♫Please just come back home♫

[hardtoignore]

Who: Clarence with Elliott, Yotsuyu, and then maybe YOU??

What: Attempting to avoid home

When: Early April (the 3rd) and onward

Where: Visiting with the Naeuris, and out at various parks

Rating/Warnings: Teenage angst, possible mentions of previous memory murder

April 3rd-5th, Closed: Elliott and Yotsuyu

Although Yotsuyu had offered to let Clarence come over whenever he wished he hadn't planned on taking her up on it so quickly. Or under such strained circumstances. Though it probably wouldn't have happened at all if Clarence hadn't been on the verge of tears when he first ran into Elliott that Friday at school.

He hadn't asked if he could bring Cheddar with him but he wasn't going to leave his cat at a house he wasn't staying in, even if it was only for one night or two. So now Elliott had to contend with a cat as well as an extra sleeping bag on the floor of his room. Yotsuyu had to find a way to feed another person for the whole weekend. And Clarence... Clarence didn't want to say anything. Just painful things were going to come out of his mouth anyway.

April 6th-10th, Open: Various Parks

There's a thin, scowling teenage boy wandering around parks after school and well into evening for several days over the second week of April. Most notably would be the cat he had harnessed with a lead to take it with him on walks through the park. While the cat seems content enough to flop around in the dirt and grass while stalking the occasional bug, the teenager seems less than thrilled.

Mostly he sticks to sitting on benches or under trees, his backpack next to him while he attempts to do his homework. Occasionally he gives up on this and takes out a sketch book instead, taking time to flex his artistic muscles instead. He seems a lot happier when he's sketching but after a good half hour an alarm on his phone will go off and, scowling again, he goes back to hitting the books.

Comments

[traceofeffort]

"Apparently not," Lisa agrees, sighing. "But hey, eventually I'll run out of existential crises and things should turn around, right?" It's a dark sentiment, but hey, it's about right.

She smiles as Clarence seems to accept her idea, nodding. "That's probably the best start, yeah. And I'm not exactly a 4.0 student over here, but lemme know if I can help with the homework? It'll make me feel like I'm helping someone and not exploding everything."

[hardtoignore]

"Eh, if karma is real it's been hitting us all pretty hard lately. You would think it would turn itself around for us. Throw us a bone soon, or something?"

He could use more than a bone but at this point, he would take whatever anyone was offering. Including tutoring help.

"Oh, really?" He couldn't keep the relief from spilling through his words. "I mostly have trouble staying on-task with things. Got any tips for not letting my brain wander too much?"

He was way too tempted to just get out a sketchbook and draw. Or just drawing straight on his lined paper instead of making notes.

[traceofeffort]

"You'd think," Lisa replies, snorting. "I won't believe it until it happens, though. And it better be a pretty big bone. At this rate I'm gonna go gray in my twenties." And not even cool gray like her vocalist had, just boring old gray!

At the request for advice, she giggles nervously. "Well... I can't say I'm super good at that either, actually. I tend to do some work, then stop and do something else for a bit, then go back to work, you get the idea. Think of a break to do something fun as a reward. I can only ever focus for a long time when it's my guitar, and even then not forever." She frowns. "Sorry, I'm probably not gonna be much help with that specific problem."

[hardtoignore]

He wanted to say that perhaps that was the reason the Bureau wanted them to to crazy; it was actually an undercover capitalist agenda sponsored by some hair dye company! But ever time he tried to say it the words kept getting caught in his throat.

Guess he couldn't even tell a joke like that, considering some part of him knew it wasn't true.

"See, I've been trying to do that," he says, rather than saying it wasn't any help. "Maybe I've just been using the wrong activities to take breaks with. Like, I start sketching and then I end up getting too engrossed in my drawing to get back into the homework groove."

[traceofeffort]

Lisa nods quickly. "Yeah, yeah, that could be it. You can't really just... pick that up and then put it down right away. Maybe you could just sketch little pieces of things, and then when you get free time you've already got your ideas down? Like flash sketches or something." It makes sense to her, but then she's a singer, not an artist.

[hardtoignore]

He tilts his head, considering. "That's... not a bad idea. Maybe I should invest in a packet of line-less sticky notes."

That way he could limit how much he would draw and maybe make a game of it. Then when he was done, he could either toss the notes or use them to mark important places in his textbooks. Yeah, that could definitely work!

"Thanks, Lisa. I think that actually could work."

[traceofeffort]

Progress! Lisa's answering grin is sunny, and she relaxes a bit more where she's sitting. "Sure, sure! Always happy to help out. It's what I've been having to do, though, so I get it - breaking up songs into smaller phrases so I can actually get work done and not feel like the whole thing's looming over me whenever I pick my guitar up."

She sighs after a second. "Not that it isn't looming over me anyway, but that's kinda something else."

[hardtoignore]

"At least it's almost summer vacation," Clarence said with a shake of his head. "I think all of us students could use the extra break."

"Elliott is also helping me study a bit, but I can't bug him every day about this stuff. He's got his own things to deal with, so I gotta figure out what I can do on my own."

[traceofeffort]

"Mm, I'll be looking forward to that too. Finals are gonna suck though," Lisa adds with a groan. She perks up a bit when he mentions he's getting help, though. "Well, good luck, then. He's good, but I'm sure you'll be fine. If not, I can still try and help a little."