Day 38: Sun Room

[paper_murdock]

Matt had to bite his tongue hard to keep from insisting he would be perfectly comfortable in the library, really, and could he please stop being led around like freaking cattle? As the nurse drew him into the empty Sun Room, the answer to that seemed to be a resounding 'No

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[windstwilight]

Legs? Didn't work so well when you had something in your system plus a sedative. Granted, this was preferable to thinking about everything... like Shinigami, and Nobodies, and people dying. And more people dying. Yeah. Tripping over yourself and running head-first into a wall was preferable.

Still, she made it to the sun room more or less fine. Senna didn't trust herself to stand in the sunlight like she had the past few days, and instead flopped in the closest couch that she saw. Maybe she'd just doze off or something.

[Meche!]

[sheisthecause]

Meche was here to take Kaiji's advice--look at the bulletin board and think about joining a club. Maybe she could even ask if anyone had seen Manny. His roommate might know something. That thought encouraged her a little.

She was on her way across the room when she noticed a familiar face; Senna was sitting on one of the couches, looking a little out of it. Yuna wasn't with her this time, and she looked like she could use some company. Well, Meche was in a slightly better mood after breakfast than she had been for the last few days; she might as well put herself out there a little. In any case, she wanted to hear more about what Senna had been going to say when they had to leave.

"Good morning," she said, sitting down on the couch next to the girl. "Taking a nap already?"

[windstwilight]

She was watching the shadows the light made. Not introspecting or anything like that--just watching, and accepting the different aspects to life. Then someone sat down next to her.

Senna remembered the woman from town when she had been feeding the horse. Her name was... something with an M that reminded her of a car... Meche, she thought firmly in her hazed state. Or something like that. The one who lived in a world where everybody was dead.

Senna blinked lazily at Meche, attempting a loose smile. "Morning. Nah. I wish. Been a rough... Hell. It's been rough."

[sheisthecause]

"Tell me about it," Meche commiserated, leaning back against the couch. She could kill for a cigarette. Something to calm her nerves and occupy her hands. She thought she'd kicked that nervous habit after she left Domino, but she guessed she'd better be sure, now that she had lungs to ruin again. Good thing they weren't giving her any; the way she was feeling, she'd've smoked the whole pack before the end of the shift.

"Anything in particular?" she asked. "Or is it just the Landel's blues in general?"

[windstwilight]

The Landel's blues. Nice phrase. But she didn't want to think about the particulars. She'd much rather be floating away on medicated clouds. "Something..." she trailed off, her eyes unfocusing.

Senna pulled her head up suddenly, trying to be herself, even if it was just a little. "So how's your stay been?"

[sheisthecause]

Meche knew better than to push that one. She didn't really want to talk about herself again, either, but she might as well at least sketch out a few details in the name of politeness. "Not well," she admitted. "I haven't seen my friend who I came here with in two days, and on Sunday my old boss--kidnapper, really--came to visit. The last time I saw him, he was being ground into a million little pieces by coral crushers." Meche couldn't quite suppress a wince. "So it hasn't exactly been an ideal vacation," she finished sardonically.

"But we never got a chance to finish our conversation the other day. Weren't you going to tell me about your home?" Better for both of them to change the subject. Maybe thinking about her hometown (or at least one of them) would cheer Senna up.

[windstwilight]

"Sounds like," Senna agreed. Her eyebrows drew together, considering something. "Ground into pieces, huh? Interesting life."

She knew that before they were talking about their homes with a girl named Yuna. Yuna had some kind of sport, and Meche had a world where everyone was dead. And then Senna had left to find Alita. Right. Her mind tried to put her thoughts in order. "Yeah. Karakura probably wouldn't interest you that much, but Soul Society...."

There was probably some rule that you weren't supposed to talk about it to anyone, but half of Senna wanted to leave the Shinigami so she wasn't going to waste time on thinking about it. "Soul Society's made up of death people, too. Sorta. It's where you go when you die normally. And then there's Shinigami--death gods--that live there, too. It's not all puffy and cloudlike. There's cities, and laws and crap. It's a whole 'nother world."

[sheisthecause]

"Interesting death, actually," Meche replied with a mirthless smile. "Or interesting way to die again when you're already dead, I guess. I'm not really up on how that whole thing works."

Senna was right in hitting on Soul Society--that was the name, she remembered now--as what she was really interested in. "Sounds a lot like the Land of the Dead, except there there are reapers instead of death gods." She linked her hands behind her head and leaned back into them, thinking. "It's strange that they'd be so similar. If you're from another world, though, I guess it makes sense." After all, souls created the afterlife in a way, didn't they? Some higher power must have established the basic system, but then humans took the reins--and started businesses and wore clothes that were a lot like the way they did things in life. No wonder things might be a little different in Soul Society, if the world it was attached to was somehow different from Meche's.

[windstwilight]

Senna snickered. "Yeah."

She nodded along slightly, feeling like her head was on a bobble head doll. "Shinigami are called soul reapers, too. I think it depends on the customs of the people in the human world." Senna really hadn't had time to think about other worlds and stuff like that, but she thought the Soul Society was the afterlife--though there might be other places outside of there.

She shrugged. "Soul Society and the Land of the Dead are probably the same, just different places. If that makes sense. Like..." She frowned in thought. "Like outside if you walk outside of Soul Society, you find the Land of the Dead. Or vice versa. Or something." Stringing together sentences was complicated like this.

"I think that it's the same no matter where you're from. I found someone... like me here and that'd be impossible where I come from, but he has a whole group of... me's." Now she definitely wasn't making any sense, but Senna kept talking. "So maybe things come together after life."

[sheisthecause]

This conversation was like the Petrified Forest: completely unfathomable and likely to get Meche hopelessly lost. But Senna could be right, she decided. After all, anything could be out there beyond the Sea of Lament. The Eighth Underworld wasn't exactly the kind of place that invited exploration beyond the set path to the end of the line. If anyone had been out there, they hadn't come back to tell her about it, anyway.

"Was it strange for you? Coming back to life?" she asked. "I haven't been dead all that long, so I got used to it pretty quickly. But my friend was having a little trouble at first."

[windstwilight]

There was a complicated question. Senna had technically only been in existence two weeks because of what she was, so life and... unlife mixed in their meaning. Actual death however, was very clear.

"I thought it was a second chance," she said quietly. "Because I died... more than being a Shinigami. I gave up my life and didn't exist. Everything stopped. And then I woke up here." Senna blinked suddenly, as if realizing she had been talking out loud. A little awkward, she added. "So... I'm not really sure. I think it's more weird to be without my abilities."

[sheisthecause]

"You died while you were a 'death god?'" Meche asked. "I'm sorry. So it must have been like what happened to the...the coral crusher guy. I guess death gods aren't exactly in control of the whole process either, huh?" If it did work the same way, Domino hadn't suffered. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.

"Abilities" made her put her hands down and sit up straight, turning to face Senna. She must be one of the people Peter had been talking about, who were supposed to have special powers. "Your abilities?" she repeated aloud. "What kinds of things can you do? ...if you don't mind my asking, that is." For all she knew, there was some kind of big taboo about talking about being able to fly or spit fire or whatever Senna could do.

Meche felt a little silly talking seriously about these things, but by now she was ready to believe almost anything.

[windstwilight]

Senna smiled a little. Not controlling it would be a normal thing, but at that time, she had perfect control. She held her power, and her life, in her own hands, and gave them up as a sacrifice to save what she really cared about... to save Ichigo. But saying that would be too complicated. "It wasn't as bad as it could have been. And I'm here now," she thought of Hitsugaya's body suddenly. "For better or worse."

The medication made Senna giggle at Meche's reaction--obviously excited. "No, I don't mind." She slouched back into the couch more, thinking. "Well, let's see. I control wind, and my zanpakuto--uh, my sword. Each Shinigami has one to send on spirits that remain on Earth, and to fight corrupted souls. But yeah, my zanpakuto creates and controls tornados. And, um," She took a minute to think about other things that wouldn't be neccessarily normal, and would amuse her new friend. "We can walk on air, and I can teleport myself."

[sheisthecause]

Swords? To send on spirits from earth, and fight corrupted souls? That sounded familiar. Must be Soul Society's version of Manny's collapsible scythe. Meche wondered if they also had the long black robes and the stilts, if they weren't tall enough to fill the robes. Maybe height wasn't such a big problem when you could walk on air.

Wait...walk on air? Teleport(?!)

She was tempted to dismiss that as a youthful exaggeration for the sake of a good story, but having met the angelitos... "Really?" she asked. "I'm impressed! But you can't do those things here? I was talking to someone the other day who made it sound like some people have...abilities they can use."

[windstwilight]

This was a totally preferable subject. She grinned. "Yeah, I can still do some things. I don't have my zanpakuto obviously, and I can't walk on air any more. But I can still teleport." She didn't add in that it was a little harder here.

"And I can't get my big winds going, but I can do this." Senna moved her hand, and a small breeze was sent at Meche, ruffling her hair. In the closed room, even that small breeze couldn't be explained away.

[sheisthecause]

Meche's jaw dropped, and her hand instinctively shot up to feel the swish of her hair against her face. "Wow," she said. "That must be great in the summertime.

"But if you can teleport..." She stopped. Obviously there must be some reason Senna hadn't just teleported home, or to Doyleton, or to the next nearest place where someone might actually listen to her. "I guess it doesn't exactly work the way most people think, does it?" she asked. "Still, that must be a pretty neat feeling."