May Support Group Thread

[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

[consortofalderaan]

Bail accepted Ben's hand and offered his own with his name. "Bail Organa."

He looked over at the coffee skeptically and shook his head. "I can smell from here that it's toxic... Do you want to take a seat?"

[neverjedi]

"Sure." He took the seat, but he was frowning faintly. "Do you want to tell me what you mean by toxic?" Not that he disagreed exactly but that was a really strong word.

[consortofalderaan]

"I was agreeing with you by being facetious," Bail explained with a small apologetic smile. "I don't think I am a snob about coffee, but I can tell from the smell of what they are serving I wouldn't enjoy it."

But Bail paused for a second. "...They aren't actually poisoning us, are they?" That was a serious question. Because until a few days ago, Bail's world didn't involve jarring memories of another life and secret organizations. His whole world had been turned upside-down.

[neverjedi]

"Oh." Oops. He looks appropriately apologetic and embarrassed. "It says a lot about my opinion of these meetings. I was thinking emotionally toxic and metaphorically smelling. I hope they aren't poisoning us. If they are the only evidence I have is hallucinations." The last part is, absolutely, a joke - kind of.

[consortofalderaan]

"...Then you can add my hallucinations to your evidence." Bail joked back.

"I don't know if I accept their explanation of what I experienced. Do you?"

[neverjedi]

"I have a very hard time," he says, carefully and quietly enough to at least attempt being too overheard, "understanding how memories of space travel, aliens, and laser swords would make sense as a 'past life'."

[consortofalderaan]

That should have sounded entirely wrong to Bail. That should have made him question Ben's relationship with reality.

Instead...

"I think," he lowered his voice the same as Ben. "I saw aliens, too... I know there was a blue-skinned person in my memory."

[neverjedi]

"Yes. Sounds like a Chiss." And with that he makes a 'there you go, we're insane' gesture.

Because that's part of something he remembers knowing, but makes no sense at all.

[consortofalderaan]

"A chiss is an alien...?" Bail didn't know if he was asking Ben or asking himself. He couldn't say what the blue-skinned alien was, his memory was focused more on someone else.

"Well... space and aliens does give more weight to hallucinations. But I don't find that more comforting to hear."

[neverjedi]

"Yes." He smiled, apologetically. "To tell you the truth, when I gained my first memory, I was willing to believe it was a hallucination. At this point, I don't believe it is. There's just too much there now. Too much detail, too much knowledge. That doesn't mean I believe it's a previous life, either. I just... don't know what that leaves."

[consortofalderaan]

Bail thought about that. Knowing more would help him make up his own mind.

"Can I ask... what knowledge do you have now?"

[neverjedi]

"Well, I know how to fly spaceships that don't and to my knowledge have never existed and how to use a light-saber." The rest of the memories - "I know what planet a blue skinned alien would likely to come from . I also have weeks worth of memories of events that didn't happen."

It's just - it's a lot.

[consortofalderaan]

Bail listened and tried to fight back the feeling that he was stuck in some kind of continued hallucination.

Weeks of memories? What was he in for?

And when Ben was done, all he could ask was, “What’s a lightsaber?”

[neverjedi]

"A laser wielded as a sword. As near as I can tell." He actually sounds a lot like he's in pain.

Because, saying that, he basically is.

he knows it's ridiculous.

[consortofalderaan]

A sword made out of a laser - he really should have expected that.

He smiled.

"Thank you for explaining that. I feel much less foolish now."

[neverjedi]

"It's hard not to feel less foolish when the bar for foolish raises all the way to laser swords." He might just be smiling in a kind of pained way, though.

[consortofalderaan]

Bail is entirely sympathetic. He didn't really know quite how to explain his memory. They'd pinned it to somewhere in space, because of the alien with blue skin.

"I think..." he paused, and he was probably thinking too hard about this, but Ben had just explained laser swords to him, so Bail was all in now. "I watched some... space version of Trump... declare himself emperor."

"He wasn't Trump, obviously - just had that kind of feel to him... I was very unhappy about it."

[neverjedi]

"I have.... a really hard time imagining any scenario where anyone declaring themselves Emperor wouldn't be upsetting, especially some space version of Trump." Which was only true. "It doesn't sound like you have much more context to go with than that, but again: Declared himself emperor. Being unhappy is at least a sign your memories are of you being a decent person."

[consortofalderaan]

"Possibly," Bail said, hazarding a guess. "Maybe I was upset because it wasn't me."

Didn't they all like to think they are the righteous hero of their story?

[neverjedi]

"Okay, that is possible, given that I don't know anything, but I'm pretty confident on anyone declaring themselves Emperor being a dick."

He's just not a fan of the idea, okay?

[consortofalderaan]

"I cannot argue with that."

From what Bail could gather, he would soon learn if he was a morally upstanding person in his memories or not.

"Do you find these meetings helpful?" He was curious what the other Different thought about these meetings. Did they share his distaste for them or did they actually like them?

[neverjedi]

"I find them helpful for meeting people I would like to keep in touch with away from these meetings."

Which was both a yes and a hell no. He was actively afraid of the Bureau.

[consortofalderaan]

Bail raised his eyebrows.

"Not a fan," of the Bureau, "are you?"

He thought about that for a moment.

"And have you found many who feel the same?"

[neverjedi]

"I think... their initial methods of contact seems... less than inspiring of trust." He was being as careful to be neutral and diplomatic as he could, but in truth the affects on people around him when that memory struck didn't do them any favors in his eyes and he suspected the general nature of it all, and that, was also relevant to the feelings of others.

[consortofalderaan]

"How did they first contact you?" Bail asked. "A Mr. Martin spoke with me."