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

Entry tags:

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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Alex sees her coming too late.]

[He panics, firing blindly, one shot, two, before her fist connects.]

[And it connects, landing with a loud crack. Alex stumbles backwards, grabbing at the pipes lining the wall for support as the hand holding the gun goes slack, just long enough to make a difference. A thick strand of bloody saliva drips from his mouth.]

[There's a sound from behind them, a ragged breath.]

[In the low light, Shepard might be able to make out the shape of Jay, slumped against the wall, one hand gripping the outer edge of his thigh. Blood seeps through his fingers--seeps, not gushes. Wherever Alex's accidental bullet landed, it didn't hit the femoral artery. Still hurts a hell of a lot, though, if the frozen agony on Jay's face is any indication.]

[She grabs for the gun as soon as he's down, grappling with it until she's got it away from him. Only once it's in hand does she look behind her to Jay, grimacing at the scene. Fuck. Damn, he's still hurt. He still got hurt. But she can get him out of here, still. She doesn't know where the edge of this world is, the door she came in long gone, but she can do-- something, right? Something.]

Keep putting pressure on that- as much as you can. We're gonna get out of here.

[Shepard keeps her grip on the handgun tight, eyes flicking back towards Alex to make sure he's still incapacitated.]

[Jay nods, an odd, sideways jerk of the head. He adjusts his grip, blood seeping out through the cracks, until he's got both hands pressing harder on the wound. They're gonna get out of here. They're gonna get out of here. They're gonna--]

---

[Alex knows he's outnumbered. Whoever this woman is, she hits like she's wearing brass knuckles, and she's got the gun. Even with Jay out of the picture (not yet), she's enough of a threat on her own. He's lost, and they both know it.]

[The pain in his jaw is fading already. It's someone else's problem.]

[But here's the thing about being Alex Kralie. You can't just lose.]

[That's ǹot̛ how ̴t͜his n̵̪͉̜̤ar̨̦r̭͉a͍̮t͎̘̬͖̼̙i͓v͙͖̹ę ͔͔̤̗w̟o̶͖̭͉̜r͎͞ḳ̭̤͙͈̪͟ͅs̤͔͕.̧̙̙̰͇͓̦]

---

[The air splits open.]

[There's a blinding flicker of light, like the film caught fire, and then the walls coalesce into a new configuration--rough, and dark, and it's only there for a moment before it's gone again.]

[There's only a second to catch your breath before you're drowning.]

[If you look up at just the right time, you might see a pale face peering down through the surface of the water. It's strange, though. The surface must be farther away than it looks.]

[She should have known this was going too well.

As soon as she's straightened up, turned her back on Alex for even a moment, the world shifts again in a sickening motion. All she can think is of course it would never be that easy before she's under again, the wiring under her skin lighting up like fire, holding her breath for as long as she can as she struggles to the surface. Just keep going. She can make it this time. Shepard doesn't know where Jay is, but he has to be-- last time, Tim was right here, but she can barely figure out which way is up right now. She just has to trust he's around. She has to trust she can get to him.]

[The surface doesn't seem to get any closer. It's as if you're tethered in place, swimming unheeded but not making any progress.]

[Until suddenly it does, all at once, and your head emerges. The air stings, cold and damp and smelling like ozone.]

[Alex Kralie is on his knees, half-soaked and breathing heavily.]

[His hands are around Jay's throat.]

[Jay struggles, red-faced and clawing at Alex's grip, but his movements are growing more uncoordinated. Not much longer.]

[She coughs, wet and rough, as she finally emerges. Everything aches like she's been on the field for hours, a practiced pain of loss and fulfillment. And even now, soaking hair in her eyes and plastered to her face, whole body screaming, she wants to move.

Feels like the battlefield. Just a little bit longer. Just a little bit longer and you can fall apart.

Everything feels slick, but she's trying, yelling out as she tries to get to her feet, to get over there.]

Let him go!

[If she makes it, Alex is getting punched in the face again.]

[Alex Kralie will not let go. He worked too goddamn hard for this moment. Years of tracking him through videos and tweets and hotel reservations and broken branches and empty houses, all leading here.]

[He'll finish the job this time. He has to.]

[His fingers wrap tighter. The scrapes across his hands doesn't matter. The struggling flesh under his hands doesn't matter. All that matters is--]

---

[Electricity screams through the air, through the circuits woven across Shepard's skeleton. There's an awful static whine, and the air splits in impossible configurations, bands of light and color bright enough to hurt.]

[EYES OPEN]

[The muscles constrict. Every blink is agony.]

[It wants her to watch.]

---

[All that matters is the way the stick-thin body stops convulsing, hands falling limp at its sides. The camera lies a few feet away, its screen cracked and half-disconnected, bare wires straining to hold it together.]

[Maybe, years ago, Alex Kralie would have taken it as a memento. Maybe, years ago, Alex Kralie would have kicked it, sending new cracks spiderwebbing across the screen, or pulled it apart the rest of the way. Maybe he would have turned the lens on himself. Maybe he would have taken the tape.]

[Today, Alex Kralie does not acknowledge it.]

[Instead, he steps away from the unconscious body, its chest barely rising as it draws thin breaths through a crushed windpipe.]

[He reaches into the underbrush and withdraws a cracked block of cement, the remnants of some long-gone construction project.]

---

[EYES]

[OPEN]

---

[Alex Kralie brings the rock down on the body's head four separate times.]

Edited 2018-02-05 05:55 (UTC)

[When she has enough time to think about it later- if she ever thinks about it later- Shepard would realize this is the sort of thing her nightmares are made of. She is strong, and not by accident- she got this through fire and blood, to protect people. To make sure that if she could possibly stand it, she can stop death, destruction, the severing of lives. She is alive, so she can fight.

But here she is. A few feet away, two running steps, and she's motionless.

She does not stop struggling. It hurts, slamming herself against the barrier of her own body as if caged inside her head, but she does. Let her over there. Let her end this. But before long, he's undoubtably dead.

If this thing will let her scream, she will. If not, it dies in her throat.

Still, she presses against her bonds, even if every muscle feels like it's about to snap, even if the strain frays the wires in her neck. There has to be something, and she cannot stop when there's still an unchecked threat.

C'mon, Operator, I'm sure you want to watch Alex Kralie get punched again, don't we all? Even if by now, she likely couldn't hold herself up from the strain. Ah, consequences.]

[It lets her scream.]

[But only once Alex Kralie pauses, the stained cement block held between steady hands. He is permitted to rest a moment, to truly see the reward for his hard work.]

[It is there, visible for an instant, and gone again. The only thing that remains of Jay Merrick is a dark, uneven stain across the leaves.]

[Only now, it lets her scream.]

[As feeling returns to her limbs, as she can finally blink and breathe and produce sound, the noise catches Kralie's attention. He turns, cement block still in hand, and approaches.]

[Every part of her burns. It's part physical, part mental, the fire just as much anger as it is exhaustion in her limbs, her whole being. Fuck. What is she going to do here? Will this thing kick them out, like it did at Toriel's door, or-- it has to loop, doesn't it? Has to end somewhere. It's not real.

But it sure does feel like it, between the strain and the emotional toll, as it hurts to even crane her neck towards Alex as he approaches.]

You're just making a shitton of trouble for me, aren't you kid? Can't ever settle this without a fight?

[He looks down at her with blank eyes, an uneven rivulet of blood running down his chin and dribbling across his shirt. His jaw hangs at an odd angle.]

[He speaks slowly, his familiar drawl now mumbled and lisping.]

Don't remember.

[He raises the cement block, and--]

[The tape skips.]

[--She's back in Benedict Hall, air heavy with dust and decay. It's silent.]

[The door is open this time, and the familiar fourth floor hallway of the Mansion can be seen through it.]

[She stumbles a bit to be on her feet again, head twisting. It's-- it's over. But Jay's missing, not a great sign, and she rushes the door, looking up and down the hallway. She won't leave fully until she knows she's gotten him out of here.]

Jay? Jay! Where are you?

[Jay is in the stairwell, leaning heavily on the banister as he slowly, gradually makes his way upstairs. The tears have stopped, the panic has stopped, the uneven, jerking breaths have stopped, and all he's left with is blank exhaustion and the thrum of static in his ears. The theater had been simultaneously a good place and not; it was dark, it had shapes forming and reforming onscreen at thirty frames per second, and it had people. He could talk. He could pour his goddamn heart out whether he wanted to or not, and while the benefits of that were debatable, he wanted a break.]

[He wants a break. Maybe if he keeps walking, he'll find somewhere quiet.]

[Instead, he hears his name.]

Here!

[He calls it out without thinking, instinct wired into him by the event. Clearly, he's not out of the woods yet.]

[At least it's Shepard, he thinks.]

[She makes sure the door is shut before making a run for him, the direction of his voice. Her body still feels the aftereffects of the ache, the forgotten scrape in her throat, but she pushes through. She won't rest until she's seen him, and she ends up in the stairwell quickly, stopping just short of him to lean against the wall.

Shepard is silent for a few beats, and then speaks past her own breathing.]

Sorry about that, kid.

[She looks terrible. Did she just--? Did she come from her own room? Is that what this is?]

[He tilts his head, squinting.]

What's...What happened to you? No offense, but you look like shit.

[Blunter than he'd like, but that's just the way this event goes.]

[She’s trying to calm herself down, but it feels like she’s come hot off a battlefield, hasn’t had any chance to discharge. Shepard looks at him, squinting her eyes a bit in turn.]

Was that— was that not you in there?

[Crap. That’s gonna be a hell of an explanation if she accidentally stepped in on his private matters again. Tim wasn’t too happy, at least.]

[Jay squints even harder, somehow.]

In wh--?

[Oh.]

[Nope. No no no no nope, no way, not today, not ever.]

In my room.

[His voice climbs nearly a full octave.] You were in my room?

[And he can say it, so it must be true, right?]

[She doesn't flinch, not that kind of person, but she shows anxiety in other ways- the clench of a jaw, a tightening of a hand. Whoops.]

I thought-- thought I saw you go in there. Figured out what was going on in the rooms this morning, figured I could catch you.

... It didn't work.

[Whoopsy fuckin' daisy.]

Fuck.

[...He said that aloud, didn't he?]

[This event has been hell on his internal censor. At least none of this footage is going online.]

So you...saw that.

[And of course he can't stop with that. The truth event stops for no man.]

You saw Alex.

[The truth event giveth and the truth event taketh away.]

… Yeah. I did.

[And speaking of ‘screwing up any and all normal conversations with the truth’—]

Isn’t the first time. He used to be here. We were friends.

[Which she knows isn’t the word 9 people out of 10 would use for Alex Kralie.]

[Friends. Like Tim said--or at least implied. They were friends.]

[Jay stares, mute and nearly slack-jawed for a long while, before the event pulls a response out of him.]

Us, too. [He physically can't leave it at that.] Well, not what'd generally be considered...He was in some of my classes. We--we talked sometimes. And I--

[Ha! Ha-ha! Right in front of the literal space marine, he's just going to admit to being a creep. Great. Awesome.]

--Watched a lot of, like...footage of him, so I sort of...know him that way. Felt kinda like being...friends, I guess.

[He buries his face in his hands, like that'll stop his mouth from running.]

And then...what you saw.

[Well, that’s rough. Not that Shepard can really say a ton of the same; she doesn’t really know if she knew Alex any better in the five months they knew each other.]

You knew him. It’s cool. Probably more than me.

[She certainly isn’t judging him for it. Sometimes you just meet people in unconventional ways.]

… Sorry I barged in there. I didn’t really know the full story, but I’ve heard… things. Stuff from Tim and Alex that it got bad. Not sure if that was it, but that was pretty fuckin’ bad, so.

[A small pause.]

I think I broke his jaw in there. Not that it was really him. But if it makes you feel better.

[Jay just sort of...stops for a second, pulling his hands away from his face. He tries to picture it: Alex Kralie--the one with the worn sweatshirt and the patchy beard and the black eye, the one whose sarcastic deadpan had withered and faded into stony silence--that Alex Kralie, clocked in the face by Commander Shepard: Actual Space Hero.]

[Must not've accomplished much, based on the way he heard things work during this event, but that mental image is something else.]

[Slowly, inexplicably, a crooked smile creeps across his face.]

Kinda does, weirdly enough.

[She can't help but grin a little, hers growing as his does.]

Well... glad that exists in the universe, I guess.

... Sorry I couldn't stop him.

[She could have, with a foot more of movement, without the literal entire fucking world against her.]

Kinda had a, uh. Few interruptions.

[That burning feeling she's still shaking off, in all her cybernetics that move her like the ghost of a live person. Thanks, Operator, but no thanks.]

Jay gives her an odd look.

"Not like I did either." Jay shrugs, lop-sided and uncomfortable. "And, I mean, he got stopped eventually, if--"

His brain finally registers the last thing she said, and all at once he's standing up straighter, goosebumps rising on the back of his neck.

"Wait, by interruptions, do you mean...?"

The event must consider that to be truth enough, or the uncomfortable silence name enough for whatever that thing is, because it doesn't force Jay to finish the sentence.

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cw: death, alex kralie doing horrible things

christ all fucking mighty

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