Day 28: Bus 2

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo tugged on the collar of the light blue sweater she was wearing as she followed her nurse to wherever these buses were, winding her hair up into its customary bun as she went. It was an odd feeling, knowing she was about to go outside of the institute's borders. Maybe the Head Doctor was about to make an error and the shinigami, as well as

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[neverreallyfit]

[Waiting all unawares for M.]The deep sense of foreboding Sam had been feeling the night before had not vanished with the abrupt-as-ever coming of the morning. The prospect of venturing outside of the Institute's walls did little to banish it; while on the on hand he was hopeful that there would be an opportunity to make a break for it, on the other he was certain that such a thing would be far easier said than done. Warped as this place was, there had to be a reason that the chains were being loosened even this much. Still, there would at least be a chance to get the lay of the land around the asylum, and he was hopeful of finding some piece of information that would narrow down the place's location to something usable

[dragon_lady_m]

Aside from extremely large spiders harassing her room-mate, and ostensible captains who couldn't bloody well pace themselves, it hadn't been a terribly bad first night, all things considered

[neverreallyfit]

That he did not start at the voice could suggest that, for all his abstracted appearance, Sam was not failing to pay attention to his surroundings. He looked away from the window, offering a smile to the older woman, a reflexively pleasant expression that did not quite reach his eyes. "Good morning, ma'am," he replied, tone friendly enough, accent belonging to Anywhereseville, USA.

He straightened, shifting over slightly as though concerned that he was taking up more than his fair share of space, though were he to shift much further his shoulder would be brushing the wall of the bus. He studied her for a moment, the sharply inquisitive quality of his gaze slightly at odds with the boy-next-door air he otherwise possessed, and then, perhaps deciding that she was not, in fact, a nurse in plainclothes, offered a hand. "My name's Sam."

If they were going to be seatmates, he could at least be pleasant.

[dragon_lady_m]

M was a small woman in the scheme of things. Physically, not a great deal of space need be allotted to her. Psychically, on the other hand, there was a sense of some aging dragon in a floral jacket stretching out and filling what space she could, the better to glower at the seat ahead of them.

"Em," she answered. "Emma Thornbridge, to be more exact. Have you been on one of these dog-and-pony shows before?"

In other words, was there a brain worth picking?

[neverreallyfit]

The question spared Sam the discomfort of mouthing platitudes such as 'nice to meet you' when it most certainly wasn't, by fault of the circumstances rather than any of Emma's. He shook his head briefly, casting a wry glance up towards the front of the bus, where the staff was still ushering the patients on. "I don't think letting us out is a regular occurrence, whatever the head of the institution might say about considering making it one. Haven't been here a week yet, though, so I might be wrong."

A moment's pause then, and he added, offhand, "Come to think of it, I don't think anyone I've spoken to has been here for long."

[dragon_lady_m]

"Well," mused M, a slight and sharp light flickering in her eyes before they disfocused on the seat ahead once more. "That appears to be something, then. What, precisely, I'm not sure."

Silence fell then, for a few moments as the nurses escorted more patients on board the bus.

Information seemed apropos. Trade for trade. "I've been here not long. A day, perhaps. And an unusual sort of night."

[neverreallyfit]

"Maybe there's been a bumper crop of lunatics this year," Sam replied, tone bland with an undercurrent of faint humour that he didn't really feel. He glanced in her direction, more sharply than suited his casual mien, though not by much. He was not unaccustomed to subterfuge, but he was only in his early twenties, and some things came more readily with age.

"It's not that unusual, from what I've heard," he replied, lowering his voice so that it would be difficult to pick out over the general mill of conversation, were anyone inclined to eavesdrop. His gaze shifted away from Emma, sliding easily over the bus to mark out the position of the staff. "Though I suppose the nurses would probably say that most of us have a lot of nightmares. Or are flat out delusional."

[dragon_lady_m]

There was a snort from beside him, as M tugged the repulsively cheerful coat more neatly about herself. "I've thought more than once in the past that I was surrounded by lunatics," she chuffed. "But I wasn't planning on it being a literal situation."

Dark eyes turned upon Sam with a bland look for his briefly sharp one, and blinked once, in sleepy reptilian fashion. "Do you suppose this little outing will feature a library at some point?"

[neverreallyfit]

"For what it's worth, I don't think most of us are crazy," Sam replied. And then allowed, a touch wryly, that, "Then again, I'd probably say that even if I was."

He had returned in expression to utter mildness, attention split between conversation partner and flow of traffic onto the bus. "I don't know what they have planned," he admitted. "There weren't many details. If the town's not so small it shares a library with the county, it's probably workable."

Which turned his thoughts around again to the night before, and the research that needed doing. Not to mention a brief flash of hope for some method of communication with the outside world. Mildness slipped briefly into abstraction.

[dragon_lady_m]

"An internet cafe would likely be too much to hope for," M mused, half to herself by her absent study of the World Outside The Bus Window, and entirely to Sam by her intention.

Not to mention the lack of any money with which to purchase time with. But, M mused to herself, with a careful ease to her pose as a nurse ventured a look their way, that particular hill could be taken when the time came. Somehow.

The arthritis she emphatically did not have, plus approximately four decades out of the field, would likely put a damper on any shenanigans involving stray wallets. On the upside, she looked remarkably like someone's grandmama in this getup. Harmless, really.

The sort of smile worn by dragons briefly touched her lips at the thought.

"I do so enjoy a good library. So many things to learn."

[neverreallyfit]

"We'd probably be steered away even if there was one," Sam replied, not quite masking the prickle of frustration he felt - while not so restless as some, neither was he inclined to sit still without even so much as a pile of documents to inspect. "Though, most libraries these days do have a bank of public computers these days. When they're not down for maintenance, anyway."

The touch of cynicism faded as he glanced idly out the window once more. "The library here was disappointing."

[dragon_lady_m]

"Of course it would be," replied M, with a glint in her eyes. Her voice, easily noticed where a look wouldn't be, remained pitched quiet and calm. "Knowledge is power, young man, and thus should be kept controlled by anyone with half a mind to keep people where they're put."

[neverreallyfit]

"I think that was made common knowledge as soon as Orwell published 1984," Sam noted, a touch dryly. The idea that anyone reasonably literate and existing in modern times might not have read the book seemed not to have crossed his mind. "Makes me wish it seemed that easy."

[dragon_lady_m]

"Oh, it was common knowledge long before that," M snorts, with a slight shake of her head at the vast sums of knowledge of the young. "Orwell lived through the same war as the rest of us, he just was one of the people capable of seeing past the propaganda."

(Admittedly, a young Barbara Mawdsley had been all of seven years' old at the time of Germany's surrender, and far more keenly interested in the possibility of her school being bombed than the reasons behind it.)

"Of course, Orwell's mistake was that he gave people too much credit. No need to be nearly as heavy-handed with history and the news as the government of Oceania was when you've got a Page Three girl in the Sun and a football match on."

[neverreallyfit]

Sam's quiet snort in reply could perhaps be taken as agreement, if of an amused sort. "Even with that history to draw on, how many people look past the obvious now?" he asked, apparently idly. Nothing to see here, just Joe College philosophizing at an old woman.

"I don't know if it was a mistake on Orwell's part - if it wasn't glaringly obvious, half the readers would have probably missed the point."

[dragon_lady_m]

Hands still steady despite raised veins and the occasional liver spot twitched idly on M's lap, finding the paper of her lunch bag (And wasn't that a nice little bit of psychology, parcelling them all off like five year olds to nursery school.) and pleating the top of it over itself.

Just an old woman amusing herself with the philosophizing of the young, you see.

"Mm, perhaps," she admitted. "Of course, it now breeds a new crop of insulated young idiots -- yourself excluded, dear," she nodded to him, "Who operate on the principle that because they can have plenty of food and a great deal of sex, the world is nothing like Orwell's."