(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

[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 looks at him, unsure if he's joking or not. "Seriously? It's for music, not a portable target."

She may've been aggressive, but she wasn't so bad as to throw something that breakable around.

[athelstanthescribe]

"No, I meant - if you're running..."

[lt_blade]

"If I'm running, I have it clipped onto the waistband of my pants." More secure that way. "But you're right, if I'm moving around and jumping, it's not like a CD player that skips songs a lot."

Which was great when she was working out and listening to heavy metal.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Every day, I discover something new from your time", he says with wonder.

[lt_blade]

"Strictly speaking, this is after my time." She motioned with her head to the player, which changed to a jazz session by Louis Armstrong. "Well, the device anyway."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Then you too have made new discoveries."

[lt_blade]

Something of her old self came back when she looked him in the eye. "Time and progress waits for no one, and we both know there's fun in exploring."

She saw it in him when they first met, whenever she saw him playing with, what were for him, modern inventions.

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan grins.

"Oh, yes. This is a place of learning I never could have dreamed of."

[lt_blade]

She reaches over to give him a squeeze on the shoulder.

"And I got to meet some interesting people, and get an extended family." That last one was especially important. After Outworld, if she didn't have Cadfael, Olivier, or even Athelstan himself, she wasn't sure what would happen with her. She heard of soldiers suffering from PTSD and burn out, the methods they used to drown out the pain.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Yes." He catches her hand as it drops from his shoulder, holding it. "I'm glad we could be there for you."

[lt_blade]

She gave his hand a squeeze, looking at him with a wry expression.

"Don't cut yourself short. You needed our help and support as well in this place." She couldn't forget how he entered the bar awhile ago, or when the Norsemen appeared.

He needed their love and support as much as she did.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Well, that's certainly true", he agrees quietly. "And I give thanks for it every day."

Little does he know how much he's going to need it.

[lt_blade]

One of the features on the player was a clock. The alarm clock feature was also there, but at the moment Sonya was looking at the time.

"You think you're ready to face what's going on through your door?" Or rather, ready to help a mistress that's going to need all the emotional support he could give her. "Because right now, your mistress is going to be the one needing support."

She said this as straight forward as she could.

[athelstanthescribe]

"They won't let me go to her", he says quietly. "Only the women are allowed in that room, until... until it's over. But I suppose, if I don't go back... it never will be."

[lt_blade]

"You're going to have to go back." There was no room for argument in her voice. "Hiding here isn't going to make Lagertha any better."

She was never a fan of burying her head in the sand. Waiting out a storm was one thing, but he could do that easily through the door. "The women will let you near her when the ordeal's over and the mess is cleaned up."

There was that much she knew. "You also need to give her the bear. That you were thinking of her and the child is medicine in of itself."

She knew from experience. Sometimes just letting someone know you were thinking of them helped them feel better.

[athelstanthescribe]

He nods. "I'm not running away. I couldn't, and now less than ever. But just a little longer... while I finish the bear."

[lt_blade]

She sighed, giving him a slow nod. Sometimes she had to make herself not think of Athelstan as one of her men, but right now she felt she had to talk to him as such. Right now it wasn't a matter of getting him out his Door, but bracing himself for it.

"Okay, little while longer."
She did notice he wasn't in much of a hurry to finish the bear, but even he knew he had to finish it eventually.

"I'm almost jealous. The family you're with, you've been able to get something of a life, and it's clear they do care for you. Something similar happens to me..there's no such thing. Even their 'hospitality' is set up to make me feel uneasy, to remind me of what they could do to me if they chose."

There was no sense of inclusion when she was in Outworld-everything was focused on making her break.

[athelstanthescribe]

"I wish you didn't have to return there", he says softly. "But I know you must, to see your own world again and perhaps to save it."

[lt_blade]

She shook her head. "There's no perhaps. We need to save it. If Outworld is any indication of what happens if we loose, then we have to defeat them."

Her hands clenched. She was needed there, yet she was stuck here. "If this really was medical leave, I'd be back by now." She laughed. "Fuck it, I'm actually wanting to go back to that hellhole."

She ran a hand through her hair.

[athelstanthescribe]

"The time will come. Perhaps whatever or whoever keeps your door from you, thinks you aren't yet ready."

[lt_blade]

"So you keep saying." But then, maybe it was what she needed-reassurance. She didn't trust herself to ask what he considered ready. "Suppose some more training wouldn't go amiss. You know Olivier offered to train in sword fighting with me? If I was ten years younger, the thought of learning to use a sword with an actual knight would've had me jumping-now, when it's almost a necessity, makes you look at things differently."

There were no firearms in Outworld. Whatever she could do to improve herself in weaponry and hand-to-hand, she would focus on.