AU Week: Daemonverse

[2goodarms]

Eighteen years of tight quarters led to some changes in basic biology. Everybody below the age of thirty settled as something small, compact, easy to keep close. People around Curtis’ age usually had something a little bigger: malleable enough to re-settle, just hardened enough not to venture too far from their original shape. A few people who were too old — too set in their ways, even after what the train did to them — ended up dying from the stress, unable to keep their outsize daemon from being touched so many times a day. Nobody had anything much bigger than a dog anymore.

And nobody’s daemon could ever get more than a foot or two away from them without feeling the strain of separation.

But, like Dejah’s fond of telling Curtis, he’s not on the train anymore. He remembers people whose links could extend almost the full width of a car. Joanna thinks it’s a shitty idea, but it’s just a test, he keeps reassuring her. It’s just another muscle to build up.

So, by the fire, Curtis hunches in an armchair with his eyes fixed on the honey badger next to his feet. Slowly, Joanna places one clawed foot in front of other other, inching forward against the pressure of their link.

They can do this. They’ve endured worse hurts.


[ooc: keeping it simple for AU week: daemons! Everything else about Curtis' background remains the same. Mun will be sporadic until about 10 PM ET, then around solidly until 11:30ish; post is open until I say it's not.]

Comments

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

That is a very toothy grin and Sam thinks of his father when he's in a certain mood,

"I always wanted to be a pilot, they thought my sister and I might have been drift compatible but we weren't."

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[2goodarms]

"What does that mean, 'drift compatible?'" asks Joanna, looking up from the screen.

They know it takes two pilots, and they do have to be compatible somehow, but the drift part...that's new.

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

"It means you know how the other person moves and thinks. I don't completely get it but you know it when you feel it,"

He's never felt it but he's seen it.

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[2goodarms]

"Yeah, but -- "

Drift snags on their thoughts like a coat caught on jagged metal. Even Curtis isn't sure why. Maybe it's just because every part of the sentence makes sense except that part.

"Why 'drift?'"

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

"I'm not sure. I think some of it is that for it to work, you have to keep your mind empty for the neural handshake then you drift together. My parents have tried to explain it but its a lot about being in sync and not getting caught up in other thoughts."

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[2goodarms]

Curtis' brow crinkles anew at neural handshake. It's frustrating: he knows he's hearing the words correctly, but he still can't understand. Two pilots, keeping their minds clear and in sync, drifting together through --

"Oh," Joanna breathes again as it clicks. (They think.)

"It's like us in reverse," he says. "Two people, one body instead of one person in two bodies. Right?"

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

"Yes, that's it. Its really complicated and hard to get it just right. Some of it can be predicted but not all of it. I tend to work more on making sure the Jaeger moves smoothly and fast instead of the neural handshake aspect,"

Daemons and pilots kind of work as parallels.