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A utilitarian Easterner lands on Vanyel during the Karsite War.
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Nothing is likely to happen yet with him unconscious. Melody is definitely going to be watching that area closely once they wake him, though.

(Which she's now inclined to do immediately when they finish, no matter how much Gemma complains that he needs his rest; if she leaves him to sleep the rest of the night, even dreams will interact with the changes, and she would rather it happen in a way more controllable than that and with her right there.) 

:All right. Get number one next, I think: 

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:Sure. This - might be more destabilizing to the compulsion structure? It's the one with the most power behind it and I'm not sure how much it's - holding the rest up: 

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:Well, it's not one of the ones more tied into his mind. It's pretty contained, actually: 

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:Right: 

Snip. 

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Snip. Pressures in the tapestry shift, but only slightly; as deeply asleep as he is, nothing is changing very fast yet.

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Number four and five look pretty similar to each other, and - not entirely dissimilar from number one? Though with a lot less force, and also (from Melody's side of things) a hint of the block-like nature of number three. 

Snip and snip? 

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Snip and snip. Both of them are down, and the tapestry is only shifting slowly while Janos is asleep.

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Melody frowns. 

:Van, I'm starting to get worried about how much this is going to destabilize him all at once when we wake him up. It's getting pretty hard to track what all the interacting effects are. Think there's any way we could leave some of these in place and I can just do a loop-redirect from that side, so that they can't force him to do anything but the supporting structures will still be there. Um, especially for the seventh one. It's really central and I think the disruptions from that alone might make it a lot harder for him to figure out the rest?: 

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Vanyel nods, deep in thought. 

:...Six and seven look really similar to mage-sight. You don't think they're the same in terms of effects on him?: 

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:I don't know! I think there's just one point-of-contact from one of them that represents the - thing that looks load-bearing to my Sight? But I can't see myself what the sixth one is or where it touches his mind: 

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Gentle poke? 

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The sixth one looks remarkably like the seventh in form; aside from one of them being higher priority than the other, the designs are almost identical; both are tied into - motivation, action, planning, prioritization - but the tapestry has moved around them in different ways. There are still several places where the sixth is load-bearing, several places where the tapestry would shift without it, some where it might greatly strain, possibly even tear. But, by and large, it is something that the tapestry is - shaped around, but not indelibly, where it has affected the form but not the nature.

The seventh is... different. The tapestry is almost wrapped around it. Almost every thought process feeds into it, almost every pattern of mind connects to it; it is balancing half-a-dozen weights at once, and it's very difficult to tell what would happen to the tapestry if it was removed. It is central, and the sixth is not - quite.

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Melody makes a face. 

:Van, I don't really feel comfortable removing this one either, not without his actual consent. ...I'm a bit worried about what blocking it will do, even, though the seventh is definitely going to be worse. ...Any way you could start from the other end now?: 

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Vanyel makes a face. :Er, I don't want to hurt him either, but I'm pretty uncomfortable not knowing what they do! Maybe if we wake him up he'll be able to tell us? And if he starts trying to escape or trying to kill himself then we've got you and Gemma and me all right here and probably we can knock him out again fast enough?: 

He tries snipping what used to be #17. 

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If removing #17 has *any* effect on the tapestry of his thoughts, it's very difficult to tell! It looks as though any pressure it caused was vastly less than that produced by minor ripples in #6.

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:All good. Nothing much happened: 

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In which case Vanyel is going to proceed through the remainder up until #7 in reverse-order, slowly and carefully and waiting for Melody to confirm the effects if any, but only actually stopping if she's worried. 

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None of #10 through #16 do anything in particular when cut, but #9 causes him to relax slightly, and #8 looks - well, nowhere near as extreme as #6, let alone #7, but as though there's some underlying pressure from it, helping shape his mind's patterns. Does Melody want to cut it, too?

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Melody isn't sure! 

:Van, I - kind of want to let him partially wake up for a little bit? Not fully, but have Gemma lighten up enough that he's in something more like natural sleep. You're a stronger Projective Empath than I am, maybe we can have all three of us pushing to keep him calm enough that he doesn't wake, but it'll still let some of this settle out a bit, and then I can make a call on number eight. Though I'm leaning toward blocking and leaving it and asking him. I - don't think any of these are the anti-tampering ones: 

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Savil, who's been listening in on their Mindspeech discussion but mostly guarding the room, looks unhappy. She doesn't object, though. 

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It's getting kind of late and Vanyel is very tired and really wants this to be done, but - not badly enough to rush things and risk harming their prisoner more than necessary. 

:Sure, if you think it's safe and will help him then I'll trust your judgement: 

He pushes calmcalmcalm as hard as he can with his Empathy. It's definitely a challenge, since 'calm' is not most of what he himself is feeling, right now. 

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Gemma, who's also a slightly stronger Projective Empath than Melody, adds her own push, and then very, very slowly lightens up on the Healing-pressure keeping him in a sleep so deep it's closer to unconsciousness. 

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....Melody is not actually going to try to project at him, she's way too tense herself for it to be helpful on net. 

She watches his mind like a hawk. 

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... Honestly, Janos wants to be asleep. He really, really wants to be asleep. He has a headache from abusing his magical powers, he's been stabbed, he drank poppy juice, and while people may have hacked his compulsion network to pieces, that does not overcome the vitally important fact that he has, like, six reasons for not waking up. Even without the horrifying abuse of terrifying magical powers, he's staying asleep.

His mind... does not seem to be collapsing, not with Six through Eight still in place? In some respects, it almost seems less strained.

(Or at least, not collapsing while he's still asleep.)

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Everyone watches him sleep in awkward silence for almost five minutes. 

:- Are we planning to wake him up?: Savil interjects finally, after stifling a jaw-cracking yawn. 

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