"You don't need to apologise!" chirps Tahir. "That was an interesting experience."

    Theboros shoots him a look then looks at Vetmera again. "I have a suggestion, but it would require rather a lot more trust in me than you extended even Dhama."

"Mmnnh okay, let's hear it?"

"I can split you from yourself. More specifically, I could cut you off of your emotions and instincts, keep them contained and at bay in a partitioned area of your mind. This would hopefully cut off your automatic flinches... but it would also sap you of motivation to do anything and ability to make choices. You would need to trust Tahir also, as it would take all of my attention to keep this partition up from within your mindscape."

"Oh. Hm."

She looks at the device, then nibbles at her lip.

"I'm not sure we're going to get much of anywhere poking at a representation of a thing, in a mindscape that's not even complete. We know we're missing," she waves to the ghostly woman, "ghost women collectibles. Possibly I'm making excuses because I'm, well, emotionally freaked out and upset??" Then she furrows her brow and gets a stubborn look in her eye. "... However, if you can do the same thing in the real world, to actually turn this damn thing off, then yeah, that sounds great."

WE ARE SO RIGHT perhaps we should apologise to you YES YOU SHOULD ...nah

    "I can—it will if anything be easier to do in the real world, within here I am in your proverbial power and your mind is exerting a lot of pressure that I'd need to fight."

She nods. "Okay. So we investigate more until we have a better idea of what to do with the machine, and then we strike. In the real world, where this actually matters. If you're still willing to help, that is. Thank you, by the way, for keeping me from horribly blasting Tahir and company right in the brain."

"You're welcome. Though I'm not going to follow you on your adventures, I'm retired, come back to the bar when you're done with whatever it is you need to do."

"That's very reasonable, we can spare you the annoying footwork part of the adventure," she agrees, easily. "Off to go poke the mysterious stranger hiding in my head, or does anyone else have any good ideas related to the shitty mess my sire left?" She looks at the ghostly woman. "... no offense."

The ghostly woman just shrugs, clearly not offended.

    "Let's get it over with."

"We're ready."

HE SAID WE is this character growth IT'S RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT

"Right then. Let's see if I can find them."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and starts looking. It's not, actually, very difficult to find. And then the labyrinth shifts and twists, and they're somewhere else, in front of someone else.

"Hey there," she says, pleasantly. "What'cha doing?"

This person is dreamlike, less solid than that transdimensional clock and the castoffs that were absorbed into Vetmera's mind. Less solid even than the ghostly woman, who at least had defined characteristics. This person, though, is more the idea of a person, a hazy blue silhouette made of memories of smoke, piercing eyes set into a face that is... both familiar and not. Both familiar and not, in a similar way to how various memories of Vetmera's have been, people and places and things her sire's run into that are now etched into her mind despite not being hers.

"Oh," they breathe, their voice a whispering echo. "Hello."

And the place they're in is not really that different from everywhere else in Vetmera's mind: another floating platform in the void, this one a glossy black reflecting the unearthly light coming from an imaginary galaxy in the distance.