The memoryscape warps into a moment from Price's childhood. It's not a happy memory nor a sad one, it's something he feels purely neutral about and that itself is perhaps the bigger concern.
In what looks like a recreation room sits a tiny and adorable child version of him, with little curls that are just starting to grow out and big amber eyes scanning the doodles he's making on printer paper. It's birds of many different kinds sitting on barbed wire, with an accuracy that is impressive especially for a seven years old child.
The clouds and trees in the distance instead are scribbled approximately like one would expect; when he was little Price had an obsession with birds and flying and when he got to see books about them in foster care he started studying them, drawing them and he would also go look for them in the courtyard. Wanting to fly away was a constant for him until he literally did fly away on the Mother Of Invention about three decades later.
Yet while the sad and cute child that wanted to fly away was real, there was also another side of him that it was hard to ignore. In fact, it became harder to ignore after this day: a five years old child arrives and sits next to him, and starts to ungracefully fill out his own sheets of paper, elbowing him in the process and colouring with a felt tip pen over his lovely birds.
"You ruined my drawing!"
"You draw birds all the time." the kid shrugs, not looking up from his ugly scribbles.
"At least I draw something."
"Meh."
The Price in the memory gets pensive, he side eyes the smaller kid and starts thinking. Suddenly something comes alive inside of him. He thinks of the older kid that has been bullying him, of how easily Price being small could be taken advantage of. He's been wanting to get even for a while, but before he can do anything he has to practice on something smaller...
"If you ruin my drawings I can't share my bird powers with you." he grumbles quietly enough so that the cameras won't catch what he says.
"You have bird powers??" of course the smaller child is gullible enough to entertain the conversation.
"Shh!! Quiet." he starts whispering "Yeah, they're not full yet so I can only use them very early in the morning." he looks around with fake suspicion "One time I flew away and stayed outside until they came to wake us up. I can help you do it too, but you have to promise you won't tell anyone."
"Why not?"
"Because I can talk to birds and the birds told me that they will take away my powers if the wrong person knows it."
"Oh...Okay. So what do I have to do?"
The little Aiden resourcefully takes rounded scissors, cuts one of the intact birds of his drawing and hands it to the other.
"You have to put this under your pillow when you go to sleep - don't show anyone or it won't work - and then you wake up as early as you can, open the window, and jump, but only if there is no one around or else the birds will think that you told them about it. If everyone is asleep it's fine though."
"Ah...Makes sense." nods the little kid "Is that all?"
"No. Remember to flap your hands a lot because if you don't do it enough you can't go far."
"But what if I fall?"
"You can't fall if you don't tell anyone about it. Can you promise that?"
"Sure."
"Good."
He goes on about his day, and the following morning he's woken up by an ambulance outside. He peeks from his room and a sadistic smirk appears on his face. He knew this would happen.
"He really did that." the current Price seems to be holding back a chuckle "I know I couldn't afford to be that silly at his age."
He purses his lips slightly, looking at a probably disgruntled Sam.
"Before you comment on this, I would like to clarify that I had nothing against him." he shrugs "I just had to practise to get rid of someone else, see what worked and went unnoticed, that's all."
cw implied death
In what looks like a recreation room sits a tiny and adorable child version of him, with little curls that are just starting to grow out and big amber eyes scanning the doodles he's making on printer paper. It's birds of many different kinds sitting on barbed wire, with an accuracy that is impressive especially for a seven years old child.
The clouds and trees in the distance instead are scribbled approximately like one would expect; when he was little Price had an obsession with birds and flying and when he got to see books about them in foster care he started studying them, drawing them and he would also go look for them in the courtyard. Wanting to fly away was a constant for him until he literally did fly away on the Mother Of Invention about three decades later.
Yet while the sad and cute child that wanted to fly away was real, there was also another side of him that it was hard to ignore. In fact, it became harder to ignore after this day: a five years old child arrives and sits next to him, and starts to ungracefully fill out his own sheets of paper, elbowing him in the process and colouring with a felt tip pen over his lovely birds.
"You ruined my drawing!"
"You draw birds all the time." the kid shrugs, not looking up from his ugly scribbles.
"At least I draw something."
"Meh."
The Price in the memory gets pensive, he side eyes the smaller kid and starts thinking. Suddenly something comes alive inside of him. He thinks of the older kid that has been bullying him, of how easily Price being small could be taken advantage of. He's been wanting to get even for a while, but before he can do anything he has to practice on something smaller...
"If you ruin my drawings I can't share my bird powers with you." he grumbles quietly enough so that the cameras won't catch what he says.
"You have bird powers??" of course the smaller child is gullible enough to entertain the conversation.
"Shh!! Quiet." he starts whispering "Yeah, they're not full yet so I can only use them very early in the morning." he looks around with fake suspicion "One time I flew away and stayed outside until they came to wake us up. I can help you do it too, but you have to promise you won't tell anyone."
"Why not?"
"Because I can talk to birds and the birds told me that they will take away my powers if the wrong person knows it."
"Oh...Okay. So what do I have to do?"
The little Aiden resourcefully takes rounded scissors, cuts one of the intact birds of his drawing and hands it to the other.
"You have to put this under your pillow when you go to sleep - don't show anyone or it won't work - and then you wake up as early as you can, open the window, and jump, but only if there is no one around or else the birds will think that you told them about it. If everyone is asleep it's fine though."
"Ah...Makes sense." nods the little kid "Is that all?"
"No. Remember to flap your hands a lot because if you don't do it enough you can't go far."
"But what if I fall?"
"You can't fall if you don't tell anyone about it. Can you promise that?"
"Sure."
"Good."
He goes on about his day, and the following morning he's woken up by an ambulance outside. He peeks from his room and a sadistic smirk appears on his face. He knew this would happen.
"He really did that." the current Price seems to be holding back a chuckle "I know I couldn't afford to be that silly at his age."
He purses his lips slightly, looking at a probably disgruntled Sam.
"Before you comment on this, I would like to clarify that I had nothing against him." he shrugs "I just had to practise to get rid of someone else, see what worked and went unnoticed, that's all."