Players:
Summary: Mindbender shows Robyn just how much control he has over perceptions.
Date: June 27, 2011
Log Title: Do You See What Heather Sees
Rating: R
Mindbender and Upgrade's Secret Lair
It would be a rather typical evening for Robyn at the Xavier's mansion, without anything particularly eventful happening. Any work done in the art room would go as normally, as would conversations with his friends and teachers. What would not be the usual, however, would be the fully dressed in supervillain garb Mindbender lying down on Connor's bed, and staring up towards the roof of the dorm room, one foot crossed over the other as he waits quite patiently.
Having been convinced of the lie of the fake world, seeing Mindbender on Connor's bed takes Robyn completely by surprise. He takes a few steps into the room before stopping and just looks at the supervillain, fear crossing his face for a few moments. Robyn eventually takes a deep breath and puts on an 'angry mask' trying not to show that he's afraid. "What do you want?" No trying to be polite from the teen.
"I just want to talk, boyo. How have you been since we last had a chat?" says Mindbender pleasantly, sitting up on the bed, and pushing himself back towards the wall to lean up against it. "Do you have anything against civil conversation? I mean, I broke into your school just to get here, you should do me that courtesy at least."
Robyn looks at Mindbender cautiously as he goes over to sit on his own bed. He doesn't answer for a while, debating in his mind how civil he should be. "I've been fine. Worried about Heather." He says before crossing his arms over his chest. "Now, did you really come here for small talk or what?"
"Well, I want you to consider for a moment that I'm here," says Mindbender, "Try thinking of that for a moment without hurting yourself." He leans forward and says, "You've probably noticed that Heather's a pretty clever girl when it comes to tactical decision making. She gets that from her dear old dad." The illusionist rises to his feet and looks around the room, "So I have to ask, why would I, knowing that Emma Frost is in her brain enhancer as we speak, come here where I'd be easily detected and defeated?"
Fear shows on Robyn's face as his hands tighten on the bedspread. "You…you didn't set off the school alarms or defenses either." He says looking around. "No..this…they weren't crazy." He says as he closes his eyes and takes deep breaths trying to build up the wall in his mind like Emma taught him. Trying to push the possible illusions out. "Where…where am I?!" He asks in an almost panicked demand.
"Why, hasn't Heather already explained this to you?" says Mindbender, face almost splitting in a grin, "You're in the World of Illusions, kiddo. Your reality is mine." He snaps his fingers, and the illusory world changes to being back at Titicus reservoir. "I kind of forget how long you were caught in it. I don't write these things down. You remember that time you fought with all those supervillains, recently? Man, what a show!"
Robyn keeps his eyes closed not looking at Mindbender or around the room. He's trying to focus on putting up the mental blocks he's learned hoping it'll count for something. There's strain on his face as he's not sure if it's working or not since he's almost afraid to open his eyes. "They…they weren't supervillains…what…why do you want me. And where the hell am I?!"
"No, they were friends of yours. You should have heard their squeals, 'Robyn, ooooooh, we just want to help you, come on stop being a meanie!'," says Mindbender in a mocking voice. He puts his hand on Robyn's shoulder, and it genuinely feels like it's there. "You're home!" He throws up his arms, and the reservoir seems to tear apart, and be replaced by the supervillain's hideout. The dog dishes for Shane are spread on the floor, and the other teens are about in this empty and run down office building, acting out their delusions. "Soon we'll have a new headquarters, kiddo. And you'll see it."
Upgrade sit on a chair in the building, wearing her own skintight supervillain costume. She uprights suddenly and says, "Dan, can he see me?"
Almost as a stage whisper, Mindbender says, "Use my codename, hun."
As Mindbender tells Robyn he's home, he slowly opens his eyes and sees what's going on. "No…" He whispers as he looks at Mindbender and glares at him. "No, no, no!" He starts to shout like a child as he sees things how they are. "Shane! Heather!" He dosen't recognize Tabitha though. " And then he sees Upgrade for the first time and glares at her. "What the hell do you messed up people want with us?!" He shouts as he goes to stand up and rush over towards Heather first.
Mindbender and Upgrade exchange a glance, and the Mindbender says, "With power like mine, I want to take your little fortress." He gestures with his head to a machine that's whirring off to the side, "This keeps us out of Cerebra's view, but that's a mighty big threat to have looming over our heads. And how do you orchestrate a takeover without a few minions." He grins and says, "But you know what, kiddo? I can tell that even though you think Frost can 'kick my butt', I make you the Tiniest. Bit. Nervous."
Heather doesn't respond to any interactions with her, simply acting as if it's not there.
Seeing Heather not doing anything, Robyn runs over to Shane and tries to snap her out of it. "Shane…Shane please hear me." He says almost pleading with her. He can't be the only one who knows what's going on. Looking over at Mindbinder and Upgrade, Robyn scowls. "No. We're not going to help you take over Xavier's. You could never get in there." He says as Mindbender doesn't make him a tiny bit nervous, he makes him a lotta bit nervous.
"Do you think you actually have a choice?" laughs Mindbender, shaking his head incredulously, "Look at your friends. They have no choice over what is going to happen here." He rubs his hands together lightly and says, "But you know, it'd be much easier if you just worked with us. I mean, I showed you what I can do, and it was a pretty good demonstration that your very reality can be taken out of your hands. You can hurt those you care about, and help those you loathe. Or you can see what's happening, and then you will have /choice/."
Upgrade looks at Mindbender and says, "Don't be unnecessarily cruel. We need them, but that doesn't mean we need to harm them." She gets up from her chair and picks a brush up off a nearby table, and moves towards Heather.
Robyn turns around and just looks at Mindbender. "Screw you, if you think I'm going to voluntarily help you you're out of your mind." He says as he's not going to voluntarily screw over his friends. "And you!" He says to Upgrade. "Don't you dare try to act like a Mom to Heather. You're not her Mom, you're nothing but a cruel heartless bitch."
"Then you'll unvoluntarily help us, I can convince you to do that, you know. And believe me, I can bide my time. I can bide for months!" says Mindbender, laughing. He shrugs and says, "But I just wanted to offer you an opportunity… the chance to be on solid ground. Oh well."
Upgrade doesn't listen to Robyn's demand, only raising her brow slightly, "Some of these kids aren't taken care of their hygenic needs right now, understandably. Though judging by this hair, I suspect that is more of a lifestyle choice on Heather's part."
Little does Robyn realize that he doesn't look that good right now with his dirty clothes and disheveled hair. He looks at Mindbender and there's a faint smile on his face. "That's the problem…you think you have months, you don't." Robyn's really not sure about that but he hopes that Rashmi, Connor, Chloe and Jordan can think of something to help them out of this mess. "I won't ever help you willfully….Dan."
"Oh no, you know my name! It's my only weakness!" says Mindbender, clutching his chest and pretending to stumble back. He stops and uprights himself, "Actually, my only weakness is- Nevermind, let's not discuss my only weakness. But do you know what your weakness is? Me neither, though my darling wife could figure it out in a matter of seconds. However… do you know the date today?"
Robyn tries to think about it and realizes he's having trouble. After a while of thinking he finally says. "July third?" He says before his face grows long as he realizes how long it's been. He looks over at Heather again as a few tears start to fall down his cheeks, a good part of it from fear. "Heather…I'm sorry." He whispers as he wanted to protect her from this.
"Wrongo, it's May 27th!" says Mindbender, shrugging, "Maybe we don't have months, but with my help, you do. Funny how perceptions of the passage of time is just that. Perception. And you know what my control is over?" He lets the question linger for a few moments, before looking over to Heather. "Oh, yeah, that's right. You promised her that she'd be fine. Oh, man, I'm not sure what's worse: My parenting or your friendship! At least I don't inspire any hope that I'll later crush. But maybe you can join her? Would you like that, Robyn?"
Robyn shakes his head slowly. "No…it was June when I first met you." He sounds pretty sure of that but at the same time he's questioning if it really is July third or not. He finally sits down on the ground and pulls his knees up against his chest feeling not as feisty as he did a few moments ago. "If she can see and hear me then…yes." Robyn's thinking that if he can join her and they can interact, maybe they can help each other resist this place or find a way out.
"Okay, maybe it's some day in June that we met. Or maybe I've been around for longer than you have thought?" suggests Mindbender. "I don't keep extensive notes about my worlds, Robyn." He walks towards Heather and looks over his shoulder at Robyn, "Are you sure? This is genuine concern. You're going to be entering the mindworld of someone who is innoculated from fear. You simply can't be prepared for this…"
The suspense and the waiting are getting to Robyn and building up making him more afraid. The doubt and the unknown starting to play on his subconsciousness. "She..she shouldn't be alone." Robyn says looking over at Heather. "Did you care if Heather was prepared for this, what about Shane or that other girl? Why are so concerned for me and not for them?"
"Because Shane and Tabitha aren't going to be entering Heather's world. That was never going to happen. Heather is prepared for it, she's been prepared since she went to the asylum. I know that, because I know her very well," says Mindbender, shaking his head lightly. "You aren't."
"You don't know her as well you as you think. Heather helped me when I needed it and now…I have to help her." Robyn says as he walks over and sits down next to her. "If you send me there with her or not…I have to be there for her cause she's my friend. A good friend." He says wishing she'd wake out of her world. Wishing there was more he could do. He doesn't bother wiping away any tears as he reaches out a hand to hopefully hold onto one of hers.
"That's very noble of you," says Mindbender, nodding once, almost respectfully. He raises his hand in a motion to snap his fingers, pausing there, "Talk to you later." The whole of the surroundings seem to shatter and Robyn finds himself in complete darkness with Heather. Heather still does not respond to anything that Robyn does while in the darkness, and simply sits and stares forwards.
As the room slips into darkness, Robyn tries to look around but he sees nothing. He just scoots closer to Heather, if he can find her, and takes one of her hands while putting the other hand around he shoulders. "I'm here with you Heather." He whispers to her as he plans on just staying with Heather as long as possible, if she acknowledges him or not. At least neither of them are alone in his opinion.
The world begins to fill in, and the air fills with sulphurous acrid heat. For a moment, Robyn seems intangible within the world, seeing Heather now in an injured states, with snakelike creatures with exposed muscle and bone nipping at her with sharp teeth as she continues to stare ahead in silence, as if protesting the idea of movement for the time being. The ground is hot to the touch, so much that staying still could also be very painful, and there is a road of black stone twisting and turning, with magma everywhere that the road isn't. There are spurts of magma that spill upwards every once in awhile. After a few moments, Heather turns her head slightly, getting increasingly wide-eyed, "Robyn? You shouldn't be here! HE SHOULDN'T BE HERE!"
Robyn is quite surprised by what he sees and it takes him a few moments to adjust. It isn't until Heather yells that he looks at her. "Heather…I'm not leaving you alone. You shouldn't be here either." The heat is already starting to get to him as he can feel the soles of his feet start to burn under the pavement. "I won't leave you…even though we're stuck here, I want to stay by you cause you're my friend. Now…." He says wiping some sweat from his brow. "Let's…do something." He's not sure what now that he's here.
"No, I shouldn't be, but… I sincerely hope that you are another vision, and that you are not really in this thought," says Heather, rising to her feet, and quickly swatting off all the beasts that were nipping at her, and as she does so, Robyn becomes solid. "It's unstable, everything is unstable, here, get on my back." Heather crouches and says, "We need to die."
"I can say I'm not a vision but I'm not sure if you'd believe me." Robyn doesn't even know if Heather is an illusion to him or not. He does get on her back though. "We need to die…." He says sounding uncertain. "Okay, I trust you Heather." He says as he holds on tight.
OOC Bit About the Land of Meat
<OOC> Heather says, "They shift every time that she finds something within the illusion that will kill her, but it usually comes back to this one, which Heather will explain is the Prince of Meat's domain, and it is a land of pain and fear. She will easily acknowledge that it's all fake, but it's scary, with visions of alternate selves being pulled apart by creatures of exposed muscle and bone, and injuries remain and are painful, regardless of knowledge of whether they are fake. Any time she does something that gets her killed by an illusion without being killed in the real world, though, they will shift worlds. Every second world is a grab bag, and could either be this place, or just something weird and more annoying than scary."
<OOC> Robyn nods. "So he's experiencing her Hell as well with no way out?"
<OOC> Heather nodnods. "Yeppers. Nothing speaks or interacts quite properly in the Meatland.
<OOC> You say, "So Robyn's now also seeing alternate versions of himself being torn apart by decaying creatures along with alternate Heathers? And do they feel it everytime they die?"
<OOC> Heather says, "They feel it every time they die, yes, until just before death. Where they just reappear somewhere else. The alternate selves will mostly be Heathers at the beginning, but as Robyn gets more experience dying, his own deaths will be shown to him."
<OOC> You say, “When they appear in a new world are they 'fresh' without injuries?"
<OOC> Heather says, "It depends if they appear back in this world, or a weird randomly stupid world. (Heather will actually express far more frustration within these worlds, because they each require a unique suicide path). The stupid worlds, they come back fresh."
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