heroic;meeting

[poll_the_stars]

8-2-5-3, types in Yvette. Code to the door, seized from the nearby guard's mind. She'd think an apology in his direction, but she's too busy keeping the mask up. If she fails to keep the mask up... Well, she's going to have one very bad day, now isn't she?

The mask doesn't flicker. The lab coat gives her an official air. She walks into the base like she is late for an appointment and very important and no one stops her. People barely even look at her. One person goes to ask her a question, but she ducks her head and mumbles something about not having her coffee yet (it is rather early) and the person nods understanding and leaves her be. She even goes and grabs a cup of coffee, to look official and sleepy and to buy herself time as she fumbles for a key card that isn't there while waiting for calculations to finish so she can wipe someone's memory of her and keep walking like nothing happened.

She gets cornered at the last checkpoint before the room she knows contains the time machine. She goes and finds an office to hide in as she figures out the exact way she's going to find someone with the codes to this door. She has a clip board. She has coffee. She has a mask and a labcoat and her hair's up in a very neat, scientisty-bun. She's practically an employee. Don't mind her, everyone. And if you do, hold still, she needs to wipe you.

Comments

[poll_the_stars]

Yes. I - have brought in some, uh. Expensive toys. How good can your wards hold up against the mind check? I mean, I could break them, but I can break most mental wards if I'm stubborn about it and don't have a mask to keep up. No offense, they're decent wards.

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian shakes his head. I could keep them up, but then they wouldn't let us through. Also would probably instantly get suspicious.

... He pauses for a minute, uncertain and ... a little embarrassed? ... I do have the ability to participate in a mind meld. And the mind check is only so precise, to not make the probe itself a security breach when a high-clearance official stops by. If we work together, I think I can keep the probe satisfied while you mask.

[poll_the_stars]

There is a long pause from Yvette.

I um. That would work. It'll be awkward as all hell, and uh, I apologize for the necessity, but...

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian gives a wry smile. Better a little embarrassment than being stuck in this place until I 'cease to be useful.'

He takes a deep breath. ... I think my last question before we do it, then, is - I assume we're going somewhere safe. So, given that we'll probably be a good thousand miles apart, how are we going to get in touch?

[poll_the_stars]

... What, are you going to tag along for my 'change the world' rampage?

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian gives her a dry look. No, I'm just going to sit tight and watch everything go to hell all over again. Or, better, I'll make my own 'change the world' rampage, and we can spend the next eight years getting in each other's way.

[poll_the_stars]

That causes Yvette to make a sound somewhere between a laugh and a choke.

Yeah, let's not. Right then. My telecommunication number, before I uh, stopped having one, was 9426:2568:2853. That'll work.

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian nods, and then, a bit embarrassed: I, didn't have one of my own at that time, I'm afraid. Use 1413:1025:6120:0716 if you need to, but make sure it's me and not my parents picking up the phone.

He takes another deep breath. Are we ready?

[poll_the_stars]

Yeah, I think so, she agrees, not managing to keep the trace of amusement out of her tone.

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian nods, and - prods her in the navel.

- no. But it feels like he has. A sharp prod that hits her shields with a bit more force than strictly necessary.

(His control is exquisitely precise, but he clearly hasn't used mind arts much - he has no idea how much - or how little, in this case - will is needed to be noticed even by an untrained practitioner.)

Even so, once contact is made, the prod starts to - spread out, lose cohesion, as Aisilian paints her shields with his identity, mind, self, offering it up to her and then releasing it to her control.

(Well. Mostly. There's only so much he can make himself trust someone he's just met.)

[poll_the_stars]

Right, yes, let's just. Ignore any sort of innuendo inherent in what they're doing. Yep. Ignore it. Ignore it.

She doesn't unshield, exactly, but she can't have it in between her and him. This is why she has layers. For things like this. She peels a bit of it away, carefully pulls in the self that is just outside, bit by bit, gently but rather insistently. And soon enough they are both inside and - then it's the actual fun part. Oh joy.

She makes herself small, compartmentalizes, shrinks and shrinks and quiets (because he has to be the one out front, with how this works, they do not want to get into a fight where they're confused) until she's tiny and dense and focused. Then she carefully prods him, and gently leads him through the rest of the meld.

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian slowly, gently slides himself into the folds of her -

...

- Aisilian enters her -

...

- Aisilian, blushing heavily at this point, allows himself to be lead through the mental motions of the meld.

At the end of it, he's wrapped around her mind, a single mind in two parts. It's not clean like a telepathy bond; at every point, at every surface, the two minds intersect, are communicating.

It's not as bad for Aisilian, because he's still on the outside, interfacing directly with - both their bodies, now, though he can feel the relays that lead deeper into their core, where the hard spark of light that is the other member of this bond sits, carrying sensation one way and movement the other.

... He could technically cut that off, couldn't he. It's his mind.

... Trying his best not to freak out at that idea, he very carefully pushes those relays away from his metaphorical fingers. In fact, let's just forget that he ever saw them.

[poll_the_stars]

He is not the only one blushing heavily.



Um!

Yes! Yes let's not touch that, that is a bad thing, if they fuck with that thing - well several things would happen, including 'She freaks the fuck out' and not limited to 'She backlashes and turns him into a vegetable in retaliation'!

(Fuck why did she think that, she did not mean to think that, she doesn't want to be actively aggressive here and oh look here's the specific methodology she could use to absolutely flatten him into a paste -)

Right! Changing gears now, we are - going to stay on topic, forget any of that ever happened, forget all of this, forget how she is really quite sensitive to this kind of thing and good lord he is cuddly. Um. Yes. Sorry, - what the fuck is his name, she realizes in a rush she is sharing a very intimate moment with a near-stranger and she doesn't know his name. (This feels sort of like an injustice to her, he seems nice, even though he can't flirt worth a damn and prods a bit too hard during mind melding, but he's got a nice mind and good control and nope nope nope nope) Sorry, guy whose name Yvette doesn't know. (That is her name. Yvette. Here you go.) Usually what happens is there is a test mind meld where both members just sort of get the freaking out and the weirdness out of the way before they are expected to do anything together.

(Oh, joy, doing things together, what fucking more is there to do, sex would be less intimate (and possibly more nope nope nope nope))

Where exactly do they need to go? They should. Go there. Right now. And do the things that need to be done.

(Fuck fuck is she doing this on purpose now is she just oozing innuendo is that what's happening now no that is not what she wants.)

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian is suddenly very aware that he has just let a well-trained psychic master terrorist, for all the "alleged"s and "well-intentioned"s that belong in front of that statement, inside his mind.

This was such a bad idea, why did he ever

Cut.

No. Actually, no. For an instant, absolute meditative calm spread across his mind.

... and promptly gives way to more normal thought. He's not that good at locking his mind down. But at least he's out of that particularly damaging loop.

Right, next stage of the step-down: Absolute, thorough blunt honesty, because he really can't afford to be lying to himself! (And subtext is going to go right through anyway, she is literally in his mind.)

Hello, Yvette. My name is Aisilian Rok'suchi, and I am very embarrassed and feeling more than a little vulnerable. I am impressed with your training and general competence, very glad for your ability to think fast, and did I mention very embarrassed by this proximity?

(In this back of his head, his memory of the relevant room unfolds in simulated 3D).

[poll_the_stars]

(Terrorist? She flinches from the word, a little stung. She tries not to kill people, she doesn't want to spread terror, she wants to stop these psychopaths, and furthermore- nope nope. Extra nope. Extra nope painted with a cheery heart symbol on it, don't mind what's behind here, it's unfair and kind of rude and would end in sorrow! She's sorry! She is friendly and nice and here have a feeling of a hug, you're safe here.)

(She is actually quite sincere about her assurances. She doesn't feel very - her mind literally does not think that doing something nasty to him is a sensible course of action, in any way, shape, or form. She doesn't randomly want to hurt people on principle, but also it just - doesn't make any goddamn sense to attack Aisilian here and now? If she wanted to kill him or turn him into a vegetable, she would have snapped his wards into itty bitty pieces earlier, or done it before letting him inside her shields. She didn't do that. She would not like to turn him into a vegetable. (And, in fact, hasn't done that to anyone, even to some people who probably deserved it.) And - it doesn't make sense to hurt a person that she would willingly let share her mind. That is not a thing that should be.)

She calms down a little, upon seeing him handling himself reasonably well. Re-finds her center, reorganizes her methodology, agrees to answer him on his own terms instead of leaving her mind to do whatever it likes.

Hello, Aisilian. (She thinks it is rather silly to frame this as a telepathy conversation, but she has the spare head for it at the moment and is keenly aware of how she should make this as safe and pleasant as possible.) Thank you for being blunt and honest with me, it makes this easier on both of us. (Though she will sincerely try to make this as nice as possible even if he is the most unhelpful annoying little twit the world has ever seen.) I'm uh. Not exactly embarrassed, but... She is annoyed by how her mind isn't completely behaved, she wishes she were better at this, and she can't just meditate and go silent because she has a fuckton of other things to do and has to keep doing. She doesn't regret or feel ashamed of how she thinks or how her mind works, but she wishes that it would pay attention to her major preferences of 'Don't do anything to cause this to explode.'

I am a little uncomfortable, admittedly. And she is, she dislikes being small and not in control and relying so heavily on someone else to get things done. She wishes she could get to know Aisilian better before getting shoved together like this (A part of her mind comes up with a physical metaphor for it, noting that he very likely isn't as sensitive to how exactly this feels, and it involves him on top of her with his lips at her throat and his hands nope nope nope stop that) and having this sort of distrust and fear just floating around causing problems. (From his end, mostly, she's afraid of what he could do, not of him personally. And she seems to be systematically tackling that fear, because it doesn't make sense and is unfair. He had the perfect chance to screw her over, and didn't, and purposefully prevented himself from pressing the panic button.)

But I'm doing all right. She is, actually. Uncomfortable and small and a little overworked (it is much harder to do all of the things she was doing from this tiny little spark than if she were full sized) but she despite the slightly shitty opener she's recovered and is back to being competent again. (She likes being competent.) I apologize about um. Earlier. And she is sorry that she started things off like that, she was caught off guard by her greeting to the meld being 'Oh hey here is the thing I could use to seriously damage you.' It was a little. Alarming, actually. Still, she blames herself for not preparing for that sort of thing beforehand, and for her little - she doesn't describe it as a tantrum, exactly, but she does think badly of herself for letting her head get away from her like that. She is very goal oriented, when she doesn't have one her head is chaos, and she didn't have a goal. Bad form. She will do better.

Would it at all help if I tried to show you what sort of person I am so you can feel more comfortable with me? Good lord that's formal, that's kind of ridiculous, he's going to get a damn good glimpse of what sort of person she is just from this, regardless of what happens. But she would rather not catch him off guard with a giant 'By the way I am this sort of person' dump, and she's still trying to compose things in a telepathic manner for his benefit (silly as it is) so - that. Possibly overly formal. She dips into that under pressure. Whoops.

(She's a little antsy to get to doing things, but she acknowledges that building bridges here is dramatically important and they won't get very far if they don't. So, she's going to build some bridges.)

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian's mind is - not like that, at all. Besides the collection of unconscious algorithms, his conscious mind is a focused laser beam, a single point of focus with all his genius backing it.

It's entirely possible for him to split his attention, but that just produces two points of focus; his mind has been trained not to "spread out," to relax.

So it's not so much that he finds telepathy more comfortable, as that his mind is set up to pass all information through a high-bandwidth port through his active consciousness, rather than piecemeal impressionistic holistic ideas.