Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows confirmed what she'd been talking about with Sam earlier; no dates, no explicitly mentioned locations outside of the town itself… how weird was that? Even the most insular of towns back on Gaia would've coughed up some kind of connection with the outside world.

It was almost like a living ghost town.

Well, maybe she was just thinking too hard. Maybe she was throwing shuriken too hard at the wrong target. Back home, she had a concrete frame of reference. Here, she couldn't take anything for granted; she had no local or international knowledge whatsoever. All she could try to do was get a profile of the immediate area and build it up and out from there. Theories were already budding, popping up like weeds hit by Quadra-Haste, but without facts to back them up, theories were like sand in a desert.

Not that she didn't want to share those theories, sand or not. She did. A lot.

Once she'd developed a viable mental map of the place (as viable as she was gonna get given the time constraints), Yuffie swung back around and jogged back to North Street. From there, she took the alley; a quick right turn; slow to a trot, and there. Her cheeks were tinged pink from the cold winter air, and they stung as she poked her head in through the door.

Okay, so maybe she was a little early after all. That was cool. Very cool. She had some time to set things up, to pretend that she wasn't hideously under prepared for this lunch date. Stepping into the warmth, Yuffie surreptitiously cased the place out as she headed to a table. Homey, in a way that almost reminded her of some of the up-and-coming rural towns. Automatically seeking out one of the more strategic seats--one with a good view of the rest of the restaurant, and one that didn't leave her totally vulnerable to mutant chairs or murderous sandwiches--she made herself comfortable, whipped out a few crumpled pieces of paper and a pen, and began to jot down her findings.

[Closed to Edgeworth.]

Comments

[high-prosecutor.livejournal.com]

"That sounds about par for the course," Miles said dryly, motioning with his pen. "It lines up with what I've experienced, and what I've gathered from those who are willing to talk about it. In my own case, a whole lot of drugs and a painful childhood memory," he said, dropping his voice low. He looked around to be sure no one was within earshot before continuing.

"My...partner and I were both taken at different times, and the results of the experiments tend to complement our usual roles back at home, to an extent. I have an internal danger radar - " he paused, laughing at his own description "- and he...well. It's something of a lie detector, though less specific. It can tell when someone's hiding a secret, though he's not the kind to actually use that against someone without a very strong reason behind it."

Now, that was interesting. Miles raised an eyebrow at the 'two-faced jerk' comment. His own senses hadn't reacted during their conversation, after all, and they would have, he thought. "And as for that question? I would like to think I would do the same."

He smiled across the table. "Likewise. I'm not much of a physical fighter, but let's just say I've been here long enough to have met a lot of people. If you need any of those connections, let me know."

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

"Seriously. I'd complain about it being boring, but the more predictable these guys stay, the better it is for us." What was it with Landel and his drug fetish? And the paperwork fetish? And the Japan fetish? Bastard had issues. His issues had issues. She could quite happily punch him in the throat with both hands and follow it up by kicking his nose right out of the back of his head, simply -- simply because. How screwed up was it, how perfectly screwed up was it, that she could sit at a table over lunch and talk about living nightmares like they were normal?

Because after Hojo, after Sephiroth and ShinRa and waking up in Landel's Institute, that's what the nightmares were; totally. Goddamn. Normal.

Fortunately, Miles interrupted her runaway train of thought by making her choke on lemonade. Thanks, dude. Thanks a bunch. "Danger radar? Lie detector?" Remind her never to meet this 'partner', whoever he was. Yuffie and her lies were like noodles and ramen; it was a fact of life that you didn't really get one without the other. She coughed a few times, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "My experience with those experiments has been that the cons outweigh the pros. Somebody I know from back home, they kinda -- well, they did something totally weird, so she's kind of been on a see-saw between 'normal', 'confused', and 'berserk'."

Hello, raised eyebrow. Yuffie matched it with one of her own. "You got another impression of him?" Interesting, if that really was the case. Maybe it was just because she poked and prodded and bugged him until he had to drop the pretence of professionalism?

"Will do," she added, in response to Miles' offer. "I, uh, wouldn't really need to take you up on the other thing, anyway. The physical fighter bit. Being a ninja, n' all. Anyway, I've got some pretty good connections with the History Club, but networking is cool and I'll probably take you up on that at some point. Anybody you can recommend in general?"