tramitem_log | July Support Group

Who: OPEN (Including to all the new characters who app throughout the month)
What: Bureau Run, Non-Mandatory Support Group
When: There are meetings at various times during the week, whatever works for your character between 8 am and 10 pm
Where: There are meetings at various locations around NYC, whatever works for your character
Rating/Warnings: We ask that players put appropriate warning labels in the subject lines of their threads as they become necessary

There’s a generic spread of food on a table off to one side of the room: donuts, muffins, bagels, and cookies; coffee, lemonade, water, and because one of the Different asked for it, hot chocolate. Maybe you’re hungry enough to try it—it’s free after all.

Or maybe you can’t stomach anything, given the event you’re attending.

The space is a local rec center. The beige-painted cinder block walls and the fluorescent lighting are a terrible combination. Maybe they are reminiscent of the public school you attended in your youth?

Why are you here? Curiosity? Maybe the Bureau official will say something that will help you make sense of things? The meeting was interesting—who knew there were so many people like you, receiving memories of a past life? The group was led by someone from The Bureau—the Department of Medical Services. Some people are staying in their chairs and chatting—they must know each other from previous meetings. Some of them are gravitating towards the food.

How do you feel about tonight? Has it helped you come to terms with the dream of memories you’re having? Maybe it’s time to talk to others, get an understanding of their experience.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"They are usually worse. Last time they had everyone playing the 'getting to know you' game."

He was leaning against the wall as if his slight weight might some how be helping to hold the building upright but smirking as he found enjoyment in taking the piss out of the Bureau's lame attempts at group meetings. He acquainted them to being in Kindergarten.

"Anthony J. Crowley. Let me guess, you ended up with your first memory, got the 'stay out of trouble line from the Bureau who showed up only long enough to cover everything up, and then you found yourself in the middle of that meeting which told you nothing? Everyone has similar stories on that."

He will consider himself lucky to not have been subjected to a forced social bonding exercise. The momentary thinning of his frown certainly hints to his aversion of such awkward group activities.

“That about sums it up,” he replies. “Or at least, for what they claimed was a memory.” The old doctor has doubts about that label. With his dissent noted, he prompts an open line for Crowley to continue, “I take it you’ve learned more since your first meeting?”

"A lot more. The Bureau never mentioned people might gain magical powers or that there could be tears in reality you could hop through to visit other worlds."

Upon saying this Anthony excepted as skeptical a look from this new fellow as he would have received from his cousin. They seemed like similar types, very slow to believe in 'magic' and things like that.

"Is it too much to ask what your first memory was? Some people don't like to talk about them. I didn't... at first."

Skepticism does indeed raise his dark brows momentarily at the mention of magic and dimensional gateways, but they come down more firmly as he balks outright at the thought, “Probably because claiming the existence of either one isn’t wise without proof.” His arms cross at his chest as his thoughts wander towards the multitude of theories he has skimmed by on the matter of dimensions. Not impossible, but difficult to accept. Magic on the other hand could always be unknown science or simple illusions.

Asked about the memory, his hands clench a little with tension that levels his broad shoulders, “Not gonna give that hallucination any more thought. Sooner I forget it, the better.” Quickly trying to divert the conversation back, he asks, “So what made you think someone has magic?”

"Must have been a bad one."

Anthony spoke with no tact whatsoever.

"Mine was. I've since gotten used to the idea. As much as one can get used to the idea of having been a snake."

All scales and belly-crawling, the worst thing was the dream had felt so very real. He allowed the conversation to be diverted as he had also done his fair share of that after he had his first memory.

"I've seen the magic. Healing, glowing hands, and I've felt it myself. I have gone from being a normal person to catching a burn if I grab anything that has been blessed. That has to be magic."

Tact is overrated. Harlan does not have time to waste and prefers to be blunt himself, so being given the courtesy of being direct merely rouses a huff at the speculation.

Then, Crowley speaks to his own experience, and the doctor is at a loss with his shoulders easing downward. He has lost count of people claiming to be famous figures in his ER, but a snake is novel. Like his own experience, it is too removed from human to be easily explained. That of course makes him uncomfortable, and he puts it aside to focus on the magic.

“Could you be more specific about the healing? Plenty of charlatans have pulled that trick off in front of crowds. Laying hands on and such nonsense,” he growls the last part, taking such trickery as a personal insult. Then, he asks, “Could be an allergy, or a coating of some sort that’s making you feel a burn. Has anyone else handled the same items right before you? Were they metal?”

"It was like that, there was a 'laying on of hands' only the kid's hands were actually glowing so I don't see how that could be a trick."

He explained the glow by way of a few gestures with his own hands. There had been an aura around them that hadn't actually faded once the healing process had completed. This was shown with one hand hovering over the other with an accompanying creepy alien whistling noise which was doubtless very helpful in making all of this seem grounded in reality.

As for the rest...

"I knew you'd say allergy. People always do. It's a gold cross necklace that I've had since I was a kid. I used to wear it every day, until recently... Once I began to have trouble even walking past a Church without getting an itchy feeling I began to notice the cross was uncomfortable to wear too. About two weeks later I noticed that if I touched the thing it would leave a burn."

Without any real knowledge of how to produce special effects or illusions for entertainment, Harlan could not begin to theorize how to make hands glow as a parlor trick. He would have to see it for himself to get any notions about it. Despite the flare of the explanation, Harlan remains skeptical, “You make it sound like their hands were regular nightlights.”

The mention of a kid involved makes his gut cringe. It’s one thing to scam adults, but another matter to mess with kids.

“New allergies can develop even at my age. It’s not that strange. And that itching feeling could be a matter of expectation,” he points out. Psychosomatic symptoms are a real possibility in a stressful situation like the one this Bureau is creating.

“Assuming for a moment people are somehow getting magic and tears are appearing in reality, what’s the Bureau get out of all this?”

"They were regular nightlights! Glowing like anything!"

He had never seen anything like them. The only thing more impressive was the light show the kid had performed afterward but that was a good deal more difficult to explain and he had been put off by the implication that he might some how be creating his own demonic weaknesses.

"Are you saying I'm mental? I am not doing any of this to myself. I thought it was all made up garbage when I first heard it, but I ended up with these symptoms anyway! As for the Bureau... who knows what the hell they get out of it. Maybe this is what bored government types do when there isn't a good war on. They're never going to tell us."

July Support Group

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Many apologies for the delay...

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