Day 53: Sun Room

[gald_digger]

When the intercom came on to announce the shift change, the feeling of dread returned. Anise had calmed down considerably since the morning, and she felt more ready to discuss the previous night with Ilia... but not as ready as she wanted to be.

Since the Music Room was bound to be noisy and crowded, Anise opted for the Sun Room instead, hoping that Ilia would come to the same conclusion. She took a seat on one side of a couch in the middle of the room, and waited there. If Ilia didn't show up after a while, she'd go try the Music Room.

Even though this talk had been on her mind all day, Anise still didn't know what she would say. And if she explained the truth behind her shadow's words last night... what would Ilia think? On the one hand, Ilia had shown herself to be a compassionate person, and it was hard to picture her treating Anise differently. But on the other hand, Anise hadn't known Ilia that long... and Ilia was a soldier. She would understand the gravity of Anise's actions, and the sorts of consequences that usually waited for people like her.

With these worries weighing on her mind, Anise leaned against the arm of the couch as she waited.

[For Ilia.]

Comments

[monkeyboy]

"Really?" Goku looked so shocked. "This is all that's here? This stupid house?!" He bleated morosely and then slumped down onto the carpet, completely crestfallen. But that didn't seem right. Claire had said they needed to find a way out, so that meant--what did that mean? It meant--sssssomething, something important, he was sure. Next time, he'd ask her.

The young boy looked back up at his friend, head tilted at a weird angle. "Remember?" His big black eyes stared at him vacantly. "Yeah, of course!" With a grin that stretched ear to ear, Goku pointed in acknowledgment. "We met outside, right? On the--" The nurse's had called it something. "--that thing. The field! And if there's grass out on there, there's gotta be more of it elsewhere. There's gotta be some place to go!" Yes, that had to be right! His fervency raised him to his feet, watching the nurses grimly. "They can't hold us here without a fight!"

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

Kibitoshin made a face, realising, not for the first time, that when he was speaking to Goku it probably wasn't a good idea to use hyperbole. Or metaphor. Or big words. "Well, not exactly all of it," he added quickly, ducking his head, "but still..."

But Goku was talking again, and this time he really managed to catch his attention. The Kaioshin's heart didn't so much rise as hit the ceiling at four-hundred miles an hour, like a kite blown aloft by a sudden wind of hope (better not to explain that one to Goku, no metaphors, after all) at the words yeah, of course!- only to hit the electricity pylons of Reality Check and be blown to smithereens a few seconds later. His shoulders sank. "O-oh. The field. Right." So... did that mean that he was looking at an actual child Goku? Not just an adult Goku in a child's body? Th-that was terrible! He was barely at even a fraction of his eventual power right now!

Oh, well. He had to work with what he was given, right? "Right, right!" he agreed, eyes darting briefly to the nurses and willing Goku not to be much louder. "We have to work on getting out somehow! I just meant that outside of the Institute there's just a lot of fields and a zombie town. That's not very helpful."

[monkeyboy]

Simply willing would do no good for Goku's outside voice. There was only loud and louder with the monkey boy.

"Zombies?" Goku's black eyes twinkled with curiosity, and a bit of hope. "What are zombies? Are they monsters?!" He wondered if this town was the one Claire went to. If that was the case, then there was food in the town too. Monsters and food in one. Goku stared up at Kibitoshin as if he had just witnessed the face of god. It was a glorious idea.

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

... uh-oh. If Kibitoshin hadn't known better, he'd almost have let that worrying glint in Goku's eyes pass him by as boyish enthusiasm, or maybe even (hah) wise understanding of the dangers lurking beyond the Institute walls. But really. Even he wasn't that stupid.

Which meant that now he needed to tread very carefully, with all the careful intelligence of a scary army general type person. "Well, yes, they're monsters," he answered slowly, "but they're not very challenging. It's like fighting training dummies." A pause. "Flesh-eating, swarming training dummies. They're barely worth the effort of finding them, honest!"

Goku's brain is about to explode. Stand clear

[monkeyboy]

"Oh..." Goku's shoulders slumped like a deflated balloon. Fighting wasn't fun if the opponent couldn't put up much of a fight. That wasn't fair at all. "Then why is everyone afraid of all these 'monsters'...? If they're not hard to beat, can't everyone just, you know, leave?"

Augh, this whole situation was growing more and more difficult to understand! Why was everyone's answer "No"? He didn't get it. The monsters weren't challenging, but they couldn't get anywhere. There were places to go, and yet there weren't! And he couldn't go out alone without someone with him! There were too many rules!

*puts umbrella up*

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, Kibitoshin did feel a little mean at the sight of Goku's face falling like that- it was like kicking a puppy, albeit an overly-excitable, bark-y puppy with a penchant for biting things twice its size for fun. Who was he to be such a big killjoy when there was nothing else in the Institute for Goku to do? Anyway, setting the little Saiyan loose on those horrible things would probably be doing the rest of the Institute a favour. It wasn't as though he'd been powered down or-

... oh, wait. It was exactly as though he'd been powered down. Because he had.

"I don't know," he confessed, biting his lip. "Anyway, not all of the monsters are easy. There are some really scary ones out there, ones that even I couldn't beat!" There was a beat. There was so much wrong and counter-productive in that sentence that Kibitoshin didn't know where to start. "A-anyway! All I'm saying is that you should try and stay safe! I bet you're not as strong here, right?"