3..2...1...CONTACT!

[goneawaymod]

Who: The New Hires
What: Sudden Memory Share
Where: Their Memory Palaces
When: After "Don't Touch That Dial"
Warnings/Notes: Possible in every memory, warn in subject lines.

Contact.

It's during a pause in their day. A nap. An idle moment looking across the Top Deck. Taking a slow breath between reps in the training room.

The New Hires are connected. Mental pathways locking together, they're forced into one another's innermost beings. Thrust into one another's memory palaces where the mind collects and stores everything that makes them who they are. The core of their beings are only a few steps away and no one can help the violation.

To make matters worse, it comes with no explanation or no ability to pull out and stop. Once they're through the first memory, perhaps they can find a way out, but they're already witnessing some event from their host's past. And, if they left, who knows whether or not they'd end up accidentally invading another memory palace?

And if they were there, who was in theirs?

[[So, how this works: the memories can either be viewed in spectator mode or the guest can be experiencing everything themselves. The person whose memories are being shown, the host, can watch as their current self or take the form they had of their past self. They can talk about the memory with the "guest" that's visiting.

They cannot control the first memory shown, the player decides that, but they can control any other memories they'd like to show people after. Of course, there's also always the option of an extreme emotional reaction bringing up other memories unbidden.]]

Comments

I

[drladysounds]

That certainly is a lot of murder, way more than Shelley is comfortable with! Every time something breaks she winces and looks away, hiding behind anything that could conceal her from sight, covering her eyes with a hand -- oh god the blood, since when does blood make those little blooping noises when it sprays, also the crack of bones, and--wow, this is the very definition of carnage! She's not alarmed, but she does need a moment to gather her wits and get ready to see all the blood and corpses again.

"I definitely took a wrong turn into a really bloody one. This day is going straight into the therapy pile"

Not that Shelley has ever taken not even a single session of therapy for the stuff she has seen, but admittedly this is far more blood than she usually has seen, wow. She does have seen people die? And a lot of blood spilled, some of it her own? But part of her can't help but worry for the person this memory belongs to, hoping they're okay in the present and not haunted by thoughts of blood and murder!

[zerg_rush]

Kerrigan isn't particularly enjoying the replay of her greatest hits, and when something goes off-script, she whirls on the source, bloody combat knife at the ready, looking like death itself for a heartbeat before the glassy look in her green eyes clears.

"Who the hell are you?" The anger in Kerrigan's voice isn't much more reassuring than her brutally efficient slaughter had been, but it immediately gives way to an expression of nearly comical confusion. This isn't a recovered memory. She can't break the rhythm in those. The targets always die.

[drladysounds]

Shelley's immediate reaction, startled, is to activate her power, getting herself into her small pocket of isolation. To Kerrigan it's like she blinked out of existence, completely gone. When you're shouted that by the one who has been slaughtering guards left and right there's no shame in reacting like that, she thinks while she takes a deep breath, glad she has this new power. Perhaps it's more convenient than she thought at first!

"Alright, I just have to set the record straight and if I get a blade aimed at me, slink back here and make a hasty getaway. Thank you for existing, weird emptiness, how I love thee" she says aloud, moving a few feet away.

Shelley is back in 'reality', having been going for around ten seconds and appearing ten feet away from where she was, and holds her hands up. She's freaking out internally, but at least manages to stare back at Kerrigan and not melt under the reasonable fear of having her head separated from her body.

"I come in peace! What's the answer that'll keep all the red stuff inside me and my bones intact? Does the word 'Jorgmund' help with that?"

[zerg_rush]

Ten feet isn't enough to protect Shelley, but ten seconds is more than long enough for Kerrigan to calm down, if not to become less confused. In her experience, people don't generally disappear so thoroughly she can't even sense their minds anymore, nor do people who ran away from her come back.

"I'd say that depends entirely on how you feel about Jorgmund," she tells the other, seemingly less combat-hardened redhead.

[drladysounds]

Truthfully Shelley is not a fighter. She has nothing to do in a real serious fight, especially against an armed opponent. She'd go down quickly and she knows it -- which is why when she doesn't get a horrible grievous injury upon her return she's relieves and relaxes a little.

Clearly not a fighter, given she's relaxing in the first place!

"I...arrived not that long ago? I am very annoyed they "hired" me in the first place! Look at that rig, even if they offered dental healthcare I wouldn't trust them to even fill a cavity. And the shock collar is not welcome at all!"

She brushes her neck, right where the collar is implanted underneath the skin.

"I don't see anything positive about Jorgmund yet"

Which is...quite something to say, because almost every other time she got kidnapped and/or gotten dragged into someone's evil plans there was some silver lining that appealed to her.

[zerg_rush]

"'Yet' is optimistic," Kerrigan says, but she relaxes. "I'd ask what you're doing in my bad dream, but it's gotta be more of that Stuff crap."

She sighs and folds her arms, bloody knife still in one hand.

And then she...stands there.

Kerrigan is really bad at small talk.

[drladysounds]

Thankfully for them, Shelley has social skills. Even though a moment ago she was fearing a grievous attack on her, she manages to bounce back, talking with a cheer that comes as pretty natural. She's definitely trying to lighten up the air, as an apology for having been dragged into this bad memory uninvited.

"That must be exactly it! I was minding my own business as usual when suddenly I find myself stuck here while you fight until there's more blod than a butcher's shop. Even though it's...not really something I wanted to do, I should apologize for being here anyway.

Shelley Winters apologizes to you"

Introduction done. She does turn away from all the guard corpses because that's not a great sight. Still, curiously enough, even though she's talking with the person who created all this carnage, she seems rather okay with it. Now that she's feeling far less fearful about suffering the same fate, she's treating Kerrigan as if nothing had happened.

"It's been bad memories around here, that's for sure. I guess...most of us around here have some really heavy baggage carrying with us"

[zerg_rush]

It's okay. She only kills bad people now. Mostly.

"Kerrigan," says Kerrigan. "This was all years ago, for what it's worth." She knows it's not worth much to most people, and Winters is clearly not someone with a lot of experience in the bloodier side of politics. Besides, Kerrigan's no less of a killer now than she was then. She just does it in service of different goals.

[drladysounds]

"So you don't do this anymore? The whole..."

Shelley looks all over the setting of the memory. Military base after military base had been shown, the guards of all these places falling to Kerrigan's blade. She had to retrieve intel, maybe? Military secrets? Weaponry? All that's certain was that infiltration was the word of the day, but stealth probably wasn't Kerrigan's priority. Corpses are hard not to notice.

"...having to kill to get into places? If you don't mind me asking. It's not often I meet someone who had to do this often"

Not mentioning she already does know someone who used to do this, sort of. Goddamn awful at her job, too. At least Kerrigan seems far more competent, if perhaps more uncomfortable with, well, people finding out what she used to do.

[zerg_rush]

"Infiltration?" Kerrigan provides the term Shelley's avoiding. "I still do it. I'm just not a brainwashed assassin anymore."

She sighs. Kerrigan doesn't like having to give details about her distinctly sordid past within a minute of meeting someone, but it's better than having people thinking she's a remorseless, machine-like killer.

[drladysounds]

"Infiltration"

She nods. She's not really too good at being sensitive at other people's thoughts and feelings, but something about talking to Kerrigan makes her want to try as much as she can. Mostly out of fear instead of pity or civility, if she has to be completely honest.

"Brainwashed--oh! Oh, no" Shelley's voice is tinged with sympathy. "Well, good thing that's not it anymore. Do you have to do infiltration for Jorgmund? They're not brainwashing us...I hope...but it's not like they're too far from that point on the slippery slope"

Implanting shock collars on people isn't really what a moral and nice company does, after all.

[zerg_rush]

"Let's not talk about brainwashing anywhere it'd give 'em ideas," Kerrigan says in a tone that makes it clear it's not a suggestion. Having had her free will overridden once, she's not eager to repeat the experience. Besides... "I doubt they'd get it right the first time, and I'd prefer not to a guinea pig."

[drladysounds]

"Sorry. Bad habit"

Talking without thinking much, she means. Her brain-to-mouth filter isn't too great. Better not mention brainwashing aloud anymore, especially if there's any risk of Jorgmund hearing about it.

"What can they do, anyway? Other than frying our spines with electricity thanks to their unsolicited surgery". The shock collar is such a worrisome thing for her, if she has to be honest.