Handor, still possessed of Finn's body, was finding the whole puzzle richly entertaining. He, of course, was not truly involved, so he could view it objectively. It seemed like everyone was handling things differently, and none of them particularly well. He had long since become a full-time resident of the Miasma. He knew that if you did not figure out how to leave before the phenomenon reset in a new location, you'd be stuck here indefinitely.
However, those
permanently inside, like himself, were never aware of the passing of time and locations until they stumbled across some scenery where they did not expect it. That always suggested a new landscape orientation for some newly arrived victim. Judging by how overly reactive these folks were behaving, they must represent a fairly recent manifestation of the zone. It may even be the first day.
Or it may be the orbs themselves, he considered. Something that already had a connection to the outside
could have been introduced specifically to give these chumps some easy way out. It was likely that the moment they laid hands on the orb attuned to them, they'd be swept right out into the normal plane. But he had to laugh at the confused priorities that were preventing these people from arriving at a solution. Those that were the closest to latching on to their way out had lost something so personally fundamental that they would not
want to leave until it was restored.
His laughter did not win him any favorable looks. But he just shrugged. The fellow that was being coerced by the glamor girl had plainly been stripped of something of great importance to him. His interaction with the Sev'ryn, as well as the one enrapt with those remarkable marbles, made it likely to have been some control over the wind. The whole conundrum had them all throwing demands, accusations and threats at each other. Shaking his head as he picked up the orb the marble man had dropped in his trance, Handor considered that he might be better off helping these fools be gone all the sooner.
Only the two furthest away seemed to be enjoying a more 'community', and less 'competitor', approach; calming and soothing each other's frazzled nerves. The feathers on the owl made it difficult to see the color of the sting, but Handor suspected a bite of bright yellow color; one indicative of a full identity swap. The behavior of the winged humanoid supported this notion. The male with her had put an orb in his pocket. Handor was not sure which one it was, but he himself had the one with the image of wings in it; as well as the one with a volcano, and now, the tiara.
Not being involved in their little predicament, it seemed he was able to grab hold of any orb he felt inclined to retrieve. But he had one new thing he wanted to confirm. He'd seen plenty of green bites in his time. They were only the result of switched skills; the kind deliberately developed and perfected. Red was also prevalent, being the mark of lost or newly implanted
memories. Blue was for more instinctively learned skills, like flying for that avriel girl, or a language one has come to learn merely through exposure.
Purple was magic, that much was additional support for his theory that the one arguing with the Sev'ryn had lost his wind magic. Judging by the big purple bite marks on them both, the one had lost it, but knew how it was used, and the other had gained it, but didn't even realize it. He chuckled to himself at that snafu. There were also
shades of colors, where the nature of what had been stripped or implanted fit into more than one color scheme.
But there was black and white as well. He knew from past events that white was the loss and transferal of a divine blessing. So did that make black the transferal of a divine
curse? The man sitting with the bird girl had such a mark on him, as did the glamor girl, still bitching at the two men. He rolled his eyes, pausing in their rotation to see that the entranced marble man had suffered a number of bites on his hands. It was likely this had happened when the wind had interfered with the bugs' rapture over those same marbles.
Finn/Handor walked past the bickering group, shaking his head, and took a seat beside the golden-haired fellow that had first come bursting out of the structure yelling 'ORB!'. It took little time to figure out that the owl and the bird-girl had switched minds, and the man had
lost his identity. It was a little odd that no one else had been stuck with it. These two he actually felt an urge to help.
"I don't know if you knew this young fellow, whose body I currently occupy, but I want you to know...I can..." he slowed as he rifled through one of his pockets,
"...switch him back whenever I decide the time is right." he pulled his hand out, enclosing a glowing yellow insect.
"This one has the kid's "self" absorbed within it, I just need to let it sting me and the kid will be back. But I need his voice for now." Handor shrugged,
"He was running away when we got switched anyway. Let him wait!"
He leaned in close so they both could hear.
"As far as being completely fucked..." he chuckled,
"...you actually are in real luck. Those yellow bites show me your identities have been switched." He spoke now directly to Tio,
"You don't seem to have had yours implanted in anyone else yet. The good luck is that the bugs are mesmerized by those marbles. You just need to go over there and get the other glowing yellow bug to sting you. There really should only be one other one. It's glowing because it's currently holding an identity. It really HAS to be yours. Just grab hold of it. It'll either sting you just for that, or you can just sort of jab its stinger into your arm."
He leaned back with a smile,
"Obviously, once you feel your own self restored, you can stop." He turned to the owl now, assuming a humanoid personality trapped within,
"This will work for you too girlie, if you're in there. You'll need two of these same yellow bugs. BUT...let the fellow here do the handling, 'cause when you get some effect, you'll get dizzy and lose your hold on them. Now when they start to glow, that will mean they've absorbed the personalities of who they've stung. So then you just sting them into the other one to complete the switch back."
Handor knew that if the man's black bite represented a curse that had been switched out, he would not know it until his original personality had been restored. He thought about asking the glamor girl, since she had the black mark too, but he honestly didn't feel like discussing something that might help her. Instead he would simply watch as the man, the owl, and the bird-girl got themselves put back in their proper bodies, and see if any of the others noticed.
| ! | Message from: Maltruism |
| Okay, so this one time it really ought to be Tio and Navyri that go first. It isn't really essential, but it might make things go smoother for subsequent posts. If they don't post right away, go ahead and post in their place, but you'll need to include your PC observing them doing their thing with the bugs. No problem for lack of a Finn post this time, since It allowed me to use him in mine, and we're just about done anyway. |
