Lissa Dragomir (littlequeen) wrote in saveatlantisic, @ 2017-06-02 13:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, *hannah, *maxi, lissa dragomir, neal caffrey |
FACTION + AFTER | NEAL & LISSA
lissa dragomir + neal caffrey
Faction plot |
amity + their apartment
G
complete |
MAY - FACTION PLOT Being on the council sometimes had Lissa traveling to other factions, and today it was Amity. Lissa was never able to say it out loud, but Amity was one of her favorite factions to travel too. People were in general very friendly, and she always got an amazing fruit or two out of it. That was also one of the few things that Lissa kept to herself. She found herself at one of their picnic benches sitting across from one of the few people from another faction that she considered a friend, Neal. They two had always just gotten along. Lissa couldn’t really place her finger on when they met, but Neal had a way of bringing her out of her shell and allowing her to be a little less of the perfect Abnegation member. He’d brought up something about 20 questions and said they both had to share the truth. Being born in Candor made it a little easier for Lissa to do that. “Okay, it’s your idea, you go first,” it was natural to defer to someone else so not to appear too eager or step on any toes. Neal liked his faction. He hadn't been born here; he'd been born in Erudite, but while he'd had that service thirst for certain kinds of knowledge and learning that they were supposed to have, he also didn't feel exactly right being there. Something had always felt off. Plus, they didn't exactly appreciate his extra curricular activities there. So here he was in Amity, and while they didn't encourage his criminal antics either, he felt he was able to give that up easier here. Plus, it wasn't as frowned upon to associate with people from other factions, and he currently sat here with one of his favorites from outside his faction. Lissa Dragomir. They'd gotten along well for a long time, but he also wanted to see about getting to know her better. So then came the suggestion of twenty questions. Why not? “Hmm…” Neal thought about his first question to her. He had nineteen more to go after this one, so he didn't have to knock it out of the park on his first try. Still, though, he probably took this more seriously than most. “Okay, I've got one. If you had chosen differently at your choosing ceremony what other faction do you think it could have been? Scouts honor no one else finds out.” At his question, her eyes got a little bit wide, thinking about where else you might have gone wasn't really something they were supposed to do. Faction before all else after all. She considered not answering, but that would be selfish, and she was actually curious of his answer as well. Her worried expression settled down as she tilted her head thoughtfully. "Amity most likely," she admitted, "or perhaps Erudite." She would never have done well in Dauntless, and while she was raised in Candor, it wasn't a place that really fit her either. It was hard to think about the different places she could have been, but she'd be lying if she didn't say she was curious how different life would have been if she'd be happier somewhere else. Those were selfish thoughts though, and she quickly pushed them to the back of her mind. "What about you?" She asked back at him as it was an interesting set of thoughts. Neal could see her hesitation at first, and he understood it. He almost felt a little bad for making her feel uncomfortable. Faction before blood and everything else. He understood why they had that saying, but he was also a curious guy by nature. Finding out how things worked and discovering people’s motivations was part of what made Neal Caffrey tick. “Good choice,” he said with a small smile. “Not that I’m biased or anything.” He wasn’t too surprised that the question was turned around on him, and he had a little harder time figuring out his answer. He knew for sure of what factions he wouldn’t have joined - those being Dauntless and Abnegation. Dauntless because Neal was a make peace not war kind of guy, but not Abnegation because while he liked to make other people happy, he wasn’t one to necessarily do so at his own expense. “Candor, maybe. Or I could have probably easily stayed in Erudite. I still like learning new skills or about the past, but they’re a little… uh, intense about it there.” He tried thinking about the next question to ask, opting for something a little less serious. “Next question, and it’s a very important one: cats or dogs?” "Of course you aren't," Lissa teased him when he told her it was a good choice. Lissa did wonder what her life would be like if she were able to live in Amity if she'd picked it instead. Would she be happier there? She had to admit Amity did have its appeal, but no she was in the right place. The place she could do the most good. Lissa let out a small laugh at how he talked about Erudite. "They are very intense about it, but while they might be more prone to learning, I think all of us in any faction can still learn." She offered meaning it. Lissa was someone who had always enjoyed school and learning, and she always figured that was one of the reasons she liked Neal so much of people from other factions. Furrowing her brow, she gave Neal a serious look at his question acting as though it was taking a good deal of concentration. "Both." She stated nodding her head once. "I think they are both remarkable animals, and I love them both. I think depending on lifestyle one over the other would make sense, but if it were up to me, I'd go with both." She said shrugging. Lissa really did love all animals though. "What’s the best thing that happened to you last week?" Lissa asked. Neal thought about her answer and the appearance that he was mulling it over pretty seriously. “I suppose that's an acceptable answer,” he said with a bit of a light tone to his voice. Cats had their uses, and he could appreciate how sneaky and agile they could be - a lot like like himself if he was being honest - but he liked the loyalty and friendliness of a dog too. “Why stop at one when you can have both, right? I can't say I haven't lived by that from time to time.” That might not have been exactly what Lissa had meant by saying both, but it was how Neal's mind worked sometimes. “The best thing this week, hmm,” he mused to himself. This actually was a little harder to think about. “I finished a painting I'd been working on for little while. One that I've been trying to do from memory.” He paused for a second because he was pretty sure that the memory had come from some of the dreams he'd been having lately. The picture hadn't been extremely clear, but he was mostly satisfied with the outcome on canvas. “Now it's my turn to turn the question around. Same one: what's the best thing to happen to you this week?” Laughing as she watched him think about it, she nodded not saying anything about his response to it. Lissa might seem perfectly innocent and everything her faction wanted her to be, but she wasn't stupid. "What's it of?" Lissa found herself asking. That was one of the things she did miss about her lifestyle. Art wasn't really something that fit into it. To be honest, color wasn't something that fit into it. Not that she was going to admit that to anyone, ever. She always admired artists. "Okay, hmmm..." She paused thinking about it. "Visiting the different factions this week, it's always a highlight to meet with the other leaders of factions and enjoy a little sunshine," Lissa answered before quickly adding. "It's a pleasure to serve." She paused as she noted the time. "I should probably get moving. It's time to head back." She gave a slightly sad smile. "Next time, I want to see your painting." With that, she nodded to him before heading away. MAY 25TH - Back to normal Lissa kept feeling like that last few weeks happened but didn't happen at the same time, and she was struggling to figure out how she felt about it. The memory of how limited her life was and how distant she'd become with Rose just felt off. Sure, she and Rose had their moments when they weren't getting along, but that whole experience was different. Her mind was wandering on that topic when she opened the door to the apartment she shared with Neal. She could see him standing near the window when the memory of their conversation in 'Amity' came to mind. "You know, I never did get to see that painting," Lissa said as she put down some shopping. Life in the factions had been weird. Neal had been himself, and he remembered certain parts of his life, but other parts were either vague and blurry, different than how they really happened, or they didn’t exist at all. Some people in his life he’d even thought were dead. Well, ones that weren’t actually dead as opposed to the ones that were dead no matter what reality he was currently living in, crazy magical land or not. He was grateful to be back to himself though and as back to normal as normal got in Atlantis. He was sipping a glass of wine looking out the living room window when he heard the apartment door open. He turned to see Lissa there, and he laughed a little when she asked about the painting. “Funny enough, it was actually one I had been working on here before everything got so crazy,” he said as he poured Lissa her own glass of wine then waved her to follow him into his room. There was an easel there with the beginnings of the painting he’d finished in the factions but was only about halfway through it here. “I guess the progress I made on it there didn’t transfer when we went back to normal.” He smiled and studied the painting for a few moments. “It’s a Raphael called St. George and the Dragon. It’s one that I, uh, came across during my... explorations back home.” Well, that was one way to put it. Laughing with Neal, she took the glass thanking him as she did. One thing was for sure she was getting used to amazing food and fabulous wine living with him. She tilted her head as he told her it was one that he was working on here as well. She followed him into his room and grinned at the progress he was making, she was pretty sure she'd seen it before but couldn't pinpoint where. He was telling her the name before she could ask if it was a Raphael and smiled to herself knowing that she had gotten it right. "It's, amazing," she told him her voice impressed. Lissa fell quiet still hearing his words but focused more on the painting. Her eyes focused more on the horse and the dragon as she wondered what would happen if paintings came to life in Atlantis, she quickly pushed the thought out of her mind though, that would be dangerous for everyone and something that could potentially happen in Atlantis. "Explorations hmm?" Lissa asked teasing him slightly. She was aware that he hadn't always lived a law-abiding lifestyle in his past, but she didn't judge him for it. There were a lot of things people did for a broad range of reasons. “It’s not so bad,” Neal said admirably of the painting. It wasn’t his best work, but he also didn’t have all of his tools that he had back home. He’d been collecting supplies slowly, but since he wasn’t looking to sell off most of the pieces that he painted, he didn’t need the paints or the painting itself to look as aged as he would if he was trying to pass it off as an original. “Explorations.” He grinned over at Lissa knowing full well she knew about parts of his past. He didn’t keep it a secret here exactly considering people could look it up for themselves, but there was no point in hiding here. Unless he started actively committing crimes, he wasn’t worried about being locked up or hunted down here. “This was one that many people thought that I allegedly had the original of for years but couldn’t prove it. Eventually… well, the painting mysteriously ended back up with the original owner.” He’d given it back to Sara in the nick of time before someone else found it and used it to lock him up for years. “If you have any requests, I’m open for any and all commissions.” He smiled at her as he covered up the unfinished canvas back up again. "It's good it ended up with the original owner," Lissa said pausing as she looked at it painting. She was the sort that loved happy endings, although she knew all too well that life didn't always end up that way. In fact, sometimes she wondered about the odds of life ending up happy. Shaking away the thoughts she watched as he covered the canvas and blinked turning to look at him again, "I'll keep that in mind." She said not having anything at that moment she wanted to see done. It did perk another question in her mind though. "Do you ever do any originals?" She asked. Giving back the Raphael had always been a necessary evil in Neal’s mind. Sure, it was probably the right thing to do, but did he want to give it back? Certainly not. It had been the one steal that no one had ever been able to pin on him for the longest time and still never had any concrete evidence against him. He might have still been a little proud of that. Maybe. At her question, Neal shook his head and took another sip of his wine that he picked back up from his dresser. “Not really. I started out learning to paint by copying other artists, and it turned into, well, forgery to be honest. I’ve never had much inspiration for my own pieces. Sometimes I used to try to start out with something original but it usually mirrored another piece and turned into a copy or really close to it.” He shrugged. “A curse of the trade, I guess.” A master forger who couldn’t come up with anything truly original. There was probably some sort of poetic irony in that somewhere. “Have you ever painted? Or pursued art of any kind? There’s so much more to art than just paintings.” Nodding, she could understand where that would be a problem of getting too used to paint other works, forgery and such. "Maybe someday an inspiration will spark, and you'll paint something original." Lissa did believe it was still possible. No one knew what the future held after all, especially here in Atlantis. "Not really," she answered with a shrug. "Doodles on notes, and as a kid, there were art classes with painting, pottery and such, but I guess I never stuck with it. I was always being groomed for public life and for service that some of that fell to the side. I enjoy writing though, things that aren't just papers for school or topics for diplomacy." She answered. "After being sent to Breckenridge, and now here, I guess I haven't thought much about hobbies. Not, that I wouldn't mind learning." She really wouldn't mind learning more. “Maybe.” Neal doubted that he’d ever get that inspiration for something original no matter how much he wished that it would. While he enjoyed and got a lot of satisfaction coming up with forgeries and gathering inspiration from other artists he admired and respected, he did often wonder what it felt like to be fulfilled by creating a piece of one’s own. “Writing is its own brand of art,” Neal said with a smile. “It wasn’t anything that I ever pursued, but there’s something to be said about a story or poem that can bring about such emotion. You should stick with it if it’s something you enjoy. And if you ever want to learn anything else, I wouldn’t be opposed to playing teacher once in awhile.” "It's been a long time since I wrote a story," Lissa admitted a little sheepishly. "Legal documents, proposals, you name it, those, those I've written more than I care to admit to." She shrugged at that. "Perhaps, I'll start writing again for fun, or keep a diary. I used to." She could remember when she used to write her life down as a means of trying to make sense of it, of grieving for her family. "Oh, you'd be willing to teach me hmm?" Lissa said as a smile spread across her features. "I wouldn't be against learning a little bit about painting, but no laughing!" She teased. Neal considered what she was saying. “Some of the best scholars and geniuses wrote down their thoughts and kept diaries. I once knew someone that said it didn’t matter what he wrote as long as he wrote something every day.” Laughing a little, he nodded. “Hey now, laughter sometimes creates the best pieces. But I think I can manage to keep it under control.” There was a glint in his eyes as he teased her a bit. “We’ll start with some paint by number and go from there.” A thoughtful expression crossed her face, and she nodded at his comment about as long as she wrote something. "I guess I should get back into it." Smiling she gave him a mock worried look. "If you think you can keep it under control, I suppose I'll just have to take you up on it.” |