There was much to be said about what she suffered on Turrip if even Ishtar - one who had seen countless deaths over her expansive lifespan - was shaken and in tears. Perhaps it spoke to the empathy the woman still had despite being numb to death, or more towards the bond they had formed over the last day or so since Parsley's resurrection. Either way, she was glad to finally have someone to share her pain with.

The trip through her memories was painful; she had no presumptions that it would be anything but. One by one, the minutes and hours rolled by. Sometimes, they were a jumbled mess that represented Parsley's incoherence at the time. Those were the more pleasant ones. The most painful, heart-wrenching ones were - to her chagrin - in crystal clear clarity. There was no mistaking what was happening. The three times Appel injected her with some concoction, or nearly drowned her with the high-powered hose, or being driven insane by her own loneliness and guilt, it was all there for both of them to see.

Experiencing it like this, from the outside looking in, she didn't realize how broken she was at the time of her death. She had nothing by the time she drew her last breath. Her dignity, her pride, her sanity, her hope; they were all stripped away. In the end, she was nothing more than a broken husk of a woman, no more than a shell of her former self. If that was what Appel wanted - and she couldn't envision a scenario in which that wasn't the case - then she got exactly that.

Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
Ishtar severed the connection quickly.

And after a heavy, shaky sigh took an equally shaky step backwards seemingly from shock.

That she had expected this pain, made little difference in the end. What Parsley had suffered was no less traumatic, no less painful, than what Evangeline had suffered at the hands of Fife, or Sarada had suffered at the hands of Dashir. A thought rose unbidden then from the depths; as Ishtar worked at containing the pilfered patchwork of pain, and suffering, tears streaming down her face.

Another young one forced to suffer far more than they could reasonably bear alone ... what am I to do ?

A question for another time.

Taking a moment to compose herself then, and wipe her face free from tears -- though it was obvious she had been -- Ishtar cleared her throat loud enough to snap Parsley out of the semi-stupor of the 'Mind Melding', and after a moment, the Oni began to speak.

"Are you ... Did ..." she managed, muttering. Only to stop for a moment more, to gather herself together enough to ask.

"How ... do you feel ?"
When it was finally over, Parsley felt drained. She reached up to rub her eyes and found that they were wet. Tch. As Ishtar struggled to find words, Parsley sat in silence. Walking through it all like that left her raw and tired. But... for the first time, she felt that she could close her eyes and not see Appel's sneering countenance again.

She did so. She closed her eyes.

Nothing.

Nothing but blissful darkness.

Parsley breathed in and basked in finally being free - for the night - of her demon.

How did she feel? That was Ishtar's question after some seconds of stammering and tripping.

"Tired." She rose to her feet. A grateful smile touched her lips. "I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Thank you, Ishtar."