damned_institute | Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

"And I believe it's time to start wrapping up the day," was what the Head Doctor said after the intercom's initial jingle. "Now that everyone's all cleaned up, I think it's time for some... that's right, dinner!

"Tonight, we're serving some scrumptuous rotisserie herb chicken, seasoned with rosemary, lemon juice, and other delicious seasonings. On the side, we have cooked asparagus with bits of grilled onion, as well as small roasted potatoes with garlic and butter; for dessert, we'll be serving vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top. Our normal assorted drinks and specialized diet alternatives are available.

"Some of you might find that you have new roommates since your old ones were fortunate enough to recover and leave us. Hopefully, you'll be able to see them again the next time we have visitors if you wish, but in the meantime please treat your new bunkmates kindly.

"I believe that's all for now. I hope you had a wonderful day and that you have a delicious dinner! ...Well, you'll definitely be having a delicious dinner, but there's nothing surprising about that, is there? Hahaha..."

With a seemingly good-natured chuckle, the Head Doctor turned off his mic.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. Find your character's room assignments here.

All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

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At least she wasn't the only one who thought that didn't make a lot of sense. There were many things about this place that didn't, really, so Yuffie's advice was probably best: just accept it at face value and move on. Otherwise she'd spend all her time trying to reconcile it with what she knew and wouldn't get very far. Kind of like with the descriptions of the "monsters" that wandered the building at night - she just had to know how to deal with them, not figure out how they could possibly exist at all.

Ayumu nodded slowly, still looking a little confused, but just kept working on her dinner. She somewhat awkwardly scooped a bit of potato onto her fork, dropping it a couple of times before she got it to her mouth. She cast a vaguely embarrassed glance in her roommate's direction, as though worried that the other would make fun of her difficulties.

"You have friends from Japan?" The answer surprised her a little (as did the dramatic emphasis with the spoon), though what she said seemed to imply that she'd met them after coming here. "Would it be impolite to ask who they are? I must admit I'm curious about how people are chosen to be brought here."

Wow. It wasn’t very often that took Yuffie’s advice to heart! Or, at least, she was assuming that the advice was being taken to heart; the woman seemed to be concentrating on dropping her potatoes everywhere - Yuffie would’ve laughed, but she was too busy scraping up the last of the ice-cream and licking her spoon clean - rather than babbling questions or denials.

If nothing else, talking to the newbie was keeping her from brooding over the loss of her friends… Yuffie was doing a great job of pushing that back to the far recesses of her mind, trying to fall back on the casual unconcern she’d felt at age sixteen, to keep her from falling apart like she very nearly had done last night; she could worry about them all later.

(And by later, she wanted to mean never. Yeah, right.)

“Met ‘em here,” Yuffie clarified, cheerily. Done with her food, she uncurled her legs and bounced to her feet, stretching her arms above her head. At Sen’s question, she paused and glanced over, one eyebrow raised.

The hesitation only lasted a split second, though, and Yuffie dropped her arms and headed for the closet. “Sagara and his gang,” she said, doing a little twirl as she walked. That Okita dude was from Japan too, wasn’t he…? Well, it wasn’t like she cared; she only knew of him because he’d gotten stab-happy with people he should keep his sword (and pens) well away from. “And Kaito, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend.” The last commented was spoken with a grin.

It really would have been easier with a proper pair of chopsticks, but it wasn't as though Ayumu was really as clumsy as she was pretending - though Yuffie didn't seem to notice. Or care, really; she seemed rather focused on her own dinner, which was good enough. The less her roommate paid attention to what she was doing, the more happy Ayumu would be.

Although there was that pause after her question which made her wonder for an instant just what Yuffie was thinking. "Sagara?" she echoed, taking care to sound simply curious, although the name immediately made her more wary. "Is it possibly...Sagara Sanosuke? Himura-han told me he had a friend by that name.

"Ah, I met Himura-han last night," Ayumu was quick to add, as though she'd just thought of it. "After I found myself here, he helped me find safety for the night and told me about this place." Kaito was a name she didn't know, but it was duly filed away for further reference, along with everything else the other said.

“That’s him!” Yuffie confirmed, oblivious to what her dinner-time companion was thinking. “He’s a real knucklehead,” she added, without prompting. When Sen mentioned having met Himura --- Himura who? Did she mean Kenshin? --- Yuffie snickered “But Kenshin’s a pretty good catch, I guess.

So that was why Kenshin hadn’t made an appearance last night; he‘d been shacking up with a chick! Oh, boy, that could make for some interesting teasing-fodder. It had to be him that Sen was talking about, too. Had to be, even though Yuffie’d never bothered to find out the swordsman’s second name, and now it was coming back to bite her on the ass. Only not, because this was just semi-idle chit chat, wasn’t it?

“Ya found any more friends yet?” She asked, curious, pulling the closet door open as she spoke “I -- Woah!”

That…. That was not what she’d been expecting to see! For a moment, Yuffie stared blankly at the inside of her closet. Or, rather, at what was in the closet, neat and tidy like it had been there all the time - her clothes. Normal, honest to God, real clothes! She reached up to rub at her eyes quickly, just to make sure that they weren’t playing tricks on her.

So Yuffie was one of Himura's friends - though apparently more so of his taller friend, the one Ayumu had only seen from across the cafeteria earlier. She wasn't from Japan, so likely wasn't a Choushuu sympathizer herself, but it would still be highly dangerous to tip her hand here, for fear of what Yuffie might report back to the others.

"Catch?" Ayumu blinked once, then laughed quietly and lifted a hand to her cheek as though trying to hide a blush. "No, no, Himura-han was very nice, but..." She shook her head a little. "He saw me lost in the hallway and offered a place of safety for the night. I only watched as he taught swordsmanship to a friend of his."

Although she wouldn't have objected to anything of the other sort; it wouldn't have been the first time she'd seduced a swordsman in the pursuit of her duties, after all. He just hadn't seemed to respond to her at all, not like his friend had.

At Yuffie's sudden exclamation she tensed slightly, mentally cataloging everything nearby that could be used as a weapon, but after an instant with no sign of attack she only cast a confused look toward her roommate's closet. "Is something wrong?"

There was so much fodder for teasing there, and in the back of her mind, Yuffie knew that she’d never forgive herself if she let it go to waste.

Hell, she would’ve started with the teasing right there and then, but there was a distraction by the name of ‘clothes’. Clothes in her closet! Yuffie peeked between her fingers, squinting, only to find that she hadn’t been hallucinating. The clothes were still there, and Sen was piping up, sounding confused. That was enough to snap her out of her surprise.

The grin that flashed across Yuffie’d face was the most genuine one she’d given all night. “My clothes!” She crowed, practically diving into the closet to retrieve them. So what if the outfit was the one that she’d been wearing on her trip to Edge, to help with the Geostigma crisis and the gigantinormous summon? So what if the clothing appearing just like that was suspicious and weird? Grabbing the items, Yuffie did a few backward hops, then spun around with a great deal of flair so that she was facing Sen.

“No, nothings wrong,” she reassured, a little belatedly. She held the clothes up, shifting her weight restlessly from foot to foot. “Everything is awesome.”

...clothes.

Well, Ayumu did have to admit that she'd be much happier back in her real clothing instead of what she'd been given, but that was mostly because what she had was far too revealing. It was almost impossible to actually hide anything useful in it anyway, and the fabric was just far too light. (Susumu would've had a far more difficult time disguising himself in clothing like this, that was for certain.) The only advantage it gave was that it didn't impede her movements at all, but that was just about it.

The clothing that Yuffie was ever so delighted about having, though, didn't seem much better. In fact, in many ways it seemed worse, given that there was even less of it than what she was currently wearing. All right, the boots would probably be more useful than the flimsy slippers, but it wasn't as though Ayumu was against going barefoot when she needed to, so again she didn't quite see the point.

However, the fact that this was Yuffie's clothing, presumably from her home, immediately intrigued her. If one's old clothing could mysteriously appear in closets, didn't that imply that there was somehow a connection back to the world from which they'd come? Well, unless Yuffie had been wearing that when she'd arrived, and it had simply been restored to her. Interesting.

"That's...strange," Ayumu said, tilting her head to one side with a puzzled expression. "Is it what you wore back in Wutai? How did it get there?" Was her clothing perhaps in the closet as well? If so, it hopefully still contained the various items stashed in its hidden pockets...

It was like her birthday had come early. No more parading around in the craptastic outfit that made Vince look like the fashion-guru of the century! No more slippers with grip like a mouldy banana peel! No more stupidly shallow pockets! And, on second thought, it was better that it was this outfit - the darker colours would make it easier to blend in. Usually it wasn’t an issue, seeing as though she was the Great Ninja Yuffie, but here… Here things were a little more complicated.

“Yeah, this is what I wore back home,” she responded, practically skipping to her bed so that she could dump the clothing on it. “Well, sort of. It isn’t like I just wore one outfit all the time, y’know.”

Okay. Now to find out if everything was there. Yuffie began to sort through the various garments, tossing the actual clothing to one side and the accessories to the other. Arm warmer, check. Sweatband, check. Headband, check… Looked like everything was there, except the stuff she’d left in her multitude of pockets, hidden or otherwise. “Awww,” she whined, half under her breath. “They took my lock picks!” And the small blades, shuriken, materia, smoke bombs and Leviathan knows what else. That sucked.

Shaking the shorts upside down in a vain attempt to dislodge something that could be hidden in there (wishful thinking, but it was worth a try!), Yuffie shrugged at Sen. “Dunno how it got here. I mean, it wasn’t here yesterday, or even this mornin'.”

Edited 2008-12-07 03:48 (UTC)

"Was it...perhaps, were you wearing that when you came here?" Ayumu rose to her feet again as her roommate began sorting through her new acquisitions, going to check her own closet. Alas, all she found there was the exact same contents that had been there before: grey clothing and more grey clothing. No sign of any of her usual clothing from back home.

Well, hopefully the patient possessions room would be more forthcoming with useful items, once she reached it. It was quite puzzling, though, why one person in the room would find her old clothing and the other wouldn't. Was it because Yuffie had been here longer? Or was there something about her world as opposed to Ayumu's?

The way the other was sorting through her clothing, like she expected to find something in the pockets (plus the outright, albeit quiet, mention of lock picks) was also interesting, though. "There's nothing of mine here," she replied, sounding highly disappointed. "It would have been nice, to have something a little more modest to wear." Something that covered a little more than those short pants Yuffie was currently shaking; she wore that? And only that? It would be easy to move in, but....

“Nope; I was wearing something’ different. This-” she dropped the shorts onto the bed, pout giving way to a bemused smile - “is from, like, a year ago.”

There definitely wasn’t any stuff in the pockets, but she could fix that soon enough. She was the Great Ninja Yuffie! Putting stuff in her pockets was what she did, especially when the stuff was somebody else’s - and, as always, if she could steal it, it deserved to be stolen! Just like back in that store with all the candy.

When Sen announced that she hadn’t gotten anything back, Yuffie made a sympathetic ‘aww’ sound. “That sucks.” She couldn’t quite help laughing at the idea of the Landel’s uniform being immodest, though. “Wait, you call this stuff immodest? It’s practically a sack!” An easy to move around in sack, but a sack nonetheless. And speaking of sacks… Yuffie’s giggles died down, and she turned a slightly hopeful gaze on her roommate. “Y’don’t mind if I change in here, do ya? I can make it quick!”

So that wasn't it. Somehow, those behind this place could apparently still access Yuffie's world in some way, allowing them to bring in clothing. Or at least duplicate it to the extent that she couldn't tell any difference - and if there had been one, Ayumu was fairly certain she would have noticed after that rapid inspection. So there had to be a way back somehow. She refused to believe otherwise.

"This?" Ayumu plucked at her top with a look of distaste. "It...clings far too much. And it's nothing like what I wore at home." It didn't hide nearly enough, for one thing. For all her protests, it wasn't the "modesty" of the outfit that bothered her so much as what else it could reveal.

She shook her head in response to the last question, though, waving her hand a little in a dismissive gesture. "No, no, I'm not worried about it. We do have to share a room, after all, and I'd not want to deny your good fortune in having familiar clothing to wear."

“For me, it’s the lack of pockets. And the slippers, gawd; ya probably couldn’t even get a grip on a cheese-grater with those things!” Even as she spoke, Yuffie was turning to face her bed. She didn’t even wait for Sen to finish saying that she didn’t mind; she was too eager to be back in normal clothing again to care about little things like patience or politeness.

“What kind of stuff did you wear back home?” Yuffie asked, quickly stripping away the boring grey uniform, underwear and all. Wutai and Japan seemed to be pretty similar, but the stuff with naming order had proved that there were some differences… not that it really mattered. The young thief was just insatiably curious.

She wasted no time in slipping on the various pieces of her new-old outfit, savouring the feel of the small layers, the freedom of movement, and the materials.

A grip? Apparently she and her roommate were thinking along the same lines when it came to their clothing options, which made Ayumu wonder just who Yuffie was. Perhaps there was even more reason why she was friendly with Himura's group, which meant even more reason for her to be careful.

Ayumu politely averted her eyes as Yuffie began to change, taking advantage of the opportunity to remove the coat from her closet and slip some pens into its pockets, while unobtrusively sliding some others under her clothing. Once that was done she twisted her hair into a knot at the nape of her neck and used a pair of pens to anchor it in place, as though that was the only reason she'd pulled them out of the drawer.

As for her clothing from back home, it rather depended on what she was doing at the time, but still. "Oh, well..." She paused as though uncertain how to describe it. "It was, well, kimono. More than one layer and, I guess...nothing like this."

“Traditional stuff, then.” Yuffie wrinkled her nose, straightening from where she‘d been tying her shoe-laces. She could hear the sound of fabric rustling as Sen moved around, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. “My old man practically lives in his Uwagi… I mean, sure, the layers make it totally easy to hide all sorts of stuff, but they’re so much harder to move in!”

Wearing that kind of stuff in Wutai wasn’t quite so bad, not that Yuffie’d ever admit it to her Dad‘s face. But over in the Eastern continents, especially when she was working? Nah, not a chance; you couldn’t get any more impractical.

The only thing left to put on was the headband, and that didn’t take very long at all - her movements were fluid and sure as she tied it into place; she didn’t even have to think about it, having been wearing headbands since she was a little kid. “I guess I’m just pretty used to the Eastern style clothin’, though,” she added offhand, sweeping the two long trails of material back over her shoulder. With the movement, she did a dramatic pirouette, hopped forward, and posed dramatically with her hands on her hips. “All done!” She crowed. “Whaddya think? Much better, right?”

Edited 2008-12-07 17:38 (UTC)

"So that is what people wear in Wutai? Normally, I mean." Clearly Yuffie was an exception of some kind, if she was familiar with the clothing but wore that kind of thing. Describing it as 'Eastern style' seemed strange, though, considering that it was more 'Western' to her point of view. Even if she'd never seen any Westerners wearing the likes of that.

However, once again they were thinking along the same lines. Yuffie apparently judged her clothing on utilitarian grounds, such as ease of movement and the ability to store or hide objects. And while she wasn't exactly muscled, she was definitely toned - a warrior of some kind? Not a swordswoman, Ayumu didn't think, not with that build, and the way the girl moved wasn't quite right.

She blinked at Yuffie's dramatic display, tilting her head to one side a little. "It's certainly less...grey. And boring," she admitted, thoughtfully. "It's quite unusual, though. What did you do before you came here, that required such clothing?"

Yuffie made an affirmative sound, nodding with no small amount of enthusiasm. “Yeah, normally.” She made a sweeping gesture with her left arm, an odd little half-shrug, before reaching up to scratch her cheek. “Wutai’s a pretty traditional place.” Or, at least, it should be. Yuffie herself wasn’t exactly the traditional type herself, but Wutai would never lose it’s pride and identity, not if she had anything to do with it.

Arms swinging casually by her sides, she sauntered back over to the closet. “It’s functional and cute.” With a grin, she started digging around; before she left, she wanted to grab a few pieces from her candy stash… and the gardening claw. Damn Sagara for making her lose the lawnmower blade! The claw was so clumsy and… ugh.

Maybe she should just see if Sen wanted it.

She paused, though, at the question, twisting her head around to peer at her roommate. Her right hand was just poised to pull the candy out of it’s hiding place. “Oh, this and that,” she said, lightly. “I’m a bit of a jack of all trades.” Her grin widened, turning devious, and she gave a quick n‘ quirky salute with her left hand. “But I guess my official job back home is the head of intelligence and espionage for the W.R.O.”

Edited 2008-12-07 20:39 (UTC)

The head of intelligence and espionage.

Ayumu didn't know what the "W.R.O." was, but that title right there was enough to raise alarms aplenty. It couldn't just be coincidence that she'd been assigned to a room with someone who would give herself such a title, not considering her own duties back in Kyoto. But if not, then - to what purpose?

And now she had the situation to consider. She was in a room alone with a self-proclaimed spy, and one who was affiliated with Himura's group. If Yuffie were removed from the picture now, would it be an advantage or a disadvantage for her side? There just wasn't enough information to know that for certain, plus she had the truce Okita had mentioned to consider.

It also wasn't certain just who would win in a fight between the two of them, especially if Yuffie had some of the same training she did, and that was entirely possible. The girl might act like...well, like she did, but she clearly wasn't weak. Or stupid. There was no point in provoking anything right now, that was definitely certain.

And so Ayumu only widened her eyes a little in apparent surprise and blinked once at her roommate. "You're...a spy?" she asked, lifting a hand to her mouth. "Truly?"

Sen’s reaction - Yuffie had been watching for it out of the corner of her eye - was nothing unusual, and so she didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she just grabbed the candy, slipped it into one of the many pockets on her belt-pouch, and retrieved the gardening claw.

“You bet I am!” she replied, with casual pride. “I don’t usually call myself a spy, though. I mean, it sounds pretty cool n’ all when you say it, but…” She nudged the closet door shut with her foot, inspecting the makeshift weapon in her hands critically. “…I prefer ninja. Goes with the heritage, y’know?”

The gardening claw wasn’t exactly useless; used in the right way, it could do a helluva lot of damage… And Yuffie hadn’t been just boasting when she claimed to be a jack of all trades, either - she was multi-talented, and incredibly inventive when it came to resources, whether for weaponry or otherwise. She could make the claw work for her, but the question was: did she want to?

In the end, it’d probably come down to whether or not she could find something during the upcoming Nightshift.

No ninja Ayumu had ever met would dress like that. More importantly, though, no ninja she'd met would openly declare themselves to be a ninja in front of someone they had just barely met. And the situation in Kyoto, the entire mission she was supposed to be working on right now, was due to the fact that one person had spotted Susumu and realized what he was.

With that thought came just the tiniest crack in her facade, just the barest hint of unidentifiable emotion visible in the tightening of her eyes. It was a weakness she almost instantly caught and corrected, inwardly berating herself for the slip. This is why you don't let yourself feel anything, Ayumu. That's how you get caught.

But. Yuffie was either lying, suicidal, or a complete idiot. Ayumu would withhold judgement for the time being on which it was, but no matter what, she was not to be trusted.

Ayumu lowered her hand again and gave a curious look toward the claw-like implement the girl was carrying. "Are you planning to go somewhere tonight?" She was very careful, now, to sound only mildly curious, and perhaps a little bit concerned as well. It was supposed to be dangerous in the halls, after all.

The ninja in question had given up her inspection of the claw, and was now twirling and flipping it idly between her hands. The movement were as smooth and sure as when she’d been tying her shoelaces, so well practiced that she didn’t even have to pay attention. Good thing, too; she’d just seen something much more interesting.

Yuffie’d glanced towards her roommate again, once again checking for a reaction, only to see something completely different from what she’d been expecting in Sen’s eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on what the emotion was, and it lasted for barely a fraction of a second… but Yuffie had been dealing with people and their masks for years now. And, she thought wryly, my own.

Still, she smiled. Pretended she’d seen nothing. “Going out with an old friend,” she replied, meandering vaguely in the direction of her desk. “He practically begged for me to go with him - I wasn’t gonna say yes, but I’m a sucker for those in need… and somebody needs to babysit, right?” She heaved a sigh, as though to say ‘look at all the work I have to do’. Collapsing into the chair at her desk, she folded her arms behind her head. "And you... You're new, right? You got any plans?"

Edited 2008-12-08 05:13 (UTC)

Given what Ayumu could see of Yuffie's actions, her deftness in toying with her makeshift weapon, it was entirely believable that the girl had the training she'd claimed. It was clear that she needed to report to Okita as soon as possible, if she could find a moment's privacy to speak to him, or get an unobtrusive message to him on the board. The more time she spent in this place, the more Ayumu realized she didn't know, and that was becoming quite dangerous.

Whether or not Yuffie had caught her momentary lapse, she wasn't certain; the girl didn't react to it at all, but then she wouldn't have in a similar situation. Normally, at least. Hope for the best and plan for the worst, then, she thought, idly shifting her weight a little so that she felt the press of one of the pens she had hidden in her waistband. Just in case.

"Oh, yes, I do." Ayumu sat up a little straighter in her chair at the inquiry, as though eager at the reminder of her plans for the evening. "The other one I met last night, Himura-han's friend? He said he would come by and pick me up, so I could be with a group for protection tonight." Her posture now suggested that she was both anticipating Robin's arrival and a little disappointed that she wouldn't be only with him that night, as though he was the most important thing on her mind right now.

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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