March Support Group Open Log

[tramitem]

Who: OPEN (Including to all the new characters who app throughout the month)
What: Bureau Run, Non-Mandatory Support Group
When: March 1st - March 31st. There are meetings at various times/days 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.

Comments

[darkforcerising]

Anakin snorted. "Ya, I was a kid again, being introduced to someone. Not that weird. The weird part is that person is actually here, in New York. We know each other. And he got the same memory, just his perspective."

As he was talking, Anakin started taken note of who the Bureau people were in the room, there weren't many. In his experiences, group therapy sessions didn't have anything close to a one to one ratio of staff to participants.

"What'd you see in yours?"

[thehellisbucky]

Bucky noted Anakin's observation only due to their proximity to each other, and rather than turning his head to see who Anakin was clocking, Bucky's mental note to talk to Anankin about things other than weird memories became more urgent. Clearly Anakin was't big on taking the Bureau at face value, and that was worth checking into.

Bucky had seen someone in his dream / memory, too, and to hear that the person Anakin had seen was a real live fucking person was a bit rattling. Bucky had begin to think more that his memory had been a previous life -- as he'd been wearing old-fashioned Army gear in the brief scene he'd recalled. And it was easier to wrap his head around reincarnation than it was just brand new fucking memories out of nowhere.

He sat back in his chair, glanced around at the others dealing with the same shit he was. "I was in a warehouse, there was fire, explosions. I'd just... huh." A swallow, beginning again. "I'd just walked across a beam over the main part of the fire, trying to get out. There was someone with me, and he couldn't get across the same way, told me to leave. And of course, no fucking way I was leaving him behind." Bucky shook his head. "And I don't even know the guy. Haven't seen him around, either. Not in... real life, or in this new shit that's just opened up. D'ya think these memories... are like deja vu? Reincarnation?"

[darkforcerising]

Anakin's head snapped around in real interest.

"Explosions? That's fun- intense," he said. Anakin, of all people, should be gun shy about explosions. And yet, he was a moth.

"Do you keep seeing the memory, like... dreaming about it?"

[thehellisbucky]

Anakin's enthusiasm over the explosions made Bucky grin slightly. To be honest with himself, the careful walk across the beam over fireballs had been fucking badass, on top of all the terror. But the grin faded to suspicion, Bucky not liking the thought of dreaming about the memory. He'd already poured over the brief moment for hours, stuck in his own head and doubting himself. Now he'd... dream about it? After a summer of surgeries with his arm, he used to dream about them, even months after. And not good dreams.

"Well. Um. Not dreamed, no. Been fucking obsessed over it, but not... Yeah." He glanced up at Anakin searchingly. "Is is just regular dreams or is... not? More of this... Bureau stuff?"

[darkforcerising]

"Ya, dreaming. Their different, you can tell." Anakin said. "Got the memory right in the middle of work, and then Mr. Martin was there. Obsessed, too. Then I just started dreaming the same memory over and over. It's not the worst thing to dream about, but it's fucking annoying. I think I know every detail about the memory by now... The meds I'm on?" He glanced back at one of the Bureau officials. "... That shouldn't be possible."

[thehellisbucky]

"Ah, God." Bucky shoved more of the donut in his mouth, glancing up a that the same person Anakin had looked at. Layers upon layers. Dealing with a suddenly unreliable mind, wandering around wondering what would happen next, what bullshit memory would be thrown at him. "Well, I got that to look forward to, now." Spoken around a mouthful of cheap carbs, and he took a moment to swallow. "Other than all that... you still living your life? Nothing else descending to fuck things up?"

[darkforcerising]

"Ya, it's something," Anakin grumbled. He didn't like that his sleep was interrupted. Sure, the memory right now was something mundane, pleasant compared to PTSD-induced dreams his meds were meant to keep from bothering him. But that was the thing - this memory popped up in his dreams, despite the meds he took. And it was different, like every time he dreamed it, he was reliving something real.

"Work's work- where did your memory hit?" he asked, his voice going quieter. "I was at work- the middle of fucking work. The security at Lockheed is high. How did they get through?"