Double Vision [Clyde]

[Flynn Maidrus]

It was like previously being airborne and then plunged into deep water. Flynn’s head sang with confusion and she could not feel or see anything— couldn’t concentrate on it more like. It felt like her brain was going cross-eyed, and she felt disorientated. She could feel Clyde’s mind, but where was her’s? She was not aware of herself, and the primal instinct of her Soulmist being used up was like an annoying tick in her mind. Her mind was not blank, but rather filled up with static pounding. Clyde’s hand twitched as she tried to reach up to grip her head— or Clyde’s, now— between her hands. Her mind slowly came into focus, differentiating itself from Clyde’s. Her first thought was: Ugh. Still rather dizzy, she sluggishly came to her senses. Her ghostly body was unfeeling, somewhat nuanced by the pain she felt whenever some of her Soulmist was stripped away, and now Flynn felt loosely tied to this body. She had to concentrate, as everytime her mind was elsewhere, she could feel her control slipping. She could feel Clyde’s mind, and focusing on maintaining her possession instead of poking at it was like trying not to stare at the elephant in the room. Vaguely, she could feel Clyde’s emotions, but it came out blurred and garbled to her. With blank eyes, she stared at Clyde’s hand and tried to lift it up, but it didn’t even twitch. Move, she tried to command it. It seemed she had totally forgotten how to move, being dead for so long and used to feeling like air. How does one move, again? It seemed so simple, but it completely stumped her.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had tried to prepare himself... But it was hard to do, as he felt the presence that was the ghost forcing its way into his body, trying to take up the same space... It reminded him vaguely of the feeling of having res forced into your body... But not quite the same... As it was certainly less painful, as it was not the same... He could not quite describe it, he just knew that his body did not like it, and already, almost instinctively, it was trying to force the foreign presence out... It reminded him off an itch... He wanted to scratch it so bad... SO BAD!!! But he knew if he did so, the experiment would be messed up, and it would either freeze the spirit, or force it out... By sheer force of will alone he kept from doing so... The itch getting worse and worse, making him want to scratch it and eject the ghost ever more... His body just was not used to being possessed yet... Coldly, as if from far away, he felt a gentle nudge on his mind... Trying to force his hand to move... Roughly, but with little force really behind it... It was like she was trying to move a horse by standing behind it and pushing... When all she had to do was get a carrot, and wave it before him, and he would move after it, as directed... Though perhaps that analogy did not translate well in this case... Regardless, she was trying to make him act by brute force... It was almost pitiful... So Clyde took pity on her, and decided to lead, and go along with her wishes to move the hand to the cup... He thought to her, "Here, take my hand... I will show you how to move it... Like this..." And his hand fell into the pattern the ghost had vaguely traced... It was so much easier when they both tried to do it, than if only one did... In fact, it seemed easier to move his hand now than it would have if he had been fully in control and had done it himself... That is until his hand darted out, moving to fast, and his hand swiped across the table spilling the mug, smashing into it. Suddenly there was an ache of pain in his hand were he had hit the mug, and he could not help thinking "ouch!" loudly for the spirit to hear... Of course he had no way of knowing that as a ghost she would not be feeling the same pain, even though she was possessing him...

[Flynn Maidrus]

Flynn was aware that Clyde’s mind was... twitching? It was the only way she could describe it. It was an odd sensation and she could tell it originated from discomfort. Oops. Was she trying too hard to move his hand? She stopped trying to command his hand and heard— what was that? She could’t discern it from the rest of the chaos in her head, as it was only a whisper. It seemed to be directed at her, though, as it was clearer than his other thoughts. Flynn saw the hand reach up as if it knew what she was trying to do, and she let Clyde guide her on puppeteering, not putting as much force on the hand as before. Through Clyde, she could feel his sense of proprioception and followed whatever he was doing to move his hand— abruptly, and too late, she had realized this resulted in the hand to zip forward, knocking the mug over. Damn, she thought, a bit embarrassed, before stifling that bit of emotion, wondering how clear Clyde could hear her mind. Flynn could feel the sudden yelp of Clyde’s mind echo in hers, but that was about it. Getting the hang of it, she sloppily lifted his other hand, which lazily dipped and swayed, to right the mug back up. The little mishap didn’t even garner a few looks, the tavern too boisterous for the thud of the stein to rise above the noise. A barmaid, the same one from before, raised an eyebrow as if to ask what happened to Clyde’s ghostly companion, but settled for a few quick sweeps of damp tablecloth to clean the mess and disappeared to attend to other business.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde could not help letting out several well placed curses in his head, as his hand ached. His hand moved out jerkily, trying to pick up the cup, taking a few tries and finally righting it. Soon enough the barmaid came over, and took the mug, along with wiping up the drink with a dirty rag. Clyde could see her walk off out of the corner of his eye, but Flynn seemed to be sitting stock still, which was contradicting any small movement he might try, so could not look over at her. He tried projecting a thought to her once more, as she was sort of in his head, "Stop sitting so still, I have to move!" He thought loudly at her. He then tried to turn his head, to look over at the bar... But the itch of being possessed was steadily getting worse... He had already been possessed for at least a chime... He doubted he could keep her in for much longer... He was trying to ignore the itch, but it was getting to be to much... After the next movement, which he had tried to get the spirit to do, he started to shake a bit, in his head, and finally started to shove at the presence of the ghost, to force her out, and un-possess himself. He just could not help it, he could not hold it any longer.... Assuming he pushed her out, she would be expelled, and he would fall out of his chair, his entire body aching as he fell to the floor, sore from having the ghost inside of him, as was common for such a low level spiritist as he was.

[Flynn Maidrus]

Possessing someone was so goddamn disconcerting, but there were few things that would convince Flynn to be in Clyde’s place right now. Flynn had a mental trip every time she remembered that she was in someone else’s body. After a moment, she had enough confidence to start poking at Clyde’s conscious. She heard a thought beginning to form, and would’ve jumped if she had been more at ease, Stop sitting so still, I have to move! Oh. What was she doing wrong? She loosened her control on Clyde’s body and tried to send him her thoughts: Sorry about that. Is this better? Perhaps it wasn’t, because soon after she said that she could feel Clyde’s acute discomfort rolling off in waves. It was doing that twitching thing again. Maybe this meant that he was reaching his limit? Flynn loosened her control on Clyde even more, thinking that a forceful expulsion might harm her. When Clyde’s noisy mind finally reached its crescendo, she was finally expelled. Tired, she made the barest effort to materialize herself. She didn’t think there was enough merit to try and master the skill of possession. Flynn fanned her face with a hand in mock exhaustion, but in actuality it had taken more of a toll on her than she thought. “So? Was that anything like what you had previously encountered?”

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde lay on the ground panting, his entire body sore and in pain... He felt like someone had just stood on his body and jumped on him repeatedly... Though he was pretty sure nothing was missing... He gently lifted one hand to check his nose... His ears... They were still there... Though now come to think of it, he was not quite sure why they would be gone... he halfway listened to what she had said... He blinked... It took him a moment to actually register the words, his body was aching so bad... He slowly sat up, coming to a sitting position, but even this small movement had set of the aches again. He felt like he just wanted to lay there forever, and not move... Maybe it got better over time... Easier... But he certainly was no were near good enough to not be affected by possession... It took him a good minute to stand all of the way up, and crash heavily into his seat... He finally looked up at Flynn, and muttered for a few seconds, before finally speaking coherently... "To be honest... I don't really remember... But I think... maybe... At least I am not bleeding this time... And stuff..." He sat there for a moment, trying to catch his breath. He of course did not realize that most of the damage done to him last time was due to a combination of overgiving, and physical damage caused by the explosion he made with his lightning bolt... He still did not remember the time of being possessed, just before and after... "But I think... We're done for the day... We should probably head out... I need a rest..." Clyde would sit there for a bit... Looking over at Flynn... He would try a smile, but his face ached. His body was feeling a bit better and less sore, but he was still aching...

[Flynn Maidrus]

Flynn look at Clyde, laying on the ground, panting, and felt a bit better about her miserable tired state. She tried not to show it, and it was easy since it didn’t affect her physically. She didn’t think she could even muster up the energy to float. It was like her shoulders were trying to connect to the ground. If she were to describe it, it was like the crux of her mind had just decided became all dusty and tired. It took a while for her to collect herself. Startled at the thump, Flynn looked up to see Clyde in his chair, mumbling. Oh, right, she had asked a question. She wasn’t quite sure it had happened, or if it did, if Clyde had heard it because she thought her speech had came out quite slurred. Tired, she bitingly thought if she heard anymore mumbling, she would be expecting tin foil hats soon. "To be honest... I don't really remember... But I think... maybe... At least I am not bleeding this time... And stuff... But I think... We're done for the day... We should probably head out... I need a rest..." Looking at Clyde’s exhausted state, she would rather be bleeding and in pain rather than in the state of excruciating tiredness he was feeling right now. Well, it was easy for her to say because she didn’t remember pain. She hadn’t been stripped sufficiently of her Soulmist in a long time to be in any sort of pain. All she could empathize with now was weariness that sunk into the bone. “Where to? A nearby inn? You don’t live here. Where do you board?"

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde looked over at Flynn... Not quite sure why she was asking were he lived... it was a bit odd... But he would go with it... What was the worst she could do... And besides, he was far to tired to think straight... "I live at Tarsin's Boarding House. Been there for a while. It does the job." He had been there for a while, while he stayed in Ravok. Of course there were few places that a non-Ravokian could live in the city, even a student of the Institute. Clyde got up, and motioned for Flynn to follow, and headed out the door. He headed back to his house, not sure if she was following him or not, since she was rather hard to see after using so much of her energy in possession. Eventually he came to the door of his room, and walked in, collapsing on the bed. He had forgotten about Flynn... But if she was still there, surely she would say something to get his attention.

[Flynn Maidrus]

Tarsin’s? That was quite the pretty penny. Flynn raised an eyebrow at her newfound knowledge of Clyde’s economic status. She was a bit relieved— the boarding house wasn’t far from here. She looked over Clyde and knew that with her added ability of walking through walls and people, she wouldn’t have any trouble following him. Unmaterializing without a word— which was rude, but she really was tired— she diverted from Clyde’s path and went through the motions of nursing her Soulmist back to health. It mainly consisted of blanking out her mind due to exhaustion and lots of mental notes not to overexert herself, which she would ignore later. Flynn remembered the general direction of the boarding house relative to the tavern, and started absentmindedly floating in that direction. She finally entered Tarsin’s Boarding House not much time later, Flynn marking this by mentally grousing how useless her incorporeality was now. She didn’t know where Clyde’s room was, so she had to follow him throughout the maze of corridors and turns, instead of going through all the walls in a linear path. She was never much good at navigating through cities or maps, even when she was alive and had more need to. Flynn waited a bit, bored, humoring the thought that she might ask the receptionist to point out where Clyde’s room was located to do some poking around, before dismissing it under the notion that she was too lazy to do so. She waited a while before seeing Clyde, when she was starting to worry that he had passed out along the sidewalk or something. Upon immediately entering his room, Clyde collapsed onto the bed. Flynn floated over to him, above the bed, and prodded his back. She stopped before Clyde could issue a warning, wary that her touch might affect him even more now that he had been possessed by her. Maybe being possessed made him more susceptible to ghostly stuff? She wasn’t quite sure. “How are you feeling?”

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had completely forgotten about Flynn, and so he jumped when she suddenly spoke. He soon recalled that he had invited her along, and so rolled over to look up at her... Though it was a bit odd... He was feeling pretty exhausted, and weak, but he could see Flynn much more clearly now than before she had possessed him... Maybe in his weakened state, he was more open to ghosts, and there existence. Or maybe it was some sort of connection gained by them being "one" for a time... An experience which had felt oddly intimate, considering she was immaterial. "More or less the same... Just tired, sore, and exhausted... Doing that really takes it out of me. I think I am going to get some sleep. Maybe I will feel better after a rest. But whatever, you can stay if you want. I will see you later." At that, Clyde rolled over once more, and fell asleep within minutes. He did not really care if the ghost stayed or not, he was far to tired. But perhaps they would meet again, and get to know each other better than this time. -exit-