Mind Control

Violence is virtually ineffectual in an environment where resurrection is built into the laws of physics. The manipulation of thoughts, memories, and emotions has supplanted physical coercion as a means of getting one's way on Puzzlebox.

Thus, mind-control, possession, hypnosis, and reprogramming are not uncommon fates for residents of The Mess. Sometimes these take subtle forms like seduction and persuasion, simply playing upon the pre-existing personality of the target. Sometimes, minds are changed very directly, with implants, hypno-rays, drugs, and the like. This raises some interesting questions about which changes in personality are really consensual (like the Bubble Dolls claim of their irresistably pleasant recruiting process) and which are forced from without (like most people assume of the Strangevirus).

Mind control is an art form among the Chitin Queens, who use subtle, biology-based means to change their subjects' minds. The suggestion has quietly been made that the disappearance of Elysium may have been the result of Neke interference, but the Neke are always careful to cover their tracks. And some members of the Victorian Retrotech Collective have dabbled in subliminal control methods as well (see Hypnopaedia).