(Untitled)

[dualites]

Time, it seemed, was fluid. Not just in that the inhabitants came from all times and places, but in that, if one wasn't careful, the days seemed to blur. Initially, Thomas had tried to ward it off, preventing himself from falling into any particular habits. However, the grindstone that was the passing of the days won out. He could only really

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[itwas_perfect]

When she saw him, a smile flickered across her face.

It was sweet, girlish, but she boxed it away, squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, refusing to be that blushing, silly little girl he'd tried so hard to rid her of. But today, she was grey, equal black and white, and when she approached him, the smile she settled on was almost flirtatious.

Lily would be so proud.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

[dualites]

Glancing up, he mirrored her smile, eyes darting over her frame just once as he shrugged, leaning back from the shelf. "A distraction," he said, the admittance not, perhaps, the complete truth, but close enough.

She looked better, he thought, than she had previously. At least, more comfortable, which, in turn, went a long way towards setting him more at ease.

"How are you?"

[itwas_perfect]

"I'm fine," she said, an automatic, practiced response, though it was more truthful than it might have been previously.

"Things are... quiet," she admitted with a smile, knowing he would understand how that could be both frustrating and a relief. "So, what do you need distracting from?"

[dualites]

He answered with a slight cant of his head. "Routine," he said, the answer as close to concrete as he could make it. "Or a lack of it. I haven't decided which." (Fine was a response that he'd heard before, and despite the fact that he'd told himself he'd pay closer attention, it was the fact that it was a rote reply that let it pass him by.)

He vaulted himself back up to his feet, glancing once more at the bookshelf before looking at Nina. "Have you spent any more time in the studio?" It wasn't a reproach or anything close, rather asked out of simple curiosity.

[pointzerothree]

"If you're trying to find something specific, chances are, it'll be the last thing it gives you," Eduardo offers, though he's sure it isn't helpful, as he approaches. Whether obvious or not, it's something he knows through a good deal of experience. Since showing up here, he's spent a good deal of time looking for something, anything, pertaining to what he left behind, some mention of Facebook or its growth, or even, in weaker moments, himself. (The closest he ever came was the article in the Crimson, published right after the site was launched. Irrelevant, now.) The past couple of weeks have changed that. With Mark here, it isn't that he doesn't care, it's that he isn't sure he wants to know, what details he's been given about that time, four whole fucking years in his future, enough to set him on edge

[dualites]

"Given this island's track record, I wouldn't be surprised." The cadence of his sentence is a little off, but his tone of voice does enough to express his general frustration. He's lucky, he supposes, that he hasn't really been victim to any of the pranks that, at this point, he's heard that the island likes to play, but that doesn't mean he can't still be unhappy with the whole affair.

"I don't think it gives out anything useful, anyway."

[pointzerothree]

"I don't know, I've gotten a couple good manuals on chicken care," Eduardo says with a shrug, casual enough that he could easily pass for joking. (It's true, though. Perhaps the only remotely worthwhile thing he's ever gotten from the shelf are those books. The last thing he needs is to make another rookie mistake like fucking forced cannibalism.) "Other than that, though, you're right. It's got the least useful things imaginable."

[dualites]

A beat, and then: "How is the chicken doing?" For the most part, Thomas doesn't really care, but it's the topic of conversation that always seems to spark the most gesticulation in the boy. And, that aside, it's something to talk about besides the fact that he's going a little stir crazy. Taking in a pet isn't a distraction that has yet crossed his mind, being perfectly content to do so vicariously. Sort of, anyway.

[notfaking_it]

"Looking for anything in particular?" Lily asked, her eyebrows lifting curiously at the sight of Thomas picking through the bookshelf. She was still shaken from her encounter with Dodge, the knowledge that he could have died right there in that stupid playground had no one seen him, but she tried not to show it. It was easier than trying to sort through all the reasons why she was shaken.

"The way I hear it, whatever you want will be the very last thing it gives you," she added with a grin. "So maybe it's best to have someone else look for you."

[dualites]

"Honestly, I can't say I really know what I'm looking for." In a single motion, he got up from the floor, leaning down briefly to brush off his knees. Whatever aftereffects Dodge's overdose had had on her passed him by completely, as evidenced by the utter lack of concern that graced his features.

"But if that's an offer, I may take you up on it."

[notfaking_it]

"I don't know if I can help if you don't know what you're looking for," Lily returned, but she was still smiling. All the bookshelf seemed to give her were magazines; without depth and filled with pictures of models and clothes she'd never wear here on the island. Leaning forward, she let her fingers ghost over a few of the books that were there, then pulled another gossip magazine.

"This is what it gives me most of the time," she said, holding it toward Thomas. "Apparently it thinks I'm shallow."

[dualites]

He took the magazine from her with a slight shrug, flipping through the first few pages in a fairly cursory manner. "I don't think it has a very high opinion of any of us," he noted, glancing back at the bookshelf. "That, or the luck of the draw has a way of tailoring itself to be the most unhelpful."

Offering the magazine back to her, he put on a slightly more pleasant expression. "Still. Beggars can't be choosers."

[velation]

Sometimes, a person was worth making the extra step for. Greetings were always subtle things, a mixture of words, of expressions, occasionally of touch, and it was the last that Faye allowed herself as she spotted that familiar face in the rec room, her hand coming to rest on Thomas' shoulder as she watched him glance over the shelf's contents. The music should have tipped her off, really.

"Fancy meeting you here," she said quietly, her eyes aimed instead at the shelf above and hand lifting away to pull down a volume about space travel with some curiosity.

[dualites]

At the touch, Thomas' head tipped back, eyebrows raised, although a smile was quick to his features upon recognition of the figure now standing by him. "Fancy, indeed," he replied, leaning back upon his palms, head cocking as he tried to read the spine of the book she'd picked out from where he was.

"Long time no see." Or so it felt.

[velation]

Seeing his gaze turn, Faye obligingly tilted her book so that he could read its spine (Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel), before pulling it off the shelf and walking over to the nearest couch, sitting and letting her legs sprawl over the armrest, elbow pressing deeply into the upholstery as it buckled under the weight. "Long time no see," she affirmed, trying to remember the last time they'd run into one another.

Probably at the dance studio, she thought to herself. She'd gone now and again, but never with any sort of regularity, no matter how much people insisted that she did. Faye still wasn't used to being tethered down to any degree.

"Looking for something?"