(no subject)

[plantfood]

It's only Hal with him on the beach today; the other dogs tend to stick close to Sam and Sam is with Lucy, but Hal, somehow, she's become his dog. He never knew her previous owner, knows only that he and River were close, and that, at least, makes him think that, whoever he was, he must have been a good guy. But he doesn't know what he was like, doesn't know what it is about him that makes Hal want to stay by his side most of the time, but he finds he doesn't mind. Before the island he was certainly not a dog person, preferring the company of his small cat, but things change.

The island changes things.

It's early evening, the sun is still at least a half hour from dipping behind the trees and Mathias doesn't want to move from this spot. He's gone for a dive, his scuba equipment is sitting on the sand beside him and he's still dripping, but he makes no move to reach for his towel. Sometimes, he knows, awful things happen to the people here. They lose their loved ones and people die, the island isn't a safe haven from that, but at this moment, he's happy to be here. He's happy to be alive.

There are plants in the hut he shares with Lucy and Sam, only two, one in the main room and one in his bedroom, but they're there. Even a few months ago he might have had trouble sleeping with them there, but no longer. Back home, he's dead. Acceptance of that has been a long time coming, but he thinks it's finally here. He's dead. Henrich is dead. Stacy is dead.

But not now and not here.

Smiling faintly, he reaches over and strokes Hal's fur, then lifts his hand to wave to the figure coming down the beach toward him.

Comments

[plantfood]

"There is nothing wrong with that," Mathias answers simply. He doesn't expect Sookie to immediately know what her preferences will be, especially since she's never gone diving before. It takes time to get comfortable in the water, he's just glad for the opportunity to teach her. More than that, he's pleased that whatever awkwardness he was worried might be between them seems to be gone. Maybe it isn't fair to either of them that he's been so concerned with that, but he's happy to be wrong about it.

"We could go to the box and find a suit in your size," he suggests. "Then you can go for a swim with it, see how it feels. If it isn't comfortable, then you can try without. There's really no right or wrong way to dive, especially here." They're not diving for exploration and they're not going out for very far or very deep. It's pure recreation and there are really no rules beyond learning how to clear her mask and use the respirator properly.

[justsookie]

"Let's do it," Sookie agrees, beaming. If there's a moment's hesitation, it only comes from the fact that she has to marvel at how quickly the two of them are somehow able to find their footing again in spite of all that happened. Sookie's inclined to think that it's a result of Mathias being the man that he is, impossibly kind and generous to a fault; she can't, somehow, imagine being in a fight with him, can't imagine him making too much of a deal out of anything. Maybe it's just rose-tinted glasses, she thinks, forming out of her relief at not being suddenly shunted to the side in wake of their brief attempt at something more, but whatever it is, she's gained a friend, and that's not a fact that she plans on forgetting anytime soon.

"I've got some free time now, if you want. Or... depending on your schedule, we could always figure out some other time. I'm guessing that diving during the day's a better idea, right? Are there such things as nocturnal sea life that only comes out at night? 'Cause that would admittedly freak me out," Sookie remarks, pulling a face in the direction of the water.

[plantfood]

"Diving during the day is more useful. We can see more," Mathias says with a grin, although he's sure there are fish or other creatures that prefer to interact only at night. "It would be too dark to see much. Even at dusk, when the sun is only starting to see, there isn't much to see anymore."

He turns, lifting the oxygen tank, then nods toward his hut. "I'll just put this away and change into something dry and we can see if the box will give us anything good. I can't promise any wet suit we find won't be bright orange with blue stripes, but hopefully it will fit." The only wet suit he's been able to find for himself is bright green, which is another reason he prefers not to wear it.

[justsookie]

"Oh, I'm perfectly capable of wearin' both orange and blue, believe me," Sookie replies with a lift of her chin, a hand brushing over her skirts, a bright shade of yellow that not all people on the island would dare wear under the sun. She's always been fond of bright colors, even if they supposedly clash; it's still better than resorting to muted colors, as far as Sookie's concerned. "As long as it isn't all shades of brown and pea green, then I'm set."

Following along after Mathias, she glances up at the sun, stretching her arms out and taking a deep breath.

"I'm glad we'll be going out with the sun. Not that I'm afraid of the dark, necessarily, but I always feel like things are more fun when the sun's out. More beautiful. The colors just pop."

[plantfood]

"You know that's all the box is going to give you now that you have said it," Mathias points out with a small grin as he heads back toward his hut. Hal trots along beside them, then runs ahead when home comes into view and curls up into the place she's claimed as her own on the small porch. As far as he can tell, Lucy is still out with Sam, which means the other dogs aren't here either. It's quiet, which he likes, though he doesn't think he'd give them up now either. He's too used to having them all underfoot.

"Diving is always more beautiful when it's sunny out," he agrees, heading up the steps and then holding the door open for Sookie. Carefully, he returns the air tank to the small closet he's built for his equipment, then disappears into the bedroom to find something dry to change into. "It's like you said," he calls. "Everything is brighter."

[justsookie]

"The box has been good to me, so I guess if it decides to be a little terror now and again, I can't complain," laughs Sookie, smoothing down the skirt of her sundress almost in emphasis. While the box isn't the best place for her to go for anything other than sundresses, it's always been good about giving her something cheerful to wear outdoors. "Besides, sometimes it's fun to get away with bad clothes when everyone knows that it's probably not your fault."

She follows him through the hut, only pausing at his bedroom and waiting outside instead, back easily pressed against the wall. "You know, I miss driving so much," she comments. "I never thought I cared for it so much back home, but there is something so comforting about sitting in the driver's seat and just watching everything pass by you in a blur."

[plantfood]

As he dries his hair and changes into a fresh pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Mathias grins, thinking of all the time he's spent staring silently at the box, waiting for it to give him something worthwhile. He's been on the island for more than three years now and he's built up a fairly sizeable wardrobe simply through patience, but the box has never been particularly kind to him. It's nice to know that sometimes it can be good to people, though, and he comes back into the main room, dry and changed.

"Driving," he repeats, nodding. It isn't something he'd done much of before the army, but there is all sorts of training involved with his time spent there, more driving than he'd ever done before. "I imagine it's definitely something a lot of people miss," he says. "It seems to be the kind of thing that many people find quite... relaxing, ja?"

[justsookie]

"Ja," Sookie replies, trying her best to mimic the accent, but even to her own ear the word sounds different, not nearly as elegant when slipping from her own lips. Plenty of people have commented on her own accent over the years, especially since her arrival on the island, but to Sookie, there's very little more attractive than accents more exotic than the subtle twang that Southerners get. Between all the people she knows on the island, Sookie now knows that a trip across Europe would be worth it for the accents alone, if nothing else.

"It's just somethin' that you don't have to think too much about. Your eyes focus on a place you wanna go, and then you just... drive," Sookie explains with a shrug. "You don't necessarily need a place you're getting to. You can just drive into the horizon and see what's around you along the way. Not that any of us are really heading someplace on the island either, but here we're kinda forced to run around in circles."

[plantfood]

"Parking in Munich was always a... nightmare," he explains, struggling for a moment to find the correct expression in English. "We avoided driving if we could, but I can see how it would be relaxing. It could be very quiet, I think." Although he does love adventure, there's something to be said for quiet, something Mathias certainly appreciates.

He understands what Sookie is saying about the island, too. Although it's quiet in its own way -- most of the time, anyway -- there isn't anywhere to go. It's that feeling that's led him to go to the second island. It was that feeling that led to his broken leg.

[justsookie]

"See, we never really had any place like that in Louisiana," Sookie explains in kind, thinking about the most crowded she's ever seen any place in the area. Fangtasia's probably the only place she could see the parking lot filling up in full, and even then, after the initial rush of curiosity, people's interest changed on the whole from curiosity to a latent fear that few chose to face. "We had a couple of popular bars, but on the whole, if you had to get somewhere, all you had to do was drive. Maybe you'd run into traffic here or there, but parking wasn't usually a problem. Most of the time, you decide to drive, and you can keep up for hours without anything gettin' in the way."

[plantfood]

"I think I would like that," he says, although at the time he was living in Munich, he never had any intention of moving away from there. Traveling to far off places had been all the escape he'd needed from day to day life and during the in between moments, he'd been perfectly happy in the city. But if this winter has taught him anything, it's that people can change more than they expect.

Mathias isn't sure he'll be able to be happy in a city again.

"It sounds a little like the trains," he says. "Though there's less involved with the trains, but I remember getting on one and being able to just sit back and watch the country go by."

[justsookie]

"You know, I've never ridden a train, but... but yeah, I bet it'd be a lot like that," Sookie nods, perking up at the very thought. There are a few train tracks that she's passed by before, most of them no longer in use, rusted on the rails and occasionally breaking in line. "Although I guess with driving, you get a little more control, and a little less of that back and forth. Trains rock, right? That's how the movies always make it seem."

She shuts her eyes tightly at her own remark with a disbelieving laugh.

"I don't think I'll ever make myself stop sounding like so much of a country bumpkin, my goodness."

[plantfood]

Mathias laughs, unable to help himself, though it isn't unkind and as he heads for the door again, he gives Sookie's shoulder a light squeeze. "I think they used to be like that," he says, vague memories of train rides with his parents when he was small. He thinks he remembers the train rocking then, he and Henrich leaning comfortably in their seats, rocked into a state of comfort and near sleep. "But not anymore. They're fast now, very quiet. It's just easier to travel through Europe by train than almost any other way."

As he heads back outside, Hal glances up, then rests her nose on her paws again and Mathias says, "It's just very different, isn't it? The way people travel in our areas of the world."

[justsookie]

"I guess so," Sookie marvels, because if she knows anything about trains in her country, it's that they definitely aren't used any more than cars are, or even buses in the most populated of areas. It seems like everyone enjoys having the freedom of the wheel, that everyone likes being able to control what direction they go in, rather than wandering as a crowd. She wonders if it's a cultural thing, but in all honesty, Sookie's seen so little of the world that she's not sure she has the authority to say.

"Though, remember," she points out, just to remind him, "I've barely ever traveled at all, so... I might be completely wrong on what my country's mode of travel usually is."

[plantfood]

"You will still be more of an authority on it than I can be," he points out, because he's been to North America several times, but he visits have been limited to the most typical areas of travel; New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto. It's such a small number of places, too, in an area of land that so vast. He's always wanted to go much further North, too, but now he supposes he'll never have that chance.

Briefly, his smile falters. It's moments like this when he's suddenly aware that he's dead.

"And traveling is not for everyone," he continues. "Given what you've told me about being able to hear everyone... I think I would want to stay close to home in a situation like that, too." He imagines trying to travel could get very tiring. Very loud.

[justsookie]

While not always the most observant without the help of her powers to suss out emotions, Sookie catches that pause in the smile long enough, and feels her chest tighten with a desire to somehow push him forward to where he won't have to think about it ever again, the fact that he's passed away and probably can't return home in the way the rest of them are looking forward to. Or expecting, at least.

But what's there to say to that? There's no question of what Sookie wants most for Mathias now, and that's for him to stay here, right here, where he can grace the rest of them with his smile and presence still.

It's easier to think about her telepathy.

"Unless I travel with vampires," she says, soldiering on for both their sake. "In which case I can't hear a thing. Granted, you won't really find vampire pilots or flight attendants, but the difference between havin' a few folks babbling about and a couple hundred is pretty big."

[plantfood]

That gets a sharp, interested glance from Mathias, his eyebrows pulling together as he studies Sookie curiously. There's so much in this world -- or other worlds, he has to acknowledge they may be from very different places -- that he's never encountered before, but given the things he's seen, he knows better than to doubt them blindly. If he believes that she was able to read minds, then he has no reason not to believe the other things she tells him.

"Vampires," he repeats, one corner of his mouth hitching up slightly, a curious, interested expression on his face. "There were... vampires and they prevent you from hearing thoughts? Or is it just that you can't hear their thoughts?" Either way, it's interesting and he wonders why that's the case.

For a moment, he almost laughs at himself, believing so freely in the existence of vampires, but he's seen things that can't be explained. The world became a very different place following Mexico.

[justsookie]

She winces as soon as she realizes her slip. Not that, Sookie thinks to herself, she really had any particular desire to hide the idea of vampires from Mathias in the first place. Sookie's never really tried to hide the events of home from people here on the island; sharing the fact of her former telepathy has always been the more difficult thing to share, because it says something about her, and the way she's grown, privy all too often to the minds of others and what people can really mean.

Vampires, she's always kind of taken for granted. But Mathias' surprise drives home the fact, again, that she really shouldn't.

"There were vampires," Sookie nods with a slight sigh, deciding not yet to explain to Mathias that Mitchell himself is one, although a different type, and not from the same world. "They didn't exactly block me from hearing thoughts, I just... couldn't hear theirs. Apparently my power only worked with the living or something like that."

[plantfood]

"So I can see why you would want to spend time with them," he says, although that isn't entirely true. As he looks up the boardwalk toward the Compound, Mathias thinks about all the things that could go wrong with that situation, the dangers inherent in being around a vampire.

Though he really has limited knowledge as to what that might mean. What he knows of vampires comes from TV shows and movies. The ones that are real, the ones that Sookie's known, they may well be incredibly different from what he's been shown in the media.

"So long as they aren't trying to kill you," he adds cautiously, considering that. "I mean, I don't know very much about them, having never met one." He pauses, thinking about that, then adds, "As far as I know, anyway."

[justsookie]

"There... were definitely some vampires who tried to kill me, but it's kind of like people, I guess, in that there are all types. Granted, the whole 'needs to feed on blood' thing probably made it a whole lot more likely that a vampire would eat me right up than a person, but," Sookie shrugs lightly, even as the motion itself proves somewhat tense. She has more than enough reason to doubt the vampires she's been around, in all honesty.

But there's something about wanting to have faith in another person, and somehow with Mitchell, it feels like having faith in him necessarily means believing that there can be good in vampires, too. That they don't all succumb to their whims.

"There are also vampires on the island, but I'll leave it up to them to come out of the coffin, so to speak. It can't be fun having other people judge you before you even get to know each other."

[plantfood]

"No, it can't," Mathias agrees, thinking briefly of Eric's words. Nazi and villain, and for a moment, he wants to tell her about that, about being judged simply because he's German, about how often it has happened, even so many years after the war, but he doesn't. It isn't something he likes talking about, more to pretend that it doesn't really happen than anything else. And it hasn't happened here, not since Webster. Given how close they became in the long run, Mathias can't hold it against him, especially now that he's gone.

"So are there some that don't drink human blood, then?" he asks, because now that she's mentioned it, he's genuinely curious. He's seen enough horror movies and TV shows over the years to know that, at least in popular media, it's possible for them to survive on animal blood.

[justsookie]

"In my world, they just figured out a substitute for human blood," Sookie explains, pressing her lips tightly together, spreading the gloss over her lips. A substitute that a great deal of vampires weren't willing to take, Sookie knew, and apparently a substitute that tasted like all hell. She didn't envy that. "It's synthetic, and they came up with it over in Japan. It's what finally pulled vampires out of hiding, the fact that they wouldn't have to just drink human blood anymore."

"But, I know that vampires almost always prefer human blood to whatever substitute they come up with. And in some other worlds, vampires aren't forced to stick to blood at all. Some places, it's just the only thing that kinda fills that deep hunger inside of them. One that I can't really understand, obviously."

[plantfood]

"No, one I don't think anyone would really be able to understand," he says, considering. It's foreign to him in a way and yet, it's not. What happened in Mexico has made it easier for him to believe in a great number of things and he thinks, sometimes, that the stories he hears are the same as his in many ways. He can believe them and he can listen as best he can, but he'll never be able to completely understand. Just as no one will completely understand his story.

And it isn't a story he wants anyone to understand.

"If vampires are real, what else is there?" he asks, though he doesn't expect Sookie to have an answer. He smiles briefly, amused only because of the distance between him and what has happened. "Vampires and killer vines."

[justsookie]

She laughs brightly, like a switch turned on as soon as he smiles, dragging the side of her palm lightly down her cheek as she shakes her head, feeling her skin burn under her palm. It's a good question. It's one that Jason's posited once or twice, she thinks, and there's never really a good answer for the question, because something tells Sookie that she's still woefully lacking in knowledge on the whole of these worlds, of her world, and all of the people and creatures living in it.

"Um... werewolves, for one. Shapeshifters," she ponders, ticking the names off on her fingers. "I remember this one guy mentioning fairies or something, I think. My guess is that most of the stuff we say's all impossible or made up actually has some kinda root in the real world."

[plantfood]

"Which could be both amazing and terrifying," he says with a thoughtful smile. There's a part of Mathias that's delighted with the idea of there being real magic out there, the kind that he could only ever imagine until his time on the hill. But he also remembers the horrors there, the things that were done to them, what they saw, what happened. It's the best and the worst of the world, he thinks.

"I wonder how much of that has crossed over here," he says as they walk. "Not the vampires and werewolves, exactly, because I've been under the impression that those sorts of powers are... stripped of people when they come here. But a different kind of magic. The kind that causes all of the strange things here to happen. Maybe it's come with each of us from before."