trans_9 | Melting Clock: Quarantine

"...I make it to nineteen?" Marco said, blinking. He hadn't even known if he'd even make it to sixteen, and yet he managed to stay alive long enough to turn nineteen? And if this was really happening, then just a few weeks ago...he'd been nineteen. He tried to imagine, what he'd be like at nineteen, but he just couldn't picture it.

And what about the others? Would they make it to nineteen? Would they all still be fighting the war, three years later? Would they ever stop fighting the war?

"By notably different, you do mean 'but still incredibly cute and good looking', right?" Marco said, trying to grin and lighten things up. "And nah, not really. Not unless you count trying to find places to hide food from Ax as something new."

Sakura blinked back at him, surprised that his personal life expectancy was even shorter than the one most shinobi assumed they'd have. Then again, when in active war... "You did." It was a curious affirmation, for whatever that meant to him in the end. She wondered, wondered about what she knew on what he was fighting, wondered about how much she should care, or could care, and told herself now wasn't the time to wonder about any of that at all.

War was part of life. Right now, she was fighting two -- one on time, with the rest of Medical and those in Quarantine, and the other on the Ohm. Theoretically.

"Sure, either that... or that you're shorter." Her smile was as dry as her tone of voice. She ticked each trait off on the fingers of her right hand as she parroted them back. "'Still incredibly cute and good looking, with an extra bonus of... short.' You're dangerously near the very definition of adorable."

Because every guy wanted to be called adorable at least once in their semi-adult life. "That aside, concerning your food hiding habits with Ax, unless you discovered something different in process, then I doubt it. Which brings us around to XaXing." Sakura let her hand fall back on top of her data pad, fingers tapping lightly on the edge. "Can you walk me through the time you spent on XaXing, to the best of your recollection? Starting from arrival and moving forward."

Marco's grin widened. Okay, the still being short part really wasn't that fun...but she actually said that he was incredibly cute and good looking! She actually liked him!

Why the hell hadn't he asked her out before? She was cute, she was smart, and the whole super ninja thing was kinda hot...

"You know, since I'm so adorable and all, you should totally go out with me," Marco said, jumping on the opportunity. Hey, girls liked adorable guys. If it could get him a date, Marco was totally cool with being adorable.

"Well there was that weird Iskoort with the mustache when we first arrived, then I went to look at that cool gaming stall in the bazaar..." Marco started, not really thinking too hard about the answer yet. He was much more interested in finding out whether Sakura would go out with him.

It really wasn't the time to be joking around this much. Sakura quirked up an eyebrow, somewhat off balance in that he'd taken the adorable thing to be good, and not taken it to be as offensive as she figured he might. Considering adorable was usually a word she reserved for, say, puppies, kittens, baby birds... many small, fluffy, defenseless animals...

Earth guys were weird.

"Ha, ha, really funny, Marco. You'll need a better line than that if you want to get out of Quarantine before Doctor Henderson gives us an all clear."

She tapped on her data pad again. "You went to look at a gaming stall in the bazaar...?"

"Hey, I'm serious!" Marco protested. "Okay, so maybe we have to wait until I get out of the bubble. But once I am, them maybe we could go..." Marco thought for a moment. Where the hell did you go for dates? That one time with Marian he'd gone to that classical concert, and ended up falling asleep. Plus Stacy didn't exactly have concerts. Or movie theatres. Or any of the places that tv shows and movies always said were places where people went on dates. "...I don't know, we could play video games. Watch stuff in the media library. Something fun."

"Uh, some comics book stalls after that, a few electronics stores. A lot of places, really, I don't remember them all."

He couldn't be serious, not unless it was some multi-versal law that people had to pick some of the worst timing to try and be sincere in their own off the wall ways. He's kidding. He's got to be. "I barely know what video games are, for one, and for another, most of what I've watched in the media library has everything to do with recordings of recent history on this ship. Most of those don't really count as fun."

Punishment certainly didn't.

Her eyebrow stayed hiked up, dubious. She had a job to get done, and she'd appreciate if he could focus on that, considering it would help lead to him (and everyone else) living bubble free. "Besides, what about my ideas of fun? Planning on picking up hand to hand combat training? Or playing Trivial Pursuit?" Since the one game like that she'd found appeared based on some version of Earth, maybe he would.

"Let's stay focused on getting you out of the bubble for now, all right? Your whole question is pointless," and the whole joke really flat, "If you're not around to follow through on an answer. So! Gaming stalls to comic book stalls to electronics stores. Was there any merchant or merchandise that stood out to you? That worked oddly, or seemed ill, or otherwise unstable? Where else did you go that first day?"

"You could find out! Plus, you're missing out on all the fun stuff in the media library. Like Star Wars, or Androids," Marco said, shifting so that he was sitting cross legged instead. "And, okay, if you really want to do the whole combat training thing we could do that. Maybe. If you like, promised not to hurt me. But how the hell do you know what Trivial Pursuit is?"

Marco would have much preferred to focus on the whole, you know, possibly having a date thing. Because hello, possibly a date. "Just the hotel, a few food stalls. The usual."

Star Wars? "Aren't we in one of those already?" She paused.

"You're actually volunteering to do combat training with me?" Ignoring the whole 'promise not to hurt me' bit, she was genuinely surprised. Sakura was kidding about that being any fun as a date, if she had no idea what would be fun. After all, the "dates" she'd been on were to a ramen stand on Naruto's dollar.

Sakura shook her head.

"I don't make promises for anyone walking away from that unbruised. Training's training. Something's wrong if you're not aching by the end of it.

She let her data pad thump against her chest, fixing Marco with a dry glare. He wasn't kidding, was he. He was barely answering the questions she wanted answers for in favor of an unrelated, ridiculous dating tangent.

"I read about it in a book somewhere." If he didn't recognize the words he'd tossed at her not that long ago, when he'd been convinced nothing was wrong, or at least not the things that were wrong were wrong, then he might at least recognize her sarcastic tone of voice. It turned into something more curious in spite of herself as she kept talking.

"Which is beside the point, since what I want to hear about right now is the rest of your stay on XaXing. Did you witness anything odd in the hotel at any point? What did you do on the second day?"

"...is that a yes to going on a date then?" Although now Marco was beginning to worry that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Somehow, he had the feeling that she'd ignore any promises not to hurt him. "And come on, you really think getting bruised is fun? You're not masochistic or something, are you?"

Marco shifted uncomfortably at her repetition of his words. Okay, so maybe he had acted a bit like a jackass then. But Marco also wasn't the kind of guy to make apologies, so instead he just actually answered her question, reeling off his activities from the second day on XaXing.

"Yes, it --" She paused, shaking her head. "It's a let's talk about this later and focus on what's more important right now." She looked down at her data pad. "As for your other question, no, I'm not masochistic. I'm a firm believer in self improvement, that's all."

Which was sometimes masochistic in and of itself.

She listened to him list off his activities of the second day, making notes and memorizing details as he spoke. "Thank you. Nothing stood out in particular? What did you do for the duration of your third day on planet?"

Marco ignored the whole 'let's talk about this later' qualification, and focused completely on the yes part. As far as he was concerned, that was totally a 'yes, I will go on a date with you.'

Obviously that talking later would just be to like, figure out what they should actually do on their date. And Marco was stubbornly going to refuse to admit to any possibilities of her trying to back out of this.

He rattled off a few more locations (now grinning as he did so). "Oh yeah, and there was also that weird clock stall, with that guy wearing the Groucho glasses," he added.

The irony being her initial yes had everything to do with refuting him in sarcasm, then switching tactics since sarcasm had been failing their entire conversation. More to the point, she wasn't up to being distracted anymore off topic.

In their mutual silent agreement to focus (if his grinning was getting under her skin), Sakura took note as the list of stores and stalls increased. "Were you planet-side the whole time?" She made another little note, looking up at his addition. "Weird how? Does anything stick out about this clock stall in your memory?"

Or was it just these mysterious glasses?

Screw irony (that song wasn't even ironic anyway!), a yes was a yes and Marco was damn well going to cling to that fact until someone pried it away from his cold dead fingers.

"Well apart from the fact that the owner was nuts and kept insisting that that fake nose was really his, there was this really weird melty clock there." Marco turned his head, looking at Sakura seriously for once. "Your thinking this clock stall might have had something to do with this," he stated.

Think of the ten thousand spoons when all you want is a knife, Marco!

"It's standing out in your memory," she allowed, equally serious. "This merchant's stall is about as promising as anything else you've told me today. Can you describe this melting clock to me?" The next step would be looking for consistent details among those brought into quarantine. It was worth exploring every possibility they could, regardless of if it was linked to this clock merchant's stall or not.

"It was this giant clock face, and it was melting," Marco said, shrugging. "Made this weird chime too, made it sound like the word 'doom' or something stupid like that. I just thought it was some kind of cheap gimmick."

Edited 2011-05-02 07:40 (UTC)

"That might be all it is," she said honestly. "Do you remember anyone else being in the area with you at the time?" A gimmicky clock that rang out doom.

See, XaXing had so much culture to provide the masses! If the biting coincidence behind a clock stall being involved might be too much for her to want to handle on a sanity level, it would almost be appropriate for the absurdity of an illness that sent people back through their own personal time.

"Nope, was just me there," Marco said.

She nodded, inputting that further detail into her data pad. "I'll check and see if anyone else remembers the clock merchant, or this clock you mentioned." Which meant conversing with the rest of everyone who'd conducted interviews so far. "Were you on planet for the entire duration of shore leave?"

"Pretty much, except for when I brought stuff back," Marco said. "That planet might have been weird, but they definitely had a lot of cool stuff."

"And a lot of useless junk," she said lightly. "Like any good market." Sakura honestly agreed with his estimate, if she abstained from saying so for the moment. "Did anything else stand out in the last few days?" The clock stall might sound promising, but it might also be a false lead.

Marco shrugged, and reeled off a few more of the more bizarre locations he'd been too. "That's probably it, though."

Sakura nodded, finishing the latest update to her charted list. Hopefully it would be enough to get started comparing with the other interviewers. "Thank you." It paid being polite enough to acknowledge someone else's cooperation. At least he had sobered up, so to speak. "The more we know about everyone's circumstances before this, the better we can trace this back to where it started, and figure out a solution."

Which was the kicker, in so many ways. A repetition of her logic from earlier, and a reaffirmation of the process. Shifting her weight back on her heels, she watched Marco for a moment. Funny how much his body posture had changed over the interview. She suspected some of his tangent on nonsensicals like dating had everything to do with distracting himself from what was going on, and what he couldn't know with certainty. She thought back to his argument with Kaya, to how he'd talked to her over the omnicomm before he'd been brought in.

She couldn't blame him. Not for the paranoia, or for wanting a distraction. A shinobi must never show tears, came to mind, one of many permutations on the basic premise that had seemed so logical to her growing up. A shinobi must never show emotion. Not how they felt, in the face of a mission, or the reality of any given moment in life. Distract, deny, repress, because lingering on what it meant meant breaking another rule. A shinobi must always put the mission first.

The individual was rarely ever the mission itself.

"I have nothing else to ask for the moment. Until we get a better idea of some consistency between cases, picking your brain over for the minute details on everything won't be necessary." She brought her data pad up to her chest, considering possibilities. "You may have another person or two come by to run another interview, depending on what Doctor Henderson feels is needed." Sakura offered him a wan smile. "Consistency in details and reporting being what they are. Is there anything reasonable I can do for you right now? Check in on Rachel? Anyone else?" She didn't mention Eva, if his mother's name came to mind.

Sakura had been right, to an extent - when he was talking about XaXing and trying to get Sakura to go out with him, it was easier to pretend that his wasn't out there. Easier to not keep mulling over that constant anxiety over the fact that Marco just couldn't believe that she wasn't still infested by Visser One. Didn't mean that he wasn't serious about asking her out, but it had definitely helped to act as a distraction.

"Is Rachel still having a serious case of split personality?" He asked - they'd put him and Nice Rachel far apart from each other, so he couldn't see her. He'd known that Mean Rachel had brought in though - he hadn't seen her, but he'd sure as hell heard her.

He didn't ask about his mother.

"For the moment, she does." Which brought her back around to a question she'd asked before, and hadn't had the chance to find an answer. Sea stars weren't part of her area of knowledge. "The split has to do with a starfish morph?"

How had it been so capable of splitting personality as well?

"Yeah. Like, when a starfish gets cut in half, it regenerates into two different starfish, right? So when Rachel morphed it and got cut in half, instead of just one half demorphing, they both did."

Just another example of the fact that Marco's life was completely insane.

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