When you think about it, the worst that she's done is been clingy, encouraged you to be independent and follow your heart, and given you pleasant dreams. What a horrible person. ;Y

Yeah, she's a little weird, but. Whatever. She may have influenced you to be more of who you are right now, but it's not like she's brainwashed you into being someone who you weren't.

I think, honestly, the problem here was a lack of communication and a lack of consent. But she obviously cares for you a lot, and didn't mean for any harm to come to you.

Give her a big hug. Point out that being alive and talking face to face obviously means ~something~ to her, otherwise she wouldn't have wanted to meet up with you outside the dreams. And it means something to you, too. You want her to be safe, to be alive, and to see her again in person someday.

She shouldn't be angry at the town dogs for protecting her. She may be a "stranger", but that's a technicality of a tombdog culture that's centered around biological relations. She's been marked as an outsider-under-license and for all intents and purposes "adopted" by the town as a whole. There's obviously a sense of community there, and they must like her and consider her a member of the town in good standing. She's obviously accepted, so what's her complaint? What more does she want? Would she rather be part of an actual dog family? Does she want to be part of ~your~ family? The fact that you're running away from them should be enough to show that being part of a family isn't always a good thing. :Y

Find out more about how she feels about you. Does she love you? Does she want to be romantic with you?

Can she run away and meet you? Is that too dangerous? Tell her to be honest. Threaten that you'll never forgive her if she gets herself killed on purpose.

Honestly, if you wanted to, you could probably blame everything on Maexiks and go back to Geofahn and save your family and... but you still don't want to do that, do you? Even if Maexiks got what she wanted and lived in your dreams, the Geofahn bug would probably want to do something to prevent Maexiks from ever seeing you in the dream wold again. She'd be cut off.

Oh, and while you're at it? You kinda need some help. A little bit of dreambug-vision might be useful when it comes to your future. If she's got any good ideas how to deal with this geofahn bug, and whether or not the Prayerman stuff would work, that would be helpful.

Also, how awful can the town be if they care about her enough to protect her? And if this Geofahn business were over, she'd be free to hang out in your dreams whenever she wanted, without these crazy die for you scheme!

...I mean, just cause dogs can ghost and bugs can dream doesn't mean either of you should rush to get your life over with.

Since when have these dreams been pleasant? You know she's still hiding things from you and how do you know she hasn't been sending nightmares at you to control you? Control you into running away. control you into liking her.
I wouldn't be surprised if she's done worse.

Congratulations guys, you have just allowed an enemy agent to successfully turn us against one of our only allies.

What Maexiks did is more than a little creepy, but she's also valuable enough that we can't afford to lose her.

>>534757
What Maexiks did was done out of loneliness, fear and rejection. It was also quite literally thought-control. It is POSSIBLE to forgive Maexiks, but she must realize that what she did was ABSOLUTELY WRONG, and come to terms with her feelings of rejection and sadness.

Meaxiks is a horrifically unbalanced person.

Let's fix that.

>>534789
Yes, I get that. But if we react too aggressively we might scare her off, and that will probably not end well for either of us.

Yeah it's pretty obvious she doesn't feel great about having done it. Also keep in mind a lot of it was from talking to us in our dreams. She wasn't just, out of whole cloth, implanting things in our dreams. I think she probably knows she was in the wrong anyway though. Yelling and shouting and being all pissed off won't help anything and only serves to lose us an ally.

Hug the bug

>>534789
I agree with this entire post. Even if she did it to help us she never asked or even mentioned it to us. It's not right to manipulate people, even if it's for something they want. I also agree that Maexiks needs to admit what she did was a really bad thing before she should be forgiven. But I think we should help her to get to that point if she needs it.

>>534789
>>534885
It wasn't actually thought control though. From what Maexiks said, she was more or less talking about Sabby's problems with her while Sabby was asleep. She was reacting to fears and troubles that Sabby was bringing up, it's just that Sabby didn't remember them. Although it wasn't necessarily the right way to do it, it definitely wasn't "literally thought control."

>For years, each night you would talk of how unhappy you were with everything.

>When you started to dream about running away I encouraged it.

>In the last few months I saw you struggling with the engagement.

>So I did everything I could to ensure you would run away.

But that is not making her run away. She pushed Sabby, sure, and Sabby didn't remember it when she was awake, sure, but she didn't literally control her thoughts at all.

>>534890
She most certainly influenced them, though, intentionally. Which she probably should not have done. It may not be exactly mind control, but it's still creepy. Not that I think we should cut her off.

Okay so we've boiled it down to "Maexiks manipulated Sabhaxlia into doing what she already wanted to do but wasn't doing because of cultural pressure"? Also, Maexiks cared a lot about Sabhaxlia but never told her in the waking world, instead electing to live out her relationship in the dreams that would always be forgotten. It's depressing, really, but also disappointing. Why didn't she just SAY something?

Lastly, did she say she was trying to get Sabhaxlia away from her remnant? What remnant is Sabby supposed to go to, then?

[1/3] Sabhaxlia 2013/08/17(Sat)15:40 No. 535200 ID: 8fb35b
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This is a lot to take in. I’m not even sure where to start. I can’t even think about the other stuff first. The way she talks about the town snags in my head.

>Is... is it really an awful town? She could try and run away to find a town she likes too, a home.

“I mean.” I stumble on my words. “Is the town that awful for trying to protect you?”

>how awful can the town be if they care about her enough to protect her?

“They risked themselves to protect you, that’s not. I can’t.”

>>Tell her off for rejecting the townspeople when they clearly like her and want to protect her, and have done literally everything they could for her to make her be one of them.

“They obviously want to accept you! That striped mantle means they accept you as one of them. What more could you want?”

She’s just clinging to the side of the house. I can only see her face and forelimbs. “I thought you would have understood. I am an outsider-under-license, a stranger they have all agreed to not be afraid of. They protect me because they protect their independence. They do not care about me. There is no place for me among them. I have no ghost to give them, so I am an intrusion. You are a dog. Even if you are uneasy here, it is your remnant. You don’t understand. You don’t understand what it is to be an alien.”

>Do we have any evidence that this sort of behaviour is abnormal among dreambugs?
>The trying to make friends with you in your sleep thing you could deal with. You guess. She is a dreambug after all.

“Speaking of alien, is what you did to me okay by dreambug standards? Is that just something else I don’t understand?”

>Maexiks what the HELL?! She was invading your dreams regularly as a child […] She's been manipulating you just because she feels uncomfortable in the tombdog remnant

“Because, what I’m understanding from this, you were manipulating me? You were actually seriously trying to control me?” My voice is starting to break. It’s getting hard to keep speaking clearly.

> Also now it's impossible to tell if these feelings you have for her are legitimate
> control you into liking her. I wouldn't be surprised if she's done worse.

“So what about all these… feelings I’ve been having for you? Wanting to like. Aaaaah. That kissing? Touching? Am I only doing that because you trained me to? Dig me a grave I licked you the first night I ran away it just felt natural was that only because you trained me to do it in my dreams? What sort of things have we done in dreams that I don’t remember?”

Maexiks’ voice is a little whistle. “I didn’t.”

“What have we done that I don’t remember?”

“I didn’t.”

>How come you've been remembering all these dreams now, anyway? It's weird that you didn't remember even a single one of her before then. Was she making you forget

“How come I don’t even remember the other dreams? Was that something you were doing on purpose? Maexiks?”

“Yes.”

>Then all those conversations you two had, between what should have been friends, were taken from you because of her selfishness and cowardice.

“So you were okay with just having a one-sided friendship? You wouldn’t even let me remember that we were friends? I meant so much to you but all I knew you as was a merchant I talked to sometimes! Why? Why?”

“Because it was too late. I knew if I told you, at any time I told you, it would have been too late. I had been doing it all your life. It was always too late to tell you the truth.”

>So basically she was lonely and friendless and a little kid when it started and so were you.
>Aww she was a lonely kid and wanted a friend.

“My… entire life.”

>So it's not like some kind of evil scheme, or even her being evil, you were just way better friends than you knew

“I wish you had told me. After a certain point, we were both too grown up to not. I.”

>Maexiks's attempts to help you with your problems had exactly the same thing wrong with them as your original problems; someone trying sincerely to help you with what you surely want without ever thinking to actually ask or discuss it with you.

“Was it even my choice to run away?”

> Control you into running away.
>But her deliberately influencing one of the most important decisions of your life?

“Did I even decide anything in my life?”

She’s hiding herself entirely on the side of the house now. I can’t really see her. “I don’t know.”

>Despite apparently being utterly butterly batshit bug-girl raises a point; no matter where you go you will never fit in.
>She didn't implant the idea to run away in your head, all she did was help convince you that you were capable of doing something that you wanted to do all along anyway.
>She did get a little stalkery there but mostly just encouraging you the only way she knew how.
>When you think about it, the worst that she's done is been clingy, encouraged you to be independent and follow your heart
>The more we hear about Geofahn the more it sounds like not being with them is a good thing.
>You just made the choice easier.
>She pushed Sabby, sure, and Sabby didn't remember it when she was awake, sure, but she didn't literally control her thoughts at all.

“… no. This was still my choice. I can’t believe you’ve completely made me who I am. And who I am, it isn’t someone who was okay with how my life was going. You encouraged me to do what I wanted to do, when it was already what I wanted. Maybe I wouldn’t have had the courage to do it without you. I wish you had told me all those nights, though. Had let me remember them.”

> Romance is right out, though, and friendship is a stretch right now- she has a lot to make up for.
>It is POSSIBLE to forgive Maexiks, but she must realize that what she did was ABSOLUTELY WRONG
>Yeah it's pretty obvious she doesn't feel great about having done it.
>she obviously cares for you a lot, and didn't mean for any harm to come to you.
>Ok... this gives me more of a feeling of disappointment than anger.

I sit down on top of the house. “But I mean. I’m just. More disappointed. And upset. I’m angry, but. I think you did a lot of things wrong, but I don’t think it was for any wrong reasons. Just. I’m not going to be okay with this right away. But I mean. I guess of all the people manipulating me—my family, Geofahn, the whole remnant—at least you were actually doing it for my own good. So. Get back up here.”

[2/3] Sabhaxlia 2013/08/17(Sat)15:41 No. 535201 ID: 8fb35b
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Maexiks comes up next to me.

>Hug the bug
>Give her a big hug.

I want to, but… I can’t. Not yet. “I’m not okay with this all yet,” I say. “And we have a lot of talking to do before we’re friends again. That you were planning on getting yourself killed so you could be in my head forever is creepy and upsetting even if what you were doing was just helping me with my problems, okay? But like. If we want a chance to talk about anything ever again, we need to deal with the other dreambug.”

“Yes,” she says.

“The prayerman who’s keeping the other dreambug out right now—she offered to fight the Geofahn bug. For like, a lot of money. But if she can beat him, that means he’s out of my dreams and mind and everything forever. What do you think?”

“I don’t know.”

“Look I know we’re all upset but we have to focus. We got this night and this night only to plan, so. Please. Help me again. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter if we make up or not. We just won’t see each other again anyway.”

“I don’t know if a prayerman can defeat a dreambug. I do not even understand what that would involve. I do not know prayermen. I do not understand prayermen. I do not understand this barrier that is around your dreams.”

“So. No advice at all?”

“You can speak to him. You can convince him to leave you alone.”

“I don’t. I uh. I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“You have seen the Geofahn bug?”

“Well, yeah?”

“His mantle is solid colors.”

“So?”

“It is nothing important to tombdogs like you. But it is very important to strangers who can never be tombdogs.”

“Oh? Oh. Oh! You mean—”

“My dreams of me do not wear my mantle. In his dreams, he wears a mantle he does not own. On his waking shoulders I think his mantle must be blue barred by green. When I spoke to him, he seemed very sure that he could earn more acceptance by returning you.”

“He wants to be a full member of the house? And he’ll only ever be an outsider-under-license?”

“I am not sure what you need to say to drive him away. But I am sure if you speak to him, and press him on the house he wishes to belong to, you may find something. But maybe the prayerman can simply defeat him. It is powerful enough magic to do this.” She tilts her head up at the sky. “It might be enough to simply remove him entirely.”

>What's to prevent her from just-packing up and leaving and coming here exactly again?

“So why don’t you just. Come and meet up in person?”

“I don’t know.”

I tell her where I’m going, and where I’ll be, and what my plans are, anyway. I think I trust her enough that, if I can’t solve the dreambug problem, I’d like to at least see her in person and see if things can be worked out or not.

We sit and watch the silver aurora for a little bit. Maexiks announces she’s going to leave, and then she’s gone, though, before I can even say anything else. It’s. It’s still a lot to think about.

[3/3] Sabhaxlia 2013/08/17(Sat)15:41 No. 535202 ID: 8fb35b
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I wake up, eventually.

Iaxio’s ghost isn’t here right now, so I guess it’s asleep or back at his corpse or something. It feels like it’s really early morning.

I’m still supposed to hang out with McTrinkets today and get to know her better. But before any of that, I have to decide.

If I pay the prayerman to fight the dreambug, that’s almost all my money, and I have a week+ long trip coming up. House Doxedn is paying for the transport—well, Kehfn is, out of his own pockets—but anything I want to buy along the way, including food, I’d have to work out some solution for. If I don’t go with the prayerman, the 100+ points of currency I have right now is a lot of money. But I’ll have to find some other way to be free of the Geofahn bug.

It’s the time to decide.

Almost all my money for the prayerman dreambattle, or not?

Man, bugs are clingy. Oh, don't you dare get that prayerman to battle the dreambug. She said it could make her a complete invalid or kill her if she fails! And what do you think happens to the dream bug if she succeeds? I bet it's the same thing, except to him! That's why he can't mess with your dreams anymore is she's asking money to burn his brain to cinders.

At leeeeeeeast request clarification. You don't want to sink to Geofahn's level, no matter what they resort to, to apprehend you. Remember dreams are as important to these bugs as ghosts, so it's better you kill him than let some meddling man take away his dreams.

...We should have asked Maexiks if two dreambugs could hold out one skilled one.
Good back-up plan at the least, if the prayerman duel doesn't work. But I think it will, seeing how it held out Maexiks until we let her in.
Now, I think we should have the Prayerman battle happen. BUT, we should ask Zoidbug if he can do anything to help, and to contact Maexiks so she can help.
Two dreambugs and a prayerman versus one skilled dreambug? If he wins he is an epic Dreambug Hero on the same scale as Scars of Yesterday.

Fight the dumb bug. It'll be entertaining.

>>535202
I think almost-all your money is too much, here. How about instead you pay for 4-7 days worth of blocking him from entering (to give us a good head start), then after that's over just try to convince him to go away. You could also possibly let him in at some point before then to talk. Like tonight, before we leave.

He's already given up on convincing you to go back to Geofahn. All he's left with is tracking you through your dreams and keeping Maexiks out. Both of which won't grant him enough favor with Geofahn for them to betray their culture and grant him full membership of their family. He has already failed. Can't we convince him to at least let Maexiks have what he already has? His mantle is fully colored in his dreams. She has NONE, and will have none so long as he interferes.

Hey, maybe we should ask the prayerman priestess about how prayermen handle the family thing. Do they ever adopt other races? If we moved to a prayerman town, maybe Maexiks would feel more at ease there.

>Almost all my money for the prayerman dreambattle, or not?
Not, unless you can make some travel-money while you're still here.

...I'm thinking we might have better luck playing the social manipulation angle. We now know something about this bug. We saw just how desperately important belonging is to Maexiks. We see his colors in our dream. That gives us insight, and a card to play, if we play it right.

Still have to return Meandrixix's cash, sorry, but no fight.
You've gotten this far with your friends, tongue and hands alone. You can get farther on them in this regard.

The Prayerlady's assistance was appealing since we had no means to fight the Geofahn bug. We'll be able to save money by confronting the Geofahn ourselves now that we have an angle to attack him from.

>>535223
I do not want to return the money. Nobody asked for it back, that implies we don't need to.

Iaxio was pretty good at gambling, right? Perhaps we could stack him and try to win some additional cash. Trade a few points of the local currency for something that will be more valuable where we're going and try to make it snowball.

Also ask around and see if anyone needs a courier for the route you're taking. Picking up a bit of cash on the side to deliver things isn't a bad idea.

>>535230
>>535223
Meandraxix has not told the other dogs, either because she does not care, or she is so ashamed of her situation and mentioning the money would only make it worse.

Do the Ritual.

the way I'm seeing this is do we want to get screwed over in the dream world or in the waking one. If we go with the prayerman option I have a good feeling it would work which would let us sleep in peace again but we would be kind screwed up the butt in the waking world since we have a week worth of traveling and unless we can find a way to make some cash we would be S.O.L. real quick. However if we keep our money we could easily make it to wherever we're going with some cash to spare given we don't spend it on useless things or get robbed or something but then we still have the bug chasing us every night and to get him to stop we would have to actually have to find him in our dreams to talk to him and even if we can pull that off we still have to try and convince him that hounding our butts isn't worth it.

Given the choices I say keep your money since we have little to no way of actually getting more of that (at least right now) and we still have a chance to talk the dreambug away, even if it's a small one it's still a lot cheaper.

Don't give her all your money.

Geofahn bug might be an ally in the longer run if you help him out. And FWIW, I'm feeling kinda sorry for the guy.

>>535202
an idea! it's still really early morning right? talk with the Geofahn bug now and see if you can convince him without spending the money

Sabhaxlia 2013/08/20(Tue)13:08 No. 536092 ID: 8fb35b
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I decide it’s just way too much money, and even if it succeeds, like, I can do this. I can do this on my own. Without killing the Geofahn bug or something.

When I tell Iaxio he’s happy I’m not wasting my money on a clear scam.

I consider returning Meandraxix’s money, but no one told me, and she was opposing Hefehxn because she was a big name in shipping or something like that so I’m sure she’ll be fine.

When I tell Iaxio he’s happy I’m scamming her out of her money.

I make a note to see if there’s any money-making chances along the way and get myself ready to visit McTrinkets.

When I tell Iaxio he asks me if her and I are going to make out. I ignore him.

A small breakfast and wash later, Iaxio and I are at the Family Hefehxn manor. It’s. Super weird. Two days ago we were trying to kill each other and now we’re all friends? And McTrinkets is just hanging out with them.

A Hefehxn ghost lets me in and he’s really courteous and there’s no mention of the four dogs that are dead because of me. I only wait a few minutes before McTrinkets comes out.

She’s wearing full Hefehxn colors. Uhm. Okay.

Before we go out anywhere, while I’m still in the manor, I guess, if I want, I can ask if I can talk to the ghosts of the dogs I killed/helped kill. But from how it went in the nightmare, I don’t think I feel super guilty about it.

>>536092
Nah, don't talk to dead dogs. Today is for living dogs. Living dogs to go on dates without their relatives watching to see if they kiss, especially since they really want to kiss.

Ask her about the colors.

MAKEOUTS.

oh uh what's up with the colors I guess

Pure mantle.
So I suppose this is her 'home house' so to speak?
That makes things interesting!
Well, I suppose we could consider this being our premanent place of residence, or at least a possible place to return to and live if we end up destitute/ Sabby learns Geofahn is done chasing her.

Sabhaxlia 2013/08/20(Tue)15:13 No. 536116 ID: 8fb35b
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I don’t want to overstay whatever welcome I have here, so McTrinkets and I head out the manor.

“So uh, you’re wearing their colors.”

“Well, that’s true. My old clothes needed a wash.”

“Were those other clothes your actual colors? Or was that just a disguise too?’

“Disguise! I have a few still stashed out in the coracle.”

“So Hefehxn just gave you some clothes to wear?”

“Oh, these are mine. I told you, Family Hefehxn and I didn’t always have it out for one another.”

“Are you… part of their family?”

“Oh no, not at all. Well!” she says. “A whole day to relax. Neither of us indebted to the other. How do you want to do?”

I’m not sure if I want to press her on just how she was involved with Hefehxn, or what kind of attitude I want to take with it. I’ll think about it for a moment. And anything else I want to talk to her about. This is the one day I have with McTrinkets without interruption, so it’s time to actually get to know her and decide what I think about her.

We talk about a few of the things that there are to do in this city for strangers who want to relax or have fun.

We’re apparently south enough there’s an actual theater around. Theater is kind of more popular in the south and it’s like, super “old fashion” tombdog that even grandma’s ghost makes fun of for being out of date. But I never actually saw it, so it could be neat to go and check out with McTrinkets.

There are always the public game tables. Gambling and other board games are the most common pastime in the entire remnant, so we can hang out and play games like that real casually.

McTrinkets mentions there’s a menagerie a family runs in the city, and the weird things they got there are worth gawking at sometimes.

Say "like this," and put your tongue in her mouth.

Don't press her about colors right this second.

Also best date spot is the zoo. Go to the zoo zoo is awesome go to the zoo.

No you fool don't go that fast! You might not even like her after today! Seconding not hassling about colours just yet, though.

We already did gaming some time ago, so let's go zoo for a break from the norm. Let us marvel at the weird and wonderful creatures of this land and others!

Don't be a perv. Go to the zoo or something.

If she wanted to give you a strait answer about the colors, she would have already. Don't push it anymore.

Let's just go hang out or something.

I'd rather see the theater-seems like that would be a more interesting time, though I guess with Sabby not liking stuffy tombdog culture (Or just getting the absolute worst treatment of it for her personality) she wouldn't care so much about it...
Ehh, who knows.
I wanna see the theater though!

did you ask her if she has any ways of making money yet?

Sure lets gawk at the weird things for now, It's different and harder to track. But for future reference let's not always pick the oddest thing on our least of things to do because then it would become predictable in that we always chose the new thing. Of course if we can fix our bug problem then the hell with it, it don't matter anymore.

>>536116
Ask how she made good with Hefexn, anyway. Did she stick up for them when they were confronted with the evidence?

Also, go see the play. You're gonna be living in the south, so it's probably best you get a sample of what to expect.

Yeah, just let the color thing drop. It's clearly not a big deal to her.

Go to the theater. If your family didn't care for it, that should be good enough for you.

Sit in the back. Hope the matinee is a romance.

Don't bother asking about the colours. Its highly unlikely she would give you a straight answer anyway- she seems tricky like that.

Gambling sounds nice; Iaxio will be able to help us a bit there and maybe we can win some cash on the side. In life he was a good gambler so stacking him will improve our chances.

Perhaps the menagerie would be more interesting than the theater, since people find it boring they probably do so for a reason. With luck they might even have critters from other remnants.

Don't try to find the ghosts of the dogs you helped kill/killed. They probably think you're a butt for killing them already so there's no need to fart on them further.

...hang on a second, she's wearing their colors, but she's not part of their family? Isn't that like... totally improper? I mean, at the very least, she must've been adopted into their family to be given permission to wear those colors. Unless she was given those colors so that wearing them would be a visual lie to those she deals with? Like, so that people would trust her more as a Hefehxn merchant? It does sound like the sort of shady thing Hefehxn would do, and it would be pretty smart for McTrinkets. That reminds me, see if you can get another name out of her, something we can use on a more permanent basis. After all, you'd like to send her letters in the future!

>...hang on a second, she's wearing their colors, but she's not part of their family? Isn't that like... totally improper?

Mc Trinkets shifts name, house and appearance whenever she feels like it, so I guess changing her mantle wouldn't be too different. Posing as a full member of the house would throw a lot of confusion into the works if someone was asking after her.

Then again she is very casual about it, which is very contrary to Tombdog norms. Something tells me she isn't from around here.

Maybe just goggle a bit of at the weirdness of those 4-legged tombdogs...Or maybe just dogs? Like, they come from the prayerman remmant, so maybe they don't have ghosts like tombdogs do?

Ask her if she is involved in anything that would possibly get you into trouble for hanging out with her. Like the last time.

As for what you actually think of her... she is shady as hell but as long as that isn't directed at you negatively it could be benificial. She scratched your back, you scratched hers, the world turns and the balanceis restored.