damned_institute | Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

Despite the rough start and the heavier snowfall, the buses managed to stay on route and on schedule. With minutes to spare, they arrived at the gates of Landel's Institute, back to the waiting arms of the military. All pretenses seemed to drop at this point, and the soldiers again took on their patented gruff exteriors. Patients were filed out of the buses in an orderly manner, eventually being escorted to their rooms for dinner in much the same. There, as promised by the personnel, well-behaved patients found their purchases among their returned possessions. A few even found new faces, though whether they brought as much joy as bought goods remained unseen.

The woman manning the intercom seemed to have missed the notice about the day's trip as her announcement remained no different from the usual. "Attention all subjects and personnel," she said. "Lights Out will commence within the hour."

A pause.

"I repeat, Lights Out will commence within the hour. All personnel: please report to your stations. The General will begin his address once preparations are underway. Thank you."

The intercom clicked off.

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"Five hundred one, one thousand. Five hundred two, one thousand. Five hundred three, one thousand..." Meekins muttered to himself as he started reeling back and forth from the strain of forcing himself to stand straight. Keeping a count helped him stay focused on tasks like these, though it required most of his valuable concentration.

In fact, he was so engrossed in following his punishment to the letter, just as he was ordered, that he didn't hear the slam of the door heralding the arrival of his roommate. Not even until he found himself sprawled on the floor several feet away, after screeching "Five hundred eleven, one thousaaaaaaaaaugh!" did Meekins notice that anyone else was there.

Five hundred eleven seconds of keeping his balance? This had to be a new record for him!

"N-N-N-No, Sir! I'm the one who should apologize, Sir! I shouldn't have been standing so close to the door! It was all my fault, Sir!"

A sheepish look on his face, Meekins slowly picked himself up back into a standing position and dusted himself off before greeting his roommate in earnest. A blond man not much younger than Meekins, as slight of frame as he was but about a head shorter. And though Meekins knew his memory wasn't the most reliable, he was certain that he'd never met this new recruit before.

He gave a swift salute before introducing himself. "Officer Mike Meekins, on probationary duty and fulfilling my punishment for disobedience, Sir! Your name and rank, Sir?"

"Ow-ow-ow..." Matthew muttered, sitting on the ground while blinking up at Meekins, trying to make out the shape of the person he had crashed into. Unfortunately, since his glasses had been knocked off, that was somewhat difficult, and the Canadian ended up blindly fumbling around on the ground, attempting to find the spectacles.

However, before he could find them, the man standing beside him began to stammer an apology. "No, no! That's not your fault at all!" He quickly reassured. 'If anything, it's that stupid soldiers fault...after all, he should have let me finish my sentence and not shoved me in here!' The Canadian almost happily concluded.

However, as Meekins introduced himself, Canada froze. 'Officer...?' "My name is Matthew Williams, b-but...you're one of those guys out there?!" They were imprisoning their own soldiers in this place as well? What had this Meekins done that would make him in trouble for disobedience?

And…why was he having to be roomed up with one of those terrible soldiers? But wait..if he had disobeyed them, then that might mean that he sided with the prisoners! He could provide all kinds of helpful information! But…that was assuming he wasn’t just imprisoned for something ridiculous, like talking out of line or arriving late by ten seconds. Since this military considerate food fights to be a serious form of disobedience, Matthew didn’t doubt that they were incapable of imprisoning their own soldiers for ridiculious stuff as well.

As such, Matthew tensed, carefully waiting for Meekins answer. Even though he couldn’t see the person that well, from the way he spoke, he…really didn’t seem to be that much of a threat. But Canada couldn’t let himself put down his guard yet. Canada tensed nervously, a smile carefully frozen on his face.

Edited 2011-05-27 03:48 (UTC)

Downcast, Meekins watched the hapless recruit cast about on the floor for his glasses, which had landed near the gangly patrolman's feet. He would have picked them up for him right away, except that the last time he'd helped one of his fellow officers find his glasses, they'd ended up in a million tiny pieces (one of which had embedded itself into his hand). Meekins was in enough trouble today already; best to just play it safe for now.

"He... He shoved you in here, Sir? That's not very nice of him, Sir! Has the Academy changed that much since I was last here?!" Meekins barked at the sheer indignation of it all. The staff had been very abrupt last time, but they didn't push people around in a very literal manner. It wasn't his imagination. They had gotten meaner during the past couple of years!

Wait a minute... soldiers? Yet another thing that seemed wrong about all of this, though Meekins couldn't put a finger on it. "...Th-This is the Academy, r-r-right, Sir?" he stammered, a cringe on his face. "I used to help recruit new officers for it until I got demoted. I... I guess they thought I needed to be retrained, which is why I'm here."

Though Meekins wasn't good at reading people's expressions, even the anxious smile on Officer Williams' face wasn't lost on him. Maybe it was because he was afraid that Meekins was going to crush his glasses with one careless step -- and not without good reason, as the patrolman's foot was nervously tapping just inches away from it, he just now realized. "Sorry, Officer Williams, Sir! Your glasses are over here, Sir. I'll get them for you... and I swear on the Badger Bible that you'll have them back in one piece, Sir!" With that, he started to kneel down slowly to reach the spectacles, his arms outstretched again for balance so as to keep his promise to Officer Williams.

Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

Best. Entrance. Ever. <3 I think these two will get along juuuust fine :3

Lmao yes <3

Sorry for the wait, orz