(no subject)

[lt_blade]

"Come on girls, momma's going to take out some aggression while you two play, okay?"

She was tired, restless even. Around the hut, she'd done the cleaning, fixing up, and whatever manual labor that needed to be done and she still didn't feel any better.  Of course, the whole deal with rapture wasn't solved, but there was only so much they could do and even she knew that she couldn't patrol every day of every hour, though a part of her wished it. It wasn't her place though..if anything she hoped that Lipton would find Lydia, find her and go back to being the happy, content family that he and Jane were.

She looked at the girls playing under the shade of the deck, their wooden toys being stacked and moved about in a way that only a one-year old could find fun.

Maybe we do need to move, she thought. As much as she didn't like the thought of facing people just yet, maybe another change of pace would be good for them.

No..what would be good for her was some shadow boxing. In their-in her-front yard, there was a thick tree that was perfect for the deed, its trunk smooth and wide enough for her to wrap a long coil of rope around and use it as a punch/kick target. She'd replaced it several times since she'd first moved to the hut, but it was easier than going to the punching back in the Hidden Hamlet-nice as the people there were.

Making sure that the girls were content (she had some water and snacks just incase), and Max was within sight (and safely chewing on something he hunted) Sonya pulled on a set of combat gloves, flexed her shoulders a bit-and started going to town on the tree.

punch...punch..turn..jab

roundhouse kick...triple kick

turn..jump crescent kick...

She was soon lost in a pattern, visualizing the tree as her opponent and delivering blow after blow. They were automatic now, her body feeling the endorphin rush but there was no longer any sense of enjoyment or relief in the blows.

Comments

Re: heee..Helen!

[notsocommon]

"It's quite all right. Everyone with children understands a need for rearranging schedules."

The tea was actually quite good and she drank it a little quicker than maybe she should have.

Re: heee..Helen!

[lt_blade]

"So I've been getting at." For a woman so concerned about punctuality, it was a rather fast lesson that she had to learn.

She set the pitcher of tea in the middle of the table. "Dehydration's never fun."

They'd both been working out in this heat and humidity was enough to sometimes mask how dehydrated one was. Plus the tea was non-caffeinated so it wasn't like either had to worry about getting a buzz.

Not that Sonya really worried at this point-just the opposite.

Re: heee..Helen!

[notsocommon]

"And happens much quicker than you'd think, even in a place so humid as the island," Helen said, nodding in agreement.

"I'm surprised we don't have more issues with that in the clinic on a regular basis but I suppose the population's learned to adapt."

Re: heee..Helen!

[lt_blade]

Sonya nodded in agreement, refilling her own tumbler as well.

The rest of what Helen said made sense. There were plenty of sources of water around, especially around the compound and various food establishments on the island, but on the beach where someone was more prone to just lying around in the sun, it wasn't like they could just buy some water off from a vender.

She voiced those thoughts to Helen, adding. "But then fruit's also a water source and it's easier to carry than a homemade water bottle." And lord knew there were a lot of fruit trees on the island.

[notsocommon]

"Ah, yes, but I doubt the rest of our citizenry knows that," Helen said, shaking her head.

"Then again, there's a lot of industrious and clever people who end up here. I'm surprised we don't end up with more just baseline humans."

[lt_blade]

"I think this is where the saying 'necessity breeds invention' comes from." Sonya remarked, thinking of her time on the island.

Which led to another thought and then her almost snorting into her tea. "Of course, there probably are the more base sorts of humans here-they just get a lot more help from others."

It probably came out more cynical than she meant to, but it was what she experienced and figured it was part of human nature.

It also brought something Sonya was curious about. "Which reminds me...after living so many decades? How're you not any more cynical about us? I would've figured after seeing so much, nothing about human interactions would surprise you."

[notsocommon]

"Because everyone is different. Everything is something new," Helen said, shrugging.

"I've never had an issue with getting jaded."

[lt_blade]

Yet another reason Sonya wasn't too keen on immortality for herself: she'd only been in the army for eight years and she was already jaded.

"Do you have a favorite moment from your discoveries? Or one that sticks out?" Sonya felt a little odd that she was doing most of the talking: Helen already said she was a doctor during the Victorian era, she must've come across something that just blew her mind, especially given how she spoke of science.

[notsocommon]

"There's so many, I don't know that I could choose just one," Helen said, thinking it over. "And so many of my memories are personal and have very little to do with science. I'd have to say discovering werewolves was up there. We call them HAPs, though. Hyper accelerated proteans."

[lt_blade]

Another time and Sonya would've felt her interest perk. As it was, there was a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth: call it stress or exhauastion of some sort, but mentally she couldn't bring herself to feel as excited as she wanted to.

"Back..well, before I arrived here..I was just getting into what would be considered supernatral. One of my allies had the ability to develope his life force into fire-ironic because he's actually one of the most level headed and calm men I know." One would've thought someone with fire powers would've been more erratic. "He tried to teach me how to do the same-or atleast the technique."

To develop her chi into a physical manifestation.

"Alas," She gave a slight shrug and took another sip of tea. "Things got in the way, and before you know it I end up here and what he showed me did nothing."

Not that she really cared at the time: when she first arrived there were so many other things on her mind to worry about and to be concerned of.

"Even before arriving here, I considered erasing the word 'impossible' from my dictionary."

[notsocommon]

"It's usually a good course of action," Helen agreed. "Putting limitations on things only serves to give you massive blinders when it comes to seeing and being aware of the world around you."

[lt_blade]

"That's not to say that the army is the most open of organizations." Most militaries weren't and even her own entry into the Special Forces was met with hesitation until she actually got accepted. "Thankfully I'm a big fan of 'if it sounds like a duck..'sort of theory. I mean there are only so many signs one could try to ignore before it goes from skepticism to just plain denial."

Which was worse in a way because skepticism atleast meant there was the possibility of the thing being true.

[notsocommon]

"People don't like things they can't explain," Helen agreed. "I spent my whole life working against that."

[lt_blade]

Sonya couldn't argue for that, nor could she argue that she wasn't one of those people at one point: things that could be explained could be dealt with, but how does one explain it when a man shows the ability to produce fire, or suck the living soul out of a man's body.

"For me, it was only a year before I arrived on the island." She looked at her over her tea, considering. "Don't suppose they have the game 'mortal kombat' in your world, do they?"

She wasn't sure what it was that made her want to talk about it, but her times with Helen showed her that she seemed to be the sort worth confining it-that she didn't judge or freeze up or anything of that sort if Sonya decided to talk about it.

[notsocommon]

"I don't play video games, I wouldn't know," Helen said, shrugging slightly. "I barely even watch television."

[lt_blade]

"It's a 'fighting' video game, where you and someone else or you and the computer chose a character and duke it out. That's the basic idea of the game.." She frowned, her voice detatched, like she was letting go. "It also happens to be the so-called 'thing' that I'm from...my apparent life's duty reduced to a fighting game. It was given to Zell with a bunch of other games a few years ago in January. He was from a video game too actually, so we were able to rant together."

"I stopped looking at books or movies afterwards if they have the name of someone I know on the island. How'm I to know if it's accurately portrayed them or not..plus a matter of the other person's privacy."