damned_institute | Day 62: Breakfast

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Day 62: Breakfast

A misplaced sense of familiarity met Barnaby the moment he opened his eyes, and the sight of the blank, white ceiling from yesterday morning greeted him. After rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, Barnaby sat up and felt around for his glasses. Had he blacked out again and wasted an entire night? Where was Kotetsu? And what had become of the man who had seemingly vanished before his very eyes at the end of dinner?

Once Barnaby slipped his frames onto his face, the world came into clearer focus, even if he didn’t get any answers out of it. He was in his room, and someone had apparently stripped him out of his street clothes in favor of the hideous hospital pajamas. Barnaby wasn't sure what he found more offensive -- that someone here had once again touched his things without his permission, or that he’d been undressed while unconscious for the second time since his arrival.

The thought made his skin crawl.

Just as he looked over to find a lump in the bed next to him, though, his assigned nurse came to retrieve him. He would have to confirm Klavier Gavin's whereabouts later. For now, he had no choice but to allow the nurse to escort him into the cafeteria. Strangely, she seemed to be under the impression that he and the other patients had slept soundly the whole night. While he might have assumed it was an act, Barnaby got the feeling that she genuinely believed what she was saying.

Regardless of her intentions, he knew she wasn't going to be any help. Instead of trying to ask her anymore questions, Barnaby left a note on the bulletin board concerning his roommate. If his observations from yesterday were any indication, he'd get some responses, at least. While he could have taken the time to leave something for Kotetsu, Barnaby didn't feel inclined to do so, especially when he knew he probably wouldn't check the board anyway.

He had no appetite this morning, but his nurse wouldn't leave him alone until she'd assembled a tray of fresh, fluffy pancakes for him. Honestly, Barnaby didn't see why some people felt the need to butt into his personal choices like this. At least there wasn't anyone forcing him to eat -- for now, at any rate. He sat down at an empty table close to the wall after setting his food down, privately hoping that she wouldn't try to find a "friend" for him to eat with this morning. He was tucked out of the way, so maybe she would forget about him for a few minutes as long as he didn't draw any unnecessary attention to himself.

Hands neatly clasped on the table, Barnaby didn't look at anyone in particular as patients filtered into the cafeteria for their morning meal. There were too many questions buzzing in his mind for him to focus on the names and faces of people he didn't care about. If Kotetsu wanted to find him, he could. It wasn't like Barnaby was going anywhere.

[For Kotetsu.]

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If there was one thing Leanne could be sure of it was that she'd definitely managed to make up for the missed night.

While she wouldn't say the previous ones had been a waste of time-- save for the one spent sleeping, she'd come away from each one feeling like she'd accomplished something, last night was almost a milestone. Weapons and a trip into the nearby town? What else could she have asked for? (...Besides a permanent way out, anyway.)

For a few moments, she'd even been able to convince herself it was just another job, just another challenge she'd face before going back to Ebel City, back to familiar faces. Leanne knew thinking like that wasn't exactly the best idea and, upon waking, she'd remembered exactly why being in the institute was nothing like being on a job, but her good mood remained.

She could only remember her conversation with Guy just the day before, what she'd told him. She wasn't going to give up, wasn't going to let Landel win at whatever he was playing at.

It was with a smile on her face that she grabbed a tray of pancakes in the cafeteria, quickly choosing a seat.

[Zero!]

It had been, doubtlessly, the worst night Zero had ever been through in this place. Nothing he'd set out to do had been accomplished. He'd gotten himself seriously wounded, and there had been one casualty at the end of it all. And now, he had the pleasure of waking up to tremendous aches and pains in his body. Did anything ever go right in this place...?

He slowly sat up in his bed, wincing from the effort, and quickly realized that his injured right arm was now wrapped in a cast. He threw a hand up to the wound on his neck to check; there were bandages wrapped around that, too. Since when...? They'd...taken care of him while he'd slept? Was this supposed to be a gesture of kindness on the part of Landel? It was only salt on an open wound.

...Many open wounds.

The once-Reploid carefully moved himself to the edge of the bed and sat there, staring at the floor. Counting each breath. Yes, he knew what pain was like. He knew how to deal with it, in a sense. But he'd never felt pain like this before. Lingering, almost numbing. Human pains...

... He knew he only had himself to blame for all of this. The lesson he'd learned from the night before was a hard one. It didn't matter how brave he was. In this body, he was almost useless, unable to complete a mission or even save one person's life....no. It wasn't Zex's death alone that bothered him so much; it was the fact that he had been so stupidly, almost over-confidently certain that he could have protected Zex when he really couldn't that hurt the most.

Zero clenched his fists tightly, then let out a long sigh. He needed to put this all out of his mind. His usual coping mechanism at work. Getting depressed and self-hateful over past events would get him nowhere. He could only do his best to redirect that negative energy into fuel. Fuel to keep fighting, to bring Landel down...for people like Zex's sake. Didn't mean it was easy to move on so quickly... But he would try his best.

Before he could think about the night any longer, his nurse came in the room to take him to breakfast. She carried with her a sling that she put on his bandaged arm before they left. Zero allowed her to do this without a word. At least she wasn't being obnoxiously chatty for once. Perhaps she was taking pity on him and had decided to make his day just a little less miserable? Unusual, but he wasn't going to complain. He was, however, going to ask to stop on the way to the cafeteria to announce Zex's death over the bulletin board. Perhaps someone knew him, perhaps someone didn't, but people still needed to know.

At breakfast, he got himself a plate full of food, but only to avoid having his nurse come by and reprimand him for 'starving himself'. Truth was, he had no appetite at all. There was instead some strange feeling in his gut that he'd never felt before...something that didn't feel good. He could only describe it as the opposite of hunger. Would it be alright to eat even though he felt this way? He wasn't sure.

But he'd figure that out in a moment. For now, he should find a place to sit. His first instinct was to sit alone and avoid all social contact for as long as possible, but when he spotted Leanne at one of the tables, he found himself walking over to her without a second thought. After the hell that had been last night...it was good to see someone he knew who still looked so cheerful. "Leanne," he greeted after sitting down across from her, sounding far more like his usual self than he looked right now. "You okay?"

Quickly recognizing the voice, Leanne looked up from her tray, a smile on her face. It probably wasn't a good sign, that she was already becoming so familiar with the institute, but she still couldn't help but feel just a little better every time she got to meet with someone she recognized, every time something reminded her that it wasn't all doom and gloom. At the sight across her, however, she froze, her smile instantly disappearing. "Zero? What did you..."

Not even waiting for a response to her unfinished question, she leaned forward over the table, her breakfast all but forgotten, to get a closer look at Zero. Those bandages... And had he hurt his arm? What in the world had happened to him last night?

"Are you okay? Did you run into more monsters last night?" she asked, one question after the other, unable to keep the concern from her voice. Certainly, she'd seen injuries before, had gotten some nasty ones of her own back in Basel, and had already seen her fair share of people in bandages in the institute... But this? It wasn't so much the severity of the injuries as the circumstances, knowing just how defenseless many of them were against the creatures of the night, and remembering their own encounter with them.

He'd... Had he tried to take on a group of them by himself again? That would have been just about the stupidest...

With a sigh, she quickly leaned back again, shaking her head. "Sorry, but... You're okay, right?"

... Leanne's concern was overwhelming to the once-Reploid, so much so that he eventually glanced away from her, uncomfortable, as she asked him so many questions. Acting so worried about him when she really shouldn't be. This was all, more or less, his own fault. He accepted that. He didn't need her pity.

I'm not the one who ended up dead.

"...I'm alright," Zero eventually replied, as soft as if he were sighing. "I overestimated a dog. That's all." Plain and simple explanation; no need to elaborate further. The less time they spent on this subject, the better.

A pause, he continuing to look down at the table and away from Leanne, and then he added, "Don't worry about me. I'm okay." If he didn't sound so monotone, that would have come out as the almost plea he intended it to be. He'd come to sit with Leanne to be reassured by a cheerful face (and to make sure she was alright, as well)...he'd never intended to discuss his personal issues with her.

She couldn't say she didn't recognize that kind of attitude, hadn't seen it plenty of times over the last year and more. Zero was a lot calmer about it, a lot nicer even, no stomping away or slamming doors, but really... Hadn't she lived with someone who acted like that when he was injured, refusing any sort of concern?

Leanne couldn't be completely sure it'd be the same with Zero, but surely, surely he'd appreciate it more if she treated him normally, wouldn't he? Almost embarrassed at how she'd initially reacted, she attempted a small smile.

All right, understanding. She could do that.

"Sorry," she repeated. "But I'm glad to hear you're okay. No dog's gonna get you next time, huh?"

Zero glanced back up at the girl, stared quietly at her for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head. "...Yeah." He'd learned enough to know how to handle dogs a little better in future encounters, sure. But...again. It wasn't him that had gotten the worst of it. And if it wasn't for this form, or his overestimation of his own skill, then perhaps it would have never...

... He sighed. There was a small desire to tell Leanne the truth. To tell her everything that had gone wrong, so that maybe he could find some peace through comfort. But the desire was too small for him to act upon it. Revealing his true feelings about something like this wasn't something he was very...good at, anyway.

Besides, he knew he needed to simply stop over-thinking things and letting it get to him like this. And Leanne, someone so cheerful, didn't need to hear something that could potentially lower her spirits.

Thus, Zero would change the subject as quickly as he could. "Did you have a productive night this time?" he asked. He remembered her telling him yesterday (with a little disappointment) that she'd completely slept through the night before last. Perhaps she'd gotten something accomplished this past night and would like to talk about whatever it was.

She couldn't really say it was unexpected, how he quickly changed the subject, offering only a short answer to her question. It wasn't even out of the ordinary for Zero, judging from what little she'd seen of him so far. But that sigh right after...

It wasn't quite an angry huff or a glare, not even close, but as far as Leanne was concerned, what it meant was the same. She wasn't about to get any real answers anytime soon.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to let him change the subject either, would it?

"Yeah," she began, voice soft but steadily rising back to its normal pitch, a hint of excitement entering it as she began to explain. "Did you know there's a town out there? It's... I got to go there last night!"

Good... Leanne was going to go with the subject change and not push the issue. Zero could relax a little now and distract himself with Leanne's own nighttime experiences. Though she didn't mention much right away, it already sounded like she'd had a much better night than him...

In fact, the one detail she mentioned caught his attention immediately. So there was a town near the Institute, huh? "No, I didn't know," Zero replied, looking much less surprised than he really was. The most Leanne would get by the way of a surprised look was a few blinks - not that that was anything unusual, of course. "Where is it? And what did you find there?"

The thought of a nearby town raised more questions in the once-Reploid's mind than just the two he'd asked. Could any civilians actually be living in this area? If so, what were they doing here, and did they know about this place? He would wait for Leanne to explain a little more before he overloaded her with his questions, however.

"I'm not sure where exactly. The girl I went with had this ring and it... teleported us right in there, like something out of a movie." She stopped, frowning. It had been convenient, all right, much better than finding an exit and walking there... wherever there was. Still, it was hardly Leanne's favorite method of transportation, even after just one experience with it. The memory of the dizziness and the nausea still on her mind, the way the world had almost seemed to melt around her.

...Definitely not something she wanted to do too often, she decided with a grimace, especially not if she wasn't going to get any warning every time. "Teleporting wasn't... really nice though."

"But the town was empty last night! We got a few guns from there, but we didn't see anyone. It was kinda spooky..."

What? Teleportation? The once-Reploid's face betrayed a little more of his surprise at what he was hearing. "This girl has something capable of that?" he muttered, blinking. The only device Zero could think of that sounded anything remotely like that was a portable Trans Server, but that wasn't something one could describe as a 'ring'. It required the use of one normal Trans Server operated by someone else, as well, so it would be almost impossible to use in this situation. But... Perhaps the girl Leanne mentioned had some other, more advanced piece of technology that she'd gotten a hold of somehow? It was plausible, given that this place apparently had the technology to do more incredible feats than simple transfers...

(But wait. If this person had the ability to teleport, then why wasn't she using it to escape from here? ... One question at a time. Better focus on the town itself first.)

So, if they had to teleport to the town by the means of...some unknown device, then that could mean the town was quite far from the Institute... And that wasn't all. This town, wherever it was, had no inhabitants when Leanne and the girl she'd been with had gone there. Supplies, but no people. That sounded rather suspicious. "I wonder why it was abandoned," Zero wondered aloud, frowning. There could be a lot of reasons for that, and few of them were good. He shook his head, then asked, "You didn't run into any trouble, right? No creatures, no corpses, just an empty town?"

"Yeah, I..." Leanne smiled, somewhat awkwardly, shaking her head. "I didn't really get it that well, but she said she could use it to go to places she's been to before. And she'd been to the town before... So that's how we got there!"

Renamon had called it technology and, certainly, nothing else quite seemed to fit it. But she couldn't deny she still didn't have the slightest idea how blood could be used in something technological. It seemed... almost wrong to her somehow, even if Renamon had only used a drop or two.

Still, it had gotten them there safely, without running into anything she'd been warned about.

Leanne shook her head, a frown coming to her face. "It's not really abandoned. I think they're supposed to take us there sometimes, during the day. I guess it's just a normal town then." And didn't that just make what she was about to say all the harder, knowing that it was regular, ordinary people who were affected, people who probably weren't all that different from the ones in Ebel City. "We didn't run into any of that at all, but Renamon said that... At night, it's not that different from how it is in here."

Oh... The 'transferring ring' device only worked with places previously visited. Then that explained why the girl hadn't used it to escape yet...she couldn't just teleport anywhere. And if she and Leanne had still woken up here in the morning, then perhaps it didn't matter how far they'd gotten away from the Institute grounds before the end of the night... Landel could bring them back regardless of their distance. (Something to remember.)

Still, making it all the way to a town was pretty impressive...even if that town wasn't the safest place to be at night, according to Leanne.

"Not surprising," Zero responded, still frowning. "Why shouldn't the nightly rules of the Institute apply to the areas surrounding it..." It made sense, after all. If Landel could control this whole Institute through whatever technology he used, who's to say he couldn't control the neighboring town, too?

And the prisoners were supposed to be taken to this town some days, huh... Wonder why. "So what else did you find there besides guns?"

She breathed out a sigh, nodding once. "Yeah, I guess so. The same thing that happens to the nurses here at night happens to them too. And if Landel," she practically spit out the name, finding that her dislike for him had only grown all the more since learning what she had the night before. It was one thing for him to mess with them, but to involve innocent people too? Leanne really doubted the people of Doyleton deserved to have anything to do with this whole mess.

"...If Landel's really in charge of all of this," she continued, bringing her voice under control again. "I guess it makes sense for it to happen there too."

"Not much." She shook her head, shrugging slightly. "We were just going to see if we could find any more guns, besides the ones she'd already found. And we didn't get that far before we woke up here again either..."

The nurses were also affected by the nighttime 'curse' (for lack of a better word)? ...Guess that shouldn't be much of a surprise, given the same logic applied to the town and its nightly situation. Might also prove what side the nurses were ultimately on here...and, assuming it was true, that wouldn't be much of a surprise, either.

Leanne seemed pretty upset about it all, in any case. Though nowhere near as vocal (or outwardly emotional) about it, Zero shared her sentiment. There was no excuse for any of Landel's actions here, especially if innocent people were being affected by his power. The sooner that madman was stopped, the better.

"I see." The once-Reploid paused, thinking. Just the thought of that town made him highly curious to know more about it - made him want to go there himself, eventually - but he wasn't sure how many of his questions could be answered here. Leanne said she didn't get far...so what could he ask that didn't rely on one having spent a lot of time in that place?

"What did...the town look like?" he asked after another moment's pause. "Was it modern, did it look technologically advanced at all?"

They were important questions to him. Zero wanted to know what the world outside the Institute's walls looked like...mostly for curiosity's sake, admittedly. But it could also tell him a little bit about what human life was like here, so he knew what to expect once he finally got out of here. Surely it had to be more advanced than his own homeworld if people like Landel could put machines into organic bodies and drag in people from other time periods...

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Day 62: Breakfast

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I sincerely apologize for the gigantic teal deer that is this tag.....

it's okay! and I'M sorry for being late, had internet trouble

It's cool! Hope it got fixed ^^

it's all good now! |D

yay! /o/

|D

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