Terrodis

The Coral Ghost

A ghostly figure padded down the burned halls of the collapsing white building, silent and sad-eyed. As she moved, the lights, technically long burned-out, flickered to life above her, dying again with mournful flickers as she left them behind. The faint lavender tail bobbed gently behind her as her soundless pawsteps landed on empty air above the rubble-strewn tiles. Great wings grew from her back, beautiful and useless, coral monuments that blossomed from her spine in silent testament to those who had died here. Like she had. She turned, looking behind her. There was no one there, but she saw them anyway. There was nothing to be heard, but she heard it nonetheless. There was no one besides her, but she always had company. She was the memory of those who were here, she was the carrier of the memories that had been here. She turned to face forward again and resumed, with only the flickering and dying of the lights to mark her passage.

Bare Bones and Background

Basically...there was an asylum in Neopia once, like the one that used to be where my college is...an asylum for the mentally insane. One of their many patients over the years was a young female xweetok, a paranoid schizophrenic, who was committed there in her youth, probably as an early teen...her name was Terrodis. She was sent from asylum to asylum as they tried new cures like medications and counselling...and electroshock therapy. She died during a therapy session and stalks the halls of the now-condemned asylum as a ghost. This was partly inspired by my college and the Milledgeville Insane Asylum that is literally part of the campus and totally forbidden...and partly by the Hannibal books. And...I must admit...the people she remembers are all based off the characters from my novel. Pons, Cavader, Fitzwilliam Denley, you'll meet all of them if I win her.

Personality and Past

In life, Terrodis fit the ideal for females of her age and species...at that time, anyway. It was a long time ago. She was polite and demure, subdued and quiet and patient. In short, she was very unobtrusive and often went under people's "radar," so to speak. She was the sort who was seen and not heard. Then she began to see things. She'd hear hateful voices and began to suspect that people were after her. After a while she was convinced they really WERE after her. As the voices grew louder and the hallucinations became indistinguishable from the rest of the "real" world, her behaviour became increasingly bizarre and erratic, often making her dangerous. When she attempted to strangle herself because of the voices, her family placed in the asylum, which they did with much reluctance and shame. They visited her at first under the dark of night, then stopped visiting at all. So it was that she was left to her loneliness. Over time, she grew familiar with the other "inmates," learning their names and their mannerisms...and their problems. Some of the people she met and grew to know weren't real, some of them fused with hallucinations to become something else, but she knew them, at least in some way, shape, or form. She grew into a young adult, lonely and quiet and paranoid, certain she was going to die any second. And then she did.

She doesn't remember it very clearly--underdstandable, since her brain was being subjected to powerful electric shocks at the time. She didn't become a ghost right away, either. It took her a few days to become more than a wisp, a gust of spirit which is neither sentient or aware. The souls of the insane find it harder to hold themselves together--indeed, had she not had the paranoid individual's need to "defend" herself, she may have simply dissolved upon death. Instead, she became a ghost, haunting the halls of the asylum where she had been isolated for so long. She never entered a cell, merely patrolled the hallways endlessly. There were other restless spirits there, a number of them, in fact. They came and went, some finding peace, some leaving for other places, some becoming absorbed into the surrounding infrastructure. Arrany did none of these things. She merely walked. Then came the fire. She doesn't know how it started--possibly it was arson. That's what the official records say, at any rate. Arson or not, it was a true conflagration, sweeping through the building like an inferno, utterly devastating the asylum and killing all inside. As it raged, she continued to pace. Not even the holocaust around her was capable of interrupting her ceaseless vigil. As a ghost, Terrodis was unharmed by the fire, though she remembers the screams. She just isn't certain they were real.

Now the halls stand empty and abandoned, and she paces them alone. Or alone to the outsider's eye. She carries with her the memories of those who lived and died in their madness, and in a sense she is the memory of what the now-crumbling building once contained. She walks the same route endlessly, covering every hall and wing of the asylum, never deviating from her path.

Madness and Mentality

Conversing with Terrodis is difficult even if you can see her. She responds to stimuli that don't exist, often twitching, making odd sounds, or looking away from the other pet. Her emotional responses are often inappropriate as well--for example, smiling when someone delivers sad news or suddenly sobbing when meeting someone for the first time. Her hallucinations come in two forms--auditory and visual, and she rarely has a break from them. In fact, the last time they "paused" was several years ago and that was only for a few seconds.

What does Dis hear? Well. Imagine a string orchestra. Nice, eh? Now imagine that no one has their sheet music, everyone is trying to play a different song, and all the instruments are out of tune. ALL of them. It's a horrible wailing cacophany. Not so nice, eh? That's what Arrany hears, except that there are voices interwoven into the noise as well, sometimes giving her instructions or "guidance," sometimes saying absurd things, sometimes merely incomprehensible. They are very distracting to her, and in conversation she has been known to answer them instead of the person she is speaking to, since she can't really tell the difference between "her" voices and other people's.

Now for what she sees. Dis's visual hallucinations come in three forms--people, non-life, and headworms. People are simply distorted images of people that don't exist. There's usually something missing in these images, such as eyes, but sometimes they are truly bizarre, twisted like an image in a funhouse mirror or bloated like a cariacature. Non-life is exactly what it sounds like. Warped colours, spinning geoetric shapes, walking pens, and waving shadows all fall under this category. The headworms, though, are different. The headworms, Terrodis believes, come from herself. They are what make her insane--or at least, they are what make her appear insane to other people. She is aware that she is crazy by other people's standards, and she knows that there was a time when she didn't see and hear what she does now, but she still has yet to accept or believe that she is actually insane.

Sample and Speculation

The following is an RP between Hikaru and myself. I'm not entirely happy with it, and overall I need to work to make her more haunting and ghostly and less...spastic and blatantly insane. However, this event did indeed happen in the continuity of her...death. Savenro released her from the asylum and thereby freed her to go where she wished...wherever that may be. So, without further ado, I present.... THE RP.

A faded purple shadow moved slowly down the blackened halls of the asylum. The building was condemned now, crumbling and collapsing, the cells where madmen wept and raged now empty and cold. Great wings of coral sprouted from the shadow's back, ough they seemed to impart no greater burden than it already carried.

Another shadow materialized outside the burnt asylum. He shifted his weight as he looked up at the condemned building, studying it's bleak, foreboding appearance. He turned faded red eyes at the windows, as he caught a glimmer of purple pass by, then he let out a breath, as he walked towards the asylum, passing through the door as he walked down the hall towards his goal.

The coral-backed spectre stepped lightly over the crumbling floors, her paws floating well above the filthy surface. She was nearing the entrance hall, though she made no conscious note of it. She did notice the strange shimmering shape ahead of her, though, and she wondered faintly if it as real. That would be different, she reflected. Something real.

Savenro turned to face the ghost, blinking at her, but offering no smile on his emotionless face. He studied her, taking in the markings, the coral wings and her eyes. She looked so colorful, he felt dull in his shimmery ghostly self. "You are Terrodis, am I correct?" He asked her.

The ghost blinked in mild surprise, hesitating. He wasn't missing anything, she noted. He had eyes, ears, a nose and mouth...only four limbs, a tail...his organs weren't showing...but he was very faded. She was pretty sure that was all. "Yes?" she asked, watching a something red and rhomboid tumble across the floor behind him.

Savenro nodded, noting her look behind him, flicking his tail. He'd been given some information on her, enough to go by and recognize her. "Do you realize you've been dead for years?" He asked her bluntly.

There was a fire a while back," she said, nonplussed--and also not answering. Her voices were getting louder, and the Faded Man was hard to hear now. "Or I think there was a fire. It certainly seemed like a real one. A lot of pets died, I'm sure." The coral wings remained immobile--it seemed implausible that they could move at all.

Savenro sighed slightly, "Yes, everyone died, according to my info, but you were dead before that." He said placidly. "You've been haunting the halls of this asylum for a very long time. Have you no interest in resting?"

I don't think so," she replied mildly, her ears twitching as the volume increased steadily. It was really getting very hard to hear. "Are you here for therapy? I dont know where anyone is any more." She seemed slightly sad. "I can hear them, but when I see them they run away."

No one is here anymore." Savenro said firmly, "You see remanants of them, but they have long gone. You are the only soul still tied to this building."

I hear them," she insisted firmly. "They're still here. I think they're in the walls, watching me. It won't be long before they try to get me." She didn't appear to be listening to Savenro.

Savenro turned to look at the walls, then back at Terrodis. "The only thing that will happen is that this building will collapse soon, and you will have no way of escaping the rubble." He said. "Your soul is tied to the foundations of this building, it's why I came here, to set you free."

But if I leave, they'll get me at the door," she explained. "Unless...are you here to get me, too? You want me to die!" She laid her ears back and bared her phantom teeth, coral wings reaching out to the sides. "I'm not going to be tricked by you!"

Savenro showed no fear or in fact much response to her, keeping calm as he stood facing her. He knew he could fight her, if he needed to, although in this place that was linked to her, she was perhaps stronger than himself. But the idea was not to defeat her that way. "You are already dead." He said simply, "So I cannot want you to die."

That seemed to confuse and frustrate her. "Of course you want me to die! Everyone does! Even the nurses! They say they want to help, but they don't, they just want to hurt me." She narrowed her eyes. "I see them walking around, but they have no eyes now. I don't know where their eyes went." A bloated cariacature tumbled directly in front of Savenro, and her eyes followed it briefly before refocusing on him. She'd seen that one before.

Savenro was getting impatient. "Those are hallucinations!" He said with a slight edge, "there is only yourself and your imagination in these walls."

They got to you, too! I know they're here! I HEAR them!" She seemed almost plaintive this time, as though she didn't want to believe that everything she heard and saw wasn't real. In fact, Dis had well and truly convinced herself that the asylum was still filled with pets, all hiding from her as part of a plot to torment and kill her.

Savenro took a step towards her. "They're all gone. Hallucinations." He replied. "There is a real world out there with pets, and even real spirits like myself, but here there is only you and your own imaginings."

Then I'm safe here!" Dis cried triumphantly. "I don't have to leave because this is my safe place!" She seemed desperate, and the very prospect of leaving terrified her. What was out there? Who was going to try and kill her? The unknown was full of enemies, and the asylum was full of the enemies she knew. She greatly preferred the ones she knew!

Not for long." He replied. "One the walls crumble there will be no halls to pace. You will be trapped under the rubble, unable to move, still conscious with your hallucinations, but trapped."

She shivered involuntarily. Some poart of her brain understood that to be trapped alone in the dark was to take the hell she knew and wrap herself in a thick blanket of it. "I have to hide, then!" Terrodis beat her once-heavy wings a single time in emphasis. "I have to hide where they can't trap me!" Her eyes darted around and her head turned frantically, as though she could somehow find a 'safe place' from where she stood.

There is nowhere safe within this building, you'd have to ide by leaving it." He said calmly, taking another step towards her.

The voices were screaming in her head and the colours were rushing at her too rapidly for her to even focus on a single shape within them. As her emotions grew more powerful, her hallucinations did too. "WHERE!?" She didn't seem to realise he was manipulating her, she was only aware of the plot to trap and kill her, and the need to avoid it. She had to hold out longer!

Savenro pointed to the door of the asylum. "Through that door." He said, as he took out his sword with the other, keeping it out of her view.

Terrodis whirled around, her eyes burning. The sounds of the fying pets from the fire, the wailing and screamin, rose in her ears, and she shook her head violently, trying to dislodge it. She didn't want to leave, but they always caught up with her! She hesitated, then stumbled toward the door, coral growths quivering.

Savenro sidestepped her, letting her pass towards the door. The chains of the asylum to her wouldn't appear until she tried to cross the door, it was then that he'd have to act to cut them for her.

Terrodis reached the door and froze, looking as stunned as if she'd hit a brick wall. Maybe in her mind she had. It was certainly possible. "I...I can't." She looked at him plaintively. There's no way out! They keep screaming, but there's no way out because all the doors are closed!"

Savenro twitched, only just hiding the sword from view as she turned to him. "What holds you back is more material than a closed door, but I'll break you free of those bonds once they appear." He said, walking up to her, and shoving the door of the asylum open for her.

...why?" Her wings sagged. "Why didn't anyone unlock the doors?! It's so hot!"

They ran for their own lives." He said simply, pointing to the open door, "But now you can leave and escape."

Dis hesitated again, then put one paw through the entryway, her limb shaking. Her wings rose again, a movement that would have let her pass through if she were solid. Two steps, then three.

The chain finally appeared, wrapped around her paws, and leading into the ground. Savenro acted quickly the, bringing his sword out he shot it down between the links, breaking them with a blast of spiritual energy.

Alarmed, Dis screamed and leapt away from him, launching herself out into the waning daylight and the poutside world, where she stood trembling. "What did you do to them!?"

Savenro put his sword away, walking out of the Asylum. "I just broke your bonds to the Asylum, you're free to leave now."

Where did they go?" she asked. It was apparent that she was substituting the dead patients for herself to reduce the level of discomfort...or maybe she really couldn't tell the difference.

Savenro sighed, "They're gone, they're all gone."

Somehow this made something click in Terrodis' jumbled mind. "So...I'm dead?" She could feel the headworms squirming down her back. Quivering, she tried to hide them with her wings so that the stranger wouldn't see them. She was shaking so badly that were she alive she might have fallen.

Savenro nodded solemnly, "As am I." He said softly. "We're just souls, not living neopets."

You...you're real, aren't you?" She looked bewildered and overwhelmed by this possibility.

Savenro nodded, "Yes, I'm real." He walked over to her, "As real as you are."

Terrodis shook her head quickly, causing the orchestra to start up again. "Don't say that." She wasn't sure she was real at all most of the time. Ahe often felt like she was losing pieces of herself, or mayble dissolving. She was a puzzle to them and her parts were being stolen, one by one. Her SECRETS.

Savenro sighed again, putting a paw on her shoulder, "You... are a ghost." He said, as if explaining to a child, "A ghost who seems to have the same mental problems as when alive. For that you are unlucky, most become sane upon death."

She nodded slowly. "I...I have clear moments," she replied weakly. So she really was dead. That...made so much sense. They'd gotten her after all.

Savenro nodded, "Well you'll have to make do... I can offer your soul rest, and passage to Soul Society, if you feel ready to move on from this world." He said softly.

No," she looked tired. "I don't want to...go anywhere." She...she wanted to know what had happened to them all.

Savenro nodded, somehow he had expected that from her. "Fine then, go do what you need to to be able to find rest.

Images and Illusions

And thus it is proven that Diane is an amazing person.

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