It's Meme Friday!

[thewunderkind]

And now for a meme made just for the meatship! It's the adventures of:


Thank you Shae for the picture!

+ Post with your character

+ Your tagging partner goes to the Randomizer page and enters 1 - 4 on the True Random Number Generator.

+ Get a number!

+ Each number causes a special effect:

1 - Sex Swap! Surprise, you're suddenly the opposite sex of what you were before. Is your partner too (that depends on them)? If your character has neither, either ignore this one, or feel free to give them one now. Double the surprise!

2 - Soul Swap! Oh no! Looks like something malfunctioned on the ship and now you and your tagging partner have switched bodies. Will you try to fix it? ...Will one of you take advantage of it?

3 - Memory Swap! It appears you and your poor friend were stuck in a malfunction caused by Stacy and she has accidentally given each of you each other's precious memories. Not all of them mind you, but really important ones, especially the type you wouldn't want share around. What do you do now? How will this affect your relationship?

4 - Animal Swap! Oh fiddlesticks. Something went terribly wrong in the sensoriums and you've been turned into an animal. What is it? How does your partner react? Are you turned into an animal too? Can you fix this problem or will you be stuck like this...even when you step out?

+ Tag out all the terrible things that happen

+Profit!

Comments

Kanoe Zouichi

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

DO IT

3

[8wings.livejournal.com]

[Suddenly and unexpectedly, you know a lot more than you did before about Living People ceremonial dance, mercenary secretarial techniques, and what it feels like to be a mentally ill serial killer]

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

[GDI he was in more or less perfect mental health! You now know what it's like to punch through a human skull, kill someone by slapping a mini-mine on their torso and detonating it, and oh yeah -- being present as almost the entire human race falls victim to a horrifically virulent plague that turns everyone into zombies.]

Zouichi recoils as if burned. "...what?"

Re: 3

[8wings.livejournal.com]

The memories are so strong; memories of being strong. Of being able to defend yourself, no matter what. But - they aren't her memories.

"Is this an experiment of Stacy's? Are you - remembering things about me that you shouldn't know?"

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"I..." he shakes his head, as if to clear it. "These are your memories." It's halfway between a statement and a question. They're so alien to him that they don't even seem real; they're easily compartmentalized and shoved aside.

Re: 3

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"I have memories that I think are yours. They are - distinct from my own. Nothing about your internal processes," she is quick to add. "Memories of fighting, and of a plague on Earth.

"Do you think you are missing any memories?"

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Not that I know of. Just additions. Being a secretary. And you were... you killed people. A lot of people."

Re: 3

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"Yes." She blinks and her eyes drift for a second, then come back to his face. She stands straight, hands at her sides, her own face blank.

"I suffered from severe mental illness from the ages of nineteen to twenty-two. I was ill enough that I was unable to ask for help. And I killed a lot of people." Her hand goes to the right side of her head. "And it took two years of drug-aided therapy and constant medical monitoring to cure me. But I am stable now."

Zouichi has killed as well, but in defense, and to defend.

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Great. Right." He actually wants to scrub himself clean right now. He's killed, most likely far more people than Anwei has, but he's never really felt this dirty before. Honestly, he doesn't want to know what it feels like to be Anwei, doesn't want to understand.

"Well, if that's all you got, I guess I should be grateful. Could have been a lot worse."

3

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

[Howard knows all about your mommy. Also, you now know everything about Orc. Let the awkwardness ensue.]

...That...that kinda sucks.

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

[NOOOOOOOOOOOOO]

"...yeah."

There's a reason he hasn't told anyone -- ANYONE -- about Saya, and it's because he's never really processed it fully. He hadn't wanted to deal with it, hadn't had time. So after what happened, he'd simply buried everything, refusing to remember the sound of her neck snapping, the weight of her in his arms, anything about her up until the point where she'd stopped being a healthy human being and become a monster that he had to deal with because it was his job and they made him that way. They didn't know what it felt like, they felt a minute or an hour of suffering and then it was over, but for him it was never over, it was --

He remembers all the other things. Her smile, her patience, her willingness to give of the best, last years of her life to guide him through his own. He'd taken those memories preserved them inside himself, untouched. Unblemished. There was Before-Saya and After-Saya.

He's not sure what he might do if someone impugned the former.

"I don't want to talk about it," he says, before Howard can speak a word."

Re: 3

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I, yeah, um, I won't - I'm sorry."

And he'll leave it there. The memory is more immediate than a second-hand story, but it still feels like watching someone else; Howard knows the emotions Zouichi felt, still feels, all too intimately, but can't really feel them himself. He can hear the thoughts running through his head, she's good as dead and I have to deal with her, but he can't feel it. And it's probably for the best.

He wonders how much Zou got from him, whether he feels that certain devotion and the betrayal of camaraderie lost, how much he got of starving, splitting not enough enough food for one into twos, how much fear, how much hopelessness. And Zou probably can't feel that either, but it's also for the best.

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi nods; he doesn't quite grasp the fear and despair, though it's closer now than it has been, closer than his memories of monitoring news broadcasts, seeing a man kill himself in front of an audience of millions just to make a point.

But maybe he's a little closer now to understanding why Howard hoards food in his walls. And calls only one person on this ship his friend.

"Let's find out how we can get this fixed."

Re: 3

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah. Let's. This is...this is yours. It feels wrong," he says, trying to talk more about the experience of having Zou's memories than the content of the memory itself. Zou doesn't want to discuss it and frankly, Howard doesn't blame him.

Not wanting to know something is quite a confession from a kid who normally enjoys Knowing Things too much for his own good.

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi nods. One good thing about swapping memories about someone who's been through a nice, long period of extended trauma: there were some things that didn't need to be said.

"Thanks. For understanding."

Re: 3

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah. You too."

Funny, Howard never really cared about his parents. He was angry at them more than anything, after they vanished, but never really sad for them. But he kind of gets it anyway.

"Much as I hate Crazy Stacy in our heads, that might be what we have to do. We can ask her to erase them, maybe."

Re: 3

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Saya was never Zouichi's real parent, but she was just as dear to him. And more importantly, she had never, ever failed him.

He'd just failed her, that's all.

"Yeah. Should we head to Medical, in case there are complications?"

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

And just like that, you have a series of fractured memories that belong in an Eldar head more than anything else. It's like living seperate lives, almost - there is Ildraniath the Sculptor, the Poet, the Seer, the Musician, the Warrior. Although they are all the same person in essence, their personalities and outlook on life flows and shifts with each change - at least until she became Ildraniath the Farseer. She is locked on her path now. until the day she dies.

Memories of battle, of leading troops, of mourning loss, of celebrating life. Of a great world-ship that moves through the void, all elegant spires and parks and open spaces. Of a proud people, flush with culture and heritage - but with the knowledge that they are merely a shadow of their former selves. Of watching entire human worlds burn so that the Craftworld could be saved. The memory of death and combat and of creation - of old works that no longer mean anything to her. The loss of a mother so very long ago, of being a small child and being taught, almost before she could walk, how to shield herself from She Who Thirsts.

There is fear, more recently. Fear of being unable to save her people and a growing sense of frustration and helplessness with the fools who run the ship and who fail to see why she should be allowed - no, why she deserves - to run this ship.

It's something of a rush

sorry for the tl;dr

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

[Zouichi's memories begin as those of a small child, the eldest of about twenty, in a world that constists endless, rolling hills covered with golden grasses. Sometimes, this world changes, always according to the needs of the children's education -- a pristine beach, a crowded, confusing city, a pitted and desolate moonscape, a home. Through it all, a young human woman is there to look after them, guide them, teach the essential nature of humanity to children who will never be human. She does so, to the best of her ability.

When he awakens into the real world for the first time, it is within one of two black, towering skyscrapers, surrounded by a city made of countless levels of concrete and steel. There are few real forests left in the world, few animals that have adapted to the urbanization that has stripped away their habitat. A mission to Mars has turned disastrous, seeding the Earth with an incredibly infectious, almost inevitably fatal disease that transforms its victims into living corpses. Humanity is dying. Zouichi is immune to this illness; he has been designed to be so. He is the first to be released out into this new world of death and decay, and he is given his first mission.

From that point on, his life is spent pursuing objectives. If a human or ex-human is classified as enemy, he dispatches them efficiently and without remorse; it is something at which he excels. He has annihilated battalions without batting an eye, destroyed heavily shielded fortresses, vanquished monsters, but he is still unable to save a single human woman when she needs him the most.

When she becomes one of the monsters he is charged to destroy, he snaps her neck cleanly; it takes a fraction of a second. He holds her body for a long, silent moment before he lets go.

Then he returns to the mission.]

Zouichi reels back slightly as the memories hit him. "You..." he begins, but he's not even sure what he wanted to say in the first place. He wants to take a step forward, to -- but no. He forces himself to remain absolutely still.

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

Ildraniath is standing silently, a pair of fingers touching her temple, pressing into the skin and bone beneath. Her eyes are closed, but from the way her jaw is set, it's clear she's trying to sort through the rush.

"...how... bleak."

It seems appropriate. She doesn't see him stutter-step toward her.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

He straightens, recovering. "...You're telling me. In fact, I think I just went through a couple hundred years of bleak."

"I... didn't mean to intrude on your memories, obviously."

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't your fault," Ildraniath replies coolly. She's trying to maintain her composure.

"...I... am not sure how to react."

The human life seems so unstructured, so chaotic. It's hard for her to process it.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

He ignores her struggle, because it seems like the right thing to do.

"I don't blame you. My life was... very different from yours." Zouichi smiles a little, ruefully. "Although I guess in some ways it was rather similar."

"I... didn't know you used to be so many other people. Or that you had to protect yourself from that... god. I just assumed..." he shrugged a little, helplessly.

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

"That is our way," she replies, still maintaining her facade. She doesn't have any other choice. And really, there's no point in lying. He can probably remember just as easily as she can.

"...that it was a superstition? No, She Who Thirsts is quite real. And... yes. I was many 'people', so to speak. But it is hard to describe in words."

A pause. "The Earth of your universe - do you think you have any hope?"

She's used to those hopeless scenarios.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"No, not that it was a superstition. I just... you were so young at the time. I hadn't realized all that had to happen as a natural consequence of She Who Thirsts." He's silent for a long moment.

"It doesn't matter if there's any hope," he says, and now he sounds quite grim. Determined. It's a side that he rarely shows, because so few people ask him about it. "If there is a way to save it, I will. If there isn't, then I'll still have fought to the last to grasp that future."