Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

[notthistrain]

Cloud knew he should be taking the opportunity to check out the rec field during the day. The fresh air would be a welcome change from the crowded stuffiness the Institute usually provided, and he would have a chance to scope out the area when it wasn't all under the cover of darkness. When offered a choice, however, he remained in the sun room

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[usoppsenchou]

The note he'd left about the hat Usopp was still carrying on his back hadn't really gotten a reply. Then again, he still wasn't convinced Luffy would read this board, and in the crowds of people writing notes, responding to notes, taking notes off and such, he wasn't sure his note'd get much notice anyway. Maybe he should try to get Sai's attention, if the paintbrush by the leaf was what he thought, or maybe even see if he could get the deer-guy's attention.

There was also a long thread about people who'd left, though, and that was kind of discouraging. Glancing away for a moment from the reading, he noticed another person who was spending more time looking than writing for now. Today was his day to meet girls, apparently; Sanji'd be jealous if he knew.

"Hi, I'm Usopp. What's your name?" he asked with a friendly smile. Considering how well his last meeting had gone, Usopp could at least hope for learning a bit more about where he was. And, even if that didn't happen, he could stand knowing more people here. Women with bright hair would be easier to spot in the dark.

[lookitmemama]

The voice made her turn her head and the sight made her double take with blue eyes wide.

Wow...

That was a nose. It made her thank luck extra hard she had turned out perfect. The first thought that came to mind was to snub him, but it quickly was replaced with better ideas. Her first day she had paraded herself around like a bitch, which was of course true, but it hadn't gotten her anywhere. All it had done was made her enemies which she really couldn't afford, not until she knew exactly what was going on in this place. Her lesson with Junpei this morning had taught her how far a nice attitude would get her, even if it was totally fake.

So she mustered up a smile and turned to Usopp. "Hey... I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! Nice to meet ya. So..." The redhead brought the boy's attention back to the bulletin board with a wave of her delicate wrist. "... Is this how everyone communicates with each other? On paper?" Seemed like a giant pain in the ass.

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp was confused by the pause before Asuka turned and answered. She'd looked surprised for a moment, too surprised. Usopp had gotten comments on his magnificent nose before, of course, but never had anyone go momentarily mute from looking at him. Maybe she just wasn't very well traveled and hadn't seen many kinds of faces. At least she'd smiled after the surprise.

Following Asuka's gesture, he paused to consider. "I guess so... unless you count talking. I haven't seen people flashing signals down hallways with lights or anything." Although that might not be a bad idea, really. "So, does that mean you're pretty new here too?"

[lookitmemama]

The second child did her best to keep her eyes on his or his mouth, or hell, anywhere besides the giant nose that jutted it out in front of her. But it was like a tractor beam, and all she could do was stare at it, notice her mistake and look away, nod to make sure he knew she was listening, and then come back to stare at it. Damn, that boy better cut that sucker off soon or he was never going to get laid.

"Yeah, I got here like two days ago. It's been... an experience to say the least..." Her words grew soft at the end as she began to leaf through the notes absently, noting the strange smiley face censorship on some of the papers. "So the nurses check these things too, huh?" Though it obviously didn't deter most of the patience it seemed. "How new are you?" Hopefully this little get together would provide some kind of use for her.

[usoppsenchou]

She kept looking at him, as if she expected the nose to do something. Abruptly self-conscious, Usopp couldn't help giving his nose a slight scratch before realizing he was just asking for her to watch it more. Sure, it was a little startling, in all its glory, but it wasn't as if he were a fishman. Maybe she was jealous that her face didn't have anything interesting enough to gawk at. Even her eyebrows were pretty standard.

Then again, she might think a man staring at her was just creepy anyway. Usopp decided to find the notes really interesting. If he couldn't see her looking, it couldn't bother him.

"It sounds like we've been here about the same amount of time. Had you been here before?" Asuka's attention was on the board now too, at least. "I've been watching the nurses a little, they seem to edit any curse words and anything too obvious about the stuff at night, but I don't know if there's any real penalty other than getting a little sticker on your notes."

[lookitmemama]

"Mmmm..." Her lips flattened to form a word, but she couldn't quite pull her attention away from the board in order to finish her thought. Jeez, some of these people could not spell. "Yyeah, I was in here yesterday. I just wasn't paying attention to this side of the room... Clubs?" Asuka read over a note posted by someone looking for the leaders of clubs. Some of the names of the organizations made her sputter into condescending laughter.

At the behest of the illustrious Lady Kisaragi, the Book Club has been renamed to "Genres and Models for Book Interpretation and Theory,"--pfffahahahahaaaaaa!

Man, she hoped she could find some hobbies here that weren't so gay.

Shaking her head, she corralled her chortling so she didn't upset Usopp's impression of her. It was one thing to play the sweet girl role, and then start cackling like a villain. It kinda ruined the image."Huh, well it makes more sense now... Some of the things they say are so absurd... But if it's the only way to get information past censorship..." Though it's be even grander if she understood the lingo. Again, the second child forgot she had an audience and began rocking back and forth on her heels, blue eyes only for the bulletin board.

[usoppsenchou]

And now she was looking at the board and laughing. Usopp stood off to the side awkwardly, staring at her again, waiting for her to finish and start talking again. Well, some of the conversations were a little funny. At least she calmed down fast, and he smiled over at her slightly, unsure. Everyone he met today seemed to remind him of someone--well, two people, but that was still a large number considering how many women he had in his life.

Nami. Definitely Nami. It wasn't just the red hair, either.

"I guess so, even if they do seem kind of strange. And I think some people just post stuff to be weird or get other people riled up, but I haven't been reading it long." Actually, to Usopp, it looked as if there might be a few grudges being quietly ground out on the board, between the patients as well as with the institute, waiting for a more violent resolution off the boards. "It's hard to filter through what's useful and what's not, though someone told me the 'clubs' are mostly teams that work together posting more subtly." He glanced over at the editing nurses, but they had enough to focus on with filtering patients' words on the board.

"She said, if you wanna travel with someone at night and don't have a partner, working with a club is a good way to stay safe. Everyone's said not to go anywhere alone, because you don't know what might happen. So either you should pick a buddy in the day, or pick someone up here talking about 'clubs' and 'dreams' and all that silly stuff. What the club names mean still hasn't been explained to me, some make sense and some are too weird." That all but emptied his knowledge, assuming someone who'd been here nearly the same amount of time he had would know about monsters and the whole 'alternate worlds/times/whatevers' business. Usopp couldn't think of any reason not to tell, even if the idea of her running around at night was a little disturbing.

He couldn't decide if it were disturbing because of the danger to a younger woman, or disturbing because of Asuka. Maybe both.