Blame My Memory

[morg]

--open

Recently Morgan had begun remembering things. Not just like a normal person remembered things; no, Morgan knew her Gift was developing. At least, she hoped her Gift was developing. Because now she could remember in intricate detail every bit of Pride and Prejudice, which was somewhat disappointing. How was she supposed to enjoy re-reading her favorite novel if she remembered every word? She supposed she could just close her eyes and mentally recite the novel.

"This is just creepy," muttered the Almasian.

Currently she walked the corridors, her head down as she mulled things over. Two ear buds had been jammed into her ears, with a wired trail leading down to the pocket of a bulky hooded sweatshirt. Sweatshirt, ponytail, and ragged jeans. Morgan was clearly dressed for comfort.

Sighing, Morgan listened to the words as they passed through her, wishing that she wasn't suddenly remembering all of them as they marched by. She could perfectly echo what she'd just heard, and it was beginning to creep her out.

"How do people put up with this?" she murmured, shaking her head.

The girl had so focused on her music and her musings that she hadn't noticed someone stepping right in front of her. She collided hard with them, and flailed, struggling for balance.

[Locke F. Herald]

OOC: I am sorry, but this seems way too perfect to me. Plus he hasn't RPed with her since WoM.

It was just another day with business as usual for Locke. He walked among the halls, with a purpose today. He'd found a sort of part time job, aside from working with The Inventor, and for once in his life he felt the need to gather money. He only had a few months anyway, so he had to get to work. He wanted to get some quick research done before he left for this other job, but sadly that was not to be. He had taken a few odd paces into an intersection when someone crashed into him. Now, Morgan was not so much taller that she'd trip over him, but he had enough mass to knock her back apparently.

She, on the other hand, knocked him quite hard, pushing the poor boy over from the collision.

"Agh!" Locke called, aggravated, as he dropped the book he was carrying. "Why don't you watch where you are..." He started as he grabbed the book and looked to see who was so stupid to not look where they were going. "Morgan?" He finished, blinking once.

He halted his chastising of her and got to his feet. "Sorry about that, thought it was someone who did it on purpose." He explained. Well know, he thought it was an idiot, but that probably wasn't a nice thing to say.

He should...probably exchange normal greetings now right?

"How have you been?"

[morg]

By swinging her arms and lurching forward, Morgan managed to just catch herself before falling. She then glared at Locke, immediately blaming him for the collision. A reprimand already half-formed on her lips, when she recognize the collider.

"Locke?" she sounded surprised. Reaching up, she tugged the ear buds from her ear, clearly wanting to be able to actually hear the Edengrowth as he spoke. "Actually, I was about to yell at you for plowing into me."

She laughed dryly, shaking her head, then bending over to help Locke to his feet. It had been a while since she'd talked with him last, but of course she remembered him. Lately she'd been remembering everything, so that was no surprise.

"It's been a while, that's for sure," she agreed, nodding. The exact date floated across her mind, but she dismissed it, shaking her head. Stupid memory.

"I'm doing... well, more or less," she shrugged. "You know, boy troubles, freaky Gift s**t. the usual. How's things with you? I heard you hooked up with Kiri Honeywater, that perky Faerie Wingrose my brother adopted."

She half-grinned now, crossing her arms and arching a brow.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke let Morgan pull him to his feet, dusting himself off. Then she mentioned Kiri. He'd dealt with this enough to not go completely red at the mere mention of her name, but he still wasn't so good with dealing with her in conversation.

"Pretty much the same." Locke responded. "Family troubles, freaky gifts and the usual. And I heard you are still going out with Jon, that indecisive cuisinely curious in my house?" He said with a smirk. "If you want to play the boyfriend/girlfriend game I can do that too you know." He said with a grin.

He wasn't normally a person who would challenge people, but Morgan brought out that competitive nature in him. She knew how to goad him on without intending it. "Though now the ball is in my court, so I think I dish out the next question. What crazy gift stuff? Last I heard your gift was pretty confusing anyway, so I didn't think anything else would really bother you. After all, if you can get used to doing something and not knowing how you did it, what could be weird?"

[morg]

Sure, Morgan had brought the boyfriend/girlfriend thing upon herself, but that didn't make the subject any less sore. She frowned at Locke, and seriously debated slapping him. Or pulling on his ears. That bothered him, if she remembered correctly.

"I'm still going out with Jon," offered Morgan, crossing her arms now. "We're doing alright."

No reason not to lie to someone like Locke. Wasn't like the two of them were close or anything.

"Moving a bit slow though. You having that problem with Kiri? Like, you're ready to step things up but she's still smelling flowers?"

Someday, people would learn not to push Morgan Cavan's buttons.

She shifted again. "Yeah, freaky Gift stuff... I think my Gift's changing. I'm... remembering stuff now. Like... a lot of stuff."

Morgan's brow furrowed. "Isn't that your Gift? Remembering stuff?"

[Locke F. Herald]

She made the remark about their relationship, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Defensive posture, ready for an attack, she seemed to be seething now. Must have been a delicate spot.

She went on the offensive with a Kiri remark, and Locke struggled to keep the color from his cheeks.
"No, nothing like that. I think for now we are pretty happy where we are...why rush things you know? After all...we've...got time..."

He said that last line a little slowly. That was something he didn't like to think about, so back into the drawers it went.

"Ah yes! Memory, yes that is correct." Locke said nodding. "Ah, this should be a fine test. What book was I reading when we first met?"

"If you can remember that, then I think it's a pretty safe bet."

[morg]

Clearly Morgan had won the little relationship argument, which made her quite happy. A happy Morgan was a decidedly less aggressive Morgan. It left her without even the slightest remainder.

"Don't worry about it, these things generally go alright. Trust me, it's better to wait," Morgan winced then. Her first time was always something danced around, never to be discussed openly.

"You were reading some rare plant and animal book, researching the unusual wildlife around England or something. I didn't catch the title," Morgan shrugged. The girl clearly didn't think this was overly impressive, just plain old regular remembering something. "Maybe I've just been eating a lot vitamins or something. Doesn't Ginseng give you better memory? That's in a lot of the energy drinks I drink..."

Morgan paused, thinking for a moment. "You know, there's a lot of c**p in those things... good thing I don't drink them that often."

She smirked at Locke, though it faded soon enough. "Still, weird stuff. I hate it when this stuff happens, almost enough to make you wish you were normal."

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke grinned at Morgan. "So...you expect me to believe that remembering the subject of a book you saw at a glance 4 months ago being read by someone you only met that one time about a rather obscure topic is perfectly normal? Think about that for a moment and then try again." He added on with a twitch in his smile.

"I really don't think it's anything to do with memory supplements. Just think about it like this, your body can copy, your mind can copy, but that doesn't mean you can comprehend what you do. Just because you know that the Temperature Resistance Coefficient of copper is .393 percent per degree Celcius, which by the way you won't ever forget, doesn't mean that you understand what it means. Just because you can learn fast, doesn't mean you can understand. I believe people once put it that 'there is no substitute for hard work.'"

He grinned, sometimes teaching people could be fun.

"Normal? What would you call normal? I mean yeah I don't have a famous last name, but I don't think anyone in the world is normal at all. Depends how you define it."

[morg]

"It could have something to do with memory supplements," argued Morgan ,crossing her arms. Still, Locke had a point. Now Morgan was remembering all kinds of odd details, stuff she shouldn't be remembering. Really, her Gift was the only thing that made sense. Besides, there were a lot worse things that could come out of a Gifted then just remembering things really well.

Morgan shrugged. "Guess I'm going to end up looking a lot smarter. Great, because I so want to be able to memorize everything I see."

Morgan sighed, moving to lean against a nearby wall. She closed her eyes, leaned her head against the wall, and took a few deep breaths. How did these people put up with this so easily? It was nearly a year since Morgan had discovered her slightly hidden Gift, and it still kept throwing her off.

"Seriously, is this why you always sound so smart?" asked Morgan, cracking open an eye and looking at Locke. "Because you can't forget anything?"

[Locke F. Herald]

"Is the reason you are good at fighting because you can copy everything you see?" Locke shot back. "I'd imagine you didn't just learn how to be a competent fighter. You had to practice, you had to want to learn. Just being able to do the moves wasn't all there was to it. So why is it any different for me? I'm smart because I work on it, like you are athletic because you work on it. It would be pretty rude of me to say you are only good at what you do because of your gift, and that it's nothing to do with you at all, don't you think? So your gifts aren't that different at all, it just depends what you train, right? After all, they seem like the same kind of thing, one for the body, one for the mind. But do you even want to focus on your mind? Nothing personal, but you seem more the physical type."

He crossed his arms looking her over. Yeah, she was the physical type all right.

[morg]

Locke had a point. Didn't mean Morgan had to like it, but she at least conceded that much. To herself. Mentally.

"Well, maybe I should work on both," she retorted, knowing full well that wasn't likely. Morgan wasn't the type to sit still for long. She did read, though mostly novels and even then she leaned toward, well, girly novels. Besides, maybe she could finally get through schoolwork quickly... that would be nice.

"Sure, we're not smart or athletic just because of our Gifts, but it's a heads up," argued Morgan. She nodded, "I did some athletic stuff before I got my Gift; you know, before it manifested or whatever the hell it's called."

She shrugged, "But it's so much easier now it's not even funny. I mean, I see something, I do it. That's not nearly as much work as it used to be..."

And it felt a lot more hollow. Morgan frowned, crossing her arms. Did this mean that remembering all this stuff would feel empty too?

[Locke F. Herald]

"Then perhaps you should try not to do it, but to teach it. After all, you can't teach something without understanding it. And being able to do it, and being able to understand it and teach it are two very different things. Like I said before, you know the Temperature Resistance Coefficient of copper now, but you have no idea what it means or how to apply it. It's the same with some of the moves you mimic, you can do them, but you don't understand them. If you really want to make yourself the best you can, you still need to practice, no matter how easy it comes to you. Even if I remember everything, I still need to work to act on it all."

He shrugged, not really understanding it. Memorizing words was one thing, understanding and applying the theories another. But what Morgan could do must have been annoying to someone as physical as her.

"I don't know what to tell you. If what you do feels hollow, do more, find something that fills you with satisfaction again."

[morg]

"I still get some satisfaction from it," argued Morgan, irritated. She knew the irritation didn't really come from Locke, but that didn't make her any less surly. "I mean, I did learn quite a bit before my Gift did its thing, you know?"

Morgan frowned. She'd mentioned that to Locke already, she knew that. Actually, she remembered every bit of the conversation, something that was already annoying her. Frustrated, she sighed, and leaned her head against the wall.

"Is there a way to make this thing stop? I really, really don't want to remember everything, Locke," she squeeze her eye shut. "I mean, I've been hit... a lot. And that's just from sports."

Reliving each and every collision wasn't Morgan's idea of a good time. A good way to torture yourself, maybe. Maybe that's how she should use her Gift: to torment the less fortunate.

Muhahaha, fear her scary powers of memorization.

"This is just annoying and lame," muttered Morgan, rubbing her eyes.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke looked down a bit at Morgan making the remark about remembering everything. "It's not as easy as everyone thinks is it? Remembering everything. The day your grandmother died, the times you were picked on as a child, the times you felt alone and unwanted, or overshadowed. As fresh in your memory as if they happened seconds ago."

Locke looked up at Morgan, with a little bit more respect for her. She could understand him a bit better now, in a way most people didn't.

Well, Garion was the first one to really think about it.

"Most people like us develop something I call the 'File Cabinet' as a way of keeping themselves sane. It basically means you store memories in the back of your mind. They are still there, but they aren't at the fore front waiting to be looked at. They are still there if you think about them, but they won't swim into the front of your head randomly then. If you want, I could teach you to control your memories now."

Locke didn't tutor, usually. "It's the way of the world that the more experienced teach their juniors, and in this you are my junior." He said with a small half grin. That would probably get a rise out of Morgan.

[morg]

"Gee, thanks for reminding me of all those pleasant times," drawled Morgan. Flashes of events eerily similar to those described fluttered through Morgan's mind, momentarily tormenting her. Still, she heard Locke's words through the haze. Closing her eyes again, she took a deep breath, trying to mentally sort through memories.

"Just bite me," muttered Morgan, creaking an eye open after several moments. "You do realize that if my memory's doing this, there's a chance your memory will start picking up physical stuff, right? Unless this is just my own super-freaky curse..."


Which it could very well be. Locke was Mr. Sparky now,if the rumors were true. And others had gotten strange mutations as well. you couldn't explain away everything, after all.

"Okay, I think I'm good for now," Morgan nodded, straightened herself, and then looked down the hall. "Thanks, Locke."

She looked back at him, smiling. Definitely not a bad kid.