EVENT LOG: Bright Lights

[tramitem]

✦ MOD LOG ✦

... And when my good dream came to an end, I woke up more than ready to bend ... Full Game Navigation

Before February 12: I. Event Aftermath This text is taken from the Welcome page. Thread headers utilizing this prompt may be responded to by Mr. Martin. Simply add “closed to NPC” to your thread header to receive a response. It hits you from out of nowhere. One second you are going about your day, and then for ten or thirty seconds, everything—your surroundings, your sense of self—changes. You see a moment from another life. When you come back to your senses, there is an elderly man waiting for you, and a team of workers administering to the people in your immediate vicinity. They seem to be doing something intrusive to those other people, but they are leaving you alone. How did they get there so fast? Mr. Martin introduces himself—he is the Head of the Department of Containment at the Bureau of Interdimensional Activities. His accent is hard to place. But he begins to explain the multiverse, and now your world has turned upside down. “In summary, what you’ve just experienced is the memory of a past life. You will receive more, but I cannot tell you how many, when, or what they will be... You are one of The Different now... The Bureau will be keeping an eye on you,” Mr. Martin says, and he hands you a card with the acronym ‘IBA’ on one side, and a street address and a forum website address on the other. “There are others like you, experiencing memories from a past life,” he continues. “The Bureau has set up a network so you can connect, find support… work out your confusion.” There’s something sinister about the way he says that… maybe? It’s hard to make sense of everything happening so quickly. “And one more thing—do try to stay out of trouble.”

February 12: II. Support Group There’s a generic spread of food on a table off to one side of the room: donuts and muffins, coffee and lemonade. 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, reserved for the evening. The beige-painted cinder block walls and the fluorescent lighting are a terrible combination. 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.

February 16-20: III. Bright Lights The first clue that something has gone wrong is the brightness of the lights around New York City. Every lamp post you see, every fluorescent tube light in the office, even the LEDs in the microwave display, glow brighter—but not consistently. The lights pulsate and flicker, buzzing furiously, and sometimes they even burn out. It’s not just that, though—even small appliances start malfunctioning, because the use of them trips the breakers. Refrigerators have to be turned down so they don't freeze the milk. When questioned, the city administration, headed by the office of the mayor, directs questions to the Bureau. That’s probably your first clue that something is really, really not right. After all, the Bureau is meant to be an unknown, isn’t it? The Bureau being put in charge of answering questions about this phenomenon almost seems to be an accusation from the mayor—and the fact that the Bureau’s PR arm does respond seems like an admission of guilt. Something else happens that night, though. The Northern Lights, in pulsating waves of green and red and purple, descend over the night sky of New York City. The people of New York pour into the streets to witness the phenomenon, raising their phones to take pictures. Normally, this would never be possible, because of how far south New York is, and how much light pollution the city experiences at night. How is this happening? And why does it subsequently happen for the next 4 nights? The rumors begin the morning of the 17th. They grow in intensity over the next few days, and the appearance of the Bureau’s spokesperson on the Network does little to assuage any fears that are being experienced by the population in the city that includes the Different. People who remember their Event are disappearing, one by one by one. Sometimes they reappear after a short time. Sometimes, it seems, they’re just gone. What does this all mean?

... What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause ...

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Comments

II

[darkforcerising]

"I'm Anakin," Anakin said again. He shifted his backpack so he could extend his right, robotic prosthetic hand.

"My mom said she'd named me after the Greek goddess of inevitability... But someone called me 'Anakin' in my memory and now I don't know what to think. What's your story?"

[merlinastrice]

"Better than my story. My mum said she saw a merlin falcon and decided that was a good name for me."

He shook the prosthetic hand, not batting an eyelash at it.

"I...I was speaking some sort of strange language. And..." He laughed, running a hand through his dark hair. "It sounds crazy."

[darkforcerising]

Anakin liked it when people didn't react to his arm - they instantly improved their character exponentially in his opinion by that alone.

"My memory had someone I know here on Earth... weird is just part of it, I think. Do you know what you were saying?"

[merlinastrice]

Merlin shook his head then frowned a little.

"It's a bit odd. I can't even begin to tell you what language it was yet it felt like I knew exactly what I was saying in my heart rather than my mind. Just...another place deep inside of me knew," he replied. "Did you speak with that other person?"

[darkforcerising]

"That is really interesting," Anakin said.

He was approaching this all far more objectively than he was letting on, but that was from a long practice. His memory was also not that traumatizing. He would freak out about things later.

"I don't know if I actually believe they're memories of another life yet," he continued. "What if they implanted the memories in us?"

[merlinastrice]

"Then why would they choose us to implant memories? It doesn't seem to make sense."

He shook his head again. "Not like it would make sense in any way. But maybe..." He laughed a little. "Wouldn't it be strange if these weren't past memories of a past life but...something else?"

[darkforcerising]

“There are hundreds of unethical experiments done on people. Thought control in the wrong hands…” He didn’t think he had to point out the current politics.

“What else do you think it could be?”

[merlinastrice]

Merlin winced at that. With how the state of the world was, well, that wasn't something that was too far fetched for any of them.

"It sounds far more of a conspiracy theory than what you've said. I can't believe I even fathomed that."

[darkforcerising]

"Okay," he said. He decided to try a different topic.

"I've been trying to see if there's a pattern with all our experiences. Where were you when you got your memory?"

[merlinastrice]

"I was riding my bike back from lecture. It hit me and I lost control. Next thing I know, there were others that were disoriented and very official looking people that were talking to people around us," he replied.

Perhaps any of them could give insight in what could trigger it.

[darkforcerising]

"Did Mr. Martin visit you and explain things?" Anakin asked.

[merlinastrice]

His eyes went wide.

"You were visited by Mr. Martin as well?"

[darkforcerising]

Anakin nodded. "He told me to stay out of trouble." Anakin snorted. So kind of Mr. Martin to think personally of Anakin.

"Were... there other people around you, when your memory hit?"

[merlinastrice]

"Y-yes! Yes! There were!"

His eyes widen at how similar their experiences were.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin was taking note of the similarities, he was looking for patterns. Maybe it was because he was American, and conspiracy theories grew over here like weeds, but he didn't trust The Bureau. He didn't have much of a life - work, therapy, sleep - he might as well fill it with trying to figure out what was happening to them.

"Did it seem odd... what they were doing to the people around you?"

[merlinastrice]

Merlin leaned close and lowered his voice.

"Very strange. It's as if it isn't just what they're saying it is. I might not buy into this new age business but I know what we all experienced can't have just been a past life."

[darkforcerising]

Anakin glanced over towards the Bureau representative, just to gauge their distance and if she might overhear. But that was probably foolish to care about at this point.

"Did you talk to any of the other people around you, after?"

[merlinastrice]

He glanced at the official as well and canted his head, signaling for Anakin to follow him out the door.

"There's this great pub that's the closest to anything I've ever seen to an English pub," he continued at a normal tone of voice.

He raised his eyebrows at him. Clearly, he wanted to speak about this outside.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin followed, falling in step next to Merlin. Merlin was basically a stranger, but hardly seemed like a threat. Well, he seemed less a threat than the Bureau member that was inside the meeting room.

"Does it have rootbeer?" he asked brightly.

[merlinastrice]

"It's still American so it definitely has root beer. You know how weird that was when I first came over here? A few of the others took me out for a proper drink--"

And his inane chatter echoed down the hallway until they made it further away from the building.

"I met a fellow. Ben. He seemed to experience something similar."

[darkforcerising]

Rootbeer was the best drink in the world. Mostly because it was the drink his mom and he would get if they ever had enough money for a treat: rootbeer floats at the drive-in.

Anakin had to keep himself from calling Ben 'Obi-Wan.'

"Ben Kenobi?"

[merlinastrice]

"Yes, Ben Kenobi. Do you know him?" he asked.

[darkforcerising]

"Ya, I knew him before actually."

Now that they were outside, Anakin shoved his left hand into a glove, an hat on his head and then his hands into his pockets. His right hand didn't feel the cold, but it was more of a balance thing. He hated the cold, he was born and raised in the heat of Arizona, anything below fifty degrees was awful. He was having a hard time with this first winter.

"We play chess in the park." And there was more. "He's also in my memory."

[merlinastrice]

"Your memory? How was he in your memory?" he asked.

There was nobody that he knew in his lifetime in his memory. It was just him and the giant dragon. There was someone, he assumed, that was crumped on the grass. Someone that had been in armor. But his focus had been on the very large dragon before him.

[darkforcerising]

"I don't even known," Anakin admitted.

"But someone was introducing me to him, him to me. I was, like, a ten year old kid and he was... I don't know how old he was."