let's believe in something small [open and closed]

[toten_sie]

Who: Randel + others, possibly Randel + you!
Where: Lotus Street Animal Shelter, A Certain Lake, Around Town, Grocery Store
When: after that first week in town
What: a couple of 'reunions', a cat cafe, and business to do
Warnings: none so far


[closed to Pepper]
He's been looking for familiar things and comfortable places and for some reason, that's brought him to a small lake. It's brought him there a few times, actually, almost frustrating in how tantalizingly close it seems like he might be to getting something familiar. But it's during one of those walks that he spots someone else... and his legs are moving before he even realizes that he knows her name.

"Pepper?"


[closed to Izumi]
He's taken to walking a lot: sometimes in the town to see if he can remember people, and sometimes out in the park or near the woods to get away from all the things that just don't seem right. It's during one of those park walks that he spots someone who finally starts ringing a bell and those long legs eat up the distance pretty quickly.

"I know you!"


[open]
While he still doesn't remember so much of this, while he's still suspicious and awkward about so much of the life that's supposedly his, Randel's never been one to shirk when there's a job to do, which was why he'd gone to the animal shelter and gotten to. ...there may have been some time with the kittens, which the other workers hadn't begrudged him, honestly, but then there was work to do. Part of that involved heading out to the grocery store to pick up supplies, to the pet store to pick up other supplies, and the hardware store for a few odds and ends that the other two couldn't provide. There's plenty to do and Randel's actually enjoying himself, getting along well with the volunteers and other employees... and maybe he ends up taking his breaks in the cat cafe just to spend more time with the animals but no one would begrudge him that.

Things are still confusing and he really really doesn't like the signs and some of the more suspicious aspects (like Why Everyone Was In A Car Accident) but he can't see how helping animals and making people feel better could make matters worse. That said, he's keeping his eyes out... and he's keeping his lantern on him at all times.

Comments

grocery store .. a long time ago, we used to be friends but i haven't thought of you lately at all

[unforgivably]

Vampire or not, Damon grocery shops, if not to keep up appearances, because he does like the taste of food. It tastes different as a vampire, and no better, but he's a contributing member to this society and for all intents and purposes, human. The more friends he acquires, the more food he'll need in the house, anyway. Booze only takes him so far with a town full of paranoid crazy lightweights. Between Elizabeth Bathory and her St. Patrick's wings, Jefferson's full-on mental breakdown in his presence, and his misstep with Kenzi in the car, he's batting two for five when it comes to meaningful interactions. Jaiying is his safe space, when it comes down to somebody to confide in. (Yes, that's due to the compulsion, but, details.)

One reason Damon does anything in this town is how close he feels to someone he can't speak of when doing them. He's only discussed 1994 with his brother, and never for long periods of time thanks to their estrangement. But, besides missing Elena, he misses his best friend, Bonnie. They made pancakes, did crosswords, and they went grocery shopping.

Which is why, it's easy to go through the motions today, snag a pair of blue aviators off of a rack for old times' sake, and wander around the store. He even found black flannel. 90's is flannel, after all. He's both grateful and nostalgic there isn't a big grunge scene in this town.

Between the scenarios they could be a part of, prison world often sits up at the top of his list. This town is achingly similar to what he and Bonnie encountered for months before Kai made himself known. The difference here is, this prison world affects your mind, and isn't that more useful? The Geminis must have come up with everything.

But, a guy's gotta eat while he's mourning the loss of his best friend, and to eat, one needs to grocery shop.

His cell phone tucked into his pocket, Damon rounds the corner to the bread aisle, Oprah jokes running rampant through his mind. (She. Loves. Bread.) They'd be lost on everyone here, if he's honest. The decision between sour dough and wheat bread furrows his brow as he glances over. It's a sensation he's tired of. This is what being in transition is like. Memories return, bold, technicolor memories you're usually compelled to forget slide themselves into place, but the difference here is none of this could have happened. This guy couldn't have beaten him to captain of the football team. Damon was never on a football team. Several emotions run through him, the most prevalent a seething animosity that, luckily, simmers itself down. What's left is a conflicting sensation when he runs into somebody he's not exactly happy to see, but he otherwise doesn't bother with.

This. Town.

There are times like these when he can't hold himself back, where another part of him takes over, the elitist who achieved his dream, but still longs for something. He's only scratched the surface.

He can make nice with his wife's best friend. He is capable of restraint.

"Here, I was going to ask you if you'd seen my wife today, but seeing as she's not on your arm, I'm guessing she's moved onto some other flight of fancy," he starts, disparaging their friendship first. Damon knows their friendship is real (or he knows, inherently), but his default defenses haven't evolved. There are some things about Damon Salvatore that are exactly the same. And here, he'd thought he'd grown over the years. He hates being married to Katherine Pierce, or isn't that clear to everyone in this town.

[toten_sie]

The grocery store had been one of the first stops, as much because of the fact that he needed to pick up a few things for himself as because they needed to get ready for the afternoon's cafe work: vegetarian meant vegetables and that meant fresh food. It's been long enough since he woke up that some hazy memories are starting to slot into place, a few more bits and pieces of his past along with a few bits and pieces of a past that fits here, all of it deeply confusing and most of it just... frustrating. He's no stranger, after all, to having his body meddled with, and his mind, but at least the lantern was a trigger that he controlled. At least the terrible nightmares felt like justice of a sort. But this... all of this...

Not being sure of who he is makes him want to punch walls, but that isn't helpful to anyone. Instead, he clings to the memories that match to what he feels, the things he can touch, the way the world shudders when he smells blood from a cat scratch or something else. The lantern. Only one set of memories deals with the lantern and he's absolutely sure of little else.

But this is the first time that the other set of memories have touched on something, someone real. Someone who can speak, who can talk about half-remembered moments in a life so much more prosaic than his own ever was. Where he was a football star. Where there's a father there and the strongest memory isn't that of those gentle hands wrapped around a throat and the salty scent of tears. He just stares at Damon for a good half a minute while his world wobbles, shifts and divides, shatters and mixes and starts to rebuild itself and-

And he remembers a good friend.

He remembers another friend who could have been a good friend.

"I haven't seen her since I got out of the hospital," he says back, keeping his voice carefully neutral, quiet, peaceable, really. "I hope you're both doing well, though."

[unforgivably]

Damon waits for the response, not for things to sink in, though that's what's happening, but for how Randel will regard him. Damon advances. Randel usually retreats, forget parrying.

"We're doing fine. Everything's status quo with us," he says, fighting through the urge to give him the party line, that they're working on their marriage. He doesn't want to give Randel the time of day with that. No reason to give him anything he can hold over Damon. Not that he would. And isn't that the truth between them. Damon holds the key to one-sided animosity.

Of course Randel was in the hospital, because last month Damon knows he wasn't here. More figments added to their reality.

"They tend to not call loved ones when we end up in the hospital," he says, tossing him a bone so-to-speak. But, knowing Katherine has a friend in this place, somehow. Or, had? Could have? It softens the interaction further. "You should give her a call. She has a cell phone now and everything. For anything you -- need." Familiarity wars with Damon not needing to be needlessly prickly. "How's your dad?"

[toten_sie]

"I don't know. My memory is... spotty," he says, still keeping his voice down, still keeping his eyes down. He'd been in the middle of picking up a carton of eggs and he decides to be particularly careful, turning each egg to make sure they aren't cracked before placing it in the basket with the rest of his purchases.

"But I should hope he's fine." Gone says the echoes inside his heart. His father is gone. His mother is...

Dead. His mother is dead. There's an impression of fire, something burning, and then that memory again, a burning on his cheek. He almost puts a hand there as the sensation comes to him but he keeps it down. He won't share that, not with Damon. He knows how cruel the other man can be and while he won't parry, he won't hand him the sword either.

"I'll have to ask her for the number next time I see her. For the phone."

Asking without asking. He's not sure how Damon and Katherine are doing right now, and there's a bit of guilt that he doesn't know that, alongside the knowledge that he shouldn't know that because he doesn't know these people. Except for how he does.

Kauplan echoes through his brain, and he doesn't know why or how or to what purpose. What it means. Maybe that's a word for this kind of frustration in some language he apparently knows.

"I'm glad you're both fine. Just... out doing a little shopping for this afternoon. And for myself. There was no food in the house when I got back."

[unforgivably]

Damon watches as he checks the eggs. So as to stop blocking the end of the aisle, he brings his cart closer and stops it against the side of the aisle Randel finds himself in. They're making conversation, he might as well park. Damon holds back that Randel's father probably isn't in this town, unless he's lucky like Damon is, to have Stefan.

Usually, Damon is cruel when necessary, or he's cruel to be kind. Here, he's cruel. It's a color he hasn't painted with in a year, now, his spiral more about making his mother, and then her lover pay, but he hadn't snapped the neck of Jeremy Gilbert or erased Elena's memory of him declaring his love for her, or anything comparable. Playing the part this month is proving to be tricky as Damon's conscience has grown louder over the years.

"Ours, either. Seems we were in an accident the day we were going to grocery shop. Or, we were making minimal effort at being adults. We tend to order take out from the local places, or walk to Lagomarchino's. It never gets old." And he says that as if, it should. It really should. It's confection and deli and that's it. We stocked up the next day. We've managed to at least keep the bar stocked. Priorities, am I right?"

One hand on the handle of his cart, his fingers tap. If there's one thing Damon can do, it's better a situation. He doesn't have all the facts, but he has a general overview of how these interactions usually go.

"Here," he says, picking up the list he'd hastily written with his brother's input before tearing off a piece. Out of one pen comes his black Razr and another, his pen he'd been using to cross things off, before he flips it open and finds his contacts. Finding Katherine's number, he jots it down on the paper against his eggs. Carefully. Moving around the cart, he hands the paper over, holding it out. "She likes getting calls. Hates getting voicemails, so she usually picks up. But, you know that." He's been on their answering machine. Or, home network -- phone. "Look, I think we should all be grateful that, when we get into these frequent town-wide accidents, that we're not more hurt. So, I am," he says. "Glad you're not hurt."

deja vu.

[ceoinstilettos]

[ pepper had walked around town a few times now, but nothing had really jumped out at her. she sighed, growing more and more frustrated, because this place should hold an assortment of memories, but all she could recall at the moment was that she couldn’t stand hospitals. not the most surprising revelation… ]

[ somehow she found herself standing at the end of the dock at the lake. there was just something about this place that, a feeling of familiarity, that she couldn’t shake. ] There’s got to be some— Hn? [ someone that recognized her? she turned to see randel approaching, her heel slipping in between the uneven planks and causing her to lose her balance. an undignified yelp left her as she tried not to fall into the lake. ]

[toten_sie]

[ ...he'd have done this even if he DIDN'T suddenly have the brightest, most intense sort of memory of this very thing, this very moment, come crashing through his brain. He's faster now, though, stronger, and his arms are longer. But he was much further away and- ]

Pepper!

[ His friend. And there's so many memories that come flooding in as he sees her, as he jumps to try and keep her from falling into the lake again and all of it is warm and good and

And not his. It can't be his. He doesn't have good things like that. That isn't his life. It can't be. But it doesn't matter. Even if the past isn't real, Pepper is still his friend. And he's still going to try and catch her. ]

[ceoinstilettos]

[ and it’s alright. she can only imagine what it feels like to have a sudden realization and to see a glimmer of hope after grasping at straws and ambling around in the dark for so long. ]

Randel! [ she calls out for him, hard. thinking about how she’s recounted him. but there’s not much time to figure out what else she might have remembered in this instant when she’s flailing her arms and trying to keep from tumbling into the lake at her back. their fingers brush as he doesn’t quite reach her and – splash – she disappears in the murky water. ]

[ talk about déjà vu. ]

[ as she breeches the surface she gasps for air, the water a lot colder than she would have thought. ] Oh god, get me out of here. [ she’ll laugh about it later, maybe, but for now she just move back over to the dock and try to lift herself out. this is not the water she remembers. ]

[toten_sie]

[ He has to catch himself before he goes tumbling in as well, and one hand slams into the deck hard; he'll have a bruise on his palm later. But he does have the advantage of being able to reach over and pull her out as if she weighs almost nothing, even soaking wet. Both hands under her arms, she's out of the water quickly enough before he's pulling off his big old military coat to wrap it around her. ]

Please tell me you have both your shoes this time.

CAT CAFE

[babyhunter]

Clary was still having trouble remembering things though her day to day life in Wayward Pines was slowly coming back. She had been able to reconnect with her Aunt which was a comfort when everything else felt so uncertain but now she was trying to pull at memories from specific locations. It was like searching for a needle in a barn where there were many many stacks of hay to sort through.

She walked by a few buildings, her sneakers thumping lightly against the ground. She'd been thankful to change her clothes and was now wearing a pair of jeans and a baby blue tank top with a Chinese character written across it's front. She had a jacket on and unzipped allowing for the perfect balance of cold and hot. This was more comfortable, this felt more like her.

Clary had a sketchbook under her arm but otherwise looked like anyone else walking down the street. She paused at the cafe, her bright green eyes peering inside. It looked cute but more than that a familiar figure sat there playing with two kittens that were warring for his lap.

A light smile tugged at her lips as she walked inside, the bell of the cafe ringing loudly. There was something familiar about this place though Clary couldn't put her finger on it. "Hey. Didn't think I'd see you here." She hadn't brought the clothes she'd borrowed from him.

[toten_sie]

To be fair, the kittens are fighting because they want to fight. There is more than enough room in his lap for both them and a few others, though a much older cat has decided to take residence on his shoulder and an adolescent appears to have decided that she likes the tallest perch on top of his head. While that's not the best gauge of things, this is probably the calmest that she's ever seen him, and the happiest. He looks up, careful not to dislodge his current 'hat', and offers a wave.

"Apparently, I run it," he says, with the strange verbal inclination of a shrug but he doesn't because there's a cat on his shoulder, "Hi, Clary. You found better clothes."

[babyhunter]

Clary stepped up and then lowered herself so that she was sitting next to Randel's side. Her fingers brushed over one of the cats as she spoke. "Yes. I was lucky I think." She felt more like herself.

Her bright green eyes looked up at him though she kept petting one of the cats. "It suits you. I don't think I have a job. I'd hope someone would tell me if I did." That would be awkward.

She paused, looking thoughtfully at the cats.

"I saw a black cat at the hospital. I thought it was odd." Seeing the shelter and the cats here made her realize that it must have been odd.

[toten_sie]

"Apparently, we always need people here," he offers as he watches her with the cats, one of which is very insistent that her hand should be rubbing his ears. Randel can't help a smile at that. Cats are simple.

"And maybe the cat wandered in looking for food. Or he was there to see his owner who was hurt."

But he's glad to see that she seems to be considerably more comfortable, feel in better spirits. Though-

"Would you like to get something to eat? One of the other volunteers makes really good salad."

[bulletfool]

Relishing the sunny weather, Izumi has chosen to catch up on various course material at a bench in the park. He snaps his head up when he hears a shout, just in time to watch the giant of a man approaching him at an almost alarming pace. His grip on the pen goes slack, and he sets the notebook on his lap aside with the pen caught between the pages.

"You do?" he says, stupidly. Some freakish clarity sets in and he jumps out of his seat, wide-eyed. "That's right—you do!"

Doesn't he have an older sister? This is the first time he's had a name come so clearly to him that he wonders if he's been remembering wrong.

"You're Randel!"

[toten_sie]

"Izumi!" and yes, it almost looks ridiculous as he skids to a stop in front of him, huffing a little even as he's got the biggest grin on his face.

Izumi? Not CJ? Not Ursula? Not-

But no, here's Izumi, his little brother and he can't smile wide enough.

"You're- I-" He swallows. "I just got out of the hospital a few days ago. My head's still fuzzy. Sorry."

[bulletfool]

Izumi's grin is crooked, the elation of rediscovering a family member tempered by the newfound knowledge of Randel being a recent patient. That would explain the absence, though, wouldn't it?

"What do you mean, sorry? I didn't even know you were in the hospital! Were you in an accident?"

[toten_sie]

"Car accident," and his tone adds 'apparently' because he still can't quite wrap his fuzzy brain around the idea. But all of that is overtaken at seeing his little brother. He's grinning like a fool.

"It's good to see you. I missed you, Izumi."

hardware store.

[abetment]

Katherine misses very little when she sets her mind to it, but then again? There are certain people that only a blind person would miss. When she spots an exceptionally tall man walking into one of the stores along Main Street (herself coming out of Lagomarcino's), his form makes her stop. Not entirely because of his height, but because a memory while looking at the back of his head creeps up.

Echoes of teenage voices and basketballs hitting the floor, registering higher up into the gymnasium's open ceiling. A tightness in her chest, angry expression that could never match the gym uniform she wears other than if people were pelting her with dodge balls. Any memory of the quaint town comes is accompanied by the fake Damon's presence, and this one is no different. But she doesn't care about him in this one (or, she definitely does, but what good is attempted revenge without a bit of acting?)

This Wayward Pines version of herself, she really can be infantile, can't she? As expressed by the way she snatches a ball out of someone's hands, someone within a yard from Damon. More so with how she approaches this boy, Randel, and with a heat to her cheeks as she watches the other boy she's especially upset with (what set them on this rocky path that week, she doesn't know) from the corner of her eye, bounces on her heels and asks Randel if he could help her with her form.

Well, who wouldn't approach someone after such a detailed scenario is painted in their mind? Katherine crosses the street, a couple of extra memories tickling, but giving her emotion instead of such a solid picture. Trying, failing, at leading this guy on, teasing with him (because that's what she's like, even as her false self) and there's a warmth that settles in her heart that she knows has to be friendship.

Not real friendship though, right? This town, it's gonna mess with her mind eventually. She enters the hardware store and picks up a hammer on her way down an aisle. Stopping at his side, she holds it over in front of the items he's browsing.

"Randel. Here. Should be good for, well, banging something." A giggle, brows lifting as she looks up to him: does he recognize her too? Can he appreciate the joke? She tacks on a low, "Hey," for effect. Overall, she's merely been trying to find her footing in town lately, and these random memories, surely they can be used for some advantage.

[toten_sie]

He'd already gotten some information about Katherine from his encounter with Damon, after all, but seeing her himself fills in more of the strange memories. Like before, he makes the decision to accept them, or at least to accept her. For some reason, they feel like an echo of something else, someone else, a sister from another mother. And...

No, it's gone. But he can't help but smile over at her before looking at the hammer as the smile turns wry. There's a sideways look aimed her way before he speaks.

"I like my own," he reminds her mildly, and it becomes clear that he's teasing her in return as he continues, "Bigger and more effective." A pause before- "Hello, Katherine. How've you been?"

[abetment]

The ridiculous tease came out so naturally, and Katherine almost feels a little silly for it. Her style of flirtatiousness is usually more refined: maybe the town really has had her drawn up as leaning slightly more toward the immature. Human teenagers and young adults, after all.

Her smile holds when he looks at her, brightening when he starts to reply. A soft laugh that blossoms into a giggle over his continuation of the joking. If he entertains her teasing like that on the regular, it's no surprise that she likes being around Randel.

"Better now that I ran into you. It's...been awhile, it feels like. I was..." she sets the hammer down onto an open tray of common nails, disregarding its true home (it gives the employees something to do!), "in an accident a month ago, but. All better now." The start of grin, forehead creasing just so. "How about you? Are you doing okay, Randel? You seem in good spirits to me." Always the overtalker.

[toten_sie]

Randel doesn't say anything as he reaches down to put the hammer back where it belongs, but his face clouds up a little at the mention of Katherine's accident. For one, it's another piece of evidence that this town doesn't make sense. For another, he doesn't like the idea of anything bad happening to Katherine, not at all.

"I was in the hospital a few days ago. Accident." She can figure out where he's going there.

[paragon]

Steve does most of the household grocery shopping, a habit he'd gotten into back home despite the numerous staff available to the Avengers at the compound. He'd liked doing it himself, planning out the occasional home-cooked meal when he had time for it (he's got a lot more time on his hands these days, which means more cooking and more experimenting to mostly positive results, he thinks) and perusing the aisles with the grocery stores' huge variety of options (fewer of those lately, though the produce is nothing to sneeze at).

(He recalls doing the same thing here with Natasha probably hundreds of times over but doesn't allow himself to expect her company now unless she wants to offer it.)

Today the shopping also includes picking up food for Liho, so he's at the pet store when he runs into Randel, only a large presence at the corner of his eye before Steve glances up from the can of cat food in hand. —he's seen larger, though, and less gentle than Randel. Besides, he might just be the man Steve needs at the moment.

"Don't suppose the cheap stuff's just as good."

He's not a stingy man — not nearly, has always appreciated luxuries where he's been able to afford them and grown used to the convenience — but there will always be a part of him that balks at modern price tags. Even here, ostensibly a town with all the trappings from a couple decades before he'd gotten out of the ice.

[toten_sie]

He blinks at being spoken to, but after a moment of putting together the question and what it's about and why it would be asked of him (oh, yeah, animal shelter, that's him), he considers the question seriously with a scratch to the back of his head.

"It's not." Not that they don't use whatever they can get donated, but he does try and choose wisely with the funds he has. It's worth it in the long run. "You'll want to choose something grain free, if you can. With a minimum of starches. Meat of one kind or another should be near the front of the ingredient list, if not the first thing on it." Beat. "And you have to make sure they'll eat it. Some are pickier than others."

He points to the can.

"And you want to balance the wet food with some dry food, about 50/50 for your best results."

There's a pause for a moment as he peers over at Steve and it's only then that his memories start to filter through, times sitting around together, talking about-

About war. The other man is a soldier too. And his name is-

"Hi, Steve. Did you get a cat?"

[paragon]

For certain definitions of talking about a war that never really happened, anyway. He prefers not to speak at he meetings if he can help it — would prefer not to go at all and would have dropped the pretense entirely by now had it not been for Sam's arrival (though Steve remembers him always being there).

"Yep. Well, Nat did. Named him Liho." He sets the can in his hand back on the shelf. "Thanks for the advice, Randel."

[toten_sie]

He shrugs. It's what he can do, which he doesn't feel is much but he knows how much being around the animals helps him.

"If you need a name for a vet, we have one who comes by to do work for us and she's very good."