May 16th, 2022 - Manical Illusions

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:07 am

McDohl was sitting alone at one of the restaurants in China town. Things had been well for her the last few days, nothing really exciting, just kinda there, nothing could really beat the time she had on her birthday with Cal. Taking a sip of her tea, she looked at some of the other customers.

by **Narrator** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:12 am

Eventually the waitress stepped up to Sara's table. "Can I bring you anything else?"

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:16 am

"No, I'll just be going." She said softly, standing from the table.

by **Narrator** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:17 am

The waitress nods. "Let me get your bill then."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:20 am

"I already paid though..", she said softly, concentrating her will onto the unsuspecting waitress, implanting memories of Sara paying with cash, and receiving change.

by **Narrator** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:24 am

The waitress blinks and shakes her head. "O-of course. I am so sorry. Have a nice day, Miss." she smiles apologetically.

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:29 am

"Don't worry about it, miss. Enjoy the rest of your day.." She said with a smile, moving toward the door. "Way too easy..", she thought to herself.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:36 am

While Sara was walking towards the door a woman at one of the other tables perked up as she noticed the manipulations of the waitresses memory. It only took her a moment to trace it to the young woman and, a little behind her, followed her out the door. Meanwhile the restaurant staff was slowly forgetting the woman had ever been there to begin with.

After about half a block the middle-aged woman caught up to Sara and stood next to her as they waited at a pedestrian light.

"That was quite impressive for someone as young as you." she mind-speaks to her, still not actually looking at Sara.

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:38 am

"I'm not sure what you are talking about..", she mind spoke back, watching the traffic go by.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:42 am

"Oh don't worry, I am not going to berate you for it. But if you don't want to take the compliment..."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:48 am

"Not usually one to be complimented for my actions is all..", she continued, looking over to the women.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:52 am

"Let me guess, you go to Xavier's little school."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:02 am

"Not like that one was hard to put together.., but yes, under direct supervision of Samantha McManus for my unruly behavior.", she says in a rather sarcastic tone.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:06 am

"Of course. Sammy always had a thing for making people squander their talents because it doesn't fit her catholic ideas of morality."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:09 am

"Just cause you want to play with the shape shifters they get their panties in a bunch.."

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:14 am

There's a short pause while Melpomene looks for a bit of clarification on that in Sara's surface thoughts.

"My my, I think you may have hit a bit of a sore spot there for Sammy. No wonder she has it out for you."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:33 am

"So I sort of figured, after all of the problems I've gotten into. Sorry...but why am I talking to you? Who are you anyway?"

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:37 am

"I'm an old acquaintance of Sam's she's not very fond of. You can call me Melpomene. And you are talking to me because you showed quite a bit of promise back there and I would hate for Morrigan to suppress that."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:43 am

"Promise? Ms. Melpomene, I don't think I have much of that, to be honest. I've been screwing up everything from the beginning...", she says kinda mocking McManus in a way.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:46 am

"That sounds more like you are not given the right encouragement. If I had to guess I would say you are being criticized merely for what you do, not for how well you do it."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:50 am

Another voice chimes into the conversation, "Being such the bad girl that she is, encouragement is not something that happens often..mostly just disappointment..", said the voice, as McDohl's eyes swirled for a moment. "Even my boyfriend disapproves of my actions.."

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:55 am

"Poor girl. Shouldn't a boyfriend like you for who you are?" she asks with a convincing attempt at compassion while she tries to isolate where in Sara's head that new voice had come from.

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:58 am

"You'd think that, but all I feel when I tell him about my exploits is sadness...like I'm not good enough..", she continued, her mind instinctively trying to prevent itself from being exposed.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:46 am

It would probably be little effort for Mel to find what she is looking for anyway, but for now she's happy to wait for a better opportunity. No need to spook Sara at this time.

"Don't let their attitudes delude you into thinking you're not good enough. You're not as good as you could be, but do you really think Samantha or a non-telepath should be the judge of that? You have a gift and a rather peculiar one at that. In time I am certain you could convince most people of that."

by **Sara McDohl** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:44 pm

"I could probably convince them all, just to be honest..", she said with a sly smile. "I want to prove myself..", she added, looking Mel directly in the eye.

by **Melpomene** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:05 pm

"Prove yourself to whom?" she asks, looking largely disinterested towards what is going on in the physical world right now.

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:09 am

"Everyone..", she said, her face taking on a stern look. "I just don't know how.."

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:12 am

"Everyone?" Mel chuckles. Mentally at least. "Careful dear, that sounds awfully close to a clicheed villain's 'I'll show all of them!'."

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:17 am

McDohl giggled a bit. "They will rue the day they challenged me!", she said with a laugh, her stern look turning into a bright smile.

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:25 am

"Joke all you want," she says, and if she's annoyed by Sara's joking around she hides it very well at least, "But the first lesson in anything is always to choose your targets carefully. All of them are and always will be better than one of you."

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:28 am

"You are right about that..can't take an army all by myself...I'm not that good.."

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:32 am

"You could. Not head-on of course. And you still make too many mistakes, but that is what happens when the ones who should be helping you along suppress your talent."

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:43 am

"Normally I cover my tracks..rewrite everything as if it never happened. Not sure why I didn't today.."

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:51 am

"Show me how good you are at that." she says, glancing at the man walking in front of them.

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:52 am

"What do you mean? I usually only rewrite myself out of situations.."

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:55 am

"Manipulate him. I don't care what exactly. And then cover your tracks."

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:01 am

"Okay..", she said softly, looking the man over for a second. "You are no longer a man, but a duck...", she continues, not really sure what she wanted to do. The man stops for a moment, before he begins to waddle a bit and quack. "Does that work?"

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:05 am

"Maybe a little outwardly suspicious, but it works." she points out, as the other pedestrians start throwing more or less obvious glances at the clearly deranged man. "Now undo it and cover the marks it left on his mind."

by **Sara McDohl** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:08 am

Taking a breath, she moved her way back into the man's mind changing him back to normal, and replacing the few moments that passed with memories of him making an ass of himself to some girl on the street. "Obviously you can see what I'm doing..so what do you think?"

by **Melpomene** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:29 am

"A couple of things. First of all, yes he won't question the false memories you gave him, but that is partially because he is not fully aware of the possibility that the thoughts in his head may not be his. But look at this..." And with that Melpomene reached into the man's mind, brushed aside the shame and confusion he was feeling about what he thought just happened and slipped into his subconsciousness.

"Everything leaves traces and the deeper you go the harder they become to remove. At some point he might have a dream about what really happened or experience dejavu when he sees a duck. It is not about creating a fitting piece to fit in the hole, though that certainly plays a part in it. But any telepath could easily see the footsteps you left behind. But let's not get ahead of ourselves." she goes on and methodically unravels the man's memories and the places where the new memory had been 'stitched in'.

"If you did this on anything deeper seated than his short-term memories it would unravel eventually. Look at the memories of his dog. See all the connections it has? You could cover them up with something else but they would resurface in time and even a decent enough therapist would likely be able to speed up that process. And if you cut them out it leaves loose ends. Not of facts that no longer fit but emotions and thoughts he will no longer be able to place. He would notice something was missing even if he would not know what."

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