Re: Sharpen the Knife

[Sandkitten]

Her eyes flicker back up to his face. "If you want to." She offers him a smile, and takes her pencil and one of the notebooks, putting graphite to paper and beginning to doodle while he's occupied. At first just general squiggles, then stars and the night sky - she misses being able to even appreciate what that looked like. The last few months before she ended up down here, nighttime was a time of terror. There wasn't any time to appreciate the stars, or the moon, if they could even be seen. She sketches what she imagines the other planets probably look like in haphazard fashion out among the stars, then sketches the silhouettes of two people on a hill under the moon, leaning on each other while they lounge on a picnic blanket.

[SharpestLife19]

Liam keeps glancing back and forth between Adie's legs and her notes. He loves the drawing. It's just the right kind of image to portray what they are aiming for. She apparently has art skills he was unaware of, but there is probably a lot he still doesn't know about her. Maybe he should ask her some things. But he should also be reading the notes. Of course, the notes aren't going to go anywhere. Neither is Adie, but her legs are so cute! And the notes don't have legs. He almost chuckles at himself. He's over-thinking again. “Adie, this drawing is wonderful. And the notes look incredibly interesting. But if you don't mind, could I ask you some questions? I feel like we still have to get to know each other more.”

[Sandkitten]

She smiles at the way he asks. It reminds her of the way she sounds when she's trying to talk about feelings and relationships - very formal and businesslike. She adjusts herself in the chair to be slightly more comfortable, nodding and pushing some of her hair back behind her ear. "I'd like that. Anything you want to know. I'm an open book." She may as well be - even if she had ever wanted to hide something, it's nearly impossible these days, unless it's a dream that you had once and you forgot about directly afterwards. With her current sketch feeling more or less complete, she holds the notepad slightly askew and begins sketching again, glancing up at him and smiling. He doesn't need to know that he's become her object of artistic endeavor.

[SharpestLife19]

He smiles happily, glad that Adie is willing to humor him and his questions. He sets down her notes and drawing on the desk and turns to face her, thinking of all the questions he has for her. “Alright, first question. Do you do a lot of drawing? You know you're quite good.”

[Sandkitten]

She laughs a little, shaking her head. "Not really... I mean, I don't really draw that much. There wasn't a lot of call for it in school, but it's something that I've always enjoyed, so I guess I probably doodled on every spare scrap of paper I could find... which were much fewer and further between than the papers down here. I probably have a shoebox full of sketches at home-" She pauses, her pencil stopping as well, but she brushes it aside. "I mean... my parents... had them. I guess they're gone now. But no, I haven't really drawn for anyone else... just to entertain myself."

[SharpestLife19]

He nods, listening to her answer. Of course she hadn't had much paper. With the notebooks down here, he had completely forgotten how hard paper was to come by surface-side. And of course what good is drawing in a world such as theirs? It wouldn't feed you and it wouldn't keep you out of the government's clutches. “Well, I like your drawings. Do you want to ask me anything or should we do this interrogation style?” He smiles at his silly analogy. They're way too friendly to be having an interrogation, even if the questions all come from him.

[Sandkitten]

She giggles at his 'interrogation' comment. "Isn't it only an interrogation if your subject is willfully withholding information? Ask me anything you want. Maybe I'll fire a few questions back. Actually, let's start with that one. Were you ever interrogated, or did you disappear at just the right time, like I did?" She keeps her eyes on him, her sketch taking a back seat momentarily.

[SharpestLife19]

He laughs too, pleased that she saw the humor of the remark. His smile quickly fades to a frown with her question. “No, I wasn't as lucky as you were. I was interrogated once before I was able to disappear. It was...horrible to say the least.” He doesn't seem interested in saying anything more about it and is eager to change the subject with another question. “Well, the things we've heard about from the past? What do you think you would have liked the most?”

[Sandkitten]

She doesn't object to his abrupt change in subject. It's clear from his expression that the question wasn't a welcome one, and she feels a twinge of guilt for making him think about it, but she doesn't necessarily feel bad for asking. That's what they're doing. She makes her thinking expression at his next question. "That's rather broad... I mean, as far as history goes, who knows how much of it is true, or what things were really like... I can't even imagine how things might have been two hundred years ago. But offhand, I'd probably like to say... flying. I mean, I know there are helifliers, but I mean in a plane. One of the big ones, that they used to fly lots of people around in like a bus. OH! Or maybe one of the space-flights! I'd love to see what the world looks like from that high."

[SharpestLife19]

Liam's smile returns, finding Adie's excitement about the idea of flying adorable. She looks like a little girl the way she is so giddy about it. Flying does sound like it would be interesting, but Liam is sure he would not like to go to space. Nobody needed to be out there. It was just silly. He has thought about the past and what he has learned from school as well as from word-of-mouth. There are some things he always thought would be interesting to have around now, but a lot of things were stupid. Of course there are a lot of stupid things now too. And every single one of them comes from the government. Damn government. They haven't done anything right.

[Sandkitten]

Adelaide is lost momentarily in her fantasy of flight. But when she realizes Liam has gone quiet, she returns to herself. "Well, what about you? What's something you'd like to pull out of the past and experience?" She returns to her sketch, glancing up at him infrequently enough to avoid arousing suspicion.

[SharpestLife19]

“I would have liked to see a library. Have you heard about them? They were big, beautiful buildings where immense amounts of books were kept. It always sounded so awe-inspiring to me.” He smiles at his nerdy answer. “Well, I also would have liked to see some of the creatures that aren't around anymore. I've heard about some very interesting animals. Though of course you're right, you never can tell what is fact or fiction at this point. There is no history written of our time. That seems wrong.”

[Sandkitten]

She purses her lips slightly into that thinking look again, eyes focusing somewhere on some distant point before she glances up at Liam again. "...I don't believe that. I can't believe that everywhere is like this. There are other countries, other continents... it can't all be like this. If anything we've ever heard about the past is true, any of it... there have to be places that aren't like this. Maybe just a small corner of the world. But I can't bring myself to imagine that everything has been lost. Maybe it's all gone here. Probably. Even the government wouldn't want to keep a stash of knowledge like that around in their pockets. But somewhere, someone has to know what's real, then and now. There has to be some evidence of the past."

[SharpestLife19]

He's not sure he believes that. It seems like if this one place could be so incredibly, thoroughly fucked up, then every place left in the world could be just as bad or worse. He never even thought of other places because of the hopelessness that just this place brings. “If there are other places, maybe they aren't different, but I bet they're close. Maybe we should run. Try to find out. Maybe revolution isn't the answer.”

[Sandkitten]

She sighs, her thinking look disappearing, and she goes back to working on her sketch. "I don't know what the answer is. I don't know if there's even the possibility of running, without starting a revolution first. The government has a tight hold on the borders, so unless they split their attention in a drastic way, I don't really think there's much hope to get out in one piece." She works quietly on her sketch for a few moments. "I guess I've always been kind of taken with this fantasy that somewhere, things are different. My gut tells me that it can't all be like this. But my mind tells me differently. ...ask me about something else."

[SharpestLife19]

He nods, understanding exactly how she feels. Rundown and hopeless, the dream of the new world. And changing the subject again is the best thing to do. Thinking about things that can't be changed won't do any good for them. “Alright. Simple one. Did you ever have any pets before Riggs?”

[Sandkitten]

She smiles down at her picture, adding some definition around the edges. "No, no pets... not even friendly strays. We had a tank full of fish in one of my secondary school classes, but that's as close as I ever got to owning an animal. I'm not even sure what kind of fish they were. Bright, but small. My dad was supposedly allergic to pet hair, so there was never any question of getting a cat or a dog. But Riggs is the sweetest animal I can imagine."

[SharpestLife19]

“Riggs is really great. I had a dog when I was a kid. He was my best buddy. I miss that guy.” He smiles at the nostalgia. “Fish? Well, that's something, I guess. That's unfortunate. Pets are wonderful things.” Liam has always liked animals. They're nicer than people and they don't talk back.

[Sandkitten]

She smiles. "Tell me about your dog. Did you go lots of places together, or did he have to stay inside a lot?" She can't really imagine what it would be like to keep a dog - it seems like it would be a lot of work. Don't dogs depend on people for most everything, if they're not feral? Wild dogs, she's heard of, and they scare her.

[SharpestLife19]

“His name was Buddy, I wasn't a very original child...” He chuckles. “I was lucky to find him. Well, he found me. I was on my way home from school and I heard a scuffle in an alley I was passing. There was a dirty, skinny little dog and a raccoon fighting over some piece of food. I wasn't sure what to do, but the raccoon ran off and apparently the dog had been someone's pet because he didn't run. He just looked at me. So I talked to him and got him to let me pet him. And he followed me home. I asked to keep him and my mom said only if I washed him. Outside.” He chuckles, remembering the moment fondly. “I washed him as well as I could and we took him in and fed him. I had never seen a happier little mutt.”

[Sandkitten]

It sounds like a sweet story. She has nothing of the sort. "I imagine you were best friends after that." She can remember a time when it wasn't terrifying to be outside as dusk settled in, but just barely. Being a girl, she was always heavily cautioned about her appearance, and her location, and every other kind of thing parents worry about. "Alright, I have one for you. If we weren't fugitives, is there any place in this country you'd like to visit?" She puts a hand up briefly. "Don't get political. I mean as a tourist. Just for fun. Where would you like to go?"

[SharpestLife19]

This question makes Liam scoff. He had honestly never considered living in another place. This area is what he knows, where he was born and likely where he'll die. He thinks about the little bit they are taught in school about the other areas and tries to come up with an answer, but it seems like every place is probably more of the same so he merely shrugs. “I don't know. I never thought of it before.”

[Sandkitten]

"Well... think about it." She smiles and begins working on a crosshatch background for her sketch - it looks like Liam, but it's not completely shaded out. Just good enough to be able to tell who the subject is. "I guess people don't do much traveling anymore... but I've heard of some old factories that were gutted and eventually torn down. I would have liked to have seen what they looked like on the inside before they were destroyed. But these days, it's hard to find anyplace... like this." She waves around them. "Untouched by the government - either renovated, or destroyed."

[SharpestLife19]

“I can't think of any place that wouldn't be like this place. Surface-side, I mean. Down here, it's a different world. You can see that. But up there, all the places are the same. They're all ruined, so why would I want to go any other place?” He shrugs again, making a face of contempt. “There's no reason for anyone to travel. We know it's all the same. And the less traveling we do, the less the government is watching. We think.”

[Sandkitten]

Everything is political with Liam. She smirks as she imagines how he might try to bring that kind of attitude to bed, but schools her features quickly. "I did notice a distinct lack of cameras in the neighborhood surrounding the subway entrance. Was that by design?"

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