Day 40: Greenhouse

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie was in two minds about how the 'meeting' with Orangello had gone. No, scratch that; two was way too small a number. Maybe four? Or five, no, make it six. Maybe. The only thing she knew for sure was that something had to give, and it sure wasn't going to be her. Whether or not she actually joined up with anybody was irrelevant, as long as she

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[sheisthecause]

Meche used to love flowers. She trailed her fingers along the rows of daisies and cheerful sunflowers and wondered when that had changed. Probably around the time flowers had started to be used as murder weapons, she decided. It kind of killed the joy.

Fortunately, there were also a lot of vegetables and even some herbs here, so she wasn't at a loss for things to do. The fact that this shift was all women meant she'd have no chance of seeing Manny even if he did come back (and torturing herself with that thought every shift wasn't doing her any favors), but she'd needed to get out of the Sun Room for the day.

Meche turned her attention to picking the suckers off a tomato plant. The simple work was strangely calming; she could just empty her mind of all the chaos and look at each tiny goal. Maybe, she thought, today could be an okay day after all.

[for Senna]

[windstwilight]

[♥]When Senna left breakfast, she realized her growling stomach told her that she hadn't ate much of it. She grimaced, rubbing a hand across it. This was two days in a row now. Lunch better be good. Yesterday's pizza... Mmm. She smiled contently. How many had she got up to? Six? That was good. Every day seemed to be better and better regarding food, and Senna was taking every joy in eating as much as possible. Food, was love

[sheisthecause]

Meche's face broke into a grin as a familiar figure bounded towards her. "Hey, Senna!" she greeted the girl, letting go of the tomato stalk and turning to face her. "How are you doing?"

The pint-sized death god looked a lot happier than she had the other day, at any rate. Meche was glad for it. If anything, her own situation had gotten worse, but hopefully Senna's fortunes had improved--or maybe she was just continuing not to let anything get to her. That was definitely still a quality Meche had to work on.

[windstwilight]

It seemed the living dead girl was as happy to see her as she was. Cool. Meche was another person that Senna could be herself with, ask the questions that wouldn't apply to anyone else, and know she would be understood. It was nice. Comforting. Senna kept smiling as she reached up and started to retie her hair ribbon.

"I'm doing," the girl said cheerily. "Existing, at least. I've had a couple people disappear on me in the past few days, and a couple of people..." Died was such a case-by-case term. "Well, we lost a couple of people. And some more are in a bad state right now. But I think it might get better." Especially if Hokuto and her kidnapped Momo one day to cheer her up. "Personally," she added. "I've found a couple people to relate to here, which is extremely cool. And the food yesterday was great. Plus we found some weird ruins last night."

She ended off the sentence with her content smile, then stuck her tongue out at Meche. "But how are you, lady?"

[sheisthecause]

There. That matter-of-fact statement, "We lost a couple of people"--that nonchalance was exactly what Meche didn't have. She didn't get the sense that Senna didn't care; it was more like she really did focus on the relationships she still had with people, and the little things.

That last statement was a little strange, though. "Ruins? Where? Inside the Institute?" she asked. That didn't sound right, unless they were underground somehow. On the other hand, going outside sounded pretty dangerous, even for a death god. Hopefully Senna was being careful.

As for how she was doing...how was she doing? In a little pain now (better ask for more medication at lunch), still with a long list of things to be upset about, but on the whole, a lot better now that Senna was here. "Well, I got a little beat up the last couple of nights," she said, indicating her bandaged right shoulder and braced right wrist. "I gave as good as I got, though." That was a lot truer of the night before last than last night, unfortunately. "I still haven't heard from

[windstwilight]

"Yep," she nodded, ribbon now retied and ponytail bobbing. "East of this place. You walk a bit to get there. It's a ghost town.--It's pretty creepy though." Pretty creepy, pretty freaky, and pretty memory-inducing. A very strange place.

In response to Meche, Senna held up her fist. "Sweet deal! I bet the other guy is worse off." She grinned again. "But I'm glad you're okay. And you shouldn't worry--he's probably looking for you, too. Friends have a tendency to do that." She should know. Ichigo did, after all.

[sheisthecause]

"You didn't go out there by yourself, did you? Isn't it supposed to be really dangerous outside the building?" And considering what the monsters inside the building were like, Meche might be staying carefully inside until she could build up a small army as an escort. A ghost town, huh? She wondered if it was connected to Landel's somehow.

"Well, actually," she admitted, "it was a whole lot of people and then a huge monster that almost ate me alive. I did hold up all right, though."

As for Manny, though, Meche couldn't be quite as confident as Senna was. She was pretty sure she trusted him to want to find her (unless he'd finally just gotten fed up with chasing after her, she thought guiltily), so the fact that he hadn't was worrisome. "This guy is pretty good at finding me," she said. "It's big, but a building like this wouldn't stop him for long. If I haven't seen him yet, it's because someone or something is preventing him from looking for me."

[windstwilight]

Monsters, again. The only one she had ever seen was that vrigin-eating bird, and even that was at a distance. But something had obviously got to Hitsugaya, and--

She swallowed roughly. No. No thinking about that. Don't. "Maybe," she finally said. "Why don't you look for him? Even the nurses sometimes give you answers if you ask nice enough."

Huh. Well. "I went with a guy. Truthfully, though," Senna said, tipping her head with a frown. "I haven't seen a lot of these monsters around. But I guess you're right. It's better to be safe than sorry, or something." The fact remained whether Senna would do anything differently for it. "But here's a question." She smiled brightly at Meche. "I work for the A&C--that's why I was out there. If you have nothing to do at night, you should join.--It'd be really fun!" she went on. "I've been stuck with such serious guys lately. You'd be such a relief."

[sheisthecause]

Well, there was a question. She'd checked the morgue, since that was the easiest thing, but... "I wouldn't even know where to start," she confessed. "I've heard different stories. During the day, the nurses said he's in the medical wing, but at night I was told he was being held prisoner." She didn't have much hope that he'd be somewhere where she was likely to be able to get at him, but Senna was right, after all--what could she do but try

[windstwilight]

[sorry for death. =/]

Senna crinkled her nose in thought. She really couldn't think of anything to do other than search... "Well, I think you should keep looking. There's always some place you might have missed. And who said he's being kept prisoner? I haven't heard of that happening to anyone else." Her frown deepened a little before loosening completely. "Well, damn. I haven't seen anything other than the virgin-eating birds." She shrugged. "Guess I'm lucky."

She smiled, giving a nod. "Yep! A&C. It's ran by some people from where I'm from--the Shinigami I told you about. I don't know everything about it, but we're trying to figure out this place and protect the people here that can't. Anything else you could probably ask." Senna tilted her head slightly. "But I trust them. I know they have everybody's best interests at heart. And if you join," she added sing-song, grinning. "You wouldn't be alone to get hurt like that. It'd be fun...."

[sheisthecause]

"The doctors upstairs," Meche explained shortly. With strangers it was one thing, but she wasn't sure she could get herself to say too much to Senna--to see disgust and horror in the girl's eyes would be more than she could take. So she just added, "They used it to get me to guard the door out the night before last. I don't know whether it's true or not, but he's definitely been missing somewhere. I guess all I can do is keep trying to find out where

[windstwilight]

Meche seemed pretty shut down about the issue. Senna wouldn't push it more. Her eyes softened. "That's gotta be horrible. And then they didn't even keep their bargain. Man, that's more of a reason to keep searching and give them a big 'screw you' when you find him under their noses." She shook her head, then looked at Meche carefully. "...Are you okay?"

She nodded, then. "Yep! Nothing's permanent so don't worry about having all work and no fun all the time. Hell, I take days off, and I think I'm one of their officers or something." She didn't know. What did it mean when Momo put her in charge last night? Something. Maybe nothing. She couldn't dream to know.

Meche's response was hilarious, though, and Senna laughed outright, putting a hand on Meche's shoulder and leaning against it. When her laugher slowed, she looked up. "You know, everyone seems to have that same reaction the first time they hear it."

[sheisthecause]

"I'm...well, I'm hanging in there," Meche replied. "I talked to someone at breakfast who had the same thing happen to her, so I feel a little better, at least. Mostly I feel guilty and frustrated and worried and--a lot of things. But I do okay when I keep moving and don't give myself enough time to get into a funk about it." Yes, she decided, she was going to do it. Maybe she could convince the nurse to take her by the bulletin board on the way to lunch to sign up. It was really selfish to sit around all the time moping about her own problems without lifting a finger to help anybody else.

And if she'd been surprised by Senna's statement, the way Senna was reacting now was even stranger. Well, she guessed the idea of virgin-eating birds was pretty ridiculous when you thought about it. Was it some kind of prank? Senna seemed pretty serious about it, actually. "Wait, you're not kidding?" Meche asked. "There really are birds here that eat virgins? And I thought I'd seen everything." Good thing she--well. But did it still count if you

[windstwilight]

She smiled at Meche, an open genuine smile that came from someone saying something that meant something to Senna. I keep moving. "I'm the same," she said. "As long as I'm moving, I know everything will eventually turn out okay. And it will be, you know." She thought of Momo, sobbing in the blood-filled hallway. "Things get better." Things had to get better.

Her grin widened. "Nope, not kidding! There's these gigantic birds right outside that target virgins. Which sucks," she added, frowning a little now. "Since when I saw them, they were going after a group of little kids."

[sheisthecause]

Meche gasped. "Kids too? That's awful! Outside the front entrance?" Was that why they didn't want anyone to get out? They had told her not to kill anyone, after all--hadn't the man on the intercom said something about how much trouble it was to replace patients? She thought suddenly of that girl who had managed to get by her early on--had she gotten herself eaten? If she had, was that Meche's fault too? There was no way to win here--put 'em in traction or let them go outside and get snapped up by gigantic birds; either way you were guilty as sin. This place was the worst.

"So is that what A&C does?" she asked. "Protect people from killer birds?" What were you supposed to do, shoot them? Feed them poisoned bird feed? Meche wondered if she wasn't getting in over her head here.

[windstwilight]

"Yeah," she said, thinking about that night. Those had been Orihime's friends, right? And they seemed to have fought them off by the time.... When Momo.... And Hits--

Shit.

She blinked quickly, trying to maintain her upbeat air. "No, nothing like that. Even if we did, they'd just come back the next night, and nothing would get accomplished. I think we're training up the people that need it, and trying to find ways to figure things out here." She lifted a finger. "Like that ghost town. There's something in all of that. I just know it. And once we do... we'll be able to help people escape this place, and go home."

Or something along those lines. She needed a briefing from the chief.