Day 47: Greenhouse [4th Shift]

[mitase]

Entering the greenhouse was almost like coming home, and Hanatarou had been looking forward to this shift for that reason. Everywhere else in the building was strange and confusing (and often dangerous) but in here was the familiar scent of soil and sun-warmed plants with the musty sort of enclosed-space smell overlaying it. His expression turned

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[7_to_midnight]

The meeting with Dr. Suresh hadn't given Sylar much to work with, but that in itself was something useful. Mohinder apparently knew even less about this place than Sylar did, and the fact that the staff would choose to assign a patient to someone they already knew was... surprising. Sylar had long ago realized that the real purpose of this place wasn't to 'rehabilitate' anyone, but that didn't make this break from their usual routine any less interesting. Or significant.

Unfortunately, Sylar had other things to take care of right now, and by 'things', he meant the pointy-toothed redhead who kept acting like they were going on a prom date instead of conspiring to bash in people's heads. Sure, the whole situation wasn't making Sylar feel like throttling him anymore, but it sure as hell wasn't helping. Maybe Grell was like this with everyone or maybe he really liked Sylar's 'anger' that much, but until Sylar figured it out, he couldn't be sure to respond to his advances. He didn't care about playing along with it if it could get him

[deadlyjuliet]

He'd enjoyed the meal for once - proper fish and chips always put him in a good mood. Maybe it wasn't the most elegant of meals, but he couldn't deny that his country had created something wholly satisfying by frying up a bit of fish and pairing it with potatoes. Well, the humans in his country. He'd always found it a bit odd that God had made death gods like humans, giving them the weaknesses of sleep and hunger, but he supposed he was grateful for it. An eternity without dreams, without the comfort of good food, would be terribly droll

[7_to_midnight]

And there he was. Sylar kept his eyes down as soon as he confirmed Grell was coming his way, not so much to keep Grell's ass covered but because he didn't want to give him the idea that he was overeager to talk. Either way, the bastard sure did keep his act up - more frequently and more intensely than Sylar could imagine doing. And, while the guise itself was hard to read, maybe his use of it gave something away. The only reason Grell would be so careful would be if there was something he was hiding or someone he was hiding from. This meant that Grell had a weakness, and Sylar needed to find out exactly what it was.

"Sure," he said in response to his question, flashing a toothy smile before looking back down at soil he was pouring into the planter. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched until Grell's nurse turned around and then glanced back towards him.

"So," he muttered, "who's the big act for?"

[deadlyjuliet]

"Thank you, sir." His nurse seemed pleased that he was interacting with someone he'd met before, trying to 'bridge ties' or some or busy-body term that he really cared little to think about. Setting his tray down, Grell took his seat and, once he knew the woman wasn't watching anymore, promptly pushed the seedlings and the disguise aside.

"Who?" he asked, his voice drawing out the vowels a little longer as he smiled brilliantly at Sylar. "Why, everyone. We're all players on the stage, isn't that right?"

With his back to the rest of the Greenhouse, Grell didn't have to worry about keeping his expressions bland like before. Reaching out, he ran his fingers along the edges of the planting tray. "Besides, playing nice with others earns points with the cat ladies and they're less likely to believe I had any part in any unpleasantness." He would hate to be sedated, after all. It took all the fun out of the day and the night. "But what of you, darling? No guises for our nasty guards? Or do you reserve those for the other

[wantsyourzex]

So much for his pleasant lunch. That hadn't ended at all like he'd thought it would. He'd never had a human throw food at him before, and that human had certainly bolted like a champion (from something that wasn't even a threat!). To say ZEX was less than pleased with the outcome of the meal would be an understatement. He'd have to make a note not to pursue that Sho human again. He clearly had something wrong with him; that had been the very definition of overreacting.

ZEX was still picking food off of his clothes when he made it to the greenhouse and wasn't in a very good mood. That was two humans he'd been less than successful at wooing right after the other... it'd be unnatural for his pride not to be a little wounded afterwards. What had he done wrong? He was sure he'd behaved appropriately... after all, he'd succeeded before using the same techniques. He hoped it wasn't a result of his physical damage... It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter. Then again, both their species did tend to focus on the superficial at times

[cmdr_exposition]

After his unpleasant lunch with a psychopath, looking for ZEX was not exactly at the forefront of Hayes' mind. In fact, he nearly begged off from the gardening in favor of another shift of watching the Sun Room's skylight, but that would have been moping and once he'd realized that, a remaining spark of pride put him off the idea.

He was glad he hadn't, when he caught sight of the Admiral- distinctive-looking, even in a human body- and remembered his prior arrangements. He certainly didn't want to start flaking out on his allies now. So he took the adjacent seat, hoping he didn't look as rattled as he felt.

[wantsyourzex]

ZEX didn't notice that he had company at first, involved as he was in staring at whatever it was he'd gotten off his shirt and onto his hand. What WAS this? He didn't even remember seeing it on Sho's tray. Ugh, human food made no sense.

Something in his peripheral vision that seemed too steady to be one of his visions, and he swiveled his body a little to look. Hayes really did remind him of his Captain, albeit an older version of him... perhaps if his poor human hadn't been killed, he would have grown up to look something like him. Not that he'd ever find out now.

Well that was a cheery train of thought. ZEX shook his hand to try and get whatever it was off. He couldn't wait to get changed later tonight and get this all off him. He sighed and thought about trying a smile, but in the end it seemed like too much effort. "I hope your lunch was better than mine."

[cmdr_exposition]

At that comment, Hayes took a closer look, and the Admiral seemed to be covered in bits and pieces of food. Apparently, it hadn't been a great mealtime for either of them.

"I doubt it," he replied, and chuckled slightly. It wasn't really all that funny, but there was a bit of irony in the question being asked, right? "Unless someone threatened to shoot you in the face, too. I thought we had more than enough to worry about with the monsters and the staff."

It might be a good idea, actually, to spread the story around among his other allies; he didn't think he was in any danger from Xigbar as things currently stood, but psychopaths were notoriously unpredictable.

[war_wounds]

Still rattled from his unwanted encounter with Lockdown, Ratchet was left in a fouler mood than usual. And now he was apparently going to spend his afternoon tinkering with plants. Wasn't it enough that he had to eat the slagging things? What was it about humans and plants? They were absolutely obsessed.

And if the plants themselves weren't obnoxious enough, there was dirt. Damp, gritty, microbe-infested dirt. Dirt that he was expected to touch with his hands, the most finely-tuned parts of his frame. If Ratchet got through today without screaming obscenities at someone it would be a bona-fide, Primus-damned miracle.

[Depth Charge?]

[scalyfishman]

Plants. Again. Sweet smelting mercy, wasn't Aaron Price supposed to have been a cop? Why'd they think he'd want to screw around with flowers"Because it's therapeutic, Mr. Price. You'll feel much better once you've managed to grow your own plants. You might even find you have a hidden talent for gardening

[war_wounds]

The man across from him nearly got a face-full of dirt before Ratchet caught the sarcasm in his tone. It was just as well-- even without touching the stuff he'd managed to get some lodged under one of his finger plates.

"No. I was under the impression that these miserable things got along fine without any help." Just keeping them out of the factory in Detroit had been an endless chore. Speaking of endless chores, his attempts at digging the dirt out from under that useless little plate on his finger had only succeeded in transferring the dirt to two more plates. With an angry snarl, he abandoned the plating as a lost cause. "Why do they even have these?" he said, glaring at his current 'companion' as though daring the man to answer. "What self-respecting species would have structures that attract filth on the tips of their Primus-damned fingers?Truthfully, a little grimy plating wasn't such a big deal in and of itself, but the day was going poorly and Ratchet had reached the end of his patience. Frustrated and suddenly weary

[scalyfishman]

... oh, boy. He'd run into one of those types. The kind of picky, perfectionist afthole that ran you out of their lab for forgetting to dust off your bumper. To the Pit with that. As far as Depth Charge was concerned, the more that kind of 'bot sat around cleaning, the less he had to think about them getting up in his face.

Of course, knowing that saying so out loud wouldn't be a good idea didn't exactly take a diplomatic genius- especially when mutual hatred made for an easier ride. "I don't know about the dirt, but I've got bigger reasons to hate this scrapheap of a -"

- wait a second, did he just say Primus?

Immediately, Depth Charge leaned in, dropping the sarcasm in his voice in favaour of intensely scanning the man up and down for anything he might have recognised from an old robot body- eyes, colouring, features... true, he'd thought of Rhinox before, but that definitely wasn't Rhinox's voice. In fact, human or not, he didn't know anything about this guy at allWhich meant he wasn't from his own time. Hmm. Not like he'd been

[justanimpulse]

"...So, what exactly are we supposed to do here?" Bart asked one of the nurses, after a long moment of staring at the greenhouse's interior.

She tutted at him and handed him a watering can. "Why don't you try watering some of the plants, Bart?" she said, and gave him a cheery smile. "Maybe you'll make a new friend."

Bart winced and quickly moved away -- it was impossible to feel anything other than really freaked out about the staff. He did try watering one of the plants, just for something to do, but his heart wasn't in it. It just seemed so pointless. Plants took forever to grow; how could anything he did possibly make any difference? Besides, he had other things to think about, like keeping an eye out for Scourge.

He was kind of worried about the poor guy.

[haplesstracker]

Getting to the greenhouse was far more complicated than a simple move next door, and Scourge eventually found himself in the humiliating position of having to cling to a nurse's arm to make it to the greenhouse. Hopefully nobody he knew was watching, after that single wave he hadn't heard anything from Piper

[justanimpulse]

Even if Bart hadn't been looking for Scourge, spotting him wouldn't have been that hard -- he'd nearly walked right into a table, and was now standing there looking completely lost. Bart wanted to help him -- it'd be the heroic thing to do -- but he wasn't sure how to approach a blind person without scaring them.

Trying to be quiet probably wasn't a good idea, but he also didn't want to attract attention from the nurses while he was trying to get Scourge's attention. In the end, Bart just walked up normally, or as normally as he could manage now that he was thinking about it. He stopped a few paces away, in case he did startle Scourge by accident after all and he got a little crazy with that trowel. Bart hadn't forgotten the thing with the knife from the night before last.

"Scourge?" he said, in what was meant to be a gentle, but not especially quiet voice. This felt really awkward!

[haplesstracker]

Hm? Scourge turned, peering towards the sound of his name. It wasn't Piper's voice, Piper was lower. Still, somewhat familiar and not particularly threatening.

"Bart? That you?" Scourge called back cautiously, voice just a little too loud.

He took a cautious step towards the small human, unconsciously holding the trowel in a defensive position. If he'd been sitting with Piper as Scourge had guessed, he'd know all about Scourge's condition. Best to be defensive just in case Bart decided to take merry advantage of him and leave him sitting in crushed vegetables for the rest of the shift.

[zack_fair]

While the recreational field had definitely been up his alley, Zack wasn't quite as set on the greenhouse. He had a certain appreciation for flowers when it related to Aerith, but it wasn't like he had much of a green thumb himself. Even back in Gongaga, where it was easy to grow things, he had never bothered with that sort of thing

[notthistrain]

After spending second shift in the sun room, Cloud's nurse was adamant about him getting involved in the activities for this one. The greenhouse, like any place that involved any sort of flowered plant, reminded him of Aerith. The thought wasn't as painful knowing that she was alive here, and he wondered if she'd had the opportunity to enjoy a shift here herself. The church, even being in the slums, had a nicer feel than this place and he reasoned that had something to do with the nature of the two buildings. Here it just felt uncomfortable, which made him wonder how any bit of foliage could consider it a good place to grow. Guess he'd just have to be reincarnated as a plant one day to find out

[zack_fair]

Zack's attention had been caught by a particular strange plant that looked more like it would bite someone's finger off than smell any good. It reminded him of some of the plant-like, too-toothy monsters he'd run into in the past, and he had to wonder if this plant warped into something dangerous at night. Come to think of it, this seemed like the sort of place where a Marlboro might hang out. Just thinking about that almost made him shudder. Those things were gross.

That was when a voice called his name, but it wasn't just any voice. It was more mature, more confident somehow, and yet Zack could never mistake it. Part of him wondered if he was just hearing things, though. He'd been thinking about Cloud a lot since he'd gotten here, after all

[notthistrain]

Well, he was here now. Zack was looking at him, looking happy to see him, and any thoughts that Cloud had been hoping to put into words faded into nothing before they even reached his tongue. There was so much he needed to say and express - gratitude, joy, and after these things the desire to beg for forgiveness - but that look shattered what resolve he had.

His hand went to that familiar spot behind his head automatically and he took a sudden interest in his slippers. It had been so long since he'd taken a good look at eyes like his, ones that weren't looking back at him from a mirror. He'd been the mirror once, and this was the original. It was a disarming feeling. The Institute was reaching into his soul, picking out the pieces and giving them a life of their own again. What was he supposed to do?

"Y-yeah..." Cloud finally managed lamely, forcing his eyes back up from the floor. That wasn't anything like what he'd planned. He felt like he was sixteen again, looking at this man. "Thanks to you."