» 01

[fourplusnipples]

All right, then. I woke up a few days ago--no, I definitely wasn't born, I'm no infant and I'm quite sure no one but a golem ever sprang to life fully-grown and walking about--and my memories are gone.

My first question would be: Who bloody took them, but I'm sure anyone with the ability and inclination to go around stealing people's memories

Comments

[desig_survivor]

[He thinks of his dream, where he told Mynock that he'd wipe its memory and rename it something heroic, and winces.]

We'd all like to know who to blame for this. Someone called them the Powers That Be. Sounds a little less ridiculous than blaming the tree itself, I suppose.

Haven't seen anything like that, sorry. It looks almost like a medal. Maybe you were military?

As for salad... depends on what you'd call "good". There's that cheesy one at the stall, sure, but there aren't any really bitter or strong-tasting leaves in that one. They sell those at organic food.

I'm Rogue. [and yet again, he checks himself before writing Leader.]

[fourplusnipples]

Military. [pentaps] I don't know about that. I think I'd be rather unsuitable for a soldier. But I suppose it's a possibility.

Thanks for the tip, Rogue. I was starting to think no one here had ever heard of vegetarians.

[desig_survivor]

Maybe you were a scout or something? There's more to being military than soldiering.

There are a few here, it just takes some looking to find anything that caters to them. There was a cart with a portable stove, and the woman pushing it would stir-fry anything you gave her and put it in a bowl of rice; she seemed to be popular with people who can't eat just anything. I haven't seen it or her in a few days now, though. Hopefully she just got a memory crystal or is moving to a permanent stall. [/always mentioning new NPCs]

[fourplusnipples]

I could have been good at scouting, that's true.

That sounds pretty good, too. What's a memory crystal? I could probably make a pretty good guess from the name, but I'd rather just skip to the right answer.

[desig_survivor]

They're almost self-explanatory, true. Faceted rocks that make whoever touches them experience a partial memory - anything from a few seconds to a good part of an hour, without the attendant thoughts, and with only some of the same sensations. Only sound and touch, for example. They're single-use and go inert after someone touches them.

Apparently there's usually a punishment involved - anything from being forced to wear ridiculous clothing to turning into a snake. There are people who won't go out during the effects of this, partly because it affects their jobs - the stablemaster's currently festooned with bells and doesn't want to upset the animals, for example.

Someone showed one to me once, but I've never had one. [And he realizes that okay, wow, that's a lot of writing.] And that's as much as I've found out so far.

[fourplusnipples]

That sounds like wizard trickery to me. Clothes are easily shed, but changing shape isn't so good-not if you don't already know how to change back. It's pretty arrogant of whoever makes those things to punish people for getting back what's rightfully theirs.

Are you new as well, then?

[desig_survivor]

Mm. I'm not familiar with shapeshifting, but that part definitely worries me more than clothing. And it does seem arrogant. Vindictive, even.

I've been here for about nineteen days, though it feels like seventeen.

[fourplusnipples]

Most people aren't. I can't see how a memory is worth getting trapped as a frog or the like. Something else might not be so bad.

That's not so long, then. Why the difference of two days? That's awfully specific.

[desig_survivor]

One of the lifts took me and three others to the fourth floor. If you asked me, we were there for under an hour, but someone I trust said it had been two days, and apparently that's how long it had been for everyone else, too.

[fourplusnipples]

That sounds more like you'd been dosed with some alchemical substance. Some of those can distort a person's sense of time...and of everything else.

[desig_survivor]

I'd thought of that. Drugging sounds more plausible, or at least easier than the idea that time itself was affected. Just because I don't remember getting fed or injected with anything doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

[fourplusnipples]

That would most likely be the purpose of the drug.