Support Group - March 2021

[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

[vrepit_no]

Shiro's brow arches and the first real smile since he'd been sucked into this mess flickers across his lips. "Hey, I should have waited till you swallowed." Relief visibly eases some of the tension knotted up in the grad student's shoulders. "I just kinda wanted to make sure it was you. This is really bizarre, isn't it? You, ah. You had one of these visions? Too?" He fiddles with his 90% empty water cup in lieu of actually meeting the professor's eyes for that last question. He had passed on sharing his memory for Reasons.

[tobodlygo]

Jim's eyes go round as saucers. Out of all the faces he might have thought would be here, one of his students wasn't one of them.

"Mr. Shirogane!" He says with a worried smile. He's always been pretty format at University, and apparently his lizard brain has just taken over. It doesn't make his greeting any less fond.

"I'm afraid so. It was. It was really weird, it felt like I'd actually lived that point in time. Though I'm sure no one's ever-" he breaks off, laughing to himself a bit, because it just sounds so absurd. He lowers his voice a little, so only Shiro can hear him. He didn't share his memory either, but he knows Shiro, knows his work ethic and his general trustworthy-ness, if not a whole bunch as a person.

"No one's ever given me Captaincy over a Starship before! I'd think I'd know about it by now if I had."

[vrepit_no]

Speaking of eyes going wide. "A captancy? You're kidding! Here I was marveling that I definitely felt like I was a pilot astronaut!" He catches himself and colors along the back of his neck. "I mean, it was really bizarre. I only ever thought that might be possible when I was five. It's just nuts! What do you think about all this?" he asks, waving a hand vaguely at the room and the experience by implication. Chair? Chair. He plops down in a vacated chair and pulls it a bit closer for a more private tête-à-tête.

i just saw FORMAT instead of FORMAL i am A FOOL.

[tobodlygo]

Jim can't help but laugh.

"Truely, men of space and the stars even when we're dreaming. Or, well, remembering, I guess? Did you recognise any of the skies?" Because Jim has to know. The scholar in him must know!

"And. Well, the people here seem genuine enough about their experiences, I think. I won't lie, I feel like I need to go to the Psychology department and get myself checked out but-" The psych department was in the building next to the physical sciences... and he'd knocked out the whole block when he had his 'Event'.
He scratches the back of his neck nervously.

"Sorry for uh, disrupting your classes so bad." Jim genuinely feels terrible about that. He knows the school will be up and running in no time, but for the students there to have their studies disrupted by him of all people.

It's not that they knew it was him, but he knew it was him, and that's the bit that matters.

If you think I have not made grevious spelling errors in tags before I'm about to bust that bubble

[vrepit_no]

Shiro realizes that his mouth has come ajar and snaps it shut. "Uh, yeah, I did." he answers distractedly and immediately plunges on. "That was you? I... didn't even consider that the gas leak was actually a. Whatchamacallit. Event? Tesseract? Thing. I just pulled in two of my neighbors. Wh. How many people wound up affected? Er, I mean." He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up oddly like a ruffled duck. "I guess how did that affect so many people is my actual question."

Slebbinf is 4 nerbs

[tobodlygo]

Jim grimaces. Yeah, that doesn't make him feel much better.

"School's systems are all connected and the Sciences building usually takes the most resources because of the labs, so..." he mutters, embarrassment flushing the tops of his cheeks.

♥♥♥

[vrepit_no]

"Hey, we got a week off to work on our papers, so I am not complaining," Shiro smiles. He reaches out to lightly touch Jim's arm, not lingering, as much as he'd like to. Bad grad student. Bad. "But are you okay?" His brows crinkle in concern.

MMMMM TOUCHING YES.

[tobodlygo]

"You better turn in a damned good paper, Mr. Shirogane," He laughs, trying very hard not to react when Shiro touches his arm.

Oh boy.

He'd known that Shiro was good looking, but there has always been the work, the research, the University setting. And now?

Nah. Maybe Shiro's just Tactile.

"I'm alright. I think. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I got off lightly with my memory or dream or whatever it was. I'm thinking some people here are getting much, much worse." There's clear concern in his voice. He's always been aware of his students and colleagues emotional States, how could he not, when he knows that it can affect their studies and research?

He wonders if he can do anything to help...

[vrepit_no]

Shiro flashes him a quick, mysterious sideways grin, but doesn't comment on his paper writing abilities. Instead he lets his elbows come down onto his knees, hands falling between them.

"Yeah... I think I got lucky. Mine was really peaceful and awe-inspiring. Some people seem to be getting wrecked. And it's not like you can just ask them what happened, you know? That's kinda personal, unless they've managed to divorce themselves from it somehow. I really don't know what to think. I've always loved the idea of alternate universes, or parallel ones. The universe is way too vast and complex to think we know how it works already - that's why science is a continually evolving field. But... I dunno. If that really was real..."

He pauses, biting his lip and glancing sideways at a crack in the linoleum. "I guess I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't push myself hard enough to be there right now. I don't know if that makes any sense."

[tobodlygo]

It's Jim's turn to reach out, but instead of a gentle touch, he goes with a flick to Shiro's knee.

"But then you'd be in space instead of my classes, and I think we both know that my teaching standards is already pretty out of this world." Yes, he's being cheeky. Yes, he knows it's silly, but Shiro's being equally as outlandish with his self-pity.

"Sure, you could have gone straight into NASA with that head of yours, but is that really what you wanted to do? Years of near-military training and bureaucracy and, God forbid, 5am wake up calls?" He puts on a dramatic shiver, then smiles.

"I think that though pushing yourself is great for improving yourself, beating yourself up over someone else's life, who may or may not be real, shouldn't be one of the things you push for, okay?"

[vrepit_no]

Shiro huffs half a laugh and shakes his head. He knows it's a ridiculous thing to get upset over. It's just been bugging him for a few days now. "I know - it's pretty dumb. It just feels weird to know that I really could have been an astronaut. I wanted to, as a kid, but at some point I realized that I'd probably be disqualified for outstanding medical conditions, blah, blah, blah. Guess I can't really know it would have worked, anyway."

He gives Jim a smile. "Besides, I'd hate to have missed your classes. You're way too much fun to watch. And if I'd had one of these flash mob memories up there God only knows what would've happened. Though who knows! Maybe you'd have been my captain, huh?"

Oh. Oh there's a fun nickname opportunity here. Excellent.

[tobodlygo]

"Well, you chose the next best way to see space, didn't you?" And then Shiro day's he's fun to watch, and he can't help but feel a tad embarrassed! He laughs it off with a shrug.

"Me being fun to watch means that students stay interested, at least. I know I tend to get off topic, like, a lot though."

"N- now hold on there," he stutters, "I'm no one's captain! He may have been, but not me!" oh Jim. Just a bit embrassed there, huh?

[vrepit_no]

A mischievous smile plays around the corners of Shiro's mouth. "Well that depends on whether or not you think that this is a 'there but for the grace of God' scenario or a 'that's a completely separate person entirely' type scenario. If I could've been an astronaut, you could've been a starship captain. And if those two things happened in the same universe string..." He shrugs, letting their imaginations play with that one.

"I'm not saying it's true - just that it's a possibility," he grins.

[tobodlygo]

For a moment, Jim’s brain tries to calculate the probability of the both of their previous lives being from the same universe. Shiro will see as he takes a breath in to reply, and then stop and stare off into nothing for a couple of seconds.
He manages to shake himself out of it, realising he’ll need more than just mental maths for that particular one.

But then, what would have happened if they had been exploring space together? What would they have found?

“What do you think we’re supposed to be doing, here?” He asks the question almost not quite in the same room, remembering the heavy weight of a pin on his breastbone.

[vrepit_no]

Shiro waits, wondering if Jim's having another memory flash. His smile fades into something more concerned as he watches.

He's only known Mr. Kirk for a few months, really, but there had been an immediate sense of connection. They thought alike. Spoke alike. They had similar interests. And if he's honest with himself, Shiro knows that he had been desperately looking for someone to give him validation and direction. He doesn't want to lose that friendship. It's something balanced delicately between student/role model and friends resuming a relationship like it had been hours and not years since they'd last seen one another. That's what it felt like, anyway. Would this difference thing cause them to drift apart? What's happening here?

Jim's question startles him out of his thoughts. "I think it depends," he says quietly. "Are the bigwigs legitimately helping? Are they targeting us to receive memories? Or are they suppressing memories we used to have?"

[tobodlygo]

"I have a feeling that if we wanted to talk about that," he trails off, knowing that even though they're keeping their voices low that these kinds of people don't let anything go.

He doesn't think they're evil or anything, but there's definitely a sense of even though the Different are directly affected by all of this that they're still being kept on a bare-bones, need to know basis.

"I don't know," he sighs, and then sits back, "But what I do know is that honestly, I could go for a coffee that isn't this stuff. You wanna go grab some?"

[vrepit_no]

Shiro catches himself halfway through crinkling his nose. "Good point." He sighs and sits up straight, pressing his arms back till something in his back pops. "God. Coffee. Yeah, that sounds amazing. I will never turn down caffeine that actually tastes good. Forever grateful that I managed to find a cheapish apartment within a short bus ride from campus. At least I can have my own coffee maker."

He stands and offers Professor Kirk a hand up. "Where were you thinking?"

[tobodlygo]

Okay, Shiro, you *have* to stop being cute. Don't let him know you live so close to campus either. That's dangerous!

"There's a Starbuck's round the corner if you want, but honestly I'm thinking something a bit less busy. You know Joe's?" It was a bit eclectic, and kinda ticked away, but he thinks the owner probably likes it more like that.

[vrepit_no]

If there's anyone he can trust it's the professor who got him here in the first place and who apparently shares this Different thing with him, ok ok.

"Not off the top of my head, but I'm definitely open to finding another coffee place in town. Starbucks is good for speed, usually, but that's not always what I'm looking for."

[tobodlygo]

"Well, then, let me treat you to a cup at Joe's," he says with a grin. He's proud of his pun, at least.

Jim grabs his Pea coat from where it's been tossed over the back of the chair and picks up his leather satchel. He really does look all the bit a professor.

[vrepit_no]

Shiro laughs and shakes his head. "Nice one, Professor. I didn't know you were a fan of puns! I mean, outside of class." He gestures for Jim to lead the way. He himself didn't bring much other than a notepad and pen that can be tucked into his leather jacket.