Going to the Doctor's [Assimilating] (Closed to Riley)

Doctor Necrodium sat in his old medical laboratory, reminding himself of the times in the past where he would come to recover from injuries received during battle, panic struck as his suit leaked and his life wasting away at his very eyes, those first few times of fear, those times of mistakes and learning experiences. All of those times hardened Doctor Necrodium into the being he was today, no longer did he fear the thought of death, no longer did he care for the promises and threats of the Afterlife so coveted by the religions of man, no longer did he fear the once incomprehensible concept of magic, he was now pure rage and hatred incarnate, and none shall stop his dark crusade.

Looking around the medical laboratory, he was now reminded of the horrific procedures and experiments he performed over and over and over again, thinking about the enhancements, lobotomies and simple tortures that he performed on countless innocents. Any normal man would lose his cool witnessing what Doctor Necrodium did, but he was no longer a man, he was cold calculation and the means to the end he sought needed no justification. It was here he started, it was here he still remains, now waiting for the next subject.

The latest subject due to arrive was a woman known as Echo Howl, an experiment apparently made by Nightkill, not that the origins mattered. She had some simple powers, enough reason to take sample tissue, but it wasn’t overall important enough to be worth mentioning. On time as always, the delivery from Death arrived, and the woman was brought to his operation table. From basic examination, Necrodium could see that what they said was true, in the fact that Echo was blind, which would make the idea of echolocation rational.

Normally at this point, Necrodium simply would have started the operation, but he felt that this time it was best to give this person one last chance to accept his terms, otherwise he would continue as planned. Necrodium waved his hand and the once horizontal table moved to be almost completely vertical, so that Echo would be able to be upright for their conversation. With an outstretched metallic finger, Necrodium tapped the area beside Echo’s head, loud enough to make a loud clanking sound, which he deducted to be sufficient enough to wake her up.

“Wake up Miss Howl, you don’t want to be asleep and miss your chance”

Stirring, Echo chirps groggily, her echolocation fuzzy and disoriented. She tries to sit up but is held down by firm, unyielding hands. she struggles, but she's weak and still confused. She gives out a sharp sound that hurts her throat and the ears of her gurads. She feels a prick in her arm. That's a needle isn't it... She thinks. As blackness takes over again, she sighs. Definitely a needle...

Waking again, this time under bright light, as though in a lab, she lets out an experimental sound. it's distorted by her hoarse throat and she coughs once. She chips a few more times. Her echolocation is fuzzy at best, and so she relies on her keen hearing to pick out just sounds. She doesn't even try to envision anything, instead smelling and breathing in air through her mouth so it touches the scent glands in her throat and on her tongue. She tries to move. No such luck. Of course. They just had to tie her up. No surprise there. Feeling with her body in the places she is bound, she finds that there are three ties over each of her legs, two over each arm. She is sitting up, though, which is much better than lying down, helpless, she thinks.

"Well this could be fun if you weren't a probable psychopath..." Echo mutters in the direction of the voice. Her own is still hoarse and lower and more grating than usual. "So what's your plan?" She asks. Her speech is a little slow, but she manages to keep from slurring. "Turn me into an experiment? Trust me, I've been down that road, and I'd really like to avoid doing it again. After all, I'm already a freak. Sharp teeth, pointed ears, this voice, blind, etcetera, etcetera. I'd prefer it if you'd keep the amount of fuckups on me to a minimum, yeah?" Echo says, her teeth flash as she speaks, still sharp as ever. She rolls her sightless eyes and shrugs.

"Right, so what chance are you giving me? Sort of a join you or die thing? Sounds like fun. So what'll it be? Lobotomy? A long drop to a short stop? Or maybe you'll just send me out into the oxygen-less space we're probably in right now, seeing as this is all space-ship-y." Echo sounds unsophisticated and crude. She doesn't play pretend this time. Being who she is right now is her greatest pleasure in these dire straits. After all, if she lives, she knows that, somehow, she'll be altered. Called it animal instinct.

Doctor Necrodium made a mental smile in his head at listening to the woman's defiant speech, the smile wasn't out of mockery, but out of respect. Like many who have come down the hollowed halls of Doctor Necrodium's ship, they still kept their powerful personality and strong hearts, even if it just a facade, it was enough to earn a small bit of respect. Necrodium's knew some of the biological know how when it came to terms with echolocation in bats, it was a small tidbit he had learned as a child, which he now used in practice. The green mist in Necrodium's head made a low, but constant hum, one that was loud enough to allow Necrodium to be seen constantly, and be the only thing that Echo was going to see for her last few moments of free life. In the middle of her blindness, she would constantly see the visage of Doctor Necrodium.

"I wouldn't resort to such methods, especially with someone with such a body structure such as yours, Nightkill sure did his work well. From what I can tell, your powers are proportionate to what a bat would if it were to be the size of a human. This sort of thing peeks my interest somewhat, so I took the liberty of taking some of your DNA, I might need it for later reference. And to speak of what I'm going to do with you..." Doctor Necrodium said, talking more to himself than he was to her. He was prone to talking to himself at many times, as the days grew towards the final date. "I have a much less barbaric method in mind for you. See this? Oh I almost forgot, you cannot see. Here, let me tap it for you. As you can see briefly, it is a collar, but it is not like any collar you know. It injects a simple formula I created long ago, I made it for times like this when I choose not to physically harm the subjects in question. The formula in question leaves a person open to suggestion, only to myself of course, and those I choose to have authority. It is a mix of chemicals and nano machines that leave you more or less open to do anything I tell you to, the system is self sustaining, even if the collar is removed, it will take a while before the conditioning is removed. To put it crudely, once this is on your neck, in a matter of moments you will become my slave, I can't put it in any simpler terms than that. I'm telling you this as an gesture of chivalry, not that it will matter soon enough."

With that, Necrodium wrapped the collar around Echo's neck, making sure that the special metal in the needle pierced her skin. Upon puncture, the self sustaining nanomachines and chemical entered Echo's bloodstream, which would then change Echo's perspective on how things worked and where her loyalties lied. It was only a matter of time before the process reached completion, so Doctor Necrodium placed his things away while waiting. He wasn't sure if the entire thing was a painful experience or not, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Once finished, Necrodium returned to Echo, looking at her with his grim visage.

"So? Do you have any problems with working for me Ms. Echo?"

Echo winces as his form came into her vision, the steady hum sends a perfect image, as though she were really seeing. She gasps. She can see him moving. Usually she has to chirp a lot in order to get a sort of frame-by-frame movement image, but this is like watching an old black and white movie reel. Lost in her wonder for amoment, a small "woah." of awe escapes her. She breathes deeply.

His voice breaks into her thoughts and she snaps her attention from miscellaneous objects back to his ever flickering form. He rambles a little about her DNA and about Nightkill, her... creator. She listens absently, focusing on his movements. Only when he beings to speak about the collar does she give him her full attention. She watches him pick it up and reach for her. She screams, except it's more like a roar, and strains away, but the straps are tight and binding. The needles -oh how she hates needles- pierce her neck painfully. She squeaks a few more times before her "vivion" goes fuzzy. For some reason, she can't... Why would she... No, she has to-

"Thank you, my lord." Echo says. "I mean! No pl- What am I- What would you have m- AH!" The injectiong seem to begin to have its full effect. She relaxes and then- to what's left of what is truly Echo-'s astonishment, she falls asleep. The world fuzzes over. She will wake up with a complete change of countenance. Everything about her will not be her. She doesn't even think so, because the collar has already taken that effect upon her. She might not even know what happened to her- the collar method has been known to cause some memory loss.

((OOC: Is that okay about the memory loss?))

(OOC: It's fine)

Necrodium watched his formula take fruit in Echo's mind, altering her thought processes in order to make sure that she was completely subservient to the good doctor's will. It made sure that she would never question his decisions, following them without question, wishing for her new master's plans to work correctly and working without a hitch. Another unforeseen development was that it seemed to have further meddled with her perception from what Necrodium to see, altering the memory of his explanation and confusing her even more than she already was from the alterations. Now that her mind overloaded from the changes, Necrodium deduced that it wouldn't be long before the alterations would set into her subconscious and conscious mind, even with the best treatment in the world, it would take a while before she would heal, and even then, she might not want to be cured.

"System: Have a better self-sustenance unit prepared for Ms. Echo, and take care of her boarding and possessions, even if she is like the rest of them. It is common courtesy to treat our tools with respect, don't you think?" Necrodium spoke to the Ship's AI, it was seemingly pointless for Necrodium to be talking to a machine, but it always seemed to fit with him, he was always alienated from society, so interacting with inanimate objects helped him keep what was left of his considered non-existent sanity.

"Understood Doctor" A female mechanical voice replied "All preparations will be done within 24 hours"

"Good" Necrodium said, nodding his head. Necrodium looked at Echo one last time, wrapping his fingers around the girl's chin, moving it from side to side, watching her emotionless face. He was going to make use of this one, whichever way is possible. "You'll be serving your purpose soon enough, sweet dreams Echo, sweet dreams"

Necrodium removed his medical equipment and left Echo to her own devices, thinking of when she woke up, what possible purpose she could serve in his plans. His thought processes thought back to Nightkill, if he were to become a hindrance, it might be possible to use his old experiment against him, but a situation like that would likely never happen. However if it did, Necrodium knew what he would have to do.

"It's only a matter of time"

Upon his departure, the Olympus robotic systems were taking care of the remainder of clean up, and waited for Echo to wake up in order to take care of her. Should she wake up, she would be left with some Clockwork Zombies to act as her escorts.

Echo tosses fitfully in her chemical induced sleep, her brain fighting with itself as she rolled to and fro, her face forming a different expression every two minutes or so. A few shuffling, mechanical forms stand at her side, ready to obey her when she wakes. As her body fights the restraints still holding it in place, the chemical takes deeper root into Echo's subconscious, having already taken thorough control of her conscious mind. Her eyes flicker about, as though she is seeing in her dreams, but she can't see. The ord is still at her side, however, and it fills her sleeping mind with image of clockwork zombies without personality or individual purpose. A feeling of pity crosses her mind, but is instantly swiped away by the chemical. Pity, being a rather weak and easily swayed emotion, is quite susceptible to the drug and Echo is unfortunately merciful, thusly a lot of her thought process is taken out immediately.

She begins to twitch less, her face relaxes into one of slightly dumb obedience, she even smiles a little. The knowledge that her new master's plans are going smoothly make the surrendered part of her mind- almost all of it at this point- feel a cheery and proud sort of emotion. After all, he has always been her master, right? For as long as she can remember. Ever since he saved her from Nightkill's lab. That's what happened, isn't it? She's always been here- always been the Doctor's servant. Hasn't she?

Her eyes flutter open pointlessly. There is no confusion in he face, no kind of anger or abhorrence. An expression that could even be called haughty flashes across her features as she takes the orb that the Doctor made for her when he rescued her in her hand and points the clockwork zombies forward, feeling to need to speak to such minions. She's been doing this all her life, hasn't she? The Doctor- he's like her father. Or something. She's like a princess, isn't she? Well? Aren't I?

(rright. Bumping this shnizzle since I am never on at the same time as DN.)