Thorne Text
The Art of Owning People
By Malcolm Thorne
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction to Fae Art
Chapter Two: Dream Manipulation
Chapter One: Introduction to Fae Art
"It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection." - Oscar Wilde
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| Appearance | Body | Mind |
| Costuming | Tattooing | Drugs |
| Body Paint | Fleshforming | Dreamworld Re-identity |
| Makeup | Scarification | Mental Hypnotism |
| Dyes | Mutilation | Body Hypnotism |
| Masks | Amputation | Re-identity |
| Memory Potions | ||
| Cursed Objects |
Table 1: Methods for the creation of human art.
There are many methods to alter a human into a work of art, see table 1, some of these cannot be done to most people in Haven due to the Sanctuary protection, and others may be difficult. But everyone can access the appearance alterating methods, and Blackfield offers facilities for hacking a mind to allow any sort of hypnosis to work, memory potions and cursed objects can be purchased if you have the funds and manipulating the dreamworld is mostly a matter of willpower.
It is worth noting there are two basic forms of hypnotism. In mental hypnotism you introduce a suggestion into someone's mind that they believe is their own. It's good for getting people to do something you want as long as it isn't too terribly out of character, people subjected to this have no idea its happened. In body hypnotism you alter someone's lower brain that controls their movements and nerves, you can program someone's arm to punch themselves or someone's body to feel very hot even when it's cool outside, or someone to feel sharp pain whenever they're tickled. In these cases the target is however aware that their body has been re-wired. Generally you can also only control subconscious actions, if you hypnotised someone's arm to attack them it wouldn't occur while they were focusing on using that arm to do other things, only when they cease to pay attention to it.
In all forms of art the type of canvas you choose matters a great deal, most slabs of rock can quite simply never become a great statue and even those that can will all be made into something quite different from each other as the artist works with the natural characteristics of the material, the fault lines and patterns and so forth. So it is with using people for canvas as well. Many people, indeed possibly most people, cannot be made into any art of merit, their minds are too narrow and closed off, their attitudes too combative or dull. A very large part of being a good artist is knowing how to recognize these people and not bothering, or if you start your work and realize they are such, being able to let go of your investment and move on.
The upside of this though is that each work of art is unique, you can apply similar processes to different people and achieve vastly different results. One reason why body hypnosis may be preferred when creating art is because how the canvas reacts to the alteration is a part of what makes the art what it is. You can also consider the nature of your canvas when deciding on what you wish to do, make a statement with their body to expose their sins or hypocrisy or tailor it to their particular weaknesses or innermost desires. It is ideal to ensure you have one strong consistent theme running throughout the whole endevour, that will bring all the separate acts together into a cohesive whole. For instance you might pair marble like body-paint with a body hypnotic instruction to make someone move in slow motion, and to remain in artistic poses whenever idle in order to create a living statue.
It is important to layer effects when creating art from people, much like when painting simply putting green on a canvas is easy, but it is when the paints mix and layer that you create something noteworthy, similarly any idiot can hypnotise someone to do something silly, it's when you layer in multiple affects on mind and body that you can create something worthy, each one building upon or working with or enhancing others.
Chapter Two: Dream Manipulation
"Tomorrow is today's dream." - Khalil Gibran
While most people remain trapped in their own minds when they sleep, for many and most in psychic hotspots such as Haven, dreams are a gateway to a shared realm of psychic experiences. Proper utilization of this realm can significant aid in molding others and making them more compliant and enjoyable property. Dreams can also be a convenient place to hide property, or to move discreetly across international borders.
What is colloquially referred to as dream invasion, is a method where by through force of will and already sleeping person pulls another into a shared dream, and is able to modify the person of the invaded target to whatever they wish. If an individual has never before entered this world in the dream this modified identity will become their permanent identity there unless their mind rejects it outright later. If not they will have two identities and are likely to fall back to their original one after they awaken. You can also modify the identity of a dreamer if you created the world yourself or by going through the creator of the world. Lastly defeating the projection of someone in a dream with your own projection gives you a doorway into their mind and the ability to alter their persona.
There are three main ways in which the ability to effect dreams and dream personas can be used to help you with your property. Firstly the act of dream invasion allows you to entirely control a single dream of the target. Secondly, creating or making lasting alteration to dream personas allow you to subtly shift the sorts of dreams the target has. Thirdly, once a persona is established it becomes easier to mystically bring that persona to the fore for limited periods of time.
It can for instance be of great use to create at least one persona that is entirely subservient or loyal to your own dream persona in a given world. In this way if your slave is ever reluctant to do something and you have little time for more nuanced coercion you can force them into that persona and order the persona to do as instructed. This can also be used as a threat to break the will of a slave. Knowing that even if they do not comply, you can force someone else into their mind to make them do it anyway.
Dreams that occur on the psychic realm are almost always remembered, although not always clearly and thus make a good way to introduce subtle alterations into the long term behaviour of a slave. If for instance your slave is rather arrogant, arranging for them to persistently dream of being humbled, mocked or derided can reduce those tendencies. If people behave a certain way in their dreams long enough, they'll usually start to behave that way in reality as well, quite without realizing it.
While controlling an individual dream through invasion is relatively simple, creating a persona that will last afterwards is significantly more challenging, and runs the risk of the target rejecting the new persona outright. While each case is slightly different, there are a few principles that generally hold true for most people that should be kept in mind.
1) Make the identity similar to their real world identity. The more similar the more effects will carry over, the more it feels like their behaviour in the dream was indeed their behaviour and will thus be more likely to cross over. It also makes it easier to confront them about dream behaviour without giving away your own role. For example if you create a much more promiscuous version of a character in a dream world when they engage in promiscuity you can confront them in the waking world about how their dream alter ego is so promiscuous and claim you were one of those simply watching as he or she did whatever they did. It is worth noting that some people will reject outright any identity that is similar or recognizable as their real world identity. For these people dream manipulation is likely not worth attempting.
2) Ensure the identity is enjoyable when you are not there. The whole point of creating a persona is for the target to go on to have certain types of dreams when you're not spending you own willpower to make them. Their subconscious mind will shy away from naturally entering psychic spaces where it does not enjoy itself. Not every dream they have also needs to be about the attitudes or behaviours you wish to enforce, just as long as enough of them are to form a pattern.
3) Ensure the identity is believable. The more outlandish or cartoonish the identity the less the behaviour will seem real. Generally avoid using worlds in the psychic space which are too over the top or silly, and err on the side of smaller alterations than larger ones. If you want an identity to be more sexualised it is far better to make many small adjustments to an existing identity to sexualise it further than give them breasts the size of beach balls or a phallus the size of a baseball bat.
4) Make the identity interesting. If the dream is enjoyable for the target, but not for any other dreamers interacting with it then again dreams occurring in that space are going to be rare, their mind will simply wander away when no other minds move close enough for them to dream together.
5) Where possible you should mark the identity with some indication of ownership, a birthmark or tattoo or piece of jewelry or the like with your sigil or name. Something the target will think nothing of but other psychic predators will understand and, if they are polite, will know to speak to you before attempting to inflict substantial change or trauma upon your property.
6) Take into consideration the other identities likely to be encountered in that world when deciding how to ensure your target undergoes the sorts of dreams and experiences you wish them to. The fact that an identity is well set up to be degraded by you isn't of much merit of most other minds in that world are very dissimilar.
Each individual and world is different, and you may have to make many attempts before settling on something that is ideal for you. But when done correctly dream manipulation can be way to induce a target into slowly brainwashing themselves to be the way you wish them to be, which is not only much easier but also generally much more enjoyable to watch.