(no subject)

[lt_blade]

 Sonya's room was something between a dorm room and her usual room set up in the barracks: bed, dresser, desk, but to the side there was also a bookshelf, table, chair, and even a flat screen television and dvd player. Having just gotten used to video cassettes, the use of dvds took some getting used to, but given her lack of a busy schedule, Sonya didn't have much of an issue with it. Otherwise, the room is sparsely furnished and clean. Some people let their place go during their depression: Sonya would go into a cleaning spree just to keep her mind from focusing on things.

Stepping inside, she set the speaker and player  on the table, hooking them up. "Feel free to take the chair," The bed's fine enough for her. Maybe Bar could give her a sofa, but she wasn't about to add what she didn't really need. Right now, the point was just to relax, which meant offering Athelstan a seat.

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

It almost looks like a monastic cell, with a few extras, and it makes Athelstan feel instantly at home. He sits obediently.

"This speaker will play it without the little - ear things?"

[lt_blade]

She nodded, flipping through the albums listed and finding the one she has of Bill Evans, selecting one of his piano solos. Truth be told, she wasn't even that crazy about the music, but it reminded her of when she was younger, the sort of music one played when it was rainy out and inside was nice and cozy. Exactly what they needed.

Hitting play, she took a seat on the bed, picking a spot across from where he was sitting.

"This is a little before my time, the music I mean, but..it was played a lot when I was younger, so there's some nostalgia."

[athelstanthescribe]

He leans back and listens to it in silence for a while.

"What is the instrument called?"

[lt_blade]

"A piano. Large instrument where the notes are played by pressing on white keys. Mom wanted me to get music lessons when I was little, but I never had the patience for the exercise and kept banging too hard on the keys."

Sonya was never sure if she would've ever had the patience to fully learn, but she couldn't see how anyone could have fun with such dinky little piano exercises.

[athelstanthescribe]

"It sounds beautiful, played this way. I've never heard it before."

[lt_blade]

"20th century, remember." She gives him a small smile. "You've hundreds of years of music to catch up on."

She wonders how things are going on the other side of his door. Much as she'd love to introduce him to something more cheerful, it just seemed wrong at the moment.

[athelstanthescribe]

"I look forward to hearing it as much of it as I can", he says, deliberately lightly because he doesn't want to think about what's happening behind Lagertha's door.

[lt_blade]

"Luckily, most of my jazz CDs are mixed, meaning it's one album with a number of artists." She could never decide on which artist to listen to, so she preferred mix CDs and cassettes. "Should be good for an hour or so."

Long enough for him to finish the bear and go back with some resolve.

[athelstanthescribe]

As if reminded, he gets the bear out again.

"How many - CDs - do you have?"

[lt_blade]

"Fifteen, maybe twenty." Around that number. "Bought myself a cd player with I was eighteen, but a casette player's smaller and CDs are a bit more pricy, plus the songs on a CD tend to skip if the player's a cheap one."

Shock protection may've been seen as an addition, but it was a handy one if the player didn't have it.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Which this one is not?"

[lt_blade]

"No, but this isn't a CD player. CDs are round disks that you insert inside the machine, if you want a different album, you have to chance the cd. For this player, it seems all you do is load the disks into a computer to load the files, then you can play them one after the other."

That was the best way she could describe it, certainly how she could see the way the thing worked. "No skipping on this. I can work out and train with this and not worry about song skipping."

[athelstanthescribe]

He smiles. "No matter how you may toss it about?"

[lt_blade]

She's not sure how long she was asleep, but she was so used to being tense that when sleep fell on her, it really fell. Yet even her dreams were tense.

Her dreams weren't so much dreams as fog, a long, deep one that she could feel on her skin. There was the chill, the shapes and if she didn't keep running, the shapes would catch and bind her again.

Run, she told herself, one pause, one mistep and the shadows would get her.

Sonya woke up with a start, her body frozen and for a moment she feared the shadows caught up with her, but a second later found herself curled on her side-a position from when she was in the cell. The tension was so deep it caused sleep paralysis and the strain was from her limbs waking up.

On the television, the credits were still rolling.

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan stirs next to her, something alerting him to what's wrong, and turns his head.

"Sonya?"

[lt_blade]

She sat up, "Athelstan?..." She rubbed a crick in her neck. "I'm fine, just..run of the mill bad dream."

She kept thinking she'd get used to them, but that's yet to be the case.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Bad dreams should never be run of the mill", he says softly. "Not ones that disturb your sleep so."

[lt_blade]

She rested her head against his shoulder. "Fact of life then. Told you when I first let you sleep in my room."

She was still tired, but it was a little tricky for her to fall asleep at the moment. The problem with nightmares of course was there was the underlining fear of going to sleep and facing them again. "Was running in the dream. I didn't know from what, just knew if I slowed down or stopped, I'd be trapped again."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I wish I could come into your dreams, so you wouldn't be alone against this pursuer."

[lt_blade]

she tried to smile. "This from a guy who just started learning to fight back."

She understood the sentiment and appreciated that atleast. "But you can't fight against fog either." None of them could.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Things are different in dreams", he points out. "Perhaps another person simply being there, at your side, would drive it away."

[lt_blade]

"Unless you know some magic you're not telling me, not sure you can really put yourself in dreams like that."

They had to be realistic about that sort of thing. For all they were in milliways, she wasn't sure it went that far.

"Let's just keep talking. If I fall asleep, that's something."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I don't. But someone might." He nods, wrapping his arm around her. "I'll do what I can."

[lt_blade]

She set her hand ontop of his. "Just you being here helps. Nightmares are easier to take when there's someone near-don't ask me why."

She wondered if it had to do with perception. The worst part of a nightmare wasn't the dream itself, but waking up and fearing it's not a dream. If someone was with her though, and she could see them clearly, then a dream is easier to accept as just that.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Why isn't so important. If it helps at all, then I'm glad I was here."