DAY 65: Breakfast

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar came to slowly, vision blurred and head throbbing. His memory of the previous night was vague and somewhat scattered. What he was most aware of was his renewed and increased hatred for the man called Lingormr. The Ishbalan didn't give a damn if he had been a special counseling patient. That bastard had enjoyed every second of tearing Scar to shreds. What he may or may not have realized was how much it had affected Scar emotionally. He had felt a renewed sense of drive at the start of the night; the disruption on the intercom and the news of the 'cure' had rekindled a fire that fueled Scar to drive forward. To have a little hope.

Lingormr had promptly crushed that.

He was in pain. So much pain. The cut on his hand was only fading scab at this point, but stitches now pulled at the deep gashes in his legs and back. Not only had the nausea not settled, but his stomach was beginning to cramp. The rash on his arm was impossible to hide without the old bandages covering it. It had nearly reached his elbow.

Scar's hazy eyes could make out the nurse, now pushing a wheelchair up to his bedside. This was humiliating. And he was too exhausted and hurting to lash out or become angry. He was just broken. He still tried to take some sort of grudging control, insisting that he didn't need to be pushed around, that he could at least turn the wheels of the damned chair himself. But he didn't make it down the hallway before the pulling and sharp pain in his back became so obvious on his face that the nurse took over.

He entered breakfast with a frustrated, tired, but overall defeated look to him. Scar felt too sick to eat. He sat at the table and brooded, wishing more than anything to simply be left alone.

[For Goku!]

Comments

[nobleman]

Before long, Claude walked in, still not looking very good -- but he was walking around at the very least. While his instinct was to wave him over or go to meet him so that they could talk things over as soon as possible, someone else called out his name before he had the chance.

It was Leanne. Guy turned in his seat to face her and managed a smile, nodding in greeting. Well, if he ran off now to go and speak with Claude, that would just be seen as rude. And besides, he'd enjoyed his conversations with Leanne before, so there was no reason to push her away.

Although, as she took a seat, Guy noticed something very worrying, which was the angry rash working its way up Leanne's arm. It was almost impossible to ignore. He paused halfway to putting his fork to his mouth and sighed. "Oh no, you too?" He clearly wasn't sick, his eyes clear and his arms unmarked, but it was discouraging to come across yet another friend who was dealing with the terrifying prospect of losing their humanity.

[survives]

She couldn't quite help a grimace at that, her eyes flickering over to her own arm, before back to Guy. Right. Of course. Everyone would be able to tell now, no matter what she did about it. There was no way they wouldn't be able to, not with that thing spreading up her arm.

Leanne shrugged, attempting another smile. All right, so she was practically screaming 'sick' at anyone who looked at her, but that didn't mean she had to worry them even more. Keeping a smile on her face was one thing she could still do, something she still had some sort of control over.

Besides, on the bright side, she didn't even have to tell Guy about it, like she'd had to with Tsubaki. "Yeah, I guess so. Looks like there's too many of us getting sick, huh?" Leanne folded her arms on the table, sparing hardly a glance for her plate of food. "But I'm glad you're not sick!"

[nobleman]

It really didn't seem like the right time for someone to be smiling, but Guy knew what Leanne was trying to do. She didn't want him to worry, but seeing how two of his closest friends were also sick, that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Nonetheless, her smile did look genuine despite it all, which was surprising. It took a strong person to keep up spirits with how bad things had gotten lately.

"Yeah, definitely too many. I guess I dodged a bullet this time, but two friends of mine are pretty sick too. We made it to the medical wing last night, though." Guy hadn't seen Leanne there at all, which brought up the question of where she'd been instead. It seemed like anyone who was sick would have headed in that direction, right? Unless she'd slept through the night.

Either way, the important thing was that he had some information for her that would hopefully be of some help, even if the implications were unfortunate. "You heard the clue, right?" he asked after a pause.

[survives]

"The clue?" Leanne's heart skipped a beat, the possible implications of some kind of clue related to the medical wing, of all things, hitting her immediately. Was this... Could this really be something that could help her and everyone else stuck with this thing? Or was she just jumping to conclusions and getting her hopes up? Landel actually wanting to help them was out of the question, but somebody else could have easily been behind it. And she'd completely missed it somehow.

But if Guy and his friends had made it there, they had to know something.

"No..." She shook her head, biting her lip before she even realized what she was doing. "I'm not sure what happened last night. I was in my room and then I was somewhere else. I don't remember a clue." Had she just missed it during the confusion? Leanne didn't want to think she'd never even had the chance to hear it. "What was going on?"

[nobleman]

In her room and then somewhere else? That didn't sound good. Either she'd been brainwashed, tortured, or... was it possible that the coliseum was to blame? Guy didn't want to jump to any conclusions there, and that was something that he could address with Leanne once they'd covered the information that she'd apparently missed.

"Well, it started with the intercom. Someone cut in and gave us a clue through the IRIS system that told us to look in the X-Ray room in the medical wing." He decided not to get into the fact that it had been a struggle to even get that far. After all, he and his friends had gotten off easy compared to some other patients.

"I made it there with my friends, and what we found was a painting on the wall of a stomach with a butterfly inside of it." He couldn't imagine how those who were ill felt, knowing for a fact that whatever was wrong with them had to do with that organ.

"We were able to use the X-Ray machine on one of the sick patients, too." That man had been a good sport, letting them try that when he'd already been injured. Then again, it had been for the good of everyone, and Guy was more than happy to pass the facts along.

[survives]

A stomach with a butterfly inside it? She set a hand over her own stomach, still somewhat painful. (Maybe getting food hadn't been a good idea at all in the first place.) That couldn't possibly be literal, could it? Leanne would have noticed if she had a butterfly inside her stomach. Right? That wasn't something a person just didn't notice.

But IRIS... She remembered hearing it once before, and from what she'd heard, she highly doubted Landel had anything to do with what it said. Whoever or whatever was really behind it, it likely really was a clue meant to help them. In any case, it was a lot more than any of them had known even a day before.

"Um..." She hesitated, bringing both her hands back on top of the table. This was definitely no time to be scared, not if she wanted to find out what was going on. Leanne could tell that much. "What did you see on the X-Rays?"

[nobleman]

Guy didn't miss the way that Leanne's hand strayed down to her stomach, and while he was curious about her symptoms, he could ask her afterward. For the moment, he wanted to make sure that he got the information passed along before something interrupted. With how ill at odds the entire institute was, a riot could break out at any moment. Not that that was going to help things.

"There was... well, it looked like a butterfly, but it obviously wasn't a real one. It must be some kind of device that's controlling the illness." Or maybe it would be a trigger for the transformation. Guy had no idea how something like that could work, but Landel was capable of more than he could have ever expected.

"I guess..." He glanced down at his food, and while he wasn't sick, he didn't have the stomach to eat right now. "The next step would be figuring out how to remove that." While he wished that they would have had the time to X-Ray more than just one person, they were going to have to function on the assumption that all of them had the same device.

[survives]

No. No, no, no. He had to be kidding her, he just had to. This was beginning to sound more and more like the result of some weird experiment and that was absolutely the last thing Leanne ever wanted to have to deal with again. It'd been almost two years since she'd survived the last one, the only one, in fact. She'd thought she was done with them. But this? Just what was this supposed to be?

Focus, Leanne. You can get scared later..

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself. All right, so what he was saying didn't sound good, but there was still hope. If they really could find a way to remove... whatever that thing was from inside of all of them, they'd all likely get better. Things didn't have to end badly this time. She'd do everything she could to make sure of it.

"Okay." Leanne took another deep breath and set her eyes back on Guy, pushing forward before she lost her nerve. "I guess just opening all of us up isn't such a good idea. But I... I wanna figure out how to get it out, too. If I can help, I wanna do that."

[nobleman]

While he'd only spoken to Leanne a few times, Guy still caught her reaction, and it wasn't exactly unexpected. Anyone would be frightened to realize that they might have to be sliced open to save their own humanity, and he didn't know how he would feel in the face of something like that. Of course, having friends who were going through it was almost just as bad.

Did he have it in him to take them down if it got to that point? He honestly didn't know. Guy had always been decent at putting aside his feelings and dealing with the task at hand, but this was different.

"Well," he said once Leanne put together a reply, "I'd say that you should worry about yourself first. Wanting to help others is great, but each one of you is a ticking time bomb." There was no more time to play light at things or joke around, and his expression made that clear. "If you can find people to help you get it out as soon as possible, that'd probably be best for everyone." The less patients turning into monsters and eating other patients, the better.

[survives]

The response wasn't exactly what she'd expected, but in retrospect, she really should have. Guy was right. She was getting ahead of herself again, doing just the kind of thing Vashyron would have reprimanded her for. How could Leanne expect to help anyone when she herself was in danger? When every single moment brought her closer to...

She looked away, down at her hands folded on the table. Oddly, there was something almost comforting about not knowing when exactly everything would go wrong this time, if she couldn't get that... butterfly out of her before it was too late. No counting down the minutes, no ticking clock... She could have almost thanked Landel for that little detail.

"Okay," Leanne said at length as she looked up, attempting to lighten her tone some. "Sorry, you're right! I guess I should keep an eye out for that, huh? The others've gotta be looking by now, too."

[nobleman]

It was clear that his words had been sobering ones for Leanne to hear, but Guy didn't really regret getting a bit more severe about it. This was a serious situation, and while Leanne had to know that already, sometimes people had to have it spelled out for them despite that.

"You don't have to apologize," he said as he shook his head. "I don't know how many people are looking for a solution or how many are sick overall, but it's more than just a few." If Guy was being realistic, he couldn't imagine that all of them would be able to cure themselves before their time ran out. But he was going to keep that thought to himself.

"I wish I could be of more help," he continued, his frown deepening. While he was technically capable of slicing someone open, that wasn't the sort of thing that should be left in the hands of someone inexperienced. And he didn't have any healing powers, either, so he was more or less useless when it came to all this. All he had at the moment was information.

[survives]

Leanne shook her head, taking another deep breath, before attempting a smile again. Guy had already been help enough. If she hadn't run into him this morning, would she have continued to go on in ignorance, with no idea of what was happening inside her own body? No... Surely, she'd have heard about it from someone else, or from veiled hints on the bulletin board. But he'd taken the time to explain everything to her, and what more could she ask for?

He had his own worries about the whole thing, after all. His friends were affected as well, and they'd likely be Guy's first priority. At least, if it were Zephyr and Vashyron who were sick, Leanne couldn't deny that she'd prioritize them above everyone else. Her own actions in the past had already made that clear enough, hadn't they?

"Don't worry. It's okay. You've helped me a lot anyway! And I guess it's not like any of us knows that much. I'll look for the others."

[nobleman]

It was still impressive to Guy how well Leanne seemed to be handling this. It was possible she was just very good at putting on a strong front, but there was something to be said for that too. Guy only hoped that she had made friends here, people who would look out for her and make sure that she was well taken care of.

As guilty as he might feel for not being able to do more, he also realized that he couldn't spread himself too thin. "Okay," he said after a pause. "Make sure that you have friends who know what's going on, so they can try to help you." If the worse happened, someone had to be prepared for that, after all.

The intercom went off a few moments later, which meant that there was no more time to give her any advice or consolation. He couldn't even clasp her shoulder in comfort, which was always frustrating. Instead, Guy stood and nodded to Leanne. "Good luck," he told her before he headed off. He'd do his best to keep an eye on her in the coming days. It was the least he could do.