A Splitting Decision

[Whatevr89532]

"Lexica isn't a servant, or even a person at all. It's a data processing system," says Lyra. "More like a golem I guess, but that's still far away from an accurate description." She sees Oyoki's enjoying the TV, and half-shrugs to herself. "Well, I'll leave you to yourself for awhile. Holler if you need something~." Behind the couch, silently, and probably unnoticed by the small fox-girl, her body, clothes and all, melts into goo the same bright pink as her usual hair and then sinks into the floor, destined elsewhere. Actually..destined for the past, to be the "Other" Lyra discussed below.

--

Lyra nods at Saiya's guess on what a police officer is. "Ah, well--you know, the pay was really bad. Even if you love that you're protecting people, if you can't even feed yourself on the wages there's just nothing to be done about it," says Lyra. "Some of those memories might have been tied too closely to the destroyed parts of the soul to fully return, but there's a good chance enough bits and pieces will eventually come back to properly put together that part of his story." And then, to Darren: The pain will stop right away, but it will take a long while for you to fully recover, whichever form that takes. I wasn't kidding when I said you were really hurt before.

((It's a bit of a weird thing to do in general, so it's fine if there's hiccups. I'm basically saying "Yours to play so you can decide whatever stuff you like."))

[xGoggles]

Oyoki intensely watches the show, halfly suspecting a demon to emerge at any moment and cause havoc.. but no... not sure if she should feel disappointed or not about it. At least the show would go on for longer then.
She continues to sit at the edge of the couch, her tail swaying around as she is entranced by the TV, not noticing that or how Lyra disappears

--

The former-armor nods her head, getting a more clear picture of who she was about to share a body with.

"Ahh, that.. sounds --gah!-- alright with me...", the soul didn't add much to this, either it was a quick solution but sharing a body with a girl or waiting out this pain for who knows how long; rather the first.

[Whatevr89532]

((I'll pick back up the Oyoki side a few posts or so from now. Let's just say it's the whole dang first season playing back to back and she might not even notice the passage of time for a bit.))

"Okay...I'll get this started then." Lyra types in: I'm starting the process, then. Brace yourself. Then she moves so that she's next to and facing the empty space between the pod Darren is in and Saiya. She starts to make some kind of gesture, then pauses to look at the fox-girl. "Hold very still," she says seriously. And then makes that gesture, a kind of inviting wave. The familiar "doo-ding" sound from Lexica being called is heard, and the pair of hologram-looking eyes appear, followed by an entire body joined to them, ultimately resulting in something like a blue-tinted hologram of a short woman floating in midair.

Lexica's usual voice comes from the body's mouth. "Merging sequence initiated." The console on the soul pod starts displaying long lines of text one after another, far too fast for anyone to see. Lyra holds out her hands, her eyes glowing the same bright blue shade that Lexica's "body" is composed of, and then the clear part of the pod around the soul opens up and pushes itself down into the base the console's in. Then the witch makes a grabbing motion with her left hand (the one on the side the free-floating soul is on), and then moves that hand slowly toward the opposite hand, which hangs open as if to catch something. The floating soul moves slowly toward the middle, intersecting Lexica's hologram, and then the hologram points a finger toward Saiya's chest, and another toward her head. At this stage, Saiya briefly feels paralyzed, able to stand, see, and feel but not to move. A purplish beam comes from each of the two fingers, and the glowing soul shrinks and fades from view as the beams expand out into wide ones, and then thin out again, before finally ending entirely.

And...it's done. Saiya can move again, and she feels somehow..better. It's as if she was starving and didn't even realize it until she'd taken a big bite of a burger, except that the sensation is "spiritual" rather than physical in nature. But she also is aware of the presence of another mind alongside hers. The two minds are able to speak not just words but any concept a person can think at will, but do not automatically read each other's thoughts. She also gains the ability to grant or revoke permission to move any individual part of her body, or the whole thing, to the new mind at will.
Darren feels better, too. He's in a body again, and it doesn't hurt! He can feel all of Saiya's sensory input now, and is equally aware of the presence of her mind and the ability they share to "think" to each other, but feels a kind of wall, or maybe a sense of distance between himself and the body which prevents him from moving it directly at the moment.

The Lexica-hologram, and Lyra, turn to face the newly-merged being. Lexica says, "Procedure completed without error. Ninety seven percent mass detected." And then disappears.
"Okay, that's enough to be stable and secure," says Lyra. "How do you feel? Uh, you'll have to let Darren talk if you want me to hear him."

[xGoggles]

(( Umm, yeah, would be otherwise kinda hard to make watching TV all that interesting ^^ ))

--

The merging experience was strange on both sides, Saiya had no problem standing still or being temporarily paralyzed, she was already used to these kinds of things, just the sensations that were brought with it was bizarre; Darren had a whole other set of feelings that came along with it, but eventually it resulted in a relief of the pain that faded away, finally he could think again with a clear mind, or well together with some other mind.
Both weren't really sure how to converse at first, even the minor form of telepathy that Saiya was used to communicate with her master as an armor wasn't as intertwined as this; this for some reason felt more natural to the sense of talking to a different part of yourself instead of someone else. Yet also there was a barrier in between.. or more like a curtain, it was full of motion and movement, making each other clearly aware of the other's presence but unable to really look at each other; their private thoughts, their memories were (luckily) shielded off by this.

Awkward mind introductions out of the way, not a lot was said, mostly because Saiya wasn't adding much to the conversation. Saiya blinks for a moment, getting used to the new sensation, "Yes Mistress, let me just.. figure out how..."
Meanwhile, the shadow looks utterly confused, looking around like it actively tries to find something nearby. The fox-girl's focused look slowly changed to a more blank stare then became more vivid again, "Wow, this feels.. amazing. I almost forgot how not being hurt felt like. Thank you, Lyra--Ow? Mistress Lyra?", seems Darren felt an equivalent of a mental nudge from Saiya, to talk to Lyra by what the former-armor deemed to be more respectful. He just went along with it for now he guesses?

[Whatevr89532]

"Well, thank her too," the witch nods. "This is a pretty big thing to agree to. To clarify something, the percentage of soul mass Lexica reported a moment ago is enough that you won't be at all vulnerable to possession--actually two consciousnesses to resist it make you more resilient than average at this point. But it's not overfilled either, which I guessed would be the case from how much mass yours--uh, Darren's that is--had. You can fit another person for sure, even if they're relatively high-mass among these. Are you still both okay with taking on another person? You could take a couple of days to get used to being two people in a body first if you prefer, as well. But if it's yes...I know Saiya's preferences, but it's fair at this point to ask for yours as well, Darren."

[xGoggles]

"I already did... She said I shouldn't because it is her duty. Still, I appreciate the both of you for giving me a chance, the pain was rather exhausting. Ow, she wants to speak again, hold on.", a lot quicker than before, the voice intonation and body's behavior of the fox-girl changes again to be more stern and disciplined. "Yes, thank you Misstress Lyra, the merge seems to be successful. I'm positive this body can sustain even more. Hm..", and it changes back to Darren, "I don't want to disagree but, maybe we shouldn't rush this? I like the idea of taking time to get used to each other first... But the more souls we take at once, the more souls can recover at the same time.... Ah, yes but... it won't be wise to rush into these things. It won't benefit either of us or them if we start fighting.... Maybe... You serve a valid point, a reckless decision is seldom good. And it is true I only have experience with working together with one other person at a time... Forgive me if I was overeager, emotions like these are still new to me..." The fox-girl begins to chuckle, "Hehe, no problem I can help with that, emotions aren't that hard to get used to~"

The body halts for a moment, the mannerisms going back to Saiya, "This reminds me. I wish to try a technique, if I may?", the question aimed at both Lyra and Darren, but he can just answer in mind, even though he also had no idea what she was up to.

[Whatevr89532]

"Sure," Lyra shrugs. "I mean, you probably couldn't hurt the containers in here anyway but don't attack them. Otherwise, no problem."

[xGoggles]

"The technique is not dangerous at all, only with evil intent perhaps", she performs a hand-seal and starts to focus her energy, and so does her shadow duplicate. "This normally is one of the more advanced techniques we try to perform when the master that is wearing me is able to keep a stable mind-link between me the armor, however, I have never tried this when there was something as strong as a soul-link", shifting her hand-seal, and the shadow suddenly expands to twice its size, then shrinks very small before expanding again to its original size. Nothing so far seems to have changed besides the shadow releasing the seal and looking around confused again, but this time it seems to looks directly at Saiya then Lyra and then its own body. Its mouth begins to move but no sound comes out, then it stops talking noticing it was mute, hands going to its throat gesturing it.

The fox-girl keeps her stern look, "Interesting, I wasn't sure it would work out like this, but this looks promising. Now for the next step.", no hand seals required this time, she just closed her eyes and suddenly the shadow looked less confused and more in tone with holding its weapon again, the fox-girl opens her eyes again and talks, "Ow, I can talk now? Wait, I'm back in this position? How did--..?", quiet again, as Darren was listening to Saiya's explanation through the mind.

After a brief pause it appears another switch happened as the shadow's and body's behavior changed back, "So Mistress Lyra, as you might have noticed, I have altered my shadow to be a controllable body for his soul, now we should both be able to move separately, within range, while still being connected by our minds and souls."

((Might like to add the shadow currently is just a duplicate still of the fox-girl, it can change forms though~ Just like to ask a description on what kind of body[shadow body] Darren would like/ is used to having ))

[Whatevr89532]

Lyra nods approvingly, "Pretty clever, makes a gift I'm planning to give you even more useful besides. Now, if you're gonna wait a while on merging with another soul I should move on to the next thing...you're free to use some of the space here as a home, not that you have to of course, but! In order to leave, you need a universe to leave to. It can't be the universe you were made in as armor, because you look like a fox-person and they don't have any. Even if one reappeared there would be a lot of fear and suspicion of them thanks to Oyoki--although, I should mention that her aura curse thing is completely inert now thanks to the splitting spell that cookie used doing a little identity pumping to pull all of Oyoki out of that particular knot of magic, plus I took the liberty of immunizing you against it. But it's still no good. It wouldn't make sense to send you to Darren's world either because it's a magicless, mundane Earth and you're at your best with magic, plus--again--fox tail. The other world Darren's been to and doesn't even fully remember, well, I've been specifically asked not to interfere with, and sending someone there is interfering. So that just leaves...Muffinville. Because you were as a person partially created by color energy, after all. It's a chaotic, dangerous place, but it can be a lot of fun, too."

((Darren's likely to be comfortable in what he'd remember as his "original" form, which just looks like a normal human man. Then again, it's possible he's "curious" about the female body now that he's in one. Up to you on that point.))

[xGoggles]

Both the fox-girl and her possessed shadow look surprised at Lyra's mention of a gift? "A gift? But Mistress Lyra you already have given us so much, there is no need to be so generous to us for following our duty.", but Darren convinces Saiya that it wouldn't hurt to hear her out first, "Oh? Well if you think it will be of use..."

Nodding her head in understanding when Lyra explains they best not return to their own universes, "I didn't even consider looking for a home... Though, this body does require more needs than my former one. My most recent memories do make it feel like Master Wolf's house is as close I'd assume as my 'home', it would be the place I'm the most familiar with." The shadow shrugs, Darren would be okay pretty much anywhere if returning to his universe wasn't an option.
The fox-girl looks down, what sad and concerned, "But if it's better I don't return there either I would understand... The new residents there might be fearful of me now, as considered them as intruders back then."
With the shadow patting her shoulder, giving comforting thoughts about her not being that scary and it likely was a just misunderstanding or something.
Saiya looks back at her the shadow, looking it up and down, "I can help you reshape the shadow-form if you prefer. You don't seem to be very proficient with the naginata yet, was there an other weapon you remember using?"

[Whatevr89532]

"Ah, well, police usually use guns, right?" says Lyra. "And...tasers, clubs sometimes I guess? I'm not sure a gun will work in shadow form since it involves an explosion to make a projectile, but that's what one of my gifts is about. Anyway...please follow me out of here, I don't really enjoy standing on hard metal floors too long." She heads to a door across from the one they came in through, and opens it into a small carpeted hallway of some sort with several doors leading out of it. "I doubt those two harbor any ill will toward you; Wo--er, Fox knows you were doing what you were 'programmed' to do and...well I don't know the undead girl that well but she doesn't seem the type to hold a grudge. You'd need her permission specifically to live there since she's the new owner."

--

It probably takes several episodes before it happens but...Oyoki may start to be reminded of another disadvantage of having a physical body and especially eating with said body. Specifically, bathroom needs.

[xGoggles]

The shadow nods but the fox-girl looks confused at the mentions of guns and tasers, taking it as some very foreign like of weaponry common to his world, she figures she might as well let him do the talking for now; Darren and Saiya switch again, "Ow, I'm here now~", the fox-girl says as she pats around her more physical body, still but weirded-out about the new sensations, getting used again to having a body.. a female body at that was going to take a while for sure.
"So are you going to give me a type of gun I could use in shadow-form? Or what are you getting at?", Darren asks Lyra, not sure what she had planned.

Both the body and the shadow follow Lyra to the new hallway, "Uh, I didn't know you two were friends with Foxes and undead people?", Daran wasn't sure he heard that right, maybe he was missing some reference there, Saiya didn't bother explaining it either, not fully sure herself, and she was rather quiet in thought at the moment, thinking about her relationship with the Fox-male that claimed to be her old master somehow.

--

Oyoki sighs deeply and lets out an annoyed groan, "Grrrr~... She really had to take all quality of life changes.. didn't she?!.. Cursed human!.." She gets off the couch, annoyed she was limited to such a pathetic body with no magic to assist her. She hadn't had the need to go to the bathroom since... She honestly doesn't even want to remember since when; this part of bodily function always disgusted her!
If she gave in to her resentment, she might have just done her 'delivery' on the spot just to annoy the witch for what she did to her. But she wasn't going lower herself to the status of an animal just to prove her point, nor was she eager to stay in a room, for who knows how long, in her own stench...
Glancing back at the TV, if only she could freeze it in time somehow, so she didn't have to miss anything while she goes on this reluctant search.

[Whatevr89532]

"Fox is Wolf, my old master I mentioned once or twice. Or his reincarnation, not sweating the details too much. He's a regular Asgore when it comes to naming things, and they let him name himself, so Fox is what he got. The undead girl has the memory of being a pair of goggles which is now her phylactery," says Lyra, nodding. She opens up one of the doors to reveal a small closet with a bunch of guns of varying sizes hanging on a kind of display inside of it, and after a brief moment of thought pulls one out in particular, offering it to the pair holster-first. It looks like a normal handgun, except it has a circular hole in the top near the back. "Mini-ungun. You can put anything reasonably solid into the hole and it'll shoot that anytime you pull the trigger. I mean, you can also load something like paper or cloth but you'll get a harmless, mildly annoying bullet if you do that. It holds six things at a time, and you can only get something back out by firing it, so be careful about that. Nice and portable, easy enough to pass to the shadow form."

((I'm assuming they followed her into the hallway as asked last post or whatever))

--

"Who're you calling human?" Lyra's voice appears behind Oyoki. She really wasn't there a moment ago; even in the fox-girl's present state she would've heard her walking up. The source of the voice, who is still Lyra but with some...cosmetic changes, waves at one of the doors the couch is half-facing, and it swings open to reveal a bathroom. "I hope I don't have to teach you how to use a toilet...you do what you have to privately and I'll tell you about the wonders of plumbing sometime afterward."

[xGoggles]

"That... actually makes it more confusing, sorry..." Darren says perplexed, "But I take these kinds of individuals are normal here? Or that Muffinville place?"
Inspecting the Mini-ungun up close, the fox-girl takes hold of it and takes some practiced aims, trying to get back to holding a gun after so long. "So it is like a more advanced slingshot then? Can it only be loaded by things that can fit the hole?", Darren asks happy with the gun, well gift in general.

--

Oyoki glares at the new Lyra, not because of the sudden appearance, but more about her fox-form now, as if she was rubbing salt into a wound, "Really... Why the change in looks?" She taps her food impatient for the answer, not that she can take it very long, as her own plumbing was getting more and more distracting.

Squirming when the pressure became unbearable and she rushes over to the bathroom. At the door, she halts and says, "Just so you know.. I really despise you!", and with that, she shuts the door. Happy to hear this place was supposedly private, for.. multiple reasons. Still, she hates the idea of actually having to use a toilet again... What she wouldn't do to get her magic back.

[Whatevr89532]

"I have one of the most expansive experiences you'll ever see," says Lyra, "and I literally can't imagine a kind of person who couldn't possibly be seen as 'normal' by Muffinville's standards. Place is weeeiiiird. Anyway, yeah. It's sort of like that, except that if you put in like a rock then it can do about as much damage as a real pistol with a bullet. And if you can jam something in the hole, even if it doesn't look like it should physically fit inside the gun as a whole, then you can still use it as ammo. I should warn you the weird properties of that gun only work as long as you don't look too closely at them--which really just means if you try to take it apart or if it breaks in a way that exposes its insides, it suddenly acts like a normal handgun with a hole in it and basically it's just broken junk at that point."

"The second thing I wanted to give you is this, the L-phone," Lyra produces from somewhere in her clothes an object resembling a smartphone, and pushes a button to turn it on. The screen on it says "You are not the owner of this phone" and shows a big symbol of a locked padlock. She offers it to the fox-girl, and if she takes it then the screen changes to a message saying "Do you wish to unlock?"
"It's...you can think of it like any other smartphone, but really it's just a receiver for Lexica, my data processing system. You can do stuff like install and run apps on it, make calls, surf whatever internet the world you're on has, all that. Voice activation by saying 'Lexica' and then asking her for whatever. It's ID-locked to you, so you're the only person--er, people--who can use it. The main point of this is that you can use it to get a door out of or into this house, and to configure the place the way I've been doing. You can ask Lexica to make the door in front of you lead to whatever kind of room you want--including an exit to Muffinville--or you can use the installed app on there to set up a static layout for a 'home' of your own if it makes you feel comfortable. With some permission from the new owner, I can get Lexica set up to at least let you in and out of Wolf's old house if you prefer to live there instead."

--

"Well, I was hoping it'd make you more comfortable.." Lyra starts, but shrugs while the fox-girl shuts the door. It's basically a typical bathroom, and Oyoki can almost certainly guess the use of at least the toilet in it. The author doesn't feel the need to go into details on this part.