Day 55: Courtyard [2nd Shift]

[sheepwood]

After what seemed like an eternity of being amused, irritable, bored, in pain, in excruciating pain, and any combination of those, Guybrush was met by the same soldier who had led him to the cafeteria. He wasn't offered a trip to the Sun Room to check the bulletin board, but didn't push for it anyway. That would have been more walking, and moving

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[hersalvation]

As he mentioned it, the gaining of information suddenly seemed obvious; no doubt about it, Lion was already finding out some new things, and it made her wonder just how much more she'd learn. Back home, Lion studied hard because she had to, and not necessarily out of a thirst for knowledge, but here she was suddenly finding herself wanting to know more about the vast array of things that could be discovered from the people alone. Perhaps because, even though the place itself was already making its downfalls obvious (and there were more she had only heard about), the people here at least were already bringing something mysterious and new to the table; different realities was something that, to the average person, was either a ridiculous concept or one that was beyond actuality. How often did someone get to say they could meet someone who wasn't even familiar with Earth?

Helpful as this man and the boy in the cafeteria had been, Lion raised her eyebrows by a margin at the mention of gaining friendships. First impressions of the institute had lead her to believe that it didn't leave very much room for bonding in such a manner-- Lion had imagined such things like Jessica had liked to do, such as come together with one or two, maybe more friends and do simple things like have lunch together in the school cafeteria, or as Lion had done and participate in a sports team before she had graduated. Those were easy venues to meet people, but in a place that was, essentially, a prison of sorts? ...The skepticism didn't last for too long, however, as soon as he had mentioned just how long he had been here.

Thirty days. An entire month. At any other place, this amount of time would fly by, but given the right circumstances it could also last entirely too long... It wasn't very long, true, and truthfully she had been expecting to hear a longer amount of time. But given her feelings and thoughts about the place already when she had only been around for maybe a few hours, Lion was understanding when he claimed it was long.

And so, it made sense to gain friends-- or allies, at the very least-- during that time. In a place where everyone was stuck inside the same boat and had to band together during this supposed nighttime that was explained to her earlier, it was natural that no one wanted to stay alone. Lion couldn't blame them; she was feeling somewhat unnerved by the lack of familiar faces in such a daunting place, herself.

"So I take it you are rather experienced," she mused, although not as if she hadn't believed him before. It was curiosity, mostly; how long did one have to be around for it to be considered a 'while'? "I had a lot explained to me before coming out here, so to be honest, I'm not sure how much more I would need to know. But I wouldn't be surprised if there did happen to be a lot more to find out about."

--Ah, right. Where were her manners? After the man named Guy introduced himself, Lion brought up an arm across herself, and in a similarly polite manner bowed her own head. "I'm Lion Ushiromiya. It's a pleasure as well."

[razing_phoenix]

Lion Ushiromiya. It didn't mean a thing to him. Most of the names here were foreign, so he hadn't really known what to expect. Still, some names would have made the gender obvious; in this case, Guy had no clue. He knew he'd be better off if he stopped dwelling on it, and it wasn't as if the confusion had ruined the conversation by any means, but he still wanted to know.

There were ways to find out, such as keeping an eye on which showers were used or what room block was returned to, but the last thing Guy wanted was to be labeled as creepy. And he wasn't! He had a very good reason for needing to know, after all.

But that was all shoved to the side in the interest of trying to figure out what aspects of the institute Lion hadn't yet been warned about. While Lion seemed to think that a lot had already been covered, Guy seriously doubted that. There was just too much to touch on in one conversation. "Well, I'm guessing you heard about the nights, with the monsters. How about the brainwashing and experiments? Or the fact that we go into a nearby town once a week?" There was also the issue of visitors, the intercom and the radio, and the outside area that could be accessed. But the last thing he needed to do was overwhelm someone who seemed to be doing their best to take this all in stride. Which wasn't easy.