Day 24: Recreational Field

[untime]

The second thing Riku noticed was that this Landels had the smell of a room that'd been drenched in bleach. Possibly one that had marinated in it for a longer period than it should have. Still, what it smelled like (aside from darkness) wasn't important in this instance, it was the facade the building had taken. A fairly solid one, in the way of

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[flash_of_blue]

Elfangor felt a wave of relief as he stepped outside. He looked around and then frowned, once again his mouth didn't move the expression was only in his eyes. There was a fence around the entire yard. A fence. He made his face as emotionless as possible. It is only the Yeerks trying to play mind games, don't give them the benefit of seeing you worry. Still, there was the tinge of claustrophobia that he couldn't really escape.

He wanted to take off the slippers the nurse had put on him and run in grass, but it wouldn't have to same calming affect it had on him in his normal body. He didn't want to think of the soft human feet that needed to be protected from the dangers of the ground. He had always hated shoes and socks.

He needed to be formulating some sort of plan. The shock of being eaten by Visser's morph and then suddenly stuck in human morph had worn off. He felt ashamed of how he had acted when he woke, first being so stunned as to fall off the bed and then being unable to take action when a Yeerk finally did confront him. Pathetic really. He wondered what the other princes would say about his inactivity.

He stared at the people already outside. They wore the same strange clothing as he did, but did that mean that they too were being held by the Yeerks? Or were they Controllers themselves? For that matter, why had the Yeerks gone to all the trouble of making sure Elfangor would survive the Visser's morph, turn him into a human nothlit and not infest him? They must have wanted something very specific from him. But what? He would have to find out. He was certain this wasn't the work of Visser Three, it was much too indirect. The problem was he wasn't sure if that was good thing or a bad thing. Visser Three he understood, this new Visser was a completely different Yeerk.

There was another problem. He had been on this planet for several minutes and his body had yet to sync up to the rotation. It had to be a planet, he didn't feel or hear any signs of it being spacecraft. The color of the sky and the plants around him made him believe that it had to be Earth, but it had only taken him seconds to feel Earth's rotation before. The only clue he had to what time of day it was was the sky above him. He didn't like that. How could they disturb his sense of time so completely?

Despite his nurse's glare he didn't want to join in with any sort of games, though a walk sounded nice to clear his head. He wanted his stalk eyes back so he could watch the people around him without having to turn his head so much, but he also couldn't afford to not watch them. He didn't think he could trust anyone. They could all be Controllers.

[qui_gonjinn]

[Hopefully it's okay if Qui-Gon jumps in? :P]

Lunch had been somewhat productive, Qui-Gon Jinn reflected as he was led down the winding halls to this "recreation field". While he hadn't come any closer to discovering a way out of Landels or even learning more about Martin Landel in particular, he had gleaned some more information about Earth itself from Max. The planet, according to her, was mostly water with several large landmasses and one satellite (no mention if the Earthians had established anything on that moon or not, though). There was that, and the fact that his choice of hairstyle was apparently "strange" by Earthian standards.

I must speak with Obi-Wan next chance we have, Qui-Gon thought as he entered the recreational field. He could smell that wet scent of freshly cut grass, which was generally a greenish color here on Earth and not particularly high (or dangerous). The Jedi Master took a moment to glance around, taking in patient positions as well as where the staff where.

It was probably an exercise in futility, but it was more out of habit than anything else that Qui-Gon reached out in the Force to see what he could sense. Fear, anger, pain and hatred; these seemed to be the most common emotions he could discern from a feeble scan of the room, dotted here and there with those strange holes in the Force where the staff where.

A walk would probably help him collect his thoughts - this place was hardly the Room of a Thousand Fountains, but it was much more condusive to meditation and reflection than a noisy cafeteria. Qui-Gon started down the path, glancing up and realizing he wasn't the only one who had this idea.

[flash_of_blue]

[Of course it is!]

Elfangor saw the man come close to him. His expression was blank, though the suspicions were still there. He needed to gather information and the only way to do that was to talk. Better to use mouth-sounds for now as well, because some of the people here may not know who he was. The Yeerks had reason to hate him and if all of them were Controllers he thought it was safer if he pretended to be human. Not that difficult. He had done it for three years. It should be... what was the expression? "Like riding a bike". He was proud that he remembered, despite the fact that he had never felt very comfortable on bikes.

"Hello," he said by way of greeting. "My name is Alan." It was strange to hear his voice say that name (though hearing his voice outside was strange anyway) because it had been so long since he had used it. Still, no reason to think of another. It was the name that Loren had given him after all. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but I recently woke up here and I was wondering. Are you a prisoner as well? Who is the Visser in charge of this facility?"

[qui_gonjinn]

"Visser?" Qui-Gon echoed. He hadn't ever heard that term before, but perhaps it was some kind of Earthian slang that was interchangeable for the position of Head Doctor? "The only person I know who is in charge of this place is a man called Martin Landel."

It saddened him to realize that this young man before him was another victim - a fairly new one, if he didn't know the general specifics of where he was now - of Martin Landel's manipulations. As far as he could tell, there wasn't a readily apparent rhyme or reason to what made Landel chose the people he abducted from their worlds; a reminder that Qui-Gon didn't know much, if anything, of the man. It would be difficult to attempt to counter him if he was still as much of a mystery as he was now.

The Jedi Master dipped his head slightly. "I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," he said by way of introduction. "And I, too, am a prisoner. Most of us are," he said, gesturing around him, and looked pointedly at the staff. "And as far as I understand it, none of us know how we arrived here."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji would have actually liked the chance to run around in something other than the foul halls of Landel's at night. It would have been fun to do something for a change that wasn't related to survival. However, he had things to do, and speaking with Qui-Gon was, in his opinion, more important than some fun that was ultimately useless.

He spotted Qui-Gon before he sportted Captain Hitsugaya, which was fine. Renji knew he was pretty easy to spot, even in a crowd, so he figured that the captain would be able to find him easily.

Renji walked over to where Qui-Gon was speaking to another person; he hated interrupting people that he respected - of which Qui-Gon was one - so he kept a polite distance for now. It was always possible that this was an important conversation that he should leave alone.

[flash_of_blue]

Elfangor took in the information that the man gave him without words. 'Martin Landel' was not a Yeerk name and 'Qui-Gon Jinn' was not a human name, at least not one from the country in which he and Loren had lived. Then again, humans were strange creatures and it was possible that some would name their child strange names. Still... why lie about the leader's name? Or was it simply that the Visser in charge of this place had a human host and preferred to go by that name? That was certainly uncalled for. No Visser preferred its host name. There was the possibility that it was not a Visser who controlled this place at all, but rather a lower ranking Yeerk. Elfangor had to consider that, but his ego felt a little bruised. He was 'Elfangor the Yeerk Killer'. His name had become a curse word in the Yeerk language. Why would they entrust his fate to anything less than one of the feared Yeerk generals?

'Qui-Gon' must either have been ignorant or lying.

There was someone following them, close enough to listen in. Once again, Elfangor hated the fact that in order to look at him he actually had to turn his head. Distracting himself from where he was going caused him to trip slightly over a rock on the ground. He didn't fall, but he came close.

So much for being a great and graceful Andalite war prince and hero.

He hated having only two legs.

[qui_gonjinn]

Alan seemed to be at a loss of words - or, perhaps, was simply trying to absorb all this in - and Qui-Gon gave him breathing room to get things in order. Different people took their newfound capitivity in different ways. Qui-Gon glanced around and noticed that Renji was hanging at a respectful distance, looking as if he wanted to talk but didn't want to interrupt whatever the other two were doing.

Qui-Gon nodded to him and gestured him over. Was this about what he mentioned on the bulletin board? The Jedi was about to ask when he realized that it would be better to get everyone introduced first.

"Renji, this young man is Alan; he arrived very recently," Qui-Gon said, frowning meaningfully. Renji was probably just as new as he was, but he had to recognize the implications of even more people being kidnapped through time and space.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji closed the few steps to speak with the two men. He did note that Alan tripped; it happened to people, sometimes, though. Renji himself had his less than graceful moments, though he'd managed to mostly avoid such things here. At least when Rukia wasn't around.

He nodded. Introductions first. "Abarai Renji," he said. Alan was no Shinigami, that was certain, and seemed pretty young, though there was definitely something to him. Out of habit, Renji bowed, though it was more of a polite nod than anything. He frowned slightly, trying to get some sort of handle on the feel of Alan's spirit, though with little success.

"There are a lot of new people coming in today, so far," Renji said. "One of 'em even tried to attack me at lunch because they thought I was a demon or something." Yes, this definitely wasn't good. Because it seemed like every time a batch of new people showed up, there were more of them. "And Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro was brought here this morning, around breakfast. This is very worrying." He frowned. "And I tried to find another person this morning who is simply gone. Though it's possible he could have died alone in the night. I wouldn't have known." Not like with Kurosaki; if he'd gone out fighting, all of the Shinigami would have known.

[flash_of_blue]

"Japanese..." Elfangor said carefully. At least, he hoped he was right. It had been a very long time since he had studied Earth cultures, it hadn't exactly been accessible aboard Andalite Domeships. He wondered how many countries has been infested by the Yeerks.

So far these two did seem to be speaking as if they were indeed prisoners but he couldn't trust that they were not infected.

"Demons?" he asked. A silly superstitious term. The only powers such as those that existed were the Ellimist and whatever foe he played his game with. He sighed and shook his head, rubbing his eyes as a headache came to him, already easily falling back into human expressions of exasperation. "I have a few questions I would like to have answered. What rank is this 'Martin Landel'? If he is not a Visser than he must be higher, correct? The Empire is not the type to trust an establishment such as this to any lesser ranking officer. For that matter, why are you two being held by the Council of Thirteen? Are you Controllers or not? If so is it that you have offended them in some way or that your hosts have? What is the current situation with the war?" There were no pauses between questions, and each was asked with no emotion. He wanted simple, straight-forward answers.

It was taking a big risk, exposing himself like that, but he had already 'died' once by the hands of Visser Three. He doubted anything these two would be as gruesome as that. He figured it was possible that because they were prisoners they had no reason to lie to him about being infested... if they were prisoners at all.

[qui_gonjinn]

Qui-Gon blinked at the onslaught of questions. While he was sure they were very pressing for Alan, he was sorry to say that he didn't have much in the way of answers; for starters, he wasn't sure what a Visser was (still), who this Council of Thirteen was or even what a Controller was. The mention of a host made it sound like it involved some kind of parasite. For some reason "Empire" struck him as vaguely ominous, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it or why he felt uneasy. Maybe it was something Obi-Wan mentioned in passing, because he found himself thinking back to that clone soldier.

The Republic was no Empire. Or it wasn't yet, at any rate, although he'd been seeing the signs of corruption for some time now. But the fact it now had its own army, sanctioned by the Jedi, seemed to be some big warning signs that pointed in all the wrong directions.

Frowning, Qui-Gon shook his head, holding up a hand. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," he interjected before he could get more questions thrown at him. "I wish I knew the answers to all your questions, I really do. But I only know that every 'patient' here woke up here without any recollection as to how, and that the man in charge is a man identifying himself as Martin Landel. He appears to be the mastermind of this facility, as far as I can tell."

The graying Jedi Master paused.

"But he is no ordinary man, from what I could sense," Qui-Gon added quietly, glancing from Renji to Alan.

He was curious to learn more about this young man. About his world, his customs - it sounded bleak. It didn't sound like he was from the Republic. After all, he'd made a reference to this "Japan" country Qui-Gon had seen the Earthians mentioning on that bulletin...and while the Earthians were a strange, baffling brand of human, they did seem to share several things with the rest of the civilized galaxy. It wasn't surprising to hear that they, too, were no strangers to war.

"He has powers that appear to be impossible. He has brought the dead back to life and seems capable of reaching across countless distances - even time itself - to take his prisoners whenever he pleases," Qui-Gon finished.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji stared at Alan, his expression going from puzzled to utterly baffled. "I don't understand your crazy moon language," he said, at the end of the deluge of questions.

"I've never heard of an Empire other than the one that I was born under in Japan, which doesn't exist any more. The only thirteen of anything I know's the Gotei Thirteen, which I'm bettin' sounds as familiar to you as all that stuff sounds to me. And unless 'Controller' is somethin' completely different from what it sounds like, I ain't that. I'm somethin' you've never heard of." He cleared his throat. "You probably aren't where you're from any more. I mean, like different world and all."

Renji's mouth set into a grim line at the subject of the Head Doctor. "The Head Doctor is human," he said. "But he is also like a Hollow. He must be - and will be - defeated."

[flash_of_blue]

Elfangor watched them both very carefully. There were describing things that seemed to be akin to the powers of the Ellimist. Taking people from different times and places? Bringing back the dead? The fact that he was on a world different from his own wasn't shocking, he had been studying the ways of Zero space travel since he was a small child. He still couldn't trust either of them, but he had to know. Either this Landel character was a powerful Yeerk, he was like the Ellimist or he had somehow discovered something like the Time Matrix. Elfangor felt responsible for the Time Matrix. He had been the one to use it and to hide it. He had to know which it was.

"Neither of you have heard of the Yeerk Empire? Or the Andalite fleet that fights them? You have no idea that a Controller is someone controlled by a Yeerk?" Elfangor said 'Yeerk' with hatred in his voice, the tone that only an Andalite could bring to the word. "A Yeerk is a slug-like parasite that crawls into its host's ear canal and flattens out around his or her brain. Once the infestation is complete the Yeerk has complete control of the host, the host can not so much as move their eyes or twitch their fingers without the Yeerk doing so for them. They are trapped in their own minds, able to see everything that goes on but unable to do a single thing about it. The Yeerk has total access to their memories and thoughts and is therefore able to flawlessly act as them, fooling everyone into believing that the host is not infested. In this way, the Yeerk can infiltrate the host's family and friends with the intention of either killing them or dooming them to the same fate. All the while all the host is utterly powerless to stop them." A slight pause. "Neither of you have ever heard of these things?"

He looked from one man to the other, careful not to trip this time. His expression clearly showed that he still wasn't sure he wasn't talking to Controllers.

This was the same explanation he had given to the five children before he died... or at least before Visser Three attempted to kill him. It felt strange to be describing these things over again, even if with the children he was trusting and open, while with these two men he was being cold and slightly paranoid.

[qui_gonjinn]

Qui-Gon was more than glad he hadn't; for starters that was adding another level of distrust and paranoia that he simply didn't need. He hadn't heard of any species called Yeerks or Andalites, but ignorance of their existance didn't mean they could discredit them entirely either. Qui-Gon was fairly sure that he wasn't infested by this Yeerk creature, but the fact they could "flawlessly" act as their host laid open suspicion toward everyone else he met, especially if this parasite was preying on one of the Earths.

Was Obi-Wan...no. He probably wasn't, was he? There would be two lives in one, if that was the case, and the Force should be able to pick something like that out even if Qui-Gon was severely weakened.

"I can't say I'm familiar with any of that, no," Qui-Gon said, sounding troubled. He would have to see if he could check Obi-Wan without directly alerting him to his fears in case he was infected. "I spoke with other Earthians and they haven't mentioned either these 'Yeerks' or 'Andalites'. Most of them seemed unable to understand civilizations outside of their own..."

While he wasn't sure if there was anything dangerous about Andalites, he decided he'd have to inform Obi-Wan about these Yeerks as soon as possible (well, as soon as he had determined the young man was clear of the parasites). It was another danger they hadn't even thought of, another facet of Earthian life that they couldn't predict. It only served to remind Qui-Gon that he was a very, very long way from what was familiar and that there were dangers in the now that he would have to learn about fast or suffer the consequences.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji stared at Alan some more. He was starting to feel like he'd ran head first into a science fiction novel. "I have no clue what you're talking about," he said. "There are Hollows that can do that to people, sometimes. And modified souls can run a body. But... no. Definitely never heard of all that. Haven't seen anything like that, either. And... well, unless they're adept at hiding their reiatsu, I would've noticed that kind of thing around, at least before I got brought here."

He looked at Qui-Gon, noting the tension in the man. "I don't think I'd worry about it all that much. We got enough problems here already."

He turned back to Alan. "I think you should seriously consider that we're not in your world." He stopped walking for a moment, frowning, and just tried to concentrate on whatever he might be able to sense from Alan's spirit. He wasn't holding his breath, but this guy was starting to weird him out a little, with all the crazy talk.

[flash_of_blue]

Qui-Gon, at least, was reacting in a way where he seemed truly distressed by the idea. Elfangor felt that if the man wasn't a Controller he would be able to trust him, but that was a moot point until he could know for sure.

Elfangor turned his attention to Renji. He openly frowned with his eyes, unable to stop the expression from appearing even if he still was forgetting that humans used their mouths to express themselves as well. "Of course I am not on my world. The idea of other dimensions and other worlds is not a new one to me." Despite the fact that he was an Andalite he did not sound arrogant as he said it. He also did not sound like he were explaining things to a child, as other Andalite may have when speaking to what they thought was merely a human. "I must find out how it was that his Landel was able to create such a place, though, and I must know if you two are Controllers. You could understand that trust is not something I can easily give to men I do not know."

A bit of his paranoia was out of his voice. He sounded more like he was trying to be open to the idea that he was not surrounded by enemies but that he also couldn't relax completely. The fact remained that it was possible that this was all a Yeerk set up.

"The Yeerks are not usually the type of species to use such a complex system such as this for their prisoners. If it was as simple as being captured by them all they would have to do to be is infest me, then they would know all my secrets and be able to control my body to their will. Instead they have trapped me here, after I was eaten alive by the only Andalite-Controller in existence." If they were unaware of who he was before there was no way they wouldn't know after he said that. Visser Three would not be the type to keep what he had done silent. It was a dangerous test, Elfangor doubted that a Yeerk would be able to stand to talk to him without some kind of break in their act... unless they had known from the beginning of the conversation.

[whiteychan]

While in soul society Hitsugaya might have welcomed to strict routine, anything forced by a foreign captor was decidedly unwelcome. The day seemed to go by far too quickly, and he still did not feel informed enough to deal with what Renji had indicated would come when night fell. Thankfully, the reiatsu was slowly returning to him, which meant that he would have strength enough to lead his team that night.

Wandering out into the field, he noticed Renji standing with two other men. Likely one, if not both, were individuals the other shinigami had intended for him to meet. Though he would never admit to it, having someone else to rely on to help others get past his apparent age was a significant boon. Had he been the only shinigami present, without the advantage of his zanpakuto or his kido to assert his position, he likely would have been treated like a child. Thus far that was mostly not the case.

He approached slowly, nodding politely to the gentlemen standing with Renji. "Abarai-fukutaicho," he said in greetings. "I hope I am not interrupting. Tsukiyono Omi will be joining me tonight."