Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows

Comments

[thatdamnedninja]

"The primer posts have been established for a while, right? Messing with that would be more trouble than it'd be worth." For more reason than one. "They're not gonna care about information that everybody already knows." It wasn't like they could wave a map under a newbie's face as a way of tempting them into a club, because maps were freaking everywhere.

There was another pause, this time so that she could take a look around that wasn't surreptitious or covert. The place was really filling up, and the buzz of chatter was making a good cover. Not that they were talking about anything particularly secret. Or incriminating. Yuffie's shoulders relaxed minutely, even though the conversation had taken another sharp turn down Serious Avenue -- oh god, not gonna think about any more car metaphors. "That's not exactly what I meant, but you've got a good point anyway." She blew out a long breath, dragging her fingers through her bangs to sweep them to the side. "It's already happened once already, hasn't it? Kind of. With somebody trying to discredit Lulu." And then Lulu had taken the initiative to turn it to his favour. No matter what she thought of the guy, she did have to hand it to him; he was pretty good at this stuff.

Wouldn't press for details, huh? Yuffie's little snort of laughter--not quite bitter, but almost--said it all. "Oh, please. I'm not sensitive. If you wanna ask, go right ahead." The food was taking a while. Despite the casual thought and the fact that she'd idly begun flicking her glass to the beat of a random walking song, she gave Miles' words the attention they deserved. She nodded. It'd give Captain Noodle PR alright, but if somebody knew it already and was keeping quiet about it, there could be fireworks.

Oh well. Fireworks were fun.

"Locating the entrance and actually accessing it are probably two different ball-games," she commented, almost offhand. "Keys, passcodes, really damn good lock picks… we'd need stuff like that before we can spread the word. When that's out of the way, we can move onto the next thing and fork over the responsibility to the rescue teams and the science-y types." She grinned. "I've got a personal interest in the brainwashing stuff, obviously. I'll do as much as I can, when I'm not working on the areas over the walls."

The waitress chose that moment to make her reappearance, food in tow. Yuffie straightened abruptly, tracking her progress through the restaurant. Eager for breakfast? Hell yeah!

[high_prosecutor]

It was tempting to ask about the details of the brainwashing session, but only for a brief second. "No, it's..." Edgeworth paused, taking a few bites of food while mulling over the right way to respond. "I have the same personal interest in the experimental sessions as you have in the brainwashing," he said, after a moment. "That's why I won't press for details. I don't expect the procedure was pleasant, nor do I expect you to want to relive it more than you already have."

He was backtracking in the conversation just a little, wrinkling his brow again. "I remember that incident, yes. It was unpleasant, but I must say I'm impressed with how quickly it was handled. It takes a lot to come out with that kind of ability right off the bat." The thought of that ability made him close his eyes and frown, thinking of the powers he and Phoenix had both been given. Both complementary to our personalities, and both more useful in information-gathering than anything else... "I don't think most people would in that situation," he added a moment later.

Miles nodded at Yuffie. "In that case, I'll get cracking on what I do know about the second floor."

[thatdamnedninja]

The pause didn't escape Yuffie's notice. What was-- oh. Uh. The guy had been experimented on; that explained things, a little. "I don't remember too much about how it happened," she admitted--more like offered--around a bite of salad. "Something about drills. And injections. Y'know, creepy horror movie clichés? That kind of thing. After that, it's kind of…" She waved vaguely with her bandaged right hand. "… Fuzzy, like an overstuffed plush toy on steroids. At least until I snapped to it and started kicking ass all over the sun room; I could give you a frame-by-frame recount, but I guess you don't wanna hear it." She paused. Some people might call her words nervous prattle, or inane chatter, but they'd be wrong. "Anyway. Wanna talk?"

Okay, so that wasn't the smoothest thing she'd ever come out with, but you couldn't exactly yank words out of thin air and eat them. So she didn't press, figuring that he'd say something if he wanted to, and let the backtrack slide into place. "The guy's a total pansy," physically speaking, "but he's got more guts than a lot of people here. If he wasn't such a two-faced jerk, I'd like him a whole lot more." There was nothing accusatory in her tone, no venom. Yuffie took a moment to dig through her salad and graze a little, chewing thoughtfully. When she spoke again, it was with a splash of curiosity: "Would you?"

She grinned again. "Keep me informed, okay? And if there's anything you need me for, lemme know. I'm pretty good at this stuff."

[high_prosecutor]

"That sounds about par for the course," Miles said dryly, motioning with his pen. "It lines up with what I've experienced, and what I've gathered from those who are willing to talk about it. In my own case, a whole lot of drugs and a painful childhood memory," he said, dropping his voice low. He looked around to be sure no one was within earshot before continuing.

"My...partner and I were both taken at different times, and the results of the experiments tend to complement our usual roles back at home, to an extent. I have an internal danger radar - " he paused, laughing at his own description "- and he...well. It's something of a lie detector, though less specific. It can tell when someone's hiding a secret, though he's not the kind to actually use that against someone without a very strong reason behind it."

Now, that was interesting. Miles raised an eyebrow at the 'two-faced jerk' comment. His own senses hadn't reacted during their conversation, after all, and they would have, he thought. "And as for that question? I would like to think I would do the same."

He smiled across the table. "Likewise. I'm not much of a physical fighter, but let's just say I've been here long enough to have met a lot of people. If you need any of those connections, let me know."

[thatdamnedninja]

"Seriously. I'd complain about it being boring, but the more predictable these guys stay, the better it is for us." What was it with Landel and his drug fetish? And the paperwork fetish? And the Japan fetish? Bastard had issues. His issues had issues. She could quite happily punch him in the throat with both hands and follow it up by kicking his nose right out of the back of his head, simply -- simply because. How screwed up was it, how perfectly screwed up was it, that she could sit at a table over lunch and talk about living nightmares like they were normal?

Because after Hojo, after Sephiroth and ShinRa and waking up in Landel's Institute, that's what the nightmares were; totally. Goddamn. Normal.

Fortunately, Miles interrupted her runaway train of thought by making her choke on lemonade. Thanks, dude. Thanks a bunch. "Danger radar? Lie detector?" Remind her never to meet this 'partner', whoever he was. Yuffie and her lies were like noodles and ramen; it was a fact of life that you didn't really get one without the other. She coughed a few times, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "My experience with those experiments has been that the cons outweigh the pros. Somebody I know from back home, they kinda -- well, they did something totally weird, so she's kind of been on a see-saw between 'normal', 'confused', and 'berserk'."

Hello, raised eyebrow. Yuffie matched it with one of her own. "You got another impression of him?" Interesting, if that really was the case. Maybe it was just because she poked and prodded and bugged him until he had to drop the pretence of professionalism?

"Will do," she added, in response to Miles' offer. "I, uh, wouldn't really need to take you up on the other thing, anyway. The physical fighter bit. Being a ninja, n' all. Anyway, I've got some pretty good connections with the History Club, but networking is cool and I'll probably take you up on that at some point. Anybody you can recommend in general?"