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An entry to the contest at Seventh Sanctum! When I first saw this prompt, I thought it was meant for me. I like to entertain the idea of magic systems interacting with the physical realm... it's the whole basis for The Renalis Anthology.
Mechanical Exorcism
Nio Ivaldi's father was a famous scientist who had been notoriously known for his paranormal interests. The two of them lived in an old house overlooking the cemeteries at the edge of town where he could conduct his experiments. At the time, he was at the edge of a breakthrough in terms of harvesting the souls of the dead for their astral energy.
His progress was expedited when an accident of the most tragic sort occurred, and the young Nio was unprecidentally killed. With his motivation now personal, he successfully constructed an instrument that was able to capture her spirit, similarly to how a radio can receive a designated wavelength. He placed this receiver within a doll fashioned in the likeness of his daughter, wiring it into the limbs with such precision that she would be able to have fine motor control over each finger and joint, not unlike a living human being.
When she awoke, she was devastated by her new appearance. She had little time to coax her father into releasing her soul, because soon news leaked into the scientific community about his discovery. The possibilities of his breakthrough were endless. One could harness an unlimited energy source, raise up an army of puppets that no longer feared death, or ultimately, have immortality at his grasp.
This new knowledge threatened their peaceful life, and led to further tragedy. In the power struggle, her father's adversaries managed to burn down their home, kill the renowned scientist and steal his data. Nio managed to flee with a single volume of her father's research.
As the firstborn of her father's forbidden work, Nio put it upon herself to atone for its disastrous results. For months she put together her own invention, proving herself worthy of her father's legacy. Assembling together an old phonograph and radio transmitter, she tuned her weapon to play a frequency that could to interfere with an astral capturing device. Once she protected her own core by sealing it in a vacuum-tight container, she successfully completed a device that she could use to exorcise any container animated by a deceased spirit.
Even today, she can be seen roaming the cemeteries and streets of the city at night, seeking out any dead that still walk among the living in their mechanical vessels. She knows not who her enemy is, or for what reason they continue to create more dolls of her kind, but her one wish is that once she sees through to the complete destruction of her father's work, she will destroy her own core to release her mechanically bound soul, and finally die in the peace she has longed for for so long.
2012-02-15 07:12 am (UTC)
2012-02-15 06:19 pm (UTC)
It does seem like a manga idea, in a way! For now I'm just locking this idea away until an opportunity for something more tangible arises. I do that a lot @_@
2012-02-16 10:18 am (UTC)