Scrapyard Station behind the scenes

[feotakahari]

The Riders’ immobilizing gaze is kind of a lackluster power, but I’m not sure I want to go through with “improving” it. The obvious route is that the Riders use the gaze to train their bond-beasts, with repeated exposure making them weak-willed and easy to control. End off on the implication this may also work on sapients, and it becomes properly horror-themed. But that creates a conflict with other races that can never really be resolved. I mean, Nomads or Winnowers can easily kill you, but most people don’t jump to killing as an option. You can feel reasonably safe talking to them. Meanwhile, mind control opens up a whole spectrum of awful actions, and Riders who wouldn’t be evil enough for the really awful stuff could rationalize “minor” manipulation that’s still pretty bad. Once the other races figure this out, coexistence becomes impossible, and I’m not sure I want to do that to my cute little lizard-caterpillars who love to sing.