[Log] Jeff gets his brain back.
After Jeff's escape attempt, there was very little left that could be called by that name. Marco had tried a new DNA sample, something much less aggressive. And while the sloth DNA quite thoroughly removed any trace of lingering predatory instincts, it failed to bring Jeff's mind back to anything resembling sentience. The project was labeled a failure, and Marco moved on to other projects while Jeff lived contentedly in his cell, a mindless animal.
But then, weeks later...
* Soze barely made it out of the country this time around. With his arm up in a sling, he's conspicuous, and the news stations were already buzzing with talk of the fight. He's lucky he made it out of that alive, lucky that he and Kobayashi were able to drag Gabriel's corpse out through the tunnels, but they didn't have a hope of retrieving the bodies from upstairs. It won't be long before they go looking for them.
* Soze is actually in Turkey this time around, out in the mountains in some pathetic shack of an inn where people wouldn't think to look. He's alone up here, as he has been alone for the last week, with only his thoughts for company. These thoughts are mostly about Gabriel, about what he said, and about how Soze asked 'who?' instead of whether or not Jeff was still alive.
* Soze hates this, how it's almost driving him to obsession. While he left most of his stuff behind when he left the country, he kept his few belongings from the Nexus-- two of his own PINpoints, Gabriel's PINpoints, and a small, wooden box in which he keeps a gift he never thought he'd need. Until now.
* Soze has that box right now. He eyes it for some time before snapping it open, looking at the black charm inside-- a two-headed dog. It's a gift from Balthazar's will. Something about empathy. Despite the fact it's from a demon (or maybe -because- it is), he hasn't been able to throw away. Now, for whatever reason, it feels important.
* Soze holds the charm between his fingers. He doesn't know why he's doing this. He doesn't know why it matters, or why he can't just move on with his life. If Gabriel didn't come back, none of this would have happened. The Nexus would still be far away in his mind. He wouldn't feel like he's going insane.
* Soze feels that now, actually-- not insanity, exactly, but a sort of river or highway out in the corner of his vision. Hallucinating. Is he hallucinating? But no, it's not visible, it's only something he can feel, something that if he just pushes his mind closer towards...
* Soze is suddenly taken over by a wave of sensations, -thoughts-, actions, memories and white lights and droning voices and icicles going up his back, songs that he remembers from his childhood, but not -his- childhood. His mind is so busy with the thoughts that for a second he forgets about his body, and so his legs buckle and he drops to the floor. It doesn't really hurt, though. It doesn't feel like it belongs to him anymore.
Jeff_Levitt: His world turns upside down. Quite literally. But somehow the sensation feels quite natural. Sight comes next after the topsy-turvy sensation, and what an odd sight it is. Arms and legs covered in thick, wiry fur, long, hook-like claws hanging from an artificial tree limb. He's in a fairly small enclosure, like something in the medical wing of a zoo.
Jeff_Levitt: The air is artificially kept hot and humid, a strong scent of jungle foliage mixed with an artificial chemical tang flows through the vents, strangely sharp and intense to Soze's senses, but soothing to the body he's joined. He had been eating when his brain suddenly acquired an unexpected guest, and now he stops, mid-chew, shaking his head as if to dislodge an annoying insect.
Jeff_Levitt: He makes a slow, distressed-sounding noise that doesn't sound remotely human. There's no thought or awareness, just a slow, dull, animal realization that something strange is happening. A brief mental image: Someone that looks remarkably like Soze, dressed in a lab coat that smiles and makes comforting noises and gives Jeff food and sometimes makes the hurting go away.
* Soze feels like his mind has slipped into slow motion-- everything is coming to him gradually, image by image, no matter how frantic or disoriented he feels on the inside. The image. The man (him?) in the labcoat. "God," he says back in his own body, except his lips aren't really moving right, and the only thing he can see in front of him is the medical wing.
Jeff_Levitt: He makes another distressed noise, unhooking a claw to scratch at his head. [?] Confusion, curiosity, even a hint of dim recognition bubble up, slow like a gas pocket in a tar pit. He sniffs the air trying to find the presence but smells nothing.
* Soze feels all of this. He feels himself, the animal, whoever, sniffing the air, -searching.- He feels the recognition. And he starts to recognize it too. He starts to piece together the memories and the sensations, though his mind is so cloudy he keeps losing track. Jeff.
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff. Definite recognition now. He stirs restlessly, awareness dawning with maddening slowness. [Jeff.] It's a new thought, or to be more accurate one he hasn't had in a long time. Images accompany it, memories. Yes, the man who gives him food called him that, didn't he? And...others. More images, people Soze knows, others that he doesn't. [Jeff. ...me?]
Soze: 'Us,' is the first thing he thinks, but that's all wrong, that's only the situation screwing with his head. [You're Jeff,] he projects as loudly as possible. Back in his own world, he flops his hand about, feeling for something he can't see.
Jeff_Levitt: [I'm Jeff.] The thought comes maddeningly slow. Frustration begins to build. [You...] Slippery things, names. But more images come, this time of Soze himself. Emotions too. Another word comes back to him. [Friend.]
Soze: Friend, yes, that's good. It's been a long time since he'd heard that. He thinks about how lucky this is, finding Jeff, but then he thinks about his mental state. His physical state. He thinks about being trapped here with him forever, which is terrifying but impossible to put into coherent thought. He feels the amulet on the wooden floor. It does nothing.
Soze: [What's happened?]
Jeff_Levitt: He struggles to remember the words. [Taken. Trapped.] More frustration as the words elude him. [Bad things.] Images come. Waking up in the hospital. The doctor. Injection after injection, all changing his body in different ways. Bat. Feline. Rodent. Amphibian. Gabriel, the night after the first change. Asking questions then abandoning him.
Feeling his mind slip bit by bit, then losing it under a flood of predatory instinct.
Jeff_Levitt: Mindless rage and hunger. Screaming. Pain and unconsciousness. Another injection, another change, but mind still gone. Living like a dumb animal. Then, somehow, the presence in his mind.
Soze: Jeff's memories of Gabriel are enough to set off his own, the gunshots and the blood and the barrel right between his eyes. Shooting Gabriel. Killing him. The cold rage he felt then becomes the cold rage of now, washing over his mind. [Where are you?]
Jeff_Levitt: His stomach twists at the new memories, and he swallows the mouthful of leaves he'd forgotten he had. If he were still human he'd be shaking. Or rather, he would be if Soze's rage didn't become his own. Rage becomes focus, and he latches onto it eagerly. [I don't know,] he replies. Thoughts still come slowly, but the fog of animal instincts recedes. [Gabriel works for them. So...his world, probably. And...somewhere in New York, I think.]
Soze: [Worked. Worked. Jeff, I'm going to get you out of here.] He needs to get out himself, first. In his own world, he tries to pinch his arm, but he can't get his fingers to grip.
Jeff_Levitt: [...worked.] There's a dazed numbness to his voice as he "remembers" the fight, in turn recalling the pleasant conversation he'd had with Gabriel over food just before that nightmare with the Seven Deadly Sins. He gives a mental nod to Soze's plan. [I...might be able to get out. Dr. Marco...he keeps a PINpoint with him.] Another image, clouded in predatory rage. Leaping for the man, claws extended for the killing blow, only to have him vanish. [I can...I can change, if I concentrate.] Another image, crouched in the corner of his cell in the dark, hidden, staring at his hands. A long furry tail becomes bare, ears change shape. Cat to rat. A small victory. [He doesn't know.]
Soze: It's so strange, how all of Jeff's thoughts feel like his own. It's strange how he can feel their minds speeding up. Together. [Wonderful,] he thinks. [Great. Yes.] He starts to see a few flickers of his own world between their blinks. Maybe he's coming out of this on his own. [I'll follow your signal. As long as I can.]
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff has to concentrate to keep his thoughts this coherent, but the addition of Soze's presence, free from more primitive instincts, helps. [It'll have to be soon,] he says. [I was already slipping before he fucked up my head. I don't know how long I can keep this up.]
Soze: [It'll be soon.] The view of his room is getting clearer, flickering in his vision for longer periods of time like he's waking up from a dream. He can still feel Jeff's thoughts, though, and most of the sensations in the room back in the lab. But it won't be long. [I promise you.]
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff can feel Soze's presence starting to recede from his own mind, and he has to fight down panic as he feels some of the instincts come flooding back to fill the void. He forces them back with an effort of will. [Soon,] Jeff agrees. [One way or another.]
* Soze is out of Jeff's head in the next blink, though he can still -feel- the other's presence, stronger than the bond usually is. The bond. -God.- It's terrifying but almost a relief, the wave of feelings and thoughts and memories. He had these once. These were his once.
Jeff_Levitt: And then Soze is gone. Only not. He can feel him there, much like he used to but more so. And like Soze he would be terrified, but Soze's focus gives him something to concentrate on, something to hold his own focus until he can get out of here. He peers upside down at the locked door to his cell. All that's left to do is wait.
But then, weeks later...
* Soze barely made it out of the country this time around. With his arm up in a sling, he's conspicuous, and the news stations were already buzzing with talk of the fight. He's lucky he made it out of that alive, lucky that he and Kobayashi were able to drag Gabriel's corpse out through the tunnels, but they didn't have a hope of retrieving the bodies from upstairs. It won't be long before they go looking for them.
* Soze is actually in Turkey this time around, out in the mountains in some pathetic shack of an inn where people wouldn't think to look. He's alone up here, as he has been alone for the last week, with only his thoughts for company. These thoughts are mostly about Gabriel, about what he said, and about how Soze asked 'who?' instead of whether or not Jeff was still alive.
* Soze hates this, how it's almost driving him to obsession. While he left most of his stuff behind when he left the country, he kept his few belongings from the Nexus-- two of his own PINpoints, Gabriel's PINpoints, and a small, wooden box in which he keeps a gift he never thought he'd need. Until now.
* Soze has that box right now. He eyes it for some time before snapping it open, looking at the black charm inside-- a two-headed dog. It's a gift from Balthazar's will. Something about empathy. Despite the fact it's from a demon (or maybe -because- it is), he hasn't been able to throw away. Now, for whatever reason, it feels important.
* Soze holds the charm between his fingers. He doesn't know why he's doing this. He doesn't know why it matters, or why he can't just move on with his life. If Gabriel didn't come back, none of this would have happened. The Nexus would still be far away in his mind. He wouldn't feel like he's going insane.
* Soze feels that now, actually-- not insanity, exactly, but a sort of river or highway out in the corner of his vision. Hallucinating. Is he hallucinating? But no, it's not visible, it's only something he can feel, something that if he just pushes his mind closer towards...
* Soze is suddenly taken over by a wave of sensations, -thoughts-, actions, memories and white lights and droning voices and icicles going up his back, songs that he remembers from his childhood, but not -his- childhood. His mind is so busy with the thoughts that for a second he forgets about his body, and so his legs buckle and he drops to the floor. It doesn't really hurt, though. It doesn't feel like it belongs to him anymore.
Jeff_Levitt: His world turns upside down. Quite literally. But somehow the sensation feels quite natural. Sight comes next after the topsy-turvy sensation, and what an odd sight it is. Arms and legs covered in thick, wiry fur, long, hook-like claws hanging from an artificial tree limb. He's in a fairly small enclosure, like something in the medical wing of a zoo.
Jeff_Levitt: The air is artificially kept hot and humid, a strong scent of jungle foliage mixed with an artificial chemical tang flows through the vents, strangely sharp and intense to Soze's senses, but soothing to the body he's joined. He had been eating when his brain suddenly acquired an unexpected guest, and now he stops, mid-chew, shaking his head as if to dislodge an annoying insect.
Jeff_Levitt: He makes a slow, distressed-sounding noise that doesn't sound remotely human. There's no thought or awareness, just a slow, dull, animal realization that something strange is happening. A brief mental image: Someone that looks remarkably like Soze, dressed in a lab coat that smiles and makes comforting noises and gives Jeff food and sometimes makes the hurting go away.
* Soze feels like his mind has slipped into slow motion-- everything is coming to him gradually, image by image, no matter how frantic or disoriented he feels on the inside. The image. The man (him?) in the labcoat. "God," he says back in his own body, except his lips aren't really moving right, and the only thing he can see in front of him is the medical wing.
Jeff_Levitt: He makes another distressed noise, unhooking a claw to scratch at his head. [?] Confusion, curiosity, even a hint of dim recognition bubble up, slow like a gas pocket in a tar pit. He sniffs the air trying to find the presence but smells nothing.
* Soze feels all of this. He feels himself, the animal, whoever, sniffing the air, -searching.- He feels the recognition. And he starts to recognize it too. He starts to piece together the memories and the sensations, though his mind is so cloudy he keeps losing track. Jeff.
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff. Definite recognition now. He stirs restlessly, awareness dawning with maddening slowness. [Jeff.] It's a new thought, or to be more accurate one he hasn't had in a long time. Images accompany it, memories. Yes, the man who gives him food called him that, didn't he? And...others. More images, people Soze knows, others that he doesn't. [Jeff. ...me?]
Soze: 'Us,' is the first thing he thinks, but that's all wrong, that's only the situation screwing with his head. [You're Jeff,] he projects as loudly as possible. Back in his own world, he flops his hand about, feeling for something he can't see.
Jeff_Levitt: [I'm Jeff.] The thought comes maddeningly slow. Frustration begins to build. [You...] Slippery things, names. But more images come, this time of Soze himself. Emotions too. Another word comes back to him. [Friend.]
Soze: Friend, yes, that's good. It's been a long time since he'd heard that. He thinks about how lucky this is, finding Jeff, but then he thinks about his mental state. His physical state. He thinks about being trapped here with him forever, which is terrifying but impossible to put into coherent thought. He feels the amulet on the wooden floor. It does nothing.
Soze: [What's happened?]
Jeff_Levitt: He struggles to remember the words. [Taken. Trapped.] More frustration as the words elude him. [Bad things.] Images come. Waking up in the hospital. The doctor. Injection after injection, all changing his body in different ways. Bat. Feline. Rodent. Amphibian. Gabriel, the night after the first change. Asking questions then abandoning him.
Feeling his mind slip bit by bit, then losing it under a flood of predatory instinct.
Jeff_Levitt: Mindless rage and hunger. Screaming. Pain and unconsciousness. Another injection, another change, but mind still gone. Living like a dumb animal. Then, somehow, the presence in his mind.
Soze: Jeff's memories of Gabriel are enough to set off his own, the gunshots and the blood and the barrel right between his eyes. Shooting Gabriel. Killing him. The cold rage he felt then becomes the cold rage of now, washing over his mind. [Where are you?]
Jeff_Levitt: His stomach twists at the new memories, and he swallows the mouthful of leaves he'd forgotten he had. If he were still human he'd be shaking. Or rather, he would be if Soze's rage didn't become his own. Rage becomes focus, and he latches onto it eagerly. [I don't know,] he replies. Thoughts still come slowly, but the fog of animal instincts recedes. [Gabriel works for them. So...his world, probably. And...somewhere in New York, I think.]
Soze: [Worked. Worked. Jeff, I'm going to get you out of here.] He needs to get out himself, first. In his own world, he tries to pinch his arm, but he can't get his fingers to grip.
Jeff_Levitt: [...worked.] There's a dazed numbness to his voice as he "remembers" the fight, in turn recalling the pleasant conversation he'd had with Gabriel over food just before that nightmare with the Seven Deadly Sins. He gives a mental nod to Soze's plan. [I...might be able to get out. Dr. Marco...he keeps a PINpoint with him.] Another image, clouded in predatory rage. Leaping for the man, claws extended for the killing blow, only to have him vanish. [I can...I can change, if I concentrate.] Another image, crouched in the corner of his cell in the dark, hidden, staring at his hands. A long furry tail becomes bare, ears change shape. Cat to rat. A small victory. [He doesn't know.]
Soze: It's so strange, how all of Jeff's thoughts feel like his own. It's strange how he can feel their minds speeding up. Together. [Wonderful,] he thinks. [Great. Yes.] He starts to see a few flickers of his own world between their blinks. Maybe he's coming out of this on his own. [I'll follow your signal. As long as I can.]
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff has to concentrate to keep his thoughts this coherent, but the addition of Soze's presence, free from more primitive instincts, helps. [It'll have to be soon,] he says. [I was already slipping before he fucked up my head. I don't know how long I can keep this up.]
Soze: [It'll be soon.] The view of his room is getting clearer, flickering in his vision for longer periods of time like he's waking up from a dream. He can still feel Jeff's thoughts, though, and most of the sensations in the room back in the lab. But it won't be long. [I promise you.]
Jeff_Levitt: Jeff can feel Soze's presence starting to recede from his own mind, and he has to fight down panic as he feels some of the instincts come flooding back to fill the void. He forces them back with an effort of will. [Soon,] Jeff agrees. [One way or another.]
* Soze is out of Jeff's head in the next blink, though he can still -feel- the other's presence, stronger than the bond usually is. The bond. -God.- It's terrifying but almost a relief, the wave of feelings and thoughts and memories. He had these once. These were his once.
Jeff_Levitt: And then Soze is gone. Only not. He can feel him there, much like he used to but more so. And like Soze he would be terrified, but Soze's focus gives him something to concentrate on, something to hold his own focus until he can get out of here. He peers upside down at the locked door to his cell. All that's left to do is wait.