puppets on strings all dance and sing

[cibosity]

Pulling off a good con required the ability to care or dismiss about things at will. For about five minutes, Sawyer had managed to forget that Richard Alpert was a man who had not aged a day in the span of approximately fifty years, that the Others had significantly more knowledge of the land than he did, that there was still no explanation to be

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[groovytechchick]

Claudia had taken to exploring the island, hoping that maybe she'd end up running into one of the former Supers who were on the island. So far she hadn't had any luck, but she really wasn't planning on giving up on her goal anytime soon.

Bobbing her head to the imaginary beat in her head, Claudia walked as she she first hummed under her breath and then just full out started singing the song that was newly stuck in her head.

"Your performance deserving a standing ovation
And who would have thought it'd be the two of us
So don't wake me if I'm dreaming
'Cause I'm in the mood come on and give it up

You've got me feeling hella good
So let's just keep on danc-"

The lyrics to the song died on her lips as she came upon a cage... With a very pissed off long haired dude stuck inside. "Whooooooooa. Dude, seriously harsh jail time! What the hell did you do to get stuck in here?" she demanded, turning her head a little bit to get a better look at the dude behind the bars.

[cibosity]

If there was anything Sawyer hated more than being outwitted, it was being made a spectacle of. Bad enough that he was caught in a cage, but now he had an audience trundling by and gawking like he was some kind of animal on display. The redhead who stumbled by his cage was unfamiliar to Sawyer, but if he had taken another leap through time after all, then that didn't come as too much of a surprise. It was simply an annoyance that he had gone to such lengths to make space on the island for himself and his group, to earn the trust of those who declared that they wanted the newcomers off the island, only for it to go completely to waste. He kept deathly quiet as the girl walked on by, singing all chirpy like singalong tapes, hoping that she wasn't carrying any sort of tranquilizer in hand. It wouldn't have been the first time.

When she looked just as confused as he did, it only angered him more. Like hell some random chick was going to help him bust out of cage, if she even had the strength to, at that

[groovytechchick]

For a moment, Claudia was totally confused. No one she'd met would just randomly throw people into a cage - JUST BECAUSE. Sure, she hadn't met everyone on the island, but still!!! She couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief - because hello`She was pretty damn sure he wasn't telling the truth.

Her confusion and disbelief quickly turned to annoyance as his gaze washed over her numerous times. Finally having enough of the over-looking she pointed at her face. "My face is here dude, not here," she told him before motioning toward her chest. "They aren't magic and they don't talk. So if you wanna talk to me, quit with the whole eyeballing."

[cibosity]

"I beg to differ," he allowed himself to murmur before pulling his gaze firmly up to Claudia's face. It was easier, from what he had experienced in the past, to have women think that all he was after was a nice view of the hills, rather than to give them any reason to believe that he was looking for more practical reasons. Denial, at best, hurt the part of some women that still longed to preen and pretty up for those they took an interest in. At worst, it pulled the keener sorts to full attention, allowing him to get away with less. So if the quickest way to keep Claudia distracted and believing that he was just some dumb hick was to stare at her rack a little longer, Sawyer was more than willing to oblige. "They're magic to my eyes."

After a pause, he relented with a tilt of his head, letting the hair sweep over with the motion. "And I wanted to check as well as I could to see if you had some keys on ya. Wouldn't be the first time the folks in charge sent a pretty girl my way to try and distract me."

[groovytechchick]

Claudia liked to think that she was a laidback cool chick, she liked to think that she could handle people... But she knew that she was pretty limited in patience when it came to sexist jerkfaces - and this dude? Totally fell in the category of sexist jerkface. Her eyes narrowed a bit and her hands planted on her hips as she glared at him. "Seriously, dude? That was like so pathetic it falls into it's on category of lameness..."

Seriously though? They're magic to my eyes? What the hell was that???? "Does anyone ever actually fall for your lame lines?"

She glanced around, and then turned back to him and laughed. "You think someone sent me to try and distract you? Why would anyone do that? And, seriously? I could think of better ways to distract, thank you very much."

[cibosity]

"Chill out, sweetheart," Sawyer replied coolly, knowing that he was probably pushing his boundaries as far as behavior went. It had worked well enough, getting her all riled and fiery, matching the bright color of her hair, but sneaking under a person's skin was a fine art, if nothing else. Push too far, and she'd be all clawing and puffing in indignation and all sorts of things that he just didn't have the patience for at the moment. As much as people claimed that he was the sort who just liked stirring up trouble, it wasn't entirely true

[groovytechchick]

Claudia crossed her arms, and stared at him, trying to figure out if he was being truthful. She liked to think she had a good sense of people, or she had thought that before she'd found out she'd been completely duped by McPherson. So she wasn't even sure at the moment.

"Fine, but I don't have my tools with me, so I don't know what you're expecting me to do here," she grumbled. And it was true, she'd left her tool belt hidden in the rec room, cuz really? She didn't want to walk around all the time with them.

Squatting down, she leaned forward and studied the lock. It was like way old, and really it probably wouldn't have been all that hard to pick. If she had her tools. Dammit. "OK, dude, you're friggin lucky there's a clothing box here..." she said, glancing up at the dude before making a circle motion with her finger. "Now turn around so I won't have to think of ways to electrocute you later."

[cibosity]

When the young woman crossed her arms, Sawyer fought the urge to mimic the pose, stopped only by the unamused look still clear on her face. One which he could easily imagine taking back the offer to help him with the lock. Her mention of tools also caught Sawyer's attention, his eyes carefully examining her own as though he could find an answer there, perhaps finding that she tended to cars in her spare time or was hiding a whip just out of sight and reach. She looked a little too normal for that, though, only a hint of punk rock keeping her from mainstream fashion.

"The hell you need me to turn around for?" Sawyer asked, confused and also wary. Almost nothing good came out of turning around. Not seeing many other options, he nonetheless complied, sending a hesitant gaze in the girl's direction before walking back to the center of the cage, well away from all of the walls. "And the hell's a clothing box? Y'mean like those pallets that fall from the sky carryin' food?"

[groovytechchick]

"Because I'm gonna use the wire in my bra to pick the lock, genius," Claudia informed him, keeping an eye on him as she scooted back toward the center of the cage. Seriously? What'd he think she was going to do? Throw a rock at his head or something?

Once she was satisfied he wasn't going to turn around, she quickly pulled her arms through the sleeves of her shirt, unhooked the back of her bra and wiggled out of it - all the while making sure he wasn't peeking and that no one else was wandering up on them.

Arms pulled back through her sleeves, she blinked, her gaze darting to his back. "Uh no. Nothing falls from the sky here. At least not that I know of. Oh c'mon. You know! The box that gives people strange clothes all the time and never the stuff they really want?" she demanded, working on picking the pink fabric from around the wire. "You can turn back around by the way."

[cibosity]

Sawyer snorted when Claudia elaborated, barking out a slight chuckle of a laugh, although he did as was asked and kept his gaze far away from her person. It spoke of some level of naivety, that she would confess to derobing herself to someone she didn't even really trust in the first place. And naivety was not something he actively sought to ruin. People needed to grow out of it, sure, but there was always that temptation to let them wait just a little longer.

At times, he was able to justify fooling others, playing the part of the villain, figuring that some of those women were just asking for trouble, a way out of their unsatisfying marriages. That losing that money could teach them to appreciate the finer aspects of life more. Here, though, none of it applied even remotely, and so he swaggered back full circle not a second before he was instructed.

"There's only one sorta box I can think of that fits that description, Lacey," he quirked a brow. "And I ain't seen the Goodwill sign anywhere around here."

[groovytechchick]

Having picked enough of the fabric out of the way, she was able to pull the wire free and quickly got the other wire out as well. Sighing, she looked down at her ruined bra and tossed it aside. It wasn't like she'd be able to get another one like it. With her luck, the stupid clothing box would give her crap right out of some hooker store, along with hooker boots and crotchless shorts or something.

All because this dude had to go and get himself caught in a stupid cage.

Bending one of the wires, she looked up at the dude before setting about trying to pick the lock. "Yeah, like Tabula Rasa has a Goodwill, dude. Just the 'magic' clothing box," she murmured, applying pressure in different parts of the lock. Finally with with a loud click, the lock was open. Satisfied, she rose to her feet and tossed the antiquated lock in the same direction her bra had gone. "There, told ya I'd do it."

[cibosity]

She sure was going to a far greater length to get that lock neatly open than he was planning on bothering with. Maybe she hated waste, he thought to himself with a quirk of the brow, maybe she wanted to keep the option of simply slamming him back into the cage and pushing the door shut. With the way he was, he wouldn't have blamed her for it, but so long as the cage was still functional, Sawyer would watch his steps more carefully. All it took was one misstep to land himself in a pile of shit.

"So, what is it 'bout the magic clothing box that makes it so magical?" Sawyer asked with a light laugh, stepping over to the pile of lock and bra and staring down curiously at the latter, nudging it with his foot. "Unless your idea of magical means pickin' up a brassiere, but since you don't want me appreciatin' them, I'm guessin' that ain't it."

[groovytechchick]

Her nose wrinkled as she stared at him. How could he not know about the magical clothing box? It was one of the first things she'd discovered! It was so cool, and well... It was actually only cool when it was giving other people crappy clothes, but whatever.

"Dude, seriously? It's the box that gives you stuff you didn't want or ask for! Everyone knows the clothing box..." She trailed off and stared at him again. "Did you get your head bashed in or something. I mean, maybe your obsession with tatas totally is a side effect or something." Made sense to her.

[cibosity]

Frowning immediately when the girl started suggesting that there was something wrong with the functioning of Sawyer's brain, he started groping around at his head to test for injuries, not finding anything beyond the ever-constant soreness around his temples that he suspected was a mix of the time skips and constant aggravation triggered by those around him. Did she have to insult him over something so little as confusion?

Never mind that he'd insulted people for less. After all, he set out to be a bastard. If a decent person actually threw an insult, it was like it hit with twice the force.

"I told you, I ain't ever heard of the box," he exclaimed, the tiniest of growls under his breath as he tore his gaze away from her and down one of the paths in the area, picking one at random and heading down the trail. "And it'd take a lot more than a bash to the head to get me to forget somethin' like that, sweetcheeks."

[groovytechchick]

"Well you never know!" Claudia yelled after him, her hands resting firmly on her hips. Seriously! She just couldn't get what the dude's problem was! She'd merely asked if he'd hit his head. Totally rational question in her mind! How else could he not know....

And then it dawned on her! Duuuuuh, Claudia! He wasn't from the island! He was new and from some other island... Somewhere else.

Sighing, she quickly picked up her ruined bra. "You're going the wrong way dude!" she yelled after him. She stood there for a moment and then with another sigh, hurried to catch up with him. "Hey, so I'm thinking you're new. That would explain everything. I mean, you don't remember being put in the cage, do you?"

[cibosity]

"I remember comin' across it before," Sawyer yelled right on back, confused as to why the girl was following him when she seemed to despise the way he behaved. Nonetheless, he slowed down enough to allow her to catch up easily, if that was really what she wanted to do in the first place. He'd chosen the more annoying routes in life- at least life on the island- on a regular enough basis that he couldn't exactly fault others for it without being completely hypocritical. "If you want me t'show ya, the thing's even able to serve a nice seafood dinner and fresh spring water. How's that for beatin' that magic box of yours, huh