Aug 16, 2011 01:37
Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of
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zero,
klavier,
japan,
tsubaki,
badd,
badou,
anise,
lily,
terra branford,
the doctor,
england,
sam winchester,
firo,
utena,
doctor facilier,
niikura,
claire bennet,
peter parker,
tolten,
snow,
lunge,
brainiac 5,
albedo,
peter petrelli,
tear,
rose (tvd),
damon,
ritsuka,
two-face,
erika,
edgar,
hijikata,
maya,
battler,
zack,
kratos,
l,
america,
sechs,
carter,
jessica drew,
bella,
izaya,
sora,
gren,
claude,
renamon,
guybrush,
byrne,
leanne,
guy,
venom,
rita,
lightning,
castiel,
chise,
trickster,
mikado,
yomi,
riku,
ippo,
meekins,
daemon,
aidou,
edward cullen,
claire stanfield
"That's right, I'm Anise!" she cheerfully replied, smiling brightly. "I bet you're Tolten, right? Go ahead and have a seat!"
She took another bite of her sausage then. Anise was eating pretty slowly today, but she really wanted to be careful about possibly upsetting her stomach. If she took it slow, she was sure she could get all her energy back, no problem.
"You said you're interested in magic, right?" she asked after a few moments. "If you've got any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer!" Not that Anise was really an expert fonist, nor was she a very typical fonist either... but whatever! She still knew a lot of stuff.
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"Yes, I'm Tolten. Thank you, very much. For meeting with me and being so kind." He took a seat across from Anise and folded his hands on the table. He had forgone breakfast again today - he could manage till lunch on last night's dinner. He really did want to know what was the difference between those who were given real food and those who weren't. But there were far more important matters to attend to.
"I'm seeking the aide of magic users, essentially," he explained. "I am a swordsman without a sword, I fear. And from all I understand, an unarmed and alone man has little chance of surviving in this place when the night falls." Unless he stayed in his room, which Tolten was not about to make a habit of.
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"I hate to say it, but magic users aren't any better off," Anise explained with a frown. "I don't know how they do it, but they limit our powers so our artes are really weak. And using them takes a lot more energy, too. I get worn out after two attacks! I could do way better than that back home."
She didn't want to discourage the guy too much, though. If he was a swordsman, he'd be fine so long as he had something to wield, right? "Actually... now that I think about it, I've got a spare weapon. It's just an old pipe, but it's good enough for clobbering monsters. You can have it, if you want." It really wasn't much, but it had saved Anise's life a few times, and it was better than nothing.
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Well, there had always been mages about! Even when he was on the run, he was the only one with no talent whatsoever.
But then Anise made mention of a weapon. A pipe wasn't something Tolten would have thought of as a weapon, but it was something. Anything was better than simply relying on his unwrapped fists. And he could clobber monsters with the best of them, he'd learned that the hard way.
"I would greatly appreciate that, Miss Tatlin." Tolten bowed his head to demonstrate his thanks. "I...I have nothing here, with which to repay you...."
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"Well, if you can't repay me right away, then don't worry about it right away!" Anise replied simply. She did like the idea of having people indebted to her, instead of the other way around... but she wasn't going to make the guy stress himself out over that just yet. "You can just owe me a favor for later or something, hehe."
There was the matter of actually getting it to him, though, so Anise supposed they ought to work the details out. "What's your room number? If it's somewhere close, I can bring it over tonight." And if not, she could always leave it out in her room for Tolten to pick up... though Anise tried not to give her own room number out to too many people. She knew for a fact that not all patients could be trusted.
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"Then when you ask me that favor, and if it is within my power, it shall be done," he promised. He had been told it was difficult to get a weapon, and here he had managed to (hopefully) secure one on his second morning!
"Oh! Ah..." They had changed it, and the young king wet his lips thoughtfully as he tried to remember the new number. He had noted it...
"20. In the men's wing, or so I assume. I don't honestly know if that's close to anything or not. I'm afraid there's still much I don't know about this place." But he'd have time to learn. It hadn't taken him long to abandon any fantasies of rescue he'd had pending the knowledge he couldn't simply escape on his own. He offered an apologetic smile and a small self-depricating laugh. Some things never changed.
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When her question was answered, Anise was quick to give a positive response. "M20? That's not too out of the way. I'll bring it over tonight!" If she was meeting up with her friends, it'd be on the way there. With Claude's injuries, though, she wondered what was going to happen... They'd have to talk about it when they got a chance.
"You're pretty new here, huh?" she went on to ask, though Tolten had made it obvious by that point. It sounded like there was a lot he didn't know, and he didn't sound very confident in the things he did know. Since it wouldn't hurt to share some information, Anise figured it was only polite to offer. "I'm kind of a veteran, since I've been here for a long time. If there's anything else you want to know about, feel free to ask me!"
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That was one way of putting it. He knew so little, he wasn't certain what the right questions were. He knew he had the general idea of what this place was, but...
And then there was the fact that he knew so little of this world. How could he hope to comprehend this place if he didn't even comprehend the world? And Anise was being quite kind.
"I'm from somewhere very different than here," the young king explained. "I'm afraid there's much I don't know, and much I have no hope of learning. I know everyone is taken against their will, I know we come from different worlds, I know the dangers of the nights. I know that escape is essentially impossible." He sighed softly and spread his hands in a somewhat helpless gesture.
"If there's anything else you believe it is of importance I know now, I would be most thankful for the advice."
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"You mean... another planet? That makes two of us," Anise told him with a short giggle. Hopefully, he'd find it reassuring to know he wasn't alone. Sometimes it could feel a little lonely, being surrounded by Earthians who didn't have to worry about adapting to a whole new planet. "I'm from Auldrant. I guess it's not all different - I mean, people still look mostly the same - but the technology here's totally different." And that wasn't even getting into the history, culture, and common knowledge that Anise was still clueless about.
Anyway, since she wanted to help get Tolten catch up on goings-on of the institute... Anise paused, tapping a finger on her chin. Where to even start with that? "Hmm... Do you know about the Head Doctor, or the people on the radio?" Since he'd only been around since the military took things over, there was a chance that Tolten wasn't aware of how things were before Aguilar came along.
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At least he could say things like that and not be regarded as a madman.
"But yes, I'm from a world called Plank. Though you're right, people look mostly the same but our power sources and technology are entirely different. Even our architecture and our fabrics..." It was a the worst manner of culture shock the young king had ever experienced. "And I know the least about the voices over the intercom. I...confess to not realizing the importance of the radio, and I'm afraid I've left it behind me on the nights I've left my room. I've put together what pieces I can...I don't wish to be a bother, and take up someone's important time to explain things to me...."
The apology that he was doing just so to Anise was unspoken, but obvious in the worried twist of frown that turned down Tolten's lips.
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It looked like she'd have to start somewhere, so Anise took a breath and began the somewhat lengthy explanation. "Anyway... the Head Doctor, Landel, was the voice we'd always hear on the intercom. He ran the whole institute until a few days ago, when the military took over. Nobody really misses him, though. He was even worse than these guys," Anise explained, leaning in closer so she wouldn't be overheard too easily. Her last point was something a lot of people would probably argue, but to Anise, Landel was the one person she could never forgive. Aguilar would have to try even harder to earn the sort of hatred that Anise held for the Head Doctor.
"As for the radios... those are kind of a big question mark. The people who use them say they're trying to help us, but... I don't really trust them. Some people said they found equipment and stuff by following the radio's clues, but some people just got led into traps." That was certainly the case with Anise, who was now extremely skeptical about their motives. "The latest guy using the radio... he's been sheltering the Head Doctor, it sounds like. That's pretty suspicious by itself, right?"
Well, maybe Tolten wouldn't fully understand why that bothered Anise so much if he'd never experienced the Head Doctor's cruelty himself. But for Anise, any friend of that murderous bastard was probably an enemy.
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"I can't see any good coming from trusting some unknown voice," he said, frowning thoughtfully. It was one thing to be taken in by a dear friend or loved one, someone you knew and had reason to trust... And he knew he trusted far too easily, but the idea of following the clues from some alien radio transmission....
"Even without the highly suspicious behavior of harboring this place's master," he went on. "Is this place really a medical facility of some sort? I understand the ruse it presents is elaborate, but...it does seem to function as a hospital of sorts. And...if you don't mind, there is something I'd like to ask you about."
The letter he had been given hadn't been forgotten, after all.
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"It's kind of hard to say what it is. I mean, they used to call it a mental hospital, but it's definitely not that. It's more like a research facility, I think. They treat people when they're sick or injured, but most of the time, they're more interested in experimenting on people or doing other awful stuff." And now it seemed more like a military training center... There really was no simple way to explain the institute.
But Tolten said he had another question, so Anise decided to leave her explanation at that and give him a chance to ask. She smiled brightly, hoping that would make him less hesitant to say what he wanted to say. "Of course I don't mind! So long as you're not going to ask me my weight, hehe."
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"I'm sorry," he said, immediately. "I'm...not unfamiliar with the concept of...experiments." Well, it seemed Meekins had been right after all. They did indeed need to do all that was in their power to help their fellow prisoners.
But that did bring things nicely to his question.
"I was given a letter yesterday," he explained to Anise, and he tried to smile at her jest. She truly was being a great help, and he wished he had something he could offer her in return. "It was written in a familiar hand and signed in a name similar to one familiar...."
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His next question brought a small look of surprise to the girl's face, and her smile faded soon after. Anise was able to keep her chin up about most things that went on at the institute, but this was something that really got under her skin.
"I got one too," she said, her voice quiet. "That's... something else they do here. They brainwash people into thinking they're someone that they're not... and then those people try to convince us that we aren't who we think we are, either."
Anise stared down at her plate, realizing now that she'd forgotten her food while getting caught up in her conversation. But now that she remembered breakfast, she didn't feel much like eating it anymore. Just thinking about what those bastards did to her parents, making them forget who they were, who their own daughter was...! Anyone would lose their appetite from that.
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"And why do they wish to change our minds to such an extent? Though...no, he couldn't be involved, else we'd all be nice and mind-wiped now, believing whatever he wanted...." At least there was that. Gongora did not leave much leeway when it came to rearranging someone's memories. Tolten shook his head. "Sorry, I wandered off into wool gathering for a moment. And to what end is all of this done? For the military?"
Well, his own army had its own special mind-addled forces.
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