Day 54: Sun Room

[mustbethesuit]

[From here. All your top posts shall be mine.]Peter entered the Sun Room with a dour expression. Goody, he was the first one here. Fancy that. Pick of the couches was his then. Eeeny meeny miney...moe. Peter stalked over to what he knew from experience was the fluffiest couch in the room and eased himself into its downy soft embrace. Ordinarily he

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[hasnomeaning]

It was well enough that the other hadn't reached to her--at best, he would have been ignored, at worst, rejected in full, and Rei did not have the energy for the latter. The skin of her eyelids quivered under her fingers, but the heat dispersed. Eventually, her lungs did not feel as if they had been crushed. The effects had been far too tolling. She did not want a repeat--would rather fight and seek out her own way than sit kindly and allow it again.

But he had spoke, and laboriously, she rewound his voice in her head. Had she heard? She had been focused on Ikari, and yet, she had been away from the others at the time, had been alone near the door as the Second and Kaworu Nagisa moved Ikari to the hall behind her. And she had heard. In perfect memory. And she wondered. "It's possible," she began, voice harsh with a rasp, hands still hovering near her face as she blinked at her lap. "That this is a farce. Something to sway the patient body to take refuge in him with a common enemy before us." For Landel had not yet attacked them in this way, she believed. Should they be glad for him now? She thought not, not with the evidence pulled.

[antiheroed]

"It doesn't make sense," he said. "Most of the things here ... they just last a night. Maybe there are remnants, like the rings, but not much else." It was weird that Landel implied that this was a different situation. He didn't know why the man was even bothering trying to get their sympathy-or preference. The people causing trouble today were bad, but what did it mean in the long run? What was one day?

Which was why Riku thought there was more to it.

"I think this might be less temporary, though. He wouldn't have bothered with that if it wasn't." Riku didn't look at her eagerly for a response. He could tell it was hard for her to speak, so he slouched a little and waited.

[hasnomeaning]

This was true. The things Rei has witnessed had not carried over to the light of day, however, many of those things were not things explainable by normal methods of logic. The military stepping in was. In this perfect way, it made sense. Only the timing she couldn't put to explanation. "It backs up the explanation that this is a military base," she remarked, voice gradually evening. "If we take that, it could be a routine check."

Even as she said that, part of her did not believe it. They were restrained enough here, controlled enough. For another group to come and... assist seemed unlikely. Unless Landel was doing something wrong. She would not know until it happened, though, and for that, she instead questioned something the other had said. He had mentioned it the last time they had come across one another, and Rei had not seen fit to question. Now, she would allow curiosity. "...Rings?"

[antiheroed]

But why call them patients? Why not do something else? It was treated like it was a hospital, rather than otherwise. Riku almost pointed it out, but she asked a question. The fact surprised him, because he remembered how quiet she had been before-and even right now, there wasn't much of a change. The only shift was that she had been hurt, but maybe it was different on a second meeting. Maybe it was more comfortable for her.

"There was a night when we could never end up where we wanted. Afterward, we ended up with rings. I got one-and so did my roommate, but he's gone now. I have both of them. Some people have asked about them on the bulletin. They can take you places, and, I think, you can have them fixed." He shrugged. He wasn't absolutely certain, because he wrote them off earlier on as a risky venture.

[hasnomeaning]

That night. She remembered it clearly as the end transpired in a place that was no where near this institute. An Eva hanger, with a working Unit 00, did not exist in this place. And she still could not put facts to that process. There were rings, then, that duplicated the method. She wondered. But she did not possess one. And so the point was invalid, despite her actual voicing the question. Still, it was more information than she had.

Riku did not move to continue speaking, and Rei had nothing further on the subject he had chosen. Her mind could grace the concept of experimentation again, but he had given her what he supposedly knew. There was something, however, that he might know. That could prove her theory correct if it retained value. Her eyes raised to him, still bloodshot, but focusing. "Have you ever heard of the same experiment being done to two separate individuals?"

[antiheroed]

The extent of his knowledge with that was mostly placed with Kairi, and he didn't know of much else. He considered her words and shook his head. "Not that I know of. I could ask my friend, Sora. He's been here a lot longer." Riku's hands pressed against his thighs as he further considered the question, and added, "Why? Do you know anything like that?" It seemed like quite the pointed question considering.

Part of him wondered if and when he would have to confront these circumstances himself. He wondered if he would ever be made to hurt other people-or if he would have to sit in on experimentation. He hoped not. What bearings he had in this place were already frequently stripped away by the small amount of changes which seemed to always create a butterfly effect.

[hasnomeaning]

The named mentioned was committed to memory as clearly as it was said. There was no need to approach the other at this point and time; Rei was not yet fully committed to the idea of choosing experimentation as her goal to research. It was something to consider, however. She nodded once to the other's question--she had been overzealous in her line of questioning. An offer of truth was all she could do.

"The same experiment seems to have been done on two comrades under a week in time. That is all I know." Truth and a lie. She had been at both, when the doors unlocked, but she knew nothing about the procedure done. However. At Kaworu Nagisa's there was the minuscule Lance, which was still hidden between mattress and box-string, taken without reason once she had seen it.

[antiheroed]

His immediate conclusion from her words was that it had to do with where they came from. There was no other explanation for why the experiments had happened in such a similar manner. If someone were to draw out the darkness in Sora's heart or add to it, it would become a similar condition to what happened with Kairi. Neither Sora nor Kairi were meant to be as tainted in such a manner; Sora had Darkness and was willing to be the Darkness, but that was different.

He didn't belong there, not like Riku.

"Were they from the same place?" Better to ask than to simply conclude.

[hasnomeaning]

She nodded in the affirmative. "Yes." It was the only thing the two held in common--to an extreme, if she took certain things into detail. The other thing they both carried was the weight of being an Eva pilot. Two of the four had been taken. Both of the male pilots, human or no. Did the same fate hold for the Second Child and herself? And what was the experiment done?

It disturbed her, and she would admit that to herself. The existences that they held lacked in many ways, and the others had unraveled in bits and pieces. What did they have, that could be taken for use? There was nothing, other than their piloting, that placed them apart.

This could be a lie. She wasn't of the mind to know.

[antiheroed]

"That might be why. But you could write and see, too. Sora won't be the only person who knows." If he knew, Riku thought. The idea that these experiments were uniform bothered him. He wondered if they intended to do the same to other people-or to do things differently. His observation of Ansem indicated that scientists could do a fast number of things if they wanted, and he worried that this would end badly for his friends.

It already had, for Kairi. But she seemed to be handling it well. Then again, that was just the way she was acting. Could he ever really know for sure?

He sighed and then added, "I wonder if the experiments will be different now."