Da da da da DA DUN DUN dun dun

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

When; Starting the morning of April 13th, 2008
Rating; Rish for now due to graphic detail on the gory side of things
Characters; Milla Vodello (levitatedminx) and Meryl Stryfe (inyourbusiness)
Summary; So, obviously Meryl hasn't been right in the head after what Legato did, and it's been a while. Milla offered to do something awesome to try to fix her true to Milla's canon. THIS IS WHAT THAT IS. Headjumpin' tiemz.
Log;

First Area
The area was a familiar sight, to a time months ago. Of course, no one shared that particular memory of Meryl's but she and a woman named Maria. It was a long corridor, made of rust and rot and grates, and an eerie silence filled the room. Only once every so often would the distant sound of air raid sirens fluctuate once or twice, or the skitter-scratch of... something. Nothing of which was particularly close or harmful, persay, but certainly unnerving to say the least.

And down the corridor, at the very end, a small figure sat, slumped on the ground by a set of closed elevator doors. The dark brunette, Meryl Stryfe, seemed to not really move from her virtual-puppet slouch against the doors. Legs this way and that, hands collapsed on the ground at her sides, head dropped forward. The only movement that came was as she breathed and sobbed quietly, her eyes wide and spaced completely out as she stared at nothing in her lap. Inky black covered her chest the same pattern of wound as it had the night that she lived out Maria's memory of being impaled straight through by that awful creature Meryl only got simple glimpses of before she caught sight of her friend beyond cracked elevator doors down this very corridor. Those doors were shut at this time, though, a splay of that inky black across the doors as well. It slipped down thickly over the metal, worn and dingy doors, and a pool of that black surrounded her under her body.

Meet Meryl's true mental embodiment. It was clear she wouldn't be going anywhere, anytime soon, but she was conscious, and her mouth was moving slightly as quiet words came from her.


((ooc: Starter move is bad, I'LL DO BETTER ONCE MILLA'S THERE.))

Comments

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

Milla surveyed her (or rather Meryl's) surroundings carefully as she slowly made her way down the corridor. She wasn't particularly surprised by how tainted Meryl's mentality had become. Just talking to the woman these days could give anyone a glimpse of how mentally scarred she was. Seeing it in a person who was once so lively and robust... It was just incredibly heartbreaking to Milla. She'd seen a lot of fragmented and broken minds over the course of her career, but it never stopped affecting her.

She slowly made her way to the mental projection of Meryl and tried to make herself appear as non-threatening as possible. When she was about ten feet away, Milla crouched down to try and look in Meryl's eyes.

"Darling?" she said gently. "Are you all right? Can you tell me what's been going on?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

The small woman didn't respond too much other than a small whimper from her throat, and she lent away from the newcomer a little, until her body thumped against the doors of the elevator. Her head didn't lift, her eyes never focusing, her limbs completely useless. Shoulders heaved, and a small series of sobs escaped her.

"...no parts... strength... courage... I can't..."

Her shoulders heaved as the small woman tried to writhe herself straight to look at the woman there. Something was familiar... she knew her, didn't she? She did--nice voice--accent--

"...I-I lost-them."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

Milla kept her hands on her knees so Meryl could see she wasn't going to try and pull out a weapon or attempt to grab her and tilted her head a little.

"What did you lose, darling? My name's Milla. I'll help you find them again, whatever and wherever they are, okay?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Though the woman didn't seem at all threatening, it made little difference to Meryl as she slouched and sighed. Certainly, she knew, she looked awfully small and pathetic, but what she do? What was a core without its shell?

The most movement came when she rolled her head around to gaze to the woman before her. That was, until gravity took its toll and she dropped again. "They l-left," she said quietly, "m-my pieces th...that make me whole. B-Broken. Gone. C-Can't or won't...won't come back. I don't know wh-which."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

Milla frowned slightly, then put on a kind smile.

"Then we'll just have to find them, hm? Can you tell me how many are missing?"

It sounded like Meryl had fragmented herself into different pieces... Possibly emotions. Milla wasn't sure yet, but it was sounding like something that she might be able to fix, and that was a good start.

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

"..." She was quiet as she mulled over the nice woman's words. She was always so nice. "Three but in two..."

Slouching further seemed impossible for the woman, and yet she managed to do so, her lungs huffing at hitting against the elevator doors. "Th-They w...won't come."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"...Okay, I'll try and find them for you," Milla said gently. It looked like she'd just have to explore and see what she could find. "Will you wait here for me?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl slowly bobbed her head in acknowledgment, her body looking none the more eager to move from her place. "W-Waiting for you... w...waiting for him. Th-Them. Y-You won't come b...back. Be careful."

Her left hand did tense, however, into a white-knuckled fist. That was an awful thing to say, wasn't it? "I-I'm sorry. I'll w-wait. I pro...promise."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"It's all right, sweetie," Milla said with a small smile. "Don't apologize. I'll be back as soon as I can, okay~?"

With that, she stood up and headed for a stairwell leading down. It took her to an incredibly dark office setting that was very strikingly devoid of censor activity. Not that Milla was terribly surprised by this...

Despite its being dark, it was incredibly clean. It really just looked like the place had closed down for the day.

Sudden movement to her left made her start a bit in surprise and she squinted slightly, trying to see in the dimness.

"...Hello? Is someone down here?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

And that's when Meryl popped up, out of no where by a set of filing cabinets. Her matter of dress was business-conservative: the standard issue of Bernardelli requirements of their agents. A black shirt, black heels; a white blouse with a nicely made bow on the chest. Her hair would have been nicely made, if not for the pens and pencils caught up around each her ears.

"Oh! Hello! You must have come from outside!" she greeted as she tore through the desks of the large office space, clutching a good stack of loose papers. Shuffling and fluttering past, leafs of papers fell from her arms every step or so.

"Where did you come from? Would you like some coffee? We have tea and Susan's birthday cake in the refrigerator! You should stay a while~"

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

Milla stared as the short woman bustled around wildly, but regained her composure and stooped to pick up the papers Meryl had dropped.

"My name's Milla Vodello, darling, I'm a Psychonaut," she said evenly. "What are you doing in here...? It looks like everyone's gone home already!"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

"Hello, Miss Vodello! It's a pleasure to meet you!" the busy woman said as she spilled the papers left her hands on her desk, adorned with her own nameplate. In the avalanche of paperwork, that nameplate was knocked off its normal place, marked by a lack of wearing underneath its base. So, before she continued, this incarnation of Meryl carefully put it back into place.

And then over she was, taking the papers gratefully from Milla. "Have they?" she asked. She looked around, surprised. "Oh... I guess they have! Look at that, I didn't notice, I was so busy getting my own work done! Work, work, work~" The last was in singsong, as she quickly buzzed off for the small coffee area nearby.

"So much work, hardly a bit of time to think of anything else, you know?"

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"The pleasure's all mine, darling," Milla replied, watching her carefully. "Is that why you work so hard? To keep from thinking of other things?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl stared at her for the longest moment, her eyes quite wide indeed, before simply saying, "Oh, I don't know what you're talking about, there's nothing else to think about!" And away she turned once again, before spinning around to Milla and holding up a coffee mug and a can of coffee. "Decaf or regular?!"

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

Milla frowned slightly as she watched Meryl try and distract her. It was now very apparent what the other Meryl had been talking about. She appeared to be quite literally broken into different parts of herself. This one seemed to be some form of denial or something similar.

"Neither, sweetie, thank you," Milla said gently. "Listen, I need you to come with me if you can. There's someone you need to go see."

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl stared longer then, before laughing and shaking her head. "Ahaha, I can't do that! There's so much work to do! There's no time to leave, or sleep, or anything of the like! So very, very busy!"

She whipped around to the coffee pot, and began to fight eagerly with the tin can of coffee. Her hand struck the can several times, as she became overly fascinated with it. "Oh, good grief, why won't this open? You'd think this would be easier to do, with so many other things to do! Better things to do, than fighting with a freaking can."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"But darling," Milla coaxed, "This is very important work I need you to do. Is there anyway I could get you to come with me?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl looked over her shoulder, and for the briefest of moments, a glint of fear crossed her eyes. But in an instant, it was gone, as the coffee can dropped from her hands and clattered onto the floor with a spray of ground coffee.

"Damn it," she snapped, dropping to her hands and knees. "Ah... ah, I'd really like to, Miss Vodello, but I'm just far too busy in here!"

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"All right," Milla said. It looked like she'd just have to keep moving for now. Maybe she'd be able to find something that could help convince this Meryl to come with her.

She headed down the hallway until she reached what appeared to be a cafeteria for the office. Still no censors, but there was a small figure curled up under one of the tables. Milla blinked and stooped down to find yet another Meryl.

"...Darling?" she ventured.

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

That inky black coated her frontside, and the woman who cowered there was tenderly attempting to wipe the color away from her... but it was just to no avail. She would wipe, and it would trickle back.

The woman beside her was surprising, and she shied away a little, before actually looking at her. "...oh. Hello." And from her, she looked at her hands rather blankly. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess, ma'am. It hasn't gone away since things happened."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it's fine, sweetie," Milla soothed. "My name's Milla Vodello. I'm a psychonaut. I'm here to help you. Can you tell me what's happened?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl nodded slowly, still wiping at her hands. "There... there was that curse. With the small room and my mouth was sewn shut. And then there was that... that impaling..."

She huffed a little and shook her head, closing her eyes tightly. "And what that... that... dirty-wrong man did. The... the... you know." She looked up at Milla. She looked like such a kind woman. "The death. Legato's fault. I don't think you know about that. I'm sorry, Miss Vodello."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"...I know a bit," Milla said quietly. "Is that why there are so many of you now? Scattered around here?"

[inyourbusiness.livejournal.com]

Meryl nodded slowly, covering her face with tissues for a moment. "Y-Yes. Some of us, we tried to cooperate. But we couldn't handle it. Everything is a reminder of what happened, and it all stifled away Strength and Confidence. They tried to stay, most of all, but they got lost and the rest of us fell apart."

She sniffled softly into the tissue, her emotions clearly getting the best of her. "Fear and Self-Loathing, they became the strongest. Denial was strong for a little while, and that was the most unity we had in a long time since it all started." With a shake of her head, she sighed and slumped a little. "We felt it, since that first incident in October, honestly."

[levitatedminx.livejournal.com]

"Is there any way I can get all of you together?" Milla asked. "I think we can set things right if we just reunite all of you so you can work together again. I'd like to see that office bright and full of co-operation, sweetheart. But I'm going to need help. I think I met Denial, and she refused to go anywhere. I need a way to convince her, and probably the others as well, that the way to fix things is to come out for a while."