notfaking_it | [Ellen]

[Ellen]

After spending most of the day at the dance studio, Lily had returned to the Compound to shower, change and eat before she found herself standing on the boardwalk, her gaze drifting from the Hub, back to the Compound and then down the path in the direction of the Winchester. It wasn't often she felt at a loss for what to do, her time most often filled with dancing or socializing, which was exactly how Lily liked it. Although there were plenty of people she thought she could visit that evening, she found herself turning toward the Hub instead.

As much as she adored the people she'd met and the friends she made, there was nothing saying she couldn't make more. Sometimes a conversation with a stranger was exactly what she craved. There was something to be said for learning new things about a person, slowly unwrapping each layer. She wasn't arrogant enough to think she'd ever fully unwrapped a single person she knew, there was always another layer, another side to a person, but tonight she wanted a stranger. Someone she'd never met before.

A few minutes later, a drink in hand, Lily turned her back against the bar and leaned against it, surveying the people who were there. Many of them were faces she recognized, even if she didn't know them personally or well, but there were a few new faces. After her months on the island, she'd gotten fairly good at picking those out who were relatively new and when one woman in particular came in, Lily gave her a smile. If she wanted to talk, the smile was likely enough of an invitation, but if she wanted to be alone, it hopefully wasn't too pushy either.

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"Trust me when I say there will be plenty of chances on this island," Lily answers with a grin, then leans her forearms against the bar, her hands wrapped around her drink. "Are you new?" She doesn't look familiar and Lily does spend a good portion of her time watching people, if not always meeting them. There are times when she's wrapped up in herself, as with most people, but she's far more perceptive than others usually think and she hasn't seen Ellen around before.

"If you're not, then you already know what I'm talking about," she says. "But if you are, then you'll find the population here loves it parties." And Lily finds no reason to complain about that. She's met some interesting people at those parties and has a chance to dress up, when the island climate doesn't call for pretty dresses and high heels on most days.

"Fairly," Ellen replies, her own position relaxing a little when Lily's does, though she doesn't quite lean over the bar. It occurs mostly in her shoulders, as she allows them to slump slightly, unconsciously giving herself permission. "Probably relatively new, compared to most of the people here."

The fact that there are parties to go to is something of a relief, though Ellen imagines there aren't many ways for the people here to really get together in large groups aside from those kinds of events. It breaks up the doldrums of the day-to-day, and it gives everyone on the island a chance to get to know each other in a place that isn't related to classes. "I guess I'll just have to make an appearance at the next one," she decides.

"The next one will be... probably after the elections," Lily said, after a pause, thinking back to the schedule of the parties she'd seen in her time. Unless, of course, there was another rave before then, but those were different from the parties that the entire island seemed to attend. "But then there will be New Year's Eve, I'm sure, and Mardis Gras and countless others. There's always reason for a party, it seems."

And when there wasn't, there was the Hub or the Winchester or even the club. All sorts of places to go for entertainment. "So where are you from?" Lily asked. "Prior to your extended island vacation."

"I'm sure there'll be a party long before that," Ellen counters, reaching for her drink. She doesn't take a sip right away, though, instead allowing her fingers to curl around the small tumbler for a beat or two, holding, and then she finally lifts it to her lips.

"Manhattan," she adds, looking over at Lily. "And yourself?"

"I'd just moved to Manhattan," Lily answered, pleased that there seemed to be so many people who had come from the same area. Although she wasn't a born New Yorker, she'd loved it there, fell into living there with ease. "I'm originally from California, though. San Francisco."

Which was another place she'd loved. There was nowhere in the world she'd been that was anything like San Francisco and as much as she'd loved New York, the two were very different. She couldn't have picked one over the other.

"Really," Ellen murmurs, raising an eyebrow in interest. "That must've been something of an abrupt change."

She's never been to California, personally, but it definitely sounds like a drastic move to make, and people that do wind up doing that usually move for one of only a few reasons. "So, which was it? New job or old ex?"

Lily laughed, because that was certainly to the point and she liked that about people. "New job," she answered. She wasn't the type of woman to move for a man, any man, new or old, but the job had been a very different story. "A ballet company, actually. So great new job, not the kind you want to pass up if you're a dancer."

And she was still very glad she hadn't balked at the opportunity. Doing so wouldn't have been like her, but there were plenty of people who didn't want to move across the country for anything.

"Most people only move for either one of those reasons," Ellen explains, smiling slowly. "But you didn't really seem like the type to move for a guy, anyway, so I'm glad you proved me right."

She's suspected as much about Lily's occupation, too, especially given the way she had spotted her moving across the bar earlier. It wasn't walking so much as floating effortlessly, as if she barely weighed anything at all - and truth be told, she probably does. "Especially not in New York," she agrees. "You must have made a good impression."

"I would say that I hope so, but to be honest, it doesn't matter much here," Lily said with a grin. She'd been Nina's alternate and after only a short period of time at a new company, that was a fairly big step, but as long as she was on the island -- and Thomas wasn't -- she wasn't going to have to worry about being anyone's alternate.

Thomas was the only person who might have even tried to put together a performance. Now that he was gone, Lily was sure most of her dancing would be done on her own.

"What about you?" she asked. "What did you do back home?"

"Well, there's the studio, isn't there?" Ellen points out, reaching for her drink to steal a small sip. She's seen it on one of her many walks exploring the island, even if it's a long ways from the hut she's finally claimed as her own. Lily's question has her smiling wryly, glancing into the contents of her glass as she tilts it slightly, listening to the ice clink against the inside.

"I was a lawyer. Key word being 'was'," she replies. "I'd actually just made up my mind to take a break, for a little while, before I showed up here."

No matter where she turned on the island, it seemed like she just kept on meeting lawyers. Not that Lily minded at all. So far, the lawyers she'd met tended to be some of the people whose company she enjoyed the most. Maybe she'd find that good luck streak continuing with Ellen.

"Why the break?" she asked, tipping her head slightly. "I mean, hell, if that's way too personal, I get it." But she was curious. There was no sense denying that. People tended to find the thing they loved, Lily thought, especially when it was the type of career that took a lot of work.

"It's - complicated," Ellen admits, tilting her glass back to a level angle before gently setting it down on the bar again. "Or it was. I'm still not sure which tense I should be speaking in." Especially if there's always a chance that she could be going back home any day now, before she even has the opportunity to say her goodbyes here.

"There were things I was asked to do that I didn't believe in," she adds, thinking that's general enough to satisfy Lily's curiosity but not specific enough to potentially put her at risk. "Even if I was grateful for the opportunity. The firm I was working for was - is - one of the best in Manhattan."

"But sometimes you have to stand up for your morals," Lily said, nodding. It wasn't something she'd ever had to worry about, but being a dancer was hardly the type of career that caused a person to question their moral standings. The opportunity to do something she didn't believe it had never come up before.

"I can respect that," she said with a smile. "So you decided to take a break and then ended up here, which is pretty much the best sort of break anyone can take." It was a perpetual vacation. Occasionally things seemed to go a little wrong, but Lily still had nothing to complain about.

"And sometimes the lines blur, unfortunately," Ellen admits, but it isn't necessarily something she's proud of, and she especially isn't proud of it as it pertains to the law itself. But Patty had been willing to do anything to accomplish justice for her clients, often at great personal cost to any number of people.

"I'm still trying to look at it as an extended vacation," she replies, nodding once. "So far, I think it's working. It helps that I actually have a hut of my own now."

"Yeah, you don't really get the full island experience if you're stuck within four cement walls," Lily agreed with a grin. For a time she'd stayed in the Compound, stayed close to Nina, but eventually she'd had to get out of there. A hut on the beach had become necessary fairly quickly and she'd found herself enjoying life on the island even more since moving ou there.

"I didn't last in there long," she admitted.

"Not to mention the whole claustrophobic sensation," Ellen adds. She hadn't minded it at first. In a way, it had almost reminded her of living in New York, but her apartment there had windows, and after a while, it had become close to unbearable. The hut she's in now is small, more reminiscent of her place during her time in law school, but it's more open, close to the water, and she can open the windows and breathe in the salt air every single morning.

"Neither did I," she admits. "Where on the island are you living now?"

"Right on the beach," Lily answered. That had been the only option for her and she'd been lucky enough to find one near the studio. It also happened to be near a space ship, but that added a certain science fiction element she didn't mind.

"Beside the dance studio," she admitted with a grin. "I'm sure that doesn't come as much of a surprise. I was lucky no one was living there when I got here."

"I think mine had a fairly recent previous occupant," she adds, shrugging one shoulder. "Not that it mattered, but I had to make sure they were actually gone before I decided to claim it as my own."

Whoever they were, they'd definitely been male. She'd found several pieces of clothing that could attest to that much. "It is nice, though, being that close to the water. It's peaceful, and I like taking walks there in the evenings."

"It's beautiful," Lily agreed. It was a little more rustic than she was used to, not quite an apartment in New York, but she was making do. "I've been told that they're improved over the past few years with the electricity and plumbing."

She loved living on the beach, but Lily wasn't sure how comfortable she'd feel if it had been that much like camping out in the woods. They were still living in a jungle and that still meant animals and bugs she didn't even want to think about. Somehow that all seemed worse without any light.

"That's something of a relief," Ellen admits. She's fairly used to some comforts, and it would've made island living a lot more difficult without those basics she's come to take for granted over the years.

"I might be a city girl, but I think I would've been suffering a lot more if I didn't have lights or plumbing. I don't think that's too much to ask of an island that plucks you out of the world you knew without warning, do you?"

"Not at all," Lily said with a laugh, then finished her drink. Overall, she was happy enough with the state of the island, but she knew that had a lot to do with everything that was still available to them. It was very much like an extended vacation and though she understood that it was the sort of life that might eventually drive some people crazy, she was perfectly happy with it.

"Especially when it plucks you out of one of the best shows you've ever been in," she continued, although she was still smiling faintly. "I arrived in my full swan costume. Feathers and all."

Swan costume. Ellen's mind is already racing, trying to put the pieces together from Lily's description alone. There's only one show she can think of, one that would demand a costume like that, and she might be wrong, but it never hurts to guess. Chances are she's right, and if she isn't, she's not going to dwell over messing up such a trivial thing.

"Swan Lake?" she ventures, raising both eyebrows, visibly impressed. "That's amazing. You must be good - beyond good, even."

Lily grinned, partly in acknowledgement that Ellen was right about the show and partly because she was good, although she hadn't been dancing a main role. "Well, I'm not going to argue with you," she said, spinning the glass between her hands. "But I wasn't dancing the lead. I was a lowly swan servant."

But she hadn't really had a problem with that. In the end, Nina had been absolutely gorgeous. Lily had never seen a performance like hers and she only wished Nina herself had stuck around long enough to experience it. "I was the lead's alternate, but she was lovely."

"But being the alternate, that means you have to learn her part as well as your own, doesn't it?" Ellen deduces, hoping she hasn't missed the mark too much where this is concerned. She did a play or two in college, though. Ballet seems as though it would have a similar failsafe in place.

"When you think about it, that's twice the work," she adds, still looking impressed.

"But you have to remember that we have nothing else to do," Lily pointed out in return. It was a lot of work, but so was being a lawyer or a doctor or, hell, working in the service industry. It was just a different kind of work and she knew she was lucky that she loved what she did for a career, that not everyone got to do that.

"I bet you put in longer hours at your job than I ever did at mine," she said with a grin. "Lawyers have to work hard."

"True," she adds, nodding slowly in thought. To Lily, dancing is a profession as well as a passion, but it doesn't involve the same kind of working hours that her own job demanded - not only that, but it carries its own series of demands on time, life, or anything else.

"Longer hours, but it paid off in the long run. If I wasn't earning overtime, I always felt a little bit at a loss."

"And now here we are, where all the money in the world can't help us," Lily said and although she was smiling faintly, it was still strange for her to think about. Dancing with prestigious companies paid well and while she wouldn't have ever called herself wealthy, she'd certainly made enough money to live comfortably. And it wasn't that the island was uncomfortable, but it was a different sort of life.

Nothing cost a thing, which she loved.

"Don't get me wrong, I like it," she said. "I have a fabulous custom made dress just because I offered a prize of my own for casino night. I can get behind the system we have here, but it's just... not the same, is it?"

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[Ellen]

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