auroraexpress | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only