Day 59: Sun Room (4th Shift)
After an intercom broadcast like that, Kurogane felt somewhat better about the little information he'd gotten from Harrington the previous night. The man only sounded competent when he needed to but was an idiot otherwise. Unfortunately that was furthered proof of the General not employing the brightest of staff members, making another option for
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Sort of like her and Rapunzel.
Where the mission meeting was concerned, how much was too much? Sharing the full story of their desert trek was risky considering they were essentially trying to hold a private meeting surrounded by the very people they were trying to conceal things from. But Ilia and Rose couldn’t have had an easy assignment, either--they’d admitted as much. Despite herself, Tsubaki was curious to know just what was happening on these missions, even though she knew the assignments themselves were likely all gruelling in their own ways. Had anyone else seen the bulletin exchanges and thought to join in? She wouldn’t have said no to a larger number of people sharing their stories. Who knew how many missions were going on during any one night and if they kept happening the numbers were going to multiply rapidly… At the moment, though, it seemed like the night Tsubaki and Rapunzel had been hand selected was one of the first nights assignments had been handed out, if not the first.
Unsurprisingly, Tsubaki was eager to get to the Sun Room, but once there she had to stop to look around uncertainly. The problem now was knowing who she was looking for: she hadn’t even thought to give a description of herself, and she wasn’t sure what the other team looked like, aside from Rose being in her early to mid-teens. Silly!
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"Tsubaki, hey!" she waved to her roommate, making her way around the (fun-looking!) blanket forts to meet her. "Ugh, did you get the rotten stuff at lunch too? I couldn't eat a bite!" she whined once she got close enough, arm slipping around her stomach for emphasis.
Her eyes shifted around, looking for people who might be looking for them. "Any sign of the others yet?"
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"Rapunzel, Tsubaki. Over here." Rose waved, but didn't get down. "I'm Rose Lalonde." They were both a lot older, as seen from the perspective of someone only thirteen, though neither of them was Ilia's age.
"You perceived the food as rotten, too? I wonder what differentiates us from the remainder of the population. We were successful in our endeavor, so I doubt it's a punishment."
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But now wasn't the time to dwell on that. There was a meeting to attend to, an important one. She could see Rose had already met with a pair of other young women across the way. Sidestepping the bulking fort, Ilia marched over there and offered an awkward smile.
"Hey, everyone. Sorry I'm late." Ilia nodded to them all, her smile becoming less strained when she nodded to Rose. "I'm Ilia."
Ilia chose to merely stand by, allowing the other materials that were otherwise left in the Sun Room to be pillaged by whomever wished for them. She had done plenty of sitting today. One meeting wouldn't be terrible to stand through.
She had arrived just short of hearing the conversation on the rotten food, so she allowed for the others to continue to decided whether to continue on with that topic or move to the one at hand at their leisure.
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She and Rapunzel were interrupted before they could keep talking amongst themselves, however. Who…? Tsubaki looked for the feminine voice who had called out both their names, finding a small figure seated on top of one of the Sun Room’s latest furniture sculptures.
So this was the Rose who had been forced on the other mission to the unknown city? “Ah, you noticed us! I wasn’t sure what you looked like. It’s nice to meet you.” The younger girl seemed to know something about Rapunzel’s comment on rotting food, too. Having not noticed anything wrong with the meals, Tsubaki could only give them a confused look. Some people were getting spoiled food? That didn’t make any sense… but then Rose brought up the possibility of punishments. That didn’t make any sense, either, because why would the military punish either one of their groups so late and for successful missions? “That’s weird, I wonder why that would be? I didn’t notice anything myself… Mmm, does anyone know if the most recent missions got a pass? There’s been more than just ours.”
Food gone bad… that explained a bit of the atmosphere, anyway. How long had that been going on?
Tsubaki was recalling dinner and how Rapunzel had been fine then when the older, blonde woman joined the group and introduced herself as Ilia, the person Tsubaki had been conversing with on the bulletin the day before.
“Not at all,” she dismissed with an easy smile of her own. “I’m Tsubaki. We were just talking about lunch. I guess something strange is going on?”
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It didn't help that after her lunch with Albedo, Rapunzel was immediately a little wary of meeting another person who looked like a child but talked more like an adult. Even as she felt that thought forming, though, she gave herself a mental slap, reminding herself that that sort of thing wasn't likely to happen twice in a row. Whoever Rose was and however she had learned to speak like that, she (probably) wasn't going to be as snippy or strange as Albedo.
Probably.
Ilia's arrival shortly after did a lot to keep Rapunzel from feeling completely tongue-tied and unsure. The woman was a little older than the lot of them, and friendly too. She and Tsubaki together would be more than enough to make this a good meeting, and Rose was probably fine too. I just need to get over her own stupid hangups, Rapunzel told herself.
"Uh, hi! Hi, both of you. All of you!" she said with a slightly strained smile of her own, turning back to Tsubaki and gesturing for the three of them that were on the ground to move closer to Rose's "tower" for more ease of conversation. She let Tsubaki start answering the question about lunch before continuing on with that herself: "Yeah, something is if you didn't notice it, Tsubaki. Everything smells and it's got mold and I think there are bugs and eugh! Gross gross gross!"
Rapunzel's face and arms had scrunched up toward the end of that, and it took her a second to release that tension again. With a sigh, she continued: "Anyway, glad everyone could come. I guess we should get started." She paused for a moment, then added, "However we do that."
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As the ill-placed victor for the pair labeled Rose and Ilia, she hesitated, and then wrote Giuseppe. "Yes. Does anyone know if there was another pair last night? It seems likely."
"We were successful." Her tone didn't waver, as if it had been a shopping trip rather than an assassination they'd been sent on. "Was everyone?"
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"Perhaps it was a selective trial of some sort," Ilia mused. She shrugged. "I didn't notice anything, but the people I ate with today seemed to have no appetite."
It amused Ilia how the one who called herself Rapunzel really did have a great deal of hair. How authentic! However, Ilia doubted this was The Rapunzel from some storybook, though this would certainly make a story just as horrifying as the fairytale Ilia was familiar with. Tsubaki, on the other hand, seemed to be just an average Japanese girl from her looks, though Ilia didn't much put stock into what was only skin deep. After all, Rose had proven herself to be braver beyond her years if a bit silly now and then, as she should be at her age.
Ilia wasn't sure how well she took to letting Rose carry on as spokesperson for their team, but she fought the urge to take control. The teenager's notes looked like they would be nicely organized. She was Rose's friend too, not her mother. They were comrades, and along that same vein, equals.
"I'm willing to go into details on our mission, if necessary," Ilia volunteered stoutly. As good a face as the younger girl was putting up, Ilia didn't want to force her to mention the death if she was uncomfortable reiterating the tale to Tsubaki and Rapunzel. Ilia had the experience dealing with unpleasant debriefs. Awaiting any possible inquiries, Ilia also found herself interested in what the other team had been commissioned to do the night before last. Something a little less violent, Ilia hoped.
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Frowning, she said, "It has to go away soon, whatever it’s for, a result of the medical wing drugs or a punishment or whatever. The military can’t keep that stuff up forever."
Starving people was a whole new level of heartless, right up there with blackmailing people into missions that involved landmines exploding in one's face.
Tsubaki looked around at everyone. She also wondered how they should begin. They were strangers discussing sensitive issues, but they were ultimately allies, and time was always tight in the hospital. Being able to talk in person was the best way they had to go about it.
"Some parts of our assignment could have serious consequences if they get out, but we want to share as much helpful information as we can, too," she added in a quiet tone, looking to Rapunzel for confirmation in case she was speaking out of turn on that point. "The person we met at the end of ours said it was over and I haven’t heard anything since, so it seems like we passed. But I didn’t even know there had been other missions besides our two until today. No one’s heard anything about them happening before ours, right? Or am I wrong?"
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She nodded when the point about consequences, biting her lip again for a moment. "Yeah, our mission didn't go as expected, to say the very, very least." Wince. "But we pretty much got what they wanted out of us done, so I guess they figured that was the important part.
"And as for another pair... I don't think there was? No one else talked about missions before us or on the same day as us, just after. So I think that means we're all the first people they tried this on. Right?" she asked, again hoping she wasn't on the wrong track.
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"We're the ones willing to talk about it." Rose almost hadn't; secretiveness was a fundamental part of her nature, but it wasn't part of Ilia's. And she'd had the bulletin to do it over; now that they were talking face to face she was fighting the urge to derail the conversation entirely.
"Unclear. There was only one death announced on the radio, and Aguilar's announcement made it clear that missions began the night we were...invited to participate, but the number was never given." Four, for symmetry, still seemed highly probable to Rose, though she granted that the elegance of the solution might be a biasing factor.
The food did seem to be unrelated, if Ilia's was fine. Though how she could eat in a room full of rotting food -- well, she was made of sterner stuff than she appeared to be. In fact, that could be said of this entire quorum. In it's entirety.
"I expect there will be more tonight. Any means necessary", she drawled, mimicking Harrington's accent.
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Anise and Claude and Guy. Ilia crossed her arms and clasped them tightly against her. Guy and Claude did seem intent on keeping some things from her. To protect her, but still, she felt the blow to her pride and to their mutual bonds of trust. Would they have hidden something like this from her as well? Claude had seemed surprised when she had mentioned it to him, but there was always a chance he wasn't being honest with her.
"More missions, huh?" Ilia tapped her fingers against her arm, her eyes darkening. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone here, but it's definitely a possibility." Would other kids as young as Rose be taken in for an assassination mission again? This military system didn't seem too concerned about possibly breaking innocence. No more than they cared about the possibility of breaking their charges' bodies or minds.
"Did anyone notice anything that might have indicated they were being chosen for a mission before you were taken? I didn't notice any changes to my day..." If there was some sort of indicator, perhaps steps could be taken to warn other patients. Or preempt the institute from taking them at all, though that was not so likely.
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Sad thoughts.
“It’s been over three weeks since I arrived and I hadn’t heard of any kind of missions outside the grounds before this,” she pondered, crossing her arms across her waist. Surely something as dangerous would have filtered into the public’s knowledge, even a little bit? It seemed that all of them were thinking nearly the same thing, though--that the missions were likely going to continue.
More like hers and Rapunzel’s, maybe, or more like Rose’s and Ilia’s, which if she was understanding things right, had involved… an assassination?
Slowly, she shook her head at Ilia’s question. “Mm, I didn’t notice anything, either. And we all have different relationships to each other, and different ranks, don’t we?” So far if there was a pattern, Tsubaki wasn’t seeing it. She glanced sidelong at Rose before saying, “The announcement you mentioned… are you talking about the night they happened? I remember him talking about the changes they’d made that night. And whatever was going on in the medical wing…”
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She shook her head to Ilia's question. "The only thing different that happened to me was getting switched to a new room, and I'm pretty sure that didn't happen to either of you," she said to Rose and Ilia both, shoulders slumping slightly. Did they really have this little to go on? Seemed Tsubaki didn't have much else to add either, other than to point out that the four of them really didn't share much in common. Different ranks, different relationships, different experiences. It just seemed so... random. And yet it sounded like they had been picked for a reason.
"Maybe it's just our gifts and abilities?" she suggested. That was the only thing she could think of that had made her and Tsubaki fit in any way to perform their mission. Tsubaki had had the know-how, and Rapunzel was the healing support. Maybe that was the same with Rose and Ilia, she speculated. "Did it feel like you guys were picked because you worked well together? Or, I don't know, had talents that balanced each other out?"
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"We didn't know each other before. Though their estimation wasn't incorrect. If that was their intention." They'd worked as well as a newly-formed team could be expected to, on such a gruesome task. Rose still disagreed with aspects of Ilia's approach, but given that Giuseppe was dead, it was all water under the domicile.
"We could check for these," Rose added, taking off her beret and shining the Eagle badge. "In case we think that there have been others recruited."
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Rapunzel seemed to have undergone a room change, but for Rose it had been just the same as ever. "Same here; no new room or roommmate for me." Lana was a constant Ilia hoped she could always count on.
As for taking them for their abilities or testing their teamwork compatibility, those were less measurable at face-value until put to the test, which seems to have indicated positive results. At least with their two missions.
"The Eagle badges are a good indicator," Ilia praised, her hand unconsciously moving up to touch the edge of her beret. "Should we run into anyone with them, we should probably record their experiences and maybe we'll see patterns in the missions themselves." Or else parse out what the military's goals for them could be in the future.
If more information was dropped, perhaps they really could reach out to the resistance and be of some help to them, though Ilia had perhaps ruined her chances with making friends on that side of this battle with her previous actions. She had no regrets, however. She had done what was necessary to keep both herself and Rose safe, and that was all that had mattered at the time.
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