damned_institute | Day 32: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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Day 32: Sun Room (4th Shift)

It was rare that Homura's nurse try to persuade him to a scheduled activity, but then, it was rare that Homura didn't go. But the demi-god had plans, and the poor woman had little other choice but to leave in a huff as he once again settled himself near the bulletin board in the Sun Room.

His conversation with Kenren the previous shift had left the demi-god with a lingering sense of anxiety. Perhaps it was something only those from his own world could do, but none the less, he was all the more ready for night to begin now. Goals and memories, the truth of his past and the possibility of the future: all thoughts lingering on the forefront of his mind, more than enough motivation to move forward.

Impatience was something of a rush for an immortal, he'd discovered. Homura liked the feeling, the excitement even before he had arrived in this prison. And now while he waited, he savored it again, a yearning that shone so much brighter than the boredom of Heaven.

[Waiting for History Club Q&A time.]

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"Nah. It's not really a hobby of mine." With the way Zoro was scratching the back of his head and yawning, it was clear which daytime activity took that place of honor. "They more friends of yours?"

"Ah, so I'm just special," the Bride replied deadpan. She could care less, but didn't have anything else to do right now.

"No, they aren't my friends. There is no one I am familiar with prior to being captured also here."

"If you wanna put it that way." Zoro shrugged, a cheeky grin on his face. He was observing the others in the room now, content with the little he'd learned and how easily the conversation was going. The woman didn't seem interested in fighting though, nor did she seem particularly bothered by his watching her. At least, she didn't look like she was going to attack him right then and there.

She could have just been bidding her time but Zoro didn't let his guard down easily anyway. He wasn't worried about surprise attacks.

Oh, look. Zoro spotted Sanji and Nami a few chairs away, most probably discussing recent events. The chef looked like an idiot. As always. He looked away; they could discuss things later on tonight.

If 'Arlene' was telling the truth then that would mean other worlds and other women swordsmen. Not that it surprised Zoro-- women could be swordsmen no matter of the when, where, or why-- but it did seem to satisfy a part of him that spent years wondering...

He sighed, forceful and slightly irritated-sounding like their captain had just done something stupid again.

Beatrix shook her head a little, slightly amused by Zoro. She caught the couple his gaze had drifted toward and the accompanying sigh drew her attention.

"Friends of yours?"

"Nakama," He acknowledged with a slight nod. Zoro wasn't sure if exposing them was a good thing (especially if this Arlene was a bounty hunter of some sort) but he knew his crew mates could take care of themselves and that, if anything, they would have inevitably drawn attention to themselves anyway.

Luffy already pretty much declared their pirate crew on the bulletin board, after all.

"The stupid looking one's our chef. The woman's our navigator."

Beatrix took a moment to look the two indicated over, finding the interaction between the two slightly amusing as well. Apparently the chef had an interest in the navigator. Half of the woman's reactions to him seemed put on, but the Bride didn't care enough to bother watching any longer.

Wait a minute - navigator? Either Zoro and his friends were air fairing or sea fairing. Hmm...

"By air or by sea?"

Eh? "Sea..." Zoro quirked an eyebrow at her looking inquisitive. "There any reason we'd need one for the air?"

Sailors... interesting.

"Yes, airplanes and jets large enough for a crew of more than two usually have a navigator as one of their crew to help them stay on course and use the onboard computer systems to make sure they are in the correct airspace and don't accidentally cross the path of another aircraft," she replied.

"What kind of ship do you sail in?"

Air... planes? Computers? Everything else sounded about right, but the things she was mentioning didn't register. It was nothing he'd ever heard of and so was, admittedly, a bit of a curious thing.

"Uhh... a Sloop," That was all Zoro really remembered from Franky's frequent ramblings about the Thousand Sunny. But even then he couldn't be sure if the cyborg had been talking about the Sunny or some other ship. "I think. But, er, what's an aircraft? Does it look like a turkey?"

Beatrix was able to contain her reaction of what the hell drug is this guy on to just a mere blinking of her eyes. Did it look like a turkey? Zoro obviously was a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

"An aircraft is a transport conveyance, usually for passengers these days, that flies in the air." She thought about Zoro's questions and his familiarity with seacrafts. "It doesn't look like a turkey, but an airplane does have wings. But they don't flap," she added on.

How to explain... "Hmm... Think of your sloop and make it metal. Then instead of there being sails, there were two rigid, very large metal wings on it, one sticking out of each side perpendicular to the body of the sloop. Instead of sails to move the ship through the air, it has large engines that generate enough energy and wind to raise the ship up into the air and moving forward as it rides the air currents like a bird does."

The Bride hoped she'd dumbed the explanation down enough that Zoro might start to understand.

Okay, maybe asking that latter question hadn't been the best idea. Zoro caught the blink, knew that maybe he'd phrased it wrong. He didn't think he could be blamed for thinking about turkeys, though. The only time they'd ever been on anything that sounded even remotely like an aircraft (something that sailed through the air, right?) had been on the Going Merry with her silly chicken head patch up job and make-shift wings, right before they were sent hurtling up into the sky islands. She'd looked like a turkey back then...

Merry. Zoro had to stop and think about that for a bit. It came to him that maybe the others didn't know what had happened to her, aside from the obvious ones. Brook had mentioned a "Lion-chan" and Sanji seemed to know the Thousand Sunny well enough... but if Luffy and the others didn't know about Franky then what more their newest ship? Of what had happened to their first one?

That was some food for thought. Zoro decided to set it all aside for now to pay attention to the current conversation.

Not that he understood it even with the dumbed down explanation buzzing in his head. What the heck was an engine? It sounded like the aircraft moved like those waver things from Skypiea but Zoro wasn't really sure about those either. It was a ship that didn't need sails, according to Nami...

Zoro's face was screwed in concentration as he went over all the information given to him. Mechanics had never really been his thing. Maybe their shipwright (or even Usopp, really) would have understood everything better.

Slowly, Zoro's jaw tightened as he came to a conclusion...

"So it's a big hunk of metal that flies? It doesn't need a..." Zoro wondered if he should ask it, not really wanting to sound any crazier. "... column of water to shoot it into the air or anything?"

Apparently she didn't dumb it down enough. Beatrix resisted the urge to look at Zoro cross-eyed as if that would make him seem less... stupid. Maybe he's just from a third world nation or something that doesn't have modern technology. In fact, it looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel in his brain if his face stayed that way much longer and then... suddenly he got the very, very, very bare basics of the concept.

And then he opened his mouth some more. Where the hell was this guy from and did he honestly think like this?

"No, it doesn't use a column of water to shoot it into the air," she stated, barely concealing her sudden sense of having lost a few IQ points for even answering the man. "Some small planes can take off from the water but they just float on it like a boat does until they get up to the right speed and then just soar into the air sans column of water. The majority of planes drive really fast. like a car, on a runway to get up to the right speed before lifting into the air."

There really was only one thing he could say to that: "... what's a car?"

Oh Jesus, I just had to go talk to the seafairing village idiot with a sword, didn't I?

Beatrix raised a hand to rub her temple because there was suddenly just too much stupid around her and it was hurting her brain. This man was a tribal reclusive moron; even people from third world nations knew what the hell cars were even if they couldn't afford one. She was half tempted to ask Zoro if he even knew what a wheel was.

"A car is a compact metal carriage on rubber wheels that runs without horses, or other beasts of burden, pulling it. It is a ground transport that will seat two to six people depending on its size and instead of the horses pulling it, it has an engine inside that simulates the strength of anywhere from one hundred to four hundred horses."

She raised an eyebrow at Zoro. "If you don't know what an engine is, I can't explain that well enough for you to understand so you'll have to go look it up in the library. I'm sure there's an encyclopedia somewhere in there."

At this point, Zoro already figured that whatever this woman was talking about was pretty much one of those things that were unique to her island, or whatever it was she lived on. Seeing the objects she described would have helped but Zoro didn't have a problem just labeling them "mystery machines" for now.

He didn't like how much that sounded like Luffy in his head but had to admit to himself that he most likely wouldn't have understood a more comprehensive explanation. Not if he wasn't interested, anyway. His only comfort was that the chef wasn't quite around to hear him admit as much.

Zoro didn't like the look she was giving him, it reminded him too much of Nami when the navigator was reminding Zoro of how much, exactly, he owed her and the why, when, where, and what of the deal he never really remembered agreeing too. Only this look had less thought of debt and more of a "are you stupid?" question about it.

Eyebrow quirking, Zoro scratched the back of his head before shaking it in annoyance. "Nah, never mind. Forget I asked..."

And then a thought struck him. "Oh, wait. Is that like that thing that brought us into town?" The description was a little fuzzy, but Zoro thought it could fit if he mentally squinted enough.

Finally, something that she could use to explain without making herself feel like an idiot. "Yes, like that. What they took us to town in is actually called a bus, but a bus is just a really big car that can seat a whole bunch of people."

"Cars are generally smaller than that. If they take us to town again, there's a place there that sells cars so you could take a look at all the different kinds," she added on.

She was about to ask Zoro what he did on the ship, something to explain his idiocy, when her attention was drawn to the screaming of a short blonde girl being accosted by... Mion? That didn't seem right, but low and behold, there was her green-haired teenage ward hurting the girl. The Bride was concerned, as it didn't seem in Mion's nature to do so (at least not in broad sight of the staff) and was about to go over and demand what was going on when the nurses swarmed in and sedated Mion.

Beatrix sighed. That had been uncalled for and the girl was going to have to answer for her indiscretion. She didn't care so much that there had been violence, as long as there had been a reason, but she did care about the stupidity of doing so during the day. Sedation severely hampered a budding assassin's ability to learn after all. The girl needed to learn to control her emotions better.

"So, what do you and your crew do? Shipping company?"

"Aaa..." That was significantly easier to imagine. Zoro's brain was busy thinking up various small versions of the 'bus' they'd rode on even as he took notice of what Arlene had her attention on. The bus, well... it didn't feel ike a very comfortable method of transportation to him. Too stifling.

There was the girl Arlene was watching but before Zoro could work up ample curiosity to ask about it-- especially since the girl had been sedated-- he found he had another question to answer instead.

Zoro chuckled, the first time during the conversation that he'd had an outright change of demeanor. He hadn't exactly done it on purpose but he found too much humor in the question to not crack a grin.

"Sometimes," He answered, grin still full on his face. "But that's not it. We're pirates."

...Pirates?

That explained it. Zoro was a reject from the cast of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Maybe he and his merry crew of cutthroat swashbucklers belonged in this insane asylum. Perhaps he'd just consumed so much rum in his life it practically flowed through his veins instead of blood. That would explain the stupidity.

"I see. Must be pretty hard work these days given people don't carry their wealth around in large chest anymore since banks have become commonplace and electronic money transfers mean no one has to carry briefcases full of money around anymore," the Bride said, not betraying her thoughts at the ridiculousness of it all. "But then again, what do I know, being the humble mother I am, though I do agree that dead men tell no tales."

She raised an eyebrow. "How is Tortuga these days or are you the kind that prefers to spend your riches in high class in Port Royal?"

Pirates... ridiculous.

Even though her execution had been flawless and her initial words had made as much sense as her explanation about aircrafts, Zoro could sense her underlying disbelief in the way she handled the topic. He heard enough of it from other people while sailing with his crew and their crazy dreams, Zoro couldn't say he wasn't familiar.

The grin was still on his face but Zoro shook his head lightly, leaving the interpretation of the action up to Arlene. He wasn't going to tell people what to think. If they believed him then fine but it was no issue to him if they didn't.

"Sorry, never heard of those places." His eyebrows raised high up on his forehead as if saying 'a humble mother, huh?', Zoro's eyes had a sardonic glint to them. So if Arlene knew what pirates were... maybe there were just so few in her world that she couldn't believe that there were anymore? It made as much sense as anything else he could think of. "We sail the Grand Line." Having asked people repeatedly if the name rang any bells, Zoro was almost sure he'd get the same "no" this time around and so decided not to ask. Instead, he said: "You have pirates where you're from then?"

"Shame. I hear Port Royal is easy pickings for the right crew," Beatrix replied. She didn't care if Zoro believed her on the mother part or not, though the humble was pure bullshit. It was true, though, that dead men told no tales.

"Pirates where I'm from have mostly become romanticized by weak willed women that want some burly man to come seize them and drag them onto the sea for high adventures forgetting that most pirates, throughout history, were of low morals and more inclined to rape the woman or sell her off than give her grand adventures," she stated.

"The actual pirates that exist where I'm from are more high tech than the ones from tales. They use the internet and more guile than force to take what they want, usually without leaving a trail behind them if they're good. The steal programs, blueprints and ideas now, not so much riches of gold, silver and jewels. Some cargo transports get hit but that's more of an act of terrorism than piracy." She shrugged a little. "Different eras. This isn't the seventeen century anymore."

A low opinion of pirates was something Zoro wasn't too surprised about either so her description of them only had the swordsman looking amused.

"Easy pickings... it's not really our crew's thing." Zoro answered with another grin. It was the honest truth; the Straw Hat recruitment process was rarely ever easy on them or on the poor idiot Luffy chose to drag on board.

Eras? With a slight tilt of his head, Zoro took her words into consideration. More guile than force, huh. "Your world is odd."

The shift was winding down, Zoro could sense it in the the way the nurses moved about the room and in how his bearings alerted him to the late hour. He, frankly, didn't have much to say about the shift change, hating the routine but not hating it enough to put effort into feeling strongly about anything. But there was the evening to look forward to at least, and Zoro silently realized that he'd forgotten what Luffy's room number was. Again.

Beatrix had to laugh at that, though the sound very much lacked warmth and merriment. "Indeed. My world is very odd," she said, meaning not the United States, Japan or any of the other countries she'd been to, but the world of assassins and death she lived more than half her life in.

She still did live in it and would continued, she realized, until she got out of this place, located her daughter and made sure her wards made it safely back home. Until then, she would need to keep killing any and all that stood firmly in her way.

"Very few can survive in it," she continued. "It's very harsh when you get down to the marrow of it." And there were the nurses moving into position. Soon the intercom would go off. "Don't get yourself eaten anytime soon, Zoro," she said. "You're interesting." If a bit stupid. She started toward the doors a couple seconds before the intercom went off, not bothering to look back at the man.

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Day 32: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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