Piper 90: Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
goneawaymod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
goneawayworld2021-04-10 09:37 pm
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawayworld2021-04-10 09:37 pm
3..2...1...CONTACT!
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.]]
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.]]
no subject
Price expresses his confusion but quickly remembers that Sam might not want to talk about it.
"...If it's alright to ask."
no subject
The look on his face isn't curious. More...wary.
no subject
He figures he should probably be more specific.
"I did not catch many details, I'm afraid, but I noticed it was a man with blond hair."
no subject
Sam closes his eyes, taking a moment so that the memory library comes back to the full. "Sorry. Sorry. That..." He huffs a short, humorless laugh. "Let's just say that there's trauma and leave it there."
no subject
Huh. Who knows what strange story is behind that sighting giving how Sam is reacting now. Price is curious, but he won't be reckless with questions.
no subject
He doesn't want to give away more than he absolutely must, after all. Price isn't in the group of people he trusts with that information.
no subject
"I see."
no subject
Sam shrugs with a half smile. "Not really sure where to go from here, honestly. This is one of those memories I can keep going for a good long time if necessary, though."
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."
no subject
And it's not that THAT part has changed. The guy is obviously that.
No. He's obviously SO much worse.
He manages, just, to avoid physically recoiling. But he does glance to Price, back to his child self, then back to the adult. "You realize that's not better, right?"
no subject
His mouth does a wide smirk, but his eyes are completely empty, he's not even bothering to fake a soft or reassuring smile. It's a deliberately predatory look.
"If I was really the type to kill people for no reason, I would have used my noospheric powers to effortlessly burn others with my lasers and I have would done so unprompted, but I don't recall doing that to you or anyone else. Not even to those who have been rude to me."
The smirk goes back to a blank expression, his voice although monotone as always commands respect.
"After all, you would not want me to get actively hostile towards you based on some out of context memory where your actions are...Less than immaculate, correct?"
He raises an eyebrow.
"...Unless you wanted to shift your approach towards this situation in such fashion already and I misunderstood. In which case, I am very sorry."
no subject
But that's not really a thing to bring up here.
The blond man reappears, kicked back across from the young Sam and singing "Stairway to Heaven". Not that the young Sam notices, but Sam tenses up again. "I think we're done here."
no subject
Again, he doesn't pay mind to Sam much. The threat was mere self defense from such hostile behaviour. Nothing that can't be shrugged off.
no subject
His hands move, the thumb of his right hand pressing into a scar on his left hand. The singing stops as the man disappears.
no subject
And quite fascinating, honestly.
"Is there anything else you would rather discuss? You seem to be in need of avoiding this topic at the moment."
no subject
Sam closes his eyes a moment to solidify things. "Like, I remember being here and studying. But I did it so many times, I couldn't tell you exactly when I'm thinking about. So it's already a merger, in its way."
There. New topic.
no subject
He shrugs. This is an alright conversation, he thinks not he's doing good, he's perfectly capable of keeping it going without hostility. If Sam thinks otherwise, that's on him.