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 Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:40 am
Pod duty was one of Sasha's more preferred activities - she could complete her shift in solitude, and the podded hunters never bothered her. The white noise hum of machinery was soothing, and sometimes she would bring her flute with her so that she could play uninterrupted. Winding through the maze of pods, Sasha played a rather upbeat tune. It almost seemed out of place considering the sleeping hunters, but then again, Sasha was not playing for them. Sasha never played for the so-called "pod people" - always for herself. She'd picked it up again after her return from Scotland. It was no longer a tool to keep herself centered and focused (she was long past that), but simply a hobby. She did not need to play; she played because she wanted to.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:27 am
Pod duty was a duty Lawr had never minded. The weighty silence of the pods and their silent sleepers was much preferable to the thrum of activity elsewhere on the island. It was also a duty he favoured of late because of his much reduced food intake, he'd begun shedding weight like a snake sloughing off an ill fitting skin and apart from regimented exercise, he'd been moving slower and more patiently than before.
He enjoyed the people in the pods. They were dreamers rendered perfect by their absolute anonymity. He had no reason to resent them or their stupidity, the bad, illogical decisions they had doubtless made. He had no reason to loathe their emotions because in their dreamless sleep they had none. He could move amongst the pods and feel his divinity more than anywhere else on the island and often did so throughout the course of a duty. After all, here the souls of the fallen waited, humbled for their chance at ascension to something more than human. But even chosen they would fail, still crippled by emotions, tethered to their humanity by that singular, toxic weakness. It was a purgatory of destined failures. To unplug them would be a mercy.
When he had been chosen there had been nothing holding him back. The pod rooms where where he had awoken and they were where he went back to to simply marvel at his own wonder, letting the thrum of distant generators seep into him until his breathing synced with it and even his heart seemed to slow in obedience.
Today he had found a spot between two pods, one a blonde youth, angelic in appearance and a cherubic young girl, far too young to be brought to such a cruel place, such a cruel world. They were his favourites of the present batch and he looked on them often.
At first he thought the flute was in his mind - not an enormous leap for the man as he would often patiently recite piano compositions in his thoughts note by note when other occupations failed him, able to shut himself in his mind and lock the door. After all there was no company quite like him. He had his knees pulled up, dressed, as it happened as Jan, sarong and expensive beads.
But as Sasha passed him, the eyes who watched her were not the soft slightly naive eyes of Jan.
"That's quite lovely." he said.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:45 am
There was a soft, surprised gasp as the music came to an end, and Sasha peered at the man who had found a place for himself between two pods. She hadn't been expecting to see anyone else in the room - not that she minded, really. Rather, not that she appeared to mind. There was a split second where something else crept into her pale blue eyes, something that was gone almost as quickly as it appeared; a darkness, foul and pitch, a yawning void of almost-nothing.
"Thank you," was her breathy reply. Sasha's lips parted on a smile; she took a step closer, curiously watching the stranger. Options were weighed in split seconds. He didn't appear to be a threat, but there was something about those eyes that drew her a little closer.
Her hair swung about her like a thick black curtain of curls, enveloping her slender build. Every gesture perfectly executed, each movement orchestrated to lead one to believe that she was nothing more than a harmless creature, whimsical and sweet.
"Sometimes I play for them," Sasha whispered as if she were worried she might wake the useless, vapid creatures poor souls in the pods. "I think they might get lonely."
She pressed her hand against the pod that held the young blonde, stepping closer to the man between the pods.
"I'm Sasha. Are you new?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:59 am
He considered for a moment lapsing into Jan, donning the persona and mirroring her gentleness out of habit. But this was his space and they were alone, he would not lower the mask entirely, but would temper it enough to restrain the puns and the false accent. He would be civil, but he would not waste energy on emulating warmth.
"They get lonely because they feel." he said matter-of-factly, his accent clipped and decidedly English. "No amount of music will cure them of that ailment, in fact, chances are it will only exacerbate it."
Music was wasted on the imperfect, they didn't deserve to wield it, and yet they did, naturally immersed in it, like fledgeling birds born to fly they flexed their wings and simply soared. When he dealt with music it was constructed and cold, a thousand facets of light, constellations and stars arranged to mimic feelings he didn't understand. He resented the girl in front of him as much as it was possible to resent anything, from how indifferently she played to soothe the ears of the unappreciative dead to the beauty that was innate to her, not pursued and relentlessly sought but simply present.
"Jan." he said and chose not to comment on his relative newness. Timescales were simply things to get ensnared in a lie, to trip on down the line.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:16 pm
Sasha didn't bother hiding the smile that cut across her lips. It wasn't a pretty reaction, a little feral and a little ugly. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this man just yet; the way he spoke was at a distinct odds with the way he looked, and it was a little disjointing.
"Many people tend to feel sorry for them, I think. Eternal slumber and all that." Her voice was cooler now, tempered, mirroring his own. "I don't."
Sasha brandished the flute with a flourish, going so far as to gently tap the expensive piece against the pod she was closest to. The sound was cold and dull, echoing throughout the lines of pods.
She took a step closer, her eyes intent on the hunter in stasis, blonde and pretty and worthless. Feelings as an ailment; it was something that she could relate to. Life was much simpler without extreme emotion, that was something she'd learned during the years spent on the island. A hard lesson learned, but one she'd accepted during recent days past.
"It's nice to meet you, Jan," Sasha lied seamlessly, mere steps from him now. Her voice had that breathy quality once more, and she asked, "Do you have a love for music?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:43 pm
He looked back at her as she seemed to meet him half way in cold, but he did not flinch from the chill he felt in her, nor did he reach out to embrace it. He simply acknowledged it as a fact. There was no kinship or warmth between him and those on vary scales of similarity to him, simply distant observation like two cats looking across adjacent and plentiful territories averting the need to fight.
"Nor do I. I am certain that their position is preferable to their past lives, whatever they might have been." Most of the people on the island had chosen to be there, be it in a moment of weakness or misunderstanding, emotional and weak. He had been taken, plucked from his life of idyllic life, surrounded by stupidity and wealth. The stakes had been raised without his consent, and despite his objections to playing without loaded dice, he had been forced to join the game.
Despite the iron chill in his words there was something flighty in the man, a pale shadow glimpsed and then gone. The nearer the huntress stepped to him, the more he seemed to cloak himself in his persona once more, slinking away from her approach mentally rather than physically. The stiffness ebbed out of his posture by measured fractions and the hardness out of his eyes, like approaching a rainbow only to watch it fade. He finally moved, looking away, the accent creeping in around the edges of his speech.
"Matter of fact I do." he said. "Or at least - I play." Love was a word he understood so little that every time he addressed it, however he responded, it was inherently a lie.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 12:54 pm
She was very attentive to each move the man made, the way he seemed to relax, the change of his voice. It was intriguing, in all honesty, and a game that Sasha was becoming very accustomed to. She was not bored enough to pursue, not now. Perhaps in the future it would be interesting to see what was going on in that head of his, fascinating to dig around. It was an arrogant though to be sure, but she allowed herself to savor it for just a moment. She wouldn't mention his voice, his change in demeanor. She simply didn't care enough to.
"Yes, preferable," Sasha agreed, a slight sense of sarcasm in the word. She honestly thought they were worthless - a drain of energy and resources, keeping so many alive. Energy and resources that could be spent elsewhere, or at least managed more efficiently.
When he mentioned that he played, Sasha's expression brightened. To one who knew where to look, it came off as mechanical, presented because it was expected.
"You play!" Tucking her flute under her arm, Sasha gave a little clap of her hands. "Fantastic. What do you play, Jan? I have a friend - you might have seen him on twitter, Jerry - he's quite the musical sort."
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:06 pm
He smiled then, bright, genuine and Jan. "That Jerry seems an amicable sort of feller. I should like to meet him sometime." And sliding into the persona there was only a distant sense of deja vu at the thought of the man, as if he belonged to another life entirely. Shy earnest kisses and a looming promise of reward
"And I play a little bit of piano. Like in the saloons and that." he said. "I'm not very good by your standards I reckon but it gets me by." Not good. Exceptional.
He found her more fascinating than the subject at hand, she didn't seem to move between facets of nature with a clear plan or predatory ploy but something far more erratic and wild. It was like glimpsing emotion, true emotion, interwoven like tape holding a blank wasteland together. He was unified and blank, at least from inside his own head, the only perspective he possessed. False. Fake, right down to his unfeeling core. She seemed to have some gift of both worlds, not dead to emotion but in control of it, tamed under her heel.
She was interesting in a world where very little was.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:23 pm
Fascinating, really, how he slipped into another person so deftly. From one to the next, no sign of the first man she'd come across. Like a snake shedding its skin, but something different - not really outgrowing one to fit into the next, but reshaping itself to become something different. "I can surely orchestrate a meeting, if you'd like - he'd be thrilled to meet someone who can play the piano. He's quite a musician himself, Jan, and he's even got a keyboard I'm sure he'd be pleased to share with you." Sasha took a step closer to the man, head tilted as she smiled at him. There were a few too many teeth in that smile, but she didn't bother to bite them back. There was no reason to, really. She didn't feel threatened, and the conversation was safe enough. "I'd love to hear you play someday, Jan," her voice changed, a little darker, a little velvety. A crack in the mask, a loose stitch in the costume. "Perhaps we can play together sometime?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:17 am
"Maybe. " he said coolly. "I'm a bit of a lone cowboy. Other settlers and I don't tend to get along."
"But I should love to play with you miss." Whether there was instruments involved or not. "Perhaps we could teach one another a few new tunes."
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:48 am
A slow smile softened Sasha's features, almost dissipating the harsh contrast of keen interest that darkened her eyes. She pursed her lips and spun away from him, her hair flaring out behind her as she took a few steps away. It was obvious she did not consider him a threat; if he had been, she would have only pressed closer, invaded his space, made it her own. Moving towards the desk where her flute case was open, Sasha placed the instrument within before snapping the case shut. Once she was finished, Sasha turned to face him once more. "I would like that very much, Jan," Sasha's voice held an almost predatory tone. "I'm an apt pupil. I learn quite quickly." She paused to hop up on the desk, arranging herself prettily before continuing without glancing up, "Do you speak any other languages, Jan?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:05 am
"I'm not surprised at all ma'am." he said with a lazy smile, leaning back against the wall as if it was a barn door. "I had you pegged for a quick learner straight away."
At the question of what languages he spoke, he was silent for a long few moments, not about to be forthcoming with the entirety of his armoury.
"Może" he said, with a so-so gesture of his hand.
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:15 am
His lazy smile was met with a slow one of her own, and Sasha waved her hand. "You flatter me."
While she was not entirely sure which language the singular word was spoken in, her own softly uttered word was something of an attempt at a reaction.
"Magnifique. Tell me, Jan. What hobbies do you enjoy aside from music? Do you dance? I do so love to dance."
She slipped from the desk and gave a nimble twirl, her whimsical movements at conflict with the darkness in her eyes. Sasha came to a stop, facing Jan once more.
"Would you dance with me, Jan?"
He'd been weighed, measured -- and found entirely too enticing.
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:41 am
"I dance." he said, and his features lit up. "I was quite the whirlwind in my day." He laughed playfully. "And it's still my day." He let his eyes drag across her, unashamed as she twirled, drinking her in.
"But unfortunately I need music." he pressed a finger to his temple. "In here. Silence." And it was silent, cold, yawning vacancy and he couldn't fill it with the piano compositions he sometimes dwelt upon, couldn't find music anywhere.
Because when he looked at her he didn't hear the discordant emotional cacophony he heard while observing almost everyone else, he heard only resounding, echoing nothing.
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:06 pm
Sasha watched him curiously.
"You mean you can't hear it? The music, Jan?"
She spun again, her scarf slipping to the floor. When she stopped, the jacket followed, discarded. It left her dressed only in a pale cotton shift, dark leggings and simple flats. Plain. Unobtrusive. Almost boring.
Sasha began softly humming, the eerie sound echoing throughout the pod room.
"I can hear the music, Jan."
Sasha was close now, all inky-black hair and pale, porcelain skin. This game was exciting, and the boundaries would be tested. She held her hand out to the man with the empty eyes, the man with the silence in his mind.
"Won't you humor me?" Her voice was silk and satin, velvety dark, deep and unbidden. Dangerous, curious, completely and utterly at odds with the fanciful creature that stood waiting before him.
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