"No, I'm with quiet voice on this one," she says, as they depart the bar. She waves to the denizens as she goes. "I think probably no purposefully picking a fight with my sire anytime soon, but I'm up for some plotting and eventual ending of that fucker."

...oh.

oh OH

Aleks does not want to know what that face is about.

She can read his mind and she's honestly a bit confused about what that face is about. She... thinks all of the voices, and also Tahir, find her really attractive?? Probably it's rude to call attention to that, though???

"What were your leads on people being affected?" she prompts, a little smugly. What? It's fun to be attractive, okay.

"Right!" he says, snapping out of it. "We heard some rumours. Follow me!"

Is he going to just walk off without checking if they're—yep, there he goes.

Vetmera giggles, then takes Aleks's hand to go about following Tahir.

Sagus Cliffs comes by its name honestly, and it's towards the edge of one such cliff that Tahir seems to be leading them. "Ooh, she's actually there, I was about to look like a fool if I was wrong."

It's not a long walk. The woman is obvious, and is looking with red-ringed eyes down at the rocks below. She's muttering to herself, and pacing.

"Was here where I was supposed to wait...? But, no, that doesn't make sense," she murmurs to herself.

Her line of logic is interrupted by someone that only Vetmera can hear.

this isn't real. you don't need to fight me. just let me in, and you won't be lost anymore.

The voice, of course, sounds very familiar. The rush of inherited shame is not, though. Logically, she's not responsible, but emotionally... something in her thinks she is.

"Shut up I'm trying to think," she growls with practiced venom, to the open air. "I don't - was I supposed to go to a bar..? Or was I going back from it..?? Weren't they supposed to fix me? I'm not fixed, so that means I should go, but, wasn't I just there...? Is there even any point to going back when...?"

She turns in her pacing, unconsciously following a path that has been worn into the dirt through practiced repetition. She has walked this path many, many times. Towards the cliff, then away from it, towards the nearby bar, then back to the cliff again, a cruel circuit of her pain carved into the ground.

Spotting the trio causes her to deviate from it, though; she leaps upon the opportunity like a starving man with food.

"You! I need you to talk to me. Talk loud, it's easier to, to, I. I need you to talk over her, she won't ever shut up."

BEING LOUD IS OUR SPECIALTY almost literally

"I can be loud! Hello, who are you, what's your name, why are you here, it's fine if you don't know the answer to those questions."

"I'm, that's a hard question to answer, I don't remember, I'm here because I can't figure out if there's another place I'm supposed to be, and no, I really don't think it's fine, actually!"

"No, no, it's fine because, you see, we can fix it."

you may be overpromising SO WE GOTTA OVERDELIVER rescuing girls from psychic ghosts is not our specialty WE ARE ARGUABLY PSYCHIC GHOSTS OURSELVES we did not know you knew that word WHAT, GHOSTS? arguably WHAT'S ARGUABLY never mind

"...or at least try! But we have a shot!"

"No, but, you can't! It's - people have tried, there's a, a specialist I see that, that peels her off of me every time I go and it's not working, she always comes back, and it's, I think it's, it's happening faster and, can we talk about something else, anything else."

Vetmera will just quietly scootch closer to Aleks. She is absolutely going to help this woman, but also the panic and despair with overtones of a mind being forcibly overwritten by someone who doesn't even want to be killing someone is. It's a lot to perceive. It helps if she... leans on the rock that is her teleporter while she tries to take in what... exactly... is going on here.

(While she feels sick with guilt that isn't hers, thank you.)

Yeah. The CG sucks. ...but also Aleks is not sure letting little golden boy speak will be better for the girl.

"We totally can talk about anything else!"

SO ABOUT GHOSTS what about ghosts OUR GHOST CAPE HASN'T BEEN USED BY THE PLOT YET it is really almost like it's not there THE NARRATION DIDN'T EVEN MENTION IT what narration US we are not the narration

He walks over to her and then past her then drops himself onto the ground, dangling his legs off the cliff and swaying them back and forth. "My name is Tahir! I am a professional hero. I go places and I save people and I solve mysteries and I resolve quests. It's fun! I enjoy myself very much. I get to go many places and meet many people. Do you want me to tell you a story about one of my adventures?"

"... Yeah. Yeah that sounds nice," she says, wistfully. "I don't... think I've gotten to see outside Sagus Cliffs."

I haven't gotten to see anywhere else.

"... Or m-maybe I have, but I've forgotten." She shakes her head. "Go on?"

"Let's see, let's see... Ah, yes. A few years ago..."

AND THEN THE GLORIOUS HERO, SOUL OF ADVENTURE, FOUND OUT THAT HIS GHOST CAPE HELD THE SECRETS TO SOLVING THIS MYSTERY narrating things that you wish would happen will not make them happen DESPITE THE PESSIMISM OF THE HERO'S COMRADES we are not comrades HE REMAINED STALWART AND STEADFAST IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY that is several words we are surprised you know WHAT WORDS never mind

Okay you guys need to actually chill for now, he needs to think.

that was not part of the agreement

It literally was.

we feel like you are trying to pull one over on us PULL WHAT one ONE WHAT one

No, seriously—

IS IT THE GHOST CAPE it is not the ghost cape WE THINK IT'S THE CAPE it's not the cape HE'S ALREADY PULLED THE CAPE ON THOUGH

Will you guys shut the fuck up?

...his glow noticeably diminishes.

Thank you. Now, where was he...

"Right, sorry, got distracted."

A few years ago, Tahir was travelling through Pernth Bay when he heard a rumour about a missing jewel of some rich benefactor of the city's. Most quests start with rumours, in his experience—running directly into a quest hook like they did with the madness dimension of the Dendra O'hur happens relatively infrequently—and so he chased after it. At worst it'd be a little bit of wasted time, and even the loud voices in his head agree that it's better to waste a little time occasionally going after dead ends than it is not taking the opportunities presented to him in the first place.

Now, Tahir got suspicious as soon as he saw the guy. Call it a hunch, but something didn't sit right with him. Something about that benefactor felt... off. But Tahir didn't feel like he'd have a better chance to find out what, exactly, was off about the guy without investigating, and he wouldn't be able to investigate if he immediately showed his suspicions, so he just agreed to be hired and go find the jewel.

(Despite Tahir's earlier claims about not having had any thoughts in years, Vetmera will be able to catch that that's not really quite true, from the tenor of his thoughts. A lot of that decisionmaking happened subverbally, subconsciously, because his consciousness would be hijacked by the demons possessing him and so he learned how to keep things from them pretty early on. They still felt in control, but he was the one calling most of the shots that mattered.)