"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.

"Hello," she says, even though she technically already greeted him. "Do you have a name?"

"I... probably did, at one point," they say, projecting an impression of thoughtfulness and dismay through their lack of a face or body language. "But I don't remember it. Or... much of anything. I've been calling myself a Spectre, for, well, obvious reasons." A mental impression of gesturing down at their non-body. "I'm sorry, this can't be what you were expecting. ...or can it? Who... are you? And where are we?"

"I don't trust them," Theboros says, mostly just to be thorough.

She doesn't either, but that's no reason not to be polite.

"We're in a mindscape for castoffs, and castoff related... stuff. Uh, what do you remember?"

"Oh! That word! I know that word! That's... the Changing God, right? Or the, the... I think I'm one of those. ...maybe. A mindscape? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

"Work harder on the act, buddy, you're not fooling anyone."

"...fooling? I'm not..." They look down at their not-feet and give off the impression of, again, thoughtful dismay. "I don't think I am? But it's strange, I... can't tell."

(Tahir over here is actually for the first time having genuine trouble with this interaction. He's noticing that actually apparently he runs a lot of his ability to talk to people on being able to see them? This not-a-body is really throwing him for a loop.)

"Uh... huh," says Vetmera, deciding to conjure some chairs so they can have this conversation sitting down. She includes chairs for everyone else, because she's polite. Even though this spectre is avoiding answering her questions. "Well, this is... sort of a web that catches errant minds. You're the fifth mind it's caught, and unlike the others I'm not sure how you got here. Which is why I ask if you remember anything that might explain that."

"No, I... I understand, I'm just... Sorry, I know it must seem so strange that I'm not answering, it's not that I'm, I don't, I don't really remember... much. And I'm trying to. Being a castoff, though, I think I do. This is... your mind?" They give the impression of sitting down but all that does is make the chair also look really strange and indistinct. "I don't know. I'm sorry. ...I could leave? It must be uncomfortable, having someone living in your mind who acts so suspiciously. I wouldn't want to impose. I've nothing to offer." They fidget a bit with an imaginary hem of a shirt, then grimace. "I'm pretty sure I did, at some point, but I don't know what or when."

See the most suspicious thing here is that he can't see what the game is and games you can't see are the ones you lose.

"I'm all right, it's not particularly uncomfortable to house you." Also she's not really sure she should let this person... out. But then, she's not sure if they should be in here, either. "Uh, slight problem with leaving, that might kill you if you don't have... something else to house your mind in. So. Uh. My going theory is that you're a recently deceased castoff of some kind, and you ended up here instead of dissipating." Or some kind of something or other from her sire, but she will avoid accusing them of that to see what kind of game they want to play with this... whatever this is.

"Oh. I'm dead? ...that makes the name even more appropriate, heh," they say with a slight self-deprecating smile. "...but then, I... I am thankful. I don't know anything else but I know that I don't want to die." They look up, then, suddenly fierce. "What can I do to prove myself? That I can be trusted? I'll do it!"

"'S not how trust works."

"It isn't?" They deflate again. "Oh. I suppose it's not."

(This person isn't literally the most emotionally unstable one here but it's a tough competition and Tahir feels like that in itself is very impressive.)

"No, it's not. Sorry. I can, uh. At least set you up comfortably in here? And try to verify where you came from? Is there really nothing at all you remember?" She is not going to offer making this person a body, not without verifying that they're, you know, actually a castoff instead of sire-related bullshit.

"I... I can try to remember. There's, um... ...I don't suppose you have a map of places that exist? That might jog my memory—oh, but then I could just be making it all up, hmm. This is a tough problem. Let me think."

"I don't mind giving you a map," shrugs Vetmera, who has actually managed to see one between the margins of the narration. A local one, granted, but still a map. "It's not a map of a particularly large area, mind, just of Sagus Cliffs and the surrounding areas, but..." Map! It's a little fuzzy, because it's being made by her memory, but, uh. ... It's as accurate as she can verify. "It would at least give me somewhere to look to verify your existence outside of here, you know?"

"Oh. Thank you. Sagus Cliffs, that name doesn't really ring a bell, but..." They pause and frown thoughtfully at the map. "No, I do. I... do I have a way to, um. Draw? Or, or alter the map in any way?"

Sure, have a pen.