lostcarnival | ⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

Who: Everybody!
When: Day 64
Where: The Camping Grounds
What: While the Ringmaster attempts to purge the carnival of magical tracing spells and deal with the angry fire fae in her belly, everyone else is getting sent on an emergency camping trip with some unusual local fauna.
Warnings: Camping.

CRYPTIC CAMPGROUNDS↴

You're given about three hours to prepare, after the Ringmaster tells you her plans for the coming week. There is a vast selection of camping equipment at your disposal, and the means to take along enough food for the length of the stay. The wilderness of the planet you're left on is nearly idyllic, but some people just don't like the great outdoors.

► CRYPTOZOOLOGY: As it turns out, the carnival won't be alone here. There is a varied ecosystem of cryptids to be found as well, living in relative peace and mostly reacting to the newcomers with curiousity. More details can be found on the plotting post. You are free to NPC the cryptids as much as you need to, as long as you stick to the behaviours described.

► DREAMSHARING: There is a player plot going on which will allow characters to share dreams! These are specifically more dreams than nightmares, and the mushi-adept characters will be here to help.

► CHILLAX: There isn't any plot twist for this setting, so this is mostly an opportunity to decompress from the last plot and get ready for the future. The Ringmaster will show up occasionally to help with needed medical treatments and check on things, but won't stick around for long.

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Whoa! He wasn't expecting Papyrus to get it, especially after his initial tangent. Papyrus has never struck him as particularly intelligent, though the skeleton is certainly well meaning enough.

"Yeah, actually. Hacking lets me get through firewalls. People don't have firewalls in the digital sense." 9S waves a hand as he continues. "But people have wills, the capacity for autonomy. So for you biological beings, your will serves as one component of your firewall. If you don't have any other defences, " like Strange and his spellbreaking, "then that's the only protection you have."

And it isn't enough.

Admittedly, what Papyrus knows about hacking is haphazard and full of television inaccuracies. The literal walls of fire used in MTT productions were inspiring, and the carnival's time in the Matrix and and the Mainframe only gave him a scattering of information past the general knowledge from growing up with computers.

"'Hacking' living people, to get through their firewills," he repeats, amused with his own turn of phrase. "What do you when you're in? Isn't hacking for turning things off?"

If it's just a power for turning people to sleep, there's lots of ways to make that happen... but, extending 9S' current powers to do it is probably easier than a whole new thing.

Hmm, well Papyrus isn't wrong, per se.

"That's one way of putting it. Let's say one of us gets mind controlled," because that sure happens a lot!! "and is trying to hurt members of the Carnival."

He hadn't been too bothered by coming up against Papyrus, not having much personal connection to him. But what if it's Rita again? He killed her that time, but if this is the way to bring her back, then he has to master this.

"Theoretically, I should be able to hack them and take back control. Or if that doesn't work, I could disable some of their ability to fight while the rest of us capture them. That's the intention, anyway." In a rare moment of empathy, 9S adds, "If you'd rather not go through this after what happened in Wismuths... that's okay."

Oh boy it sure does. They both know it. So it's a relief when 9S pushes forward with hypotheticals... instead of too-familiar particulars...

But less of a relief when those elaborations come out.

"S-So, you learned a little mind control, yourself?" It does sound like what happened in Wismuth. Forcing through somebody's will, into peoples' minds, and... changing them. He shudders, and focuses on the bottom line here. "And... You could stop people from hurting anybody?"

"I didn't learn 'mind control'," 9S corrects primly. "This was something I was always able to do... to mechanical beings."

And the number of mechanical beings they encounter in any of the places they go to is a big zero, so of course he's never been able to use the very functions that define his entire model. So really, the only reason he hadn't used his hacking to solve more of their problems is because he couldn't.

"But... yeah, that's the plan. If I can't break someone else's mind control," though that would be the ideal outcome, "then I can at least make them less dangerous."

"Ohhh," Papyrus draws out, giving himself time to think with the sound.

A misfortune of timing, with their visits lately so focused on fae and the acquisition of knowledge and power. Though it's funny that 9S could do that kind of thing to mechanical beings, being a mechanical being himself... Could he hack himself? And would that be any different than just really stubbornly deciding something?

"Well! I commend your choice. Hurting each other is terrible, and nobody wants it. What you're offering... is leagues ahead. Friendship, and love," the main tools people tried using in Wismuth to rescue the Harbingers, "...Well, they help, but they only do so much, against this stuff."

9S can indeed hack himself; it's a necessary part of his maintenance, especially when there's no other androids about to do it for him.

"Well, yeah," 9S says, rolling his eyes. Not that Papyrus can see it while his eyes are covered by his visor. "Friendship and love doesn't stop a sword coming at you."

They're nice and all, but in battle, they have no practical use. On the battlefield, things like the morality of mind control have no place. Use the tools at your disposal, that's the way he's always seen it.

"...So, will you let me practice?"

Technically, he doesn't need permission, but he supposes the Carnival members aren't machines so they should at least have the choice. Except for Strange; he needs to get back at that guy.

An eyeroll is as much in the turning of one's head and the tone of one's voice, plenty of clues to be had, but Papyrus still doesn't catch it. He's not super perceptive to others' feelings at the best of times, and there's a lot of other things on his mind.

"Not without them diving in front of the sword... which would be terrible," which should really go without saying. Nobody wants someone they care about to protect them by getting hurt instead. "But, they can convince people to put the sword down, sometimes."

Sometimes, but not often enough. Not nearly often or quickly enough.

"For all those other times... I accept! Please practice, and become a master of mind-hackery."

He doesn't want to hurt his brother again.

Hah! When has words ever worked on someone who's raised a weapon against him? Never, that's when. And it especially won't work with unfetterred mind control factored in.

Well, with that vote of permission, 9S gets to work immediately. Without even a word of warning or allowing Papyrus time to prepare himself, 9S raises his hand, a glowing ring of light encircling his wrist, and fires what appears to be a ball of energy -- moving so fast it almost seems to be a beam -- at Papyrus. There will be no physical pain at the intrusion as 9S hacks in and throws his consciousness inside of Papyrus' mind.

Typically on a hack against a machine, he'll come up against their defenses, but their memories -- either those deeply rooted in their being, or ones that are currently on their mind -- typically float to the surface. Echoes of words, more than images, tend to be more powerfully rooted in the psyche, so thus that's the form memories usually take.

That's precisely why mind control is so frightening to Papyrus. Normally people can choose to stop fighting. They usually don't, because they're scared or they really believe in whatever made them start, but they can - especially when love and friendship are on the line. He's stubbornly sure that anyone can choose not to kill, can choose to be a positive influence on others, can choose to be a better person, if they try. Experiences with fae have at least convinced him that yes, some people have a very, very hard time of it, and would need a lot of help in figuring out what a good person is... But if the Ringmaster can do it, any of them could. Eventually. If they tried.

But mind control shuts down peoples' ability to try, at all. No power to choose, to work hard at anything but what they're made to want. Even if it's not as scary as his time in the void... There's a helplessness to it all.

Papyrus stiffens at the light like he expects it to hurt, as it looks almost like a blast, but there's no pain to the light, and he frowns as he tries to notice what 9S is doing.

Given the context of what they're doing and why Papyrus is (willingly) doing it, the first things on his mind have to do with mind control. "Please don't do this," gently and broken, denying without any real heat or belief behind it. "But I was on my own," "you want to go back! Where, you'll get hurt you even more?"

But more generally, more deeply, there's the patterns of who he is. Echoing laughter - practiced laughter, "Nyeh heh heh" and other positive statements repeated like mantras to convince himself to believe in them. A static of garbled words, distorted and fading in and out, out which abruptly rises "You didn't even know he was gone."

Ngh. What the hell is this? It's not unlike the echoes he heard in Strange's head, but it's much harder to make sense of them... and it's much harder for him to find the neural pathways that will let him tap into Papyrus' functions. Papyrus is no human, so the practice on Strange isn't much of a guide into helping him work through the tangled weave of Papyrus' mind.

Frowning internally -- and trying to ignore the weird static -- 9S reaches out with his mind, trying to take control of Papyrus' motor functions. "Let's start simple," he murmurs to himself before issuing a command.

Take 5 steps back and do a dance.

Papyrus still isn't sure what he's looking for - listening for? feeling for? - when he starts stepping backwards. It's almost like moving back out of nervousness, but he doesn't feel any more nervous than before. And his legs keep going, even once he tries to stay bravely put.

"Uh," he says aloud, frowning down at his legs as they go from simple steps to some more complicated motion. Is this... a jig? "Okay... I knew this wouldn't be easy, but this is... How do I do this?"

It's like he needs to dance, trying to just stop dancing hardly slows his movement. The closest he gets to success is as he thinks of other types of dances, and his body falters before switching rhythms.

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

oh papyrus you sweet summer child...

he'll connect the dots . . . eventually

fireWILLs LMAO

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