damned_institute | Day 41: Intercom, Evening

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Day 41: Intercom, Evening

When the intercom's jingle sounded, there seemed to be some kind of tapping in the background noise, like letters being punched into a keyboard. It stopped and the Head Doctor chuckled.

"Hello, everyone! I'm actually taking a break from paperwork for once – everyone needs some recreational time, you know! – and of course, now we can all look forward to a scrumptious dinner from our cooks. Tonight, herb-seasoned grilled salmon is on the menu, served with buttery mashed potatoes and asparagus. All our regular drinks and vegetarian options are available, and for dessert, we will be serving yellow cake with a whipped cream icing.

"...Well! I can hardly wait to get my own dinner after saying all that. Good bye for now, everyone, and enjoy your delicious food!"

The intercom clicked off.

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It seemed pretty clear that Yuffie had more than a small measure of suspicion of her, but there really wasn't anything that Ayumu could do about that at this point. Although...well, the way that Yuffie apparently got along with Okita so well made her wonder if perhaps she wasn't quite so antagonistic as originally suspected, even if she was one of Himura's allies.

It was yet another thing to be added to the list of things she wanted to talk to Okita about tonight, once she managed to get some privacy in which to do so. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult, since the talk was somewhat overdue at this point.

Ayumu only blinked at her roommate, still looking a little upset at how Yuffie was acting, and turned back to poke at her portion of fish without any semblance of appetite. "I'm glad that you're not, then," she replied quietly. "I've heard stories about what happens at night."

Yuffie changed quickly, without fuss or flair, even swapping out her underwear. It was the principle of the thing! And her own bra would work better if she had to fight than the sports bra provided by the institute, anyway. She checked the hidden knives as she slipped her shorts on, patted her pockets to make sure the pipe cleaner was in place, before crouching to make a start on her socks and boots.

"I was one of the things happening last night," was her almost bitter reply - almost, because she switched it for 'curt' at the very last second. Damnit. She'd thought she'd gotten over this! And maybe she had, or had at least gotten some ways down that road.

Being faced with her roommate, though; her suspicious roommate, with that quietly apologetic and -- it was enough to make Yuffie want to face palm at the best of times. Too demure. Too stereotypical. She straightened from tying her laces, brushing herself down. "Maybe if you actually went out and did stuff instead of conveniently running into Kenshin all the time, you'd have your own experience to back you up, not just stories."

Ayumu watched the preparations from the corner of her eye as she busily mutilated her dinner instead of eating it, pulling the fish apart into little pieces. It was all quite fascinating, and not just because Yuffie seemed to have several supplies that she didn't. She'd have to look for something else to supplement the few scalpels Okita had already provided.

She only sighed at Yuffie's snappish response and finally took a bite of her dinner, skipping the shredded fish and trying the vegetables instead. At least this was more edible than some of the selections she'd been given before, she noted to herself; she really should eat it before heading out tonight.

And...running into Kenshin? That was what had Yuffie upset? Ayumu glanced over, looking both startled and puzzled at that. "Did...what? Yuffie-han, what do you expect me to do? When I tried to go out the other night I just got into trouble."

It wasn't that, not quite. Yuffie didn't trust the other woman's intentions towards Kenshin, but, well, the swordsman didn't exactly need her to babysit him. Too much. Most of the time. When he wasn't getting dropped into trouble all over the place, that was. There was a whole mish-mash of things that had Yuffie displeased with her roomie; that was just one facet.

"So, what? You get into trouble a few times and you just give up?" Yuffie tossed a glance over her shoulder, pulling her armwarmer glove and wristband on. "You're really unbelievable." In more ways than one. Sen was just all wrong for the Institute.

Turning back to the closet, Yuffie eyed the wooden rod. It didn't look like it was too strongly attached, but this would take so delicately ninja-ish manoeuvring, considering how tight the space was. She briefly considered loosening it a little with one of her knives, but she didn't wanna risk blunting them. Nodding to herself, she hopped nimbly up, hands tight around the rod, and planted her feet against the back of the closet.

Edited 2009-05-26 08:45 (UTC)

"I don't think you quite understand, Yuffie-han." Ayumu kept her attention ostensibly focused on her food as she picked at it, taking a few delicate bites. "You can fight, that much is obvious. I mean, I saw you last night." A touch of what sounded like admiration entered her voice at that, as though she'd been terribly impressed by her roommate's ultimately futile battle against the orderlies. "You can go exploring and know that you could fight off, well, whatever strange creatures you might find."

She picked up her cup of water and stared into it, as though looking for some kind of answers in the liquid. "If I go out there, all I do is cause trouble for those I'm with, and put them in danger because they have to protect me. I mean, just the other night Robin was hurt because he was with me." She gave a nod toward the healing scratches down her right arm and sighed, quietly. "I...I don't want to be a burden on him. To anyone," she added, hastily and with a return of that blush.

Yuffie busied herself with the closet rod, keeping an ear out for whatever predictable excuses her roommate wanted to come up with. And, yup, sure enough; the 'you don't understand, I can't fight! Burden to everyone, woe is me!' card got played. By the chick who hid scalpels. Yeah. Right. "If you really didn't want to be a burden, you'd express interest in actually learning. You think I started out being able to fight, or that I got to where I am by simpering and cuddling up to the first guy who took a shine to me?" Why was she even bothering to argue this, when she was almost certain that it was an act?

Oh, yeah. Because that kind of attitude got right under her skin, feigned or not.

She braced herself, adjusted the grip of her fingers so that the force of being pried loose wouldn't snap the wood right down the center, and then yanked. It came loose on one side first; Yuffie shifted to compensate, yanked again, and was soon doing a neat backwards somersault to get herself back on the ground again, closet rod in hand. Not too shabby!

Why were they even having this conversation in the first place? Unless perhaps Yuffie was trying to poke holes in her responses and thus prove whatever doubts she might have. Or maybe she was just bored and irritable; that seemed just as likely at this point.

Ayumu just sighed and shook her head, though that small, self-satisfied smile had returned (just in case Yuffie wasn't entirely absorbed in the destruction of her closet, which Ayumu was pretending not to watch). "I had a much more pleasant night last night by staying here with Robin than I would have wandering the hallway to get chewed on by...by giant rodents, or whatever else is out there."

She might have said more, but just as she paused the closet rod came loose and Ayumu gave a startled look in Yuffie's direction and stared with eyes wide at the newly-freed closet rod. Interesting. Now what did she have planned to do with that?

Weighting the rod first in both hands, then in one, Yuffie headed back towards her bed. Normally she'd try out a few tricks with it, because even if she wasn't actually gonna be keeping the thing, it probably had… some uses. When it wasn't getting smashed into splinters of splinters by a shuriken. "Must be getting boring, playing the hapless victim," she commented, dropping the makeshift staff and letting it lay where it landed. Just before she reached her desk, she paused - absurdly, with one foot still raised to take a step forward. "… Wait, forget it, I don't even want to know." The walking resumed.

Soon enough, she'd perched herself on the edge of her desk, and was poking at the cake. The yellow cake. Not too long ago, Yuffie had almost stayed the entire night in her room, with Sagara. It had been a bad day, and even the night had ended on a low note. Low, like, sunken ship low. Still, the bit where they'd been whacking each other with pillows had been fun. A… lot of fun. She was willing to bet that Sen and Robin hadn't been having a pillow fight.

Wrinkling her nose, she took a bite of cake.

"Boring? I suppose it is boring here, for the most part." By now Ayumu was starting to sound mildly offended by her roommate's comments, and she stabbed at her vegetables with somewhat more force than necessary. "I'm not playing at anything, Yuffie-han. Just because you've had a very different life wherever you came from, that doesn't mean you should say such things."

In truth, though, she did have to wonder how much longer the pretense would last, since so many things here seemed to be contributing to poking holes in it at almost every opportunity. Simply the fact that her cover was an utterly normal person was out of place here, and seemed to have been drawing suspicion from the beginning. Perhaps she should have claimed to have some kind of "special powers" at home, like so many others did.

Ah, well. No way to change the past now. Ayumu gave a light, almost disdainful sniff and turned away from Yuffie, ostensibly focusing all of her attention on her dinner rather than her roommate.

"Unlike some people, I don't sugarcoat the truth."

Sen was starting to sound irritable. Good. It was tons better than the hurt, the guilty-sad eyes, and the gushing - both verbal and not - over that Robin guy. Yuffie made it about a quarter of the way through her slice of cake before she started pushing it around the plate. "And believe me, I know what it's like for the people who really can't fight. Half of the reason I do what I do back home is so that the new generation doesn't have to, blah-blah-et-cetera. So that people can get on with their lives. You're just sticking your fingers in the eyes of the genuine ones."

She'd never had much patience for people who refused to stand up for themselves. That kind of wilful ignorance, that kind of weakness, it was pathetic. Yuffie just… she couldn't understand it. That wasn't what she fought for.

When Sen sniffed disdainfully and turned away, Yuffie shrugged, planted her hands against the desk, and flipped herself up so that she could hand-walk back onto her bed. There was still a bit of time before the doors opened. She could spend a bit of time relaxing and scribbling a few notes in her journal, and she was more than happy to tune out her roommate. This was one awkward silence that she didn't care one whit to disturb.

Collapsing smoothly onto her side, she flipped open her journal and began to write.

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Day 41: Intercom, Evening

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