Turn 52

--- Maya ---

Finding herself unable to sleep, she rolled out of bed and grabbed her laptop before looking up everything she could about Slaver effects and how to snap her brother out of one.

The first thing she learned -(disturbingly enough)- was that almost all Deviants beyond certain thresholds were capable of developing Slaver effects if they wanted.

Psychics, most obviously, were capable of developing their Slaver effect from the get-go, however unlike media would have many believe they were not capable of instantly reaching in and brainwashing people to do their bidding. Instead the power involved them slowly manipulating a person’s emotions until they felt what said psychic wanted them to feel from particular stimuli and reacted the way said psychic wanted.

(Well hopefully that means we can write psychics off as responsible for this mess.)

(Hopefully.)

Scrolling down to the section on how to break as psychic’s slaver effect, she couldn’t help but grimace as she learned that, (the psychic’s Slaver effect slowly becomes permanent and in-turn can take years to complete undo.)

(That’s… not good…) Her inner passion admitted, unable to think of anything else to say.

(Quite…)

Shivering a bit, she moved on to the next effect belonging to Deadmen and more commonly referred to as possession or overshadowing. An effect that allowed certain Deadmen to temporarily wear a non-Deviant’s body and use it as their own.

(Which is ten different kinds of creepy.)

(True.) Her inner reason agreed before more optimistically pointing out the fact that, (only more spectral Deadmen are capable of this, and it’s fairly obvious when they’re doing so due to having complete control of their host without any of the native mannerisms. And this is before considering the fact that the ‘possessed’s’ eyes will glow green when the Deadman becomes emotional.)

“Well, I guess that means Tommy isn’t ‘possessed’ at the very least…” Since she hadn’t seen any green eyes, and he’d been a little too on point with his reactions to be someone faking them.

Still to be safe she looked up how the effect was cancelled, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the effect could at most last a few hours since the body jacker would be burning through their energy supply the entire time they were possessing someone, and unlike other Deviancies Deadmen needed their power source to live. (If you want to call it that.)

The next most common Slaver effect to come across belonged to Slashers, (or a sub-type of them anyway), that worked as a form of super persuasion and functioned similarly enough in the fact that people could resist it and be simply talked out of whatever effect they were under, (if with some difficulty dependent on just how persuasive the Slasher in question had been.)

(Funny how the scariest Deviancy has the easiest effect to break.) Her inner passion laughed in a way that didn’t carry much amusement.

(Hopefully the rest are that easy to break.) She told herself, purposefully skipping over the part about just how some Slashers used this super persuasion as a kill method.

The next one wasn’t.

Certain Arcane who delved into mind magics could apparently develop a way of forcibly overwhelming a person and essentially puppeting their body. An ability responsible for the fact that the Arcane Association -a powerful advocate for magic development, teaching, and transparency- kept the concept and its spells highly restricted beyond a few calming effects that had been approved by Sanctuary and the Heroes’ Guild both.

(Meaning if it is this kind of effect it might just be beyond our pay grade…) She frowned.

(Does that mean you’re going to back off if it is?) Her inner madness growled.

(Fuck no.) She snarled back, reading the section on how the easiest way to shatter these effects was to capture the Arcane responsible, and let a professional break the bond from there.

(So we’d have to hunt down whoever went after Tommy in that case.) Her inner passion figured as the whispers offered several tracking ideas.

(Or we hire a hunter to hunt them down and help Tommy.) Her inner reason told them. (We might want to deal with this ourselves but we don’t want to go in half-cocked and make things worse. What’s more that is the route our parents are liable to take if they don’t involve Sanctuary or the Heroes’ Guild.)

(Maybe…) She admitted bitterly.

(But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.)

(Quite.)

Running a hand down her face she moved on to M.A.D.s who… were not subtle in their mind control methods given how most seemed to revolve around installing tech into or onto their victim’s brains be it organic or mechanical tech.

She was very glad she couldn’t actually make out what the whispers were saying about this topic.

(That we can build it, but that we’re nowhere near the level necessary for it.) Her inner madness supplied (un)helpfully.

(Thank you.) She growled sarcastically, before skipping to how a number of Wonderlanders had a passive Slaver effect that while not particularly powerful, did remove the inhibitions of those caught within it causing them to act drunk or exasperate underlying conditions. With the actual scale of said effects being proportional to how much power they had as well as inversely proportional to how much control they had.

(Meaning they’re effect grows with power but shrinks with control.) Her inner logic summarized. (And the effect fades rather rapidly once outside of their field of effect.)

(True, though there’s also something about not keeping Wonderlander enhanced objects nearby, because it’ll renew the effect even if in a much smaller range.) She read, trying to remember if she’d seen Tommy with any odd items recently.

(None that I can recall.)

“Okay so that just leaves Malcontent.” She murmured to herself, before pulling up what little information she could on the last Deviancy to make itself known.

Something that was difficult thanks to the fact that the Malcontent were -relatively speaking- the newest Deviancy as well as the one with the smallest chance of occurrence with only an estimated two-thousand to be found within the US’s estimated three-million Deviant population.

Their Slaver effect however was surprisingly detailed, explaining how while a Malcontent could make people do what they say, it was usually limited to two or three word commands, could be resisted with enough willpower, and the effect usually only lasted for a few minutes at most.

(It’s a little suspicious just how much information there is on this, when everything else on them is so scarce.) Her inner madness noted.

(True…) It was a bit odd just how detailed this subject was compared to other Deviancies and even just other information on the Malcontent.

(Perhaps since Slaver effects are automatically considered evil, a well intentioned Malcontent publicized as much information as they could on the power, to make the Deviancy seem less intimidating?) Her inner reason guessed.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

(Maybe, but you can’t get very un-intimidating when you eat people.) Her inner passion scoffed.

(And if it was written by a Malcontent trying to do that then it makes the whole thing suspect…) She had to agree.

Scene Consequences

-Maya has a better understanding of Slaver Effects and how each Deviancy uses them.

---

Getting through school that day was more difficult than usual thanks to obvious reasons, her classes doing little to drag her out of her thoughts revolving around Tommy and what kind of Slaver effect he could be under. As well as the drag her lack of sleep put on her making it difficult to put up with the tedium of sitting through lectures on subjects she probably knew better than her teachers.

(At least this was the last class of the day.) She couldn’t help but think with something resembling relief as she made her way through her school halls.

“So city park correct?” A familiar voice asked with a hint of amusement, drawing her attention to Ying who was walking while talking on her phone. “Alright, see you soon.”

(Wait, who’s our rich-girl-waifu talking to like that?) Her inner passion asked shortly.

(Why do you keep calling my friends our waifus?) She asked herself, while making her way towards said waifu. (Don’t you start too!)

(Because a decent portion of the eyes reading our thoughts are shipping us with them.)

“The what? Doing what now?” She frowned, unable to keep herself from voicing the questions aloud thus drawing Ying’s confused attention.

(Don’t worry about it, our waifu is looking at us like we’re crazy.)

(In a sense we are.)

(Not the time.)

“Uh, who was that Ying?” She blurted, unable to come up with a better distraction from her crazy.

“A friend I made over summer.” Ying admitted with a quirk to her mouth.

“The summer you won’t tell me about?” She pressed with narrowed eyes.

“Yes that one.” Ying nodded, before seeming to think about something. “As well as a few before that if we’re going by a technicality.”

“And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me about those either.” She said with a tense smile.

“Well they aren’t really relevant to the now, are they?” Ying asked with an amused smile.

She felt her eye twitch as she contemplated the positives and negatives of murdering her only friend. (Wait. Hold on. Cross that we have Aisha now too.) (We can kill the bitch.)

(Perhaps, but we’d lose a waifu if we did that.)

(Oh, that is a good point.)

Yep, her eye was definitely twitching now.

Ying gave a brief laugh before shaking her head. “That said, I am reminded of something with a little more relevance to the here and now, at least going forward.”

“And that is?” She asked cautiously, knowing just how tricky Ying could be with wordplay when given the opportunity.

“I’ve had a recent… discussion with my mother.” Ying told her, for once keeping her smile despite referencing her frequent -and often one-sided- arguments with her mother.

“What about?” She blinked, feeling legitimately curious now.

“Due to some… rough politicking, I have managed to successfully petition my mother into giving me a little more free time to myself, outside of the house.” Ying informed her with a hint of smugness.

“Dios mio! That is good news!” Maya cheered with wide eyes. “How’d you manage to pull that off?!”

“As I said, some… rough politicking.”

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to Ying.

-Ying will be more readily available going forward.

---

“Uh, what are you working on there?” Kim asked, since Maya had once more invaded her lab since the club still hadn’t finished her room, despite her need to tinker and get her mind off of things.

(Actually, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m starting to wonder if I should ask Kim or Melvin about why that’s taking so long.)

(Shouldn’t hurt.)

“It’s a… bio-pod.” She answered, figuring that while it wasn’t exactly the prettiest invention, Kim -as a bio-M.A.D.- wouldn’t judge her. “It should allow me to rapidly grow things and I had this idea for growing… healing herbs.”

Just because she didn’t think Kim would judge her, didn’t mean she was going to admit to growing critters and such either. Especially given all of the restrictions the other teen was always complaining about when it came to her specialty.

“That could be interesting.” Kim admitted, before seemingly thinking about something. “You know, have you considered the possibility of a medical specialty?”

“A what?” She blinked.

“A medical specialty.” Kim repeated, before explaining that, “You have your scanner and these healing herbs, so maybe you’ve got a talent for medical stuff.”

“Uh, maybe?” She hedged, not wanting to list all of the other things she could make. “But I’ve never really focused on medical stuff all that much, so I don’t know why my whispers keep suggesting stuff there.” She lied, knowing that was just the random entry-level stuff they gave here rather than the good stuff.

“Well, are there any big things you want to do?” Kim asked thoughtfully.

(Prove we’re just as amazing as our siblings.)

(Get a harem and blow shit up.)

“I want to… help people.” She answered neutrally while actively repressing the answers given by her other selves.

(Hey she asked us an honest question and deserves an honest answer!)

(Quite right.)

“Well medical stuff helps people so maybe your power is just pointing you in that direction since it's the easiest.” Kim suggested.

“Maybe.” She nodded.

(If Maya wasn’t lying to you anyway.)

Scene Consequences

-New Biopod set to grow.

-Due to using the club all resources are refunded.

-Gained 1XP to Bluffing for Maya lying to Kim (and herself). (And also because I forgot to mention that minion assists are limited to the labs our minions occupy.)

--Currently: Lv. 3 (1/8)

---

By the time she’d finished setting her biopod up to grow in a corner of Kim’s lab and made it home, she found Vi and her parents sitting in the living room with her father looking concerned and her mamá looking scared.

(Vi probably had to hold off on talking to them about this until dad got off work.) She realized, her hopes of not being part of this… complicated conversation cruelly crushed.

(No, let’s not be melodramatic, it’s better we’re a part of this conversation than not.) Her inner reason reminded her. (Depending on how things go this might be all we can do for Tommy right now.)

(Right…) She sighed to herself.

“Maya mija.” Her mamá greeted with a fake smile, trying to hide her concern.

Which is why she turned to Vi and asked, “Have you told them about Tommy yet?”

“Yeah.” Vi nodded, earning a frown from their mother.

“Wait you told Maya before you told us?!”

“Technically I pointed it out to her because I wasn’t sure if I was just seeing things.” Maya admitted taking a seat next to her sister. “If it makes you feel better Izzy shouldn’t know yet.”

Her mother didn’t look like that made him feel better.

“I… And you two are sure Tommy is… under a Slaver effect?” Their father asked sounding like he was stuck somewhere between denial and resigned acceptance.

“He’s been out of character and increasingly obsessed with drawing this ‘mystery lady’ of his for a couple of weeks now.” Vi explained for confirmation. “And I’ve talked with his band and apparently he’s been ditching practice, and we all know how important that is to him.”

She hadn’t known that last bit, but it did unfortunately make sense. “Same, but uh, I also looked into Slaver effects to see if he was showing any symptoms and how to break them. The ones closest to what he’s got going on are a Psychic making him obsessed with them for some reason, a high-level Arcane messing with something banned by the Arcane Association themselves, or a Wonderlander object that he somehow got ahold of.”

“Shit.” Her father cursed before eventually adding. “This is the kind of thing we’re supposed to call Sanctuary about isn’t it?”

“Them or the Heroes’ Guild.” Her mamá agreed, while offering another option. “And I’d probably trust them more than Sanctuary given how they’re supposedly all about helping people.”

“If we’re going with alternatives then what about a Hunter?” Vi suggested. “I mean if we need help why not get a professional?”

“A good point,” Her father admitted, “but the government -as idiotic as they are- did design Sanctuary to handle this kind of thing on a mass scale.”

“How about you My, which do you think we should go with?” Vi asked, drawing attention to her.

“Um…

Scene Choice

[]-Sanctuary, I may not like them but the government did make them for this purpose.”

[]-The Heroes’ Guild, I mean they’re the heroes so saving people is kind of their thing.”

[X]-A Hunter Agency, if we’re hiring them then that means we’re their only priority.”

“You’re probably right.” Her mamá told her, running a hand down her own face. “Dios mio this is a shit show.”

“Yeah.” Her father nodded in agreement, before looking at her and Vi. “You girls give us a bit to… process this, and we’ll get someone over here to try and help Tommy alright?”

“Alright.” Vi sighed, as they all sat there worrying about their loved one and wondering what they could do to help him.