open ♪ early may catch-all

[traceofeffort]

⭐ Who: Lisa and YOU! Probably!
⭐ When: First half of May, leading up to the anniversary
⭐ Where: Tsubaki Department Store, Kihada, Promised Morning
⭐ What: An assortment of things: Golden Week shopping, failing at grocery shopping, studying
⭐ Warnings: Lisa is on the verge of a panic attack in the second prompt but I doubt she'll slide any further. Will warn in threads if that changes.


[A | shop until your wallet drops | open | department store, May 2nd-5th]
[Lisa has rather a long list of things she'd like to find space for, both in the kitchen and in her craft kit. Gig bag, not so much, but she'll come back to that. So she finds herself spending some time shopping while the Golden Week sales are on, with money she'd set aside for the purpose. Over several days, she swings by the department store, which is the lion's share of her list. One trip is for needles, thread, and a while making Hard Choices about what colors and thicknesses of yarn to buy, and her shopping cart gets more full than she expected with all the rolls of fluffy stuff she chucks in. She looks up from the racks on occasion for opinions, holding up two rolls that seem to have completely different dyes:] Hey, real quick. Which of these colors seems more positive to you? Maybe more optimistic?

[One trip is into the kitchen section: she's had her eye on a couple spatulas (cross-contamination is serious business!) and maybe a grater, and who knows what else she'll find while she's there. That first item takes longer than expected - it's easy to find her staring at half a dozen silicone-tipped wooden sticks for minutes at a time, as if trying to divine the meaning of life from them.

And one's into clothing, but that trip isn't for shopping - it's for information gathering. Who knows what kinds of fun stuff she can find and take inspiration from? For that trip she'll be looking at what kinds of things are popular with other people, but also just what catches her own eye, as she murmurs to herself about the merits of this blouse or that dress. Occasionally such a find results in her running back over to the yarn in a bit of a rush before she forgets whatever she had in mind; she limits herself to a small shopping basket this time as she goes back and forth.]

[B | paint it black(out) | open | Kihada, May 6th, early afternoon]
[Lisa knows the storm is coming in. She's known for a while. She was just going out for a little while to pick up some last-minute stuff for dinner at her usual odds-and-ends place over in Kihada. It's not even a long trip, and the lines are usually short. It's fine. It's fine! She definitely, absolutely will not get caught in the rain, she says to herself as she hops on the train to Kihada. Even if she gets drizzled on, dinner will be worth it.

Lisa, in a light rainjacket, sneakers, and scarf, is caught in the rain and miserable.

They had to dig up an ingredient she absolutely needed for the chicken dish she'd been planning from out of the storeroom. The line was atrocious. Traffic was a nightmare and the train was slow to arrive in the first place. And now-]

Shit-!

[-thunder roars what seems right over Lisa's head, and the bright bolt in the sky seems to cause the district to, as one, flicker and falter, as she flinches hard and comes to a complete stop from her run for the station. The hand-sewn tote bag over her shoulder feels like a lead weight as she tries to figure out what to do and also not hyperventilate; this is pushing her buttons a little more than she was expecting. Does she try to run for it still, and risk her nerves fraying more in the weather, if the train back to Koubai is even still running? Or try to hide out in... what's even by here? Is that a coffee shop?

The second bolt she's caught under freezes her to the spot; the third decides her, and she runs for the coffee shop, heart pounding. She orders whatever hot thing they can manage without power, digs a few hundred yen out of her pocketbook absently with shaking hands, and sits down in a chair that her soaked raincoat won't ruin. Over the next short while, she wraps both hands around a steaming mug of cocoa and wills her hands to still, even as she jolts at each glass-rattling boom. Hopefully someone else is out in the storm, or she's going to drive this poor barista nuts.]

((Coffee-shop AU in your AU notwithstanding, feel free to intercept Lisa earlier, or maybe to find her in the grocery store and persuade her not to actually try to go home in the mess about to occur in the first place.))

[C | how not to fail (1st movement) | open | Promised Morning High: library? | May 8th, after school]
[Lisa is more or less confident that, while she probably won't ace the midterms, she'll get a score she can be happy with, even if she's still a little off-balance after her weekend. Her classmates are, of course, probbaly not as confident. So she offered to run a short tutoring session after school in the library just in case anyone wanted an extra chance to review. It'd have been better to do this more than a single day before, of course, but, well... Golden Week happened, and good luck wrangling teenagers to study on vacation. She certainly didn't do a lot of it. Yet, here she is, teaching her fellow third-years whatever they need to help fill in the gaps. A first- or second-year might even be able to ask for a bit of help, too, if they were polite about it. Indeed, she's got at least one or two people, and she's patiently doing her best to help.]

Here, and then... right. So it comes out to five. Yes, five... How did you get eighteen and two-thirds? Let me- no, no, see, look, you didn't carry this two, and that threw the whole rest of it off. Here's a sheet of paper, try working it again from that point and see if it comes out right this time.

[It's going... fine? Please, if you need help, it'll probably be better than this.]

Comments

a

[saynotobugs]

[There's a woman down the aisle comparing kitchen gadgets, and she stops and raises her eyebrows at Lisa's serious stare.]

Looks to me like a spatula's a spatula. You looking for something special about it?

[traceofeffort]

The poetic answer is that I'm looking for one that speaks to me.

[She lets that sit for a second or two.]

But mostly I'm trying to decide what color I want more, and if the shapes are different enough to care. And if the head's going to come off in my mixing bowl.

[saynotobugs]

Can't fault you for that. Personally, at least with the kind that's one material the whole way, the head'll stay on. [She picks up a fully silicone spatula, noting the lack of seam like with the wood-handled ones.] But if you want one of those, go for the heat-resistant kind. Your tamagoyaki will thank you.

[traceofeffort]

Yeah, that's probably true... hmm. That's good advice, thank you. Probably less likely to get dirty in weird places, too. Maybe I'll try one of these this time. [Lisa puts four or five back in their places, and after a moment's consideration, throws two of the remaining candidates into her basket.]

Hopefully my cookies appreciate new equipment.

[saynotobugs]

Guess you bake a lot, huh? Most people your age aren't thinking about kitchen implements yet unless they live on their own or it's Valentine's.

[traceofeffort]

I do! It's one of my hobbies. Good food makes people happy. [Lisa doesn't want to admit she hasn't made much obligation chocolate in the last few years, let alone anything else...] Part of it's practice, but mostly it's to share with others. I'm no expert, but it's fun to try new things.

[saynotobugs]

Sounds as good a reason as any. Must have a lot of friends, huh.

B

[breezyplayboy]

[Lisa is not, in fact, the only one who got caught out in the big ol' storm. Shu didn't need to go shopping for anything on sale, necessarily, but he liked being out and about during the spring hustle and bustle and- okay, he really just wanted to ride his bike around all day.]

[A motorcyle in the rain really is not the most ideal situation, but he's still not going to drive right by a girl running through the rain alone. He beep beeps in a friendly way before pulling up jut ahead of her next to the sidewalk and popping off his helmet. His hair looks like a half drowned shihtzu but it's fine.]

Hey, got caught out here, too? Want a ride?

[traceofeffort]

[She barely even hears the approaching motorcycle, between the rain and the thunder, let alone her blood pounding in her ears. The human voice, on the other hand, pulls her back somewhat, not that it soothes her nerves much as she slows to a stop.]

Stupid me thought sh-shopping today would be fine. I-

[-decision time. Does she trust him? Does she want to trust him? And even if she does...]

I-if you don't mind? I... I at least want to get to the station so I can. Take the train back to Koubai. If the train's even running... [Lisa shivers, but not really from the rain itself; more from her own swinging emotions. She shakes her head, and claps her palms to her cheeks through her raincoat's hood.] Sorry. I don't do well in this kind of weather.

[breezyplayboy]

[He totally wouldn't blame her if she didn't trust him, and kind of expects to be told to bugger off, but he had to offer!]

[He can see, now that they're facing each other, that she's not just upset about being wet. She seems more anxious than that. More vulnerable. He offers up his helmet toward her.]

It's pretty heinous, [He agrees,] The station isn't far. Let's get there and dry off a little.

[Waiting there indoors for awhile might not be a bad idea anyway, for him. He could catch a cold out here...]

[traceofeffort]

[They'll both catch a cold at this rate. Better to pack it in and try to wait out the storm, or at least the worst of it. Trust is... perhaps less of an issue at this moment. Can't choose not to trust him if she catches pneumonia!

.....okay, that got dark fast. Pull yourself together, Lisa. She accepts the helmet with mostly steady hands.]

Yeah. Um, t-thank you. Please... be careful, okay? And. S-sorry.

[Because she'd feel even worse if he got hurt because Lisa had taken his helmet! Let's see... how to mount motorcycle... she's ridden a bike, it's similar to that, right? She can handle that much. It occurs to her she's going to have to hold onto him as they go, but that is so far down her list of priorities right now it's. Not an issue. And if anything indicates her usual concerns are out the window, she jams the helmet right onto her head, with zero complaints about what it's going to do to her hair.]

[breezyplayboy]

[He flashes an encouraging, boyish grin.]

No worries. Here, sit behind me and hold on. Give me a tight hug, don't worry about squeezing, and lean with me. It feels scary but you gotta lean into the turns. When in doubt just try to stay center and hold on. I'll take it slow.

[He waits for her to get a good grip, before he kicks up and takes off. As he promised, he does take it slow, not wanting to scare her, or make the rain hit them like bullets.]

[traceofeffort]

[The confident grin helps; Lisa is very disoriented at the moment and struggling to function properly. She nods at the instructions, and does her best to smile, if a little tightly.]

Thanks. Then...

[It's not long before she's behind him, holding on tight, shame and embarrassment overridden by wanting to be anywhere else. By the second or third bend she's got the hang of it, leaning into the turns, the dull sound of the engine calming her down just a little. She can work with this...!

Then there's another roar of thunder, and Shu can probably feel her tremble. Her grip definitely tightens, but Lisa bites her lip and forces herself to keep her focus on the road, or she'll get them both hurt. Her would-be savior doesn't deserve that.]

[breezyplayboy]

[He can't tell exactly, in the rain, but this poor girl looks like a mess. He hopes the rain isn't pelting her face the way it is his, ugh. When they're stopped at a light he pats her forearms comfortingly, just in time for another rumble of thunder to send her shaking, and squeezing his diaphragm. Oof.]

[They can't really talk, between the weather and the bike's engine, so the trip passes silently until he can finally coast under the cover of the subway stop. Shu lets out a breath of relief, and pushes his soaked bangs back away from his face.]

I feel like a half-drowned rat. How are you holding up?

C

[darcangel]

[ Jeannette had come to the library to study solo, but when she sees a girl in her same year (possibly her same class? wanna be classmates??) bustling about, she cannot help but observe. Draw conclusions.

And smile. ]

This is most good of you. If it's not too much trouble, do you know someone who tutors language arts?

[ incidentally if they ARE classmates jeannette's self-introduction at the beginning of the term was probably something like "my name is jeanne d'arc. i have enrolled in promised morning to lead the dreamer union to victory. may god bless our efforts." and she says grace at lunchtime. ]

[traceofeffort]

[Yes, let's go with that. Lisa recognizes Jeannette, who evidently did want to study but didn't elect to just follow Lisa over, and grins at her, waving her closer.]

If you'd like, I can help you a little bit! We can figure out where you're at, and if I can't get you where you want to be, I can find someone else that can handle it better. Um, probably. [That would have worked at her old school, but she hasn't really made the connections she needs for that at Promised Morning quite yet. It'll come with time.] Here, come take a seat, if you want.

[.....she squints at their classmate's second sheet of paper.] Hey, hold on, how did you fix the first mistake and still get eighteen? Flip it over and try to work it again from scratch. No, don't look at your work from the first time. I'm gonna come back to you in a few minutes, and I expect to see a single-digit number! [Then she looks back up at Jeannette, smile slightly less wide.] Math, yeah? I'll be happy to take a break from numbers for a bit.

[darcangel]

Thank you very much.

[ How someone is having trouble with math, which is so simple as to always have the one answer, Jeannette cannot fathom.....But there's something ELSE unfathomable that concerns her more at present. ]

It is the written exercises, in Japanese class. [ She pulls out a worksheet from a few weeks ago, one of those "read a passage and answer questions about its interpretation" short-answer deals. ]

How am I supposed to know what the author meant? I do not have them here to ask. It is a very nice story, but there is no point to supposing anything more.

[traceofeffort]

Ahaha... yeah, I'm not a fan of these either. I'm sorry! I can really only work these if I think of them the same way I think of music. That, I can analyze, mostly through a lot of practice and a person interest. We can try and get through it if you'd like, but I don't know if I'm the right girl for the job.

[Lisa does look suitably apologetic, at least. She feels bad that she offered and then can't do anything.]

[darcangel]

Then perhaps we can figure them out together, if it is not an imposition. With two minds working on the problem, we may discover something, and both come out the better.

[ Jeannette honestly feels a lot better knowing she isn't the only one who thinks the questions are silly. Many of her friends at her old school were more language-arts oriented and could see the answers to these naturally, the way she can for math. It made helping each other difficult. ]

--But please, do not prioritize me, if you can be of more assistance elsewhere.

[traceofeffort]

[Lisa hears Jeannette ask for help if and only if she’s not otherwise occupied, and takes a long, pointed look at their classmate.] Hey. Yes, I told you I’d come back to you. But you did something wrong you did right the first time and you’re not gonna make it through like that. I’ll give you ten minutes to find and fix it before I fix it for you, but I’m taking away the reward I was going to have for you.

[From her bag, Lisa pulls out a carefully-packed box of frosted cookies, very clearly homemade, and sets it on the library table, in clear view of all of them.] And that would be a shame.

[Slumping back into her chair dramatically, she turns back to glance at the blonde girl, with a long-suffering grin; the sound of pencil scratching has rather significantly increased from the other side of the table.] And with that, we have at least ten minutes. I’m game to take a look at it if you are. I can’t promise we’ll get it right, but I promise to give it an honest try with you.

[darcangel]

[ What masterful command of the room.....! Jeannette, as an aspiring leader of Dreamers, is impressed. And touched that her classmate would make time for her in this fashion. She's ebullient with gratitude. ]

Thank you very much!

[ Let's visit this exercise TO ITS VERY GREAT HARM!

....or jeannette's. either option is possible. ]

B; grocery store meetup

[dreamgoeson]

[Aira would normally not be out in weather like this, but she needed fabric for a project and she was just going to grab dinner while she was out. When she runs into the grocery store, she's only got a little rain on her umbrella, but it's about to start pouring.

When she sees Lisa about to run out the door, she'll call out:]

You might want to wait a little bit. The weather is taking a nasty turn and it's safer if you stay inside and wait for the storm to pass. I'll wait with you, if you want some company?

[traceofeffort]

[It's frustrating to have planned for failure and still failed even more than expected; Lisa is confident her jacket will keep her dry enough and even more confident in her tote bag, and yet-]

Ugh, I don't wanna wait, I wanna get home so I can start dinner, but... bleh. You're probably right, it just feels like admitting defeat.

[-and yet she stops anyway, turning back with her tote bag slung over her shoulder still.]

I think I'd like that, if you don't mind. Maybe it'll keep my mind off failing to take the weather report seriously.

[dreamgoeson]

I know that feeling. I had to run out to get fabric for something and I thought I'd be able to make it home before things got too bad, but...

[Aira points at her own tote bag and laughs sheepishly.]

Now I have three yards of fabric and a whole bunch of little notions with me and I'm trying to figure out how to keep it all dry.

I'm Aira, by the way. It's good to meet you.

[traceofeffort]

I feel like I've done that the last several days, so it was time to buy something else. I went out shopping for specific things and kept ending up at the yarn shelves... At least today I stuck to the mission. That sucks, though - all that fabric will be hard to get home.

Ah! I'm Lisa. Pleased to meet you as well.