riverviewlogs | October Catch-All

(Memories)

(If you want to just toss a starter in a dreamscape here, or have your character seeking out Lola after experiencing one of her memories we've talked over, just drop it here. Or contact me on Plurk. Lola's starters will go up here over the next day or so.)

To anyone wandering around the communal housing building they might spot Lola, outside the balconies, wearing a strange pair of boots. White boots covered in pink gemstones, with a bit of a heel. And a motorcycle helmet. She's jumping in place, just under the balcony for Floor 2. Most of the time this just looks like she's doing some weird exercise regimen. In a bike helmet. For some reason.

Until there's a kick of energy out of her shiny new boots and she jumps high enough to get to the rail of the second floor. Or... almost there. Sometimes she lands on the balcony, making it over the edge. Other times she catches the edge with her hands and has to climb up and over.

And sometimes she falls into a makeshift roll to keep from breaking any of her bones on the way down. Look she isn't very good at this. But it does explain the motorcycle helmet she has on.

Lola had been less interested in wandering and seeing things and places with all the ghosts and spookiness... and memories. Basically everything decided to happen at once and she didn't like any of it. It felt weirdly intrusive to see people's memories, she certainly had memories she didn't want the world seeing either. Still, she couldn't just hide until things got better.

Especially when she wasn't quite okay with going to floor six yet.

So she made some food (soup, sandwiches, cookies), packed it up, and wandered over to visit someone she was more okay with visiting. Lola decided to get into the spooky spirit with blacks, grays, and little accents of green and pink. Her hair was that dark witchy green everyone uses for Halloween. She glanced around the house looking for lions, before walking up to the door and knocking.

Eventually Lola will get over her issue visiting floor six. It was a little too new, that another person Lola cared about wasn't here. And Lola usually spent a little bit of time just avoiding spots that had to do with them. The fact that a lot of her friends were on floor six was a problem.

But there were solutions, for instance, haunting the space around Jason's bike, was a pretty good way to make sure Jason had to deal with her. She was sure he'd give her his attention anyway, even without the somewhat clandestine nature of waiting for him here. Plus there was a reason for this, a good reason. Lola decided to go with pink as her motif for the day, hair, accents, jewelry. As she fiddled with her phone and thought about various memories she'd seen of others in the Quarantine. Such weird memories to deal with.

She may be lost in someone else's memory when Jason gets down to his bike.

Both Lions looked right at the door as Lola knocked. It was almost like having dogs, except they didn't bark.

"I'll get it," Keith called. Shiro had been having a rough time with the memory stuff, so Keith had sort of just been taking on more of the day-to-day things around the house automatically. It wasn't even a question. He just did it. Though, with the Black Lion having taken out the banister on the stairs the other day while trying to get Keith's attention during one of Shiro's worse days, getting the Black Paladin up and doing things for the day seemed to be a better course of action... if only to keep the Lion from getting worried...

As odd as that sounded...

Keith glanced through the window and recognized Lola right away. He smiled a little despite himself, and then opened the door.

"Hey, Lola," he said. "Here for some candy?" He smirked a little, noting her spirited look.

"Um, no, just... hadn't met your new friends yet. Plus I brought some food for you guys." Lola wasn't sure how much the pair were able to, well, cook. She knew they lived on a spaceship of food goo, so that didn't really tell her much about what they could handle. Plus bringing food was the best way to never be turned away, you had food! "I mean, if you have candy, I won't say know. I can always go for something sweet."

Lola was smiling because she was usually smiling. Sometimes it was the real smile, like now. Her eyes may have had something other than candy in mind with what she said. But often it was just her way of burying her own feelings she didn't want to deal with. The memory share thing was, well, unhelpful. She noticed the banister, "Remodeling?"

It was obvious from the start of this dream who it belonged to, a vast wide open space in a school, and off to the side watching everyone was one Lola Pacini... and behind that Lola Pacini was a second Lola watching her younger self. Equally obvious was which girl was 'real' and which one was an echo of the girl's younger self.

The Lola with snow colored hair was the real one, she was dressed like she usually did in bright florals and pretty colors, but her hair was the color it was as she slept. She was watching from the background as her younger self went through... this. Although the pair were perfectly matched in their expressions. Clearly jealous, clearly angry. All the pretty little girls with their pretty moms to spend the afternoon with them. Sitting and talking and having tea cakes and tea. Too lost in watching things play out again, the way they always do, to really see who was in this memory with her.

While it's certainly not the most... intense of dreams that she's seen during this strange week, Lola's dream is one of the ones that hits closest to home for Beverly. Not only does she remember the trials of being a teenager, she remembers all too well what it was like not to have her mother (or her father) around and she thinks of Wesley too, without Jack there. Granted, the reasons they weren't there were different than they appear to be for Lola, but she feels for the girl nonetheless.

"Lola?" She calls out to the real Lola softly, not wanting to startle her.

Lola was pretty sure she wouldn't be alone in here, cause that's how this works, right? She glanced over and then did what anyone would do when faced with a humiliating past moment on display for someone who has no need to know about this. It's called playing it off. Lola shifts to being a little more cool, a little less angry.

"Is that really how my hair looked from the back? I really shouldn't have done that style for so long," Totally smooth, totally calm, totally false. It didn't help that her in the moment, this phantom of her past, was just as angry and just as bitter as always with this sort of thing. Letting hope crawl in and letting reality smash it with a hammer. Lola was younger and not as good at hiding things as when she grew up a little, had more things to hide. More weaknesses to cover.

Keith's smirk remained in place at her comment about candy and sweets, and he huffed out a small chuckle in response.

"Thanks," he said. "Come on in." But she did notice the banister. It was kind of hard to miss, really, considering the prominent placement of the stairs in the front living area. "Aahhh..." He scratched the back of his head, glancing over at the Black Lion a little sheepishly. "Sort of." He looked back at Lola as they walked in, and he put his hand out in an unspoken offer to take the container of food from her so she could settle in a little easier.

"Black tried to get upstairs, and we found out the hard way that they were a little narrow for its bulk." He shrugged. "It was an accident, but I think we might just end up redoing the stairs altogether at this point. It's not a bad idea to have a wide enough access so it can get up there if it needs to." Shiro hadn't unlocked the balcony that morning, and he locked it every night. Black usually used that during the day to get upstairs for now, but, if something happened again like last time, then they were going to need a second route for Black to get upstairs.

Lola looked around at the house before focusing in on the Lions. Getting a lay of the land, seeing how many giant lion scratches were in the furniture. Things like that. Trying to figure out how friendly they were before she approached one.

"It is kinda unfair to have parts of the house they can't get to, right?" She wandered around, getting a layout of the house as much as anything. New things were always worth exploring, especially since Keith lived here. And, well, she needed to keep who she had closer if people kept leaving her. Right? "So, having fun with all the memories floating around?"

Lola that is not how to approach this.

"Lola..."

It's hard to know how to approach this, when neither of them asked for Beverly to be here and she's certainly not looking to push Lola into talking about anything that she's not ready to talk about, yet she can hardly pretend this is nothing.

"I'm sorry that I saw something that you didn't want me to see, but you don't have to pretend everything's okay."

"It isn't a secret or anything." Lola hopped up and walked over to stare at, well, herself. Watching the other her dismiss Shay and sit there, waiting. Lola's easily pushed into talking about things. To her this is just... the truth, of who she is. She's accepted it she just doesn't like it. Being in this memory, seeing the afterimage of herself and friends, well that makes it a little more than just talking about it.

Being reminded that it hurt this much.

"She left when I was eight, but she kept promising to be there. And I kept believing her." This wasn't the first, nor last, time Lola had been left waiting for a woman who never had the time. Lola wasn't sure if it hurt her, or if she didn't care, but that woman never showed up.

"Yeah... we usually leave the balcony door unlocked during the day so it can go that way, but it was locked that morning, and yeah..."

Keith shrugged, not sure he really wanted to get into the full details as to why it had been locked. So, he just let it drift off into nothing. He put the food on the dining table. As Lola looked around and explored, she was watched by both Lions, their unblinking robot eyes following her every move.

"Memories?" Keith looked down. Considering that was the reason Black took out the banister? Not really. He shook his head. "It hasn't been easy. There have been some... well, some bad ones."

The floor wasn't as active as it had been, at least in Jason's mind, since Yuffie vanished. He had stashed her stolen goods in case she ever returned but aside from that he returned to the mundane grind of his day to day life, he had noticed the absence of the colorful friend, girlfriend, whatever Lola was to Yuffie.

Jason had just stepped out into the garage placing a cigarette between his lips he pulled the zippo out and was about to light up when he saw the head of pink hair near his bike, the lighter shoved back in his pocket as he made his way over pulling the cigarette back from his lips sticking it back in the silver case and slipping that back in his jacket. The bike was still realitively warm, he had only returned home from work an hour before but he had a damn routine here that drove him up a wall. He came home showered and ate then headed out until the earliest of hours in the morning. It was showing in his face this last week to, the lack of sleep had both eyes looking like he had been punched.

"Lookin' good, Pink." He spoke as he moved over standing before her as he crossed his arms over his chest, making his jacket jingle in the process. The matching pink was nice, it looked good on her. "Let me know when you go for blood red." He spoke as he uncrossed an arm to tap his dark hair, as if to say dying her hair that color. It was possible, she might be seeing the memory of a tiny boy in yellow and green.

"It's kinda weird, being forced to live through bits of other people. Although a lot of the ones I got didn't make sense." Of course Lola might have trouble understanding things too far outside her realm of experience. And without drawing a line between two items it becomes hard for her to put it into words.

She'll finally stop and sit down, waving at the two lions that have definitely been watching her. She thinks. Robot eyes are weird. "I guess it makes it harder to keep secrets, if you don't know whose seen what about your past."

It took Lola a second to respond, waiting for the memory to end and for her to come back. She did catch what he said, but with her mind lost in badguy fighting it was a little hard to respond. Her confusion over the memory vanished into a warm smile as she glanced up at Jason. "Why would anyone wear that much red, green, and yellow at the same time..."

She shakes the memory off, and draws two fingers over some of her bangs. Turning the pink hair blood red over her right eye. Because Lola is a showoff. Plus it was October, scary evil colors are in this season. "Anyway, random memory isn't why I'm here, I need a favor."

"...Red, green and yellow?" Oh god be Grayson. "Cape and a R on their chest?" He asked hoping, praying it was Grayson. But he returned the smile to her without a word more on it just yet.

"...That is cool as fuck." He didn't know she had power yet, but what a cool power to have. He grinned a bit wider at that. Blood Red was always his favorite as the accents on the bike clearly show, and how much red he wears. "I would hope not, what's up, Lo?" He asked, of course his nickname for her was lame but he had reason.

"Cape yes. Not sure what was on the chest? Someone you know? They had to be pretty young cause I didn't feel any taller." It was very disorienting when she got a memory from someone, you know, tall. It was like she was standing on a chair only able to walk.

Lola grinned about the appreciation of her hair game, most people just questioned it. And questioned why she would do such a thing. "Um, I was thinking about getting one of these. But... I don't know how to ride one." Lola pointed at his motorcycle. She'd done research as to the pros and cons of getting one, risks to riding without a helmet. Risks riding with a helmet. Licencing requirements. The final choice was determining that it'd look really cool.

...and maybe that thing she read about the vibrations of the engine.

"Jesus fucking Christ..." he reached up rubbing at his temples like he felt a stress headache. "What was happening...there's four people that could be." He had a good idea who it was because his Robin days he had been the smallest, even compared to Damian, and Lola was about that size. He was thankful he had been a late bloomer and not just stuck small forever like Tim was.

Jason cracked his eyes open looking at the bike. "You'll need a helmet if you want to do this. While I am fine endangering my own life, Im not okay with endangering you much..." He has to say much since he had already driven her home once on it. "Otherwise, sure, I'll teach you how to ride." Realizing how that sounded as soon as it left his mouth he headded. "Motorcycles, how to ride motorcyles."

"Um, there was a hostage exchange and escaping a guy with skin problems over half his body and an ugly suit to match it? And a guy dressed like a bat who was honestly the least weirdly dressed of every guy there." Lola's really good at describing things. "Wait, why would four different people wear an outfit like that?"

"I know," Lola was more than aware of the importance of safety, "I might not be the smartest but I need all my brain on the inside of my head." It seemed rather obvious, head hitting pavement is bad. She wasn't quite sure why Jason went without either, maybe she'd ask when they got to lessons. It was fortunate Lola completely missed how Jason slipped up. "So, um, how's Floor six?"

He face palmed hard, almost hard enough to hurt himself. "Of course, of course, why the fuck not." He sighed and rolled his eyes. "You saw Robin and Batman stopping Two-Face. All three are pretty famous back home in Gotham." Yep, he's the tall mystery man from the masquerade. "Robin is more of a title than a name. Robin is the side kick to Batman, but Robin is always a young boy, you don't want to see what a grown ass man looks like in those tights. It's part of the gig. So yeah, there has been four of us and after one got killed, the other two wised up and got the choice to wear fucking pants." He figured it was he shorts she was talking about.

"Everyone seems cool when I am there, I'm out more days than in." Without Yuffie he didn't see a lot of point when he only hung with the Elrics on the floor. He moved to push the bike up some to kick up the kick stand. "Good to know you have a brain under that hair, well, Come on, we can at least go find a feild to practice in unless you have a helmet with you."

Keith shrugged.

"I guess it depends on experience," he said. "I mean, if you're seeing someone's world and it's different than yours, then there might be stuff that's easy to not understand."

He sat down as well.

"I don't know who's seen anything of mine, yet..."

At Lola's wave, Red got up first and came over. She was the smaller of the two Lions, and also bonded to Keith, so it made sense. She was definitely a robot, as the sounds made with her movement reflected that... servos, gears, pumps, the metallic sound of her paws on the floor... but her actual movement and the way she looked at Lola as if judging her character were more alive, like an actual lion... maybe even a little smarter.

"She's your mother, why wouldn't you want to believe her?" she says, her voice soft. "I know we haven't known each other very long but in my opinion, she's missing out."

"Because believing in her gets me hurt, and you gotta be really dumb to let someone hurt you like this over and over." Lola being all serious and real is weird, she doesn't do it too often. There's always that moment she gets excited, or distracted, or both, and hairs off in a new direction putting her troubles aside.

October Catch-All

MEMORY SHARE

OPEN - These Boots were Made for... Jumping?

CLOSED - Keith and Shiro

CLOSED - Jason

no subject

no subject

CLOSED - Beverly

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject