Mar 09, 2011 12:03
leela,
kirk,
s.t.,
klavier,
japan,
tsubaki,
badd,
anise,
minato,
the doctor,
sam winchester,
firo,
goku (dragonball),
taura,
dexter,
franziska,
claire bennet,
kinomoto sakura,
peter parker,
snow,
lunge,
lana skye,
ruby,
mello,
soren,
brainiac 5,
the flash,
roxas,
albedo,
stefan,
peter petrelli,
mele,
damon,
two-face,
ritsuka,
lion,
rapunzel,
erika,
edgar,
canada,
the scarecrow,
sync,
matt,
maya,
zevran,
battler,
spock,
zack,
kratos,
l,
shinji,
kenshin,
bella,
scott pilgrim,
gumshoe,
ax,
claire littleton,
sora,
gren,
prussia,
claude,
renamon,
guybrush,
dean winchester,
byrne,
guy,
kairi,
venom,
nigredo,
ilia,
kibitoshin,
lightning,
rita,
alaric,
yue,
sasuke,
aidou,
claire stanfield,
edward cullen,
kaworu,
mccoy
Eager to cover up her little slip-up, Anise snatched one of the buckets of soap water and shot up to her full height, making the water slosh precariously against the edges of the bucket. To the man who'd replied to her, she offered a sweet, cutesy smile. "Eheh... I guess that's true. They're pretty scary, huh?"
It was then that she got a look at the stranger, with his thin build and dark circles under his eyes. His posture kind of sucked, too. He didn't look like the healthiest guy, to be sure. His uniform was the same one that Anise and all the other patients had been forced into, but she found her eyes drawn to the little badge on his hat. M-U...?
"Hey, you got one too!" Anise tapped one of the pins on her own beret to show what she was talking about. It seemed like some patients had none, some had one, and a few had two like she did... so they probably meant something. "What do you suppose they're for?" If she'd had more than a second or two to look at her own, Anise might have been able to decipher them, but with so much to take in this morning, and the hurry that the soldiers were in, it was only now that she had a chance to think about it.
Reply
"Scary?" L's gaze slid to the side, to the nearest line of soldiers. "I don't know about that. Are you afraid of them?" If she was, she wouldn't have said what she said. She resents them, but she isn't afraid--not yet. "There's a difference between wariness and fear, hm?"
He moved towards a table, preparing to wipe it. This was a more tedious exercise than regular grunt work would have been; the cafeteria wasn't very dirty to begin with. Amazing that they had been issued real cleaning supplies rather than old toothbrushes, since the goal seemed to be to bring the patients to their knees in a literal way.
"The pins? I can't be sure." He had gleaned that his own pin probably referred to the sleep study after glancing at other patients as they were marched through the halls. Some of their pins said "SC," which had only one meaning, and which was something that happened at night. The sleep studies were listed on the weekly schedule as CM-US, and also happened at night, so it had led him to the conclusion that the pin on his beret referred to the implantation of the device in his brain, and the sophisticated mind games that had been part of the procedure.
The girl also had a pin that said "SC," which meant there was more to her than her unprepossessing appearance; it hinted at why she might not fear the soldiers. The other pin she wore depicted a sword and shield. "I think you've been a Special Counseling patient." He didn't phrase it as a question. "Have you done anything at night that involved a sword and a shield?"
A glance across the room showed him that Edgar was talking to Lunge. Good.
Reply
When the man started cleaning a table, Anise took the other side of the same table, keeping herself within talking distance. Her eyes widened when he guessed that she had been taken for special counseling, and after a moment, she nodded and lowered her head, looking down at the surface she was scrubbing.
So was his pin for something similar? Anise had to think about it a little, but she did kind of remember the experiments having a name with those letters in it... That was something people usually didn't like to talk about, though, so she didn't bring it up. She didn't have much of a chance to, anyway, because the stranger was quick to ask another question.
A sword and a shield...
At first, Anise hadn't thought much about it, since a sword and a shield tended to be a universal symbol for any kind of combat, or even a weapon shop or something. But with the way this guy worded his question, she realized it could have a more literal meaning.
The sword and the shield in the basement!
Those two artifacts that Sync had dragged her along to find. For a moment, Anise's breathing stopped, and her scrubbing came to a pause too. The things she experienced down there were sure to haunt her for a long time... but she couldn't talk about them. If she couldn't warn people about the worst part of the basement, it was best not to share any information at all. Looking up from the table, Anise tilted her head once again and hummed, as if she was still trying to remember.
"No, I don't think so. It's probably symbolic or something." It was a lie, but there were some times when lying really was the best thing for everyone. At least, Anise believed so.
Reply
He held the cleaning rag at arm's length, using his fingertips to swirl it on the table. I shouldn't have to do these things myself, he thought. He was capable, in that he was able-bodied, but it brought his firm opinion back into focus: his skills were being wasted here, in what seemed to be training for work for which he had no real aptitude or interest. No one would ever look at him and think that he was a good candidate for any kind of on-the-ground combat (Is that what they want us for?), let alone petty custodial duties, but apart from that, he was better at issuing orders than following them.
Landel might be a childish control freak, but if Aguilar was squandering L's time and energy in this way, there was at least one level on which the General was the greater fool.
When L asked the girl about the sword and shield, she was obviously taken aback. Her motion slowed, and she seemed to hold her breath; then, she paused to think of something to say.
L felt a sharp pain in his head when she spoke again, so sharp that he winced and lost his grip on the cleaning rag. The bucket, resting on a seat, would have fallen to the ground and splashed everywhere if he had still been holding it. His vision narrowed to tunnels with what seemed like shimmering around the edges. Migraine aura, he supposed, and recognized it as one of the promised effects of the experiment. If this happens to me while I'm eating, I'm in trouble. He felt nauseated even on an empty stomach.
He couldn't focus well yet, as the pain receded, but he did his best to level the girl with a long, troubled stare. "You're lying to me," he said, weary. "Why?"
A sharp glance from a nearby soldier caused him to collect his rag and start wiping again.
Reply
Anise expected her little fib to go unnoticed, but what she definitely didn't expect was for the guy to flinch and freeze up, like he was in a lot of pain. "H-hey, are you okay!?" Dropping her own rag, Anise rushed to the other side of the table. Considering her first impression of him was that he looked almost sickly, it wouldn't surprise her if he did have health problems... but what was that? A headache?
Before she reached him, however, he looked back to her with an odd, suspicious look; one that made her stop in her tracks.
You're lying to me. He couldn't really know that. How could he say that with such conviction? And shouldn't he be worrying about himself? Whatever that was just now, it looked like it really hurt.
Anise's face was a mixture of concern, confusion, and defensiveness as she tried to deny the accusation. "What are you talking about? That's weird. Why would I lie about something like that?" In the end, she just parroted his own question back to him. Actually answering it would have been an admission of guilt, after all.
Reply
Leave a comment