As the last rays of sunlight dipped under the horizon, Esther felt something totally unexpected: Contact.  Suddenly her mind was connected to that alien thought process again; words, feeling, and emotions jumbled together, forming something only vaguely like coherent sentences.<br/><br/><em>The Source fades/ the weak-cycle begins/ hunger is sated.  We hunt/ not to feed/ Host hunts the Parasite.  Without the Source hunger sleeps/ The Host will find strength in our weakness.  Contact is difficult/ the Host is unlearnable/ yet we learn.  Beware the Parasite/ Protect the Emissary/ Beware the Heretic.  We sleep.</em><br/><br/>Through the rush of conflicting sensations, Esther felt one sensation very clearly: The Other moving.  Trailing icy-hot pleasure up her back, across her shoulder, up her neck... she felt a sensation that she imagined was exactly like a snake's tongue flicking her ear, and numbing pleasure radiated from the point of contact.  The Other shifted down to nestle in the small of her back again, and its thoughts abruptly receded from hers.  Once again the communion with an alien mind left Esther dizzy, unsteady on her feet.  This time at least she remained standing.<br/><br/>And then one revelation was followed by another.  The sun vanished entirely beneath the horizon in a glorious orange sunset... and suddenly the Lust was<em>gone</em>, like a switch being flipped.  Esther still felt normal, human arousal.  But the irresistible, supernatural lust that had been subtly driving her actions since she woke up that morning simply and abruptly left her - possibly leaving her aware for the first time just how much affect it had been having on her.<br/><br/>And then...<br/><br/>((OOC:<strong>Rule Discovered!</strong>During the night, transhumans are not affected by their Lust score and are not vulnerable to temptation.))<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>From a haze of shadow, slowly Esther clawed her way back to consciousness.  A room.  She was in a dark room.  Dark was good - her head hurt.  She was lying in a bed.  It was daytime - she could tell that not from the room, which had no windows, but from her connection with the Other.  Her whole body was sore, and she was hungry.  But not Hungry, fortunately.<br/><br/>Movement in the corner of her eye.  Someone was in the room with her, holding a candle - the little light painful to look at.  Still, she was able to focus on the unexpected face.<br/><br/>"So..." Marshall asked, "How much of last night do you remember?"