When Silence Comes

In the not-so-distant future, humans have come to realize that the brain structures we currently call “mirror neurons” don’t just power empathy and learning. They are merely the part of the psychic nervous system that’s easiest to detect with primitive brain-imaging technology. The collective unconscious mind has always been real, and people who heard voices (more often than not) were hearing the thoughts of other people, even if those people were from a different part of the world. No one is quite sure when it happened, but what every human knows is that the collective *conscious* is now a real thing. Global telepathic communication is here, and it shows no signs of going away.

This has altered society considerably, and in mainly beneficial ways. It’s now pretty routine for someone to move to another country, to be with people whose ideas, feelings, and even dreams they’ve shared for a long while. Most countries understand that this is the new normal, so immigration has become far simpler than in the past. The formation of spontaneous affinity groups or chosen families, in this way, can sometimes lead to dangerous echo-chambers… but so far, another collective of responsible and helpful people has always been able to defuse them before they become full-fledged cults or militants.  As it turns out, providing harm reduction and other forms of non-judgmental support almost always has better outcomes than assuming malice and applying punishment.

There have been some unintended side effects of the global consciousness shift, however. As people become accustomed to living in close proximity to one or several “soulmates”, their psychic nervous system begins to “wire into” the other(s), in much the same way that neurons in the brain that fire together will tend to do so again in the future. At first, this is a subtle effect, not unlike the synchronization of menstrual cycles among people who live together. But after a few months, members of these households or close communities (often called “telecules”, after “telepathic polycule”) start to gain access to each other’s memories. Somewhere between 6 months and a year of close proximity leads to the ability to draw upon each other’s skills and experience, as well. After several years, it begins to feel uncomfortable or rude to speak without input from the other pod members. After several more, members become physically incapable of saying more than one word at a time; making a sentence requires at least two pod members to collaborate.

Some people absolutely adore this, and never want to give it up. Others find it disconcerting at first, but eventually learn to live with it because they enjoy the company of those they love. A few find it horrific, or much too disorienting, and end up fleeing back to their old life (or somewhere else entirely) in order to escape it. This is tragic when it happens, but most people understand that any close telepathic relationship must be entirely voluntary. (Civilized countries now treat telepathic consent violations even more carefully than physical consent violations, as a result of a few outliers who don’t believe other people should be allowed to have private thoughts.)

In this game, you will portray a member of a telepathic pod that has interacted in close proximity for many years. Perhaps you share a big house, or maybe you live in the same town and spend lots of time together. Either way, your bonds run long and deep… but they cannot prevent the loss that is to come. One of your number is in the final stages of dementia. Soon, their voice in your minds will become silence. It is up to all of you to ease their passing, by sharing some of your favorite memories (and theirs) though your mental link… while it is still there.