May 16th, 2022 - Manical Illusions

[Sara McDohl]

"....I see..", was all she let out, looking a bit more determined as she bit her finger nail. "You can teach me?", she asked, looking over for a second.

[Melpomene]

"If you're willing to put in the effort that would take." She lets go of the man's mind, taking with her any footprints Sara left behind as she smoothes over the edges around the false memory.

"And I probably don't have to tell you that you might not want to tell Morrigan about this. She and I... disagree on certain things."

[Sara McDohl]

"I think she's given up on me as of right now..have to admit though, she was much more patient with me then Michael Asters.."

[Melpomene]

"Oh believe me, she hasn't given up on you. Or rather, on convincing you of her particular idea of how telepathy should and shouldn't be used."

[Sara McDohl]

"Hone her skills...she could be of great use to you..", says the much younger voice to Mel. "Just tell me where to begin.."

[Melpomene]

"At first you will watch me. When you grasp the concept, practice. But before any of that, what is this?" and with that she drags the little voice out of Sara's mind, not quite demanding an explanation, but certainly expecting one.

[Sara McDohl]

"Was supposed to be a way to channel my identity. Something Samantha told me to do, create a guard, if you will, for my mind. MsChif was created..but after that weird virus plagued the school..she seemed to manifest into something more...", McDohl explained quickly. "Yeah yeah, blame it all on McManus and the virus..whatever you say, kid."

[Melpomene]

"Good Lord, Sammy and her aviary. A word of advice, girl, don't listen to people who consider themselves quite literally insane. Or do you think splintering your mind would be helpful?"

Not helpful to you anyway. she muses to herself.

"But anyway..." she goes on, letting go of MsChif, "Is there a particular application you want to see?"

[Sara McDohl]

"Is there a particular application you wish to show?", she asked in return.

[Melpomene]

"You need to be more assuming. Telepathy is as much about presence and psychology as it is about the actual manipulation. Something I believe your little compartmentalized side is quite aware of. But very well..."

Melpomene leads Sara to a small cafe so they can sit down while they 'work'.

"You are quite capable as far as pushing your will onto people's surface thoughts goes, but that is a clumsy method. A direct confrontation with someone's mind is almost never a good idea, it is unsophisticated and only rarely serves a purpose. Watch this..." Picking someone seemingly at random from inside the cafe Mel latches on to the woman's surface thoughts. Boring, trivial things Mel barely pays attention to. Finding the memories those stem from she slips further into the woman's mind.

"This is where you go when you erase traces of what you did. Again, it works but is less effective than it could be. What makes a person who they are is more than the collection of their memories." And with that she begins unearthing her morals, feelings, working her way closer to the core of the woman's being. "Changing one affects the other, so to have any deep-seated effects you have to change not what a person thinks about but how. No amount of memories is ever truly going to convince a murderer that they're a philanthropist."

"Now, certainly not everyone requires that amount of work for what might be trivial changes like thinking you paid a bill, but what I want you to try is to apply that principle every time you use your powers. No matter how insignificant it may seem, try to make your target think what you did was something they would do."

And with that, partly to make her point and partly to amuse herself she really goes to work on the woman, rearranging a memory here or there, adjusting her morals and basically rewriting her to the point where she is desperate enough to think that taking the knife from her table and trying to rob the cafe would be the best if not the only solution to deal with her mortgage.

[Sara McDohl]

Sara's eyes lit up, as she watched the spectacle happen both physically, and mentally. The intricacies that Mel was twisting in that poor girls mind, was lighting sparks in her own. "See what happens when you actually LEARN something? I swear, for the daughter of a good telepath, you sure turned out pretty crappy.", the voice said to her. All the girl could do was watch the scene unfold, how the girl had decided this was the best course of action. "How did you get that far in? I've only been able to get there in my toy..", by this time her hand was covering her mouth, despite not making a sound for the last few minutes..just sort of in shock at how easy it was for this woman..

[Melpomene]

"Practice and determination. And what do you mean when you say 'toy'?" she asks, seemingly intruiged.

[Sara McDohl]

"Shape shifter at the school..Very good toy to practice on."

[Melpomene]

"Ah yes, shapeshifters can be a bit, shall we say unstable at times. If you can figure out how you do what you do to him or her then that would be a considerable step forward."

[Sara McDohl]

"She does like to give me full access..", she said with a knowing smile.

[Melpomene]

"It may be an easy target, but shapeshifters can be quite... malleable. They have a fluid self-image and rewriting their thoughts becomes a lot mroe simple when you can fit their physical shape to the mental one you are aiming for."

[Sara McDohl]

"Seems like I have a homework assignment that I don't mind doing.."

[Melpomene]

"So it seems. But I expect you to pay more attention to what you're doing than usually."

[Sara McDohl]

"I can guarantee you that I will..", she says with a stern look.

[Melpomene]

"I am sure you won't disappoint me." she smiles.