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

Jesse Wells ⚡ OTA

[quickgenius]

MEMORY: Floor 4, Room 032 (cw: implied torture)

[quickgenius]

The ropes around her wrists hold Jesse in place. Not that it matters; the cage would stop her from going anywhere even if she WASN’T restrained. She’s been in there for she doesn’t know how long anymore, ever since Zoom grabbed her from her college. Grabbed her to use against her dad. She regrets so much, regrets how they left things, and god she’s so scared.

Tears trickle down her cheeks, her sobs making it hard to breathe. She wants to go home. She wants her dad. Zoom advances on her cage, blue lightning crackling over his body and she cringes.

I know Wells went to the other Earth. Why?

The front wall of the cage lifts upward and her terror and panic ratchet higher. Oh god. She doesn’t know the answer to his question! She doesn’t know WHY her dad went to the other Earth. She doesn’t know!

I don't know, I swear.

Your loyalty is admirable, Jesse.

Lightning crackles along his arm, his hand, his claws and before she can do anything, before she can try and move or beg or ANYTHING he’s plunging his claws into her chest, her shoulder and something cracks and oh god it hurts it hurts so much.

And she screams, high pitched and agonized.

She doesn’t know how long that goes on, how much she screams and pleads, desperately telling him that she doesn’t know anything, before he leaves. Before he storms off to terrorize her world, or the other, she doesn’t know.

Leaving his lair in silence except for Jesse.

Every breath she takes ends in a pained almost-whimper as she tries desperately to find a comfortable position in her cage. She’s still tied up, although she’s almost thankful for the ropes right now. They’re supporting her, helping to keep her on her feet as she breathes through the agonizing throb in her left shoulder.

Tears trickle silently down her cheeks.

AFTER

[quickgenius]

After discovering what her room held, after seeing it, reliving every painful moment, Jesse fled her room. Refused to go back. She didn't even go to her lab. She couldn't. Just in case it was more of the same. Or something worse. So she ran, avoiding her room, avoiding everyone's room. Staying in public areas in the hopes that they were safer.

She can be found almost anywhere; the kitchens, the gardens, or the library. Especially the library, scribbling away in a journal working on some project. Crafting new projects. More than once during the whole thing she can be found dozing off at a table.

[thecourier]

You might not think it to look at him, but these days there's more than one thing that draws Dan Palmer to the library. The presence of his girlfriend is a big one, of course, but the books are another, and if there was ever a time he could use a bit of escapism, it's right now.

It doesn't look like he's the only one. There's a young woman half asleep (or entirely asleep? He isn't sure) at one of the tables, and he keeps a respectful distance as he gently touches her shoulder.

"C'mon, miss. Yer gonna give yerself a sore neck tryin' t' sleep like that."

[quickgenius]

There was a moment, before her conscious mind caught up to the rest of her, as someone gently touched her shoulder, that there was nothing but terror and fear on her face; memories of what she'd relived in her room all too close to the surface. But her mind moved quickly nowadays, and she blinked up at him for a moment as she realized where she was.

Asleep in the library.

Shyly, she tucked her hair behind her ear and gave him a tired smile. "Thanks. I... thanks."

[thecourier]

He knows that look, and it's not the first time he's seen it. When someone's mind is completely elsewhere and they're drawn back into the present by something that they didn't expect. So, he smiles at her and nods, stepping back to sit down on a nearby chair.

"Doin' okay in here? I know shit's been rough all over."

Dan's keeping to easy questions; ones that don't prompt too much of a response if the person being asked doesn't want to talk about what's really on their mind.

[quickgenius]

She’s... relieved, almost, when he sits down on a nearby chair. She doesn’t know him, but he woke her up and for that she could make him cookies. ‘Thank you for not letting me relieve my kidnapping and torture by an evil speedster more than I already have’ cookies. And she could use the company, honestly.

“Yes,” is her first response, but it’s a lie, a horrible and complete lie, and she lets out an exhausted little laugh and shakes her head. “No. Not really. Kind of the opposite.”

[thecourier]

Something that he always does without thinking when faced with potentially upset people is to put himself on a slightly lower level than them, in any way he might be able to. He does it now, resting his elbows against his knees rather than sitting up straight, giving her a small but warm smile.

"Yeah, I hear that. We ain't met before have we?"

He doesn't think so, but... they could have.

[quickgenius]

Jesse gives him another shy, exhausted little smile, little but genuine, and shakes her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. “No, we haven’t.” She would remember, she thinks. Although with Wonderland... who knows. Maybe she just doesn’t remember it. Sometimes she really hates this place. “I’m Jesse. Jesse Wells.”

[thecourier]

They're all feeling like that around about now. Dan's better at working through his exhaustion than some, but even he's starting to feel it prickling at the corners of his eyes.

"Dan Palmer. Good t' meet y', Jesse." He offers a hand along with that introduction, and a smile. "Ain't found no place better than the library t' fall asleep in?"

[quickgenius]

She reaches out and takes his offered hand. "Good to meet you too, Dan." She laughs, looking a little bit sheepish. "Not really. Although it wasn't exactly planned... but I've always felt comfortable around books. And lab equipment." She'd grown up around both. They were a little bit like home. "And better here than anywhere that might hold someone's personal memory."

[thecourier]

His hand is rough and calloused in places, but the handshake is warm, firm but gentle. It always interests him to hear about how other people grew up. His own life couldn't be further away from books and labs, and yet he keeps finding himself drawn to people for whom that was the norm.

"Yeah... I gotcha. Ain't sure 'bout takin' a vacant room in case the damn thing moves."

She didn't choose a bad place. Dan likes it in here, too.

"Y' been around long?"

[quickgenius]

“And in this place, it’d probably move just to spite us.” It’s what makes her wonder just how sentient Wonderland is. There has to be some degree, she thinks, or else it’s connected to whoever or whatever that’s in control in a way that’s mind boggling.

She has to think for a moment. Do the math. “I’ve been in Wonderland... over a year, I think?” She’s lost track. “Feels like more, though. I ended up leaving for a little while. Got sent back, really, because it wasn’t anything like a choice. A week here, months or more back home.” Which makes figuring out her age a bit of a pain in the ass. She might not have physically aged, but the time has still passed. She’s still experienced time passing.

"What about you?"

[thecourier]

"More 'n two." Most of the time, he doesn't think about it, but it's been a few months over two years since he first arrived here and wandered slack-jawed around the gardens for what felt like hours.

"Never been out, but I know people that have." People like Evie, though he's never been around to witness that kind of absence. "But I reckon, eventually, this place is gonna bring somethin' from home t' me instead a' the other way around."