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.

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?

Vidoe

[ashenscipher]

That is très adorable!

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

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[ashenscipher]

The outfit suits you. [Bitterblue nodded decisively.]

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

[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.

[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.]

[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.

[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?

[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.

[traceofeffort]

Yeah, tattoos aren't exactly something you can just wake up and find laying on your bedside table. Did, uh. Did it hurt?

[A beat.] ...is it anything cool?

[traceofeffort]

I didn't think I moved in this circle myself, but... that's how it goes for us now, I guess.

And sure, that makes sense, I just wanted to check, with, y'know. The state of things. There's nothing compromising there, I promise - I was out of the room taking a shower, I came back, and suddenly weird dress on my bed. Obviously I'm not giving you all the footage since I put them up, but there's plenty of relevant time from that day.

[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.

[traceofeffort]

Don't let me name anything, it'll be so bad people will ask to be Different again.

Spontaneous generation is hard to believe, sure. If I hadn't caught it on camera I would still be screaming that someone got into my room again. But... what's the old logic theory? If you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be true, no matter how weird it sounds. Until and unless we can prove the real mechanism... [She shrugs.]

[ashenscipher]

Have we exhausted all possible explanations?

[traceofeffort]

No, and to be honest we never really can until we confirm it. So that was kind of wishful thinking. But my point was, there are a lot of options and we just don't know, I guess. It's possible, but it's just as possible as magic, or whatever else. The only thing we've disproven is that someone came in and left it here.

[ashenscipher]

So, magic and something that can materialize matter where there was nothing before.

I wonder if there's a way to test if the object come from someplace and get transported in? Like, particulates that can tell you where it came from, or finger prints.

[traceofeffort]

[Lisa blinks. Then she looks down.

Then she grimaces.]

I kinda wish you'd suggested that earlier.

[ashenscipher]

You already had that one by the time I started talking to you!

But I don't think it has anything bad on it, but like, you can tell the diet of an animal based on the composition of it's fossil. So maybe there is trace evidence that explains where the fabric of your dress came from?

[traceofeffort]

Yeah, but I'm wearing it now, so whatever it did have might be contaminated. We can still try to figure out if the fabric is anything special, or whatever, but we're not going to be able to do any heavy forensic work on it now. It's got me-me and other-me all over it now, if it had anything before.

[ashenscipher]

Well, we can try on the next thing that shows up. Or if I ever get that castle.