"Walter. Mere Walter."

Oh my gosh. This ask is from three months ago. Ah... I guess that answers the question. I just dropped in and saw this. 

I would love to be more active, but the Alien fandom kind of died off. I am eagerly waiting for the next movie, whenever that will be.

The rp scene in particular. Is anybody still around? Please like or reblog if you are, it would give me an idea of how it would be to return to it.

“I didn’t remember they had set this program up until the party, Walter. Besides, my brothers don’t even look that scared.” Lore shrugged off the accusation and gestured subtly to the others. Data was studying the paintings closely, and B-4 was still preoccupied with the differences between Walter’s internal components and his own.

B-4 nodded thoughtfully when Walter confirmed the accuracy of his portrait. “As do I.” The disparities between B-4′s design and Walter’s were very interesting. He leaned firmly into Walter’s touch and smiled at him, studying the other android’s features as he tried to picture how the framework depicted in the painting molded the shape of Walter’s face. He knew there were other synthetics made by Walter’s creator. Did they share Walter’s appearance, like B-4′s younger siblings shared his? Or was the company responsible for making Walter so advanced that they gave each of their sons his own unique features, like the humans?

Either way, Walter was unique– even if there were other androids with his face, none of them would ever be him.

B-4 had been so distracted by thoughts of Walter that he had almost forgotten to be frightened. …that was, perhaps, the only positive aspect of being able to focus on only one thing at a time.

Moving into the next room reminded him very quickly why he had been apprehensive before. The chamber was incredibly beautiful, but soon its lovely serenity was broken by eerie music and the surprisingly disorienting chaos of the mirrors’ movement.

“Intriguing,” Data said, speaking a little more loudly than usual to be heard over the music. “If I am not mistaken, this room is based on old earth ‘funhouses.’ Carnival and circus themes are often used in conjunction with darkness, overly-bright lights, or rapid movement to confuse participants and induce feelings of desperation as they become less and less certain of their surroundings. It is a very effective room to have in a haunted house. I believe if we continue forward and do not backtrack, we will find an exit.”

Data’s explanation did nothing to reassure either of his brothers. Lore’s gaze was flicking uneasily from reflection to reflection, and B-4 hastily grabbed hold of his brothers’ sleeves with his free hand. He moved his other hand from Walter’s arm so that he could tightly interlock their fingers.

“We cannot be separated– we will get lost. I do not want to be lost, Walter! Please, get us out?”

Walter briefly rested his hand against B-4′s cheek sharing a look that he hoped communicated safety. The revolving mirrors were threatening in a vague, infuriating way, and he could tell that Lore wasn’t happy with it either. The only one of them who seemed fine with their current predicament was Data, so Walter followed him, throwing suspicious looks at the mirrors as they moved. 

Suddenly, one side of a mirror came loose and it swung out like a door, attempting to insert itself between them. Walter acted according to his new program and eliminated the threat. Shards of glass rained down but the mirror pane was replaced by another, then another, and yet another as a stream of them slid past. He kept crushing them, single-mindedly shattering each one. Eventually there would be no more mirrors, and that moment couldn’t come fast enough. 

“B-4, keep close”, he barked. When no answer came he turned sharply. “B-4?” Nothing. Only mirrors. He saw a reflection of one of the Soong brothers and ran towards it. Data? No, it had to be Lore.

B-4 did not let go of Walter once as they traversed the uneven earth of the graveyard and trekked up the hill to the ominous-looking mansion. Some part of him knew that holodeck programs had limitations that prevented true harm from befalling anyone who used the deck, but it was impossible not to be frightened by sudden shocks and ambling human corpses. Being tucked against Walter’s side made him feel safe. He relaxed even further when he noticed how eagerly Data was eying the eerie scenery; if Data enjoyed being scared, there must not have been any true cause for alarm. Data was reasonable enough to know whether anything here was a malfunction capable of actually hurting any of them.

They all stopped to observe the changing paintings. Lore responded without looking at Walter– his attention was captured by his own portrait.

“What are you looking at me for? You don’t think I programmed this, did you?” It was impossible to tell whether Lore was teasing or not from his tone alone, but he did mirror his portrait’s cruel smile and casual pose as he spoke. In the painting, the bioplast of his fingers had been stripped away to reveal the sharp metal skeleton below. The real Lore curled his fingers in a similar fashion, but instead of grabbing onto an Ancient West revolver as his painted self did, he wrapped his fingers around his brothers’ arms.

B-4 peeked out from behind Walter, somewhat disturbed to see that the version of himself hanging from the wall had been decapitated, its head teetering on the edge of a sparking, ragged neck. B-4′s head had been separated from his body before. It hadn’t been a big deal, but his body had not been cut up like it was in this picture. He shifted, uncomfortable, then looked at the other portraits hanging before them.

“Walter, is that what you look like inside?” Despite feeling rather anxious, he couldn’t help but be curious about the other android’s inner workings. They looked so interestingly different from what he knew of Soong technology.

“Why is the program showing us such terrible images? …is it a warning–?”

Abruptly, all lights in the mansion blinked off and the group was plunged into an unnatural darkness. When the candles flickered back to life, they illuminated a few obvious changes; the door at the top of the staircase was open wide to beckon them further, the furniture had been rearranged to encircle the staircase like theater seating, and the door they had originally entered had been replaced with smooth wall and tattered wallpaper as if it had never existed at all.

Walter gave Lore a sharp look. The thought that it all might be Lore’s doing had not occurred to him until the other mentioned it but now it seemed to him that Lore would be the likely culprit, much more likely than any of the harmless humans onboard. 

“Is that so?” Walter leaned in to murmur quietly when Data seemed preoccupied with his painting. “Just how far would you go for a good scare?”

He turned his attention back to B-4 when the other inquired about Walter’s painting, and its accuracy. Walter gave it a critical look, then nodded. 

“It is largely correct”, he admitted. “The use of metal, even wires are not as extensive as it is for you.” He smiled at B-4, hand coming up to cradle his face in a brief caress. “I find our differences quite fascinating.” But he absolutely despised the painting of B-4. It was the only one insinuating that the subject be harmless, which would be a correct depiction but an outrageous insult nonetheless. He didn’t think Lore would have shown his older brother in that humiliating position.

“A warning?” he said thoughtfully, repeating B-4 words. “I would perhaps use another word for it.” Threat. And threats should be disposed of. Noticing that their exit had been cut off, he loosened his grip on B-4, stepping ahead of him to advance further. Whatever was waiting for them a the top of the stairs, he would face it first. Lore was the only one of the other three he wanted with him at the front line now, knowing that the other would not hesitate to end a serious threat if it came in the guise of a joke. 

It was impossible to determine the size of the room. Ahead of them was some kind of mirror hallway branching off - a maze? - with high, vertical mirror panes disappearing into a dark ceiling. The floor was still, dark water with a narrow stone path winding away in different directions, fitting at most two people next to each other, if they stood as close as family. 

It was quite beautiful, deceptively calm. His face a grim, stone mask, Walter walked inside and once they were all there the door slammed shut behind them and an old fashioned, scratchy carnival music started to play was the walls began to move, rippling around them like a restlessly moving snake and sending myriads upon myriads of reflections around them until even their fine-tuned senses began to make mistakes. 

Both B-4 and Data yelled in unison when the oldest brother toppled over into Walter’s waiting arms. Still wailing, B-4 threw his arms around Walter’s neck and kicked at the hand, dislodging it after a half-dozen jerks of his leg.

The parameters had been set for human participants; the force of the android’s kicks dislodged the hand completely from the corpse’s arm, sending it skidding over the dirt until, only a few moments later, its fingers began pulling it back towards the group.

“Walter, it will not stop!” B-4 sounded appalled, and Data was intently watching the movements of the hand to ensure that it did not come too close.

Lore, off to the side, was trying very hard not to laugh.

“Scared yet, brother?” Lore sent the detached hand flying with a well-placed kick, and looked eagerly back at the youngest Soong for the verdict. After a brief moment of reflection, Data nodded and smiled more widely than he had the entire evening. “Yes. I am beginning to experience the initial stages of fear. Thank you, Lore– you have made a fine choice.”

Triumphantly, Lore grinned at Walter and began to lead the way through the winding paths of the cemetery towards the mansion as the awakened corpses shifted around them.

Walter might have already had B-4 hanging onto him for safety, but Lore wasn’t off to such a bad start himself.

Knowing the program could not hurt any of them, Walter allowed himself to enjoy B-4′s fear, shooting a grin to Lore over the top of his companion’s head when both their targets screamed in unison. The he focused on his own, tucking his head under his chin, wrapping his arms around him protectively until the underwhelming threat had been dealt with. By then there were were movements and muted sounds coming to life, as it were, all around them. 

Lore led the way towards the mansion and Walter followed, arm around B-4, his hand resting lightly on the other’s hip. They held a brisk pace and were soon ascending the stairs to the front doors. Unprompted, the massive oak doors swung open inwards, revealing a rather large hall, furniture beautiful but half decayed. Candles flared to life along the wall by a curving staircase. Four Victorian painting lined the wall upwards. Even at a distance, Walter could spot their likenesses. 

Walter frowned as he entered and approached their obvious laid path, wondering why he was suddenly alerted enough to maneuver B-4 behind him. The paintings... they were changing. He focused on his own portrait, that of a Victorian gentleman carrying knives and a truly unsettling smile, the kind he was so careful not to show people. How had these humans known how to portray him so accurately? On the wall, the skin on one side of his face melted away from one second to the next, revealing his skeletal structure and white lined network of muscles framing the black empty eye socket and a glowing laser dot within... he glanced at the other paintings, particularly B-4′s, concerned that they were all showing them torn apart, disassembled or damaged. That might unsettle B-4 more than was amusing to him. 

“Overdoing it a bit, yes?” he said, lip curling as he addressed Lore. 

“Yes– this is very well-constructed!” Data was the first to comment on the program, and the first to step forward into the gloom of the cemetery. His brothers were quick to follow after him. Lore lengthened his stride so that he could walk at Data’s right and offer an encouraging smile, relying on more traditional means of getting Data to interact with his emotion chip now that he couldn’t feed the feelings directly into the other android’s neural net.

B-4 stayed by Data’s left side, holding both his brother’s hand and Walter’s. He studied the statues carefully as they passed, emulating a few of the figures’ expressions, but he seemed most frightened by the thunder and lightning. At a particularly bright flash in the sky he tightened his grip on the other synthetics’ hands and stared up at the violent storm in the distance.

“Is it not true,” B-4 whispered to Walter, “that lightning is more likely to hit an android than an organic individual?”

Data and Lore had stopped near one of the graves. There was a slight tug on B-4′s hand as Data knelt next to Lore, looking between the worn inscription and the cold earth before it.

“I’m telling you, brother, they wouldn’t have programmed all these graves if they didn’t want you to dig up a corpse. Maybe it’ll even pop up and start lumbering around. Wouldn’t that be frightening? …I’m serious, you’ll never be scared if you’re too timid to take risks.”

Data looked a little doubtful, and he glanced up at B-4 and Walter to let them act as tiebreakers. “What do you wish to do? Would you like to attempt to dig up a deceased human, or would you rather proceed to the mansion? I am certain that we are expected to go there first.”

“Ah, but this lightning won’t hurt you”, Walter whispered back, checking an impulse to swat Data’s hand out of B-4′s grip. Instead he leaned down with the rest to have a look at a gravestone. When the decision fell upon him and B-4, he glanced at the mansion, suspecting that Data was right but hesitated which side to take. Lore had obviously chosen that stone for a reason, but what? Digging up a corpse seemed pointless to him. Shrugging, he was about to cast his vote for digging up a corpse, when he detected a faint sound from the ground.

His eyes narrowed as he focused. A movement in the corner of his eye and the next thing he knew, fingers, a hand shot up through the dark earth, grabbing B-4′s ankle with what looked like considerable force. Instinctively, he adjusted his grip to support B-4 if he fell. 

The hand was clearly not of a fresh human, but grey and damp as if it had been part of the rich earth for too long.

More movement in the shadows. It seemed like the inhabitants of the cemetery were liberating themselves. 

“Seems as if we are supposed to hurry to the nice mansion after all”, he mused. 

B-4 let out a muffled sound of confusion when Walter pressed him against his chest, and he immediately raised his hands to Walter’s shoulders as if they were about to dance. He didn’t really think Walter was initiating a dance, but there weren’t many other explanations for the odd position. Perhaps it was a new kind of hug– B-4 did not mind being embraced so completely, but he had not had any warning. He would have preferred to set his glass down before the hug so that he could reciprocate more easily.

Lore was beginning to remember why he had gotten mad in the first place. Walter was quite the smug little show-off, wasn’t he? At least he had gently put a stop to B-4′s display. Maybe Lore and Data should have a talk with their older brother about what he looked like in a costume like this, moving like that– but, no, of course they couldn’t. B-4 would just feel confused and self-conscious.

“As do I. Unless you’re too scared, brother?” Lore plucked the untouched glass from Data’s hand and intertwined their fingers, looking pointedly at Walter to show him that, yes, he was getting there, too.

“No, I am not too frightened to visit the holodeck event. In fact, it sounds very interesting. …and if I am to be scared there, I will consider it quite the exciting occasion.”

Data seemed to be relaxing, and he was clearly thrilled by the chance to use his emotion chip in a controlled but stimulating environment. Of course– Lore had been an idiot not to use that before. If there was one thing his brother loved, it was setting aside his rigid on-duty persona and indulging in pure emotion. Maybe if he could help Data be frightened in the holodeck and enjoy himself, the younger android would be ready for something more after they retired for the night.

Lore grinned and led the way past the other party-goers. He lingered near the entrance to the holodeck once they arrived, and clapped Walter on the shoulder before they entered. He was certain that after this, they’d be on more equal footing.

Walter relaxed his grip around B-4 so that they could walk easily side by side, following Lore and Data to the holodeck. Giving B-4 a warm smile with just a hint of something more intense, he reached up and pretended to correct B-4′s collar, moving the tiny bell so that it was nestled in the hollow of his throat. He finished the movement by brushing his thumb over the soft, synthetic skin of the other’s neck, his eyes locked on the other’s golden eyes. 

Then he dropped his hands without a word and faced forward, still smiling. He had all the time in the world, he reminded himself. No need to rush things. 

When Lore clapped his shoulder on the way inside the holodeck, he merely raised his eyebrows, wondering if he had made a mistake in teasing the other synthetic. Obviously it had triggered some sort of competition spirit, one that would strike Data the hardest if it continued unchecked. 

Once on the inside, he looked around appreciatively. They stood in the middle of a misty cemetery, with every grave and mausoleum sporting victorian statues of angels and devils. He could see nobody but them there, which was a bit odd. Thunder rolled in the distance, lightning criss-crossing over the heavy cloud banks. At the other end of the cemetery, a great beast of a mansion laid in wait. Only a couple of windows were lit up. 

“Well done”, he observed, then turned to watch B-4′s reaction with great interest. He hoped to have the other terrified and clinging to him soon enough.