I13DT Nailah's Office - Broken Mindscapes

[Haley Crusek]

Haley walked up to Nailah's office during her posted office hours and knocked gently on the door.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Come in, Haley."

[Haley Crusek]

"Hi Miss Weaver," she said meekly, walking into the office.

"Do you have a few minutes? And it's not about the Huck Finn paper you assigned last week."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Of course. Is everything alright?"

[Haley Crusek]

"I...yeah," she said coming in and closing the door. "It's about the new girl...Miranda."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Oh? What about her?"

[Haley Crusek]

"Well I met her the other night. We had ice cream. She's nice..."

She chewed her lip.

"I kind of sorta got into her mindscape accidentally and it was like really fucke....I mean uh...messed up."

"...sorry."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Please don't refer to your classmates' minds as messed up, Haley. What did you see?"

[Haley Crusek]

"It was though...no other way to describe it. Not her fault that it looked like some old temple or ancient city that some army had like. Ransacked. She said someone did it to her."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Most of her memories have been erased by Black Air. That's how her mind must have conceptualized it. Do you remember what the temple looked like?"

[Haley Crusek]

"It looked like it belonged in Rome. Columns and stuff. The city around it was in worse shape than it...holes in buildings...burned outlines of people on the walls...the whole place just...smelled. It smelled like a hospital. The temple had this woman in it. She called herself the seer. She was like...wearing a robe with a hood, so I couldn't really see her face for most of the time."

She wracked her brain to recall every detail she could. "She said the 'Dark Wind' did this to her...so I guess that's this Black Air that you're talking about. I actually had to fight this...thing in there. I tore it apart with my TK."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that last part. And yes, you likely saw the damage they did to her mind and the remnants of her original mindscape. And you said she called herself the Seer?"

[Haley Crusek]

"Well the thing was going to kill the huntress, the other woman in there, and probably the seer, and probably me. So of course I shredded it."

[Nailah Weaver]

"It attacked her mental constructs too? Strange..."

[Haley Crusek]

"It was scary. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced there's nothing good on the Astral or in people's heads. First the terrifying witch that tried to steal me when I fell into the Astral in the maze, then the creepy snake talking to me and Steve, and now this poor girl with things in her mind trying to destroy her mindscape."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Peoples' heads can be very strange, it's nothing to be afrai--wait, the creepy what?"

[Haley Crusek]

"Steve and I passed out watching TV in the common room the other night and we ....dreamt? I dunno...but the TV changed and this thing started to try and come out of the TV, so I smashed the hell out of it and we ran away, and this thing started talking to us in the gardens. It was this creepy three-headed snake...thing..."

[Nailah Weaver]

Something about Nailah's attitude shifts dramatically, her wings unfolding ever so slightly to give her frame more bulk.

"What did it say to you." she demands maybe a bit too harshly.

[Haley Crusek]

"I..." Haley's voice faltered, clearly more than a bit intimidated by the display. "..it uh...kept...talking about how we arent getting told the whole truth about things...and stuff..."

The lights in the room flickered, and Nailah's nameplate on her desk rattled

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah reaches put to hold her nameplate down. "And I assume it told you it was going to tell you the whole story?"

[Haley Crusek]

"Yeah, more or less..." she said.

"...miss Weaver, could you please not look at me like you're going to eat me?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm sorry." she says, composing herself a little bit, though her tail is still going a bit crazy behind her. "It's going to be one of those weeks." she says with an exasperated sigh.

"What did it tell you, Haley. This is important."

[Haley Crusek]

"It told me to read this old book in the Maldon library. It seems like a real book...not creepy and skinned in human skin or anything...just like...an old mythology book. I dunno. I still don't know what the thing's like...point was. I don't know why it cares what I think about God or gods and goddesses..."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Why indeed..." she mumbles to herself. "Did you read it?"

[Haley Crusek]

"Tried to...it's really..boring," she settled on.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Then I'm sure you won't mind giving it to me."

[Haley Crusek]

"....what are you going to do with it?" she asked suddenly suspicious.

[Nailah Weaver]

"But just because it isn't bound in leathery demon wings doesn't mean it's harmless."

"I can't make you hand it over or take it from you..." she adds after realizing how she must have sounded.

[Haley Crusek]

"...guess you're right." she said still rather uneasy about the whole situation. This lady was scary.

She dug into her backpack which has been dumped unceremoniously on the floor and pulled out the book, handing it to Nailah.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah picks it up and leafs through it, frowning slightly. "Well I don't see why it wanted you to read this. This is just somebody getting carried away by the Mono Myth and rambling." she says. Best to just make Haley think the book is complete non-sense if she's already read it.

[Haley Crusek]

Haley regarded her with some suspicion as she flipped through the book, trying to subtly pick up on her thoughts to see what the hell she was getting at with this inquisition.

[Nailah Weaver]

Trying to listen Nailah's thoughts is like trying to look at one of those squiggly lines floating in your vision on fast-forward. And even when she manages to get a glimpse it doesn't quite seem to fit what's actually going on and instead causes the weirdest feeling of deja-vu. Underneath that is this constant sense of anticipation, almost a sense of her counting down to something over and over.

"Apology accepted." she suddenly says without looking up from the book.

[Haley Crusek]

"I didn't apologize...?" she asked, playing dumb/innocent far too well.

[Nailah Weaver]

"No, but you're going to."

Four...

"Or do I need to talk to your Telepathy Tutor?"

Three...

Two...

[Haley Crusek]

"Fine, sorry for trying to see why the fuck you're being just as cryptic and terrifying as that god damned snake," she snapped.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Because there are some things you're better off not knowing." she says, closing the book and placing it in one of the drawers of her desk. "The same reason why we try to restrict Calvin's access to experimental technology or why no one is letting Brigid use a tactical computer or why we're not teaching Molly how to coerce people by looking in their eyes or why Tommy isn't allowed to transmute noble metals."

[Haley Crusek]

Haley remained unconvinced, and she had a terrible poker face. "Guess so. Thanks."

Fucking hell, maybe the snake was right about them...

"Well. Guess that's it. Can I leave before you change your mind and eat me?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"No one is going to eat you, Haley."

[Haley Crusek]

Sure. Sure they won't.

"So that's that I guess. Just thought you should know about her head. She's a really nice girl and I want to help her get better."

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah nods. "Thanks for telling me about it. I'm glad to see she's making friends." she says, her mood clearly getting better with the change of topic.