damned_institute | Day 48: Courtyard

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Day 48: Courtyard

"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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He stood up removing his shirt and undershirt revealing his muscular torso. It was chilly of course, but as a laguz he'd been through conditions many times worse than this, so being "chilly" was a luxury. He didn't need to get his clothing soaked more than necessary and he'd have probably jumped in the pond in the buff, but knew from beorc customs that he had better keep his pants on at least.

He silently slipped his feet into the water, eyes darting back and forth as they concentrated on the dull shadows in the shallow pond.

"Well then," he said just loud enough for Momo to hear, his back to her as he kept his vision focused on several targets. "...I guess we're both crazy."

...though Ranulf may be a bit more crazy than Momo. There was no way the shinigami would have gone into the pond, even during the day. Especially, during the day. She glanced over at the nearest nurses, finding they were currently engaged in conversation and hadn't yet caught sight of the shirtless patient up to his knees in the pond.

"So it seems..." A pause and then she started drawing the man as he was in the water. "Just a friendly warning that the staff may not agree with you about your method of fishing. Aren't you cold?"

If Ranulf hadn't been so mesmerized by the darting shadows, he probably would've taken Momo's warning about the staff into heavier consideration. He continued a little deeper into the water, his eyes finally focused on a single target.

"Cold?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "Yes, to an extent. I've been in colder situations than this though." He sounded highly distracted, as he brought his arms up to his chest, hands poised in front of him, fingers twitching. This was it. He pulled his elbows back to strike AND LUNGED...

Unfortunately, he'd forgotten that he no longer possessed a tail, and his eyes went wide as he lost his balance. Windmilling his arms in the air, he emitted a "Wh-WHOOAAAA..." and fell face first into the pond. The splash was a large one, simultaneously scaring off any chance of a "breakfast snack" and possibly alerting the staff.

Coughing and sputtering, he stood up out of the water completely drenched, his turquoise hair matted to the sides of his face. He wiped some the wet hair from his eyes and gave Momo a sheepish grin while laughing at himself.

"I- I guess I missed!"

After the initial surprise, in which Momo set her sketchpad down and approached the edge of the water, she giggled. She probably shouldn't be laughing, but Ranulf was already laughing and sometimes it was best to just let these things be laughed off.

"Must be an extra-speedy fish," she replied, still giggling a little. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, the pond water dripping from his bangs. "I'm alright... for the moment."

Remembering Momo's warning, he cast a look over at the group of nurses on the other side of the courtyard. It seemed, even with his big splash, they were still preoccupied. Silently thanking Ashera, he slipped out of the water and back onto the shore, snatching up his undershirt and pulling it hastily over his head. He'd been so excited to be outdoors he'd momentarily forgotten where he was.

He quickly sat back down on the bench, hoping not to attract any unwanted attention as he unrolled the cuffs of his thoroughly soaked sweatpants. Hopefully, the nursed wouldn't notice that either. He looked up at Momo as he pulled the other grey shirt over his head, the adrenaline still pumping through his veins giving him the ecstatic expression of someone who'd gotten away with something.

"That was close. I was so preoccupied by the fish, I'd almost forgotten where I was!" he said, silently chuckling in relief.

"It was still quite impressive," Momo replied, stifling another chuckle. An impressive fall, at the very least. It was odd, though, how off-balance Ranulf had seemed. If he was used to fishing like that, wouldn't his balance have been better?

Collecting her sketchpad, making sure to sit where the bench was still dry, she angled the paper toward him. Upon it was the basic sketch of Ranulf in the water. Even though it was far from complete, it was clearly him in it. "You did give me some inspiration, though. You aren't going to catch a cold sitting out here in wet clothes, are you?"

Still gasping a bit from excitement, he started to pull his shoes on. Momo's comment made him laugh even more. She was humorous too!

"Well trust me, it would've been a lot more impressive if I had my tail." He said as he turned to her, displaying a sort of embarrassed smile. Once his shoes were on, he set his feet on the grass and and peered at her sketchpad.

"You drew me? This is... extraordinary." he said as his face lit up in amusement. It was just a sketch, but it captured his form very well. "I'm glad I was a subject for your inspiration!"

He shook his head at her last comment, still smiling, brow arched upward as he looked at her. "I should be ok. I was trained to experience extreme conditions where I come from." The wet clothing did make him feel uncomfortable but he doubted illness would result from it.

The shinigami blinked. "Tail?"

It wasn't as if Momo had any problems with that - she was aware of what Komamura-taichou was - it was just she'd not met anyone other than Toboe that claimed to have once been an animal. Odd, though, Ranulf seemed much more... adjusted than Toboe had been.

"What kind of tail? I can add it into my drawing if you'd like."

"N-No, you don't have to add it."

He closed his eyes, not quite frowning but not smiling either. He'd forgotten how much he missed his tail. Not wanting to show it, he turned away from her and bent his head between his knees running his fingers vigorously across his scalp and through his hair in order to remove the pond water.

After getting a better hold of himself he turned back to Momo, his turquoise hair spiked in all different directions. He was smiling, but his eyes couldn't hide how he felt.

"I- I wasn't originally beor-... human before I came here." He said, letting out a sad laugh at the word "human". It seemed so informal. "I belonged to a race called the "laguz". I suppose my tail could be best be described as a panther's tail, if you have seen panthers in your world."

Smiling a little more, he continued.

"Our tails are essential for balance, and as you've seen I'm clumsy as an oaf without mine! Heh heh."

"Alright, if you'd rather I not, that's fine," Momo replied.

She listened to Ranulf's story and wondered if the way he felt without his tail was similar to how the shinigami felt without their zanpakutou. Similar, she was sure, though one was more physical and the other spiritual. Perhaps it wasn't fair to compare them.

"I am sorry for your loss," she replied. a tone of understanding in her voice. "I am missing a part of myself, too."

Ranulf's eyes widened, a curious look appearing on his face. She was missing something too? He realized he hadn't investigated much on who Momo really was. She couldn't be laguz or she would have jumped at the word, but who or what was she?

"You're missing a part too? Did you also have a tail before coming here?"

At the question, Momo laughed, the sound light as a bell. Her with a tail? Tobiume was not like some of the other zanpakutou, so there was no tail for her when her beloved sword was released.

"No, not a tail, but you could say I've lost my wings," she replied. After a moment of giggling, she calmed herself down. "In actuality, I am missing my zanpakutou which is a fancy name for the other half of my soul." She paused. "I am what's called shinigami. I am a death god, Ranulf-san."

She wondered what the afterlife was like for laguz. "It's alright if you don't believe me."

When she'd first said "wings", he felt himself jump at the thought that she may be a bird-laguz from his world. As a result of this, he frowned a bit when she stated her true species. He didn't know what a zanpakutou was, or a shinigami for that matter but he still gave her a quiet smile.

"I believe you Momo. Anything is possible here, is it not?"

It was funny, because he wouldn't have been so open-minded had he not spent the night in a futuristic facility talking to a weapon-shapeshifter.

Ranulf's belief, despite the fact that he had no real reason to, made Momo feel a lot better than she thought it would. She'd gotten so used to people instantly not believing her, that it was almost a shock for someone to readily accept. It made her wonder if Ranulf was familiar with gods at all.

"You're quite right. This place is a menagerie of the unusual and unique," she said, flipping back a page in her sketchpad to an earlier one of a majestic fire bird soaring through the sky.

"This is what my wings look like. His name is Tobiume."

Ranulf peered down at the drawing, an expression of awe appearing on his face. The illustration was beautiful, but that wasn't what had made him so alarmed. It was more-so the fact that the goddess, Ashera, was a bird laguz herself. Did Momo know of her? Surely in the realm of gods and goddesses, worlds didn't apply... right?

"This... this drawing is wonderful." He turned to her, little drops of water falling from his bangs and onto the bench. "As a death god, would you happen to know of a goddess named Ashera?"

The shinigami searched her mind for any fellow reapers that went by the name Ashera and the names of the zanpakutou she knew. Unfortunately, she came up blank.

"I'm sorry, Ranulf-san, but I do not. It is possible that she does not exist in ym world as laguz do not exist in my world. Though I am a death god, there is no divinity associated with me. No one worships us, we just make sure the balance between the living world and the dead world stays intact, defending the living world against any spiritual attack."

She canted her head. "Will you tell me about Ashera?"

Ranulf listened intently to what Momo was saying and was thoroughly intrigued. It seemed even places like her world could be affected by this place. "Landel's" was far more than a formidable opponent and Ranulf smiled inwardly that his friends were at least, for now, safe from this place.

Lost in thought, he almost missed Momo's next question, but snapped back as if coming out of a dream.

"O-Oh yes, Ashera... she is-"

But whatever he was about to say was cut off by the nurse who'd escorted him outdoors earlier, a sort of wild look in her eyes. She must have spotted his sweatpants...

"Alex... come. It's lunch time."

He gave her a sappy smile as he stood up and then turned to Momo, giving her a genuine one.

"It seems it's time for me to leave. I'd be glad to tell you of Ashera another time though?"

"I'd love to hear about her. Take care, Ranulf-san," Momo replied, gathering her items as the laguz was escorted away.

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Day 48: Courtyard

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