black fleshy mass around them. ~Wards are up around your body already,~ she wrote quickly in her somewhat childish hand - a throwback to Amanda's late acquisition of literacy. ~Got something to help you in here. Present from the Ancient One.~ She motioned for Tandy to hold out her hand.
Spells in the astral plane took on physical shapes, sometimes literal, others more metaphorical. The warding spell Amanda pulled out of her jacket pocket had taken on a shape to suit its surroundings... a small usher's flashlight, not much bigger than a pen. Amanda laid it in Tandy's hand, aware of the sudden shifting of the Dweller around them as it registered the magic. "And something from me," she murmured. Without a second thought, she plunged her hand into her chest, just as Rack had done to her so many years ago and pulled out a fistful of glowing energy which she touched to the crescent moon around Tandy's eye. It sank into Tandy's skin, disappearing rapidly without a trace. "Should give you a bit more oomph."
Tandy held out her hand to accept the usher's flashlight. Tandy felt Dweller shift as well but it was no more than that. Tilting her head to the side as Amanda pulled something out of her chest and then touched the crescent moon. Closing her eyes as she accepted the extra oomph and the lights above stopped flickering and held a stronger glow. Opening her eyes again and she nodded and mouthed "Thank you." She had no doubt that they were working on a way to pull her from this misery, even if Dweller already had made his home in every corner of her mind.
