Is Your Love Strong Enough? Part 2 - Personal Interwoven Soulcatchers

[cityship]

Following you awakening and talking with a few of the members through the communication systems by way of the three kind people who had awakened her, Nezaitben realized how the crew was stuck in a terrible mess.

So many of them felt sad and depressed. Considering the entire ship, it wasn't too hard to see why. The next day, there had been an unusual amount of magical flowers spreading all over the ship. Nothing that damaged the controls (she might be naive in the way humanoids were, but Nezaitben was no fool either) but they were found in the most unexpected of places. Her own awakening area was now blooming in a flower paradise, the wooden palace standing proudly on top, the smell and pink cherry blossom strong enough to carry through most of the central city area where most people resided.

Yet the ship was still sad.

This would not do.

That night, or what passed as a night for in the ship, Nezaitben took to the 'sky', letting pieces of her own essence fall on top of the sleeping populace, or those that were not sleeping finding themselves feeling the need too. Enveloping the ship into a peaceful slumber, she searched their dreams. The powers granted to her by the pantheon of gods in her homeworld allowed Nezaitben to weave a series of dreamcatchers giving her the ability to see those whose hearts connected true.

These noble souls would do. Lead by example had always been her philosophy. She would give them a great gift - communication with each other in a single body, allowing them to share everything together. Their two soulcatchers were woven together that night into a single, grand ones, hanging in the garden's trees.

A few minutes later, the empty husks of the bodies that weren't being used showed up at her palace. With a smile, she welcomed them like her own children and began to dress them for their task.

That morning, some of the crewmen would wake up to a strange surprise...and that would just be the beginning of a long, strange misunderstanding and young gods trying too much to please everyone.

[OOC - Just a few rules. Keep in mind the listed rules. You can all start your own threads of waking up in the bodies of others. If you feel like leaving a 2nd post for other people to intact with them, start a reply to your own first post with OPEN header. That way everyone else will know where to post and if you don't feel like having an open interaction post right away, you won't have to!

There will also be another post for all the soulless characters to go around spreading joy and love, so look forward to that too!]

Comments

[combustible_me]

"What th' hell," Ellyn growled. The weird prickly feeling was still at the back of her neck, and she slapped at it. She already felt irritable, but the feeling was only increasing.

And why was a shocked feeling rushing through her? This wasn't unlike most of her other days starting on the ship...

"Snap outta it, Vitner." With that, she lifted a hand to clonk herself on the side of the head.

[battorch]

Tim felt that. And heard that. And this was most definitely not right.

It took a little effort-- and a lot more than it should have-- to pull the hand next to the head down, into the line of sight as his mind raced to put these bizarre pieces together.

That was definitely not his hand. Just like it wasn't his voice. Or where he'd have slept.

"Ellyn?" he forced out. Yeah, that was definitely not his voice.

[combustible_me]

"Red Robin?!" Yeah, probably best to start out on that foot. Not that Ellyn knew what the hell was going on.

"What in hell're ya doin' in my head?" Had she realized that he was the one yanking her hand away? Or, you know, using her voice? Nope, not yet.

Weird enough to have someone in her head for the first time in months...

[battorch]

Okay, so that confirmed that. Tim-- Red Robin stopped the movement he'd started, and didn't respond at first while he tried to process this. Which was something of a feat.

"Unfortunately, I don't think I have an answer for that," he said, then cringed faintly from the use of her voice for the words. Except that it was really her who was cringing. This was not something he was going to adjust to any time soon. He had her take a slow breath, levelling himself out. Panicking was not conducive to anything.

He hadn't been doing anything that would conceivably result in this, she likely would be aware if she had been in an associated situation, and there were no situations that he was aware of that could be an explanation, either. So the causation was something totally new-- which meant no answers, yet. Great.

"This is obviously more than just telepathic," he added after a moment. And tried not to be bothered by the voice it took to say those things. "It's a-- more complete 'sharing' than that." Because everything he was feeling was entirely her right then.

[combustible_me]

That meant, of course, that besides the fact that Red Robin felt unsettled, Ellyn was irritated. Not at Red Robin, no--but at whoever had actually done this.

"Yeah, I c'n tell," the pyromancer said with a grunt. "Awright. First things first. Ya pro'ly oughtta take us ta where you were sleepin' last 'night' an' make sure everythin's okay there. If you wanna show me where, I c'n pro'ly get us there faster'n you could jus' runnin'."

Despite the fact that she was about as happy as he was with this sudden situation, pragmatism was, again, winning out. Ellyn only hoped--surprisingly quietly, for her--that Red Robin's body was just fine and he had something to go back to. Once they figured all this out.

[battorch]

And Red Robin felt that irritation. Feeling someone else's feelings-- and, naturally, in turn she would be feeling his. He would have to keep an eye on that.

But as Ellyn advocated searching for his body, he was in complete agreement; if he was in her, there was no way to tell what had happened to him. And that merited investigation as quickly as possible. Even if he wasn't keen on sharing his more private workspace with her. He quickly squashed that concern. There were more important things to worry about than that.

"I was working. In the city," he said, still a bit unsettled by using her voice. Because he believed that she would get there faster if he just told her. He started to explain more specifically, before he said "wait" and focused. He formed a clear mental image of the area his building was in; theoretically, she would be able to share that.

[combustible_me]

Ellyn grunted and nodded, before stopping herself--he certainly couldn't see that any more.

"Been 'round there b'fore, I think. Hang on. This'll pro'ly feel weird t'ya, but I know what I'm doin'."

Red Robin had seen Ellyn dissolve into a wash of fire before, back on shore leave, but feeling it was something else entirely. A rush of heat ran through them, before the fire that they had become rushed off in a sphere, streaking off towards that part of the city in particular. The fireball struck the ground before the building that he had identified, and coalesced into the tall, lanky form of the pyromancer.

"Don't s'pose ya got any tricks I oughtta be worryin' about in here 'fore I open the door?" she asked, reaching out a hand towards the doorknob.

[battorch]

It was certainly a unique experience-- being a normal human, most metahuman (or otherwise) abilities were fascinating, but generally unknown, to him. If nothing else, it was effective. Just-- strange, at the same time.

Red Robin was still uncertain, but he had no choice in the matter.

"No," he said, with her voice. Then he paused, and tried to communicate without that. Not on the first floor. There's a simple tripwire on the hidden stairs to the basement. Avoid that.

[combustible_me]

Well, tripwires normally didn't bother her, but he probably didn't want her to melt it, she mused.

Yeah, probably. Which brought up another thought.

"Awright. Uh. Act'lly you wanna take it from here? Ya know this place better'n me, an' I'd rather not mess yer spot up. I'll jus' go...think about burnin' or somethin' an' you c'n get my 'tention if ya need me?"

[battorch]

Well, that was a strange thought; he appreciated the tact and the lenience, but there was still something unsettling about taking control of someone else's body. Arguably he had the moral high ground, since she'd permitted it, but still.

"Right," Red Robin said with her voice, frowning faintly. Cautiously, he took control of her body. It took him only a brief moment for him to get used to it, being different in a lot of noticeable ways from his own and he wasn't going to bother dwelling on that.

He stepped into the building cautiously, and moved a shelf out of the way to expose the stairs to the basement. He was careful to avoid his simple trap on the way down, before he entered the workspace below.

And swore faintly at how empty of other living things it was.

[combustible_me]

At least he sounded impressive. The pyromancer's voice just sort of...slipped smoothly into swearing. Like she was good at it.

In the back of their shared space, Ellyn just gave a quiet grunt. This wasn't good.

Any ideas? she asked, still quiet. Clearly she was still just fine with relinquishing control. I kinda got the wrong powerset ta find ya quickly, sad ta say.

And at that moment, it seemed, Ellyn did have a brief moment of regret. Telepathy would certainly have made things easier...

[battorch]

Red Robin frowned. "No use dwelling on that," he said. Though it would have been beneficial to have some powers on their side, but that wasn't something that they could change. And it wasn't as if her powers hadn't been useful.

Of course, he also did have an idea they could use. With luck...

Stepping forward, he rooted through some tools that he had tucked away to the side, packed away neatly. He was forming a brief plan of action in his mind as he did so. They couldn't count on his body being unused in some capacity or another, not if whatever had done this had cleared him out. So they had to be prepared for that possibility.

After a moment, he pulled out a small electronic button, and a grapnel-like tie. "Mind if I make a modification to your communicator?" he asked, but he was already pulling it out from where he felt it on her.

[combustible_me]

So long as nobody's gonna complain 'bout it, I ain't 'bout to. Not like yer breakin' it, right? she asked. Though Ellyn was more present now, clearly curious about what Red Robin was doing.

Yer pretty good at this kinda stuff, eh? She was being relatively quiet, for her, but there was definitely an interested and watching impression that he got as he used her hands to work on the comm unit.

[battorch]

"Right," Red Robin said. "I'm just calibrating some things." He wouldn't do anything to damage it or that might get someone angry with them.

For a brief second, he was preoccupied with the hands he was using to work on the comm. They were certainly different from his own, and it was a little odd to see them doing his work. He fiddled with it for a moment more, before he answered again. "I'm in Programming," he said. "And Engineering. So I know my way around them, yes." He worked for a few seconds more, before he said, realising maybe he should give her a bit more, "I have tracers, in the belt of my uniform. I'm going to use the maps on the comms to pin point that-- so that should tell us where I-- my body is."

[combustible_me]

Huh. Interestin'. I haven't really joined anythin' on th' ship yet. Thought 'bout Security, but never stepped up yet.

Ellyn was quiet for a few long moments while Red Robin worked, listening to his explanation, and a wave of unease washed over her.

Uh. So what happ'ns if yer mindless bod stripped naked an' is runnin' 'round the city, b'sides your--our 'ternal emb'rassment?

The urge to lift her hand and rub the back of her head in embarrassment was strong, but Ellyn quashed it. She couldn't stop the flush in her cheeks, however.

[battorch]

Red Robin hesitated then said, "Let me know if you decide to. I'm a Senior Officer in Security." He wasn't quite offering to put in a good word, but if nothing else he would be interested in knowing if she did.

Of course, he was too distracted, momentarily, to say anything more on the subject. It was an unsettling-- if interesting-- phenomenon. He was used to being generally inexpressive, making a point to not show outward reactions. So both the unease and the embarrassment felt strange, not originating from himself, and he could feel a physical reaction that wasn't really his own.

Of course, his own feeling of embarrassment was completely empathic in nature. Completely.

"We'll, uh. Cross that bridge when we get to it," he said, trying to fall into his fail safe gruff, Red Robin voice. It was considerably more difficult to do with someone else's vocal cords. "Until then, I'll assume otherwise."

The tracer on the map of her communicator blipped into life. It didn't seem to be moving to a great degree, that was always a good sign. He zoomed for a closer look.

[combustible_me]

Ya wanna try an' get there th' way we got here? I c'n probably figure out where that is from where we are now. Ellyn figured she'd let him know when she made a decision on Security. If she ever made one.

Her voice, on the other hand--even when Ellyn wasn't using it, it wasn't difficult for Red Robin to coax "gruff and/or raspy" from it. Unusual to do with Ellyn's vocal cords...yeah that was probably a given.

I need a moment with the comm before we go anywhere usin' my powers, though. Don't wanna undo all yer hard work since its pattern's prolly changed with it, Ellyn said.

[battorch]

Red Robin nodded faintly at the proposition. Hopefully she felt that, but just in case: "That's probably the most effective option," he said. "Since it would be faster." He was already starting to make a habit of using his gruffer tone with her voice; at least hers was suited for it.

With a faint frown, he said, "Do what you need to do. You can-- take control again. If you can transport the tools I have there," he indicated the ties he'd pulled out before hand, "Then you should bring those. They may be useful."