damned_institute | Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

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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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The door swung open and in came two people: a stern-looking man (he looked like a soldier) and a small child. The same thing had been done to their bodies, too. (Maybe the pendant wasn't responsible for this.) No fur, no scales... At least they had hair (she made a mental note to look for a reflective surface later). They didn't have any typical Mobian features.

And then she gave another quiet gasp. No wonder they looked strange; the only person she knew with a face like theirs was... Buttnik! Which meant she was--

Sonia didn't realize she was staring open-mouthed at them until the girl barreled into the room. Sonia's eyes widened in confusion and she held up her hands momentarily as the stranger struggled to regain her balance, only lowering them again when she was sure her help wasn't needed. A quiet "Huh?" escaped the princess as the younger girl introduced herself and extended her hand.

"This world?" she echoed, sounding puzzled. "I don't know. I only woke up a minute ago." Could they be in another dimension? Maybe the pendant was playing an even bigger part in this than she thought. Maeve hadn't told her that it could put her in another world, but she also hadn't said a word about the pendant's side effects until it had been too late.

She didn't like to be rude, but something told her she should paying more attention to the guy at the door. Sonia glanced apologetically at Mokona and walked past her to get closer to the soldier, before turning her suspicious gaze up at him. She couldn't get a good read on this guy until she spoke to him; tough though he might appear, a SWATbot he was not. "Who are you?"

"No questions allowed. Sit down and eat."

What!? Oh, so he didn't plan on playing nice with her. Fine! At least now she knew which side he was on. "Just as soon as you tell me what I'm doing here," she demanded without hesitation. The less time she spent dealing with this joker, the faster she got out of here. She tried not to pay any mind to her new body, not while this guy was around, but she couldn't stop herself from glancing down at herself again.

"Take that tone with me again and you'll be put on report. Now go and eat!"

"I'm not hungry!" Sonia snapped, crossing her arms and scowling right back at him, refusing to back down from the challenge. "And I'll take whatever tone I-- Hey!" He suddenly moved out of the room and slammed the door in her face, prompting her to rush forward and jiggle the handle. Locked. Yup, this was a cell. "Open this door!"

Mokona opened her mouth to warn the young woman about trying to get any information from the soldiers - she'd been trying as hard as she could to get more than a few words out of them since she'd arrived, and nothing she'd done had made them any more talkative. This particular man, grumpy as he was, was probably even less likely to talk than the others, especially when confronted openly - he looked like he knew exactly how to handle someone rushing at him, and even seemed to gain back a little of the composure he'd lost during their unsuccessful question-and-anwer session.

Still, the little creature understood her roommate's desire to understand - it was a perfectly reasonable reaction for anyone who had just been transported to a new place, whether or not they were used to it!

Returning that apologetic glance with a worried one, she stepped back, not getting involved as they snapped at each other, but staying near enough that she could intervene if she had to - she wasn't sure what she could do in her current form, at least before the sun went down...but she definitely didn't want anyone getting hurt!

When the door was slammed closed, Mokona moved forward, extending her hand again as the young lady rattled the door knob - she gently touched the other's wrist, looking up at her with that same concern she'd had the moment she realized the predicament. The bright smile she gave was full of genuine reassurance, and she hoped it would be enough to calm this new person down some, despite the scary situation. "Don't worry! The doors will unlock in a little bit. When night comes!"

"Mokona only got here a few days ago, too! You can ask me any questions!" Though she only knew what she'd been told, or experienced, in that short time, that small amount of information would probably be better than nothing! Maybe it would make the young lady feel better. "But you probably want to eat, too. You won't want to be hungry when its time to go out!"

Great! She couldn't blast the door open, and the locking mechanism was probably automated, which meant they were stuck here until someone decided to let them out. Sonia turned around again to look at Mokona with a blank expression. Not letting the worry she felt show on her face was hard, but she had to stay strong for this little one. Mokona's attempt to comfort her only raised more questions, though. "They let us go at night? Why?" she asked incredulously. The only time Robotnik released his prisoners was if they'd already been roboticized. "And come to think of it, who's keeping us here?" Sleet and Dingo? Can't be. She would've seen or at least heard a SWATbot by now. Besides, if this was another dimension, there was no way they could be here unless they entered through a portal, and she wasn't sure if the pendant had opened one up or--...

"All right," she replied to her roommate, managing a small smile for the girl. "I'm Sonia. Pleased to meet you." She finally took Mokona's hand and shook it. "What I really want to know is how I got here. I don't remember being captured." She had to figure out how they did it--if they did it--so she could stop it from happening again. It would also be the first step to finding a way out. "And," her voice faltered, "does everyone look the same as they did before they arrived? I know this might sound strange, but I'm not supposed to look like this!" She shook her head sadly, her frown deepening, and gripped her upper arm with her hand. The worry she'd tried to hide earlier was as plain as the new nose on her face now.

The princess absently took the dinner tray from her desk, but she didn't set her eyes on the contents until she seated herself on the bed. "Eww. They call this a meal?" She scooped some of it out with her spoon and tipped it back into the bowl. Euggh! Lucky for her, her appetite had disappeared along with her old body. It was as she placed the so-called 'food' back on its tray that she noticed the dog tags in her hand. "Oh yeah. I found these over there." She jerked her thumb towards the dresser and held the dog tags up by the chain for Mokona to see. "Do you know who owns them?"

The little creature was happy when the young woman turned her attention away from the guard, and the door, and onto the questions - at least that way, she could distract her a little from what had just happened, and maybe put some of her worries to rest! She listened, nodding her little head and answering the questions in the order they'd come.

"Mokona doesn't know why they let us out when night comes. All that happens is those go "click!" and then we can open them--" She pointed to the handle on the door demonstratively, then pointed upwards, to the intercom on the high part of the wall, "after someone talks through that thing, one last time. The stuff out in the hallway changes, too - Mokona hasn't seen them yet, but there are monsters sometimes, so be very careful!"

She looked down, brow furrowed in a childlike but thoughtful look - when Yue was here, she'd asked him a similar question...and he hadn't known the answer either. "As for who these people are, no one seems to know for sure. Even people who have been here a very long time...but my friend said they want us to think we are someone else. They want us to think we're crazy! But he seemed sure that they knew we weren't."

Her smile returned, and grew, when finally her extended hand was accepted, and came with an introduction! She shook her roommate's hand enthusiastically, not letting it go for a good moment - she would have lead the other to her food, after that, but she seemed to have a question first, so she listened, chirping an acknowledgement. "Sonia! Its nice to meet you, too!"

"Mokona was just taking a nap, and when she woke up, she was here! It seems like that happens to a lot of people who come to this world...they are somewhere else, and they close their eyes for a second, and bam! They're in this place! No one seems to know how they do it, but they do it to all of us! I'll keep asking and see if anyone has more ideas, though..."

Her eyes widened, and she smiled gently, reaching out to pat the other patient's arm with a sense of complete understanding - almost everyone she'd met looked almost the same as she remembered them, but she had changed so much! It was probably the same for Sonia. "That happened to Mokona too! Normally Mokona is this big!" She held out her hands to demonstrate about a foot and a half of height, and even less width - then she touched her hair, ruffling it slightly in her tiny hands. "With big ears! And big feet! And Mokona had lots of powers - some come back when night comes, but during the day, they're all gone!"

"But don't worry!" She added sincerely, taking the older girl's hand again and squeezing it. "Its not too bad, and I'm sure once we go home, it'll all go back to normal! Some worlds do strange things."

The girl grabbed her dinner tray and brought it closer to Sonia, sitting on the floor in front of the other's bed and practically inhaling the food as she talked. Practically - she wondered if she could actually inhale it, like she used to, once night came? She'd have to try!

Mokona glanced up as her companion picked at her food, then looked down at her already half empty tray - it wasn't the best thing she'd ever eaten, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Maybe it just looked scary compared to what Sonia was used to eating! "Its okay!" She cheeped encouragingly, taking another bite as though to prove it was safe. "It doesn't taste bad! Oh, and those are supposed to have your name on them!"

At least, thats what people had told her the dogtags were for. She plucked at her own, remembering what her friends had explained about what was written there - it certainly wasn't her name, though it did sound sort of similar. "Well, the name that this place says is yours. They don't want us to think we're ourselves!"

Just listen to what she has to say, Sonia told herself. As it continued to sink in that this wasn't a nightmare, it was becoming harder to concentrate, but she knew she needed to pay attention to everything or she might miss something important.

Such as how there were monsters lurking around. Her oddly smooth hands briefly moved up to her cheeks and she tried to hold in a surprised gasp, to no avail. "So by unlocking the doors, they're just luring us out?" she asked with a small shrug. Either that, or these guys needed to call animal control. Nothing was making much sense, but she didn't blame Mokona for it. At least Robotnik's plans weren't always so... complicated.

Sonia wasn't put off by the fact they didn't know who their captors were. If there was one thing being in the resistance had taught her, it was that every enemy had its weakness; in other words, the truth would come out in time if they worked at it.

But her head was spinning; she had so many questions to ask that it was hard to keep quiet. Why would anyone (who wasn't Buttnik) want to capture people and make them forget who they were? (Never mind creating a new identity for them; Robotnik would move right on to roboticizing them, but it was almost the same thing.) Did Mokona come from this world, the Mobius that Sonia knew, or a different world entirely? How were they bringing people here? Why (and how) were they changing people's appearances? A-And what if they couldn't change back? With her hands clasped together in front of her, she leaned in as Mokona spoke, clinging to her every word. Sonia looked down at her new body and then back up at her roommate, on the verge of tears and trying to hide it.

Her face went blank again when she saw the way Mokona was eating, but it honestly didn't bother her as much as it would have if Sonic were the culprit (Mokona was a growing girl. Sonic was just gross) and if things were back to normal. She didn't get a chance to dwell on her brothers for long, though, because her roommate's answer was one she'd least expected. These things belonged to her? She laid them out over her open palm so she could read the markings. Sophie Vallance, D Class, 36488--... They'd assigned her a rank, a serial number... "I don't understand!" she said after a brief moment, curling her fingers around them and giving Mokona another worried look. "Why go to all this--"

[to here]

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Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

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