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

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.

"Sounds good."

It was a 'do-over' a smiling Anthony fully supported.

The scotch eggs were fine and could be eaten both warm or cold, though Anthony usually preferred them just slightly warm. That way there was no risk of burning anything. These ones were still steaming lightly when he glanced down at the plate so he chose to wait just a touch longer. It gave him more time for another sip of wine anyway.

"Yea, bon appetit. I'll be curious to see how you like them."

He picked one up and looked at it, "Any tips on the best way to enjoy it?" It was perhaps one of the oddest ways he'd ever seen an egg prepared but it didn't look bad.

He blew on it a little to make sure it wouldn't be too hot once he tried it. The last thing he wanted to do was to burn his mouth or something and kill any taste buds he had. He still had a lovely glass of wine to look forward to enjoying after all.

"You take a bite and chew."

He smirked in the biggest, 'you ask a silly question' sort of way.

"Though some people prefer it with the mustard dip there."

A gesture towards a small container of the yellow condiment sitting in the middle of the grouping of eggs. This was the way Anthony tried is own snack, using only a little bit of the sauce to see how spicy it was before deciding it was better without.

"So? How do you find them?"

Mustard on eggs..This whole creation was getting weirder by the second. "I wonder how they would taste with hot sauce." Wei Wuxian loved spicy foods and could eat some of the hottest things out there. He dipped the egg into the mustard, deciding it was worth a try and then shoved it into his mouth.

It was quite the feat but he still managed to chew with it in there. Once he had chewed through about half of it in his mouth he gave the thumbs up sign. And then once he was sure he could manage it, he lifted his glass and chased it down with the wine.

"Aaahh." Setting the glass back down he gave a big grin, "Very tasty. I approve."

The mustard was odd but then Americans preferred ketchup on fries instead of mayonnaise. There was no accounting for taste.

Anthony's eye grew wide as he drew back into his seat. He had never seen anyone shove an entire scotch egg into his mouth before! That was... a feat!

"Amazing... Want another?"

There were still a few left on the platter and his was still in his hand, being nibbled away on in average sized bites.

"You mind if I ask a question about your memory? I was sort of wondering when it happened and..."

Now that they were away from prying ears.

"What happened after you had experienced it?"

"Don't mind if I do." He reached out to grab another of the eggs but he paused as he was bringing it back to his mouth. His land lowered and he thought back to that day.

"It was a couple days ago. I was on my way to work and I cut through one of the back alleys as a short cut. Next thing I knew I was in the middle of the most horrifying thing. Like I had been dropped into the middle of a movie and I had no way out. It felt like it lasted forever but before I even know what was going on the suits were all there trying to explain it away."

He shuddered as he remembered that day. Bringing that next scotch egg to his mouth, he ate this one much slower as he became distracted by his thoughts.

He managed to finish off his own egg before the story actually started and it was a good thing he had. Anthony ended up listening with such rapt interest that he would have forgotten to chew if he had still been trying to eat during that.

"Just like that, in a back alley. Did you see anything that might have acted as a trigger?"

Wei Wuxian was more observant than most people and he has gone over that day in his mind a hundred times trying to figure out what he might have done differently.

"Nothing. It was like any other day. I've cut through that alley a hundred times. And I've gone back there just to see if it would happen again. Not that I wanted to see it again but just to..know..but nothing at all seemed different and it hasn't happened since."

"Damn. It's typical... Most people who have these memories have them just like that. It's a normal day and, bang, bolt out of the blue you never saw coming!"

He shrugged and refilled his glass.

"What did you think of the suits?"

"They are suits. Stuffy, full of lies, covering up what they don't want to have to explain. But they got me to come here so I guess it's not all bad." He grinned and stuffed what was remaining of that egg in his mouth.

"I deal with business men at the club all the time. They are just like them. It's like they live two lives. The one they show the public, and then the secrets underneath the suit that are a little more sinister. The ones at that support group are the daytime suits, only being showing us what they want us to see."

All of this was taken in with a very thoughtful air. It didn't sound like Wei had completely swallowed the lines the Bureau had tried to feed him but also it didn't sound like he was entirely against them either. This required more investigation.

"Did they give you that 'stay out of trouble' line? That's what they said to me. Not, hey we can help you or don't worry things will be fine, it... sounded like a threat to me."

"Honestly I stopped listening after awhile. I told them I just wanted to pretend it didn't happen at all. But they were definitely more like FBI guys trying to cover up an UFO landing then anyone who cared to make sure we were okay."

He shrugged and took another sip of his wine. He didn't really care much about the Bureau guys as long as they left him alone.

"That's an interesting theory."

Even if Wei weren't being entirely serious it still got Anthony thinking.

"It is very 'men in black', isn't it? They must be government... Were there any people around you when you 'remembered'? I was surrounded and they all seemed to have forgotten anything had happened. So like the movie, like they had been... what's the word, neuralized?"

Thinking about that for a moment, he slowly shook his head. "I was in the alley so I was pretty much alone but I think I remember them talking to people on the street in front of me."

His eyes widened. "You think they might seriously have little mind forget zappy things? I mean if they do..then it's just as easy that they have something that can put memories into a person's head."

"That's Alec's theory."

He blinked, realizing that his new friend would have no idea who he was talking about and that he ought to preemptively explain.

"My cousin. He thinks that all these memories have been implanted in our minds for some kind of nefarious purpose... experiment or something. I can't think of why they would do it. What would there be to gain from it?"

"I didn't like those guys before but now I really don't like them.." No one is allowed to just mess with his head. But he didn't see the guys until after the memory so when would they have done it?

"Doesn't seem smart to me...I mean some people aren't going to take too well to this kind of thing. What happens if they implant it into someone that could lose their mind completely and go on some sort of murder spree or something? Like if they found out they were a serial killer or something in their past life." Hell..maybe he was one. If his memory involved death who is to say he doesn't do the same.

"If these memories are being implanted why would they give some one the memories of a serial killer?"

If there were no child... One of his own memories bubbled up as they tended to do at the worst times. Sitting on a bench and plotting the murder of a young boy he had helped to raise. It was horrible, but how did it help anyone?

"Wouldn't they want to give us memories they could use, like... turn us into soldiers or scientists. What would be the point in making all these so random?"

"Too many questions, too few answers." Wei Wuxian shook his head again and finished off his wine.

As he set the glass down he stared at it silently for a moment, wondering if they would ever really find out the truth or if they were doomed to just keep following whatever path the suits laid out for them.

"I guess all we can do it just keep on living and dealing with whatever dreams come our way."

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