damned_institute | Day 73: Arts and Crafts (3rd Shift)

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Day 73: Arts and Crafts (3rd Shift)

The art room had big pieces of paper, ones she could commandeer to draw out a large-scale map of the Institute, and thin paper she could use like flimsies to overlay on top of the map of the first floor. Without the other map, they meant nothing, but together, it was obvious what she'd drawn out.

It was easier to do this on a computer, but there was something satisfying about doing it with her own hands; something that felt like she was really accomplishing something. Even if no one besides a couple of medics had followed her in here yet to see what she was working on.

She put down the pen and picked up a box of colored wax crayons. She started lightly shading areas in a tentative search plan, with arrows ordering the rooms. Top priority was Landel's office; it would either be locked or a trap, but someone needed to head there. Their bodies were up here somewhere, too, or at least that was the theory, but looking for them would be selfish. She could do more in her own skin, but not without knowing how to perform the transfer, and even if they found the right lab, there was unlikely to be an instruction manual. Katherine would understand; they weren't the same person, but they understood each other, and neither of them could bear to watch other people suffer when they could do something about it.

[Free]

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Sora would have loved for the chance to spend some time outside, and that was his first choice for what to do, but that was thrown out the window when the thunderstorms started. To Sora, it seemed like they had come out of nowhere, but even he had to admit that he would probably just end up miserable if he went out there and got soaked. He didn't need to risk getting a cold or running a fever when he had such an important task for tonight.

And so he opted for the Sun Room instead. Even if the Game Room was probably his favorite place here, he'd gone there pretty recently and it was better to try and find as much variety as he could. Which was almost impossible, but...

Either way, the area was pretty quiet for now, which would hopefully change. Sora didn't think arts and crafts would be all that much fun if he was doing it on his own. His nurse helped out by giving him the materials to make a lanyard, along with some instructions. Sora remembered that Kairi used to make these, back during those simpler days. It filled him with a sudden wave of homesickness. But more than that, he missed her.

With a sigh, Sora sat down at a table and started to look over the instructions. He was going to get Kairi and Riku back soon. He was sure of it.

[For Tsubaki.]

Between last night's fight with Ed and the use of her weapon mode, Tsubaki found her energy waning more than normal; to keep her energy levels up after her talk with Scar, she used the time during the shift change to take a walk around the areas available to her. She did subtle exercises to stretch her muscles, feeling tension slowly ease out of them.

She'd been lucky to avoid serious injury, but if she were going to keep pressing on with this business on the third floor then there was no telling what obstacles might be waiting...

The third floor stayed on her mind as she paused to check the bulletin board one more time and settle on a place to spend her next shift. Coincidence, perhaps, when she passed by the Arts and Crafts room and noticed Sora inside. More than the rebels' note, Sora had been the one to really introduce her to the secret passageway. How had he fared on his end?

"Hello!" she greeted him, coming toward his table. "How did your night go?"

Sora could almost always rely on a friend to come around and give him some company, and that didn't fail this time around either. His expression brightened as he looked up from his work with the plastic string stuff to see Tsubaki drawing close.

"Hey!" he called back in return, kicking out a chair with his foot so that she could take a seat across from him.

Normally Sora wouldn't have minded telling Tsubaki all about his night, but it wasn't that simple this time around. While he and Tsurugi hadn't discussed it specifically, Sora had to assume that Tsurugi wouldn't want the news of what had happened to him shared around, even with someone he'd met before.

"Uhh... not so great," he admitted. "A friend of mine got taken upstairs... you know, to be experimented on. I went up there so that someone could be there when he got released." Tsurugi seemed to have appreciated the gesture, too, so Sora had no regrets.

She smiled, happy to take the offered seat, but she couldn't help but notice Sora's lackluster reaction to her question.

Maybe things hadn't gone well, after all. Had something happened? Had someone...?

The moment the word "experimented" slipped past Sora's lips, Tsubaki's eyes widened with dismay and understanding in equal parts. "More experiments?" she uttered. "Oh, that's terrible... Of course you would want to go. I'm so sorry for them. Were they hurt? Do they need any medical supplies? I still have a first aid kit in my room if those supplies would come in handy."

Tsubaki always showed such genuine concern, even when it came to people she didn't know or barely knew. It was one of the reasons why Sora considered her such a close friend, because they had that in common.

"He think he's all right. I don't think he was injured in any way, at least not that I could tell." Tsurugi had passed the test for looking well enough to go out tonight, so that counted for something. Sora was still worried for him, but he'd decided that in that case, the best thing to do would be keeping Tsurugi where he could keep a close eye on him.

"But uhh, how about you? How did your night go?" Sora didn't know if Tsubaki had tried for the third floor or put her attention elsewhere, but it was always a good idea to catch up.

Ah, even though saying his friend was "all right" was probably an overstatement, not having any serious injuries was a good thing. Better than nothing. Given what Landel was capable of doing, however, she doubted whatever had happened had been pleasant in the least.

She nodded, looking a bit uncertain, but then slowly she smiled. "Okay. Well, if you need anything, just let me know! It's important to keep on looking out for each other even if we haven't had much luck stopping those experiments yet..."

If they ever would before the conflict between Landel and the radio people came to a head.

Speaking of the rebels' assignment, her and Korra's busy night had everything to do with those notes they'd been passing around. "Korra-san wanted to learn more about the third floor, so the two of us tried to get to the library," she explained, careful not to let the nurses catch her talking too loudly. "We found the switch and the escalator."

There was no way to stop the experiments that Sora knew of, and while he hadn't accepted it, he also knew that denying it wouldn't do him any good. Being realistic might not come naturally to him, but he'd had friends taken enough times that he knew how it went.

He appreciated Tsubaki's offer and nodded to make that clear, taking a quiet bite of his lunch as he listened to her story from the night before.

If Tsubaki and Korra had been traveling together even after everything that happened, that must mean the two of them had sorted things out between them. Not that Sora was surprised, because Tsubaki was just as forgiving as he was, from what he'd seen.

"Oh wow, so you guys got about as far as Tsurugi and I did," he said with a nod. "Guess we just have to keep at it, huh? There has to be something through that door!"

"It must be important! Plenty of people seem to be finding messages telling them to go upstairs," she replied.

Given that, trying to figure out what was up there definitely seemed like a worthy cause. Plus, she trusted Sora's judgement. He'd been outside of the Institute, somewhere in the rebels' secret hideout. If he thought the third floor would help the prisoners' efforts somehow, then she trusted that instinct more than she did the rebels' personal note.

"I'd thought maybe you were headed the same way last night and had gotten farther than us, but I suppose someone else might have. Will you two try to get there tonight?"

"That's the plan, yeah," Sora replied. He was still a little worried about Tsurugi heading out after what he'd been through last night, but he'd already made his decision about that and he was going to hold to it. He might feel a little better if he had someone else with them to keep an extra eye on Tsurugi, though he wasn't going to make it sound that way out loud.

Should he ask Tsubaki about that, though? Link had originally agreed to go with him last night, but if they ended up with four people that might just slow them down.

"You too? Are you going to head there with Korra, do you think? Oh, and... is she all right?" He should have asked that earlier. While Sora had never been put through Special Counseling, he could only imagine it was a terrible thing to recover from.

"She's all right," Tsubaki confirmed with a smile. Korra didn't seem the type who liked to advertise her uncertainties or weak moments, but if she had a goal to fuel her resolve, Tsubaki thought Korra would be able to rise above Landel's provocation. "She's sorry about what happened, of course, but she knows no one will hold it against her."

Supporting each other on their mission to reach the third floor was a means of making amends for more than one mistake, all things considered. Tsubaki still felt a certain amount of responsibility for being unable to protect her roommate from being brainwashed.

"I'll have to check with her about that, though. We missed each other this morning. She didn't get a note, but I think she finds it as strange as the rest of us."

Strange and potentially important. No one just left assignments like that or pointed them in a direction like that for a simple errand.

"That's good to hear," Sora said, and he meant it. He could only imagine how difficult it was for someone to convince themselves after they'd been brainwashed that it really wasn't their fault and that no one was going to blame them. He was sure he would struggle with it, just like when he'd been infected with that virus. But the sooner that someone could move past it, the better. That way Landel didn't get the satisfaction of throwing them off course.

"Well, I guess that's the good thing about roommates, isn't it? You guys can just talk tonight." Sora grinned and took another bite of his lunch. At least these lighter lunches meant that he didn't feel quite as weighed down by the time that dinner came.

"Anyway, if things don't work out for some reason, let me know? We can try to work something out." Sora just wanted to be sure that Tsubaki wouldn't be left to tackle the third floor on her own.

Edited 2013-10-11 17:41 (UTC)

"Yes!"

She nodded, sitting back in her chair. To be honest, she hadn't gotten back much of an appetite between running here and there, worrying first about Sora and then Korra. There always seemed to be something more important to do than take the time necessary to eat a meal or relax.

"If all of us end up headed in the same direction, we'll probably see each other on the way? I'd be worried if Korra had no one with her while all this is happening, but if it turns out she has another group in mind, I can look for you guys? I think I'll go for sure."

"Okay! If I see you somewhere along the way, I'll definitely wave at least!" Sora figured it would be easier to keep things separate if they could, so that they would have a better chance of one of their groups getting somewhere. But if it turned out that Tsubaki had no other option for who to spend her night with, then Sora was more than willing to let her come along.

Tsurugi and Link might have something to say about that, but Sora wasn't really going to budge in this case. If it meant having to split up, then so be it. No one should have to be alone.

"I'll do the same." She smiled.

Well, going alone was certainly an option if her only other choice was inviting herself along on another team's mission. Sora didn't need to know that, however. Everyone had enough to worry about without adding small troubles like that to the mix.

If Landel was willing to risk their lives to get his way, then she had to be willing to do the same. Most of the prisoners probably felt the same, even if it put friendships to the test.

"In the meantime, can I do anything to help you?" she asked.

Sora had much more experience with the rebels than anyone else that she knew of.

That question took Sora by surprise, because he didn't really have an answer to it. A way to help him? Maybe Tsubaki still sort of viewed him as the leader of the Arts and Crafts club...

"I don't think so," he said after a pause. "Well, I guess if you could try and get a list of people's radio numbers, that would help!"

Sora didn't have a copy of the list, having not had the chance to write it down yet. He knew a few frequencies for close friends, but the more that he had, the better. He wasn't the most organized person, though, so if Tsubaki could arrange that for him, then he'd definitely appreciate it.

"The radios? Oh, that's right, the radios must have been a way for the radio group to help us keep in contact with each other," Tsubaki surmised, worrying at her lip in thought.

In retrospect, the timing was a little too convenient to be mere coincidence, or so she thought.

"I'll have to take down mine, too. But I can work on that! The only time I've ever seen those kinds of radios was in Doyleton when they were being handed out--I think only the people who were there that day must have one, unless we can get them some other way."

"Well, the rebels in Farwell gave me mine," Sora said with a shrug. He hadn't been here during that Doyleton trip, so he wouldn't have had the chance to get one that way.

"I think they also dropped some off for us a few nights ago, but I didn't go after them." Because he'd already had one, and he'd been on his way toward the third floor, even if he hadn't made it there. Thinking back on it, maybe it would have made more sense to go after the radios so he could hand them out to people, but there was no way he could have known that at the time.

"Anyway, if you can do that, that'd be great. Might make things easier for all of us." As he spoke, the intercom came on to interrupt him, and Sora let out a small sigh. He'd more or less covered everything he wanted to with Tsubaki, but he wouldn't have minded spending some more time with her.

Considering that for all intents and purposes, the rebels seemed to behind the radio distribution, it made sense that Sora would receive one through them. Tsubaki couldn’t immediately think of which night they could have made such a delivery to the hospital, though.

"They did?"

They’d been revealing themselves more and more often at night, and were certainly getting more active. Perhaps the rebels really were trying to ensure everyone had a means of getting to a radio. Radio communication was a sight more reliable than passing notes…

She tilted her head, frowning to herself. "That’s good for us if they did…" She looked up at the intercom alongside Sora, feeling much the same way as he did.

At the same time, night meant a chance to get back to work, so...

"Well, good luck either way," Tsubaki said, smiling. "Be careful!"

This was definitely 6's favorite place in the whole building. It was nice to be around books, but it was nicer to have blank paper and the means to put what he liked on it. If only he had proper ink. Well, paint would do. Also this way he had color, which was still a new and exciting thing.

He found a mostly empty corner, away from the prying eyes of the people who called him by that strange name, and spread out pages of plain white paper. Despite the seemingly uncountable differences, this was still blessedly familiar. He hummed softly, a song he had always known but never heard, and painted the paper before him with black and red.

[free (back early, got my shifts confused)]

Edited 2013-10-02 20:22 (UTC)

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Day 73: Arts and Crafts (3rd Shift)

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