Day 48: Cafeteria (Breakfast)

[should_be_dead]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a

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[flamingfurball]

Nanaki woke up with a start, and then a flail and his body moved in ways he wasn't used to. Still human. It was still throwing him off, like when he was falling asleep and felt like he was actually falling. Things seemed out of place and strange.

Once he was out of the bedsheets, he remembered where he'd been before now. Wide awake, contemplating pouncing Cloud's apparent roommate. Rage had been boiling up again, drowning out even Gilligan's own control over Nanaki.

Questioning the nurse was pointless, but he tried all the way until the breakfast queue, where his mind was taken over by new concerns. Eating. He'd given up last night and he was starving. Living in the forest provided food enough for survival, which had been difficult to get used to at first, having been raised with food freely available. Now he just had to get past the human consumption techniques. They chewed, like bovines, right? Hm.

Worry about Tifa and Cloud remained at the back of his mind. He hoped they'd blacked out as he had, before anything could happen to them. Unless it was just Nanaki who had collaps-

His stomach growled, pulling his attention back to food. A plate full of sausages and a few odds on ends, out of mere curiosity. The nurse wheeled him between tables to find him a spot, but he quickly picked one out.

"Yuffie!" he called, quickly looking over his shoulder at the nurse. "Over there."

[thatdamnedninja]

There was a glint of determination in Yuffie's eyes, directed at nothing and nobody in particular. It was the same old glint, the same old spark, that had been with her ever since she'd first started out in the world. From the by-gone days of wobbling across Wutai's tiled rooftops, to the age of the Materia Hunter and the advent of the new AVALANCHE. All the way up to her missions for the W.R.O. Gawd, that'd been the life. Being paid to trek across the world and snoop into other people's business? The job had been made for her.

Landel was doing his damned best to stamp that determination out of her, to turn frustration into defeat, but there was absolutely no way she was gonna let him get his claws in that deep. She was going to go out, bad weather or no bad weather. She was going to get something done. And even if she didn't, that'd just mean trying again. And again. And again. It was better than staying still. Her thoughts were just turning to the finer details, like how to do it and who to do it with (if anybody; she was totes okay with running around on her own), when somebody called her name.

Her head snapped up.

"Um," she said.

It was a strange-looking kid in a wheelchair. Something about him looked-and sounded-familiar, but Yuffie couldn't quite put her finger on it. That was about as comforting as an Adamantaimai beanbag. Maybe even less so.

"I know I'm astoundingly popular, hard not to be with such a willing personality and charming disposition, but." She folded her arms across the table in front of her tray, leaning some of her weight on them, and looked at the familiar stranger coolly. "Have we met?" They had to have. Somehow, somewhen. 'Cuz there was something about him that rang more than a few bells.

[flamingfurball]

Well. he thought Yuffie, of all people, would recognise him. this was getting decidedly annoying. And depressing. Had everybody just...forgotten him? He didn't look that different, did he? Well, okay, yes. Perhaps the things he recognsised about himself just seemed like coincidence to everybody else. They weren't exactly looking to see Nanaki.

But that wasn't the point.

"We are aquinted," he said, letting out and angry sigh. He put his plate on the table and scowled back at the nurse, waiting for her to push him a little closer and leave. His eyes didn't leave her until she'd done it. He stared at his food then, hoping to eat something this time round. Of course, Yuffie was watching and it was making him uncomfortable. "I'm not helping," he warned her. She was going to have to work it out herself or they weren't friends anymore.

[thatdamnedninja]

There! There it was again! That niggling sense of familiarity. It was in his voice, Yuffie thought; his speech patterns were familiar. And-there was something else. Something. With an irritated huff, Yuffie leaned a little further across, watching the kid like a hawk.

"Sure we are," she agreed, lips pursed. Because they were acquainted. Somehow. Really, if the wanderlust didn't drive her fruit loops, the guessing games would. She cocked her head, puzzling through it. If the 'previous Yuffie' had met him here, she wouldn't know him. "I didn't meet you here," she reasoned outloud, watching him watch his food. "That's not gonna eat itself, y'know. And that leaves… I know you from home!"

She had to shove the tray out of the way with her elbow to lean in a little closer. Red hair, in the weirdest style ever; gold eye, count of one; tan skin; scars; big, big hands and a whole lotta freckles. A disturbing possibility swam its way up to say hi; an impossible possibility. Yuffie's eyes narrowed, flashing with caution and burning curiosity both. There was only one person she'd ever known that could fit the bill, and that person wasn't a person-well, he was, of course he was, but he wasn't human. "No way," Yuffie breathed. "No, no, no. No way."

that icon...XD

[flamingfurball]

"Is this because I've been taking so long researching?" he growled. She was dragging this out far too much for his liking, just teasing him. Or so he thought until realisation seemed to literally strike her.

"Yes way," he huffed. He needed her to eat something so he could observe. He nodded to her plate. "Yours will also get cold."

8D;

[thatdamnedninja]

"I-" Yuffie blinked. "What?"

Researching? Since when had… Oh! Wait, yes. Cosmo was full of book-worshipping geektards, but Nanaki'd been going about his 'research' a little more proactively. She still remembered that day when he'd found her in Wutai, dragging Yuri by his ankles through the grass (and if her jaw tightened at the thought of Yuri, Yuffie wasn't going to draw attention to it). He'd stayed for a couple of days before she'd kicked him out, and then he went AWOL for, like, the best part of a year. He'd kept at it, too; his mission to see the world.

The growl in his voice didn't particularly put her off. She'd heard Barret snore, after all, and that man could make dragons sound like a basket of kittens. So, she didn't back away, not for a long while. Her brain was still trying to process the-everything. This could not be happening! No way! Except that it could be, and chances were, it was, and oh holy Leviathan, she was never, ever calling anything impossible ever again.

"Nanaki," she said, making it sound like a question. And then, because she was still having trouble, she added, "You kind of look like Reno's illicit love-child."

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki was getting more than a little irritable about all this confusion and disbelief. "Perhaps, if there are more of our friends I haven't found yet, you could write something on that notice board? A warning of sorts," he deadpanned, unintentionally.

"T-that's-! Yuffie," he growled, "I do not!"

Sulking, he swatted at a sausage with his paw hand, and picking it up, awkwardly. He gave it a sniff and his stomach grumbled.

"Oh. I was with Cloud and Tifa. I don't know if they're okay. I....blacked out."

[thatdamnedninja]

"You could've got your nurse to write one for you," Yuffie shot back, immediately. He had a right to be freaked, but damn, she could've done with some warning. For all that he tried to be the wise old mystic, Nanaki sure knew how to be a doofus sometimes. Might've had something to do with him growin' up differently from the two-leggers he looked down his nose at. Or maybe it was just how he was, who knew? Nanaki was Nanaki.

His stammering outrage was just enough to make up for his (perfectly justified, not that she'd admit it) thoughtlessness. "You so do." She rocked back in her seat, affecting a thin veneer of smug satisfaction that only just reached her eyes. Behind it, her mind was still chasing itself 'round in circles.

"Cloud?" she asked, perking up. So he had found somebody! Phew. That was one person off the to-be-kicked list. And Tifa, huh? Man. Was Landel going after the full set, or what? "If they were okay when you blacked out, they'll be okay now," Yuffie explained, glancing from Nanaki's-Nanaki's!-face to the sausage he was… pawing at. She cleared her throat, picking up her knife and fork to demonstrate.

It was probably gonna take a bit of time for her to come to terms with Nanaki The Human. She recognized the mind but not the body, and that was as disconcerting as all get out. Weird was one word for it. Slightly uncomfortable was another (two). But, all the same, Yuffie couldn't just leave him on his own to come to terms with it. She'd give him whatever help she could.

[flamingfurball]

"I doubt she would cooperate," he huffed. "If you don't want to, that's fine." He'd try. Maybe. What would he say, though? And holding a pen...? He'd only just gotten used to texting, and that took a lot of effort just to press buttons. Of course, that was with paws.

He chose to ignore Yuffie, hoping that would end her teasing. He did NOT look like that Turk. Speaking of which.... "Tifa said it's not ShinRa. She spoke to Rude."

Tifa. She and Cloud were safe then, he was glad. He hadn't been much help, he supposed. Although he'd dragged Tifa down to potential safety, so that was something. Yeah. His father would be proud, he was certain of it!

"He was with Tifa and we went to find somebody."

He glanced sideways at Yuffie's demonstration of cutlery and ignored it. Once he learned how to chew properly, THEN he'd work on his table manners. He lifted the sausage and bit a little piece off, throwing his head back and swallowing. It wasn't very satisfying. A bigger piece. Teeth chomping down twice, head back and-

Nanaki coughed and hacked the lump back up onto the plate. Not chewed enough? Well, humans really did like to exercise their mouths. He leaned forward and picked it up again with his mouth, giving it a few more chomps and realising his jaw could move a little more freely as a human. Like a bovine, see?

[thatdamnedninja]

"She will if you're convincing enough," Yuffie countered easily. "Try it. I've seen nurses write notes for people before." He'd have to work something out, one way or another. There were enough AVALANCHE members around to make playing messenger more trouble than it was worth. She sure wasn't gonna do it.

She let it slide for now, in favor of rolling her eyes. "Yeah," Yuffie drawled. "I've been here for, what, seventeen days now? Found all that out a long time ago." Seventeen days. She was practically a veteran. "What else did she tell you?" There was a lot to know, and even if Tifa'd spoken to Rude, she couldn't know all that much. Probably. "If you've got any questions, I'm the one to ask."

It was still weird to think that she was more in the know than Cloud, but that thought flew right back out of mind at Nanaki's next-display. Yuffie grimaced. "Ewww!" she exclaimed. "Use your hands if you've really gotta, but for the love of Da Chaos, please don't do that again. Ever." She'd even said please! Her! Yuffie Kisaragi, saying that word! "I'll show you how to do it. Just watch, okay?" With her nose still wrinkled in disgust, Yuffie cut off a piece of pancake and chewed it slowly.

[flamingfurball]

Again, Nanaki decided to ignore her. So maybe he would try. Or ask somebody else. or just let people deal with it when they had to.

Seventeen days didn't sound like a long time, but he supposed seventeen days of being locked up was a lot for somebody who'd never experienced that before. Nanaki had done well over a year with Hojo. This place certainly seemed a lot more pleasant.

"She arrived shortly before me. Who else is here? Who's in charge?"

Nanaki tilted his head, not sure which bit had made her act that way. The spitting out or the re-eating? He always hacked up furballs and grass in private. Until the forest...the cubs.... Nanaki felt a pit of darkness in his stomach and looked away quickly. Yuffie was here. Familiarity. Life.

He calmed down and watched her eat. He couldn't see her jaw working as much as a cows so he moved the lump over to his cheek where his teeth could grinding it, chewing and chomping loudly, mouth open until he got the rhythm of it.

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie was quiet for a long while, picking through her food. She chewed slowly, swallowed slowly, kept up her demonstration just in case it was needed. Her attention, though, was inward. She knew what she had to tell him, but how to tell him was a whole other ball game.

"Well, it's Martin Landel who runs this place. And his bitch, Nurse Lydia." There was a pinch between her eyebrows, and she reached up to run it away before she could stop herself. "I've never seen either of 'em; they just like taunting us over the intercom like a bunch of sissies." Sadistic sissies, but sissies all the same. It was galling just to think about! If she could just get her hands on Landel, even for one second…

"Anyway," she said, jerking herself out of dreamland. "Anyway. Before I tell you anythin' else, I've got a question to ask. It's important, so pay attention." She waited until he'd swallowed his mouthful before she went ahead and asked, "Have you noticed anythin' different about me?"

It was a weird question, she knew, but it was the only way she could think of to ease him into it. It would've been quicker to just blurt it all out-and hope he could keep up without either flipping his lid or passing it all off as completely crazy-and part of her had been really, really tempted to take that route, but she slammed the brakes on her instincts and let her brain do the talking for once.

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki watched Yuffie, trying to mimic her actions. He managed to swallow the food (it was all mushy and weird now), and pulled a face as it went down. He still had to tilt his head back but he was getting there. He bit his finger as he tried to get another piece into his cheek between his teeth.

The information wasn't very useful to him. He didn't know these people, their purpose or weaknesses. "What do they want?" he asked, mouth full.

She asked a question. A strange one he hadn't realised had been nagging him. Just a little. Something different about her that he couldn't placed and blamed the clothes for. He was starting to panic, but tried to tell himself she'd just had a hair cut or another of those silly things humans got excited about.

"....what is it?"

[thatdamnedninja]

"To screw with us," Yuffie answered, honestly. What? It was the truth! "Just-I'll get to that in a bit."

She shifted in her seat, impatience biting her. No, not impatience; that was there, yeah, but it wasn't Nanaki's fault. The question had been a weird one. A really, really weird one. And for somebody who wasn't even used to being a human, maybe she'd been asking too much. Or, at least, asking the wrong thing. "Nanaki, I'm nineteen. I dunno how old I was when you last saw me-sixteen or seventeen, right? Shorter hair, not so narrow here?" She poked herself in the cheek that wasn't playing host to an impressive set of scabbed-over scratch marks.

Time to take the plunge. "Before I got brought here, it was the year 0010." And she'd been in the middle of the biggest outright war since Wutai versus Shin-Ra. Fun and games for all involved, not.

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki's head went light and Gilligan felt more like a snake now, crawling and coiling about in his stomach, pressing hard against his lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make it go away. But the only familiar thing near him that could calm him down was unfamiliar now. He'd been too wrapped up in his own problems to realise it.

"I... I wasn't gone that long," he said, quietly. He wanted to get up and leave, find Tifa or Cloud, check them, see how different they were. But he was too unsteady on his feet and he wanted to make Gilligan go away, he didn't want Yuffie to see him so afraid, so....childish.

She couldn't grow up without him. Not so suddenly.... The cubs weren't that old, not that much time had passed, he'd been so sure....

[thatdamnedninja]

"No! No, no. That's not it; you've got it all wrong." Yuffie shook her head, placing her hand lightly on his arm. She gave it a squeeze, friendly and unfamiliarly familiar. "Listen to me before you start jumping to conclusions." Maybe that hadn't been the best way to go about it, after all. Oops didn't seem like it was gonna cut it.

"It's not you or me. It's Landel. He doesn't just take people from their homes, no matter what they're doing and why they're doing it. He snatches 'em right out of time, too." Her tone dipped low, and it took a little bit of effort to keep her spunky-girl speech pattern as it should be. "Cloud's from Meteorfall; he was watchin' it happen, and then he woke up here. Reno used to be here, too; I haven't seen the jerk in days, but he was from the year before me. It's… It doesn't add up, like a paradox, y'know? I bet if-when-we find a way back home, we'll end up right where we were when we left. Me in 0010, Cloud in 0008, Reno in '09. See? You haven't missed anything, it just hasn't happened for you yet."

Sometimes, Yuffie was glad that she could talk without thinking too hard about the mechanics of what she was saying.