An Unfortunate Turn, Iskveda vs. Lachesis

[Lachesis]

And he was met with silence as Lachesis merely gazed at him. Its eyes were still a bright violet, still burning with Jupiter psynergy as it watched him, completely unmoving. And then it spoke.

"Such a dirty mind we have." Lachesis was a mentalist, ultimately. Physical combat could be entertaining, but that was not its specialty. It was far better at confusing and manipulating. "Perhaps it would be best..."

Iskveda would feel something enter his mind. Perhaps enter was not the right word, as the feeling would be more comparable to having one's head hammered. "...if we cleaned it."

[Iskveda]

Iskveda didn't have any real time to react before Lachesis slammed into his mind. From the outside, all that was accomplished was Isk clutching his skull, and falling on his face.

What Lachesis would find was that Isk's mind was very clean in moral regards. Emotional regards were clean, but with Isk knocked out, the imagery was just rolling along. Images flickered around: His father's face, the tombstone of his mother, the uniform of a Lunarian Private First Class, then that of a Captain, all manner of things.

If Lach were looking for anything specific, it would have to wade through that stuff.

OOC: Yeah. Don't go rewriting or removing anything in there, Lach.

[Lachesis]

Minds. They were such delightful things, always changing, always moving, always in such a chaotic state. In general. There were a few minds that weren't squishy, misshapen thought blobs, but they were not very common. But squishy, misshapen thought blobs were entertaining. There was always so much to learn from them. If only what made them tick.

Lachesis wasn't feeling picky at the moment. There were things it needed to do, but there was time. It wouldn't be too hard to do them quickly if something happened, so there really wasn't any rush.

It began prodding Iskveda's mind, quite calmly pushing aside most of the memories that floated its way. Most of them weren't really of interest to it, nor were his emotions, those little specks that kept mingling with more substantial things, morphing them into a completely different form. No, those weren't of interest. At the moment, it was really only focused on learning approximately two things.

What was that style the Lunarian had been using, and who had taught him?

[Iskveda]

A figure appeared in front of Lachesis. It looked like Iskveda... But he was garbed in the uniform of a Lunarian soldier. Like Iskveda, he had a pair of swords sheathed at his hips. "Stop where you are, invader. Under normal circumstances, I would be trying to slay you where you stand. Though, under anything approaching normal circumstances, I'd have the backing of both the conscious and subconscious minds." The figure locked his hands behind his back, and stood at parade rest. "As I don't doubt you've ascertained, I am master's visual representation of logical thought. Like I said, normally I, like the rest of the mind, would be trying to drive you out. But, this time there does not seem to be any real way to combat you, and I wish to ask you to do me a service. If need be, I can repay you. Somehow."

[Lachesis]

That was not entirely normal. Perhaps Lachesis was doing something wrong. Still, it knew what it was after at the moment, and this phantom wasn't of any particular concern to it. It even acknowledged it was not at full power. The Lunarian wasn't even a mentalist.

Still, having the phantom tell it would make things easier, in one way. It was true Lachesis likely could just dig around and take what knowledge it wanted, but where was the fun in that if the only protector wasn't a real threat?

Lachesis stopped its mental advance. It gave no words to the figment, no actual, verbal response. It simply stopped. It sat there, simply hanging in Iskveda's unconscious mind, waiting for the next event.

[Iskveda]

The figure faded away, and coalesced closer to Lachesis. "Well, you aren't fleeing. And you aren't ravaging the mind. Maybe I can trust you." It crossed its arms. "Very well, my struggle currently is that my 'sibling', as it were, emotional thought, has gone pretty much out of control, you see. If you can get him to stop, so I can calm him down a bit, I'll see if I can't give you whatever you came here looking for. You don't look like someone who breaks into other minds for idle things." He held his right hand forward. "What do you say, do we have a deal?"

[Lachesis]

Ah, emotion. What a wonderful thing. And here he was, asking Lachesis to go mucking around in his own head and help fix it. Yes, calm him down... why not just go further and have Lachesis fix the problem then and there? Nevermind how absurd the notion was, only an idiot would try such a thing with so little preparation. It seemed like exactly the kind of thing someone would want of a mentalist. Perhaps this Iskveda was a bit more intelligent than that.

Or perhaps it was merely a mindset that dictated he do as much as he could on his own. Lachesis didn't particularly care at the moment. It had something to do. Something potentially interesting.

There was, of course, the small matter of the 'handshake' the apparition offered. Really, that was just silly. Unnecessary. It could skip that part.

Lachesis resumed its mental probing, though the manner in which it did so had changed. It would go along with this apparition for now.

It could be interesting, after all.

[Iskveda]

Rational Thought tilted his head to the side. "You think I'd leave you to find Emotional Thought yourself? I'll take you to where it is, if its still in the same sp-" At which point, a black blur shot through the general area, knocking various thoughts around. Some passing thoughts collided, and seemed to link via a series of events. The blur seemed to slow down and act saddened by the results... But they eventually broke apart, and the blur kept on going. "That would be Emotional Thought. Think you can get him to stop?"

[Lachesis]

How dull. Just a jumpy little phantom. Hardly worth the effort, really. So Lachesis just continued probing, despite having theoretically found what it was supposed to be looking for. It skimmed over thoughts, though it ultimately payed little attention to them. It glanced at memories, though those it saw were of minimal interest. The areas of Iskveda's mind that it probed continually expanded outwards, though it seemed to be paying little attention to what it was doing. It hardly seemed to be doing what it was theoretically supposed to be doing at all.

How far could it run?

[Iskveda]

Rational Thought cocked his head to the side, watching Lachesis. "You might want to move a bit faster than that. He had a tendency to- OOF!" Emotional Thought slammed into Rationality, and then darted back into the ether of the mind. "-To hit you when you don't expect him to." Emotional Thought then stopped, being a small black shape in the mental haze.