damned_institute | Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

Entry tags:

Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

[From here.]

It was chilly out in the courtyard, making Lloyd glad for the odd but relatively warm clothing he'd found himself in when he woke up. He could have stay inside the building, he knows. His nurse had told him he had a choice of several rooms he could eat his lunch in, if he wanted. The cold felt good, though, and the tree he was sitting against felt solid and comfortable. He still felt lost, but trying to get straight answers from the nurse was frustrating. The man had retreated to let him eat in peace, promising to come back when Lloyd was finished and he'd had a chance to "clear his head." The teen was just fine with that.

Lunch itself was actually pretty good. He'd gotten a chicken sandwich, and his spirits lifted a little when he saw that there was a brownie with it. It had taken him a minute to figure out the box with juice inside, having never encountered anything like that before, but after that it was easy to just settle down and enjoy his food.

Well, for the most part. Worry for his Dad still ate at him, and he had no idea where any of his friends were. He still felt a little off, too, like some intangible part of him was missing or weakened, but he chalked that up to leftover side effects of whatever it was Yuan had done to him. He was confident that would disappear soon enough, once he finished recovering. He already felt well enough that as soon as he was done eating, he was determined to leave. If his doctor had his things, he'd ask for them first, and maybe he could talk to some of the other people here, see if they knew anything that could help, but one way or another, he needed to find his friends and make sure his Dad was all right.

[To here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Despite the chill in the air, Leanne found going outside to be almost pleasant, far better than staying cooped up inside. Since arriving in the institute, she'd taken nearly every chance she could to go outside, and this day was no exception. She'd already had enough of staying inside all the time. There was really no reason to repeat that, not here of all places.

In any case, the cold helped clear her head, to finally let her think of something else besides her worries. For just about the entire day so far, the same thoughts had been going round and round in her head, barely giving her a moment of peace. What she'd spoken about with Guy that morning... Leanne had tried to put up a brave face in front of him that morning, to assure him she'd be all right, but she couldn't deny it was terrifying.

Another race against the clock and, somehow, she was actually grateful she didn't know when time would run out this time.

Releasing her breath in a sigh, Leanne shook her head. She'd come here to try to think about anything but that, hadn't she? Yet here she was, doing just the opposite.

Maybe she could actually try to eat something now, after having completely ignored her breakfast, even if her stomach still protested at the thought.

[Tsubaki!]

Despite clinging to Black☆Star’s message and the gusto behind it--which was so very him, regardless of what version it was--Tsubaki hadn’t failed to notice how many missing faces there were in the crowd. It was starting to worry her.

For a while she’d sat bundled up in a sweater, the letter hidden underneath against her breast, and watched the prisoners milling about, hoping for that flash of recognition that signalled someone she knew. No luck where Fai and Shiina were concerned, nor Sora and Scar, for that matter. Some of them had to be in the shower, though, or so she’d hoped. Eventually lunch had come, which forced her out of her perch and back into the fray in order to get her lunch bag from her nurse.

A chicken sandwich sounded good, sort of? She was trying to keep her chin up.

Thankfully, not everyone seemed to have disappeared or become a disembodied presence over the bulletin. As people began to disperse into the areas of their choice, Tsubaki noticed at the last second that there was a young blonde woman headed outdoors. Even from the back, Tsubaki had been around Leanne enough to learn the way she moved--it definitely had to be her!

Tsubaki followed at once, waving away her nurse’s offer to get her a jacket. Nippy temperatures were a small thing to be concerned about.

"Leanne, is that you?" she called softly, stepping across the grass with lunch in hand.

Edited 2012-07-29 05:17 (UTC)

It hadn't even been that long since she'd first arrived at the institute. Just about everything about it should have still been somewhat unfamiliar to her, right down to the people. But the voice was still one Leanne could instantly recognize, one she'd quickly learned to recognize. It was almost comforting to hear it calling out to her as it interrupted her thoughts, knowing that a friend was nearby. A friend who knew about what was happening to her, at that.

Her lunch still held loosely in one hand, she turned around, a smile coming to her face upon seeing Tsubaki in the distance. That was a face she could recognize, too. "Yeah! It's me," Leanne called back in answer, raising her free hand slightly.

She moved to close some of the distance between them, even as she raised her hand higher to wave in greeting.

Tsubaki trotted the rest of the distance with a smile on her lips. It was good to see for herself that at least one member of her circle of acquaintances was still whole and healthy (or as healthy as one could get under the circumstances). Leanne was one of those people who didn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, deserve to be put through the Institute’s trials.

"Hey…" she said. "I thought that might be you. How are you doing today?" Given the illness and who had unleashed it on the prisoner population in the first place, Tsubaki didn’t really think there was much point in asking if Leanne’s symptoms had gotten better. "Is it… much worse today?"

Although Leanne didn’t look like she’d recently been turned into a monster, Landel’s promise that someone had already changed made her afraid that any one of her friends could have suffered through the transformation the previous night. Assuming they changed back at sunrise at all.

She shrugged, taking a moment to gesture vaguely at her arm, where the rash had continued to spread. Unlike what she'd feared, no one had said anything about her army yet, or even paid much attention to it. It was probably to expected, considering just how many people were sporting matching rashes on their own arms, but Leanne considered herself lucky for it, glad she hadn't had to explain anything.

"It's good to see you again!" she said by way of greeting, putting off answering Tsubaki's question just a little longer.

How did she feel, when she stopped trying to ignore her symptoms? Wasn't that a good question? She wouldn't say she felt much worse, no, but neither did she feel any better. Her stomach hadn't let up either yet, and that was definitely new. The last thing she wanted was to worry Tsubaki, but... She was her... friend and hadn't they had a talk about just this kind of thing, recently?

"I've been better, I guess," she finally answered, her voice soft. "But I'm not doing too badly. How're you?"

She smiled before focusing on Leanne's arm, a flash of brightness to ward away some of Leanne's fears. Although they were treading on some tiring subjects by dredging up the infection, Tsubaki wanted to shore up her friend's resolve if she could.

"I'm sure. It must be getting tougher as they days go on." The hint about the cure hadn't exactly taken a weight off anyone's shoulders, at least Tsubaki didn't think it would if it meant searching around someone's stomach. "You were... okay last night? The illness didn't get worse?" She didn't want to say the words if it could be helped--like either one of them needed that image.

Another, smaller smile touched her lips. "I'm fine, completely fine."

Flashing Tsubaki a smile of her own in return, Leanne nodded. It really was comforting to get a reaction like that, to get a smile instead of outright worry, or worse. Maybe it was selfish of her, but the thought of constantly being faced with worry about her illness, of constantly being reminded of what was happening to her, was almost unbearable. Besides, there was no reason to make Tsubaki worry overly much about her.

"I was okay last night! It was mostly the same, I guess..." she said with another nod. In truth, she hadn't really done much of anything the night before, which probably had helped keep things from getting worse. "I'm not gonna..."

Leanne shook her head, pushing thoughts of just what could happen aside for the moment. Instead, she let her smile widen. "I'm glad to hear that. It's good that some of us are still okay."

Tsubaki’s expression turned somewhat questioning, but it was with some relief not to hear that things had degenerated beyond saving. She didn’t know what would happen if the unlucky few who were set to transform actually did, but it would cause a lot of needless pain for everyone. She was glad if Leanne had escaped that fate for one night.

"We’re tough," she said with a nod. "We’ll make it."

At the end of the day, there was only one course of action for the prisoners--keep strong until they made it through. So long as everyone did that, things would be fine. That, at least, was one fact Tsubaki never doubted. They’d all be okay. Until the day they went home safely, though, they just had to deal with the Institute as best they could, including frightening situations like the infection.

Shifting her lunch bag so that she was holding it with both hands, Tsubaki brought up the thing that was doubtlessly on most people’s minds. "Did you happen to hear about the clue in the Medical Wing? There is a cure if we can find it!"

Tsubaki's confidence only served to further lift her own spirits, bringing a sense of relief with it. Certainly, she wasn't sick, but if she could be so sure they'd all end up all right, if she could take the time to bolster Leanne's own confidence... She wasn't sure she could even begin to thank her enough.

"Yeah, definitely." She nodded in return, smiling brightly. Funny, how it was so much easier to smile just then. "We're not gonna let this stupid illness bring us down."

Leanne shifted slightly on her feet at the mention of the Medical Wing, briefly tapping her chin with her free hand. "Yeah, I heard about it! It doesn't sound like it's gonna be easy, but... I think we can do it. We're gonna have to keep looking!"

"And I’m here for you, no matter what," she said, bowing her head. With how the X-Ray Room’s clue had exacerbated the tension in the hospital, Tsubaki felt like she needed to emphasis that point again. No matter what anyone else said, no matter what anyone else did, she was going to protect her friends from as much pain and suffering as she could.

Because of that, if the cure itself was going to put the infected at risk--blindly cutting someone open was risky no matter how you looked at it--Tsubaki was a bit hesitant to advocate for the direct approach. Sora seemed intent on going straight for the kill, so to speak, but she wasn’t sure so sure about Leanne…

"I don’t really get what the clue is supposed to mean, but it sounds like a lot of people are getting ready to test it out." Tsubaki gave the other girl an uncertain look. "Were you thinking that, too?"

It was... embarrassing, really, how such a simple declaration could set her eyes stinging, a strange, warm feeling rising in her chest. Leanne momentarily looked away from Tsubaki, blinking rapidly, to drive away the tears that were most definitely not forming there, oh no. When she finally did trust herself to look back at her, it was with another smile, a softer one this time.

Just how many people did she have who would say something like that to her? Only the small handful of people she'd say the same to: Zephyr and Vashyron, and she loved them dearly for it, and now... Tsubaki? Not for the first time, she felt a rush of gratitude for the girl, who had so quickly offered her friendship and help.

"Yeah," she managed to say. "To be honest, I don't really get how it's supposed to work, but we've gotta try something! And this is the only clue we've got."

Tsubaki watched on, lips parted. Somehow, with the Institute’s madness breathing down their necks, just saying the words didn’t seem enough to express what she wanted to express. That she wanted to do absolutely everything to make sure Landel’s experiment didn’t reach completion, that she would protect what friends she had left within the Institute’s walls.

But the meaning was there, she knew. And she was glad if Leanne’s resolve was strengthened by knowing she had a friend to rely in.

She moved closer impulsively, because a conversation couldn’t really get more intimate when it was about Leanne’s health. “Does that mean you’re looking for a surgeon, too?” Tsubaki couldn’t hide how nervous that made her, the thought of Sora and Leanne and countless others trying to get at whatever was (or wasn’t in their stomachs.

Leanne momentarily glanced away, her lips forming a frown. That was basically what it all boiled down to, wasn't it? Even if she couldn't understand what the clue really meant, one thing, at least, was more than obvious. To remove whatever was causing the disease, she and the others would have to get cut open.

It took a fair bit of self-control to keep herself from rubbing her arms, a sudden chill having taken over her. The thought was almost dizzying, something she never wanted to have to even think of getting done to her. But more terrifying still was the thought of what would happen if she wasn't cured.

There just wasn't a choice.

She looked back up at Tsubaki, lowering her voice now that she was closer. "I guess so... It looks like it's our best bet right now."

Edited 2012-08-05 20:30 (UTC)

It was true, the picture of the butterfly was the only clue they had so far, and Leanne was doubtlessly scared, but…

Tsubaki let her lunch bag hang from her arm, reaching out with both hands to hold one of Leanne’s. If she added the days up, it’d only been about a week since they’d met, but it’d been a long month of watching people be hurt and sometimes disappear entirely. She didn’t want to watch what people were left suffer over this callous experiment. It was enough watching.

“I understand your feelings,” she said, “and finding a way to make you better is the most important thing. But we should figure out what’s in there before doing something drastic. Like… we can take a picture of your stomach like the people on the bulletin board did, right? Maybe you don’t have anything that needs taking out. The Head Doctor only said some people are going to get really sick.”

Leanne could only stare down at her hand, intertwined with both of Tsubaki's, for several moments. She meant it, every single word. That much was more than obvious. Everything she said only further hammered in the fact that Tsubaki wasn't going to let her go at this alone, that she really was concerned over her.

She couldn't even begin to express how much she appreciated it, even though...

Deliberately lightening her tone, Leanne shook her head. "I get what you mean," she said, her voice soft. "We don't really know anything about all of this, I guess."

She breathed out a sigh, but soon flashed a smile at Tsubaki. "But I'm not just gonna sit around with that thing inside me either, if it really is there."

"If the others managed to check, so can we!"

At the very least, there was still time to work out a method that would verify the clue's accuracy once and for all. If they could at least prove there was something foreign in the sick prisoners' bodies that needed removing, that would save a lot of unnecessary pain if people opted for a surgery and ended up finding nothing...

Assuming the physical trauma of the whole thing wasn't too much. Strange that now of all times she sorely missed Professor Stein's dissection skills.

But she wasn't going to worry about that, no. There were options. Ways to make a cure safer if not painless. Straightening, Tsubaki let her hands drop, fixing Leanne with a look that didn't let any doubt show through. "Do you have anyone looking into things with you? If you want, you could come with me? We could go to the Medical Wing, figure something out. I'm sure there must be others considering taking an x-ray, as well. I'm helping someone heal from some injuries tonight, but he also appears to be sick, so I bet he'll be thinking along those lines, too."

Or there was just... the chance for company. There was always that, too.

With a shake of her head, she pulled her own hand close again, frowning in thought. Aside from asking Guy for an explanation, Leanne hadn't exactly asked anyone for help with this, no. She had to admit, she just wasn't used to asking for help like this, not when she had Zephyr and Vashyron around all the time. The three of them... didn't really need to ask, did they?

Then again, in the end, she hadn't even had to truly ask here either, had she? Tsubaki was offering to help, perfectly willing to do whatever she could, as she always did.

"I'll go with you, yeah. Thank you..." She looked up at the girl, her smile widening. "Going to the Medical Wing can't hurt anyway."

“There’s nothing to thank me for! We’ve got a plan and we can work together!” Tsubaki said with an encouraging nod. “If there are any people knowledgeable about this sort of stuff, I bet that’s the place they’d head so we might have a chance of putting our heads together there. I can’t think of a better place to start. Mm, we‘ll just have to keep our ears open for any more clues that might be handed out tonight…”

If the man on the radio or whoever was sending out the clues really intended to help them, hopefully any further information that came from him wouldn’t mean too much of a detour.

Tsubaki put her hand to her chin to think for another moment. Eventually, she said, “If you don’t mind waiting, how about I come to your room in the girls’ block?”

It was easy to feel confident like this, like they really could get through this with everyone surviving, with no more casualties. With their plan of action stated so simply, so calmly, it just seemed a given that they'd manage it. It'd be just the perfect way to stick it to Landel, too, wouldn't it?

Besides, this wasn't even a certain death, not like before. There was no reason to be afraid now, not when they could do something.

"It's fine! I'll wait for you before we go there." Leanne nodded, already feeling much better than before she'd run into Tsubaki. "My room's F9."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject