Day 43: Sun Room, Third Shift

[shamusdoggydog]

Sam frowned when he heard the intercom message. That didn't sound right. He'd gathered from his conversation with Sen that everybody in the institute was sane, but that the staff were trying to convince them they were mental patients for some nefarious purpose. So why that announcement? If Sam knew anything about brainwashing, he knew that it was a

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[fshrfrndsnotfud]

She was still hungry when the nurse returned to wheel her somewhere else. Dory protested, but the chattering human assured her she'd be able to eat at dinner. She was used to be dismissed--she thought she was anyway--but the cheerful casualness of how this human treated her rested badly with Dory. She was already forgetting the helpful man, KibblesandBits? No, that wasn't a proper name. Oh well, she could ask him when she saw him again, if she remembered. But if she didn't, she'd probably ask his name again anyway. No harm done there

[loyal_soldier]

His nurse finally forced him to move from the dining hall, admonishing him that he needn't be so sad, his friend had just been released. It took all his control to not punch her. Or just see if he had the element of surprise and try to break her neck. That lie had hurt too much to bear. But he tried.

He barely registered what the nurse said, sitting him down next to someone with shockingly colored hair, confined to a wheeled seat. Apparently, she was new.

Well, he'd done a decent job introducing new people to Landel's two days ago. Maybe this would help. "So, you're new here, Ma'am?" he asked politely.

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

Dory didn't see any reason to stop wiggling her not-fins. This man was big and rather blandly colored, not dark enough to hide in the shadows. Well, maybe he'd make a good shallow water fish or a shark. He looked too sad to be a shark though.

She turned her grin onto him. "I suppose I must be. This isn't where I was, but... I can't remember how I got here. That's okay though, I don't usually remember much anyway. Are you new, too?"

[loyal_soldier]

"You're probably new, then," he replied, watching the bizarre toe-wiggling out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to stare. "I've been here for sixteen days. Do you need anything explained to you?" Apparently it might not do much good, but...

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

"Sixteen days?" she asked. She didn't even know what she'd been doing sixteen days ago. She knew she was in the ocean then, though. "That's a long time. Why haven't you left?" Why was anyone here at all?

She didn't even have her lovely body anymore, or water. "I need to get back to the ocean," she confided. "These people don't know how to take care of a fish."

[loyal_soldier]

"Because we can't leave. They won't let us escape, and no one's found a way to do so yet. It isn't as simple as finding a way outside and running away." He wished it was, now. But there wouldn't be an Imperial base on this planet from what he could tell. No way to get home outside of here.

"...You used to be an aquatic being?" There weren't many that made their way out into the wider galaxy, beyond Quarrians and Mon Calimari. He'd certainly never heard of any of them just calling themselves 'fish' before. That was the sort of impolite thing you weren't supposed to say.

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

"That's no good," she said in reaction to the news they were trapped here. "You're sure?" But she shook her head, not really wanting an answer to that. Human or not, she couldn't see why he'd have any reason to lie.

As for his question, she shrugged. "If aquatic means I lived in the ocean, then yes. I'm a fish. With fins and gills and pretty blue and yellow scales." She flapped her hands and wiggled her bare feet. "These don't work as well. I want my fins back."

[loyal_soldier]

622 didn't reply, seeing that an answer wasn't wanted.

"Ah." Well, that was... different. "...And those are feet, if you, uh, didn't know." He didn't think he'd ever seen anyone this hopeless here in a while. "Just so you know... it would probably be best if you stay inside your room at night. There are... dangerous things that usually try to eat prisoners here." Hopefully he was making this understandable. He didn't know what fish-people knew and didn't know.

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

"Are these feet too?" She showed him her hands. "I wouldn't worry about me. I haven't been eaten in all my years, shark man." Of course, she couldn't tell how many of those there were. "I'd be a pretty dumb if I let the predators eat me, wouldn't I? Fish are friends, not food."

[loyal_soldier]

"Those are hands. Feet are used for moving with. Hands can pick things up." He demonstrated with the abandoned shoe on the floor. "But you had fins then. And you can't move fast in that chair. I'm good at not getting eaten too, but I've still gotten hurt many times." He had a lot of minor scars visible on his arms, if that helped get the point across at all. Some not so minor. He didn't know if fish scarred the same way humans did.

"And one of my friends... He died last night. I couldn't save him in time. You must be careful here, or it can happen to you too."

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

Dory reached out to take the shoe from him. She studied it and her fingers for a long while, almost too long. Her eyes widened in surprise when she looked up again, but no, she hadn't quite forgotten he was there. She could see some scars on his arms, which looked strong. She wondered, seriously, how he could have gotten so badly hurt. She was about to ask, then he spoke about his friend.

"Someone died? I'm sorry. That must be terrible for you. Was he eaten?" She would have thought shark man would have been better at looking after his territory.

[loyal_soldier]

622 shook his head. "It is. And no, he wasn't eaten. They just left him there to bleed," he said, voice totally flat. "I was there, but it happened too fast to do anything." That's what he'd kept telling himself today. "If I could have done anything, I would have. And I'd saved him before. If you're going to leave your room, you need someone with you who can fight."

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

Bleeding wasn't good. Bleeding attracted sharks. This was not good news. Personally, she understood about losing someone, but not like that. She wasn't sure what to say. "If it was like you said, then it wasn't your fault," she finally said, all the brightness gone but she was genuinely sincere.

"So I need a shark of my own, I guess," she said aloud as she thought it. "How do I find one? I doubt I should just sit here and bleed until one smells me."

[loyal_soldier]

"I know. But I never want it to happen again." As unlikely as that was, it didn't stop him from hoping.

"You could--... I could ask for you on the message board. ...Can you read?" He wasn't sure if fish-people could.

[fshrfrndsnotfud]

"I can read," Dory said. At least, she thought she could. And she completely understood how no one wanted to see friends die again. She didn't like just losing people. So far the conversations here were so serious. She missed the ocean, where she was happy.

"Maybe you weren't the right kind of shark to look after a little fish. What kind are you?"

[loyal_soldier]

"Okay. If you're not up to writing yet with hands, then I can post a message for you and ask if anyone can protect you tonight." He didn't know what Trevelyan wanted to do tonight, so he couldn't say for sure that he could protect anyone.

"...Unless that's a word for a human soldier or a clone, I'm not one." Sharks were a type of fish, weren't they? "My job is to fight so that others can stay safe."