#set 39

IX: characters form a mental link

Well, this is strange, Carolyn observed, trying not to frown outwardly. Still. I’m sure we’ll find a use for it.

Oh, definitely, replied Theresa. If nothing else, we ought to be able to have a little fun. They won’t know what hit them.

Carolyn wouldn’t know how to put it into words if ever she was asked, but somehow, though she knew the thoughts were coming from Theresa, they were exactly that: thoughts, not spoken word. No Liechtenstein accent, no audible tone, just the feeling that went with the ideas.

VI: characters are drift compatible (yes, Pacific Rim reference)

"What are they doing now?" asked Arthur curiously, from under his 'film-watching' blanket.

"They're linking their minds together, I think," said Martin. "So they can pilot that machine thing."

"Is that a real thing, or is it made up?"

"Made up."

"Oh." Arthur paused. "That's a shame. If it was real, we could link our minds together, and I wouldn't have to ask you to pass the bowl."

Martin chuckled, passing the popcorn over. "And I wouldn't have to ask you if I'm allowed to share your blanket."

VII: characters are secretly dating

“That wasn’t very subtle, Douglas,” Carolyn observed, a lightly scolding tone in her voice.

He blinked at her. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She huffed. “Your cabin address. Card tricks, ghost stories or sex? Please. Martin’s sitting there with you, so he knows that’s not directed at him, and even he could work out that it’s me and not Arthur…”

“Just one of my jokes,” Douglas assured her. “It's not exactly a new game. ‘Things you’d never say to a cabinful of passengers’.”

IV: characters are randomly paired together for something

Searching for an opponent…

You’re now playing against mcrieff77!

New message from mcrieff77: Douglas?? Is this you?!

New message from mcrieff77: Since when do you play FlightSim with Friends????

New message from mcrieff77: You always used to tease me about playing it. Did you create an account just to carry on teasing me from another country?!

New message from mcrieff77: No, that’s crazy, you’d have just searched for me. You couldn’t have guaranteed we’d get paired up. I mean, what are the chances of that?

X: characters are in an arranged marriage

It wasn't until her father had died, and her mother had resolutely taken up the black veil, that Theresa realised how well-suited her parents had been for one another.

She'd read about their courtship in the palace archives, and extracted other, more personal details from the older servants. It was a marriage that made sense. Tactical, convenient, and all very proper. But looking at her mother now, Theresa saw that it had also become true, in the way people mean when they say 'true love'.

VIII: characters have to cooperate to save a mutual friend

Naturally, it's Martin who uncovers an informant and gets himself kidnapped. Swiped out from under their noses on his tea-break.

Cautious as ever, he's left behind a cipher - of course he has, he's Martin, and they're all supposed to be codebreakers, after all. It takes three solid evenings of Douglas, Carolyn and Herc poring over Martin's seemingly innocent work notes, but eventually - buoyed by Arthur's unshakeable belief in their abilities - they work out who and why, and crucially, where.