Day 46: Sun Room

[human_sponge]

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that

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[zack_fair]

Having still been busy just trying to get used to how weird it felt to be alive and well, Zack had only vaguely sensed that someone was approaching him. Before he could properly tune back into what was going on around him, he was met with a bright pair of green eyes. Not as bright as his own, but that was because this stranger obviously wasn't a part of SOLDIER.

He did have bright red hair, though. While the shade was almost exactly the same as Reno's, the style was much closer to his own. Maybe that's why the guy was staring at him like that? But there was nothing wrong with having similar hairdos, was there?

It was weird just sitting there and being studied, though, and so Zack was quick to break the silence with a teasing comment. "See something you like?" he asked with a smile.

Meanwhile, he motioned for the stranger to take a seat. There was no reason for him to stay standing when there was plenty of space still left on the couch. Besides, it was kind of awkward the way the guy was just standing and watching him, so it might make things easier if they got on equal footing, so to speak.

[quidproquo]

Now, Axel wasn't really one to care about personal space, so it didn't really matter how the latter reacted. After all, even if the first impression was bad that certainly didn't lead to anything conclusive. However, it was a pleasant surprise when the man finally responded, offering him a teasing remark and a simple smile for his effort.

"Oh? So this mirror talks?" The Nobody ignored the latter's invitation for a moment, deciding to have a little fun now that the man opened himself up for it. He finally pulled back, crossing his arms and offered him an amused smile. "It's a shame it doesn't show off my better features."

And with that the redhead fell back into the couch, taking a moment to settle into a more comfortable position before flashing the guy with a lazy grin.

"So what brings you here, stranger?"

[zack_fair]

While Zack wouldn't exactly say that they were mirrors (while the stranger had markings under his eyes, Zack had a scar on his cheek), the comment did answer the question of why this guy had been looking at him so intently. The remark about his looks was enough to earn a faked shocked stare, as if he was truly offended. In reality, Zack knew that he was a decently good-looking guy, so it was no skin off his back.

Still, the redhead seemed nice enough, and so Zack let himself lean back into the couch as he considered his question. It sounded like something that would be said in a bar rather than in the middle of an institution, but Zack could already tell that this guy wasn't one who liked to take things seriously.

Which was good, since Zack didn't like to either. Things got bad sometimes, true, but what was the point in moping about it?

He laughed and gave a small shake of his head. "Would you believe me if I said I had no idea? And the name's Zack, by the way." He pressed his hand toward the other man.

[quidproquo]

Much like his character, Axel couldn't pass up the opportunity to laugh as well, finding the stranger's reaction to be strangely fitting even after the short time they've been together. It'd been a while since he had fun like this, and so he wasn't going to waste this opportunity by playing it safe.

"Really now? I could've sworn that someone like you would at least have a grasp on things." One would think that the Nobody was trying to push the man's buttons, but in reality he was just covering up his own ignorance. Maybe their situations were the same, but Axel didn't feel like accepting such an easy conclusion so soon. That would've been too boring.

"And Zack, huh?" There was no hesitation in his body language as took Zack's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Figures we'd be standing at the opposite ends, or maybe we've been next to each other all along. The name's Axel."

[zack_fair]

How about that? First Anthy, now Axel. Zack wasn't sure where all the 'A' names were coming from, but there was one thing he was certain of: this guy was way different from the polite girl he'd spoken with this morning. He seemed to like to talk in half-riddles, but Zack was sort of used to stuff like that. It didn't get anywhere near Genesis' level of weirdness.

"What, do I look like someone who knows what he's doing?" he asked with a grin as he pulled his hand away. "To tell you the truth, I just woke up here this morning." Once again, he made sure to keep to himself the fact that he'd woken up from death. It just wasn't the sort of thing a person could admit to so readily. Or Zack couldn't, anyway.

"I've figured out a couple things since then, though, if you need some filling in," he offered. He wasn't sure how new Axel was to all this, but he seemed surprisingly comfortable either way. That was probably for the best, since the last thing Zack needed was to outwardly panic about any of this. He didn't know what was going on or even what world this was, but he'd rather keep those concerns to himself.

[quidproquo]

"And yet here you are acting like it's no big deal. Even I'm impressed." With the way Axel smiled it was unclear whether or not he was being sincere. Once Zack pulled away he leaned back into his seat, quirking an eyebrow when the man offered to divulge any information he knew.

The Nobody wasn't aware that there were 'things to figure out' once someone died, but he was still relatively new with this kind of thing. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the white halls and sterile environment meant they were in some kind of hospital, but the realization didn't phase him much. Even he knew his own survival rate had been less than zero, so anything was better than nonexistence.

"Now that depends," Axel finally began, tilting his head. "Is there anything about this place that's worth mentioning?"

[zack_fair]

It wasn't often that people called Zack out on the fact that he did his best to keep things casual, so he was somewhat taken aback when Axel just went right ahead and pointed it out. He laughed for a second, giving a small shake of his head. "I guess that's just how I handle things. Though you're doing pretty well yourself," he pointed out. Maybe both of them were trying too hard, but it wasn't that easy to suddenly quit it and start taking things seriously.

Zack knew how serious his situation was, of course, but that didn't mean he needed to be obvious about it. That was what it boiled down to.

Meanwhile, Axel was continuing to be difficult, and yet Zack didn't really mind. He was used to dealing with people who were downright hard to talk to, so Axel wasn't so bad when compared with people like Tseng or--

The point was, Zack wasn't too perturbed. "Well, I think the fact that people are getting brainwashed is pretty notable, but maybe that's just me," he said with a shrug.

[quidproquo]

"Flattery doesn't work on me, but I appreciate the sentiment." It was a good thing that Zack seemed to approach things with the same laid-back attitude, so it wasn't hard to dive from one subject to another. While Axel had gotten used to the heavy atmosphere of his final days, it was hard to break such a prominent habit. Being 'serious' just didn't suit him, and he knew that even the rest of the Organization would agree on that.

However, it seemed like even Zack could throw a good curve ball or two. Green eyes blinked at the man's casual response, but in the end the Nobody could only laugh before shaking his head. Now this certainly piqued his curiosity.

"Nah, for once I've got to say I'm on the same page..." Axel breathed a small sigh, idly stroking his chin in thought. "How exactly do they brainwash people?"

[zack_fair]

It looked like there were some things that grabbed Axel's interest, though Zack had a hard time imagining someone who wouldn't find the idea of mass brainwashing as something worth talking about. Unfortunately, there wasn't too much to tell. It was a shame that Zack hadn't been approached by someone who knew a bit more, but at least this way he could help get more people into the loop.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," he said with his own shake of the head. "I just heard about it at breakfast. This girl I met said that it had been done to her friend, that she'd thought she was the same person the nurses tried to tell her she was."

Lance Findlay was the name he had been given, and Zack had to resist squirming in his seat when he thought about how they might be able to make him believe he was this random name rather than Zack. The whole thing just made him want to do some squats to let off the extra energy, but he didn't think it would be a good idea to do something like that in such a crowded room. He might end up smacking someone in the face...

[quidproquo]

"Interesting..." Well at least that seemed to explain why they scrapped his name altogether, though he was still pretty skeptical about these things. Axel knew better than to take things at face value, but Zack himself had pointed out that he only 'arrived' here this morning, so neither of them really knew much about this place. The brainwashing bit had been more than enough to get the redhead thinking, but until he heard the same words from someone else...

"Getting it from one source is no good," He concluded. From an objective standpoint having only one source was as useless as having no source at all, so gathering a few different angles on the subject was a necessity. If he wanted to work anyway. Axel was quiet for a moment, tapping his chin lightly, before suddenly grinning.

"Hey, why don't we both try to gather as much information about this place as we can? We can even make a challenge out of it if you're into that kind of thing."

The redhead shrugged.

"That is, unless you know you'll lose."

Approaching a potentially serious situation in a lighthearted way may have not been the best for most, but Axel was never the kind of person to do something the conventional way.

[zack_fair]

It was true that trusting just one person was difficult, but Axel might have had a different feeling about it if he'd met Anthy. Zack just found it hard to imagine her lying to him about anything, but maybe that was that same naivety coming back to bite him. Still, she'd seemed like such a nice girl...

Besides, how was he supposed to have more than one source when she'd been the first person he'd met, with Axel as the second? He was about to point that out, but that was when the redhead brought up his little challenge.

Zack eyed him for a second, but he couldn't stop a grin from rising up onto his face. He could never say no to a good contest, especially since most people didn't bother with that sort of thing when it came to him. Either they thought he was too good, or that he wasn't good enough -- he never seemed to be able to find a middle ground there.

"Sounds good to me, but how are we supposed to judge the winner?" he asked. This had to be fair, after all. "And... what's the prize?" It could always be their own satisfaction, but didn't that seem pretty boring?

[quidproquo]

Oh? So Zack was the same way? The latter's grin definitely led Axel to believe that, so the redhead took that as a sign to keep going. Of course, chances were good that he'd continue even if the man protested, so the outcome would've been the same anyway.

"Those are some awfully good questions." Questions that the Nobody should've had the answer to already, and he did. For one of them anyway.

"How about we both find someone who we think knows about this place the most and have them go against each other?" He suggested, glancing over at all the people that were cooped up in the Sun Room with them. "If we approach enough people then we'll probably be able to get a feel of who's lying and who's telling the truth in no time."

It was just like the Nobody to use others for his own gain, but he didn't really see it that way. In the end, it seemed as if this would benefit the collective whole. Though if Axel could read Zack's thoughts then he'd definitely agree: a prize that simple would be no good to either of them. The redhead didn't really care to have his own ego stroked anyway.

"And I don't know," Axel continued with a light laugh. "I was just thinking something simple like coffee and a foot massage, but if you've got anything better then you're free to suggest it."

[zack_fair]

The way Axel phrased it -- "have them go against each other" -- didn't really sit well with Zack, but he might have just been sensitive or misinterpreting. He'd seen his fair share of friends who ended up fighting one another because of circumstances, and while he knew this was much more minor, it still snagged at him.

"Well, I don't want to set up some sort of deathmatch," he pointed out with a smirk. Besides, how were they supposed to convince anyone to do things like that? He had no problem with gathering information, but getting others involved seemed like it might be going a little too far. Ahh, or maybe he was just being a spoilsport?

The prize was another matter. Both of those things sounded pretty good right about now, and he laughed in return. "Not sure if they've got coffee here, but I guess a foot massage could be arranged." In fact, Zack wasn't sure when the last time was that he'd gotten pampered like that. Most SOLDIERs were a bit too macho to admit they were any good at that sort of thing.

[quidproquo]

"Well, I was going to propose some kind of quiz, but maybe that is a little too death defying." It was painfully easy to tell that Axel was poking fun at Zack's opinion, but it didn't really bother him in the end. His days as an Organization member had long since ended, so he was more interested in having some fun than actually gaining something. It wouldn't have done either of them any good to do this friendly competition when one of them didn't completely agree to it.

"What do you want to do then?" The more Axel thought about it, the more he wanted to learn about this place. Was this really his final resting place? Or was he in some kind of limbo where he had to prove himself before he continued on? Admittedly, he also curious to hear Zack's story, but chances were good that sharing death stories would probably dump some weight on the mood.

In the end he merely grinned, glad to hear that the other man wasn't sensitive about foot massages. People like that were no fun at all.

"We could always postpone the coffee. Just think of it as a two part deal."

[zack_fair]

When it was put that way, a quiz didn't sound so bad. Zack figured it might work if they just found people who actually wanted to have their own contest. That might be kind of tough to do, but maybe that was just part of the fun. There had to be a few egocentric people around here who wanted to show off their knowledge, right?

Still, it seemed like it might be more work than it was worth, especially since Zack knew he had ten thousand other things that he had to worry about. He didn't mind having a little fun, of course, but when it was his own freedom on the line things became more complicated.

Luckily, Axel was the easy-going sort and so he wasn't going to demand a commitment right this second. The soldier smiled over at the redhead appreciatively.

"How about this? Both of us can start looking for potential candidates, but we can decide whether or not we want to actually go through with it some other time." That seemed like a fair enough compromise to him. He didn't know where he'd be by the time the day was over, so taking a rain check seemed like the best option.

[quidproquo]

In the end, Zack's proposition made sense. There were plenty of other people in this place, so it wouldn't have been smart to stick with each other for so long. The man seemed like a pretty social person, and he himself enjoyed jumping from one group to another. Really, he wasn't in that much of a rush to learn everything about this place. It'd be good to do it as some kind of side project.

"That sounds good to me. I'm not in much of a hurry anyway." So that settled it. Chances were good that he'd be able to find some interesting candidates, so he wasn't all too worried about the competition in general.

By then the intercom came to life. Axel blinked as he listened in before he caught sight of his nurse approaching him from the corner of his eye. Was it finally time to eat?

"Well I guess that's that," The Nobody responded with a grin, standing from his seat. He wasn't done yet, however, and quickly turned around and offered his hand out to Zack.

"May the best man win," His grin grew wider. "You'll know where to find me when you've made your choice."