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

"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."

Well, really, he deserved that.

"Of course you don't understand. Not when you have everything I want and you're just trying to throw it all away."

"Everything you..."

Eiji is a human mess. They've been through this countless times. The fact that there's anything about him to envy is still completely beyond him, but he can at least figure one thing out.

"Is that what all of this is about? You want to be human?"

"I want to live!" He snaps back immediately. Does that mean being human? Not really--humans are weak and pathetic and they don't have the wings he worked so hard to get back. But at the same time this human body he's stuck himself into is the best thing that's ever happened to him.

Eiji does not have the patience for this. As long as Ankh is going to be directly in front of him and where he can see him, he's going to punch him in the face.

"You are alive! How can you say you're not?"

Well, he's not expecting that, so it connects. It takes him a second to recover from the sheer surprise, and then he shoves him back in reply.

"How can you say that when you want me to just be a hand forever?!"

Eiji stumbles. It takes him a second to regain his footing, but he takes another swing at Ankh.

"That's not what I said! I tried to get your body back. That's what you said you wanted!"

This time he dodges, and makes a grab at Eiji as a counter.

"And then you broke my Cores! I can't hold together on my own, you saw that! What other choice do I have?!"

"I wasn't trying to!"

It's still a sore point with him. He wasn't trying to break them. His power got away from him. But the fact remains that he messed up again and ruined everyone's lives again, and he has to stop this because it's his responsibility.

"We could have figured out another way! You didn't have to take Shingo! Not after everything Hina did for you!"

Right now, he's just trying to grapple with Ankh. He's not completely sure what he'll be able to do for much longer, if his vision doesn't return to normal soon.

"How?!" He doesn't see a way to get what he wants without the human host body he's linked himself to, and he refuses to just be a floating hand for as long as it would take to figure something else out even if that did exist. He doesn't have a choice. Eiji didn't give him a choice.

"How do you think you're going to come up with that for me when you can't even save yourself?!"

There have to be solutions. There are all of the scientists here in Aifaran. And before that, there was the Kougami Foundation. Someone had to have an answer.

That's what Eiji wants to say, but Ankh's accusation hits him right in that cold, hollow space in his chest.

"That's different," he says, his voice a little too cool.

Of course that's what he'd say.

"Why? Because it's you? Try wanting something for yourself for once!"

Again. Again, someone he ~~cares about~~ knows tells him that he has to want something for himself.

There's a thread of something there, but he's too scared to grasp it.

"Like what? And am I supposed to just keep taking until I hurt someone?"

There's something about that question that hits a button and he finds himself yelling that much more forcefully and punctuating it with a hard shove before he even registers what he's saying.

"That's what you will do if you're a Greeed!"

Eiji hits the water. There's not much more that he can do. He doesn't want to think about what will happen to him. Maybe, to some degree, he just hopes he stops existing before it comes to that. Before he can hurt someone. Before he becomes the kind of destroyer Maki wants to be.

And then the fear and anger surge up inside him again, and he jumps up again, blindly lunging for Ankh.

Again, it's so unfocused that it's easy to dodge, and that's what he does. For now, that's all he does, staying ready for another strike if it comes.

It comes, but it's as poorly aimed as the last. What little vision Eiji has left is blurred even more by tears and saltwater, but he doesn't care.

It's not really Ankh he's fighting. It's the inevitable.

This time he takes the opportunity to tackle Eiji again, taking advantage of his own momentum in that missed attack to knock him over. Mostly because Eiji clearly can't even fight right now and it's pathetic.

"What do you even think you're doing, idiot?"

Eiji thrashes underneath Ankh, but now with the water to worry about, he really can't fight back at all. Not when he has to keep himself breathing.

It's in that moment of helplessness that he can't help but cry.

Right. What exactly is he supposed to do with a crying idiot?

"Oi..."

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