(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

[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."

[justsookie]

"Maybe. Sometimes, I use this kinda Litmus test to think about the island. If I can picture Eric Northman, this vampire I knew from home, getting joy out of the things that the island does, then I'm more tempted to think that it's just some kinda person trippin' over their power and keeping us here for the heck of it. Because it's amusing or whatever," Sookie considers, frowning at the thought, lips tilted in thought. "He was the most frustrating vampire I'd ever met. Had very occasional moments where he was considerate, but most of the time he was just a grade A a-hole. And that's the thing, I could see so much of what goes on here as just being somebody's whim. Even bringing and taking people depending on who's the most entertaining or whatever. Kinda makes me sick to my stomach to think about, so obviously I'd rather it be like what you're saying, each one of us bringing magic from home."

[plantfood]

The idea that the island is all someone's whim bothers Mathias, too, though he doesn't see how the pain that is often inflicted can be seen as entertaining. Of course, he's never been the type of person to find another person's pain amusing at all, though he knows such people exist. It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that someone might find all of this terribly funny.

"Well, hopefully we can find an exceptionally hideous wet suit in the box," he says as they near the Compound. "And if there is someone behind this, someone laughing at us, we'll keep them entertained for a little while longer." He grins at Sookie, then holds the door open for her. If there is something running the show, something behind it all, he wishes it would just leave them all alone.

[justsookie]

"Knock some sense into them with our good graces," Sookie considers, smiling gracefully, in the way that she only seems to be capable of doing around the calmer of people that she knows. Sometimes, Sookie feels like she's more of a mirror than her ability alone made her out to be, quick to soak up the mood of a place and turn it all right back out. Mathias, being the calmer kind of person, makes it easy for Sookie to keep her head around him.

She's glad that the two of them have managed to continue being friends.

"Once they see us being so sportsmanlike about it all, they'll have to be nice to us. I'm convinced that's why the jukebox in the rec room seems to like me," Sookie confides in Mathias, wrinkling her nose. "It doesn't play any of that heavy metal that I can't stand."

[plantfood]

At that he laughs, unable to help himself. The jukebox is relatively kind to him as well, playing music he's always been fond of when he's in the vicinity. Even the bookshelf isn't so bad, often giving him things that he's looking for mixed in between books he doesn't want to read and has no interest in. It's something to be grateful for, especially considering how long he often has to wait at the box for it to give him something.

"The jukebox is usually good to me as well. It's the box that I have to worry about," he admits. "But I am patient with it. Eventually it gives me what I want." But that's why it's taken him so long to build up any kind of wardrobe.

[justsookie]

"Plus, there's always the boutique if you're in a bind," Sookie points out. It's always been one of her favorite resident-run efforts on the island, fun to browse in her spare time. "I don't go there too often, but class keeps me busy enough that I don't have so much free time to make up the community service prices. 'though I guess I could argue for getting Winchester shifts counted."

She reaches over to pat Mathias on the shoulder, nose wrinkling in a smile. "But I'm sure that you'd look handsome in anything that the box decided to cough up. It's your lot in life, being devastatingly handsome."

[plantfood]

"Ah, yes. Devastatingly handsome, that's me," Mathias answers, his voice dry, although he's smiling. It's not something he would consider himself, not when, growing up, Henrich was always the one who was good with girls. Before the island, Mathias had only had one girlfriend and now that he's been here, that hasn't really changed. One girlfriend back home and one here. It isn't something he wants to change, though. He'll never be the type of person Henrich was and he's more than comfortable with that.

"It's a good thing I dress down so often, then," he says. "Or the other men on the island would have no chance, ja?"

[justsookie]

"Or a good thing that you happen to live with someone who is, uh, so gorgeous that the rest of us girls are probably just intimidated," Sookie points out with a raise of her brow, because if she'd known about Lucy living with Mathias from the start, she probably wouldn't have had half as easy of a time connecting with him in the beginning. Then again, Sookie thinks to herself, the people on the island are so gorgeous on the whole that it's hard for anyone whose look might be a little more unconventional.

Times like these, she supposes it isn't so bad to be blonde.

"If you really wanted to find someone right now, I'm sure all the girls would come running," Sookie reassures.

[plantfood]

"Lucy is family," Mathias answers with a laugh, thinking of all the reasons that a relationship between them would never work. "And as far as she's concerned, I might as well be her actual brother. He and I shared a face." That he looks exactly like Max is only one of the many reasons, though. He loves Lucy, but their relationship is vastly different from anything he's had with anyone else, except possibly Henrich. They have an understanding.

"And I think you overestimate my talent with women," he says, shaking his head a little, though he's still smiling. The connection they had is different than anything he's found before. With Sookie it had been so easy, but he knows that isn't always the case. In fact, most often, it isn't the case.

[justsookie]

"I think I'm just sure of the fact that I've got standards," Sookie counters in turn, although she reaches out with her hand to squeeze his shoulder, a friendly gesture. It's a big surprising that they're able to fall into something like this easily, a friendship that still gives Sookie moments of hesitation, wondering if it'd be at all possible to find more with Mathias. A part of her thinks so, in another world, in another time, but she's not about to stray from the strong efforts she and Mitchell have made to help their relationship work.

Still, it's impossible for her not to think the best of Mathias in that same fell swoop. And impossible not to be of the opinion that the other women on the island whose gazes have passed him by truly don't know what they're missing out on.

"You're a catch. That's all," she shrugs. "But I'll stop waxing poetic about it, since I'm sure that'll just lead to an endless back and forth that neither of us can ever see to its end."

[plantfood]

At that, he laughs, because it's likely true. No matter what Sookie says, no matter what anyone says, really, he isn't necessarily going to believe that he's anything special. Veronica made him believe that once, she did, but now that's gone and he isn't sure that sort of thing happens very often.

He isn't sure he's ever going to find something like that again.

"I'm something," he agrees, but he's smiling as he says it, then he peers into the box as they approach. On top, there's nothing but bright orange material, most of it some kind of netting, it looks like.

[justsookie]

"I can't tell whether or not I want you realize the full extent of how remarkable you are, or if I prefer this humility that keeps the rest of us modest," Sookie remarks, briefly brushing by his side and bumping his shoulder with her own— or the middle of his upper arm, at least. "'Cause sometimes, when people realize how strong they are, they start wavin' it all over the place, and I like you just the way you are. You deserve to have more confidence, though."

Cringing slightly at the bright orange that peers through the cracks in the cardboard, Sookie laughs, shaking her head.

"I guess I gotta get ready to look like a construction cone."

[plantfood]

"To be honest, I'm not sure this will help you with diving," Mathias says, reaching in to pull out a fluffy crinoline skirt in that horrible shade of orange. Everything he touches seems to be orange and made of uncomfortable, scratchy material. This seems to be the sort of thing they may require quite a bit of patience to pull off and it won't be the first time Mathias spends most of his day at the box's side, trying to coax it into giving him something worthwhile.

"At least everyone will know you're out there. Although the fish might see you coming and hide," he says, grinning as he turns it over in his hands. "We will need to find something better than this."

[justsookie]

Sookie lets out a bright laugh when the skirt emerges, and it's all she's needed lately, it's all she's wanted— to laugh with friends, in a way that almost has her forgetting that troubles existed at all. Fondly, she reaches for the skirt and pinning it up against her hips, twirling in the room to get a feel for how it might hang on her body were she actually to wear it around.

Honestly, she's tempted.

"If we need, I can sit by the box and try to coax it. I think it likes taunting you," Sookie points out, hands still on her hips as she laughs, then folding the skirt more fully in her arms. "I think I'll be keeping this, either way. You never know when a color like this might come in handy."

[plantfood]

"It's good to me when I'm patient," Mathias says. Usually he's content with being patient, with waiting until something right comes along, but lately he's been feeling restless. Perhaps it's something that the box can pick up on, if the box is, in fact, capable of doing anything like that.

"And, yes, you might need that skirt if we're ever in danger of running out of... what did you call them? Construction cones?" He's never heard that expression exactly, but he knows it's mostly due to English being his second language. If pressed, he would have no idea what to refer to those cones as in English and so he'll gladly defer to Sookie's knowledge there. "For all of the highways we have built and all the construction that gets done around this place."

[justsookie]

"Yes! Exactly. Construction cones," Sookie nods fervently, giggling up a storm at the thought of having to perch by the side of a road as the islanders work to build it. No doubt that her brother would be on the construction team, too, and what might start out as cheering him on would probably inevitably end in her darting all over the place, trying to make sure he was properly hydrated, not suffering from heat stroke. In other words, she isn't likely to make a great cone or standing barrier of any sort.

"Although I don't know if I'd be the most patient person for the job. Or, heck, I'm not sure I'd be the most patient with waiting by the clothes box if it wasn't half as kind to me," Sookie considers, tilting her head and giving it a curious glance.

[plantfood]

"I have had to be patient or I would spend all my days dressed in shirts with offensive expressions and pictures of women with large breasts," Mathias answers with a sigh. And although it's a little funny, he's also telling the truth. The box makes him work for his clothes, choosing usually to give him things that he would never think to wear. He suspects it would be less offensive to go naked than to wear some of the things it's tried to give him.

He crouches by the side of the box again and looks into it for a moment. As always, it seems like the materials change. Never obviously, just here and there, until he can reach in and push past some of the orange to a wet suit that's been hidden beneath. It's not particularly attractive either, that same orange runs in stripes down the arms and legs, but it looks to be about Sookie's size.

[justsookie]

Sookie snorts at the thought, squinting her eyes in Mathias' direction as she tries to picture him wearing anything half as obscene, and can't quite seem to put the image together. He's too kind, too shy besides, although he's certainly had his moments of being forward as well— her cheeks color slightly at the thought, but it's just something she'll have to work through now that they're friends. It'll work, she thinks. They can manage to share that kind of history and be, well. Just friends.

God, she hopes they can manage that.

"Guess that leaves me out of the running," she quips with a snort, before her eyes widen at the sight of the suit. "Well, hey! That looks like it could work...? Maybe?"

[plantfood]

"It will do the job," he says, offering the wet suit to her with a teasing sort of smile. "And it seems that you will also be able to be a construction cone at the same time, so we don't have to sacrifice one for the other." The important thing is that it looks to be her size, so at least it isn't trying to give them something way too large or too small in an attempt to get their hopes up.

"It looks to be the right size. You'll be uncomfortable the first time you put it on," he says. There's no getting around it. Putting a wet suit on for the first time is often an awkward experience, given how tight they are, how difficult they can be to get into. "You can wear your bathing suit and go into the water first. That usually makes it a bit easier."

[justsookie]

Sookie flinches at the warning, because with Mathias being as soft-spoken as he is, she can't even begin to imagine what 'uncomfortable' is supposed to mean. Reaching a curious hand out to touch the material, Sookie can't help the laugh that escapes her, because there's something undeniably rubbery about it. Almost leathery, in its way.

"Oh lord, Mathias, how awful is this going to be? Be honest with me," she replies breathlessly, shaking her head as a high flush rises to her cheeks. "I have to get into the water first to prepare myself for this? Now I'm starting to have second thoughts."

[plantfood]

"It... can be very uncomfortable at first," he answers, trying not to grin. It's really not funny, he knows how uncomfortable it can be, he remembers the first time he put one on himself very clearly, how hilarious Henrich thought it was. "They're very tight and the material is..." He trails off, gesturing absently as he tries to think of the right word.

"It can pull on your skin. Make it hurt a little," he says finally. "This is why it's sometimes easier to go into the water once you have your feet in. It makes it a easier to pull over your skin." Smiling again, Mathias shrugs almost helplessly. "But it is uncomfortable at first. You will get used to it quickly, I promise."

[justsookie]

Curiously, Sookie tugs the suit over, narrowing her eyes skeptically in Mathias' direction before she rubs the suit against itself and feels the surface shudder against itself. It's not entirely unlike the feel of rubber, in a strange way, although not as abrasive or rough on the skin, and the thought makes her double over with laughter as she tries to imagine just how strange it'll be to shimmy into that suit.

"I'll... take your word for it for now," she snorts, playing with the material again and idly stuffing her hand into one of the sleeves, feeling it tug on the skin of her arm. "Yeah, definitely not something to be testing out right here."