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.

---

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You can say that again." Rolling his eyes, he grunts softly, throwing his hands up in the air before he buries them in his pockets (he's finally found something here that's similar to the clothing he spotted while looking for Taiki, and he's mightily pleased by it).

"Oh. Yeah." Grimacing, he glances up at the boy, "yeah, that was one of mine. Kinda hard to deny it."

Even if that particular memory was over five hundred years in the past, he didn't look more than a few years older, so there was no way to avoid the similarity.

"Heh. Doesn't stop people." From denying it, that is. Not that he's met anyone who has, so far, but he was friends with someone who couldn't ever admit things honestly.

He pauses for a bit, because Rokuta doesn't look that much younger from how he looked in the memory, and statistically there'd have to be people who'd left serious things behind in their home worlds. Especially since he'd met someone who had been in the middle (possibly literally) of a battle. "If you don't mind...what was that all about? It looked pretty serious."

Snorting in amused agreement, Rokuta nods. Yeah, he can see some people wanting to deny a particular memory as theirs, for many, many reasons... and maybe he'd like to have done so as well, if it was another memory involved, but it's not.

Still doesn't stop him from groaning a little at the question, running a hand through his hair.

"Oh man..." Youko has given him the awareness that this isn't as clear-cut as it can seem, and even without other confusion... It's pretty complicated either way. Shaking his head, the smile on his face is rather tight as he continues, voice quiet. "All right, let's see... We've got emperors and empresses in charge of our countries where I'm from, but the children of a ruler aren't in the running to ascend. The new ruler's chosen from the population, and I happen to be one of the people who do that."

Looking back up at Judai, Rokuta's eyebrows goes up on his forehead as he pauses for a moment, letting him process that before he continues, kicking a lose rock into the street and watching someone passing kick it as well.

"I think it's a crap system. Rulers, lords, shoguns... they destroy countries, and people suffer, even if the ruler's a good one. In the end, that's what happens. I thought that from when I was little, so when I found out I had to find the next emperor of my country..." A shrug. It hadn't gone over well, as the memory had showed.

Seems to him like a more hereditary (or, dare he say it...reincarnating) system isn't that good either. But he was born into a society where, for the larger part of his life, politics was very far removed from him. More importantly—

"You looked pretty young to make that kind of decision."

Not that he has much room to talk, and it's not like young people aren't forced to make hard decisions all the time. But that doesn't mean it's fair, or that it isn't anything to complain about.

"Who decided you had to be the one to do that, anyway?"

"I guess. Though it's less a decision and just knowing who's the right one. I didn't pick him at random." Shrugging, Rokuta decides to simply... skip the part where you can be a few years younger than he was. There's no need to go there, though he snorts at the question and points up.

At the sky.

"Tentei," Rokuta says, voice flippant, before he shakes his head, "or if we're gonna put aside the possible existence or lack thereof of gods; the rest of the world. Expectation and tradition, belief in the ability of some few people to pick out the right person to rule out of the kingdom's population."

It all works the same, doesn't it, regardless of if it's the actual Lord God Creator who put the kirin where they are or if the idea started somewhere in the misted past by people wanting to avoid their own biases and trusting something else with that instead.

That all sounds...really hard, and it makes a whishing sound as it goes over his head. He never had much of a head for complicated stuff, and politics is...that.

The idea that someone can just know some things isn't foreign to him, really, but the idea of entrusting the running of a country to that is vaguely uncomfortable.

"You sound like you've done it already."

He links his fingers behind his head. "It's better than a tyrant, I guess, right?"

No matter where and how politics play out, they do tend to be complicated, indeed, but Rokuta's not judging if he doesn't understand, just nods.

"Uh-huh. 'Bout three years after the memory you saw, so I was a little older, at least. I went back home and then ran into him." Not that his age really matters to him. Or to the rest of the world. A matured kirin is a matured kirin, and no matter his age he'd be expected to participate, as much as he's supposed to, in the governing.

"Oh--- yeah." Nevermind that a ruler so chosen can still turn into a tyrant. And that it happens pretty often. "Yeah, none of 'em can force themselves onto the throne and keep power just 'cause they want to. That's something, at least."

"Well, what do you think of the person you picked?" If it's something that had to happen, hopefully Rokuta dislikes it less when it came time to actually do it. (Or something like that. Judai still thinks it sucks.)

"You can take it back, though, right?" Well, not 'take it back,' exactly, but— "I mean...if the person changes and they're not fit anymore? Can you pick another one?" Or would it take...a couple of people to stop him. To...retrieve his heart, maybe.

Something creeps up at the edge of his vision, so he starts walking. "Let's get out of the street!"

About to answer - and now they're getting into the difficult parts, of course - Rokuta can see the flicker, and follows Judai away, starting to talk on the off-chance that will break whatever brought the memory about to form up to the surface. Sometimes it works, sometimes it... doesn't.

"He's an idiot. A lazy idiot... who gets things done," Rokuta says with a grunt, rolling his eyes. Despite the harshness of his voice, there's well-worn fondness there. It was a long, long time ago he honestly disliked Shouryuu. "He knows what he's doing, even if it doesn't look like it."

Sighing, he glances around them, and at least the side-street they're on now has a lot less people on it.

"As for the rest, no. There's no way to take it back. If a ruler stops being fit to rule, starts oppressing people, they get a bit of time to change and fix things... otherwise they die. They can also abdicate before that. Biggest chance I'd get to choose a new ruler would be in the second case."

He'd probably be dead in the first, and could still end up dead in the second one.

"... You okay?"

"'Lazy idiot who gets things done' sounds like a contradiction, though, doesn't it?" But he sort of gets it. (Although he might be thinking of someone who can literally cause people to go to sleep, so...maybe not.) "Sounds like you know him pretty well."

His eyes change color for a half-second when they get onto the side-street, and the intruding memory starts to subside. He has no idea how this memory thing works, at all, so he's going to count himself lucky and move on...

Which means glossing over what Rokuta's saying about a new ruler, unfortunately. If only because it sounds kind of awful from where he's standing; causing someone's death even inadvertently sounds like something no one should ever have to go through.

"—I'm fine! This entire...thing is just kinda annoying." He sheepishly rubs at the back of his head. "Got any happy memories?" About the 'lazy idiot,' maybe? Haha...

"He's trained everybody else to do most of the work, so he doesn't have to do it," he says with a shrug, but it is at least partly a contradiction. He mostly said he do get things done since Shouryuu isn't here to see it. And being more honest about it... isn't going to change anything. Watching Judai from the corner of his eyes, he frowns, but he gets the quick reassurance.

Who actually wants to talk about these things unless you have to, since most of the memories that seem to be dragged up aren't very pleasant?

"Annoying, and a big drag." Pursing his lips, he slowly, and a little reluctantly, smiles. It takes a bit to think of anything in specific at all, because truly, what's one single instance when there's five hundred years of it? But maybe all the memories being dragged up the last few days makes it a little easier. "A few happy memories for me, maybe, but the poor ministers..."

The smile turns into a little grin, and he cocks his head.

"Turns out, Shouryuu and I both like to go wandering, the problem is, technically there's court every day. Shouryuu wasn't interested in that, so it's gotten cut down to less through the years, but that still doesn't mean he can wander as he likes, especially in the beginning. We had to cooperate once, staged a huge fight with each other and the day after I basically played tag with the whole palace until I could escape out of it, while Shoryuu used that opportunity to slink out as well."

That had been pretty spectacular, even if he hadn't still trusted Shoryuu fully yet, back then.

"So, delegating, huh?" He can respec—

Okay, actually he has no opinion whatsoever on the subject of delegating. But it's a thing that happens, so it's one of those inevitable things, right?

But dodging something that sounds boring sounds like exactly the kind of thing Judai can get behind, and he laughs at the story. "I hope getting chased wasn't too hard on you!"

Sounds like the day-to-day of being the ruler makes the dramatic part about the choosing of one...better, he supposes. But really, he doesn't know what else someone could do about it.

"He sounds pretty troublesome, anyway. Do you look after him, as, uh...the one who picked him, or are you just friends?"

"I'm pretty quick, and I had help," Rokuta says with a bright, pleased grin - he'd honestly almost forgotten this incident, so it actually feels pretty good, thinking about it again. The question, though, has Rokuta pausing somewhat, considering things.

"Now we're friends. Not when we started out, though. But I'm not his baby sitter, that's the job of all those ministers who're actually working," another, sharply amused little grin as he shakes his head, bright blond hair flying, "though not like I do nothing, technically I'm his closest advisor."

Technically and actually, but a kirin's position next to their ruler wasn't a question of what sort of government work they did.

That makes sense...someone who picked him should probably do a little looking after. This is sounding more reasonable by the minute, though of course the basic assumption—that someone should have the responsibility of picking a ruler—still sounds a little iffy. But at the very least, it's good to have friends, and people you trust are easier to listen to.

—Wait. "Why'd you say 'technically'?"

"It's a little complicated," Rokuta shakes his head, "at least if we're gonna go with 'do I help in the government', cause I don't. I'm there to make sure he considers and takes care of his people, and don't forget the important things."

Ephemeral things that are very easy to lay aside the second trouble appears... Not that there's been trouble in En for hundred of years, but that's not the point.

"'Course, he can do whatever he wants, since he's the Emperor, and has done that, no matter who's tried to talk his ears off... it usually ends up all right, though."

There's a slight hesitation before Judai responds. "Sounds like an important job."

The people, huh? Seems like, if Rokuta had to be the one to pick the next ruler, he would be the best person to do it, considering his own strong personal regard for the people.

Judai leans against a railing. "Sounds like you've got a good handle on it."

"Pretty important, yeah." The smile on his face is open and sincerely amused now, not a lick of cynicism to it as he... ends up hopping up to sit and balance precariously on the railing instead of leaning against it.

"... yeah. As long as Shouryuu continues like he has, so far, I shouldn't have any problems doing it," he says with a little shrug, then cocks his head to peer sideways down at the top of Judai's head from his vantage point, "which, we've had a few hundred years of it, so, it's not been that bad."

Except they're coming on towards the upper end of the oldest dynasties... But, no need to borrow trouble. That's what he keeps trying to tell himself, anyway.

A few hundred years, huh?

"...That's a pretty long time! That means you've lived at least that long, huh?"

...Which might be a slightly obvious conclusion to come to. But with all the races here, who knows! Judai isn't totally human himself, either.

That's also a fairly long time to make peace with it, but maybe Judai's just thinking of a human lifespan. "Are you considered old, or still young?"

"Over five hundred, yeah," he snorts a laugh and raises a hand to waggle it from side to side, "bit of one, bit of the other. If you become immortal young, you're gonna stay that way, mind and body both. Same if you're older."

Of course, when it came to him, it wasn't... just that, but let's take one thing at a time.

"One of the other kingdoms have a twelve year old Empress. She's been ruling for almost a hundred years by now... she both looks and acts twelve, still. Though you gotta account for experience, of course." Swinging his legs back and forth, Rokuta shrugged.

Turn immortal, huh? This is getting more complicated by the second...

"Sounds pretty complicated to me, anyway." He knows someone who’s...kind of like that, having been altered and frozen in certain state. But that’s also kind of different than what Rokuta’s describing.

"To immortals, 500 years must not seem like a long time, huh?" The 500 years that allegedly passed for some of the people here, that is. "Uh, are you one of them, by the way? One of the ones who was here before."

"Huh? Nah." Kicking his legs again, Rokuta shakes his head. "Never been here before. But I've heard some people here have been here, or close enough anyway, around 500 years ago, yeah. And, sometimes it really doesn't feel long, no."

Tilting his head back, he squints up at the sky, blue and almost cloud-free, right then.

"And sometimes, you realise how long it's been, and it seems like a miracle it lasted that long at all," he says slowly, voice growing quiet and almost somber before he pulls back, metaphorically shaking himself. "Guess it depends on how you look at it, huh?"

"Yeah," he agrees readily. Though it isn't quite what Rokuta's saying, he knows that years can feel like an eternity. He hasn't felt it himself, but he knows someone who did.

And sometimes, looking back on the things that happened can feel like time had passed really oddly. A few seconds pass as some such things flicker through his mind, before he abruptly turns around to lean on the railing with a grin. "Kind of weird to think about, huh?"

Similar enough, really.

"... Yeah." Eyes still on the sky, Rokuta smiles a little, then looks down at Judai again. "This stuff going on is making me way too contemplative. Hopefully they'll figure it out soon and put a stop to it."

The smile turns into more of a wry grin as he gestures in the direction of the Aisling Tower with a shake of his head.

"Maybe it'll go away on its own!"

Yeah, wishful thinking. Either way... "Wonder what they doing in the first place."

Dreaming, yeah, he got that part, but... where they trying to capture dreams, or what? "Seems like research institutes like that are always asking for trouble." Not that he knows many, but, you know, bias and all.

With a little laugh, he adds, "Maybe we should avoid ever going there from now on."

"Something about the connection between memories and Dreamfolk? Not sure, I didn't actually check out the science fair," Rokuta says with a little frown, shaking his head, "but yeah, seems like that, doesn't it? But they were just trying to help."

Doesn't change the many unpleasant memories that have clearly come to the forefront for most people, though...

"They've probably learned their lesson, but I know I am gonna avoid it for a little bit, at least." He smiles a little, shaking his head.

[EVENT] March Memory Madness

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oh goodness those typos in my last tag /)_(\

fff it happens!

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