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

[backpacking]

Zion Canyon? [ Sounds interesting enough. She taps her heels against the ground, looking curiously over at Dan. ] Alright, shoot. What's that?

[thecourier]

'S a place where the people 're still livin' simple lives. We call 'em Tribals. They live in small groups, huntin' an' livin' off the land.

[Dan pokes at the fire, smiling a little.]

My mom was one. Her name was Rushing Dawn. Pa met 'er on 'is caravan route.

[backpacking]

You don't do that, though? [ Sounds like her own life. Small groups, hunting, living off the land.

She thinks of winter, of course. Of the deer. Of the cold and the hunger. ]

Pretty name. [ Ellie notes, leaning forward a little on the log she's sat on. ]

[thecourier]

Heh, yeah. Tribals have names like that. Lucky I didn't end up wi' one.

[Thanks to his father, no doubt. He knows that he loved his wife but there was no way in hell he was going to let his kid walk around outside Zion with a Tribal name.]

I didn't do anythin' like that. Left my parents when I turned eighteen... did some dumb shit... then got on with a courier company.

[backpacking]

Everyone does dumb shit. [ That's a fact of life, right? ] So... what d'you do with the courier company?

[ She can guess, based on the words themselves, but it's better to hear it from the man himself. ]

Get any horse riding into the job?

[thecourier]

Deliverin' letters mostly. Packages sometimes. Wasteland ain't got a postal service.

[Sometimes the packages were dangerous. Sometimes, they were almost deadly.]

No horseridin' though. Horses don't exist no more. Got on here. Big fella in the stables. Evelyn taught me t' ride.

[backpacking]

Evelyn? [ It takes her a minute, and then she realizes. ] Oh, her! She doesn't seem like the "big horse-riding type."

[ Of course, Ellie doesn't know the librarian particularly well, clearly. ]

M'sorry you don't have horses anymore. We don't have a lot of them back home, but they're so cool.

[thecourier]

Hah, yeah, I guess not. [His smile softens as he says it - to say he thinks a great deal of Evelyn would be a complete understatement.

He pokes at the fire for a moment, then shrugs one shoulder.]

The one I got here, he's a real gentle one. Don't reckon 'e'd mind if y'd wanna meet 'im some time.

[backpacking]

Oh. Yeah, cool. [ She seems a little surprised, but pleased, with the suggestion. ] I had one back home, but he... got killed.

[ Normally she wouldn't share that detail, but the event coaxes out the truth. Ellie sighs, shrugging helplessly. ]

He was a good horse. I miss him.

[thecourier]

[He can skim past the part where the horse got killed, because he's already figured out that Ellie isn't into talking about those kinds of things, but he decides to press at least that little bit on a topic that might be better.]

Yeah? Y' feel okay talkin' about him?

[backpacking]

About Callus? [ She chuckles, surprised. ] Uh... I mean, I guess I didn't have him all that long; we borrowed him sometime in the fall and then lost him later in the winter. But he was with me all that time after Joel got hurt. I'm not sure I would've made it without him.

[ He'd helped with the sled, after all, and had made looking for food a lot easier. ]

[thecourier]

[She doesn't want to talk about herself, so he doesn't try to lead her into answering any of the questions that suddenly spring into his mind at what she tells him. Joel is more closed off even than she is, and for all the times they've had a drink together he barely knows anything about the man at all.

Just what had he and this girl been through together?]

Callus, huh? You call him that?

[backpacking]

Yeah... [ She begins with the air of a sort of exasperated defensiveness. ] Joel thinks it's stupid.

[ Or, he did. Back then. ]

But, whatever. It doesn't matter now. [ She bounces her heels against the ground, not for the first time. ] If I get another horse, I can get it whatever ridiculous name I want.

[ So there!! ]

[thecourier]

Joel ain't got no taste in horse names.

[He smiles slightly, a little crooked, and his eyes flick briefly down to her heel as it bounces. She's just a kid, trying so hard to be a grownup. Reminds him of the kids back home.]

Ain't named mine. Evie reckons I can't just keep callin' 'im 'Horse' but I don't see why not.

[backpacking]

I've never heard his suggestions. You're probably right.

[ At least she made a suggestion! Jeez, Joel.

She snorts at 'Horse.' ]

I think that's awesome. Call him whatever you want! [ It takes her a minute to realize that "Evie" means "Evelyn, the librarian." ] What's her's named?

[thecourier]

[Dan's dog is lucky that he has a name, but Dan hadn't been the one to give it to him. It's almost worth the withering looks he gets from Evelyn to keep calling the animal 'horse', but he'll probably come up with a name eventually.]

Hers? Aqila. Real dainty thing, that animal.

[He remembers the first time he saw her, and how surprised he'd been as someone who had never seen a horse before.]

Fast, too.

[backpacking]

Can a horse be dainty? [ Ellie chuckles, imagining it. ] I'm just imagining a pony.

[ Fact: Ellie has never seen a pony. ]

What's "Aqila" mean?

[thecourier]

Take y' down t' see 'er some time, yeah?

[He rubs the back of his neck, a small frown appearing on his face.]

Means... shit, she told me once. 'Wise'? I think that's it. Somethin' like that.

[backpacking]

Alright. [ What's the harm in that, right? ]

Huh. Sounds like her. From what I know, anyway, whiiiiich isn't much.

[ She's only met Evelyn a handful of times, though the librarian did save her life. ]

I guess that's cool. Though - How smart are horses, actually?

[thecourier]

Dunno. We don't have 'em back where I come from.

[No horses. Not a whole lot of anything that isn't mutated or irradiated, or ten times larger than it should be.]

But Aqila seems pretty smart. My guy... I ain't so sure. Reckon 'e knows what he's doin' when 'e headbutts the side a' my head, though.