Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sayuri paused, stilling her fingers on the shamisen, listening hard. There it was again! People talking, laughter. What was it? The instrument was placed in its case and she looked around her Duplex, trying to find the source. A flash of movement caught her eye and she saw the figures on the screen, colour and noise. She edged closer, curious.
'Oz-san..' she spoke his name with warmth, a little smile on her face, fingers tracing the image on the display, watching the odd dancing he was doing. The female he was with wasnt too much of interest to her...until Oz and she tumbled to the floor.

She wrenched her eyes away, a fist balled and pressed against her mouth. But it was a morbid fascination and her gaze travelled back, her breath catching in her throat and her heart sounding loud in her head as she watched the two..people.

'This is..'
What? What was it? This was what man and woman did. This was what she had been afraid to do with Oz. And it looked like he had simply gone to find someone who knew what she was doing. She carried on watching, her tail hanging limply behind her, occasionally biting her lip. It wasnt embarrassment. She wasnt flinching because she couldnt believe that it was happening, could not take it in. Or voyeurism, because that was beyond her experience and she wasnt receiving any kind of joy from this act, just pain...and watching someone she cared for doing - doing this - was pain beyond anything her mother or Okasan could have devised.

When they stopped. When the moving screen gently turned off and all was blankness Sayuri folded, simply unable to stand anymore.
Her Danna didnt want her.
And neither did Oz..the tears rolled silently down her cheek as she sat there. Alone..

After a few minutes, a male voice, but decidedly not that of Sabin's, came through the voice panel of the intercom.

The panel that had once lit up and displayed that sordid affair now was blank, hardly discernable from the rest of the plastic of the machine.

"Feral Laboratories. How can I direct your call?" The voice sounded either bored or distracted.

"I will see if he is available" The voice responded, sounding quite nonplussed.

Then.. silence.

The silence dragged for over a moment until, finally, a wary but familiar voice replaced the stranger's over the intercom.

"Sayuri.... I must say that I am surprised that you are contacting me..."

Sabin's mouth creased into a frown, though it was impossible for Sayuri to see it.

Crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair, he pondered how to proceed with this... awkward situation at the least. He had told Sayuri in no uncertain terms that he was not interested in a realationship with her. Yet he had led her on, he had posed as her Danna and as far as she was likely aware, he still technically held that position.

What DID he feel? Why did he show her that scene? He was disgruntled that she had gone to Oz so soon after he had spurned her, and seeing Oz fall into Antony's man-trap had brought Sabin a smug satisfaction. Sharing it with Sayuri had been even better. H didn't care to analyze the intracacies of why he had done it or the moral questionableness of that breach of privacy.

He tapped his fingernail on the desk - a nervous habit of his and pondered what to say - she was waiting for a response of some sort.

"I am speaking to you now, am I not?" the tone was not the most pleasant.

There was another drawn out pause on the other end. Sabin scowled. Yes, he was cross. And yes, he knew that he had no good reason to be upset with her specifically. It was more a frustration with himself for letting things get as far as they had, and then having to deal with the situation. Sabin did not like having to clean up his messes or dealing with consequences for his actions. It was one more prodding reminder of the fact that a lot of what he was doing on this island had consequences.

"No, we have not seen eachother since then." Sabin wanted to bring up that Sayuri had wasted no time in seeking affections in the arms of another man.

But he had pushed her away. He didn't want a relationship with Sayuri.

So then why was he preturbed at her? Why did he punish them?

It was just good sense. To point out to Sayuri the flaws in the one that she had run to. His weakness. That he had found consolation in the arms of the village bicycle instead of her. She deserved to know.

It wasn't about jealousy. It wasn't about jealousy at all.

Really.

"Sayuri would not be here if she was not wanted." He phrased his reply diplomatically.

Sabin's sentiments churned and conflicted within him. There was a very good reason he did not like to have any sort of personal attachment with the subjects unless he had a very good reason.

It just made things complicated, awkward, and potentially painful.

Sabin couldn't help but feeling pangs of regret and bitterness. But he also felt a small dark twinge of triumph at having affected the woman so. To seeing the composed mask of the geisha crack, exposing the hurt and lonely woman beneath.

If he could focus on that, drown out the sentiments...

"However.... as I told you last, I am not interested in a relationship with you. I have come to realize this now." He said it severely, bitin back any further emotion.

Sabin smiled and laced his fingers as he watched any trace of the mask fall and shatter to the floor in the normally demure woman's outburst.
No one could wear a mask over their emotions forever, and it was ever so much fun to see it crumble.

OF course, it would be more delightful to bring that to their attention...

"Now, now now" Sabin mock-placated in an all-too pleased tone. "This is not the geisha that I have read about, that I have heard the nation of Japan laude of their perfect attitudes!" Sabin said with a quick bark of a laugh.

"And as I told you before, I was not the one who chose you to come here. I was, however, the one who chose your serum. And this is how you thank me for choosing a kind fate for you? You are not to become a "fish" - not entirely. You are to be a mermaid, a ningyo. You shal keep that pretty face of yours if all goes according to plan."

He snarled at her last quip. "And I told you that I was not a good person. You did not believe me before, but perhaps now you do."

Sabin grit his teeth, swallowing down that regret and sympathy for the woman that he had invited into the sanctum of his room in the laboratories. He had broken her, broken her outlook and aspirations, changed her purpose and forced her to face the harsh reality of the island and of the oft-fickle nature of affection. HE had had that affect on her.

He forced that regret to be swallowed by that dark triumph. He couldn't let himself become sentimental. Not now, not when any chance to backtrack was severed by his own words. There was only the chance for more hurt if he showed kindness now.

Perhaps she would adapt, learn a new dance to replace the old. Or perhaps she would crumple and die - a permanent fish out of water.

"You want to be alone now." He responded in a monotone. "Then alone you shall be."

The intercom then went silent. And then, there was a click noise on her door as the locks slid into place.

The door would remain locked for (only) 24 hours, before unlocking, as if to prove a point that Sayuri could be much MORE alone were Sabin to wish it..... or that Sabin is a bitter, lonely man himself and misery loves company.