[s72] mental link.

[whereabout]

you care for people so much it breaks your heart...and you're lying to yourself about it.	however much you may model your behavior after a normal, decent person, you are no such thing.
you have no place in the lives of normal people.	you aren't a broken wreck. that's how i see it, and i know i'm right.

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[whereabout]

[ It's about the best response he can hope for - not being called on it, since there's no way he can hope for someone with a direct line to his brain to actually buy that line.

So, hey, he'll take it. ]

( We don't. What are movies? )

[ Aside from a thing someone clearly ought to show him once they get back to the station, anyway. ]

[raw]

( So you know how it's possible to record stuff and play it back. Video? )

[ He's really not sure what level of technological incompetence he's dealing with here. ]

( So films are like, people get dressed up and they get props and they perform, I don't know, anything. Any story. Try to make it look as real as possible. Then they record it, and other people can watch. Just two hours, feeling immersed in someone else's imagination - you know it's not real, but your brain is tricked. )

[ Actually, it makes him wonder if it would be possible to watch a movie using only the hive connection and a memory. Though he isn't sure his memory of films is that good. ]

[whereabout]

( I...okay, I get that in theory. )

[ Photography is widespread. Computers...are not, and are still a very new technology that hasn't caught on outside of the tech hotbeds.

Video, somehow, is not a thing yet, but working for the big bads has at least exposed Joshua to enough weird and obscure tech that he can wrap his mind around the idea. ]

( So...like reading a book, but you watch it? )

[raw]

( Exactly. They're usually shorter, about two hours — though I guess that depends how fast you can read. )

[ He's pleased that the concept has caught without him having to like, project a cinematic experience directly into his broodmate's brain. ]

( Sometimes, when I don't want to think about anything, I just put on my favorite movie. )

[whereabout]

( I read a lot. I can get that. )

[raw]

( If we ever get off this backwater planet, I'll try and find you one to watch.
Might be weird alien shit though. )

[whereabout]

( Everything else is weird. Why not that, too? )

[raw]

( True that.

So. Did you know the girl? )

[ The one who died, who got Bakugo so riled up. ]

[whereabout]

( I didn't. It...feels like I did, but I didn't. )

[ That, he assumes, is Bakugo's thoughts rubbing up against his. ]

[raw]

( Same. Bakugo... he's kind of loud. )

[whereabout]

( Vicious understatement. )

[raw]

( I was worried he'd do something stupid — actually, I'm still kind of worried. I guess working as a team is as much about keeping him in check as anything else. )

[whereabout]

( Maybe one of us will rub off on him. )

[ Although as soon as he thinks it, it occurs to him that with sharing brainspace, that could be a bit more literal than he'd been intending, and now he's creeped himself out a little. Whoops. ]

[raw]

[ Elliot's mind goes to a similar place and he sort of winces mentally. ]

( That's the goal, right. We all become... well, a "we". )

[ Like Elliot doesn't have enough people in his head. ]

[whereabout]

[ It's not a comfortable thought. ]

( Not sure what all of you did to deserve getting stuck with me, but sorry about that. )

[ It sounds like it could be a joke. In a purely verbal conversation, he'd probably play it off that way and it'd be easier to keep things from getting awkward. But there's a lot more sincerity to it than that. ]

[raw]

[ A soft chuckle down the telepathic line, even though he knows it's not a joke. ]

Nah, man, you're cool. But for what it's worth, same.

[ We allll be fucked up in this brood, son. ]

[whereabout]

( Thanks. )

[ "Thanks for also being fucked up" is - not quite the implication, but he's used to feeling like a complete trainwreck of a person compared to all the nice normal well-adjusted people around him.

Not feeling like such a freak of nature is...kind of nice. ]

[raw]

[ Elliot doesn't even say "no problem" just sends a corresponding sort of feeling. And maybe he lets the connection stay a while longer, companionable without being intrusive, but it's the mindlink equivalent of sitting in silence. It helps him practice his shielding, and... yeah, it's sort of nice. But he doesn't say anything else. ]