Day 58: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[poorexample]

[From here.]The room was mainly empty when Michael reached it, which was fine by him. It wasn't that he didn't feel sympathy for the other patients, but he also didn't know if it would be helpful for him to talk to them. The staff seemed to think that forming bonds amongst themselves would lead to recovery, but to him it felt more like they would

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[zack_fair]

[From here.]With most of the room to choose from, Zack went ahead and picked a couch near the middle of the room to sit on. He was positioned right under the glass roof, which almost gave the impression that he was outside. He already missed the free choice from the day before, but he realized that the staff couldn't wait too long before allowing them outside again

[loyalrose]

It wasn't hard for Rose to pick where she was spending the rest of the morning - somewhere that gave her the most daylight. She headed for the Sunroom, considering she didn't want to deal with the actual cold for the moment. This was the second best option.

It turned out to be a good choice when she spotted Zack across the room, scribbling on some papers. The sight had her smiling faintly as she crossed the room to sink down on the couch beside him, not missing the fact that he'd apparently hit the showers first thing as well. She didn't blame him at all. If she'd felt awful this morning, she couldn't imagine how he'd felt.

"Taking advantage of having thumbs again, are you?" she teased him gently as she grabbed a pillow and curled herself around it, her arms snugly tucked about its center. "How are you feeling this morning?"

[zack_fair]

Well, there was the person he'd been looking for. It figured that the second he stopped keeping an eye out she showed up. Zack glanced up from what he was writing to send her a smile, noting from her hair that she must have just washed off too. It was good to see that she seemed to be just fine now -- there was no fear in her eyes and the tenseness had left her body.

"You bet I am," he replied with a laugh. "But really, I have to say, I feel great. I didn't even know if I'd be back to myself when I woke up, so I was pretty thrilled when everything was back where it should be." And as far as he could tell, nothing had been misplaced when he'd been put back together. He was just glad that he didn't actually remember changing back, since it wasn't like he needed to go through that pain twice.

"What about you?" She wasn't jumpy, but it also wasn't dark in here. Still, he was guessing that if his side effects had worn off completely then Rose's probably had too. "A shower can really make all the difference, can't it?"

[loyalrose]

She gave him a crooked smile, settled comfortably on the sofa. "It can. I think it's probably the only thing that could have, this morning."

Especially after breakfast with Damon and Alaric this morning. Normally she could get along better with Damon's comments and sense of humor, but she'd been raw this morning, and feeling vulnerable. Not a good time to be around this particular Salvatore brother. At least, not as he was now. It made her miss her friend even more, now that that balance was unsettled and missing again. She stifled a sigh, wondering if she'd ever get it back.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, though," she added, derailing her own trail of thought before she depressed herself again. "No lingering side effects, I hope? Mine seemed to fade when I woke up this morning, but it's not really dark and scary at the moment, either. I suppose I'll have to wait and see how things are tonight. And no more experimentation with unlabeled drugs in the future, I think."

[zack_fair]

The way that Rose replied reminded Zack of how he had seen her at breakfast. She'd been off in the corner, looking like she didn't want a single soul to talk to her, and yet she hadn't even been granted that. He was guessing that the stress of the previous night had lingered with her at least partway into morning, but the shower had apparently chased all of that away. If only the weather had been a little better

[loyalrose]

Rose did her best to stifle a wry laugh at his comment. "Damon lives to bug people. Don't worry, I'm used to it," she added, tucking her chin atop her knees as she glanced absently about the room, taking in her surroundings.

"We knew each other before we showed up here," she added, then hesitated, figuring she better amend that. "Sort of." There was a faintly wistful tone to her voice as she spoke, but she did her best to shake it off.

"Let's hope it stays gone, whatever it was," she added a moment later. "I'd prefer not to have that linger more than it did. It would make nights damned inconvenient around here."

[zack_fair]

So they had known each other prior to coming here. That at least explained why Damon had been willing to speak with her even when it'd been clear that she wasn't in any position to talk to someone. Maybe he had also helped to cheer Rose up somehow. Zack didn't know either of them well enough to be sure, but it was interesting to wonder about

[loyalrose]

Oh, he had no idea.

Rose shot him a weak smile. "Well, luckily for both of us, you were astonishingly less frightening than whatever my imagination was conjuring in the shadows," she commented. "Which is impressive, since... dogs are not my favorite creatures." Understatement of the century, that.

"I should be thanking you, honestly. And apologizing. I feel rather mortified about it now. Having a hysterical female on your hands wasn't high on the priority list, I'm certain. Especially when you technically didn't have hands. Thank you for being patient."

[zack_fair]

Zack couldn't help but wonder what Rose had against dogs, but it could be anything from a traumatic childhood experience to something more recent. It was one of those other things that it would probably be weird to ask about. He felt even more guilty that he'd turned into the sort of thing that she probably wouldn't have wanted to be around even if it'd been normal and not half-dead, but, well... That hadn't really been his choice, anyway

[loyalrose]

"Even sounds good," she agreed, her smile tinged with relief. Rose still felt like an idiot for losing it last night. And having Damon call her stupid first thing this morning hadn't improved her mood any. So she'd underestimated what this place could do to her. She'd be careful not to do that again soon.

At his mention of the man who seemed to run this place, she cocked her head to the side, cheek propped on her palm as she studied him intently. "Is he likely to? I don't know much about him, or the ones in charge here. And from what it sounded like, what was offered last night was pretty rare?"

[zack_fair]

Even it was, then. And Zack had to admit, he'd been glad to have Rose with him last night. For all of his ideas about going off and doing things on his own, it would have sucked to go through that transformation without someone there with him. He would have managed it, of course, but it had been much more tolerable with company. Even if it had been kind of hard having to deal with the fear and disgust in Rose's eyes at the sight of him. That obviously wasn't something he could blame her for

[loyalrose]

Rose leaned forward curiously, her attention caught. "Can you tell me more about them? This Aguilar was already in charge when I woke up here, so I know very little about them beyond what I've observed since then. And I admit, my knowledge of military is very limited to begin with. And I don't know anything about Landel. I take it he's behind the name of this place? Was he the creator?"

She'd pieced together details here and there, from conversations and information, all from different sources. But more was never a bad thing and she was still trying to get a better view of the bigger picture. Although she didn't know how successful she'd be. She wasn't sure anyone had a good idea of the big picture here.

She was relieved Zack was so willing to talk, however. He was the first person she felt comfortable relaxing with around here, what with everything else so confused and jumbled. Or forgotten entirely. It was a relief, not to have to watch every word out of her mouth.

[zack_fair]

Whoa there. Zack hadn't really been ready for a whole onslaught of questions all of a sudden, but he had to remind himself that Rose was even newer to all of this than he was. He still considered himself among the new patients, but when he thought about it... he'd been here for over a week now. That was apparently a decent amount of time in this place, which was a pretty sad thought

[loyalrose]

"So in some ways it's a moot point," Rose surmised, leaning back with a sigh once more, chewing on her lower lip. "Either way, it doesn't change the circumstances of how or why we're here, or what we need to do about it."

Which was frustrating, but unsurprising. She tilted her head back against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling in thought for a moment. "It all sounds rather futile and impossible, when you look at what we have to work with. Impressive, really, since I bet if most of us were home, a place like this wouldn't contain us for longer than five minutes."

She'd observed a lot of that over the past day, mostly hinted at in conversations she'd listened in on, or what she'd picked up from the board this morning. And from what she observed. Considering who'd been picked from Mystic Falls, she had to wonder if that was the pattern. This place certainly seemed to be collecting people who would otherwise be very hard to keep

[zack_fair]

Well, Rose picked up on that last point without any problem. That was exactly it. It didn't really matter what the person in charge acted like if they were all still stuck here. They were still going to have to oppose their captors and fight until they found their way out -- or home. Probably just out for him. Zack still hadn't really considered what he would do if he escaped this place, but it was something he figured he could address whenever it happened.

And it would happen

[loyalrose]

"We don't know how long they've been doing this, do we?" Rose asked, rolling her head to the side to meet his gaze. "People seem to come and go so quickly. A few days, a few weeks. Granted, a week must feel like an eternity here at times," she commented thoughtfully. It wasn't as if she needed to be anywhere else important. Hell, if she hadn't woken up here, Rose was pretty certain she'd be dead right now.

Realizing she'd derailed her own train of thought again, her gaze flicked back to his face, letting herself relax a little more. "No. They won't be able to hold this many for long. I can't imagine any force that could, to be honest. Apparently they enjoy a challenge."

Either that or they were extremely lucky.