Let's brainwash the entire outpost

Tally thought for a moment. An idea had popped into his head when Mi was talking about how she needed to keep up appearances for her warriors. There was an incredibly obvious solution for that which was staring him in the face, but dare he do something so brazen?

“Do it,” Brim encouraged him, leaning on her elbows in midair in front of him. “You know you want to.”

So, Tally decided, fuck it. He looked up at Kraya and decided, “I’d like to see if we can take over all the rest of Mi’s warriors before she gets back.”

Kraya gave Tally a high-five which nearly knocked him off his feet. “I love that idea! We can be your own little army, much better than just having me and the general. Let’s go, I know exactly how we should do this.”

Kraya told Tally to hide behind Mi’s tent, in the spot he’d been when she’d found him, and then Kraya would go out to find someone to lure in. Kraya tracked down one of her friends and urged her to ‘come see this, it’ll change your life, trust me’. She would then lead the unsuspecting friend behind Mi’s tent out of sight, where she would introduce her to Tally, who would then work his magic while Kraya stopped her from trying to leave.

Once Tally had four new recruits behind the tent with him, he decided he had enough protection to go on the offensive. He and his expanding band of followers roamed the encampment, with Kraya calling over anyone she saw, so Tally could brainwash them without leaving the safety of the dazed group of warriors surrounding him.

After a while it looked like Tally had gotten everyone who was out and about, so then he turned to checking in each one of the tents and ransacked houses, door-to-door, brainwashing anyone he found inside. Kraya’s advice proved very helpful pointing out which ones of the smashed up houses were currently occupied. He took some personal satisfaction in brainwashing Quelm, who had locked him up in a cage yesterday. His first instruction to her was to turn Sarah loose, the old woman who had been in that cage for longer than Tally had. Quelm became woefully embarrassed thinking about what she had done to Tally, and quietly released Sarah and allowed her to return to her home down in town. Sarah would go her whole life believing Quelm had just decided to let her go out of conscience, never to realize she only did it under the influence of mind control.

Eventually, Tally’s following comprised everyone who was here at the outpost: ten warriors, a little under half of the total. The others, Kraya informed him, were currently down in the town and would be coming back soon enough. So, Tally instructed his new underlings to mill about outside, pretending everything was normal, waiting for anyone else to come back to the outpost. Every time someone did, the others would descend upon her and bring her to Tally for brainwashing.

“How many of you are left now?” Tally asked several hours later, still using Mi’s tent as a base even though he was no longer in any danger going outside. Kraya, who was with him, counted on her fingers.

“I think only two or three are unaccounted for. I’ve kind of lost track. You’ve got most of us, that’s for sure.”

“Good, very good,” Tally nodded. He leaned back on Mi’s bed and stared up at the roof of the tent, the hole in the top providing a natural skylight.

“What’s wrong, Tally?” Brim asked, squeezing through this skylight into the tent and producing a cartoonish ‘pop’ noise. “Why are you still holed up in here? You know everyone outside would love to see you…”

“Until we’re sure we’ve gotten everyone, the safest thing to do is stay hidden,” Tally replied.

“Huh?” Said Kraya, who only saw Tally replying to empty space. “Uh, sure, I guess, but I promise I’ll protect you if you want to go outside. The gals are pretty confused right now, I’ll tell you that, and they’d be able to do a better job following your orders if you actually told them what’s going on.”

Kraya’s suggestion was interrupted by the sounds of a scuffle outside. Kraya peeked out of the tent-flap. “Tally, they’ve got the general.”

“Come quick,” one of Tally’s new recruits called over to him, “she’s putting up a fight.” It was taking three people just to restrain Mi, who was desperately trying to wrench herself free. When she saw Tally, she realized why her troops had suddenly turned on her.

“Did you…? Tally, call them off, you’ve already done me!”

“It’s true, she’s on our side,” Tally confirmed, and Mi was released. Mi rubbed her arms where she had been held, and looked around at her warriors that had jumped her. Their faces showed no regret, but at the same time, all trace of hostility had immediately vanished now that they knew Mi was brainwashed too. “So, you’ve been expanding your influence while I was away, then?”

“Everyone here is now under Tally’s command,” Kraya announced proudly. “We’re still waiting on a couple people who haven’t stopped back here yet, but after them, we’ll have the whole outpost converted.”

Mi smiled. Miffed though she was to see her warriors defect to an authority other than her own, the joy of seeing Tally getting what he wanted more than made up for it. She decided to immediately call a meeting, gathering all twenty-two of available warriors in the center of the encampment. Mi stood on a couple of wooden crates to address them all, and invited Tally to stand with her.

“I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you all that there’s going to be a few changes around here,” Mi declared. “We are now under the command of Tally here. From now on, his word is law! We are going to be ditching our invasion effort, in favor of whatever purpose Tally has for us. Tally, want to say anything to your new troops?” Mi stepped off of the crates to give Tally the center of attention. As he looked around at all the adoring faces staring at him, eagerly awaiting his commands, he gulped with a sudden wash of stage-fright. Mi, from the front of the crowd, nodded at him encouragingly.

“No need to get nervous,” Brim advised, from her place hovering above everyone’s heads. “Just imagine them naked or whatever- actually, you could tell them to get naked in real life and they absolutely would, if it would help. You don’t need to worry about embarrassing yourself: nothing you say or do will make them think any less of you now.”

“Right,” Tally cleared his throat, “Thank you Mi for giving that little rundown. Yes, I am in charge now, thanks to all your help. Our main goal is to stop the invasion and vanquish all the monsters back to your own dimension.”

There was an enthusiastic cheer of approval. Coming from Tally, this sounded like the best idea in the world to them.

Tally modestly accepted the cheering, getting a little more confident. “So, this is what we’re going to do first:”