goneawayworld | Invasion!

Who: The New Hires
What: Sudden Memory Share
Where: Their Memory Palaces
When: After Intermission
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 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 cannot control the first memory shown, the player decides that, but they can control any other memories they'd like to show people. Of course, there's always the option of an extreme emotional reaction bringing up memories unbidden.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The person using Alloran's body continues to threaten the guard, talking in a silky-low voice that nevertheless carries. Many people are either glancing his way and then in any other direction or taking great pains not to look, adding a whole new element of discomfort.]

<That isn't me. Oh, I've been cruel and paranoid, I won't argue that. All the same.>

[This time Alloran's off to the side. He seems smaller, mostly because his posture is different, his tail low.]

Alloran...?

[ Now she's really confused about all of this. This has to be a weird dream, right? ]

I thought - who is that?

[ She drifts closer to the 'real' Alloran, watching the one berating the guards with a wariness honed over years of seeing the same dynamic play out. ]

[He has a brief, humorless laugh, a sensation like painless static electricity.]

<I am glad that someone remembers my name. No one used it when I was his slave. You start to forget, over enough time.>

[Alloran gestures cynically.]

<That's Esplin Nine Four Double-Six. Don't you worry for Offret and her host. This was all part of a power play.>

[ Whoa, that's weird. Adora shivers a little at the feeling. ]

Her... host? You're gonna need to back up for a second and explain.

[ She's just very confused. ]

[He crosses his arms over his narrow chest in a gesture borrowed from humans.]

<Yeerks are small aquatic wormlike creatures. They covet the hands and eyes and other abilities of other species and can take control of us when they have access to our brains. Everyone in this cavern is host to a Yeerk.>

Everyone?

[ She sounds shocked, dismayed, but not really disbelieving. ]

Why? Why are they doing all of this?

<They want our bodies and minds for our own and believe they have the right to take them. On most planets that means invading in force and forcibly conscripting people. On Earth, there was a strategy for 'voluntarily' recruiting humans, but as you can see most of them attempt to renege.>

[There is a lounge where people between piers, most of them human, sit in nice chairs and sip things and watch TV. Mostly they laugh too loudly, seem to be trying too hard to enjoy it.]

<...but all of that was in the past. This is perhaps a year and a half before it came to open war. Curious. I don't see why you would be here.>

I... don't know either. Or why I'd dream about any of this.

[ She can't look away. All she can do is stare in horror. ]

Do you think it has something to do with the rig...?

<That has to be it, or something about the world. I haven't heard of this effect before but that means nothing.>

[He's generally looking into the middle distance with his main eyes, but he's got a stalk eye to watch Adora's face.]

<I suppose this is disturbing.>

...just a bit.

[ Adora grimaces. ]

Don't get me wrong, I've seen... people suffering. Just... not like this. And it's never pleasant.

[ There's a pause from her and then she steps toward him, hand outstretched as if she's going to touch his shoulder. ]

...how are you doing? After... that.

[Alloran's eye stalks sway back and stretch upwards in surprise. He doesn't know how to react.]

<This? It happened every three days. One grows accustomed after a few years.>

That's awful...

[ Her hand does gently settle on his shoulder, her frown deepening. ]

Look. If you ever need anything or just... I don't know... want to talk about? You can find me, OK?

[It's stiffer than a human shoulder, with short smooth fur. The stalk eye that had been looking at Adora's face goes to her hand, and he finally meets her gaze with his big main eyes.

<I think what I have to say would prove more unpleasant than you know. Terrible things were done to me, and I was not a good person. What I am now, I don't know. But you are very kind to offer.>

[ Adora returns his gaze steadily, despite the fact that he has more than four. ]

A lot of people have done things that they're not proud of. But... if you choose to do something different, to be better... then... well, I believe in you. And the offer stands.

<You might not say that if you knew the depths of it. Some things can never be made up for or undone.>

[He says it gravely.]

<If this... situation repeats itself, more troubling aspects of my past may come to be known. That's unfortunate. I've enjoyed being so unknown.>

If you don't want to talk about it... you don't have to. I just want you to know that if you think it would help, I'll listen.

[ She nods firmly. ]

If you want to keep it private, that's up to you to. Or... it should be. There's definitely parts of my life I don't want to relive...

Invasion!

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sorry for the gap

no worries!

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