[EVENT] March Memory Madness

[khuimods]

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.

Comments

you can't tell him what to do just because you're 86 years older

[psituational]

No pity, no. X never comes from a position of believing he's better than anyone else. Quite the opposite. It's hard not to internalise decades of hiding from people who believe you should be executed simply for existing.

"I don't blame you," he says softly.

Almost immediately, he flinches, and shakes his head -- like he doesn't want to take the words back, but needs to shake them off, to snap himself out of the state of mind they lead him to. "So you escaped," he says, his voice stronger again, "after destroying your father's library, and the Dreaming forced you to relive it. That's going to get old very quickly, showing only the cruelest moments of peoples' pasts." A pause. "I can't decide if that would be helpful or not."

Yes he can, but that doesn't mean X has to listen

[annihilist]

Incandescent fury flickers in Devin's eyes like a challenge to judge him if X dares, but it's the fury of a child; the uncontrollable wrath that had driven him for too long after killing his family. He didn't understand his own power, and had no one to guide him.

"I escaped from my family's first estate when I burned it to the ground," Devin corrects sharply, but it's not as though X could have known. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, reaching for calm. "That library was in our second. I fled there because I had nowhere else to go, and have lived there ever since. I used his books for kindling."

He pauses, runs his fingers over the cover of a book with a sigh. There are much crueler memories the Dreaming could have chosen. "It's an invasion of privacy. People should be allowed their secrets." And their wounds. "This is not nearly the first time it's forced things out into the open before anyone was ready, but there's little point in cursing a plane of existence. It will torment us as it sees fit."