Dayshift 42: Morning - Magus Park

[windstwilight]

Senna stepped off the bus to wind blowing through the clothes she was given. A sad face at one of the nurses allowed her a long red scarf as well, and once she had draped it around her neck and let it hang down her back, she had trotted off

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[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie made it out of the bus and into the bush in record time. She'd just barely managed to grab the coupons and stuff them into her pocket before the nausea hit her again, sending her dashing--stumbling--away into the nearest foliage.

It was lucky that she'd barely eaten anything the day before. Her stomach was mostly empty, and before long she was reduced to painful dry heaving, coughing and spluttering in what must have been a really undignified way. Bent double on her knees, the paper bag tossed aside, she clutched herself and rode it out. M-Man. She could probably win an award for this performance. Not that she wanted an award; that'd mean having to give a repeat performance.

[For one of Eli's crew. ♥]

[timedork]

Another trip to town, was it? The Doctor couldn't say he was disappointed; he'd wanted to investigate on their last visit, but Donna had dragged him into getting a manicure instead.

That morning, he'd been given the same clothes as his last trip--same shirt, blazer, jeans, trainers... everything except the scarf. He still had a scarf, but this week's scarf was different. It was whiter. Well, no, it wasn't white, not exactly. More of a cream...

He'd spent the bus ride quietly (no arguments about alchemy and the probability of magic this time), the things he needed to do running through his mind. Find Donna, find Rose, find the TARDIS, find out what was really going on, find a way for everyone to return to their homes, find out what impact this place might have on time, and so on and so forth.

There was certainly a lot of finding to accomplish

[thatdamnedninja]

There were petals in her hair, footsteps behind her, and then a voice that she didn't recognize. If Yuffie's muscled hadn't been bunched and aching already, she might have tensed; as it was, she merely ducked her head in lieu of a 'whatever' and just -- just carried on trying to upchuck her vital organs. Ugh. "T-Totally… Peachy," she added, when the spin-cycle in her stomach let up enough for her to cough the words out. This couldn't go on for much longer. It really, really couldn't. Hopefully. She'd been a good ninja! Karma was on her side, right?

[timedork]

Despite her words to the contrary, the girl certainly didn't look like she was 'peachy,' not by any stretch of the imagination. No, she was definitely unwell, though it seemed unlikely that she would have been brought along on the trip to town if she was suffering from some illness.

"Well, if you say so. But I usually find that if someone is doing alright, they're not likely to be emptying the contents of their stomaches."

The Doctor briefly glanced back at the buses; they seemed the most likely source of the discomfort, unless she had an unlikely allergic reaction to begonias... in which case, she should have found a better spot. No, the buses were most likely.

"Motion sick?" he ventured.

[thatdamnedninja]

"Sarcastic," she groaned, sitting back on her heels. "I was being really, really sarcastic."

The worst of it seemed to be over by now. Her stomach was still cramping but no longer felt like it was being mauled by the Jaws of Supreme Death; the urge to gag and retch and be generally grossness was slowly abating. Yuffie took a small, slow, experimental breath. And then another. And then clapped a hand over her mouth.

Urp. Maybe not.

Still, it didn't feel like she was going to lose any more imaginary food. "That obvious, huh?" Lowering her hand, she turned her head just enough to look at the guy. His voice wasn't familiar, but she'd seen him around enough to know that he wasn't new. "Damn nurses wouldn't let me sit up top." She laughed a little. "Go figure."

[timedork]

"And I was being facetious," the Doctor replied with a cheeky grin. "Well... more or less?"

Now that the girl wasn't burying herself in her bush, he recognized her as the one who'd given a speech in the cafeteria the other day. Brilliant. He'd been meaning to seek her out sooner or later because of that, and here he'd happened into her!

"It was the only readily-available answer that made any sort of sense," he said on the topic of her motion sickness. "Try closing your eyes for a bit. It's not the most advanced method to stave it off, but it should help the feeling subside. Your brain will be less confused.

[thatdamnedninja]

"More or less?" Yuffie snorted, swiping the back of her hand across her mouth. Yuck. She'd gotten pretty good at not making a mess of herself over the years, but it still tasted grossness. The whole thing was still grossness. Even so, the man's cheek earned him a ghost of a grin.

And his next suggestion earned him a raised eyebrow. Close her eyes? 'For a bit'? Not something she had a habit of doing around strangers, but another surreptitious glance revealed that he was kind of -- well, he didn't seem all that threatening, not in his looks and not in his mannerisms. His body language was totally benign. "It's not my brain I'm worried about," she said, going from cautious to plain confused in split seconds.

And from confusion came curiosity. Experimentally, Yuffie closed her eyes.

[timedork]

"Well... A little more 'more' and less 'less,' but enough to say that I wasn't being entirely facetious," he answered, slipping his hands into his pockets as he watched the girl. It seemed she was doing a bit better already, what with being on solid ground and able to talk without heaving.

It also seemed she was a bit confused. "That's what motion sickness is, though, you know: a confused brain," he explained, removing a hand from its pocket to tap his right temple. "Your body can feel that it's moving but your eyes tell the brain that you're not. The brain gets confused, and doesn't know what to make of it."

[thatdamnedninja]

Talking to this guy, it was hard not to get confused. It wasn't a bad confusion; he seemed perky and friendly enough that it was appealing, without bouncing right into her face like that creepy Albedo kid had done the morning before. Yuffie looked around at him again, ineffectively since she had her eyes closed. "'Kay, so, Mr. Not-Quite-Facetious. You got a name?" She peeked one eye open, and the smile she managed was friendly enough despite her lingering paleness. "I'm Yuffie."

"Never really thought 'bout that before," she added, closing the eye again. The world wasn't spinning so much anymore, thank Leviathan. "Too busy concentrating on 'oh gawd not again' and my stomach doing a samba to worry about what my brain was getting up to. How the hell are you supposed to cure something that's all in your head?"

[timedork]

Oh good, she was smiling now. That was a definite improvement.

"John Smith," the Doctor replied. He took a few steps toward Yuffie, and then crouched so as to be on eye level instead of standing above her. "Pleasure to meet you, Yuffie; it's good to have a name to go with your face now. I heard your speech the other day. Well, most of it. It was very spirited; it's a shame the nurses interrupted you."

Yuffie may have been looking better, but he hoped that she was feeling better, too, especially since by the sound of it she wasn't a newcomer to motion sickness. "At this time, you don't," he said in answer to her question. "You cope with it, and try to make your senses agree with each other to lessen the effects."

[thatdamnedninja]

"Nice t'meetcha," Yuffie returned, starting to sound progressively more chipper. It was easier to be cheery when you weren't hacking up internal organs and those weird not-carrots. What was with those. They were weird. Fabric rustled as the man--John Smith, what a boring name--crouched next to her.

Wait, wait! He'd heard her speech? Yuffie straightened, balanced precisely on the balls of her feet, and opened her eyes so that she could grin properly. "You saw all that?" She asked. "Awesome. It was pretty good, wasn't it? I mean, I guess I failed at inciting a huge revolution amongst the masses, but that wasn't really the point."

Her smile turned a little rueful at the mention of the nurses. She thought she'd been pretty impressive up on that table, lasting as long as she had when she'd clearly been at a massive disadvantage… but still, it was frustrating! She was about to comment on that, but something about John's next words caught her attention. "'At this time'?" She questioned.