riverviewlogs | Catch All for July

who: Lola Pacini and YOU, and some closed starters
what: Catch All for July
when: Prompts will be marked with specifics on time.
where: Streets of Quarantine, the Gym, School + Closed Threads
warnings: ...None? I’ll edit as any come up.
notes: All starters will be prose, but I’ll match style.

If you want to just throw a Wildcard at Lola, go ahead!

July 1-19
A-1 - Apartment Hunting (first week of July)

”This is harder than I thought…” Lola sighed as she left another apartment. It was really nice, two bedrooms, big kitchen space, decent light. She didn’t have anyone to be her roommate, and had no idea about utility set-ups and all the work to be sure about how to have an apartment.

“Maybe I should find a single. Even if it’ll be lonely…”

A-2 - School Daze (any weekday before the rain)

Lola worked on her homework outside. It was a nice enough day and she enjoyed sun and outdoors. She wasn’t quite putting her all into her math, mostly due to how this wasn’t the high school experience she was expecting. Not having her friends was the major thing, it just felt empty to go through this without them. She’d taken a few cooking classes and kept her classes through the summer just to be sure she wasn’t off track.

She might be a screw up, but she does get what she needs to do. She’s lazily poking at her work when someone stands in her light, “Excuse me, I can’t see my work if you stand there.”

July 20-31
B-1 - Working Out the Frustration (Start of the Rain)

Lola was inside when the green rain started. Which was fine, great, no problem… and then when she went to charge her phone the power went out. Less fine, less okay, kinda mad. How did people ever live without phones!? So there may or may not be a tiny white haired teenager angrily doing a lot more exercise than she planned. Using whatever weight machine she’s comfortable using. She is using it safely but she definitely seems to be overdoing it. She at least isn’t cold.

Maybe try to get her to slow down, or distract her?

B-2 - Back at Home (Floor 2 Communal)

Eventually Lola got herself back to Communal housing, where the power is a bit more stable. So Lola is just going to make some food for… everyone. She’s Lola. Even if she can’t make anything that requires refrigeration… and the garden on the deck is a bit out of reach. She’s still going to make this work. Somehow. She hopes…

Lola’s hair is stark white as she works. Every time she’s tried to put color into it the color just faded out. Probably the storm messing with however the heck her hair works. She’s making a lot of food…

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lola’s issue with her job was schedule. She had classes, even in the summer, and that ate into the best times of day to work at a diner. The afternoon shift was nice but she couldn’t take it every day like at home. She got the best shifts because she set the shift schedule, along with her dad. She couldn’t rely on that anymore so she needed a job that was more functional in its hours. Put her to work in the afternoon/evening or even nights.

“Hello, I saw the help wanted sign, I know it’s a bit early,” Lola felt a little weird coming into a bar this early. She wanted to beat the rush for a better chance at getting hired. Fortunately the allure of entering bars has already passed being here for so long. Legally able to drink was wonderful, even if mostly it was a nice wine pairing at dinner. “Anyone around?”

Lola’s search for a new apartment wasn’t going well, instead she turned her attention to another thing. Finding a new place for Li’s crops. The deck was getting crowded and it might be nice for Li to have more space to work on expanding what she grows. Maybe she’d like it. Not like Lola was making any deals, but she started scouting locations. Inside the city proper space was a bit of a commodity, but in the abandoned city maybe it would be better.

It wasn’t like it was outside the wall, and even if monsters got in, a garden would do alright. Right? Anyway, Lola had been taking notes on her phone of locations that might be good when she heard… something. Lola put it to one side until she heard it again, more of it. It took her a little while to finally look in the right direction.

Up.

Lola was incredibly durable socially, emotionally, there wasn’t much that could be thrown at her she couldn’t just stand up to. Seven giant spiders. Well, not giant, they were each the size of a medium sized dog. That was still. Much too large for her to ever be okay with. Fortunately all her strength gave her one thing she could do very efficiently.

Scream like a little girl (she is a little girl) and run toward the wall. If there was any place she could hopefully find something that could maybe kill large scary spiders.

Akihiko had the same idea as Lola for killing time while the power was out, but it was less out of fury and more just him finally using it to take the initiative to reinstate exercise in his daily schedule. He could only use being a newcomer as an excuse to not keep on his fitness for so long, and he was curious what the local gym offered anyway.

He'd not actually been expecting anyone else to be here, brow creasing when he heard the clinking of weights as he walked out. Still pulling on his padded gloves, he scanned the different machines until he found the other occupant. She definitely was going a fast to be getting the proper benefit from lifting, but it's not really his business.. but on the other hand, she looks upset.

Against potential better judgement, he takes a detour from his date with a punching bag, and instead heads tentatively towards the stranger. He points to a rowing machine across the way from her before taking a seat.

"Hey, would you mind some company? My phones dead, so, no music."

"It's a free country..." Lola said it reflexively, before realizing that that phrase of her's wasn't something she checked into. "I think, I'm not really sure if this is a country or not."

Her repetitions are only sloppy due to how she's rushing and angry, not really from a lack of practice or anything fundamental. She's just unfocused, when it comes right down to it. "How did people manage without the ability to charge phones? Or without phones at all?"

He's still confused by this city--so much space, and so many people and...not all crammed together. Except their communal housing, which was crammed, but still...not awful. Things had color, and there was space and don't even get him started on the food.

And sure, the girl wasn't talking to him. Probably. But hey, talk in his direction, and he'll talk right back. Rules of the road. Or something.

"Worse things than being lonely."

"Well, yeah, but it doesn't mean it doesn't suck."

Lola had gotten a bit too complacent in talking to people, so far all her interactions in this place had been... well, rude at the worst and wonderful at best. So she didn't see too much need to guard herself around strangers.

Also everyone started out a stranger, she'd be lonely if she let that stop her.

"Show me something that doesn't." Everything sucks. It's just how the world works.

Lola considers for a moment, smiles, and closes her eyes. Letting her green hair turn a nice forest green.

"Plenty of things don't suck," Lola might just be easily amused and easily pleased though.

"Give me one example." He's a man of absolutes, stranger.

"Freshly baked cookies. Cherry Blossoms. Nachos. That feeling when you find the perfect shade of eye shadow. An extra half-hour in bed when you have nowhere to be after a week of school and work." Lola Pacini was a creature of simple comforts, but simple comforts were generally hard to make suck. "Oh, and that floaty feeling after working out."

He laughs. "I don't know what half that stuff is." Therefore, he's unconvinced.

"But you only asked for one thing, so I listed more stuff in case you didn't know any of them." It isn't fair if the goal post on 'good things' keeps moving! Why are strangers who don't like the world so rude!?

Nobody's got time for the explanation it would take about why he's so rude. Poorly socialized, for a start.

"Fine. So some things--technically--don't suck." Whatever. "Just don't get why being alone's so bad." Clearly, he's better off without other people. Who also suck.

Catch All for July

Closed to Magnus Bane (appetitive)

Closed to Bellamy Blake (jettisons)

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A1

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