milliways_bar | (no subject)

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She thinks of the sunlight, and how temperate it is on the island, how things are in bloom there all the time. She thinks of Seoul and wonders what day it is there and how when she left, the temperatures were starting to cool so slightly from the hot days of August, and how she had known she would not be seeing Seoul again for a very long time. She thinks again of the island: its heat, its relentless sun and intense but brief rains, and of how hopeful they were those first few days for rescue. She still holds hope. She does not want to be the one responsible for holding time still there, but how can she be? Kate is here too, and she has spent more time on the island.

Nothing in her higher education has prepared her for a thing like this. She has not studied quantum physics. Only art history and music. Like any woman of good standing in her society, she knows how to behave. Her father is a wealthy and powerful man, and he and his family are both respected. Knowing how to function in Seoul society is not only expected but it is a given: she grew up with it. It's innate.

Today, Sun shivers and pulls her sweater around herself tightly as she walks the snowy path back into the bar. Nothing in her life has prepared her for life at a bar at the end of the universe. Most days, she thinks she has simply gone mad. Today, she takes a cup of tea into her hands. It feels very real and for that, she is grateful.

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[ooc: More a placeholder for post-dentist appointment than anything else. I hope you don't mind?]

"Wèi, Sun," Sallie smiles at the young woman from her own position at the bar in front of a small bowl of soup. "Haven't seen you for a spell."

[OOC: :D I'll be here.]

"Sallie!" In her mind, she thinks of her as the Grandmother and that brings with it an automatic degree of respect. It is not simply age but a degree of authority carried by the elder. Because of that, she bows her head in greeting. "It is so nice to see you."

The formality and reservation are little but a show borne of training and habit. If she let herself, she would throw her arms around Sallie and hug her, but... that is something she does not do.

"Likewise, baobei." In an attempt at being magnanimous, she does not tell Sun to relax around her. It's her way. If they get to know each other better, maybe she'll get there.

"What have you been up to lately? Availin' yourself of the snow, I see."

"Oh, yes. It is chilly outside." Thus, the tea. "I have been hoping for warmer temperatures. I would like to make a garden outside if I could." The greenhouses are beautiful, but they are not hers. She would stake out a small area near the lake, unlikely to be stepped on, and start something there.

"If that is allowed." She hasn't been here long enough to know how the climate changes, but assumes that it won't be this cold all the time.

Perhaps that assumption is faulty.

"As far as I know it is. And you've got a while to wait for warmer climes, sad to say. I'm told outside is modeled on a country name of Scotland? Have you heard of it?"

"Yes." Her laugh is low and quiet. "I have never visited, but I know about it." She learned about it through her studies and saw many pictures. It is famous for its Celtic art and pictographs, carved stonework, art and manuscripts found in monasteries and later, its painting and architecture. "I think it is very cold in Scotland in the winter. A lot like where I'm from, only more so."

Her sip of tea gives time to think about what Sallie has just told her. "So the outside -- if it has been modeled -- didn't always look as it does today?" That's the logical conclusion to draw. And if it didn't always look this way, then it looked like something else before. "Do you know how it was made?"

Hercules gives Sun a big thumbs up when he sees her. He does not go to bother her. If she wishes to speak to him, she can.

From her seat, she gives him a big smile. He was so nice to her when she first arrived, and she has been living off his charity ever since. The least she can do is say hello, and rises to walk over.

"Hello! I owe you so many thanks."

[OOC: just heading out for an hour or so, will pick up then if you want!]

"Twas nothing," Hercules says. "Though I shall not stop thee from singing my praise." He chuckles.

It was not nothing: she is a perfect stranger to him and still, he treated her with such unexpected kindness. "I think I will never stop singing your praises. You helped me at a time when I had nobody to turn to. For that kindness, I feel I do owe you many thanks."

And now they have been given, and she wishes there was more she could do.

"Tis but a simple kindness," Herc says. "For I am Hercules, son of Zeus, lion of Olympus. Tis not a great labor for me to help a kind woman in need."

"I don't." Sallie wiggles her fingers at Sun, "Probably magic though what kind and from where I ain't got any idea. I wouldn't even know who to ask to find out."

Sun is an educated woman, an art history major. She's read enough mythology to know that one does not offer anything to a God unless they are prepared to follow through with the consequences of that offer. This is why she does not say is there anything I can do for you? or something similar to it. There will be no blanket offers of anything from her.

Still, she will think of something. In fact...

"In the springtime, if I am still here, I would like to start a garden. When I do, I will plant something in your honor."

"Twould fill this demigod's heart with pride and joy," Herc says. "Thank you."

"Magic." She keeps coming face to face with that as an explanation for things in this place and doesn't like it. She doesn't like it at all.

When faced with the impossible, there are only two courses of action. One is to deny it and the other is to accept it. She cannot do both.

"I think... that is as good an answer as any."

She has never been as much of a fatalist as she is at this place.

Ah, she has done something correctly! This makes her very happy indeed.

"You are very welcome." So far, it's just a promise, but she will fulfill it. And if for some reason she manages to leave this place and return to the island, she will plant something in his honor there.

She just won't tell anyone about it... except for Kate, maybe. She will understand.

"Glad you think so -- irritates the gou shi out of me time and again."

Says the woman who has had her life saved by magic on numerous occasions.

"But it's better than searching for an answer where no other one besides 'magic' exists."

"Dost the day find thee well, fair maiden?" Herc says.

"Gou shi. Does that mean what I think it does?" Her teacup hides a mild smile now: Sallie is very straightforward, and Sun appreciates that.

Rarely is anyone straightforward with her.

"Better than the last time we met." She was a mess -- very upset -- and some of that hasn't changed. "The newness of this place is wearing off. Slowly."

She feels less isolated now. "Also, there is a friend here, from my world. That makes it much easier."

But this is far from all about her. "And you? What does" -- he used the term demigod -- "someone as powerful as you do to pass the time here?" There has to be more to it than drinking and doing good deeds, doesn't there? Before this place, she never considered mythology could be reality.

"I doth drink, and enjoy the company of friends and friendly women," Herc says. "I tend not to stay too long. For there is much that doth need doing in my world."

"You are lucky. To come and go." Probably, no door would ignore the bidding of an Olympian god. She knows about the Labors of Hercules, but those would have been accomplished long ago... wouldn't they?

Maybe not.

His comment about enjoying the company of friendly women has not gone unheard; she is doing her best to ignore it right now. It's too much to think about. But women have always known when to serve up distractions and that is what she does now. "In your world, if I can ask, what things do you do?" She's never spent time around demigods before, and she's curious by nature. That often works out to her detriment but still, she tries.

"Art thou familiar with the term... superhero?" Herc asks.

"Yes." She tries very hard not to giggle. Of course she has heard of such things... in books and movies.

Hercules, of course, is a god of Olympus. She knows this much. It's not so surprising to hear the types of things she's read he can do as superheroic.

Smirk. "Maybe. Old ladies are allowed to cuss you know.

"Or...maybe they aren't, where you're from?"

"Only when they are with other ladies."

She tries so hard not to smile, but it is no use. Her smile widens, and then it is a laugh, and this might be the first time she's laughed in a long time now. "Oh, Sallie. It is... not fun being stranded here, but I can only be distressed about it for so long."

Setting the teacup down -- it's in grave danger of spilling, she laughs so hard -- she mutters the words beneath her breath. "Gou shi. There. That is for all the sadness and heaviness."

"Oh, honey." Sallie reaches forward, a white hand laying against Sun's darker tone. "You'll be alright. And you're absolutely correct; you can't stay down about your situation forever."

Sallie doesn't add her normal gruffness to the pep talk that she might otherwise give an employee: You could be dead, after all.

"Come on now -- what have you found in Milliways that's been entertaining? There has to be at least something."

She casts a glance around: this is not a place she has looked at through rose-colored glasses but there are things that have caught her interest. "Well..."

Her eyes stray to the area above the bar. "I have always wondered why there are ladies' undergarments hanging up there." By ladies' undergarments she means a neon yellow bra.

"And some of the people are just... funny."

That's all she's willing to give at the moment, but it's a start.

Sallie starts to joke -- funny-haha or funny-lookin'? -- before thinking against it as possibly being beyond Sun's English comprehension.

As for the bra: "I have to admit I don't have the first clue about that thing. I never gave it much thought however. Suppose it has to do with having a daughter-in-law that's a Companion. Though I hope she's not leaving her silks about all over the place, but you get the idea."

Curious, she looks from Sallie to the bra. A companion?

Oh, that kind of companion. "So that belongs to your daughter-in-law?"

"Oh, no. I highly doubt Inara would wear anything quite that...vibrant," Sallie laughs. "She's retired, anyhow."

"Oh! I am so sorry. I misunderstood." It's safe to chance her tea again, she picks it up and takes a sip. It's cooled and that's a shame, but she will drink it anyway.

"I made a decision. A day or two after I met you. What I decided was this: anything I asked for here, I would eat or drink. On the island, where our airplane crashed, there is very little in the way of food beyond what we forage or catch. This is my way of... not taking advantage of things. For those still on the island."

Sallie considers this for a minute.

"Seems as fair as you could probably manage, though I would suggest something." Not revealing what that something is at the moment, she asks, "How long were you on the island before you came here? Long enough to get a lay o' the landscape at all?"

"A little. Eight days." She has a good idea of the coastline in front of their beach and the way between the beach and the caves. Because of Jin she has not been on any discovery parties, but she knows somebody who has.

"Why do you ask?"

"Start doin' research," Sallie answers as if it were the most evident thing in the world. "Find five billion ways to cook the exact same kind o' fish. Maybe some botany books to see if any of the plants on the island have medicinal value?"

She gives Sallie a little knowing nod. "Oh, they do." There's no apology in it. "I know a great deal about plants and their properties. Already, I have found... how do you say the word? Eucalyptus?" She makes a breathing-in sound, fans the air with her hand. "And aloe for burns."

And she knows how to cook the fish, and so does Jin: he is the son of a fisherman, not that Sallie has any way of knowing these things.

"I will research other things, though. There will be plants I do not know. Thank you."

"Tis what I do," Herc says.

She needs to get this settled in her thoughts. "You are a superhero."

It took her weeks to get past the fact he is a god. But superhero seems to be pushing it -- as they say in America -- a bit too far.

"One of many," Herc says. "Mine is a world of heroes and villains."

Seriously, she would like to know: what world is not a world of heroes and villains? Even the microcosm of the world that is their island has both good and bad.

"Can I ask what types of villains?" The concept is fascinating. "You... fight them. With powers. A superhero."

He's serious.

"Villains with great strength, or great speed. Some with hides as thick as steel, and punches like a mighty thundercrack. Those who could send lasers from their eyes, or great claws from their hands," Herc says. "Tis just a few of their many possible traits."

"No! Lasers in their eyes and claws from their hands? That sounds impossible." But it does make her think of another question to ask. "Are those truly the most dangerous enemies? Or are the hardest ones to fight the ones who are hardest to identify as enemies?"

On their island, they have the smoke monster. They have what they cannot see and cannot fight and also, they have fear. And that is what she worries about the most.

"Indeed, those enemies you cannot spot are the worst," Herc says. "Those that pretend to be friends... very bad."

It is exactly as she thought: the same in any world. Well. That's one suspicion confirmed, and it did not take superhero powers to realize what she already knew.

She wonders, though: how many of those who pretend to be friends are truly enemies? Jin thought Michael was his enemy. Michael thought the same about Jin, but it was just a misunderstanding. What if the same thing happens with someone else?

Jin cannot defend himself... at least not with words. She hates the idea of him being stuck there without her, and she has to ask the question again. "And when you are here, does time stop in your world? You step back into it and the clock just... starts again?"

Herc nods. "Time and the bar are strange beasts."

"I didst step outside for mere hours, and returned to the bar and months had passed!"

Her face drops in shock and disappointment. "Months passed... here? That is unthinkable!"

It would be far worse if months had passed outside after mere hours here, and she takes some small comfort in that. How can time not behave as it should? It is one thing she has always, always been able to rely on.

Now this place takes that from her as well?

"The bar can be quite fickle," Herc says with a chuckle. "Tis like a woman."

Despite herself, she's amused. "Or like some men I have met." Still laughing, shaking her head, she rises to her feet again.

"But not you."

Her offer to plant something in his honor is quite sincere, and between that and the suggestion Sallie made to research plants, she thinks that this will be a good way to spend her time. "Thank you again, and I hope to see you soon." She gives him a little bow, a little nod, before turning to leave.

His last comment still amuses her.

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