Participants:
| Scene Title | Peace Offering |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elliot is surprised when Kendall doesn't behave like an ass for once and apologizes, and after discussing powers, Elliot invites Kendall to join the network |
| Date | July 4, 2021 |
Rest Area Westbound · I-76
Rootstown, Ohio
It’s early in the morning, obscenely so, and yet already people are up and about. One of them, still looking tired despite sleeping through the night, is Kendall, who is over by the water purified by Nadira. He’s making a halfhearted attempt to wash up, but keeps getting interrupted by yawns. The cold water seems to be helping, which is probably the entire reason he’s over there.
Giving up for now, Kendall stumbles back over to camp, staring apathetically at everyone packing things up. He did sleep the whole night through, and it was a very comfortable one in that nice recliner he conjured up, but keeping something up all night did the exact opposite for mental fatigue.
Elliot is used to unkind schedules and unfortunately sleeping arrangements. Despite the comforts of living in a townhouse for years, he'll never stray too far from mission ready. His dreams haven't been the horror of weeks past, but a new kind of dread that feels familiar at the same time.
He stands beside the camp's fire pit, hands tucked deep into the pockets of his locally acquired canvas jacket. One hand is freed to grab a burnt stick and prod at something amongst the dim red coals.
Well at least they can say everyone will be equally miserable soon enough, except for those strange people who actually enjoy being awake at ungodly hours of the morning. Speaking of which, Kendall catches sight of someone at the remains of the campfire from last night, and after a moment of hesitation heads his way. His steps slow when he gets near the man, and he shoves his hands in his pockets. Well, he did want to talk to the guy, but now that he’s here, he isn’t quite sure how to start.
Damn. This is awkward already and nothing has even been said yet.
“Uh. Hey.” Kendall’s gaze is fixed on the fire, like that’s the reason he headed over.
Elliot looks up, surprised to not immediately recognize the voice addressing him. To this point his interactions have been lately restricted to the team or to Katie's passengers, and he hasn't been in a talking mood lately. Seeing Kendall, he takes a moment to consider how antagonistic he really feels like being this early in the morning. Nobody is served well by bad blood in close quarters, so after a moment his eyes return to the fire. "Hey," he responds, raking coals over something metal and crinkly with his poker.
The icebreaker didn’t work as well as Kendall hoped it would. Elliot doesn’t seem interested in talking either, but if there’s one thing everyone who knows Kendall can agree on, is that he’s extremely stubborn. He’s already decided on his course of action, and he’s going to follow through on it. “Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot and it’s completely on me for that. I’m not going to make some kind of excuse for it either, I’m just going to say I’m sorry for the things I said.” he huffs out a breath afterwards, like it took a lot of effort for him to say those words. He’s staring at the campfire, perhaps trying to figure out what the trash is that Elliot dug up with the stick. Maybe a burned pack of cigarettes? Those are kinda metallicy looking, if people even have those nowadays.
If Elliot had put money on this interaction, it would have been on the odds of being told that he isn't the person who's supposed to be tending this fire. An apology is a surprise he isn't sure what to do with. When Kendall was an asshole at Siren's Song, Elliot was in fact not supposed to be serving drinks. Elliot feels he handled the situation well back then, despite Kendall having done nothing to earn his patience in the weeks since.
He stabs his stick into the coals and leans against it, regarding the other man thoroughly. "I appreciate that," he decides. "Apology accepted." He doesn't reach out for a handshake, it's too early in the morning to sort out his mild annoyance from whether or not Kendall is safe.
"I've been reminded that we're on this journey together, and it's a good idea for everyone to not be at anyone else's throats." Kendall frowns, shaking his head with a faint shrug, in a way relieved that Elliot did not want to shake hands. "If it keeps me from getting shot or left in a ditch somewhere I'm willing to make friends. Figuratively speaking." Kendall isn't the type to easily make friends with people even when he isn't being an asshole. "Plus, I want to be able to help protect the convoy, and it'd be easier without interference."
"Figurative friends?" Elliot asks, smirk indicating he's aware that wasn't the figurative part of the statement. Skipping past the part where he'd usually make someone suffer a little for past infractions, he shakes his head as though he doesn't actually expect an answer.
"You're an illusionist of some sort, right? My ability could potentially be used to amplify yours, though not in a traditional sense. A sharing of effort across co-hosts. Could be useful in a convoy defense scenario."
Kendall frowns, because he wasn’t aware he demonstrated his power to Elliot yet, but he already ran into someone who knew things about him before he even met them, so he’ll let it slide. “Well. Part of it. But more importantly.” he holds his hand out and one of those grabber sticks appears in it, and he reaches it down to the firepit, picking up a mostly-charred piece of wood and lifting it up to show it to Elliot. “It’s not just illusions. But this is what I meant when I said I could help protect the convoy. It’s sort of like a force field, except I can make it look like whatever I want.”
When Elliot shares his ability though, Kendall raises his eyebrows. “Amplify? Well that would be awesome, I do have some pretty inhibiting limits on this part of it. I can make things solid only within a ten foot radius, and can only bear weight up to 300 pounds. Probably can’t stop a shotgun, but a knife, a punch, sure. But also, I have to be touching it.”
"Amplification, or overclocking as I call it for thematic associations, is only part of it," Elliot says. He admires the grabber though, since he doesn't have an easy way to get this thing back out of the coals.
"I'd have to link you into my telepathic network," he continues, "which you probably got some sort of primer on from Nadira while she was watching movies through it yesterday. So sensory feed, memory and skill sharing, and taking on the effort of mental skills and abilities for other hosts. So it could be as simple as helping someone do a math problem, as complex as… Honestly I haven't gotten to use it on abilities much, so I'm not positive where the upper limits are."
"Nobody's called dibs on a host slot yet this morning," he says as a peace offering. "If you wanted to spend some time finding out. You might need to fight Nadira over it. Is she the fighty type?"
"Is that what she was doing? I thought she was just sad or something since she was so quiet." Kendall is disgruntled for a different reason now, and the grabber disappears for the moment, the piece of wood falls back to the ground. If Elliot wants him to grab that bit of trash he just needs to ask. "Movies? Watching movies in your minds?" Elliot's explanation of what he can do is a difficult concept for Kendall to wrap his head around, especially the comment about hosting and overclocking. A mental network? "The only skills I have are harvesting seaweed and…. drawing." The last is added in a mutter and he frowns, looking off to the side.
"Oh wait. If you can stream movies… I might be able to broadcast them so everyone can watch. I can put it up on a screen. Maybe. That way people who aren't in this network of yours can see too? And fight Nadira over it? Well she can probably kick anyone's ass if she wanted with her ability, but she's not really the confrontational type. I'm willing to try and do whatever this is."
"Streaming the sensory information of my partner, who watches the movies on a television so that they can be enjoyed vicariously," Elliot explains. "Too early in the day for her to provide that service, but maybe later."
He tamps his poker into the coals around the object in the fire. "If you want me to link you in, it'll take a couple minutes and we'll need to maintain physical contact until the link is complete, at which point the range of use is infinite."
"Movies from… this alternate reality of yours? I heard there's a lot of things different, like Thor being part of the Avengers." Oh yes, Kendall learned about this from Robyn. They had an interesting conversation involving differences in comic book series, movies should be as well. "Yeah, it's pretty early. You still east coast over there?" The coastline undestroyed by the Flood, that is.
"Uh, all right. I guess a fistbump would work, yeah? Or would you prefer a handshake?" Kendall shifts in place awkwardly considering his earlier antagonism. But Elliot is willing to bury the hatchet, so…
"It would be easier if you held my hand," Elliot says, not relishing the thought of being touched but extending his hand anyway. He honestly has no idea if Kendall is safe, only that he's been an asshole in the past and apparently contrite in the present. He assures himself that if Kendall isn't safe that he'll call it off and deal with the confusion later. He fights a sudden urge to withdraw his hand and manages to keep it extended. It's worth the risk if only because Kendall could be Relevant.
“Ok, well, sure why not.” Kendall hesitates, then shrugs and clasps Elliot’s hand. Without knowing much beyond what Elliot explained already, he’s not sure what to expect. A mental network, is it like the Matrix? Some sort of blank space or a room they can inhabit for a while? And will the others be there too?
Elliot closes his eyes and shivers away thoughts of having to touch Kendall’s hand at all. He focuses on the task of creating the link, and lets his mind rove out in search of Kendall’s. “Think of a time you felt happy,” he says. “Keep it PG because I’m going to see it as I set the link. Try to envision it in as much detail as you can, and when you’re comfortable sharing it with me, squeeze my hand. If you don’t want me to see what you’re remembering, letting go will break the link immediately.”
Oh, that's different than what Kendall was expecting. He wants a PG time he felt happy? Kendall thinks about it for a moment, then settles on the first time he went diving with Nadira. His eyes drift shut as he focuses on how cool it was to go under the water, with him using his power to stay dry and her making it so he could breathe and easily move about. They had spent the entire time deliberately facing away from the drowned land, so it was just the pristine ocean and them, and once they got under the surface, it didn't even feel cold. After a moment, Kendall squeezes Elliot's hand. Good enough.
There's a sensation, faint at first but growing as Elliot feels around the edges of the memory; the sensation that Kendall isn't alone in the remembering. It's not too different at first from being aware that somebody is sitting next to him watching the same movie. It's just the knowledge that the other person is there in the room doing the same thing he is.
"Perfect," Elliot says, focusing on the sensation of pressure under the water, of the cold and the murk. His speech is labored, putting words in a line one at a time. "Close your eyes and tell me what you can hear right now, and what smells stand out to you."
It's not noticeable at first, because Kendall knows Nadira was there with him at the time, but then he does notice the 'extra', and that's… curious. And then Elliot continues on, and Kendall changes his focus.
What he smells? Kendall was expecting woodsmoke or something, but now he realizes what Elliot was doing in the fire pit before he got there. Blueberries, and fancily prepared ones, too. "Blueberries cooking," he verbalizes, "and… I hear people talking and packing things up, I guess." That's why they're up this early in the first place.
The words aren't important to Elliot, he's looking for the parts of Kendall's mind that light up when he experiences the stimuli. He doesn't follow up on the line of questioning, but Kendall once again feels the presence of rider in his mind.
"Think about being in the bus," Elliot continues languorously. "Everything. What it looks like, how the seats feel, what it was like to ride in it all day. Don't describe it to me, just remember."
Kendall is a little confused by the next bit because he didn't ride in the bus, but figures Elliot meant whatever vehicle he did ride in, so he starts thinking about the Speedwagon. He tries not to remember the heavy awkward silences, but rather the car itself.
He belatedly catches on that Elliot is wanting sensations, so focuses instead on the sensory input. Kendall is pretty experienced with such things given his ability, though he restrains himself from manifesting anything himself. The seats were more for utility than comfort, and had a vaguely musty scent, and Kendall remembered the scenery as they passed it by, weird weather and all.
Elliot processes in silence for a minute, eyes out of focus and half lidded. He takes a deep breath in as he gathers up the threads he's weaved between Kendall's thoughts and pulls them into tighter threads.
There's a blossoming of awareness in Kendall's mind, not being watched but of access to something he's never had before.
"We're all set," Elliot says as he slowly pulls his hand away. "I have the ability to close the sensory and memory links between hosts, so let me know if you need privacy but want the link to stay active. You'll need to pull another's information into you, and you can't project your information into someone else. It has to be willingly taken."
He gathers up his poker and prods at the ashes again, exposing a metal pan with a recycled aluminum lid folded over the top. "Currently only the emotion link is open, I can't close that one and it acts as kind of an alarm system when the others are closed. There's a few things we'll need to go over before those open, namely network etiquette."
At this newest sensation, Kendall blinks his eyes open, letting go of Elliot's hand as soon as he says they're done. He reaches a hand up to his head, tapping it a few times. Weird. "Oh… so you can tell what we're feeling?" He sounds resigned at that, and more than a little embarrassed. "The last thing I want to do is invade anyone's privacy." he adds. "Especially since you said you can close it, implying it can also be opened." He shifts uncomfortably, well aware he hasn't exactly endeared himself to anyone.
"Got it. You can get it from others if they want you to, but they don't take it if they don't want it." He looks down as Elliot unburies his tin, and glances up. "Want that?" he asks, gesturing.
Elliot looks down to the pan, eyes the amount of steam escaping, and shakes his head. “That’s correct,” he says regarding the rest of Kendall’s summary. “The thing is though, nobody can stop you from streaming their perspective except by having me close the link or breaking it themself to get away from bad behavior. So we have a way to ask permission before just inhabiting someone else’s body unannounced.”
He clears his throat. “Imagine that you’re standing in the center of a room,” Elliot says. “There’s a door on the wall, currently closed but I’m opening it now.” Kendall’s new telepathic sense alerts him to this fact, the sudden openness in his mind.
“What you’ll be doing is kind of like walking up to the door and looking through it into my room,” Elliot explains. “There aren’t any actual rooms, I’m just looking for a metaphor that makes teaching this part easier. If you were to step up to the door, or rather pull the door toward you, you would experience all of my sensory information exactly as I’m experiencing it myself, in addition to your own. This can obviously get kind of intimate, hence the good behavior conversation.”
“So when I reach out to someone for permission to stream, I remember knocking on a door, and I direct their attention to the memory. It’s like trying to will someone to look at you from across a crowded bar, that trick actually works pretty well. So you remember, then draw the other person’s attention to the specific memory.” He demonstrates, and Kendall experiences the pull of his attention exactly as described.
The door stands in its frame, an impressive feat considering the walls on either side of it were blown out by storm winds at some point. The rush of sea air in and out around him make his ears pop as Elliot reaches forward and knocks three times on the door. It produces a satisfying echo, even against the wind.
Kendall still needs to make an effort not to turn this imagining into an illusion right there around them, balancing precariously on an edge between being affected by Elliot's ability and his own activating. Just like Elliot said, he gets tugged in, finding himself in front of that incongruous door. The scenery itself barely makes Kendall blink, though there is a faint sigh. Back to the sea again, it seems. "So, you come here, find a person's door, knock on it, and it's up to them to open it for you? Opening the door lets you feel things, going in lets you… experience them? Like, I dunno, some kind of possession?"
“No,” Elliot says. “Think of the door knock memory as a ping. Now you know that I’m looking to get your attention. So you’d share a memory of yourself answering a door, or opening one, something like that, and once I’ve viewed your memory, I know it’s safe to stream your perspective, and I just do that. The door knock ping and the sensory stream are unrelated. Don’t get too caught up in the room metaphor. See if you can remember something that will work, then try to keep it in mind and pull my attention toward it.”
"Ah." So the knocking isn't the mechanism. "So keep it figurative." Kendall mulls it over for a moment, then tries to think of a good memory to use for this. He settles on the first time he was able to consciously create the little boat he dubbed the Fauxboat, giving a mental call as he does so just like Elliot suggested, and (figuratively) opens the door. He was very proud of himself for that boat, entertained by the name he came up with for it, but also a little scared that it wouldn't hold him up properly.
“Maybe this is actually a not great metaphor,” Elliot says as nothing comes through. He thinks for a moment, then closes his eyes. “What you’re looking to do is get me to look at a memory of you opening a door, which is unrelated to the door-in-a-room metaphor, though…” he ponders for a moment, his eyes flickering.
“Can I Index ping memories into an actual memory hub?” he wonders. It would make sharing these educational parts easier. He’ll need to give this some serious consideration when he has the time.
He waves away his digression. “Hold the memory you want to share with me in your mind, then kind of… will me to look at it. Once you direct me to it I can view it and you’ll feel me doing so, and you’ll know it worked.”
Ok, so thinking about his memory while also thinking about opening the door. Kendall pictures a door, specifically one of those ridiculously fancy doors in the penthouse of the Home Above the Sea. He inadvertently makes the door manifest in his own memory, even as he knows it wasn't there, and opens it while thinking hard about Elliot noticing it. "Maybe later I'll manage it without this." he mutters, eying the door.
Elliot feels the pull, relieved he didn’t bungle the lesson too badly. “Perfect,” he says, glancing at the literal door that appeared. “That’s going to slow you down if you do it that way, but you should be able to get around it with practice. You ever notice telekinetics using their hands like they’re somehow physically involved in the process? That always bugs me. They should be able to do it with just Intent.”
“Going to step into your perspective now though,” Elliot says, having been invited to do so. His eyes lose focus for a moment and his world splits in two. After a brief moment long, the two settle out, and he sees himself from Kendall’s perspective. Kendal merely has the same understanding in his mind that someone else is experiencing this too. It’s not the same as the feeling of being watched, it’s right up front; somebody is watching this show with him.
“If you pull here,” Elliot says, abandoning the door metaphor entirely for now, “you’ll start streaming my perspective until you let go.”
"Yeah, well, if you remember what I said earlier, I also need to be touching something to make it solid, so it's a bit more intrinsic than that." The feeling of someone else being that close feels like an itch between his shoulder blades.
Nevertheless, Kendall thinks about that feeling he needs to pull. Unbidden, the memory of an anime he watched years ago involving a long strip of cloth attached to someone's soul comes to mind. He doesn't make this mental image show up this time but he uses that as a basis for the mental pulling. And just like that, his perception switches. Guess no matter the timeline, Kendall will forever be a nerd.
“There you go,” Elliot says, gesturing at Kendall so he can see it from an alien perspective alongside his own. “We can practice on the road, assuming the link doesn’t break, which can happen. If you decide you want it to break, it will. I’ll leave it going until we stop for the day otherwise. I won’t be able to interact with you too much while driving, but Wright will introduce herself when she’s ready for the day.”
“Conjure yourself up a bowl, these berries are ready.”
When Elliot finishes it, Kendall nods, stepping back. “All right then. Not much else to do for the what, 15 hours on the road? Better than swapping embarrassing stories.” Ah, so that’s what happened in Speedwagon. At the announcement, Kendall looks down at the berries, then nods. “Needs something else, be right back.” he heads off to one of the other campfires and returns with two mismatched cups with a hot liquid inside. “Just hot water for real, but imagine the best coffee you’ve ever had.” Kendall smiles as he offers Elliot one of them, a peace offering, perhaps. He taps his head. “Mind over matter. This’ll be the best decaf in existence.”
“It’s the thought that counts,” Wright grants him, and lets Elliot enjoy a long sip of the good stuff. Elliot accepts the peace offering in the spirit in which it was intended.
—-