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 Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:24 pm
It was late. Evening would come upon the huge LOTUS compounds. The sun was already setting, and a huge variety of colors were flowing through the clouds. Some of them were managing to get through the garden door and hallways.
Johannes had been sitting in the gardens earlier, poring over the recent package that his family had sent him. He had also brought down a phonograph that he found along with some recordings of classical pieces of music. He needed something a bit joyful to soothe him, since he wasn’t in his usual spirits this day.
“Ay, Dios…what will I do now?”
Carl Off’s Carmina Burana was sounding loudly from the phonographs…
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:50 pm
He preferred the night. It might have had something to do with the fact he was no advocate of the sun's unbearable heat, but he really couldn't tell if he was just used to functioning under the night sky or if it was a personal bias afterall. Bernardo found himself often walking the massive buildings during these times, which probably was the reason he hadn't really run into anyone yet.
The Italian was dressed as though for a casual meeting, decked in his charcol, pin-striped slacks and vest, the latter of which was over his black button-up shirt with sleeves rolled just below his elbows. Even though the sun wasn't out, the fedora remained perched atop his raven-wing hair, the brim just so over his indigo eyes that the sweeping motion of his gaze wasn't readily apparent. It didn't make him look like the most approachable guy on the planet but it suited him just fine.
He hummed as he walked. It was a low sound but it was better than listening to the sound of his own shoes clacking at him with each brisk step. Repetitive noise irritated him and really, irritation was the last thing he needed on top of--
Was that music?
The clacking stopped as he turned, cocking his head to the side to turn one ear towards the source of sound. Yes, it was definitely something with a tune and a rhythm, a welcome sound if ever he'd heard any! "I'll be damned," he muttered to himself around the toothpick between his teeth, "signs of life." So maybe LOTUS wasn't compromised of zombies - or if it was, at least they had some decent taste in hobbies.
He was moving again, finding himself traversing the gardens, his off-blue eyes jumping from the phonograph - thank goodness, something he recognized - to find its owner. The man was a bit surprised to find a blonde, blue-eyed individual, his posture seeming a bit despondant. Why does it seem there's always a fair-haired and sky-eyed person during all the changes of my life? he mused with bitter irony, slipping his hands into his slack pockets and approaching the man.
"Hey," he greeted the other in a non-formal manner, his voice low and slightly gruff. Let it never be said that Bernardo Falcone was a man of social graces. "Am I interrupting something?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:51 am
Too entrenched in the letters that he had received, Johannes was a bit taken aback by the stranger's recent arrival. "Oh!" He looked up to the stranger, a young man seemingly dressed in black, accentuated with blue eyes. A coincidence, mere coincidence that he's dressed the same color as the current mood.
Some of the contents in the package were knocked out due to Johannes' startled moves. "Oh, no...I was only reading some things here, and--" He had picked up a recent photo of his family with the glass cracked. "And...reminiscing about home."
"Excuse me a minute." He then proceeded to continue picking up the fallen contents.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:40 pm
Bernardo uttered a quiet sound, something that sounded like a grunt and a chuckle. The man withdrew his hands from his pockets and carefully tugged at his slacks to allow himself the freedom to kneel, picking up the items that had scattered further from the rest. "Reminiscing, huh." His indigo eyes turned over the startled man, the faintest of smiles curving his lips, which parted to allow his tongue to roll his toothpick to the corner of his mouth. Reminiscing on one's own in the dark usually cast darker memories, in his experience.
"Home," he repeated, glancing to the picture that the man held. "Where would that be? Hah! Rather..." A crooked grin formed just as quickly as it disappeared. "Rather, when was home? Be the more apropos question, wouldn't it." He remained kneeling where he was, elbows lighting over his thighs, trying to muster a smile that was slightly less creepy than one coming from a man in full black at night. His opinion of himself was not the highest and he couldn't assume that anyone else would think any better of his nature.
After a moment, he extended his free hand, an almost jerked motion as though he were not used to such a thing. It was true; his way of greeting people, his ethnicity, didn't allow for something so informal and distanced. It was just as well that he got used to the 'shaking hands' business, because he wasn't about to hug these strangers until at least one had proven to be a friend in arms, someone worth the trust of comradery. "Bernardo. 'm sorry to have startled you."
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:58 am
Johannes looked at the man with interest, like one does when one finds an unknown object on the ground, or when one meets someone who's different. It's a feeling people like him don't usually forget. Or anyone, for that matter, he thinks.
"That's all right, I was too immersed in my business, as I've indicated." He smiled almost forcibly and extended his hand to shake Bernardo's: "I'm Johannes, and to answer your question, my home..." He looked down, like a child who had been caught guilty of a crime, and looked up again, "my home used to be what people might call the era of the War between the Allies and the Axis." "Now...I'm not so sure what it is anymore." He shooked his head and stood up, settling his package where he was seated.
"Thank you for helping me for picking up my stuff."
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:18 pm
"Johannes," the man repeated with another crooked smile, "nice to meet you." He remained in his kneeled position, biting on the toothpick between his lips before removing it, tilting his head to the side to better regard the blonde. Bernardo let out a low whistle at the timeline given, nodding in a slightly empathetic manner - or as capable of empathy as he was able. "You're not alone, that's for certain." That's why they were all here, right? To...unify and...fix things. Or something. He hadn't actually figured that part out yet.
The Italian brushed phantom dust from his slacks, taking a moment to look around before his indigo eyes were drawn back to Johannes, the expression of gratitude earning another faint smile, albeit more genuine. "No sweat. Precious things, deserve the attempt." Wouldn't hurt to have an ally of some type anyway, even if it was as simple as a kindness spared in a dark hour. To him, those moments could be the difference between brothers and enemies.
The toothpick was replaced between his teeth, eyes resuming their sweep of the area. "How long you been here? Bit new myself, you're the first I've met." Bernardo logically knew there were more people in the facility, but he'd done a fine job of avoiding them, or so it seemed.
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Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:33 pm
Johannes grinned a bit. Bernardo seemed to be understanding and patient, something that he's grateful for right now. I wouldn't want to imagine what would had happened if it were Estrelas or someone else standing there, thought Johannes. It would have been chaos at some point, with lots of yelling and pants-biting. "Yes, precious things certainly do."
He began to see and organize the package's contents -- more as a calming down technique rather than ignoring one-- and proceeded to answer Bernardo's question and statement. "Really? There are so many people here and I'm the first?" "My, you are new." 'I'm quite surprised not even the crazy people got to you first', muttered Johannes under his breath. Breathing in and out deeply like one does when searching for an answer, he said "I've been for about 2, 3 years, perhaps?" "One could be mistaken since time is so strange here." "But I'm pretty sure I've been here that long."
"So where do you come from?" asked Johannes as he looked at Bernardo intently. He really didn't expect that one day he'd be a 'veteran' and meeting the new recruits.
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:57 pm
The indigo eyes returned to Johannes, the corners of his mouth tugging into a light smile as the man organized his items. He was pleased that he'd at least stumbled upon someone who had their wits about them, someone who seemed more human in their reactions and response than he'd encountered pre-LOTUS.
Bernardo nodded at the guess of time the man had been at LOTUS. The man himself was still trying to piece together the mess that a fractured time had left; this man had come from a bitter war well known in his own time, but had only been here for a few years. How did time figure to break during one portion for one and years in the future for another? Johannes could have very well been alive in the Italian's time. Where did the paradox start, or maybe it was better to ask, where did it end?
He shook his head to himself. He was not a deep thinker for this type of thing. Rolling the toothpick between his teeth, he gave another brief smile. "Italia," he remarked with a certain degree of pride and loathing. "di Napoli - from Naples, that is." Bernardo paused in thought, embellishing a little, "I came from a place knee-deep in politics and still shoveling the crap left from those wars." His homeland had known war, bitter defeat and rebirth. "It's odd," he added, "to say where. Feels like a different world all together here."
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:47 am
....
Johannes couldn't help but chuckle and laugh a bit.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." "It's ironic, isn't it? -- we come from different times but we still have to deal with the same issues and situations." "But it seems that's eternal, I suppose: people having to deal with politics and war. And then to have to try and live the consequences of the aftermath..." He sighed a bit: "doesn't make you wonder about how we can all still live together after all that?"
So, Italia then?" He said, the accent rolling off naturally. "I believe we're neighbors in a sense, since I happen to be about only long miles far from you, same continent -- I am from Spain, España." He smiled, and added: "And it does feel like a different world here but only initially." "Soon you will feel relaxed and at home." "As someone once said to me, you will feel like everyone is family here."
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