what_big_teeth | The Creepy But Not Even Remotely Abandoned Mansion in the Woods; Sunday Afternoon [10/06].

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The Creepy But Not Even Remotely Abandoned Mansion in the Woods; Sunday Afternoon [10/06].

Eleanor knew that this was probably a longshot, but now that Rhys was actually here, she knew if she didn't at least try, she'd regret it probably for the rest of her life. And Luma's outburst during Kamala's visit only really confirmed for her that she had to at least try whatever she possibly could to start making things right again. Or at least as right as they could be.

So with Luma off sulking and shopping and hopefully not making mincemeat out of any teal deer in the preserve, Eleanor decided to take Rhys with her into the other woods, and to the one place she could think to go and the one person she could think of that might even have an inkling of an idea of what could be done for him.

And as she approached the mansion and took in its creepy facade, all she could think of as she went to go knock on the door was that at least Rhys would feel right at home here. So she knocked a few times and she gave her cousin a hopeful smile as he just stood there, seemingly disconnected from everything him until she spoke, and his attention shifted, dutifully, toward what she had to say.

"Don't worry," she told him. "You'll like Ms. Vess, Rhys. She might not be able to help, but maybe, at least, she'll be able to point me in the right direction."

[[ and clearly for she who lives there! That Eleanor and her cousin visited is all good for broadcast, but the details should be NFB, please! ]]

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The door opened not to reveal a languid necromancer, but a zombie; albeit a zombie wearing neat purple livery and a dignified expression.

"Greetings. May I help you?" he asked politely, as if random students and their guests popped by unexpectedly all the time.

Oh, you mean they didn't?

Eleanor gave the steward a small smile and a polite nod.

"Hello, sir," she said. "My name is Eleanor, I was a student of Miss Vess for her necromancy class, and this is my cousin, Rhys."

Glossy-eyed and limp-limbed, it would be a tough guessing game for anyone to pick out the zombie between him and the steward no doubt.

"I was wondering if she might be in? I know it's a busy weekend for a lot of people, but I was hoping I could catch her and ask her a few questions."

A moment of what seemed to be curious silence as the steward looked over Eleanor and Rhys before nodding gravely and stepping aside to allow them entrance. "This way; please follow me."

Despite Liliana's unexpectedly late evening, she was awake by now and had even gotten dressed, and so was ready to greet guests, even if these guests were not the ones she was assuming they might have. When the steward escorted them into the parlor, they'd find Liliana setting aside her book, but keeping her mug of coffee, and smiling up at them. "Eleanor darling, hello," she said. "Welcome to my home, what a pleasant surprise. And you told my steward this was your cousin? Hello, Rhys darling, I am Liliana Vess, a professor of Eleanor's."

Listen, glossy eyes and limp limbed didn't necessarily mean much in Liliana's experience. And even if he were as absent upstairs as his demeanor implied, he might still be a better conversation partner than plenty of other people who didn't have his impairments.

"What brings you here today, darlings?"

Eleanor had told him not to worry and that he would like Liliana, so Rhys met her with an instantly fond sort of smile that called back to the charm he used to possess back when he was filled with more verve and his own consciousness.

Eleanor, meanwhile, bit her lip a little nervously as she watched Rhys and wondered if there was even a point in telling him to respond, and then fidgeted a little as the whole idea of how to explain things now entirely left her.

"Well, it's actually about Rhys," she tried. "I know it's not really necromancy, and it's different. I've poured over my notes from your class so many times hoping to find something, but I don't know where else to. Because you control them, right?" Her eyes shifted toward the steward. "Your zombies?"

"Of course," Liliana said. "Some, like my steward, have a capacity for thought and free will, at least to some extent. But regardless, my will is theirs, whenever I should feel like extending it."

Oooh, was Eleanor showing interest in necromancy? Liliana sat up a little bit straighter.

There was such a surge of hope in Eleanor's chest with this response that the next words just tumbled put of her as if she was afraid they would disappear before she got to say them and then they would be lost forever.

"And how do you do that? Give them that capacity for thought and free will again? Rhys, he...I...well, I did something to him, and now he...he's not a zombie, I don't think, he's still alive, but he..."

She looked at him worriedly, wishing Liliana could have seen how he was before to really highlight how striking the difference was, although, really, considering that he was mostly still just smiling vacantly at her...

"Stop smiling, Rhys," Eleanor said, and the smile immediately dropped from his face. "And say hello to Ms. Vess and her steward."

"Hello, Ms. Vess," Rhys dutifully greeted them. "Hello, Ms. Vess' steward."

And Eleanor all but whimpered as she looked at Liliana pleadingly, certain that she would obviously see what the problem was with this.

"Oh," Liliana said. "Oh dear."

Just what you wanted to hear, right Eleanor?

"So, while I can explain how I do it," she said, setting down her coffee cup, "I think it might be more useful to hear what happened to him to begin with. Is it your will that he's puppeted to? Or just in general?"

She looked to Rhys and commanded, "Pick up that mug."

And as Liliana likely suspected at this point, Rhys was entirely unresponsive at her command. But when Eleanor, her voice failing to take one the trepidation she felt, repeated it....

Rhys obediently picked up the cup.

"Now set it back down."

He set it back down.

"Only my will," she concluded, unnecessarily. "It's because I ate him."

She realized that this might need a little more explanation.

"That's something I can do," she added. "Swallow living things, and they either stay inside of me, or I can spit them back out and they're bound to my will. I can also tell people what to do without swallowing them first, but that doesn't work with everyone, and it's obviously just for that instruction."

Edited 2024-10-06 19:08 (UTC)

Well, well, well. Wasn't this all some fascinating information. Liliana was a mix of surprise and glee, though she made sure that nothing showed in her expression beyond concern. But, oh to have had those powers in her youth!

Abyss, to have those powers even now...

"Well," she said, picking her mug back up again, "that is certainly an answer I was not expecting. Would you like some soothing tea, dear? This feels like it's likely going to be a distressing conversation for you and I'm sure you're under a great deal of stress already. I'll have my steward make up a nice tea tray while we talk. Now, how long has he been like this?"

Eleanor breathed out, feeling some sense of relief to have the burden of her secret lifted at least a little bit more, but being reminded of what a roller coaster the weekend had been for her only meant that it made a little more room for something else she was stressed about to elbow its way in. Still, she tried to focus on this.

"Yes, please," she said. "I think some tea would be nice."

And, thinking back a little to when the steward had opened the door and that long pause before he responded to her, Eleanor realized that he was probably communicating with Liliana. Was that something she could develop with Rhys? Where she didn't need to tell him, she just needed to think it?

But, no, she didn't want that. She just wanted Rhys to be Rhys again, with his own thoughts and autonomy and not bound to her at all.

"And it would be about a year and a half now," she said. "Since just before I came here last summer. I had to do it. To save him."

And even if it was true, it always sounded like some pitiful excuse, especially since, looking at him now, she had to wonder just what she thought she was saving him from.

What would he ever have done with his life? Grandmere had asked. You'll make better use of him than he ever would have.

Grandmere out here asking the relevant questions though!

Though, granted, right now Liliana wasn't thinking about that. Liliana was thinking about an incident two hundred years in the past, about a sickroom full of broken bodies strewn about like dolls and her reflection in a pair of black eyes.

"Eleanor," she said softly, reaching for the girl's hands. "I know how you're feeling right now. The despairing need to fix what you have done. The overwhelming wish you could take it all back. The pain of having kept this all inside for so long, the fear of how people would respond if they knew what you've done, and the guilt for thinking about yourself when clearly you are not the one who was harmed. Am I right?"

She bet she was. And for different reasons than that she normally assumed she was right.

"It sounds like whatever happened was an accident brought on by your desperate attempt to keep him alive and protect him from whatever was happening. You're not a bad person for having done it. You were trying to keep him safe. It had consequences, yes, and bad ones, but so would not have trying at all. You are not a bad person for what happened. Nor do your abilities make you a monster."

When Liliana took her hand, Eleanor blinked, startled by the gesture, and then she blinked again when she realized that her vision of the woman had gone all blurry with the tears gathering in her eyes, worse and worse the more she spoke, the more it felt like she'd somehow managed to peel away all the surface layers and look into the very crux of what lay beneath her, inside the utterly fathomless pit inside of her, and then she was crying, the tears pushed down her cheeks from all the blinking, and the knot inside unraveling with a sob.

"I was only trying to make things better! But instead I only made everything so much worse!"

And then she realized that she had come to this unsuspecting person's home and intruded on her Sunday and maybe even her own guests just to break down into a sobbing mess, and she sniffed and tried to swallow that all right back down into the endless pit of her stomach, wiping the tears away with the back of her other hand and realizing what a long, wonderful, horrible weekend it had all been.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean....I didn't mean to do all this, I was just hoping..." Another desperate sob, and she really wish she could go back, even if only to just when she thought it was a good idea to come here in the first place. "I don't know who to go to about any of this!"

Liliana would personally rot anybody who even breathed a word about this from the inside out and then raise them up as a zombie so she could do it again, but as Eleanor continued to sob, she stood up, and tried to get Eleanor to stand as well, so she could pull the girl in for a hug.

These were incredibly extenuating circumstances, thank you. Don't anybody expect this to happen again.

"You don't have to be sorry," she said quietly. "You have no idea just how deeply I understand what you are going through right now. So take the time to cry."

It was possible Liliana would have become a different person if she'd had someone say those words to her, once upon a time.

Not to worry; there just so happened to be a rather extensive measure of squirrel eradication going on around the entire grounds by...let's just call it unseen forces.

Eleanor didn't want to take the time to cry. It showed weakness and Liliana didn't deserve some former student just showing up and putting this all on her, but once the invitation had been given to do so, she just couldn't help herself. She clung to Liliana and let herself cry. Not just for Rhys and what she'd done, but for everything building up to this moment.

And just when Liliana thought she couldn't love him more...though, sadly, Ignis was no more likely to talk about that as he was why precipitated it.

Liliana maneuvered both of them over to the divan, pulling Eleanor down to sit with her and just let her cry. If Eleanor noticed that Liliana seemed a little awkward and unsure about it, well, comfort wasn't something that she had much experience with, okay? And, honestly? Wasn't really looking to accrue any more. Again, very extenuating circumstances.

What she could do was have her steward silently bring in a bowl and washcloth full of cool water for Eleanor to hold against her face when she was done, and another tall glass for her to drink. And then awkwardly pat her back until she'd cried herself out.

Any minute now. Surely.

Don't worry, Liliana. Eleanor wouldn't go on like that for long. Just enough to get it put of her system and out of the way enough before she started to feel bad about it again. Or just embarrassed. And weak. But, eventually, she stopped, with little more than a sniffle and a long, quiet pause before she murmured out what really mattered.

"Do you think you know of anything that might help?"

She lifted her head to look up at Liliana, hopeful and doubtful and desperate, all in one.

"I don't know," Liliana said, giving the girl honesty because that was what she would have wanted in her place. "I don't know enough of how your ability works. With time to study it, I might be able to suggest something? But you wouldn't like any of the current ways to fix him," Liliana admitted. "The easiest one involves simply killing him, binding his soul back to his body, and working from there. The other two are worse."

She leaned back and gestured for Eleanor to wash her face and drink some water. "There are potentially other things I can do, resources I may be able to call on. But right now, this minute, I can offer you nothing but disappointing truths, my dear. You have given me a puzzle and they take time to solve."

Eleanor reached for the water first, and started gulping it down until she remembered to pace herself and slowed down. Still, she didn't lower the glass again until it was at least half empty, and she settled it in her lap for a moment before looking over to where Rhys had just been standing vacancy nearby the whole time.

The tears were singing her eyes again, and she told herself she didn't want to ask, but sje also told her self that she had to ask.

"What are the other two?"

"The way I make a zombie intelligent enough that it does not require my attention is that once I have raised the flesh, I place souls into it. If I'm want someone specific, I will place their soul into it. If I just want a free-thinking zombie, I make a quilt from souls and place that into the body."

They could get to the whys and wherefores another time. Now was not the time for theory.

"As I'm sure you remember, we went over what happens if you take out a soul from a person without the proper preparation in our class about lichs." Her tone said, 'If you don't remember, you should have the notes which explains why.' "Which means we cannot simply remove your...Rhys' soul from his body and tinker with it while he is alive. But, with great delicacy and finesse, which fortunately I possess both of, in spades, it's possible I could insert new souls in. Like putting patches on pants. But what woke up would not be Rhys, and the more he is missing, the less Rhys it would be."

She waited until Eleanor drank more water, giving the glass pointed looks until the young woman complied, and then finished her last, current possible option. "I am a lethemancer." Which Eleanor also surely had in her notes, but Liliana took pity on her. "That means I can go in and remove certain memories from people's minds. I am not particularly skilled at that aspect of necromancy, mostly because I don't care to be, so it will be a clumsy and painful job. But depending on how your abilities work, going into his mind and removing things might be enough. That being said, not only is this a theory, it will be a terribly unpleasant experience for him as I ransack his mind and rip out what I hope is useful and the odds of permanent damage are very high."

As Eleanor listened to Liliana and drank her water and watched Rhys over the rim of the glass, she began to frown, thinking, a few of her own ideas. And she did remember all of that from her notes, of course, but it didn't hurt to have the reminder, she'd studied those notes so much they just turned into a messy blur of words in front of her.

"I don't think he has a soul anymore," she murmured, almost more to herself than to Liliana. "Not in his body, anyway. If he still has one, it's probably in me. When I swallowed him, they must have been separated, when I spit him out, it must have just been his body. Maybe that's where the possession of his will comes from. That's why I can control him..."

She didn't know where these ideas were coming from. She didn't even know if it was true. But it made a certain kind of sense, didn't it?

She turned toward Liliana.

"How hard is it for you to get a soul out of someone? What if you tried to get it out from inside me, and then put it back in him?"

Pulling a soul they didn't even know was there from the fathomless black void inside of her. How difficult could that be?

Edited 2024-10-07 03:28 (UTC)

"A regular someone?" Liliana shrugged. "Yanking their soul out is easy. I generally don't put them back in while their bodies are alive, however. Yanking out one that isn't yours and putting it back into a living body without damaging either of you? Harder."

Especially if she had to go poking around in a fathomless black void. "Not something I would be doing today if I did it at all."

On the bright side, at least there weren't going to be a lot of souls in the to have to wade through. If it were Grandmere, it would be like trying to find a single needle in a multitude of haystacks.

Eleanor was thoughtful quiet for a moment, her eyes back on Rhys.

She felt like she would be willing to risk it. She owed it to Rhys. To their whole family. It was the least she could do. To fix things again.

But there was something else to consider now, too.

Her expression went a little wry.

"I should probably run it by my girlfriend first, anyway."

She may be new to this whole relationship thing, but 'hey I'm thinking about letting a necromancer dig around inside me for my cousin's soul even though it probably might not even work' seemed like something that warranted at least a cursory discussion, especially right after you'd gone and told her you loved her.

Hmm, this did sound like the kind of thing that Ignis would get upset about hearing after the fact. Like running lightning through her face or whatever.

"I do want to caution you that it's not necessarily going to be a quick thing, even if that's how it ends up working. I care very much for my own skin, far more than I do for his, and I'm going to take some time to figure out how to do it safely, if it is feasible to do it at all. Among other things, you are going to have tell me everything about your abilities and how they work." And possibly get a few practical demonstrations, who knew? "We will do this my way or not at all."

Because she wasn't about to lose her soul. THERE WERE ALREADY ENOUGH CLAIMANTS, ELEANOR, HER PARAMOUR WOULD BE SO MAD.

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The Creepy But Not Even Remotely Abandoned Mansion in the Woods; Sunday Afternoon [10/06].

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