station72 | mental link, day 32

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mental link, day 32

[ Sam crashed hard after the vigil, because between all the lies making him feel like he was going to puke and trying to pick them apart giving him one mother of a headache, staying awake felt like something you only do if you really hate yourself.

Do all newfound psychic powers suck this bad? He was fine with just flying and blowing things up, thanks. ]

( By the way, just figured everybody should know: Seong-Hye Ngazi is full of crap, the Public Safety Commission isn't half as gung-ho about bringing the bomber to justice as she makes it sound, and I'm like ninety percent she actually knows who did it, but that part I'm not quite positive about.

So, you know. In case anybody wanted to break into her office or stalk her or something. I hear some of you guys are actually good at the cloak and dagger stuff.

You're welcome. )

[ He can be found in the common area of the Bearings, scrolling through news reports and radiating pure frustration, if anyone would rather comment to his face instead of over the link. ]

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[ Pidge pokes at the first pile he indicates with a little wince. Yep, these components look pretty done. Might as well recycle them. She glances back up with a little shrug and a little grin. ]

Really? What were you going to do with all of this, anyway?

[ She falls into a crouch and starts coiling some electric cable. That might be handy later... ]

Just... hold onto it?

[Nirad seems surprised by the question - his hands pause over whatever he's typing and he straightens marginally.]

Yeah, I guess? I like having stuff for a little while and you can learn a lot about places from their technology. Uh. It's usually the first thing I do. It's easier to talk to machines than people now, and I guess it seems sad to like... dump it when I'm done with it?

[He doesn't want to seem ungrateful... to a bunch of inert boxes. Whatever. It's stupid, but he likes having the junk around.]

Makes sense.

[ Pidge keeps on coiling the wire until it's nice and neat and then sets it aside and starts digging through another pile. There's some useful odds and ends here. She can definitely use some of it. She starts sorting it, trying to figure out what is going to go where and what might end up being used sooner rather than later. ]

Wait, you can talk to machines? And they talk back? In a way you understand?

Oh, uh-- [For a moment he looks incredibly embarrassed.] No. I'm just really bad at talking to people now. Ones that aren't hosts like us, I mean. Other people have a hard time remembering I'm around. Conversations are all like [he lifts his hands and makes them talk to eachother] 'Oh hi I'm Nirad', 'Hi Nirad, I'm so-and-so' and then we talk about something for a few minutes and then they go 'Sorry, who are you again?'

Machines remember me though. Like the androids do. Computers too.

Oh.

[ Pidge... kind of gets that. She's sort of awkward sometimes, too. And tends to ramble. But she's not that forgettable. Well, she thinks she isn't, and she doesn't really have a condition or anything. It's mostly just that she's a total nerd. ]

That sounds... weird. I won't forget about you, if it helps.

[He grins abruptly then and the low, murmuring buzz of what might have been electronics in the room rises perceptively - humming from his mind to hers, colored warm and bright and brilliantly cheerful for a moment. A laugh bubbling up in him that he doesn't actually give voice to.]

Oh, I know you won't. Other hosts don't. Just people outside the nest. It's something to do with the symbiote - it makes me hard to notice for other people. It's okay. It's useful. But-- [he shrugs] I appreciate it.

[He does. He really, really does.]

Really? That seems... kinda sad, I guess. What if you see your friends and family again? Are they going to have a hard time remembering you, too?

[ Pidge is still getting with the whole idea of the hive and this being permanent. Or being stuck here forever. There's a sense of family, of companionship, flashes of faces and emotions and half-formed memories. ]

[Is it sad? Some of the reflexive good humor in his expression fades by a degree; his fingers shift absently across the keyboard under them.]

I mean I guess. But I can't be here very long anyway, so it's better not to get attached. [Nirad hesitates for a beat. The shape of his mouth moves anxiously around some strong of words he doesn't quite say before settling on:] I don't know about my family. Maybe they wouldn't? But I don't think it really matters.

Anyway. [He brightens.] It's fine. You guys are my friends. --What about you? What's your power?

[ Well, she thinks it's sad. Other opinions may vary. ]

My power...?

[ She scratches her chin with a frown. ]

I'm pretty sure I can turn invisible. Which is kinda neat, I guess.

[He perks up visibly.]

Cool. Can you show me?

[That mental hum regulates, evens out, narrows to a point of attention turned in her direction.]

Uh, I can try. Hold on-

[ Pidge straightens up and frowns in concentration. It takes a few moments, but eventually she slowly fades out of sight, with the only trace of her being a slight ripple in the air. ]

[He watches with a single minded attentiveness, hands completely still over the keyboard and all his weight shifted forward. The moment Pidge starts to fade, Nirad makes a small triumphant noise. Whens she's gone more or less completely, he kicks his long legs out and springs off the edge of his bed to his feet. With one long inelegant stride across a pile of stuff, he's close enough to poke at her ripple in the air.]

Can you feel that?

[ He definitely hits something solid and Pidge nods before remembering she can't be seen. She clears her throat. ]

Yeah. I'm just invisible, not insubstantial.

[Poke. Poke. Poke. It seems a little compulsive, inspection by rote habit.]

Cool. [Wow, Nirad. So insightful.] That's really useful. Can you move when you're invisible or do you have to stand still?

OK, stop.

[ Her invisible hand swats at the offending finger. And promptly pops back into visibility. Huh. Looks like her concentration was broken. ]

I think I have to stand still...

[He takes his hand back, unbothered.]

That's still really useful. I bet when your connection with your symbiote gets stronger, you'll be able to move. When I first started out I was just harder to notice. Now I can stand right in front of a person and they'll forget me.

[Git gud, Pidge.]

Huh. That's... interesting. I wonder how long it takes to get better...

[ Now she's curious. Does she just have to practice? Or is there more to it? ]

It depends on how much you use the symbiote. The more you do things like talking with your brain and sharing memories and experiences and stuff with your brood or other hosts, the stronger your link gets and the more developed your ability is. Basically right now it's kind of like you've got a lot of static on the line so you can only hear a couple of words, right? The more you practice, the more words you get. Same thing with your ability. Right now you can only use a little bit of it, but that doesn't mean the rest of it isn't inside you already.

[He touches his hand to his chest; it's a gesture strangely reminiscent of one the woman Cathaway is fond of.]

Edited 2016-10-10 08:24 (UTC)

Right...

[ That makes sense to her. She's just not sure how comfortable she is with getting "better" at the whole creepy hivemind thing. Of course, she already is. The mental conversations are starting to become easier and more natural.

But what else is she supposed to do? ]

It'd be useful if I could actually do something besides sit still, though. It'd make sneaking around way easier. Oh-

[ A thought occurs to her. ]

Do you want to help me test it out? I want to see if it's just the visible light spectrum or if it blocks other methods of detection. Like... infrared. Or thermal.

[He blinks - straightens - and brightens considerably. There's an immediate, unfettered pulse of delight that washes across the link between them. It's bright like a summer's day: warm and pleasant and fully, completely joyous in its simplicity.]

Sure. I can help you. Anything you want, I can do it.

[Nirad's a people pleaser, text it.]

Great!

[ She seems excited at the prospect and she's already ticking off equipment they're going to need. His joy is a bit infectious, too. ]

We're going to need a camera, some kind of thermal imager, something that can see in infrared, probably a motion detector too, just to make sure we have everything covered. Uh - what do you think? Maybe I should see what happens if I get water dumped on me.

Oh! I have a motion detector. [He swings away and clambers over the bed rather than navigating the junk heap around the edge of it to get t the other side. Nirad starts to displace pieces from one pile of stuff to the next, rummaging through components as he talks.]

I know where we can get a thermal imager, but we might have to use your card. [He hit his limit for large purchases. Oops.] I can buy a bucket though if we need one though I guess we could just make you stand in the shower, huh?

[He laughs, then raises a what looks like a small plastic square out of the heap. He clips it on to the chunky looking watch on his arm, then flips it up. When upright, the opaque shape of the square goes briefly translucent before it starts providing thermal feedback.]

Ta-da.

Nice!

[ Pidge looks pleased as punch at that Nirad is being so cooperative and enthusiastic. Truth be told, she's pretty happy to find someone who shares her passion for finding out why things work the way they do. She picks her way over to join him and gives the weird little imager a look. ]

I can definitely buy something later. For now let's give this a shot...

[ She glances back towards the door. ]

Maybe we should do this somewhere with more space.

[~~Wow, it's almost like you think his room is a disaster zone Pidge.~~ Nirad nods, cheerful enough about picking his way through the stacks of assorted tech (and junk) toward the door.]

The common room maybe. Or, oh, there's a roof garden. We could go up there. It's nice. Besides, maybe you still cast a shadow. It might be good to know how you react in the sun and stuff.

[ ~~She's seen worse.~~ She leads the way out and pauses in the hallway, stroking her chin in thought. They're both decent options. ]

The roof garden sounds great, actually. We can see if sunlight works. I don't think it will, but that's just a guess.

[ Only one way to find out! ]

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