[Amelia Herrera]

The device had been a product of most of a day's work, it was a rather finicky bit of machinery well outside her previous experience; a search online had shown some similarities with existing experimental medical technology but in function it was something unique. It consisted of a set of five curved rectangular plates of thick plastic, strapped together in such a way they could be fitted onto a person's head. Amelia carefully wrapped her creation in cloth, placing it in her bag with a bit of a shiver. She'd made things before, sure, but never before had anybody else been depending on it, that wasn't an easy responsibility to have. This may not have been the device's intended purpose at all, but she had absorbed a huge amount of information on Tanya's power and wasn't about to give up before she'd given it a go. She gathered together the things she needed for testing into her bag (a different one of course, crushing the memory checker would be a rather anticlimactic end to her testing). Secretly she was also a bit excited, usually she just had to work from the scanned data her own power got, having a chance to perform some tests on the metahuman themselves was unprecedented for her.

As it turned out, Amelia didn't really need much beyond the device and Tanya's cooperation for her tests, just her computer and two extra hard drives. The first was to store and process data from Tanya's memories, the second had a reference in the form of a scan of a set of memories she could be reasonably sure hadn't been tampered with- her own. She left her workshop, which took up about half of what had evidently been a small warehouse before somebody had the idea to convert it into a house and sell it, taking a shower to get the grease off her skin before returning to the small kitchen slash dining room she'd left her phone in, grabbing it to text to Tanya.

"I'm ready if you are. Time and place?"

[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya hasn't really slept well. She rarely does these days, her head always feels crowded, and on the occasions she does dream, she usually has to spend time working out what had actually been a dream, and what had simply been someone else's memory pushing it's way to the surface. She's felt tired all day, barely able to concentrate on her work and almost drifting off in lectures. Right now she is staring at a particularly stubborn page of a textbook that simple refuses to orientate itself in her head. She might have a perfect memory, but that doesn't mean she instantly understands everything she remembers.

She puts her pen down beside her notebook and sighs, rubbing her eyes and massaging her forehead. "You sure you're OK T?"

The voice belongs to Nina, Tanya's roommate. Petite, she's sat on her bed with a Macbook and various textbooks spread out around her. There's an earbud in one ear, the other hanging down as she gives Tanya a concerned look. Tanya straightens up, stretching. "Yeah... I'm good... I just need, like, coffee or something... I didn't sleep very well."

"No shit." Nina gives her roommate a onceover. "No offence girl, but you look like shit. And you must definitely feel it if you want some hall coffee." This was a fair statement, the machine in the dorms was old, creaky, and spit out coffee that had more in common with mud than with beans from South America. Still, it did contain caffeine. "Get me some too."

Rolling her eyes, Tanya stands, grabbing her phone and her and her roommates coffee mugs. "Will do."

It's after she has procured two cups of thick black sludge and is on her way back up to her room that her phone pings, notifying her of an incoming text message. Juggling the two cups, she manages to hold one in the crook of her arm and the other in her hand, awkwardly raising her phone to her eyes. It's from Amelia.

---

I'm ready if you are. Time and place?

---

Suddenly it's as if the sleep is gone from her mind. She quickly taps out a text of her own in response. Can't believe you finished it already! I can meet you now. Got to be somewhere private though.


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia's phone pinged again almost immediately, it seemed Tanya had been waiting for her. She responded 'I'm heading out of the city now then, text me your location when you find a good place'

Strolling into the room Tanya had picked out, Amelia smiled as she saw the student "Hello again. This is it I suppose… I'll just need to run a few quick tests to give us the best chance of succeeding at this as possible." she started unpacking, booting up her computer and opening a couple programs, taking out a set of cables and using them to connect her computer to the pair of hard drives, and then to the memory storage device. She had thin black wool gloves on, her own memories were the control in this experiment after all, so it wouldn't work if Tanya absorbed any of them. "Alright, initial question, who would you say you have the most memories from other than yourself?" She certainly still was concerned about Tanya but the testing had started, she'd slipped into a much more clinical and analytical mode of thought and speech. "Follow-up question, is there any point in time that you have memories from three or more different people all taking place at once?" she said, helping out in putting the small lattice of plastic plates around Tanya's head. Dashing back to her computer she watched the readings from Tanya's responses.

[Tanya Dawson]

Fortunately there had been a private meeting room free when Tanya had gone on the system. There were half-a-dozen of the mid-size rooms available for students to book, intended for mock trials, study groups and the like. This one was a little smaller than the others, and less popular, but it was also tucked away in a corner of the school that left it away from most of the traffic of the university day.

The device looks about as she'd expected it to, a crazy wired contraption that reminded her a little of wacky 80s sci-fi comedies. Tanya sits down, wanting to help but knowing better than to get involved in the other woman's gear. Who knew what the machine might do if it wasn't set up properly?

She's surprised when Amelia slips into a clinical tone, the woman has been so casual and relaxed up to this point that she is taken aback by the sudden change in demeanour. Tanya takes a moment to formulate her response.

"Uh... That would be Quinton... I think think, like, I've absorbed just about everything from him... He said I could though!" That last sentence is uttered with rather more haste and guilt than the earlier ones.

The next question gives her more pause for thought however. She's studiously tried to avoid taking memories from others ever since she worked out what it is that she can do. There are probably only a few times then when she has actually come into contact with more than once person in a given moment. The obvious answer, of course, would be her sisters.

"Not, like, three other people, but I guess I have memories from me and my two sister's from around the same time?"

Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia smiled after receiving the responses, linking up a program of her computer to the data now coming from the device. Her tone never was cold or detached, but when she was distracted or focused in tended to slide into a more blunt and analytical mode. "Good, that should help. That gives a useful comparison point, I assume you could also tell me what Quinton was doing at the time you have those memories from your sisters? If not I'll still be able to run the comparisons, just more data is preferable."

She wrung her hands briefly, slightly awkward as she says "I'm going to ask you a series of questions about details of your life, Quinton's life and about a person of your choice other than those two. I'm trying to determine if the data or brainwave patterns are slightly different in memories from different people, I'll try to not ask anything particularly personal."

Amelia grabbed a notebook from her bag, pencil at the ready. "Alright, just need to establish some baselines I know the answer to already to start, just to see what your normal memories look like plus a couple other things. I'm starting now, take as much time as you need for each question, just don't be offended if I just move straight on to the next one without a word once you do, just trying to get all the data I can here." she paused for a need breath before starting.

"Easy first one- just to get something that's technically remembered but doesn't belong to anybody; what is nine times five?" she paused a moment, jotting down the precise amount of time it took for the scan to show that the memory was now moving through her mind, as calculated by the computer since it was too quick to do manually. She moved on, leaving a bit of a pause to jot down assorted numbers with each answer. "In the presentation I gave here, what was the seventeenth word I said? How many days has it been, not including today but including the day of, has it been since the Event?" that finished her baseline questions, and so she started on the main set"

"Name of the last TV show you saw, and the same for somebody other than you?" She figured keeping it simple and not very personal was the best way to go on the questions at least to start.

[Tanya Dawson]

"No... Uh... The memories I have from my sisters are from, like, before I met Quinton... Sorry... I haven't quite got the hang of sorting through the memories properly. I could probably try, but it might take me a while."

Tanya feels a little awkward with the device attached to her head. It was experiences like this that had been part of her motivation to keep her power a secret. Her thumbnail digs into the soft skin of her forefinger, an unconscious tick that betrays her discomfort. She smiles weakly. "Ask all the questions you need, I just want this to work, so I'll be honest..."

She pauses thoughtfully for a moment, "Unless it's someone else's secret. I don't want to, like, betray anyone."

Quietening down, Tanya concentrates on listening and responding to the questions as quickly as they come, snapping them out without hesitation.

"45."

"Familiar."

That the next answer comes so readily surprises her, she hadn't thought she'd been keeping track of the time since the Event, but apparently she has. "697 days."

The questions keep coming, thick and fast, and Tanya wonders for a moment how Amelia manages to keep up with it herself, while simultaneously snapping out the answers. "TV show? Dark. Quinton? Friends, he saw a rerun playing in a bar. Taliah? Bridgerton. She binged it over Christmas. Tanice? Queer Eye. Her go to feel better show."

She frowns, realising she has given more detail than was requested with her responses. "Sorry... I guess I have some of the feelings associated with the shows in the memories? I didn't realise that."

Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia nodded, jotting down a lot of different numbers as she got answers. Tanya's brain pulled up the relevant memory at amazing speed in response to a direct question it seemed, her problem in sorting them was clearly not ability to pull up a memory as needed, more likely it was that they were drastically out of sequence. "Thank you. I'm not surprised you get a bit more than the raw facts, that is how memories generally work, everything's interwoven. Now from my own tests it is possible to determine the relative time a memory occurred, but we'll need some reference points to form a coherent timeline..." she spent a moment considering. Tanya's sisters had slightly different signatures to their memories than Tanya herself, Quinton's that same slight bit further from her sisters than her sisters were from her.

"All the following are just about you." she picked the notebook back up after entering something in the computer. "Earliest memory you know the exact date it occurred on?" she typed the date into the computer, setting up the start of organizing Tanya's memories into a timeline. "Your birthday, and what you did on your last one?" She asked a few more questions along this line, holidays, major event that had happened over the last couple years, anything that had a firm date attached to it. Amelia fed data through several programs, the distinct signatures of different people's memories just about noticeable in a long-term pattern recognition analysis. She let out a deep breath, puffing her cheeks out, and turned the screen so Tanya could see it.

"I think the main issue is that memories seem to inherently contain some means for your brain to put them in the right order, how is beyond me, I'm not a neurologist, but it's different in each person from the data I'm collecting. This is a graph of my memories put in order" she clicked a button, and at the top of the screen a long dark grey line full of gaps appeared, years marked at the bottom. Though the first marked year was 1993, the line didn't actually start until about 2000, even then it was tiny bits of line among huge blocks of nothing. The closer to the present, the more complete and solid the line looked, but even at the very end it was slightly spotty. Amelia clicked another button, the remainder of the screen filling with a very different line pattern. "And this is you- I've been able to isolate a distinct pattern that's different in many memories but the same in all of mine, so I think that part just differs in each person, thus I set each pattern as a different color".

The main color of the line was blue, but it contained a large number of interruptions in other colors. At first it was all blue in the same spotty pattern as Amelia's, but after august of 2017 the line became completely solid. Amelia zoomed in to the few years it had been since then, but despite being a tiny percentage of Tanya's life overall, it made up most of the graph thanks to it's interruptions. Most was a solid blue, but after a couple months there started being small interruptions of different colors, most commonly purple and sky blue but occasionally others. Near the very end there was a block of golden yellow that took up almost half the entire space. "This looks like the issue, every brain organizes memories differently. It's like... say your memories are weather forecasts, the system already in place is designed handle one way of measuring temperature, but every single source of the forecast uses an entirely different method of doing so. The memories you've absorbed can't be sorted normally, they just sort of float there."

[Tanya Dawson]

Thick and fast, the questions keep coming, each one requiring no more or less time for Tanya to answer it. To her surprise she is able to call up the memories automatically with hardly a thought, a far cry from her efforts up to this point. Perhaps it is the pressure of the situation, or simply the fact that someone is asking such direct questions. She waits quietly as Amelia inputs the data she has recorded, watching the process with interest. She doesn’t understand a great deal of the technology beyond the laptop and the external hard drives, but she cannot tear her eyes away from the software that might offer her an explanation for her power.

She is relieved when Amelia’s software spits out a graph, the visual representation being much easier for her to understand. Not that it makes her feel any better beyond the initial relief. Her timeline looks very different to Amelia’s, instead of a fairly patchy line of grey, Tanya’s was solid blue, without gaps. She had more than an inkling that her brain was different now, but this is confirmation. She sits back in her chair, hard.

Tanya has already guessed what the solid golden bar at the end must be, her own memories are only barely visible as a sliver of blue beneath the yellow block. They have to be Quinton’s memories. She knew she had a lot, perhaps all of them, but she hadn’t fully realised just how much that meant. Even though there were definite gaps in those memories, the block completely outweighed anything else visible simply in sheer density. Taking a deep breath, Tanya lets it out slowly before she responds.

”I knew I’d taken a lot, but this sort of puts it in perspective.”

Her thumb scratches at the skin of her forefinger again, the flesh already reddening from her attentions. She looks again at the graph displayed before her. It's overwhelming, and she understands now why her head had felt so heavy after she had first absorbed the memories from Quinton's head.
"Is, like, there any way for me to sort or categorise them then?"
Bowing her head, Tanya scoffs at her own foolishness. "Sorry... Stupid question, I know, I'm not sure how anyone could help with that except me helping myself."

The chair creaks slightly as she leans back again. Her face cast in an expression of thought. "So do you think that you can tell if I've... Uh... Messed with the memories that I have absorbed? You mentioned that I might be able to edit things. I want to know that I haven't done that to anyone."
The next words are unspoken: Especially Quinton.

Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

"Alright, that should be enough" Amelia said as she entered the last data points, slipping back into her usual casualness as easily as she'd slipped out of it during the questions. The data fascinated her, it was simply so strange compared to her own, which she had to assume was fairly standard.

Amelia's expression turned sad for a moment as she let Tanya take in the hard numbers of the sheer amount of memory she had, realizing that there wasn't that much she could do to fix the immediate problem. She hated that more than anything else, all the tools and tricks she had at her disposal and she still couldn't fix something that really mattered. "I don't think I can do anything with your memories... I really hope there's some way to figure that part out yourself. The problem is that there's not really anything wrong with them per se, nothing's been removed or edited" as she said that her eyes flew wide open.

Returning to furiously working on about seven programs at once, she offhandedly said "Memories are inherently malleable things, I don't doubt you can figure out a way to organize them. I'm sure there's already methods out there of sorting through memories made for regular humans who have memory issues that might be applicable" as she worked. A moment later she grinned "I can do something about the people your worried you might have influenced though. The memories you've absorbed are original, if I take those versions as a base pattern I'll be able to use this for the thing it was actually designed for, checking for changes". Her face seemed to light back up again, she could figure some of this problem out after all.

[Tanya Dawson]

The initial response does not get Tanya's hopes up, if anything it pours a bucket of water on that small flame. That disappointment is clear on Tanya's face, though she does her best to hide it, rather ineffectively it must be said. She has never been good at hiding her feelings, which is partly why she has been so worried about hiding her powers for so long, if anyone even suspected then she was as good as found out. It was almost pointless that her sister's could read her mind, they almost could even before the Event.

Once Amelia starts suggesting things however, Tanya perks up a little. It's frustrating, and there will be challenges along the way, but it is a suggestion of some light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a long time since she has seen some semblance of hope in the distance, and it means a lot to see it now. She's already making mental notes, and in her head, those notes stay noted down. "I guess I'll have to research some techniques, hopefully they can help me organise my memories, like that Sherlock mind palace thing!"

Reaching up to the strange contraption that covers her head, Tanya scratches underneath it. The thing is surprisingly heavy considering how barebones it appears to be. That it has been built quickly in a workshop is obvious, with stray wires and strange circuit boards linking up the different components and the electrodes that press coldly against her forehead. "Can I take this off for a little bit? It's not exactly snug."


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia had been nervous this entire time, she wasn't an expert on brains, far from it. The only way she had been able to conceptualize this was by analogizing it to the code her creation could store memory data as, but she knew ultimately it was far more complex when actually in a living brain. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding while idlily removing her gloves, which thin as they were had been getting rasher clammy. She was relieved her device could do what she needed it to. The headpiece had been made in a bit of a hurry, her actual blueprints had all the mechanisms enclosed in a casing to make it look a bit more polished, the cobbled-together cluster of wire, circuits, and coils was just the functional portions- the minimum viable product.

She chuckled at Tanya's question, having not quite remembered the student still had the thing on. "Of course. I think I've got all I need, afraid I didn't have the chance to put the casing on like I'd intended". She unclipped a few straps, gently taking the scanner off Tanya's head and returning it to it's bag. Smiling somewhat awkwardly she said "I ah... am really glad I can do something to help. I get what it's like to... to be different I suppose. Most I've what I've build hasn't been with much real purpose, it's hard to ignore the drive I have to keep making this stuff but I've never been able to like, help somebody with this before."

Though her power might be one that showed her they way to take apart the advantages of other metahumans, Amelia always had taken thing apart with the end goal of fixing things, improving them and making them better with the knowledge about them gained through deconstruction. As much as she loved creating a machine no matter it's purpose, it felt so much more meaningful when that machine actually could improve somebody's life. She returned to her computer, saving a few things and putting the data she had gathered together. "So about the other people's memories, usually I couldn't check for changes if I hadn't taken a scan of them already- but in this case I don't need to, you've perfectly copied these memories and that will more than suffice as a base to look for differences".

[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya lets out a long, slow, breath, her lips pursed in thought. She's already learned something entirely new about her power, something she hasn't yet dared to try and experiment with. If Amelia is right, and her power can indeed change people's memories rather than just duplicate them, then it could have terrifying ramifications. "So I just need to get Quinton to come and try on the machine?" She indicates the strange bundle of wires, diodes and metal with some hesitation. It looks like something out of a mad scientist's dream, not the kind of thing that she had hoped might comfort her worries about her ability.

Standing up, she begins to pace. "I just hope I haven't actually changed someone's memories by accident. I guess in some ways it could be helpful, for like therapy and stuff, forgetting things that they don't want to deal with." It's clear that she is trying to justify it to herself. Her ability has always been a source of fear, of shame, and just when she'd begun to get a handle on it, to develop control, she had found that there was a whole new aspect she may have been using all along.

She turns more decisively towards Amelia. "Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful. This has been amazing, and you've already helped so much. I just want to make sure I haven't hurt anyone by accident. I don't think I could live with myself." That, and if it was true she'd almost certainly be caught and thrown out of Stanford. She feels momentarily ashamed for her selfish thought, but it is fear of that which has driven her secrecy. Leaning against the table, she studies the floor with ap[parent interest. "Have you ever actually used your power on someone, like… and hurt them?

Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Noticing Tanya’s sceptical look at the device, Amelia said “Yeah I know it’s… kind of rough looking. The stuff I make generally looks more polished than this but it’s working just fine. If there’s been any changes, this should be able to catch them, and give the ability to reverse them”. Amelia smiled ever so slightly, apprehensive yet thrilled by finally having something she could actually do with her powers. Given the relatively non-social life she lived, the build up of designs had been slow, she didn’t really get the luxury of being able to use her abilities right out of the gate that most Metahumans got and it had made her antsy. It had been incredibly frustrating to have talents beyond most people and to still not be able to do anything helpful with them.

Upon hearing Tanya’s worries and apology she tried for a reassuring look saying “Tanya… I wish I could say everything’s going to be alright, but I don’t know that and I don’t want to lie to you. I do know that it’s not hopeless though, it never is. None of us got to pick what we got. Every day I’m worried that something I make will end up hurting people, or that somebody will try to hurt me so I don’t get the chance to make something like that in the first place, but the path I choose is mine and I can’t let fear keep me from it. I can’t find a way to live life for you, that’s on you, but I’m just trying to use everything I have at my disposal to learn and to help people however I can, so I’m happy to be able to assist you”. She chuckled “I kind of went on and on there didn’t I? But y’know, I’m glad to help and you can feel free to contact me for anything”.