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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

((Gah. This is so late. I'm sorry. ;;))

The promise of having his items returned to him upon arriving back in his room proved to be true, and Sai carefully checked over his earlier purchases. His roommate was temporarily ignored as he made certain both packages of cigarettes were whole. He wouldn't be using them himself, but they'd be a gold mine to someone else. The lighter was as it should be, none of the liquid inside missing, and the backpack didn't seem to have suffered any wear. All in all, he didn't think he'd gotten off too poorly that day. He'd just have to see if his decisions paid off later.

As a higher ranking member of the patient body, the ninja was given a far better meal for the night than his roommate. Whereas the night before he'd been unable to properly offer it, he took the opportunity now. Without a word, he picked up his tray and set it on the desk in front of Sechs. "Here. We can exchange."

He hadn't yet tried the gruel, but he assumed it had nutrition enough, and he wasn't exactly picky when it came to taste. This was a ninja who preferred tofu to most things, after all.

Sechs was still grumpily poking at the pink blob on his plate (maybe the new management tried to make food with nano-bots but got this pink goo instead...) when Sai quietly entered the room. Sechs grunted out a wordless greeting when his roommate reached over and switched the plates around.

"Ah-- HEY! Awesome!" Sechs exclaimed, his pout instantly transforming into a grin at the real food that had been placed before him. Immediately he dug into his dinner with much gusto, nearly forgetting the magic word before managing to mumble it out through a mouth full of food. "Phanks!"

With a better meal to fuel the night, Sechs felt a boost to his morale. After a large gulp of dinner was forced down into his stomach, Sechs looked to Sai and the new objects he had gathered into the room. "So how was today for ya? Learned anything helpful?" he asked.

"It's rare to learn anything helpful on the days we go into town. More often than not, it just leaves everyone with further questions." Sai starts on the bowl, finding it palatable enough. It's not as if it's foul tasting, which would me much worse if this was all anyone else was getting to eat all day. He had no problem at least handing over his dinner to his roommate each night if he wasn't going to be allowed to share his other meals.

At least they hadn't been left there to fend for themselves while the citizens transformed into undead abominations this time. "The main difference was that the staff was only putting up appearances for the townspeople, though it seems insulting to their intelligence to assume they wouldn't notice any difference." Then again, they might be so thoroughly brainwashed that it hardly mattered. Why put on a show in the first place?

"Being able to make purchases, no matter how small, was nice. What about yourself?"

With another fork of food stuffed in his mouth, Sechs could only gruffly grunt and nod to Sai's reply as he chewed away.

"The townspeople there are kinda like the nurses we used to have here..." Sechs remarked once his mouth was clear enough to speak, "You can't really tell if they're just that stupid or they're really part of the whole thing!" Leaning his elbow on the desk and resting his cheek upon his hand, Sechs angrily pondered to himself before adding, "In my opinion, if they're those zombies we dealt with a couple of weeks ago, I'd say they're just as brainless during the day as their nighttime counterparts!"

A soft snort escaped Sechs' nostrils, the sound of his rude exhale a mix of agreement and disgruntlement. "Yeah, I guess... If it weren't for certain store owners being jackasses about me trying to buy useful stuff..." Sechs replied, "Can't even buy a harmless soldering kit from the hardware store without getting chased out!"

Another bite of his food and Sechs' mind moved over to a slightly less frustrating part of his day. "I at least got myself more and better food from the Tasty Burger! It's a nice break from the crap the military have been giving us!" He then paused, realizing that Sai was eating the aforementioned crud he was complaining about and his face flushed slightly. "Erm, no offense to you of course."

So much of this was under Landel's jurisdiction, or the jurisdiction of whoever was in charge of Landel, that Sai was hardly surprised by the way any human outside the patient body acted toward them. They turned into zombies, after all, then apparently reverted back to normal if these weren't different townspeople entirely. Their reactions stopped becoming relevant after that. They couldn't be relied on.

The ninja wasn't surprised that their purchases had been limited in variety. He counted himself lucky that he'd been able to buy a lighter without any difficulty. Either his rank had allowed him the purchase, or such small means of fire wasn't considered much of a threat. He was sure whoever he'd be trading it to would want it for the purpose of lighting cigarettes and little else.

At the mention of soldering, Sai was reminded of Usopp and the soldering iron, but he pushed such thoughts aside. They no longer had that particular item, as it had vanished along with his pirate friend, but it hardly mattered to him considering the one who made the best use of it wasn't around to do so.

He shook his head at the mention of food. "Apparently my higher rank gives me access to the usual food during the day, and giving it to other patients then isn't an option. I have no problem with sharing it when I have the opportunity, as I don't find the alternative entirely unpalatable."

Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

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