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Pool Department
Topic Started: Oct 27 2008, 06:01 PM (55 Views)
secca
Administrator
The pool for the Fantasy Department is multi-teared, with an Egyptian oaisis feel. Large palm trees tower over clear water, and long grass borders the pathways from area to area. The highest pool is the hottest, with water flowing downwards in waterfalls to three seperate pools on the second level, three on the third, and seven on the bottom. The main doors open on the third level.
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secca
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If you wanted a picture of Paradise, Zane figured that this could be it. Huge palm trees towered over crystal clear pools, long blades of grass cast dappled shadows over the water's edge, a warm current of air circulating throughout smelling faintly of the sea, and colorful pillars supported linen awnings that cast gentle shade over some of the pools.

Then again, Paradise meant nothing if you hadn't the freedom to enjoy it, or anyone to share it with.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. Vera was nice enough, though prone to falling asleep whenever she got excited (which meant swimming didn't work so well) and Bain was generally too obsessed with figuring out what had been done to him to be reasonable company at all, but they were friends, of a sort.

Unfortunately, that was the cream of the crop right there.

So, maybe not so much a lack of company as a lack of sane company.

Not that he was particularly sane himself.

Zane was on his fortieth lap of one of the bottom pools by now. It was part of his normal workout, and Zane found it quite calming to swim his stresses away after sparring in the gym.

Once he hit fifty laps, Zane moved up to the highest pool, and sank blissfully into the hot water.

Sometimes, even the lack of friends to share this paradise with didn't seem all that bad.

Sometimes, when he could just close his eyes, and pretend.

The pretending was getting ever harder though. How do you imagine you are free of a place you've never lived outside of?

...

As impossible it is to pretend that the lack of memory means nothing.


The hallways were terrifying. They were professional, neat, clean...and lined with door after door. Kaya had burst out of one of the doors, and without a second thought taken off in some random direction.

Needless to say, her frenzy wore off after trying to open her seventh or eighth locked door. She was now biting her lip in a concerned way, continuing to try every door she passed. None would open.

The empty hallways were beginning to feel like some horror-movie nightmare, and she was starting to get a bit jumpy, half-expecting some dark-haired girl in a bloodstained kimono to step out from around the corner. Or worse, one of those men, and she'd end up back in that room, but this time she couldn't get out...

She was distracted from her paranoia as a doorknob turned in her hand, clicking open. Blinking in surprise at the interruption to what had become a pattern of "check door - door is locked - continue on your way becoming increasingly despondent," Kaya turned the knob and opened the door.

She expected some sort of lab. Or office. Or maybe rows of cages of dying puppies. It seemed to fit the mood.

She did not, however, expect to see glimmering pools of water surrounded by palm trees and sea grass.

Kaya stood there, taking in her surroundings and adjusting to the shock, feeling a bit warm in her black dress over a petticoat and a blouse, but she was used to that by now. Still stunned, she took a step into the...room? And shut the door behind her.

She recalled vaguely as she shut the door a book she'd read once that mentioned how stupid it is to shut a door behind you if you aren't sure you'll be able to open it again. She spun around in a sudden panic, and tried the knob, only to watch the door open again.

She sighed in relief. "Oh."


Zane heard the door open, and twisted around to see who'd come in. There was a tree or two in the way, but past them there was a short blonde with clothing that looked like it'd been stolen from the Historical Sector's Prop department.

Okay, that was cool. Zane appreciated the more "out there" fashions himself.

Only yesterday had he found a brand new deep green tunic in the Prop Department. It had, of course, been promptly stolen, and paired with a nice leather vest he'd found the week before.

He didn't recognize the girl, however. Was she new?

"Hey, come on up! The water's perfect - right in the range of boiling without going into blistering."


Kaya let out a quick shriek and spun back around, almost tipping over on her tall, thick-heeled shoes.

A boy was at the edge of the water, somewhere farther back in the room. She hadn't noticed him, distracted by all the scenery.

"Umm...I can't really swim in this..." she replied nervously, feeling a little A LOT off guard in this strange environment. Where was she?! Who was this person?! Why was there a beach in a hallway?!


"Well, there's a changing room over to your left with lots of stuff in it - if you feel like a dip, just grab one that's your size. That's what everyone does, unless they get really attached to a suit, in which case they swipe it permanently. But come on over anyways - I've never met you before, are you new?"

His own black trunks had been swiped a week after his first set of memories, in fact. It had gone in a drawer of his dresser all by themselves, and although they had looked lonely by their self, it went a long way towards Zane filling in the empty space that was himself. He had clothing of his own, a green bedspread, a funky old mirror, and even if it was just old props, it -existed-, and it's presence meant he did, too.

The idea of someone new being here was interesting - at Zane's mental count there was twenty five other "subjects" living in the compound including himself, and they'd all been around since the start of his memory. Did this girl's arrival signify a new wave of subjects entering this little slice of Hell?

What an interesting idea indeed.


Remembering her mission, Kaya had been about to excuse herself from the room, and continue searching. Until the image of the halls stretching forth in either direction returned to her mind. She had no idea where she was, or even what she was hoping to find...

She could use some help.

"New..?" She sighed, talking as she carefully climbed up the slope to reach...whoever this person was. "New to what? What is this place? Why is there a beach inside? It's like some resort hotel all of a sudden..."


"Uh? Oh. You are new, huh? This place... um, it's called the Facility. And this isn't a beach so much as a pool rec center. I guess it could have been a hotel?"

Not that he actually knew what a hotel was.

Zane was skirting around the issue, and although that wasn't his nature, he'd done this before.

No, just coming out and saying "Well, they test on your brain to see what they can make you do. I'm telepathic!" didn't tend to work well.


Kaya's thoughts returned to the unfamiliar labyrinth of hallways. She had a feeling this would become the setting for one of her nightmares.

"How big is this... Facility? And how many people are here?"


"It's huge, actually. Five sectors that are all bigger than - well, bigger than you can imagine. There's fifty rooms for the subjects in each of the sectors, but only twenty five are here at the moment... twenty six counting you."

Zane looked at her, standing there, and was oddly struck to laugh. She looked so out of place in her black outfit, cute as it was.

He waved a hand over at a bench by the side of the pool, saying "Honestly, sit down. You look so scared just standing there... Don't worry. Whatever this place is, I've been told it's marginally better than being out on the streets or something, so there's that. Oh, and my name's Zane. What's yours?"


"I'm Kaya," she replied, smiling. "Do you know all the subjects here? I'm looking for someone."

"I know everyone by sight, but I'm not on personal terms with everyone. I mean, we've lived here in the Facility together for what must be five years now. So, I'm guessing I can help you out. How do you figure they'd be here, anyways?"

The odds weren't the best that whoever she was looking for was actually here. Even if they had been at the Facility at some point, not everyone had survived the process. Zane didn't want to have to explain that little fact to her.


"I saw the people who took him. I don't think they knew he had a sister with him on the streets...or maybe they figured an 11-year-old orphaned, homeless girl would be no threat." She shrugged. "They would have been right, of course, it's not as though I had anyone to tell." She shook her head, as if mentally pulling herself away from a tangent. "Anyway, I'm almost positive those same people took me. That kind of memory will stay with you no matter what, you know?" she finished, not realizing the irony of her words in her present company.

Zane shivered. Had he once been taken just like them? Had he left behind a sibling that was looking for him even now? The thought was too depressing to bear thinking about.

"What does he look like, what's his name? Even if I don't know off the top of my head, I'll look for him. There's always the chance that he doesn't ever leave his room or something."

He heaved himself out of the pool, grabbing the towel that had been left by the water's edge and stood to face Ama.

"So, tell me. Let's see if we can find this brother of yours."


Even though her name was Kaya, not Ama, she nodded thoughtfully. "I haven't seen him in years...obviously," she began, thinking. "He's skinny. He's tall. His hair is like...dark silver. He doesn't really talk a lot, but he's nice, and he's really smart."

Zane, who had totally not gotten Kaya's name mixed up with some other person's name who did not exist in the world he lived on, realized with a sinking feeling that he couldn't remember anyone with silver hair. He didn't want to let the girl down, however, so instead he suggested an alternate plan.

"I have a friend who's in and out of the Scientific Sector a lot more than I am, especially because that's the one place I do my best to spend absolutely no time in at all."

Tying his towel around his waist, Zane started away from the pool towards the Department doors, figuring Kaya would follow. "If he's here, I promise that we'll find him."


Having had to raise herself since she was 12, Kaya had gotten very good at telling people's intentions. She knew when someone was not to be trusted, when someone was leading her on. And she wasn't getting that feeling from Zane. She was getting more of a feeling that he was procrastinating. He was trying to avoid something.

Probably telling her the truth about where she was, or bad news about her brother.

Both were conversations that she was happy not having, so she instead smiled up at Zane. "Lead the way," she replied cheerfully, following him closely.


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secca
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((arrrgh that took -forever-))
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