May 17th - Danger Room - Not just a river in Egypt

[Samantha McManus]

Samantha blinks.

"...alright, I'm not entirely sure what I'm seeing, now."

[Nailah Weaver]

And that was about the time a faint rustling noise started up behind them and only a split-second later it has grown much, much louder as a tremendous swarm of scarabs fills the room. They slam into Sam, mostly because she's simply in the way. Oddly enough they all somehow manage to miss Nailah as they rush past the two and start slamming into the 'active' mirrors.

[Samantha McManus]

Samantha was bowled over, struggling to her feet, her form shifting into the wirier shape of Badb as she violently shook the insects from herself.

"Bloody things!"

She managed to free herself finally, and looked in confusion to what the swarm was doing to the mirrors.

"...the hell? Quality control, are they?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"How the hell would I know?" she asks almost defensively, apparently having snapped out of her trance. "Though that'd make more sense if they hadn't shown up after it played out." There's a certain bit of vague and undirected annoyance in her voice.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well I'm just trying to figure out what they are, since they felt the need to swarm all over my arse."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I... give me a moment..."

As Nailah tries to sort through what just happened the scarabs seems to eventually calm down and stop whatever it is they were doing.

"Most of what played out there didn't feel pleasant. I think something in my head knee-jerked at that. Why scarabs though I don't know..."

[Samantha McManus]

Samantha calmed down, shifting back to normal as she got her wits about her again.

"Solar imagery again. Scarabs are associated with solar imagery."

"We're in the underworld, after a fashion. Khepri was the scarab that brought the sun forth from the underworld in the morning, with Khnum taking it back into the underworld at sunset..."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I know that. I'm just having a hard time incorporating all this," she makes a sweeping gesture at the room, "into the imagery."

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, these are all the possibilities. Your mind must have some mechanism for limiting the visions you receive..."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Then I would have to be able to make some kind of informed decision, even if it is subconscious. I mean, you're right, there has to be some kind of filter, but I'm not sure that was it. I had already had the visions when they arrived."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, but you're not supposed to be down here, I'm thinking. You're supposed to be up there, where we found your double."

"So the process we just saw is usually out of the way in a nice, neat little box."

[Nailah Weaver]

"But I wasn't down here. Not really. I may have turned the representation of it off, but I am still sitting up there, I think."

[Samantha McManus]

"Then I don't really know what triggered this, love. Even clouded like that, the visions down here were well beyond your usual range."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm not sure, there were a lot of variations but usually they are not quite as vague. The number of possibilities might have watered down the lot..."

[Samantha McManus]

"And at first I thought it was versions of us fighting, but I'm not even certain of that anymore..."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I think we were. In some of them at least..." she says, sounding vaguely worried.

[Samantha McManus]

"But they weren't us, love."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Not yet anyway..."

[Samantha McManus]

"They don't have to be."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I won't let them be."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye. Perhaps time we leave the underworld, then?"

[Nailah Weaver]

She nods. "I wish I could utilize this to find out more but I doubt I could."

[Samantha McManus]

"If your powers ever expand to utilize it more consciously, then I'm sure you'll be back here. I still think it's rather like some of the things you'll find in my mind, or indeed any mind. Interesting, but ultimately something that might happen constantly without you knowing it."

She led the way back towards the central chamber.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Hopefully I'm on the right track to that now."

[Samantha McManus]

"You seemed more equipped to handle it this time, certainly."

[Nailah Weaver]

"It certainly seemed more controlled than the other time I was down there, but that might have had something to do with that 'path' having just opened. Still, I should probably try and expand on the mythological aspect..."

[Samantha McManus]

"Which is what we keep coming back to, aye?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"So it seems."

[Samantha McManus]

"Then... let's not dance around it. Sit where the shadow of you was in this chamber. Think of what you associate with... the greater sphinx, as it were. With that role, and with Sekhmet. None of it is wrong, just feel it out."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Hrm... I think that would work better in my apartment, really."

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, I'll admit that I suggested doing it here because it seems... safer. But it's long past time that I trusted your judgment on this."

"So," she said as she placed an affectionate hand on Nailah's shoulder, "let's do it your way."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm not sure what you expect to happen that'd make it safer here, hun." she smiles softly.

[Samantha McManus]

"Rather the point in doing it your way, aye?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Well, that and I don't think the room can replicate the magical blessing in my apartment."

[Samantha McManus]

She nodded, ending the simulation.

"And I can't complain about how that blessing turned out last time," she said with a chuckle as they made their way out.