damned_institute | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I have." Largely as an annoyance to Interpol, since she'd never met who liked bureaucracy and regulations. A little independence was critical to performance, even when she knew how easily it could get out of control. "I'll admit I'm surprised they managed to have so much influence."

"This must all be remarkably strange to you." She hadn't really thought about it -- Ilia seemed so comfortable here, but Lana should have known better than to take that at face value. Damn. She'd been so caught up in her own reaction to think analytically about how Ilia was treating all of this.

The corner of her mouth quirked up. "I mean, more so than this place already is. I'd be worried if anyone found it normal, here."

"You're not the first person who's said that to me. What year are you from?" Even the power blocs had functioned well enough, on their own. Perhaps global unity had only been a few steps away in her world, and all it had needed was a catalyst. But that seemed like conceding her point to Allelujah, and Soma dismissed the thought.

"Everything does seem a little backwards to me," she admitted. "For one, almost everything runs on solar power in my time, aside from a few ancient mobile suit models. But I guess the culture shock isn't as big as it probably should be, since Landel does such a good job of keeping us separated from the outside world."

Doyleton was one of the sleepiest, quietest places she'd ever been to, though. When it wasn't being attacked by zombies, anyway.

"2016. I don't think history is exactly the same for everyone, though." Harvey hadn't heard of the initial trial system, and not a single one of the books in the store in town mentioned it. While it was fairly new, the political momentum behind it hadn't grown overnight. It might be splitting hairs -- but the real difference probably had to do with crime rates, rather than the judicial reforms that had been a reaction to them.

"I'm not sure whether that's for our benefit or theirs. If you've been here that long -- you were there the night patients were stranded, right? I don't know exactly what is out there, but I have a feeling it's important." And that that wasn't just wistful thinking -- her hunches were usually right; it had made her an excellent detective, and it was, if anything, even more of an asset in court.

"I guess not. I've met people here with powers that definitely don't exist in my world." All that talk about gods and souls and especially countries had mostly gone over Soma's head, but she'd seen people healing other people at night, and that meant they at least hadn't been lying.

She nodded. That was something she could make sense of--a question she could answer, if only partially. "There is something important out there. Someone in the institute--I can't say whom--stole some data from Landel when they were on a mission. I can't tell you much right now, but I can tell you there's a reason they brought us here, and we may be close to figuring it out."

"They did?" Lana's eyes opened wide, and her eyebrows went from neutral to a moving violation in half a second. But her voice was, studiously, just as casual as if they'd been talking about the weather. "That's news."

"It would be nice to know what they want," she added, a little emotion creeping in. "They've acquired more legal representation than the Kitaki family." Though the Cadaverini's probably still had Landel beat. "I'd just about given up on his strategy having any sense to begin with." That was an outright lie, though it didn't show. He had a plan, and her gut instinct had known it all along. She just hadn't had the faintest idea where to start on finding it.

There was a spark of interest. Soma nodded slightly. "We're still trying to figure out the details, but once we know, we'll do our best to spread it to everyone." Maybe Lingormr could help in that regard--though who knew how many runes it would take to cover all of that information.

"I can't say it all makes sense yet, and there's a lot about this place we don't know. But I can say this planet was attacked and devastated by something big some time ago, and this place was set up in case something like it happened again." Soma frowned a little at the memory. The rebels could at least have been a little more specific about that. "It's not exactly my idea of a model barracks, but until we find out what exactly attacked this world, we won't be able to say for sure."

"So we're..." she trailed off delicately, none of the ideas that came to mind sounding like anything she wanted to be part of, evne just to describe them. "Some sort of Noah's Ark?" "T-That's ridiculous. The gender ratios alone are terrible."

Actually, there was very little about the idea that wasn't terrible, starting with the fact that there were children here and that they were being tortured while waiting around for whatever contingency Landel was guarding against, and working their way right up to the part where she'd heard better plans on sitcoms. If Landel thought he was outsmarting anyone, he was starting with himself, there. Though it came down to that with most criminals, really.

So, instead of raising any more ridiculous objections, she just went for the biggest question of them all. "Is this Earth?"

"No, I don't think--I didn't mean that. At least, I hope not." Soma frowned slightly. "I think we're meant to fight whatever comes along. This is some sort of training program--we knew that when Aguilar showed up and demanded results--but the details of it are fuzzy. There are so many people here who can't even fight, for one."

And there was the question of why they hadn't just asked to begin with. Soma would have considered it, at the very least, provided they'd thrown a suitable mobile suit in with the bargain. Unless there were some reason for all of this subterfuge--something tied in with the brainwashing, perhaps?

"I...I don't know. I wish I did. The data called this place Planet 48-71, but that could just be a codename for Earth." She shook her head. "It's infuriating, but I can't tell you anything more about that--unless you recognize the name, that is."

Lana shook her head. "I'm afraid not. All of this still seems ridiculous -- as you said, some of the people here can't fight," she said, spreading her palms on the table. "I'd assumed it was blackmail, or information they were after, at first.

The intercom rattled on, then, the words all sounding ominous, against the conversation they'd just had. The pit of Lana's stomach seemed to drop -- more pancakes suddenly went from unnecessary to outright revolting, but she merely wiped her lips and set her napkin down as she stood up. "I'll keep looking, though, as long as it takes. If the answer is anywhere in the Institute's paperwork, I'll get there eventually." She was aiming for ironic; it came out a little more resigned than that, but it was true. "It was good meeting you."

So far, she'd found two separate copies of the patient records, but she hadn't been able to go through either set of filing in enough detail to put together a profile. But maybe there was something in there, after all.

Day 62: Breakfast

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[augh, I caught a cold, sorry this is late]

[no worries! hope you feel better D:]

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