Day 65: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

As some of the clouds from earlier began to clear, the intercom jingle sounded over the intercom once again.

"Hello, patients!" came the Head Doctor's cheery voice. "I hope you're all feeling fresh and clean this evening! To top it all off, we've prepared a scrumptious herb chicken dinner for you to eat before bed. Of course, we have vegetarian options available, so please don't hesitate to ask the nurse if you're interested in that.

Also, since we have the pleasure of welcoming a few new patients into our family, some of you will be receiving new roommates. Let's do our best to give them a nice, big Landel's Institute welcome, shall we?"

The Head Doctor gave a friendly chuckle. "Well, anyway, enjoy your dinner!"

With that, the intercom shut off.

[Note: All dinner threads are posted in response to this entry. Be sure to check the Roommate Assignments if you're not sure what room/roommate your character has! Thanks.]

Comments

[vstheworld]

Scott was so not used to this whole M6 thing yet. Even after however many days it had been since he was marched down a new hallway at dinner, and Guybrush was mysteriously replaced with Nameless Redhead, he still found his nurse catching his shoulder to keep him from plowing straight on past the 1-A hallway. Funny how deeply entrenched habits could become, even after only a few weeks.

And it had only been a few weeks, hadn't it? Sometimes Scott could swear he was going on three years in this place, but nope: he had to keep trading out words like "months", "years" and "fortnights" when he really took stock of his time in Landel's Institute. Only three weeks? Bull. Honkey. He was still convinced they were all living in some kind of bizarro time bubble where up was down and quarter pounders were Royales With Cheese, and nobody realized it because they were all too busy noticing how much this place sucked.

That all said, today hadn't been half bad.

It was the first day in months days that Scott hadn't spent feeling sorry for himself and everyone whose presence had ever graced the Institute. He was actually interacting with the world, smiling, being bros with new people, etc etc normal people stuff. Was it weird to think that he had fake!Peter to thank for that? Really, it had been his visit that had been the spark for all this newfound determination. Fake!Peter had been the ultimate proof. The proof that the people who disappeared were not necessarily lost. They might have had their minds messed up worse than the stock room at the Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos, but hey, it was better than oh, say, death. Plus it explained how people could come back and not remember having been around before. All Landel had to do was pop a person in the de-neuralizer or whatever and they were back to normal and ready for re-traumatizing. So really, all they had to do to bring everyone back was take Landel down, get to his brainwashing machine-y thing, round up all the former patients from Doyleton or wherever, and presto chango, everyone goes home happy. Only slight trauma

Heck, that kind of thinking even made Scott hold out hope for the uncomfortable situation with Ramona. Who knew? If they fiddled with the knobblies on the brainwashing machine in just the right way, there was always a chance they could just have people... conveniently forget a few unpleasant memories...

Man, he hadn't eaten since lunch. What was for dinner?

One thing he couldn't fix just yet was the continuing awkwardness with Nameless Redhead. Who Scott realized he probably ought to have asked the name of a while back, but... Yeah. Things. So as it was, their time as roommates had been spent alternately sleeping through each other's company or outright ignoring each other due to moping/grumping/spiting and such. And yes, Scott had felt a little bit of spite in between bouts of feeling sorry for himself. Was it Nameless Redhead's fault that he wasn't Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™? No, of course not. But he still wasn't, and he never could be. And Scott hadn't been able to help but hold that against him all the same.

So, the million dollar question of the day was: am I feeling good enough today to try some attempt at making amends for the past few days of being a total dickweed?

The answer? Eehhmmmaayybably...?

Scott opened the door to M6. His nurse closed it behind him. Nameless Redhead lay in grumbly mode on the bed. Scott crossed the room toward his own bed, gaze shifting and half-shifting back and forth between his roommate and the delicious chicken dinner on his nightstand. Scott didn't say anything.

He sat down on the opposite side of the bed, not facing the guy. He poked at his chicken, took a few bites. Then he paused, fork resting on the plate.

"...Hey."

[dispersive]

When he heard the door open, Luke craned his neck forward to see who was coming in. When he realized it wasn't a nurse, he let it fall back against the bed. At least now he knew that his roommate was animate, although the guy could have been thinking the same thing about him.

"Hey," he said right back and eventually figured trying to hold a conversation while he stared up at the ceiling wasn't very nice. With little effort, the replica hoisted himself back on his butt. This was kind of awkward as they stared at each other with nothing constructive to say.

"Uh, I guess we don't really know each other... I'm Luke," the redhead offered, trying to be friendly despite his funky mood.

[vstheworld]

"Scott," said Scott. "And yeah, I guess we kinda don't..."

He shifted around, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his plate in his lap. "So......"

Awkward silence.

"How long have you been here for?"

[dispersive]

"Not very long I guess. Couple of days... Are you new?" It was hard to pick out those who were used to the routine and those who weren't. Well, some of them had that worried look on their faces, but not everyone.

"Are you a fighter?" he asked, wondering if the man would need protection during the nights. He may not know the man well, but everyone should have a right to protection against the unlawful things that lurked in the shadows.

[vstheworld]

Ha. Was he new? Aha, aha. Oh it was to laugh.

"No to the first, yes to the second," he answered, hitting both of Luke's questions at once. "It's been about three weeks for me. I don't know if that's because I'm a fighter or because I know when to hide in my room like a wuss, though. Little of both, maybe."

Scott started cutting into his chicken. "And what about you? You fight too?" Judging by Luke's fiery red hair and the fact that he had asked about fighting up front, Scott had an inkling of what the answer might be.

[dispersive]

"Oh, wow... Three weeks? Man, I've been here a few days and I'm ready to start takin' names..." And obviously kicking butt, though everyone seemed to frown on such behavior in the daytime. He didn't really understand why. With a coordinated attack from the entire patient body, the redhead thought they would be able to take over these timid nurses. But no, everyone had to be on their best behavior... What a pain!

Well, at least his roommate was a combatant. Frankly, he wasn't sure if he could properly protect another person when his mind was so distracted on other things, like this illness. Luke wondered if Scott had friend he had to save too and the replica was certainly tactless enough to ask.

"So, are you helping find a cure for this infection or what?" Maybe they could team up! Sure he would help Anise and go along with their crazy plan, but if they had more people than just the four of them spreading out all over the institute, a cure should be found no problem!