Day 62: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[complicatedliar]

The line of questioning that Rita had begun at breakfast still plagued Loki, as did his own uncomfortable feelings about the entire concept of people being transformed into monsters. It wasn't a useful line of thought, and he needed a better direction to consider.

Hopefully, conversation with Soma would provide that. While she seemed quite stern at times, Loki found her presence oddly relaxing.

Though he had to wonder if perhaps he wouldn't end up seeing her this shift after all, since she might be included in the group that was being herded to the showers. (As much as the statement also was one he greeted with relief, since he was wondering when he'd get an opportunity to bathe. The thought of being trapped in a building with a great many mortals and no bathing facilities had been too horrifying to contemplate.) He'd always been a bit bad at guessing the ages of mortals, mostly because they were so ridiculously short-lived.

Having already established a neurotic fear of the cold with his nurse, there was no difficulty convincing her that he'd be much better off in the Sun Room. Loki settled into his habitual seat, taking a moment to coax one of the cats into his lap. All settled in, he propped his notebook on the arm of the chair and went back to writing.

[Soma?]

Comments

[heroesdontshave]

"Hmm. Far away, huh? 'S too bad." It'd be nice if it just took a jog through the wilderness to get her back. It looked like it wasn't going to be that simple, though. "Was kinda hopin' maybe you had some idea where the heck we were. Last time we all went outside? Couldn't make heads or tails of anything."

Either way, it seemed like he'd guessed right. Daath definitely wasn't a name anyone would know on Cocoon. So she was Pulsian for sure. Not that he cared about who was born where or anything. ...Would she care? He already knew it'd be a bad idea letting anyone know about what he was, yeah, but was it better not to tell anyone he was from Cocoon, too? He really didn't know. Maybe? Or maybe no one cared? They were all stuck there, right, so what was the difference?

"Anyway... I'm from Bodhum. Guess you could say it's pretty far away, too." Check him out. Master of subtlety, yeah! "It's normally a lot warmer than it is here. Not really used to it being so cold, you know? Heh. I'll take sand over snow any day."

Irony, what is that?

[gald_digger]

“It's supposed to be a country called 'America' or something, but I don't really know anything about it. Lots of other patients do, though.” Being from Auldrant put Anise at a bit of a disadvantage, but she'd done a pretty good job of getting informed. She knew what the flag and the money looked like, anyway.

Her grin widened when Snow brought up the weather and climate. Anise could definitely see where he was coming from. It sounded like his hometown was somewhere 'sandy,' but... “Beach sand or desert sand?” Her grip around her doll loosened a bit, now that most of the tension was gone. It was a relief to just talk about something normal for once. “I'm used to beaches, myself. My city's on an island, near a big volcano. It's way too warm for snow there.” Well, she'd seen snow fall a few times over Padamiya, but it always melted by midday. Nothing like the cold weather she'd seen in the past week or two.

[heroesdontshave]

Anise seemed to know a bit more than he did, it looked like. Though now she was getting into some confusing subjects. He'd already deduced from one of his conversations with Izaya that "country" meant a region of land. So she was saying this area was called America then. And if a lot of other people here were from this region, too. Good to know, he guessed. Maybe he'd ask someone for more info later.

He was a little lost on the whole desert thing though. Thankfully he didn't have to know what that was in order to answer her question. But he was pleasantly surprised to hear Daath was near a beach, too. His eyes kind of lit up a little as she went on with her description, enthusiastic for the connection despite the different worlds.

"Ha, yeah? Same here! Used to beaches, I mean. Bohdum's built right there next to the shore, so you kinda get used to hangin' around on it all the time. Never gets cold there either. Hell, to be honest, I never even seen snow til I wound up in this place." Most places on Cocoon were kept at pretty comfortable temperatures. There were some places specially designed for people to go and visit if they wanted cold and snow and ice, but he'd never checked them out.

There was one thing that stuck out about her town, though. Something strange. He wasn't really sure what the detail meant exactly, but he was curious and was comfortable enough to ask. "Hey, but uh. What's a volcano, anyway?"

Apparently it was big, whatever it was.

[gald_digger]

That made Anise giggle. “You have a name like that, and you never got to see snow yourself?” A guy named Snow living in a place that snow never touched? That was pretty funny.

The laughing stopped when the man's next question left her sitting with a blank, puzzled expression. Did he really just ask what a volcano was? “You know, a volcano,” she tried, pronouncing the word carefully in case he'd just misheard. When no flicker of understanding appeared in his expression, she realized he probably wasn't just mistaken. “... You really don't know what a volcano is?”

Was this another 'other-world' thing? Considering how other planets had trees and rivers and mountains like normal, Anise figured volcanoes had to be universal, too. Was that wrong...?

[heroesdontshave]

As soon as the mood of the conversation shifted, Snow realized he maybe said the wrong thing. Anise looked really taken aback by his question. You'd think he'd just said he didn't know what water was or something. Apparently, it was really weird not to know what a volcano was.

"No...?" he said a little carefully. There was always a chance that it was something normal but they just called it by a different name on Pulse. That was possible, right? Let's see. Something from Pulse that was big and could be located near a city. The closest thing he could imagine was The Vestige. "Oh, is it... like a building? Or like ruins or something?"

Wait, they called them ruins back home because it was from Pulse. So maybe it wouldn't be ruins to Pulse people because... Okay, nah. Who was he kidding? He didn't have a clue here.

[gald_digger]

Anise tilted her head farther to the side with each attempt Snow made at guessing, until her head was practically sitting sideways on her shoulders. He seriously didn't know!

Straightening her posture once again, Anise supposed the only thing she could do was explain... even if it felt weird to do that for a grown adult. "Well... it's kind of like a mountain, but with lava inside it. Sometimes the lava spews out the top, along with smoke and ash." She used a few hand gestures to try and illustrate the shape of the volcano, and how it erupted.

"It's usually dangerous to live close to an active volcano, but ours is pretty safe!" Anise was quick to add. She assumed it was safe, anyway. It would be pretty stupid if a religion built around knowing the future had its headquarters destroyed by a natural disaster it should have predicted.

[heroesdontshave]

Snow remained silent as Anise explained, watching both her and her elaborate gestures curiously as he tried to envision whatever it was she was talking about. He still wasn't sure what a volcano was but he could get the general gist of it from how she described it. A big thing with something hot inside it that sometimes exploded and spilled out. That... really did sound like something dangerous. Which was why he was relived when she added that little extra tidbit about the one near her home.

"Hah, well that's good to hear. Still think it sounds like a kinda scary thing to see hangin' around, though. Must be weird." Then he laughed a little. "Welp. Don't remember seein' anything like that when I went outside! So I don't think we gotta worry about dealin' with volcanoes and stuff while we're here either. Guess that's one load off, right?"

[gald_digger]

"Scary? Hehe. Sometimes, yeah." Anise had gotten used to it, especially considering the number of times she'd gone inside while working under Mohs. Still, between the ledges that towered over certain death, the monsters inside, and the horrible experiences Anise had in there, she couldn't say she had any happy memories about the place.

She nodded when Snow mentioned the region outside. "I'm pretty sure there aren't any, either." Not that Anise knew well enough to be certain, especially when looking at an alien planet, but it just didn't seem like the right terrain.

"What about your homeland? Anything really impressive or cool, like a big landmark or a historical site or something?" It might've been a difficult question, since it was sometimes hard for people to see the extraordinary parts of a setting they saw every day, but Anise was curious.

[heroesdontshave]

"Hmmm." Snow crossed his arms, looked up, and tried thinking about that one for a sec. Bodhum was a pretty popular tourist destination, yeah. There were a lot of things that attracted people to it, but they weren't really landmarks. Like Bodhum had actual shops where people could go in and buy stuff, which was a nice change from online shopping. And there was the beach, but it's not like they were the only ones in Cocoon with one. Something unique....

"Ah!" He lit up immediately as soon as he thought of it. Of course. "We got a huge fireworks dome! The base platform's way bigger than this whole building and it's built out over the water. The dome itself is nice and high, so you can see it no matter where you are in the city." Though why you would want to see from the city was beyond him.

"Every year, we have a fireworks festival where we fire off the display for a few hours. It's pretty amazing after dark, even for those of us who've been there for years. People come from all over so they can come and see it!" ...He suddenly realized he was talking a little too loudly and consciously tried to talk a little lower with a sheepish smile. "Heh. There's actually an urban legend that the fireworks are lucky. If you make a wish on them during the show, your wish'll come true."

[gald_digger]

“Fireworks? In a dome?” Anise's eyes were wide as she marveled at the mental image. The more Snow described it, the more excited she got. A dome larger than the institute, tall enough to set off fireworks in... it had to be enormous! “I've never heard of anything like that... That sounds really cool!”

And the legend that came with it was just... well, it was totally romantic! “Ooh, I want to make my wishes come true, too!” She sank into the couch a little, grinning. If only it could be that easy...

The intercom sounded then, causing Anise to sit back up straight. “Aww, no fair!” she whined. Here she was having a nice, normal conversation, and the Head Doctor just had to butt in. She looked back to Snow, pouting a little. “I guess I'll have to see you later.”