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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[Tsurugi]

He would have preferred to talk to Guy longer, but when lunch ended Lloyd wasn't given much choice in the matter. Still, he tucked away what he'd learned from the blond, promising to bring it up with Claude the next time he saw his roommate. He followed his nurse - he still hadn't learned the man's name, and grumpily he decided not to ask. The nurse still insisted on calling him Nigel, despite Lloyd's repeated reminders that that wasn't his name. If he wasn't going to acknowledge Lloyd's real name, then Lloyd wasn't about to ask after his.

Not entirely certain what to expect from this "game room" he was being led to, he looked around when they arrived, trying to get a feel for what it was.

"Why don't you join one of the other patients for a game?" his nurse suggested, nudging him forward and away from the door to keep them from blocking the entrance. "You might enjoy yourself."

Under normal circumstances, the suggestion would definitely have held some appeal. Lloyd enjoyed games, even ones that other people might think were too childish for his age. It didn't matter to him what other people thought was "appropriate." Fun was fun! That was all that was important! But in a building where he and so many others were being held prisoner, when people were sick and hurt, when his own arm and ribs were bandaged from an attack the night before, it was hard to think about having fun.

Before he could voice any of these thoughts out loud, though, his eyes landed on a somewhat familiar face in the crowed. That was the boy he'd met yesterday, the one who'd tried to warn him. If Tsurugi hadn't warned him...

Without a second though, Lloyd started forward, leaving his nurse behind as he made his way to the younger boy's side. "Hey," he said, stopping a couple feet away. "Uh... Tsurugi, right?" He hoped he wasn't tripping over the other boy's name.

Kyousuke hadn't really been expecting to hear his own name, since he hadn't told very many people, and had made no real effort to bother correcting any of the nurses. he looked up to see a somewhat familiar face—this was the guy he'd talked to in the courtyard the other day.

"Yeah," he acknowledged. "And you're Lloyd?" ... He'd looked better off the other day, from the bandage on his arm. "I guess things didn't go well last night?" he asked, indicating the bandage with his eyes. Not that he could say much about it, since he'd gotten himself pretty beaten up, too.

Lloyd nodded in response to the first question, grimaced when his bandages were pointed out. He shook his head, looking unhappy about it. "I made it outside with a couple of friends, but we ran into a monster on the road. I don't even remember what happened after we fought it. I just woke up back in my room, and someone had bandaged me up."

Tsurugi's injuries might not be so obvious, but even Lloyd could tell he was moving a little more gingerly. "What about you? Are you all right?"

So it was true. Even if you left this place, you were still stuck. Kyousuke had already heard about that, but final portion of Lloyd's explanation caught by surprise. "... Really? It was like that for me, too. All the times I woke up here I didn't know how I got back in bed." Did that mean something...? Either way, it seemed a little too coincidental for comfort.

In truth, Kyousuke didn't have much desire to recount how he'd gotten his injuries, but since Lloyd told him what happened to him, it was only fair to offer the same in return. "Someone was... changing. I tried to help restrain him so nobody would get hurt, but it didn't work out that way." It was a stupid idea, in hindsight, but they'd both been desperate, and he didn't regret trying. The problem was finding something that would actually work...

"You too?" Lloyd blinked in surprise, just as startled by that news as Tsurugi was. "I just thought I must have passed out. I'd used all my mana and I was tired even before I got in that fight. Getting hurt on top of all that..." Well, it would have made sense if he'd fainted from shock or blood loss, or even just simple exhaustion. "But that wouldn't explain you passing out too. Unless..."

He frowned, then echoed, "Changing...?" It didn't take much to put the pieces together, giving him a sobering picture. "Someone... became a monster?" A pained expression crossed his face at the thought. People who became monsters, in his experience, didn't usually get a chance to change back. "If you got hurt, too, that might explain if you passed out."

... Mana? Kyousuke had never heard that term used in the real world before. Maybe it was some quirk of wherever Lloyd came from, since apparently, the universe was a lot bigger than he thought. That was beside the point, though, so he didn't bother asking about it.

Lloyd's expression more or less mirrored how Kyousuke felt about this monster situation, and he tried unsuccessfully not to grimace. "... Yeah. But he was fine in the morning, so there's still some hope." For now, at least. But that also didn't change that as much as he was trying to help fix things, it felt like taking swings in the dark.

He crossed his arms as considered whether he could have simply passed out. Maybe... He hadn't been in the best state either night he'd been here, come to think of it. The first he'd somehow drained all his power, and the second, he'd lost a lot of blood. But something about that didn't feel right...

"I don't think so," he thought aloud. "I could still talk to people normally." Both times, even, and he would have thought it would be more obvious if he was going to keel over in the middle of a conversation. "It was more like things suddenly cut out."

Whatever that meant. Maybe there was something wrong... Either way, this wasn't normal.

With a small noise of surprise and a soft breath of relief, Lloyd sank down into a chair next to Tsurugi's. "He's all right?" No, that wasn't the right question to ask. He couldn't be all right, not after that. "I mean, that doesn't fix what happened, but you're right. At least there's still a chance." That was better than he'd been expecting.

He let his mind drift over to the other topic now, mulling over what the younger boy had just said. It didn't make much sense to him. How could someone's awareness be cut off like that if they didn't pass out?

"Was there anyone around you who could've knocked you out?" That was the only other thing he could think of.

... 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.

Lloyd shrugged back at the question. "I have no idea. I just can't figure out how else you wouldn't remember what happened next."

Tsurugi was right, though. The how wasn't nearly as important as figuring out how to stop it. Maybe Lloyd would see something tonight that might give him a clue. He wasn't planning on going out this time. He'd just be exploring, so who knew what he might find?

"Thanks, by the way," he said after a thought. "I don't think I got what it really meant at the time, but you warned me about stuff I really needed to know. It would have been bad for me if you hadn't. I owe you one for that."

That was the second time he'd been thanked today... Who knew, maybe he was doing a little more good here than he thought. It didn't feel that way, but even small things started piling up eventually. And in a place like this, they needed as much of that as they could get.

But those thoughts aside, Kyousuke was never one to accept things like that gracefully. Or at all. "... Forget it. I didn't do anything to be thanked for. You would have found out eventually whether I told you or not." Which was true enough, but nobody deserved to do it the hard way.

"Maybe that's true," Lloyd conceded, "but I might not have found out soon enough by myself." So as far as he was concerned, the thanks still applied. He wasn't going to take it back, regardless.

Having said what he initially intended to say, it was easy for Lloyd's attention to get pulled to something else. When his eyes landed on the thing Tsurugi held in his hands, he tilted his head with interest. "What's that?" He could see lights and colors and different shapes - and movement? He leaned closer for a better look.

That was true, and more or less why Kyousuke had said anything to begin with, even if he wasn't going to admit that. Either way, it seemed like Lloyd was firm in his thanks, and it would be a really stupid thing to argue about, so Kyousuke didn't press the issue. Instead, he just averted his gaze, pretending to look annoyed even though he wasn't.

He'd all but forgotten about the gameboy until it was mentioned, but when it was, he held it out a little so Lloyd could see the screen better. "Some old gaming device," he explained. "I've never used one, either." Something similar, but this particular model was long before his time.

It was as good a time as any to change that, he supposed. He pressed a couple of buttons on the screen reading "Super Mario Bros. Deluxe" to navigate though the menus, and tried his hand at it. Unfortunately, since it wasn't something he was used to playing, he got a Game Over screen fairly quickly. ... Well, that was frustrating. It made him want to try it again, but maybe it was best not to get too absorbed while he was talking to someone.

"Here," he said instead, holding the gameboy out. "You can try it."

Some old gaming device? If it was a game, it wasn't like anything Lloyd had seen before. He took the Gameboy and turned it over - but no, the back wasn't anywhere near as interesting as the front.

"How do you play it?" he asked. His eyes became glued with fascination to the screen. Those weren't just colors and lights. They actually looked like moving drawings. He pressed a button experimentally, and his face lit up when the character on the screen actually responded to that. "Whoa! This is pretty cool!" Another button produced another response, and another button did that and...

And it would be obvious he'd never played a Gameboy before, or seen anything like it, and he was losing pretty badly, but that didn't do anything to dampen his utter delight. "I had no idea people made games with magitechnology!" If he'd known that, maybe he'd have been more interested when Professor Raine brought it into some of her lessons.

Lloyd's reaction brought a faint noise of amusement out of Kyousuke, who shook his head in disbelief. He'd never seen someone react to something so simple with so much fascination and awe. It was like watching a little kid, except most little kids were so used to this sort of thing they wouldn't have paid this any mind. He guessed wherever Lloyd came from wasn't very big on electronics.

... Well, whatever. If he liked it that much he could keep it the rest of the shift. Kyousuke didn't feel too much like playing around anyway.

The way he described it caught his attention, though. "... You used that word before," he remembered. At the time he half-wondered if Lloyd had been making things up, but now that he knew there were other worlds out there, he knew a lot of his reaction in that conversation probably wasn't completely fair. "Is that something from where you're from?" It couldn't hurt to ask.

"Yeah. Well..." He had to think about it for a moment before he finally settled on a nod. "Yeah, it is. There's not a lot of it where I'm from except stuff you can find in old ruins. It's pretty much only something you see Desians using. Er..." It threw him for a mental loop for a moment when he had to remind himself that Tsurugi might not know who the Desians were. "It's kind of complicated." Complicated and did it even really matter here? There weren't any Desians in this world, at least as far as he knew, and it would take far too long to explain the oppressive system in place in his world.

"There's another world connected to mine, though, and I saw more of it there. I just never saw anything like this." He suddenly laughed. "Hey, I got the guy to jump on the monster's head!"

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Day 66: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

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