On the plane, Araari brings up being incompetently threatened. “Two men stopped me yesterday. From Captain Walker. They wanted me to tell you that continuing on this path is dangerous. —They meant because of them, because they will hurt you if you continue, but I suspect they are not the most dangerous thing we will encounter if we continue.”
One of the listless people looks up, spots a monkey, and then decides they don't care enough to do anything about this.
good for them. he's gonna peek in the windows and see what is HAPPENING. on the face of it this building looks WAY less interesting than a boat, but MAYBE there is something interesting happening here ANYWAY.
He hears someone yelling something in human at the other human! The other human leaves nearly in tears.
Probably they are yelling about how exciting sports are. Magnificence knows many humans yell about how exciting sports are. Humans like it when people move balls into locations.
oh that is TRUE. magnificence has seen the humans get VERY upset and excited about the sports.
is this a place that has to do with sports? or perhaps sports is a topic UNRELATED to the place in question. humans do talk about sports in MANY locations.
hm. it is hard to tell from here, but this window opens. maybe he can tell from INSIDE the building. ...although there are people in this room and maybe they will notice him immediately and that might make it hard to tell what they were doing before. maybe he will look for ANOTHER window first and THEN see if he can find a place to enter the building SNEAKILY.
they are SO sad. they are not even a LITTLE bit charmed by the monkey.
they pick up the monkey and take him outside.
are they sad and not mad??? usually people who are not charmed by monkeys are mad about them.
WEIRD. anyway he will try again from a different window because this is a BIG building and he does not think that one person can possibly be guarding all the windows.
The humans are STANDING IN PLACE.
There are MACHINES on ASSEMBLY LINES.
Each human tightens a bolt, or paints metal, or adds a piece to a machine.
They all look very very very unhappy.
why are they so unhappy to be making things???
he will take a picture in case anyone else knows more about why the humans might be unhappy??????
...it might not be a very good picture.
A lot of the humans are being yelled at by the other humans!
This seems to be a thing that happens a LOT here.
are they STILL talking about sports. what is UP with that. he has never seen sports make anyone this unhappy before.
what a bizarre place. oh oh oh can he tell WHAT they are making.
THAT'S VERY WEIRD. he does not think that is how MAKING THING usually works.
maybe they are standing at the machines for NO reason. have they considered NOT doing that while they are SO SAD about SPORTS.
anyway he should probably go find anita again.
Anita, meanwhile, is disinclined to take risks or poke around too much; she's mostly looking for conversations to listen in to.
A lot of the sad, listless people seem to be sadly and listlessly purchasing pastries and then idly flipping through magazines without really reading them.
Figures. Well. If there's anything further to investigate here, then... maybe she can come back later and say she's looking for a job. That'd probably be the easiest way to get in.
For now maybe she'll just see if she can collect the monkey and head back to the hotel.
Meanwhile--
A storm is blowing in, its thunderhead rolling in dark and low, lightning splaying across the sky and touching the sea.
The hospital was constructed as a sprawling mansion in the 18th century, replacing a few 16th century buildings. It was renovated into a modest, private hospital in 1901. It's six stories tall, made of sturdy stone. The interior hallways are cramped and dark, but the wards are located along the outer walls, with large windows letting in a great deal of light. Nurses go by with vials and syringes filled with what appears to be Nectar.