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

[neverjedi]

His own had violent moments, but those were things he just - wasn't discussing in any detail. "And that's the rub. How can I have past life memories of something that has never happened in the history of earth? Do yours... fit what we know of history?"

[chenqing_player]

"Mine was definitely the past...the way way past. At least that's what I'm guessing based on the clothing everyone was wearing. Lots of old chinese hanfu and swords. Everyone had a sword." And dead or dying. Lots of dying.

[neverjedi]

"My sword was apparently some sort of laser." WHich was not meant to take away from what he was being told - his priority and focus was not on him. "Everyone having a sword sounds... painful. I"m sorry."

[chenqing_player]

"Yeah your vision definitely doesn't seem to fit with past memory. Something weird is going on here." He shrugged and looked away. "It wasn't a good vision. If it is a past memory then my life must have really sucked."

[neverjedi]

"It seems like a lot of people are getting really, really bad memories. I hope it just means they're a starting point because they're strong and not an indication that all the memories are going to be awful."

Otherwise they were going to need more than a support group. People would break.

[chenqing_player]

"Sort of like, saving the best for last? I wish they would have lead with the best so that the worst wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things."

Wei Wuxian shuddered as he remembered what he saw. It had to get better because it couldn't get much worse.

[neverjedi]

"Do you want to talk about it, or would you rather not?" The guy seemed straight up traumatized and while his own memories were now... plentiful enough that the worst was somewhat less in focus he was a basically decent guy and capable of empathy. Whether that trauma meant a desire to talk or to absolutely not, though, he had no idea.

[chenqing_player]

"I guess that is the point of all this isn't it?" He waved a hand towards the support group. He sighed and reached up to run his hand through his hair.

"Basically I saw a lot of people dying. There was fire and blood..so much blood.." It was like a really horrible moving playing out. "Everyone was in these really old style clothes and I guess if you were wearing purple you had to die because that's who was getting killed by the guys in red. And I felt like I was hiding..so that I couldn't be killed as well."

[neverjedi]

"That's hard," he says, with simple, straightforward, sympathy. "That isn't the kind of thing anyone should experience at all. Much less without enough context or warning to know what the heck it's about. I'm sorry."

[chenqing_player]

"Yeah..part of me wants to know why it is happening at all and the other part never wants to know. I'm not sure I'd like the answer. I feel like the people dying were really important and right now I can kind of shrug it off...but if I find out who they actually are then the whole thing is going to seem even worse."

He may not fully believe the whole memory thing, but that doesn't mean he hasn't ruled it out either. And he doesn't want to find out his previous life really sucked.

[neverjedi]

"Someone died in my memory. I got a lot of the emotions I felt for them before the death, but I have a feeling as I learn more about them that the end and knowing it's going to be a lot more painful."

Which, long way around, simply means that he sympathtizes - and in this specific way empathizes.

[chenqing_player]

"And there isn't really anything we can do about it either..It's in the past so we can't really fix it. It makes me wonder why they want us to remember at all.." Social experiment to just see how much they can push a person emotionally most likely. He doesn't like the idea of being someone's experiment.

[neverjedi]

"No, though it may be... less anxiety provoking in a sense if it were truly just a matter of memory and past. If we weren't still waiting for more information. I can't imagine what purpose there is in any of this."

Or how objects and powers are manifesting.

[chenqing_player]

"..have you had a lot of memories? Is there a limit to how many we get or is that some of the information we just don't know? I feel like we are the aliens in Men in Black."

Wei Wuxian wonders if eventually they all just get shuffled off and put into hiding somewhere to keep them at bay.

[neverjedi]

"I don't know if there's a limit. I wish I did. My first memory was barely a moment - being introduced to someone. My next set of memories covered weeks, if not months. The first memory was buried inside those, so at least I got context, but I really don't know."

If there's an ice skating rink he might go along with being hidden away. ...No he wouldn't, just on principal.

[chenqing_player]

"I would like to forget my first memory and just let whatever comes next be my official start." Of course the next one could be even worse.

He walks up and grabs a water off the table. He suddenly feels very thirsty. "How man of us are there? Does anyone really know?"

[neverjedi]

"I don't think so. I only really know who shows up here. Meeting sizes vary but... twenty, twenty-five, maybe?" It seems like that, anyway.

He follows to the table to grab a bottle of water. "It'll be okay. Talking to people helps. Meet as many people as you can, OK?"

[chenqing_player]

"I'd like to meet everyone. I feel like they all probably have pretty interesting stories." He wants to know about the different memories and see if anyone has anything like his own.