Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Jan 27, 2010 19:23:17 GMT -5
I should have known letting Eve borrow my body at night was a bad idea. Why didn't I arrange it so she could go around in the daylight? Then this kind of thing wouldn't have happened. Oh, well... too late for that now. I just hope we won't be in too much trouble.
Liam knocked on the door to Smoke's office and waited, yawning behind his hand as he looked down at his watch (just past nine-thirty am). He hadn't gotten much rest the previous night, thanks in part to Eve's nocturnal rambling, he supposed.
I wonder what Smoke plans to do or say? Maybe he knows how Eve might have gotten into my head; maybe he knows how to free her. Maybe she can get a body of her own and be a student here. That'd be cool. Then she can talk with Aramis and Jonathan as much as she wants, on her own time. She'd like that.
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Post by Smoke on Feb 11, 2010 20:13:48 GMT -5
The door opened on its own.
Smoke was sitting behind his desk, a short stack of books beside him.
"Hey there."
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Feb 11, 2010 21:02:57 GMT -5
"Good morning, sir." Liam smiled rather nervously as the door opened on its own, and took that as an invitation to enter. He stepped cautiously into the room, approaching Smoke's desk. "I'm sorry if this is inconvenient at all... I was hoping this could have happened under better circumstances."
He took a deep breath. "Evelyn told me what happened earlier this morning. I was hoping you or someone could help me with our, um... condition. I want to find out if there's some way to free Eve's soul from my mind, and maybe get her a new body so she doesn't have to borrow mine all the time. The biggest obstacle I can think of right now is that neither of us know how this happened in the first place, and I have no idea how I'd go about finding that out, if it's even researchable."
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Post by Smoke on Feb 14, 2010 19:38:17 GMT -5
"It's not an inconvenience. I just wish I'd been aware of this problem before. Your file was... let's just say I haven't had access to the University files until recently."
"We can probably figure out what it is without much effort, but it'll take someone probing into your mind. I would rather forego more specific solutions until that's taken care of- if you consent, I mean. I'm also not a mentalist or a necromancer, so we'll... hmm." Who would be best for this? He wasn't sure.
"Could you explain to me again, in detail, what happens to you and how long this has been going on?"
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Feb 14, 2010 20:31:46 GMT -5
Liam nodded, taking a slow, deep breath before starting to speak.
"It all started on August seventeenth of 2007 -- my seventeenth birthday, and Eve's. We were having a party out on the lawn because the weather was so good. Everything was going great, until just after supper when the cake was being served. One minute Eve and I were sharing a slice of cake, and the next..." He faltered, but carried on, his voice starting to shake. "There was a gunshot, and suddenly Eve fell to the ground, covered in blood.
"Everyone started panicking. Mum ran inside to call an ambulance. I knelt over Eve to try and keep her calm, slow her bleeding, anything... I told her to hold on until the ambulance came. 'Don't leave me', I kept saying, over and over. She kept trying to talk to me, but she couldn't... I could barely talk either, because I was crying so hard..." He raised a hand to wipe his face as tears trickled down it.
"I just stayed there with Eve and held her while we waited for the ambulance. All she could do was hold me back, and try to keep breathing... but she didn't make it. By the time the ambulance arrived, she... she'd died."
Liam had to take a few moments to compose himself before continuing his story. He wiped his face again and took several deep breaths, swallowing a couple of times.
"I don't remember much between Eve's death and the funeral... those three days are all a blur. But I do remember hearing Eve's voice in my head. She'd always try to comfort me. I kind of took it in stride... I guess I was too bogged down with grief to really put any thought into why my dead sister was talking inside my head. I didn't mention it to my parents for fear that they'd think I was mad. They had enough to deal with after losing their only daughter.
"It took a few months for me to get a real grip on what had happened that day. Life went on pretty much as normally as it could have under the circumstances. I didn't talk about Eve to anyone, since no one would have believed me anyway. But then I started wondering what had really happened, and if there was anything I could do about it.
"At first I just wanted to find a way for Eve to pass on to heaven, but she always hated the idea... she's always been unsure about life after death and all that. And then I came here, and it got a little easier to deal with, since weird stuff is totally normal here. I was able to talk about what had happened without having to talk about Eve in the past tense all the time.
"Then Eve found out that she has the ability to borrow my body when I'm unconscious and move it around like it's her own. I always knew that Eve had access to all of my senses, my emotions and some of my thoughts, but this was totally new. She didn't tell me about it right away; she'd sneak out of my room at night to talk to people on her own. She met Aramis and Jonathan that way.
"After a couple of weeks -- right around Halloween, I think -- she did let me know what she'd been up to, and I gave her permission to borrow my body as long as she was careful with it. I didn't want her to be starved for human contact like she had been for the past two and a half years. She gets really lonely with only me to talk to all the time. And so... that about gets us up to last night, which you know about already."
He fell silent, looking up at the professor with a mingled sense of curiosity and unease.
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Post by Smoke on Feb 21, 2010 19:35:59 GMT -5
Smoke listened to Liam; when the boy was done, he rubbed his eyes.
"Okay. You need to see Professor Honghui- and I don't mean that I don't believe you," he emphasized, "but if someone's magically stuck in your mind and able to hijack your body, I don't know whether that might cause you some problems. We also might need to ask Ellie to help with that, given I don't think Bolin has any ability to sense magic."
"After that, we'll give you a nice rundown, see what's going on. A specific scan should bring up at least what kind of magic caused this, and if not, you've given me a specific date, so with effort I can probably check. Sound good?"
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Feb 21, 2010 19:43:43 GMT -5
Liam nodded a bit nervously. "Yes sir. Should I go and see Professor Honghui right away? Like now? Or is there anything else you might need from me first?"
Hope flickered faintly amid the uncertainty in his heart. Maybe there was a way to get the best possible solution to this whole issue. Whatever that best solution might be.
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Post by Smoke on Feb 21, 2010 22:12:50 GMT -5
"I'm afraid there's not much I can do for you at the moment- unless you want me to direct you to books about the afterlife and magical theology," he shrugged.
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Feb 21, 2010 22:17:44 GMT -5
Liam nodded. "Alright. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate your help." He stood up with a smile. "When would Professor Honghui be available? I'd like to see him as soon as possible."
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Post by Smoke on Feb 21, 2010 23:54:39 GMT -5
"His office is down the hall, and his hours are posted." Smoke smiled. "You're welcome; come back and see me when you get that done with, all right?"
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Feb 21, 2010 23:59:58 GMT -5
"Will do," Liam nodded, moving toward the door and slipping out of the room.
Closing the door softly behind him, he headed down the hall toward Professor Honghui's office. With luck this would be quick and painless... he wasn't sure exactly how his mind was going to be "scanned". Maybe it was like an x-ray or an MRI, but with magic?
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 8, 2010 18:30:50 GMT -5
((from Out of My Mind, cont'd)) Liam knocked on Smoke's door again and waited patiently for a reply, quite eager to tell the professor what he had found out. This was turning out to be really weird, but definitely very interesting. Who knew he had a mage inside his head? Go figure. And who, he wondered, was the necromancer who had caused that? A sudden chill ran through him. Maybe the necromancer had been working with Eve's killer for some reason... but why they would want to do something like trap Eve's soul in Liam's head was beyond him. They'd been inseperable enough when they were both alive. Unless something had gone wrong with the spell, and this was just an accident? In which case... what was the real motive? On the upside, though, he was deeply relieved that this wasn't psychological... well, not exactly. I'm really not insane... there's nothing wrong inside my head...
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Post by Smoke on Apr 10, 2010 2:51:36 GMT -5
The door remained closed.
A couple of minutes later, Smoke came down the hall with a plate of cake in each hand. He handed one to Liam, opened the door, and went to sit down at his desk.
"So," he smiled, putting his feet up on his desk and slicing off a piece of cake with his fork, "how'd everything go?"
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 10, 2010 11:47:10 GMT -5
Liam smiled as he accepted the plate of cake and followd the professor inside, closing the door with his free hand. "Very well, thank you. I found out quite a lot, but unfortunately not everything." He sat down in a chair near Smoke's desk and took a bite of cake. Mmm, chocolate.
Swallowing, he spoke again. "From what Miss E saw, there are two causes of Eve being in my head. The first is that Eve is or was a mage with mental magic, and the second has something to do with a third person who is a necromancer. We don't know who that is yet. Our theory is that Eve died just as someone was casting a necromantic spell, and that made everything go awry. Professor Honghui said that one of the more experienced mages could help me trace the magical signature of the necromancer. I immediately thought of you."
He took another bite, letting it linger in his mouth for a while before he swallowed it.
"Just now I began to wonder about possible motives for all of this, but I don't know if it's too early to start worrying about that. Could the necromancer and the killer have been working together? That brings up the question of why they would want to do something weird like this, unless it was really just an accident. That makes me wonder what they might have been originally planning. But on the other hand, they might not have been working together at all, and maybe this was something completely unexpected."
He leaned forward a little, looking up at the professor. "What do you think?"
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Post by Smoke on Apr 11, 2010 22:23:03 GMT -5
Smoke ate a couple of bites of cake, looking at the ceiling and thinking for a long moment. Finally, he sat up in his chair and sat the cake down on his desk.
"Okay," he said neutrally, "let's start at the top- she is in your head? Okay. You saw mental and necromantic magic- both of those are necessary for that to occur, but I trust Ellie's judgement that there's more to it or I wouldn't have sent you. Second... if you don't mind, how did she die again?"
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 11, 2010 22:29:37 GMT -5
"A drive-by shooting," Liam replied, his throat getting a bit tight at the memory, though his eyes were dry. "I don't know if they ever caught the person who did it."
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Post by Smoke on Apr 11, 2010 22:39:52 GMT -5
Smoke looked pensively at Liam.
"Well, let me lay this out for you: a third necromantic signature could mean an active spell or a lingering effect. It could have been cast by the murderer or someone else. I'm not sure why someone would cast a spell that would do this, and knowing what exactly the spell was would help a lot, but... given it seems to have been a one-time event, and the only lingering effect is her mental pattern being attached to yours, odds are pretty good it was a chance event."
"I can try to trace the signature if you like, but you'd probably have more luck asking a necromancer."
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 11, 2010 22:43:35 GMT -5
Liam nodded, relaxing considerably. Knowing this probably hadn't been planned was quite comforting, but it still left him with questions. "I'd appreciate it if you tried, sir. If you don't have any luck, who would you reccommend that I go to? I don't know very much about which mages study what."
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Post by Smoke on Apr 11, 2010 22:47:52 GMT -5
Smoke chuckled. "Right now, you have two major choices: you can find Hitoshi Gilespi, or you can talk to the Groundskeeper. I'm not sure which you would find more of a challenge."
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 11, 2010 22:53:02 GMT -5
Liam nodded and smiled. "Okay. Thanks." He didn't know either of them well, though he figured he could recognize them by sght. The groundskeeper was a bird, for crying out loud.
He took another bite of cake and licked a crumb from the corner of his lip. Everything was working out well so far, and that made Liam feel a heck of a lot better than he had a couple of hours ago.
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Post by Smoke on Apr 11, 2010 22:55:21 GMT -5
"Great. I've got some grading to do, but you can come back this afternoon after fiveish, or we can figure out some other day. Will that work? And is there anything else right now?" Smoke smiled.
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Liam Farrell
Ireth
University Freshman: Not a Sin-Eater, Because We Don't Have Those
Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head...
Posts: 200
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Post by Liam Farrell on Apr 11, 2010 23:05:17 GMT -5
"No, thank you. That's all, I think." Liam stood up, still holding his unfinished cake. "I'll see you after five, then. Thank you for your time -- and the cake," he said with a smile. "Have a good day, sir."
He slipped quietly out of the office and down the hall, deciding to head down to the mess hall to finish his cake and think about things. This whole issue seemed to be bringing up new questions just as quickly as it answered the old ones. He deeply hoped it would be worth it -- and he wondered whether he would like what this would ultimately result in.
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