Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sabin followed suit, slowly eating some of the beef in front of his own place setting, chewing it carefully and savoring the flavor before finally swallowing and opening his mouth to answer the question.

"My job.... let's see.... how do I put this..." He thought carefully, setting the chopsticks down beside his bowl of rice.

She obviously already had met some of the islanders, and any lie that would even hint at the fact they were here willingly would be shot out of the water far too quickly. However, he didn't want to earn her revulsion immediately, either. So that called for a careful phrasing that could breach the shifty language barrier.

"I work here, under the instruction of my two superiors, in supervising teams of scientists who are working on some very.... active genetic manipulation. I am not sure if the term is familiar to you..?" He waved his hand, moving along. "We seek to understand as much as possible about what it is in peoples' blood, their genes, that make them who they are... and how to manipulate that. This can have both.... strange results... such as some of the people that you have seen on the island.... as well as very benefitial ones, such as fighting disease or cancer if we have a thorough enough understanding."

He paused, taking another sip of sake along with a bite of beef.

Sabin winced, tapping his long fingernail against the wood of the table. "Not... exactly.... well... some of them were sick, yes, and we are helping them. But not everyone. We are learning the .... make up of the human body. And in learning how to... change it... we gain a deeper understanding of it, and how to help people."

It was technically the truth... or at least it was the 'official' word that was given to new employees. And while some of the breakthroughs on the island were likely passed in a different form to more legitimate Feral Labs offices to extricate useful medical breakthroughs, Sabin had no illusions that medical research was Moreau's primary goal here. If anything, the money from the medical breakthroughs that the island might generate would more than likely just go back into the island, and Moreau's Project.

But, Sabin didn't have a problem with that, as it helped him as well. There was Zachary, who would soon realize his full destiny of dragonhood... or at least the closest approximation. And now there were already a few seeds out there on the island who would also eventually become almost magical in appearence. The woman before him one of them.

"However... the results can make people look... very different. And the project is very secret. Some of those participating in the experiment - likely the people you met - are not too happy about it."

"Yes, Sayuri," He spoke her personal name again, hedging at the familiarity again. "That is precisely what it means. No one is able to leave once they arrive here except for the man who owns the island." He paused again. "Not even me."

Sabin was certainly not ignorant to her distress. It would have been foolish of him to think that she would have taken the pronouncement in stride, but Sabin couldn't help but feeling a greater distance between them with Sayuri's moment of weakness.

Certainly, the reason for Sayuri's arrival to the island, despite the story she was told, was not really to be a geisha for one of the staffmembers. However, Sabin's knowledge of the basic workings of a geisha-danna relationship opened for the opportunity to truly fulfill her expectations, and the 'payment' to the geisha. After all, like Sabin had told her, he was fulfilling the roles: providing for her needs and supporting her totally. She would not need to perform for comparably small payments to pay her household to keep supporting her. And she had indeed been purchased form the house, 'buying' her in the eyes of the mistress of the okiya. Living in a duplex on the island was not too different from living in the specified quarters of a Danna who wished to permanetly purchase a geisha to be his mistress.

Of course... there was the other side of the bargain in most situations. Exclusivity, and, well, the other duties that a mistress was to sometimes perform for her danna.

And so Sabin had seen no feaux pas in keeping that 'facade' which, in effect, was still true. Why not put his own face to the face of her Danna if no one else at the labs was going to. After all, she was still receiving housing, food, and could request (or be given) personal items, and was in effect being secured for the rest of her life.

Sabin didn't exactly know what he was expecting, however. He hadn't been with a woman since his wife's passing over five years ago, delving instead into his work and his own obsessions. He was picky, and it didn't feel right... but ultimately, underneath it all, Sabin was lonely. Aubrey was the closest he had to a friend in the staffmembers, and unlike Billy, Sabin didn't entertain the notion that they could be anything but. He valued his job (and his health) too much for that.... though she was fun to tease.

Awen was a sweet girl, although young. And while she would listen, and it helped to talk, Sabin knew that she couldn't sympathize wholly with him.

He missed having someone he could confide in totally, to feel comfortable around and not be ashamed or afraid to share his secrets with. And in the lack of that, he fell deeper and deeper into his own private dark areas, delighting in some of his more... sadistic practices.

Perhaps the Geisha was meant to be a distraction, but he knew he couldn't get close to her, not really. And so, her tears at her fate was like a splash of cold water to his face. This was a diversion. Nothing more. He couldn't expect to get close to this woman, nor could he expect her to understand him. How could she when she barely spoke English (or French for that matter). She was even more of a child than Awen.

Sabin subconsciously sat back, further away from the table with a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked up to her, seeing the makeup that was disturbed from her tears.

"You may perform for me now, if you like." He said coldly.

A distraction and nothing more. Sabin reminded himself as he settled in to watch the performance. He had heard about how a Geisha could enrapt the audience, how the simple moves and deliberate execution could speak a volume of emotion, almost tell a story. He had even seen a few old film clips in his line of work. But this was the first time that he was ever a personal audience. And at once, it became very clear to the man why geisha were so reknowned for their performance. Like how a boy trained since he was very young in the martial arts could stun and amaze with his technique, it was very much the same with this dance. Sayuri had lived and breathed her training for likely as long as she could remember - training her body and muscles to perform the motions.

Sabin felt... priviledged, to be the sole witness to this performance.

She was a thing of beauty, an elegant doll, but one with feelings nonetheless, and one who mourned her imprisonment. Sabin had wondered before if perhaps she would acclimate herself to this "cage" better than most because of the fact that she had been in one all of her life already, and was virtually predestined to one anyway, what difference would it make if she were here, or in the watch of some wealthy Japanese businessman?

So while Sabin sat, enraptured, not even taking food from the bowl before him, there was still the underlying air of a cold detachment, of a man who had severed himself from a personal involvement. Like many of the islanders who had undergone fascinating transformations - they were things to look at, to appreciate their strange beauty, but not to open himself up to.

When she had finished, Sabin nodded in appreciation. "Very well done, Satoharu-san." He reverted back to her more formal, family name. 'Your performance was one of grace and beauty.. and you would do your okiya proud."

"You need not concern yourself with my feelings, Satoharu-san." Sabin responded, lifting a sliver of beef from the bowl with chopsticks, placing it in his mouth, and chewing thoughtfully.

"It is a pity that you can not enjoy yourself on this island, however. I know that this is not your home, that this is not Japan, but I do hope that you can grow to enjoy yourself here. At least, hopefully, this is more freedom than you had once before." Sabin said, a slightly more harsh note slipping into his voice for a brief moment.

Sabin tapped his nail on the table again, thinking. It was a mistake to tell her that even he was stuck here. It didn't succeed in tightening a bond that he was foolish enough to have entertained for a while, it likely only made him seem weaker to her.

"I apologize for weighing down your thoughts. You should not concern yourself for my role here. I am not someone who needs be pitied. I still have the power to see to it that you are given the best possible."

Should he tell her of her fate...? She would learn eventually, and likely view it as a betrayal. Did it even matter?

"No one will laugh at you here." He agreed. "Though, all that were brought here to stay in the duplexes are destined to be a part of the project. I ... used what influence I had to try to see to it that your own destiny would be as mild as possible."