damned_institute | Day 61: Sun Room (third shift)

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Day 61: Sun Room (third shift)

The moment dear Landel-san announced that it was time for lunch, Erika wasted no time and headed straight for the Sun Room's bulletin board to check if there was any response to her message left for her dear friend. Predictably, there was nothing for her on the board, and the detective scowled as she realized she might have to write him off as a loss. She had lost a good number of potential allies in this place, but losing this one was a bit of a blow, if only because he had useful things on him. On the other hand, if he was gone, and that ring was still here...

Perhaps it was not a great loss, then. Still, Erika was mildly annoyed as she wandered away from the board and back towards a nearby couch. She was spending a lot of time in the Sun Room lately, which seemed to be a bit of a waste as she could have spent in going around the Institute. On the other hand, she had a sandwich here that was waiting to be consumed and after spending a week with little access to "real food", Erika was more then happy to enjoy her time spent eating.

Still, at some point she was going to have to manage her time a little more effectively. There was no reason why she couldn't multitask, so Erika kept her gaze on the door of the Sun Room so she could watch people filter in on their way to other rooms. She wouldn't get everyone, no, but perhaps she would find someone useful that she could bother for the rest of the shift. A familiar face, or maybe someone new. She'd decide on that eventually.

[ hau Seishin ready for round 2. /killed ]

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Reluctantly, Leanne left the Greenhouse (and all those absolutely beautiful flowers) when the shift ended. At that very moment, it was one of the very last things she'd have rather done, but the nurse that came for her was insistent. Next thing she knew, the nurse had her out of there and back inside the building with a bagged lunch, after being informed she had another free range shift.

"Then why didn't you just let me stay there?" she mumbled to herself as she stepped into the Sun Room, still clutching the bag tightly. Maybe she could go back later. Not that particular night-- she'd already made plans to meet Renamon tonight, but as soon as she possibly could...

Leanne huffed out a breath, shaking her head. There were other things she needed to focus on too. There was no way she'd be able to just spend all her time in this place inside the Greenhouse.

Putting the thought aside for the moment, she took a quick look at the bulletin board. However, nothing on it caught her eye and she found herself instead heading for one of the couches.

She could at least be comfortable during her lunch, right?

[Zero!]

Funny... For once, a shift passed by quicker than usual, and the once-Reploid found the change to be quite disappointing. He'd finally been able to meet another prisoner here who was in the same situation as him, and the time he had to speak with the man was too little to get to really know him. When Zero felt like he was learning something, his nurse appeared to take him away. Without a doubt, he had to make sure to meet Sechs again soon. There were too many questions he hadn't gotten the chance to ask...

For now, though... It was time to replenish his energy during another free roaming period. Once again, he let his nurse choose the meal for him; the two options given made little difference to someone like him, who barely knew enough human foods to really care one way or the other. Once the choice of meal was settled, Zero took the bag lunch and wandered into the Sun Room, mainly to see if anything of value was posted on the bulletin board. He hadn't actually checked it yet today, being too busy with map updating and being led around like a child to find the time.

And...another disappointment. There was little of interest to find on the board right now. Though that might be a good thing, if it meant few to no horrific events occurred last night or otherwise. Hm. Then again, no newsworthy events might be suspicious, too... He'd have to keep his guard up.

With there being nothing to see at the board, Zero began searching for a place to sit and eat quietly. As he looked around, he saw someone he recognized - Leanne. How was she holding up? Though it seemed like little had happened in the Institute since the last time he'd spoken to her, it would be worth it to check in with her anyway, to see if she was alright if nothing else. So he walked over to her, nodding his head slightly in greeting once he reached her. "Leanne... Are you doing well?"

Leanne had just been pulling her sandwich out of the bag, her attention somewhat diverted by the cookie she found under it, when she heard the voice. Almost instantly recognizing it, she looked up and raised a hand in greeting. "Zero!" she said with a smile, more pleased than she would have expected at seeing another familiar face. So he wouldn't smile back, so what? She didn't know jusr what he thought, but it seemed to her like they were getting along just fine.

She leaned back on the couch, only to lean forward again a moment later as she remembered his own question. "Oh, I'm fine! It's kind of weird... I didn't do anything last night." She shook her head, trying to keep from showing how she was still just the slightest bit annoyed at herself for that. "I guess I fell asleep."

Oh, but there wasn't any use in thinking about that for much longer, was there? "How about you? Everything okay?"

Edited 2012-01-27 05:03 (UTC)

Zero sat down near Leanne on the couch, feeling reassured by her response despite what his stoic face might say otherwise. Somehow, she still seemed as cheerful as ever...proof enough that she was fine, unless she was just really good at appearing to be happy. As he didn't know her well enough yet to judge, he would have to trust that she was being truthful...

What she said about being unable to do anything last night due to falling asleep sounded unusual, but Zero didn't feel like it was anything to be concerned about. As far as he understood, sleeping was the natural way for humans to rest their bodies, and they tended to sleep at night. Perhaps it didn't usually happen in this place, given what tended to go on after dark, but there was nothing saying it couldn't happen, either. So to him, Leanne's complaint was understandable and he'd let that go without comment.

"Yeah... I'm okay." Still frustrated that he hadn't gotten more time to speak with Sechs last shift, but overall, he was okay. "I didn't get much done last night, myself. ...Though it doesn't seem like much has happened around here the past day or two, anyway." That might be something to be concerned about, if there was some reason why the past day and night felt so unusually inactive... It just didn't seem like this place to have even a day's worth of nothing major happening.

Wordlessly, Leanne scooted over some when Zero sat, making sure she wasn't taking up so much space that he couldn't sit comfortably. Even so, she still allowed herself to recline against the back of the couch again. It was almost... nice, being able to sit on a couch during lunch, instead of one the chairs in the cafeteria.

"That's good!" She nodded, looking up from her lunch to smile brightly at him. "I'm glad you're okay too." She still couldn't forget how they'd first met, about the giant rats that attacked them that night. It was a bit of a sobering thought, remembering that any of them could easily get themselves seriously injured any night.

And that was precisely why Leanne didn't want to dwell on it too much, not during a day that had been going so well so far. "Maybe that's how it always is here, without the soldiers. I don't think either of us was here before they got here, right?" The smile slipped off her face then, as she looked down at her lap. "What does the Head Doctor even do most of the time?"

Zero shook his head; no, he hadn't gotten here before the military showed up. He wasn't even sure how long the military had held power here, exactly, but that wasn't the most important detail to know, was it? They had been here for some amount of time, and now Landel was back in power with no sign of them returning any time soon. Exact time frames were a little helpful sometimes, but not entirely necessary here.

As for what Landel was doing in the meantime...now that was a detail worth knowing, especially when things were as calm as they'd been recently. Right now, all that Landel seemed to be doing, as far as Zero had noticed, was... "...Sit around mocking us, apparently." Yep, pretty much summed up just what the Head Doctor was useful for. ...Unless those earlier thoughts came into play here, and there was actually a reason for this behavior besides shameless gloating...which seemed pretty likely.

"But he might be using this time to plan something else against us, too," he added, wanting to share those concerned thoughts with Leanne. Planning what, exactly? That, unfortunately, might be anything. Still, if something drastic happened tonight, Zero wouldn't be surprised.

[Oh my god, I'm so sorry I took so long.]

Leanne grimaced, crossing her arms. "He does that a lot, doesn't he? He always sounds so... cheerful on the intercom," she practically spat out the last part, so unpleasant the thought was. After her conversation with Guy that morning at breakfast, she could almost understand just why the nurses were always so cheerful. But this Landel guy? He had no excuse, and much less any right.

"Yeah," she continued, deflating some. There wasn't really anything they could do about the mocking, was there? As much as she might have wanted to introduce Landel to the business end of one of her guns, he wasn't exactly going to give her the chance any time soon. "I don't think he'd just sit around doing nothing. He doesn't sound like the type of guy who would."

If anything, the image she got of him was almost cartoonish: the evil villain who sat around plotting what he could do next to make his enemies lives even more difficult. (...Not that she'd ever gotten the chance to watch many cartoons.) "I wish we could find out what he's planning."

[It's okay! I've been dragging on all my backtags, myself... XD;;]

Didn't every single prisoner here wish to know what the Head Doctor's plans were? Unfortunately, Landel didn't seem like the type of antagonist who loved to have long monologues about his ideas, that 'ha ha ha, this is what I'm going to do and you can't stop me!!' sort of thing that made foiling his plans pitifully easy and defeating him almost satisfying. No, Landel was apparently the exact opposite, keeping his victims in the dark at all times while gloating about it every chance he got. Zero had to admit, it worked...both in keeping himself one step ahead and pissing off his prisoners in the process. That was why a crafty, boastful enemy like Landel was the worst kind of enemy to come up against. Hard to catch, and very annoying.

The once-Reploid shook his head and sighed, frowning deeply. "I doubt that's possible at this point, given that we don't even know where he is..." Or practically anything else about Landel, actually. Besides the fact that he was the Head Doctor, he was still largely a mystery...to Zero, at least.

Even still, the prisoners couldn't let themselves be caught up by whatever Landel threw at them. Leanne needed to know this if nothing else. "Just stay on your guard at all times," Zero warned, staring at her rather seriously. "No matter what he's planning, we have to be ready for it."

[Whoops, go us! XD;]

"Definitely," she answered firmly, crossing her arms in front of her. "We can't let him win, no matter what." Just the thought itself sent a shiver down her spine. The idea of a complete creep like the Head Doctor getting his way was so sickening it was almost unthinkable. Even having no real idea what he intended, Leanne would work diligently to ensure it never came to pass, whatever it took.

It didn't take a genius to know his plan was bad news.

"I know there are people who've been here a lot longer than us," she began slowly, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "And I guess they haven't figured it out yet either. But there's gotta be someone besides that guy who knows... something"

She sighed, before brightening some. "And don't worry," she said, switching gears, her tone lighter now. "I'm not about to let any of them catch me off guard. So you be careful too."

[Yaaaay! orz]

Zero nodded his head in agreement; Leanne was right. With as many people held captive here as there were, there had to be at least a handful who had been here long enough to know something worthwhile. He had encountered one or two of them before - Guy, the man he'd spoken to on his first morning, came to mind first - but he hadn't been able to speak with them long enough to learn much from them.

Of course, this was assuming the long-term prisoners had a lot of inside knowledge. It might be a faulty assumption, especially when Landel's usual policy on sharing his plans was considered, because whatever the survival rate was here mostly didn't affect how much the long-term prisoners knew. How much vital information had Landel slipped in the past? If the answer was 'none', then all the long-term prisoners really had to offer to newcomers was the history of past events here. While that did help a little, it couldn't compare to actually knowing what Landel and his comrades were up to...

How frustrating, this whole experience...

At least Leanne still appeared to be in a positive mood despite how bad their situation was. If nothing else, Zero could respect the girl for her seemingly endless cheeriness. The energy could almost be infectious. As she swore to be careful, the once-Reploid promised her in return. "I will be. I'm sure we'll figure this out eventually."

...It then occurred to him that it might be wise to actually start eating the rations his nurse had given him before he ended up wasting this shift just talking. So he dragged his paper bag over to his lap and opened it up, peering inside. Once again, unrecognizable substances. He pulled out what he assumed was the grilled cheese sandwich his nurse told him she'd chosen for him and stared at it with disinterest. "...I still don't understand all of this," he mumbled to himself before he started slowly eating it.

"Great!" Leanne grinned, nodding once. "We'll show that Landel guy, right? There's just no way we're not."

Bold words, definitely, and she really had no way of knowing if they would manage such a thing, not with how they were being kept so in the dark. (And wasn't that really just the worst thing about it all? Not knowing.) But, if she were to be honest with herself... She needed to believe in them, needed to convince herself that everything would turn out all right. She'd gotten through certain death already, hadn't she? How much more difficult could this be?

...Her train of thought was completely derailed, however, when Zero spoke next.

"Your... sandwich?" Leanne asked, brows furrowing. Surely, he meant something else, right? But he was staring right at it... "What's so weird about it?"

Zero nodded in agreement once again, but with more confidence and more energy than before. The girl's excitement really was contagious in some way... It was a healthy kind of contagious, though. A kind of contagious he really needed from time to time, especially in this kind of situation.

But then Leanne expressed a little confusion about the statement he'd muttered to himself, and the once-Reploid glanced up from his sandwich to stare at her for it. What did she...

...Oh. That's right. She didn't know yet.

Not that it was a big deal or anything. He didn't feel like explaining it all outright, so he'd hint at it and only explain further if the girl asked. "Oh... I'm not used to human customs and behaviors," he said, completely nonchalant. "Like food. It's been a difficult time adjusting..." With that, Zero went right back to his sandwich.

"You're not... used to it?"

She set her own sandwich down again on her lap, peering curiously at Zero. Had she... She'd misheard, hadn't she? Human customs? But he looked perfectly human to her! Ridiculously long hair, sure, but any human could still grow their hair out that long. How could he possibly be anything but human?

"Uh..." Leanne began, realizing she had no idea how to even begin to broach the question. She spoke carefully, slowly, suddenly feeling completely out of her depth in the conversation. "What are you talking about? Doesn't... everyone eat? I think even monsters eat food. You never ate anything before coming here?"

The once-Reploid paused at his sandwich again to stare at the girl, saying nothing for a moment. Looks like he really had to explain this further, huh... Not that he faulted Leanne for being curious or confused. He would have felt the same way in her position.

A little amusing, though, that she brought up the word 'monsters'. Maybe another would've taken offense at that, but Zero wasn't bothered. It didn't apply to him, and she didn't understand.

"No," he answered calmly, keeping eye contact with her, "because I wasn't human before I came here. I was a Reploid...an android built with a mind like a human's."

Simple enough answer. He'd say that much for now, and allow the girl to respond as she wished.

There really was no tactful way to say she only understood about half of that, was there? Androids...? It sounded like something out of a movie, and one she didn't get all that well at that. Leanne would hardly say she didn't know anything about technology, but she couldn't deny the years in Aetersyl had affected her in that matter. She just didn't know as much about it as she would have liked to, though even someone like her could tell that... androids didn't exist in Basel. No human-like machines did.

Leanne looked down at her lap, brows furrowed, before quickly looking back up. "So, you're like a... uh..." And there really was no tactful way to call someone a machine either, was there? He... wouldn't be offended, right? "Like a machine? I don't think Reploids exist where I'm from..."

And to think she was actually talking to one. What kind of movie had she just walked into?

Fortunately for Leanne, Zero wasn't offended by the term used at all. She hadn't used the word in a negative context...and besides, 'machine' was almost exactly what he used to be, after all. Or, more technically, he'd been a number of different machines all working together to form one entity...one giant, human-like machine.

A war machine.

...But anyway. "Yeah," he said, still looking and sounding as unconcerned as ever. "I was. But I became human when I woke up here...I'm still trying to figure out how that happened, and if I can turn back to normal somehow." Just a few of his many questions about this place...

"There are other androids around here, but it doesn't seem like anyone knows what a Reploid is specifically... I guess that shouldn't be a surprise, though, considering everyone's from everywhere." Leanne...did know that all the prisoners here came from other time periods and other worlds, didn't she? Hopefully he wouldn't have to explain that, too... How long did she say she'd been here, again?

Edited 2012-03-18 22:41 (UTC)

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Day 61: Sun Room (third shift)

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