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

CW: violence depicted in memory link

[not_as_i_do]

Martin's sitting in the folding chair, listening to the usual Bureau liason drone on about the importance of sharing their memories, when the world tilts just ever so slightly.

He's still sitting in a folding chair. Still wearing the sweater that showed up neatly folded on the foot of his bed back in November with no preamble. But the scrubs underneath are not his jeans and cotton shirt, and those are crocs, not winter boots on his feet. Even so, the stillness in the room is the same.

When he comes back up out of the memory, he starts laughing, pulling his hands up and back through his hair.

"Dr. Whitly?" The Bureau therapist squints at him, trying her best not to look absolutely offended at his sudden outburst and interruption. "What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, dear." He pulls himself together and presses his fingertips to his mouth until the urge to grin fades, and he dulls the rush of endorphins to a slight shimmer of a smile. "My apologies. I've never been hit by a memory at Group before, and I must say ... you might find it a bit of a relief."

She's not impressed. "How so?"

"Well, you see ... I've been in a group like this before. And it seems my previous therapist was even worse than you are at this." He turns in his chair and raises a hand. "Show of hands? People here who've had better therapists?"

okay, this time on the *right* log!

[tobodlygo]

Jim is...

Well, he's loaded himself up on Coffee and as many bagels as possible, because he's nervous and frankly, the caffeines making him even more jittery already and maybe the carbs will help him calm down a bit.

Maybe.

He's not holding out hope.

He'd been listening intently to what the other people here had to say, and taking special notice of how the Beaureau member had been reacting to all of this. He's got his notebook open on his knee, jotting down notes in a very hasty shorthand scrawl, a bagel he's holding in his mouth but too focused on his writing to do anything more than that.

He only looks up if someone catches his attention, or touches him, at which point he looks up, startled out of his writing.

"Haffmm?"

...

He stops dead still for a second, dying inside from embarrassment. Did he really just try to talk to someone with a Bagel in his mouth? Yes. Goddamit. He closes his eyes slowly and removes the forgotten snack from his mouth, clearing his throat.

"I am... so sorry about that."

First timer ahoy!

[vrepit_no]

There comes a point where, as you walk in the room, alone, for the first time, that you suddenly ask yourself what the heck you're doing here. For some of us it's an agonizing 30 seconds that feels like days. For Shiro it's closer to ten seconds that feels like a minute. But even so, there is that moment of shuffling over to the doorjamb and scanning the room before settling on the food table. Oh thank everything. Even if he doesn't eat it, at least there's something to keep his hands busy. Oo! Double-chocolate cookies!

The meeting... is just as weird and surreal as the memory was, honestly. And his face probably shows it. "Does anybody else feel like they're dreaming?" he says, mostly to himself. It sounds so stupid coming out of his mouth, but he really as to say these things out loud sometimes. "Like, string theory is obvious, but are we really meant to believe that's what's happening here? Strings tangling? Why is it only a few of us? Why are other people getting pulled into it? Are there any solid answers? At all?"

[no_applause]

Padme arrived late to her first support group meeting. Her planning meeting had run late, but that was unavoidable. She slipped in and found an empty seat near the back of the room, gently setting her bag and coat on the chair next to her so she wouldn't interrupt anyone. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees as she listened to the official speak. The more she heard, the more questions she had. But by the time he was done speaking, there was one thing pressing on her mind.

Raising her hand, she stood and cleared her throat quietly. "Excuse me, I have a question. Please pardon my ignorance, because this is my first time attending one of these meetings. How is any of this happening? Is anything being done to find a cause or solution? This sort of aid is appreciated, but it will only go so far if the underlying problem isn't addressed."