Day 56: Twin Pines Restaurant (Early Afternoon)
Having spent almost the entire morning in the cold, Edgar finally decided it was time to address his groaning middle. It was hard enough to focus as he thumbed through the coupon book without his stomach doing flips: he was shivering, but still felt tremendous heat radiating from within him. The attempt at a nap on a park bench hadn't helped his
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For the second time that day, he made his way his way into restaurant. This was one of the places that took those coupons, right? Two lunches was quite a bit of food, but he doubted his stomach was going to protest much when he had nearly two days to make up for, and this way, he could probably pass on dinner without getting too hungry. It was nice and warm on the inside, but that extended only to the temperature; the atmosphere was exactly the same. It wouldn't be a problem, if there weren't so many seats taken, but it seemed he wasn't going to be that lucky. At the very least, there was at least one person who didn't seem like they'd be offended by offended by company, so it'd probably best to start there.
"Hey, um, do you mind if I sit here?" he greeted politely. Hopefully he wouldn't mind too much. Most of the other choices seemed like they'de just get uncomfortable fairly quickly.
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When he realized that someone was approaching, Guy had figured it would be the waiter bringing him his hot chocolate, but instead he was faced with a red-haired young man who was asking to join him. Guy didn't recognize him, but he couldn't imagine one of the townspeople would have made such a bold move. He was supposedly dangerous, after all. They all were.
"Ahh, of course not," he said with a smile as he gestured across the booth. "My name's Guy Cecil. It's nice to meet you." In truth, that remained to be seen, but it was rather rare for him to meet someone here who he actively disliked. Sync was an exception. And as for that Dahlia girl, at least it seemed like she'd disappeared.
And, even if he had had his reservations (which he didn't), manners were manners.
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"Battler Ushiromiya," he responded with a smile. Everyone he'd met so far seemed to have a Western name, so that order was probably the most appropriate. "Nice to meet you too! Sorry to drop in on a total stranger, but I figure those creepy looks are easier to deal with when you have company, so..." he explained, shrugging.
Since they didn't seem to have any hot tea, he ordered himself a coffee from a passing waitress, before slipping into booth and flipping open the menu. The food here was a bit different than he was used to, from what he was seeing, but that wasn't really a bad thing. Trying something new could be kind of fun, after all.
"So, you're probably not from around here, right? Have you been here long?" he provided conversationally. It was probably a bit of a heavier subject than he would have liked in normal cases, but it wasn't like he could keep avoiding the issue. ... If anything, that would just make things worse.
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"You don't have to worry," he said with a shake of his head. "I think with how fast the cafeteria fills up, everyone is used to sharing meals with strangers." Guy had to admit it had been a little awkward at first, but he was definitely over that by now. It looked like Battler had noticed how the townspeople were viewing them; Guy wondered if he knew the reason why.
When Battler ordered his coffee, Guy put in his order for some seafood pasta -- he'd managed to find a compromise, even though it was mainly shellfish. The fact that they even had something like that was impressive, since he had no idea where the ocean was in relation to this place.
"Not from around here is a good way to put it," he replied to Battler's question, laughing briefly. "I've been here pretty long, though. I'm S rank, for what that's worth. It's been... over thirty days. Maybe forty?" he mused as he tapped a salt shaker against the table idly.
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".... An entire month?" he reiterated in surprise, frowning. It wasn't too long on most terms, but in a place like this, separated from home, the length held more significant meaning. He'd been thinking that he'd just make his way through somehow, but... he hadn't really thought about how long it could take. Was that what he was in for? Weeks and weeks of slowly trying put things together...?
"Sorry. That sounds kind of rough. I've only been here since a couple nights ago, but I can already tell you I don't really like it." He could have said that from the very beginning, really, but learning more only seemed to cement that. So to be stuck for that long .... He really didn't want to imagine it.
One of the waitresses interrupted his thoughts with the coffee he'd ordered. It was nice to have a hot drink on a day like this, and he'd definitely been missing caffeine already, but now he was starting to half-wonder if he shouldn't have gone with something without it instead. .... Well, whatever. Since he'd already eaten plenty that day and was now just making up what had been lost, he ended up ordering some kind of Western style soup, since that would probably be easier to get down than something solid. That accomplished, he turned back to the conversation.
"Say, um. Can I ask you about what things were like before? I keep hearing about how things have shifted, but since I haven't seen it myself, I wouldn't really know the difference. It's probably better to have the whole picture, right?" That was how he viewed it, at least. The changes had to mean something, but it would be hard to tell what without any knowledge of what it came from.
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The only possibility of that happening was if the place someone came from was somehow worse than Landel's, but Guy didn't even want to think too hard on that. It was thoughts of his own home that kept him going most of the time, after all.
Pausing for a moment so that Battler could take his coffee, Guy figured that soup was also a pretty good choice for something to eat on a day like this. He was sure that his pasta was going to take a bit longer, so he did his best to relax. That was the whole point of this trip, wasn't it?
The next question that Battler posed for him was simple enough to answer, though he didn't know if it was something he could sum up briefly. "Well," he started, "I'm not sure how much you've heard, so sorry in advance if this is redundant. Still, when I first woke up here, there weren't any soldiers to be seen. We were never even informed that the military was involved. All we were told was that we were in a mental institution and that our lives as we remembered them were delusions."
He was in top explaining form at the moment, wasn't he? Jade would have been proud. "Nurses and orderlies were the ones who watched over us, and a head doctor by the name of Martin Landel spoke to us over the intercom. He was... a bit more involved than General Aguilar is." It was possible that Aguilar was just doing what he could to seem uninvolved when he actually was, of course. "If people got in trouble, they were sedated or put in solitary confinement rather than being put on report, and there were no ranks, obviously." Those were the biggest changes that came to mind for Guy, though he wouldn't be surprised if Battler had some clarifying questions after all that.
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He thought back on how he'd had it described to him, like he'd somehow landed in one of the circles of hell. He hadn't experienced anything on quite that level, but that didn't automatically make it easy or mean there weren't things about it getting under his skin. He could already see where it might start to weigh in more heavily the longer it went, especially if things kept progressing as they had been. He shook his head slightly, glad for the small joke Guy added on. Despite the subject matter, there was no reason they couldn't keep things light, was there?
"Well, if I'm going to be stuck here for a while, at least I'll be in good company," he grinned. "That has to count for something, right?"
He fell silent after that, taking sips of his drink as he listened to Guy's explanation. Some of it sounded familiar, like how the one in charge refused to acknowledge them as who they actually were, and the rest, while something of a rehash, really did sound pretty different. The idea of insanity added a degree of subtlety to everything, where armed soldiers openly asserting their authority made their real situation of being trapped against their will almost painfully obvious. Why make such a bold move? ... Maybe they were just that confident in their own position. Of course, that assumed the old and new management systems were after the same goal, which wasn't necessarily the case.
"He got thrown out, didn't he? The Head Doctor, that is," he thought aloud. At least, that's what he'd heard. Something about a lack of progress, from what he'd heard from the announcements. It made him remember the one from the close of night, the one that seemed to imply that their actions were predetermined, and that they were fighting for them rather against them, and could feel himself getting irritated all over again. .... Some experiment, treating people more like pawns than actual human beings. .... Pawns? Now that he thought about it....
".... It's creepy. That ranking system." He'd seen people talking about it, on the board, and they'd all seemed to reach the same consensus: the longer the time spent, the higher the rank. And apparently, the ones at the top had special privileges.
"I heard someone say maybe it's to cause division, but I haven't really seen anything like that. It kind of sucks being one of the ones not being able to have real food, but that's something you'd more hold against the ones in charge. .... You've been hearing what that guy's been saying, right? About there not being enough progress here, and us only being rats in a maze. And then, before the other night ended, about us earning the uniform changes, as if there's no real choices at all. Isn't that kind of like ... the people who've been here longer have a higher value to them? Because the longer you're here, ... the more you've probably accomplished to meet their ends."
That was--... He kind of felt like laughing, suddenly. Play it off like some kind of a bad joke or an overactive imagination, but as much he wanted to feel like he was only overthinking things, it seemed to make a certain degree of sense. .... Well. That was only true based on what he knew. In fiction, there were a lot of stories like that. One answer would seem inevitable, but at the very end, a single piece of overlooked evidence would change the entire outcome of the story. Guy would know more than he did, right? ... Maybe there was something like that.
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"It counts for a lot, yeah," he said, wanting to reinforce the point for the other man. "I've managed to keep it together mainly because of the friends I've made, both from home and those I've met here." There were two people he was thinking of in particular, but he didn't need to get into those details with someone he was just getting to know.
When asked about what had happened to Landel, Guy was quick to nod. "He did. I didn't get to witness it, but you can imagine how people were talking after that happened." There had still been no hint or sign given of what had happened to the Head Doctor, which Guy was surprised by. Was it really possible that he was gone for good? He couldn't believe it so easily, and yet he had to wonder nonetheless.
As for the ranking system, this was the first time that Guy had heard it referred to as creepy, but he could see how it might unsettle a civilian. (Not that he was certain that that was what Battler was, but it was a safe guess for now.) He wasn't even that comfortable with it himself, seeing how he'd never joined any sort of armed forces during his lifetime, even if he'd been heavily exposed to it over the years.
Though as Battler continued to work through his theories of how the rankings worked, Guy's expression became darker. If they were really just working for the people in charge in the end, then the man had a point. He and Claude and Anise had all done their fair share of contributing to the "cause" in that case. Still, in the end he wanted to give an unbiased answer. "You could be right. I do think they're aiming to set us all against each other, but whether it'll work is another story. It's hard to admit that everything we're doing might just be playing into their hands, but they're definitely presenting it that way at this point. Like we're all just being watched to see if we can jump through their hoops." That thought wasn't going to stop him from looking for a solution to their problem, of course, but he had to admit it was sobering.
Their conversation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of the food. His pasta was steaming and he could see the mussels and clams waiting to be devoured. Having a good meal to eat would certainly help break up this conversation, too. Guy grabbed for his fork and started to twist some of the pasta around it.
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But it was kind of funny, if he thought about it. Even in the most horrible situations, you could never quite say there was nothing but bad. Sometimes it was because of unpleasant circumstances that you could find something to hold onto. Or at least, that had been his experience. He supposed not everyone was going to think something so optimistic when things got nasty.
.... Ahh, geez, now he was getting all sentimental. At least it hadn't been out loud. That would've been kind of embarrassing, especially in front of someone he didn't know so well. But even though Battler had mostly been kidding when he'd made that comment, if Guy was going to go as far as making a point of it, he wasn't about to ignore it. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind," he acknowledged.
In a conversation like this, however, it was hard to stay smiling for too long. He couldn't say there were many times he'd actually like to be proven wrong, but this was definitely one of those them. ...... So, it really was a possibility. That, whether by presentation or by design, they were simply playing into the enemy's hands. If so, it wouldn't be the first time he'd been pitted against himself, but in this case, how to break free of that became much less clear. If their actions really were determined, just where did that leave everyone....?
When the food arrived, he took his soup gratefully, more than a little glad for the interruption. Things had suddenly gotten kind of tense, hadn't they? He remembered a time when he would have actively avoided that kind of thing, but there were times when it really couldn't be helped. ... Was it just a product of a harsh situation, or was it a sigh he was starting to grow up a little? It was kind of hard to say. He took a spoonful of his meal thoughtfully, more preoccupied on the atmosphere than the taste of the food. Not to say that it wasn't good, but it was a little hard to enjoy with this heavy feeling beginning to settle in.
"Still... Doesn't that kind of piss you off?" He smirked slightly. "I don't know about you, but if I see something like, 'don't press this button,' that just makes me want to slam it really hard instead! This is exactly like that. If they think they can push us into doing whatever so easily, then I definitely want to prove them wrong."
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Guy continued to focus on his food even as Battler went quiet for a moment. He could practically see the gears turning in the other patient's head as he worked through his thoughts. There was nothing wrong with being a critical thinker, of course. The only problem was that most of the puzzles that this place presented couldn't be solved, and for people who prided themselves in figuring things out, it could quickly become frustrating.
As for the question that Battler eventually asked, Guy definitely was pissed off by this whole thing. He wouldn't have quite put it that way, but he knew where Battler was coming from, possibly even better than Battler did himself since he had been here so long. He finished his bite of food, wiping at his mouth with a napkin before nodding.
"Of course it does. But that's the tough thing about this place. If what you're saying is true and everything we're doing is actually just helping them, then the alternative would be to do nothing. But... I can't just give in that easily." Ceasing to struggle simply to be contrary and not give the military what they wanted would only dig them further into the hole, wouldn't it?
"Even if some of it might be helping them, I've got to keep trying to find a way out of this place. Eventually we'll have to stumble across something that they didn't expect, or achieve something that they didn't think possible." It was more Luke's job to give speeches like this, but Luke wasn't here, was he? And Guy could be eloquent about it, if nothing else.
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"Well, I wouldn't suggest anything like that, exactly. It's the opposite, in fact. Just like you're saying, sitting around wouldn't help them, but it wouldn't help us, either. If everyone really is being maneuvered like that, wouldn't doing nothing just be the same thing as admitting defeat? ... It'd be like saying you can't do anything, because they really are in control and there's no real way to fight back. I can't accept something like that at all...! There has to be a way, right? To throw a wrench in their gears and totally mess up their plans."
They seemed to agree, at least, that laying back and not trying wasn't an option, even if their approaches were totally different, by the sound of that last part. "Escaping, huh....? I wonder about that," he thought aloud. To be honest, he hadn't put much consideration into it. Not to say that he intended on sticking around-no way in hell-but that was just it. Was that really going to fix everything...? It ran a bit deeper than that, didn't it?
He kept his thought to himself, for now. Not that he was going to keep it a secret, but Guy seemed pretty set on his course of action, and Battler had no intention of finding fault with it. With so many people here, there were bound to be different ways of looking at things. Everyone was going to do the way that they felt was right. And even if they weren't quite the same, he was never going to look down on someone trying to fight with everything they had.
"... That's right. Something like that will definitely be found." It wasn't sympathetic or encouraging, but straight-forward and full of confidence, like what he was saying was already true. "I'm not so naive I think everything's going to be easy, but there's something to be said about willpower, right? Giving in is the one condition that absolutely ensures your defeat. As long as we don't do that, we're sure to come up with something."
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"Right. There has to be a way. So long as you're willing to stick through the long haul and accept that this is going to take some time, then you'll be all right." There was no way of knowing how much longer they would be stuck here. It could be a year, it could be more than that. They might be lucky and it would be less. This was the longest that Guy and his friends had been stuck in one dilemma like this, but he wasn't going to let that scare him. They were stronger than this.
It seemed that Battler wasn't so set on the idea of escape, though. Even if he'd just made a vague comment, Guy had gone through this conversation enough times to know what the redhead was getting at. "And it might not be escape. It might be a way to shut them down, a way to return people's powers, or some sort of technology that can send us all home. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, but it's just easier to call it escape."
Because in the end, that was what everyone wanted: to go home. If they were able to tear down this military and whatever was backing it before that, then all the better. Guy just didn't know if they would be capable of that. On the other hand, he and his friends had stopped Van from destroying the world, so he wasn't about to say that anything was impossible. Just close to it, maybe.
Either way, his pasta was delicious, and Guy paused for a moment to continue eating the spaghetti and the seafood with it. He'd have to remember to come back to this place next trip.
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As for the rest, there were a few things he could have said in return, but before he could really entertain them, something in what he was saying distracted him enough to make him forget about the subject completely. "Um, sorry, but. Powers....?" Was he hearing that right...?
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Guy had mentioned it without even thinking, seeing how it was common knowledge for most people here. Battler was new, so Guy should have at least considered that he might not know, but it hadn't even crossed his mind. Then again, things like Artes and the Score probably seemed magical to people not from Auldrant, so it was all a matter of perspective, wasn't it?
"Ahh, yeah, sorry. Powers. A lot of people had some sort of ability that they could do before coming here, whether it's healing wounds or being able to light monsters on fire." He was seriously dumbing this down, but it seemed like that might be the best choice for someone who was only now being exposed to the idea. "But upon coming here, those powers are either weakened or taken away entirely. To make things harder, I guess." He didn't see why the military would want to keep those dampeners in place, but it was probably to make sure that they didn't all combine their strength and bust out of here.
"If you're that used to being able to do something and suddenly you can't, well..." It could feel like being crippled. It was a good thing that Guy didn't need Artes to fight. His sword would do him just fine.
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