[EVENT] Memory Tapes

[vrdr_mods]

On the morning of November 21st, denizens in the Velvet Room will awake to a message on their phones or by their bedsides in an envelope. Perhaps even on their computer screens.

Greetings! If you've received this message, then you've been selected as a participant in a new activity to strengthen bonds within this community.

In order to facilitate connections with your fellow residents, we advise you to watch this video. Watch it and return the tape to its rightful owner. If you lacked the means to watch VHS tapes before, we have provided you with the necessary equipment.

Failure to do so may put your own memories at risk. Do not be selfish, lest you find yourself struggling to recall crucial moments of your life. You have no way of knowing which memories have been shared, so ask yourself if it is worth the risk to selfishly hoard another's secrets.

They will soon find a VHS tape, with a case that gives off a soft, blue glow to symbolize its importance. If they lack a TV or VCR, they will find one in their living space.

What they do is up to them, but they should heed the warning, if they value their own memories.


[For links to characters' memories, please see this post in the OOC comm. Have fun!]

Comments

[willowandoak]

1: network

A short post appears at midmorning:

@igor what the fuck
@igor @igor @igor answer me you piece of shit

Igor does not have an account. Ren is pinging no one. But that's not the fucking point.

2: the velvet room

Perhaps you're already in the Velvet Room in the early afternoon, and are able to witness Ren striding in through the Tokyo door, grim-faced, pulling his gun as he approaches Igor's desk. Perhaps you're unlucky enough to arrive just in time to see him wordlessly pointing the gun right at Igor's evil, smug fucking face and pulling the trigger.

The gun fires, with the deafening bang and the hot-metal smell and everything, but if there's a bullet, it vanishes before it can touch the master of the Velvet Room. Igor himself has actually stopped smiling for a moment, in order to give Ren a look of mild disapproval.

Then Elizabeth and Theodore close in. Elizabeth raps Ren sharply on the shoulder with the spine of her book, and he flies backwards, through the door and back into Tokyo, still holding his gun and looking profoundly unsurprised about the entire series of events. You may find him there, as well, sprawled on the concrete or getting back to his feet.

3: tapes

Contact Ren or find him to discuss tapes!

3

[lakebrat]

"You're addicted to that thing, you know," Goro says as his phone buzzes.

He's investigating the nearest tape, holding it up to the morning light and pressing the little button to lift the flap up and down, exposing the band of magnetic tape in what might be a dangerous way.

[willowandoak]

"Yep. I'm the no-good youth Shido complains about. Me specifically."

But he puts the phone away and watches Goro fiddle with the tape. "Do you think if you fuck up the tapes, we'll be exempt?"

[lakebrat]

He catches Ren's eye, letting go of the button. The flap returns to its origin with an audible snap. "It might be worth a try. If my curiosity doesn't get the better of me. Though I didn't like the threats."

[willowandoak]

He grunts, displeased by the reminder. "I'm gonna fucking shoot him," he mutters. "Right in the face."

He would be all for watching people's memories, to be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that he has a bad feeling that one of his own is in that pile, meant for Goro.

[lakebrat]

It does seem an almost inescapable conclusion; he shares its partner. "Again?"

[willowandoak]

"It's fun. I'd bomb the room if it wasn't for the conspiracy board."

Even then, it's not the board itself that stops him so much as imagining the look on Raven's face. He presses his face into his pillow for a moment, then sighs and sits up, reaching for the spare underwear he's started leaving in Leblanc's attic.

[lakebrat]

"You know, I bet Raven could be persuaded to move the board. Though it's useful to newcomers where it is, so...."

Setting down the tape, he gets up in turn, pulling on a t-shirt and leaning down to offer a closed-mouth kiss.

[willowandoak]

He leans up into the kiss, not smiling only because of the fucking tapes. "Maybe for just a moment. Long enough to blow Igor's desk up. Maybe."

When he breathed fire, he couldn't do much to the desk, just singe it a little. But an explosion might work.

[lakebrat]

"Igor might object to the conspiracy board, if Raven started... conspiring. Huh." He reaches for his pants, frowning into space as he steps into them; really, it's lucky he's pretty. "Back in a moment. Then we can kiss properly instead of worrying about these tapes."

That's a lie, he knows. They will worry about the tapes all morning. Either that or at least watch them long enough to catalogue them. He skips through things in his past that he hasn't discussed with Ren, scoring them on how awkward they would be to show up on video.

[willowandoak]

"You fucking liar," he says to Goro's back, without heat. With Goro gone, he flops back onto the bed and stares at the ceiling for a moment. After everything, after Goro went through his damn Palace, this should be fine, but there's always something more. There's always something worse. There's always one thing that's too much.

And also, other people are probably watching his memories of who the fuck knows what. It makes his skin crawl.

He hisses in anger and gets up, throwing on a pair of clean clothes and slipping his switchknife in his pocket for no other reason than that he feels better with it there. Then he waits.

Goro's shitty TV has a VCR player attached, he notices. Lovely.

[lakebrat]

He comes back after a few minutes, dressed and washed up and teeth cleaned, hair possibly a little tousled still just because Ren likes it that way, and will probably need something to cheer him up. Dropping onto the sofa next to Ren, he offers the tapes a bilious look.

"You know, it's worrying that this has happened so soon. Don't you think?" After Hallowe'en, he means. As if the place is stepping into a new gear.

[vampirethief]

Network
So forcing us to share memories with old VHS tapes huh? It really feels like the Velvet Room is getting really desperate in trying to force bonds. I don't have anything against them mind you, but forcing bonds isn't the way to go.

Hey Raven, I have a tape of yours. Wanna meet up?

Grocery shopping
Ren is out getting some supplies and apparently today isn't his lucky day because there's apparently a large sale on garlic so there's more than usual. Usually he can avoid the garlic section by avoiding that area unless he has to, but there's an unusual amount.

Right now, he's lean a little against his cart and trying not to throw up in the store. Sure it's just cognitions but it's a matter of digity and pride.

Tapes
Contact this Ren or find him to discuss tapes in person.

[aknightnotaprincess]

Need to return tape

Got a message about tapes, and ended up with one. I'm not sure what to think of this latest stunt by the Velvet Room.

Crow, I have yours and I took a look at it. Sorry for the invasion of privacy.

Mementos
She eventually decides to do her usual training in Mementos. So if one were to show up there, they might see her either slicing through shadows with her sword, or summoning her persona to kill shadows. And given how rough she's being, she's clearly not in a great mood.

Can Haz Tapes?
Either contact Shiho, or meet up with her to discuss tapes.

[willowandoak]

The hair does make him smile. He touches it as he stands up; but the expression falls when Goro talks. "It might not mean anything. We had Halloween last year. Magpie's Ren coming to visit from the future as a fucking ghost prisoner is wilder than anything that happened this year."

He's trying to convince himself as much as he is Goro. "Hold tight for a sec. And stop jinxing it."

Then it's his turn to disappear downstairs. He wants kisses, dammit.

[lakebrat]

A hand of ice closes around his heart, as he watches Ren leave. Rens arriving from the future as ghost prisoners... it's not the last thing he wants to think about, but it's close. Restless, he gets up, looking through the tapes for any sign that they differ; his search is not productive.

When Ren returns, he sets the current tape down, and turns to smile, holding out a hand; it's almost perfect. "Kiss?"

[willowandoak]

Ren pulls him in by his outstretched hand and kisses him slowly and luxuriously, or at least he tries to; it's possible that there's a bit too much intensity for it to be convincing.

He opens his mouth to say something afterwards. Some show of bravado, he doesn't fucking know. But nothing comes out.

[lakebrat]

And Goro struggles, not wanting to let him go; he leans in again. It's going to fucking suck, whatever it is, and he knows it. It would be nice if he didn't want to intrude on the privacy of whoever else is involved, at least; but he does.

When they come apart again, he winces. "So, how do you want to do it? Together, or apart? Breakfast first? Flowers?"

[willowandoak]

"Together," he says at once. Whatever Goro sees, Ren wants to know it, not just get a secondhand account. "...if that's what you want."

[lakebrat]

His stomach flutters. Shit. Nothing in his past is that bad. There's nothing he's afraid of Ren seeing.

... Is there? Why does that thought fill him with such a sense of fucking dread? Annoyed with himself, he squeezes Ren's hand. "Come on, then. Pick one."

[willowandoak]

"What? Why me? You do it."

[lakebrat]

"What? No. You pick. I—"

Breaking away, he turns and heads to the steps, going down. "Morgana! Pick a number between one and six for me."

"Is this about that videotape business?" the cat says.

"You know it."

Some time passes, during which the cat is presumably thinking, until he says "Five! It's auspicious. Do you know why I don't have a tape?"

"Maybe something to do with your special circumstances," Goro says with a smile in his voice. He appears back up the stairs, looking only mildly harassed.

"Tape five, then, unless you have an objection."

[willowandoak]

"I have so many objections," Ren mutters, picking the fifth tape from the pile and sticking it in the VCR the wrong way. "Fuck."

The second time he gets it right. The ancient TV starts up on its own, and he stands grimly in front of it, watching as the memory plays out.

He knows immediately which Futaba it is, if only because she mentioned the drugging to him one time. His stomach sinks through the floor, and though he doesn't come out and say it's his sister, Goro will be able to see it on his face. He doesn't blink at the violence; it's the look on her face that gets him, the venom in her voice. My mother was in the past, now was she? In another world, not either of theirs but a third one, Futaba did this to him.

There is also a little voice in the back of his head wondering if people are watching old-fashioned tapes of his murders. He supposes he'll find out.

[lakebrat]

And indeed, he finds himself looking away from the screen, watching Ren's profile instead, through the sobs and screams on the tape; watching the tension and the recognition on his face. He knows Futaba has a darkness in her; it would have been hard to go through the Palace with her and not see it. It would be hard for her to be what she is, to work for Shido, and not come out changed.

But how changed? Is this, at any level, what his own Futaba would like to do to Ren? Well, of course it is—and yet....

He reaches for Ren's hand, catching his breath as silently as he can. "Wow."

Phoenix and Renée [Network Post]

[herewardbound]

Network [Public]
Well, it looks like we got a couple of these. Kasumi and Carmine, pretty sure I got some of yours.

Anyone who suspects they got one of mine, I'd appreciate a return of it, and we can work out

whatever it is you have to say in response, this isn't my first time on this particular bullshit-go-round

Network [Private, locked from Smoltaba]
I can't do this anymore. I need to talk to Futaba about the Wakaba Thing, and I need a plan in place so she feels she has somewhere safe to retreat to when she decides she's done.

If anyone has advice or is willing to volunteer an amount of space for her, I'm willing to listen. But I can't let this go any longer.