Day 20: Breakfast

[right_handed]

Scar felt as if he'd passed out as soon as he'd gotten to his bed due to the admittedly strong fatigue and pain that having a badly injured arm tended to cause a person to feel, even one as conditioned and battle-worn as the stern-faced Ishbalan. He woke up feeling rested but regretful, and his fear that he'd wasted a Nightshift ripe with the

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[offduty]

Reno saw the man approaching him, but didn’t glance up until he was actually spoken to.

Gos se?

Not really the most important item to address right now, though.

“No and yes.” Reno absently stuck the end of his fork into his mouth, nibbling on the end for a second before removing it and setting it down with a clatter. He needed a cigarette. “From the most I’ve heard, we’re ‘patients’-” He stopped just short of making actual quotation marks in the air with his fingers- “or something, and this place looks like a fucking looney house. I’m pretty sure I haven’t gone crazy yet, though, so as to how I got here, I’ve got no clue. I have, however, scratched off kidnapping and anything that makes any sort of damned sense.” Especially after last night.

Besides, no matter how he worked it, there was no way to get someone out of an airborne helicopter without shooting them down, and there was no way to shoot someone down without getting said someone injured. Which left him with nothing. No explanation whatsoever, except for the one offered by the nurse.

And he sure as hell wasn’t accepting that bullshit.

“So what deal about delusion did they spin to you?” he asked. “They insist you had some other weird-ass name, too, or-?”

Reno paused abruptly as a second approaching figure caught his eye. Was that...Elena? On crutches?

Shit. What happened to her? Was it from when he’d

(abandoned)

left her and Tseng, or was she from some other timeline, as Rufus had suggested? There was plenty of room for injury around here alone, so it was possible.

“Goddamn, ‘Leena, who’d you let beat you up and tell me you at least managed to work your gun and shoot him?” Because if not, I’ll do it for you, non-existence of gun aside.

[shewillflytrue]

Zoe had woken up back in her room, with no sign of the mess she had made of it the night before. She was in the same gray uniform and still didn't have her necklace. She was very confused about what had gone on the night before.

River.

Whatever kind of trick this was, she wasn't going to let it get to her. She had to worry about the people that were part of her 'family'.

She didn't say anything to the nurse when she came into the room. Didn't correct the name the nurse used. She followed without speaking or fighting. She needed to figure out what was going on and she needed to figure out where she was. She looked around carefully, only using her eyes, and made sure to memorize the layout of this place. 'Landel's' as the nurse at called it.

She was awful perky for an Alliance pawn, but then maybe that was part of the guise. When she was brought to the cafeteria eating wasn't even on her mind. She ignored the smells of the food, expecting it to be laced with something, and looked for someone she knew.

The second she saw the Captain she felt a wave of relief overcome her, not that her expression changed. She walked up to him, almost marching, and barely glanced at the people with him. She figured that the girl was the girl from the night before. Good for her for still being alive.

"Sir," was all she said to her Captain, but he voice was low so that most wouldn't overhear. The so-called nurses didn't stop her from going to him, so they had to figure that she would speak with him too. What was the Alliance up to anyway? She was used to their low tricks though, and she was ready for anything, especially now that she knew where the Captain was.

[still_free]

Patients? The nurse thing had been strange, but... It didn't seem like most of the people were injured. As the redhead continued to explain, it became more clear. They were mental patients? Supposedly, anyway. That was one of the more ridiculous things Mal had heard. While he'd been called crazy more than a few times, this was taking it a bit too far.

At the question about the fake name, Mal nodded. "Yeah, in fact, they did," he said with a sigh. So that wasn't a forgery mix up. If this was Alliance, what were they getting at with this? Did they really think anything they were doing was actually believable? Someone would have to be pretty weak to fall for what the nonsense they were spouting.

Then someone else showed up - or hobbled up, in any case. Mal turned to face the girl and was a bit disarmed when he saw how young she was. She looked a few years younger than Kaylee. Why would the Alliance capture someone like her?

Then again, they were after River and she was seventeen.

...What if River had been captured? Right along with him? What were they doing to her? What if--

He couldn't get hung up on all that, though. Not until he knew what was actually happening. And apparently this girl knew more than him or the stranger, so he wasn't opposed to hearing her out.

"Yeah," he told her. "Might you be able to shed some light on this situation?"

At first, when he heard the voice behind him and to his left, he thought he might have been imagining it. Despite that, he couldn't stop himself from turning to check - and there stood his first mate. "Zoe," he said, unable to keep the relief out of his expression.

While it bugged him that both of them had been snatched, he'd rather have her with him than anywhere else. It was possible his entire crew was here, but he wouldn't feel at ease until he was certain of that.

"When'd you wake up?" he asked, quick and to the point. "Seen any of the others?"

[ifandmaybe]

The night before hadn't been a particularly eventful one for Inara. She hadn't stumbled across Kaylee nor River in her travels. The two men she'd met had seemed amiable enough, but the Companion had been hoping to stumble upon a familiar face, if only to be certain that they were in one piece. She could only imagine what kind of effect a place like this would have on River, and Kaylee...

The raven-haired woman fell into place, lined up for breakfast along with the other patients as she scanned the cafeteria for either of the two familiar faces she knew she should find.

Imagine the way her heart lurched forward in her chest when they fell upon two that she hadn't expected to see.

Before her mind could even catch up with her body, Inara felt herself step quickly out of line and hurry over to where Mal and Zoe stood talking to a red-headed man with utterly impossible hair and a young, blond girl that she'd seen around. Her mind registered that the girl in particular looked quite under the weather, but as she approached from behind the group, she found that concern was not the first thing out of her mouth.

Standing with hands clasped in front of her and an uncharacteristically anxious expression on her face, Inara finally did find her voice.

"Mal..." was all she could manage before her mind began to function properly again after a few moments. Shock and eagerness faded away as concern took its place. "Zoe," she added. "When did you both... when did you both get here?" Apparently her ability to speak was still being hindered.

The instructors at the Training House would've cringed.

[offduty]

So this guy had been tossed some strange name, too. Well, that did seem to fit into this whole thing about “delusions.”

Yeah, 'cause Strife, Wallace, me, and the boss are so in tune, we share the same goddamn delusion.

Concern did register internally as he watched Elena painfully lower herself into her seat, but he didn’t outwardly make anything of it. Instead, he squinted at her, studying her intently. She looked younger. Careless of him not to have noticed before, but he supposed his mind had simply skimmed over that detail at first glance-everything else about her looked relatively the same. Except for the fact that she was completely patched up.

But she was definitely younger. She also definitely wasn’t telling the whole truth. And she was...unfamiliar with him?

Apparently. Something was off, anyway. She hadn’t responded like he thought she would to his needling of her capabilities (tell me you at least managed to work your gun). At the very least, he expected some display irritation or exasperation in her eyes. But no, there was only a forced casual tone. And that was just weird, too. Elena didn’t quietly plot her revenge. If she was pissed, she showed it. It was something he’d always liked, especially after being surrounded by such ice cubes as Rude or Tseng.

And she had to be pissed about this.

As Elena began her information-dump, Reno eyed the woman who’d just approached. So she knew this guy. Were they pulling everybody from each world, or just a few? It had to be just a few, but if so, they were apparently all connected. Then again, Reno hadn’t met everybody, so maybe there was some poor bastard in Midgar who’d ended up here and was completely unrelated to Shin-Ra or AVALANCHE...but at the moment, it would appear they were all linked in some way.

At the mention of drugs, Reno turned to Elena with questioning look. He managed to stop himself from blurting out what drugs? though. Her flushed skin was more than enough indication that this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about.

Though he’d see if he could get her to. Just not now. He’d have to find time later with her in private.

Reno blinked as another woman appeared.

“Okay,” he said, raising the fork in his left hand in a half-hearted wave. “Introduction time, maybe, guys? I’m Reno. From the direction our newest arrival was looking, I take it you’re Mal and you’re Zoe?” He pointed at the guy, and then the brown-haired woman, before glancing at the chick who’d spoken last, one eyebrow raised. “Or am I totally mistaken and you’re cross-eyed or something?”

[shewillflytrue]

"I woke up last night. River was there." Zoe said, answering Mal's question. She stood with a very straight back and her senses were all on alert. Even in the ridiculous uniform, her stance and expression practically screamed 'career military'. She listened to what was being said, but she kept enough of her attention to also be aware of what was going on around her. There were too many people around for her not to, she wondered what the Alliance wanted with all these people. She did not mean to seem stand-offish to these two people, but they had more important things to deal with.

"Captain," she said to Mal and motioned towards River and Simon, who had now entered the cafeteria. "She was bad," and that was about all Zoe could say to describe it. "Hadn't seen her like that since before Miranda." Course there were a lot of things that she hadn't seen since before Miranda.

She didn't go to the Tam siblings, instead waited until Mal said what to do. Maybe he thought it best they didn't all interact at once. Whatever he wanted she would do, that was the way things worked.

[still_free]

Whatever the two kids were talking about amongst themselves was none of Mal's business and he didn't have the time to care at this juncture. The girl--Elena, her name was, apparently--was helpful, though. None of the news was good, but it was the sort of stuff he liked to know beforehand instead of finding out on his own.

Monsters? That was one of the only facts he couldn't take seriously. "You mean Reavers?" he asked. They were monsters, all right. No matter how many people might claim that they were human, Mal knew better. They may have been human once, but...

Either way, the fact that they had to try and move around with Reavers (or Reaver-like things, at least) nipping at their heels wasn't comforting. The talk of brainwashing unsettled him, too. Even though Elena pointed out that everyone was from different worlds, Mal wasn't able to realize that she meant different universes, different dimensions...

Her talk of powers was also enough to earn an eyebrow raise. He wasn't sure he completely trusted everything she had said, but then again, what reason would she have to lie? Unless she was put here to confuse them further, but Mal doubted that. The lack of weapons was going to be a pain, though. Mal could fight without a gun, but it tended to result in him getting many more cuts and bruises and the like.

Mal's train of thought was derailed when he heard yet another familiar voice from behind him. Spinning without hesitation on his heel, he came face to face with Inara Serra. For a moment, he simply stared at her. She wasn't her usual self, an out-pour of emotion when she was normally so reserved. He didn't like the idea of her being here (she fogged things up), but then again, better she was here than him not knowing where she'd been taken. Still, he'd want her safe and it was going to grow increasingly difficult to protect his crew if so many of the members who usually stayed on Serenity were now thrown into this unpredictable place with him. Zoe he at least knew could take care of herself, but...

"This morning," he said in response to her question. Bringing up his hand to scratch under his right eye, he sighed. But then Zoe spoke up and -

The doctor and his sister. More crew, but Mal couldn't help cringing. Of course River wasn't doing well - this place was so many shades of screwed up and her mind was probably being flooded with a lot of stuff she didn't want to know about. "Leave 'em be for now," he told Zoe. "If it seems to us they need help, we'll head over."

Himself, Zoe, Inara, River, Simon...

Mal turned to the two members of his crew currently with him. "Jayne and Kaylee. Either of you seen 'em?" If those two were present, then everyone would be accounted for.

As for Elena and Reno, Mal didn't have the time for pleasantries at the moment. Inara could deal with them - she was better at that sort of thing.

[soul_defender]

((Coming from here.))

Ichigo never liked to interrupt a conversation. Perhaps he'd just been brought up right, because it certainly wasn't on any account of misguided shyness. No, it was an act of conscience that kept him from regularly butting in on a crowd, unless of course it was absolutely necessary. The young man, a stand-out in any crowd with his striking orange hair, had just been passing by; one look at Elena and her injuries was all it took for 'absolutely necessary' to appear.

He froze in his tracks, staring starkly at the girl in disbelief and the extent of her injuries, and the sad state of her hair.

"E-Elena?" he managed to stammer lightly. As he drew in another breath, he could feel his heart, deep within lean chest, beat resoundingly harder. "God, what happened to you?"

Too concerned to sit, Kurosaki leaned down beside her seat and grimmaced sympathetically. Yet, he quickly realized how careless he was being, with so many others around that he had been rudely ignoring. "Eehh, sorry to...interrupt. Please excuse me." he nodded apologetically.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji followed behind Ichigo. He intended to keep his mouth shut for the time being. He was a little surprised to see another of the people from last night - Rufus' friend. He gave the guy a little nod, just to say, 'yo.'

While he'd had no idea what shape this Elena might have been in previously, she certainly looked like she'd had a rough night. Renji frowned. He'd wait to hear the explanation. His business or no, if there was an ass-beating to occur from this, he'd be helping Ichigo. He had strong feelings about people hurting women.

[ifandmaybe]

Inara composed her quickly, as she'd grown accustomed to doing in time past with him. There were people around, and she could assume that Mal and Zoe had only just arrived. Heartfelt reunions, though they'd scarcely remembered being separated for a day, could wait or fade into the background.

Inara herself couldn't afford to let her feelings or emotions get the better of her. She was more skilled than that, better trained.

"Kaylee is here. I haven't seen much of her since yesterday, but she's here and hopefully alright. I was going to try to locate her and River when I saw the two of you," she said, forming coherent sentences at last. "I can't say that I've seen or heard of Jayne. I imagine we will, if he's here."

Inara turned to regard the rest of the group in turn, smiling politely and picking up her role without having to be told.

"I'm terribly sorry for seeming rude. I just hadn't known that some of my companions were going to show up and was a bit startled," she said, specifically to the man who called himself Reno. "My name is Inara." She offered a hand to shake or whatever sort of pleasantry he would wish to exchange. Elena and the two that had just shown up to speak to her were next.

"We're River's friends, yes," she replied politely. Well, it was probably more like family at this point. "I don't mean to change the subject, but are you sure you're alright?"

[offduty]

There was no mistaking that bright head of orange hair from anyone other than the kid from their run-in with the giant last night. Reno had honestly pegged him as a dead man after being snatched like that, but apparently, he’d made it out all right. Which meant Strife had to have been okay, too...and Rufus.

Damn. With his world being flipped completely upside down, the President had completely slipped his mind until now. But considering Rufus had been the furthest away from danger, he suspected all was well.

The guy following close behind the orange-haired boy wasn’t hard to recognize, either, with his tattoos, though it took Reno a few beats to recall the name.

Renji. He nodded back in greeting, wondering briefly how Renji had faired after parting from the group. Hopefully better-otherwise, that would mean two goddamned monsters at Landel’s as deadly as the one with the triangle head.

Reno took Inara’s offered hand in a brief shake. She was a pretty woman, even in the ridiculous uniforms this place offered. And apparently more sociable than her two friends.

He shrugged off her apology. “Don’t worry about it.”

If her companions had shown up, though...was it possible for Rude and Tseng to make it here eventually, too?

He turned back Elena. The answer to her rhetorical question wasn’t as obvious to him as it was to the guy she was addressing, and he wanted to know. Having one of his own being attacked like that didn’t sit well with him.

“Who did it?”

Details weren’t even important. Just a name would be more than enough.

[shewillflytrue]

Zoe nodded when Inara mentioned Kaylee, but it was a slight movement, hardly noticeable really. She was sure to keep a look out for the girl and to keep her attention on Simon and River in case they did end up needing help.

Other than that, she was silent. She didn't really have anything to say and now it was important for these people to talk about what they had to talk about. Then she could size up how bad things were in this place.

This talk of monsters and attacks and mental hospitals and brainwashing... she didn't like it. If Reavers were here... just what were the people who put them here playing at? Was it punishment for revealing the truth? No that didn't make any sense, because then the crew would have just been targeted and Zoe didn't even know most of the people in this room... Some of them looked pretty funny too, and some of them were acting funny. She could hear conversation around her and see a variety of interaction between the other 'patients'. Then there was the staff... all smiles and helpful faces but fake.

The sooner they got out of this place the better and so Zoe couldn't help but size up the place, even if they were just in this room, any observation couldn't hurt.

[still_free]

It seemed that for the moment, Mal's questions weren't going to be answered. Elena, who appeared to be the most informed person in his vicinity, was rather busy with her own problems. Mal didn't expect her to focus all of his attention on him, but if he wasn't going to get any decent answers from someone, then he had to be planning - and planning was rather difficult when everyone was talking around him.

Elena, Reno, and the two that had just come up seemed to have their own things to discuss. Things that didn't concern him or Zoe, at least.

Kaylee was around somewhere. He conducted a more detailed scan of the room, but still didn't see any sign of her. He was unable to stop a certain anxiety from gripping him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. As for Jayne, there was a good chance he was around as well - and, as Inara pointed out, knowing him? They'd be hearing of him soon enough. He wanted to find him as soon as possible, too. Jayne wasn't known for being cooperative and Mal didn't need him causing problems.

He nodded to Zoe. "C'mon." He needed to go somewhere that wasn't among a crowd of people so he could talk things out with her and think. As for Inara, Mal knew that she might want to keep making friends, though he wouldn't mind if she followed, either. It was up to her. (See, he could be fair sometimes.)

So off he went, expecting his first mate to follow.

[ Mal and Zoe (and possibly Inara) are going over here. ]

[soul_defender]

"Retaliation? I already told you, I wasn't mad about..."

Ichigo was slow, but he always managed to catch on to things after a moment or two dedicated in thought. Of course she wasn't talking about him. If only in his mind, Kurosaki briefly revisted that night, playing back some of the more cringe-worthy features like a rewinded film that still lingered in his memory.

Nothing had really happened to Roy, except maybe the terrible stress of watching one of his comrades fall to a bullet in the stomach, so it wasn't him. As he said himself, Ichigo wasn't mad over the injuries, so it wasn't him either. Nothing had happened to the man who picked up the gun, or even the other who had wrestled for it; that only left...

"Kadaj..." Bitterly, Ichigo glared down at the floor for a moment, and steadily, his calm and steady breathing could be heard increasing in warmth and speed. He looked as if he were fuming on the inside, the rising realization dangerously mixing in a volatile reaction with senses of betrayal and pure anger until these emotional chemicals were ready to boil over. Nights before that incident, he and Kadaj had teamed up, fighting back to back for sheer survival, creating a feeling of kinship almost in their mutual struggle. Ichigo had trusted him, fought to help him, and this was what he truly was?

For a moment, Ichigo raised a rock-shaped fist near his head and held it there, tensed like a bomb ready to fall and take out his frustrations on the table, but he stopped it and let it relax, his fingers opening slowly back up.

No sooner had he done so, however, did Ichigo bolt away in a fury, immediately closing in on Kadaj with his clentched hands squared at his sides. It looked like the man had company, but judging by Ichigo's unreasonable expressions, the fact wouldn't have stopped him even if Kadaj had an army standing by.

((Running angrily over to here. ))