(no subject)

[tramitem]

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.

Comments

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, okay. He'd admit he'd fallen pretty far, but he was on his way up. So what the hell was he doing here?

Rubbing his temples against the strain of the fluorescent lights on his eyes, Jecht kept an eye on the rest of the room. He figured, or at least he wanted to believe, that he was being punked -- any moment now, cameras and a host would pop out of the walls to make fun of his confusion, and y'know, he'd be fine with that. 'Cuz if anyone could make things feel so... so real, like they had, they deserved all the credit in the world.

And it didn't help that his shirt felt real itchy after all of that.

In short, Jecht absolutely radiated "new to this whole mess", much like others at the group had surely done before.

[inquiryguqin]

They all sit in a circle, sharing stories of their past life memories. One of the attendees is new. After welcoming him, there's free food all around to share. There's plenty of food all around, so anyone can help themselves. Donuts, cookies, juice, and hot chocolate just to name a few.

"Are you new?" The person asking him wears glasses and a classy suit, hallmarks of a professor. "All you have to do is share your first dream."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Jecht leveled a long look on the guy, the sort that came from not knowing what the hell he was doing and being angry about it. One hand went to his neck, and after working his head back and forth a couple times to ease the tension, finally spoke.

"We -- me and some guys -- were fighting some weird things."

Master of eloquence, he.

[inquiryguqin]

Hmm, a battle. His first dream is a battle too. Looking at him thoughtfully.

"You were fighting? Was it a battle? Do you remember what is the cause for it?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Getting down a road." Couple things more than that maybe, but it was all fuzzy. "Guess wherever that was supposed to be, it had a lot of monster things..."

[inquiryguqin]

Sounds fuzzy by the sound of it. "Sounds like you are dreaming about a conflict from another world." As dreams can be vague like that. There are no monsters in this world.

[darkenedmoon]

Yotsuyu is back; she's not sure why. She supposes like a bad penny, she must occasionally turn up.

The new faces are waning--she thinks she sees Dr. Rosenberg off in a corner--what is the man doing there? Never mind, she'd ask later.

She heads to the table of food and avails herself of coffee--though the brand they serve there is abominable, after another long day at work, she needs the caffeine.

"First time?" she muses at the large, confused-looking fellow. Yotsuyu's seen the expression often enough, she's used to it by now.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"What, you think you wouldn't have noticed me before?" Jecht smirked, well aware he tended to stand out in a crowd. "Yeah. This really... you know." Everything it was supposed to be, and not one giant laugh at his expense?

[darkenedmoon]

"I might have. For your height, if nothing else." Not that there weren't plenty of people in this world who weren't far taller than she was.

"This is really real," Yotsuyu responded, sighing a bit. "More than you know." After all, by now? She'd even been to another world, not that she was about to volunteer that to the man. He seemed as if he were having a hard enough time dealing, as it were. "Yotsuyu Naeuri. And you are?"

She's definitely outing herself here. Not A Sports Fan. Nor does she live with any, as it were...

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"The name's Jecht." He drew himself up, jabbing at his chest with a thumb while grinning. "Kinda guessed you weren't the football sort. Actually... kinda glad no one here seems to be."

That'd really make this embarrassing.

[darkenedmoon]

Football, hm? Yotsuyu assumes American football, since they're in New York, after all. If it weren't, he'd likely say soccer. It's a tidbit she files away for later, even as she makes herself a much-needed cup of coffee...

And comes back with a delicate bowl of lemon sherbet.

Yotsuyu lets out a shriek and tosses said delicate bowl of sherbet into the air--where the cup of coffee returns to its proper form. She makes a grab for it, but only manages to upend it, splattering both herself and Jecht with the contents.

It might be an interesting experience, in any case; when enraged, Yotsuyu has a vocabulary like a sailor.

[traceofeffort]

Lisa makes a habit of hitting these things when she doesn't have homework or shows, and tonight she had neither of those issues, so here she was. The crowd was a little smaller than usual today - it's hot and whether they are or not, she could absolutely believe the Bureau was too cheap to pay for air conditioning, which could explain it - so it wasn't hard to work out numbers. There were some new folk, to be sure; it was just a matter of getting them aside for a moment.

Not that that ever turned out to be terribly hard, and later in the function she found the new gentleman with nobody trying to mingle with him. Sliding over, guitar case on her back and actually full for now, she took a pull from her styrofoam glass of take-out tea and waved. "You look like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. I promise, we don't bite."

He might recognize her from a little earlier; she'd shared a memory where she'd started off with nothing and apparently been woken up, having passed out in her dressing room for a concert with her band and found by another band that'd come in to wish them well. She'd made it sound fairly blasé, but depending on how closely he'd been listening, she was still a little shaken up about it.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Ain't you I'm worried about." In any way, really. He might not be at his best, but he could still take down anyone here who messed with him, and as for words and stuff... well, couldn't do much worse than laugh at him, right? And you had to ignore that stuff, not let it get to you, so he'd learned to do that too.

Her story had at least helped him think that maybe this wasn't a giant put-on. It was too weird and different to be believable, which meant it was probably true.

"The other shoe's whatever all this stuff is about, right? So yeah, I'm waiting for that to drop."

[traceofeffort]

"The rest of us are waiting for that too," she said a bit more sedately. "We're doing our best to investigate when we can, but there just isn't a lot we can do from here without more information. So for now... I guess we're biding our time?"

Apparently realizing something, she let her tone snap back to its usual peppy, twangy self. "But hey! I'm getting ahead of myself. Lisa Imai, guitarist and recent J-pop act. I think I recognize you from somewhere... TV, maybe? Sorry, I'm usually better at this stuff but I'm a little fried right now."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Naw, different circles." Not like he knew the first damn thing about whatever a jay-pop was. Today he'd learned that guitars were probably involved. "You don't do sports or you'd recognize the name Jecht."

[madman_with_a_box]

Really, it looked like all of those depressingly mundane staff meetings, John thought idly as he looked over the spread on the table. Generic cakes, cookies, lemonade - it was as if every single administrative assistant tasked to plan nondescript parties purchased their supplies at the same source. Even the recreation center had the same feeling as PTA meetings everywhere, a liminal space created when schools closed for the night - it had the distinct feeling that you shouldn't be there, partially darkened hallways that echoed unpleasantly and were far too empty. It was nearly uncanny.

Right down to the fakey sweet, watered down lemonade, he thought as he wrinkled his nose at the cup in his hand. Frankly, he couldn't even recall precisely how that cup had come into his possession; ever since That had happened, it had all been a sort of bizarre blur. He peered down at the red plastic cup in his hand, and watched the ice slowly melt, and glanced back up at the spread of cakes and cookies. Maybe he should have gone for the coffee instead - and didn't anyone believe in fruit any longer? Would it have killed them at all to put something like apples or bananas out as well? No, on the other hand, caffeine would probably have been a bad move; he felt jittery enough - on the edge of manic, without any outlet.

Clearing his throat, he not-so-subtly tossed the nearly full cup into the bin, and turned to look out over the crowd that had assembled.

"Could be worse," he said idly to himself. "You could be the only one out there. Not as bad as it could be, knowing there are other people out there like you." His lips curved downwards a bit as he nodded his head in consideration, as if he were very much deciding that, yes, things could very much be worse. Perhaps there was camaraderie to be found here among these people. Friends? A sort of found family? He already struggled with feeling Other enough as it was, but this Bureau, shady as it was...well, he really didn't have much of a choice, did he?

Besides, he was far too curious to let it go that way. Who was he, really?

His mind went back to that flash of memory - the rush of the vacuum, the flash of blonde hair, the horror coursing through his veins - and he closed his eyes for a moment to banish it. He'd been haunted by that name since the event - Who are you, Rose? Why were you so important? Not that she wasn't important - everyone was, but why had she been so important to him, in this other life, this other existence? Were there others here who had missing loved ones? Other families, friends, lovers? John took a breath and slipped his hands idly into his pockets. He ambled up to one of the others who had attended the meeting, and raised his eyebrows in pleasant amusement.

"So...bit mad, isn't it?" he asked, a bit cheerily. "I've heard a lot of wild theories, but never imagined something like this could actually be, well, be a Thing. What was it like for you? Not sure what to make of the Bureau though, either-not easy trying to find information on them on the internet - believe me, I tried." The words came out in a rapid stream of consciousness, almost a ramble as he parsed things together in his mind. "Like something out of a movie, erasing memories and other dimensions and - well, I mean, Everett's many-worlds interpretation, I'm familiar with it, of course - fascinating! Never thought I'd get to experience it myself; it was all theory and - sorry, I'm being rude."

He paused a bit, awkward, but still friendly, and offered up a pleasant smile. "Hello~. I'm John."

I decided to try for something different, a little less OMG!!

[temptationaccomplished]

It was the voice that first caught his attention. That unmistakable voice that was also not quite right, either, like a unique spin on a classic song, or a familiar instrument played in a different key. This one a bit manic in the rush of words, cool in a way that looked effortless and youthful. But still so very distinctly Crowley-like. Surely it was a fluke. Surely there wasn't another cousin. They would have told him...wouldn't they?

Oh, good lord, Aziraphale thought of himself, he was turning into an old creeper. He should really just buck up and say hello like a sensible, ah, human being.

Instead, he tried his hand at casual, straightening his bow tie and sweater, pocketing his notes, before heading in for a refill on his usual (cocoa) and loitering at the snack table like a shy party-goer waiting to be asked to dance.

"Hello, John." John. What a nice sensible name. Aziraphale smiled, overcome by how very young he was up close, and regretted crossing the room with little to no plan.

He flustered, remembering himself, and added, "I'm Mr. Fell."

Re: I decided to try for something different, a little less OMG!!

[madman_with_a_box]

Well, this fellow certainly seemed pleasant, if a bit skittish. Then again, John considered, if anyone present at one of these Different meetings weren't skittish, he'd have been concerned. This was all rather unbelievable, and he would have had trouble even considering it were it not for what he had seen and experienced. Hoping to ease some of the, well, unease, John offered Mr. Fell a friendly, reassuring sort of smile and extended a hand to shake. If they were all a bit nervous, best to try and be kind. It was the sort of mindset he adopted with his students - encouraging and friendly.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Fell. So, uh..." He glanced around again, thinking it rather funny that he was coming to a support group all over again. He'd been a bit younger the last time he'd gone, and it had nothing to do with anything preternatural. "This is my first time coming to one of these meetings - you? I really wasn't sure what to expect. Sort of feels like a bloody staff meeting only with more...weirdness and less...forced polite conversation." He took a breath in consideration, having withdrawn his hand after the shake to slip it into his pocket. "Food's the same though. Funny, that, eh? Always the same, no matter what meeting you go to...Sorry. Tangent again. So - what - " He frowned then, his dark eyes crinkling a little in thought.

" - Is it rude to ask another Different what they went through? Sort of - what are you in for, kind of talk?"

[temptationaccomplished]

After a brief hesitance, he took John's hand with his own and gave a warm, slightly awkward shake, then quickly, politely withdrew his hand so as not to think too hard about similarities. His hands folded together over his stomach, fidgeting.

"Oh, no, not my first. Not at all. And it does sort of feel like that, doesn't it?" He nodded in agreement, looking out at the room as if surveying it anew. These meetings had always been a bit bland and uninspired considering for how long and how frequently the Bureau had supposedly been hosting them. You'd think they might go for some decorations, something to liven the space up, he thought, though that might well make the effect worse. "I've been coming for--well, since February. It feels like a very long time, now. I used to come more often, to try and help, but I've fallen out of the habit."

And that sentiment only reminded him of months ago, and another familiar face, and a cup of cocoa and overtures of friendship.

"Not rude, no, I don't think so," he said, reminding himself he should help, and not just because John looked like his Crowleys. "I think that's the advertised point of the meetings. Anything in particular you'd care to know about?"

[madman_with_a_box]

"I was a bit late getting here - had a work thing beforehand and had to bike here from campus. So I didn't really get to listen to everyone's stories and I didn't get to share my own - maybe next time, eh?"

There was something about Mr. Fell, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He seemed unsettled, as if something were wrong or strange, but other than the entire situation at hand, John really didn't know what it could possibly have been. Especially since Mr. Fell had just stated that he had been dealing with this for nearly half a year now! He supposed also, that he might have simply been projecting on him his own anxieties. He took a breath; Mr. Fell might also simply be awkward around new people; who could say?

"Not sure about the decorations, though. I mean, what would the cake say? 'Congratulations On Your New Trauma'?" He laughed a little, clearing trying to make a joke, but even as the words left his lips, the humor sort of died on impact. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets, standing with his hip slightly to one side as he thought. Dark eyes glanced back out over the congregated mass, then back to his new companion in thought.

"...Are everyone's First Memories gut wrenching, or am I just...unlucky?"

[traceofeffort]

Perhaps unlike her usual visits, Lisa was at the support group tonight to get away from everything else. She'd managed earlier in the week, but by tonight her entire life had become sweet and lemon-scented and she just wanted out. If she had to go into contested territory, so be it. She listened semi-attently to the stories, but couldn't quite keep her attention on things like she knew she should. Sherbet hell did that, over the course of enough days and enough things she really needed at the time turning into cups of lies.

She'd shared something again today, as she'd been doing lately since she got her absurd dump of information about her other self; today it was a story about being called in to work at her part-time convenience store job when she was supposed to have practice. She'd left with assurances she'd be right back, and her bandmates had told her they'd be fine without her. When she'd returned, someone had spilled milk right next to the monitor and cables, which were themselves wrapped around one of her band members, and all of them were pretty clearly at wit's end. They'd looked at her like she was coming to rescue them from a terrible fate, and while she'd thought they were hopeless, she'd appreciated their need of her more than she would ever tell them. Mind, this Lisa appreciated that sense of being needed, too, but there were only a few people she could express that too, and none of them were here just now.

She'd planned to talk to the new people a bit later in, as she usually did, but this time the new person she'd had her eye on came to her instead, and in lieu of an introduction went straight into theories. And then came the introduction, and despite herself Lisa laughed softly and smiled at him. Her hair was a little bit of a mess - not to mention slightly sticky in places - and she looked like she could stand a bit more sleep; she'd fallen back to her old gold earrings set with tiny rhodonites since the others were in the fridge, and while the guitar bag on her back wasn't empty, her bass was the only instrument she could get to stay coherent long enough to stick in it. The styrofoam cup of tea in one hand was already starting to make sucking sounds as she tried to sip from it.

"Hey there! Lisa. I've been up the wall over this stuff m'self," she admitted in a slower tone, with a mildly pronounced Southern accent. "The internet doesn't prepare you for how the Bureau operates; I've got feelings abou' that, but they're not something to air here. Still... Ah've met people I wouldn't trade for anything here, and that usually outweighs the bad stuff." Usually; she grimaced, but she shook it off quickly enough and smiled. "I don't pretend t' know the science, though, sorry. I wouldn't mind learning, I just haven't studied it. I just have opinions I don' think anyone else agrees with." A pause, and her smile turned warmer, a little more genuine. "Ah, and most importantly - welcome. Pleased to meet you, John."

[madman_with_a_box]

"Oh, Lisa! Nice name, nice to meet you. By that, I'm taking that to mean that you've been through all of..." John gestured vaguely towards the rabble of assorted individuals still congregating and commiserating around the room, and marveled at how normal everyone looked.

"..This, before?"

It was so very hard, looking at everyone from all these varied walks of life, and realizing that they all were these 'Different' as well. Other places, other universes represented here, Memories and places and - and if it hadn't happened to John directly, he would have been ridiculously enthused about studying it. It wasn't nearly so much fun when you were the subject of study itself.

"...The Bureau. Seems bloody shady, if you ask me; obvious they're playing some sort of game with us - not sure how I feel about being part of their odd census. It's like...in the comics when they tried to register all of the superheroes, you know? The Civil War?" Clearly, John did not share
Lisa's qualms about being hush hush on his opinions, and simply voiced them without concern. He was clearly Important enough to be in their little club, so he doubted they'd hunt him down or anything. He glanced over at the young lady, and smiled a bit wryly. He ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling the already sculpted mess that he enjoyed styling it in.

"Try me. Might be surprised. And if you have science questions, I'm happy to help. I teach! Teaching is...is what I do. Thanks for the welcome, though. Been a while since I've been to a group like this." He hadn't really shared much about himself at the meeting; he had been introduced and offered up what he did for a living, but that had been all. He had spent the rest of it listening to the stories, curious about everyone present.

"...So. We were all..or rather, are all someone else from another plane of existence? Another universe? And we're getting those memories and whatever else that comes with it back? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

[traceofeffort]

"Six months now," Lisa confirmed softly, calming down a little with the conversation. "In a lot of ways, the beginning's kinda predictable. It splits off from there real fast, though." Her bass. Elliott's magic. Anthony's... suggestion power? Or whatever the hell it was, she'd never really put proper words to it. "No, the Bureau's shady as hell, though. I don't trust them, beyond the things I kind of need - the network is important so we can keep in touch with each other, but it's not the kind of place you put things you want to stay secret."

And then the important part, and she huffed out a breath, her smile turning warmer, more strength in her tone. "I choose to believe - I don't have proof for any of it, but none of us do - that we're getting this stuff back to help our other selves somehow. That the other Lisa, in a seemingly average but different Japan across space and time, is sending me her everything so I can do. Something. I haven't gotten that far yet. But I'm taking it as a blessing. Maybe we can work out a theory that actually makes sense with actual science behind it - music major here, that's outside my jurisdiction - but I'll believe in the other me for now."

After a pause for a second to drink the rest of her tea and frown at the glass as it stopped even making more than sad whooshing noises, she perked up. "Oh, right, though, you asked about what it was like at first for me. I... know a little more now, but I was in an audition for what would become my band, Roselia. There were two other girls 'my' age - a couple years younger than I am now - and one a couple years younger than that. One with silver hair, one with lavender in crazy drill tails, one with aqua, genetics took a left turn at Albuquerque. I just felt this... heady feeling of gestalt," she explained, turning a little wistful. "Like I'd found something I'd never known, and whether it was playing music together or just them specifically, I don't know, but. It wasn't very long and I miss that rush already. I haven't found it again yet."

[darkenedmoon]

Well, for someone clearly babbling out words, the man was at least amusing in his exuberance. Not to mention it was alarming, truly, just how much he resembled two other gentlemen of her acquaintance! Not that she was about to bring that up, at the moment. And oh, if she could only have seen some of his thoughts about the dreary setting of these meetings!! She would be in complete agreement. But he'd asked about the initial memory she'd had.

"In truth, much more mediocre to start, I should think. Besides, lunar eclipses aren't that outre, are they? Save I saw myself holding an object into the air at first--a mirror, of sorts, and the eclipse then came as if I called it. I don't recall that, though. Though I do recall I was...angry, at that. Outraged, perhaps. As if I'd been denied something I thought I deserved."

Though what that was had been definitely something that escaped her, even until now.

But Yotsuyu sighed, then. "My son has taken a job interning at the Bureau, though I doubt it's going to get him as far as he hopes." Let's just get that out of the way now, shall we? Ugh. Though that quickly passes, and she offers a gracious smile. "I've seen far ruder than you, if this is what you call rudeness." A chuckle escaped her. "Yotsuyu Naeuri. A pleasure."

[madman_with_a_box]

Utterly unaware of his resemblance to two other Differents, John continued on his merry way of chatter, conversing warmly. It was nice, he realized, to talk to people outside of his academic world, and just...talk, even if the circumstances were intensely odd. He turned inquisitive eyes on this woman, Ms. Yotsuyu Naeuri, and listened intently to her story. It certainly was a fleeting image she described, another otherworldly and esoteric experience - and he found it fascinating.

"John - er, Doctor. Doctor John Smith. Nice to meet you, Yotsuyu. Is that the only memory you've had returned to you so far?" He offered her a friendly smile, and considered his own for a moment. "

"I lost a friend in mine. A friend...or a lover? I'm not sure. She was important. Lost in...another...in a rift, or something. Aliens - or robots, I'm not quite sure - were there, and we were caught up in a vacuum. I remember her name, but...not mine, and I'm not sure where we were. A very white room in a building somewhere...I just. I guess I was wondering if everyone has an upsetting first one or if it varies, or...I don't know. Insight, I suppose. I'm a scientist, gathering data is my..." He waved a hand vaguely. "...My thing."