mental link;

[shri]

[ Knock-knock -

- or something like the creak of city gates of her wanting to reach out to anyone else in the hive that will respond. ]

( These ability we have aside from communication. I require a trainer for my own.

And a decent explanation of what they are and their pitfalls. I am not familiar with this kind of... magic. )

[ Yeah she can't think of another word for it. ]

Comments

[deployed]

( Prince and Cathway can help you with it, when we get back to the Station. )

[ The desire to help is there, but Bellamy had dealt with his own power by ignoring it as much as he could until it was absolutely necessary to use it. ]

( Everyone has something different. But there's always a consequence for using it, as far as I can tell. )

[sistershoggoth]

( Magic is a really downer word for it. We're telepathic, not wizards.... )

[wille]

[ She answers readily, speaking as if they have been in mid-conversation all along. ]

( What's yours? Did you figure it out yet? )

[wrackful]

( So yours went off already, huh. )

[Not quite as dry as it could be, but still pretty irreverent.]

( You know they're not always trainable, right? )

[adamance]

( What help you receive depends on what it is that you can do.

But know that your bond with your symbiote deepens via this training. )

[earthborn]

( Depending on what your 'special ability' turns out to be, I could give you some help. )

[Shepard is practical about practical matters.]

( But it's not something to blow our cover about. Waiting until we get back to Station time might make more sense. )

[shri]

[ That first point doesn't even get acknowledgment. That's how good her relationship with those two is. ]

(So it seems for me too. The effects of mine were rather pronounced and immediate. )

[deployed]

[ yikes. ]

( What did it feel like? )

[ No one else gets sick the way Bellamy does. Not that he knows of yet, anyway. ]

[shri]

( There is a difference?)

[ More curious, than defensive though. ]

[shri]

( After the race. My happiness was shared those that came up to walk me off the lines. They felt as I felt, exuberantly so. )

[shri]

(For the first time, yes.

I should hope mine is - it could be troublesome to our duties if it is not. )

[ Or incredibly useful, it really just depends. ]

[shri]

(Ah.

Thank you for the warning. I was not aware of that. )

[sistershoggoth]

( Yeah, I mean the end result is the same, don't get me wrong, shit. )

[ She pauses to think of examples. ]

( The big difference is, if someone decided to autopsy us, they'd find the thing in us that causes this. That's not magic, that's a symbiotic relationship with a parasite that's nervous system has developed to transmit hive thought in complex host organisms. If it was magic, there'd be no physical evidence that you could point to as having a physical cause in us. )

[ The sentiment of a shrug. ]

( It's arbitrary as shit, I just don't want to live in Harry Potter world, ok. )

[shri]

( A fair warning. )

[ She taps her fingers, on her end, and the wind through over the high fortress walls of her mind whistle. She is considering, weighing, the way she does everything. It's after that consideration then that: ]

( However I believe that even with any issues, its short term use will be incredibly useful to our present objectives. )

[shri]

( .......... Harry Potter? Who is he? )

[ Okay right, carrying on. ]

( The Half-breeds I wage war with are certainly physical in their changes. No matter how you cut them up, and I have killed a great many in my time. Would that be science or magic by such a definition? )

[shri]

( I felt nothing. My whole being was empty of happiness, rage, pleasure, sadness. All of it. I felt... nothing. )

[ And to her - it was incomprehensible a state to be in, save that it was happening at all. ]

[sistershoggoth]

( A wizard from a book, it is absolutely not important. )

[ It wasn't even a book Annie liked, she'd only read it to make inane small talk with her classmates aka ignore them while pretending to be engaged. ]

( Dunno, I haven't autopsied one. I have met girls that can morph into any animal in the rainbow, they got flexible as shit cells and a rolodex of DNA built in to them, fuck knows why, but if you had the right equipment you could see it in their cell structure. )

[ Why would anyone know that? Cuz the headmistress experimented on them to ascertain such things, duh. ]

[earthborn]

( You're a grown up, you know the risks. Honestly, I'll do anything to move this along, at this point. )

[She is a vanguard, she is not a diplomat, or a peacemaker, or a spy. Anything to move this circus into the next phase of its interminable fucking life cycle, please]

( What're we working with? )

[deployed]

[ Murphy comes to mind before Bellamy can stop himself. It's whisked away quickly. ]

( Did you trigger it on purpose? Your power? )

[ Accidents happen. Bellamy hadn't meant to use his own the first or even the second time. ]

( All we can do while we're on the planet is try to keep it from happening again so you don't have to deal with the after-effects. )

[shri]

( My state of being... seems to transfer to those even outside of the hive. I was incredibly... joyful I suppose, post the race. I felt the exhilaration associated with finishing my section, and when some came to walk me off the field, they became as exuberant as I was.

For perhaps ten or so minutes? And then as it ended, they seemed to go back to how they were. But I became immediately emotionless. Devoid of anything either happiness or misery. )

[ Like listing off a report, its detached down to the useful points. She isn't here for compassion or commiseration. She only cares about what is useful, especially when it concerns herself. ]

[shri]

( I simply felt exuberance. A great deal of it. From the race no doubt. )

[ But to that - ]

( No. If I can affect that state of others, then it has a greater use than any concerns about my state of being. That is irrelevant when we have work to do. )

[earthborn]

( Hm. We'd need a test subject for that one-- I'm not against using a native, but it's risky. Especially if we pick the wrong one and happen to get a lemon. )

[The Enemy, she means. Part of Shepard is stoutly sure that no such people exist, but the other part, the part that roundly suspects any stranger as capable of monstrous evil, is much louder. That second part is the part that keeps her alive, after all-- and they are in the field. Nothing here, can be certain.]

( Lucky you, I know the perfect host for the job... but it'll definitely have to wait until after the mission. )

[deployed]

( Your state of being affects all of us. It's useful, but not if it sidelines you after in a way that puts you at risk. )

[shri]

( I really do fail to see how that is not magic? That sounds exactly as a half-breed transforms. )

[ Somewhere Tesla is sighing deeply at her confusion. ]

[sistershoggoth]

( If you can explain it with science, it's not magic. )

[ Annie comes from a scifi adventure........ ]