Day 28: Bus 2

[misterprince.livejournal.com]

The group hadn't made it to the Twin Pines before the nurses started ushering them back to the buses. Sanji didn't believe the small sack dinner he was handed would make up for the meal they would have had at the restaurant, and aside from that he'd still wanted to check the place out. Now he had no way of comparing it to what they served at the asylum and he couldn't help but wonder if the staff had planned it that way.

Somehow in the large crowd of patients and nurses he lost track of his crewmates, something that seemed to be occurring just as often as Usopp warned it would. He had their room numbers now, though. He would find them tonight if not before.

His dinner was eaten quickly and he found it lacking, but he wouldn't complain. What he really needed was a cigarette. Bringing it up on the walk down Main Street earlier had only made him think about it more, and now he was just irritable. He tapped a light broken rhythm on the plastic pane of his window, staring out at the other patients as they were loaded into the buses also.

Comments

[demon-beast.livejournal.com]

Argilla smiled and settled herself down in the seat next to the man comfortably. She examined the food given to her curiously. It all seemed very unappetising and she knew that it wouldn't quell her growing hunger one bit. It was sad to think that she considered this food odd when once she'd been so violently opposed to devouring other demons.

"I'm Argilla," she replied, setting the food aside. "Pleased to meet you."

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon watched for a moment as patients continued to file past, no doubt looking for seats in a bus that was quickly filling up. Many were unfamiliar faces, but all looked more or less human, as far as he could tell. The same could be said for the young lady next to him, although Qui-Gon was fairly sure that that shade of bright pink wasn't natural, Earthian or not. Perhaps Landels made an exception to their previously, unofficially all-human rule - maybe close-enough was good enough.

"So what did you think of Doyleton?" Qui-Gon asked conversationally. He hadn't seen as much as he would've liked, personally - but learning what other's impressions of it could be just as valuable as his own experience of the place.

[demon-beast.livejournal.com]

Argilla took an experimental bite of the sandwich, making a face at the bland taste of the meat. It seemed so... so dead now that she was used to fresh and warm. She should have been disgusted by her thoughts on the matter, but it was the truth and she couldn't avoid devouring.

She glanced out of the window at the town for a moment before replying. "There's so much vegetation," she said, eyes sparkling with happiness at that fact. "I've never seen so much of it before."

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon almost smiled. He hadn't thought of it exactly in those terms, but the young lady had a point. Earth indeed had many different kinds of plant life and the air quality itself seemed to be pretty good - a far cry from the arid dryness of Tatooine or that recycled feel that Coruscant occasionally had. So far it reminded him a little of Naboo, only the architecture was a good deal more crude. He'd seen his fair share of planets, but he supposed that Argilla must come from a place that was either overrun with cityscape, like the Core, or was a barren desert or some kind.

"I wonder if all the towns are like this place," Qui-Gon said. "It seemed very rural."

[demon-beast.livejournal.com]

The idea of others places also having so much plant life, so much real, uncorrupted sunlight was amazing to the demon. "And so much sunlight," she said, staring out at the darkening sky with something approaching awe. "It was corrupted, in the Nirvana that we were promised. The sun was black." She smiled weakly at the man. "It's overwhelming to see after that."

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Qui-Gon nodded. It sounded that, incredibly enough, Landels and Earth was a step up from wherever Argilla came from; although he supposed that in itself shouldn't really surprise him. There were plenty of places in the galaxy that were decidedly unpleasant, to understate them, and to someone who only knew of such places, Landels and what it represented might seem like something positive. It still didn't clear up just how Martin Landel went about selecting his victims, but Argilla was one of the few patients here that he'd encountered that didn't seem too bothered with the whole captivity part.

"It is quite different," Qui-Gon agreed mildly. He changed the subject. "Are you new here, if you don't mind me asking?"

[demon-beast.livejournal.com]

Apart from the captivity, which none of the Embryon would have been able to stand, and still being a demon with the need to eat others, yeah, the Institute was definitely a step up from the Junkyard or the broken Nirvana which they had been sent to. It didn't upset her as much as it would many patients, especially considering that she'd been dead.

She nodded in agreement. "I arrived yesterday, which was a little confusing." That was putting it mildly. "Yourself?"

[qui-gonjinn.livejournal.com]

Not that much longer, as far as he could tell, but in Landels, a day or a week could be a long time considering how dangerous the nights were. "About ten days, I believe."

Looking back on it, it wasn't very long. He'd spent a longer time on his last mission overall, but somehow this felt like an eternity in comparison. A lot had happened since Naboo and while it had only been about ten days since then, it still seemed like something that was years ago than days ago. First saving the Queen, then Anakin, then learning the Sith were indeed alive and well...

"We still don't have an explanation as to how we got here," Qui-Gon added. It was pretty difficult to sneak up on a young Jedi in his prime, such as Obi-Wan, much less one that had actually been dead last thing he remembered, in Qui-Gon's case.