Rose Killian (roseyposey) wrote in causatum_ic, @ 2018-07-29 20:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | july2018!, rosekillian, victoriariley |
Who: Victoria “April” Riley & Rose Killian
When: July 15, 2018, morning
Where: Rose’s dance studio, Destruction Island, WA
What: Dancing? Talking? Avoiding
Rating: Lowish probably maybe
Warnings: None
It was early morning when Victoria quietly left her little house and headed off across the island toward the dance studio. She wasn’t sure if Rose or anyone else would be there at this hour, but that was okay. She still prefered to keep to herself, and took to shifting her age and appearance in order to actively avoid some people. For now, she was in her preferred form, long blonde hair pulled back tightly into a high bun like she’d seen in pictures online. She was wearing the new pink leotard and tights she’d ordered from Amazon, the brand new pointe shoes in her hand as she walked, beat up dirty white converse on her feet.
When she arrived at the door to the studio, Victoria looked around warily before slipping the spare key out of her pocket and letting herself inside the darkened building. Closing the door behind her, she turned on the lights and moved into the room with the mirrored wall and the barre. Dropping her things in the corner, she sat down on the floor to stretch out, then went to breaking in the new dance shoes she took out of her bag, unaware of how quiet it was.
***
Rose wasn’t expecting someone to already be at the studio when she got there but the lights were on and she always turned them off, thinking that oddly enough a lighted building would be more of a target here than an unlighted one. If she’d moved to the mainland like most of the people seemed to have done the opposite would probably have been true. She tested the door, finding it unlocked and stepped inside, closing it carefully as she heard noise in the ballet room. There was only one person she knew would be in there so early.
She watched for a moment in silence before moving the rest of the way in, dressed in her usual dance attire with her shoes in her bag and sat down to change her footwear. “Do you mind some company? I couldn’t sleep.”
***
Victoria glanced to the door when she heard someone else come in. She went still and silent, but once she realized it was Rose, she relaxed. Giving her a little smile and wave when she moved in and sat down, Victoria nodded. “Of course. Why couldn’t you sleep?”
***
Rose finished switching into her pointe shoes and gathered her dark curls up into a ponytail before answering her friend. “Bad dreams. And nerves about opening this place up to the public off the island.” She admitted. “What has you here so early?”
***
Stretching while she watched Rose, Victoria was quiet for a minute before hesitantly just shrugging. “Nothing. I usually wake up early and dance at home but today I thought I would come here. What are your bad dreams about?” She had dreams too, most of which were bad, but she was beginning to think they were more memories than anything else.
***
“Today? I dreamt about losing control of my power and erasing my own memories of all the dances I know.” Rose admitted to her. “It’s just nerves I know. I thought about rolling over and going back to sleep but...I figured coming here might calm them more.” Dance studios had always had that effect on her though.
***
Victoria frowned a little but then just nodded. She wasn’t sure she wanted to ask if Rose could actually do that. “I hope you don’t lose your memories. It’s no fun.” Although she did wish she could lose certain memories, and maybe replace them with the missing parts of her past. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
***
“I hope not either. Although...some memories I’d happily give up because they hurt too much.” Rose told her. It was easy for her to admit these things to her friend, things she’d never be able to tell anyone else. Except maybe Fitz but her cousin was busy with his own work and she didn’t want to do anything that might distract from that. It was part of why she’d been so quiet setting the studio up and working on it on her own, and with Victoria’s help when the blonde was free. It was still taking some time for her to get used to not calling her April and she still slipped up sometimes but she liked to think she was getting better about it.
“I was actually hoping you’d be willing to help me teach here. Maybe some of the beginner classes for ballet sometimes? When I’m having to do other things?” The blonde had come a long way in her training since they’d started working together and Rose was confident that she could more than handle the teaching.
***
Victoria didn’t mind when Rose accidentally called her April. At this point, Rose was probably the only one she would allow it from. No one else on the island really knew her, and everyone who’d known her as April was gone for months now. Which was why she’d reverted back to her birth name. Who she was since first coming to Destruction was gone now, broken from the trauma and the losses. She didn’t know who she was now, but at least going by her original name seemed like a good place to start.
Standing, Victoria moved to the barre to do some more stretching, glancing to her friend in the mirror. “Can you do that? Get of just specific memories. Of things, or… people?” If she could, Victoria’d want her to do it to her. She wanted to forget. It seemed like the only real way to move on. Besides, the people she’d lost probably forgot about her anyway, why couldn’t that happen for her too?
Surprised by the question, Victoria turned to face Rose, smoothing back her hair into the tight knot. “Me? Really? Are you sure?” She had developed her dancing quite a bit. It was probably a combination of muscle memory, and the daily hours of practice she spent at it. Victoria wasn’t back to professional dancer shape yet, but she hoped to get there soon enough. But teaching, well, that seemed far more difficult.
***
Rose had bent forward to stretch out her back but she sat up again at her friends question. “I can. It’s part of the memory manipulation gift I’ve got. And it’s actually easier on me than inserting myself into people’s memories.” She said with a half shrug. “Why?” It was on the tip of her tongue to ask who the blonde wanted to forget but she bit the question back as she stood up and stretched her arms up over her head.
She gave her a friendly, confident smile. “I’m sure. It would help me out because I’m just now realizing exactly how much goes into running a studio and it’s a lot of work for one person. You’d be doing me a favor helping out with teaching sometimes. I’ll still be here and can step in if you need me but it’ll be more I’m in another room and you have to call me.”
***
Victoria listened carefully as Rose responded. “I want to forget things. Well, one thing. Person, actually…” Frowning at herself, she shook her head and changed the subject. “If you think I won’t screw things up too much, I can help out. Maybe it will help me get better with my own dancing.”
****
Rose looked at her silently for a moment before going over to offer her friend a quick hug. “I know how that feels. If you really want me to - I can make you forget them. But think about it before making up your mind. Okay?” She said, stepping back from her and moving to the barre to start her own stretches after a moment. “I really don’t think you can screw things up. And it might - when I started teaching it made me think differently about the moves, having to explain how to do them and why you do them that way. Which might not be the best description in the world but it’s the only way I can think of to.”
***
Victoria had already made her mind up. She wanted to forget, and if Rose could help with that, she would be forever grateful. But she wouldn’t stick with that subject for now. Returning the hug lightly, she focused on finishing her stretches. “Okay. If you think I wouldn’t be too terrible at it, I can do it.” She wanted to help, plus teaching would give her something more to focus on instead of feeling so lonely so much of the time. “When should I start?”
***
“I know you won't be terrible at it.” Rose thought for a moment. “Why don't you start today if you feel up to it? I've got a couple small classes planned for the afternoon, mostly people from the mainland, but it's going to be good I think.” She hoped anyway.
***
“Today? Are you sure?” Victoria didn’t think that Rose would want her to start so soon, but she didn’t want to let her down by saying no. “Are you sure those people won’t get mad at me?” While she rarely shifted by accident anymore, there was still a chance she might and she didn’t want to upset anyone with it.
***
Rose thought that Victoria seemed a little nervous and she turned to face her as she went through her exercises. “I was thinking today it could just be you as my assistant kind of. Give the families a chance to get to know you and for us to tell them you’ll be helping with teaching.”
***
Breathing a sigh of relief, Victoria nodded a little. “Okay, that sounds good.” It certainly felt like less pressure anyway. “Is there anything else I can do to help?” Stepping back, she finished her stretching and watched Rose expectantly. If she was going to be an assistant, Victoria planned to do her very best. She didn’t want to let Rose down, she was the only friend she had left.
****
“Any chance you’d be willing to help me with cleanup after? It’ll go faster with two of us I think. And I was thinking since the official grand opening thing is going to be August 1st even though we’re teaching now, maybe you and I could come up with a short routine to show what the kids could learn here?”
***
Victoria nodded eagerly. “Sure, I’d love to help. I don’t know how good I’d be with making a new routine but I will try really hard.” Biting her lower lip, her mind drifted back to the previous topic. “Maybe after, we could hang out and talk about that memory thing some more?”
****
Rose grinned at her. “We’ll get it figured out. It’s been a while since I actually tried to choreograph something but I have an idea or two already.” It would all depend on what piece of music finally got decided on and how to make it work with that. She got serious at April’s question. “We can talk about that whenever you want April.”
***
“You do? That’s great!” Victoria was actually looking forward to getting to help choreograph something, and working officially with Rose would be something positive to focus on. She barely even noticed when Rose called her by her old, preferred name. “There’s not too much to talk about really. I just want you to do it, if you can.”
***
“You’ll have to give me some information about what you want to forget. That way I don’t accidentally take more than you wanted or leave something in there you don’t want to hold onto.” Rose told her. It was tricky at times - messing with memories and she didn’t want to accidentally make a mistake in helping her friend. “But right now - let’s just dance. Have some fun before we have to get ready to be adults for the kids that we’ll be working with.”
***
Victoria nodded and smiled, relieved that Rose could help her feel better. “Okay, I can tell you anything you need to know.” Focusing on dancing, she stepped back from the barre and let Rose choose the music for them to dance to. For now, Victoria wanted to just do the one thing she felt like she actually knew how to do right, dance. Everything else could be forgotten.