DAY 54: GREENHOUSE (FOURTH SHIFT)

[deathandgin]

By the end of lunch, Alaric was still hungry and still stuck on the middle of a perfectly balanced scale, the only difference with the scale having a new, possibly unrelated third option: it was either some sort of conspiracy (obviously of the supernatural sort), he was actually crazy, or he’d just had the very bad luck of being kidnapped by

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[toxicspiderman]

By rights, S.T. figured he should probably hate the greenhouse. Loam and all-natural fertilizer, more processed than the bullshit on the intercom but no less redolent. It smelled like home. This wasn't Brighton soil, full of old trash, granite chips ranging up to the size of a Yugo, and needing a year's supply of GEE heavy-metal test kits before he'd eat anything that had fallen on it let alone grown there, but it was dirt. He took a deep sniff

[hissecondshadow]

After the surprise meeting with Ranulf at breakfast, Soren hardly expected to see anybody else that he recognised. One familiar face was enough for him, even if it was a laguz. Needless to say, he would have preferred that it had been Ike, or perhaps one of the more tolerable among the mercenaries. But the goddess didn't favour him that much, nor did he expect her to

[toxicspiderman]

"Soren. Still alive, I see." He shrugged. "Same as usual. If you can call it that. Ran into a few guys I know, waited to drag some poor bastard out of the torture chambers, but the night ended before we ran out of rescuers." There was more to the story, if he was reading between the lines on the bulletin well enough, but part of doing this job was knowing when to keep his mouth shut.

"You O.K.?" Loaded question, but in a warm room full of growing things even hysterical teenagers didn't seem too bad. Not that Soren looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but this place did that.

"Here, fill these with potting soil." He handed over a tray. "After this morning it's probably a good idea to keep our noses clean." Metaphorically speaking. He'd dragged a hand over the bridge of his own once after sticking his hands into the dirt, and a little of it was still stuck there.

[hissecondshadow]

So the rescue mission hadn't gone particularly well, then. Soren found it odd that S.T. didn't seem particularly angered or irritated. Perhaps he was used to things going wrong. Soren wondered if these supposed 'rescue' missions ever actually succeeded. Seeing as S.T. had been kind enough to afford him both information and maps more detailed than some of the older patients appeared to have, though, Soren decided not to press the issue.

"For the most part. I found somebody I knew at breakfast, which was unexpected." He kept his tone even as he tipped the soil carefully into the pots. He knew S.T. was willing with information, which made Soren at least attempt to feign politeness, but it by no means meant that he trusted the man. They were still relative strangers. It would take much longer for Soren to come close to dropping his guard.

"You were involved in that mess, then?" He didn't bother to hide his disdain. "From what I've heard, attempting to incite anything like that during the day isn't a particularly wise move."

[razing_phoenix]

While the day had gotten off to a bad start, things had actually picked up from there. All of his company had been good, from Anise to Okita and Claude to Ilia. The talk he'd had at lunch had been surprisingly laidback, which was probably a good thing. With the chaos of that morning followed by the roll call, he'd needed some time to just calm down

[ran_on_empty]

And that was when a slipper came into view just as its owner made an attempt to step on Guy's hand

[razing_phoenix]

When there was suddenly someone's slipper in front of his face right as he was in the middle of working a seed into the soil, Guy's immediate reaction was to bat it away; it was more an instinct than anything, but the result was that some of the dirt was smeared on both the slipper and the attached ankle.

Not knowing who it was at first, Guy straightened up from his crouched position, preparing to apologize -- but that was when the voice cut in.

And he felt a sudden sense of both dread and frustration. For a while there he'd been hoping that Sync might have actually left this place. For all the times that Luke (and even Asch) had disappeared, this one pesky God-General just refused to do the same. Seeing how he'd been so set on dying before, it was kind of a shock. But more than that, it was a pain

[ran_on_empty]

Sync didn't bother to step back when Guy rose from his spot, watching the blond amusedly while caring little about the dirt on his foot. It'd always taken longer to get under the swordsman's skin, but the latter's frustration was more gratifying than the rest. Sure, he enjoyed the quick flares from the hot-headed types, but it was always the ones he actually had to work for that he found most enjoyable.

"You give them too much credit." And was it the truth. Of course, today's events leaned more towards detaining them rather than going for the kill. Really, it'd be pathetic even for them if they fell from something like that. Sync's grin remained where it was, a clear sign to Guy that he was stuck with him for the rest of the shift. After all, that was how all their daytime encounters went, wasn't it?

"I'm gonna be surprised if Landel doesn't have anything in store for us tonight because of this. With how his streak has been it makes me wonder just how many fresh ideas he has left."

[zack_fair]

Slowly but surely, the drugs in his system were wearing off. Zack didn't know if the nurse had been right about the food helping or if it was just that enough time had passed, but he could actually walk without feeling like he was going to pitch over and his vision was a bit clearer. He could tell that he wasn't completely back to normal yet, but he was pretty sure he'd be good by the time that night rolled around

[rischiarare]

Roxas didn't mean to come out of third shift with a glare and a wrinkled brow stuck on his face, but he couldn't manage to shove either one off. Terra hadn't exactly managed to get on his good side; he hadn't attempted to really do so at all. What kind of person would just keep insisting he was lying about who he was? The Nobody, despite how stupid he knew it was, just wanted to think it was someone's idea of a joke. No one could look like him except Sora. It only made sense because he wasn't even the original. Sora was. If anything, Sora would be the one to have people look like him. Maybe if he had a brother or something

[zack_fair]

While having someone run into you wasn't really supposed to be a good thing, Zack saw it as such in this case, mainly because it was enough to drag him out of his somewhat depressing thoughts and ground him back in the here and now.

Turning himself around once he'd regained his balance, Zack blinked down at the kid who'd collided with him. It'd been little more than a small bump, but that wasn't something that the SOLDIER was going to ignore.

Maybe it was because he'd just been thinking about Cloud, but Zack could have pictured his friend looking a little bit like this kid at age fourteen or something. It brought a smile to his face.

"Hey, you all right?" All in all, it was a good thing to not be the one crashing into people when he was still kind of drugged.

[rischiarare]

He was actually surprised by the question; with the way he was feeling, the Nobody just assumed everyone else would want to brush on by him or something. "Huh?" Roxas gave a considering look up at the others face, studying it. Was it just him, or was something weird about his eyes...? Either way, the face wasn't Terra's, but it kind of looked like it. Weird, but it didn't really phase him now.

... actually, maybe a little. This guy was kind of smiling down at him like Terra had been, like he recognized him. Roxas was bearing himself for being mistaken for someone else again, but he eventually spoke up after working on keeping his face scowl-free. "Um... yeah, I'm okay. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

[pullstrung]

Most of today was a hazy blur, though Woody could still pin-point the exact moment everything took a nose-drive into a downward spiral. Thankfully (or not-so-thankfully, depending on how you looked at it), whatever they'd stuck him with this morning had worn off, letting him think much clearer -- and get an earful from his nurse.

"Really, Mr. Wheeler, you're far too old to be causing a scene like that," she scolded him in a way that sounded uncomfortably like Andy's mother. "I hope that you'll stay calm and set an example for the other patients the next time things get out of hand."

Woody barely refrained from rolling his eyes. That would have been all well and good if he hadn't seen those soldiers beat Scott up. Not that Scott should have thrown himself at them the way he practically did, but what kind of friend could he call himself if he'd watched a fellow patient get pummeled without doing anything at all

[boketa]

"Uwwwa!" Goku stopped dead in front of his nurse once he set eyes on the large glass house brimming with greenery. She waited patiently behind him until his big black eyes had gotten their fill and promptly pushed him forward so he could go in and appreciate it face to face. Whether this would be an enjoyable activity that helped calmed his outrageous ADHD, or one that just overloaded him like those four plates of waffles yesterday wouldn't be clear until it was too late. Hopefully he wouldn't break too many pots if he got out of hand

[dual_worlds]

Security had only tightened since the incident in the cafeteria. Spock had yet to make contact with the rest of the crew outside of the bulletin. He was confident Uhura managed to see to herself without getting caught up in any of the violence. Kirk's present status, however, was something he was considerably less confident about. If there was one thing he could be sure of, however, it was that he likely did not remove himself from the room at the first sign of trouble. The disciplinary measures taken against patients seemed to range from a mild sedative to some time in solitary confinement. In light of those circumstances, Spock knew the odds were in favor of the captain's safety

[boketa]

Goku was still picking left over plant debris off his tongue by the time another witch came over. He didn't appreciate being tagged team like this when he was still not combat ready! Fortunately for everyone, both nurses quickly moved out of his way and a familiar man stood in their place.

"Are? Oh, hey--" What was his name? "--Speck!" Yeah, this guy was alright in his book!

[dual_worlds]

"Spock," he promptly corrected him in an even tone, his gaze settling back onto the boy.

As sharp as his sense of smell was, it was obvious Goku's memory wasn't nearly as adept. He was also lacking in prudence, given the way he behaved the last time they had worked together (although perhaps it would have been more accurate to say they didn't work together, so much as Goku followed along and contributed to the Vulcan's efforts in his own way). Spock was fortunate he'd been able to ask Ema for clarification on the radio message he'd missed as a result.

"It appears you have been causing the nurses a fair amount of trouble," he observed.