Event Log: Memories Past

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone
What: Memory Share Event!
Where: All around the city
When: November 14th-20th
Warnings: Please remember to tag all warnings for memory shares!

Have you ever looked through someone else's eyes? Heard through their ears, spoken with their tongue? The gods have tried to teach some of you empathy, but it's time you learned the hard way, exactly what the others here have been through. For a week, every time you brush skin to skin with someone, you'll experience a memory of theirs: happy, sad, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that it feels real to you.

The first touch may come as a surprise- it lasts only for a split second but may feel like an eternity, where you're trapped in someone else's memory. After that, it could be more expected, and some may even figure out how to control it and share specific scenes from their past with others. Or, you might wear gloves and long sleeve shirts for awhile, nobody's judging.

Maybe curtail the handholding for awhile- or go right ahead, if that's your thing. After all, you never really know somebody unless you've walked a mile in their shoes, right?

► This log covers November 14th-20th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you die in a memory, you don't die in real life, but if you do die in real life please let us know here.

Comments

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara's frown deepens. ]

I didn't do anything.

[ Though something clearly is happening. ]

What is wrong?

[theweakhavepurpose]

There was .. I dunno a bunch of orcs I guess, around a fire. And yelling and cheering and animals that seemed to be made of fire?

I don't know it was weird. Like a hallucination or something, but it felt oddly real.

[He rubs his eyes with his palms.]

I'm going crazier than I thought.

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara hesitates. At first she thinks it might be a trick - the gods play tricks, she's been told - but then he mentions animals made of fire. And she remembers, ever so distantly, traveling with the Darkspear trolls when she was younger. How they would gather and dance under the stars. ]

Was it on a beach? And - a troll woman?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Yeah a beach and there was someone tall and hunched over, lots of teeth. I don't know what a troll is.

[Well he knows what they are according to Lord of the Rings and also those weird toys with the pink hair, but he's sure that's not what she means.]

Why? Did you see that too?

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara gives one of her braids a tug, thinking. ]

I didn't see it, no...but...that happened to me. Years ago. There was a troll shaman, Sama, she taught me the fire dance.

[theweakhavepurpose]

What?

That was you? Why the hell did I see one of your memories?

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara frowns. ]

I'm not sure. There are rituals to facilitate the sharing of memories, but I don't know them. And they take time.

[ This, whatever it was, happened quickly. ]

I've heard that the gods here like to play tricks. Perhaps this is one of them.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Well it looked awesome! How did you make the animals in the fire?

[He does feel a little bad, like he somehow spied in her mind without her permission.]

For what it's worth, I wasn't trying to poke around in your head or anything.

[oldtonew]

[ That makes her grin. ]

Sama taught me! Fire likes it when you dance, so if you ask it nicely, it'll show you pretty things in return. Sama was one of the Darkspear storytellers. She could make the fire make all kinds of things.

[ The fire remembered and rejoiced in their joy. ]

Oh, no - I know that.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Your world sounds so much more... [Whimsical? Fantastical?] magical than mine. Fire just .. burns things where I live. Destroys things. We don't get animals and dancing.

Not that we deserve cool things like that.

[oldtonew]

[ Kettara shrugs. ]

Don't misunderstand - fire still burns. But the elements all have a life of their own. Sometimes it can be directed.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Maybe we killed them all, and that's why we don't have anything like that. Sounds like something we'd do.

[Which is a bummer. He would love to see magical fire shows.]

And you can talk to all the elements? That's what a shaman does?

[oldtonew]

Perhaps. But if you truly killed all the sprits, there would be no life in your world at all.

[ It's difficult to kill an elemental spirit, but not impossible. ]

Yes, that is our role. We keep the balance between them.

[theweakhavepurpose]

What happens if you don't? Do they fight?

[he's not touching that first part, he doesn't want to get into a theological debate over something he doesn't really believe in but will vehemently defend.]

[oldtonew]

One element may gain power over the others and throw things out of balance. They bicker. It is our duty to settle them.

[ She shrugs a little. ]

Without water, there can be no crops. But too much water and the earth will crumble, the animals will drown. Plants will sour, fire cannot fight the rot. Too much fire and everything will burn to dust. So there must be balance.

[theweakhavepurpose]

That's more complicated than I expected.

Sounds like an important job.

[oldtonew]

They are alive. Nothing can be alive and remain simple.

[ She shrugs again. ]

Yes. But it is important. I want my people to have a future. I want the Horde to be strong.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Does only your side talk to the spirits? Because other people might be offering them something better.

[oldtonew]

[ That's the trouble, isn't it? Kettara nods slowly. ]

No. The Alliance has trained many shaman of their own. Some of them have even joined the Earthen Ring as I did. But no human has ever done it.

[ She wonders what would happen if that changed. ]

The elements have fallen out of balance, back home. Not even the elders know why it has happened. I worry what will become of things.

[theweakhavepurpose]

They're being pulled in too many different directions. It happens to people too, should they be loyal to their family? Their friends? Community? Town? Religion? Country? What takes precedence when everyone needs their help?

[ Poor spirits. He feels bad for them. ]

There's no humans because we're too proud to ask things for help. We think we're better than everything else.

[oldtonew]

I don't know, [ Kettara admits. ] I don't know what I would do if the Warchief called for aid against the Alliance. I serve the Earthen Ring first, but the Horde is my family.

[ Inevitably, she knows, there will be conflict. ]

Why is that?

[theweakhavepurpose]

There's never an easy solution.

Why do humans think they're better? I have no idea. We ruin and destroy everything so we're definitely not the prime species.

[oldtonew]

No. But I will try my best to honor my oath and my family.

[ She watches him for a moment, thoughtful. ]

My master says it is better to look upon individuals rather than the whole. That we are not defined by the actions of others. But - this is difficult, for me. I look at humans and think of how they treated my mother.

[ How they treated her, growing up. ]

But it was a human woman who aided our Warchief. I - admire that. She had no reason to do so, but without her, the Horde would not exist.

[theweakhavepurpose]

[He wants to say 'then they're just individually awful' but that's pretty morose even for him.]

It is better, but it's a lot harder. It means you have to see shades of things instead of black or white. It's a hell of a lot easier to define everything as us or them. Enemy or friend.

But that's how you demonize an entire group of people.

[Or a whole race. ]

[oldtonew]

Yes.

[ She watches him for a moment. ]

You aren't so bad, for a human.