Resonance//Dissonance [BOOK 2 in progress]

„I think I felt you up enough for our first real date" her mischievious grin made Luke's hair stand on end, but he remained quiet, not letting her have the satisfaction.

She moved closer, once again plucking at his mental scape.

„I... think I can see you clearer now, and you are more used to me too, the blessing ray of sunlight that I am in your life"

„YE~~ghh" he was about respond with a truly mean comment but she shut him up by clasping her porcelain fingers around his face.

„Shush, I'm speaking now." The residual heat on his skin made her own reddish, tracking on his sweat and ash of his torched flesh onto her pristine hand, she cared little for that. She started circling him, dragging him by his face like a bulldog that misbehaved.

„I will attempt to see your mindscape, knock on the door if you will, and you will attempt not to release the hounds that guard the gates. Are we clear?"

„Huhmhjmhumhmhumpf" he tried to say, and as he saw the joy this nasty trick brought her, he actually spit at her and tried to lick her hand, now it was 'Teru that was flabbergasted.

„You animal!" she yelled as she took her hand back.

„WOOF!" he barked at her laudly, laughing that hoarse, grimm laugh. „We are not clear, I never had that done to me, will you be gentle?" he tried to jest.

That froze her even more in her tracks, she did not expect that, before she could come up with a response, he continued on, now it was him that was moving closer, the distance between them less and less, his presence looming and growing.

„What does that entail?" he asked staring deeply into her eyes, unmoving, unblinking.

She broke first, blinking, moving away, somehow feeling threatened by him, she could not allow it to be, she took over the momentum.

„That entails me seeping my magic around your psyche, drawing it into a form that you subconciously formed and trying to traverse through it untill I find where your powers Emphatic Links are, or at least help guide you to find it yourself."

„Oh yeah, obviously, that's elementary..." his pretense was clear, he still understood jack-shit.

„To put it in a Big Lug terms you will understand, I will force you to have an Acid Trip and step into the outer bounds of your psyche, and try to skidadle as close as I can, as to what will happen with you during that time? We will see, it's kinda hard to say during the first time."

„That does not inspire me with much confidence, you know that?"

„Blagh,blagh, blagh" she dismissed him, her palms making the yapping sign, as she once again stood behind him.

„So, how do we do this?" he asked in resigned acceptence.

„Like this!" and he felt a slap, the sound of bony fingers smashing against his sweaty back echoed in the empty parking lot, the power of it brought Luke to his knees, not the power, the effect of it. His eyes rolled backwars as his spine bent akin to a puking cat, his whole body trembling as 'Teru's porcelain white skin started seeping out black tar from her pores. Black tar, that dripped into Luke, directly into his being as her finger nails dug deeply into his back, leaving fresh scratches as she dragged her palms down his back. Good thing that he could not see her right now, the manic grin that split her face from ear to ear, and the multitutudes of eyes contained in her eye sockets that bled through the black ink could make him reconsider this decision.

The world turned blindingly white. A high pitch ringing noise resounded as she molded her psyche around the specter of his mental scape, as if pouring wax on water, she spread out, fragmented and solidified within, the process was delicate, rough, and full of discomfort as it dragged on.

Finally, in a moment between now and eternity, she popped back into being a cohesive creature. A creature, standing in the middle of an endless, black desert. She sank almost up to her ankles in the bland, scorchin sand, and she had to raise her hand to her forehead to block the scalding ray's of the Primordial Sun revolting irregurarly in the sky, a black scarr marred across it.

„Whaaaat the fuck..." she could not hide her suprise. This was not what she was used to, and once she took a look around she could only curse.

„God fucking damn it!!" she stomped her foot in the sand, fists clenched in anger.

The place she manifests is usually based on the representation of where the subject considers her close, emotionally or psychologically.

She could barely see the spires of something in the far, far horizon of this hellish landscape, covered by the heat haze, she could be tens of miles away from it.

„This big, lunky, stubbron fucker!" she yelled as she kicked the sand, stomping her way towards the barely visible mark in the landscape.

After what felt like hours wadling through that dessert, she finally reached the foot of the mountain. Yes, mountain, it was baffling to her that someone, especially a mortal coud naturally form such a hostile mental enviroment. Unprompted and unguided, this musclehead created a barren wasteland as a representation of his view of the world outside, a hostile world where his reach of being comes blends with the real outside.

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„What a mess..." she exhaled deeply as she put her hands on her hips, standing defiant, back straight, she looked up.

„Gods fucking damn him." and she deflated quite quickly seeing the monumental task in front of her.

Not only was this tiresome, she could feel some residue,a foreign and yet native presence that emited malicious intent and annoyence, in this mentalscape she breathed it in and it seeped into her, annoying her even more than she would normally be. But she couldn't pinpoint it, it is impossibly far yet everywhere in here, it's akin to trying to catch a fart.

She felt offended at that thought, and then disgusted she even made such a comparison, this place is not somewhere where she would like to spend more time than neccesary.

Dusting herself off, she stretched her arms and transformed her shoes into something more fitting for climbing, roiling waves of black ink shaped her footware and in a blink of an eye, she was ready for the next challange.

The mountain was partially sculpted, the base of His psyche was forged into rough Pillars of Penance, rigid, solid, and slick. Thanking the Fate they have not been refined yet, she jumped up as far as she could and grabbed onto a ledge, lodging her feet in the crack of the Pillar.

The more she climbed, the more the wind intesified, with grains of hot, glassy sand getting into her face and eyes, sticking to her lips and that annoying presence suffusing the air she was really getting angry.

Another powerful gust almost blew her off the cliff, she was getting close to the top too, she hung on one arm, body swaying like a marionette on strings.

„LUKE! IF YOU ARE AWAKE AND NOT TELLING ME IMMA KILL YOU! AND DON'T LOOK UP MY SKIRT!" She bellowed out with her tiny voice, and after a moment of silence and disgruntlement, continued to climb.

With grunts and curses unbefitting of a lady, she finally managed to hook her right arm over the ledge and pull herself to the top, ragged, dirty and panting. Dusting herself off, she used her mind to reshape her visage once again, looking fresh and proper.

Looking back she took in the heights of Luke's Pillars and allowed not only the sight, but also the meaning of them seep into her. While the outermost layer was formed by the loss of the twins, she could feel what was hidden deeper, she could feel it through the cracks. The loss of a mentor, shame brought upon it, his own weakness- what he believed that brought all that misery upon others. Sins of the past lying even deeper, connected to his innermost psyche, and something hidden even deeper still, something even She couldn't register.

It annoyed her, and intrigued her even more so. What? What could it be that is at the center of this mans being, what is the glue that holds all of this shattered mind together. Many such questions thundered within her mind as she tasted and expierienced the memories and feelings that surrounded her. Tasted was the wrong word, she took it all in, suffused herself with each and every shred of mental essence that traveres through her and expierienced it in flashes and feelings.

It was horrendous.

She knew she had to do this before entering the Mind Palace, to acclimate herself, to make her blend in better, and she did this so many times before, but this expierience was new, unique, and disgusting. The feelings she felt from him made her skin crawl and almost retch, she steeled herself and covered with a thick coat of them.

She stepped forward.

Into the Burning Castle, one without a gate to enter, it's walls-endless tongues of flames, weaved into thick threads, a tapestry of misery, a burning desire for separation from the everything. The desperate need to be cut off from the world, and cut off the world from him.

Wreathed in the essence she gathered so far, she clad a cloak, oily dark and tattered, with long sleaves and glossy, moist gloves that coalesced from the surrounding energy onto her, it made her shiver and cringe.

She rested her palms on the wall, and they immidietly started sizzling.

„Oh no!" She was suprised, usually this would be enough to pass through without resistence, yet she felt as if a wall of burning rubber stood oppsed to her.

She braced, and pushed in deeper. Slowly, but surely, inch by inch, the flames gave way, deeper and deeper she went into the flames, and as he elbows passed the base of the wall the first holes in the cloak appeared, and with them, the flames brought their heat, heat born of misery, memories sequenced and spread at random, The First Wall assulted her mind and body.

The matter of the mind is both physical as it is metaphorical, the flames they scorched her flesh but did not burn. The carried on damage remembered, saved and expanded on as they were woven together. Memories of broken bones, strikes received onto volnerouble flesh seeped through the tongues as they came in contact with her skin and pummeled into her.

She grit her teeth and pushed further, head down, covered by the hood of the cape, trying to pry the the Wall with the elbows enough to push in further.

She hit something hard, her palms instinctivly wrapped around it and she felt the emotions seep from it through the sizzling gloves. She felt...love, some weak, twisted remnenants of it. She felt familial love, his mothers, she thought, the fleeting touch of care, of symphathy, a safehaven in this hell hole, and she tried to latch onto it for support.

It was a trap his mind set up, for others and for himself.

The moment she dragged her body closer to the support beam, the other part of the family rained down on her. Behind the maternal love, awaited the paternal hatred. Latching onto the memories of the past only intensified the pain that followed, each and every hit, kick, burn and scorn magnified like a resounding echo within her form as her hands became stuck to the pillar of the past, making her suffer through more and more, an intensifying storm of violence and despair.

She understood him more at that moment, his underlying expectations of love brought him even more pain once they were shattered, he already knew what to expect from a parent, he knew what to hope for, and once that was crushed, the punishment became even more cruel. It was not right.

In panic, she cut away the front of her palms, unable to deal with this, she used her mental form of shadows coalesced to create a thin blade that sliced along the inneside of her palms, freeing her from the connection.

Connection broken, spilled forth a combustive stream that pushed her out of the wall, screaming more in anger than pain and flayling through the air.

She ejected from his mind before she could fall down the Pillars of Penance with a twist of surroundings, inky shadowns surrounding her like rain drops and creating a sphere that collapsed in on itself.

In the real world less than a minute passed,

Luke's body started to cool down, sweat dripped slowly along his muscle bound frame, pooling for seconds in the groves his scar tissue created. His pale skin glistened in the rising sun, and for a moment, his face seemed almost serenne.

Catatonic state seemed to give him release, he was in total darkness, ambiguity of mind, consumed by shadows embrace and allowed to expierience temporary ego death. Absent of thought, his permanent clenched teeth and folds on his forehead loosened up, so did his tight shoulders, his body seemed to sag in blessed release.

His face scrounched up at the same moment her hand started to sizzle against his skin, face contorted in discomfort born of recolections, his serene mood turned twisted.

Just a moment later, his eyes opened wide, eyeris wide as if in panic as Luke felt 'Teru's palm detach itself.

„AAAAH!" and as the first sound reached his ear, it was her scream of torment. The tall lady shot backwards, meters away, her whole body steaming and consumed by scorch marks, her clothes in tatters.

He turned around, and saw her lying there, on her stomach, body bent and twitching, in pain. Something clumped up in his throat, his mouth dropped slighty open in fear. He started running towards her.

„NOOOOO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" and for some reason, she screamed this while covering her face, a veil of darkness covering her as she literally sank down into the floor, melding with the shadows, turning into a pool of ink.

He landed on it just the moment it all sank into the crevisces of the broken parking lot. His fingers dug into the ground she seeped into, and he spread his awareness as far and detailed as he could.

…

Nothing.

She was gone.

He was confused.

„What the fuck?" he asked into the air, rising up and looking around him, exasperated, he raised his arms into the sky awaiting answers. And as the skys decided to remain silent to him, he let his arms dropp against his sides.

His bracelet jiggled, sound akin to rattling bones and a squeal of pain.

He looked at his right arm and breathed out deeply, as his thoughts started to set.

„Well, if this ain't typical, lady gets mad at me and leaves without telling me why." he started walking towards the city, looking around the parking lot and the mounds of corpses he and the mess he made.

„Figure it out! She will say- You should already know what you did without me telling you! Are you even sorry?" annoyence rose up in him „I'm retarded! Emotionally and mentally! This is abuse!" he babbled maniacly as hidden frustration rose to the surface.

And so he went off towards the sun, ready to continue his training and further his goals.