PUBLIC CHANNEL [D176, EVENING]

[spaghettimonster]

[It's evening, the Ringmaster reconnected one of the islands to the Carnival so never-kidnapped people can go back and forth, and the Prince still has a lot of captives inside that big stone fortress. Captives without cell phones or radios, so there's almost no way for information to get out. But even though the thick stone, things can happen over there that those outside notice pretty quickly. Especially given reason to think about the person in question.

The radio crackles on, then turns off. A full minute passes before he tries again.]

Does... Wait, I need to be mannerly first.

Hello, everyone! Does anybody know much about, well, sudden onset amnesia? Or, cures for it? I think... I'm getting worse.

Comments

[chronosynthesis]

No. [Sorry, Papyrus. He has nothing reassuring to say there.] The Prince must have taken it. The servants said that was part of how he claimed and controlled them.

[Syrlya hadn't realized just how deeply a rend such a thing created. The servants he hardly knew, trying to name them... but he knows, he knows who the Warden is. Who he's supposed to be.]

[spaghettimonster]

No...

[The radio goes off for several seconds.]

I don't understand it. The prince, he already had him? Why would he do this today, I remembered... less than an hour ago? What changed?

[Had... his brother, started to snap out of it? Was this something that took a while to do?]

[chronosynthesis]

He had him controlled, perhaps, but this is a... different claim of ownership. That we all forgot must be the effect of his true name being stolen.

[Damn, he just has to give all kinds of bad news to Papyrus lately.] We obtained the powerful artifact the Ringmaster was here for. Perhaps this is retaliation.

We'll just have to steal it back when we save the captive.

[Just... don't ask him how they do that.]

[spaghettimonster]

Stealing back a name...

[It sounds as though stealing a true name is an awful lot like stealing a soul. Some kind of culmination of their being, a core of identity without which they're just... lost.]

Where do you think a stolen name goes? Written down in a book? In a bell jar, like a soul?

[Sorry Syrlya, he's kind of asking. But more in a brainstorming way than expecting an informed answer way.]

[chronosynthesis]

I don't actually have any experience in stealing either names or souls. [He lets out a sigh.] It may well just be a spell that needs to be unraveled.

[spaghettimonster]

Oh, okay. [Papyrus thinks about what he's heard so far, and pushes his voice to sound more confident. YMMV how successful he is.] Well... Somebody will know! We'll figure something out.