Day 58: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[poorexample]

[From here.]The room was mainly empty when Michael reached it, which was fine by him. It wasn't that he didn't feel sympathy for the other patients, but he also didn't know if it would be helpful for him to talk to them. The staff seemed to think that forming bonds amongst themselves would lead to recovery, but to him it felt more like they would

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[thestormishere]

[ From here. ]

The day before, Lightning had meant to post another message on this "bulletin" thing to those she knew, but had never gotten around to it in her distraction. Not knowing what else to do, that's where she went now, standing in front of the whole... almost hilariously chaotic thing with a dubious expression firmly in place on her pale face, damp hair half-heartedly combed back around it.

Of course... it wasn't as if anything there seemed of much use to her- if it was, it was under some sort of disguise that the former sergeant didn't recognize. She scowled; what was the use if people weren't sharing what they knew-- when it all could be read by those in charge anyway?! No wonder everyone was stuck here...

[ Let's get some rosy-haired lady talk going in here?? ]

[roseoverture]

Nothing helped Utena to ease her mind quite like moving and doing did. While there could never be much real "doing" during dayshift, the Institute was far from taking the "moving" part away from her. So, rather than heading to Arts and Crafts (which had never really been her thing anyway), Utena stuck around in the Sun Room to keep herself busy. With her arms and legs all human again, she was eager to put them to use and not take them for granted.

With so much space, the Sun Room offered a decent walk to anyone who decided to just follow the walls for a while. Sure, maybe people would look at her funny for just leisurely circling the room, but whatever. People had their own business, she figured. And even if they did care, what did that matter to her? Besides, she did stop at the bulletin every now and then on her circuits; she had a lot of notes that needed answering today. That was a little bit of "doing" on her part, right?

As more people responded to her notes, her bulletin pit stops got longer. On one particular stop, she

[thestormishere]

Lightning noticed the girl making her way around and around the room, watched with peripheral vision as she peered at the board... but of course didn't acknowledge her at all until a direct address was already made. Her frown changed slightly, annoyed that she was being obvious enough to prompt comment on her trouble, but... it wasn't like it could be helped, right? If it was, it also wasn't like Lightning was really in the mood to do so.

"Mm," she hummed shortly, and with that clever commentary, turned her head just enough to give the girl a proper glance. "You actually get much use out of it?"

... She had to ask, even if she too had at least been able to catch up to speed with someone else a time or two. It just-- wasn't really serving the purpose she felt like she wanted, and chafed to the bone she didn't really feel like hiding that. More importantly, she didn't understand the purpose of making it all paper, if there even was any beyond just annoying them all

[roseoverture]

Utena slipped her hands into a comfortable position behind her head, turning to face the woman more directly. Despite her cool exterior, Utena wasn't too put off. Juri could be the same way at times, and she wasn't all bad. At least, that's the way Utena figured it

[thestormishere]

For some reason, Lightning was struck over whether or not the girl could possibly mean the same thing by 'weeks' as the length of time she knew from her home- a few weeks was quite a while when you were letting l'Cie run around along with the apparent results that came of them. However, despite her continued dubious expression, the woman was careful to absorb every word that came out of the other girl's mouth

[roseoverture]

Utena nodded when the woman mentioned only having been around a few days. It made sense that they wouldn't have seen each other yet, then, all inexplicable comas considered. It also made sense that she wouldn't be quite warmed up to the bulletin yet, either. Who knew? Maybe she hadn't even seen the dream talk much so far, and all Utena's rambling had been for nothing. Oops, she thought with a mental laugh.

She shrugged at the question. "They wanted to make everything seem like a real mental hospital, pretty much. Like they figured they could make us believe our stupid 'real life' stories or something. Guess the military doesn't really need to do that anymore," she said, making a face both at the mention of the military and their "real" lives. Ugh. The less she had to think about being "Yomi" again, the better. "Hopefully if it stays this way, the detailed info starts going up again, at least."

Her arms lowered as she began to stretch them behind her back out of habit. "I'm Utena, by the way. What's your name?"

[thestormishere]

From the day where the crack that quickly went on to shatter Lightning's entire life had been placed, through a line of events that would easily fill an entire book, to the evening she stood on the surface of Gran Pulse a completely changed woman... it wasn't that much more time-wise than the number of days she'd spent stuck in this place. That considered, it was strange that Lightning still considered herself new.

The days did kind of run all together, though, and put with the hours she kept getting robbed from her that she could have spent otherwise, perhaps it wasn't that strange after all. Of course, she also wasn't doing much of anything here.

Was anyone, regardless of what 'Utena' vaguely implied?

Doubtful. The situation was... very in-hand, right down to the suppression of magic. Of her and Snow's Eidolons, even