Day 48: Courtyard

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

"I could tell you some stories," Yuffie suggested brightly, "of unquestionable legality." Illegality, that was. Petty little things like the law didn't usually mean very much to her, except for the times when she had to uphold it. Always fun for the breaking, though, the law, and messy for the clean-up. Just the way she liked it.

Her nurse looked like she wanted to rub her temples. With sandpaper. "No, thank you," she said instead. "Why don't you run along, now?" Please!, was the unspoken request. Before I spontaneously combust. Or commit various acts of violence that would have me arrested, or placed in a loony bin. Like this one. Yuffie had quite a bit of fun filling in the blanks other people left. Sometimes she did it outloud, just to see the reaction; sometimes she kept it to herself. It really, really depended.

"Don't mind if I do!"

She took off, bolting out into the Courtyard. The weather was dour, overcast and threatening rain, but Yuffie didn't care. She'd refused a coat on principle, and had found herself bargaining: Fine, fine, Plucky had conced she could go without a coat, but unless she had at least a sweatshirt on, there'd be no outside-time for her. She ran a little ways down the dirt path, then toppled herself into a series of cartwheels. Straighten, run. Cartwheel. Straighten, run, just for the sheer sake of movement, and the whip of the wind. She laughed a little giddily, checking her gait down to a jog. Gawd, Leviathan, she'd needed this. Right from the get-go, she'd needed this. Every day she spent cooped up in side, the more nervous energy she had.

Nanaki had helped, she realized. Sort of. He'd…helped. In a way. His presence and everything that was wrong with it weighed on her, for sure, but he was still Nanaki. He didn't deserve to be here, didn't deserve to be stuck in a body that he hated and couldn't use, but all the same, she found herself glad to have him.

Yuffie started to hum, as she jogged leisurely around the Courtyard. A cheery little tune, one of her favorites; no, it was her favorite. A Wutaian walking song, with the roughly translated title of Pathway After the Rain. The pace stayed even but the tune picked up, and she found herself half-singing snatches of the lyrics to herself. It felt like ages since she'd last said anything in her native tongue, at least outloud; she wrote in it all the time.

[The Doctor]

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[otnemememento.livejournal.com]

Nights end abruptly? Leonard wasn't sure what Tenzen meant by that, but feigned with a knowing nod. He put his notes and photos beside him for now, reaching for his camera. If this place had less people than he'd expected, it was likely he'd meet this man a third time at some point. He'd better have a picture for next time.

"Sorry," he said with a light smile. "I don't know if I told you or not, but I have this condition. Short-term memory loss." He opened his camera. "You mind?"

[should-be-dead.livejournal.com]

"You have indeed told me," Tenzen said, offering the device Shelby-san pulled out a glance. Like the pictures, he had never seen anything like it before. Considering the man's condition, he supposed it was a natural for him to wish for a portrait. Did that device provide them?

He supposed there was little harm in asking; "I take it this device provides those images?" Though, if he wished to make some use out of the man, it would help that he would at least be marked as a known person.

[otnemememento.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Leonard answered, a little surprised at the man's reaction to the camera. Then again, it was an older model. "Polaroid camera. Most people would rather use the kind you have developed, but when you have this condition, you can't really waste time waiting around at the one-hour places for pictures if you'll just forget when they were for by the time they're developed. This is instant."

He raised his camera to his eyes and snapped the photograph, pulling it from the camera and giving it a few good shakes.



"You have to have some way to remember who you know, a way to know names and faces." He showed the developed photograph to Tenzen before jotting the man's name on it. "Notes can be helpful, but pictures are much better."

[should-be-dead.livejournal.com]

"...I see," Tenzen said as he looked at the shown image. He had to admit it was rather odd seeing his own face on something that was obviously not a mirror, but he refrained from commenting on it. This 'polaroid camera' was an odd device, and he only half understood the explanation Shelby-san provided. Again, it must have been some piece of futuristic technology, such as the lights in the ceiling, the intercom and the room that had a different temperature than the others.

He did have to admit that it seemed helpful to someone unable to create new memories, which was something the ninja would have to keep in mind. "Hmm. I suppose you are right."