Day 37: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

"And I believe it's time to start wrapping up the day," was what the Head Doctor said after the intercom's initial jingle. "Now that everyone's all cleaned up, I think it's time for some... that's right, dinner

Comments

F4

[thatdamnedninja]

The days always passed by faster than the nights, but this was bordering on ridiculous.

Was it all because she’d fallen asleep after breakfast? Geez. Yuffie let a long sigh as she trailed into her room, rubbing the back of her neck. That couldn’t be it! She’d barely even gotten started, and now it was over! She hadn’t even managed to see Sagara!

Woah, woah! The thief shook her head, as though doing so would send that traitorous thought flying straight out of her ears. It wasn’t like she missed the guy - she’d only seen him just last night! She just… She’d just been looking forward to proving that yeah, she was the kickass one, and therefore she had totally won that pillow fight. Yeah. That was it.

After the chat she’d had with Mizuho, though… Sagara being unable to accept his failure was the least of her problems. Ugh. Yuffie flopped on the edge of her bed, pulling her tray of food closer. Her current and more pressing problem was Rude. A little more viciously than necessary, Yuffie speared a piece of chicken.

That stupid, good-for-nothing, pea-brained Turk bastard! How dare he go spreading rumours about her! He didn’t know anything.

Only the fact that it didn’t surprise her was stopping her from marching straight out of the door. Only that was keeping her from teaching Rude a really, really important lesson; namely, that Yuffie Kisaragi did not take insults lightly. It wasn’t in her nature, and even a few years worth of maturity hadn’t dampened her instinctive reaction to defend her pride - loudly, and, if necessary, violently. Yuffie was pretty sure he’d learn to keep his trap shut if she kicked him in the nuts.

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

Her plans had been made for the evening, and Ayumu had hope that she'd be able to find something useful, whether it be information or a more tangible item. Even in a strange situation she could still do her best to fulfill the mission she'd been given, even one as vague as this. What she needed was to get back as soon as possible, through whatever means necessary.

She made polite conversation with the nurse accompanying her back to her room, while inwardly wondering about the idea of having a roommate. It made sense, considering the layout of the room, that there would be someone else there, but still she would have liked some privacy. Even at home she'd managed that, and it would have been nice to have time to think and plan and drop the act for at least a little while.

But she'd do her best, just as she always did. And so when she entered the room and found a young woman about her age already there and eating her dinner as though it had done something to her, Ayumu only smiled in a friendly manner as she took stock of the situation. Not only about her age, but about her same height and general build. Interesting - how exactly did they assign people to rooms around here? Did they have something in common?

"Hello," she said, with a polite bow, showing none of her thoughts, "I'm guessing you're my roommate? I'm called Sen. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

Kick him in the nuts as hard as she could and then she could-- Huh, the door was opening?

Yuffie glanced up, fork pausing half-way to her mouth. Oh yeah..! New roommates today; it made sense that she’d get one for her very own, too. She wasn’t sure if she was pleased or a little put-out (or still frothing with rage at the audacity of that bastard), though. On one hand, it could be nice to have a little company in the evenings again. On the other hand, Yuffie definitely preferred to have her own space.

Dropping the fork back onto her plate with a clatter, Yuffie returned the smile with her trademark, grin, quick and cheeky. “Yo,” she greeted, not missing a beat. Even if she didn’t feel anywhere near as cheerful as she was acting, she didn’t want to take it out on the newcomer - on Sen. Yet. Even she had more sense than that; she’d wait and see exactly what she was dealing with first.

No last name, though… In Yuffie’s experience, it was only the ones with something to hide and-or the villains who went without last names. Or maybe this chick was just being all shy, the logical part of the thief‘s brain piped up. Or maybe she really doesn’t have a last name. It was unusual, but it wasn’t, like, totally unheard of.

“Nice t’meetcha, Sen. I’m the Great and Awesome White Rose of Wutai,” she paused, grabbing her fork again. Even as she spoke, even as she began returned to chowing through her dinner - less viciously, this time- she did a quick, subtle study of the woman. “But you can just call me Yuffie for short. Yuffie Kisaragi.”

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

The 'Great and Awesome White Rose of Wutai'? That was quite the impressive title, and her new acquaintance seemed rather pleased by it. And very certain of herself, as well. Some kind of noble title, maybe? Although she'd never heard of "Wutai" before.

Ayumu blinked once, as though a little overwhelmed. "Is that where you're from, Yuffie-han?" she inquired, moving to take a seat at the desk now that the polite formalities were out of the way. "From...'Wutai', I mean? I don't think I know where that is."

The girl seemed cheerful and friendly enough, but Ayumu still remained on her guard; it would hopefully make her easier to get along with, but she also was paying attention. People who paid close attention to what was going on made her job slightly more difficult.

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

There were untold amounts of other titles that she could’ve thrown out - The Great Ninja, Wutai’s Superninja, Treasure Princess… So, okay, that last one was a little old, but it still counted! Yuffie, though, had grown remarkably fond of The Single White Rose of Wutai - it was a play on her actual title from back home, as close as translation could get it.

It helped bolster her ego. Especially when people, like Sen, didn’t challenge it. “Yup” She said, swallowing a mouthful of food. She was past expecting other people to be from Wutai, and past expecting them to know what or where it was. Still… it sucked. “You n’ almost everyone else in this dump,” she lamented. “Don’t worry about it, though; s’far as I know, a whole bunch of people here are from totally different planets.”

Yuffie didn’t stare after the woman as she moved around. She didn’t want to come off as suspicious or intimidating when they‘d only just met…. Instead, she glanced over briefly, her grin settling into a friendly smile, before she went back to her dinner. Sen seemed friendly enough.

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

The food the nurse had left behind for her looked and smelled pleasant enough, but Ayumu privately thought that it was nothing compared to her cooking. It would've been nice if they'd let her go to the kitchens and make her own dinner. She wouldn't even mind making dinner for other people; she was used to that, after all.

But still, this was what she had. And as she took an almost cautious bite, had to admit it was certainly edible. She settled down to eating, being deliberately clumsy with the utensils, as though this morning was the first time she'd ever had to deal with them. "Different planets?" she echoed, hesitating a moment to look utterly confused. "That doesn't seem...oh, well I suppose that if people can come from different times..."

Even so, that was quite baffling. How could there even be people living on different planets? Probably best to just file away that bit of knowledge and not to think about it right now. It was her job to gather information, not necessarily to analyze it.

After a moment's thought she continued, a little more cheerfully. "I'm from Kyoto. Japan. Have you heard of that?" She couldn't imagine why someone wouldn't, although if she hadn't heard of Wutai...

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

As much as Yuffie was craving some genuine Wutaian food, the Eastern styled stuff that was served all the time wasn’t bad at all… but it’d be better if it was Tifa’s. She missed Tifa’s home-cooking and her campfire-cooking and the alcoholic drinks - even if she had to steal those whilst Tifa’s back was turned.

Still, it didn’t take her very long to clear the plate. Starting on her ice-cream, Yuffie made an affirmative-sounding ‘mmmhmm’ at Sen’s confusion, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

No way was she gonna even try explaining that one. Nuh-uh; not even if she was paid to… Alright, maybe if she was paid to... but even then it’d be little more than trash made up off the top of her head. “Don’t think about it too much,” she advised wisely, twirling her spoon between her fingers. “I think my brain melted and started leaking out of my ears when I tried. Not pretty.”

Wait, Japan? That place again? Suffix blinked rapidly, then shook her head. “Uh, yeah,” she said. “But only ‘cuz a bunch of my pals are from there, or something.” She shrugged again, pulling her feet up to sit cross-legged. Pausing briefly, she raised her spoon dramatically into the air. "I betcha that Landel has some kind of creepy fetish for Japanese people!"

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

At least she wasn't the only one who thought that didn't make a lot of sense. There were many things about this place that didn't, really, so Yuffie's advice was probably best: just accept it at face value and move on. Otherwise she'd spend all her time trying to reconcile it with what she knew and wouldn't get very far. Kind of like with the descriptions of the "monsters" that wandered the building at night - she just had to know how to deal with them, not figure out how they could possibly exist at all.

Ayumu nodded slowly, still looking a little confused, but just kept working on her dinner. She somewhat awkwardly scooped a bit of potato onto her fork, dropping it a couple of times before she got it to her mouth. She cast a vaguely embarrassed glance in her roommate's direction, as though worried that the other would make fun of her difficulties.

"You have friends from Japan?" The answer surprised her a little (as did the dramatic emphasis with the spoon), though what she said seemed to imply that she'd met them after coming here. "Would it be impolite to ask who they are? I must admit I'm curious about how people are chosen to be brought here."

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

Wow. It wasn’t very often that took Yuffie’s advice to heart! Or, at least, she was assuming that the advice was being taken to heart; the woman seemed to be concentrating on dropping her potatoes everywhere - Yuffie would’ve laughed, but she was too busy scraping up the last of the ice-cream and licking her spoon clean - rather than babbling questions or denials.

If nothing else, talking to the newbie was keeping her from brooding over the loss of her friends… Yuffie was doing a great job of pushing that back to the far recesses of her mind, trying to fall back on the casual unconcern she’d felt at age sixteen, to keep her from falling apart like she very nearly had done last night; she could worry about them all later.

(And by later, she wanted to mean never. Yeah, right.)

“Met ‘em here,” Yuffie clarified, cheerily. Done with her food, she uncurled her legs and bounced to her feet, stretching her arms above her head. At Sen’s question, she paused and glanced over, one eyebrow raised.

The hesitation only lasted a split second, though, and Yuffie dropped her arms and headed for the closet. “Sagara and his gang,” she said, doing a little twirl as she walked. That Okita dude was from Japan too, wasn’t he…? Well, it wasn’t like she cared; she only knew of him because he’d gotten stab-happy with people he should keep his sword (and pens) well away from. “And Kaito, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend.” The last commented was spoken with a grin.

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

It really would have been easier with a proper pair of chopsticks, but it wasn't as though Ayumu was really as clumsy as she was pretending - though Yuffie didn't seem to notice. Or care, really; she seemed rather focused on her own dinner, which was good enough. The less her roommate paid attention to what she was doing, the more happy Ayumu would be.

Although there was that pause after her question which made her wonder for an instant just what Yuffie was thinking. "Sagara?" she echoed, taking care to sound simply curious, although the name immediately made her more wary. "Is it possibly...Sagara Sanosuke? Himura-han told me he had a friend by that name.

"Ah, I met Himura-han last night," Ayumu was quick to add, as though she'd just thought of it. "After I found myself here, he helped me find safety for the night and told me about this place." Kaito was a name she didn't know, but it was duly filed away for further reference, along with everything else the other said.

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

“That’s him!” Yuffie confirmed, oblivious to what her dinner-time companion was thinking. “He’s a real knucklehead,” she added, without prompting. When Sen mentioned having met Himura --- Himura who? Did she mean Kenshin? --- Yuffie snickered “But Kenshin’s a pretty good catch, I guess.

So that was why Kenshin hadn’t made an appearance last night; he‘d been shacking up with a chick! Oh, boy, that could make for some interesting teasing-fodder. It had to be him that Sen was talking about, too. Had to be, even though Yuffie’d never bothered to find out the swordsman’s second name, and now it was coming back to bite her on the ass. Only not, because this was just semi-idle chit chat, wasn’t it?

“Ya found any more friends yet?” She asked, curious, pulling the closet door open as she spoke “I -- Woah!”

That…. That was not what she’d been expecting to see! For a moment, Yuffie stared blankly at the inside of her closet. Or, rather, at what was in the closet, neat and tidy like it had been there all the time - her clothes. Normal, honest to God, real clothes! She reached up to rub at her eyes quickly, just to make sure that they weren’t playing tricks on her.

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

So Yuffie was one of Himura's friends - though apparently more so of his taller friend, the one Ayumu had only seen from across the cafeteria earlier. She wasn't from Japan, so likely wasn't a Choushuu sympathizer herself, but it would still be highly dangerous to tip her hand here, for fear of what Yuffie might report back to the others.

"Catch?" Ayumu blinked once, then laughed quietly and lifted a hand to her cheek as though trying to hide a blush. "No, no, Himura-han was very nice, but..." She shook her head a little. "He saw me lost in the hallway and offered a place of safety for the night. I only watched as he taught swordsmanship to a friend of his."

Although she wouldn't have objected to anything of the other sort; it wouldn't have been the first time she'd seduced a swordsman in the pursuit of her duties, after all. He just hadn't seemed to respond to her at all, not like his friend had.

At Yuffie's sudden exclamation she tensed slightly, mentally cataloging everything nearby that could be used as a weapon, but after an instant with no sign of attack she only cast a confused look toward her roommate's closet. "Is something wrong?"

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

There was so much fodder for teasing there, and in the back of her mind, Yuffie knew that she’d never forgive herself if she let it go to waste.

Hell, she would’ve started with the teasing right there and then, but there was a distraction by the name of ‘clothes’. Clothes in her closet! Yuffie peeked between her fingers, squinting, only to find that she hadn’t been hallucinating. The clothes were still there, and Sen was piping up, sounding confused. That was enough to snap her out of her surprise.

The grin that flashed across Yuffie’d face was the most genuine one she’d given all night. “My clothes!” She crowed, practically diving into the closet to retrieve them. So what if the outfit was the one that she’d been wearing on her trip to Edge, to help with the Geostigma crisis and the gigantinormous summon? So what if the clothing appearing just like that was suspicious and weird? Grabbing the items, Yuffie did a few backward hops, then spun around with a great deal of flair so that she was facing Sen.

“No, nothings wrong,” she reassured, a little belatedly. She held the clothes up, shifting her weight restlessly from foot to foot. “Everything is awesome.”

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

...clothes.

Well, Ayumu did have to admit that she'd be much happier back in her real clothing instead of what she'd been given, but that was mostly because what she had was far too revealing. It was almost impossible to actually hide anything useful in it anyway, and the fabric was just far too light. (Susumu would've had a far more difficult time disguising himself in clothing like this, that was for certain.) The only advantage it gave was that it didn't impede her movements at all, but that was just about it.

The clothing that Yuffie was ever so delighted about having, though, didn't seem much better. In fact, in many ways it seemed worse, given that there was even less of it than what she was currently wearing. All right, the boots would probably be more useful than the flimsy slippers, but it wasn't as though Ayumu was against going barefoot when she needed to, so again she didn't quite see the point.

However, the fact that this was Yuffie's clothing, presumably from her home, immediately intrigued her. If one's old clothing could mysteriously appear in closets, didn't that imply that there was somehow a connection back to the world from which they'd come? Well, unless Yuffie had been wearing that when she'd arrived, and it had simply been restored to her. Interesting.

"That's...strange," Ayumu said, tilting her head to one side with a puzzled expression. "Is it what you wore back in Wutai? How did it get there?" Was her clothing perhaps in the closet as well? If so, it hopefully still contained the various items stashed in its hidden pockets...

Re: F4

[thatdamnedninja]

It was like her birthday had come early. No more parading around in the craptastic outfit that made Vince look like the fashion-guru of the century! No more slippers with grip like a mouldy banana peel! No more stupidly shallow pockets! And, on second thought, it was better that it was this outfit - the darker colours would make it easier to blend in. Usually it wasn’t an issue, seeing as though she was the Great Ninja Yuffie, but here… Here things were a little more complicated.

“Yeah, this is what I wore back home,” she responded, practically skipping to her bed so that she could dump the clothing on it. “Well, sort of. It isn’t like I just wore one outfit all the time, y’know.”

Okay. Now to find out if everything was there. Yuffie began to sort through the various garments, tossing the actual clothing to one side and the accessories to the other. Arm warmer, check. Sweatband, check. Headband, check… Looked like everything was there, except the stuff she’d left in her multitude of pockets, hidden or otherwise. “Awww,” she whined, half under her breath. “They took my lock picks!” And the small blades, shuriken, materia, smoke bombs and Leviathan knows what else. That sucked.

Shaking the shorts upside down in a vain attempt to dislodge something that could be hidden in there (wishful thinking, but it was worth a try!), Yuffie shrugged at Sen. “Dunno how it got here. I mean, it wasn’t here yesterday, or even this mornin'.”

Re: F4

[tostepforward]

"Was it...perhaps, were you wearing that when you came here?" Ayumu rose to her feet again as her roommate began sorting through her new acquisitions, going to check her own closet. Alas, all she found there was the exact same contents that had been there before: grey clothing and more grey clothing. No sign of any of her usual clothing from back home.

Well, hopefully the patient possessions room would be more forthcoming with useful items, once she reached it. It was quite puzzling, though, why one person in the room would find her old clothing and the other wouldn't. Was it because Yuffie had been here longer? Or was there something about her world as opposed to Ayumu's?

The way the other was sorting through her clothing, like she expected to find something in the pockets (plus the outright, albeit quiet, mention of lock picks) was also interesting, though. "There's nothing of mine here," she replied, sounding highly disappointed. "It would have been nice, to have something a little more modest to wear." Something that covered a little more than those short pants Yuffie was currently shaking; she wore that? And only that? It would be easy to move in, but....