(1942-08-28) An Uncomfortable Plea
An Uncomfortable Plea
Summary: Jesse reluctantly asks Lillie for help.
Date: 1942-08-28
Related: None.
Players:
jesse..lucietta..

Pine Street, Higsi
Mon Aug 28, 1942


Being so close to Main Street, this little neighborhood starts out as extension of the business district. The business district ends at abrubtly at the entrance to the town square and after that it is nice houses surrounded by white picket fences. The epitome of lower-middle-class rural southern surburbia.

Weather:
It is summer. The weather is cool and fair.


<FS3> Lillie rolls Empath: Good Success.
<FS3> Jesse rolls Enhanced Senses: Failure.

The evening is fixing to be a bit cooler… which is, honestly, a blessing. A hint of a breeze in what had been a decidedly hot day.. most have enjoyed it. Some can't, such as poor foolish Roderick Boyd, who is laid up at some hospital. And then there, too, is Lucietta O'Clery… who was on the receiving end of the town troublemaker and gave as good as she got before he rattled her up some. What a party!

Nearly a full day since the altercation, Lillie has elected to stay ho—-at Josie's. Not quite home anymore but it's a good substitute. It is upon the elderly woman's very-familiar porch that the Empath rests, clad in a flowing pale-blue housedress with her hair left loose to dry in the evening air. Safely installed here, she has no real need to cover herself up… the house is just far enough from the road where those passing by won't really think twice to see the slight young woman with the troubled gaze and a riot of bruising along her shoulder.

Settled in one of the deep Adirondack chairs, Lillie watches the road absently with a cup of chamomile tea in her hands… untouched, mostly, and tepid. A sign of just how far her thoughts have wandered…. to Lillie, cold tea is terrible indeed.

Jesse may or may not have heard of any altercation. For someone who is in town often, he doesn't seem to get a lot of news. Maybe it's because folks know that Jesse and Lillie are over and they're trying to be kind to him? Or maybe it's because they just feel like he doesn't need the information. Either way, he may not know that Lillie isn't at her house for he's on his way there.

Hands trail along the familiar fences of the smaller houses along Pine Street; he doesn't really -want- to do this, but he feels an obligation.

The altercation may yet be a tiny piece of flotsam upon the waves of a vast sea of gossip, finding sunlight for a brief stint only to be pulled under. By now word of Roddy's situation — when he was spotted in town before the 'break in' and after — is 'old' news. Still rumbling here-and-there, but nothing earthshattering. People have become used to Roddy finding trouble, after all… but exactly what trouble he found isn't quite as well-known. Just as Lillie prefers. She hopes she never sees Boyd again, either in her presence or near some other unfortunate woman.

But the pain remains, and the fear of what was in the man's eyes as his fingers bit into the lean meat between her neck and shoulderblade.. squeezing, squeezing—-

The Irish woman brings her mug up to her lips and takes a sip, wincing at the chill in the liquid. Her lashes flutter downwards as her eyes close.. but then something…..

An emotion comes in, then two; they mingle with her own unsettled feelings and her eyes open quickly, spying a figure… a familiar figure walking toward the house. This is achingly familiar and Lillie straightens up some in her chair, her nerves beginning to buzz a bit with concern. Jesse…? Why would he come here? It's not an easy cocktail to stomach, for there is sadness there… awkwardness… Lillie sets her mug down on the broad arm of her chair and stands slowly, her sprained right hand twinging painfully. "Jesse..?" She asks, tentatively.

He knew he'd have to deal with her voice eventually, but he wasn't quite prepared when he heard it and he hadn't even reached her house. There's a pause as his ears pick up the familiar voice speaking his name and he takes in a slow, deep breath before turning towards her voice. Thankfully, he isn't picking up her perfume. It's taken long enough to get it out of his nose.

"Lillie," is offered in greeting as he steps closer. Not too close, however. He's keeping a respectful distance. "I didn't…I wasn't…" There's a sigh, "Clyde won't listen to me. I dunno that he'll listen to anyone else, but you gotta get him to get all his emotion out. Somehow. It's gonna drive him made if he keeps on pushing it all down. Maybe he'll listen to you."

There. It's said.

Also in Jesse's favor, the perfume hasn't been touched this evening, having been washed away. Lillie watches his approach, not even with wariness.. just curiousity; even worry, given what she is picking up from him. Her brow furrows as she stands atop the small flight of stairs, unseen by young Walker, her eyes settled upon him. Is she aware of the struggle — his struggle — to remove memories? Even those enmeshed in senses such as smell? No; Lillie is intuitive but not that intuitive, and her features soften with concern.

"Are you—" She starts, but then Jesse speaks.. standing apart as he is, but easily within earshot. Lillie rests her sore hand atop the railing as she listens, her features darkening further with worry as Jesse goes on. He may not see it, but her expression is rapt as she listens to him. "What's going on? H-his emotion? Is everything alright..?" She starts, then calms. Concern for Clyde; for all of them. Oh son, Lillie knows all too well when someone is stuffing emotions down and how painful it can be. Dangerous.

"Would you like to sit and talk more about it?" Lillie asks gently, though her voice is still steeped with anxiety and some little hints of physical pain. "I want to hear all about it.. but.." She trails off. Jesse's emotions are plentiful, and the dullness and heaviness of depression is acute. "Are you okay? Did something happen at home?"

The thing is, Jesse -does- actually want to sit and talk about it, but he's not sure he can with Lillie. None of the Walkers like to talk things out…except him. Probably another thing inherited, not from his father's side, but from his mother and it's a bit isolating at times like these. "I'm fine," is offered a little flatly. He's not fine, but he needs to put up a good front for the woman who dumped him, after all.

"Just in general. He thinks that if he shoves his feelings down, he can get rid of them, but they're gonna explode one day and it ain't gonna be good when that happens. It's better if he figures out a way to get 'em out before they get that far. He don't listen to me about it but maybe he'll listen to you."

And see Jesse, Lillie knows you want to talk. Remember that ghost sense? It's what makes the woman so damned intuitive and not fooled one bit by your bid to not talk about things; that you're 'fine'. Old habit, and it's fuelled by what is indeed still a wellspring of concern for Jesse, warrants this. "You're not fine." Lillie says frankly. "I don't know how appropriate it is of me, Jesse, to implore that you speak further if it helps you… but something is up, I can still tell." Says the woman who dumped him, earnestly and worriedly.. but she does not push. Jesse was nothing but kind to her, nothing but good; she owes him the concern even if he does not want it.

"I can try to talk to him.. I will do my best. It's not.. healthy to bottle things up." Lillie offers, meaning it.. she pulls her sore hand back and holds it in the crook of her opposite elbow. "I'll do my best.. but…"

A poignant silence as she considers, her shoulder burning. "You seem to be carrying a great many things yourself. How are things with the busking? I heard tale of you playing at Ms. Styne's do awhile back." She fishes.

There isn't a reply for a moment as Jesse just stands there, turned slightly towards Lillie. Finally, after a bit of thought, he manages, "I know you're close to Clyde and to Clifton. I can't be your friend, Lillie. Not yet. Maybe not ever." Not after how she treated him. "So how I am ain't none of your damn business. But Clyde is my cousin and he's gettin' overwhelmed by all sorts of stuff that he won't talk about and that he'll just push down until it explodes. He don't listen to me because I'm still just a kid to him or something and I dunno if anyone else sees that he's gonna blow if he's not careful. I'd rather not see that happen. But since he cares for you, maybe he'll listen to you."

The woman nods, unseen, and lends voice to the thought. "Of course." She offers gently, brow furrowed. "For what it's worth, then, I hope.." She trails off, winces a bit as she moves her shoulder a touch too rigidly. "Do you know… what are some of the things that is overwhelming him? I can only know of a certain few.. but I made that promise not to go where I mustn't go.. and I know naught of what happens in the hills to this very day." Lillie pauses, lowering to seat herself upon the topmost step. Eyes the color of sea glass observe Jesse worriedly. "But of course, he's not talking about it.." She then answers her own question, sighing softly.

"I will talk to him Jesse, I promise.. and see what is going on. But how.. how has he been treating you like a kid? What has he been saying? Doing? Has he been turning down ideas that you've been having, or ways in which you wish to help?" Lillie presses, having some hunches but wanting to know every angle. She watches Jesse levelly, her whole body rigid with anxiety.

He won't talk about it all to Jesse either. That's the thing. "If I knew, I'd be trying to get it out of him, not standin' here talkin' to you about it." Jesse is -not- thrilled that he feels that it's come to that.

The pressing from Lillie just gets another frown, "Why do you care? I don't need your pity and I don't need you actin' like you're some sort of mother figure to me." Because that's the only thing he's picking up from her. He's not empathic, but that's what he's picking up.

"I don't like to give pity, Jesse. To anyone. I'm only asking because I honestly am concerned, despite it all. I may have been a fool in the whole scope of it all but you were nothing but kind. I just can't help it." Lillie says, shifting to push herself up and forgetting to favor her hurt hand. A hiss of pain and she holds it to herself again. "Clyde cares about you and worries, but you don't need me to tell you that either. He worries. From what I've heard, he was conditioned with tough love as he grew and that is perhaps how he shows it.. it's not because he thinks you're some kid to scoot out the door when things get heavy. It's just the way he is… it can't be easy to be the head of a family.."

Unbeknownst to Lillie: the Alpha of a dwindling werewolf pack. c.c

"I am anything but a mother figure… is this care borne of remorse? Of course. I cannot apologize for my stupidity enough and I will not waste your time." Lillie says gently, feeling the acute desire to not be there rising off of young Walker in waves. "I know that you would rather be anywhere but here, that it's distasteful to you… and it was done out of great concern and love for your cousin. I will do my best by you to figure out what's going on, and hopefully help to avoid something terrible. It's the least I an do."

"You say that, Lillie, but that's just what you're doin'. What you did." Stringing him along for so long like that. "We all got that sort growin' up…no one had it easy." He's not accepting that as any sort of excuse.

Taking a step back, Jesse follows the line of the fence a moment before he adds, "Don't tell him I talked to you." Because that'll probably get him in even more trouble with his cousins. "I'm just tryin' to keep my family together before it explodes from the inside."

And Lillie? She's not supplying anymore reasons or excuses. The points made here, the very same — in some shape or form — have crossed her mind day and night as to how she could have done things differently, behaved, made her decisions. But that is neither here nor there.. the time is now. Her lashes flutter once and she nods again, feeling a great sadness for Jesse. It's a sadness she keeps to herself, for the Walker would perhaps only be further offended to know that she feels such a thing. It's all she can do to talk to Clyde, though she is now left wondering if there is indeed something she missed or just hadn't been told about.

Her eyes watch Jesse's form as he navigates the fence that he perhaps remembers; it surely cannot be easy. She stands swaying for a moment, shoulder burning, hand throbbing as if her bruised ligaments are commiserating with the difficult emotions at hand here (harrharr.)

"I will not say a word about this. T-thank you for coming here.. get home safely, Jesse." She says, meaning it: be safe. Even to this day, she doesn't know that she is telling the likes of a werewolf to be 'safe' against whatever is foolish enough to tangle with him.

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