Day 50: Patient Library (4th Shift)

[mitase]

Sakura had mentioned a library on the second floor, but there was one on the first floor, wasn't there? It was for the patients, sure, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be any useful books. Not that he knew for certain, since every time Hanatarou had been in there previously it hadn't been to pay a lot of attention to the reading material

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[ninelivesonce]

Taura sat down, folding her hands on the table in front of her and resting her chin on them. It cut out most of the height difference without being too obvious of a maneuver.

"It was nice. We spent a while just...well, honestly, trying to figure out what the heck had happened. Then we started making plans. Where to go, how to try to find a way to get back here with some real firepower. But nothing really happened. We were just talking." And enjoying the sunshine; it had been the first time Taura'd really felt warm in a few days. "Oh, right! Her clothes changed -- but not ours." Or their bodies. "She was wearing something very beachy." Or just Betan, where climate control was just an excuse to crank the heat up and go around half-naked, or so it seemed.

Her brows knitted up as she tried to make sense out of the end of the night. "Then, I think I heard the intercom at the very end." It had faded in over the surf. "Something about our desk drawers. The next thing I remember is waking up in our room, but Cissnei wasn't there. The nurses said she'd gone home." Painted fingers drummed on her cheek. "I know that's what they always say, even when someone dies, but as far as I can tell, Cissnei just stayed behind."

[zack_fair]

Once Taura was seated, Zack followed suit, taking the chair across from her and sitting up fairly straight so that they were more or less at eye level. That was a lot better. He was still getting used to being around a woman so much taller than him, and he idly wondered at whether or not it was a common thing where she came from. Something to ask about later, probably.

As she explained what had happened, Zack couldn't help smiling at the image of Cissnei in her bathing suit while the others with her had remained in their uniforms. So it only switched around for the people who were actually from there. That was interesting to note, but in the end, Zack was more concerned for his friend than the technicalities of the situation.

"So... you heard the intercom while in Costa del Sol?" he asked, his bright eyes widening slightly at the very thought. That would have been pretty surreal to experience, and he wondered what the implications were. "And... does that mean you're roommates?" That was the only way that Taura could have known of Cissnei's absence so soon.

But the whole thing was just weird. Why would only she have stayed home? And did that really mean that she was back? It was pretty crazy to imagine, and yet Zack had to wonder if maybe it was better that way. Not that Cissnei couldn't handle herself in this place, but their whole goal was to get home, so if one of them had managed it (even by accident -- he knew she wouldn't have wanted to stay without having everyone with her), that counted as a victory.

And yet it still didn't really feel like one.

[ninelivesonce]

"Yeah, we did. Just before everything went black, like usual." Had it all been some kind of elaborate hoax? It had certainly felt like another planet. Similar gravity, but that was actually one of the easiest things to fake. The scent of the ocean and the pressure -- atmosphere was much, much harder. And the landscape. Cissnei hadn't questioned a thing; thus, it had to have been true, however bizarre. They'd all been transported to Landel's originally; what was the impossibility of real, functional teleportation when laid against magic healing, perfect memory wipes and implanted memories, and who knew what else?

"And yes, she was my roommate. She was very kind." It sounded so banal when she just said it, but it was true. Almost everyone here had been; even the 'techs, and they didn't seem to be lying, even if they had to be.

[zack_fair]

The idea of Landel's voice cutting through the relaxed atmosphere of Costa del Sol was pretty bizarre to even think about. The fact that it had happened that way made Zack even more suspicious of whether or not the whole thing was real, and yet the materia he had stashed back in his room seemed to indicate that it was. Was it possible that the item had been made here? But no, that made no sense. This world didn't have a Lifestream in the way that Gaia did, did it?

At the mention of Cissnei's kindness, Zack managed a small smile, though there was a hint of sadness depending on how close one was looking. That wasn't really the first word that came to mind when he thought of the Turk, but Zack got a feeling that being in this place had actually allowed her to unwind some. She hadn't been forced to follow orders here, and that freedom had probably made it easier for her to open up to others, her roommate included.

"She's a good person," he agreed with a small nod. "I just hope she's safe." There was no way of knowing, but Zack didn't see Cissnei as someone who gave up that easily. "Thanks for talking to me about this," he continued. "Cissnei and I worked together a few times, and she really helped me out." He wasn't going to get any more specific than that, since it would make the conversation much more complicated, and he didn't need to burden Taura with that.

[ninelivesonce]

"Thank you." It was good to talk about it. "They don't give us time to mourn." Wait, that sounded like she was implying...oops. "I don't mean Cissnei -- I think she's all right. Really. But people have died, and the medtechs insist they're better." Death was never better. At least not for the person doing the dying. Sometimes for everyone else; Taura would have no quibbles about ripping whatever piece she could grab of Martin Landel out of whatever was left. But she wouldn't argue that the experience would be deeply unpleasant for him.

"Like they've forgotten we're human." Depersonalization, not sadistic cruelty. She looked down at her hands, big and ungraceful and omnipresent reminder of how literal that first word was. "I guess all we can hope is that they forget what humans can do, too," she said, one lip twitching back towards optimism. Action, direct or indirect, was still Taura's favorite consolation. The assignments should be going up soon. One more shot, Homura. Then, plan B. Whatever that is. It probably started with finding out how they'd done whatever it was, and ended with someone finding out firsthand that he was an amateur with some fancy toys up compared with most of Jackson's Whole.

[zack_fair]

Just hearing someone else give their opinion about whether or not Cissnei was okay did make Zack feel a bit better. They couldn't know for sure, and it still meant that she was gone without them even being able to say a proper goodbye (they hadn't had that the first time, either, had they?), but still. She could be okay.

At least he had been able to see her the day before, at Doyleton. Thinking back on that conversation made it seem so trivial, but it wasn't like either of them had had any way of knowing. Still, it felt like one more regret added onto a long list.

As Taura kept speaking, though, Zack zeroed in on something. Glancing up from his hands, which he'd ended up glancing down at, he eyed her firmly. "You've seen people die here? How many?" He had assumed that people died here, but getting more details about it would be worthwhile, provided that Taura was willing to talk about it.

She had a point, though. Whatever the staff here said or did, the patients always had the freedom to never give in and to always fight back. He sent a smirk back at her despite the somber subject matter.

[ninelivesonce]

The change of subject, even to something no happier, was a relief. Zack clearly knew Cissnei better than Taura had had the chance to; trying to offer consolation felt like juggling newts, and Taura wasn't the specialist in that department.

"I wasn't there...but the person I heard it from had no reason to lie. Armand St. Just died the night of the last trip to town." She couldn't leave it at that, though. It wasn't fair to leave all of it at their captor's door, even if fair wasn't even in their vocabulary. "Another patient went berzerk. And he wasn't a fighter." In spirit, always. In training, not at all.

"He wasn't the only one, but it's gotten harder to let people know over the bulletin." Her voice was matter-of-fact through the whole thing; training meant empathy was best shown after the mission was over, although this whole place never stopped blurring the lines between on-duty and off.

[zack_fair]

The name that she gave was one that Zack didn't recognize in the slightest, which made sense since it had happened a good few days before he'd even woken up here. That didn't make the news any more sobering, even if he was pretty used to death by this point. Had the man been taken down by those zombies, then? It wasn't a pretty thought, but he knew better than to ask for more details. It sounded like Taura hadn't been a witness to it, anyway.

The second piece of news caused him to cross his arms over his chest, curiosity grabbed. He didn't want to be so clinical about this, but it came with being a soldier, and Taura seemed to understand that, if her tone was any indication. "Berserk? How so?" he asked with a frown. And how had it led to his death? It was probably another gruesome story, though. While he wouldn't shy away from the details, it was up to the woman to tell him or not.

She had a point about the bulletin, though. Zack had gotten his notes taken down a couple of times, and it just seemed wrong that the staff would keep them from letting each other know when someone had died.

[ninelivesonce]

Long blonde hair and silver eyes, that had been all TK-622 had said.  He hadn't asked for revenge, or even implied he was going to do it personally.  He'd just sounded resigned to the fact.  Taura had taken it to imply that death wasn't unusual -- with all the hazards here, it would be resoundingly strange if it weren't.

"I'm not entirely sure.  TK was pretty upset, and I didn't ask.  He'd know.  TK-622 -- he and Armand were good friends."  Taura wasn't sure why it mattered; if the woman had just gotten so engaged in killing the walking corpses that she'd missed seeing who was in front of her, or if he was asking something different.  Killing rages happened, especially among the untrained.  What else could have turned one patient on another when they had no history -- or at least none TK-622 had known about?  Unless... "I don't think she was brainwashed, if that's what you're asking."  The brainwashed patient-prisoners seemed to guard, not attack, anyway.  Which made sense: why go to the trouble of transporting all of them here only to slaughter them.  It made poor business sense, if nothing else.    

[zack_fair]

So it wasn't something that really needed to be clarified, then. Taura didn't seem to think so, anyway. If that was how it was, then he wasn't going to get pushy. Someone had gone berserk while not being brainwashed, and someone else had died as result. That seemed to be the bare bones of it, and Zack would leave it at that. He knew of the state of going berserk as it worked in spell form, but he doubted that anyone around here had a materia like that. The one they'd found last night had seemed pretty special, after all, and that was a simple Thunder spell.

Besides, people didn't usually go berserk enough to kill people in his experience. He wasn't sure what had happened here, but the fact that one of the deaths that Taura knew about had been caused by another patient was worrisome. What if the head doctor was really just trying to pit them all against each other?

"All right," he responded at a slight delay, nodding as he pulled his hands off the table and set them in his lap with a sigh. The news wasn't good, and Cissnei most certainly seemed to be gone, but he'd still learned a lot here. "Thanks for hearing me out. I'm glad someone saw what happened to her, so I wasn't left wondering."