Day 62: Recreation Field (3rd Shift)

[ninelivesonce]

Being predictable was a liability, at least in enemy territory. And there wasn't anywhere in the Institute that wasn't definitely Enemy Territory. But there was also only one place on the grounds Taura could really stretch her legs and get a workout in, at least during the day, and so she headed up the hall and out onto the field as soon as she'd collected her lunch.

She didn't bother getting out any of the equipment; instead, after a few laps of the field, she found a sunny, dry patch of grass and alternated stretches with bites of her sandwich.

She hadn't seen any evidence of illness, and the Head Doctor hadn't mentioned it after this morning. That was odd. He'd seemed so excited about it -- and, if it was the same thing he'd been whispering about as they'd fallen asleep, it was one of his Big Plans -- so why drop it? She was being predictable, out here in the still-chilly air, so why wasn't he? Come now, Landel, didn't anyone ever tell you it was rude to disappoint your guests? The corner of her mouth twitched, as she dropped into a backbend and ate the second half of her sandwich in two bites, upside-down.

[free!]

Comments

Re: sure!

[norainu]

Renji grinned. "Probably cause it's still cold as balls." He walked over to a comfortable talking distance.

He checked in his lunch bag, but none of it looked all that appetizing. He frowned and rolled the bag back up, then set it on the ground.

He started to stretch, just trying to get things warmed up enough that he wouldn't mess the gigai up by doing some exercise. "But hey, it's nice being able to run around without shit trying to eat us, right?"

[ninelivesonce]

"Right." She watched him as she stretched; he was a fighter, too, or at least an athlete. "Though it's nice to have an enemy that shows up to fight. Sometimes I think that's the real battle here -- ourselves against complacency."

All the food she could eat, now that the military had gone. A lifespan that would outlast how long she'd get lucky, running from the monsters. People who looked at her and saw a person, not a monster. She'd never understood it when people talked about cruelty through kindness; kindness was kindness, wasn't it? But now she had a definition, in brick and stone and earnest smiles.

"Don't worry," she added, and tacked a smile onto it. "I'm not going to go starting another riot. I'm just not very fond of waiting."

[norainu]

Renji snorted. "Yeah, maybe. I dunno. This ain't so different from my normal job. Just less fun on the down times." And a lot less booze. He really missed the booze. "Well, and I gotta make do with weapons, which is fucking annoying."

And not being able to walk through walls. That sucked, too.

But this lady had a good attitude. A better attitude than him, really, which was an example he should follow.

Renji laughed. "I think I must've been dead when the riot happened. Sucks that I missed it. Sounds like a good fucking time." He grinned. "So what's your name, troublemaker?"

[ninelivesonce]

Dead? She'd seen things on the bulletin, of course, and there'd been TK's story. And Landel himself had supposedly died the night they'd all been stranded in town, but it was still strange to hear it.

"Taura." She wiped dew and mud off her hand on the hip of her sweats and held out her hand. "It wasn't fun for very long. They had a lot more personnel than they'd let us see before it started."

Whether they had them now, with the military gone, was an interesting question. "Might work better now, with just medics, but I wouldn't put anything I valued on it."

[norainu]

Oh yeah. That hand shaking thing. Renji took her hand a little awkwardly, since he still wasn't used to doing that, and bowed as he shook. "Abarai Renji. Renji's my given name, so you can call me that if you want."

He snorted. "Yeah, well, we gotta try something at some point, right? I'd be up for another giant cluster fuck. Just to get on Landel's tits if nothing else."

[ninelivesonce]

"Renji," she repeated, making sure she had the pronunciation right. She did, although her accent flattened the vowels a bit. "I'll let you know when we find an opening." When. Not if. If she repeated it enough, it would come true.

"Or if I get too stir-crazy cooped up in here." She wouldn't; just because she wanted to didn't mean she'd pick a fight for no reward. Even doing so for one felt strange; this place really was getting to her. She shivered, and then threw herself back into a stretch to cover it. They'd been punished, in the labs, for disobedience, and they'd never questioned it.

Here all she had were questions, but it was a still an improvement. "I'm still hoping I can track down the guy on the radio. Maybe he'll have an idea or two." Or she'd confirm he'd been a traitor from the beginning, and they'd still have more information than when they started.

[norainu]

"Sounds awesome. I'm kind of out of the loop, so I'm tryin' to get back in." Being dead for weeks on end really hadn't done him any favors. It just meant he had less of an idea about what was going on than ever, and he'd lost his best weapon. Both of those things really annoyed him.

"Never managed to track down the old radio guy, but maybe it'll be better luck with this one. It'd be nice if one of 'em would give some straight fuckin' answers for once. But at least this one's claimin' to know Claude and Lydia, so it makes him sound like slightly less of a jerk off."

[ninelivesonce]

"Knows Landel, too." That conversation would have had her in stitches if the stakes weren't so high; as it was, her eyes still crinkled with the memory. "I'd like to know how he got out of that alive, though, if he's not working with the enemy."

"What were the ones before him like? I've heard stories, but I didn't hear them." There was so much here she didn't know, and they couldn't trust anyone, but they had to. It really was a clever set-up, as little as she liked admiring them for it.

[norainu]

"The only one I really paid attention to was... shit, I think maybe Alec? Something like that, Landel did a lot of screaming about him. But he was a right asshole. Spent all of his time not giving us shit to go on and then bitched constantly about how we weren't getting anywhere with his shitty-ass clues." Renji shrugged.

"The new guy more helpful then that at least?"

[ninelivesonce]

"Marc -- well, the first time we heard him he was injured. It wasn't a trap, after all -- he really was out there hurt. And Leela met him." Taura had looked, in the mountains to the north, but all they'd found was a snowstorm, a mine, and an empty shack.

"Then General Aguilar threw Landel out and he went and stayed with him. Don't know what that was about, but apparently they both managed to survive the experience." Or didn't, but she was still resolutely trying to ignore the idea that death wasn't always permanent.

[norainu]

Renji's eyebrows went up with that. "Wow. If he's like letting Landel crash with him and not slitting that asshole's throat, I'm a lot less interested in getting to know him."

He didn't have a lot of respect for people who had enemies at hand and not the balls to do justice. Maybe there was bullshit strategy or politics, and as far as he was concerned that didn't matter either. There was right, and there was wrong, and some people just needed to be stabbed in the goddamn face.

[ninelivesonce]

"I'm still interested in hearing what he has to say," Taura countered, her grin going sharp. "I just wouldn't take it as truth."

They had so few sources of information; talking to traitors wasn't always a bad idea, and Taura had never quite brought herself around to trusting the stories about Marc like others had. "Leaving Aguilar in might have been worse. I don't know. They're playing some sort of game, and they're doing it in plain sight."

That was the biggest question, really -- why let the prisoners know what was going on at all? It could be just that all of them liked to hear themselves talk, but, if it were, none of them were very smart. And they'd done too well for themselves to be that dumb.

[norainu]

Renji laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's probably the smart way to look at it. Doesn't hurt to listen. Not like he's around for me to punch in the throat anyway."

Another laugh. "Well, if you're the spider in the outhouse, it doesn't matter too much who's shitting on you. But the radio guy ain't in here with us."

[ninelivesonce]

Taura's brow crinkled as she parsed through that one -- what a spider would be doing in a lavatory she wasn't quite sure, but the gist made it through. "Still, he's stuck around for some reason. Enemy of my enemy and all that."

The intercom blared on, the speakers carrying across the field well enough. Someone sounded a little rattled, though it could be just another act. Taura climbed to her feet and brushed off her sweats. "Good meeting you," she added.

[norainu]

"Yeah, I just don't trust that too much. Cause then when all is said and done, they'll probably be our enemy too." Renji shrugged. "Nice meetin' ya."