Memory Mingle

[gigadevilbreaker]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Everywhere!
When: 120 afternoon to whenever

[Did you get some points from that game? Why not buy some memories]

Comments

day 121 afternoon (tw: carcrash)

[foolishjourney]

[a memory rolls onto the screens:

Lily stands, no more than 10 years old, on the road of a large bridge. He's staring down at a flipped car, on fire, with the mangled bodies of his parents within.

How he got out of the car, completely unscathed, is completely unknown. Lily's expression is blank in the way one might expect someone in shock to look, and he doesn't make a sound.

Lily himself, present day, sits on a couch nearby in the lobby, staring blankly into the distance.]

[maleficafe]

[gently places a hand on his shoulder]

[foolishjourney]

[it actually takes him a second to acknowledge that Lav was there]

...Makes sense.

[maleficafe]

Mm. You were young... so you must have been alone for a long time.

[foolishjourney]

I bounced around from house to house for years. No one wanted to keep me.

[maleficafe]

They should have. Whoever it was. They should have wanted you around.

[foolishjourney]

They thought I was weird. An attention seeker. That I cried too much, and I scared their kids when I talked about the time of day with all the blood and coffins. I was obviously messed up after seeing what I had seen.

I tried to conform to what they wanted, to deal with no one wanting me. But then I was the creepy emotionless kid who had no friends. And they still didn't like me.

That's why I went away to school. So I'd stop being a burden.

[maleficafe]

... you know you're not a burden, right?

[foolishjourney]

[hesitation—]

I was to them. Here, I...

...No. I'm not.

[maleficafe]

You're not. You never were.

[sits next to him]

You're part of a family now.

[foolishjourney]

[takes a sharp breath in — that is what LiliS is to him, isn't it?]

Yeah. I am.

But... they keep taking our family away from us. Iris is gone...

[and little does he know yet, but Hellebore is, too.]

[foolmetwice]

[. . . takes a seat next to him]

[foolishjourney]

[stays quiet for a long time, before he finally speaks up]

I guess that explains that.

[foolmetwice]

[frowns]

Explains what?

[foolishjourney]

Why I didn't have a home.

[foolmetwice]

[quiet for a very, very long moment. . . before he just leans against Lily gently]

[foolishjourney]

[this is fine, this is good, he doesn't really want to talk too much about it, anyways. what's there to talk about, even? he feels like a little kid still, traumatized and broken, and it's just dredging up the feelings of his past that he'd been avoiding thinking about much since he gained those memories back.

he leans back against him, eyes closing as he takes in a deep breath]

[foolmetwice]

[Mars kind of wants to talk about it, but. . . he isn't exactly the greatest with words, is he? and one of the earliest things he learned with Lily was that sometimes, distractions were way better than words]

Hey. . . so.

[shifts a little bit, to take Lily's hand in his own, idly playing with his fingers]

Wanna go on that park date we talked about yesterday?

[foolishjourney]

[mmm...]

Give me a few? Meet back here in... 30 minutes?

[foolmetwice]

[ah. . .]

. . . you don't want me to sit with you for thirty minutes?

[foolishjourney]

No, it's not that. I want to go back to my dorm for a moment, change, wash my face. That kind of stuff. I feel kind of gross.

[worthathousand]

[ She won’t press to be the first to speak to him; she’ll wait her turn, try not to crowd him. —In fact, she knows exactly how she wants to use these first few minutes he’ll surely spend with Lavender and Mars.

Once she has a chance, Amaranth approaches him—this time with a cup of green tea, which she offers him. ]

I saw your memory as well. It’s alright if you’d rather not speak about it any more; I just wanted to... be here.

[foolishjourney]

[he's at least doing a little bit better after the initial shock, and he looks between Amaranth and the cup before taking it carefully, wrapping both hands around it to feel the warmth against his palms]

Thank you, Amaranth. I appreciate it.

[a pause]

If you'd like to sit...

[worthathousand]

[ a small smile ] I'd love to sit.

[ she'll pause, then; lets him get comfortable with the tea before speaking again ]

...Those were your parents in that memory, weren't they.

[foolishjourney]

[he takes another sip before responding]

...Yes.

[stares down into his tea, expression neutral, debating...]

It explains a lot of things.