Day 22: Shift 3, Library

[rage8]

Saïx had been known to keep to himself, limiting his interaction with even his own peers in the Organization to the Superior as much as possible. Of course, he gladly took up the task of chasing a few, random traitors here and there, but solitude and the company of those whom could be considered competent was something Number VII almost took

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[per_ardua]

What kind of hospital is this? The walk from her room to the library hadn't revealed a thing, and the nurse who had taken Raine there was apparently trained in the art of talking endlessly without actually saying anything; Raine had quickly tuned her out in favor of getting a good look around. The nurse had been going too fast to let Raine get more than a glimpse out the windows, and the architecture told her nothing. She'd never heard of a city called New Jersey, either; while it was unlikely she knew of the name of every civilization in both worlds, nothing about it even sounded familiar.

Examining her clothing (who had changed her out of her own clothes? even the underclothing felt different, although she hadn't had the privacy to find out for certain) told her even less; the fibers were familiar, a dyed cotton weave, but she couldn't determine anything more than that. The style was too simple to get much information from, but the smiley face... all she could think of regarding that was the marks on Genis' first school papers;

[1imited_edition]

Reinforce was not feeling her best. First there had been the Chapel, and the immense and inscrutable power of her revealed enemy; then there was the conversation at lunch, and the account of a Japan in which powers not of true magic and unknown to her ran rampant. Those on top of her failure last night and resultant injury. She'd known from the start that this place was chaotic, that she could not simply destroy it as she normally would such a font of evil, but now she appreciated it in full: all her ancient knowledge did not serve her here, and all her ancient powers fled her

[per_ardua]

Raine glanced up, one hand on a bookshelf to keep herself upright while she was still uncertain of her balance. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

That the other woman had silver hair as well intrigued her; were there other half-elves here? Or full elves? She was slightly hesitant to ask, though; giving away too much information before she knew what was safe to say would be foolish, to say the least.

"I'm new here," she added, keeping things to the obvious for the moment. "By any chance, do you know where this hospital is located?" One thing at a time.

[1imited_edition]

How to the-point. Was the girl that level-headed or had the strangeness of the place not sunk in yet? Reinforce felt like she should tell her something more, but there hung the question. "No one really knows. The design and accents of the staff are North American."

She felt... hungry. Strange. She'd just eaten.

[clone_boy]

Darman was relieved to hear that he didn't have visitors. He wasn't sure who could possibly want to see him and he didn't want any nasty surprises if he could help it - the mention of a previous generation of patients hadn't been lost to him and while he was reasonably sure he could account for his clone commando squad, Etain, Jusik and Skirata, he was quickly realizing that something like as simple as linear time wasn't much of an obstacle to Landels.

Shaking off his unease and giving himself a mental slap to get him focused and bucked up, Darman found himself back in the library. He didn't see familiar faces - no Azel, no Claire, Wesker or even General Kenobi - but he supposed he could always bide his time doing something productive. It wasn't like the only way to gather intel was talking to people, and he was fairly certain he could read the crude printed writing on the wood-pulp books here.

He still needed to learn as much about Earth as possible.

That decided, the clone wandered down the shelves, looking for where to start.

[perfect_meld]

And who better than to teach him than one Cletus Kasady?

Not that they'd connected this face to the runt who'd pestered them on the message board yet. The serial killer'd seen this patient around, but he hadn't had a chance to talk to him yet. That never stopped them before, however.

And he might as well continuing expanding the menu. No time like the present! If anything, they could pride themselves on not being prone to procrasination, not even before they'd bonded. Good qualities to have.

"Hey, you new?"

[clone_boy]

Darman looked up at the voice and wasn't particularly surprised to see he didn't recognize the owner.

"Not really," he said, realizing that by Landels standards, he wasn't new, even though he had been here only a standard week, give or take. "And who are you?"

This nonclone seemed friendly enough, but friendly wasn't necessarily good enough in Darman's book - he would rather be partnered up with someone who openly disliked him instead of hiding it all behind a smile and leaving the matter up for interpretation. That was such a...a civvie thing, and Darman didn't like that at all. It was dishonest in a way that felt dirty.

If someone wanted to kill him, he'd rather he know about it than get surprised at the last moment. Darman couldn't helping being a bit suspicious as he glanced at the other man.

[perfect_meld]

Great. Just their luck to pick the one super-paranoid patient. Goddamit. These ones were always the hardest ones to get...... but maybe a challenge was needed. They didn't want to go all soft, after all! He wasn't about to turn into Gramps and write off a good meal just because it was "too hard to get".

Kasady's face was the very picture of wounded innocence. He held his hands up a little.

"Hey, why're you lookin' at me like I'm some kinda criminal?" They frowned, his tone just a little on the injured side. "Something wrong with tryin' to actually get to know people here?"

[opposingheaven]

Libraries were both a comfort and an anathema to Kenren Taisho. He'd spent plenty of time in Tenpou's rather extensive collection, and the familiarity of being surounded by books was something he could appreciate. Unfortunately, he was also struck by the familiar fear of being asked, in that way that wasn't really a request, to do Tenpou's cleaning

[screwthegods]

The voice over the intercom had been something of a surprise for Homura, as it was his first time actually hearing it. Was it something like what mortals called a proclamation from Heaven, he wondered? It certainly seemed to be the case, with a faceless voice telling the patients where they could go and when

[opposingheaven]

Kenren looked up at Homura as the other god approached, a blank expression on his face. "Cut with the titles. I'm sure as hell not going around parroting Toushin Taishi everytime I see you."

The comment about Tenpou's library made him wince slightly. That had been below the belt. "Yeah, he did," he replied, a wry smile on his face. "Probably better than the Imperial Library with all the stuff he had from the Lower World. This one's rather less hazardous to your health though." Less chance of getting crushed by falling novels, for one thing.

He didn't trust Homura, especially not that look in his eyes. He was plotting something and probably not in a good way either.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "They don't need to know. Who they are now isn't who they were then."

[screwthegods]

A low chuckle escaped Homura's lips at Kenren's candor, both when he demanded they drop the titles, and that Homura be quiet about the past. Really, he had expected no less from the Taisho, one of the 3 gods Heaven made such a fuss over all those years ago. The news of Konzen and Tenpou's betrayal shocked the loyal gods, but Kenren was considered much more likely to defect; many had said it was only a matter of time.

Homura really had admired them all, and Kenren especially for that.

Of course, admiration had it's place, and it wasn't necessarily here. He slid his fingers over the spine of the book he had chosen, then put it back on the shelf. "That could be said for anyone, including yourself."

He smirked. "After all, you are not who you were then...nor who you will become in the future."

[twelveapathy]

It was rare to be given this much freedom, if it could even be called that.

The conversation with the Captain was mildly entertaining, and the thought of continuing it elsewhere came to her. However, Larxene opted for a visit to the library. Why there and not her not room? Easy. The former was right next to the Sun Room.

Once inside, she was quick in noticing a large rock. Wait, no. Closer inspection had shown it to be none other than Saix. It was so hard to tell the difference.

In any case, she made her way to the shelf where she had found "Lolita" the day before. Seeing that it was still there, Larxene took it out and sat on the nearest chair before opening the book on the last page she'd read.

[rage8]

Saïx didn't even bother to look up from the book he'd begun to read; the inside cover had revealed the title to be A Tale of Two Cities. Of course, XII's presence did not not go unnoticed, but he didn't bother to lift his yellow eyes from the text.

"I imagine you've been fitting in," he commented, still not actually going so far as to look at her. "The atmosphere suits you."

[twelveapathy]

For Saïx, she merely glanced at him momentarily before going back to the paragraphs in front of her. "VII, I saw you when I entered but I must've forgotten already." She turned the page. "You never were one for leaving a strong impression on others."

The Superior's lapdog. Usually, Larxene wouldn't have paid much attention to him, but she figured that his awareness of her supposed "treachery" merited at least some attention.

"I've been having the time of life here. Especially during the nights, when you never know what's going to happen next. What about you?"

[rage8]

"I'm sure there are others who might disagree," Saïx replied, lips almost twitching into a smirk. Naturally, he didn't elaborate; XII knew well enough the extent of his "impressions" on other people. Or perhaps she didn't. Perhaps she'd "forgotten" just as she had her betrayal of the Organization along with Queen Marluxia herself.

He hadn't run into much action in his time at Landels, which was apparently rare according to most of the other patients. Unlike the pitiable fools who ran from the creatures that lurked there, Saïx himself might've liked to see some combat, to unleash himself upon something before it burst out from being too long bottled up inside of him.

"My experience has not been nearly so thrilling. Care to share you own?" Of course, he didn't sound like he was actually interested.

[to_blood_bound]

The very first thing that ran through Alphonse’s mind after brunch -- indeed, the only thing that had been running through his mind all the while -- was that he had to find Edward. He had to find Brother because it already felt like he’d been away from him for months on end even if it had only really been a few hours... A few hours and he had his body back.

A few hours and he’d just had a gigantic meal. It had been amazing, and he was currently dealing with the consequences: a stomach-ache about as gigantic as the meal itself. Too much, too fast -- what he usually warned Brother about. Though, as he moved towards the library (if he had to pick a spot the both of them were always drawn to, it would be a library), he found himself giving some credit to Brother. When you were that hungry, and the food looked that good... and you hadn’t eaten in forever and now you had an enormous stomach ache and

[somekinda_lady]

This was Tifa's first day at Landel's, so she really didn't know where she should go. Her nurse beamed and escorted her to the library.

Great.

The last thing Tifa needed was to be alone with her thoughts - her gut was already twisting at the thought of Cloud disappearing in a place like this. But she still had so many questions. What kinds of creatures hurt her friends? How had they even ended up here?

Her brain was going to explode. Tifa decided to distract herself with some idle conversation. Her eyes roamed the library and fell on a young boy, and suddenly her heart twisted. He looked so innocent, and the thought that he might end up in bandages like her friends...

She immediately decided to go over to him, a pleasant, friendly smile on her face. "Hi. I hope you don't mind me coming over to talk to you - my name's Tifa."

[to_blood_bound]

When Tifa reached Alphonse, he had been glancing over a particularly colorful-looking section. One spine bore the letters Tales of Mother Goose, another the name "Hans Christian Andersen." When he read the next spine, Alphonse suddenly stopped, his eyes taking in the letters more slowly. They seemed familiar and yet strangely out of place, like he should not be encountering them out here-- Out here, whatever that meant. The Brothers Gr--

Alphonse's heart leapt as the sound of a voice behind him broke into his thoughts. All at once he remembered his stomach ache, though he was quick to turn around. Recovering from his momentary shock, he returned her friendly smile with one of his own. "Nice to meet you! I'm Alphonse." And, well, maybe it was good to mention, "I just woke up here," though he didn't sound as worried and confused as he had earlier.

[somekinda_lady]

Tifa certainly didn't mean to shock the boy in any way, so she gave a warm, reassuring smile. He seemed to get over the shock quickly enough, which was a good sign, and introduced himself.

"I just woke up here, too," Tifa said. While she still wasn't entirely sure how things worked around here, she'd heard and seen enough to put her on guard. It would probably be best to warn the boy so he would be prepared. "I did manage to get some information, though."

She decided to wait to see how much he knew, if he knew anything, before providing her own information. Besides, she didn't want to startle or frighten him. Best to take it one step at a time.