Log Date: 12/5/98 Log Cast: Neva, Tance, Leo Log Intro: Now that Rosa Scardino has brought him more or less safely back in from her trip with him into the Ranges, Tance Vokrim has hesitantly embarked back onto cutting crystal by himself. He's desperate to get some credits built up before the Passover he can feel coming -- the sharp increase in his symbiont's demand for food is sign enough, even aside from the increasingly nasty weather in the Ranges. Thus far, though, Tance's only challenges while cutting his crystal have been thrall and outrunning storms -- he's gone uninjured ever since his return to Ballybran, a bizarre kind of luck for him indeed. He has no way of knowing that he's about to meet the challenge of bumping into a young woman who at least temporarily is suffering from an even worse loss of memory than what generally plagues him -- and who, accordingly, is curiously free to make some deep-seeing observations about him. And then there's Rosa's father.... ---------- You walk into the lounge. Singer Common Lounge This is where Singers can meet and relax after a hard day of work. Chairs and sofas are scattered around in conversational groupings. Several bright stripes lead off to the various Singer accommodation quadrants. Contents: Tance, just standing there Shepherding Manual Online Terminal Shepherd Board Planetary Brochure Catering Unit Obvious Commands ("." for list): .wander .look .wait .pace .couch .pillows .table .catering unit Obvious Exits: Level 11 Level 10 Level 9 Neva comes in from the lift area. Neva has arrived. Gingerly, Neva steps into the lounge; tense muscles relax in her face as eyes survey the relative quietness of the room. After looking around for a longish moment, she steps over to the catering unit, glancing over the menu critically. Neva spins the menufax around to display the beverage selections. Neva peruses the selection of drinks, and orders a cup of coffee. He _had_ meant to come in here, hadn't he? Tance stands in the middle of the otherwise deserted lounge -- deserted, at least, until the newcomer arrives -- and frowns bemusedly into space. The man stands there with one hand half-shoved through his unkempt, graying hair, and a general look of consternation upon his weathered countenance. Rrrip. One packet of sweetner is opened, the contents streaming out into the mug in a crystalline waterfall, and the empty pink-paper wrapper is tossed into the disposal unit. The process is repeated, this time with a little plastic cup of cream. One the liquid within has been stirred to a soft, medium-brown, Neva picks up the mug, turns, and regards Tance. Someone more confused than she? How surprising. "Hello," she offers hesitantly. "Ah--do I know you?" The man starts, brown eyes turning their gaze around to the source of the voice. "What?" he rasps gruffly, sounding startled. And startled, too, is Neva; she nearly jumps a foot, the mug in her hands jostling but not quite dripping. "I... guess not." Thin hands clasp tightly about the mug, the joints paling slightly. "I'm Neva," offers the much younger Singer, before stepping over and sitting slowly in a nearby chair. Neva A thin woman--of course, in this guild, one will never find a pudgy singer, but this person takes that to extremes. She is not tall, but lengthy legs create the appearance of height; slender limbs are toned, lightly muscled. Neva is posessed of the compact figure typical to those in active occupations, only a slight curve at breast and hip, but well-defined. Flame-touched waves curl just beneath small, round ears; wide, sage-green eyes are rimmed with coppery lashes. Her fair skin is dusted with freckles across almost-snub nose and soft cheeks, like sparks; slender, high-arched brows are fiery against milk-white forehead. She seems young, perhaps in mid-twenties--not even the finest lines surround her eyes, no marks that might indicate a penchant for smiles, or frowns. Instead, her usual expression is blank, perhaps vaguely worried. Where brighter colors might be better suited to one with her complexion, Neva has recently taken to somber, more conservative clothing. A carefully tailored blouse of pale dove-grey suits her figure well, the lightweight, smooth cotton accenting curve while blousing out enough to conceal the lack of it. The tiny white buttons are accented by elegant embroidery in what seems to be silk thread. Still, snug-waisted black slacks only accent her lack of weight, along with the oval, silver-tone belt buckle, engraved with a knotwork pattern of obvious Celtic influence, that emphasizes flat stomach. Then, they loosely follow legs to where they rest around the ankles of low-heeled black leather shoes, still unscuffed by daily wear. The scratches on her arms and legs are already half-healed. She received a blow to the head, the impact site of which is bruised black and purple. She looks around in confusion, seeming not to know where or who she is. Neva looks at you for a moment. Tance blinks a few times, startled anew by the young-looking woman nearly dropping her coffee. Something that might be a blush crosses his features, and he drops his gaze towards the floor, muttering sheepishly, "Sorry... uh... I don't remember you, girlie, no..." Tance(#3209POQce) This man stands at about 5'10" in height, though the way he seems prone to slouching over often disguises how tall he actually is. His height is further confused by the state of his undernourished frame; from the look of him, he probably hasn't eaten decently in several days. Despite a deep coppery tan to his weathered skin, there's an unhealthy pallor beneath it, suggesting recent illness or injury, and the brown eyes within that face meet the galaxy with a wild, disoriented, and frequently anguished gaze. Tance's hair has grown out into a shaggy unkempt mop that at one time might have been a dark shade of brown. Now it's shot through with grey, and lightened into paler yellowish streaks as well from exposure to sunlight. His jaw, however, is bare, speaking of a recent encounter with a razor, and leaving his full countenance open to view. He is currently clad in a pair of form-fitting, dark blue trousers and a comfortably rumpled white shirt, the collar of which is open at his throat to show a bit of tanned, leanly muscled collarbone. Over the shirt he is sporting a dark blue jacket, also form-fitting, with a short collar around the neck and several pockets on the front and sleeves. If you happen to be near Tance, the hair on your arm stands on end. You can detect some crystal resonance in your bones. Once the mug is steadied in on one leg, fingers of her right hand still gripping it, the left moves up, brushes the bruised spot near her temple. "A crash, I think. Well, I mangled my sled, so I suppose it /must/ be that." A spate of nervous, little-girl laughter, and then Neva's hand returns to cup the mug. "I'm starting to get some things back, though. Little things. Like how I like my coffee. But I don't recognize faces... or names. What's yours?" The graying man stays silent, and stays standing there in the middle of the room, too, as the youngster before him speaks. But when she's done, Tance glances up, restless and disoriented, but not so much that he can't mumble, "Um... Tance. My name's Tance..." "Tance." The name is formed carefully by lips and tongue, but seems no more familiar for that taste of it, and Neva shakes her head slightly, as if to herself. "Will you sit down? Would you like some coffee? Or anything else?" Never mind that Neva herself hasn't actually taken a sip of hers, yet. It seems to be doing more good warming her hands. "I... I was tryin' to decide why I came in here," Tance ventures, sounding oddly shy for a man of his obvious years. But he cautiously approaches Neva and her sitting place nevertheless, while casting unsettled glances all around him. "A snack? I've been ravenous all day," comments Neva. Her words are tentative, soft, as a person holding out bread crumbs and hoping the birds will eat from her hand. She smiles, friendly-like. Leo comes in from the lift area. Leo has arrived. Leo saunters in, hands in his pockets. Leo looks at you for a moment. Tance seems to consider this with much solemn anxiety, and bobs his graying head once at the young woman as he sinks onto a nearby couch. "Yeah," he agrees roughly. "Hungry... real hungry..." Finally, a sip taken from that mug of coffee, before it's placed on a side table momentarily. "Any idea what you'd like? On me... I have the credit, and certainly not much to buy with it." In that movement, Neva catches Leo's entrance out the corner of her eye, and turns to smile that way. "Hello," she offers. Leo pulls out a free hand. "Hello!" he waves cheerily. He then looks at the other singer, than a longer look, and yet another, then pulls something small out of his pocket looking at it as if comparing. Then shoves it back in a pocket and ambles forwards. The notion that Neva might actually buy him food touches off a strangely childlike wistfulness in Tance's otherwise mature visage, and he gives the young woman the sort of look a starving puppy might bestow upon a nearby person holding out a snack. "You don't gotta--" he begins, only to be distracted in turn as her attention diverts to to the incoming man. Brown eyes blink their bewilderment. "I have thirty-five thousand credits in my account," scolds Neva mildly with a smile--gentle enough to make it quite clear that she's simply not brooking any objections. "Now, what do you want? I have to get something for me, anyway." Leo nods to the two of them. "Evening," he says. "Name's Leo," he says with a look in Tance's direction. "Couldn't sleep, thought I'd might wander. If I'm not disturbing you two, that is." Leo You see an older man, probably in his early fifties. His frame is fairly well kept, with a surprising lack of a paunch, even if he is shorter than most. (Approx 160 cm.)His hair is turning grayish/silvery, and there's a bald spot starting to appear on the top that he persists on combing over. His light brown eyes form the focus of a generally genial expression. His dress is quite conservative, if well worn. Dark trousers, a gray butten-down shirt, jacket and brown shoes form the entire outfit. Occasionally he wears a plain hat. Carrying: Picture crystal Tance blinks, twice, at the sight of a fellow who's apparently at least close to him in age. There's no recognition in Vokrim's eyes as he starts to mumble something, seems to think better of it, and finally just shakes his head mutely. Following suit, the younger Singer shakes her head, as well. "No, that's just fine. Would you like something to eat?" Neva pulls herself up, taking a step in the direction of the catering unit. Leo takes a seat. "I'd love to. I mean I wouldn't, I just ate, but I'd..." He waves his hands expressively. "You'd think after a few years I'd be used to this." Still sitting as though he's not quite entirely comfortable and might spring back to his feet at any moment, Tance peers in bafflement at Leo and then back to Neva. _Food,_ the concept registers, and on the very heels of the thought, there is a loud rumbling from the vicinity of his person. A few more steps, and Neva pauses in front of it, a hand raising to key in her order. "What do you two want?" she asks, without looking back at either of them, her eyes skimming over the menu. "Snack? Something more substantial? Dessert?" The crystal resonance is zinging through your body. Leo stands up. "A snack, just. Though let me get over to use my dredit." Neva spins the menufax around to display the snack selections. Tance sinks down a bit on the couch he occupies, looking distinctly embarrassed. Dismissed with a small wave of her hand, Neva dials up the snacks, and studies the selections. "Shall I just get something for all of us, if you don't mind sharing? Or would you like something else, Tance?" Head turns, and a glance is shot over her shoulder, towards the seated Singer, and then she pauses. "Something wrong?" "Passover," Tance mumbles indistinctly. "Gotta be Passover..." He doesn't seem to hear Neva, and indeed, the man is starting to look strangely troubled. Sighing softly, Neva looks back to the menu. "Forellan biscuits and Aldebaran paste. I don't remember if I've had those before. Sound okay?" Once she's asked that, she adds, "Yes, Passover's coming." Leo settles back down. "That's right," he repeats. "Passover. You'll make it through this one just fine as well, Tance." The older Singer frowns, not looking entirely convinced of the assurances. All he says, as he turns that plaintive dark gaze of his back towards the young woman, is "Um... if you just wanna pick anything, girlie... pay ya back, when I get enough claims..." Taking the platter of biscuits and paste over towards her former seat, Neva shakes her head. "I've plenty, and if I'd friends to share with, I don't remember who they are. Anyway, it was only ten credits." She holds the platter out towards Tance as she slides into her chair. "Try one?" Leo settles back down. As Neva returns to the two of them. "By the way," he says, "I didn't catch your name," he says to her. "I'm Neva. Or at least, that's what my recording unit and my wrist unit and everything else tells me, so I assume that must be it," replies the young woman in an unpleasantly uncertain tone. "It sounds right, though, I guess." That's undeniable hunger on Tance's grizzled face. He can't keep himself from veritably lunging at the proferred platter, and he winds up seizing three of the biscuits before finally seeming to recollect manners. The Singer then jolts backwards, and scoots back hard against the back of his seat, blushing redly. This doesn't, however, keep him from starting to wolf down the biscuits. Leo restrains himself by only taking one biscuit in each hand. "Does your recording unit tell you which class you were in?" No chastizement, no scolding; Neva smiles across, lightly, as if she understands the hunger, though she's a bit slower in taking one and smearing it with the reddish paste. She takes a bite, slowly chews it, savoring the flavor. "Yes, I think I like this," she murmurs, and then lifts her head to regard Leo. "2029. I /remember/ that. Silly things like that came back first. I hit my head," she explains. Leo ohs. Then looks at Tance. "I felt that hungry just, oh, half an hour ago." Tance peers abashedly at Leo, then at Neva, caught in the middle of biscuit inhalation. He swallows down his current mouthful hard, then mumbles, "I was cutting," and eyes the rest of the platter longingly. As she starts in on her second, Neva passes the platter over towards Tance. "Didn't take the time to eat while you were out there? I'm told that's a relatively common occurance." The biscuit is washed down with a sip of coffee, before the mug is set aside again. Leo clears his throat by swallowing, then asking conversationally, "Cut anything good?" "Yellow," mutters Tance in between making serious progress at making those biscuits disappear. Most of his attention is on the platter, as if he's quite chagrined at his eating manners, yet unable to stop himself. "Rose..." His voice softens a little, absently, from mutter to murmur then. Leo nods encouragingly, hand reaching out for one more biscuit. "That's right." You feel resonance tingling in your bones. Coffee cup cradled in her fingers, Neva listens and watches, smiling. "Yellow? Well, you're lucky, then. What brought you back?" "Prisms," murmurs Tance, his hand actually slowing and stopping in an attempt to seize another biscuit. "Climbed for 'em... sunlight on the face..." His head lifts a little, brown gaze going off into space, his features beginning to go tranquil. "It must have been beautiful," agrees Neva, retrieving another biscuit before Tance eats them all. "How long did it take you to cut it?" she asks, as she tears the biscuit apart in her fingers and nibbles on one half. Leo helpfully picks up the biscuit Tance was reaching for, and places it in his enthralled hand. "Beautiful," the Singer with the graystreaked hair echoese dreamily in reply, and that's all he says, his voice dropping off into silence, his face and frame going very still. Leo looks towards Neva as he waits. Slowly, Neva's face creases in worry, and she glances over at Leo, eyes wide. "What--?" Apparently, this isn't one of those things she's remembered thus far. Leo asks her, "Think he'll snap out of the thrall soon enough? He looks peacefull." Letting go of a held breath, Neva tilts her head and studies the thralled man, a smile tugging the corners of her lips into a half-smile. "Yes, he does," she murmurs softly. "But--do you think here is an okay place?" Leo looks about. "Seems safe enough. He's not outside all alone on a sled, missing the warnings." Indeed, the Singer looks quite peaceful, his lined face relaxed and turning almost boyish, for all that his brown eyes are alarmingly blank. Nevertheless, despite the thrall that seems to have seized his mind, the rest of his body has its own demands upon him, and there comes another rumbling from his person. "He should eat," says Neva quickly, as soon as that rumble becomes audible. She leans over, placing a hand gently against his shoulder, shaking just ever-so-lightly. "Tance?" Leo's comunit beeps. "Always at the worst times," he mutters. "You'll excuse me," he says in a louder voice to Neva. "Looks like I'm needed. Thank you for the biscuits and the conversation. Maybe I'll return the favor another time." Neva glances over, smiling softly. "Yes, and thank you as well. See you around, I hope," she offers. Leo hurries off. There seems to be no immediate response from the enthralled Singer; Tance stares just up past Neva towards some distant point on the ceiling, a slight upward curl of his mouth on one end at odds with his vacant dark gaze. Leo walks up to level 9. Leo has left. Another, firmer shake, less hesitant this time. "Tance... come out of it." Neva frowns vaguely. "C'mon. You need to eat. There's still a few biscuits left." A faint tremor passes through the older Singer, then. With an apparent effort, his eyes drop closed and then open again halfway, making him look dazed, sleepy. "Whuh--?" With some relief, Neva smiles at Tance, removing her hand from his shoulder. "You need to eat something," she offers, again, tapping the tray. "Have another biscuit." "Crystal," Tance mumbles thickly. "Where... I... where'm I at?" "The singer lounge. We were talking, and eating biscuits, and you went into thrall. Have a biscuit." Having repeated the words a few times, Neva pushes one of the biscuits at his hand. "They're good," she offers, as if he may have forgotten. _Food_. Tance's stomach registers its presence, interjecting another low surly growl into the conversation, before he does. But it doesn't take him more than a moment to focus his gaze again on the proferred morsel. He practically inhales it, but after he does, he lifts a liquid regard to the woman before him. "Thanks," he mumbles abashedly. Now that he seems to be in a little better shape, Neva returns herself to her seat, smiling. "No problem," she dismisses the thank-you. "It seems to get worse all the time," she reflects. "I should think about where I'm going." If you pay attention to it, the crystal resonance can be heard coursing through your body at all times. Apparently, this older Singer isn't all that much of a talker -- and never mind the dropping off into thrall in the middle of a conversation. He merely peers shyly towards Neva as he gulps down the remaining biscuits within reach, bemusement returning to his face. Shaking her head slightly, Neva clears her thoughts, and then grins at Tance as her eyes meet his. "That take the edge off it, at least?" she asks, gently. "Awful hungry," the man agrees, solemnly bobbing his head a time or two, making loose tendrils of gray-brown shift ever so slightly across his forehead. "Still?" A peal of laughter, a bright smile--then, instantly, apologetic. "Oh, I know, I've been all day eating," Neva adds hastily. "Do you want anything else?" Tance considers this, then gives another timid nod. That wistfulness that had entered his expression before returns. "Y-you don't mind, girlie...?" he blurts, his voice hoarse. "'Course not." Neva pulls herself to her feet, stepping over to the catering unit and entering another order. "I wish you'd call me Neva. I'm still trying to get used to it again. Anyway, I'm glad I have /some/ use around here..." She picks up the new tray, and returns. "Even if it's just making sure that certain Singers don't starve." "Neva," mumbles the older Singer. He pauses, and then admits ashamedly, "I ain't gonna remember it." The girl offers him the tray, smiling wistfully. "I know. Write it down, or record it... or come talk to me every day." A grin, there, as Neva then deposits herself in her seat. "Less chance of forgetting, then, right?" From the look on Tance's face, you'd think he'd never seen food before. He accepts the new tray with a look of positively melting gratitude before applying himself to what's upon it. One end of his mouth quirks upward for a moment in a ghost of a lopsided smile. "I... I got a datapad, I think..." Crossing her legs in the chair, Neva retrieves her coffee, then leans forward on her elbows. "Why not use it? I'm certainly going to start being /much/ more religious in my entries..." A little, soft scowl. "I don't think I realized how vague I was being until I /needed/ the information." Tance's smile falters, slipping away; something darkens about his eyes. He pauses int the middle of swallowing down a biscuit as if something about it seems to suddenly strike him as entirely unpalatable, but he swallows it down nevertheless. Scowl shifts to almost sadness, as Neva looks closer towards the older Singer. "Are you all right?" she asks quietly. "Is something wrong?" "Can't forget," Tance mumbles then, his voice creeping up towards a higher register, close to the tone of a frightened child. "Gotta record, but..." A flash of pain traverses his eyes, and then he looks up to proclaim dolefully, "Jade's gone now..." It doesn't take much to guess that, whoever or whatever Jade was, he/she/it was probably something rather important to that man's life. Neva nods, quietly. "I think that... I would rather remember the pain /and/ what happened, though, than just have this big blank space where everything used to be." Tance swallows hard, eying the food now with a strange mix of revulsion and undisguised need. It takes him a very long moment before he manages to pick up another biscuit and gulp it down, after which he mumbles in an extremely tiny voice, "Yeah..." If you pay attention to it, the crystal resonance can be heard coursing through your body at all times. "What was..." A stab in the dark. "..she like?" Hope the pronoun's right. Neva's voice is hesitant, almost afraid to ask the question but too curious to let the subject be. The pronoun must be accurate, for Tance shows no sign of correcting it. "Green," he murmurs sadly, "all over... real easy to remember..." Which would explain the nickname, hmm? "Was she, now? What else do you remember?" prompts Neva, watching him with wide eyes. "Loved her," is the man's immediate reply. _That_ causes a strange shift in his expression; somewhere behind the upset child that dominates his expression, at least for the briefest of instants, there is visible a bereft adult. Softly, the young woman nods, with a faint smile. "I remember being in love," she offers. "It's in my logs. I talked about him a lot. He's... dead, now, I suppose. Or a vegetable in long-term-care. Sad... I've not been here long. I suppose I barely knew him." Neva trails off, studying her hands for a moment. Tance blinks a few times, staring now at the younger Singer with a rough kind of sympathy beginning to creep into his expression. His mouth works silently for a moment, before he finally offers, "The... symbiont... oughtta fix _your_ head, gir-er... Neva...?" "In time." A tilt of head, a quirk of shoulder. "And in time, it'll take all the memories away again. I was never eidetic... but how do you look into the eyes of a person who claims they're a friend and tell them you haven't the faintest who they are?" Neva chuckles sadly. Tance mumbles in plaintive tones, "It stinks." Neva nods again, slowly. "Yes, it does," she agrees softly. "But what do you do, except record it all and hope what you say makes sense later?" The older Singer's gaze drops again, and he blushes, looking acutely uncomfortable. He doesn't offer a reply. Neva smiles a little bit, and peers at him. "Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?" she asks, slightly worried but attempting to be vaguely comforting. "I-I dunno why I'm tellin'... ya all this," is the muttered, embarrassed reply. You can detect some crystal resonance in your bones. A slight shrug--Neva herself doesn't understand, most likely. "Sometimes it helps to talk to someone," she suggests. "I certainly haven't been able to find very many people who.. understand what it's like, to forget." Slowly, hesitantly, Tance nods. His gaze, however, stays shyly pointed downward, hidden by the shock of graying hair draping across his brow. For a moment, Neva just studies him, as one might attempt to understand a sculpture, or a statue. "How old are you, anyway?" she asks, suddenly. "There aren't many singers who've gone gray." Tance can be seen to blink, then, his gaze creeping back up. "I... I dunno," he mumbles, his features crinkling in attempted recollection. Neva looks at you for a moment. "It's strange, to think... I mean, you probably have a few years on my great-great-greats. But... you don't look like it," offers Neva, watching him. "You'd look younger if you dyed the gray out, maybe got a trim." Tance blinks, attention grasped anew, as he stares round-eyed at the younger Singer now. "Wha... whaddya talking about?" he asks blankly. Giggling to herself, Neva shakes her head. "Never mind... it doesn't matter much. It's just... well, you'd look younger if you darkened the grey, got it trimmed neatly. You look like you've been out a long time," she comments. Something about this concept seems to sit uneasily with the grizzled Singer. "Don't have the credits for a haircut," he mumbles, starting to pinken along his cheeks and glancing sheepishly somewhere across the room. He appends something else in a barely audible mutter, something that _might_ be 'nobody gives a karkin' damn how old I look anyway...'. "If you keep cutting yellow, I'm sure you'll be able to, soon." Unbidden, a yawn emerges, arms stretching languidly upwards and then re-settling themselves in her lap. "I think I'm going to go take a nap," she says, apologetically. "My cutter," Tance blurts then, surging to his feet. "I... I remember, my cutter, it was chargin', I gotta check it... I gotta go back out..." Soft laughter--and a nod. "Yes, go check it. I'll see you around. Try and remember me?" Neva pulls herself up, slowly. "I... I'll try, girlie," the older Singer promises dolefully. "Neva," she corrects quickly. "Remember that. N-E-V-A." Just in case it'll help, she spells it, firmly and slowly. "Now... I'll see you later. And you don't have to pay me back!" With that, Neva heads up to level 9. Neva walks up to level 9. Neva has left. [End log.]