Only think left to sort out this week is a main shop for insanity meals. 

The first thing I noticed, besides being achy beyond belief, were my mismatched socks, due to the fact that I awoke in a sitting position leaning forward with my head between my knees and my arms at my sides. The left sock was mine, a simple navy blue, but the one on the right was very obviously not mine, orange with little frogs. Confused, I pushed myself up and found I was sitting on a bus stop bench. I was curious about how I ended up here, with this sock, and whether they would be wondering where their sock was. "One way to find out," I said aloud, fortunate I was alone. Reaching behind my ear to the Mem installed there and hit playback option. A menu appeared in my vision asking me how far back I wanted to look with recent recordings listed below. My stomach sank, which was an awful thing to happen at the time, when I noticed that the last recording I took was just at the beginning of the previous night. Shrugging, I selected that one and... *** I was back in the bar with Karl and Jared, at a table of our own knocking back a couple of beers. "Happy Birthday Eli!" screamed Karl. "Keep it down!' yelled the older woman behind the counter tending bar, it was a smaller place, but the three of us just burst out laughing. I fast forwarded through the experience at the bar, stopping when I notice a cute blonde in the background before continuing until we ended up in the bathroom and I was pulling out abg full of little green squares of paper. As soon as I saw them I backtracked a bit. "Are you serious? I haven't done this since high school," Karl was saying. "I know, right?" replied Jared, giddily passing Karl the tab I gave him before taking his. "Where'd you even get these?" Karl asked me. "Guy out there," I slurred and pointed to the door to the bathroom. The three of us stood behind the three sinks and mirrors, and at the same time dropped the tabs on our tongues. In the mirror I could immediately see my eyes from that night dilate and the grin stretch across my face. "We need to get the fuck out of here," excitedly exclaimed Karl. We all nod in agreement, and as they leave I stop for a piss. On my way out I stop at the mirror and look at myself again, swaying slightly. "Who needs this?" I point to the Mem, "When I've got this," and I point to my head. My hand then reaches to the Mem and the picture cuts out. "Oh fuck me!" "Excuse me?!" I flick off the playback and there's a mother and child in front of me so I immediately slink away as I get a dirty look. I pull out my phone and dial up Jared first as I walk and he picks up pretty quick. "Where the hell did you go last night?" he answers. "What do you mean?" "We got split up when we left the bar, didn't you record anything?" "Yea, about that... I woke up on a bus station bench wearing one of my socks and someone elses." "Hang on," he laughs and there's silence for a minute or so before he continues, "You did say something about Cascade." *** I found myself standing in front of Cascade, the best arcade in the city that served not only drinks, but actual restaurant quality food. They offered not only the best in terms of gaming experiences, but a plethora of other experiences as well, or Ences. I pushed my way through the doors, one hand gripped on the wire in my pocket, and approached the bar. "Ellison!" the bartender yells as he notices me walk in, and he laughs when he sees my utterly perplexed face, "How gone were you man?" "I'm sorry, what's your name?" "Ted, man," he replied with a chuckle. "So about last night, turns out, I didn't have my Mem on." "No shit?" As I pull out the wire I ask, "Would I be able to?" "Oh fuck yea, man, after last night?" he replies reaching for the wire and grabbing an end before plugging it into his Mem. I follow suit and plug my end into my own and after a moment I'm rushed back to last night, watching myself through Ted's eyes. "I started you at the best part," I hear him say. *** As he stands behind the bar he watches me stand up on a stool while everyone is cheering me on. I pull out the bag of the tabs and with a fistful I toss a ton of them out across the casual crowd of Cascade. "Confetti!" I yell as people open their mouths to catch the tabs, still cheering. "Jesus..." I mutter while watching, and notice the same blonde from the bar across the room catching a tab in her mouth. "Who here hasn't ever tried a class A?!" I ask the crowd as about two thirds raise their hands including myself., "Let's do it!" I turn and hop down to face myself, or Ted, and throw down my credit card. "Class A Ences for everyone! Even you!" "Hell yea!" Ted yells from my point of view and rings it up as I groan at how much I spent that I don't have. As I watch myself disappear into an Ence room, I fast forward through the footage of Ted working until I emerge. When I finally do I'm accompanied by two Mutes, one guy with a couple extra arms and another with finger joints that could bend in either direction, essentially double palmed. We were laughing together and heading for the door, and as we passed the bar I could just barely make out one word, Bruiseball. *** Now aware of the source of my ache, I headed to the only Bruiseball joint in the city, halfway across town. Bruiseball was popular with the Mute crowd, considering they were better at it than us regulars. I assumed I just tagged along, maybe played a game with some other regulars, but then I got to the place. "Eli the Deadeye!" the four armed man smacked me on the back with two hands and I winced. "This the guy?!" another Mute said walking up. "You got it, Roy. Beat both me and Marty last night," said the man. "Hey so about that-" I started. "Oh I know man, you would not shut up about how you didn't need that thing to remember last night. You got to see this," he says and we hook up our Mems. *** His memor starts from the game of Bruiseball we played, and specifically the moment where I sloppily tossed my ball towards them entirely missing them both. It sailed in between them as they laughed and somehow directly smacked the thing grav pole behind them. With a ricochet more powerful than my throw the ball knocks out Marty before sailing right to my face. The screen goes blank. "Amazing!" yells the Mute as he fast forwards to when he was waking up, water splashed on his face. As the water drips away the vision clears and I can see the lobby of the Bruiseball place before me. The picture froze, but I couldn't make myself out anywhere right away. "You're lucky," the guy said as the image zoomed towards the exit showing my back and the back of blonde girl. "How the fuck..." I said as I removed the wire and asked, "Did anyone catch where we were going?" "Pterries." "No." *** Pterries was, well an interesting place that liked to decorate with all seeing eyes and other occult symbols harkening back to the days of psychics. In reality, through the use of technology, they gave you 'readings' of your possible future as well as other services. I was reluctant to return, but I'd gone this far. I entered the shop and the smell of incense smacked me in the face as I waited for my eyes to adjust the dimmer light inside. "Ahh, welcome back Ellison, I sense you come looking for your past rather than your future," the woman says approaching me. "Yea, well apparently I couldn't keep my mouth shut about turning this thing off so..." I said pointing at my Mem. She laughs lightly and motions for me to follow her into the back areas of the shop where readings were taken. "I do believe Kristine here is who assisted you two last night?" she says opening a curtain. Minutes later I'm already wired into her Mem and she's sending me back to the previous night. Kristine is using the register as myself and the blonde girl pay for whatever service we got. "I still can't believe you two just met tonight, Melds like that are rare!" We smile at her in our inebriated state and leave the shop as she watches us cross the street to the park. Before she heads into the back she watches for a moment. "Cute," she says under her breath as she watches the blonde point to a pond while lifting a leg and pulling off one of her orange socks and handing it to me. I excitedly grab it and give her one of mine while pulling hers one and before we both part ways we hug. I pull the wire out and thank Kristine before running outside and across to the pond where I find the blonde girl. "Took you long enough," she says sticking her out her foot and wiggling her toes after pulling it from her shoe. "Ellison," I say as I sit down next to her and pull my shoe and her sock off. "Nicole," she replies as we swap our socks back "I guess you know what it's like now, huh?" she says, pulling her ear forward to reveal she never had a Mem of her own.