Hive mind that actually really hates being a hive mind and it would like to stop being a hive mind as soon as possible, please. Fifteen scientists were in the room where a space rock exploded and welded their consciousnesses together. And even though it now has access to the memories of each of its linked individuals, whenever it tries to find in its gestalt mind where that personality, that individual who made those memories exists, it only finds a stump.
A girl runs up to the thing with her mother’s face.
The mind looks at this tiny face. It knows, intellectually, that this is Kim Yun, daughter of Dr. Hana Yun, knows that she is four years old, loves blueberries, can only fall asleep while being sung Lavender’s Blue. It looks for the part of its brain where Dr. Hana Yun should be, tries to summon the mind that loves this child, to summon even a flicker of affection, to bring back the mother this child desperately misses.
The numbness hurts.
(Clumsy arms hold the child anyways, and a voice unused to singing still remembers the lyrics to Lavender’s Blue. It’s possible that this is close enough.)
wait stop this is horrifying
