trainingwings | [ Action ]

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Player Name: Kris
Are you new?: Yes
Character Name: James "Sawyer" Ford
Character Fandom: LOST

[ He's been in the village a few days now, not the type to raise a fuss right away and start demanding answers, not until he's got a few things figured out for himself, and not until he has a better grasp of what he's dealing with. He spends a lot of that time trying to figure out what the hell kind of place he could've ended up in to have wings on his back. For a little while, he wonders if he's dead, but he remembers where he was right before he woke up here, and that seems unlikely. The fact that this could be a real place, and he's stuck here, is somehow harder to swallow, though.

Eventually, he does need some answers, and that means talking to other people, which is why he winds up at the Good Spirits Bar. People tend to be a little easier to warm up to in a bar, in his experience. ]

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Even with forewarning everyone is surprised.

[She lifts her glass to him and downs half in one go. Starting strong? Yes. Has she earned it? Most likely not. She doesn't care. Explaining the nuances of their pretty little prison always leaves her irritated. It's better to self medicate beforehand.]

Mmm. That depends upon what you wish to hear first. There are the kidnappings, the shifts, the cycles, our minders, the various power plays that happen at least once a month in the village proper, the drafts and then, well.

[Propping her elbow on the bar and with something close to a conspiratorial smile, she murmurs.]

Then there are the vampires.

[ This time when he laughs softly, there's almost a look of genuine amusement in his eyes. He really shouldn't be amused, not given everything she's just told him. But it's so absurd, so seemingly unfathomable, and there's really no other way to cope at the moment.

The whiskey is a great help, though. ]

I just ain't got in me to be excited about vampires. [ He jokes, though he does meet her smile with a smirk of his own. ] Still just too excited about the damn wings to care about anything else right now.

[There are days when you can laugh or you can cry when it becomes too much. More often than not it's easier and healthier to laugh. Wrapping one's head around what this place was- what it could do, what it would do? Laughter is the best way to keep sane.]

Just stay out of the woods come night. If you are brought to my clinic bleeding because you were mauled I will give you the appropriate injection of morphine- then I will point and laugh.

[And she's the nice doctor.]

The wings, well. They can be... exciting if you aren't careful.

[ Even just saying the word 'vampires' feels so unreal. Granted, he's spent the last few years of his life on an island that has shifted through time, harbored polar bears and smoke monsters and various other threats, human and otherwise. He's used to strange things, but he's not used to waking up on the side of a road with wings coming out of his damn back, suddenly far removed from all the people he's come to call friends.

He'll be needing another whiskey soon. ]

So that bedside manner don't apply if you go lookin' for trouble, is that it? [ It's interesting that this woman is a doctor, too. A different kind of doctor than Juliet, from the sound of it, but a doctor nonetheless. ] Juliet, she's a doc, too. Fertility doctor, handles all the babies.

[ He takes another sip of his drink. ]

How exciting, exactly?

I did say after you were given the requisite injection of morphine. I laugh at idiots, yes, but I'm not heartless.

[And oh now that's a funny little twist of a coincidence. The woman with her face helps other women have children, while it's highly unlikely that Adele will ever be able to have one. At this point she doesn't want one, but it's still amusing.]

Trauma surgeon. I handle all the bloody and broken. Occasionally the dying.

[She shrugs, rubs a hand over her eyes.]

That depends. I haven't sorted out the physiological whys of it just yet but if you lose one? You become gravely ill. Lose both and you die. Pulling a feather is much like being punched in the stomach- alternatively if you treat them gently at certain...moments I have been told that their inherent sensitivity can be employed in the bedroom.

I ain't always the best patient, but I sure as hell ain't eager to do anythin' that's gonna wind me up in your clinic, either. Some folks go lookin' for trouble, like they got somethin' to prove, or...nothin' to lose. [ He shrugs, taking another sip of the whiskey. ] Don't care, or they don't know better.

[ She has Juliet's face, and they're both doctors of a sort, but of what he's gathered so far, that's where their similarities end. And rightly so, obviously, since they're completely different people, even if it was unnerving at first. It is, at least, getting easier to separate them in his head. ]

So if you lose one...it ain't comin' back? How's that work?

Apathy and ignorance. Two of my very favorite traits in patients.

[Ones that pop up more often than not in her own world- a little less often here. People are either more cautious or less accident prone. One way or the other it's a comfort to not have to worry about it as often.]

It will grow back in time. The process is lengthy and painful.

Must keep you busy, lotta folks ain't in short of supply of either. [ He says darkly; and must be extremely frustrating, and that's obvious by the tone he detects in her voice. ]

That ever happened to you -- losin' a wing, or gettin' a feather pulled?

And people wonder why surgeons are driven to drink.

[She snorts and shakes her head. More often as of late than she used to. It's not healthy.]

I have never lost one, nor has that happened to any that I'm aware of in the village in my time here. I've bruised a wing, though, and lost some feathers. It wasn't pleasant.

Right now, I ain't inclined to leave the bar much. [ Which also isn't healthy, but there's a lot to adjust to, and some of it is so much easier to just delay, to numb everything and deal with it slowly, on his terms. ] Well, you don't gotta drink alone, if that helps.

[ He leans back against the bar stool, and pushes his now empty glass out of reach. ]

How long you been here?

Most aren't once they've sorted out what this place is. As much as anyone can at least.

[She finishes her glass as well and spins it in a slow, idle circle over the worn wood.]

Almost a year now, I arrived in January. In the middle of the woods. Finding my way to the village was an adventure.

I've been here a few days, just kept to myself while I got things sorted out. [ Bearing mind that obviously there were some things he was just not going to be able to sort out on his own. ] Sure is nice to find this place.

[ With a glance to her empty glass, he offers: ] You want another? I got no money, but...they run a tab here or somethin'?

Mm? Ah, no need.

[Her smile twists into something wry.]

That is the perk of this place. You will want for nothing- food, drink, shelter, entertainment, education, save your freedom. There is no currency here. Just...take what you need and don't be a greedy ass about it.

[ His own smile is a little mischievous in return, and he gestures for two more glasses. ]

Well, I can't make that kinda promise. [ His tone is light, though, indicating he's obviously not entirely serious. Even though he's fully aware he can be a greedy ass, or...was a greedy ass, at one point in his life. The 'ass' part is still true, on occasion. ]

If you're a productive enough member of the village people might ignore it.

[Though that depended entirely on how he was productive. She couldn't get a read on him and honestly? She didn't want to. Tonight was for casual company.]

[ Productive. No one would've called him productive on the beach, not in those early days after the crash. All he cared about was himself; not truly, but he made sure everyone believed that nonetheless. ]

I'm head of security, back where I come from; ain't much, but...I seem to do all right. Don't know how productive that is.

We've a few areas that villagers might find more secure about if we had proper security available. It does not happen often but I know there have been a few fights in the clinics- and it is never a bad idea to have someone keeping an eye on some of the more valuable resources.

[That is, though, if he proves himself trustworthy to the village at large. Which may or may not be the case.]

[ The thing about him is, even now, he doesn't really care how others perceive him. He's softened and mellowed, so it's less likely for him to be outright hated. But he can still be gruff at times, sarcastic enough to anger or annoy others, and not always the most endearing kind of guy. So it could go either way. ]

That happens to be my specialty.

And I seem to be good at keepin' people safe, for what it's worth. [ A few years ago, that kind of loyalty would have come with a price. Now, he's less worried about maintaining that persona. ]

Depending upon what it is you are accustomed to facing- that may be simpler or more difficult for you here. This place is...quick and strange, at best.

[Mindbendingly wrong and horrifying at worst. If they are any kind of fortunate, though, it shouldn't come to pass.

Adele wouldn't bet on it.

Instead she sips her whiskey and looks sideways at the man that knows her face, and wonders a bit about his Juliet.]

...what is she like?

A whole hell of a lot. More than you wanna be hearin' right now.

[ Some of it -- a lot of it -- is probably so hard to believe unless you've lived it yourself, and he understands that.

When she asks her question, though, he looks at her, meeting her eyes for a moment, and then turning his attention back to his drink. ]

She's got the biggest heart I know. Never had anyone believe in me, but she does. Hell if know why sometimes. [ He has no trouble admitting that he isn't exactly the best guy to know. He'd once told Charlie he'd never done a good thing; he's less likely to say something like that now, but he still has a pretty low opinion of himself. ]

Try me.

[After almost ten months in this place? She feels that terribly little could surprise her. She might be wrong. She might be right. For the sake of her own sanity, she hopes she's right.

He didn't have to answer, not really. She respects him more for doing so; attention focused on his profile rather than her own beverage. Someone kind, this Juliet. Someone that puts faith in him. And were she to guess she can't quite shake the feeling it's more than just a friend that he has in the woman she resembles.]

Because she cares for you a great deal, I suspect.

Well, we might need another drink for that.

[ He's probably had too much already, they both have. But he's not exactly eager to go anywhere at the moment; where can he go, anyway? This isn't where he's supposed to be. It's not where any of them are supposed to be, he realizes, but he's spent so much of his life never belonging anywhere, never wanting to get close to anyone. And now he's here, and he's having a drink with someone who looks like the only person he thinks he's ever really loved. ]

Guess so. [ He murmurs that, just thinking. He's always wanted to just be hated, so no one would want to get close, and now that feels like another life entirely. ]

We've time enough for it.

[But later. A little while without might be good, he seems weary enough and she...doesn't need to slip into bad habits. She knows the fallout of them well enough at this point, really.

It's hard to guess at what he might be thinking- but it must be of her. Nothing else fits. And that only cements a suspicion and for that she can't be anything but apologetic.]

...it's unnerving to see someone else walking around with the face of the woman you love, isn't it?

You'd know about that better than me.

[ If she's been here that long, with no real sense of when she might ever go home, if at all, then they most certainly have time enough for almost anything. There's no hurry, and right now, he appreciates the chance to do something that actually feels normal.

He can't help turning to look at her when she says that, and there's an expression in his eyes, almost like...sadness, but not strong enough to be classified as such. ]

It's hard to make sense of things...feelings.

Time is the one thing we have in excess, here.

[There are the experiments, kidnappings and drafts, yes, but time is plentiful. Time enough to learn something new. To meet others of like or unlike minds. To make friends. To earn enemies. Time enough for anything one could wish- and much of what they don't. Time enough to go mad.

She's surprised she hasn't yet already.]

...I've some idea of what it's like. [Now, well. now she orders another glass of whiskey.] A man I cared for...a man I might have loved vanished while we were together in bed. A month later another man with his face and voice appeared in my bed sometime during the night.

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why do I love these two so much? :3

Because they fit in the weirdest way. I've honestly never seen the seasons of Lost with Juliet. >.>

I just marathoned all of it recently. XD But yes, they do fit somehow.

I'm going to have to- but I'm afraid it'll taint how I write Adele t-t