"Are you having a castoff moment, should I be the one to touch the machine instead?"

sounds dangerous SOUND EXCITING potayto, potahto

".... I'm absolutely having a castoff moment, yep. Damn my sire to the deepest pits of multidimensional hell, by the way."

"Roger that, on my way," Tahir says, cheerfully, and skips over to the machine. Theboros hangs back, watching, ready to... do something... in case something needs to be done.

The device is large, and giving off a faint hum. It looks like it was once part of a larger device, or perhaps a network of devices, embedded in the rock beneath the city. Thick cables disappear into the void beyond. A glowing blue interface floats above the etched surface.

Unfortunately for Tahir, his hands pass right through it.

"Oh bugger," says Tahir, while his quiet nanites swear profusely and his loud nanites whine.

"You can't interact with the machine and probably only the castoff can, but the castoff is having issues with mental blocks placed here by the Changing God preventing her from actually doing that," drawls Theboros as if he sees this kind of stuff happen every other Tuesday.

"That's my guess!"

"Of course that's the sort of 'solution' my sire would come up with," sighs Vetmera, irritated. "Fortunately there's an obvious workaround. Grab my hand and make me poke it?"

"Yes, ma'am!" 

IS THIS IT is this what THE MOMENT WHEN WE FINALLY HOLD THE LOVE INTEREST'S HAND AND— she is not the true love interest

"Man y'all are really poorly socialised, huh?" He walks over to Vetmera to lead her to the machine.

"Who programmed nanobots with romantic feelings," Theboros mutters.

"I think they're just moved by the drama of the story this tells," Tahir replies.

NO WE ARE NOT THIS IS TRUE LOVE true hatred

She's perfectly pliant at first, keeping her eyes (well, mental representation of eyes) closed and trying to think about something else. But as she gets closer, she begins trembling, and then eventually trying to squirm away from the machine.

"I'm, fine, actually," she whines, high pitched and unhappy. "You, can, fuck I can't even say it out loud, I hate my sire so much!"

Fortunately, Tahir is significantly stronger than she is, even in a mindscape. He can, for the briefest of moments, force her hand onto the interface. It flashes affirmative, and some of its interface changes to display what looks like a network of some kind...

... And then Vetmera whimpers. Something around her twists, and she flickers away and is several feet away from the machine, and Tahir himself.

There's a burst of psychic energy as she does that, expanding outwards in all directions and of course most relevantly in Tahir's direction—

—she didn't flicker away, her mindscape itself moved, and everyone else with it, while she stayed still, and that created something like the mental equivalent of a gravitational wave—

—and then it's gone, or neutralised, or something, and Theboros is holding his palm up with a frown of concentration on his face.

...perhaps you are onto something YES WE ARE WAIT WHAT ARE WE ONTO her having potential

"Did you guys already forget about the 'both' part?"

oh right OH RIGHT

"This is getting ridiculous," says Theboros after he's made sure that the place isn't about to collapse in on itself. He looks at Vetmera to ask: "How are you feeling?"

"Mmmnnnnrghhh," she enunciates hoarsely. "S-sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't, uh, even know I could do that, I definitely didn't mean to, um. I, fine, I guess, terrified and dizzy and sick and, again so incredibly sorry."

"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 from 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.