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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But as soon as Ankh turns around, he'll be greeted with an image of himself, shouting as he holds off PuToTyra's axe and reaches out to deactivate the OOO Driver.

Eiji looks up as soon as he hears the voice, not yet realizing that it's a memory and not Ankh in trouble. But then he sees himself collapsing into the past-Ankh's arms, and the moment is so intimate and personal that he finds himself running forward, ahead of Ankh, trying desperately to disrupt the memory.

Well. Ankh... honestly isn't sure what to make of any of that. Of seeing that particular memory again, or of Eiji's reaction to it. He knows there's something about it that bothers him.

"Oi! You're not going to just make it go away, you know." Running around and waving his hands at these things is about as pointless as trying to will them not to happen in the first place. Much as some part of him also very much wishes he could ignore that shared memory playing out in front of them.

Eiji doesn't answer. It doesn't matter that Ankh was part of that memory too; it's personal to him. It's how much he came to trust Ankh, despite everything.

He stands there guarded, breathing heavily and clenching his fists.

Ankh stands there glaring at him for a second, not sure why he felt such an urge to tell the idiot to stop being an idiot a second ago. ...not sure why he's still here, either.

He really should leave. He has every reason to leave.

It takes him another moment to actually start turning to leave.

"I'm not trying to make it go away," Eiji finally says, but his voice is shaking. "It's just...not for you to see."

It hasn't completely passed. Part of him is angry that the experiment did this, that despite what everyone promised, some of his more personal memories were intruded on and now are leaking all over the place. It...for anyone else, it would be like being caught publically in their underwear, though the comparison is lost on Eiji specifically. But it's exposing. Terrifying.

It makes him feel human for the first time in a while, but it's not a good feeling.

He's actually managed to take a step away when Eiji finally says something so immensely stupid he feels the need to turn back around.

"Not for me? I was there."

It's true that there's some emotional signature on it the way these sometimes have, that tells him it's Eiji's memory and not his. Comfort. Trust. Things Ankh is sure don't exist anymore, if they were ever true to begin with. But he already knew that was how Eiji felt at the time, so what does it matter?

"That doesn't make it yours!" Eiji screams.

He can't even begin to understand why he's so upset about this. As much as he's yelling, he doesn't want to fight over this.

The only thing that makes sense now is to run--put some distance between himself and Ankh so no other memories can show up and betray him.

Ankh isn't even sure what that's supposed to mean. He's even less sure when Eiji proceeds to run away.

"Oi!" Maybe it's because he's so confused by all this or maybe it's something else, but he ends up following before his better judgement kicks in to tell him otherwise.

Eiji needs to think, somewhere nobody will bother him. The best place for that is the beach, and he knows his way there better than anywhere else--he's made sure of it, after losing his sight on the way home more than once.

But Ankh is still following him. He manifests his Greeed arm and sends a wave of energy back toward Ankh--he'll block it easily, he knows, but maybe it'll buy him some time to get far away.

He does block it easily, and it buys Eiji a second, but not much. Ankh is just that much more confused.

And really, he should just drop it. He should just give up and let Eiji run away if he wants to get away from him so badly. He'd been going to leave, anyway. Instead he ends up yelling after him.

"Eiji! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

He doesn't understand why he can't just drop it.

That was a mistake. That was a horrible mistake, and now Eiji feels pain shooting through his chest from the Medals. After all, there's still so much more of him that they can change, right? Senses he won't need, soft, fragile human skin that would be better replaced by thick hide and bone.

He almost collapses. He stumbles, but he keeps trying to get over the pavement. Finally to the sand, but not close enough to the water yet.

He can feel the purple Medals flaring. Not good. Though the way it affects Eiji's walking lets him close the distance between them.

"Oi, get a hold of yourself!" The last thing he needs is to have to deal with Eiji going berserk right now.

The Medals decide this is the perfect time to take away his vision, and even though Eiji can still hear and sense Ankh, the sheer panic of losing most visual detail and nearly all color is enough that he pushes back at Ankh and tries even harder to get away fast.

Not good at all. Well, really, if that's how this is going to go-

He runs after and tackles him at the first opportunity, the momentum from that sending them rolling to the edge of the water.

Eiji really does not see that coming. He hits the water without really knowing what's going on, other than he's being attacked? Maybe?

He takes a swing where he thinks Ankh is anyway, just in case.

As unfocused as that swipe is, it's really pathetically easy to dodge. Truth be told, he's been wanting to punch Eiji for a good while now over all of this. He's just been afraid to with the purple Medals being what they are, but well... Maybe it's an effect of being just that much more volatile thanks to having memories messing with him all the time, but right now he's thoroughly decided not to care about that risk. And to punch Eiji in the gut because it's satisfying.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Eiji? Are you trying to get yourself turned into a Greeed? I didn't think even you would be that stupid."

If you want an answer to that question, Ankh, it's probably a bad idea to punch Eiji in the stomach so that he crumples over and can't talk.

The good news is that he can definitely feel that and hear where Ankh is. The bad news is right now, he can't do anything about it.

He doesn't care about getting an answer, not right now. Maybe at some point, but for now it's good enough just to have the opportunity to yell at him about just how stupid he's being. He lets up on attacking, though, and just grips Eiji's face the way he's inclined to, glaring at him as if to emphasize the point.

Though he's partly startled out of it as a memory starts playing and it's his again--him casually making the mistake of saying that Kazari had died, and Maki correcting him that Greeed aren't alive to begin with, and that he must have been too heavily influenced by humans to think that way. Almost on cue, as if to back up what he was just saying about what a bad idea it is to want to be a Greeed. His hand stays on Eiji's chin, but his focus is drawn away and his grip not quite so tight.

There's one thing that Eiji can't really explain, no matter how much he thinks about it. When Ankh grabs him like this, all of his attention is on him, what he looks like, what he's saying, everything.

So even with his vision limited like it is, he notices the way Ankh suddenly loses his focus on him, how he's not holding him quite as tightly as usual. And he can hear Maki's voice all of a sudden, and only the fact that he's not feeling a reaction from his Medals tells him that this is another memory.

He pushes himself back.

"What is he talking about?"

"What do you think? Not being able to taste or smell or see colors, only caring about Medals and power, nothing ever being satisfying, that's not living. You're already figuring out what it's like, aren't you?" Don't think he didn't notice the way your eyes weren't focusing the way they should just now, Eiji.

Eiji can't help but feel a little sensitive here. He knows what he's turning into. He hates the sensory loss. It scares him. But he can't relate to the idea that something can't be satisfying--he doesn't know what it's like to feel like his wants and needs haven't been met.

"Not that part. What is he talking about you spending too much time around us?"

Yes. He's still saying "us" when he refers to humans. He's still there, for now.

He raises an eyebrow. He's not sure how something that made automatic sense to him is so difficult for Eiji to pick up on, but then, that's been a running theme since they first met.

"I said he died. How could he die if he wasn't alive to begin with?" He holds up his hand now that he's not using it to grab Eiji's face, letting it shift back to its human form as he looks at it. "I'd forgotten just how pathetic an existence it is, not having a body like this."

Eiji just stares at Ankh. No, this doesn't make sense. This is Ankh throwing a fit, like usual. Yes, the Greeed's very nature is awful, and Eiji sometimes isn't sure if he hates them or pities them, so he tries hard not to think about it. But what does this have to do with living?

"What do you mean he's not alive?"

Ankh spends a moment glaring back at him, then lets his arm shift back to its Greeed form threateningly. He makes a motion that might at first seem like he's grabbing for Eiji's face again, but no, he's just produced a single Cell Medal and thrown it at him.

"Is that alive, Eiji? That's what a Greeed is."

Eiji still can't see anything coming. By the time he realizes that something is flying at his face, a Cell Medal has hit him in the forehead.

"Ow!"

He scowls and rubs at his forehead.

"What? So your body is different. It never made much of a difference before."

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