I3 - ...and it all turns out wrong.

[Miriam Bell]

"Off of what!? The harbor?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Off of the fighting."

[Miriam Bell]

"What fighting? Sam, what the bloody hell is going on?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Ships, cannons, spears..."

"...one of them has to win, Miriam, but... but I've seen their deaths already. They've been dead and in the ground."

[Miriam Bell]

"Who's dead? Sam what is happening? What are you talking about?"

[Samantha McManus]

"It's... I can't explain it, Miriam. It's all out of order. It's not how it should be."

[Miriam Bell]

"Sam, are you saying there's someone who should be dead but isn't somehow?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Not one person, dozens. People who died centuries ago, in battle."

[Miriam Bell]

"Well if they're here now then they clearly didn't."

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't... I don't know how or why I know this, Miriam. I just know how wrong it feels."

[Miriam Bell]

"Well then... call your birds back. Stop watching whatever it is you're seeing."

[Samantha McManus]

"I... I can't," she slumps in defeat.

"I don't know how to look away, here."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam grits her teeth, looking torn. She knows what she should do. The only thing she can do, really...

Her hand tenses a little around Sam's shoulder as she tries to make mental contact with Sam.

[Samantha McManus]

Right now, the surface of Sam's mind is like a pool of water. Sticking up out of it are the three components of her personality, mundane enough even though they've been disagreeable. Below the surface of the water are what at first appear to be reflections of them, but on closer examination are revealed to be Badb, Macha and Nemain. There's thoughts traveling like they normally do, save that they're doing so independently for each personality facet, and there's very little crossing between them at the moment.

In the water's surface the seeming reflection continues out quite a ways, showing the harbor, scenes in town. Fighting, impossible scenes, some with students from the university in them.

At the center of each scene, a raven flies.

[Miriam Bell]

"Bloody hell..." she mutters to herself as she tries in vain to find a way to pull the ravens back in or at least sever them from the rest. But it's hard to do that to something that's so spread out and tied into everything somehow. Instead she steels her defenses and takes a plunge into the water to try and get to the three figures beneath.

[Samantha McManus]

All three facets turn to face Miriam's avatar as it emerges on the other side of the "water."

"...oh, what is it now, Mummer?"

"We're not who you should be focusing on."

"Something is broken."

[Miriam Bell]

"Something is broken alright. And until it gets sorted out there's not a bloody thing you can do about whatever is going on in town. If you keep pushing each on your own she's going to break apart!"

[Samantha McManus]

"You just don't get it."

"We have responsibilities. We've been away too long."

"And now it's all falling apart."

[Miriam Bell]

"I don't get it, no, but what I do get is that you are falling apart. If you can't project an unified island above the waters then you have to go back to sleep." she says, her avatar straightening up in anticipation of a confrontation.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well it's charming that you've decided this now."

"We're a puzzle that can go together more than one way."

"Samantha had gotten rather used to the one way."

[Miriam Bell]

"I didn't think she was this fractured! She's clearly not putting you together in any way, so you can go to the back of her mind again. Even I'm not deluded enough to think I should try to patch together the surface of her mind."

Because I don't think I could keep myself from seeping into it...

[Samantha McManus]

"You're not thinking about this right. What you want won't work."

"Imagine you'd gotten very comfortable doing something the wrong way. It's not your fault, you just didn't know any better. Square peg in a round hole, but you managed to just sort of bodge it for awhile."

"And then imagine someone finally showed you the right way. Maybe you only glimpsed it for an eyeblink, but it's too late to ignore it even if you didn't fully understand it. You saw it, and you know on some basic level that you'd been making a mess of things, even if you can't articulate quite how."

[Miriam Bell]

"And this isn't making a mess of things!?"

[Samantha McManus]

"This isn't making a mess of things."

"Rather, this is the mess."

"Right now, we're just pieces."

"We're not Sam."

"We're not the Morrigan."

"But the Morrigan's duties still call."

[Miriam Bell]

"Whatever duty it is you think you have to fulfill, Sam'll have to do it because this - the 'Morrigan' - is tearing her to pieces. Whatever you're projecting through the water into her conscious mind needs to be consistent. I don't want to do this but if you can't do it yourself..." Miriam floats away from the three towards where the water 'surface'. The lanterns on her back begin to glow brighter as she tries to pull in the separate thought processes of all three of them as strands of light to guide them into the water veil and use it as a focusing lens. In the real world she starts shaking as the three facets protruding through the water like cliffs slowly inch towards one another.

[Samantha McManus]

It's a bit of a strain. They don't want to merge right now, and while they may not be actually fighting Miriam in an epic duel that Disney would love to animate, the resistance is palpable.

What it isn't is organized, and certainly not to the standard that Sam is usually up to. As such, they do fitfully push towards each other and eventually merge into one shape.

That shape is rather a mess, sad to say, which is mirrored in the physical world by Sam's shifting losing all control. It's not a pretty sight, but it's one Miriam might be familiar with from Sam's memories. That chaos is rather indicative of her mental state if Miriam stays connected. A wild jumble of thoughts that's quickly pulling those of anyone nearby.

[Miriam Bell]

Trying desperately not to panic Miriam resorts to the only thing she can think of. Keeping her eyes closed tightly she reaches into the mental chaos and tries to seize control. With Sam's sense of self waning she only has her own presence to use as a cornerstone and put a stop things spiraling out of control. Shadows flow from her avatar into the mindscape to impose herself on things and will it to stop.

In the real world she's clutching her head, beads of sweat running down her face.

[Samantha McManus]

It works! It works for a certain value of "works." Sam is still on the ground and out cold, but for all intents and purposes she could be Miriam's twin at the moment.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam opens her eyes and noticeably twitches when she sees what happened to Sam. It's not the biggest surprise in the world, but seeing it still hits her on several levels and she can't help but see how easy it'd be to make it slightly less of a perfect copy. Keep some of the family resemblance and... She slams a solid steel door on that train of thought before it can go any further. She realizes if she takes a step down that road she might not ever come back from it. But this... this she can handle. This is just... it's just until Sam gets better, she tells herself. She'll just act as an anchor until then. The fact that having a mental connection to what's basically a mental effigy of herself and thus feels comfortable and safe doesn't play into it at all. Besides, it's just a filter. It's still Sam underneath it all.

She kneels down next to her and gently pats 'herself' on the cheek to see how out cold she is. "Hey, you feeling any better?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Nnh," she grunts, frowning, not opening her eyes.

"...lay off, Sam. I've got a bloody headache," she says in a voice that's entirely too close to Miriam's.

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeah, about that..." she says, helping her up into a sitting position.

[Samantha McManus]

She sits up, grunting, and opens her eyes.

"...what the flip? Did you shift into me? I suppose I should be flattered, but..."

[Miriam Bell]

"Not exactly. You're the one doing the shifting, but it's close enough I suppose."

[Samantha McManus]

"...Sam, I may have taken a blow to the head, but I can still tell when you're putting me on."

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeah and I swapped clothes with you too while you were out. I'm just crazy like that." she says, sarcastic as she tends to be but for some reason sounding less annoyed than usual.

[Samantha McManus]

"Fine, have it your way," she grumbles as she struggles to stand.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam holds out a hand to help Sam up. "This is just temporary, okay? Sam's having some trouble, so she's getting some time to put herself together without completely losing it."

[Samantha McManus]

"I suppose talking about yourself in the third person is the least of your eccentricities," she says with a grunt as she takes Miriam's hand and stands.

[Miriam Bell]

"Isn't that the bloody truth. How are you feeling?"

[Samantha McManus]

"...like I got hit by a bloody lorry."