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

[aleifr]

Aleifr's snapped out of his reverie by the voice sounding off behind him. He turns to see ... well, the same woman who'd just been knocked onto her ass on the court - or at least another version of her.

Suppose he knows whose memory he's found himself in.

"Yes," He replies with a nod of acknowledgement. "I am."

He briefly glances back at the game - attention momentarily diverted by another raucus outburst - before he turns to her fully.

"My apologies." Accompanied with a deeper incline of his head - almost a bow. "I mean no intrusion. I don't know what's pulled me here, and I don't know how to leave."

[just_rogue]

"Yeah, not really sure what ta make of it mahself." The thick southern drawl held an amused note to it.

"This is mah mem'ry. We used ta play ball a lot, baseball, basketball, even volleyball by the pool or at the beach." They were good times, memories she held onto fondly.

"Ya ain't intrudin' on nuthin sugah. Ah guess ah could play tour guide an show ya around. Name's Rogue and this here's Xavier's School for the Gifted." She waved tot he estate.

[aleifr]

"Aleifr, son of Bjorn and Fjalla, of the Ascomanni."

Another incline of his head. When he straights up, he follows her hand towards the massive building that dominates their picturesque surroundings.

"I'd like that. This is ... different, from what I know."

[just_rogue]

"That's a whole lotta name, but yer kinda a whole lot yerself." Rogue wasn't small, but he dwarfed her in height and width. Didn't mean she was outmatched, but things didn't like like they were headed for a fight either.

"It's a school, an kinda a safe place fer folks who're a little different, special in ways." She was proud of the work they'd done and the people they'd helped, at least since she'd joined up and given up her time on the other side of that goody guy/bad guy fence.

"What's it like where yer from?" She lead on toward the building, but they had a fair ways to go. Out here were a few sports areas, baseball, basketball, volleyball even a pool. They had wide forest around most of the exterior grounds and a large lake with a lake house and dock down to one side.

[aleifr]

"School." He echoes as they start walking towards the sprawling brick building. It's clear from the way he says it, though, that it's an unfamiliar word he's trying out for the first time.

"Not like this."

A vague answer, and he's aware it's unhelpful. The gap is just so vast he doesn't know where to start.

"Not this green, and nobody builds like this ... wouldn't even if they knew how."

[just_rogue]

"School? Ya know, where ya teach kids how to do things for when they grow up?" Rogue clarified as they walked.

"It is a might big, but we have all kinds'a classes and all kinds'a kids. Some need more space than others." She silently included herself in that number.

"But nature? This is what ah love about it here. Ah can just run an get lost in the woods for hours if ah want. Where yer from is different? Like deserts or rocky or what?"

[aleifr]

"Hh." He lets out a brief grunt of understanding at her explanation, and a small nod of his head. "Don't have a word for it where I come from. This seems more ... formal."

As to her question ...

"Rocky." He answers. "Cold, too, usually."

[just_rogue]

She shrugged at that, she thought they were a pretty relaxed environment but that could mean different things to different people. And this guy didn't exactly look like he was from around here.

"Been to places like that, can't say it's mah favorite. Ah was born where it's hot an humid all the time, lots of green and rivers. They passed by the pool, which was olympic sized and had a few students lounging by it taking in the afternoon sun. She imagined the pool wasn't something he would be familiar with either.

[aleifr]

Aleifr snorts. Strange to imagine.

She's right about the pool. Not as strange is it might have once been, but having a stone-lined basin made seemingly just for lounging in or by the water wasn't something that would have ever entered his mind.

"Are they all gifted?" He asks. "Those who live here?"

[just_rogue]

"Yeah, though some might not use that word for it, 'xactly." Again, she was in that camp more often than not.

"See they can do things that other people can't. Some can fly, or walk through walls, some have powerful minds that can read thoughts and control others, or they can harness elements. A place like this is home to som that can't find it anywhere else. An' more important it's a place ta learn and control what they can do so they don't hurt anyone." Most of the time anyway. Xavier's student had always worked to maintain peace with their world, the world hasn't always been as kind.

[aleifr]

Aleifr nods, smiling ruefully as he takes in his surroundings.

"A friend of mine - dear one - could have used some place like this."

[just_rogue]

"They're special?" She asked, prompting him to go on if he wanted.

[aleifr]

"Yes." Aleifr nods. "From a young age she could ... see things. Things that hadn't happened yet, or things that were happening very far away, that she couldn't have possibly known."

[just_rogue]

"Ah know a few folks who do that. Seems ta be a curse sometimes as much as a gift for some of 'em." They had getten close to the building and she wasn't sure if she could open the door of a memory, but she reached out and found the door light but it did move. "Ah can show ya inside if ya like." She held the door open in invitation.

[aleifr]

"Not all she can do." Aleifr grunts. But ... "I'd like that."

[just_rogue]

"You wanna talk about it?" Rogue had learned first hand how valuable talking could be. She gestured them inside through the massive double doors and if he was impressed with the outside, then the dark stained wood, giant curved stairs, crystal chandeliers, and opulent rugs and furnishings might really wow him.

Layout

[aleifr]

She was right. Aleifr slowly rotated on his heels, eyes scanning the expanse of the room around him as though it were unlike anything he'd ever seen.

"She can bend the weather to her whim." He says, after an awestruck moment at the wood panneling and vaulted ceilings. "Make a sky sunny or call down storm clouds and thunder on a moment's notice"

"Our tribe's gothi was wise - he knew how to speak to the spirits and understand their will - but he didn't have anywhere near the power that Solveig did even when she was a child."

[just_rogue]

"Know a gal who can do that too, though not that and the other. We call her Storm, she's good people." Rogue nodded and lead on pointing out the classrooms that were empty but for the last trailing students. He might glimpse wings or fur or prosthetics on some, while others looked no different than average kids.

[aleifr]

He notices. He's lost, but he's sharp. Things out of the ordinary stick out to his eye as clear as anything.

"She'd have loved this." Aleifr says, watching the students past by and even through him without even acknowledging his presence. "No one knew what she felt - not fully."

[just_rogue]

"You've talked about her like that before, is she gone?" Rogue paused, offering a softly concerned expression as he was inundated by her memories flowing around them.

[aleifr]

"No." Aleifr replies with a shake of his head. "Just been months since I've seen her, and even before then ... well ... she's figured her own way. Grown into her gifts. Figured things out for herself."

[just_rogue]

"Oh, sometimes life has that way a sending people into yer life and out again for reasons that don't make sense. Ah know plenty about that, mah man and ah had some rocky times." It seemed like for a while there were as many days they were apart as they were together. But she thought maybe things were finally looking up.

[aleifr]

"Wise words."

The fates do that. Bend lives in ways that aren't expected, forge bonds that those involved weren't ready for. Learning from those and growing from is wise - because odds are, anyone you meet will understand something that you don't.

[just_rogue]

"Ah learned a lot here, had a lot of good teachers. Not just for the book learnin' but 'bout life. 'bout mahself too." And that had been the one lesson she was still learning.

Rogue lead him on toward the massive library, fairly sure it would be something he'd be surprised by.

[aleifr]

"I understand that. Don't know where I'd be without mine."

She was right, by the way. When she leads him into the library his eyes narrow in confusion and then widen. He's quite literally never seen something like it before.