Rita awakened in a cold sweat that morning. What the hell was that all about!? It had to be a trick, like the moving shadows from the other night... It just couldn't be real
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“Hey wait!” Rose objected as the soldier escorting her dragged her out of the corridor and towards a door that led outside. Outside into sunlight. Oh no, this was so not a good idea.
“No. No, wait, you don’t understand!” Rose objected, starting to struggle and finding with astonishment that she couldn’t break free of the human’s freakishly strong grip. Her hazel eyes widened in alarm as she wondered if this were another vampire, or a witch, or something else entirely, since Mystic Falls seemed to attract the unnatural with alarming frequency. “I can’t go out there. Would you stop for a minute?!”
But the woman ignored her and Rose was unceremoniously escorted out the door. She cringed, bracing herself for the burning impact of sunlight on her skin, the inevitable agony of something all humanity took so much for granted.
The pain never came.
Rose barely had time to process the shocked realization of this before she was shoved into a bus, handed a paper bag, and pointed towards one of the empty seats. She sank down in it, feeling shaky and shell-shocked. She wasn’t dead. Again This entire day was just full of impossible events so far, and she stared at the window in sudden breathless anticipation, staring at a small, forbidden beam of sunlight that played against the glass pane.
Lifting fingers that trembled, she brushed her fingertips over that warm beam, watching as it danced against her skin with no pain, no flames, just a simple welcoming warmth that Rose had not felt in 560 years. Only now did she notice the simple silver ring on her second finger, carved in the shape of a rose with a sapphire mounted at its center.
A daylight ring. It had to be. Rose stared at it in awe, a bubble of laughter escaping her before her fingers came to her lips, stifling the sound as she stared out into the sunlight, unafraid of it for the first time in centuries.
Berg, as Aguilar’s Lieutenant General had identified himself as, spent as much time as his superiors emphasizing standards and priorities. During his intercom announcement, he’d implied Doyleton was a break from their usual activities, but what precisely were those? The “activities” that went on during the day, or the “activities” that went on at night? Yomi wasn’t certain what was so sufficient about them that she had to blackout in the middle of a spectre’s territory with Aguilar’s thin praises being the last words she heard.
Short of joining with Okita and Hijikata, nothing had really been accomplished from her standpoint, and a lot of her nights ended in the same anticlimactic way. And yet, both Landel and Aguilar continued to rate the prisoners. Five sessions… Those could be the experiments, couldn’t they? It’d been the right night for them, as far as she understood. Three groups, though, what did that mean, exactly? What successes and failures were these people reading in their captive’s efforts? The majority of prisoners didn’t seem to leave the building, and those that did didn’t get very far from the sounds of it. Was it simple data-collecting, having specimens run around the building? And if not that, then what? It could make a certain amount of sense if she and the others were being prepared for something in the future, but in some ways it appeared they were showing their worth now, just as they were, blindfolded, and bound, and bumping into each other in the dark.
It would be one thing if Yomi were dimwitted, too slow to be able to put pieces together as they came, but she wasn’t. They still had too much of an advantage, too many hidden cards. And that was a problem.
With nothing more to do than follow the soldiers’ (terribly disguised as the hospital workers they had replaced) lead, Yomi gave up on last night’s project and turned to dressing and boarding the bus for the fieldtrip. After donning a pair of casual pants and an oversized top layered with the prerequisite coat and gloves--all which added excess weight in fabric that Yomi could really do without--she tromped outside in her boots. The snow was a change of pace. So were the credit cards. She turned hers over in her hands while she waited, lifting her eyes only when it was her turn to board. No one seat was better than another, and she moved to the back of the bus, gauging the occupants absently. She had glimpsed a few of them from the back of the line… Like that female there, sitting alone in a window seat and looking girlishly mesmerized with herself. Yomi had encountered her kind before; having that knowledge made the sight almost amusing. Turning around, Yomi retraced her steps back toward Rose’s seat and put her hand on the backrest. No one seat buddy was that much better than another, either. Why not?
“Having a good morning?” Surely not because of the fieldtrip.
Rose looked up quickly, startled out of her surprise and instantly going on alert - a habit of centuries that she'd never had time to break. Spotting the young woman leaning over the back of the seat, Rose blinked for a moment, processing the question a moment later, and her lips curved into a somewhat crooked smile, still marveling over her ring.
"You could say that," she answered, a hint of an accent to her voice. Here finally was someone who looked like they knew how to talk, which was just what she needed. "Can you... tell me what's going on here?" Rose asked, choosing her words carefully so she wouldn't show too much ignorance. Wherever Damon had taken her, whatever had been done to stop the curse, it wasn't something she could start babbling about to a complete stranger, but that didn't change the fact that Rose felt completely in the dark about what had happened after her bout of bloodlust.
Poised at ease by the seat, she rested her forearm where her hand had been, leaning her weight further in. The question might as well have been a cry for help; it instantly made Yomi think this one couldn’t have been in residence as long as the other male Yomi had met some days ago. The military’s overhauls were new for everyone, but prisoners who had adapted to the routine had no need to ask each other what they couldn’t answer. New enough, then, that Yomi hadn’t noticed her before, and that she wanted explanations from the first person who could give them.
Ironically, Yomi seemed to be that person. She could indeed tell, yet Yomi had failed to get the notification that this was supposed to be her duty. A Category A giving tours to every creature that asked? It felt as whimsical as supernaturals with English accents. Then again, Mei had worn her masks until the very last moment. A part of Yomi suspected Category As liked to pretend they were more human than they were at times.
Once they actually got moving, it was going to be a long ride, anyway.
“What’s going on?” she repeated questioningly, keeping her impressions to herself. Before saying anything more, she turned to check on the guards and passengers, then came around the side of the seat to slide in next to Rose. “Which part?” she continued with a smile. “This onion has a few layers to it.”
Looking a little sheepish as she slid over to make room for the girl who joined her on the bench, Rose resettled comfortably against the side of the bus, glancing up as a few more people were herded onto the bus, but no one that she immediately recognized.
"All of it, I'm afraid," Rose answered after a moment of hesitation, looking back to meet the girl's gaze with an easy smile, if still a bit sheepish. "I think a friend of mine is playing a trick on me. I woke up here with no idea where here is, to be honest. And the person with me when I woke... wasn't overly talkative," she added, her smile turning wry.
Although very little of this made sense. None of it, actually. It had been summer in Mystic Falls. She'd been dying of a werewolf bite,a curse to which there was no cure. Had someone found a cure after all? But that didn't account for the passage of time. Or location? Not to mention that all of a sudden she had a daylight ring and the Salvatore brothers and Elena were nowhere to be found. The more she thought about it, the more confusing it became.
Her head was beginning to ache. And she'd thought life was complicated before she'd stumbled into the mess that was Mystic Fall's supernatural side.
The day was as unremarkable as days were for Yomi, and she lacked the same touch of wonderment she’d momentarily witnessed in the other as she took up position beside her. What would cause such an expression, hmm? Yomi took her in, appraising her without real intent--she didn‘t seem to know or care what Yomi herself was, and like so many others exhibited an abundance of humanity. As the female’s good-humoured explanation continued, a dimpled quirk lifted the corner of Yomi’s mouth. I understand, it said.
And so Yomi did, having experienced a similar displacement and lack of answers for why, and how, and who. Even though Yomi comprehended a little more of the captives’ purpose now, the ultimate reason for humans and non-humans alike to be tested to their limits was still beyond her. But fostering a strong, empathetic connection to this woman and to the others like her whom Yomi sometimes spoke to? That was a bit different.
Very different.
“Quite a trick that would be,” she commented. The other had pretty much admitted to being a brand new addition, but that wouldn’t have been hard to figure out after a while of conversation. How to explain things this time, however? Yomi sat back, allowing a moment for thought. “You won’t like hearing it,” she said, adding a solemn air to the rising suspense. “You were given a card when you got on the bus, right? That person on the front, that’s you… an elaborate new identity, anyway. Sounds like playing spy, doesn’t it? But there’s one good reason for doubting anyone you know is behind your being here: everyone on these busses arrived the same way. Abducted. You might call that building you woke up in a holding facility for the abductees.”
Watching how abnormal creatures reacted to the absurd was a little curious, to be honest, quite unlike watching normal, human creatures react to the same.
Rose went carefully still for a moment at this explanation, as if waiting for Yomi to start laughing. When she didn't, Rose's gaze searched her face quickly, assessing. Trevor had always been better at figuring out if someone was lying, he'd always chided her for being too trusting. Not that he had any place to talk, considering where it had landed them, but she wished he was here, wished she could catch his gaze and wait for the subtle nod or shake of his head to confirm her suspicions. Without it, she had no choice but to go with her instincts until she learned otherwise.
Surprisingly, no disbelief showed on her face at what would otherwise be an astonishing revelation. If Yomi had been going for shock, she'd be disappointed. "Abducted," she repeated carefully, her mind already puzzling over this new information, and of the strong woman who'd woken her and hauled her out to the buses. "Military?"
She hadn't had a chance to look at the card yet. She would. She wondered what identity they'd thought would be appropriate for her. Did they know what she was? They had to. Why the daylight ring? And why had her guard been stronger than she was? They were obviously prepared for people who were... not quite people. Did that mean there were other vampires on the bus? Werewolves? Other things that humans just believed as myth?
Her gaze turned back to the girl at her side with new speculation now, wondering about her. "Why? Do you know why they've abducted us here?"
Crossing her legs, Yomi rested an elbow on her knee and let her tips sink in. Her demeanor was, as usual, self-possessed to the point that she was sure some nervous personalities could construe her as being insincere. However, Yomi was quite serious. As ridiculous as the situation seemed, there was really not a lot of room to joke about the two of them being elbow-to-elbow in a conspiracy that broke all of the natural laws Yomi was familiar with.
In reality it wasn't very funny, and this one clearly agreed. The female didn't enjoy hearing about her new home any more than she would enjoy living it. (But then, wasn't tragedy a human concern?)
"Them?" Yomi wagged a finger at the costumed soldiers on the bus. "They're a recent aquisition. But maybe. The world out there seems terribly interested in what goes on here." Perhaps Yomi should have been more rattled, knowing the answer to Rose's final question. The goal of Landel's Institute was still a mystery, and there was no telling if Kagura would return, or versions of her. But the sesshouseki didn't allow for trepidation. "Can't say for sure. I haven't met anyone who's actually seen the ringleaders, let alone figured out their plans, and there've been prisoners here a month or more."
The bus jolted into movement, rocking unevenly on plowed snowy roads before evening out. Pristine white countryside slid past the windows and Rose was mesmerized for a moment by the sunlight dancing on the snow, distracted - as she was sometimes know to be - by the beauty of it. But it also gave her a moment more to think, to piece together what the girl was telling her.
"Only a month?" Rose asked, turning her attention back to the girl. "This must be a relatively new place, then?"
Still, some of the faces in the nearby seats, those that Rose could see, looked relatively young. To have been abducted from their families, even for a month, without explanation... Even the girl at her side looked young, looked like she was barely out of highschool, if even. She was sure, to many of them, a month felt like a very long time.
She wanted to ask more, but wasn't sure how much this girl would know. "They've given no clue as to what they want? No hint? Do they question people? Train them? Examine them?" There were much worse things that could be done, of course, but there was no need to jump to the worst conclusions and possibly traumatize the girl.
...Which reminded her. "I've been rude. I don't even know your name. I'm Rose," she introduced herself, summoning a wry smile as she tilted her head to the side, studying the girl inquisitively.
Ah, names. Largely unimportant, as well as deceiving. They were having a normal conversation, though, and normal conversations typically involved names, so… Yomi gave a smile and shake of her head. “You haven’t been rude. In fact, you’ve been more than pleasant considering the bubble I‘ve burst.” As most “normal” acts were, the decision to extend a hand to Rose--an elegant name for what was from a human perspective, an inelegant creature--was passing caprice. “I’m Yomi.” Or she was for a while longer yet. The problem with Landel’s was that it could manipulate the very core of a person, like it had with her more than once already. The place defied the logical questions Rose asked--the extent of their captors’ hold couldn’t accurately be explained, only experienced. A surprise for later.
“Anyway, it could be new, but time’s a funny thing here. And it’s possible prisoners just haven’t made it past a month.” There were much worse scenarios than the ones Rose suggested, and Yomi knew it. “Once you see for yourself what they do at night, you’ll understand nightfall’s the hint. They do all of the above, depending on how you look at it. Experimentation, definitely. Keep prisoners in line and challenge them to overcome hardship, yes. The thing is, they seem to already know everything there is to know about who, or what, they bring here, so there’s a chance they don’t really need anything from us that they can’t get while we’re here.”
It was a lot of talk for Yomi, talk that appeared to be grounded in the desire to be helpful, despite some of the potential shocks within. But it was no more than what Yomi already thought about on her own, based on information that Rose wouldn’t have trouble finding out in a couple days’ worth of good observation. There were worse ways to spend her morning than theorizing, at any rate.
“As for the field trip, it only happens once a week. You woke up on a special day. Usually it’s sedentary activities around the hospital, and then when the sun goes down… well, that’s the most unusual layer of all. The boogey men come out and you’re the prey.”
Rose disliked being prey. She had far too much experience at it.
Frowning, she studied Yomi as she took the girl's hand, shaking it lightly in greeting, filing the girl's name away in her memory. "Boogey men?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow in inquiry, wondering what that was supposed to mean. Although the idea that whoever was running this place knew all about her made her skin crawl. How had they found that out? Were they the ones that had given her a daylight ring? But that was a rather off gift to give a prisoner, if that's truly what she was.
Things weren't adding up. Rose hated finding herself in the middle of a puzzle she couldn't see all the pieces to.
Rose’s hand was cool and smooth in her own, and after holding it a moment she let go and resumed her earlier position. It had been a while since she had done something so pedestrian as shake a hand. Did this Rose feel similarly or was that a common thing for her?
She offered a slight shrug of her shoulders, letting her gaze drift thoughtfully, before saying, “How do I put it…” Well, it wasn’t that Yomi didn’t have the words--she did, or at least, the exorcist terminology that vastly outweighed “boogey men” or “monsters.” Her speciality wasn’t universal, however. It spoke of her level of knowledge, her career. Unless there was a reason, volunteering that information and inviting the female to ask questions about her served no purpose. She had already tipped Okita and Hijikata off about her skills, and not that long ago, either. “The supernatural. The place becomes infested with all sorts of supernatural phenomena, where most of the creatures are foes. Then when night’s over it all goes away and you wake up in your room again.” Yomi looked at Rose and raised both her brows, conveying a wordless message. Like mist. Like a bad dream. Like something impossible. “Believe it or not.”
Rose went carefully still, her face showing a flicker of surprise before smoothing out again. So the place was infested with supernatural after dark, was it? Well. That was interesting. Maybe she'd fit in here after all. Was this some sort of game? A trap? From what the girl had hinted at, it didn't sound as if she knew, and if she was one of the captives, that was understandable.
But then again, Rose was more than familiar with things that went bump in the night. Hell, in most people's opinions, she was one of those things. The mention of who or what might be lurking after dark intrigued her.
"And what do the military staff do while these... boogey men are wandering around?" she asked, a slender finger tapping absently against the inside of her arm in thought.
Now that she had introduced the name into the waters, hearing boogey men describe what came with the nightshifts made Yomi inwardly smile. Maybe it was apt, after all. Boogey men were for children and the ignorant; if not the former, prisoners of all shapes and forms were at least the latter.
"A good question; the guards tend to disappear when the lights go out. There’s at least some people around to conduct experiments, and one to run the intercom. But then, it could be they’re not even human and show a different side of themselves between day and night," said Yomi. "Anyway, they took over for the "real" hospital staff not too long ago. It seems like we had a few mad scientists running the show before a change in management." Outwardly, she put on a small smile. "Hope that helps."
Rose felt like she'd wandered into the Twilight Zone somewhere along the way. Mad scientists abducting people to experiment on before the military came in and took over the task, with strange things coming out after dark. Sounded like the plots of one of those video games Trevor used to babble about with Slater.
"It does, actually," Rose answered, although really, everything Yomi had told her had only given her more questions, but of the sort Rose figured she'd have to discover for herself. Her instincts warred between the urge to get off the bus in this little town they were approaching and just take off, or stick around for a few days to see just what was going on here. Of course, that was assuming she could just take off. Would her cheerful bodyguard show back up the moment she stepped off the bus, she wondered?
"Thank you," she added, almost as an afterthought, giving the girl beside her a rueful smile. "I appreciate the information. And the head's up about tonight." She paused, thinking of something else as she eyed Yomi thoughtfully. "Do you... will you be alright? After dark, I mean?" She supposed if the girl had survived encounters with the supernatural long enough to be here and give Rose information, she must be clever or different enough to handle herself, but Rose found herself curious all the same.
“No problem. I’m sure you’ll find others who will do the same. Maybe even your friend,” Yomi replied. She didn’t mean this in an ominous sense, or even in an optimistic one. Rose wasn’t alone; there were others of her kind here, if she didn’t already know.
If the field trip happened to turn ugly on top of everything else, Yomi’s warnings were only going to be solidified. This was, after all, the first outing apparently being overseen by someone other than Martin Landel. Yomi couldn’t predict what might happen, whether there would be another flood of spectres, or something else designed to get the prisoners’ blood pumping, so to speak. Surprises could be just around the corner.
And there were the credit cards, too. Yomi had no qualms about using it if it means acquiring something useful, but like the rings, there had to be a catch somewhere.
The female was on a similar train of thought, and when she asked (sincerely, it seemed) if Yomi was going to be okay come dark, a smile appeared on Yomi’s lips, coupled with a slight widening of her eyes born out of curiosity. So many people concerned about me. My, my, what hasn’t been flipped upside down. “You just arrived and you want to know about me?” she asked, a bit of laughter in her voice.
“No. No, wait, you don’t understand!” Rose objected, starting to struggle and finding with astonishment that she couldn’t break free of the human’s freakishly strong grip. Her hazel eyes widened in alarm as she wondered if this were another vampire, or a witch, or something else entirely, since Mystic Falls seemed to attract the unnatural with alarming frequency. “I can’t go out there. Would you stop for a minute?!”
But the woman ignored her and Rose was unceremoniously escorted out the door. She cringed, bracing herself for the burning impact of sunlight on her skin, the inevitable agony of something all humanity took so much for granted.
The pain never came.
Rose barely had time to process the shocked realization of this before she was shoved into a bus, handed a paper bag, and pointed towards one of the empty seats. She sank down in it, feeling shaky and shell-shocked. She wasn’t dead. Again This entire day was just full of impossible events so far, and she stared at the window in sudden breathless anticipation, staring at a small, forbidden beam of sunlight that played against the glass pane.
Lifting fingers that trembled, she brushed her fingertips over that warm beam, watching as it danced against her skin with no pain, no flames, just a simple welcoming warmth that Rose had not felt in 560 years. Only now did she notice the simple silver ring on her second finger, carved in the shape of a rose with a sapphire mounted at its center.
A daylight ring. It had to be. Rose stared at it in awe, a bubble of laughter escaping her before her fingers came to her lips, stifling the sound as she stared out into the sunlight, unafraid of it for the first time in centuries.
[For Yomi!]
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Short of joining with Okita and Hijikata, nothing had really been accomplished from her standpoint, and a lot of her nights ended in the same anticlimactic way. And yet, both Landel and Aguilar continued to rate the prisoners. Five sessions… Those could be the experiments, couldn’t they? It’d been the right night for them, as far as she understood. Three groups, though, what did that mean, exactly? What successes and failures were these people reading in their captive’s efforts? The majority of prisoners didn’t seem to leave the building, and those that did didn’t get very far from the sounds of it. Was it simple data-collecting, having specimens run around the building? And if not that, then what? It could make a certain amount of sense if she and the others were being prepared for something in the future, but in some ways it appeared they were showing their worth now, just as they were, blindfolded, and bound, and bumping into each other in the dark.
It would be one thing if Yomi were dimwitted, too slow to be able to put pieces together as they came, but she wasn’t. They still had too much of an advantage, too many hidden cards. And that was a problem.
With nothing more to do than follow the soldiers’ (terribly disguised as the hospital workers they had replaced) lead, Yomi gave up on last night’s project and turned to dressing and boarding the bus for the fieldtrip. After donning a pair of casual pants and an oversized top layered with the prerequisite coat and gloves--all which added excess weight in fabric that Yomi could really do without--she tromped outside in her boots. The snow was a change of pace. So were the credit cards. She turned hers over in her hands while she waited, lifting her eyes only when it was her turn to board. No one seat was better than another, and she moved to the back of the bus, gauging the occupants absently. She had glimpsed a few of them from the back of the line… Like that female there, sitting alone in a window seat and looking girlishly mesmerized with herself. Yomi had encountered her kind before; having that knowledge made the sight almost amusing. Turning around, Yomi retraced her steps back toward Rose’s seat and put her hand on the backrest. No one seat buddy was that much better than another, either. Why not?
“Having a good morning?” Surely not because of the fieldtrip.
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"You could say that," she answered, a hint of an accent to her voice. Here finally was someone who looked like they knew how to talk, which was just what she needed. "Can you... tell me what's going on here?" Rose asked, choosing her words carefully so she wouldn't show too much ignorance. Wherever Damon had taken her, whatever had been done to stop the curse, it wasn't something she could start babbling about to a complete stranger, but that didn't change the fact that Rose felt completely in the dark about what had happened after her bout of bloodlust.
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Ironically, Yomi seemed to be that person. She could indeed tell, yet Yomi had failed to get the notification that this was supposed to be her duty. A Category A giving tours to every creature that asked? It felt as whimsical as supernaturals with English accents. Then again, Mei had worn her masks until the very last moment. A part of Yomi suspected Category As liked to pretend they were more human than they were at times.
Once they actually got moving, it was going to be a long ride, anyway.
“What’s going on?” she repeated questioningly, keeping her impressions to herself. Before saying anything more, she turned to check on the guards and passengers, then came around the side of the seat to slide in next to Rose. “Which part?” she continued with a smile. “This onion has a few layers to it.”
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Looking a little sheepish as she slid over to make room for the girl who joined her on the bench, Rose resettled comfortably against the side of the bus, glancing up as a few more people were herded onto the bus, but no one that she immediately recognized.
"All of it, I'm afraid," Rose answered after a moment of hesitation, looking back to meet the girl's gaze with an easy smile, if still a bit sheepish. "I think a friend of mine is playing a trick on me. I woke up here with no idea where here is, to be honest. And the person with me when I woke... wasn't overly talkative," she added, her smile turning wry.
Although very little of this made sense. None of it, actually. It had been summer in Mystic Falls. She'd been dying of a werewolf bite,a curse to which there was no cure. Had someone found a cure after all? But that didn't account for the passage of time. Or location? Not to mention that all of a sudden she had a daylight ring and the Salvatore brothers and Elena were nowhere to be found. The more she thought about it, the more confusing it became.
Her head was beginning to ache. And she'd thought life was complicated before she'd stumbled into the mess that was Mystic Fall's supernatural side.
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And so Yomi did, having experienced a similar displacement and lack of answers for why, and how, and who. Even though Yomi comprehended a little more of the captives’ purpose now, the ultimate reason for humans and non-humans alike to be tested to their limits was still beyond her. But fostering a strong, empathetic connection to this woman and to the others like her whom Yomi sometimes spoke to? That was a bit different.
Very different.
“Quite a trick that would be,” she commented. The other had pretty much admitted to being a brand new addition, but that wouldn’t have been hard to figure out after a while of conversation. How to explain things this time, however? Yomi sat back, allowing a moment for thought. “You won’t like hearing it,” she said, adding a solemn air to the rising suspense. “You were given a card when you got on the bus, right? That person on the front, that’s you… an elaborate new identity, anyway. Sounds like playing spy, doesn’t it? But there’s one good reason for doubting anyone you know is behind your being here: everyone on these busses arrived the same way. Abducted. You might call that building you woke up in a holding facility for the abductees.”
Watching how abnormal creatures reacted to the absurd was a little curious, to be honest, quite unlike watching normal, human creatures react to the same.
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Surprisingly, no disbelief showed on her face at what would otherwise be an astonishing revelation. If Yomi had been going for shock, she'd be disappointed. "Abducted," she repeated carefully, her mind already puzzling over this new information, and of the strong woman who'd woken her and hauled her out to the buses. "Military?"
She hadn't had a chance to look at the card yet. She would. She wondered what identity they'd thought would be appropriate for her. Did they know what she was? They had to. Why the daylight ring? And why had her guard been stronger than she was? They were obviously prepared for people who were... not quite people. Did that mean there were other vampires on the bus? Werewolves? Other things that humans just believed as myth?
Her gaze turned back to the girl at her side with new speculation now, wondering about her. "Why? Do you know why they've abducted us here?"
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In reality it wasn't very funny, and this one clearly agreed. The female didn't enjoy hearing about her new home any more than she would enjoy living it. (But then, wasn't tragedy a human concern?)
"Them?" Yomi wagged a finger at the costumed soldiers on the bus. "They're a recent aquisition. But maybe. The world out there seems terribly interested in what goes on here." Perhaps Yomi should have been more rattled, knowing the answer to Rose's final question. The goal of Landel's Institute was still a mystery, and there was no telling if Kagura would return, or versions of her. But the sesshouseki didn't allow for trepidation. "Can't say for sure. I haven't met anyone who's actually seen the ringleaders, let alone figured out their plans, and there've been prisoners here a month or more."
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"Only a month?" Rose asked, turning her attention back to the girl. "This must be a relatively new place, then?"
Still, some of the faces in the nearby seats, those that Rose could see, looked relatively young. To have been abducted from their families, even for a month, without explanation... Even the girl at her side looked young, looked like she was barely out of highschool, if even. She was sure, to many of them, a month felt like a very long time.
She wanted to ask more, but wasn't sure how much this girl would know. "They've given no clue as to what they want? No hint? Do they question people? Train them? Examine them?" There were much worse things that could be done, of course, but there was no need to jump to the worst conclusions and possibly traumatize the girl.
...Which reminded her. "I've been rude. I don't even know your name. I'm Rose," she introduced herself, summoning a wry smile as she tilted her head to the side, studying the girl inquisitively.
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“Anyway, it could be new, but time’s a funny thing here. And it’s possible prisoners just haven’t made it past a month.” There were much worse scenarios than the ones Rose suggested, and Yomi knew it. “Once you see for yourself what they do at night, you’ll understand nightfall’s the hint. They do all of the above, depending on how you look at it. Experimentation, definitely. Keep prisoners in line and challenge them to overcome hardship, yes. The thing is, they seem to already know everything there is to know about who, or what, they bring here, so there’s a chance they don’t really need anything from us that they can’t get while we’re here.”
It was a lot of talk for Yomi, talk that appeared to be grounded in the desire to be helpful, despite some of the potential shocks within. But it was no more than what Yomi already thought about on her own, based on information that Rose wouldn’t have trouble finding out in a couple days’ worth of good observation. There were worse ways to spend her morning than theorizing, at any rate.
“As for the field trip, it only happens once a week. You woke up on a special day. Usually it’s sedentary activities around the hospital, and then when the sun goes down… well, that’s the most unusual layer of all. The boogey men come out and you’re the prey.”
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Frowning, she studied Yomi as she took the girl's hand, shaking it lightly in greeting, filing the girl's name away in her memory. "Boogey men?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow in inquiry, wondering what that was supposed to mean. Although the idea that whoever was running this place knew all about her made her skin crawl. How had they found that out? Were they the ones that had given her a daylight ring? But that was a rather off gift to give a prisoner, if that's truly what she was.
Things weren't adding up. Rose hated finding herself in the middle of a puzzle she couldn't see all the pieces to.
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She offered a slight shrug of her shoulders, letting her gaze drift thoughtfully, before saying, “How do I put it…” Well, it wasn’t that Yomi didn’t have the words--she did, or at least, the exorcist terminology that vastly outweighed “boogey men” or “monsters.” Her speciality wasn’t universal, however. It spoke of her level of knowledge, her career. Unless there was a reason, volunteering that information and inviting the female to ask questions about her served no purpose. She had already tipped Okita and Hijikata off about her skills, and not that long ago, either. “The supernatural. The place becomes infested with all sorts of supernatural phenomena, where most of the creatures are foes. Then when night’s over it all goes away and you wake up in your room again.” Yomi looked at Rose and raised both her brows, conveying a wordless message. Like mist. Like a bad dream. Like something impossible. “Believe it or not.”
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But then again, Rose was more than familiar with things that went bump in the night. Hell, in most people's opinions, she was one of those things. The mention of who or what might be lurking after dark intrigued her.
"And what do the military staff do while these... boogey men are wandering around?" she asked, a slender finger tapping absently against the inside of her arm in thought.
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"A good question; the guards tend to disappear when the lights go out. There’s at least some people around to conduct experiments, and one to run the intercom. But then, it could be they’re not even human and show a different side of themselves between day and night," said Yomi. "Anyway, they took over for the "real" hospital staff not too long ago. It seems like we had a few mad scientists running the show before a change in management." Outwardly, she put on a small smile. "Hope that helps."
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"It does, actually," Rose answered, although really, everything Yomi had told her had only given her more questions, but of the sort Rose figured she'd have to discover for herself. Her instincts warred between the urge to get off the bus in this little town they were approaching and just take off, or stick around for a few days to see just what was going on here. Of course, that was assuming she could just take off. Would her cheerful bodyguard show back up the moment she stepped off the bus, she wondered?
"Thank you," she added, almost as an afterthought, giving the girl beside her a rueful smile. "I appreciate the information. And the head's up about tonight." She paused, thinking of something else as she eyed Yomi thoughtfully. "Do you... will you be alright? After dark, I mean?" She supposed if the girl had survived encounters with the supernatural long enough to be here and give Rose information, she must be clever or different enough to handle herself, but Rose found herself curious all the same.
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If the field trip happened to turn ugly on top of everything else, Yomi’s warnings were only going to be solidified. This was, after all, the first outing apparently being overseen by someone other than Martin Landel. Yomi couldn’t predict what might happen, whether there would be another flood of spectres, or something else designed to get the prisoners’ blood pumping, so to speak. Surprises could be just around the corner.
And there were the credit cards, too. Yomi had no qualms about using it if it means acquiring something useful, but like the rings, there had to be a catch somewhere.
The female was on a similar train of thought, and when she asked (sincerely, it seemed) if Yomi was going to be okay come dark, a smile appeared on Yomi’s lips, coupled with a slight widening of her eyes born out of curiosity. So many people concerned about me. My, my, what hasn’t been flipped upside down. “You just arrived and you want to know about me?” she asked, a bit of laughter in her voice.
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