damned_institute | Day 38: Game Room

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Day 38: Game Room

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

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Senna! Hoping she could have one good shift today, Hokuto came over and smiled at her. "There you are. How've you been?"

She hoped she personally looked a little better... she was calmer, and her eyes weren't as red as they had been. But never mind that, anyway--she was just here to check on her friend.

She blinked, taking a second longer than it should have to respond. "Hokuto! I... I was wondering how you had been?"

She laughed a little, starting to flow over to her other personality, perky and cheerful, ready to make someone smile. Because they should be happy at least. They should be okay.

Edited 2009-01-18 21:36 (UTC)

"Better," she admitted. "I ate lunch." She didn't need to add that she'd skipped breakfast because she was sobbing on her brother's shoulder; even if she hadn't been, she didn't think she would have been able to eat that soon.

"But what about you?" she prompted. It sounded like Senna hadn't had... maybe any people to care how she was doing in her life before. That had to change.

"That's good," she replied, before shrugging to Hokuto's question.

"I got sedated and medicated early. So I didn't eat. It wore off. I ate. Not much else." Both the pills and the needle had did the job of taking away thought processes that Senna didn't want to consider early on, but seeing Demyx as it had wore off had refreshed all of the questions she had. And she was completely refusing to think about last night.

Hokuto looked at Senna closely, but the girl seemed like she was telling at least most of the truth, and she didn't want to pry.

"Want to play?" she asked, nodding at the cards Senna was holding. If she knows any games... This conversation could get SO awkward.

The change of subject was estastically welcomed. "Yeah!" Senna held out the cards to Hokuto; all were clearly marked with the 'Go Fish' insignia.

Senna smiled trustingly at Hokuto. "How do you play?"

Hokuto had been hoping for a regular card deck so they had some choices (she had an idea that Senna might be bad at bluffing, which was always fun), but Go Fish was easy to teach.

Besides that, it sounded like Senna had never had a childhood, and that definitely wouldn't do. No time like the present, after all.

Finding a spot for them to sit, she explained the rules and handed out the cards. "Ready? I dealt, so you go first."

It seemed simple enough, in theory. She frowned at the cards in her hand. "Got a three?" she tried.

Still seemingly focused on the cards in front of her, Senna ventured something that she herself had been trying not to think about. "So, how are you really? After last night. You didn't look so good."

Lucky guess on the first try! Hokuto handed over her three; she was briefly silent before saying "That... happens sometimes. I thought I've seen enough horror movies so I'd be okay, but I haven't seen a dead body yet without losing everything I ate that day." She sighed a little; it was embarrassing, but what could she do? "And both times I've known them, too. I don't think Hisoka-kun liked me, and the last time Hitsugaya-taichou and I talked he did a lot of yelling, but..." she shook her head.

It didn't matter if she'd been close to the people. Violent death was something she'd never get used to here. Or maybe ever.

"Maybe it's the blood. I don't know. When I died, there was a lot of it..." she shrugged.

"Um. Have any queens?"

Queens.... "Nope! Uh," she looked at Hokuto cautiously. "Go fish?"

Senna shook her head. "I don't think it matters how close you were. It would affect you." It would affect any normal person. "And...."

Wait. Died? "You've... died, too?"

Hokuto drew a card--king of spades. Blast. "Yeah," she said softly. "To save my brother. Momo-chan knows it all." She didn't want to tell the whole story again, because she still couldn't without crying.

"A friend..." she gulped, but took a breath and made herself say it. "A friend did it. So it wasn't..." her voice cracked. "As bad as it could have been."

Senna had forgot about the card game, her hand still held loosely in her grip. "We're the same," she said without thinking, staring wide-eyed at Hokuto. "We both... We both died to save the person we cared about."

She was reeling. Senna had heard that there were others here who had died here, but she never really thought about it. She expected to be different, being the Shinenju, expected to be outside of life, always looking in. But finding someone else who had probably gone through that same pain....

The cards slipped from Senna's hands as she reached out to grasp Hokuto's. "I'm so sorry." That she had to die, that she died for her brother, that her friend hurt her like that, even if it was to save someone. That she....

Senna couldn't think. This place, horrible as it was, held so many people that Senna had found similarities within. Demyx, Meche, and now Hokuto. Having others who had gone through the same thing somewhat... did that mean Senna only belonged in a place like this?

Hokuto put her cards down and squeezed Senna's hands in return. "It's hard, isn't it?" One of the hardest parts for her was trying not to think of everything she'd given up; she'd had her whole life ahead of her, and then the Sakurazukamori took it all away.

I did what I did for a reason, and I'd do it again. But it's still cold comfort at the most.

Senna found herself blinking. "Sometimes," she started, then stopped. Hokuto would probably be the only one to understand this.

"Sometimes, I don't know if I'm dreaming," Senna said softly. "I knew death, felt death. I'm not stupid enough to think I survived." She stared at the fallen cards. "And I don't regret it. Not for a second. The place I helped save... was beautiful. It had cotton candy and ferris wheels, rivers and trees. It had life. And Ichigo. It had him. And his world survived so he would keep living. Because..." She heard herself echoing something she had said before. "I couldn't imagine a world without him."

She smiled, the same small determined smile that she had shown last night when she admited what she was. "And it was okay. Because he lived." She shook her head. "And now I'm not quite sure what to do. Because I knew I made the right choice. I keep thinking this is a second chance. But isn't that selfish, to everyone that's here in pain?" Was she just being selfish?

Hokuto smiled; yeah, she knew how it was. "It's not selfish. We went before we were ready, and now we're getting another chance at life, even if it's brief. Everybody else might hate it here, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves.

"I want to make the most of my time here, by helping people out. And one way to accomplish that is by cheering them up."

Their situation itself would probably never get better, and there was no going home. But they were still themselves, and Hokuto personally was NOT going to spend her last days mourning what she didn't have. What she did have wasn't much, but she was still going to make the most of it.

"I'd want to help out," she agreed. "Whenever everyone brings this place down, I'll probably disappear like before. Stop existing," she added softly.

"But maybe this time, if I can affect people enough, and protect them, this time, maybe someone will remember me." Senna twisted her mouth into a some kind of grin. "Heh. That is selfish. But I'll still try."

She closed her eyes for a minute, thinking about what Hokuto said. She could make a life here, weird as it would be. It wasn't like she had anything to go on anyway, but for memories. Hell, it wasn't much worse than what she went through before (other than not really be able to use powers or anything, which obviously led to... yeah), and there were a lot of fun people here. People that didn't want to kill her ~~that she knew of~~. Maybe it was okay.

Senna opened her eyes finally, and smiled at Hokuto. "Maybe I will try the whole having a life and living it thing. That'll be new. Besides, it seems to have worked for you." She winked. "You found someone you like."

Hokuto smiled back; she still looked sad, but she meant the smile, too. "Life is what you make of it." She wanted to say she wouldn't forget Senna, but after she died again she wasn't sure what would happen to her. More, she wanted to say that there was an afterlife for everyone, but she couldn't know that for certain.

Their future was as uncertain as it got, but they could and would still enjoy this present moment as much as they could.

Senna slid her arms up behind her head. "Yeah," she replied with a smile. "That's true enough."

She didn't want to think about what came after. It'd be better to think of happy things. "Hey. Can I ask you have you and Alita met?"

Hokuto laughed a little. "It was... in the shower. She needed help with her hair." Talk about interesting first impressions. "And because she hates the 'vultures', then she got me to help her with her bandages. On her chest."

She added dryly, "At least Falis didn't give me a hard time when I got an actual nosebleed before we got dressed. At least it was fr--" Hokuto suddenly flinched, realizing what she'd said. Oh no...

"Um... I mean Alita-kun." Oh, dammit. Was it too obvious she'd slipped up, or Senna would just think she used the wrong name?

"Falis, huh?" She grinned. It was obvious that Hokuto messed up by saying that. She'd hold on to that for a bit.

"Why'd you have a nosebleed?" she returned, changing the subject back.

At least Senna wasn't actually asking about the name thing? "I slipped and fell face-first into the wall. Couldn't catch myself because my hands were full."

Was it better to apologize to Falis later or just keep her mouth shut? Unfortunately, the latter sounded like a bad idea. "Anyway... don't go around using that name, okay? It's kind of a secret." Please don't ask why...

"A secret, huh?" she went on, with a grin, not agreeing to one thing or the other.

"So then you guys just hit it off?" They weren't very alike, Senna thought. Maybe it was something else that drew them together.

She's so going to kill me. "Yeah," Hokuto answered, trying to smile. "At least it was a little better than the way I met my last girlfriend; some guys were chasing her, and I couldn't just do nothing. So I fought them long enough to get her away, then found out they were cops." She laughed, sheepishly.

My poor girl. I hope she's doing better than she ever was... hey, she knows a little bit about defending herself now, and maybe I gave her enough strength to last. I hope so.

Senna laughed at that one. "Now that's a fun way to meet someone. I met my friend in a fight, and introduced myself by a foot to his face." Her smile widened at that memory. Ichigo was such a dork.

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Day 38: Game Room

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