>Do we think we could try to cleanse ourselves with a less obvious visual display? The last times we dealt with mental corruption, it was on a purely mental level, no? We know the shape of the invader in our system. We know it does not belong. Can we essentially mentally separate the foreign from ourselves?
>Do any of the nearby pews effectively block sight lines to the sacred flame, if we were prone behind one?
>Cleanse? Oh right, cleanse. Less visual display, yes. Maybe. Probably have to, moving is... sort of hard. If you moved to... where? Where are you? It's dark in here.
>Right, the flame. Why's it so dark? Flames are supposed to be bright. Aren't they?
>Take a moment and try to regain our focus. Remember why we are here, and what we have to do.
>Center ourself. We follow the the way of the Buddha. We understand that this effort to throw us off is but an illusion. Not an illusion of light, as a mirage, but rather an illusion of the world. This is but an element of Samsara trying to impede upon our mind and impose suffering. But this suffering, as all suffering, is an illusion. We proved this to ourself just earlier today when we withstood the pain of broken ribs, yet did not let it impede us. We we can overcome this as we over came that pain. Confusion may buffet us, but to the enlightened a scorching day is pleasantly cool, confusion is merely a distant tap upon clarity.
>Try as you might, any kind of organized thought escapes you. The poison scatters thought like a bully kicking over a sand castle, and the parts of your mind that don't feel like a tornado is in there are blanketed by a kind of static, buzzing and cracking and blinding and stifling. Either one, you might be able to overcome. But both is beyond you. You try to struggle against them as best as you can, but your will fails you. Your strength fails you. Sight leaves you. Sound leaves you. Smell leaves you. And then, at last, consciousness leaves you.
>...
>...
>...
>Eons later, you rise from a dark slumber. Your head feels heavy, and thoughts do not come easily. Something happened to you, but what?
>Oh right, the flame chamber. The voice. And then... The spider. The spider and its poison. And that psychic assault. But the memories do not come easily. You are now thinking at least clearly enough to recognize that something is still affecting your mind. And that, perhaps more alarmingly, you cannot move.
>No that's not quite accurate. You can raise your hands feet but only barely. Something is binding you. In fact, it feels like you are stuck to something, something at least as large as your body.
>And then you hear a voice, one that sounds fairly familiar, "Are you awake?" You think the voice belongs to... Satori? It takes you a long moment to conjure up the name, but when you do, it sends a jolt of dread through your body. Somehow, you manage to open your eyes. It is indeed the head of the temple standing before you, though not clad in her miko vestments. She seems deceptively harmless in her pale blue shirt buttoned with yellow heart shaped buttons, frilly pink skirt with a faint flowery pattern and pink shoes. She even seems vaguely surprised, and smiling because of it. Despite the interference in your mind, something about that smile makes you nervous.
