⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[spaghettimonster]

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.

[dressedtothe]

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.

[spaghettimonster]

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."

[dressedtothe]

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.

[spaghettimonster]

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.