Inner Mind

[Suzuha]

"A drink, you say? If you have it, a hot chocolate would be super, please."

She smiles and gets to scribbling in a scruffy notebook she had secreted in a large pocket.

 

[Erlind]

"I might."

I get up and start to move to the other side of the room. There I pick up a mug which by the time I return is full of steaming hot cocoa, a couple marshmallows floating lazily in the center. I hand her the mug and sit back down. Stretching I reach behind the couch. The shuffling of ice cubes can be heard and I produce a can of coke.

"How's your day been treating you?"

 

[Suzuha]

She accepts the cup gratefully, "Mmm, thanks. And marshmallows too. Spoiling me already." She grins quickly, easily.

"The day? Well, I think. I'm trying to get more rest this week, which is going passably, though it'd help if my sleep was more restful. But the days aren't really suffering so I think I can claim that as a win. Writing is coming pretty easily, which is good, though it always helps when I can read something related to what I want to write rather than need to invent everything from scratch." She taps her lips with a pencil, musing, "It's not that I don't like inventing, but it's always so much more effort and I like it to make sense and if I get stuck on the sense of a thing then I get stuck writing about it too. Know what I mean?"

 

[Erlind]

"Restless nights is something I can certainly relate to. I'm on night shift right now and I couldn't sleep all day. Fortunately, I'm off tonight." I yawn without meaning to. Its been a long day, but I need to stay up a while longer if I'm to return to something vaguely healthy.

"As for the writing I understand. I have a few things I try to work on, on my own, but there are some times I just don't have anything to add. Working with someone else is always easier. Better yet, it makes it hard for me to plan. To a certain extent planning is good, but sometimes I get to the point where I have the whole thing worked out in my head and actually writing just becomes tedious."

I snap open my coke and take a drink. Its been a long day.

 

[Suzuha]

"I think that's a difference between role-play and pure writing, though. Role-play, to some extent, precludes extensive planning. Otherwise you're into the realms of collaborative writing and that's fairly serious business. Practically, I have time for role-play but just not for the time I feel I'd need to make a good go at writing."

Hmm, all too serious for the end of a day.

"I worked shifts some while ago. I kind of enjoyed nights but, like you say, they make recovering onto anything resembling a normal pattern quite tricky. My sympathies."

Hmm, still all serious. Ah well, run with it...

"You content to just let our story run a bit and see where it goes?"

 

[Erlind]

"Of course. I thought that was the point. Did you have something else in mind?" I have a devilish grin as I poke my own brand of fun, or maybe I'm just tired.

 

[Suzuha]

"And here I thought the point was dark, deviant sex. Maybe I'm in the wrong room?" She does her outright best to look wide-eyed innocent and, in doing so, looks all the more guilty. She hides a cheeky grin behind her hot chocolate.

 

[Erlind]

"Touche. So it is. I'm not always completely dark and deviant, but for some reason my threads always seem to turn out that way. You stick to what your good at I suppose." I muse on our thread and wonder just how far down the rabbit hole my young Jedi will end up. Soon my thoughts return to the present however and the woman across from me.

"Were those your motives tonight then? Dark deviance?"

 

[Suzuha]

"Tonight?" she queries of herself, "No, not specifically. I'm really trying to help us get some grounding to build from. I'm not yet sure quite where the deviance is coming from, though I don't think darkness will be a particular problem."

"I was hoping for some more immediate roughness from my other thread but my partner for that has been caught by the real-life monster. Totally understand that happens but it does leave a little itch. Don't want to spoil our thread by rushing at it, though."

She sips at her drink, careful to not burn her mouth. She jogs the mug in his direction and smiles her thanks.

"So I'll just have to hold onto that itch a bit, I guess." She pulls a rueful expression, but not an unhappy one.

 

[Erlind]

"My thought wasn't anything immediate, but simply as they began moving further and further outside the order they would become more affected by the dark side of the force. If the order is not only wrong about love, but they find their passion for each other makes them stronger, what would going further bring? However it turns out though, I think we should just let it evolve."

 

[Suzuha]

"Yeah, you're right. It's a good line to develop and I don't want or feel the need to force it. After all, there's always other threads to explore other avenues, though I don't have room really for more than two. I hope my other partner comes back, though. It'd be good to have something to play on the other side of the fence, too."

She stretches. "I should gather myself for sleeping, really."

 

[Erlind]

"Well enjoy your sleep, Suzuhah. I know I will when I finally let it come."

 

[Suzuha]

"Thanks, and thanks for the drink. Much appreciated." She blows him a kiss and a wink, "Sleep well."

And with that, she quietly discorporates.

 

[Erlind]

I stand as she begins to vanish and catch the cup as the rest of her leaves my sight. I set it down confident that it was disappear to wherever it belongs in due time. Not too many disappearing acts beside myself have grace these rooms and corridors. I decide to hope she is just as good at reappearing.

 

[Erlind]

I grumble at the world, my place in it, and everything in between. Not before pulling out a tray of strangely shaped wooden blocks from an old dresser. I sit down in a hard backed chair at a desk with it and begin trying to piece the blocks together. I know they fit, I've seen it before, but nothing is going together.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Slips inside, silently~small feet making nary a noise in HIS realm. I find him, deep in...grumble space... and sneak round so that I may press a soft kiss to his ear lobe before disappearing back the way I came.

 

[Erlind]

"What?" I snap suddenly aware feeling the kiss and swinging my head around to find the source. I know who the source is, but not where.

"Wha? Damn it!" She's gone before I know what's going on.

 

[Erlind]

I've worked at it and the puzzle is finished. The wooden cube has come together held together by the interlocking blocks that form it. However, there is one piece left over. The whole thing came together, but it came together wrong somehow. Sigh.

I leave the puzzle sitting on the desk, idle with its single odd piece beside it, and move to the floor beside a dwindling fire. I stretch out on the hard wood and ponder sleep at the behest of another.

 

[Suzuha]

Her consciousness brightens in this place with thoughts of chocolate and company, but she suspects that he is working, or perhaps sleeping, but not currently present either way. Focus falls on the piece left out of his puzzle and she knows how it feels, disjointed, adrift from its purpose. Other things should have been happening this evening, but somehow they didn't. She doesn't feel cross or upset over it, especially as she got some other stuff done, but as sleep time draws in she feels... a little out of place. Like that piece.

She'd put it where it belonged but she thinks that she'd end up with a puzzle in many parts and much worse off than it is already, so she leaves it and borrows a seat on the chair he so kindly allowed her another night. Sleep canters towards her but she doesn't feel like discorporating on this occasion; hopefully he won't mind a temporary house guest snoozing in the corner. Cheekily, she figures that she'll find out.

 

[Erlind]

I smile at the dozing visitor. She is a patient one. As the lamp light grows dim and the fire dwindles I pull a heavy blanket over her. No reason for her not to enjoy her nap.

The growing shadows of the room are punctuated by a flashing inconsistent light hidden behind a bookcase in the back. I push the bookcase out just enough to allow entry to the hidden back room. Inside rows and rows of old flashing arcade machines stand ready and waiting for use. I move to the back past novelty themed pinball machines and Streetfighter clones to find an old favorite.

Lucky and Wild. Its one of those that you sit and and use a light gun to fend off baddies as if you were shooting out the window of your car. This one about two cops sharing the game's name chasing down a ridiculous number of criminals. I pop in my quarters and both firmly grabbing both the wheel and drawing the blue plastic gun, I begin the chase.

 

[Suzuha]

She rouses and is pleasantly surprised to find herself covered over but otherwise undisturbed. She'd not expected any trouble, mind you, but it's unusual for her to sleep through another's presence. She smiles to herself and resolves to make good use of the rest. Her pad in hand, she begins scribbling, though a niggling hunger does distract her some.

She finds she has a hankering for hot, buttered tea cakes, maybe even hot cross buns. None of those seem to be to hand, though, so she tries to focus on the writing. Write first, food later.

 

[Erlind]

Days in the arcade probably could have been better spent, but I simply don't know how. Old games that conjure thoughts of my childhood slowly shut down, following me as I walk out. The last of the gentle glow extinguishes and I slip back into the main room. Electric light replaced by firelight and a sort of natural glow from somewhere above. I push the bookcase back into place and the arcade becomes another of many places here that never were.

I move to one side of the room where there is a bar consuming the curved wall, it wasn't there before, but many things weren't so I let it go. Without a simple way behind it presenting itself, I simply hop up and slide over.

The bar itself is mostly some kind of dark wood, mahogany I'd guess if I knew wood at all, and is adorned with brass in such a way that makes it look just a little too distinguished to be here. A mirror behind me reflects the rest of the room, but somehow manages to fail to catch my image. Another curiosity, though at the moment I don't particularly crave blood, so I'm left with little choice, but to accept the growing oddities of the bar's presence.

I search around beneath the bar until I uncover a refrigerated drawer and draw an icy mug from it. I find the only dustless tap behind me and pour myself a root beer before sitting down and mulling over a whole lot of nothing spread across the dark polished bar.

 

[Erlind]

Foam dead, just a half inch of root beer lies in the bottom of the mug. A melting bit of ice on the bar next to it is the only sign it was ever cold. I grab the mug and begin to wash it out in the sink. Steam pours off it as I thoroughly scrub it down before leaving it to dry on a rack. Then I take a rag, wipe my own hands, and then wipe off the counter leaving it as it was.

With little else to do I climb onto the bar lay on my stomach. I grope around beneath the bar from my perch until I find the civil war book I've been reading and will likely never finish. Perhaps it will help me sleep for a bit. I spend five minutes or so hunting through the pages and rereading bits before I find my place again. The bookmark never stays where it belongs.

The room is quiet except for the usual low background sounds, the crackle of an endless fire and the occasional rumble of a storm outside that will never break. Its peaceful, but not comforting.

 

[Suzuha]

She must have fallen asleep again but as she rouses she's surprised to find herself still here, in this place that belongs to another. A place that seems to shift between each visit, malleable as clay, likely only as predictable as the owner. She doesn't remember the bar from her last waking moments here.

But the fire's still there, and the chair she's subverted to her requirements, and these are most comforting.

She glances up and spots the owner sprawled out on the bar. He's occupied, which shouldn't surprise her given her inattentiveness. Still, she muses on announcing her presence to attract a little company. But he's reading and it always seems rude to interrupt someone reading. It's kind enough that he doesn't just turf her out into the night.

Besides, like usual, she has some writing to get on with. She begins with a letter that she folds, when she's done, and seals with a kiss. The paper crinkles and rapidly refolds itself into an origami crane that takes wing and disappears up the chimney.

Content, she returns to her notepad and scribbles rapidly. Perhaps he'll be less disturbed by an interruption after she's finished with that.

 

[Suzuha]

She looks up from the notepad, pleased with her work. She does wonder whether she's getting the right balance, of course, between the two sides of her personality. Today was a soft day, it seems, but she supposes that's just how it goes.

She slips from the chair, gathering the blanket he had left her in a loose pile where she'd just been seated, and pads round the room. She stokes the fire, though it looks like it doesn't usually need such attention, and fetches herself a glass of milk from a refrigerator in the corner.

Nope, she determines, he's still not in a state to be badgered with whatever it is that is rattling round her head just now. He doesn't look like the sort to be wittered at anyhow.

A couple of gulps from the glass, she sets it down by the chair -- her chair? -- and pauses. She has an itch. Something about that last bit of writing left her that way. She should sleep again, but, well, it's insistent. She glances over at him, back at the chair and blanket, then back at him. Nope, she decides, she's not that much of an exhibitionist.

She scribbles a quick note on her pad and quietly tears out the page. As amuses her, she clicks her heels together thrice and promptly discorporates.

The note reads:

Sorry for the mess. I'll be back to clear up. Soon.

It's signed with an elaborate calligraphic S and three little X's just below.