Day 59: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[contentincloset]

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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[notachick]

Finally! Lunch was over and, yet again, Okita had merely picked over what he could. Meals here were so difficult and came with such strange things that he almost wanted that pink stuff instead. Almost. He'd had a taste of it once and while it was more acceptable than some of the meals here, it certainly didn't taste good. But today, it wasn't the meal that had the samurai fleeing from the cafeteria as soon as the shift changed - it was the forts.

Even with the strange announcement on the intercom, Okita wasn't about to let anything get in the way of his fun. He still had a pesky feeling he was forgetting something vitally important, but since he couldn't remember and no one was hinting at anything, he let it go. For now, he made his way into the Sun Room, palms clapped together and a grin that rivaled the brightness of the sun on his face. Forts were made for playing and that was exactly what Okita planned to do - play.

Now. To find someone to play with. Peering around the room, Okita started off on his search for a playmate.

[For Goku!]

[boketa]

Goku ran from the cafeteria like a child who had been released from Sunday sermon: Gleefully. He had gotten his three bowls of spoiled slop and it was sure looking like a great day all around, and night too! The monkey boy couldn't wait until the sun went down so he could try his hand at another fight!

The one before had been rather messy. It had taught him a lot about his limits here in this strange place, and Goku was eager to test himself a second time. Despite being practically black and blue and mummy-wrapped under his stiff shirt, the monkey boy waddled through the Sun Room with an excited smile as he looked for Taura.

He bumped into another girl instead. Tilting his head up, a bruised face snickered at Okita. "Hey, I remember you!" He even pointed a stubby finger at the girl just so she knew exactly who he was talking to.

[ninelivesonce]

The two top people she needed to talk to, and they were together. Taura jogged over to what was, perhaps, the most innovative use of the sun room she'd seen yet.

Most of the people assembling it were younger, but some of them were grown, and all of them were having fun. Strategy without injury. Why hadn't they taught her and her siblings this game? It would have made too much sense, that was what. They'd figured out how to wrestle with each other, and with their guardians, until they'd gotten too big and strong for that to be a game, even as quickly as they all healed, but no one had come up with playing war.

It sort of looked like the encampments had broken down by gender, which meant she was crossing enemy lines, but that was backwards thinking to begin with. Hadn't they ever heard of herms? Bel would have laughed and laughed, and then it would have taken on both sides just to prove it could.

"Just the people I was looking for." She smiled, comfortable enough with both of them to let her teeth show.

[notachick]

Well, that was possibly the fastest (and most direct) way of finding a playmate ever. He hadn't taken more than a few steps further into the room when a little plaster mummy waddled by and bumped right into his legs. While others might have been surprised or even scared at the sight of a bruised up child, wrapped in bandages, pointing up at them, Okita merely smiled after a brief stint of curious staring.

"Hello again," he said, turning to crouch down more at his height. He reached out and took the little boy's finger - what had been his name? - in one hand, shaking it lightly as if they were shaking hands. "I remember you, too. It seems like you're having a bit of trouble today. Are you--"

Before he could finish his question, someone else approached - someone Okita had been hoping to see. With one hand still trapping Goku's finger, the leader of the History Club looked up at his tall friend and smiled wide. "Well, then aren't we lucky to have found each other. Hello, Taura-san. How are you today?"

Goku and his fightin' harem!!

[boketa]

"Eh?" Goku followed along with Okita's suddenly divided attention and grinned right with them both.

"Hey, Taura! Oh, I had the best night last night!" His free hand tugged on the tall woman's slacks to keep her attention while he held onto Okita's big hand in excitement. Without his two anchors beside him, the monkey boy could have very well floated to the ceiling from all the joy that was fueling him.

"I ran into these, uhm, people and they were fighting this really hairy monkey-person and this glowy person and I got my butt kicked!" Goku didn't act ashamed of the confession. In fact, his smile splint into a foolish grin that practically stretched all the way to his ears.

"It was fun! Woulda been more fun if you were there," the young boy tugged on Taura's pants. "Can we fight something tonight?! I don't care if Birdy comes along, as long as we fight!"

[ninelivesonce]

Taura was used to towering over people; it didn't lend itself to conversation. So she picked Goku off her leg -- and off the floor entirely, and sat down cross-legged, without jarring his injuries. Then she set him back down in approximately the same place he'd been before.

"Better than I was last night, "Okita-san," she said, tacking on the honorific he'd used. It wasn't any more difficult than Sir or Captain, though all she knew was that it was something similar.

"I take it you two know each other?" That made this easier. -- "Son Goku is one of the people I've been working with. He enjoys a good fight, but he doesn't let himself get carried away. Usually." She gave him a look, one that might have been accidentally terrifying at eight-feet-tall-and-fanged, but was softened by the fact that she was shorter than he was right now. She'd never really talked to children, but Goku did all right if she just treated him like a very silly new recruit.

One who didn't seem too concerned about winning, which was part of the reason she didn't worry too much about his ethics. He just loved the fight. So she kept her expression serious, and addressed him.

"We can. You're going to have to be ready just in case you have to fight me, though. They injected me with something last night, and I don't know if it's worn off. So if I try to attack you, if you can, you run. If you can't run, knock me out. My head's no harder than yours."