video, evening;

[traceofeffort]

[The Lisa on the screen tonight is significantly brighter than she's been in what may feel like weeks to anyone that's seen her relatively recently; it's like she's had a new breath of life, excited, energy bubbling just below the surface, words coming fast like she can barely keep herself from just blurting everything out. That new breath of life also extends to what she's wearing: what can only be described as a Gothic outfit with a red ribbon, lace everywhere, a crazy flower headpiece... it's almost beyond description, but she looks over the moon, standing in the middle of her room like she's about to go on stage.]

Guys. Guys, this is amazing. Okay, so first, business - nobody ever got in my room. I got the cameras up before - thanks, Anakin, I owe you, seriously - and they caught when this showed up. There was literally nothing. Not a shiver of movement, no hitch in the camera, nothing missing. Just... empty space one moment, and then this neatly folded on my bed the next. So I guess I freaked out over nothing before. Uh... sorry. I know I worried a lot of people. But hey, now we know, right?

Anyway! So this is a band costume. [She spins on the spot, slowly; the largely transparent ribbon low on her back was hard to see from the front, but draws attention now that she's in motion and at an angle.] Whatever I said about the music I'm getting memories of, I'm just gonna call it Goth now, because there's no other way to describe this thing. It matches the ones my bandmates wore, just with different ribbons. [She gently fingers one end of the ribbon over her chest, smiling fondly.] I'm pretty sure I was the red one. I'll have to see if I can find a penlight. But somehow it was already fit for me, almost? I barely had to have anything done to it to slip into it. [A few experimental motions of her arms: in front of her, over her head, briefly reaching out of frame and coming back with her acoustic guitar.] So she can't have been that much younger than me when she wore this last. And that gives me some hope. Maybe I'm not too old or too much of a screw up for this either. And maybe I can do this. Whether I feel like it or not... this costume is proof that somewhere, somewhen, Lisa Imai can make it. It might be as the bassist for a high school band; it might be as a solo country act. It might be something I don't understand yet.

But that's okay. I'll figure it out. I understand some of why I was hesitating; the other me's seen some things. I need to grow some more, but it'll be all right. I'll be all right. [Lisa giggles softly.] And I'll try not to get too smug about being a functional human being instead of a ball of stress.

Oh, and before I forget, I've seen the actual sheet music for LOUDER now, so I should be ready there soon, one way or another. Sorry it's taken me a while to get myself in gear there, but I think... maybe I needed to have this realization first. So that's coming! I'd say to look forward to it to the people I've been keeping in the loop while I work on it, but if I keep saying that everyone will expect the second coming of Santana or something, and new confidence or not I'm just not that good. So. Soon!

That's all, for real this time. Thanks for listening to me ramble. [She waves at the camera with a gentle smile before the feed cuts out.]

Comments

[bearshermark]

Of course you can do it, Lisa.

And I'm really glad you have proof that no one infiltrated your room.

[traceofeffort]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Elliott. Seriously. You've helped a lot this last month or two.

[She takes a deep breath, looking up at one of the cameras (not that he can see it) before returning to the feed.] Yeah, that made me feel a hell of a lot better about all this, y'know? Now there's the whole "outfit magically showed up in my room" thing, of course, but that's a lot less stress to think about.

[bearshermark]

[He laughs]

Yeah, that part is still a little weird. I wonder what it means, sometimes.

It's really good to see you happy again, though. I'm glad I could help.

[traceofeffort]

[Lisa's face runs hot for a moment; she'd just been saying it, but boy it sounded different coming from someone else. Soooo time to not talk about that for a second, as her mouth moves soundlessly before she shakes herself into coherence again.]

So maybe we are just getting this stuff back from our other selves across time? And they can't exactly come and hand it to us, and the Bureau isn't keeping it all in a locker somewhere, so it just. Appears? As funny as another me coming and handing me her high school band costume would be.

[bearshermark]

[Elliott smiles for a moment while she recovers herself, then shrugs]

I dunno. I have a tattoo now all of a sudden, so I really don't know how it could work at all.

Video

[darkforcerising]

[Anakin's got a sucker a mouth in and he doesn't even bother to take it out.]

Nice, uh, outfit.

Do you keep the backlog footage?

[traceofeffort]

Ahaha... It's weird, I get you. But it feels right. It's actually pretty comfy, too? I know it doesn't look like it. A lot of love went into this. The girl that made these for us outdid herself.

Oh! Yeah, I did! It's on my computer, from a couple angles. I can try and e-mail it or something, or if it's too big for that I can just put it on a flash drive.

[darkforcerising]

Feeling right is... good. [Not that he thinks it's wrong, but Anakin really doesn't know what to say - his standard outfit was t-shirt and jeans, he wouldn't even know what to call the fabrics that Lisa was wearing.]

Flash drive and in-person drop off is safer.

[traceofeffort]

If you're gonna play weird Gothic rock music, you've gotta have weird Gothic costumes, right? Which I know is strange coming from the Nashville girl, but give me the benefit of the doubt here.

Gotcha, hard copy it is. Think it's safe for us to meet up and exchange it, or do I need to arrange a dead drop? [She says it in a bit of a sardonic tone, but her expression is serious - she'll do it if she has to.]

[darkforcerising]

Makes sense. I move in different music circles.

Oh, I think we can meet up. I just didn't want to send anything over the internet.

You're okay with me watching this?

Vidoe

[ashenscipher]

That is très adorable!

But I don't know if it is interesting or terrifying that... it just appeared.

[traceofeffort]

Isn't it? When I "saw" it on her I wasn't sure what to think about it - it looked good, but I couldn't really get a sense of it from there. Now, though... I don't wear stuff like this, but I could sure get used to it. I feel, I dunno, stronger, I guess? [She glances at her guitar, presently sitting on her chair just in frame, and can't help herself:] A little more in tune with myself. [Lisa laughs, knowing full well it was terrible.]

And I'm leaning toward being interesting, myself. These things are hers, I'm certain now - this outfit was hand-sewn. There's no tag or anything anywhere, and the fabric's too different where Rinko used all these different materials.

[ashenscipher]

The outfit suits you. [Bitterblue nodded decisively.]

So... what is reality then? Things don't randomly materialize. That's... fiction.

[traceofeffort]

Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Rinko had in our costume closet - if it's all as good as this I could see a new wardrobe in my future.

[Lisa sobers somewhat at the concern on what their lives are becoming. She's had the thought too, but...] Girls like us don't just remember being princesses, though. Or singing in other languages. And it's not like I know where I'd get something like this otherwise. So sure, it's not our normal reality. But unless you're going to call yourself fiction - and I don't think you or I are - we're gonna need a new word. Hopefully one other than Different, it's kinda lame.

[ashenscipher]

They did give us an awful group title. I don't know what what we should call ourselves.

I don't think I am fiction. But spontaneous generation is hard to believe.

[scotch_egg]

[Christ. He feels like everyone is suffering from a mass hallucination. There are plenty of ways and means of how she could have gotten that dress. Even if she'd brought it unconsciously, as if she suffered from some disassociative personality disorder. The need to believe it was magic was frankly disturbing.

But he's not going to rail at her. She knows his thoughts and it's up to her how she decides to feel about what's happening. He almost doesn't want to do anything to the Bureau for how happy she seems about this. And who wouldn't be? A chance at another better life. At someone you always wanted to be... Though what it says about the dead girl in the water... Probably not worth thinking about.

At the end he just smiles a little and says]

I'm happy for you.

[and it's almost the truth]

[traceofeffort]

[She's a little surprised he decided to say anything at all, really, but here he is, so. She smiles, relaxing a little bit.]

Thanks. I know we don't exactly see this stuff the same way. But I'm trying to be the best me I can be, with or without the visions and everything. And if they're there I might as well take whatever I can out of them, yeah?

Did you ever make it to one of the meetings? A super stressed Lisa isn't fun for anyone so I ended up kinda staying home a lot of last month.

[scotch_egg]

That's one way to look at it. [so far they don't seem to be having a negative impact on her- and he hopes it continues that way]

Yeah, I have. They don't do much for me honestly. [he feels even more alone when he's there, but that's never been anything new] I don't tend to get along with... [a pause as he searches for the word] ...people.

[traceofeffort]

You kinda implied that much before, so I get that, and I definitely don't trust everyone there. I just want to make sure you've got access to someone else on this stuff in case things go to hell and you either want answers, or someone to sanity check stuff. You don't deserve me trying to go sunshine and roses on you when that's not the way of the world. [Of your world, she doesn't say but suspects he'll pick up on.]

And on that note, let me know if I'm being too overbearing, I'll try to back off.

[scotch_egg]

You're fine. And so am I. I've never needed anyone to keep me stable. I'll just keep going through as usual.

[and he wouldn't place it on her shoulders. Even if he did think she could help]

[temptationaccomplished]

[He thinks it looks a little gothic-burlesque, but that's sort of what makes it work as a stage dress. It's fantastic, even if it seems a little incongruous for what he thinks he recalls her mentioning as her genre.] Oh, you look adorable! I am glad to see you are feeling a great deal better.

So, it just appeared, hm? That presents a whole new set of questions.

[traceofeffort]

[This is in the top 30% of conservative Roselia outfits; both of them will likely be scandalized by what comes down the line. In any event, she's happy to see him.]

Thanks! Granted, I'm not sure adorable is what Rinko was going for at the time, but it certainly fits. It's... edgy, but soft? But yeah, things have been a lot less terrible since before.

I'm still trying to figure out what it means that it was just suddenly there, though.

[temptationaccomplished]

[Oh no! We must protect her innocence!]

Well, to a man such as myself, it's an adorable costume--nothing too indecent and, indeed: very edgy. You look a little like you could be dancing the can-can in a Baz Luhrmann film, but in a good way.

And to be fair, I suppose this is where the "Interdimensional Activity" part comes in for the Bureau's name.

[traceofeffort]

I'll take the compliment, then. I'm not sure I want to know what I'm dancing in if you put it that way, though, ahaha...

Yeah, that's a good point. But it's not like they'd answer me if I asked them... right? If they even know anything?

[temptationaccomplished]

[He meant moulin rouge or great gatsby, but beside the point.]

No, I don't really think they'd answer, if they know. Or they wouldn't answer in any way I think would be satisfactory.