It may very well be the worst thing that's ever happened to you! | OPEN MINGLE

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE!
Where: EVERYWHERE!
When: Friday October 27th - Tuesday October 31st
Rating: PG-13, warn if you're gonna go higher!
Summary: A catch all for the Horrible Memory Truth Event!
The Story:

For the duration of this event, everyone's entire room will be replaced with a memory playing on loop. They will likely recognize the moment as soon as they see it – it is a moment they remember as the worst moment of their entire lives. It could be a memory from home or something that happened in Wonderland. Lengths of the memories will vary, but they will find that these are not memories they can merely watch – they can step into these memories and attempt to make changes to them, and the memories will be long enough that they have time to make changes (though no more than 24 hours). However, anyone who tries will find that it is futile. No matter what you do or how hard you try, the outcome is always exactly the same somehow. No changes you make will prevent that horrible outcome. It just happens over and over and over again no matter what you do.

On top of that, perhaps complicating any attempts to make changes, everyone will be forced to be honest for the duration of the event. No lies or half-truths are allowed, and filters will be gone for the entire five days. If something bothers someone then they will blurt it out, regardless of whether or not it hurts someone's feelings, and no one will be able to simply keep quiet when they have something to say. They must be truthful and honest with every word they say.

This is a catch-all log for all of your Worst Memory needs! Please mark your threads clearly in the subject line with your character's name and Room Number + Floor for character rooms, or just location if you're making a top level for a public place in the mansion (like the tea rooms or the kitchen) so people can see if there's already a thread available. And here's the plot post if you need it!

Have fun!

Comments

Liv Moore | second floor, room 1 | Close CR | CW: Death

[livemoore]

[ The worst day of Liv's life is, without a doubt, the day she died. Frank's suspicions linger in her mind and she almost decides to stay with him to make sure he doesn't self-destruct, but she's not sure he'd want that, or agree to it. So, her promise to find him if it all goes to shit is the best she can do as she goes to bed that night.

When she wakes up, she can feel it before she sees it, that dread and sinking feeling. Getting out of bed, she watches the boat party, remembers Major's words - what's the worst that could happen? - and watches as she cowers under a table while a fire erupts and zombies attack. They're not rotting, they're too fresh, but they're definitely trying to eat the living and when she thinks she can make a break for it, she runs.

Until Blaine scratches her arm, three long marks that break the skin and she's distracted. Someone runs into her at full speed, pushing her over the edge of the boat, her head hitting the railing on the way down. And then she just floats. The memory ends and loops over and over again. When she steps into the memory she tries to pull herself out of the way of Blaine but someone else bites her, and it happens once more. She tries to keep herself huddled under the table but it gets knocked over and she's chomped on. Every scenario Liv tries ends with her falling overboard, her body face down in the water.

The memory ends before she wakes up in a body bag, but it's not hard to put the pieces together. ]

(ooc: I figure only close CR would have a reason to be in her room? see next comment for more general OTA! )

Liv Moore | anywhere but her room | OTA

[livemoore]

[ This has been going on for so long. Too long, and she can't go back to her room. She has to check on everyone, on the people she cares about, starting with Frank because she made an actual promise, then Patterson, going down a list of people.

Liv doesn't get tired, but she feels exhausted right now and finds a corner on the first floor to sit in, an empty tea room that somehow no one's claimed yet or they've vacated. Sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest she closes her eyes and rests her forehead on her knees. It's not just her memory that's distressing her. It's the not being able to say anything but the truth, it's seeing other people during their most horrific moments and feeling like an intruder in their lives. It's so much, almost too much to be around, though she won't turn away anyone who wants to keep her company. ]

[scoutsniper]

[He'd gone to the tea room probably for the same reason she did--to get a break, to be alone. And it takes him a minute to realize that he's not alone--that's what that whole 'not breathing' thing'll get you, Liv. That and the ball she's curled herself into.

He nods, slipping in the back for a moment, and coming back, placing a coffee cup near her, strongly laced with hot sauce. Because he's trying.]

Hey. [Not a great start, but how is anyone supposed to be good at starting conversations in a time like this?]

[livemoore]

[ Liv looks up at him, then takes the coffee, holding it for a second and then taking a sip. A faint smile comes to her lips because he knew what to do, but then she swallows and looks up at him again. ]

Thank you. I can go, though. If you need some time.

[ Everything is so heavy, she wouldn't blame him. ]

[scoutsniper]

Don't. [ It's a little more insistent than he'd like. He'd told her what she'd see in his, he was right about this shitty event, and...he hated being right like this. But it meant she knew, she already knew. What did he have to hide from her? ]

Guess yours was pretty bad, too.

[livemoore]

The day I died. Over and over again.

[ She wonders, idly, how many people's memories are full of just that - death and pain. ]

I tried to change it so many times.

[scoutsniper]

Ah, shit. [That's not the most helpful thing to say, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. He lays a hand on top of hers, gently, not sure it's wanted. Sometimes, you want to curl up like a dead leaf around your own grief. But still, he could offer.]

I'm sorry, Liv

[livemoore]

[ Liv's hand turns over, so he can actually lace their fingers together. She needs this, the contact. ]

There's nothing to be sorry for. It's nothing like what you went through. What you're still going through.

[ How about that truth aspect? But she believes it. What's her death compared to his whole family? ]

[scoutsniper]

[For a moment, he squeezes her hand back, harder than he wanted to. Hard enough to hurt, then he forces his hand to loosen.]

It's not a fucking contest, Liv.

[livemoore]

[ She looks down at their hands then looks back at him, keeping herself right there, not moving away because who else has him like this? Who else wouldn't let go? ]

I know. I know that. But sometimes it feels like this place wants us all to try and pile on our pain, make it some kind of contest. Like we have to judge whose pain is the most horrible to live in for days at a time.

[scoutsniper]

Well, fuck this place. [He doesn't want to play by its shitty rules. ]

Liv, You can't pick what will crack your soul in half. Some of the hardest men lost it when they saw a dog run over. It doesn't mean anything. It means we're fucking human. That's all.

[livemoore]

[ He's right, she knows he is, and in all honesty, watching yourself die is no easy thing to go through. She can admit that at least. ]

Don't go back to your room. Stay out of it until this is over. Stay with me, here.

[scoutsniper]

...I can't promise that, Liv. I don't...what if other people get in there?

[It's less about his own secret being out there, but that...yeah, nobody wants to go through that.]

[livemoore]

Then sit outside of it but don't go in. I'll sit with you. For as long as this lasts, I'll stay with you.

[ To be sure he doesn't go in, to be sure he has someone. ]

[scoutsniper]

Liv. [She shouldn't set conditions on him, things he can't promise. ]

You don't have to. I'll be fine.

Fuck, I mean, I survived it the first time, right? [And that's a bad attempt at a joke.]

[livemoore]

You asked me to help you, to do whatever it takes. Maybe it just takes not leaving you alone.

[ She's clearly taking her promise seriously, and she squeezes his hand, resting her head against his shoulder now. ]

You asked.

[scoutsniper]

I don't want to drag you down with me, Liv. Forget what I made you promise. I had no fucking right.

[That said, it's not like he's moving anywhere right now, taking comfort from the cool hand in his.]

[livemoore]

Maybe I need this, too.

[ She says it in a rush, the truth coming out loud and clear. ]

Needing someone isn't just about you in this situation. And you had a right to ask a friend for help. Why do you think you didn't?

ahhhhhahh and he thought this truth thing wouldn't get to him lol

[scoutsniper]

....

[She could not have surprised him more if she'd slapped him. ]

Liv. [Shit. Fuck. A bunch of bad words he can't even think straight right now.]

Because I've got nothing to offer, especially not someone like you, Liv.

u thought u were better than the event, bud

[livemoore]

[ She's just not thinking and reaches out to take his face in her hands, looking at him, close to him as she lets his words settle in, not accepting them. ]

That's up to me to decide, and you make me feel safe. Like I can be okay here without hiding because I have you. Because you have me.

he totally did

[scoutsniper]

[He tries to turn his face, to drop his eyes, but hers hold his, insistently. ]

You deserve better than 'okay'.

[nascensibility]

[Out of tremendous concern for those who are not necessarily fragile, but perhaps more prone to being reactionary due to their own trauma, Evelyn intended to drop in on Liv after their recent conversation. It is perhaps mildly presumptuous of her, but Evelyn is nothing if not caring and, frankly, doesn't expect what she sees. A boat event gone wrong, people screaming, gnashing teeth and a frightened young woman in the middle of it who is injured before being knocked overboard.

It doesn't take a professional anatomist to determine the cause of death, nor the strangely abnormal implications.

But Liv isn't in her room anymore and Evelyn, desirous of knowing how similar they might be, makes a point of seeking her out while on her rounds, locating her in one of the tea rooms as a blindingly pale beacon on the chaise lounge. Politely, she raps a knuckle on the jamb of the door before shutting it behind her.]

May I join you?

[livemoore]

[ Liv, of course, has no idea that anyone's been in her room, let alone Evelyn, and she looks up, shaking her head. ]

No, I don't mind. It's just been a hell of a few days. At least we're not in a tower of death though. I guess.

[ Bright sides, right? ]

Are you okay?

[nascensibility]

Could be better.

[Evelyn offers half of a shrug, as reliving the worst parts of her life - which led to her death - was not necessarily something she wanted to remember in such crisp, vivid detail. Even so, the response is something of a non-answer, and she does loathe giving those to people.

Moving across the room, she seats herself on the other half of the chaise lounge, conscious that close company might not be as welcome as she thinks it is. It's difficult to tell with people she doesn't know all that well.]

I made a mistake when I was younger. It never really left me.

[livemoore]

And Wonderland's really great at throwing those things back in our faces. As if we don't already dwell on them.

[ At least Liv does. What if she hadn't gone to the boat party? It wasn't a mistake to go, but she'd made so many of them since then, and if she'd just stayed home, maybe she could have avoided it all.

Then again, as this event is proving, maybe it was inevitable anyway. She just would have been scratched or bitten some other time or place. ]

Extra cruel points for letting us change it only to...not change anything.

[ The company is definitely welcome, but likewise with Liv. Were this Peyton, she'd be curled right next to her for the comfort of body heat, but now she's curled up in the corner of her couch. ]