ioduanlogs | [EVENT] March Memory Madness

[EVENT] March Memory Madness

Characters: Everyone!
Date: March 5-9
Location: All around Aifaran
Situation: The Dreaming is a bit enthusiastic about the research at the Aisling Tower. Memories ensue.
Warnings/Rating: Shouldn't need any, but add to subject lines as needed!

Outside the Aisling Tower, the first clue anyone will have that something is wrong is small. Little things: trinkets lost, but fondly remembered, appearing in your hand when you reach for something else. A snatch of song that tugs your heartstrings.

That alone might have been nice. Unfortunately, things escalate quickly.

How did memories get loose on Aifaran?

Science Fair

Well that all went a bit wrong. Researchers at the Aisling Tower sent out a request for volunteers, hoping to get to the root causes of just why Dreamfolk frequently wind up with memory loss. The tests are reasonably painless beyond the occasional blood samples taken and rather tedious questionnaire volunteers must fill out.

And then there’s the machine.

It’s not big or scary looking - just a small, strangely organic looking earpiece linked up to a console used to measure neural oscillations. All very new, high-tech stuff that the researchers just barely control their enthusiasm about. Again, the tests are mostly tedious. Just a lot of sitting around while researchers display pictures, ask questions, have you smell a variety of scents, and other things to spark various mental associations. Though side-effects may include dizziness and nausea afterwards. It’s still a little bit too ‘mad science’ for some, even if the researchers involved don’t even cackle maniacally even once.

But as all things of this nature must go, something takes a turn for the weird.

Memories On Display

The Dreaming takes an interest, insofar as much as an omnipresent force of nature can be assumed to take an interest - maybe it just reacted strangely to the mental probing of the Dreamfolk. The how, for now, is not important.

The immediate problem is that memories are running rampant in the city - and not just from volunteers for the little research project, but also any Dreamfolk who come in contact with them. It starts off small - little things appearing in and out of your peripheral vision such as an old toy or a beloved pet. Maybe the echo of friendly laughter, or the incomplete form of a first love’s smile. These flashes of memory only grow more potent, however, as entire scenarios begin to play out for you and those in your proximity - just as vividly as you remember them. And just as accurately as you perceive them.

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OOC Notes: Your characters will have the option of seeing memories play out, and/or being drawn into a mind-share memory experience-- basically, however you want to play it, the Dreaming will accommodate! It's also more than possible that the Dreaming will oblige if someone really wants to show someone else something specific-- but there may always be a little more than bargained for.

There is a specific starter for shenanigans at the Aisling Tower but the rest of the post is open!

Please address questions regarding the event to the monthly agenda post.

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The bodies of horses and men lay strewn around a moor, the grass muddied and broken from battle. Rain fell, light and quick, the dark grey sky lending further misery to the scene. White fog swirled around figures in the distance, a woman with dark hair and a black blade hanging from her hip, flanked by two, jet black, gigantic wolves whose eyes flashed red in the night. The wolves moved ahead, scenting the dead, moving from corpse to corpse, as if searching for someone in particular.

The woman moved more slowly, appearing to not even notice the bodies she stepped over, headed in a singular direction. A worn standard leaned against a great charger, its end buried in the mud as if the humans had tried to keep it raised. The woman made her way over, kneeling by the figure trapped beneath his horse.

Long live the king. She said softly, placing her hand on his chest. The sound that rang out across the landscape was one of agony, pain that ended suddenly and without warning, a type of death that only mortals could experience. Then the woman rose, turning away from the now dead king, her eyes as scarlet as those of the Hounds that bounded across the moor to join her once again....

Edited 2018-03-09 04:14 (UTC)

This is definitely not where she was a moment ago.

Eve categorizes battlefield and dead first; the era of armor and horse-back combat filters in a little later, as a slightly lower priority. She hunkers down automatically to present a lower target as she surveys what's in front of her.

Wolves.

Very, very big wolves. And here Eve is all unarmed. She swears -- internally -- and watches for as long as they seem to not be noticing her.

It's breath-held observation that holds Eve still until she sees the person and recognizes her-- sort of. The face shape is the same, the long fall of night-dark hair the same. The red eyes and the blade are very new.

Great. Eve's favorite frenemy is some fun variety of inhuman. She's just... not going to call attention to herself yet.

The memory was an old one, not something Valdis ever gave enough thought of for it to be significant. The Dreaming apparently found it interesting, however. One of the wolves looked straight at her as she stood watching it all play out, her past self paused, following the gaze of her companion and for a moment, green eyes met scarlet ones. Valdis didn't know how this memory ended, not significantly in any way at least.

The other Hound lifted its head and released an eerie howl, drawing both her and the other Hound's attention as a distant chorus answered. The memory retreated as the woman and the wolves moved off, leaving Valdis and a single person watching after them.

Eve. The blonde who had tactfully rescued her from the Sentry several weeks ago. The blonde whom she had left with a handful of angry lizard the first time they had met. The blonde who now had at least some idea that she wasn't human. Wonderful.

"Hi." She said softly, coming up behind Eve.

As the memory fades Eve is left standing there, appreciating the view of retreating wolves and wondering what the hell she's going to do about Valdis. If there's anything to be done. Does she need to worry?

Maybe. Maybe not. She'd sure like to figure out what the hell Valdis is.

It doesn't escape her notice that the memory-woman is fading with the wolves. Which means the actual woman is probably around here somewhere--

Yep. Right behind her.

Eve flinches, because involuntary reflexes are a thing, and whirls reaching for a gun that isn't there. Her fingers flex, grip reflexively. She smiles instead, which comes out as more an uncomfortable baring of teeth. "Hi," she says, high-pitched, dragging surprise into something more saccharine. "So nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too."

Valdis arches a brow, half amused, half lightly offended. The motion was incredibly familiar, one that Valdis has both done and seen many times. Eve was apparently used to having a gun.

"Though I'm not entirely certain what you saw in that memory that makes you think a bullet would do much to stop me," she continues, "I would suggest diamond tipped, armor piercing rounds. They do the most damage."

If she could find them in Aifaran, and a gun that could shoot them, both unlikely.

"Thanks," Eve says with something that is close enough to cheer. "I'll make a note."

And add them to her shopping list, under having a weapon of her very own.

"Force of habit," she adds with a shrug, trying to make it dismissive, like what can you do. "Despite sticking me with a poisonous lizard, you've actually been very nice." Mostly. "...So. Giant wolf, huh."

"It's a little more complicated than just a 'giant wolf'," Valdis admitted, "I do apologize about the lizard, that was rather rude of me, I was in a mood."

Valdis tried to recall more information concerning the memory, but what was of more interest was Eve's relative state of calm in the face of what she had just seen. The woman's instincts had been more inclined toward fight than flight. Abnormal for a human facing the supernatural.

"You seem to be taking this rather well, all things considered," she commented, "It's generally not something that humans accept so easily, at least not in my world."

"Are you going to explain how much more complicated it is?" Of course it's more complicated. Eve doesn't even want to bet on what mythology the giant wolf is from.

(Flynn would already be speculating, probably. She misses him.)

Eve shrugs off the matter of her acceptance, not really concerned. "That's the beauty of this whole thing, isn't it? Different worlds. Believe it or not, you are not the weirdest person I've met."

Valdis shrugs, "That depends on what you want to know," she says before arching a brow, "And people don't generally use the word 'weird' when describing me, so I am inclined to believe you on that count."

She regards Eve in silence for a few breaths, trying to discern just why the woman acted so differently. It was quite true that the Dreamfolk were often more accepting of strange things, but this went deeper than that.

Weird is a great word. It covers ground everywhere from 'this orange isn't the color I thought it should be' to 'that magical artifact probably should not be making that noise.'

Eve eyes Valdis in turn, with a similar assessing bent. "What are you, where are you from, and are you planning to end the world at any point in time?" That's most of the big ones. Wait-- one more. "And what's your native language?"

Valdis tips her head, considering if she will in fact, answer those questions.

"Let's start with the 'end the world' question since that seems to be the one you are most anxious about." She takes a breath and offers a smile, "No, I am not, in fact, planning to end the world. That would be a foolish goal considering that I currently live in it and can't breathe in space."

Her smile remains amused, "I'm from earth, or at least a version of it since there seems to be several. LA to be specific." At least before she had died and woken up here, "I don't actually remember my native language, though I suspect it is probably Enochian considering what I used to be, though I became something else entirely about twenty three hundred years ago."

Edited 2018-03-26 01:23 (UTC)

"Hey, puts you ahead of a bunch of people." Eve can name more than she likes off the top of her head. It's so reassuring that question was taken seriously at the first go-- wait, no, it kind of isn't, Valdis has actually thought about it.

Enochian... Enochian. That's something to do with angels, isn't it? And became something else... Eve puts these together dubiously and comes up with fallen angel.

Huh.

"You look great for your age," Eve offers, and, "So what did you become?"

Valdis smiles, half amused by how the wheels in Eve's head turned, though she wasn't privy to the thoughts themselves.

"I'll take that as a compliment," she says, "My race is rather young compared to the angels and demons. Even the humans have been around longer. Though the forces of Heaven and Hell, though larger, don't dare cross us, and the humans don't even know we exist. Useful I suppose, especially for me, since I'm kind of in a self-imposed exile. My king isn't exactly thrilled that I took our numbers to five and essentially locked him in his room for the last three hundred years."

She wouldn't be thrilled either if their places were switched.

"That really doesn't answer my question," Eve says, a little offhandedly. Maybe it would if she were Flynn, but she doesn't have the mythologies of seventy different cultures cross-referenced and indexed in her head.

It's a personal problem.

"I can see how he'd be cranky about that, though," she goes on thoughtfully. "Is he still locked up, and where's he on the whole world-ending thing?"

Just assessing potential future threats.

"The answer generally conjures images of three headed dogs, and we are far more complex than that," Valdis offers with a smile, "Also, I only have one head."
However, the smile fades with Eve's next question, "He is, and he will stay there until I figure out a way to destroy him and the rest of my kind."

There was a time when all she wanted was to be left alone, but with everything she had learned, that seemed impossible. Though that idea would only stand if she retained her memories from this world.

"Fenrir would like to rule the three realms. Earth, Heaven and Hell, so not exactly world ending, but not good for humanity in the slightest."

Eve takes a minute to place the mythological reference. "You're a Cerberus?" she hazards tentatively. "I thought there was only the one." She's also pretty sure she remembers Flynn going on a tangent about how people have always named their dogs the same things, but that might be a different problem.

"...but Fenrir sounds Norse." She's learned a bit. "Still, good on you making sure he's still locked up." She's not sure of all the nuance here, but she's taking all kinds of mental notes to review later. Maybe with a mythology textbook, if she can find one.

Valdis' expression shifted from neutral to something like resigned patience. "No, Cerberus is a name. I am a Hellhound."

She sighed, unimpressed by Eve's approval, "There were seven of us. Fenrir is the king, then there was Garmr, Skoll, Hati, Geri, and Freki. The last two are dead, an impressive feat if you knew everything, but also a terrible one."

Her gaze became thoughtful, "You're taking all this rather well considering you are a human."

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[EVENT] March Memory Madness

Long Live the King | Eve and Open

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