22 ♐ Horse in a Spider's body

[aim_exorable]

Who: Darkleer (trapped in a spidertroll's body) and YOU
When: Throughout the day
Where: The park, and then throughout Vatheon
Style: Open
Status: Open

Morning, the Park



For anyone wandering near the connection between the park quadrant and the main city, they might see something odd. After spending the last few days detoxing (a painful experience), Darkleer has finally decided to venture out in Mindfang's body. There's just... one problem. The empathy. As reluctant as he is to admit that she was in any way right, Darkleer can't deny that it is a powerful overwhelming sensation. But he's not going to give up.

So those wandering about might see 'Mindfang' taking deep breaths and trying to venture into the city.. only when more than a few people are in the vicinity, 'she' seems to pale and quickly retreat until 'she's' in the entrance to the park again where 'she' can sit down and sigh in frustration.

> See what the big deal is?

Throughout the plaza, the rest of the day



At some point, Darkleer manages to get over the crushing feel of empathy- okay, that's not quite right, and the real answer is much longer and involves the kind of stubborn denial that only Zahhaks are capable of, but the point is...

At some point, one might see a finely dressed Mindfang walking about the plaza, with her hair actually brushed and made nice and everything. She actually cleans up fairly well, even with her robotic arm looking a bit jarring in comparison to the rest of the fleshy body. There's also something else a bit jarring:

the giant terrarium full of spiders that she's holding in her hands.

Seriously, there are at least, like, eighteen of them or something. Lord. At least Darkleer seems proud. Awwwww yeah, cleared this body of spiders in the hair, excellent.

> Approach?

Comments

Spiders

[thekidsare0kay]

Sollux hasn't ventured out much, but he's tired of rolling around in his (broken) bed and trying to eat out of (broken) dishes with (broken) cutlery and overall this curse really blows.

Also, he's out of those puffed air fat things that look a bit like cheetos but are yellow.

So he went out late at night when there are fewer people to accidentally kill, in search of tasty things to destroy Equius' carefully balanced constitution.

And there are spiders.

Generally he avoids Mindfang on principle, but there she is, and sigh. Fine.

"What are those for?"

*Spiders*

[butwhyhairspiders]

Even though he already knows that Equius and Sollux have switched, it's still a bit hard to remember that especially with this stupid empathy ability taking up his focus. At least this late at night, the city seems a little quieter and Darkleer can breathe a sigh of relief.

Sollux's presence- distrust and reluctance and exasperation- is a bright ping in all of it, and Darkleer turns to him while adjusting the box of spiders. "Oh, I just had to get them out of her hair." He sighs, resisting a shudder at the whole ordeal that had taken place just to remove the little eight legged menaces. "I still can't believe she does such a thing! It's positively revolting."

[thekidsare0kay]

Sollux frowns a bit, folding his arms across his - admittedly pretty epic - chest.

"Uh... who's hair? You were picking spiders out of someone's hair?"

[butwhyhairspiders]

"No." Another grimace and his fingers tap daintily against the plastic case. At least, they feel dainty to him. "Mindfang's hair. I suppose I should say 'my hair' right now."

[thekidsare0kay]

Oh right. Sollux frowns. "Oh, you're not Mindfang, right. So who are you, then?"

[butwhyhairspiders]

"Darkleer." Moving to the nearest bench, he sets down the case. "And it's Sollux, isn't it? I already spoke with Equius in your body. Has he talked to you about how to control your strength?"

[thekidsare0kay]

Sollux follows, relaxing a bit. Darkleer's pretty okay. "Yeah, I'm Sollux. Equius hasn't talked to me about anything... but I haven't talked to him, either. You can control this?"

[butwhyhairspiders]

"I can." Oh boy, is it a lesson in STRENGTH training? It sure seems like it's going to be. Darkleer decides now is as good a time as any to sit down as well and gestures besides him for Sollux to follow suit. "Equius is still getting the hang of it, but he's getting better everyday."

[thekidsare0kay]

Slowly, Sollux sits down and frowns. "If Equius sucks at it, then how am I going to get anything better than useless in less than a week? I should probably do what I've been doing - keeping away from anything and everything that can break."

[butwhyhairspiders]

"Muscle memory!" Darkleer almost looks too excited for this. Sorry, Sollux. It's not that he likes seeing you (or his son's face) looking so miserable. It's just that he doesn't very often get to really show people how hard it is to be a b100b100d. "Of course you won't be as good as Equius is just a week. However, if you just focus and don't reject muscle memory, you should be able to get to the point where you don't break everything. "

[thekidsare0kay]

"I guess," Sollux says doubtfully. Why does he have to be so excited about something so dumb? It just makes Sollux feel even more self-conscious. "So what am I supposed to do, then?"

[butwhyhairspiders]

"We'll start with the basic." Darkleer starts to go through Mindfang's sylladex. There has to be something in here.. Ah ha! "Controlling strength is, clearly, all about control. However, when you're tense and nervous, you're more likely to lose control of it- a sudden jerk of your fingertips with all that tension already wound behind it like a spring. You need to have your body relax, to start with. Wipe the slate clean so that you can start anew. I often begin my mornings with meditation, which I find helps me greatly." An eightball pops out from the sylladex and into his robotic hand.

"So take in deep breaths, let your body relax, and try to think of something that calms you."

[thekidsare0kay]

He looks doubtfully at the eightball. Though he's skeptical, he begins to draw breaths slowly in and out. "Are you going to hypnotise me or something?"

[butwhyhairspiders]

A pause.

"...Oh, that is something I could try to do, isn't it? Now that I have Mindfang's powers."

[thekidsare0kay]

That kind of suggestion creates a rather reflexive reaction. He bares Equius' broken teeth fiercely, forgetting for the moment that he's blue-blooded and that Vriska could only control him half the time even when he was a yellow-blood. "Yeah, just try it, bitch."

[butwhyhairspiders]

"No!" Darkleer holds his hands up defensively, looking alarmed. "I certainly won't attempt it, it was just something that I had forgotten about. Her powers have never worked on myself, so I don't often think about them. As a matter of fact, now that you're in Equius' body, perhaps it's the same."

[thekidsare0kay]

Sollux is still looking defensive, scowling and baring his teeth just a bit. "Yeah, probably wouldn't work on me. But we're still not going to experiment."

[butwhyhairspiders]

"Of course, of course, my apologies." Quietly making a note to himself never to bring up mind control again, Darkleer clears his throat. "Let's forget that, then. Where were we?"

[thekidsare0kay]

Slowly, Sollux relaxes, and he reaches up to run a hand through Equius' straight hair. "I think we were at controlling my fucking annoying strength, before that shitty digression."

[butwhyhairspiders]

"That's right. You need to relax your body first of all. Take deep calming breaths and try not to think too many frantic thoughts. Have you ever meditated before? It's rather like that."

[thekidsare0kay]

Meditated? [He shakes his head, frowning] No, I don't really do that kind of thing. [He draws in a breath, closing his eyes and squirming a bit in place. He's got a lot of energy. Sitting still when he doesn't have something to distract him isn't really a thing he does]