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Situation Report May 2017 | Maintaining the Stage / Sudden Recall
Who: Randel and you!
What: Sudden Recall etc.
When: Throughout May
Where: Lotus Street Shelter, Around Town, Etc.
Notes & Warnings: Discussion of slavery, unethical scientific experimentation, etc.
[@ the Lotus Street Animal Shelter]
Randel spends most of his time here, honestly. First, because the more that he's remembered, the less he feels 'right' sleeping in that house. As it is, he only goes there to spend time with the little cat who followed him home (Sissel, he doesn't know) and even then, he only finds him there sometimes. For the most part, his 'home' is the shelter, and he sleeps in the back with a few of the friendlier cats curled up on him on the floor more often than not. Anyone who works there has more than likely seen him there if they stay late or come in very early.
On the days when it isn't being run by others, he takes care of the Cat Cafe, attending to orders and answering questions about the animals. He's had pretty good luck getting a few of them adopted out in the last few weeks, and while he misses them, he's glad to see that they're going to good homes and happy families, going someplace safe.
Or as safe as this place is.
[@ his house ]
He does check in at his house for another reason, though, making sure that there's nothing that's been shoved under his back door or anywhere else that could indicate that his friend from out in the woods might need something.
[@ the woods]
Nonetheless, he's taken to going out there when he can, staying well short of the fence, turning back when he so much as starts feeling ill and not so much looking for something as looking for something to look for. The strange case with the money, the suitcase with the diary... there's so many pieces here and if he were smarter or more clever or he knew more, maybe he'd know how to put them together to mean something, but he's not. He's no Oreldo, let alone a Marches, and definitely not...
He still can't remember her, the woman who held him, the one that makes the nightmares go away. There are other pieces still sort of floating in, but she's the one that aches like a loose tooth, the one that he wants to solve more than anything. It's actually made him angry a few times, and the woods are good for that too, for growling and cursing and even occasionally lashing out with a fist against a tree trunk. It had hurt, stung; he'd even hit hard enough to make his hand bleed a little but a bandage and a little more mindfulness and it wasn't worth worrying about.
[@ around town]
When he doesn't feel like it needs to be the woods, he wanders the town, looking for the people he's found in this place, more than a little worried about them given some of the things he's remembered. Of course there's his strange discordant mess of memories, but he's gotten used to that. Struggles with it still, his desire for the kind of life this place offers with the feelings of cowardice and failure that accepting them comes with, but it's almost normal, as normal as the argument he has with himself every time he clips the lantern to his belt.
Every day.
But then there was the phonecall he'd gotten on one of the rare times when he'd been home. The phonecall that had prompted a memory that felt too much like the memories from Elsewhere, memories that made the name Kauplan spring to mind alongside cruel eyes and a mocking, terrifying laugh. It's had him worried as he hasn't been since he first arrived, wondering why his two worlds were colliding in such a way. This was not the place where they'd taken him apart and put him back together again differently, sent him out to kill. Or it wasn't supposed to be.
...and if it had happened to him, had it happened to others? That was why he made a point to wander around town, see if he could perhaps 'run into' Pepper or Clary or Katherine or-
*gulp*
Elena.
Or Sam and Steve. Maybe they knew something, considering.
It was one thing for such darkness to happen to him, but something very different for it to be a part of their lives. It shouldn't be. It should never be. And if it was, well...
There was a reason he clipped the lantern on his belt every day.
What: Sudden Recall etc.
When: Throughout May
Where: Lotus Street Shelter, Around Town, Etc.
Notes & Warnings: Discussion of slavery, unethical scientific experimentation, etc.
[@ the Lotus Street Animal Shelter]
Randel spends most of his time here, honestly. First, because the more that he's remembered, the less he feels 'right' sleeping in that house. As it is, he only goes there to spend time with the little cat who followed him home (Sissel, he doesn't know) and even then, he only finds him there sometimes. For the most part, his 'home' is the shelter, and he sleeps in the back with a few of the friendlier cats curled up on him on the floor more often than not. Anyone who works there has more than likely seen him there if they stay late or come in very early.
On the days when it isn't being run by others, he takes care of the Cat Cafe, attending to orders and answering questions about the animals. He's had pretty good luck getting a few of them adopted out in the last few weeks, and while he misses them, he's glad to see that they're going to good homes and happy families, going someplace safe.
Or as safe as this place is.
[@ his house ]
He does check in at his house for another reason, though, making sure that there's nothing that's been shoved under his back door or anywhere else that could indicate that his friend from out in the woods might need something.
[@ the woods]
Nonetheless, he's taken to going out there when he can, staying well short of the fence, turning back when he so much as starts feeling ill and not so much looking for something as looking for something to look for. The strange case with the money, the suitcase with the diary... there's so many pieces here and if he were smarter or more clever or he knew more, maybe he'd know how to put them together to mean something, but he's not. He's no Oreldo, let alone a Marches, and definitely not...
He still can't remember her, the woman who held him, the one that makes the nightmares go away. There are other pieces still sort of floating in, but she's the one that aches like a loose tooth, the one that he wants to solve more than anything. It's actually made him angry a few times, and the woods are good for that too, for growling and cursing and even occasionally lashing out with a fist against a tree trunk. It had hurt, stung; he'd even hit hard enough to make his hand bleed a little but a bandage and a little more mindfulness and it wasn't worth worrying about.
[@ around town]
When he doesn't feel like it needs to be the woods, he wanders the town, looking for the people he's found in this place, more than a little worried about them given some of the things he's remembered. Of course there's his strange discordant mess of memories, but he's gotten used to that. Struggles with it still, his desire for the kind of life this place offers with the feelings of cowardice and failure that accepting them comes with, but it's almost normal, as normal as the argument he has with himself every time he clips the lantern to his belt.
Every day.
But then there was the phonecall he'd gotten on one of the rare times when he'd been home. The phonecall that had prompted a memory that felt too much like the memories from Elsewhere, memories that made the name Kauplan spring to mind alongside cruel eyes and a mocking, terrifying laugh. It's had him worried as he hasn't been since he first arrived, wondering why his two worlds were colliding in such a way. This was not the place where they'd taken him apart and put him back together again differently, sent him out to kill. Or it wasn't supposed to be.
...and if it had happened to him, had it happened to others? That was why he made a point to wander around town, see if he could perhaps 'run into' Pepper or Clary or Katherine or-
*gulp*
Elena.
Or Sam and Steve. Maybe they knew something, considering.
It was one thing for such darkness to happen to him, but something very different for it to be a part of their lives. It shouldn't be. It should never be. And if it was, well...
There was a reason he clipped the lantern on his belt every day.
Around Town
Today she was out of school early. She didn't always have afternoon classes and instead worked on her portfolio. Clary found it hard to focus this particular afternoon. Her mind kept pulling back to the scenes and imagines that she'd caught sight of after picking up the phone. Was it a memory or a vision? Things have been blurring in and out so often she wasn't sure.
She'd continued to try and call her mother but had no luck reaching her. 'It's just time zones,' she constantly told herself that same sentence and it was starting to sound like an excuse.
Clary was sitting on a bench with her backpack at her side and her sketchbook in her lap. She was determined to get the image out of her head. She didn't want to think about it anymore and the only way she thought to do that was to draw it. Her drawing of the memory was almost complete when Clary saw the familiar large shadow loom behind her.
"Randel!" She half jumped, fumbling her sketchpad to the street. She hadn't wanted anyone to see it...
no subject
It would have been disturbing enough if she'd managed to portray this with the same kind of detail she'd managed with the picture of his mother if he'd actually described it to her. Seeing it now, with no prompting, meant something even more horrifying:
Someone had done it to her.
Which made his hands shake just a little as he offered the sketch pad back. He doesn't say anything for a moment, but he's clearly rattled and it takes him a moment to actually duck his head and apologize.
"I... I didn't mean to startle you."
no subject
It had to be normal because if it wasn't...
She firmly pushed the thoughts away and forced her lips into a poor smile. She pulled her backpack onto her back and stood. It was always easier to talk to Randel while standing and usually a few feet away. She liked looking into peoples eyes when she spoke to them but this time she kept her eyes on his shoulder.
"No. You're fine. I..." Her words cut off. What was she going to say? What could she say? Did he see it? "I was just zoning out. It happens." Her words sounded awkward. "What are you up too? I mean..." She chewed on her bottom lip. "Are you okay?" She couldn't help but worry about him. Randel had been so nice to her and while he wasn't family he was someone that she cared deeply for. She didn't want him to be hurt, she'd find a way to protect him. If she could, she'd find a way to protect everyone.
no subject
That's what comes out of him, before he can recover or pull himself together. He'd seen that drawing, knew how on target Clary was from the drawing she'd done of his own mother. He swallowed hard around the whole of it.
"I'm..."
What was he? He was being upset. He was being deeply sad and scared and hurt and it was slowly transforming into anger as he looked at Clary, how awkward she was, how shaken. Not at her, never at her. At the people who'd done that to her.
"I'm all right."
no subject
Her voice was only a whisper in response. 'It happened to you too.' That one sentence was ingrained into her mind. His tone, the pain and anger. Clary felt the urge to take a step away but she didn't. This was Randel. He was safe, she knew him, but she was also scared.
What was she so scared of?
"Randel." She repeated his name again, forcing calm into her voice. "What happened? You aren't alright." There was no point in trying to hide it. Clary could see it. She spent enough time around Randel to know him and something was seething beneath the surface.
She thought of a snake. Twisting beneath the skin like a poison that would hurt Randel as much as it'd help him.
but no one notices until it's too late to do anything
It's like they planned it. It mirrors their first face-to-face after their separate (but equal) accidents.
Damon's twisting a bag holding two eggplants before twist-tying the end.
Oh. It's Randel at the front doors, looking for someone. He reminds Damon of how he'd been two Saturdays ago after his new memories surfaced. For Damon, it's been a busy month of memories. He raises one hand, holding palm out facing Randel. It's a wave of sorts.
no subject
He tries to flicker a smile regardless but it doesn't really work; he's on edge, he's unhappy, and he's worried, very worried, about everyone he's met and gotten to know. Maybe this is why his other life was so lonely, because now that he has people who are tied to him, who are important to him, he's a wreck as he tries to figure out what to do. His hand has strayed to his lantern more than once in the woods, wondering how far he could get to the wall with it on before he's dismissed it time and time again as a bad idea.
That doesn't change the fact that he's gone (back) to wearing his weapons on him at all times outside of the shelter and his own home. And he doesn't leave them far off even then. So Damon might notice, under the edges of his omnipresent military coat, a rather large flat holster on one side and a faint bulge near his armpit. And, of course, the lantern.
All the same, he gives Damon a (half-hearted) smile and glances at the eggplants. It's an out as good as anything else he's getting.
"Cooking tonight?"
...he knows Katherine isn't.
no subject
He drops the eggplant down into his cart.
"If they let me," he says, easily. He'd made a bit of a mess of things at the party, but he hopes Katherine sorted things out. Either way, he gave Elena space she needed. "Punch a wall?" He doesn't mean it while meaning it, because he knows what a broken hand looks like, or even one that shouldn't look like that. Those are specific injuries in specific places.
no subject
"Who's stopping you?"
Home
Just a strange quirk that follows this kitten.