InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "taylor swift is a karen"

Shannon Rutherford (ballerinadreams) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-05-13 16:02:00

Entry tags:

!complete, cielo, day 07, location: museum, shannon rutherford

Day Seven - Mid-afternoon
Who: Shannon Rutherford and Cielo
What: Stress relief and a chance meeting
When: Mid-afternoon
Where: outside the museum
Rating: TBA
Status: Complete

Throwing the journal against the wall, Shannon let out a tiny frustrated scream, muffled by the fact that she locked her jaw and gritted her teeth as she did it. As the book dropped to the floor, its pages fluttered and it landed face-down. Shannon was too busy pulling on her many layers of clothes again to notice. Without opening her door, leaving any kind of note, or bothering to pop out to the main room to let Sam, Jack, or the Doctor know where she was going, Shannon pushed open the small window in the room she was in and wriggled out of it, landing less than gracefully in the snow just outside it. That only served to piss her off even more.

Standing and brushing the snow off herself, Shannon looked out at the road and, satisfied that there was no one there, turned her back on it and took a deep breath, her hand on the side of the building as if it were a makeshift bar. Closing her eyes, Shannon tried to concentrate. She was already humming her favorite warm up tune - one which she no longer remembered the name - as she kicked away the snow to clear a small area for herself.

There was only one healthy way Shannon knew to clear her head and relax herself. Dancing. Jenny said she should dance. Brushing angry tears away with the heels of her hands, Shannon set herself into first position and started a warm up.

First position. Plié. Second position. Grande plié. Third position. Fourth position. Fifth position. Then, she repeated the process, adding the proper arm movements into the mix. Already her face had relaxed and the tears had stopped. She was still angry and frustrated and hurt and God only knew what else, because she didn't even understand why she cared what Dean was doing and who he was talking to. Except that she did know why and that made her feel even worse.

Letting out a soft sigh that interrupted her hummed tune, Shannon rolled her shoulders and put herself back into first position. A warm up was going to have to do, because she didn't have the space, really, to do much else given the depth of the snow. First position. Plié.

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-13 07:12 pm UTC (link)

Cielo still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about all of this snow. On the one hand, he found that it was fun to play around in and he had been able to amuse himself for a large part of the morning just rolling and shaping the snow into interesting shapes. On the other hand, he quickly came to realize that the snow and the cold were both prime culprits in the case of just what had given him the nasty cold with which he was still struggling. Knowing this, it would have been perfectly logical for him to simply spend the rest of the afternoon bundled up in his room - but Cielo had never really been a creature of logic.

Burrowing his chin a bit deeper into the collar of the jacket he had borrowed from the thrift store, he walked idly through town. He was aware, by now, that there were a few people who had appointed themselves night watchmen but it had occurred to him that there might be people who needed help digging out or getting supplies. Because of this, Cielo chose to take a winding path through the accumulating snow but his meandering came to a slightly staggering halt when he spotted someone in the snow outside of the museum.

He didn't think that he recognized the blond woman but that seemed fair enough when he didn't recognize exactly what she was doing, either. His head cocked, he considered her careful and graceful movements with an expression of silent wonder. Slowly, he came to realize that what she was doing was a form of dance but it was one with which he wasn't immediately familiar.

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-13 07:40 pm UTC (link)

After repeating the process of the warm up three times with her back to the road, Shannon paused and shook the snow out of her hair, stretching her arms over her head and standing on her tiptoes to stretch her legs. Stiff from the cold and from the fact that she'd neglected her ballet for well over six months.

Kicking away more snow, she tried to make space for a few turns and spins, finally crouching down and tucking her hands into her sleeves as she swept more snow away, leaving herself about three feet of movement. Ah, that was better.

So she put her legs into fifth position and her arms into first, wishing that she had a pair of toe shoes to make this move easier, and then spun herself in a not-so-neat and tidy pirouette. She nearly fell over, actually, because halfway through the turn, she spied someone behind her and as soon as she'd finished, she whirled around to face the person, eyes wide and heart thumping heavily in her chest. There hadn't been anyone on the road; she'd checked and what the hell was someone else doing outside willingly in this mess?

"Jesus Christ," she gasped at him. He looked like a kid; his hair was in dreadlocks and Shannon couldn't tell for sure with the sun shining down at the angle in which it was, but she thought maybe they were...blue. "You scared the shit out of me, don't do that!" she breathed, putting a hand on her chest as if willing her heart rate to settle. "Why didn't you say something? You make a habit of sneaking up on people, kid?"

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-13 11:10 pm UTC (link)

Cielo found himself a bit transfixed by the way the woman in the snow moved. He didn't have words and adjectives to describe it to himself, not used to having need for poetic language or things of that nature, but it evoked something which had been lost for - well, for longer than he could very easily say. It made his mind reach for things which were just outside the grasp of his memory and though the feeling was odd it really was unpleasant. True, the air was just as cold as it had been when he'd first come out and he could vaguely feel the snow sticking in his hair and the wind chill against his skin, but Cielo was too absorbed in the show before him to put very much thought into any of that.

And then he blond woman turned to face him and she startled rather badly.

Cielo could feel heat rushing to his face and his stomach seemed to bottom out somewhere around his feet. An unusual and unknown feeling settled uneasily into his gut but he still manage to shape his mouth into a foolish grin as he raised a hand toward the woman. "Hi there!" He called lightly. "I didn't mean to scare ya - I just never saw anyone do anything like that before and I thought I'd just stop and watch you for a little bit. I didn't say anything cause I didn't want ya to stop." Finding that he was currently babbling, Cielo managed to shut himself up while also managing a suitably sheepish expression. "I can go, though, if ya want some privacy or anything..."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-13 11:25 pm UTC (link)

...he looked embarrassed and Shannon just stared back at him, confused as to why, until he explained. He'd been standing there watching her and she'd been so absorbed in the ballet that she hadn't noticed or heard him there, nor felt the sensation of being watched. That was unsettling enough on its own, never mind the fact that he could've been someone dangerous. He didn't seem to be, so she relaxed a little, but she felt her own face go hot with embarrassment. He'd been watching...for how long? she wondered. She didn't have the guts to ask.

"You've never seen ballet?" she asked. Although, she seemed to be using the word loosely, because she hadn't really done any actual dancing until the clumsy pirouette.

She gave him an apologetic look for having yelled at him when he looked appropriately sheepish in response to having been caught. "I just...needed to get my mind off things. Only real privacy I needed was from specific people. I haven't met you, yet, so..." she let her voice trail off and wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to block out the cold that was re-registering in her mind now that she wasn't focused on the ballet for the moment. "I'm Shannon," she offered, holding her hand out to shake his and taking a few steps toward him.

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-14 12:06 am UTC (link)

Though he was new to the entire concept, Cielo took a moment to try to gauge her reaction to his announcement that he had been standing around and watching her. In a vague sort of way, he could understand how that could be seen as a little bit creepy but watching her had made him feel peaceful in a way which he had only experienced in the past from Sera's song; the feeling had been so nice that what little social grace he had had slipped away from him.

"Never," he agreed with a slightly shake of his head. "I mean, I think I remember a little bit about dancing but I don't really remember anything like that. It was really, really pretty though!"

"Dancing like that helps you keep your mind off of your problems? I can see why you'd like doing it. I can't imagine anyone giving someone like you trouble, though." He offered her a bright grin as he moved to accept her hand. He remembered this! This was where you had to take the hand in your own and move it up and down! "I'm Cielo. It's nice to meet you, Shannon."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-14 01:24 am UTC (link)

It was weird to think that he hadn't ever seen ballet, if only because it was such a huge part of Shannon's life for as long as she could remember. But, she also knew that a lot of men wouldn't have ever given ballet half a second's thought because it was too girly, so she couldn't exactly fault him. When he said it was really pretty, though, she blushed. "Too bad I can't actually dance, then, because that was just a warm up. You'd really like the real thing if you liked that," she replied with a small smile.

"Ballet puts me in the zone, I guess you could say," she admitted. "I get so focused on it that I don't have the capacity to worry about anything else that might be going on at any given time. I haven't done it in a while though..." she said almost a little sadly.

His - Cielo, he said - grin was contagious and Shannon returned it as he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, too. I think we've talked a bit back and forth. Feels so weird to meet people in person for the first time, especially the ones I feel like I already know because I've written to them so much," she replied, taking her hand back gracefully when the handshake seemed to linger a bit longer than she was entirely comfortable with. "So, Cielo, why are you out in this nasty weather? You know my excuse..." she pointed out.

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-14 06:55 pm UTC (link)

"Maybe sometime you can really dance for me?" Cielo asked. It didn't exactly occur to him that he was probably asking for a bit much and maybe putting Shannon on the spot; more, he was just finding himself fascinated by what he had seen, even if it had just been something called a warm up, and he was eager to see more of what this woman could do. He knew that he hadn't ever seen dancing like that in the Junkyard, but watching her did touch upon something pleasant lurking at the very back of his memories. "I mean, if you can find someplace good for that - and private, if that's what makes you feel more comfortable."

"In the zone? Yea, I think I know what you mean. It's kinda nice to be able to distract yourself with something like that sometimes, isn't it? Especially with something like this," he agreed quite readily with her but his nod turned into a slight cock of the head as she went on. "I dunno. It kinda sounds like you need to do something like this more often, but I guess we all do, huh?"

"Oh that's right! You're the one who was telling me about snowball fights, weren't you?" His grin only grew when he remembered the brief conversation they had held in the journals and any oddness he might have felt at meeting someone in a situation such as this seemed to vanish. "Well, I wanted to get some more medicine from the pharmacy but I thought I could check to see if anyone needed anything while I was on my way. I heard a few people were getting snowed in their buildings..."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-14 07:11 pm UTC (link)

Shannon looked back at him and sized him up trying to decide if he was serious. And, for that matter, if he was genuinely interested or if he was being creepy. Especially the latter when he mentioned someplace good and private. "Uh...yeah, okay, sometime, maybe," she replied a little awkwardly, giving him a small, tentative smile. Maybe not a private show for the kid, though...that would be kind of creepy. Even if only because he looked to be close to Domeki's age and the way he'd worded it sounded less like a request for ballet and more like a request for a lap dance, even if he might not have meant it that way.

"Yeah, it's really nice, actually," she replied. "I used to do it for a living," she divulged. "Well, teach it, anyway. It's just that life sort of got in the way and it hadn't really occurred to me until I told someone here that I do it and they suggested I use it again." Shannon paused and smiled, looking down. "She was right. It felt good."

She looked up again and let out a huff of a laugh. "Yeah that was me," she agreed. "Did you ever get to try it? That was another good way to forget things," she replied. His excuse for being out in the snow sounded legit enough and she nodded even if she wondered why he was going out for medicine rather than food and water. "That's nice of you," she replied. "And yeah, some of the buildings probably are..."

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-15 12:10 pm UTC (link)

Cielo had no clue that he was coming off as creepy but, then again, the concept of private dancing meaning something sexual was quite beyond him, as well. In his mind, he was just asking that he be allowed to have a chance to see Shannon dance again and, since she mentioned not wanting to dance publicly, he assumed privacy was wanted. Of course, he failed to really catch the awkwardness of her reply and so he merely nodded his own enthusiasm. "Ok! I'll look forward to it. It's nice to watch you dance like that, you know?"

"Sounds like it was a good suggestion," he agreed with a nod. "You used to teach dance for a living? That sounds like a pretty fun job. You must've really loved it if you can dance like that. No wonder it's the kinda thing that can put you in the zone and help you forget about things for a bit."

"Didn't try it yet. I was gonna but I figured that checking things out and making sure everyone was okay was a bit more important," Cielo sighed slightly at the burden of having to put responsibility first but that lesson had been so well ingrained that he couldn't just set it aside, even when he really wanted to do so. "I dunno about it being nice. Just seemed right to do it since I can get out pretty easy and not everyone else can, you know?"

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-15 12:57 pm UTC (link)

Cielo's enthusiasm made Shannon feel simultaneously flattered and really, really uncomfortable; she couldn't decide which trumped the other, so she just gave the kid a smile and nodded. "Thank you," she replied at his compliment. No, she didn't know, because she hadn't seen herself dance in months. There was no mirror wall that she knew of in the Glass Cage with which she could check her posture, so she had no clue. She'd take his word for it. Then again...it wasn't like the kid knew what he was talking about, so she could look like hell and he'd never know the difference, really.

With a nod, Shannon smiled again, a bit more relaxed now that the focus was off him having been watching her without her knowing it. "Yeah, little girls beginners' classes," she clarified. "I love kids and I practically live and breathe ballet under normal circumstances, so yeah it was a pretty perfect job," she replied, a nostalgic fondness creeping into her voice. She missed those little squirts, actually. In retrospect, she never should've taken the au pair position; she'd been doing well and enjoying herself with the dance classes. Then again, she'd gotten the offer the same day her father had died. At the time, it seemed logical to run away, so she had.

A sympathetic grin crossed Shannon's features and she nodded her understanding. "Being a grown up sucks ass, huh?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Never get to do anything fun, because you always have 'more important' shit to do," she empathized. She didn't mean to be patronizing, but it might have come off in such a way. The fact was, she appreciated that he was thinking of helping other people before dicking around in the snow for shits and giggles, even if he did look young enough not to care or to willfully leave it up to the adults to take care of things. "Where are you staying that you can get out pretty easy?" she asked him, curious now.

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-15 08:35 pm UTC (link)

"They teach dance classes like that?" Cielo asked. Again came the thought that there was so much he didn't know or couldn't remember but he found that he didn't exactly mind it; especially not when learning about it from people like Shannon was so much fun. He found the idea of kids all learning how to dance from Shannon sort of charming and his thoughts were reflected in his smile. "That does sound like a perfect kinda job. You must really like it, too, for how you talk about it. I can't imagine what it must be like."

"I dunno. I guess it does kinda suck not getting to do what I want but it could be worse. At least there's some time to goof off, yea?" He tipped his head to the side as he thought about it. Really, to be honest, he found that he had more free time here than he had back in the Junkyard but that wasn't surprising when there wasn't any fighting to be done. "Oh, I'm staying over at the clocktower for now. It's not hard to get out of the top floor no matter how deep the snow gets."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-15 09:47 pm UTC (link)

"Oh yeah," Shannon said with a smile and a nod. "How else d'you think I learned?" Part of her almost wondered if he was about to ask her to teach him to dance, and while it wasn't unheard of, it was certainly rare that guys his age wanted to learn. The oldest boy she'd ever taught had been ten and he'd made it very clear that he hated every minute of it. "I haven't done it in a while," she admitted, the smile fading slightly. "I do miss it, though, sometimes when I think about it..."

Shannon supposed the kid had a point. "Yeah, I almost forgot what it's like to have to work, it's been so long. I think I liked the last place I was stranded for sure more than this place, but the people here are less retarded, so..." she rolled her eyes and let her voice trail off. Sayid, she thought, was really the only exception to the rule. People like Jack and Kate thinking they ran the show - the irony of the way she'd tried to shape Sam into Jack's shoes and herself into Kate's was completely lost on her - and Sawyer walking around throwing out stupid nicknames to everyone he saw - the irony of her rather enjoying Dean's nicknames for her when she'd so hated being called "Sticks" by Sawyer was also lost - all the while being nothing more than a complete and total fuckhead... Yeah, Sayid was the only exception.

Cielo said that he'd been staying in the clock tower and then mentioned that it wasn't hard to get out of the top floor and Shannon blinked incredulously. She'd passed the clock tower on her way to the museum on her first day and she remembered how tall it was. "...are you kidding?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "That top floor is fucking high...what'd you do, sprout wings or something?" she joked. How the hell had he gotten down from there? Maybe he'd rigged a ladder or was thinking of a floor lower than the very top one...

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-16 01:41 am UTC (link)

"I dunno. I guess I thought that you just knew how to do it but I never really thought about it," Cielo admitted with a slight shrug. The idea of learning to do something like dancing seemed a bit funny to him but, again, that was most likely due to the nature of the world in which he had lived; if it didn't have to do with fighting, then it wasn't anything anyone really had to know. "Hm? When you think about it...?"

"Really? The last place you were at was better than this?" He asked curiously. He supposed that he could see how that could be so, especially when he took the time to remember that the Junkyard, even with all of its fighting and the constant rain, at least held only the expected; here, he could hardly guess what'd happen from one moment to the next. "Ha, I'm glad that you like the people here, at least. I gotta say that everyone seems really cool, especially considering how weird the circumstances are."

"Mmnope, not kidding," Cielo shook his head and grinned. He did pause a moment to consider her questions and he soon came to the conclusion that telling her that he did fly down when there wasn't anyone to see him wasn't exactly the best idea. Instead, he just shrugged slightly. "It's not so hard to get down. When there's no snow or anything in the way, I can usually just use the doors or the windows or something."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-16 02:45 am UTC (link)

Shannon smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah I wish I knew it all on my own, but no, it took many, many years of training to get me where I am," she divulged, wrapping her arms around herself to try and keep warm. Then, she paused. "Uh...I don't know, mainly when I'm stressed out, I guess, because it's such a good source of calm for me," she said with a shrug. In actuality, Shannon hadn't really ever thought of that before; it just came to her when it came to her and that was all. She hadn't ever really considered triggers.

"Yeah, well not by much," she muttered bitterly, thinking back on the Island and, among other things, Claire's kidnapping and Boone's death. What an awful place...except it had nothing on the fucking Glass Cage, as it were. "I actually think maybe the people are so cool because of how weird circumstances are," she replied. "You know, like...safety in numbers kind of makes people more keen on being good to one another so that we all know at least someone in this God forsaken place has our back when we need it. Y'know?"

Shannon gave him a facial shrug as she considered it. "Well shit, kudos to you then; I'd be too scared," she admitted. Rubbing her hands up and down on her arms, Shannon shivered. "I should get inside before I turn into a ballerinacicle," she said. "You should get inside soon, too, Cielo; you'll catch cold or something and the last thing anyone here needs is to be sick...we have to all be on our top game, I think, because otherwise, we're sitting ducks."

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-16 04:09 pm UTC (link)

"Oooh. It just seemed kinda weird to learn something like that by being taught, y'know? It kinda seems like it just...flows and comes natural, but I guess I really dunno anything about things like that." The confession that he didn't know anything about things which fell under the category of 'art' was easy and thoughtless; song had been something he had just heard of only a short while ago and dance was just entirely new to him, though he found himself fond of the idea of both of them. "As good a way of killing stress as any, yea?"

"Hm, I think you got it," he nodded slowly and then tipped his head on side. That was one of the differences in this place: though it could be easy to fall into tribes fighting against one another for what little there was, most of the people here seemed to favor coming to work together. It was still a little bit odd to him but Cielo thought that he sort of liked it, all the same. "Better to unite and show a strong face against an enemy than to just have to face it on your own, yea?"

"Yea, I don't wanna see you get sick or anything. It was nice meeting you though, Shannon!" He offered her a rather large and bright smile as he waved a single hand toward her. "Prolly see you around again soon, yea?"

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-16 08:44 pm UTC (link)

Furrowing her brow in confusion, Shannon gave Cielo a small smile. "I've never thought of it any other way... Are you talking about things just being instinct, or...?" she asked, letting her voice trail off and letting the question linger for him to fill in the blank, should he feel so inclined. "Yeah, exactly," she confirmed.

Shannon nodded, her expression grim. "That's what I'm thinking, anyway. The more of us that come together to work against the fuckers who put us here, the more likely we are to manage to beat them." At least...she hoped.

"It was nice meeting you too, Cielo," Shannon said sincerely, smiling back at him. "Sure, anytime. You know how to get a hold of me if you need or wanna meet up," she reminded him. She'd gotten past the creepy factor after having talked to him and she had fallen into flattered by the fact that he'd found her movement interesting enough to watch.

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cloudlesssky
2009-05-17 02:01 am UTC (link)

"Yea, instinct like. I mean, I had a friend from where I was before I came here who could sing really beautiful. She was the first person I ever knew who could sing and she didn't ever take a lesson or anything; she just kinda knew how to do it." The thought of Sera and her song caused a natural smile to come to him and Cielo found himself smiling calmly. Just the memory of her song seemed to relax him, even if he could only remember small snippets. "I guess I just kinda assumed that it was that way for you, too."

"I'm sure we'll get them without trouble," he nodded eagerly and with complete conviction. "With so many of us working together, there's no other tribe that can get us. We just have to make sure we keep working together."

"Sure do! I'll write you on the journals if I need anything and you can do the same if you need anything," he nodded. Turning his back, he offered her another wave before ambling off deeper into the town.

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-17 01:48 pm UTC (link)

Shannon nodded. "I know what you mean. Singing is one of those ones you can just do without really learning but if you take classes, you can get better. I can sing...kind of. It's not amazing or anything, but yeah, I follow."

The conviction in Cielo's voice gave Shannon a little bit of hope and she gave him a small smile. "I hope you're right," she told him. And she really, really did hope he was.

"Okay, sure, thanks buddy," she replied with a nod. When Cielo turned his back and offered a wave, she returned it and then as he set off, she hopped up and wriggled her way back in through the window to close it - and with it, the cold out - behind her.

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