tramitem_log | May Support Group Thread

Entry tags:

May Support Group Thread

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I really hope its not real..." Even if it wasn't a memory of his own, thinking that anyone would have to live through something like that made his body shake.

"I mean does it really matter if it is? So what if I lived it..that's the past right? So we shouldn't have to think about it anymore. Why is it coming back to haunt us now?"

Perhaps that was what really upset him the most. Was he supposed to uproot the good life he had right now because the him of a few hundred years ago had a rough time? That didn't seem fair..

Anthony didn't know if it mattered or not. Some times those feeling were absolutely overwhelming, threatening to take over everything he was, but there were other times when it just felt like a strange dream, barely remembered and quickly forgotten. There was no best way to look a it.

"Some people agree that whatever you are remembering doesn't matter. Others think they aren't really memories at all but implanted some how for vague and undefined reasons... It's up to you really. You can chose to believe it all or not."

"Implanted? So..all of this could be like some sort of lab project? We are just their guinea pigs?" Okay so that thought might be even worse for him. He doesn't want to be anyone's lab rat.

This was all just maddening. He was going to have some really stiff drinks tonight to try and forget everything. "And these meetings? Why do you come to them?"

"It's a theory. Like everything else we can't prove any of it."

But he had felt the need to mention it due to family reasons. Can't have Alec thinking he was entirely insane, believing all this weird stuff that was just appearing in his head.

"I avoided them for a while, popped in just long enough to meet some people and then left. I began to think that wasn't such a wise idea. Better to stick around to keep an eye on things. You never know what one might learn at one of these meetings."

Anthony managed to snag a hot chocolate from the nearby table without causing the entire display to self destruct and took a sip before asking a question of his own.

"What about you? Given that you don't want anyone to know that you are here, among the lunatics, why did you come?"

"Curiosity? I guess I just wanted to know what it all was..not that I feel like I'm getting any closer to answers."

Wei Wuxian shrugged and looked around the room again. "I mean I'm here because they think I am one of the lunatics right? I just hope none of the lunatics feel like telling the people I work for. I don't think they would look kindly on this kind of stuff at my job."

His boss was a pretty understanding guy but the clients probably wouldn't like someone who was labeled as crazy.

"How many of these..visions..have you seen?"

"I don't know everyone so I can't say for sure that no one would let it slip that you were here but, most of us are in the same position. We all have people out there who just wouldn't get it."

He frowned, clearly thinking of several of those sorts in his own life. Family could be tough.

"I've had four of those memories by now. You would think it might have started to make some sense but its only become more confusing. My memories don't really seem to connect. Maybe I was a few different people," he scoffed remembering that first dream, "or creatures before I was myself."

Now before he scared the poor guy too much Anthony drew back and gave him a pitying look.

"Don't worry. That doesn't seem typical. You will probably only have memories from that one life and they won't all be bad ones."

"Well I hope the next one is really great to make up for that last one.." He frowned and then shook his head. "No..I mean I hope I don't get any more. One was enough." The thought that he could have four and all of them be as bad as the first is terrifying. He would like to sleep again sometime in this lifetime.

"How..frequently?" He wanted to make sure this wasn't going to be a common occurrence. If he did have to have them perhaps one ever couple of months wouldn't be so terrible.

Lack of sleep was a common problem among the Different. Those memories did like to make themselves known in the dead of night.

"Well... I've been having them for a month. One month, four memories, that's about one a week... only I had two of them in the same week. I think other Different have had more memories or less... There isn't much of a pattern really."

Another sip of coco was had before the drink had been given too much time to cool off.

"The strangest thing is the items. People wake up one day with earrings or pets that their former selves used to own. That happened to you yet?"

"What..? NO..what could I possibly get from that kind of place? And a month?? I'm going to have to do this again in a few days?" Too much. This was way too much for him to handle. He was already starting to panic. It happened when he was walking to work one day, what would he do if it happened while he was on stage?

Wei Wuxian was never the kind of person to freak out about anything. He had always managed to keep his cool no matter what the situation. But this was a lot of information to take in. He had come here hoping that this was just an isolated incident that he needed help getting over. He never thought he would learn that there was this many people with this problem and that it was going to happen again with that kind of frequency.

"How can someone just have something from a dream? That's impossible!"

Anthony thought to himself that Wei was handling this news better than he had. There had been panic, lashing out, dramatics... He had insulted Mr. Fell to the point of making him storm off without eating his cresant, or had it been a bagel? Didn't matter really. Wei's voice might have raised and taken on a undertone of 'do not want' but he hadn't yet flung himself dramatically into a chair and tantrumed like a child so he was doing about as well as one could.

"I wish I could have told you something else, that this is just a phase and it will go away soon, but we really don't know much about it."

He shrugged but looked around for a chair just in case one would be needed.

"There's only more theories on that. Maybe some one breaks into your house and leaves it, maybe it's magic... I haven't seen it happen personally. Maybe if I do I will have a better answer."

"This really is crazy..Maybe this is all one really bad hangover nightmare and I'm still actually in bed." maybe someone slipped him some really nasty drug at the bar. He would almost accept any other answer at this point.

He looked at Anthony again, getting really close as he studied him as if making sure this wasn't just a figment of his imagination. "You sure seem real though.." Which meant he wasn't in bed, wasn't dreaming and this wasn't a bad trip.

"If I wake up tomorrow in purple hanfu I'm going to be really pissed off."

Anthony scrunched his nose and craned his neck away as he was advanced on and studied like some difficult to comprehend artistic painting.

"I could pinch you if there's any doubt?"

Wei Wuxian recoiled away as if he was shot. "Please don't."

There was a sigh and he turned to the table, retrieving another cookie. "This sucks." He took a bite and then grabbed another one and a bottle of water. "This food does too." He was really craving something more substantial now so that he could eat away his worries.

That was abrupt. Bit of a shame really but... didn't he have enough of those sorts of problems as it was! So why then did he incline his head towards the door like this was an invitation.

"We could take off. There are plenty of restaurants on this block. Get you something other than cookies and lukewarm bottled water."

Wei Wuxian perked right up at that idea, a smile finally coming to the corners of his lips. "So we don't have to stick around? We can just go? Because I'm all about some real food right about now."

There was a bounce in his step as he sauntered back up to the other man. He thought he was stuck here until some sort of school bell went off or buzzer or the troops just dispersed.

Wei had a very nice smile as it turned out and that was good to see, better that he be smiling than panicking.

"Of course we can go, whenever we want. There aren't any bouncers at the doors. All this is optional."

Something which Anthony was equally grateful for as sitting around being lectured would have been a real drag.

"We could head next door. I don't know about you but after a few minutes in one of these meetings I always feel the need for a glass of wine."

Anything to make the day seem more normal again!

“Let’s go! I could definitely use a drink and a good wine is the best medicine.” He dropped what he was carrying in the nearest waste basket and just gave a casual look around the room before heading towards the door.

One of the things that Wei Wuxian was good at was drinking. He always had a pretty high tolerance and so he enjoyed trying lots of different drinks. He discovered early on that wines were something that really pleased his pallet. “Do you have a place around here that you really like?”

"Molly's is close."

Anthony made it to the door and held it open by leaning back against it after he has passed through to the outside.

"Its an Irish Pub with more Guinness than anything, but they do have wine and a pretty decent scotch egg."

Wei Wuxian hopped into the hallway, definitely in a lighter mood once out of the stuffiness of the support group. "Mm..sounds good. But what is a scotch egg?"

He didn't frequent many Irish pubs but he was always down to try new places. He liked keeping things interesting and changing it up from the norm. He was one that could get bored very easily with the mundane of every day life. Kind of why he chose to work at a club. There was always something new and exciting in the night life.

"You've never had a scotch egg?"

This was a foreign concept like some one saying they had never had ice cream or a pizza... then Anthony realized he was in New York and he was the odd one out really.

"Then you will have to let me tempt you into trying one. Sausage fried around a boiled egg, it sounds mundane but the two thing together make an excellent beer-tizer."

An appetizer to go with beer, or in Anthony's case wine, as he already had that idea firmly set in his mind.

Wei Wuxian made a face that clearly said he was going to have to trust the guy with that one. "Somehow that has never been something anyone has had me try before. Looks like today is going to be a day of firsts."

His first support group and his first scotch egg. Very strange combination.

He then had a thought that amused him probably more then it should have. He gave Anthony a little elbow to the side. "Tempt me into trying it huh? You aren't leading me to some forbidden fruit are you?"

For some reason he couldn't help but tease the guy a little. He hoped the other one wasn't too sensitive about the subject but at this point, the only thing Wei Wuxian could do to cope with what he knows is to have a little fun with it. He was still trying to figure out how to have fun with his own vision.

It should have been funny. Anthony felt he ought to have laughed or at least smiled at the joke. Instead the humor sent a shiver of terror through him which manifested itself outwardly as only a grim frown. Tempt him to some forbidden fruit... What had he been thinking using the word tempt in the first place?? The lines were beginning to blur. Sometimes he felt entirely himself and at other times unwanted phrases and devilish thoughts would slip by him.

"Hardly."

Anthony tried to ignore those twisted feelings as they made their way outside and along the sidewalk to Molly's place in awkward silence. It wasn't Wei's fault that was indeed a bit of a touchy subject. Really if he had been thinking at all he probably shouldn't have brought those memories but... It was done.

Once they entered Molly's place Anthony tried to smile as he secured them a bench seat along the wall and the very much needed wine and scotch eggs. After a good LONG drink of wine which warmed him from the inside out he could try to explain that chilly response.

"Sorry. Sometimes... it almost feels like I'm on the edge of a cliff. That if I step too far into all this 'memory' nonsense I might fall right over the edge."

Wei Wuxian felt bad about what he said when the man's response was icy. He was almost surprised the other didn't kick him to the curb and tell him to get lost after the joke. But instead he followed along quietly trying to figure out how to fix his mistake.

He didn't even drink the wine when he showed up in front of him, almost too absorbed in his own thoughts about how to apologize to Anthony. When the man finally spoke again all he could do was stare at the table as he listened.

"I'm the one that should be saying I'm sorry.." he really wasn't very good in the apology department. He reached up and rubbed the side of his nose with his index finger, an odd habit of his whenever he made a mistake. "I shouldn't have said it. I should have realized it could be sensitive..You trusted me with telling your first vision and I made a stupid joke." He felt like the scum of the planet. He sighed heavily.

"I'm really sorry.." He honestly felt like those three words could be said about a hundred times more. "I don't want to make you fall over that edge."

"Yeah, look..."

He sighed, as if trying to exhale all those bad feelings and return things to the more friendly tone they had been enjoying previously. It was his fault things had gone sour anyway... He really shouldn't be taking all this stuff so seriously.

"I know you didn't mean anything by it. This memory stuff is weird for everyone. Let's just forget it?"

Wei Wuxian nodded and was silent a moment longer before looking back up at the other man and smiling. He wasn't one to be held down for too long and if Anthony was willing to forgive his mistake then it wouldn't do to stay miserable about it. Besides..his..weird egg concoction was getting cold.

"Let's erase the whole walk. As far as I remember we teleported from the support group to the bar. And now I need to eat..a.." He struggled to remember what the thing was called. "scotch egg?" Yeah he's pretty sure that was with it was.

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