The figure floated towards Luna slowly.
She was petrified.
She couldn't decide whether to run or stay. Or if the decision even mattered.
After all, the thing could be hoping she would run away, and it might get more enjoyment out of the interaction, then maybe actually release her. Or it could get caught up in the hunt and kill her as soon as it caught her.
Then again, it could want her to stay still, if it didn't like expending a lot of energy, so that it didn't have to chase her to try to speak to her, or see her suffering.
Luna grimaced. Just going over it again and again in her mind wouldn't help at all. She just didn't know enough. All she knew was its completely innocent expression, more curious than hungry, angry, or sadistic. And its very threatening words.
She decided to stay. Not that it mattered. At this point, she had been worrying so long that the manifestation could easily reach out and grab her arm even before she got to her feet, much less before she started running.
"No answer?" The female ghost asked with a slightly disappointed expression. "Are you boring too? I can't have any fun with boring people."
Luna nervously straightened, and tried to say that she wasn't boring, but as soon as she opened her mouth, the same pressure that was all around forced its way into her mouth, keeping it locked open, unable to close or even move.
Her throat burned as the pressure began to push down, slowly straining her inner systems past their limits. Starting with the most important one.
If Luna lost the ability to breathe, she would be utterly helpless. Not to mention dead.
The apparition leaned down closer to her, frowning now.
"Just gaping? You're like everyone else."
The frown deepened, then she leaned even closer, reaching for her neck, presumably to snap it and put her out of her misery.
But then the ghost's expression froze.
Slowly, her nostrils flared, then a small puff of translucent blue mist came out of her mouth along with a little sigh of pleasure, and the pressure on Luna faded away as the breath came out.
It appeared that this interdimensional space responded to the state of mind of its mistress.
But Luna had no idea why she had so suddenly stopped. She looked over the snakeskin, blinking a few times to make sure that nothing was wrong.
No, she didn't seem hurt, or even present at all. She was entranced, like something delicious had just caught her attention....
Gods no, say it isn't true.
Could it possibly the scent of her arousal from last night?
If it was, then it was quite possible that she was fucked. Figuratively, with a distinct possibility of it becoming literal quite quickly.
"I'm sorry," Luna said. She tried to keep her voice as gentle but caring as possible, though admittedly it was a little rough still from last night's activities. "I wasn't prepared to-"
She cut herself off, then bit her lip.
Did she do it?
Did she not do it?
Focus, Luna. Which one has a better chance of getting you out alive?
Fine.
"I wasn't prepared to see such a beautiful woman," Luna finished her sentence, pushing back with her hands to raise herself into a more proper and comfortable sitting position.
And while she would likely hardly ever have said that sentence under normal circumstances, these circumstances were certainly not normal.
And it wasn't like she was lying, either.
Artifacts drew their manifestations from the thoughts of the people around them, and as such, often had traits that mixed multiple races, but that also meant that they were very rarely attractive.
For its manifestation to be attractive, an artifact would have had to sit near one singular person, with no one else inside the sphere of influence, for as long as it took to imprint the form of their ideal person (or persona) into it, which would be quite a while, especially if the person didn't often think about the thing that was to be implanted in the artifact.
Of course, that led to the line of the idea that someone who was naturally more into visualization than other people would make the process faster.
Meaning, naturally, that the fastest way to make an attractive manifestation for an artifact was to have someone who was very into imaginary sex importing the image.
The only downside?
The form isn't the only thing that nearby people can plant into an artifact when it's forming.
In other words, most artifacts with attractive manifestations also had very horny manifestations.
In Luna's current position, that wasn't exactly a good thing.