Day 60: Cafeteria
Anise had been lying snug in bed, only vaguely aware that she was awake, when her rest was disturbed by the one sound in the world she'd never wanted to hear again.
"Good morning, everyone!"
The girl's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up straight. There was no doubt about it. That was the Head Doctor, that bastard, and he was back! Now that ( Read more... )
"Good morning, everyone!"
The girl's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up straight. There was no doubt about it. That was the Head Doctor, that bastard, and he was back! Now that ( Read more... )
Still, what was wrong with manners? "All right, then," he said with a brief smile as he took his seat, setting his tray out in front of him. While he was glad that the gruel was gone, there was one thing it had been good for, which was identifying how new a patient was to the institute. Now he would just have to guess or work it out through their conversation.
"That was something last night, huh? I mean, it didn't last long, but..." Guy rubbed at the back of his head and then reached forward to start cutting up his waffles, still pondering what had caused that brief period in which their powers had returned. He still wished that he could have made better use of his, but there was no point in dwelling.
"Oh, and the name's Guy. It's nice to meet you, Miss..." He gave her a curious glance, but made no attempt to shake her hand. His phobia wouldn't permit it.
Reply
How so had never quite been explained. She was smart enough to grasp that some upheaval was in the process of happening, but other than that she could only speculate. Doctors and soldiers and secret plots.... None of it made any sense as it was.
But perhaps she'd have a clearer picture from this one. He certainly seemed more in touch with reality than her lascivious companion from the night time.
"What, exactly, did happen last night, if you don't mind my asking? Other than a great deal of bloodshed, of course. I saw plenty of that for myself."
Reply
But she ended up answering his earlier question with her response. So she had just woken up last night, huh? That must have been disorienting, and yet she was strangely calm. That meant that she was either good at controlling her emotions or she was used to seeing blood and gore in her life.
"Well, it's kind of a long story, but the short version is that the people who are keeping us here usually have the ability to weaken our natural abilities. Last night something happened that undid that, which meant that everyone got their powers back. I guess their reaction was to sic monsters on us, which..."
It had apparently gotten the job done. It looked like everyone was still here, though Guy also couldn't help but wonder if a few patients had managed to slip through the cracks. Good for them if they had.
Reply
It was a short, clipped sound and Lust's face tightened some. So that explained why she was feeling so strange today. Why she didn't quite feel like her usual self. Her 'natural' abilities were being weakened. Her fingers drummed on the table in a sharp tattoo and her lips remained thinly pursed.
"What exactly do you mean by abilities and powers?" she went on, remembering what she had seen Brook do to that chimera thing. She still didn't know what he was, but if everyone here was some sort of...of proto-human or some such, that shed some light on things.
But it would help a great deal to know what she should expect from her fellows.
Reply
Her next question was a typical one, though it wasn't that easy to answer. The sorts of things that Guy had seen in this place were pretty varied, after all.
"Well, there's a large range. A lot of it is magic, but what kind of magic tends to vary. Some people draw from energy sources to pull it off, whereas other people cast spells. I'm pretty sure there's more than that, too." The question now was how far he let this explanation go. He didn't want to overwhelm Lust, but she looked like she was taking this all in without too much trouble so far. In that case, maybe it was okay...
"The patients here are from a number of different worlds, so it only makes sense that the way their abilities work tend to differ too." That was what Guy found to be so fascinating about this place, after all. It would have been preferable if fonons had been more plentiful in this place, but he had to admit he did well enough just with his swordsmanship.
Reply
She spoke the words as though testing them, disbelief clear but questioning as well. While the concept wasn't exactly foreign to Lust, she had a difficult time sitting there and simply accepting it as truth. She could certainly accept that there was a world beyond the Gate, but worlds? And to think that...
No. At the moment, she wasn't going to think on it. She'd question and press and inadvertently call Guy - that was his name, wasn't it? - a liar. Then where would she be? Unless he spouted such madness that she flat out called him one. And if that were the case, then he hadn't anything useful to give her anyway. Now...well, she wasn't about to dismiss or accept anything entirely. She could work through it all on her own, sort it and file it once it had been mulling for a bit.
She wasn't unfamiliar with science and theory.
"I see." And magic. Well, call it what you will. Miracles, magic, science...it was all the same thing. And there were those men here, too. Interesting. That she had no trouble believing. Men who dabbled in science found themselves in most interesting times. "A man last night told me that no one knows what this place really is or where it is. Is that true?"
Reply
Either way, he had at least planted that seed into Lust's mind. She could keep it at the back of her thoughts and at some point she was bound to come across something or someone that would confirm it for her. For now, they could probably move on.
Guy didn't know how he'd ended up being the one who had to talk to a new patient when there were so many things of interest taking place, but he wasn't too bothered by it. He could always check by the bulletin board and get an idea of what sort of theories people were throwing around about how Landel had pulled this off.
And so he focused on answering her question. "Well, we have a pretty good idea of where it is. As far as anyone can tell, we're on a planet called Earth." And in some country called the United States, right? Though that probably wouldn't matter to Lust unless she knew about Earth, so he'd wait on that. "It's called Landel's Institute, in case no one told you yet. And... it started off as a fake mental institute, turned into some sort of military training program for a while, and now it looks like we're back to the mental institute angle." He sighed, knowing that if he hadn't gone through it himself it would have been hard to keep up.
Reply
"I understand the military involvement, to a degree. They were not, I believe, the original masters of this place? It was indicated to me that they had caused some sort of upset when they took over. And I understand that for some reason this place pretends to be a mental health facility by day, and all of us madmen kept here for our own good. At night there are monsters and things done to us, and in the morning it's as though it never happened. I thought maybe there were large gaps in my understanding, but I think I was wrong."
She knew enough for now, and Guy had been helpful. It would take her time to sort through and process what she had been told already, there was little bother to add more to it. She knew where she was, what manner of place she was in, and that she was still able to defend herself to an extent. It was a far better starting point than it could have been.
"Thank you for being patient with me," she went on, smiling again. "I do appreciate it. I think I might still be in shock."
Or perhaps simply hadn't accepted any of this as reality in the deeper regions of her mind, the ones that truly counted.
Reply
As it turned out, she had already learned a lot more than Guy had realized about their situation, which was a good thing. It seemed that whoever she had run into last night had at least known what they were talking about.
"It sounds like you've got it down, more or less. There's... more, but those are the most important parts, I'd say." It got far more detailed and gruesome, but he didn't need to dump all of that onto her now, especially since she'd just admitted that she was in shock. That would explain why she was taking it all in so well. It was probably going to hit her pretty hard once it caught up to her, though.
"And it's no problem. If there's anything you're not so clear on, I should be able to explain. I've been here for longer than I'd like to admit," he said with a sheepish smile as he took another bite of his waffles.
Reply
And while there was a teasing note to her voice, the question was legitimate. She hated the idea of having to scout about for whomever may be willing to help her, and going through the rigamarole of determining whether or not they were a trustworthy sort. While she had no reason to trust Guy terribly much, she had no reason to distrust him either.
Reply
In any case, there was no reason to be anything but polite. Guy had the feeling he was going to be in this place for a while longer, after all. Unless something truly miraculous happened in the basement, anyway.
"Sure," he responded with a firm nod. "Oh, actually, that reminds me. I don't know if you saw it, but in the room that we passed through to get here -- the one with the skylight that lets all the sun in -- there's a bulletin board on one of the walls where we can leave notes for each other. So you can always get a hold of me there." Guy was pretty good about keeping up with it these days, even if he didn't always respond to the boarder questions that people asked.
Reply
Later, though. This was all so much...not simply what had happened to her, but coming on the heels of what she had left in Amestris. Last night hadn't given her much chance to dwell on it. Neither did this morning. And the desire to pump Guy for more details, more explanations... it was hard to fight. She hated lacking information, feeling as though she were in the dark. But it wouldn't do to fill her head with a million puzzle pieces before she'd even looked closely at the picture.
"And thank you for the offer of help. You're a very kind young man," she went on, not wanting to appear lost in her thoughts. "I'm sure this must be boring for you, having to bring up what's bound to be commonplace to you. But that's all I need to know for now. I'd move things along to discuss the weather, but I don't have any idea what it is right now."
Reply
Not that he was going to argue the point. It didn't matter too much in the end, and he figured that being identified as young was better than the alternative. Not everyone was like Jade, who seemed to relish in his so-called "old age."
At the mention of it being boring, Guy quickly shook his head. "It's really no problem. Helping out the new arrivals here is part of the deal. I don't mind it." He was sure that it annoyed other people when they get saddled with someone who didn't know what was going on, but Guy enjoyed helping people. More than that, it usually meant that he ended up making an impression, which was never a bad thing. "And I wouldn't worry too much about the weather," he added with a small smile. "I think it's done snowing by now."
Reply
"That would certainly be a change. Are the winters here bad? Or bad enough to note, I suppose."
Perhaps it seemed odd to inquire so curiously about the weather, but it was honestly helpful. If only to give her an idea of what hemisphere she was in. Besides, she couldn't quite quell her desire to know all that she could. At least she hoped that weather conditions weren't the standard 'welcome to private hell' discussion topics. Despite Guy's assurances that he didn't mind, it was a matter of personal pride.
Though weather was hardly a thrilling topic.
"I've never liked the cold. Or snow, all that much. It's beautiful, but...there's something sad about it."
Reply
"The snow was pretty heavy for a few days, but it's calmed down since then," he explained as he took the last few bites of his breakfast. "It's been varying degrees of cold since I got here, but it was more like fall when I first arrived."
That meant that it was probably going to heat up eventually, but he had no idea how long that would take. Either way, the area they were in seemed to be one that had a changing climate, unlike someplace like Keterburg where it snowed year round.
"But yeah, if it snowed all the time I think the people here would be more depressed than they already are," he said through a laugh, wanting to make it clear that he wasn't being too serious about that comment. He didn't need to put her in a bad mood, after all.
Reply
Leave a comment