(Untitled)

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden hasn't lost track of the specific spot where she first appeared on the island; she never knew where it was. At the time, reeling from her arrival, blood in her hair and, sometimes, eyes, head pounding and heart racing, the exact location was of approximately zero importance to her. She doesn't, for that matter, remember the stretch of beach

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[lucked]

It's still hard to face everything that she's done.

Claire doesn't want to make it seem like the end of the world, the leap that she took off the Compound. Doesn't want to believe that it's broken anyone, shaken anyone beyond repair, doesn't want to think that her hand has managed to sever so much and shake doubt into the bones of her friends and family. But the fact is that very few people have treated her precisely the same since her stunt last month, and those who have, Claire's starting to suspect have just been keeping up an act for her sake. Slowly and steadily, she's trying to pick up the pieces, to attend to the mess that she's made all her own, going around and finding the people who visited her while in the clinic, making amends.

Eden's been the one she's sought after most.

The sand sifts through her toes as easily as it ever has, clean, bright white from the sun, as Claire makes her way down the beach, having spotted Eden there some time ago. All around are books and papers- plays, probably, Claire still remembering how surprised she was to hear about Eden's artistic ventures (even if it all makes sense; she's always been the most stylish of the two, and certainly has had one type of acting highlighted a great deal some years ago). Claire's lips turn into a small smile.

"Hey, at least he's not strewing sheets all over the place like Mr. Muggles does," she offers softly, hoping she isn't interrupting anything too important.

[wishesandsmoke]

"Well, she's always been a little less destructive," Eden says, "as cats go." Not that Eden's ever had cats before, in spite of wanting them. It's just been the way of things, that she didn't have pets for whatever reason - her stepmother or her life in L.A. or being nomadic for the company. They never quite fit in. Caring for the two she has now (well, really one now) has been something of an adventure.

As for Claire, that's an entirely different adventure, and something she's currently grateful for. Having someone she has to hold it together for makes it easier not to fall apart. It's what happens when she's alone again she's scared of.

[lucked]

"She's as graceful as her owner," Claire concludes with a wider smile, raising her chin, proud of Eden in her own way. There have been times when the teen's had reservations about Eden, times when the lies just struck too deep, too quick. It isn't easy to learn that so much of one's life has been a farce in some way or another, but the thing about the island is that there's really no need to hide, and perhaps that's what's helped Claire settle down so quickly. A freedom she never enjoyed back in Odessa. "Whereas Mr. Muggles leaves me thinking, if he's like my mom at all, that she must have been one scatterbrained and overeager teenager. Which I could actually imagine."

Tilting her head, Claire reaches out to pet Origami, fingers scratching lightly behind the ear.

"Penny for your thoughts? Or, I don't know, a slice of coconut, if that's what we're bartering with."

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden laughs softly at the image of Mrs. Bennet as an enthusiastic teen. It's so easy to picture, even endearing. She'd liked the woman on those occasions upon which they ran into each other for much that reason, that warmth of spirit that made things so comfortable. When it comes to her own thoughts, though, they're somewhat more solemn. Maybe it isn't fair not to confide, but she doesn't want Claire to think things are so bleak for her or to then believe it's somehow her own fault, as if Eden hasn't been floundering for a long time now. Claire's presence is, on the contrary, one of the few things that keeps her on track.

"Just trying to make a decision," she says, gesturing to the array of scripts in varying formats scattered around her. Four years in one place, I think it's time for a bit of a change. So. Today I pick."

[lucked]

It's not quite possible to describe the amount of impact Eden's words have on Claire just then, the sudden and startling knowledge that Eden's been on the island for four years. On some level, the teen's always known that Eden's one of the island veterans, that she's been on the island for years, enabling her to talk to Claire with such patience and calm about the strange events that take place there- but having a number is something else entirely. In four years, Claire should be able to finish high school. In four years, a person could go through college. It's an impossible amount of time for Claire to really fathom, young as she is, and it stuns her to silence for a minute, though she tries to hide it by rifling curiously through all of the scripts scattered about.

"Change can be a really good thing," Claire says, before flinching slightly at how obvious the statement is; sometimes, it feels like it's impossible to all that insightful around Eden, bright as the other woman is, and experienced in ways Claire's not sure she can ever be. Not on the island, at least. "So are we talking more acting? Or maybe even playwriting? I mean, I'm going to be your biggest supporter either way."

[wishesandsmoke]

That, Eden believes, and she glances over with a little smile. She can't be afraid to do this, can't back down. With Gideon and Penny gone, there's no question at all that no one loves or supports her with as much fervor as Claire. She misses them and the way they believed in her, but this is a lot, this is everything, and so, so much has changed in the span of five years, more people have thought her capable than in the rest of her life before that combined.

"Oh, I don't dare try writing," she says with a soft laugh. "Maybe one day, but that was more Gideon's thing than mine." There's an incomplete script among his things, and it occurs to her yet again that someone needs to finish it. Not yet, though, not yet. "I want to act, but there's no acting without a play so I thought maybe it's time for my directorial debut."

[lucked]

The smile sets Claire more at ease at once, the blonde leaning back until she sprawls out over the sand, her toes digging into the beach and grains slipping through the straps of her sandals. Eden's got a greater number of smiles than most people Claire knows; sometimes, it's hard not to compare her to Mona Lisa, trite though that may be. Everything's about subtlety with Eden, yet another fact that Claire envies, never having been able to tone down her own enthusiasm, her anger, her fears. But what she recognizes in this smile of Eden's is sincerity.

And maybe that's a sign that things are going to be okay.

"Well, you totally have an eye for these things, I'd think," Claire nods, grinning. "An eye for fashion, so that goes well with costumes. Plus, you're good at reading people, so... showing them off, telling an audience about them, that's not a really far stretch. And there are other directors on the island anyway, right? In case you feel like you need a trained eye to review your work."

[wishesandsmoke]

"Oh, no," Eden says with a laugh, "I couldn't. I'll sink or swim on my own." Truth be told, she thinks she'd find it intimidating to have any of her erstwhile directors on hand to watch her try her hand at their job. Even on an island, everyone else seems so much more professional, so much better equipped for the work they do; to step in and try to do the same feels presumptuous, though not enough so to keep her from planning to try. "I really don't think I'm so fabulous as all that, but thank you all the same. What kind of play do you think? Comedy or drama?"

Admittedly, most of her options seem to have fallen on the heavier side of things, but they're certainly not the whole of it.

[lucked]

The question runs a little more deeply, Claire thinks, than it might for other people. Comedy or drama. Because there's one of the two that both of them are intimately familiar with, Claire often feeling like that long saga of the discovery of their powers coupled with the mass murdering rampage that Sylar went on, that it's good enough to write a pretty compelling book, or film, or play. Just provided the right person picks up the pen. And Eden's story in particular is a dark one, even if the woman herself isn't nearly as much, these days. The blonde purses her lips, trying to shrug it all off as nothing, a light question being posed.

"Well, I think you'd be amazing at drama," she considers, brushing her hair over a shoulder. "And I also don't really know where your sense of humor lies, at least when it comes to stuff like pop culture. But then again, I feel like this island, as awesome as it often is, could totally do with a few more laughs. We get enough emergencies to cover the drama."

Her eyes dart quickly to the side; Claire knows that she's no exception to that rule.

[wishesandsmoke]

It's true the things Eden most strongly relates to fall squarely under drama, but then her history hasn't been the happiest. The last few years, a parade of constant losses, emergencies and disappointments, have also been the brightest of her young life, filled with more love than the twenty preceding them combined. Things haven't always gone her way, almost never have, but she's made the most of the worst.

And that's all the more reason for comedy, for a chance for everyone to escape. It's not, she thinks, what Gideon would have chosen, but she likes to believe he'd understand.

"As long as it's not Shakespeare," she says lightly. "Geoffrey has that covered."

[lucked]

"Shakespeare," Claire repeats, slowly lowering herself to the ground and keeping a hand by her forehead to block the worst of the sun. "All I really know of Shakespeare so far is Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and I never quite made it all the way through Hamlet. Which is kind of a travesty, but I didn't even think about reading them while here. Maybe you can help me wade through all of that, even if you leave directing to Geoffrey."

Turning onto her side, Claire brushes some of her hair out of the way, eyes narrowing as she more closely examines Eden.

"You'd make a great Juliet, though. I just don't think the island has a Romeo dashing enough."

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden laughs, soft and high, and shakes her head. "Well, if you ever find one," she says, and lets that speak for itself. She'd by lying if she said she didn't miss being with someone, though it had never been end all and be all for her. If she's entirely honest, as much as she loved Grigg, she's yet to feel that particular click as it is, the sense she could spend the rest of her life with someone, short a life though it might be, and the idea of dying without ever knowing it is one she can't allow herself to dwell on for long. "We had a production a while back, before your time. When Kate's husband Sam was still here. They were beautiful at it. I'd be happy to go through it with you. There are tons I haven't read yet myself."

[lucked]

Claire barely manages to keep from sighing; it's one of the more baffling problems she's encountered on the island, the fact that a population size of a couple hundred people makes it difficult to find someone who even approaches Mr. Right for Eden. For most people, she wouldn't bother going so far to matchmake, because in all honesty, they'll have lives whenever they vanish off the island. An average island lifespan of two to three years isn't too long to go single, or too long to simply date around as necessary to keep life fun and interesting. But for Eden, this is the last stop. This is it, this is the last place she gets to sink her roots before wherever the end game takes her.

And because of that, there's nothing Claire wants more than to have Eden experience everything that she could have back home, had Sylar never crossed their paths.

Dwelling on it in conversation just seems like a bad idea, though.

"I'd really like that," she smiles, propping herself up better, legs curled underneath. "Obviously my Island School classes should come first, but... hey, little sister's duty to want to do all the things her big sis does. I've always been so curious about the acting and literature classes."

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden is, as ever, overwhelmingly grateful for Claire's easy references to their relationships, as if it's as simple as that and they really are siblings. It helps her feel less alone, knowing she has Claire in her corner for as long as she's here, that they can stay close come what may, barring the inevitable separation. There are a few other people again and still - Rupert and Lily and Jason - but they aren't family like Claire is, no matter how fond she gets of them. At least she gets this much. Family is more than she ever thought she'd get anyway.

"Oh, well, maybe next term," she says. If you're still here stays unspoken. "And until then, we can pick one to read together and you'll be ahead of the curve. One of the comedies? Let's see, there's... Midsummer Night's Dream, of course, and Twelfth Night and As You Like It. Much Ado About Nothing."

[lucked]

"Isn't Midsummer Night's Dream the one with an ass? Donkey. Ass. I think. I remember seeing some pictures of a ballet rendition of the play, and there was just this guy with a huge donkey's head- I couldn't figure out how someone would still manage to be graceful, wearing something like that," Claire rambles on, the corner of her lips quirking and head tilting down, until her hair fell in front of her eyes, slightly obscuring her vision.

"Oh, and there was that guy on the island some time ago who called himself Robin Goodfellow. Not that I talked to him, but when people featured in Shakespearean plays make it to the island, word gets around. Ophelia. Miranda."

[wishesandsmoke]

"And once, ages ago," Eden says, as if telling a story herself, "Shakespeare himself. Of course, he looked an awful lot like Ralph Fiennes." It still all strikes her as so strange sometimes, and it's not like her life's been normal, exactly, even before her ability and the Company. "Yes, that's the one. You don't know that story?" They'll have to rectify that, she decides. It's a fun one, at least, and she enjoyed working on it, even if she never got a chance to actually perform the role.