09-24-2017, 08:12 AM
Red, Blue, and Green were all calmly sitting at the conference hall of Dane's mind. This room consisted of a mostly undescribed room. Unbounded and lacking definitive properties. There was, however, some consistent scenery. A large oak table suitable for seating at least a dozen more people than the three personalities. A large steel safe sat in one corner of the distorted space, a lit fireplace along one of the walls with a bucket in front of it, mechanical - yet shadowy - claws and tendrils covered the floor. Thin strings trailed from the limbs the three personas, all pulled tautly and connected to a large brain. Large enough to encompass the whole not-finite sky, yet it still visibly appeared to have an apparent size.
Contrary to their names, Red, Blue, and Green all lacked any actual colour, all appearing as different shades of grey. Most of the realm was like that, the fire, the table, the brain, everything besides three key things were all black, light grey, or somewhere between. The first of these things was a glowing orb in the centre of the table. While it only provided illumination as colourless as the world it resided in, the actual sphere itself was peppered with the vibrant colours of Dane's real surroundings. Regardless of the viewing angle, it always showed the same 3D image at a given point in time - what Dane himself could see. The second of these colourful objects were the faint, translucent wisps of smoke blowing away from the orb. Each, despite visually being a gas, carried a distinctive sensation. Some were sounds, others were smells, and some were just feelings of physical warmth. Some dispersed, others were caught in floating jars and shoved into the vault.
The last bit of colour was in another corner of the room, locked in a small cage. It was a pink humanoid figure, with stripes of yellow - akin to someone falling into a pit of mixed paint. It rattled the tight grey grating but no sound was heard. Grey blood dripped through its gloopy body, meshing with the colours temporarily before sinking through the floor.
In essence, the usual.
Blue was scribbling down notes, scrunching them up, and throwing them over his shoulder. Some landed in a bucket, which was routinely moved mechanically to be emptied into a large safe, most just landed on the floor or in the fire. Green and Red were conversing over something trivial, occasionally involving Blue or writing notes of their own. Most written and spoken was unrelated to the situation at hand, although some comments did concern Maru. Just speculation on who she was - Dane saw no particular use for her, but the basic task of following her cooking instructions prompted the circulation of thought.
His arm brushed against her. It may have been an accident, or it may have been a strange lingering instinct brought forth from his interactions with Tearen. Regardless of the reasons, it happened.
A new vibrant orb, this one radiating rays of grim, yet colourful, light, materialised above the old one - it fell down upon it, phasing through and eventually covering it with new visual information. Despite the presence of Red, Blue, and Green, it seemed to focus its light upwards - towards the floating brain.
Time seemed to pause within the realm as the vision poured out the information it had to offer. The room absorbed all of it. Not by any deliberate choice of Dane, however. The lack of control in the matter was frightening, so much so that outside the realm of his mind, blood drained from Dane's face, leaving it a stark white. Paper notes materialised out of nowhere, flying into the vault - forcing their way in through small cracks around the edges. A previously unseen figure, this one a skeleton dripping with white 'paint', began reforming in yet another cage, only to be shattered by the resulting shockwaves of Dane's mental 'sanctuary' being unexpectedly violated - even if he himself was the one taking information. Subconsciously, he began to realise Tearen's point. In a strange way, he liked the rush of information.
Yet, it was just unknown. All impulses and instincts could be suppressed, trained, made useful.
For the first time in a while, Dane's mind was silent. Inactive. A dull pause as it lagged behind, still absorbing the somewhat traumatic events. Those weren't his memories. Those were hers. Maru's... or Malon's.
...and she was talking to him.
Dane was perfectly capable of analysing and thinking in real time during an event, but the sudden rush of information had left his mind behind on its scheduled workload.
So Dane did what Dane did best.
Ignore it.
Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. If he didn't have a way to deal with something, he wouldn't bother with it. It'd just nag on his mind until he found a way to bury the issue so it'd never surface, or did something about it. Probably not the best mindset, but it avoided delays. It hadn't failed him so far, after all. At least in the sense that he hadn't died because of it.
Putting on a superficial grin, he continued his allocated job - trying to crank the gears of his mind.
In general, his thought process was fairly simple. Initially, he didn't care for the contents of the vision - her hardships were not of his concern. What he really wanted to know was what happened, why it happened, how he could make it happen again, and how he could prevent it from happening. It was different from when his mind was connected with a strawberry. Here there wasn't a mutual link, he'd absorbed memories from someone else, and he hadn't felt anything leave him. Although, reasonably, she hadn't felt anything leave her.
He eventually came to the conclusion she'd simply been remembering the event by herself, and while doing so, due to its intensity, he had passively leeched off it. Perhaps his mind had simply been tuned into the invisible network, or whatever made Tearen's powers work, and touching her had been a catalyst of sorts. It followed that, since no key memories or thoughts were present in Dane's tightly locked mind, she shouldn't have got anything from him. And if she did, he doubted she'd have been able to hide that unless it was something more trivial - like a memory of him studying. But that wouldn't explain her reaction. He continued with the assumption that his original conclusion was correct - they'd both simply shared her memory.
There were other notable ideas on the subject, most of which couldn't be confirmed or refuted. One he found more interesting was the proposition that he, himself, had actually induced a memory in her accidentally. Or that he had the ability to do that, should he practice. The latter extrapolation he deemed to be likely, but the core concept he filed away for later. Given the contents of the memory and how it could easily relate to Tearen's projection of the future, he figured it was unlikely. If his mind was previously wandering to a similar place, he figured such a thing could have been possible, however. Due to the often scattered nature of his thoughts, it wasn't rare for him to make a calculated decision and simply forget about it - or pass it off as an accident or instinctive habit.
Idly, he continued mulling over what happened, trying to poke holes in his assumptions through use of the grey puppets within his mind. In the end, he figured it was best to rest on it. Leave it as something to experiment with and come back to later.
Dane's body found itself laying on a sloppily made hammock by the time his mind got around to reviewing the actual snapshot of Malon's past. He'd replayed it in his mind idly a few times, but after his first viewing, he realised he didn't really care. At least, he didn't care about her past in the sense it'd make him feel emotionally different about her. Then again, he never tended to feel much emotion towards anyone besides amusement, sometimes respect - and he couldn't really get those from a victim.
Green frowned at Red and Blue. "Are we seriously trying to find a way to exploit her with this? It's wrong."
Blue paused the replay, mechanically turning his head towards Green. "No. We're trying to determine if it's worth using her, for anything."
"It's still wrong."
Red glared, drawing a knife on a piece of paper. "We used Clownpiece and Cirno in Dante's Abyss to survive longer. Neither of them ended up worse off because of it."
"That's different."
"How so?" Blue quizzically grabbed hold of one of his eyebrows, pulling it off and raising it above his head.
"It was a mutually beneficial relationship. A friendship. We helped them as well."
"That implies we wouldn't be of use to... Maru... in this instance." Blue shrugged, shoulders temporarily disconnecting from his gloopy body.
Angrily tapping the paper he was holding, Red turned his gaze to Blue. "That's fucking presumptuous of you." He stood up, slamming a fist on the table. There was no sound from the action, nor did the grey wood shift. He continued in a mimicking voice. "Hey look. I'm Dane Regan and I totally care about you. Because I care so much, I'll let you use me as an emotional crutch." He spat black paint to the side, a tendril caught it and slapped it back on Red's leg. "As if, dude."
Blue pivoted towards Red, calmly answering. "That wasn't what I intended. I meant that we could easily use this to create what she'd call a friendship. We don't know what she's capable of - even the most broken of tools can still be used to whack someone on the head, regardless of its intended use. Consider it a cheque to cash in on a rainy day."
"'Easily'," Red scoffed. "Look at Mr. Confident over here. Remind me, how many 'friends' has Dane actually had?"
"It's not hard. It's just talking to someone until you reach some sort of mutual understanding. We're not attempting some new magical breakthrough here. Don't blow everything out of proportion."
Green spoke up, "Fine, I guess I agree with you - in actions, not ulterior motives."
Red reached into his paper, pulling out the dagger and throwing it at Blue. A shadowy tendril caught it, sending it back the way it came. It cut through Red's body, leaving a large slice unproportional to the blade size. His right shoulder and arm fell off, falling through the floor. More tendrils reached out, tearing off other parts of his body soundlessly - he struggled, flailing the limbs he had, but found his body pinned in place by the strings from above. Some phased through the ground, others were tossed into a previously unnoticed pile of grey painted limbs. It was large, but the addition of mass caused it to shuffle slightly, revealing a clump of red which was quickly covered.
Green and Blue both ignored this, acting as if both 'Red' and the pile never existed. It was an irrelevant construct solely built around the representation of irrationality and anger, neither of which Dane intentionally acted on.
Despite the somewhat twisted drama of his mind, Dane shortly drifted into a dreamless sleep, hammock rocking ever so slightly.
Contrary to their names, Red, Blue, and Green all lacked any actual colour, all appearing as different shades of grey. Most of the realm was like that, the fire, the table, the brain, everything besides three key things were all black, light grey, or somewhere between. The first of these things was a glowing orb in the centre of the table. While it only provided illumination as colourless as the world it resided in, the actual sphere itself was peppered with the vibrant colours of Dane's real surroundings. Regardless of the viewing angle, it always showed the same 3D image at a given point in time - what Dane himself could see. The second of these colourful objects were the faint, translucent wisps of smoke blowing away from the orb. Each, despite visually being a gas, carried a distinctive sensation. Some were sounds, others were smells, and some were just feelings of physical warmth. Some dispersed, others were caught in floating jars and shoved into the vault.
The last bit of colour was in another corner of the room, locked in a small cage. It was a pink humanoid figure, with stripes of yellow - akin to someone falling into a pit of mixed paint. It rattled the tight grey grating but no sound was heard. Grey blood dripped through its gloopy body, meshing with the colours temporarily before sinking through the floor.
In essence, the usual.
Blue was scribbling down notes, scrunching them up, and throwing them over his shoulder. Some landed in a bucket, which was routinely moved mechanically to be emptied into a large safe, most just landed on the floor or in the fire. Green and Red were conversing over something trivial, occasionally involving Blue or writing notes of their own. Most written and spoken was unrelated to the situation at hand, although some comments did concern Maru. Just speculation on who she was - Dane saw no particular use for her, but the basic task of following her cooking instructions prompted the circulation of thought.
His arm brushed against her. It may have been an accident, or it may have been a strange lingering instinct brought forth from his interactions with Tearen. Regardless of the reasons, it happened.
A new vibrant orb, this one radiating rays of grim, yet colourful, light, materialised above the old one - it fell down upon it, phasing through and eventually covering it with new visual information. Despite the presence of Red, Blue, and Green, it seemed to focus its light upwards - towards the floating brain.
Time seemed to pause within the realm as the vision poured out the information it had to offer. The room absorbed all of it. Not by any deliberate choice of Dane, however. The lack of control in the matter was frightening, so much so that outside the realm of his mind, blood drained from Dane's face, leaving it a stark white. Paper notes materialised out of nowhere, flying into the vault - forcing their way in through small cracks around the edges. A previously unseen figure, this one a skeleton dripping with white 'paint', began reforming in yet another cage, only to be shattered by the resulting shockwaves of Dane's mental 'sanctuary' being unexpectedly violated - even if he himself was the one taking information. Subconsciously, he began to realise Tearen's point. In a strange way, he liked the rush of information.
Yet, it was just unknown. All impulses and instincts could be suppressed, trained, made useful.
For the first time in a while, Dane's mind was silent. Inactive. A dull pause as it lagged behind, still absorbing the somewhat traumatic events. Those weren't his memories. Those were hers. Maru's... or Malon's.
...and she was talking to him.
Dane was perfectly capable of analysing and thinking in real time during an event, but the sudden rush of information had left his mind behind on its scheduled workload.
So Dane did what Dane did best.
Ignore it.
Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. If he didn't have a way to deal with something, he wouldn't bother with it. It'd just nag on his mind until he found a way to bury the issue so it'd never surface, or did something about it. Probably not the best mindset, but it avoided delays. It hadn't failed him so far, after all. At least in the sense that he hadn't died because of it.
Putting on a superficial grin, he continued his allocated job - trying to crank the gears of his mind.
In general, his thought process was fairly simple. Initially, he didn't care for the contents of the vision - her hardships were not of his concern. What he really wanted to know was what happened, why it happened, how he could make it happen again, and how he could prevent it from happening. It was different from when his mind was connected with a strawberry. Here there wasn't a mutual link, he'd absorbed memories from someone else, and he hadn't felt anything leave him. Although, reasonably, she hadn't felt anything leave her.
He eventually came to the conclusion she'd simply been remembering the event by herself, and while doing so, due to its intensity, he had passively leeched off it. Perhaps his mind had simply been tuned into the invisible network, or whatever made Tearen's powers work, and touching her had been a catalyst of sorts. It followed that, since no key memories or thoughts were present in Dane's tightly locked mind, she shouldn't have got anything from him. And if she did, he doubted she'd have been able to hide that unless it was something more trivial - like a memory of him studying. But that wouldn't explain her reaction. He continued with the assumption that his original conclusion was correct - they'd both simply shared her memory.
There were other notable ideas on the subject, most of which couldn't be confirmed or refuted. One he found more interesting was the proposition that he, himself, had actually induced a memory in her accidentally. Or that he had the ability to do that, should he practice. The latter extrapolation he deemed to be likely, but the core concept he filed away for later. Given the contents of the memory and how it could easily relate to Tearen's projection of the future, he figured it was unlikely. If his mind was previously wandering to a similar place, he figured such a thing could have been possible, however. Due to the often scattered nature of his thoughts, it wasn't rare for him to make a calculated decision and simply forget about it - or pass it off as an accident or instinctive habit.
Idly, he continued mulling over what happened, trying to poke holes in his assumptions through use of the grey puppets within his mind. In the end, he figured it was best to rest on it. Leave it as something to experiment with and come back to later.
Dane's body found itself laying on a sloppily made hammock by the time his mind got around to reviewing the actual snapshot of Malon's past. He'd replayed it in his mind idly a few times, but after his first viewing, he realised he didn't really care. At least, he didn't care about her past in the sense it'd make him feel emotionally different about her. Then again, he never tended to feel much emotion towards anyone besides amusement, sometimes respect - and he couldn't really get those from a victim.
Green frowned at Red and Blue. "Are we seriously trying to find a way to exploit her with this? It's wrong."
Blue paused the replay, mechanically turning his head towards Green. "No. We're trying to determine if it's worth using her, for anything."
"It's still wrong."
Red glared, drawing a knife on a piece of paper. "We used Clownpiece and Cirno in Dante's Abyss to survive longer. Neither of them ended up worse off because of it."
"That's different."
"How so?" Blue quizzically grabbed hold of one of his eyebrows, pulling it off and raising it above his head.
"It was a mutually beneficial relationship. A friendship. We helped them as well."
"That implies we wouldn't be of use to... Maru... in this instance." Blue shrugged, shoulders temporarily disconnecting from his gloopy body.
Angrily tapping the paper he was holding, Red turned his gaze to Blue. "That's fucking presumptuous of you." He stood up, slamming a fist on the table. There was no sound from the action, nor did the grey wood shift. He continued in a mimicking voice. "Hey look. I'm Dane Regan and I totally care about you. Because I care so much, I'll let you use me as an emotional crutch." He spat black paint to the side, a tendril caught it and slapped it back on Red's leg. "As if, dude."
Blue pivoted towards Red, calmly answering. "That wasn't what I intended. I meant that we could easily use this to create what she'd call a friendship. We don't know what she's capable of - even the most broken of tools can still be used to whack someone on the head, regardless of its intended use. Consider it a cheque to cash in on a rainy day."
"'Easily'," Red scoffed. "Look at Mr. Confident over here. Remind me, how many 'friends' has Dane actually had?"
"It's not hard. It's just talking to someone until you reach some sort of mutual understanding. We're not attempting some new magical breakthrough here. Don't blow everything out of proportion."
Green spoke up, "Fine, I guess I agree with you - in actions, not ulterior motives."
Red reached into his paper, pulling out the dagger and throwing it at Blue. A shadowy tendril caught it, sending it back the way it came. It cut through Red's body, leaving a large slice unproportional to the blade size. His right shoulder and arm fell off, falling through the floor. More tendrils reached out, tearing off other parts of his body soundlessly - he struggled, flailing the limbs he had, but found his body pinned in place by the strings from above. Some phased through the ground, others were tossed into a previously unnoticed pile of grey painted limbs. It was large, but the addition of mass caused it to shuffle slightly, revealing a clump of red which was quickly covered.
Green and Blue both ignored this, acting as if both 'Red' and the pile never existed. It was an irrelevant construct solely built around the representation of irrationality and anger, neither of which Dane intentionally acted on.
Despite the somewhat twisted drama of his mind, Dane shortly drifted into a dreamless sleep, hammock rocking ever so slightly.