Posted on 2020-11-29 00:07:58
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I haven't really commisioned anything weird yet, so when I realised that helmstrolls were an unmined source of hypno content I commissioned this from RectangularIris (good tf artist; recommended), albeit with a more technological than biological spin on the concept.

Posted on 2023-01-05 23:32:53
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Finally finished the story for this image:


The position of Helmsman changed greatly after Tvattr took the throne. New methods of psychosexual control were introduced, allowing for much faster travel - as the helmsmen were neurologically incapable of resistance, the psychic dampeners previously necessary could be removed.

Sollux Captor was the first prototype of the new cybernetic helmsmen, designed to helm those classes of ships where biowires were a disadvantage. While biowires allow for the use of the entirety of the helmsman's psychic power, they are bulky, require large sections of the ship to be given over to them, are difficult to make ad-hoc repairs to, and greatly increase the nutrient requirements of the helmsman.

While these are acceptable downsides for large ships, for small ships this imposes heavy demands on them. Because of this the cybernetic helmsman program was developed.

Cybernetic helmsmen are similar in their basic principles to regular helmsmen, however instead of using living biowires they use regular electric cabling as the psychic conduit. This results in the loss of some psychic energy, but as the cables are inanimate they do not require nutrients and can be easily replaced.

Sollux was chosen as the prototype for two reasons. The first was that his high level of psychic power ensured that even with the loss of energy from the cables, there would still be enough energy to easily fly the ship - the scienterrorists who developed the program were still uncertain over how much energy would be lost through the cables. The second was that Tvattr took a great deal of interest in the project, and decided that the first ship to use a cybernetic helmsman would be a private one-troll ship he was having developed. Having the Psiionic's descendent helm his private ship, while the Psiionic himself helmed his flagship, appealed greatly to Tvattr.

Converting a psychic troll into a helmsman of any kind is a complex, invasive, and permanent process. In the case of a cybernetic helmsman, the first step is to amputate the limbs. This is because, as with regular helmsmen, the limbs - particularly the arms - are a troll's primary psychic conduits. At this stage in the process nothing is done to the leg stumps besides stabilising them - they will interface with part of the equipment that is permanently installed into the ship. The arm stumps, meanwhile, have the ports necessary for the cables to be connected installed immediately after amputation - a finicky business involving careful manipulation of nerves.

Once this is done, the next step is the fitting of the helmet. This is not merely headwear but is permanently fixed to the head, as beneath it the scalp is removed and wires inserted to connect the brain and helmet. This is not usually done with regular helmsmen, but two factors led to it being adopted for cybernetic helmsmen. The first was that a direct connection to the brain would minimise loss of psychic energy. The second was that it allowed full integration of the helmsman with the ship's computers, eliminating biological restraints on their memory and processing capacity. This is the only part of the procedure where the subject is sedated - the trauma of having a large portion of their scalp permanently removed and wires inserted directly into their brain could be fatal. The visor is not installed at this point, however, as the hypnotic conditioning is designed for use when the helmsman is installed.

The subject is woken up by having their eyelids removed, to prevent them from resisting the visuals displayed by the helmet. Once they have woken up - and in the case of Sollux experiencing a complex cocktail of emotions, the primary one being anger - they can be moved to the ship for final installation. Obviously, this requires the subject to be physically restrained - even without their limbs and with psychic dampeners attached, an angry troll can do a lot of damage. By the time the subject has been dragged to the helmsblock, the helming equipment should have been fully connected to the ship's systems and made ready for the installation of the subject by the technicians on duty.

Final installation can now begin. With the subject restrained, they can be carefully lowered into the central installation that will permanently envelop the stubs of their legs. Before it can be fully sealed shut, however, hundreds of wires, cables, and tubes must be attached. These serve a wide variety of purposes, including supplying nutrients, removing waste, siphoning psychic powers, and injecting drugs for medical and psychological purposes. Once this lengthy process has been completed, the installation can be sealed and a series of tests run to ensure proper functioning. With the tests complete, the primary life support systems are then engaged, but the setup of the central installation is not yet complete.

There is one final attachment to be made below the helmsman's waist. This is a dildo that is inserted into the helmsman's anus. Not only did the dehumanising aspect of having a dildo mechanically inserted appeal to Tvattr, but it provided another way to deliver nutrients and drugs, as well as providing a means to provide sexual stimulation beyond aphrodisiacs and neurological control. Once it is inserted and tested, focus can shift to the arms.

As previously stated, the arm stumps have ports installed to connect to the cables necessary to siphon psychic power. Now they can finally be connected to the cables. Each port supplies between five to ten cables, depending on the nature and size of the ship, each cable controlling a different system. Once the cables have been plugged in, they are pulled up by motors to force the helmsman into a standing position. At this point the helmsman no longer needs to be fully restrained by another troll, but their head must be kept restrained for the final step in the process.

The final step is setting up the helmet in preparation for the brainwashing. Wires are connected from the ship to the helmet, and the visor is inserted into the helmet. Because of the intimacy of inserting the visor, requiring as it does that the inserter get close to the helmsman's face, Tvattr decided to do it himself in the case of Sollux, enjoying the chance to mock Sollux in his last moments of freedom, and it became a tradition that the captain of the ship should be the one to insert the visor.

With the helmet set up, the helmsman no longer needs to be restrained, and the process of brainwashing them into their new role can begin. Brainwashing a helmsman is in many ways an art rather than a science, with the specific actions taken depending on both the nature of the helmsman and the preferences of the brainwasher. Therefore we shall take a broad overview of the tools available to the brainwasher, before talking in more detail about the specific case of Sollux.

The primary method of brainwashing is of course the visuals displayed by the visor, but these are backed up by several other tools. The helmet of course is a key part, not only housing the visor but also speakers which among other things can play hypnotic audio, as well as being directly wired into the helmsman's brain - though this last method is not used as often as one might think, as it is a blunt tool that is difficult to use precisely. Drugs are another option available to the brainwasher, who has a broad cocktail of chemicals to use, ranging from powerful aphrodisiacs to subtle mood-changers. Backchanneling psionics through the cables is yet another option, though this is firmly a method of enhancing other methods of brainwashing as psionics are incapable of actually changing another troll's mind.

Moving on to the specific case of Sollux, describing helmsman conditioning is a difficult process, at least from the perspective of the victim - after all, it is intended to almost completely erase the personality of the helmsman, turning them into something that in many sense is a piece of wetware for the ship rather than a person. This is not to say that post-conditioning helmsmen are totally mindless, or that they are unconscious automatons, but rather that they are completely controlled and incapable of disobeying orders to the slightest degree, as well as having most capacity for independent action removed. Unsurprisingly, a fully brainwashed helmsman, while capable of holding a basic conversation, lacks the mental capacity to describe their brainwashing, even if their pre-helming memories weren't blocked off from them.

So we shall have to describe the conditioning from Tvattr's perspective, and explain why he used the tools that he did. He began, after setting up the basic subliminals that prevent physical resistance, with an large injection of aphrodisiacs - the heavy conditioning that helmsmen are subject to relies not only on the more advanced methods of control but also operant conditioning via pleasure, both sexual and otherwise. Thus helmsmen are kept in a state of heavy arousal that can be increased when orders are obeyed. They are not held back from release - they can orgasm at any time - but the strength and the amount of the aphrodisiacs pumped in is such that they attain arousal again almost instantly.

With Sollux's mental resistance blunted by the distraction of his sudden arousal, Tvattr started to shift aspects of Sollux's mind into the ship's computer banks - not only a necessary step in his integration with the ship, but also in dehumanising Sollux in his own eyes, as he is forced to see himself as part of the ship. In addition, those aspects of his mind transferred to the computer can be edited directly without the need of brainwashing, though most of the mind cannot be transferred over.

With this transfer process started, it could be left to occur mainly in the background, since most of what can be transferred over is stuff like memory where the transfer is unlikely to be instantly felt. The focus of Tvattr was now on the primary method of brainwashing - the audio and visuals displayed by the helmet. Obviously these can only be described in terms of their effects - the high-intensity audiovisual programs used in helmsman conditioning are not something that can be used on a troll if their original self is expected to survive the experience, even for a short while. Many experiment subjects were left functionally braindead before the base programs were developed to a point where specialised versions could be created.

The immediate effect of the audiovisual programs, now that they were properly started, was to blunt Sollux's anger and fear of becoming a helmsman. Once this control was established, Sollux was gradually brought into a near-trance state - still aware of what was happening, and strongly against it happening, but physically relaxed - to the point of being incapable of speech - and effectively incapable of mental resistance.

Once that was done, the real brainwashing could begin.

In Sollux's case, as with most cases of helmsman conditioning, this began with a scream, as the lights and sounds blaring from the visor became ever brighter, ever louder, and ever more intense as they began the process of erasing his mind. Those very few rebels who have seen helmsman conditioning in action have described this scream as the most terrifying sound they have heard - not the scream itself, though on its own the scream of those who are having their mind erased would chill them to the bone, but the way it gradually fades into a moan of arousal as the troll who screamed disappears forever.

But at this, the very first helmsman conditioning, there was no one to be horrified at this. There was only Tvattr, who considered it one of the most arousing sounds known to trollkind.

Once Tvattr had finished savouring the moment, he could work on finalizing the helmsman's new mindset. As the core program transforming Sollux into a near-mindless drone is a fairly blunt tool that can be left on its own, this was primarily focused on the rather unarousing business of ensuring Sollux's brain was properly connected to the various systems of the ship. Once this was finished, the core program was nearly finished, and could be carefully wound down by Tvattr, who was rock hard seeing the total lack of expression from Sollux as the lights and sounds that had destroyed his mind wound down, leaving only the background subliminals that ensured his ruined mind would never be able to piece the slightest bit of itself back together.

And then came the moment Tvattr had been waiting for, when he could finally turn off the various backup systems for keeping the ship ticking over without a helmsman and turn over control to the newly created helmsman. And as the lights came back on as the systems booted up, the blank, vacant voice of the new helmsman - the voice that just minutes ago was spitting invectives - was so arousing to Tvattr that he came on the spot:

"Systems initialized. Helmsman SC-001 online. Captain Tvattr Cerebr recognised. How may your Helmsman serve you today?"