Day 55: Cafeteria

[bodhiandspirit]

Though five days without bathing was hardly unusual for Rita, she was actually looking forward to showering today. To her, the last shift had been somewhat enjoyable, if only because it allowed her an opportunity to be alone with her thoughts for a bit. Of course, she couldn't be completely alone in the communal showers, but no one was rude enough

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[zack_fair]

All right, so maybe these soldiers weren't as sympathetic as the nurses, but Zack still thought that was unfair. Just because they were now being treated like trainees instead of mental patients didn't mean that they shouldn't be given a simple pain reliever if they asked.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the man was talking to him, someone who was in the middle of being punished. He hoped that wasn't the case, but Zack also realized that the stranger didn't seem too set on getting himself some medication. If that's how it was, then it was probably best not to push it.

For a while he just focused on his jumping jacks, trying to figure out what number he was at. He restarted the count at an estimate and then kept going, waiting until he'd gotten about thirty over two hundred before stopping and letting his arms fall to his sides.

A glance at one of the soldiers showed that he had passed, and so he moved a little closer to the table where the other man was sitting. The soldier who was watching him made it clear with his gaze and a gesture that he was not allowed to sit or even lean, however.

"Whew! That wasn't so bad. The name's Zack, by the way. Thanks for not demonizing me as one of the culprits." It was possible the guy was just too distracted to care, but he still appreciated it. He wiped the light sheen of sweat off of his forehead and tilted his head at the stranger.

[tasteoftruth]

While Zack kept up his jumping jacks Badd idly stirred the pink gunk they'd handed him in lieu of food. He was hungry, true, and as fickle as things seemed to be now it would be a good idea to eat quickly before they decided to revoke food privileges but right now he couldn't have worked down a steak lunch without feeling ill.

To Zack's thanks he could only return a small shrug. He hadn't even been thinking of demonizing him, not when there were real demons like Gant lurking in the building. The guy who'd actually touched it off, now he deserved a good kick in the face, but not this one.

"You're not the worst of the scum here," he said, trying to be generous. Aside from the obvious physical attributes Zack just seemed...stupid. Or at least too perky to last. This place really had a thing for perky overconfident teenagers, maybe they made the easiest subjects.

[zack_fair]

Not that worst of the scum here, huh? That more or less counted as an underhanded compliment, as far as Zack could tell. Then again, the guy clearly wasn't in the best mood at the moment, so he wouldn't hold it against him, and his original statement still held true. The guy hadn't thrown insults at him for being the reason for the cleaning they'd had to do earlier, and he appreciated that. More than that, he didn't seem to be questioning his motives for what he'd done yesterday either, though that might be due to the fact that the man didn't seem talkative in general.

He didn't get a name in return, but chances were it had just slipped the man's mind. Zack wasn't going to dwell on it, but instead was distracted by the stuff that was on the guy's plate. It looked like Malboro vomit, if he was going to be perfectly honest, and he forced out a sigh as he examined it.

"Suddenly I don't think being robbed of another meal is the worst deal," he muttered to himself as he took a step or two away from the man and his so-called food. "Anyway, what's biting you? Anything I can do?" If the answer turned out to be "leave me alone," then he could always comply with that as well.

[tasteoftruth]

It would have 'slipped Badd's mind' if he had given his name, keeping his identity close to his chest was a purposefully ingrained habit. Even seemingly-carefree teenagers could be hiding a dark side.

Hm. Seemed they still weren't allowing him to sit. Aguilar was playing this right book. Badd had done a few of these in his time before regulations got a bit tighter (and even afterward, when the chief made sure nobody would be watching--it had been convenient at the time for obtaining confessions but knowing what he knew now the memories just made him feel ill). He stirred the pink stuff again and then dropped the spoon back against the bowl.

"How long do people usually last here before they start going insane?" he asked wearily. "Seems like half the population thinks they're from another planet or that time travel is possible, or..."

Phrase it cautiously. Carefully. Make your tone seem dismissive. You don't actually believe this, it's only other people who do. "That the dead can come back to life again."

[zack_fair]

A glance around the room made it clear that most people were reluctant to eat the food, and Zack wondered if that slop was going to be on the menu for dinner too. Would it be what all of their meals consisted of from now on? Even Shin-Ra hadn't been that cheap.

Though the sudden question that came from the man caused Zack to turn to him with a raised eyebrow. Did he really believe that people went nuts while here? He was about to speak up and assuage the man's concerns, but the the guy kept talking and quickly caused him to rethink.

Another plant, time travel, and coming back from the dead. Zack was someone who believed in all three of those things because he had to. This place wasn't Gaia, and he'd seen his own planet's future while here because he hadn't lived to that point. It was all tied up in a neat little package for him, but...

Clearly, admitting to that was not going to earn him any points with this guy, and he wasn't very interested in mentioning it after the conversation he'd just had with Lightning. No, best to play it cool in a situation like this. Zack didn't like to be disingenuous, but he also wasn't an idiot.

"Who told you that last one?" he asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to toe the line between interested and overly curious. "I'd heard the others, but..."

[tasteoftruth]

Well, Zack hadn't immediately jumped to claim that he was from another planet and that Badd was insulting him by doubting his heritage. That was a point in his favor. He twisted the spoon between his fingers like a bare lollipop stick, forcing down his desperate fear and covering it with another casual shrug.

"Just some old guy. He said his murdered partner came up and started talking to him, trying to convince him that he was still alive. Funny thing was that this guy seemed pretty stable on his feet otherwise, he just thought a dead person had reappeared alive again."

[zack_fair]

Murdered partner, huh? While he and Cloud hadn't exactly been partners, the situation wasn't all that different when it came down to it. Zack wished that the man would give him some more details on who these people were, since this was the first he'd heard of someone else who'd been dead before coming to this place.

Still, he was glad that his existence in this place hadn't made Cloud feel like he was going crazy and losing his sense of self all over again. That would have been enough to break him at least a little.

"Maybe tell the guy who saw his dead friend to have a conversation with both you and the dead friend involved? Then you can see if this supposedly dead guy is really real or of it's one big hallucination." Zack already knew that this guy who was back from the dead was one-hundred percent real, but getting a skeptic to believe that would probably take a lot more work. It was better to take the position of the sane yet rational advice-giver at this point.

[tasteoftruth]

Badd shook his head. "Well, what's the guy going to do after he realizes that his dead partner's a hallucination, which I'm pretty sure he already does? It won't make the hallucination go away. He'll still have a ghost following him around."

Now that was just out of the question. 'Hey, Lana, would you come talk to me and Byrne, we're trying to settle an argument. Yes, my partner. Can't you see him?'. As if his credibility wasn't publicly low enough as it was. Badd refused to admit the possibility that it was not a hallucination, because in that case there was still no way for it to be a real figure and not be Byrne Faraday. And he was not that mad yet.

Badd took a firm bite of the pink stuff and winced. It was bad enough to make him miss prison food, at least you could find some form of taste and texture in overboiled vegetables. If the kitchen was left unlocked tonight he could bet on where most of the inmates would be congregating after lights-out.

[zack_fair]

The man wasn't really getting the point. What Zack had been implying was that maybe that ghost wasn't a ghost after all, seeing how he sure as hell wasn't one, but there was no way of proving that. Not that he needed to be tripping into any more people and giving them images of his death, though he got the feeling that that had only been in effect last night. He hoped so, anyway.

"Guess that's true," he said with a shake of his head. "That's got to be pretty disorienting, I've gotta say. Maybe getting some information about it over the bulletin might help, though? If other people have been through the same thing. It's possible we're being dosed with hallucinogens somehow."

Zack imagined it wouldn't be the first time that an army was given drugs to make them more docile. He was lucky that Shin-Ra had never gotten to that point; no, that company had just experimented on its employees, only to turn around and get rid of the black mark on their record by any method possible. That was why he'd bit the dust, after all.

[tasteoftruth]

Now that wasn't something he'd have thought of, what with assuming far too many people were crazy to be reliable. "Hallucinogens won't make you think you're from another planet," he pointed out. "You'd have to screen out the real loonies somehow. Even so, it's a thought. I might put it up the next time they let us out."

Something in the tear gas, maybe, or in the food, or in whatever it was that made them fall asleep before sunrise every night. It wouldn't be hard to slip everyone a bit of something. Drug experimentation with unwilling participants actually seemed low on the list of Aguilar/Landel's sadistic capabilities and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more easily manipulated population.

Another forced bite, followed by a scowl and a large swig of water. He'd choke it down and fill himself like a car with gasoline, disgust aside it was still nutrients. Probably.

[zack_fair]

The guy was clearly having some difficult with eating the food, and no surprise there. Still, the fact that it wasn't making him gag gave Zack hope that when he was actually served the stuff he'd be able to stomach it. He wasn't exactly picky when it came to that sort of thing, so he was crossing his fingers. He was going to have to eat eventually, after all, and he was sure the general -- who was looking for value out of them -- knew that too.

"You seem to have run across a lot of the crazy ones already," Zack pointed out, still feeling bad for basically lying to the guy by going along with his point of view. He'd already been singled out enough today after this morning and the jumping jacks he'd just done, though. "I'd bet you're a pro at picking them out by now."

The irony, of course, being that he would definitely fall into the loony category if he was being completely forthcoming in this conversation. That obviously wasn't going to happen, though.

[tasteoftruth]

"It's easy to test," Badd said, rubbing a smear of pink off his lips with the side of his hand. "Just ask them what planet they think they come from." That was the mark of a real loon. Badd at least knew the difference between reality and what was impossible, and had the good sense to keep quiet when his own perceptions failed to distinguish between the two. If you were sane enough to know you were going insane you were still, legally speaking, sane.

"As far as I can tell it's nearly half of the ones I've talked to in depth. A few were quirky but I didn't have a chance to get a read on them." That Wally guy who'd randomly decided to start eating off Badd's tray, for instance. Or Gant, who might be lying less than Badd thought. Or Kay, who...well. She was out. It didn't matter.

[zack_fair]

"So there you go," Zack said, splaying his hands and sending the man a smirk. If it was that easy, then he really didn't have a reason to be complaining. Though the statistic that the man gave was interesting. Half of the people here were from this planet originally and half weren't? That gave him an idea of just how many other planets there were out there. The information was kind of staggering, but that didn't mean he was going to assume it wasn't true.

Still, to each his own. If the man wanted to limit himself in that way, then all he was doing was shooting himself in the foot. If anything, this had given Zack the idea of making an unsigned post to the bulletin about this whole coming back from the dead thing. He hadn't imagined that there would be others in his spot.

"Half is a lot," he said with a frown, crossing his arms over his chest. "Still, if you work at it hopefully you'll get the answer you need." Or the answer he wanted to hear, anyway.

[tasteoftruth]

"I've only been here a few days. Haven't interviewed that many people. Maybe they're just attracted to me." And he'd been busy with Kay and Gant. Not all the crazies had been 'aliens', of course, there's been the one who assumed he was a vigilante assassin and Kay had mentioned time travel. Either way crazy was crazy no matter what particular delusion they held.

Badd comforted himself with the knowledge that at least he knew it was impossible to come back from the dead. If he ever forgot that he would become well and truly delusional; until then it was just the drugs and the stress.

[zack_fair]

What stood out to Zack was that the guy used the term "interviewed." As if he was used to doing something like that. Maybe he was a journalist, or even a cop or something? He didn't really seem personable enough to be the former, but maybe the latter. Granted, that was a huge jump for him to be making, and the man didn't seem like the sharing type anyway. He hadn't even gotten his name.

"Maybe they are," he said with a sigh. "I usually don't ask that many people about where they're from, so..." Maybe it would be a good idea to do that from now on, though, just to sate his curiosity. Just how many worlds were there? How much had they been missing by not achieving proper space flight back on Gaia?

"Anyway, what's your guess?" Zack asked with a nod to the stuff the guy had been trying to eat. "Think that's going to be what all our meals are from now on?"

[tasteoftruth]

Badd shrugged, scraping pink from the bowl and swallowing hard. It was almost all of it, and almost was about as much as his already-twisting stomach could handle. "Hope not. The stuff I had at high school in the lunchroom was better than this stuff. But it looks like Landel's on the outs, and Aguilar's the one in charge. If nobody takes him out or his superiors don't decide we're more useful if we're not hacking up our lunches, this might be the status quo."

He'd heard murmurings about a trip to the town outside. A town had food shops and shops could be easily pillaged while the storeowners weren't looking. If there was one thing he'd picked up as a Yatagarasu it was the art of pickpocketing and slight of hand. He'd known a bit from his younger, stupider days but it was Byrne who'd practiced with him until he could filch evidence from a crime scene with as much ease as unwrapping a fresh lollipop. At times it had almost been fun.

...damnit, he was thinking about Byrne again. Badd's knuckles whitened around his spoon until he forced himself to drop it again.