[ if everyone who'd said that time doesn't pass while they're gone is correct, original cindy's fine. but max has never been able to trust that completely and even if she were, it's been almost five years since she'd seen her.
but he's right. this is light. ]
yeah, i did.
there's a few other songs i know that make me think of you.
[there are so many things that aren't light or easy, especially now, when this new situation has added another layer of complication to the overall picture, but he tries to find what he can.
like this conversation, which he's still continuing over text, even though he's just down the hall from their shared room.]
[ she’s been trying not to think about what being sent somewhere else could mean, if they’re doomed to travel unwillingly from one place to another. but there’s time to consider that later, she doesn’t want to right now. ]
i’d like that, yeah. might be easier to find them in this place.
[ she knows the specifics of the artists and songs about as well as he does, but that means they can discover them (and new ones) together. ]
[he could drive himself insane with it all, but they have to have the good. they have to. and this is good — something they can work on discovering, together, that doesn't have some darker implication. when he reads her message, he smiles.
in lieu of answering, he pockets his phone, and turns the knob to open their door. closing (and locking) it behind them after he steps inside, he calls out,]
[ she could lose her mind thinking about it too, if she let herself. part of her wonders if there’s an advantage to knowing they’re in england and knowing the year, but that wouldn’t necessarily help them with getting back to their respective homes. maybe it’s something to look into when they’re a little more familiar with things.
for now, she smiles, standing so she can properly greet him. she’s dressed casually for bed, in soft, flared black pants and a black tank, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and leaving the runes and her barcode visible. ]
Hey. [ she wraps her arms around his waist, rising to her toes so she can meet his mouth. ] Glad you’re back.
[every max is his favorite max, but maybe it's this, most of all — when she's visibly relaxed, and there's nothing but them. (thankfully, he'd been able to leave that outfit they suggested he wear on-shift tonight back at the hex club dressing room, so there's nothing getting in the way from his end, either.) his smile widens as he meets her in the middle, pulling her in close.
one arm wraps completely around her, with his palm resting between her shoulder blades; the other hand touches her face, grazes over her jaw, and eventually settles at the back of her neck. as they kiss, his thumb moves over the barcode there.]
Me too. [he manages on a breath between kisses.] I missed so much.
[(he'd been gone all of three hours, but who's counting?)]
[ there's a thrill in her chest that makes her feel warm and her skin feel tingly as he traces over her barcode while kissing her - it's not often that she'd let people see it, even in duplicity, even after exposing herself to the world. it's even rarer that people would touch it. that he's doing it, when he does it to the runes on her back, shoulders, and wrists, reminds her that he knows her, that he loves her.
she smiles, cupping his cheek as she kisses him back. ]
[even if it's only been hours since they last saw each other, he takes in what he can — kissing her until he absolutely needs to breathe, continuing to touch her, continuing to stay close after he does. they'll move to be more comfortable eventually, but for now, this is everything he needs.]
It was a slow night. [one of his shoulders lifts in a shrug.] Maybe people were more interested in this.
[ it's nice to not feel like they're in a rush to do anything or get anywhere. it isn't very often that they get to feel that way, and she has a feeling that something that might disturb the relative peace might be on the horizon, if what she's found out through the network and from the guide are anything to go by. so she wants to savor the peace when they find it. ]
Good. [ she sneaks in another kiss on the corner of his mouth. ] The phones come pre-loaded with a few songs, too. If you feel like hearing another tonight.
[for all they know, it could be tomorrow when whatever peace they've managed to find here is disturbed — and that's something to be prepared for. it's on his mind, always, but tonight it can be background noise, static on a comm channel, rather than his focus.
tonight, he can keep smiling as she sneaks in another kiss to the corner of his mouth. he can take her hand in his, and start to tug her in the direction of the bed.
and the only decision he has to make is:]
I want to hear your favorite.
i don't want to admit how long it took me to think of this one
[ she acquiesces, following him with a smile and squeezing his hand as he leads her to the bed, letting him settle onto it as she searches for the set of headphones the phone had come equipped with and plugging them in before joining him, her knees tucked underneath her as she settles beside him. one of the headphones is passed to him as she takes a second to pull the song up on her phone. ]
Tuck that into your ear, [ she instructs before doing the same with the opposite earpiece. once he's got it placed securely in, she presses 'play', watching for his reaction as the music starts. ]
[back against the pillow, he watches her with that same smile, waiting until she settles against him and hands him the earpiece before wrapping an arm around her. he follows her instructions, keeping close as something crackles to life in his ear.
what follows is a soft kind of sound, not music in a lot of the ways he's known it, and it doesn't take him long to figure out why this would've been her choice; it's the way he feels when he's with her, too. a hand reaches for one of hers and gently squeezes it, and his eyes are soft as they look at her.
they stay like that until the earpiece goes quiet again, and for a time after that. eventually:]
What's heaven? [the context is enough to tell him it's something good, but he's curious.] I've never heard of that before.
[ she lets him take her hand, letting her thumb rub back and forth in the space between his thumb and forefinger. he doesn't say anything for a long while, just listening to the song, letting it resonate with him, but she thinks it's a safe assumption that he likes it. she smiles as she looks back at him, up until her asks about what heaven is, and then there's a brief flash of sadness in her eyes.
religion's only something she'd gotten the full context of after escaping manticore, but it had held significance in her life well before that. the prayer card they all worshiped, that ben took to heart and held so sacred it had destroyed him, along with the training they'd been forced through, the lack of purpose when they'd gotten out and the drive to do something with what they'd learned. it's been years for her since that day at jam pony, but she remembers the news coverage playing on the televisions as they covered the events outside.
there's no point in discussing human rights since they're not human, so they don't have rights. they don't even have souls. it's worse than that, because animals don't have souls, but they were meant to be here. these things were never even intended by god to exist. they are an insult to everything in his creation.
tell me about the good place.
she tugs the earpiece free, trying for something lighter again. he hadn't meant to bring up something painful. ]
It's a place you're meant to go after you've died. If you've lived a good life.
[she doesn't say it, but she doesn't have to, because he can tell by the shift in her eyes, and the way she takes the earpiece out: he's touched on something painful, without meaning to.
guilt, something so accessible for him, starts to fester, but he swallows it down, because letting it go any further won't help make up for what he's done, however inadvertently. he gives her hand one last squeeze, then moves his own up to her face, gently resting his palm against her cheek; it's not forceful, but it's a signal that he wants her to keep looking at him.
those who'd still believed had talked about becoming one with the force with death, but he's here, so clearly he hadn't, and — that's not the part of this he wants to focus on, anyway. it's what she says next, if you've lived a good life, that seems to be the sticking point, and what tumbles around in his mind long after she's gone quiet.
that's what his voice is, when he finally finds it again.]
Who's the judge of that? That doesn't sound like a simple decision.
[and not a cut to be made so cleanly, either. good, bad; those are things that, in his experience, are so tangled up with complications that they're effectively meaningless, at the end of the day. he's killed out of self-defense, and he's killed for a cause — and isn't the result of that the same, regardless?
the logic doesn't hold up to him. it especially doesn't if it's making max, of all people, feel like she's not worthy of something.]
[ his hand cups her cheek, getting her to keep looking at him, and something in her heart twists at the question. what happens to her after she dies isn't something max has really let herself think about, more concerned about living through the day more often than not. maybe not since being brought to duplicity, then here, but those places had come with their own stressors. and her concern since hearing about what had happened to him had been finding a way to get free, somewhere where they could both live together. her hope had been back home, so she could still fulfil her responsibilities. but she hasn't been sure if that's possible. ]
It's not, I don't think. [ theology feels like a more complicated topic than she's really prepared to tackle, but she'll try, since he's asking. ] People back home have a lot of different ideas about what determines that. The genetically engineered don't really factor into any of them.
[it's heavy, listening to max and knowing he'd been at least partially right about where this sits for her. but he continues to listen, letting his thumb move over her cheek until she falls silent, and beyond that.
and even if there's a lot he could consider, he doesn't now. now, his follow-up is quick.]
Then I'm not going to factor those ideas into what I think. [the way he leans into her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, is slow — an emphasis on what he cares about a lot more than logic that doesn't hold up.] I think I trust the song more.
[he pulls back, enough to look at her in the eye again. his voice is soft.]
Because it's right. When I'm with you, that's a good place to be.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
yeah?
what did you think?
no subject
She had a nice voice.
[area man from a galaxy with elevator music encounters whitney houston for the first time]
no subject
happen to catch any of the lyrics?
no subject
[avoiding she had, at least, after noting that past tense. this is light.]
I heard some of them.
[(he heard all of them)]
You thought of me?
no subject
but he's right. this is light. ]
yeah, i did.
there's a few other songs i know that make me think of you.
no subject
like this conversation, which he's still continuing over text, even though he's just down the hall from their shared room.]
You'll have to let me hear them sometime.
no subject
i’d like that, yeah. might be easier to find them in this place.
[ she knows the specifics of the artists and songs about as well as he does, but that means they can discover them (and new ones) together. ]
you almost back yet?
no subject
in lieu of answering, he pockets his phone, and turns the knob to open their door. closing (and locking) it behind them after he steps inside, he calls out,]
Hey.
no subject
for now, she smiles, standing so she can properly greet him. she’s dressed casually for bed, in soft, flared black pants and a black tank, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and leaving the runes and her barcode visible. ]
Hey. [ she wraps her arms around his waist, rising to her toes so she can meet his mouth. ] Glad you’re back.
no subject
one arm wraps completely around her, with his palm resting between her shoulder blades; the other hand touches her face, grazes over her jaw, and eventually settles at the back of her neck. as they kiss, his thumb moves over the barcode there.]
Me too. [he manages on a breath between kisses.] I missed so much.
[(he'd been gone all of three hours, but who's counting?)]
no subject
she smiles, cupping his cheek as she kisses him back. ]
Glad they let you listen at the right time.
no subject
It was a slow night. [one of his shoulders lifts in a shrug.] Maybe people were more interested in this.
[his smile softens.]
I was.
no subject
Good. [ she sneaks in another kiss on the corner of his mouth. ] The phones come pre-loaded with a few songs, too. If you feel like hearing another tonight.
no subject
tonight, he can keep smiling as she sneaks in another kiss to the corner of his mouth. he can take her hand in his, and start to tug her in the direction of the bed.
and the only decision he has to make is:]
I want to hear your favorite.
i don't want to admit how long it took me to think of this one
Tuck that into your ear, [ she instructs before doing the same with the opposite earpiece. once he's got it placed securely in, she presses 'play', watching for his reaction as the music starts. ]
time doesn't exist to me tbh
what follows is a soft kind of sound, not music in a lot of the ways he's known it, and it doesn't take him long to figure out why this would've been her choice; it's the way he feels when he's with her, too. a hand reaches for one of hers and gently squeezes it, and his eyes are soft as they look at her.
they stay like that until the earpiece goes quiet again, and for a time after that. eventually:]
What's heaven? [the context is enough to tell him it's something good, but he's curious.] I've never heard of that before.
no subject
religion's only something she'd gotten the full context of after escaping manticore, but it had held significance in her life well before that. the prayer card they all worshiped, that ben took to heart and held so sacred it had destroyed him, along with the training they'd been forced through, the lack of purpose when they'd gotten out and the drive to do something with what they'd learned. it's been years for her since that day at jam pony, but she remembers the news coverage playing on the televisions as they covered the events outside.
there's no point in discussing human rights since they're not human, so they don't have rights. they don't even have souls. it's worse than that, because animals don't have souls, but they were meant to be here. these things were never even intended by god to exist. they are an insult to everything in his creation.
tell me about the good place.
she tugs the earpiece free, trying for something lighter again. he hadn't meant to bring up something painful. ]
It's a place you're meant to go after you've died. If you've lived a good life.
no subject
guilt, something so accessible for him, starts to fester, but he swallows it down, because letting it go any further won't help make up for what he's done, however inadvertently. he gives her hand one last squeeze, then moves his own up to her face, gently resting his palm against her cheek; it's not forceful, but it's a signal that he wants her to keep looking at him.
those who'd still believed had talked about becoming one with the force with death, but he's here, so clearly he hadn't, and — that's not the part of this he wants to focus on, anyway. it's what she says next, if you've lived a good life, that seems to be the sticking point, and what tumbles around in his mind long after she's gone quiet.
that's what his voice is, when he finally finds it again.]
Who's the judge of that? That doesn't sound like a simple decision.
[and not a cut to be made so cleanly, either. good, bad; those are things that, in his experience, are so tangled up with complications that they're effectively meaningless, at the end of the day. he's killed out of self-defense, and he's killed for a cause — and isn't the result of that the same, regardless?
the logic doesn't hold up to him. it especially doesn't if it's making max, of all people, feel like she's not worthy of something.]
no subject
It's not, I don't think. [ theology feels like a more complicated topic than she's really prepared to tackle, but she'll try, since he's asking. ] People back home have a lot of different ideas about what determines that. The genetically engineered don't really factor into any of them.
no subject
and even if there's a lot he could consider, he doesn't now. now, his follow-up is quick.]
Then I'm not going to factor those ideas into what I think. [the way he leans into her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, is slow — an emphasis on what he cares about a lot more than logic that doesn't hold up.] I think I trust the song more.
[he pulls back, enough to look at her in the eye again. his voice is soft.]
Because it's right. When I'm with you, that's a good place to be.
[this, to him, is what's simple.]