recolle | Send me your flowers of your December (Closed)

Send me your flowers of your December (Closed)

Who: Chloe Bouchard and Dave Strider
What: Flowers and Memories
Where: Enchanted Blossoms
When: 2/13, some time after Dave's post
Warnings: None, any potential memory regains are still bloodless

[Chloe was, as she'd told Dave, still finishing up when the truck pulled in. She sighed, knowing it would keep her on shift a little longer, when she'd wanted to speak with him about what they'd mentioned, more privately and away from the network. Still, they were signed for quickly enough and a shipment of flowers were brought in. A brilliant pink, the Rhododendron shrubs were attractive and had held up well.

She looked over for a bit of help and seeing Dave, waved at him before picking up the first few.]

I guess we can talk in a minute, Dave. Would you mind helping me with them? They smell lovely.

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[ this is closer to the afternoon, since high school student dave had to go to high school, but once he's in the shop he's...tentatively in charge, probably, since mikorin isn't in right now and he's somehow got seniority and a special assistant manageresque badge. why this. dave's absently holding noa the cat, though he places said cat down gently when chloe speaks up, lacing his fingers together and cracking his hands. ]

Yeah, sure. What'd we get in? Not shit we've carried before, yeah?

[It wasn't really as surprising as some might have thought that the two didn't have shifts together that often. She was a graduate now, prepping for college, so her hours were usually when he was in school. She smiled gratefully over to Dave when he piped up and nodded, motioning with her head towards the others.]

One of the growers suggested them, so no I don't think we have. They're an import from Switzerland, I think? I'll read the tag when we get them set up, though it looks like a rhododendron of some sort.

Dang. The boss is gettin' fancy as shit.

[ well. maybe not entirely. but a switzerland import is pretty fancy...they're in just in time for valentine's, too. definitely a good time for brilliantly pink flowers, really. ]

Though maybe it was the color more than anything else that made him get 'em...

[ he's heading over to help chloe with the shrubs now. ]

I would imagine some industrious grower is growing them in America and saying they're from Switzerland. They are pretty, however, so I certainly don't think anyone would complain.

[She laughed at the mention of the color, very softly. Putting them into the cooler, she smiled down at them, holding one up to sniff it before stepping back and going for more. Her eyes had a sort of distant look to them for a moment and she was smiling.]

He has a soft spot for wildflowers. I think a few of the samples are small potted plants, to allow to grow inside the home. I wonder how they would do.

As long as the boss didn't pay more for 'em than he should've I've got no complaints.

[ since sometimes he Worries about mikorin's sense...sometimes. ]

You could always use your discount on one, or take it for a test run? We need to know this shit for when people come in, probably, anyway.

Agreed. They are lovely, but we would not want them to be overpriced. Nobody would buy.

[She paused, kneeling down with one of the potted samples and looking at it for a long moment, her eyes drifting a little while she fingered under the leaves of it. She had a little smile on her face when she looked back at Dave.]

I think that I just might. As you say, we need to know, and it is lovely. People will be buying up the roses after all. Wildflowers like these are so often forgotten...

Did you hear what the price is gonna be set at?

[ dave. you're assistant manager. you should maybe know? but admittedly he only just got here, and he hadn't heard about them before... ]

Personally, I like wildflowers. I mean, roses are nice and all, but my favorites are always a bit less...overdone? I like snapdragons, how they look after they die.

I did not. I think he is still deciding, though it may be in the office.

[She was setting down once again, making sure that the next batch were put into place when he mentioned the snapdragons. That made her laugh a little and look back over her shoulder at him.]

And you, sir, have an impish sense of humor today I see. Snapdragons after death indeed. You might as well dress in black and call yourself one of these goths, no? [She turned back to her work, shifting one of them quietly.] I like prettier blossoms like these. There's just something about them that feels, I don't know, familiar.

Don't they look cool, though? Like, my sister actually has the goth shit on lockdown, but for me...I think they're just neat. I also like sunflowers and shit, though.

[ but the cool dead things interest has never quite been a thing he didn't have. so dead flowers that look cool dead (while nice alive)? yeah, those are his favorites. ]

What do you mean by familiar, though? I guess they look like...a bunch of other flowers, honestly.

Your sister? [She cocked her head and looked over at him.] I do not think we have ever spoken of her. She has an interesting sensibility then. I suppose that they are ... interesting though.

[She looked back down at the flowers and held one in a gloved hand. Her eyes took on a hazy sort of look and she wavered there for a second. Something was at the tip of her tongue, and she was trying to decide where it was when she saw... something.

Mountains, as far as the eye could see. There was an older gentleman, kindly and bearded, dressed in hiking gear. Flowers, alpine roses all, were there and she was kneeling, looking at them, wrapped in that strange green cloak again. The two were talking about them in French quietly, but something felt off. As the memory faded for a moment, it flashed forward to an evening meal, pictures of conversation, but all of them so strange, disjointed, things said that made so little sense in context, the old man talking about a rivalry he once had, how it had cost his family.

Chloe shuddered and dropped down to a seated position, shivering and wide-eyed.]

I... wait... what just happened. Did you see that? Just now?

[ dave had been about to say something else about rose - he can talk about his siblings forever, without missing a single beat, but then chloe went a little strange. dave has seen that distant look before, multiple times. he'd caused it before.

so he just waits it out, pausing his own work, and gives chloe an exceedingly cautious look. ]

Did I see...what? Did you have a... [ there's no real word for it. ] A memory-whatever.

Is that what that was? I...

[It was just like what she'd experienced with Rose in the Recolle building, though the memory was different, or the vision, or the hallucination. It was so hard to say what was what. She got up and sat down heavily into a chair and breathed in and out slowly before closing her eyes, attempting to calm her jangled nerves down.

She spoke after a second, coughing into her hand.] This is like what happened when I visited the app's headquarters. I saw... I know them from pictures. I saw the Alps, flowers just like these, an old man I ate dinner with, walked in the mountains.

It was strange. I have never been to Switzerland, or even the other side of France.

I think so. I don't know, just - it was like a daydream, but it felt real, right?

[ he doesn't have a word for it. ]

A flashback, except the "back" never happened. It's just a flash, to a place you've never been. Right?

Yes, this is a very good description... [She swallowed and shuddered, getting slowly to her feet and going to a seat to settle down.] It was like living through a day I can't remember, with so many holes that I worry what was missing. The man seemed so sad and resigned, and something was strange about it all, surreal. It felt disjointed, unnatural.

Both of them felt this way, like I was just going through the motions of being social, but I didn't really feel it.

You mean you who you were felt different, right? I felt emotions in mine, too, which didn't make sense but maybe would have in context...

[ whatever the fuck the context was. dave will go back to the counter, pull out a water bottle and toss it to chloe. ]

...Mind if I ask what you two were talkin' about?

It did feel different. Pleasant, amused, but cold and distant. I don't entirely understand why. It felt mostly like me, but not the same. [She shook her head.]

It... it was creepy. The conversation in the day was nice. we talked about the alps, about flowers and the scenery. Nothing strange, but at night, we shared a glass of wine, and he was talking about assassins, criminals in Germany. [A shudder] It was ... really quite awful. I don't understand why he would say something like that to a young woman, or what the Soldats are. We talked about wine and I think I was saying the wine at home was better, which of course it is... but it...

It made no sense, Dave. None of it made sense.

I know the feelin'. I felt...different in some of mine.

[ like...less secure. less happy. more resigned to his fate.

it's painting an unhappy picture and dave isn't certain he wants to see the completed masterpiece. ]

None of this makes sense, but...Bro and I think maybe - they feel like memories, you know?

They feel exactly like memories. As if I had forgotten a vacation and was remembering it in my head. But when I ask such things of my mother, she assures me I have never been to the Alps or Corsica, and I have learned not to speak of such things, as she asks if I have been getting enough sleep.

[She shook her head vigorously. She didn't even dare bring it up with her significant other The thought of her reaction was alarming.]

They are not like hallucinations. They are like memories, but of things that cannot be true. Far too detailed to be a waking dream.

I know they're not like hallucinations, but like...well. It seemed accurate for the weird shit I've been rememberin'. It's like deja vu without the original vu, you know? Flashbacks without anythin' ever havin' been there to flashback to.

[ it's weird and he hates it a little bit. ]

And now, you feel as if you felt those things, when you felt them. Saw them and touched them, when you did... but the memory, it is not associated. It does not fit in 'you,' almost like an out of body experience.

Yes?

Yeah, that's exactly it. They felt...it felt like it was me, and it was happening to me, and I remember them. But it makes no damn sense.

[ honestly, though: ]

None of this makes any damn sense.

It is a little like what they say a past life should feel like, only much more intense. [She shook her head.] You know, such as on the psychic shows and productions, where one says "I was a princess in my last life." Nonsense such as this, remembering a thing that you never did.

[She shook her head vigorously.]

But... it felt like the modern world, both times, and it looked as I did. that is not a past life.

Mine felt.........

[ well. ]

Less modern, more absurdist? But I know exactly the feeling you mean.

Absurdist? [She looked at him curiously.] What exactly do you mean by absurdist? That doesn't sound like something that would apply to a vision like this, does it?

Things like sittin' in a pot of boilin' water while crocodiles add veggies.

...
...
...

You... are not joking, are you? [The look she was giving him was one of abject horror. How else was she supposed to react to that kind of revelation?]

Unfortunately not. It's just as weird as it sounds.

[ save him from homestuck. ]

[She rubbed her forehead.] This makes some nice old man talking about spies and the cold war almost pale in comparison, Dave. You realize this, of course? But, at the same time, you are alive, so it could not have been fatal.

...not that this is any consolation really.

Nah, that particular memory didn't end in my death.

[ THE GETTING SHOT ONE SURE DID, THOUGH!!! ]

I wasn't tryin' to outshine you, though. I just am uniquely attacked with ridiculous memories.

Good, well that was still a terrifying adventure, survive it or not. Alligators putting food into a pot with you in it. Like something out of a cartoon.

And I do not worry too much about the outshining. I should feel lucky that my visions have been more tame, if I am being honest.

I guess we still don't really know what this is all about...for now, I guess we kinda have to wait for more stuff to happen before we're sure what's goin' on. I mean...if you ever want to chat about visions, I'm game? But I suppose we should also, like, do our jobs.

[She thought about it for a moment and then got up, dusting off her shirt and pants a bit before nodding to Dave.]

No, you are right. Let us get back to work. We aren't going to find the answers to the questions of life in this situation... not today anyway. Perhaps soon, but until then, we cannot but keep going.

(OOC: Seems a reasonable wrap-up point yes?)

We're not paid to look around bein' pretty, yeah. I mean, maybe we are, Mikorin is kind of ridiculous, but - let's hit it.

[ AND THEN THEY DID THEIR JOBS ]

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Send me your flowers of your December (Closed)

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i'm sorry i got busy w/ modwork

heh, been there. No worries.

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yep sounds like a wrap!