Scene #5882: What They Brought Back

Owner	Pose
Carna	After emerging from Emblem City, memories restored, Tamamo no Mae, Lacey, Nozomi, and Taiga, are all once more standing in Enark's study. With the latter two having departed the room, only Tamamo and Enark are present to see what transpires next. The young girl, clinging to Tamamo's leg, and looking around in a mix of awe and fear at the library in total unfamiliarity, starts to hang a bit more heavily on the fox's limb. "It is good to see you back, Miss Tamamo. Though it appears you brought someone with you?" The scholar frowns and tilts his head. "She seems... Familiar for some reason." Lacey hides further behind Tamamo, whom she knows as Maej Cits. Timidly, she says in a wavering voice, "I'm Lacey. Where's Soupi?"
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo's memories restored, she lets out a soft sigh as she stands in Enark's study, the fox-caster's tail moving to wrap around Lacey's waist in a comforting, protective little fluff. "It's okay, Lacey, I'm here, you don't have to fear anything." she smiles, rubbing the little girl's head softly, "Thank you, Enark." she gives a bit of a bow, "As for this girl, she's Lacey, a girl I was... and still am.. taking care of during my time in there. She knew me as Maej." Tamamo kneels down a bit, "Soupi's still back there, I think. They didn't understand what was happening, unfortunately, so I think they're still back there, Lacey. It's okay, I'll still take care of you, I won't leave you like you've been left before." she gives a bit of a smile, "Maybe Soupi will come to understand and soon come by my side with you." She turns to the scholar, "I've promised her that I'd take care of her, that I would get her out of that place. I... apologize if I wasn't supposed to but I couldn't... I wouldn't say no. Master would scold me if I did leave someone who desperately wanted to be saved behind."
Carna	When he hears Lacey's name something clicks for him, the look of realization on his face shows. But he tries to hide it a moment later. "Well, I will do all I can support you in that endeavour then. My name is Enark. Nice to meet you. Err... Are you alright?" Lacey's breathing is coming in short, shallow gasps, and she seems to be weaving from side to side, staggering. "I don't..." she gets out and then collapses to the floor. Parts of her body seem to be... 'Derezzing' sort of. Fading in and out of existence in pockets of static. Enark stares, then turns and runs towards where a mechanical body lies on a table as Lacey starts to writhe and twist on the floor. "It hurts! Please, Miss Maej... Help...!"
Tamamo no Mae	The look of realization on that face causes some concern on Tamamo's face, "Is something wrong, Enark?" she questions curiously, "I'm fin..." she trails off as she hears Lacey's breathing. "Lacey?" she kneels down a bit to get to Lacey's level. "Lacey, what's wrong dear?" she questions, until she collapses. "Lacey!?" She moves to try and pull Lacey up close to her, watching the 'derezzing'. "Lacey, what's wrong, what's happening?! I'm here... Maej is here, don't worry my dear." Tamamo's ears pin back to her head as she looks sharply towards Enark, "Enark, help please! I... I don't know what's going on..." she moves to rub her hand down Lacey's hair... "It's okay, shhh, I know it hurts, I'm sorry, we're going to find out what's wrong." She moves to pick up Lacey and cradle her into her arms, approaching Enark, "What's going on, tell me what's going on!"
Carna	Enark tries to haul the body over, arms under the armpits of the cobbled-together figure. Like a huge puppet of pipes and wires and metal plates, and not very light either. It takes him some time to drag it. "The place... You brought her... From is... Made of a... Corrupted... Version of... History. I don't think... She... Belongs... In... This..." He heaves one last time and drops the body down next to the girl as she screams and bucks wordlessly, more and more of her body becoming a black mist with TV static flickering within it. "World!" he finishes and then tries to figure out what the next step is. "I'll save the technical explanation, but she needs a body that belongs in this world if she's going to survive. Maybe I can transfer her into it somehow, but... I don't know how!" He is panicking before the sight of the tortured spirit that is rapidly fading from existence. "There's only one thing missing from this body. A soul. If she has one... Then just a fragment of mine should be enough to anchor her." He very carefully raises a hand, allowing water to flow around it, spinning and spinning until it's like a drill. Breathing heavily, more out of fear than an actual need for air, he plunges the hand-drill into his own chest, sending blood and viscera splattering outwards, pushing it deep into his torso, as if searching for something. Lacey's eyes have turned completely black, rivulets of some ebony ichor pouring from them and the corners of her mouth as she suffocated on the darkness that her insides are becoming. She reaches out with a hand on the verge of vanishing for Tamamo's, no longer able to speak. Then Enark pulls his hand out, stretching some brilliant thread out and out and out... Until it snaps. He seems to be immediately weakened, hunching over, but just holds the soul thread out to Tamamo. "Tie it... To her hand... And the mimic's..."
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo eyes the puppet of pipes and wires warily, what the heck was that supposed to be? It didn't look like any of her attack programs, but then again, a lot of things didn't... She bites her lip, rubbing her hand across Lacey's cheek gently, a frown upon her face, "Lacey, hang in there, Maej is here... Maej is here, I promise I won't leave you." she whispers, holding her tightly against her body. "A... corrupted version of history? No, I can't accept that she doesn't belong in this world!" She looks down to Lacey, frowning, she repeats 'Maej is here.' to the fading body, tears coming from her eyes, crashing down on the girl. "But... I think she has one.. I mean, doesn't /everyone/ have a soul? Even I have a soul, despite being a sort of spirit." she chokes out, only to take a look towards the sudden drill noises... and then turning sharply away as the viscera and blood splatters around. "Damnit, what the hell? Have somethign covering Tamamo before you do that again! Now I have to get this out of my clothes and Lacey's if we can save her while you're trying to commit seppuku!" She looks down at Lacey, the eyes black... and she frowns, "Lacey..." she whispers, whimpering, holding tightly, letting the ichor ddrip onto her body and clothes, her ears perk up at the snapping... and she turns around... looking at the brilliant thread. She doesn't question this, taking it and moving to the mimic. She lies Lacey down next to it, moving her hand over to the mimic... and moves to tie the brilliant thread around both. "What... is this supposed to do?"
Carna	"My apologies." Enark gets out as he starts using the water that was around his hand to heal his injuries. It was probably pretty painful and took a lot of guts to drill a hole in his own chest, dead already or not. "She might just be a simulation. A fake person. A... Program of sorts, made out of corruption. If so, then she wouldn't have a soul any more than a rock would." Then he takes a deep breath, and places one hand on Lacey's head, sending a ripple of magic through her. "We'll just have to find out." He then places his hand on the head of the inactive mimic, and releases a huge wave of magic energy that visibly sucks the semblance of life from the ghostly scholar, withering him, weakening him, sending strands of gray through his hair. But Lacey seems to stabilize, no longer fading away, no longer deteriorating. Then, all at once... She just disappears. There may be a moment of panic, but the mimic is gradually compacting, compressing, reshaping itself, and the other end of the soul thread snapped inside of it when Lacey vanished. A little bit at a time, slowly... Painfully slowly... Enark uses his will and his mastery of Mimiccrafting to change what was meant to be an adult male body into a young female one. Waves of energy flow the room, shafts of life shine out from the gaps between pipes and wires as the metal wrenches together, binding to a smaller frame. It seems to take hours, but when it's over, a reproduction of Lacey in the form of a sort of... Golem lies there. Enark transfers the hand that had once made a copy of Lacey's psyche alongside his other, and released the data into the artificial body. For several seconds nothing happens. Then water flows out from within, and it distorts and changes until it produces the image of Lacey. It starts breathing.
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo shakes her head, "No, it's fine... I'm..." she listens to Enark with what he says, tilting her head slightly from this, "A... and there would be no way to give her one, is there?" she questions, her tail twitching slowly, looking down at the golem and Enark and Lacey. "Hang in there, Lacey... I'm here... I said I would be. Enark is going to help you become better, you're going to be okay." she whispers, a reassurance... She looks towards Enark again, watching him, watching Lacey stablize... then dissapear. "Lacey!? Enark, what did you do!?" she shouts, "Lacey!" she drops to her knees, watching the soul thread snap inside of the golem... and the golem reshaping into a young girl... The hours upon hours of waiting, of watching... she looks at the reproduction of Lacey... "What now..." she whispers, watching, her stained dress of ichor and tears covering the worried Servant. "Lacey..." she stares at the Golem, watching it distort and change even further to look like the girl she saved... and when it starts breathing, Tamamo gasps herself, moving to try and hold the hand... "Lacey, it's me. It's Maej. Tamamo... I'm here, I said I would!"
Carna	Enark sits back. "It may take awhile for everything to balance out. The body wasn't made to house a little girl, it was supposed to be for an adult male. So there be an integration delay. I believe the first one I made took a few thousand years." Lacey's eyes open and she starts coughing, then rolls onto her side, struggling to adjust to a foreign body that operates on entirely different principles than her old one. "Or she could wake up right now." Enark finishes. "But she should really take it easy. She was some sort of... Memory ghost. Now she has as close to a physical body as one can have in the after life. She'll need help learning to move about again. Walk, speak, and so on." He shifts and then gets up with difficulty, staggering towards a chair to seat himself. "Perhaps you can help her."
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo frowns a bit, giving a bit of a nod towards Enark. "As long as I live, I can make sure she'll be well taken care of." she whsipers, moving to rub the Lacey-golem on the head. "A few thousand years for it to wake? That's a lot." she pouts a bit, "It's okay, I'll be there... I'll make sure I'm there for her. Even if I have to command SE.RA.PH. to do so." she nods, a firm, devoted voice on it. That cracks as soon as she hears coughing. "Lacey?! Oh my dear girl, you're alive." a pause, "Take it easy, I'm going to be here for you. We'll have to teach you how to do a lot again, but I promise, I'm going to be with you every step of the way." she smiles, "Walking, speaking and everything." she turns towards Enark, "I.. umm." a pause.. "Thank you for this... I know I'm being a selfish fox... but.." she looks down to Lacey, "I'm happy she's going to be okay." there's another pause, "Is she going to be human again? Live a normal life span?"
Carna	Enark looks tiredly on as Tamamo promises her support or cares for Lacey, the latter still barely able to move, let alone reply. "I believe the process will go relatively quickly if she's already able to do this much. Perhaps because she's so young. Perhaps because I've improved my technique since the last one..." He waves. "But she is unlikely to age. She was, and is, a ghost, like myself. A spirit in the afterlife. I don't know if mimic bodies are capable of reincarnating, but... She will be around for a long, long time." Probably. The last one left a long time ago and his memory is all shot to hell regarding him, so he doesn't have a lot of data to compare against. "At least, thanks to you, you've proven I can do it. So I have you to thank as well. I'll monitor her condition closesly to be certain everything is going well." He smiles as well as he can, his eyes drooping. And if there's no problems, then he can get started on the next one.