The Masquerade Ball

[magnolia9662]

"I would love to dance with you! I think I can manage in my state."
The man before her had prompted exactly what she wanted to do. As of late, dancing was all Olivia would do when her mind was nothing but a void, but she remembered that dancing was priorly a portrayal of her emotions. Finally feeling again, it was hard to resist immediately displaying them with her steps. Composure was hard to control, but a solution presented itself, she could dance and also not lose focus on the first man in decades she consciously interacted with. It was strange, Olivia couldn't pinpoint if it was the man that enraptured her or the ability to focus and invest.
She began to reach for his hand when the thought struck her. Olivia first ignored when he asked if she needed a body to possess. It didn't even register as an option, another person, willing to act purely as a vessel for her dancing. It was then that her insecurities hit, what if she couldn't dance with a partner in her state? She couldn't stand the idea of embarrassing herself and ruining their moment. Embarrassment? She hadn't felt that in a while. On the other hand, what if she couldn't control another body? She had to admit, the idea sounded fun, and the sensation of touch was an indulgence she had to feel again.
"I haven't danced with a partner in so long. Is there a body someone would like to share?"
Consciousness is complicated.

[Trillian]

Jenna and Sebastian were drawing close enough so that Ben could whirl on her.

"Jenna, please!" he began, causing her to falter in her step and draw nearer to Sebastian.  Ben saw this reaction and wondered what she'd thought he was going to do.  Attack her or something?  There was frustration in his expression though hidden well behind his mask.  Why the hell was everybody assuming the worst of him, all the time?  Could nobody see where he was coming from?  Sebastian's presence made it harder to talk to Jenna also, for Ben felt the oppressive weight of his age, and he really didn't want to start upsetting ancients.  That meant he had to tread lightly with Jenna.

"This ghost... spirit... um, Olivia here," he gestured to the ghost that was close enough to (and material enough to) touch.  "She would like to dance, and uh... possessing you temporarily would really help."

Jenna stared at him behind her mask, for a moment not understanding what Ben was trying to say.  After a short moment she understood his statement and thought he'd gone mad.

"You want me to be possessed?"

"It doesn't hurt," Ben added helpfully.

Jenna's gaze moved from Ben to Olivia, and she wondered how a child ballerina would be able to possess a grown woman, and once she was possessing her, would she want to let go?

"No... I don't think that would be-"

wise

"-possible."

"Please!" Ben exploded, then lowered his voice, knowing that getting upset wouldn't help his cause.  "Someone other than me has to want to help her," he turned his gaze to Sebastian, to see if he would say something supportive that might influence his date.  "Five minutes?" he said, gesturing for the couple to look at Olivia and find it in themselves to feel empathy for a girl stuck in eternity as she was.

[pinkroses]

“Of course,” Sebastion murmured as Jenna voiced her desire to leave - although the night was still young everyone else seemed to be having similar ideas. Or perhaps not everyone, as ben stopped them rather abruptly on their way past.

The ancient’s blue eyes roamed over the ghost, a small smile on his lips as Ben explained his plan. He’d spotted the creature dancing alone earlier, dancing by yourself for eternity must be quite depressing. The girl seemed so young and innocent, but Sebastian was well aware that despite appearing young, you could still have lived lifetimes. She may decide she quite liked having a body again and then Jenna could be defenceless, depending on how strong the ghost was. And Ben being her new friends might not have much influence on her then.

“You can use me if you’d like, although I may not be quite as graceful or then body you’d be used to,” he added, addressing Olivia with his final comment and a smile. At least he might be able to put up more of a fight if the ghost decided to stay. If Ben was like Kerr around ancients, which Seb had got the feeling he was, he probably wouldn’t be as comfortable dancing with someone his age, but it was Olivia they were doing this for, not Ben.

[magnolia9662]

Olivia tried pushing her nerves away with pure excitement. She rushed up to Sebastian, ready to leap inside him, when her manners and anxiety came back. Looking into the piercing blue eyes of the man before her, "Thank you, sir. I'll try my best, I haven't done something like this before."
The energy of the room had been gradually leaving with the guests, and Olivia wasn't sure she could be successful in her attempts to possess him. She had never before possessed a full person, never mind a man, and now the reservoir of energy that gave her conscious life was running thin. The whole situation wasn't very hopeful, but this was the most exhilarating moment of her dead life and Olivia was not willing to let it end.
Unable to look into his eyes while doing this, Olivia turned her back to him, and started by first stepping her right foot back into his. Despite his slim frame, there was much more room in his body than she was used to, especially compared to the fly she entered this event in. Her excitement was surging back and her time was running out, so with her next step Olivia threw her back into his torso, bringing her whole body along with it, ending with her arms. At first she was lost, hoping she could easily jump into complete control as quickly as she jumped into his body, but that wasn't happening. Completely driven by intuition and sense, there was nothing she could do but give it all a shot and hope everything was lined up correctly. Near the end of the process Olivia could feel his deep-rooted faiths, torments, cares, and she had to use almost all her strength to stray away from his mind and separately insert her own, to control only the physical aspects of this being, and allow him to experience this with her, but him as the passenger. All of Olivia's hopes and attention were focused on doing this right, what Sebastian must have been going through was not something that crossed her mind.
Birds and flies are much easier to control.

[pinkroses]

Sebastian watched the ghost with an easy smile although as she moved closer he let his nerves show by giving Jenna’s hand a small squeeze before releasing her. Of course, she might have just seen it as a small goodbye before he was possessed rather than a sign that he had a second of doubt.

When she was suddenly inside him Sebastian’s first instinct was to mentally shove her out again, but he resisted. He’s said she could use him and wasn’t going to back out now because it felt a little weird. Well, a lot weird.

He hadn’t felt her trying to get close to his mind, but all the same his mental blocks went up. He could feel everything, but made no attempt to control his own body, letting her take over and do as she would, although to him Olivia didn’t feel very strong. He was confident he would be able to eject her if he wanted to, but there was no need. It felt just like taking a few minutes to relax, let someone else take over the job of controlling his body. And as long as she didn’t do anything too stupid he would be happy to let her do as she wished.

Ask him to dance he urged the spirit mentally.

[Trillian]

Ben was fascinated to watch the possession take place.  The way Olivia slid into him had the kind of vision which Ben would've scoffed at when watching at the movies, but he didn't scoff here because it was real.  How else was a spirit supposed to take over a person than to absorb into them?  It made sense, but at the same time it was surreal.

He looked at Jenna for her reaction, and found her stepping away with an uncomfortable expression on her face.  She'd put quite a bit of space between herself and Sebastian, and Ben was surprised that she would consider a ghost more frightening than a vampire.  She must've felt his eyes on her because she looked his way with daggers.  What?  Why the hell was she pissed off with him?  Dismissing her and looking back at Sebastian, amazed at the transformation of Olivia's expression on his face (and didn't that look a bit odd, that childlike wonder?) before gesturing with his head for them both to go out to the dance floor, and extending his hand.