Day 60: Music Room (Fourth Shift)

[norainu]

It wasn't often that Renji felt less like punching people in general as his day wore on. This was a new experience for him. A not unwelcome one, if he was being honest. And the fact that he felt less like punching Fai? Kind of mind-blowing. The sort of thing Zen masters would probably use as a kouan to reach an all-new level of non-punching enlightenment.

So he was back from the dead, almost everyone he'd known was gone, and yet bizarrely his day felt like it was looking up. Kind of. Renji wasn't sure what to make of this. Maybe his grumpy meter was just nearing empty. That was as good an explanation as the next, considering how this place made him feel.

Whatever the reason, he ended up in the music room. And he remembered oh yeah. He'd always kind of hated this damn shift. He grabbed a little book of music and a drum and retreated quickly to the far end of the room. He put the drum down in front of him just so he looked like he was doing something and opened the book. But he had no idea how to read music, and really, he was more interested in the ongoing puzzle of what the hell had happened in the last four weeks.

And brooding. Of course. There was always brooding to be done.

[Okay Tolten, let me lay it out for you. When there's a mommy and a daddy... or sometimes a daddy and a dadddy. Or, hell, sometimes a mommy and a mommy if you buy the right kind of wood cuts (and a third mommy if you go to just the right shop)... but anyway when they love each other very much, or at least a suitably large amount of money changes hands, there are some things that happen...]

Comments

[ryuuzaki]

Her quip earned a long look from L, then a soft Hm!--about the closest thing to a chuckle that his mood and nature and the situation itself allowed him to muster. The woman appeared to be around his own age. He didn't yet know what to make of her, but the fact that she wasn't even pretending to be a lost lamb was interesting, and she seemed sharp enough to ask at least some of the right questions.

Eastern Desert... east of where?, he wondered. She could mean the Gobi Desert, but if she did, wouldn't she say so? Specificity would be to her advantage in this situation. Yet... even if the deserts are the same, Amestris still isn't familiar.

"I'm afraid it doesn't mean anything to me. I doubt it's much consolation, but any number of places seem to have gone missing lately." He gave the words enough weight to make them both meaningful and ironic, but he was still glum enough that they wouldn't be mistaken as anything other than the gallows humor that they were.

The previous night would have been an especially disorienting and unpleasant time to wake up at Landel's, he knew. Even with a few weeks' understanding of how bad it could be, he had been surprised by the extremes it had reached. That the situation had normalized that morning suggested that the Head Doctor might be responsible in some way, but it was hard for L to say how, and hard to predict what might happen once night fell. If a repetition was likely, he didn't think he'd have woken up to the former status quo at all. Landel has a tendency to gloat... will he be able to resist giving us more information tonight?

At least she didn't want superficial information. "I'm relieved... it's a tedious speech." One he'd give if he had to, or if he had a good reason to, but boring nonetheless. "What have they been telling you?"

[a_sin_for_him]

"The medical staff was here first, the military usurped them, last night the medical staff took control back. Or so it appears, apparently tricks have been played in the past," Lust summoned up the information she had been offered so far, ticking it off on her slender fingers. "We are apparently in a country called 'America', or so it would seem. We're all prisoners, it's horrific at night, no one's escaped..."

Repeating it all once more didn't reveal any new revelations. She dropped her hand into her lap and shrugged, leaning back in her seat.

"And there is a possibility that I have somehow been taken out of not only my own country, but my own world. I'm still not certain what I think of that, but I suppose anything could be possible."

It was pleasant, that this young man didn't offer her condolences or sympathy for their plight. He seemed competent and calm mannered, though appearances could be deceiving. Either way, he had her interest for the moment. She rested her fingers idly against her cheek as she studied him, not bothering to hide her appraisal.

"Well, now that we've gotten ourselves embroiled in a proper conversation, I suppose I ought to ask your name. I'm Lust."