Night 58: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[train_tracer]

[from here]Turning the corner, Vino found that, in fact, he was very much early, it seemed. Huh. There was no one yet in this central hallway, though if he looked back towards the west side of the building, that strange person with the unnatural-looking white hair had gone down that end of the big hallway. He could still see the whiteness of their

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[promisedawhale]

"W-would you now...?"

Her response of blasting monsters to "smithereens" had been, in Brook's opinion, rather "Luffyish". And given how he'd thought that the girl had a certain navigator's attitude, he couldn't help but feel that he should go along with the young woman. Just in case. Even if she was just a little like either one of the two - both of which could be equally hard-headed - the chance of her getting into a fair amount of trouble remained dangerously high.

With her starting off once more, Brook forced himself forward at a quicker pace than he was used to, wanting to keep up with her since she'd given permission for him to follow. "I wouldn't wish to slow you down in any way," he explained, settling into a groove just behind her as they entered into the next hallway, "My name is Brook, by the way. I'm sorry for not introducing myself sooner. And you would be...?"

As he fished for her name, his large strides suddenly had him catching up to her, and he realized that she had slowed just slightly. Being close enough now, he looked down over her back, noticing that she was watching her hand for some reason. "Is something the matter?"

[bodhiandspirit]

"It's nothing," Rita replied automatically, but then she paused, both in her speech and in her walking. Actually... maybe it was better to say something. If she ended up suffering from severe delusions, it would help to have someone to tell her what was real and what wasn't. She really didn't want to have to rely on a stranger, but if it came to that, she'd rather that stranger be somewhat aware of what was going on.

She sighed with annoyance at the situation, then turned her head to look back (and up, as Brook was considerably taller than she was). "Just before dinner today, they... injected me with something. I think it was the same drug that Aguilar was trying to get people to try last night. I don't know what's going to happen, but right now my best chance is to try and find something that can counteract the drug's effects."

If such a thing even existed, anyway... But damn it, Rita wasn't going to stand around idly and let the military have its way. She had to do something.

"... Rita Mordio," she added as an afterthought, then began walking again. If she was going to be open about what was wrong with her, Rita supposed she might as well give the man her name, too.

[promisedawhale]

"Are you sure...?" Brook tried again, just as quickly as the girl had replied. He knew that such a quick response usually meant that it was most certainly not "nothing". People were always trying to hide their vulnerabilities in this place.

Just as he was about to content himself with simply following along, the girl came to a stop and turned to explain better. With how he'd seen some others respond to getting injected with things, Brook knew that needles were not good things in this place. In fact, they were items that he had no desire to have anywhere near him or others. Especially not when they were such young children. He could not imagine what the young girl had done to earn getting stuck with a needle and injected with anything!

"That sounds absolutely terrible! Are you sure you should be moving around? I mean, wouldn't the drug move quicker or something...?" Brook asked in a rapid fire of questions and concerns, thinking about what the best actions were for this kind of situation. He had a brief moment of wishing that Chopper had been there to say, but shook the thought since he knew it was wishful.

And besides that, she had started walking again. "Rita-san? Are you sure you'll be ok?" he asked again after taking some steps to catch back up.

[bodhiandspirit]

Moving could make the drug act faster...? Yes, that was possible. Rita was a little surprised that the man knew that much, since she'd pinned him for a complete idiot at first. "It's possible, but I'd rather do something and make it worse than sit around and be complacent. I didn't give them permission to use me like a lab rat," she hissed, still walking.

Besides, sitting around idly would be the ideal condition for a controlled test. If Rita couldn't stop them from injecting her in the first place, she could at least try to add enough variables to the test to make the results useless. That was an option she'd have even if she couldn't save herself from the effects. In the absence of anything else to be happy about, that kind of revenge would satisfy her for a brief while.

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