(1943-09-12) Harold is Justified
Harold is Justified
Summary: Clifton and Lillie snoop around the freaky orange motorcycle, to learn a bit more about it.
Date: 1943-09-12
Related: Exploring what appeared in this log.
Players:
clifton..lucietta..

Run Down Church, Higsi
Wed Sep 12, 1943


It is been many decades since this church has seen a service or any upkeep. As with most 19th century, country churches it is just two rooms, a small vestibule at the entrance where worshippers could hang there coats and hats, and than a much larger room lined with wooden pews with a short dais and alter at the front. A large fireplace with a stone surround was used to keep the place warm during the winter, it lays cold and bare now though.

The windows that line the walls to left and right are so dusty then let in little light, but remarkably most are intact, only a couple broken, the glass littering the floor. Dust, small bits of debris, feathers and other animal leavings litter the large room, the rafters have become home to various birds and the chimney is sure to house a colony of bats. Lastly, the roof sags in places and will surely cave in in the near future.

Weather:
It is summer. The weather is hot and overcast.

===

It's a decidedly hot, humid day stretching itself over Higsi on this particular Wednesday. It doesn't help that the clouds have since rolled in, like a thick celestial blanket. No that sparkly word isn't mean to paint a 'pretty' picture; it means that it's hot as feckin' balls (even in September) with said clouds forming a 'cover' and trapping the air closer to the little town. When sun does manage to peek through this only exacerbates the whole situation and people are just left sticky and hot. But there's plenty of gossip cud to chew to keep one's mind off of the weather.

Ever since the fall party and the discovery of the alien bike, people have been buzzing about what it could mean. Of course the speculation runs the whole gamut: 'it's the devil steed!' …. 'ah tells ya, it came from Nashville' … 'NAZIS' … 'ALIENS' .. etc etc. Eventually the man who found it, Harold, gained further credibility as nobody came forth to claim the thing and once townsfolk were certain the bike wasn't going to sprout arms and shoot people. Eventually the thing was rolled into the one building in town where people won't bother much with it until it could be decided on what would be done with it.

… once again that poor abandoned church, previously home to fights with demons and giraffes and all manner of things… is brought into the fold. The orange crotch rocket, still as banged up and burnt on one side as it had been that night, is lying propped against a pew. There is a noise at a door 'round the back of the church, coming from the graveyard… and if one looks closely it's Lillie O'Clery, pretending to mind gravestones, coming to get a peek. c.c

Things were supposed to get easier. Once the baby was actually here and the curse was lifted. Clifton had been very very wrong in that assumption as things on the mountain were even more chaotic now. Between baby duty and baby crying and everybody adjusting to the new routines…now add the strange bike to all the goings on? The New York Walker was stressed and tired and stressed. He got off work, but decided to take his time getting home today. So what better place to stall than the run down church?

It had been a favorite spot to visit even before the bike incident. So now, with a bag held in his hand from the local diner, he heads towards the building…spying a familiar figure in the graveyard. "Most people are avoid the unfamiliar or strange…but you run to it. You're an odd one, Lillie." It's said with a grin though as Clifton makes his way through the headstones. "Or are you really here to tend the graves?" It wasn't out of the question for the empath to do so.

<FS3> Lillie rolls Empath: Great Success.

The sense swirls around, strong today; Lillie hadn't slept well so her mental processes aren't as equipped as they should be to cope with her empathy. So as she pretended to see to the tired, dingy graves of Higsi forbearers the sense reached out, past the fence, and fed her snippets of peoples' emotions as they passed. It ranged as much as one would have expected: contented at the sight of a 'sweet young lady doing her Christian duty' or alternatively.. 'what is that Scottish girl up to now'? Stuff like that.

Anyway, as Lillie is primed to slide her wiley little fingers into the weather-beaten door to sloooowly pry it open, she nearly leaps right out of her skin as she hears a familiar voice. No matter how familiar… when spoken unexpectedly and when a girl is so immersed in a cause… yeah. She jumps like a cat whose tail has been trodden, skirts flouncing. Lillie turns on a heel, eyes huge and bandana askew only to realize.. "Clif?… o-oh, Clif! Ah," Blush. She just about trips over the basket at her feet.. she was going to work later to make an honest maiden of herself.

"I just wanted to, ah… look. It's in here, you know." Lillie muses with a funny little light in her Irish green eyes. "Wish to come along?"

Clifton can't help but laugh "Yeah I know. I was the one who put it there." Shaking his head he walks up to her and pushes the door open, holding it open with a hand. "Has it caused much of a fuss in town? I was just coming by to see if I can figure anything out about it…" Not that he was mechanically gifted to any real degree, but hey he could try! "How have you been?"

Her nose wrinkles, though not snarkily, "I remember," She does too. Lillie hadn't lingered to watch what happened to the bike as she was a bit huffy over Clyde glaring at her, thinking her to be foolish for looking! Bah! The last thing Lillie did notice was Clifton indeed hefting the bike out of the truck bed. And now…

Lillie blinks, rubs her chin lightly as reddish-brown hair trembles at the nape of her neck. The whole works of her hair had been pulled up and under the bandana and she looks like the flimsiest Rosie-the-Riveter-in-a-dress ever. "There are jaws flapping, for certain," She explains in her chipper, accented way. "Most are a bit too nervous yet to have a poke, Tilda has been wanting to come have a look at it. Imagine that," She turns from her friend, back to the door…

"I've been ok. Just about dying with curiosity.." Well duh. Carefully, Lillie works the old handle. "What of you Clif? Everyone settling?"

"Define…settling?" Clifton says with another grin, tired but genuine. Ever the one to remain positive, or try. "Everybody is doing fine. Just tired and adjusting to life with a baby." The thought has him silent a moment as he smiles. Once they were inside he lets her approach the bike first, watching her as she does so. "How are things with the house coming along? I can stop by tomorrow or the day after to do some more work if you need."

"How many minutes of sleep have you managed to get between the fall party and now?" Asks Lillie with a soft smile; there's a degree of knowing in her voice. Mercifully any talk of babies seems to be without any degree of the melancholy that she used to put forth in earlier discussions. Looks like her plan to be busier than a dog with two d*cks until the hurt stop and acceptance set in worked! However Lillie is not without her love for kids and she takes one more look at the werewolf's tired-looking face. "I know little of what my involvement is to be in this.. situation.. but if anyone ever needs a break, if it is not discomforting, by all means bring Jackson to me for an afternoon or the like. I… want to help somehow." The Empath says gently, clearing her throat. It's an awkward question to ask but her look is so earnest that one can hone their lives upon it.

No drama though, Lillie's lips pull into a smile, "Give it a month, it shall get easier." Said as she finally steps into the musty maw of the open doorway and squints into the shadows. It takes a few minutes to mark the bike, still propped up gently against one of the more feasible pews. "The house is… pretty much ready. I have sent the advertisements off to print, though I may very well have one tenant poised already. You met her." Said cheekily.

The circumstances of the whole love triangle and their arrangement was weird enough to Clifton without thinking about how the baby factored into things now. So he'd just keep doing as he'd been doing and leave that to all of them to sort out. At her inquiry of sleep though he gives a mock calculation expression before holding up all ten fingers in front of him "I've got this many minutes of sleep…give or take." He then shakes his head with a chuckle "Nah it hasn't been that bad honestly. He's just lucky he's cute…because he's wearing out my shirts with…well you can imagine."

Her talk of the house has Clifton nodding "I'll come by just to make sure. If nothing else, to ensure the squirrels are gone for good." Oh that damn squirrel. "Oh? Who?" At the mention of him knowing the first tenant.

"It's coming out of both ends, isn't it?" Lillie reads between the lines re: sacrificial shirts. She tosses back her head to laugh outright before resting a palm to her lips. "I am sorry, forgive me. You are armed with a powerful sense of humor and that shall keep you sane as the baby gets his bearings. You shall know sleep again soon." Said with a soft look before she turns back to the bike. A soft humm in her throat as she looks back to the Walker, "You are welcome there anytime. From what I could see, all looks well. Some of the money raised at the fall do, before this joined us," She indicates the bike, "I was able to bring in a fresh round of linens and some newer dishes." Lillie's smile doesn't waver as she sets her basket of gardening tools down and reaches back to stuff some of her hair back into the bandana.

Near soundlessly, she pads over in the direction of the bike. "Isn't it the most fascinating variant of orange?" She asks as if Clif will totally understand her rambling.

A moment later.. sorry she was staring at the colors, "You met her at the party. That gorgeous blonde who was selling kisses."

Clifton just nods at Lillie's words. Until then his shirts would just have to suffer the wrath of baby mess. "I'm glad we were able to raise something for the house. Sorry it got cut short. I could always set up another pie stand in front of the diner to get more donations" he says with a smirk. As if anybody in town needed an excuse to throw something at a Walker! When she mentions the tenant Clifton's smirk spreads into a grin "Oh really? I'll have to make a point to stop by for sure then." As if he wouldn't help his friend anyways, but now he had added er um…motivation! "That kiss was definitely worth the two pies to the face…maybe even a third, but don't tell her I said that."

"I am still surprised that it was done, you sneaky devil," Lillie offers snidely to Clifton, "I hadn't expected funds to be raised… it makes it easier for Josie and I, so I do thank you. I truly do. You sneaky sneaky devil." Said as she holds a hand out just over the back fender of the motorcycle. Not touching yet. You can just see the mini Lillies on her shoulders, one an angel and one a devil.. having themselves a real dervish of an argument. As slender fingers twitch a couple of inches away from that gloriously colored bit, the angels are bowled over by a third conscience: Clyde, glaring. Interesting how a mini-Clyde-conscience looks like Jackson.

"Maybe ask Jesse if he would volunteer to be the pie face." Lillie says with a giggle in her voice, then catches herself. "I am not suggesting this meanly! I swear! He just so loves pie still, yes? And it's a way to get free pie." The Empath smiles cheekily.

Squint.

"If you're thinking of looking her up for a wag, the both of you go on a nature walk. Alice is outdoorsy, you know!" Said jokingly, then she softens. "We became fast friends.. she is a good sort, Alice." Lillie looks back to the bike.. "Should I touch it? It won't fall will it?"

Clifton shakes his head "You're a friend. It was no trouble. Besides…like you said. Free pie! No way am I letting Jesse get in on my pay out" he says with a laugh. "Though…two Walker faces to pie are better than one. Maybe I'll consider sharing the pie…maybe." The talk of Alice and her love of nature has that smirk back in place "I'll keep that in mind…thanks." Then she's asking to touch the back, Clifton just shrugs "I don't know that it'd fall over but it might jump out and attack you like it did poor Harold…" To look at him though shows he's joking. He wasn't sure what had happened to the man, but one thing was for sure…this thing didn't move on it's own accord.

"Double the funds." Lillie muses, on the topic of two Walkers getting pelted with desserts. Granted given the sugar rationing and the overall bottlenecking of ingredients and their availability? The pieces won't exactly be decadent. Not all of them. Lillie just leaves that thought to herself; she's still inwardly NOT happy with how the Walkers are treated by many townies. It's not a topic that she's about to launch into here. Instead.. the bike

It is just Lillie, Clifton, and a crotch rocket that some stunt driver ate shit on when he bailed. Many decades ahead there is some poor sod missing his wheels.. if he survived.

Finally, Lillie touches the bike, hand splayed upon the orange fender above the front wheel. "Oooh.." She exhales, eyes rounded in her face. She stands and slides her palm toward the fuel tank and finally she leans in to squint at the speedometer. It's a digital one so it appears to the Empath as nothing but a blank screen. "It is beautiful..!" Oh Lillie.

Clifton watches Lillie look over the bike, seeing her intrigue and hearing the excitement in her tone. The Walker blinks before holding up a finger "No. Lillie…no. You aren't getting on that thing." Last thing he needed was Clyde murdering him for letting Lillie go off and get herself killed. It was a completely different matter that Clifton had already been tempted to ride it himself. COMPLETELY different!

Her fingers wrap around the brake lever and she gives a squeeze, "It is a brake, yes?" Lillie peers past the bike at Clifton, her eyes positively glowing with intrigue. She feels safe here, surprisingly; like a kid in a candy store looking at the newest treat. Or toy store. But candy is sweet and tasty and this, to curious Lillie, is a treat.

Like a little cat she moves from one end (the fore) of the bike to the aft, fingers dancing along carefully. "It is a lot like bikes in town here, I am no authority on mechanics and things with wheels but the same baseline is there?" She looks at Clifton with those big eyes, dark with their intrigue.

"But it is so smooth and beautiful.. even the damage. Look at how it has fielded the damage… it seems weaker than bikes…" Lillie's dialogue continues, intrigue painting every word. She looks up at Clifton. "Wait, do you not wish to sit on it? I bet you would look stellar. And maybe I.. can I just try? I've never been on a motorcycle before and what better way than to sit on an alien bike!"

How can you say no to those eyes?!

Oh he can say no very easily. With the fear of Clyde murdering him, all things are possible! "No. You're not riding it. I'm not getting my ass kicked because you wanna go on a bike ride!" It's said firmly, but also not meanly. "I'm not riding it either." So there! "Lillie…we don't even know how to operate it. Even if it is similar…it's just…it's too different. It's too dangerous." Please oh please don't let Clifton get murdered!

Well, to Lillie's credit.. she's not impetuous. She doesn't want to get Clif killified. "Oh, alright then," The Empath says with a little sigh. "My luck something awful would happen the moment I get my arse in the… the seat." Don't flashy things like this have other names for things? Master control? Lillie lets the matter slide and resumes her slow casing out of the mechanics.. she has no bloody idea what's what. She'll just call THAT part tube number one, and.. "Look a this doo-dad." It sounds amusing in the Irish lilt. She's indicating the long, narrow point of the rear cowling and how it looks like an alien ship.

"The orange is my favorite. Whyfor do people not have cars this color?" Asked without guile as she smiles innocuously over at Clifton and makes her way back to the front where the throttle, brake and control panel happen to be. "If I cannot ride it, I shall look at more of these gadgets." Said as she moves her hand toward the throttle. Seems simple, right?

Clifton watches her as she accepts her fate of not riding, but still doesn't seem to fully trust her to not hop on anyways. The Walker also looks over the bike, admiring it as well. "It's definitely an under appreciated color" Clifton agrees, watching as the empath moves towards the front of the bike. "Just be careful with what you touch or push…a church is supposed to be holy…not have holes IN it." Last thing the Walkers needed. To be known for sending a bike through the church wall!

<FS3> Lillie rolls Retrocognition: Good Success.

Last words Lillie says before it's lights out: "I'll be careful.. this poor little church doesn't need more entrances. Oh, Freddie would love this… maybe you could take a picture of it for me?" Asked sweetly, completely without suspicion of what is to come next. Even her sense, though strong and roiling in her head, doesn't point toward much. Her hand reaches for the throttle and gives it a harmless goosing and seeing as how the bike is dead, nothing comes of it.

The only thing firing to life is something in Lillie's head.. that strange part that fields visions. Suddenly her slight frame stiffens as being fed a current. To see Lillie's expression is a look of startled astonishment; she flinches abruptly with a pained little sound and crumples to the floor. It took only seconds and there's no change to the bike, to her physiology.. but anyone who knows Lillie may or may not recognize the look upon her face as being conducive to a vision. A powerful, brief, gripping one… what did she see?! It short-circuited her, and Lillie sprawls in a small heap alongside the strange orange alien bike.

"Yeah I can bring my camera some day and we can-FUCK!" Clifton rushes forward as Lillie crumbles to the floor, instantly on his knees and by her side. "Lillie! LILLIE!" He had only seen her visions take hold a handful of times, and nothing like this. The Walker gathers her into his arms, pulling her up against him and keeping her balanced in one arm as his other hand comes up to tap her cheek gently. "C'mon Lillie, wake up….talk to me…do or say something…anything!"

She's not hard to move, especially when one is a werewolf. As easy as collecting a discarded jacket. Lillie's eyes are closed lightly as if down for a nap when in reality, her brain has pulled a breaker switch. To touch something so obviously not of this timeframe and see something so startling (and really quite simple at the same time) has just resulted in a 'does not compute' reaction. Lillie hangs there for a time, the force of her fall having loosened her bandana and sent some fiery hair helter-skelter around her face. There wasn't even the gradual descent into a faint, where one stumbles and feels around for something to break their fall. Lillie went down and it's good that she didn't jostle the bike when she did.

Clifton's voice can be heard echoing in the fuzziness of her mind as she drifts between layers of consciousness. The tap earns a groan and a twitch and after a very tense couple of minutes her lashes flutter open in a face that has grown a bit pale. Her eyes are unfocused and dark, pupils dilated fully. She looks confused and goes on staring at Clifton for a moment, wordlessly. Somehow that's worse.

Clifton lets out a small sigh of relief as her eyes open, but it's very obvious that the ordeal isn't over. Nor was it like episodes before. This one had hit Lillie and hit her hard. The Walker, normally the well composed and held together one, was practically frantic as he tries to compose himself. Think, Clif think! "Lillie just listen to me I'm going to get you to the clinic. Hold on." How was he going to explain it? Who knows. He'd come up with something. With that, the Walker starts to stand up, keeping Lillie secured in his arms as he does so.

"N-no.. no clinic-" Lillie says thickly.. not slurring, though. She didn't have that kind of cranial episode. But mercifully she's coming back. "No clinic please no—" Something about hospital settings seems to really scare her when paired with episodes of her 'gifts'. Yeah, gifts. Ugh.

"Home.." A plea, a whisper. "I'll be.. just sit.. need to sit." And work on coming back. She doesn't look as if she will crash again but there's a muddled quality. Surely, if bid to just walk in a line from here to her little haven out in the back woods, it can be chalked up to heat stroke or something. If only.

"S-saw things," The empath says, "B-brief. Harold was not wrong." And then begins the awful shivering. Her body has to process and react to the shock of 'seeing'. "Home." Lillie utters in her throat, easily lifted.

Clifton stops as she pleads with him, fighting the inner urge to go against her wishes and take her…but she knows her episodes best. Knows her body best. "Fine I'll take you home…but I'm staying with you until I'm sure you're well." Both for his own peace of mind and Clyde's. He gently lowers her in a way to help her stand, keeping a firm hand on her and staying close in case she still needs to lean. "…what?" Harold was…right? Shit. So what did that mean now? Nevermind, he'd figure that out later. "Let me know when you're ready to walk. Take your time."

<FS3> Lillie rolls Empath: Good Success.
<FS3> Lillie rolls Mind: Success.

The Irish girl is never one to beg, not often. Few things ever resort to her begging. But when a clinic was mentioned and Lillie having to possibly tiptoe around explaining what happened, something troubled her. The fear of the repercussions of talking to professionals about her abilities just…. no…

Her body can be felt easing when Clifton trusts her and does not take her to that scary place. She is easily lowered onto one of the pews that are serviceable and Lillie allows herself to sense the solid wooden surface beneath her body and Clifton's presence closeby. In the wake of the retrocognition fit her sense seems to have… slowed down some. It is tied somehow to that ability and responds accordingly. Her mind? Still garbled but she's no longer looking at the Walker with that awful incomprehension.

Thankfully, Lillie does not argue Clif joining her and lingering. "I-I will sleep.. do not stay long, go see to baby—" The Empath breathes deeply and flutters her eyes closed. She will sit like that for five or ten minutes and then, will be ready to walk groggily back out to Cotton. Sadly she won't be much for disclosing information on what she saw right off the bat, and once home will fall into a deep, deep sleep that spans the remainder of the day and well through the night.

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