damned_institute | Day 66: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

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Day 66: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

The game room, huh... In normal, everyday life, it wouldn't have sounded too terrible, but as things were, it seemed like more of an annoyance. Games were fine, but priorities.... On the other hand, Kyousuke seemed to have hit a block in figuring out the clues to the the illness, and just thinking without getting anywhere wasn't very productive, either. At this point, it may have been best to push it aside and come back to it fresh. He had his reservations about it, especially since the end of the day was rapidly approaching, but... Frustration wasn't going to get him any closer.

He poked around what games were there with resignation, still half wondering what he was even doing and trying not feel guilty for needing a break. After a while he came across an electronic device marked "Game Boy Color" and picked it up out of curiosity. He'd heard of those before... If he was right, this thing was older than he was, by quite a bit. Flicking it on confirmed his suspicions; the sound and graphics from it spoke for themselves.

Shrugging, he took it a random seat, wincing at the pain in his ribs as he sat down. He guessed it wouldn't kill him to mess around with this thing for a little while.

[Lloyd!]

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Nothing was wrong, and yet, Albedo would speak of apologies. He would place himself at fault for something he had no hand in, for a task another had forced upon him. Frowning, Nigredo raised his head and stared evenly. {Don't,} he gave.

Don't apologize to him. His life belonged to his brother, and he-- {I owe you everything.} And apologies did not exist, not from this source.

As for the purposed cure, Albedo gave facts Nigredo had considered but ultimately overlooked for the end result. It was foolish, he knew, but the boy supposed he could be excused given what he currently was. Sickness had little room for caution. He nodded, solemn, albeit it came with an addendum.

"I wouldn't mind," Nigredo said. "If that becomes the only option, I wouldn't be adverse."

Edited 2012-09-28 05:22 (UTC)

... Still a chance. Kyousuke simply nodded in response, and left things at that. Not fretting over thing was proving a little difficult, but did him no good. There was nothing to do but seize whatever opportunity came.

As for their other topic, he wasn't really sure what to say. "Why would anyone do that?" he pointed out. He had been with people both times, but he had difficulty picturing either Murphy or Doctor... whatever his name was, doing that. And besides that... "You'd feel something like that when you woke up. ... My head is fine."

Or maybe it wasn't, but it certainly felt fine. He leaned back into his chair a little, and sighed. "... Well, whatever. It's not that important." At least, not compared to everything going on. It was weird enough he probably shouldn't ignore it, but it didn't seem to be doing any harm for the time being. He hadn't even stopped to think about it until just now.

Albedo's heart caught in his chest at his brother's sending. There was truth in it, and Albedo was having trouble believing. That Nigredo could say that so clearly. Believe that so utterly. His little brother's expression was solemn, serious, and Albedo could only stare transfixed, caught between fear and wonder. Again, he would hold himself in a kind of disbelief--for he had never thought they would be anything close to this.

He blinked, focusing on the conversation, and again tightened his fingers against his brother's hand. Albedo's expression matched Nigredo's own. "I know. I know you wouldn't." His tones had dipped into childlike, something in Albedo lost. "But I can't stand to be without you. So." He looked downward, then back up, watching near sadly. "So don't do anything reckless. Nigredo."

You're all I have.

Edited 2012-09-28 07:14 (UTC)

Wow, he hadn't heard an adult male voice in a long time. That was really something. Not enough to alter his mood any, but something nonetheless. He rolled his eyes at the man's comment, recognizing it as human sarcasm. (He'd spent enough time around them by now that it'd be pretty sad if he couldn't recognize something that obvious.)

And no, he hadn't felt like saying hello. That was just inviting conversation. But apparently not saying hello was asking for it as well, so he lost either way.

"Oh yeah. I'm probably about as thrilled as you are. Which is to say not at all, since you look like you're in the middle of trying to wish yourself out of here - just like me! See how much we have in common already? Holy shit, let's go put our human dance shoes on and celebrate." In hindsight, it would probably have been best if Scar hadn't gotten him to speak at all.

"Hopefully," Kratos agreed. He had not spoken to Castiel in person today at all, only briefly heard from him over the board, so it was difficult to say if the angel was actually doing well, particularly since he'd mentioned being in considerable pain. One had to start somewhere, though, and pain was to be expected...

"If they do, that would be useful. I hardly consider myself an expert on things like that, but there are certainly minds present capable of picking up the slack for the rest of us." He did not name him specifically, but Kratos was confident that Lingormr, if he discovered the device in his closet come dinner, would investigate its workings without fail, even if simply for his own curiosity.

He tilted his head to the side. "Anyway, is that all you wished to bring to my attention?"

So nothing of importance had happened today. That was a bit of a relief to hear. It didn't relieve Zero's wondering about why he'd slept in so long in the first place, but it was better to miss nothing than it was to miss something...especially when one was trapped here, where a lot of things counted.

Then Leanne went on to comment that she didn't know much about last night's events. Good thing Zero just checked the bulletin board before coming here; he'd heard quite a bit about last night on there, so he felt he could share some of what he'd learned with Leanne now. But first, he should probably sit down in a nearby chair if they were going to talk for awhile...

... Now then. "Like Landel said, some prisoners transformed," he said first. "That's all I personally encountered." And personally fired at, too, but it had been a choice between his friends and something very much like a virus-driven Maverick. The choice was obvious...no hard feelings for the unfortunate soul who'd been changed against his will.

"But I've heard that they found the source of the infection, and some got cured last night." Though he didn't know specifics nor really understand how it worked, Zero was at least thankful that this much had apparently been discovered. The sooner everyone was cured, the better...

"I think it's a joke now," Tolten said, frowning as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "The pretending. We all know, but it amuses him anyway to pretend."

But then...oh gods, was it true? It really did work? If that were the case...

Of course, dinner was next and there were so many questions he still had. He'd seen some talk on the board, but standing there had made him so dizzy the world had begun to pitch and tumble!

"But..." He swallowed hard and tried to find a more comfortable position for his aching body. "How...how can anyone survive something like that? Here?" With no healers, no sterile equipment, no anesthesia...

Loki nodded. "I will be certain to let you know on the morrow."

He looked down at his hands. "The other matter is something much more strange. I spoke with Soma about it last night before..." his lips twisted as if with remembered sickness, "business was conducted. Something strange has happened. When I awoke after... Special Counseling... my magics were not entirely shut off from me any longer. Just the smallest of things, but I've found I can make illusions again, if very limited ones."

His gaze returned to Kratos. "I do not trust it."

"I have no idea." Why he was in a particularly chatty mood was lost to Scar. (Chatty as a relative word, of course.) He was stuck in a desperate situation; trapped with little chance of getting out without hurting himself or someone else. And his sickness still made him ache all over.

He mentally berated himself for starting to crack under all the pressure of so many other people reaching out. Trying to help. It was not an entirely unfamiliar feeling, to have people who cared for his well-being, but it still felt out of place. There was a reason he had avoided such contact for so long.

Inevitably, so many of them were only going to die.

"I have only heard of people leaving this place brainwashed or in body bags," Scar grumbled, glaring at the floor. He had to get out of here, though. That was beyond the question. He would break out, or he would die trying, for no reason other than to find his brother. There was no question about it. He would not fail again. First, though, he needed to rid himself of this sickness, which was another mountain altogether, it seemed.

"We need to figure out where the bastard is hiding." Scar's fingers clinched as he looked up to the now silent intercom.

The Shadow Man returned Sora's strained smile with a false grin of his own. "Poor little boy..." Facilier slyly thought to himself, "Not so annoyingly cheerful today, are we?"

"I myself am just fine and dandy..." Facilier answered, lifting his long leg to cross it over his thin knee, "Except that I'm terribly concerned about y'all prisoners with that bug of Landel's..."

"It's just so frustrating, y'know? Having the expertise to do something about it but not having the tools you need to help..." He gave out big sigh that was on the verge of sounding a tad too dramatic. "I finally got some decent equipment last night, very much at my own peril. Yet from hearing your terrible news today, I fear that time is running out..."

Facilier tilted his head slightly to give Sora a sideways glance. "Is there anything you could tell me about what happened to you last night?" he carefully asked, feigning a sensitive approach towards whatever trauma the boy had experienced from his transformation. "Anything that could help us in our noble endeavor?"

Sechs chuckled. "Heh, you got there first, huh?" he remarked with growing respect in his eyes, "Geeze, you're fast!" If he hadn't had troubles with his battle gear and illness, he would have reached the x-ray room sooner, maybe even beat Link to it first...

"Not exactly..." Sechs admitted with a sheepish grin, "I thought the painting was about bounty hunting. Where I come from, there are hunter warriors who are paid to find listed criminals and they get their payment by returning their target's heads to the factory authorities..."

Trailing off for a second, Sechs gave his scruffy head a thoughtful scratch before continuing. "But someone on the bulletin board told me that it's actually an old story about a dancer who got to have the head of some guy served to her on a plate..." he explained. "Apparently she was dancing for some King and he liked it so much that he offered her whatever she wanted. So she asked for someone named John to get beheaded. I don't know why she would ask for that, she must've had some beef with that John dude or something..." That explanation seemed to make more sense when it came to the painting and its title, but Sechs still liked his own bounty hunter theory better; it was a heck lot more exciting at least.

"Another thing I learned from the board was that the John guy was a Baptist and apparently Baptists hang around rivers a lot... Don't ask me why..." he added with a shrug.

Tolten had a point. If they'd ever had a passable cover to begin with, it would have been blown to pieces after the military takeover anyway.

Talk of the cure seemed to have gotten his attention, though. Soma leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice as she nudged a pawn across the board. "It's not impossible. At least two of us got it done last night. There's an operating room in the medical wing, and there's equipment and anesthetic in a room attached to it."

She paused. It was easier to talk about it during the day, now that the pain was fading and the blood and sweat seemed more like a bad dream than anything else. "It's not easy. But the supplies are easy enough to obtain. There are people with healing abilities here, too. Finding someone you trust enough to perform the operation is the hard part."

"...Yeah. I saw one of them last night, too" she said softly, thinking of Sora. He'd said on the bulletin board that his case was different, but hadn't the end result been the same? He'd transformed into a monster during the night, just like the nurses did, just like the sick would, if they didn't find a way to stop it... "But I didn't know how many it'd happened to."

The mention of a cure, however, was enough to make her head snap up again, for her mouth to open slightly in amazement. The cure... Soma had been going to try to cure herself too, hadn't she? Leanne hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of her that morning, as intent as she'd been on other things, but could it have worked? Could she have been cured? The procedure had sounded risky, but if it really did work... "Do you know what they did? They didn't... Did they really cut themselves open?"

Not fast enough, Link added in his mind.

He contemplated Sech's words quietly, tucking them in the back of his mind. The strange story seemed more likely, much as Sechs seemed considerably less enthused about it.

"Rivers?" Link said absentmindedly. "You don't know... Is there a river around here?" He frowned, deep in thought. The Hylian was confident that he could put the pieces of this puzzle together. There had been several times he had thought he was stumped by a puzzle before, but the answer always wound up being right before his eyes the entire time.

"I do not know what a 'baptist' is... But that combined with the leaves on the ground... I think we need to look outside." It was the best idea Link could come up with, right now. Perhaps a true breakthrough would follow tonight?

One could never fake anxiety. Fear made a poor fabrication. Nigredo watched as truth and abjection passed through his brother's violet eyes, as guilt seeped into his own. The youngest had not meant to risk himself; he had only thought to raise a calculated point. He should have given it more consideration.

"I won't. Promise." Facets he would never touch again. "I will only do what you ask of me," was the conclusion. Nigredo may lose sense and falter in judgement calls, but he would not move on his own.

Kratos's eyebrow rose in the perfect picture of (very polite) suspicion. How exactly had Lingormr managed this? Or had it even been by his power? That in turn begged the question of why Landel would even want to grant someone who obviously had great magical powers a sliver more of his original strength. Either he had some purpose of allowing Lingormr to regain his illusory power, or some kind of...reward...

He was loath to suspect any patient of actually allying in some fashion with Landel, but there was always a slight chance; the military had offered incentives for patients' cooperation, so it did not seem too far-fetched for Landel do something to that effect as well.

"Interesting," he said slowly, eyebrow still raised. "I've never heard of such a circumstance. Can you think of any reason for you to have received a gift like that?"

Loki shook his head. "Soma told me it was unheard of as well, and I had thought so much myself. I find it... intensely disturbing."

He frowned, looking as if he wasn't certain if he should feel insulted or not. "None at all, unless he," such disgust in his tone, and entirely unfeigned since he found the man quite loathsome, "found me particularly entertaining as a victim of his mind control."

Loki shook his head, sitting back in his chair. "I find it suspicious. I do not know what his game is in this. Perhaps to sow more paranoia between us all. Perhaps to make me the goat for some plot. Those are the two ideas that spring most quickly to my mind. Soma thought perhaps it was the doing of the other people, those on the radios. I know too little to even begin to guess in that direction."

As Flora cut the deck, she looked about the room and the people already in it and still coming. Her eyes flew open when she spotted children around. Immediately, she recalled what she'd read on the bulletin. It wasn't hard to believe that there could be more than two here, but she didn't want to. Didn't want to think that anyone would want to take kids, here. But here they were. A pair of them looked like they were twins, and her heart fell into her stomach when she thought of her own little sister here.

She was starting to run out of words to describe Landel.

Her thought were startled out of her and she jumped a little in her seat at a sudden outburst. Flora's mind ran on auto-pilot, registering a question being asked of her. One she felt compelled to answer as she sat ramrod straight at attention. "Yes? I-I guess so?" She felt as though she were in school again, but without the right answer for her professors. That almost never happened. How awkward.

She shook her head and relaxed. She was being silly.

Still, the other girl's behaviour was infectious, and she found herself leaning forward to inspect the box again, with a larger curiosity this time around. Just what had Flora picked up? It seemed just like an ordinary game to her, but maybe it was something beloved and popular to humans. She didn't know.

Flora stared at the other girl for a moment, before suddenly raising a hand to her mouth and laughing, bright and good-natured, at her eagerness and self-awareness. It was endearing, really. She gestured to the seat next to her with a welcoming smile. "Yes, I'd like that, if you're interested. Please, have a seat." She liked her already and didn't know her name, yet.

Well, then. It seemed that she had another game to prepare for, instead. She was happy for it, it looked like she'd be in good company. Flora set the stack of cards in her hand down (it was a wonder that she hadn't dropped them when she was surprised), and held her hand over them for a moment, willing them to pile themselves up, before she remembered. Oh, right. No magic. Well, it wasn't a big deal, right now. She could pick up a deck of cards. Which is exactly what she began to do, gathering all her little piles into one, neat stack. "I didn't realize I picked up a treasure of a game."

Perhaps it was a good thing that the boy hadn't spoken that thought, or Scar would have wondered what other kind of voice one would expect...

The comment that was made earned the boy a subtly raised eyebrow on Scar's part.

"Oh, I'd love to," Scar commented, the tone of his voice implying the contrary. "Such a pity my bad back prevents me to express the appropriate amount of joy." Not that his back was actually bad, but the former lion would only afford those little details some attention if he felt like it.

"Human dance shoes, though? That's an interesting way of putting it..." If only because it carried certain implications of this boy not being human.

Even if it might be too late for Sora, he was still glad to hear that Facilier had found some supplies last night that might help. Did he mean surgical supplies, or something else? Facilier had told him that he was capable of certain kinds of magic, so maybe it had something to do with that.

"Well, not everyone changed last night," Sora pointed out. "You might be able to help them still." If some of the other patients didn't have to resort to the same thing as him, that would be for the best. An easier, cleaner way to fix this illness was what everyone wanted, right?

Sora didn't exactly want to talk about what had happened to him last night, but he had to be open with it, especially if it might help someone. "Well, I started to change almost right away. At first I still had a hold on myself, and my friend tried to help tie me down so I wouldn't get away. But once I changed, I was strong enough to break free..." That was just the start of it, but he didn't know what specifics Facilier was looking for.

Today had been a day of frustrations and minor victories.

Eating breakfast, for the first time since arriving here, was one of the best things Skulduggery could have done. His headache cleared up instantly; he could feel himself thinking more clearly. He could also - and this was the important bit - get properly curious about small details again, and motivated enough to do something about that curiosity. As a skeleton, his thought processes had been limited by nothing more than his mood on any given subject. It was so very jarring how much those same thought processes now depended on Skulduggery having food in his stomach. And, presumably, enough sleep.

So he'd examined the library after breakfast and found, predictably, absolutely no sign of the damage from last night. The book he'd set on fire was back where it had been and looked exactly the same as it had the day before. It was like there was a reset button, sending everyone back to their beds, the monsters to their nests, and the fights to vague memory. It was all very unsettling.

A long talk with his nurse in the Sun Room later had Skulduggery completely convinced that none of the staff here had any idea of what was really going on. That made them victims, too. Brainwashed and taken from other realities? Or were they local? The atmosphere of the Institute, and the level of the technology, made Skulduggery fairly sure this dimension was some version of his own. What that meant, he had no idea. Not yet.

Ironically enough, his nurse's name was Stephanie. Skulduggery quietly chuckled at the revelation. Landel really did plan out every detail, didn't he?

Lunch was also another success, and much easier to handle this time. It seemed like the effects of the hair-monster from two nights ago were finally wearing off. Feeling refreshed, finally understanding exactly what feeling refreshed meant, and only mildly frustrated over the inability to discover anything useful, Skulduggery wandered into the Game Room a few minutes into 4th shift and noticed the Once-ler in the corner.

Ah. Yes. There were a few things he needed to ask the fictional businessman. First and foremost, he was getting sick of the smiley faces on all his clothes.

"Shuffling can be annoying," Skulduggery nodded as he stopped in front of the man. "But I'm sure the cards have learned their lesson. Tell me, do you still enjoy knitting?"

Riley had walked around in a bit of a daze most of the day, his head filled with images of AI's stuck in human bodies and monsters and other random bits of insanity. Not the good kind of insanity, either, where you got to meet the President of the United States right after kidnapping him, get personally pardoned, and then given your awesome car back. No. This was the kind of insanity where you couldn't even tell what was supposed to be the lie. Riley's nurse kept trying to tell him not to listen to the other patients, that everything was absolutely fine as long as he focused on trying to get better. She still wasn't letting him talk to anyone in authority, though, and completely ignoring Riley's increasingly desperate pleas that he shouldn't even be here. The girl from breakfast, Aigis, belonged here. So did Ishida. So did almost everyone who was posting notices on the bulletin board. But not Riley.

In an effort to cheer him up, Riley's nurse had suggested going to the Game Room after lunch. Riley visibly brightened at the prospect. And when Dr. Landel confirmed it over the intercom, it was only thanks to the slow and insistent manner of the nurse that Riley wasn't the first person in the room.

It didn't look like there was anything good, but at least it wasn't just board games. Someone was playing Super Mario Kart over on one of the televisions. Riley wandered over with a slowly growing smile, hesitant and nowhere near a good mood yet, but... getting there. This would all get sorted out. Sooner or later, someone would realize their mistake.

"Oh, come on," he said from behind the chair as he watched. "No one chooses Mario. He's the title character. That's just asking for bad luck."

Brainwashed.

Body bags.

Oh, how utterly delightful; what stock Landel allowed to leave could only escape in death or in the loss of mind. So it wasn't enough to shove strange things in their bodies, rip people from where they were from against their will, and treat them like playthings, but...

X clenched a fist, breathed in and out.

No point in getting angry. What would that accomplish? Besides, the man had a point: nothing could get done unless they knew where the perpetrator was.

But where did they even start searching?

"I don't suppose there are specific administration areas in this place, like offices and such. Though even if there were, he'd probably expect us to look there. That would be too easy..."

"Hm." Kratos frowned. It was possible, too, that the rebels were behind this strange development; actually, he had forgotten to consider them. If that was so, though, it was unfortunate that they could not have bothered to extend their generosity to the rest of the patient population as well. "That may well be the case. With things as they are now, it wouldn't take much at all for Landel to provoke some kind of extreme reaction toward any of us. Whatever the case, though, all we can do is guess at the motive, and I would prefer to have more information before attempting that in earnest.

"I'm curious as to why you felt I needed to be warned of this," he added mildly. There were many potential reasons that came to mind, but he disliked, as he had made clear only seconds before, speculation. To be honest, Kratos did not really bother to keep tabs on who was capable of what unless their abilities were curative, and if Lingormr had ever demonstrated his illusions, would have simply assumed that he was always capable of that, albeit to a limited degree.

Loki shrugged. "I found it a strange occurrence and thought it best to share that information with a few people in case there was use for it." He smiled tightly. "Particularly as I have received censorious remarks for not having been forthcoming about my abilities as a magician when I could not even utilize any of them. If you feel I have wasted your time in this regard, I do apologize."

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Day 66: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

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\o/!!!!!!!!!

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