damned_institute | Day 65: Intercom, Evening

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Day 65: Intercom, Evening

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.]

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The question would have been laughable under most circumstances, but Claude had suspected that he might be a little unsure about how nighttime worked around here. He couldn't really relate, since that was the first thing he'd seen about this place. But, a lot of the time, seeing was believing.

Still, that didn't mean he was just going to sit back and let Lloyd walk out there unprepared.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," he grimly replied. "You'll see in a few minutes. The Head Doctor sounds all nice and cheerful now, but he'll change his tune as soon as the sun sets." That, at least, should serve as a big clue that something strange was happening.

"The doors will unlock, and then you'll be able to head outside," he said with a frown. "It's the only way we can figure out what's going on, but he also doesn't always make it easy for us. Sometimes there are monsters, and sometimes he brainwashes other patients into attacking each other. I think he actually enjoys it."

The Head Doctor was different during the day. That was what Tsurugi had said, too. Monsters and brainwashing... For the second time since he'd woken up, Lloyd felt himself grow cold. If there could have been one thing good about the possibility that the boy he'd met was just sick and hallucinating the danger, it would have been that wasn't real. Hearing the same thing from someone else, though, meant that Tsurugi hadn't been lying.

It also meant that everything else he'd said was probably just as true, that they were prisoners, that the doctors were making people sick instead of healing them. Taking people's memories and turning them into monsters-

Anger flushed through him and he clenched his fists. "He enjoys it? What kind of doctor is he? That bastard!" He was shaking, it was so hard to control his flaring temper, but there wasn't anything he could lash out at here, except Claude who didn't deserve it. It was hard not to lash out at something anyway. He wanted to shout.

Still bristling, he nearly missed something important in what Claude just said. "Wait, we can get out? Why are people still here if we can escape?"

"Trust me, 'bastard' doesn't even cover it." Claude shook his head with disgust as he spoke. Still, the angry outburst was oddly reassuring to him. That was pretty much how he'd reacted when he first learned of the Head Doctor's cruelty. His rage only grew when he was forced to endure it, to watch his friends endure it. One by one, the people from his own world had disappeared until just his mother remained -- except she was twenty years younger and had no idea he was her son.

With the latest symptoms stacked on top of one tragedy after another, Claude had to admit that the fire in his heart had been drenched by what this place had done to him and his friends. The low burn left had to believe that it wouldn't always be this way. Everything had an end, after all. Someday Martin and the Institute would meet theirs.

They just didn't know what that end would cost.

Thankfully, he didn't have to voice any of that out loud. Lloyd's questions kept the conversation moving, and Claude did his best to answer them. "Everyone blacks out after a few hours," he explained. "We wake up in our beds just in time for breakfast. The nurses act like everything's normal. It's stupid, but that's how things are until we can find a way to stop the cycle."

Lloyd shook his head fiercely, refusing to believe the hopelessness of the situation that Claude painted. "There has to be a way to escape where we don't end up back here. If we can't find it, then we'll just have to find a way to take down the people who're behind all of this." He spoke with the firm conviction of someone who'd broken out of prison before, the conviction of someone who'd defied and fought cruel and oppressive regimes, not caring how powerful they were, or how long they'd been in control. Whoever was in control of Landel's, they couldn't be any worse than Cruxis. Maybe they were part of Cruxis, in which case Lloyd was only that much more determined to end what they were doing. "The important thing is that we keep trying. We can do anything if we try." TImes like this were the most important times to remember the sixteenth Dwarven Vow.

But to try he'd need to be prepared. He didn't have his weapons, but if he could find something he could use in their place, he could still use his mana techniques. A broom handle, a long tree branch - heck, he'd even used paper fan once when he was goofing around with Genis. He stored that thought as a last resort, though. Sure, his mana would follow the paper guide, but most of his tecniques would be nearly useless with it. The fan wouldn't do any damage itself and didn't give any kind of protection.

He had no idea yet that his ability to fight might have been dampened before he woke up in this place.

He scanned the room for anything that might work as a makeshift weapon, but nothing immediately jumped out at him as being a shape he could work with. He'd just have to find something when the doors opened, then. Until then...

He turned back to Claude. "So, we just wait and the doors will open?" The idea that someone might imprison them, then deliberately let them loose, seemed really strange and almost unbelievable, but Claude had said that Landel enjoyed watching them have to fight. That was probably why he did it. "How long do we have before that happens?"

"I know that." Claude sounded a little more forceful than he'd meant to, but he was tired and ill, and it rankled him to hear someone who had barely been here a day imply that he'd given up. It wasn't like he'd spent over a month just sitting on his hands! "I didn't say there was no way to escape, just that we have to make do with what we've got until we can even the playing field."

Once they did that, he had no doubt that the patients would rise up and take matters into their own hands. There was too much resentment, too much pain, too much anger for the people trapped here to do anything different.

Regardless, if they spent all their time whining that they only got a few hours at night to find a way out of here, they would just be wasting valuable time and energy. Even if he kind of felt like Lloyd thought that he and the others hadn't been doing all they could to escape, Claude was willing to set all of that aside to help a new person out. Lloyd's questions made it easy to do that.

"It helps to eat first, but, yeah, the doors unlock once nightshift starts," Claude responded. "Dinner lasts a little less time than the other shifts in the day. There aren't any clocks here, so I don't know exactly how long, but I usually have enough time to eat and start getting ready to go out."

Speaking of which, he doubted Lloyd had anything to defend himself with. Claude turned away and began pulling his possessions box from out of the closet. "Hold on a second--"

The forcefulness took Lloyd aback. He hadn't been trying to provoke anything - but in a way it was good to hear. The tiredness he'd seen in Claude, the bleakness of their situation, it had been all too easy to worry that Claude had been worn down. That wasn't the case though. Something inside Lloyd unknotted at hearing the anger in Claude's voice. If he could still be that determined, even after more than a month...

Somehow, that made things just a little bit better. So long as people here still hoped and fought, they could stand a chance.

"Sorry, I just thought..." Well, no, he hadn't really thought. He shook his head again, then decided to let it go. "You're right. Let's focus on what we can do."

At the mention of food, he glanced at his tray again - or, well, what he assumed was his tray. He wasn't sure which side was his. Taking a guess based on which closet Claude had just opened, Lloyd headed for the desk by the bed on the other side and sat down in the chair. Eating was important for keeping up your strength. From what he was learning, he had a feeling he'd need everything he could get.

"So, the monsters we might run into," he said, wrapping a napkin around the end of the leg of chicken on his plate. He watched Claude to see what the blond was up to. "How dangerous are they? What kinds of things can they do? Is there anyting they're weak against?" Because as soon as the doors opened, he fully intended to leave. It'd be a good idea to know what he was up against before he stepped outside.

As Claude continued digging through his things, Lloyd didn't have any problems with tucking into dinner while tossing more questions at him. That was probably just as well, though. To be honest, Claude would have been worried if he hadn't asked anything else.

"It depends on the monster," he admitted. "Some of them are kind of like mutated animals, and some of them seem more like demons than anything from this world. Normally, a lot of them wouldn't be so tough, but most of us don't have our full strength or our regular weapons. Defending yourself might be a lot harder than you're used to."

Finally, he spotted something that might be of use. Furrowing his eyebrows, Claude pulled what appeared to be a fixed-blade knife and a small sheath out from the bottom of his box. This looked like it had belonged to Firo, he thought with a heavy heart. Part of him felt bad just handing something like this over to someone neither of them knew, but something about Lloyd put Claude at ease. He was sure Firo wouldn't have wanted a perfectly good weapon to gather dust, either.

With that decided, Claude rose from where he was crouched and placed the blade on Lloyd's desk. "It's not much, but you can use this until you manage to find something better," he offered. "Just try not to take on anything by yourself, okay?"

Lloyd's hand stilled in the process of lifting the chicken to his mouth. He looked at the knife, then back up at Claude. It didn't take much to guess that weapons were not easy to come by in this place.

"Are you sure?" He searched Claude's face. "I've fought monsters before. I can handle myself and figure something out if I need to. If you need that knife, I don't want to take it from you." Granted, when he'd fought those monsters, he'd had his swords, and most times he had his friends to back him up. The thought of facing monsters without any kind of weapon was more than a little intimidating, but he stood by his words. Even if it came down to using a paper fan, he'd rather that than leaving someone else defenseless.

After all, he might not have his weapons, like Claude had said, but all it took was a look at his left hand to see the Exsphere still mounted there to know that he still had an advantage that most other people wouldn't have.

While it was considerate of Lloyd to think of his roommate's safety, Claude had been here long enough to collect quite a few weapons. He shook his head with a soft, albeit reassuring smile. "Of course I'm sure," he answered. "I've actually got my own sword, so don't worry about me." There was his phase gun, too, but Claude wasn't going to go out of his way to bring that up in a conversation.

"If I still had a spare sword, I'd give you that instead, but..." His smile grew more rueful. "Well, they're not exactly easy to come by these days. Hopefully that knife will still help you out until you get your hands on a better weapon."

With that clear, Claude sat down and began to cut off a few slices of chicken. Although he didn't have much of an appetite, he figured he ought to swallow at least a little bit of food before getting ready for nightshift.

"Yeah, I'm better with swords," Lloyd admitted with soft laugh. "But a knife is loads better than what I was planning to use. Thanks." He put his hand on the weapon, not yet ready to put it on, but accepting it with open gratitude. "I'll try to take care of it, and if I find something better, I'll give it back."

His other hand lifted the chicken again and he took a few more bites. The food really was pretty good, better than a lot of meals he'd had to suffer through on the road, not even counting the times when Raine cooked. If it weren't for the situation, he could have enjoyed it.

"So, what're you going to do once we're out?" he asked after a few minutes. "I think I'm going to look for the front door. Even if other people have tried to get out that way before, it feels like the best place for me to start. You want to come with me?"

Upon hearing Lloyd accept the weapon, Claude offered a lopsided smile. "Hey, no problem." Patients had to stick together, after all. If they just left each other out in the cold, then they'd never find a way out of here. Not only that, but Claude felt like it was just the right thing to do.

He hoped Lloyd would give the knife back, though -- not because Claude was particularly attached to it, but because he'd rather see him do it himself instead of suddenly finding the item in his box, with Lloyd gone without a trace. Something like that had already happened to all of his previous roommates already, and it made Claude sick to think about.

When Lloyd continued speaking, he shook himself out of his thoughts. Although he knew the front door probably wouldn't amount to much, he couldn't fault Lloyd for wanting to start there for his own reasons. "Fair enough," he said, though he hadn't expected Lloyd to ask him to accompany him. Claude scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, um...normally, I'd love to, but some friends and I..." Claude averted his gaze as he pushed a piece of chicken around on our plate. "Well, you might not have heard, but some people haven't been feeling well. We're trying to find a way to cure their symptoms before it gets worse."

The smile immediately faded from Lloyd's face. Pieces started fitting together that he hadn't thought much about before. Claude's half-hearted attempt at his chicken, the haggard look on his face when he'd come in, the way he moved sometimes, nothing overtly wrong, but still just a little bit off. Was Claude...?

"Someone told me the doctors were making people sick." Lloyd gave the other man a look that was heavily laced with concern. "Are you all right? Is there anything I can do?" He wasn't a healer. He knew how to make bandages and wrap injuries up, could even manage a makeshift splint if it came to that, but anything more than that was beyond his skill. That didn't keep him from offering, though. If there was something he could do, he wouldn't hesitate. He'd never abandon someone in need.

Of course, it was possible that Claude was just tired, that he was just saying he was going to help someone else who needed to find a cure. Either way, Lloyd's offer held. His own plans could wait if he could make a difference somewhere else.

While he knew he'd probably have to come clean about his condition sooner or later, Claude didn't feel like talking about it to someone he'd just met, and he didn't want to burden Lloyd with his problems. The guy already had enough to figure out, especially since this was his first day.

"It's fine," he assured him instead, knowing that was probably only half true. "We've got a small group, and we know the general layout of the building, so our chances are as good as anyone else's." Plus with at least two of them infected, they didn't need to put Lloyd at risk of getting attacked in case one (or, hell, both) of them did transform. Guy was already putting himself at risk. He couldn't ask a new patient to do the same when they probably didn't know the full extent of the problem.

"Thanks anyway, though," he added after a moment. Lloyd seemed like a nice person to worry about someone he barely knew. Not everyone here was like that. Claude could only hope he didn't meet the same fate as every other roommate he'd had before.

He licked his lips and set his fork down. "Anyway, try to find someone to stick with tonight, okay?" They probably didn't have a lot of time left, and Claude knew he needed to make that point clear to Lloyd. "Even if you've got a lot of fighting experience, it's dangerous to go out alone."

Claude had a plan, and he had people to help him. That was as much as anyone could hope for, and more than Lloyd had at the moment. Not that he hadn't gotten help, first from Tsurugi and now from Claude, but his roommate was right. He should find someone to work together with, too.

"All right," he said. "I'll stick with my own plan, then, and I'll definitely keep an eye out for other people tonight. If we all work together, even if it's on separate things, we can beat this place. I know it. Just take care of yourself, all right?" He was still sick, after all. He worriedly eyed the other's plate, fighting back the urge to say something about how little the other had eaten. It wasn't really his place to say anything, not when they'd only just met, and the other man probably knew how much he could handle.

It still worried him, though. If he hadn't found a way to break out of this place before the next time he saw Claude, he promised to himself to try to keep an eye on him. For now, though, all he could do was concentrate on his own food and vow to do everything he could to get out of here and find someone who knew how to heal.

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Day 65: Intercom, Evening

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