There was no objection to Quinton's attentions throughout the walk, and Tanya herself endeavoured to be as close to him as possible.

Tanya is, of course, delighted to see Mia. She drops to her knees as the dog approaches so that she can give her the appropriate attention. Stroking her with both hands, she pauses to scratch the enthusiastic pet behind the ears. Somehow, everything seems a little bit rosier with the energetic dog involved.

She stands again, giving the dog's head one last ruffle before rising to her full height. Looking up at Quinton, she smiles. "Are you, like, going to offer me a drink? Or what?"


Tag: Quinton Summers

"It's only like two years now, but then I needed to try and get picked up by a law firm, and that won't be, like, super easy unfortunately. I'm sure I'll find somewhere though!"

She takes another sip of her drink, the crimson liquid disappearing very quickly indeed, especially considering her petite frame. It feels good to drink alcohol without worrying about losing control of her abilities, and truth be told, her lack of practice is starting to affect her a little. The buzz is melting warmly into her stomach and beginning to permeate the rest of her body.

Smiling, she leans over against Quinton, enjoying the sensation of another body against her own, and savouring it. She hasn't enjoyed such an experience since shortly after the event, the night her powers manifested and she absorbed part of her then boyfriends memories. She'd never been able to look at him the same, and since then she'd not been able to look at any other man the same.

That she knew everything about Quinton… well… that somehow made it easier, she knew she could trust him. People said that they knew people, but really they didn't, they didn't know every secret little thought, every moment in their life. Tanya did. In every way he seemed just the good guy he portrayed, and there was nothing in the memories she had absorbed that lead her doubt that. Considering she had absorbed everything that said quite a great deal for Quinton's character.

Downing the rest of her drink, Tanya steels herself, she's never been this type of girl, but she's never trusted anyone as much as she trusts Quinton right now. "Well… we could go back to your place…"

Tag: Quinton Summers

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

"Uhh… yeah… sorry about that…" There is a flash of guilt and shame in Tanya's voice and across her face. She can't help it, for the last two years she has been wracked with the worry and guilt of her abilities. That guilt holds true despite the fact that Quinton was, for most of the memory absorption at least, a willing participant in the process.

Relaxing a little at Quinton's clear ease with their new situation, Tanya leans in a little closer and smiles. "I know." She is very aware of how close they are. Quinton is certainly good looking, in a rugged sort of way, and she can't deny that she had found him attractive even when she'd first met him.

Tanya takes another sip of her drink, enjoying the tart, mouth drying sensation of the cranberry juice and knowing that hidden within it is the numbing alcohol. She's barely drank anything in two years, too afraid of what might happen should she lower her inhibitions too much. She's not too worried about lowering those inhibitions now, in fact, she's rather enjoying the chance to relax and blow off steam, it has been such a long time. At College she should have had plentiful opportunities to do so. Now that she finally has it she isn't going to give it up that easily. Her phone pings, muffled by her bag, but she ignores it, pushing the bag a little further away down the sofa and taking the opportunity to slide a little closer to Quinton.

She drinks again, and is surprised to find that she has already downed nearly half of the crimson liquid. She blushes. "Sorry. I don't normally drink like this, I'm just so used to having to stay in control that relaxing a little is just… Well… I've been waiting, like, a long time for it basically."

Tag: Quinton Summers

Moving away from the table is, in some strange way, a relief. It gets her out of the confusing situation she’s just landed herself in, and it is confusing. She has Quinton’s memories in her head, more memories than she has actually experienced in her own life. She needs a moment just to process what she has just done, and buying more drinks seems the perfect excuse.

Besides, she really could do with another drink, this has been the first time she has been out like this in a while, and she’s rather missed the ability to relax with alcohol around someone else. Even if her control does slip with Quinton, at least she has already absorbed almost everything from him. It feels good to be able to relax around someone, to touch them without worrying that at any moment her secret might be revealed.

Tanya smiles at the barman as she arrives. He has glanced in her direction, as would any good barman that notices the arrival of another customer. She still has a moment though as he is engaged in serving a large group of students that had arrived at the bar well before she had. With seven or eight people, it is clear that their order is going to take a while, so she glances back in Quinton’s direction with a smile, before focusing her attention on her phone.

There are several messages there, mostly from Nina, her roommate. She flicks through them idly, seeing that she is inquiring about how the night is going. Smiling again, she taps out a quick response.

It’s going great, I really like this guy.

She taps send, then looks up again, studying Quinton’s defined features a little more closely before meeting his eyes for a moment.

Maybe give me some space tonight? I have a good feeling about this.

The bartender finishes serving the large group and makes his way over to her. Putting her card on the bar top, Tanya smiles and orders the same again, a beer for Quinton, and a vodka cranberry for herself. Though she ups the measure to a double, she wants to enjoy the fact that she can relax tonight.

Making her way back to the booth, she dodges nimbly around the large group of students with the practised ease of someone who is used to avoiding physical contact with others.

"I got us the same again, I hope that's OK?"

Putting the beer down in front of Quinton, Tanya takes a sip of her own drink before resuming her seat, this time much closer to Quinton. She leans in a little as she speaks, "I'm sorry… I've not, like, kissed a guy in ages."


Tag: Quinton Summers

Sliding her glass back across the table towards Quinton, Tanya smiles. "Yeah, I'd love another. Thanks." She hesitates, "I'll, like, get this round." She values her independence, all the more so perhaps, because of her lack of funds. Usually she has little in the way of income, relying mostly on her meagre savings, what little help her mother can offer, and a few shifts in the Campus student coffee shop when she can fit them in around her studies. Fortunately this bar knows that it is catering to mostly penniless students.

She smiles faintly as she stands, pulling her purse out of her satchel and starting to count out dollar bills. "You're totally right though, I should stop feeling sorry for myself and start enjoying the night. I've definitely already spent enough nights feeling sorry for myself."

Tanya reaches out a hand and rests it on Quinton's, she squeezes it slightly then freezes in shock. Her eyes flick to Quinton's face, then to his hand, then back to his face. "Oh my God... I'm not... I'm not absorbing anything. You must have new memories right? There's been, like, stuff since I absorbed everything right?"

Taking her hand away, she reaches out and takes Quinton's again. There is something there, a faint presence on the edge of her senses, as if her fingertips are just brushing against it. She imagines reaching out to grasp whatever the faint presence is, and a moment later feels the memories rush into her. It's hardly anything compared to the lifetime she has already absorbed, but it's almost a relief to see that she can pull it in on command.

Sitting down again, drinks forgotten, she leans in towards him. Her words are spoken in a hushed whisper, "I can't believe it actually worked, I didn't instantly absorb your memories from you, I had to pull them in." She is almost in tears with excitement. "Oh my God, this is just... Like... It's so huge..."


Tag: Quinton Summers

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