Emotional Transfer

"You know, it is rather quite hard to recreate feelings. It is one thing to re-live a situation yourself, to put yourself back into that moment that you want to re-experience; trying to immerse yourself fully in it to come as close to that happening you found yourself in, years or decades ago. Most memories and feelings associated with it become distorted and filtered by your own mind over time, for better or for worse - who knows. At times, certain classes of psychoachtive substances might circumvent some of these filters, designed to keep your mind whole and sane. Other times you find yourself even more immersed in the experience than you have been at the time of its happening - traumata are an excellent example for this.

"An entirely different thing, however, is to recreate feelings - a moment, a situation - in another human being. To transfer, as it were, the emotions engendered.

"You see, emotions are a curious thing: they are not a first class entity of experience within the mind - they depend on all the context, the history, the setting, your internal state, and so on and so forth. This is why we can separate situations from memories or thoughts about the future; why we don't confuse things that happen in this very moment with the exact same things, that happened yesterday; why we know, these are different events. They feel different. There are times, where the part of the mind responsible for this, is confused - a phenomenon we call deja-vu, premonition, telepathy, supernatural experience; there are many names for it.

And yet, usually, without the usage of substances or electrical currets applied to certain parts of the brain, we cannot induce such states of mind, let alone control them to our liking, if we wanted a person to live through a certain experience.

"I have spent the better part of my life, studying experience, studying emotions and different states of mind - not academically mind you, but practically. Studying the mirror of the universe, that is my own subjective mind - for if the fundamental laws of nature are at work universally, they can also be found within oneself. And after all these years of studying, I have found something truely inspiring. I have found a way to accurately transfer emotional states from one being to another. And not just a theoretical one, but one, I shall actually, physically show you, as a token of gratitude for being unwittingly instrumental in my progress."

Alaris, a nearly albino, androgynous Aasimar, dressed in simple, dark, slightly tattered monks robes gets up from the small stool in the corner of the dimly lit room. Their every movement is slow and steady but as gracious and intentful as water carving a ravine into granite over thousands of years. In the twilight, tattoos of an unsettling, arcane design on their face obfuscate the facial features, needed by most to judge the emotional state of a person - yet, on the corners of their mouth, a slightly excited, yet grounded smile makes for an eerie appearance. Alaris walks to a stone alcove on the wall, slowly opening and unrolling a leather pouch, making them look like an alchemist, carefully preparing for an experiment.

"Whenever you want to recreate something, and be thorough about it", they continue talking calmly to the other person in the room, "you ought to study it in great detail; know, what parts it is made of and how they interlink to form the final, complex structure. So what are the most basic components of an experience, of an emotion? Following theories from a mental discipline called 'Vipassana', emotions are the result of physical sensations - a slightly contextualized and integrated version of our primary - that is physical - perception. According to this theory, this integrative process can be quite complex, accounting for feelings about emotions and therefore feedback mechanisms. But at its core, our sensory apparatus is the doorway to our cognition - so this is where I began my studies. How could these pathways be utilized to transfer but a simple, yet accurate, emotion? Once this would be possible, the rest would be a matter of mathematics.

"However, I quickly realized, that 'simple' emotions are quite rare. There is, as it were, no perceptive organ that perceives joy or peace, and alas no perceptive organ that would reliably spark these emotions. You see, joy and peace are intensly complex emotions - heavily contextualized and infinitely feedbacked versions of more basic elements. Additionally, it seemed, that more often than not, these emotions depended on the absence or ignorance of certain other emotions or sensations - it is hard to be joyful if you are hungry for example, even if it is not impossible.

"So I turned my gaze to other aspects of human cognition and soon learned a very important lesson, in which you played a crucial part. As I started recapitulating our first meeting, I realized, that there is no such thing as empathy. Humanoids are mostly incapable of it - safe for one very simple, basic emotion. Secondly, by meditation and your unwitting hand, I learned, that every perceptive organ can give rise to a pethora of sensations and emotions coupled with them, again safe for one. And fortunately, this organ, our skin - the organ detecting physical touch - is directly coupled with this one emotion: physical pain."

Alaris turns around, mustering the roughly 40 year old man lying on the stone slab in the middle of the room. They remember every inch of his face, his slender frame and his tired, almost dead seeming eyes, even though their first encounter was more than 25 years ago. Alaris scans the crude metal tools filling the opposite wall - they remember them of a butchers' slaughter room - they won't need them, but they certainly add to the flair of the cool underground stone chamber. Alaris goes over the scrolls and and fine instruments they brought for the long anticipated reunion in their mind; takes stock of what is at their disposal. They wait until those other brownish, stale eyes meet their own in midst of racing around the room and down the almost naked body they belong to. Alaris continues intently, gesturing slowly and playing idly, with a finely crafted needlewheel:

"You see, while physical pain can be part of more complex emotional states, and while it is already a contextualized, integrated emotion, inflicting pysical pain in a controlled way is the cleanest and shortest route to tap into the cognition of any being. Apart from highly mentally trained individuals, any sensation of bodily disintegration immediately transports a beings cognition to the present moment and, for the most part, stops the interfering workings of further contextualization. For a moment, a skilled craftsperson can bring itself or another being into a desired state that is recreatable in itself and others.

"Additionally - directly following pain, the first more complex emotional state can be reaced quite easily: that of fear or horror. Another universal experience that is quite flexible regarding its level of contextualization and integration."

Alaris inspects the heavy leather belts fixing Noran in place, restricting his every move, safe for his eyes. The master artificer who crafted the implements for them really knew her metier. The belts adjust perfectly and instantly to any size and force they should restrict, leaving the subjects as unrestraint as possible, yet as fixed as necessary - truly magnificent work, like every detail in this 'situative emotional awareness chamber', as they like to refer to it. Alaris prides themselves for the accurate, detailed procedures performed in here, as well as for the rooms themselves: an elegant, perfectly configured, well oiled machinery with them as the operator. The scene helps Alaris to get into this meditative, disconnected, yet fully integrated, keen state of mind, necessary to manufacture detailed, lively experiences for their subjects.

Norans eyes fixate Alaris, and he seems on the cusp of asking a question racing in his mind. Alaris can see the tension, the ever so slight movements of the well defined throat, the slightly arythmical intake of air filling his lungs and lifting his bare chest - but he does not find the words. Unfinished, his thoughts race on, his heart beat continues arythmically. The sound stuck in his throat, tremors and strains in his chest and neck accompany a forced slow exhale that does nothing to soothe his mind.

"I understand you being uneasy", Alaris continues. "This seems like a dark road to go down. How could one recreate pleasant situations and emotions of only pain and horror seem at hand." Alaris soothingly touches Norans trembling hand as one would to comfort ones' old, senile grandparents on their death bed.

"Luckily pure mathematics provide a way out. You see, pain and horror form one side of a multidimensional spectrum. Put at its simplest, they define the axis of a two dimensional coordinate system, opening up a purely mathematical space full of transformations, oscillations and calculations. Since, in laypersons terms, physical well being is the absence of pain, and bliss the opposite of horror or fear, and since humanoid bodies tend to even out extreme conditions, the body itself provides us with the perfect framework for situative emotional transfers. The look in your eyes tells me you don't believe me, but don't worry, you soon will."

Noran struggles against the belts and tries to get up - marvels of engineering holding him firm in place. Alaris gets up from the seat they took on the slanted stone slab that keeps Norans lying body at a 30 degree angle, enough for him to easily see Alaris' every move, the implements and the massive iron door with the spyhole that he does not know what lies beyond. He woke up in here hours ago after being snatched from the busy market in the middle of the day - hours, days ago?

Alaris looks over their shoulder while putting together what seems to be a dagger holding vials with various odd looking liquids and intricate channels connecting these containers to various points on the blade: "I will let you in on the little secret - how I found out, one can, in a controlled way, invoke one of the most raw and blissful sensations in another being. Remeber the night we first met?"

Alaris looks deep into those stale, nearly unhuman eyes, looking for but a hint of recognition - nothing.

"I remeber it vividly. I was on my way home from a wonderful evening, taking delight in a magnificient play. Unexpectedly I met friends I had not seen in a while, exchanged pleasantries and shared some drinks with them. Undoubtedly my trip home took place in the blissful aftermath of a joyous evening."

The dagger now put together, Alaris turns around, carefully holding it by the blade, taking slow intentful steps to the stone slab which started to tilt ever so slightly to a more horizontal position, a couple of inches higher than Alaris' hip. The movement sends shivers down Noran, his eyes wide open, seemingly trying to escape his skull at the sight of the blade and the undying smile of his opposite - speech has still forsaken him.

"I had just boarded one of the boats and taken a seat next to other fellow travellers. Honestly: I did not realize you joining our company at first, taking a seat opposite of my own. I was, as those three others, preoccupied with reading and daydreaming. It must have been a solid five minutes before I realized, something about the atmosphere had changed. You surely know the eerie feeling when eyes seem to pierce you, look into your very being. The moment I saw your eyes fixing me there, opposite you - your blank lustful stare - that moment my heart started to race as yours does now. My lungs refused to operate calmly and regularly and my knees and hands were hard to keep from trembling, just as yours are now."

Alaris fixes Norans eyes - still just a blank stare of fear; nothing; no recognition. Alaris mutters three words in an ancient language, calmly draws an encantation with their left hand in front of their face. At once, Norans left hand is under their complete and utter control, the realization of which widens Norans eyes even wider. Simultaneously, the tattoos on Alaris face fade and their face and appearance shift to a more female looking, younger version of theirself. There it is - spasms on Norans face tell Alaris, that their opposite starts to recognize in whos hands he finds himself. Muscles tense, his face shifts through various emotions; lust; guilt; and finally settles on terror, tears start welling up on his face, his throat tightens so much, no sound escapes. Alaris places the grip of the dagger in Norans hand and mentally clutches it firmly. The belt holding the left arm losens, as Alaris moves Norans hand to his right thigh by pure will power, the blade just barely scratching the skin on its way there.

"After I saw your eyes, and quickly studied your appearance, already in fear, I could not take my eyes from your left hand stroking your thigh, not unlike right now, concealed just enough by a backpack, so our fellow travellers were none the wiser - yet, you chose, I should know. And just in the moment I wanted to take some action against this repellent situation, you skillfully silenced me by faintly touching my foot with your own. I was, just as you are now, rendered a passive observer within my own body, helplessly watching you still your perverse satisfaction."

Noran now sobbing from fear still tries to struggle against the belts. With another movement of the hand, Alaris young, feminine appearance changed back to the uncanny, arcanely tattooed form of their current self. They could feel anger rushing thorugh their veins, but quickly swich back to their calm, meditative flow, not for a second losing their ever so slight smile.

"You should know as well as I do, what happened afterwards; suffice it to say - you broke me that night. I could be furious about this, would I not be thankful for what it taught me - and this will always be our little secret."

Alaris pushes the three vials slightly further into their compartments in the grip of the dagger, the liquids quickly fill the channels without forming drops on the blade. Mentally, Alaris starts increasing the preassure of Norans own hand against his own thigh, right where it pleasured him so immensly 25 years ago. Not inch by inch, micrometer by micrometer the blade starts pushing into the thigh.

"You see, I found, after coming to terms and analyzing what had happened that night, that this evening as a whole was not so very much different from what one experiences in sexual orgasm; just slowed by some extreme factor. The orgeastic sensation really is nothing but a rapid oscillation of extreme bliss and an extreme perversion of pain. It really is impossible to tell whether a face is in pain or in orgeastic joy - you couldn't categorize it for yourself. Your hole body simultaneously contracts and relaxes as your heart rate and breath grows increasigly fast and arythmical." The blade pushes slowly but steadily further into his leg, an ever so slight drop of blood forms at the incision, the skin hisses slightly as if burned, as the first channel touches it. Norans voice starts coming back as a pressed cry, which is quickly hushed by a localized silence spell cast on his throat.

"For every extreme, the body automatically compensates with another extreme. Just like that, situational emotion transfer becomes but a matter of pain, fear and timing. And you, my lucky friend, you are in for a real treat:"

Alaris, momentarily stepped away, comes back to the table with two metal rods not unlike the ones used with Tesla coils catching lightning in some of the larger cities. "Tonight, and in the following weeks, we shall see, how intense oscillation of pain and its absence, the bodily compensatory mechanisms, and precise timing result in the spiritual cleansing or awakening of a broken mind. You my friend, will not take 25 years, to learn what I have - quite literally - painstakingly pieced together over decades. Life is pain, but once we are done, you will grasp how to take delight in it..."

Noran, by Alaris will pushes the blade further in, feeling consciousness slip, right before a searing current thorugh his spine brings it back and contracts every muscle in his body. Neither unconsciousness nor death are a way out. There is no way out. Alaris uncannily smiles and continues their mentally transformative, skillful emotional transfer ...

Story, DnD, Psychological Horror, Body Horror