Seventeenth little lie ♰ I got no one left to mourn for me

[beingdifferent]

[Open spam]
[These last few weeks have been grey and listless for Esther, and today is no different. Still debilitatingly self-conscious, she saves her showers for the strangest possible hours, waking at three A.M. to bathe; she keeps her head down during the dinner shift and follows orders directly; she haunts the art room, both painting pieces (these are skilled, furious, sexual, distinctly adult, with nothing childish at all about them) and playing the piano (she has been perfecting her Rachmaninoff obsessively); and wandering through the gardens or hanging around the door to the CES hoping for access.

She hopes for solitude, but many hopes don't pan out.]

[Private to Lydia]
[After the pairing is announced Esther briefly reviews Lydia's posts to the network and steels herself, slipping back into, if not a childlike role, at least a gentle one. There isn't a real point to denying her age with Lydia, though she still presents herself with an infantile appearance; she knows or she doesn't know, and Esther is not worried about either option. When she contacts her new temporary warden, she's sure to be demure and agreeable, making a neutral observation.]

Your name is Lydia? That's very pretty. I'm Esther; pleased to meet you.

Comments

[Private]

[lydiascreams]

[Lydia for her part, spent time reviewing the material she got from Chromie at the library and while she did glance at Esther's previous network posts and saw her break down after the mirror flood, she didn't dig in too deep. She was planning on it but her reading is interrupted when she gets her message.

She is sitting in her room, and she smiles at the younger girl, keeping her voice in the balance of gentle but not condescending.]

Hi Esther, thank you, you have a pretty name too.

I take it you saw the assignments?

[spam - art room]

[notsoneedy]

[Keeping your head down and keeping to yourself, hoping that nobody notices you, are survival skills Needy herself has cultivated over the past few months of her own life, and she can appreciate them when she sees them. With most people she would get the warning and leave well enough alone.

Still, she still has a healthy sense of curiosity, and it would be too much to ask that she doesn't have a few questions to ask of the little girl (so it appears) living in the room right next to hers.

While Esther is working on her latest painting Needy lingers nearby, watching interested over her shoulder at the progress as more and more paint makes it onto paper. The intent fury with which Esther works is almost hypnotic.

She gets just close enough that she's out of arm's reach in case the first reaction she gets is a hostile way, standing more to one side so she's not directly at Esther's back in subconscious form of a threat. And then she clears her throat carefully, to catch her attention.]

Hey.

[Spam-Art Room]

[a_favor_now]

[He told her he'd be back. And he finds her in the art room, pounding away at the piano.

He's a snake this time, a decently sized constrictor. He winds his way up. Onto the piano lid, the vibrations reverbing through his body. He coils up and watches, and feels, her play.]

i was gonna tag your last post but i like this one better

[persecutioncomplex]

[Now that Syo's been out again, Touko obsesses about cleanliness, the possibility of sickness or dust around her. Blood she can't avoid on a ship like this, but she's taken to dust masks in her room and late-night trips to the showers. It isn't safe to have someone in the room with her, and when she hears feet slapping over the water, she pokes her head past the curtain to identify who's there. She's only half-done, but if she has to she'll run for it.]

[Spam]

[lastrat]

[He finds her as he's exiting the CES, the strap for the bag that holds his sniper rifle over his shoulder. He's dressed in sweats, the front neck and his under arms dark with sweat. He's not panting, having taken the time to cool down, but he's a far cry from his usual suit-and-tie look.

The sneer that curls his lip almost automatically upon seeing her, however, isn't particularly unusual.]

Hoping to get in?

[He lets the door close behind him.]