Poppy O'Possum

“Mr. War Hero,-” Chiaroshiro looped a finger around Friedrich’s muzzle and tugged down, demanding his attention once more. “-have you ever heard of something called the body transfer illusion?”

“Not as an illusion, no.”

[Image 1, text reads: “PLAP”]

“Allow me to give you a demonstration, then.” Chiaroshiro pulled an object out from under the cloth, a floppy rubber hand, about the size of his own, and waved it in his face. “Look! A brand new hand, just for you. Oh, wait, what’s this? Oops! This is a left hand! You’ve already got one of those!” Friedrich was already beginning to miss the previous conversation in the face of these obnoxious theatrics. She placed the hand on the table, exactly next to his, and then draped the sheet over his arm, leaving only the rubber hand exposed from the wrist up.

[Image 2]

“Alright, buddy, bear with me, this is weird for me too,” Kuroscuro groaned, joining the routine as he touched his fingers to the prop and Friedrich’s own bound hand under the sheet,beginning to massage them in unison. The purpose of the strange exercise became quickly apparent, however, as Friedrich glanced down at the false hand. His arm felt wrong, as if it was in the wrong place, just ever so slightly. He could only see the one hand, and though he knew it wasn’t real, the wiring in his brain had become confused.

[Image 3, text reads: “SHUNKK”]

Friedrich felt the cleaver slice through flesh for a split second, as real as the sensation had ever been. Red hot memories surged in him until the fake hand went numb and lifeless once more as his perception of reality reasserted itself. He stared straight ahead and held his composure as firmly as he could, but Chiaroshiro wasn’t fooled, soaking in his distress as she scanned his face lovingly.

“Tell me, Mr. War Hero. Was that real, or fake?”

“It was… real irritating, if such was your intention,” Friedrich seethed. For someone who claimed to have no thoughts, this woman was enjoying herself entirely too much for his liking.

“Kuro, we should begin.” She nodded to her brother, who walked over to a side room, brushing freezer strips out of the way.

“You want the M-1P4?” he asked, his head still peeking out, and Friedrich could hear the sound of switches being flicked and large machinery being moved in the other room.

“No. I want Mr. Moxie for this one.”

“Ugh, come on, I hate having to fix up Mr. Moxie.” There was a deep-rooted disgust in his voice. “Besides, this guy’s got thumbs on his feet, there’d be inconsistencies.”

“It’s fine!” she snapped. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fiiiine! Just slot in the spare hands, it’ll all mesh up internally.”

“Man, whatever,” Kuroscuro relented, disappearing completely into the other room. “But I’m not sticking around here if you’re going to be so salacious about this whole thing.”

While the brother was occupied in the other room, the sister began preparations of her own, removing more objects from beneath the covered table, several of which had been docked to a complicated device nestled in the bottom tray. She maneuvered behind him, and Friedrich felt a strap stretch across the back of his head and a heavy black blindfold dropped over his eyes, sending the world dark.

[Black BG begins]

“There goes seeing,” said Chiaroshiro. “Now for hearing.” Friedrich attempted to swivel his ears in rebellion as she ran her fingers up toward them, but she simply gripped them together in one hand and stuffed a pair of soft objects into them with the other, blotting out his surroundings completely. Friedrich could hear only his own breathing through his head and the gurgling and shifting of his organs vibrating throughout his body. He was left in a void, but he was not alone, feeling the world around him shift as the wheelchair moved and tilted backward. There was no clear aim to this movement, he could tell that his captor was simply dancing him around the cramped room to satisfy her own amusement.

Then she stopped, temporarily leaving him without any point of reference, before rudely returning with a sharp pain to the back of his neck as another unit was being applied. The first thing Friedrich noticed was that his entire body suddenly felt extremely itchy, with a sensation of coarse material rubbing his skin in waves radiating out from his neck, before subsiding into a mild discomfort. The second thing he noticed, the thing that made his stomach churn, was that he could feel his right arm. Not in the usual way, the disjointed aching of a phantom limb, but as a physical, persisting object, hanging down over the side of his chair.

“ffzzzkkqqrz-lright, sis, audio–sual is green -ow, so I’m outta here,” said Kuroscuro’s voice, breaking the silence. Friedrich’s vision seemed to remain black, but there were halos of light fraying the edges, and instead of the blindfold, he could now feel soft hands blocking his eyes.

“What have you done to m-” Friedrich jolted to a stop mid-sentence, hearing his own voice coming from across the room. He could still feel the vibrations muffled within his head, but the sounds being picked up by his ears were coming from the entirely wrong place, and his jaw felt… odd as he spoke.

“Hee hee hee, it’s disorienting, isn’t it?” Chiaroshiro’s voice teased from directly beside him, confirming the hands over his face belonged to her. “The tech involved is similar to the way a soul patch links up to your nervous system, but instead of a free-form projection, it’s a closed link, and instead of manifesting your souls through magic, it… well, it sends them somewhere else.”

Oh no, he thought.

“And what a place to be sent! I know the suspense must be killing you.”

Please, no. Not like this.

“With a pliable synthetic skeleton, Ultra HD dual cameras and microphones, a highly accurate lagomatronic reproduction of the nervous system, and real working clocks-” The hands slipped away from Friedrich’s eyes, to reveal that they were not his eyes at all.

[Black BG ends]

[Image 4]

“Say helloooo to Mr. Moxie~!”