damned_institute | Day 63: Bus 1

As soon as Anise achieved wakefulness, the Head Doctor's words from the previous night immediately came floating back into her mind. People were getting sick. They were going to turn into monsters. That thought alone was chilling enough, but it was nothing compared to the terror that struck her when she sat up and saw her own hand. A red blotch covered the back of it, extending upwards to the wrist. Where did that come from?

The signs are already showing. That was what Landel said.

It couldn't be. Not her. If it was really true, then her life was as good as over. No... it had to be a mistake. Maybe the Head Doctor's words had scared her to the point that she was attributing random things to his threats. She was being paranoid. That was all it was.

And yet, no matter how many times she told herself that, she feared what might happen.

A nurse came to her soon, bearing an outfit for her to wear on the field trip. The striped shirt and gray skirt weren't particularly appealing to Anise, but the purple coat she was given wasn't so bad. It was a little big on her, but it was a nice, feminine color... and the extra long sleeves served to cover most of the strange rash. Anise didn't want to look at it, and she sure as heck didn't want anyone else seeing it.

When it was time to board the buses, Anise quietly took the lunch bag, climbed aboard, and sat down. She didn't look anyone in the eye. Even after sitting down, she merely stared down at the contents of her bag. The muffin didn't look the least bit appetizing - not while her stomach was busy twisting itself into knots, anyway.

[free!]

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"Yes, it usually is," he agreed about the intercom, remembering all the strangeness it had spouted during his talk with Robin. It had seemed to be malfunctioning though, so he hoped it wasn't anything he'd have to worry over. "But that's good! The nights are usually so hard to manage. And I've been doing well!"

He was a little itchy, but he had skin again, so he was assuming that came with the territory. The rash wasn't too bad either, though it did concern him that it was on his right hand. He could play with either, but he was better using his right to fight. "Oh yes, would you be all right if I sat with you along the way? Travel is so much better with company!"

It was pretty hard to refuse company, and it would definitely be strange for someone as sociable as Anise to do so, so she was quick to nod and accept. “Of course! Go ahead.” Maybe having someone cheerful to talk to would help improve her mood. Then she could start putting things into perspective, instead of just panicking over things she didn’t understand. That sounded like a good plan.

She stuck the straw into her juice box and took a few sips, taking another glance down into her paper bag. Removing the box allowed her to see some things that had fallen to the bottom of the bag, and one item in particular stood out to her. Anise pulled it out, examined it, then gave a small gasp.

It was a happy gasp. “They gave us money again!” Anise wasn’t sure what was going to happen after the military went away, but it looked like the institute had decided to keep that little idea of theirs. It wasn’t enough to make her forget her worries completely, but it was definitely a silver lining. “I wonder what I should buy today…”

"Thank you very much!" Brook lowered himself into the seat, pulling in his legs in tight despite how strange his knees looked sticking up over the seat edge. He was used to it and only laughed when he continued speaking. "I wonder what we have in here today~?" he started digging into the bag just as Anise was discovering her own contents.

He looked over at the card she'd pulled out before rummaging to pull out his own. "Yes, it seems so! I wonder if they might have a violin somewhere in town..." he mused hopefully while absently scratching at the back of his hand. He so wanted to play his favorite of the stringed instruments again! But he'd yet to find an instrument store in town. As he thought of where he might look again, he realized that he was scratching his hand and looked down.

"Ah, maybe I'm just itching to play?" he offered, grinning at Anise hopefully.

It was a little funny to see how high Brook had to bend his knees to get into the seat, while Anise’s toes barely reached the floor.

“A violin? That’d be pretty expensive though, wouldn’t it?” Anise couldn’t imagine getting something like that with the meager funds the institute provided. She was going to have to plan out her purchases if she wanted to make the most of the money she had.

The man’s scratching caught her eye, though, and when she glanced at his hand, she froze. He tried to play it off with a joke, but Anise wasn’t so sure it was a laughing matter. “Your hand… How did that happen?” she asked cautiously, glancing briefly to her own to make sure it was still out of sight.

"A good one would be, yes..." he admitted a bit sadly. Even as the smallest of the family, a violin would still be quite expensive if it were properly made. Still, just the chance to play one...! "But if there was a store, maybe the owner wouldn't mind just letting me play one for a short while? I'd be happy to give him all the money I had for that chance!"

When it came to his hand, part of Brook had been considering the itching had been caused by his desire to play. The rest, and more sensible part of him knew better though, and at Anise's prompt answered truthfully. "Mmmmm, I'm not so sure of the how, but I know it started after one of the announcements last night and hasn't stopped! I know it's been a long time since I even could get itchy, but this does seem to be a little much, I must say."

Now if he truly was just itching to play a proper instrument, he'd have to consider this some kind of withdrawal.

“After the announcements?” Anise’s eyes were wide. She’d been wearing gloves at the time, and there was Luke to worry about… If the same thing happened to her, she wouldn’t have noticed. “Are you sure?” If the rash was connected to the intercom, there was a good chance that it really was one of the “signs” the Head Doctor had been talking about. Which would mean that Anise was really…

A momentary distraction came in the form of her roommate nodding to her as she passed by. Trying not to let her face betray her fears, Anise simply nodded back at Utena, then returned her attention to Brook.

“...What do you mean, ‘a long time since you could get itchy’?” she asked after a moment of thought. While the issue of the rash itself was more important, Anise wanted some time to wrap her head around the information she had before getting too deep into it. And besides, that was a really weird thing to say. Didn’t everyone get itchy sometimes?

"Yes, I'm pretty sure..." he admitted, though with her questioning took some time to think on it.

He'd been having a nice, though admittedly difficult speaking with Robin during all those announcements, but despite all of that, he'd noticed when his hand had started bothering him. That red ring would have been hard to miss even in the darkness of the nighttime hallways.

He shrugged back. "That's when I noticed it anyway. I might have had it longer, but just hadn't looked at my hand. It's not too often that one would, you agree?" Lifting his right hand, he looked first at the back, then turned it over in front of him to see the rash on both sides. "It would be hard to get itchy when you don't have skin to itch. Bones don't get such sensations, and it would be rather hard to itch them if they did!"

Brook was probably right about the time. If Anise didn't notice a rash at the start of the night when she was putting on her gloves, and Brook noticed his late into the night, then they had to have appeared sometime in between... while the intercom was going crazy.

It was the answer to her latter question that she had trouble swallowing. "No... skin?" She furrowed her brow, trying to understand, though she couldn't help but be a bit skeptical. Maybe Brook used to be some kind of strange-looking alien, like a few others at the institute were... but what he was describing made him sound like some kind of walking skeleton. And that would just be weird. "... How does that work?"

Day 63: Bus 1

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