Day 52: Intercom, Dawn
There was no telling if the next announcement came hours or minutes after the previous one, but regardless of that, it did come on with the onset of dawn. Like clockwork, like always, someone was there to greet the half-groggy patients as they woke up in their beds
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And yet before the young woman could get much more of an attempt to escape going again, someone beat her to opening the door- a woman, wearing the plainest garments Lightning thought she'd ever seen on another human. More notably, however, was the fact that she was totally unarmed. If she was meant to be a guard of some sort (likely, since she wasn't in the same clothes she'd observed everyone else to be wearing the night before), she wasn't a very good one.
The assessment only took a moment, and Lightning didn't even give the poor woman the chance to look up from the board in her hand before the ex-soldier sprung straight from the bed to the door, shoving her aside forcefully and breaking out into the hall. She already knew that the doors were barely any sort of resistance- well below the threshold of being kicked or blown down magically, at least, and was certain she could take whatever other obstacles stood in her way. Gun-blade or not, she was still a l'Cie, well-trained, and very determined.
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One orderly went to the nurse's side, to help her get to her feet, while the other dropped low - it was a fighting stance, but it looked like this particular young lady was ready for a fight. He wouldn't be attacking to hurt her, though - only to take her down. His stance was more defensive than anything else.
That wasn't going to be an easy thing with this one, he suspected.
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This guy? Practically laughable at first glance, but naturally Lightning was far from amused. It was possible that there was something she didn't know yet, but here and now wasn't the time or place for much thought. By instinct, she instantly decided that she would go over them all if she had to, even if the narrow width and height of the hallway made her warier to try it right off.
In any case, she fully intended to plow right through the man and whoever else stepped forward to try and stop her, and issued no warning before she spun and aimed a powerful, swift kick to the side of the man's upper half.
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"Miss Veton. You cannot attack the staff members!", the nurse exclaimed, readying one of the syringes she had on her. The other orderly moved to grab her around the waist and hold her still.
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What that should have accomplished was either surprise or hurt this second man enough to let go of her, or even just simply break his grip by use of superior force. With that done, she thought all she would have to do was take out his legs or blast him and the others away with a burst of l'Cie magic. The latter was more desperate of course, especially at close range, but she had no hesitation towards doing it if that's what it took.
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Meanwhile, the first orderly got to his feet and walked over, ready to back up the first, or hold back anyone that might try and help.
[also herp derp this is Jen]
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She stood up and stretched, her fingers almost touching the ceiling, and then down to the floor. The bruises on her arms were almost healed; she pressed the pad of a thumb into one, gauging the remaining damage. It hurt more than it should have after a full day and night, but it looked better. Appearances were everything, sometimes. Taura understood that. But why did Martin Landel care? No oversight board would ever approve this place, not if they spent more than five minutes talking to the captives. Personal gratification? It wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever heard about, but that still didn't fit. Sometimes Landel was a master of the art -- turning patients against themselves was a neat stroke of cruelty; even after the night had ended, tempers sometimes stayed high, and alliances shifted. Huh.
Her musings were interrupted by a medic easing open the door. Taura tucked her hands behind her back -- the last thing she needed was another lecture about night-time injuries. "Are you sure you're up for this, Kitty? There's a lovely breakfast waiting for you if you're ready to go."
Breakfast was one thing she didn't have to try to fake a smile over. "Sure. Pigs-in-blankets are those little wrapped sausages, yeah?" Her eyes lit up. "You've got yourself a patient." And sometimes Landel just seemed like an amateur. The food supply would be a simple form of control; yet his enthusiasm on the intercom, whenever it was him, had never wavered, nor had the generosity. Well, it was no use thinking about it. At least not without a plate in front of her to help her theorize.
Just outside the door, though, a fight was brewing. A woman about her age, with pink hair -- Taura suppressed a stab of envy -- was being manhandled by a team of medics. New patients? Taura took a step towards her, neatly cutting between one of the men and the woman, without striking out or even stepping into a fighting stance. Appearances. Two could play at that game. "Heya." What next. It's not worth the hassle? It wasn't, but Taura wasn't quite sure that would be the slightest bit convincing. Especially when she had nothing other than grey sweats to prove she wasn't another kidnapper.
And it was probably too late. Erp.
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"Let go!" Lightning cried out forcefully, and though she had a brief glimpse of another person in grey coming closer, by now she was well beyond the point of rationality. With her arms being grabbed and forced back as well, all at once the young woman turned much wilder than she'd been before, outright thrashing as she tried to pull away and viciously kicking out at both her captor and anyone else who got close enough to reach.
She'd been knocked around and at times overpowered a bit, of course, but something entirely like this hadn't happened in years... not since she'd started training in hand to hand and then joined the Guardian Corps, anyway. It was near impossible to believe it was happening at all, and had she not been so set on figuring out how to break the man's grip for good, there was no doubt she would have been even more confused. There was no reason why they'd just be holding her rather than actively trying to 'subdue' her further- along with how easily they were doing it to her in the first place, it just didn't make any sense.
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And she'd be less of a handful for the staff, but the nurse didn't say that part.
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"Hey, you all right?" There was no way the answer to that was yes, and Taura winced. "Look, c'mon. Let's get out of the hall and I can introduce you to some people." The woman could move. Definitely a potential ally, even if right now most of Taura's words were going in one ear and out the other. Besides, no one should be left alone here on what might well be her first day -- Taura would have remembered that hair -- or any other day.
It was still strange to have the option of offering a reassuring smile. Miles called them an acquired taste; but he said that a lot. Then again, it might remind the woman too much of the medics. Hrm. She threw pointed looks at the staff, then tried a small one. "Us patients have to stick together, right?"
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And then the plain woman from before was all up in her business too, saying something Lightning just barely caught before she-- did something to her that at first the ex-soldier was just too angry to comprehend. Within moments though, a sudden fog had drifted in over her mind, and abruptly the fight drained out of her, leaving her no choice but to relax in the hold of the unnaturally powerful men who had their grip on her. For some reason it was no longer easy to care about... whatever it was that had fired her up so thoroughly just a minute before.
Soon someone else was talking to her again though, and Lightning noted distantly that the person's voice filtered through to her very strangely. After a moment she slowly looked up entirely at the taller woman nearby, but still didn't really get the point of what she was saying. Introduce her to other people? 'Patients?' But she was in the same clothing Lightning was, which was also identical to what the boy 'Neku' had been wearing the night before. That seemed significant, somehow, and so for now she made no attempt to object.
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Act like predictable, domesticated animals, and no-one would blink at it. Despite the fact that they were all humans, or something close; the staff had bought into the idea that they weren't. That was familiar; affectionate neglect marked the brightest of Taura's years before the Dendarii. Though having gotten a taste for freedom made it difficult to swallow a return trip.
[to here]
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