Test 4.

[azumods]

KNOWLEDGE Compared to the frigid chamber you've just left, the cavern you enter now is warm. It isn't difficult to see why; while there's still a fair amount of space in here, it's far smaller, and there's a source of heat and light in here - a small fire going near a corner of the room, tucked away behind the wall and difficult to see as you enter, but fairly obvious once you're inside, the light from the flames bouncing off the corner of the chamber and making it decidely easier to see. There thankfully aren't any more of Froslass' "sculptures" in here; there is, however, a person. Candice is in the corner near the fire, pressed back against the wall and watching you as you enter; it's likely obvious from the start that there's something wrong with her, though it's difficult to say what just from looking at her. Her eyes aren't fixed in the same sort of dull, blank stare that the people affected by Team Galactic tend to display, but at the same time, they look viscerally wrong - it's alert but it's empty and almost completely unfocused, as though she's taking in information and she's processing it, but she's not actually seeing any of it. It's unsettling, but she's still watching you, and she's holding something close to her chest as she does so; she's got the thick, blue sweater untied from around her waist, and she's holding it bundled in her arms like she's trying to protect it. Her eyes don't come into focus, even as she addresses you. "I told you that you aren't welcome here. You need to leave. Now." Her gaze darts as she speaks, like she's trying to take in as much as she can, even if she doesn't seem to be registering any of it properly; her expression is hard. Cold. What happens now is up to you.

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

I've had luck with them recovering after incidents like that in the past. Though I've never wiped out a person's entire memory before.

[like why?]

[semistableman]

I've recovered a lot of it. But my situation was different.

[Thank Christ HYDRA didn't have access to a god with the ability to wipe people's memories.]

[eudaimonikos]

Well -

[He pauses, then makes an odd sort of gesture. We don't need to talk about that right this second, let's just say that he sort of regrets bringing this up directly in front of you now.]

Well, anyway, even if people don't recover the actual memories for whatever reason, I've found that they have a weird way of hanging onto feelings.

[semistableman]

[That definitely looks like it's hit a nerve. Not in a bad way, exactly? But Bucky suddenly looks pained.]

...Yeah. They do.

[eudaimonikos]

[Good, good, everyone is incredibly uncomfortable here.]

[azumods]

[...More staring.

It. It happens.]

[eudaimonikos]

[SIGH. Michael pinches the bridge of his nose.]

Okay, how much of a vegetable are we talking? Is she actually incapable of forming new memories?

[azumods]

No, she can form new memories. The intelligence stays, but the memories go.

[So all the memories are kind of unrecoverable and she can't really do too much of anything, but she can learn stuff, at least.]

[eudaimonikos]

Well, that's not nothing to work with!

[see guys, all those other threads aren't too far off]

[azumods]

It is something. But the people outside haven't been in any condition to help her.

[Not until, like. Really recently.]

[eudaimonikos]

Except Cynthia, maybe, and I wouldn't give her a houseplant.

[who even knows where she is and what she's doing at any given time, she can't take care of candice]

We don't have the stability to do it either. Not to mention we're a pack of strangers. I think it would be...kinder to let her friends and family do it. [kindness: can you eat it?]

[azumods]

...If they're in any sort of condition to do it, yes.

[takestheblame]

At this point they may be -- and they're getting better everday.

It's only matter of time before everyone can help each other.

[azumods]

That's... It's good to hear.

[eudaimonikos]

Ha! Yes.

[He got it!]

So, once they can be found and rehabilitated a bit more themselves, then. Is she going to remember all this time spent being your cave puppet, is that traumatizing?

[azumods]

...I don't think she will.

[eudaimonikos]

I don't know how a human would feel about it, but that seems better to me.

[hyruglyphics]

Even if everything was lost, stimulus can trigger them again, or... so my experience has said.

[eudaimonikos]

Even if not, you can always just start making new ones.

[hyruglyphics]

[ That hits far too close to home for her - Do you truly remember me - that she doesn't form a verbal response. She instead just nods, meeting her hands together.

Link had become... Someone different, that what she remembered. But he was still him, by the end. ]