Day 61: Greenhouse

[overlimit]

Now that one type of business had been more or less taken care of (for the moment), it was time for Rita to move on to her other business: magic research. She'd been so involved in her conversation with Taura that there hadn't been time to write down her latest discoveries. And besides that, she had an appointment.

Rita brought her notebook and a pen with her to the Greenhouse, where she quickly found a space to sit that was relatively near a few rows of flowers. The scent would at least make for some decent atmosphere, though she was a little concerned about how the humid air might affect her notebook pages.

The person she was meeting was apparently a blonde named Rapunzel. Since she hadn't arrived yet, Rita took the time to open her journal and start adding the information about Espers and related concepts she acquired the previous night. It was best to get that done while it was still fresh in her mind.

[Rapunzel!]

Comments

[gald_digger]

Talking with Claude usually helped improve Anise's mood, and today was no exception. Even though they saw each other just about every night, it was nice to be able to talk in the much less dangerous daytime. Actually, after last night, it was nice to be able to talk with him at all.

But now it was time for the next shift. As she passed by the Sun Room, Anise gave the bulletin another look. Ilia had given her brief note a warm, friendly reply, which made Anise feel a little guilty. It was hard to talk to someone normally when she was terrified that person could die the next night. But that was what she did, leaving a slightly warmer, wordier reply... though she wondered if her tension was showing through her writing.

Anyway, that was all she could do about that. Remembering how she'd agreed to meet with Sakura at some point, Anise kept her list of medication folded in her pocket as she made her way to the Greenhouse. Tokunaga came with her, of course, sitting with its arms stretched over her shoulders as it always did.

It wasn't often that Anise came to the Greenhouse, so there were a lot of parts of the room she hadn't really looked at yet. Curious, the girl wandered around, stopping to lean over and check out a strawberry plant. Among the ripe red fruit were little white blossoms. It was pretty neat to see one of her favorite foods growing naturally... well, as 'natural' as things got around here.

[Sakura!]

[a_sin_for_him]

The moment she left the cafeteria and he was out of sight, Lust was certain it had all been a dream of sorts. Surely she had imagined what had just transpired.

But it didn't make sense with what she knew of this place. Madness came at night. And she hadn't been sitting there talking to an empty seat, someone would have noted that to her. It made more sense that Scar was really here, they had really spoken over breakfast. And he really was a stubborn, god-blinded fool.

And what did this mean, then? Last night she had been mourning his death and the death of her dreams, and now he'd made a liar out of even her megrims! It was almost too much. She felt a clenching in her gut and a strange quivering throughout her body. The food she'd just eaten sat heavy and uneasy. She couldn't tell if she was angry or frightened or sick with some horrible human ailment!

The journey to the Greenhouse at least gave her fresh air, and her nurse was kind enough to let her walk slowly. She didn't look well, after all. Once within the rather pretty building, Lust removed herself to a somewhat secluded spot between the palm trees that lined the walls. It was hot and damp and the air seemed to press on her now.

What was wrong with her?

[Free!]

[thecamellia]

_{[For Shiina!]}

Every time the Head Doctor said “project” or “renovation,” Tsubaki got a faint twinge of nervousness thanks to what she and Rapunzel had found last night. It was hard not to read into the disc’s message.

One of the new projects didn’t involve… reconnaissance to other worlds, right?

It was clear that they could take people from other worlds, but sending them to other worlds to carry out missions for their captors was different. It was crazy. Having seen the information, Tsubaki couldn’t unsee it. The difficulty was keeping herself from becoming paranoid. It had been the military’s information, so if Landel had taken the Institute back from them there was no need to worry that he shared their plans… right?

Internally, Tsubaki released a sigh. Being grateful for Landel’s return just wasn’t possible when he was so interested in breaking them in and other horrible things. Much to her chagrin, the overarching mystery of the Institute wasn’t getting any clearer with time, and some of the things she wished she could discuss with others she simply couldn’t.

There was the question of what to do with the disc, too. Could they risk exposing themselves and potentially bringing on Landel’s wrath by broadcasting the information to the public? It was the same no-win ultimatum she and Rapunzel had faced with their military mission. If they didn’t, they were hiding something that could be useful--could even be more useful if there was someone out there who could get additional information off the disc. If they did and just slapped it up on the bulletin, they were doing something reckless that might come back to bite them later.

In the greenhouse, Tsubaki continued to mull the problem over, finding little relief in the idea of tending to a plant. As nice a hobby as it was, she just couldn’t focus on that kind of thing right then… She compromised with herself by stopping on the path to smell some flowers.

[hairraising]

Seeing Soma again had been good for Rapunzel, even if the news she'd had to share with the other girl was a bit of a bombshell. And thankfully, the prospect of getting to be around plant life for an entire shift mostly made up for the other negative and uncertain emotions she was feeling. So, Rapunzel entered the greenhouse with a calm smile on her face, inhaling deeply the fresh scent of flowers as she passed through the door.

Now what was this Rita supposed to look like again? Red-brown hair, right? Rapunzel peeked around some of the greenery. Only a few other girls were around so far, and only one of them had any red to her hair. Here's hoping she's the right person, then! she thought as she approached.

"Hey," said Rapunzel, waving to the shorter girl and brightening her smile. "I'm Rapunzel. Are you Rita?"

[revolutionise]

After a disappointingly uneventful night and an equally uneventful breakfast, Utena was glad to get a change of scenery and went along with her nurse to the greenhouse. As was getting to be the norm for her on greenhouse days, she made her way straight for (what else?) the roses.

"Ahh, good to see them still blooming like this even in winter," she said to herself, taking in the scent with a nostalgic smile on her face. She then picked up a nearby watering can and started doing her best imitation of Himemiya's rose care techniques. With her loose grip and lack of practice, Utena didn't have nearly that same grace or calm about her as she lifted the spout of the can over the pots, but hey, it was the effort that counted, right?

[Leanne]

[lastlovesong]

The moment Chise had woken up, breakfast had come and gone without a word, leaving her mind in a state of confusion. How long had she'd been asleep? She remembered going to her room for dinner and the sudden drowsiness clouding her senses afterwords. The only answer she received from the nurses was that extreme exhaustion was a 'common' occurrence among patients, and that spending time with plants would 'cure' that exhaustion bug.

As if sleeping for more than two days straight was 'normal' for a person.

Aside from that, another thing that confused and bothered her was the Head Doctor announcement from the intercom. Was the institute back under his control? When and how did it happen? Maybe staring at some flowers would give her some sort of hint.

[Free clueless girl!]