auroraexpress | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: You
When: Day 52, morning
Where: Anywhere

[Of course there's still the flowers that, when stepped on, enhance or dull a sense, and there are still some chocolates in the lounge if you missed them or want more.

But this morning dawns with an infestation of bats.

That is, tiny tiny clockwork bats that get in your hair and coffee and make tiny tiny clockwork bat screeches.

Should you encounter a clockwork bat, and they're pretty hard to dodge, the next person you talk to will... Well, see one of your memories.

Otherwise it seems like a pretty typical morning, and the bats will be gone by afternoon.]

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Of course, nothing here would be simple and what they seem.

What can we expect from these? Is there a pattern to what new things do?

[CW: torture and mind control. One of his worst memories.]

I haven't been here long enough to see patterns. Shouldn't trust weird sounds outside. Otherwise....emotional maybe? But that's a wide ran-

[She's used to the memory thing. Very used to it and it being horrible. Death, destruction, even physical abuse much like the torture. At least enough to not be immediately sick.]

[But the contents hit something deep. That dark feeling the destruction god provoked, making something stir and she gasps, stumbling back, the whites of her eyes flashing black before she trips over her hooves and hits the ground.]

Solar Flare? [There's some alarm and concern in his voice and he moves to catch and support her, then turns to look at the bats suspiciously.] What happened?

[Her head snaps up to look at him, turquoise on black, dark energy flickering on her horn.]

[Then she blinks and the energy is gone and her eyes are normal, the dark....thing quieting back down as he supports her.]

I...that....I wasn't touching you, I shouldn't have...have....

[Looking up at the bat.] Was it them....?

Your horn. It was reacting as if you were using your magic. This... effect... did it use your magic against your will?

[He scowls at the bats.] If this has never happened before, these things are the most likely cause. But there were none closer to you than to me when... you nearly collapsed, and I did not notice anything in myself.

Maybe? I don't know how I look when I use it as a pony.

That....isn't solely based on the magic itself. I think. My luck hasn't been good on what it gets.

Your eyes turned dark and your visible magic was dark as well. Quite different from how you looked when you demonstrated your telekinesis.

"What 'it' gets"? Perhaps you should tell me what you experienced.

...what? No, that....that can't be right. That's dark magic. That'd need hate or anger....

[Then again who knows what feeling someone else's can do for that.]

...well.... [Some people have been kind of Upset About This and she did this on ACCIDENT instead of trying to help....]

Solar Flare. If these things can use your magic and turn it dark, and you do not know how they managed it, that is all the more reason to explain what you experienced. Even if you do not understand it, with more minds working on the puzzle, it is more likely that we can understand it, or at the very least prevent it from happening again and causing harm.

[Grimaces.] ....true. Especially since what I'm doing is....way beyond most Equestrian magic.

[But boy, he's sure gonna ask what she saw and that's gonna be. So fun.]

It's a highly efficient form of....mind reading doesn't quite cover it. It's mind reading, it's memories, it's emotions. There's certainly spells to see the mind or link dreams, but those spells are always complicated, difficult, and near impossible to effectively utilize if the subject is unwilling to help guide the caster. Usually the only good utility use of them is to root out other invaders, like psychic parasites, then to find information.

I don't need guidance. I don't need to focus, I didn't even know it existed when I used it the first time. The girl hadn't even realized something had happened until I threw up.

[Oh, it is already so much fun. Loki's face goes through a whole range of emotions. Rage. Disgust. Fear. Even a little pity. He clenches his fists and his teeth and takes several deep breaths before replying.]

I... would ask that you never use that power on me without my permission, which I am very unlikely to give. If your power gets used without your intention, then let me know.

[He takes a few more deep breaths and puts on a mask of calm.]

I have no shortage of memories that could inspire hate or anger. Which one were you unfortunate enough to receive?

[There's a bit of a bristle at the look of PITY.]

[But then it's another grimace.] Yeah, that's the thing. I don't actually know how to control it. I have zero knowledge from home and I've only used it...five times now, I guess? I think my intentions effect it? At least if I really do want to know something and seek it out, I can get it to go off, but those two times were very....bad circumstances, so stress may have been a factor. I think touch is required normally. So if it was the bats, it makes magic go off, and boosts it.

I might be able to stop it if I focus, but I don't know for sure, and it's not exactly an easy thing to just ask someone to experiment with.

... [Shifts awkwardly. Sighs.] There was this....guy? With a scepter. Talking about a Mind Stone and joining Thanos and showed you some guys talking about unlimited power.

[Frowning.] It was....lacking a lot of context. Which is different. The other times gave more context, it seemed like. Except for Desdemona and Penric...

[He knows that memory. It was the first time he'd ever used the Mind Stone. Possibly... possibly the first time it had been used on him, though even now he wasn't sure when exactly he had been under its effects. The Black Order had been trying to wear him down, and in that moment, he broke. He was grateful to them for giving him that power. He did exactly as they wanted. And even though he had shown defiance when the power was snatched away, that moment of weakness would never be erased.]

Be grateful that you did not receive any context.

[That's all he says, but his fist clenches and he smacks it against the nearest wall. He looks at it in surprise, then deliberately waves his hand at the nearest bat. It's thrown backwards and torn in two.]

They did not have any effect on my magic, that I can tell. And they can be destroyed.

It is a pity you have not found any who would be willing to assist you in experimenting and learning control. I know of a few, but they are all far away. I myself cannot be a subject.

...yeah, kind of am. It'd take a lot to match with the worst, but I'd rather not have a competition in my head. [Kind of a distant look because god. GOD. So much violence and trauma and it's been NINE DAYS.]

[Shakes her head.] Is there any magic you'd call a special talent? It might be the most 'you' magic it keys into. Or maybe mental magic. Though I'm not sure if anyone else has any mental magic that isn't an internal weird thing.

I'm not sure how many people on this train who would be. Trauma doesn't seem to be in short supply. I may need to grab an amnesiac whose naturally trusting. That might be the closest thing I could get to a control group.

[He can so get behind that look. And that sentiment. He hasn't shared more than a fraction of his worst experiences with the people he trusts most. In part because he doesn't want to think about it himself, and telling others means bringing it all to the forefront to compete for which is worst.]

My best talent is in illusions, and I do not sense any I did not intentionally create.

[He gives a bleak, mirthless laugh.] And so we are a train of the broken, subjected to tortures to break us further, and yet tasked with saving the world, when we cannot even fix ourselves?

Ah, so that's the clothes. I was wondering if that was transmutation or illusion.

...hmmm. It'd be real annoying if it was just hitting mental abilities. I'm pretty sure there's not a lot of that on the train. [Huffs. Looking at the bats.] Unless they did the memory transfer themselves? It could explain the lack of context...

Looking for people with spirits to overcome tragedy maybe? [Sardonically.]

[Nod] I have long preferred to personalize my attire through my illusions.

If the bats are causing memory transfer, others will have noticed. I could ask. I do not think we should attempt to replicate the effect ourselves.

Perhaps. Or he expects us to ruin the world in our attempts to help.

Certainly saves on bits.

Probably not. My life is fine for the most part, but the stuff I got from other people is terrible. We can ask around.

...that is the question I've been pondering. How the only reason I've given him any sort of benefit of a doubt. Bond magic sounds an awful lot like harmony magic and it is called harmony magic for a reason.

And far easier to change to suit the occasion.

[Another nod]

One of the first rules of magic I was taught is that there is no magic, no matter how benign, that cannot be perverted with a twisted enough mind. I would look to the results of the bond magic for confirmation that it is a positive, not merely its similarity to a magic you consider incorruptible.

That too, I suppose. Generally ponies only put on clothes because there's a special occasion, not so weird if they don't have something.

But corrupted magic is also not some 'bleh now evil magic doing harm.' Corrupted magic is the corruption of that magic. This magic is running on interpersonal connection as it's basis.

A corrupted form of that....it'd be something affecting people emotionally or mentally. Mind control being an obvious example of a corrupted interpersonal bond.

...which in theory could potentially explain the memory loss. Less sure about power loss. But that also isn't a chicken and the egg situation, there had to be an original source of magic if that was the case.

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