Invasion!

[goneawaymod]

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.]]

Comments

[bringinghopewithme]

You were a kid. [Possibly a malnourished kid, if Mac's home life was in a similar vein of lower economic class to Charlie's.] Of course you were small.

[The poignant sweetness of Mac as a child even telling Charlie he'd protect him - regardless of whether or not he actually would - is what sticks with Bunny. No kid should have to protect the other and actually he prefers to see a strong flight response in any kid. Fighting and protecting is what they have to grow into. Maybe Mac never grew into it either, but that might not be his fault. It's certainly not his childhood self's.]

I don't know what I'm doing here. Might be magic at work. Could be a Stuff breach. Either way, probably best to get out of it.

[He attempts to walk out the door, but just finds himself walking back into the same room.]

I'm gonna try the window.

[morebetter]

Uh hu. [Mac's already not listening to Bunny. He's not a problem-solver; that's for nerds. He likes to think he's more the sort of person who wills the world into what it should be by sheer dint of force so overwhelming that he doesn't have to bother with the specifics.]

Don't worry, I got this. [Mac adopts what could only charitably be described as a fighting stance, and he throws what he believes to be a pretty badass roundhouse kick at the window.

Were this the real world, Mac would probably break his ankle, but this isn't the real world. There's no shower of shattered glass. The window and the wall it's laid in simply disappear, as does the rest of the scene around them, replaced abruptly with the outdoors.

The outdoors in a dump, where the same two kids, maybe just a little bit younger, are tossing bottlecaps and pieces of trash at a rat that's only barely bothering to get out of the way of the projectiles. Whenever some garbage gets close to the rat, one of the boys will make an explosion sound and the other will laugh. Mac makes one that's exceptionally loud, and Charlie jumps.

"Jesus Christ, dude! That was right in my ear!"

Mac-as-a-child scowls at Charlie. "Don't take Jesus' name in vain, Charlie. We went over that all weekend in Bible study."

Charlie rolls his eyes and sits back down. "Well, I don't go to Bible study, and Jesus isn't real."

"Nuh uh! If Jesus isn't real, why does my mom keep saying I should thank him for making abortions bad?"

Charlie blows a raspberry. "That's because your mom doesn't love you, dude."

"Take it back!" Mac-as-a-child launches himself at Charlie, and soon the two are wrestling in the dirt and among the refuse and broken glass, evolving from a sincere tussle to playful wrestling.

Mac-as-an-adult stands on the sideline and shakes his head, arms folded. He glances back to see if Bunny's following, clicking his tongue and somewhat proud of the fact that he apparently kicked a hole in time and space.]

Dude, you coming with?

[bringinghopewithme]

[Bunny's gaze whips back to Mac as the children have their abortion discussion, as he looks to see if the comment landed and the meaning stuck this time.

But Mac shrugs it off, already proud of himself for . . . for what? Bunny has no idea. He lopes after Mac with a raised eyebrow.]

Do I have a choice?

[morebetter]

I...I mean, gonna be real dude, I don't know. [Mac considers himself a guru of a lot of things, but busting through dreams or memories or whatever? Definitely not something he picked up through his enthusiastic study of Van Damme films.]

Man, I have to say. [There's a flicker of dim pathos on Mac's face when he says that, looking at the tussling kids.] Pretty sure me at that age would be way disappointed that I never ended up the bodyguard for Jason Statham.