recolle | Something's ... Not Right (Open)

WHO: Chloe and You!
WHERE: In and around Recolle
WHEN: 4/6-4/12
WHAT: Awkwardness as Chloe notices some things are not right with her body
WARNINGS: Nup

Option 1) It was a Thursday, like any other Thursday since she'd gotten this silly app on her phone. She was trying to keep her life normal and together, and doing a good job of it. In fact, following through with Yu and Naoto's request had helped a little, taking some of the worry away from her life. Having just finished her shift, she was walking back towards the bus station to get a ride home when it happened. There at the cross-walk, maybe she was a bit tired, but she started to cross before it was her light. There was a honk of distress from a car and Chloe acted.

Really, she wasn't in any danger. The driver was over-reacting and swerving successfully to miss her. But, the honk caused an immediate reaction. Her body launched back without her thinking, leaping up and into the air, sommersaulting back and landing lightly on her feet. The motion was far too limber for what she should have been able to do. It wasn't like she was in poor shape, but leaping like that in the air felt beyond her. As she landed, her eyes widened and she took two or three shaky steps back before falling unceremoniously on her butt.

"What... just happened?" she said, looking around in shock.

Option 2) When she wasn't helping out with the play, Chloe had a couple of days off on the weekend. She tried to visit the local gym to get a bit of the stress out. There was a horse set up there for those who wished to practice gymnastics, and she found herself staring at it with a nervous look in her eyes. Biting her lips, she walked over and patted it, reaching up to scratch at the back of her head.

"Should I?" she asked, wondering for a moment before going to put chalk on her hands. There was only one way to find out if the strange itching sensation in her arms and legs was real. She was feeling restless, restless like her body wasn't moving the way that it should, that it needed to move.

Option 3) There was bad news on Friday, news she did not want to hear. It had her in Starbucks, fumbling for a drink of mint tea. She wanted to calm her jangled nerves. There had to be a logical explanation for any of this. She was tempted to ask on the network, but at this point she wasn't even carrying her phone with her. She'd warned her boss that if he needed her to call the land-line, that she was trying to test out what happened if she didn't use the network. She wasn't going to break that promise.

She had to know if this was affected by the app, or if it was simply happening. But, as it stood, she was getting nervous and worried... and the tea was only helping a little.

Wildcard (Anything that you want can be managed. Chloe is off network for this week, helping out at the play and frequenting work. She has just experienced the return of her natural athleticism and agility, along with the realization that her hair color actually changed last month and wasn't dyed while drunk like she thought. It's causing her to start to freak out again. Either way, if your character wants to meet up with her, we can handwave that they left a message on her answering machine at home.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, most definitely. I was raised in a vineyard, so working with plants is an every day thing for me. I wish to attend college so I can get a degree in business and open my own shop. Perhaps one of those suppliers that brings him the flowers and sells ones for people to plant in their homes?" She definitely loved talking about flowers. It was an unabashed passion of hers, and one she loved to share with others. "I think it has been one of my dreams for many years now, in fact. Hopefully you can find one for yourself soon too."

"I hope so too!" But he's in no hurry to find a dream, content on idling his days away in coffee shops like this one, getting a laugh out before he sticks the tip of his tongue into his tea to check the temperature, and withdrawing it right away. More than his own dreams, he loves hearing people talk about theirs, he loves living vicariously through their words. "What was growing up in a vineyard like? I don't know if we have any here in Recollé."

"Well, I would say it is lonely compared to here, but it never felt that lonely. I was always with my mother and those who worked for her during the harvest season." She shrugged as she described it, though the smile on her face was a warm one, full of nostalgia for the land of her birth. "It was hard work, very physical, but also very fulfilling. I always felt as if my hands were being put to good use, and I grew up knowing a lot about plants."

Recollé certainly has so many people that it's hard to feel lonely; one barely needs to strain to hear the chatter present at all times of day, the rumble of cars outside, and somebody or other's cellphone going off with an incoming call or message. In comparison to a city, hands-on work at a vineyard sounds... well, exactly as Chloe says: fulfilling. Even though Ryoji hopped from one country to the next in his past, for the most part, he was an observer; he never really got to work with his hands, and admires Chloe for having that experience.

"You grew grapes in the vineyard, right? Did you ever get to do a grape stomp? I think I saw something like it on television once." It was probably a history channel or reenactment, but it looked fun despite being impractical.

"I did. Ours was a bit of a traditional vineyard, so we did many things the old-fashioned way," she said. "I've pounded out grain by hand, even when I was studying my home schooling by candlelight. All of the technology here, I've gotten used to, but there are days where it is a touch overwhelming for me. The simplicity of home is a very big difference from what I am accustomed to seeing."

"Oh! Was there no electricity at all, or simply not very wide-spread?" If anything, it sounds like Chloe is from a different time altogether, not just place. "I love watching flames, but the only candles my mother and I ever got to use at home were for emergencies like blackouts, like what happened at the start of last month."

"There was electricity, but we were in the far country. It was by generator, so we did not use it unless we truly needed it." Her life wasn't so much from another time, but from a place that time had forgotten. It was far off of the beaten paths, where only the locals ever seemed to remember that it existed.

"Watching flames? That can actually be fun. They dance and hypnotize with their flickering, do they not?"

"Yes, I could watch the flames forever, until they burn out or I fall asleep— that would be a safety hazard." And one of the reasons why his mother doesn't let him burn candles, or leave the kitchen with the stove still on, or try to unclog the fireplace so that it could hold fire within.

"But the city is fun too!" He has to defend the cities, having grown up immersed in this very one. "It's busy and crowded, but I like having so many people at arm's length. In this way, it never feels lonely, and there's always something new to see or events to experience."

"It would, but I suppose it's not such a horrible thing, as long as you don't burn the house down, yes?" A smirk and she shook her head in amusement. "And yes, I like the crowds of the city, though you know... it is possible to feel very alone in a crowd, if you want. All you have to do is not draw attention to yourself, and you just sort of blend in."

"I see what you mean. I can't imagine a time where I'd want to feel alone in a crowd," he admits, head dipping slightly. "Unless I'm in a hurry to get somewhere and can't stop for conversation, I suppose." Those times are few and far between though, as he always tended to take things very leisurely, with no hard deadlines so that he can do what he's doing now: meeting somebody off the street and having the time to grab tea just because the opportunity presented itself.

She could imagine the girl that she had seen wanting it... and yet they never seemed to want it, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Her motives were hard to understand. For her own, though, it was easier. "Neither could I, though I can imagine reasons it might be handy. Always practical reasons, though." Not really the sort related to happiness or comfort, just for the purposes of getting something done.

"Practical reasons..." He repeats the phrase, turning it around in his head, but eventually just picks up his tea again and nurses it for a few moments. Whatever reasons those are, they're not really points of discussion, so, the reason they're here in the first place—

"Are you alright with the whole gymnastics thing now?" he asks over the rim of his cup, "Or would it be worth talking more about it?"

"I... have no real idea," she said, shaking her head. "Why would someone train this much, someone who used to visit strangers' homes in the middle of the night and be threatened by them with a gun?"

She frowned. "Why would anyone who did such a thing want or need to train so that their body could move as mine did? It feels like something out of a bad movie. But, at the same time, it is not as if it is bad to be limber like that, is it?"

"There... could be other explanations," Ryoji says, trying to sound reassuring but ultimately falling flat because he's having trouble thinking of what else could be, besides taking these things at face value and admitting to the danger that they hint at. He wants to remain optimistic about things, to the point of naivety if he has to.

"Maybe it was a movie. Maybe you were a stunt actress?" It's a stretch! But it's one he pitches anyways, because that takes into account all that training and Chloe's ability to move as she does, and at the same time, addresses why somebody would point a gun at her, somebody who Ryoji believes to be kind and level headed, not one to provoke fights nor find herself in the middle of them.

"There could, but they'd probably be equally weird and comical," she admitted with a bit of a small smirk. "I'd take one of them over the most likely option, mind you. Such as the stunt actor option. I don't want to think of myself as this person, but maybe you're right? Maybe I am seeing the visions of some stunt double or martial art actress on the set of her next movie. It might... make a few things make more sense, like how she could never be scarred at all. Someone doesn't live that kind of life, after all, and not get scars."

Something's ... Not Right (Open)

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