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

[mucked]

[ -- her attention wavers on him a moment longer. and if she's worried then she hides it well. schooled expression; careful tone. peggy keeps her head turned, not angling her upper body just to watch another person step back from the ledge.

but she talks. ]

Escape is a generous word for it. [ a little too honest, of course. ] The phenomenon sticks with a person. At least -- it does with me. I suppose that's the nature of terrible memories.

[ ... ] What a shame it is we keep meeting under these inauspicious circumstances.

[mandrakes]

With me as well. [The most emotionally compromising moment of your life is bound to stick with you when you're forced to relive it like that, even as an outside observer.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he approaches her as casually as he can manage when most of his mind is entirely elsewhere.]

Normally I would say something about the meeting at all being the part that should be concentrated on... but in this case I must agree. I would have preferred that the circumstances were better.

[mucked]

I imagine we all of us walk about in our established patterns and -- in our cases -- miss each other except when we find ourselves trying very hard to avoid what's established.

[ like knocking on a stranger's door. or being on the roof at a time she ordinarily isn't. it broadens the scope of her social circle, that's for certain. peggy's just not convinced that's a good thing. ]

[mandrakes]

[He inclines his head slightly in agreement. Regis doesn't often find himself up on the roof, and when he does there is usually no one else there. He suspects that thought is the thing bringing so many people up to the top of the mansion at a time like this, but it becomes difficult to be alone when everyone else is trying to find peace in the same place.]

You may be right.

[It was, after all, a forced deviation from pattern that forced their acquaintance in the first place.]

Regardless, it isn't unpleasant to see you again, despite the reason.

[mucked]

Certainly. [ she agrees -- forced to be honest about her feelings on the matter, of course. ] It's not the company that's vexing so much as it is the circumstances. That said, I'd understand if you'd rather I bugger off.

[mandrakes]

Certainly not.

[Honesty from him, too - it was no word of a lie when he said it was pleasant to see her, and he would have stated such regardless of whether or not he was being compelled to.]

In my opinion, taking time alone to think can be vastly overrated.

[mucked]

...Then you and I think very differently, I'm afraid.

[ because thinking under any circumstances besides alone seems daunting. doubly so under these particular effects. still, she doesn't rush to leave. mostly because she didn't come up here to think. ]

[mandrakes]

[Regis smiles again, still kindly, and inclines his head slightly. A human isn't going to be able to conceptualise spending fifty years with nothing but your own thoughts, and he doesn't want to trouble her by mentioning it, but by the time he had come out of that he was entirely starved for company.]

That may not be such a bad thing.

[mucked]

[ peggy smiles, in spite of herself and of the circumstances surrounding them. despite a military background, she's for a remarkable amount of flex in her philosophy. perhaps her s.o.e. training should be to blame -- churchill's secret army took from all backgrounds and walks of life. one small corner where diversity of experience was valued. ]

-- No, no. I suppose it might not be. But it nevertheless pays to be selective in whose thoughtful company we share.

[mandrakes]

Of course. [A nod, and a small smile as he looks away from her and out over the view that the mansion roof offers. It isn't a bad view, though he can claim to have seen many that would best it.]

I have no objection to yours.

[mucked]

Perhaps you should.

[ he watches the view. and she watches him. ]

I mean, honestly, you still don't know me from Adam. [ two chance meetings don't amount to much. and yet she's still here. ]

[mandrakes]

Honestly, I don't.

[And right now, he can't really be anything other than honest.]

But I consider myself to be a good judge of character. I haven't often been wrong.

[mucked]

Maybe not.

[ peggy rues her words already. what a pain this truthfulness is -- and she allows herself a disappointed frown as she admits, ] But I've made myself a career of tricking 'judges' of character. The bad, the good, and the great.

[mandrakes]

Hm.

[He clasps his hands loosely behind his back. What comes out next would not have come out so bluntly, normally, but truth often simplifies words.]

Would any of those judges have been almost five hundred years of age, Ms. Carter?

[mucked]

-- No. Certainly not. [ there's no hiding her surprise. it's not the sharpish kind of shock that one might garner had she still been new and naive to wonderland's ways, but she is surprised nevertheless.

she leans a little forward, as if interested in catching his eye. ] Although I'm not convinced age is an automatic guarantor of one's deductive powers.

[mandrakes]

[He smiles at that, though it looks far sadder than it should.]

No... you're certainly right.

[Had Dettlaff, his friend, been a better judge of character, Regis may not have had to do what he did. He pinches the bridge of his nose briefly, rubbing it with his thumb and forefinger.]

There are many things that might cloud a person's judgement.

[mucked]

Many, yes.

[ -- mild agreement.

but peggy can't help but pursue the avenue since opened. ]

I'm assuming 500 isn't an exact number, but rather something of a ballpark. [ her mouth twitches. ] At what century does one start losing track of the discrete years?

[mandrakes]

[It's a much preferable topic, so he'll take it. He gives her a wry little smile.]

Let me think.

[He makes a small show of counting on his fingers.]

Four hundred and.. thirty six years old, by the human calendar. I suppose that 'five hundred' may have been overstating it.

[mucked]

-- Good Lord, was it ever.

[ she chides him -- almost sweet, in effect, despite the topic and the circumstances. ] By that math, I'm nearer to sixty-two than I am my first bloody birthday.

[ she does the math fast. on instinct, really. she's twenty-six, you see. ]

[mandrakes]

[He catches her tone and chuckles. Five hundred was something of an overestimation, but--]

By the elven calendar, I'm over six hundred and fifty, so you'll have to forgive me if my numbers are a little off.

[His tone isn't harsh, though, and he still looks amused.]

But I have certainly reached an age where a few decades one way or another no longer matter.

[mucked]

Elven calendar.

[ she repeats the words with a half-laugh. an almost-chuckle of her own. ]

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that one.

[mandrakes]

[A small smile.]

The elves measure time somewhat differently. Their calendar is split into eight parts, rather than twelve.

[It can be... very confusing, especially if you try to keep track of both at the same time without a proper knowledge of how they work.]

I take it that you have no elves, where you come from.

[mucked]

None. Apart from the Christmas ones, of course.

[ and fairy tales. but that seems like a rather moot discussion given how they're standing in wonderland. ]

[mandrakes]

'Christmas' was not a thing I'd heard of before coming here. [Regis admits. He's only seen it once and didn't get a full idea of what it was really all about, but it did seem like fun.]

I gathered it began as some kind of religious celebration.

[mucked]

-- That it certainly did. [ peggy confirms his gatherings, puts a kind of conversational check mark besides his statement. ] And it still is, for many.

They're not real, however. [ she smiles. ] The Christmas elves. They're only a story.