Elmo couldn't help but feel lost. If anything, he had expected a fight. Not Stanley saying a few words and having most of their group siding with him for whatever reason. Plus, in addition to that, he felt like something was being brought up that he'd rather not hear about in the first place.
Although, he had a feeling that whatever it was, was going to be what saved them from whatever Stanley was saying. Or how it was having an influence on the others.
Yet, why it didn't seem to affect him in the same way, he couldn't say. All he knew was that he was very much still in control of his actions and wasn't behaving abnormally.
Although, with some, he wouldn't have said they were behaving abnormally if they weren't taking Stanley's side on this matter. Like Elwin.
Elmo was hardly paying any attention to exactly what was being said. All he cared about was that they deal with Stanley quickly. Although, he was unable to get the sleep spell to work on him, as he'd already tried a few times since they'd gotten close enough to talk with him.
"Participated in what?" Stanley's words broke through to Elmo, though he wasn't sure what reason there was for having said them. "I can't imagine having done something to either of you to have warranted such… hostility."
"Of course you wouldn't have," Heather snapped. "You merely said a word and took away our free will. You're hardly much different from those goblins."
Stanley blinked. Looking almost hurt. "I've never killed as indiscriminately as the goblins did."
"Yeah, that's not what you have in common with the goblins," Elin remarked, startling Elmo. He'd started to think that it was merely between Heather, Sonya, and Stanley. He hadn't expected Elin to chime in as well. "I don't know what they're talking about, but you strike me as the kind of person who would rather have others do the killing for you, if you could get away with it."
"That's enough out of you!" Elwin snapped, swinging his sword at Elin, only to be blocked by Jonas' blades.
Jonas didn't say anything, but it looked like he was struggling to move. Making Elmo wonder if Elin hadn't been on the same team for so long if he'd have been able to defend her like that. To react in time to keep her safe from the others who were clearly under Stanley's influence.
"And why attack her for siding with us?" Sonya asked Elwin dryly. "Even when you disagreed with Patricia, you never drew your sword on her.
As Sonya spoke to Elwin, it looked like Sonya's words weren't affecting him. Like they were essentially being swallowed up into a void or something as they were spoken.
"Maybe he's attacking her because he recognizes her words as hate speech?" Stanley asks, as if he didn't somehow have something to do with the situation they were in.
"How was what she said 'hateful' in anyway? She merely made an observation," Elmo found himself commenting. "You know, it's almost as if they've been enchanted. Like your words have gotten some kind of hold over them that they can't shake."
Stanley glared at Elmo, making Elmo wonder how accurate his assessment had been. Making Elmo wonder if that somehow might be the key to undoing Stanley's hold on the others.
"You do realize that you're the reason why Heather and I were captured by those goblins before, right?" Sonya remarked after a tense silence for a few moments. "Otherwise, we'd have been able to at least try and run like you were so quick to do when the portal first opened up."
"Maybe I can see that with Heather, but I've never been around you before. I've never had a mutt on my team," Stanley protested, though Elmo noticed that he was starting to sweat. Whether or not he recognized Sonya as someone having been on his team, the mention about when the goblins first had appeared seemed to have rattled him more than Elmo felt it should have. At least assuming that what Sonya was essentially accusing him of wasn't true.
"Of course you wouldn't recognize me," Sonya drawled. "You never let me use my abilities around you since there was something else that you felt I was better suited for. Which was to spread my legs and let you and the rest of the group do what they wanted to me. I remember every detail of it, just like I'm sure Elwin will remember every detail of what's happening right now. Even if he's under your control and essentially on your side, he'll still remember this and once your control wanes, he'll recognize what happened and be more wary of you later on."
Stanley looked at Sonya almost in disbelief, the sweat on his face disappearing. Almost as if he was no longer worried about what he'd been getting accused of. Instead, he started laughing. Like the situation they were all in was merely one big joke.
"You don't realize do, you?" Stanley asked, sounding almost like he considered himself innocent of anything wrong. Even as he drops all pretense of his denials of what Sonya was accusing him of. "I can control his memory as well. Those of you whom I can't control will merely need to be eliminated and then those who I can control will merely forget what happened. I might not have realized that I needed to do that with both of you when we first started out, but I've since realized I can do that to others since then. Which will at least make it so that they won't be suspicious of me. They won't even realize they ever had any thoughts that were suspicious of me. I'll be the one who they'll trust the most. Even if I can't return back to my world."
Elmo noticed something flicker in Elwin's eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as it existed. Like a spark ignited from flint and steel. Bright one moment and gone the next. Elmo wasn't really sure he'd seen it, but he had a feeling that Stanley's control wasn't as perfect as he seemed to think it was, even though he didn't have any reason to argue the point himself.
Though, the only other sounds were the sounds of metal grating on metal as Elwin was still trying to complete his swing at Elin while Jonas continued to block it.
"Then all we have to do is eliminate you before you have a chance to do that," Heather replied, her voice devoid of the compassion it normally contained. A testament to how she felt overall about Stanley. "I mean, you don't have control over all of us. Plus, if we don't kill you, you'll certainly have those under your control kill us, since we clearly can't be brought under your control."
Stanley looked at Heather for a moment before his façade crumbled away. "I guess I should leave all pretense to the side then. Seeing as how I've done all I can about it anyway."
Elmo wasn't sure what that meant, but he was at least confident it didn't bode well for any of them. So, before anything else could be done, Elmo called out, "Brimstone Flare!"
Elmo wasn't sure what he expected to happen, but it was clear that Stanley was completely caught off guard. That he hadn't expected any actual attack to head his way.
The dark flames struck Stanley, igniting his clothing, though his skin burned faster. While Stanley tried to drop to the ground and smother the flames by rolling around on the ground, it didn't seem to have any effect. While Elmo supposed he could probably leave it at that, he had a feeling that if he didn't finish the job, that Stanley would come for them.
Yet, he wasn't a killer. Which if he did kill Stanley, he certainly would be. While at the same time, he couldn't just leave Stanley alive, otherwise he knew Stanley would try something. Something that he couldn't predict, given how he certainly didn't think like Stanley did, nor did he want to.
"Free those you have under your control and we'll let you live. If you don't, we'll leave you a burned out husk that will turn to dust before nightfall," Sonya ordered Stanley as the flames died out on him, leaving slight scarring on his skin, even as it looked like it was drying out.
Stanley stared at Sonya in horror from where he lay on the ground, his mind clearly working overtime to figure out a way out of the predicament he found himself in. Elmo wasn't sure what to expect himself, just that he saw a glimmer of hope. A way out of the situation where he wouldn't have to kill Stanley or risk being killed himself.
"Fine," Sonya said, turning to Elmo when Stanley didn't say anything immediately. "Finish him."
It took Elmo a moment to collect himself, to realize what exactly Sonya had said, but it was clear that Stanley had processed that information faster, given how he quickly tripped over his own words to accept Sonya's 'proposal.'
"I'll do it! Don't kill me, I'll do it!"