Day 34: Sun Room
[One speedster, free to a good home! Plays well with others and has had his shots. Adopt today!]Wally followed the steady stream of patients from the cafeteria towards the showers, but was prevented from entering by one of the ever-present nurses
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Renamon was led to a couch where she dropped unceremoniously on to. The nurse hovered for a minute, then finally put her notebook beside her, and walked away.
Any of her previous interviewees wouldn't recognize her. She sat slumped and askew, some of her wet hair was messed into her face, and she was staring without blinked at the ground in front of her. She didn't give off the air of being the epitome of professionalism and self-control anymore. But she wasn't in a place to really care. Motionless, she waited without remembering what exactly she was waiting for.
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It took a bit of glancing through the crowd, but Angel eventually located the patient who simply went by "R." There hadn't even been any specification as to whether they were male or female, which made narrowing things down a bit harder.
It was a she, though, when he finally found her. And she looked...kind of out of it. Really out of it, actually. That wasn't a good sign.
He sat down across from her. "Are you all right?"
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It seemed Renamon was in a far away place. Somewhere that wasn't Landel's at all. Maybe it was too much. She was human, she was powerless, she had fought two enemies that were like ones that had almost killed her, her relationship with Rika was common knowledge apparently--which, really, was more upsetting than the simple fact of her being fictional. Fictional, data, what did it matter? Either way she wasn't real to everyone around her. She could be dispersed, and then she would have never existed. But did she exist? Was she existing now?
And then... that.... That was....
There was a low rumble at the edges of her subconscious. A male speaking, she thought vaguely. Huh. The words hadn't registered to her, and she would have probably stayed buried in her catatonia at that point except for one thing. An almost relaxing feeling of vertigo. She didn't straighten or raise her head, but said quite clearly, "You're not human."
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"Neither are you," he replied simply. He cleared his throat. This was an awkward way to start the conversation.
"Um. I think you wanted to talk...? Are you sure you're okay? Because I can come back later," he said, gesturing hesitantly in the opposite direction.
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Oh. Oh.
And like that, she clicked back on. Nothing had changed, but she had at least came back to herself. She felt exhausted. Wincing a bit from her skin's sensitivity, she pulled herself into a straighter sitting position and smoothed the hair from her eyes. Her side twitched, and she reached to press down on the bruise that was surely forming. What a mess she was. And all of this set off by a normal human function. She'd be irritated with herself if she was holding emotions at the moment. "I, ah..." She looked down. No passable excuse came for her behavior.
"...Sorry."
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"No, you don't have to apologize. I really can come back later if you want," he offered, sensing he should give her that option at the very least even though she'd probably turn it down. "We don't have to do this now."
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Deep inside, she still burned with shame from her behavior and appearence but that wouldn't help anything now. Concentrate. Focus on the task at hand, and react later. Or not at all. Her mental focus was matchless in her world--if she couldn't even manage a conversation here, she was in a sad state indeed.
Calmly, she posed her first question. "I'd like to know what defines other worlds to you, for starters."
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"Um." Angel paused a moment, searching for a proper way to describe this. "Any dimension that's beyond the one we live in, basically. Some are easier to access than others. Some might not have a doorway at all. It varies."
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At another time, she might have worded her question differently, allowed more for human tact and decorum. But she didn't have the endurance for that, and besides this person was a non-human himself... Though, she wasn't quite sure of what.
Or of his name, she thought belatedly. "I apologize. I didn't introduce myself properly. I am Renamon."
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"Portals give access, but how you open them can vary. It's not exactly a common thing, though. There's no one who just jumps dimensions for a vacation."
...As far as he knew, anyway. He was beginning to discover what he knew to be the norm wasn't worth that much in the long run.
When she gave her name, he looked up. After finding her a little down and out of it, formal introductions had completely slipped his mind and he didn't remember until she spoke up.
"I'm Angel."
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It had gotten to be a monotony of sorts over the past two days. The questions were the same, and slid her into a familiar rhythmn. She knew this dance at least. For everything else... she wasn't quite sure anymore.
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Made of. That was a good question.
"I honestly don't know," Angel replied. "People who live in that kind of world, there's usually other...issues to take care of than analyzing properties of things."
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Renamon nodded to the other question. The same as Sora. "Of course." She thought about how to phrase the next question, and started to fold her arms. The second they touched, however, her eyes widened in panic and she almost literally threw her arms apart. The skin rubbed. Brushed against. Touched. No. No no no no no....
She took a few deep breaths, and decided to forgo the usual repartee of twenty questions. "Other than that, I wanted to know was how many people from your own world, or worlds, are here?"
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They had kicked out the demons for a reason, and of the ones remaining...they already had enough. No sense in letting more in. And all right, so he remembered Acathla--remembered more than he would've liked--but it wouldn't help this girl specifically.
The way Renamon was acting, though--it was kind of odd. Angel let it slide without comment.
"Just two." He paused. "Mind if we switch roles for a moment? Why are you looking into all this?"
Obviously, it was related to the way things were messed with here, but there had to be more of a reason than that. Not everybody went around conducting interviews. And not everyone acted so edgy.
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He nodded. "To be honest, I'm still deciding whether this is a separate dimension altogether or just a really elaborate illusion." Or both. It could very well be both, which would make this an even bigger problem.
"If you're talking about glitches, though, my guess is the glitch is all around you. Fast-forwarding seasons, our perception of time, people disappearing and coming back."
Unless that was a part of it, too. But going down that train of thought would just take him in a circle.
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