Day 68: Intercom, Dinner

[damned_intercom]

As it turned out, all of the female patients were wise enough to remain indoors, so the nurses didn't have as much work to do as the intercom came on and the end of the day officially hit.

"Hello, patients! This storm put a wrench into some of our planned activities, but I hope that all of you stayed dry and safe, especially those of you who are sick!" The Head Doctor did a spectacular job of sounding like he was truly worried for the patients' well-being.

"For dinner, we'll be serving some gourmet spaghetti with marinara sauce. There'll be parmesen cheese and some crushed red peppers on the side to add if you wish, not to mention a salad! I hope that you all eat well before lights out, and those of you who've been paired up with some of our new arrivals, make sure to make them feel welcome."

The announcement echoed through the halls as the patients were led back to their assigned rooms, and Landel finished it all off as most of them arrived to their doors.

"That's all for now. Sleep well, everyone, and we'll be talking again come tomorrow."

The intercom turned off, leaving patients with only their roommates as company.

[Post a comment with your room number in the subject line. Look here for room assignments.]

Comments

M6

[ever_loyal_dog]

Another day gone and no closer to Ririchiyo or home. Soushi made polite conversation with his nurse as he was led back to his room. The door shut behind him with an eerie sort of finality. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it was hard not to remember his old tiny room, though here there were no windows, not even one, and the walls felt just a little smaller, just a bit more suffocating.

There was food in front of him, but it was difficult to feel much like eating. He knew he ought to, or he would lose strength and find it more difficult to search for Ririchiyo, but the more he worried over where she might be or if she was well or alive or dead or worse, the harder it became to stomach the food. He managed some water and a few bites of his salad, but found himself absently arranging the noodles on his dish to look more like the graceful hair that tumbled down his master's back and around her shoulders.

He set his fork down a bit harder than he meant to and pushed the tray away in favor of taking up a seat on the edge of his bed. As long as the doors were working properly tonight, perhaps he could find one of his kind, though he would even settle for his old possessions. With any luck, his old cell phone might still have some life in it.

F15

[rebonding]

Korra followed her nurse back into her room. The promise of food was enough for her to willingly follow. She watched the intercom, sneering as that overly cheery man started blabbering about dinner. So that was him. The enemy.

She slouched into her desk chair, digging in on her pasta. If nothing else, Korra was starving.

Korra glanced over at the other desk, also set with food. Hopefully she'd get a useful roommate. Every few minutes or so, she flicked at her drink, trying to move it. Soma said it sometimes came back at night, so it was only a matter of time, right?

[thecamellia]

Only a few hours ago, stealing some of the remedy from the Greenhouse had seemed like a success worth feeling hopeful about, but then Tsubaki had stopped one of her nurses to ask about Shiina.

In Landel's, every success seemed to have a bittersweet underside to it.

In this case, the anxiety she'd been nurturing in the back of her mind about Shiina hadn't been unfounded. Shiina was gone. In only a matter of days, so many of her friends and acquaintances had suddenly just gone. She wasn't sure if it was something she should feel glad about--that they could be safe and happy wherever they'd come from, and not stuck in the hospital, struggling with Landel's experiments--or if she should let her heartache have its way. Tsubaki wanted to be hopeful, but... it was hard to keep her head up like this. To complicate matters, Leanne hadn't answered her bulletin note.

She would have to try and find both her and Kurogane, and give them the cure just to be safe...

As distracted as she was, Tsubaki hadn't even considered the possibility of what she might find when she returned to her room for dinner--there was enough going on without adding roommates to the picture. But on the way to F15, her nurse was quite happy to inform her that she now had someone to spend the night with. ("As long as you two girls don't stay up too late talking!")

It was almost enough to stop her in her tracks. Another roommate? Again?

... I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

When she arrived at her room, Tsubaki prepared herself for whatever she might find and stepped inside with a smile. She didn't recognize the other girl. "Hello..."

[rebonding]

Korra had a forkful of noodles halfway to her mouth when Tsubaki entered. She sat up from her desk, turning to face her roommate with a wave. She waited for the nurse to be gone before speaking, glaring at her when she was on her way out the door.

"I'm Korra."

She subtly sized up the other girl on habit- tall and lean, like Asami. Not too much muscle on her, either. But she looked nice enough, if a little worn out.

"I just got here... You been here long?"

[thecamellia]

"Um..."

Well... Tsubaki couldn't really blame someone for responding poorly to the staff, could she? If she thought they had had a hand in what had happened to her friends, Tsubaki didn't know if she'd be able to treat them the same way, either. Small blessings that her nurse didn't bring up any more talk of injections. She didn't imagine that would go well for anyone.

Once the nurse had shut the door behind her, she gave a small bow. Just because she was still sad about Rapunzel didn't mean she was allowed to snub the latest girl assigned to her. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Tsubaki." Before she could ask, the girl confirmed Tsubaki's worry--that Korra wasn't a well-established prisoner, but someone new. Ah... that was unfortunate, not only because Tsubaki doubted what she could offer to a new prisoner with her mind elsewhere.

But Tsubaki was, if anything, good at hiding her concerns. The one thing she knew she could be good at, even if she kept failing at everything else.

"Is that so... I'm sorry, I wish we could be meeting under different circumstances," she said. "I've been here for about... a month now. So quite a while."

[rebonding]

Korra's jaw dropped.

"This has been going on for a month?" Or more, she guessed was possible. But still...

"So is everything true? About the monsters and... everything?" It was finally starting to hit her that this was happening. That she wasn't anywhere near her home. That nobody here knew who she was. That her bending had been taken from her.

Or maybe this was all just a wild dream. That seemed far more likely, as frighteningly real as all of this seemed.

M7

[his_legacy]

The excitement of finding a weapon maker had worn off once Link got back to his room. He lacklusterly started in on his food, watching the empty seat next to him. It had only been two days.

It felt like so much longer.

Tonight, he would meet with Soma and make his way into the basement. There was an edge of excitement in his chest, the tenseness that came with facing the unknown. It was a good feeling, one that he had begun to miss in the long, dull days here.

M1

[armoredsoul]

Al followed his nurse back to his room, mostly ignoring her chatter about making new friends and having a 'fresh new start'. Link's news about the sickness troubled him--along with the implication that the prisoners here were being prodded into turning on each other, perhaps some of them even doing so of their own will. He couldn't understand that; everyone here surely had the same goal in mind, to get out and go home. Wouldn't working together make more sense than to let strife keep you from a potential ally? But then, Alphonse was an optimist by his own admission, and there were surely other details about Landel's that he'd no clue about yet.

Al settled at his desk, tucking in to the food left there for him. He skipped the red peppers (he remembered not being too fond of spicy foods), and waited to see who his roommate would be. Maybe they would be able to shed a little more light on the mysteries of this place.

M58

[fullmetalheart]

Ed reluctantly let his nurse usher him to his room. He wanted to find Al and share information with him but the nurse insisted on taking him to his room instead. ("Don't you want your supper, David? You missed breakfast after all!")

When he stepped into the room, he only looked around enough to see that Al wasn't there before turning to face the nurse. "Where's my brother?"

"He's in his own room. It's best to room family members in different areas," she answered, giving him a careful look to gauge the likelihood of him putting up a fuss.

Ed frowned. "But we've always slept in the same room," he objected.

"Well, you're sleeping separately tonight." She gave him a stern look. "Your dependence on each other isn't healthy. You need to learn to function apart from him. Now eat your supper and good night."

After the door closed and Ed was fairly certain she moved far enough away to not hear him, he slammed his right fist against the wall by the door, leaving an impression in the wall. "Dammit!"

Re: M58

[firewhichrefines]

[[SORRY FOR TOTAL FAIL, I HAVE NO IDEA WHEN DINNER SHIFT CREPT BY ME ;A; Quick backthread?]]

This was ... entirely unexpected. Sasuke had expected to be herded along with his conversation partner like cattle, as usual, but he hadn't expected to be herded along behind Edward every step of the way. He wasn't sure if the other patient had noticed, fixated -- as might have been expected -- on looking for his brother.

Sasuke could recall being the same way, to some extent, when his own brother had been here. For entirely different reasons.

Edward's anger distracted from that thought, something he chose to latch onto. Sasuke was jostled into the room at the same time that Edward's nurse left it, entering in time to spot the wall-assault. It was patently bizarre how completely the patients who had been here previously seemed to forget the entire experience, starting with the endless frustration that wore everyone down until ...

Until Sasuke didn't know how much of himself was left, really, sanded into something resembling complacency in a way nothing else had.

"The doors will open soon enough," he said out loud in lieu of following that train of thought, settling down to dinner with full practicality.

Re: M58

[fullmetalheart]

[Sure. I was getting kinda 'where did s/he go?'. Hope you don't mind Ed in the other. There's no way he wouldn't notice his brother or react to him. XD;]

Ed ground his teeth as he tried to stuff his temper back down into a corner of his mind to be unleashed again later. Possibly on one of the monsters he was told about.

"I don't want to wait, I want to find Al now," he said as he made himself go to his own desk to eat. While he wasn't really in the mood for food, Ed knew he needed to have some. After weighing the red peppers, he added about half of them to his food. He wasn't sure how strong they were, so he wasn't going to use the full amount.

Re: M58

[firewhichrefines]

[[I figured, sorry!! >> and yep, no big, I figured they'd all need to meet!]]

If Edward didn't simmer down over the next few days, things were going to get annoying -- Sasuke had, despite his own experience, gotten used to Albedo's stiff-necked and deliberate levity. Edward's impatience reminded Sasuke too much of his own, or less the memory than the visceral feel of it, the space of the shared room too small to contain even one person's anger.

"That sort of thinking will get you sedated," Sasuke said, focusing on eating as quickly as possible. Even after the blindness, even with his sight almost completely what it was, it was easier to maintain the same methodical work-over of his plate that he'd been forced to learn. "Your brother won't be able to leave his cell until the doors unlock, either."

Re: M58

[fullmetalheart]

Ed muttered under his breath and stabbed at a bit of his food with his fork--not that it worked too well, given the nature of spaghetti. "If they had just let me look for Al this morning, there wouldn't have been a problem."

After that, he shut up to actually eat for a few minutes instead of stew over things.

M67

[asteroidbelt]

He still felt tired. That was strange. It felt like he'd been lying on a couch for half the day and sitting down for the other half. And he'd forgotten to ask the nurse about the shot's side-effects.

He rubbed his eyes, put his head in his hands. This was bad; he needed to be able to concentrate tonight. He could postpone it, but he didn't know how much time he had. What was even his plan afterward? He'd deal with that when he came to it. It might be too late if he waited; he hadn't been paying much attention on the transport here, so he didn't know how long it was before he could reach his destination.

He could look that up. He'd seen some offices last night; they might contain paperwork that would give him a clue as to where he was and how to get back. But he'd have to detour there first. For that matter, he had to find the offices in the first place. Okay, preparation. He'd allow himself a delay for preparation. He just had to suppress the anxiety. He was good at that; he'd had to do it the entire time he was trying to find Aries to awaken Jirou. This...was different, though.

... He was too stiff. He leaned back in his chair, stared at a point in the wall as he took deep breaths.

Re: M67

[seekingmystrength]

He'd gotten enough of a message across to Fai and Tsubaki before the nurse had shooed him away from the bulletin for Kurogane to know what he would be doing that evening. First he'd find Tsubaki and possibly eat a stupid flower, then head to M55 and see if Landel wasn't just playing another game with this new Fai. If the ninja could still see him following taking the cure, if it even worked, then Kurogane wouldn't have to worry so much over Fai being a delusion.

Heading into his room, he found his roommate already there, still looking as ragged as he had in the field. Whether the cause was the place or something more, Kurogane could only guess, however he wasn't sure if the kid wanted to talk about it. Instead he passed by to his desk so that he could eat, warning, "You should eat."

[asteroidbelt]

He should take that advice, he thought as he stared at his food. He was feeling lethargic enough as it was. But he didn't think he could stomach it, and strictly speaking, he didn't have to force it down if he'd decided to try finding the offices—but he hadn't decided yet. He'd have to, and quickly.

"This is a strange question, but... Have you tried scaling the wall?"

He realized his mistake too late. They weren't being monitored inside this room, were they? If they were, then Ryusei had just revealed a possible psychosis that they could use to keep him here. This wasn't good. "Because— Because I was wondering if—if that would be a good exercise— Exercise. When we were on the field today," he added hastily.

No good. The cover had been too slow, too desperate. If nothing else, he'd have to blame his behavior today on that vaccine shot, assuming the nurse wouldn't test him for it. He'd have to lie very convincingly tomorrow, but even the thought of it was making him feel tired. He resisted the urge to rub his head in exasperation, and crossed his arms instead.

[seekingmystrength]

"Yeah, I've gone over it," Kurogane said. He had scaled the walls of this place multiple times, enough so that he didn't hesitate in his answer. Sometimes going over a wall was the only way out or in depending on the situation.

While the question hadn't struck him as strange, the defense of it drew the ninja's attention from his food. He had seen before that the kid hadn't been doing well, but they weren't being watched now. Not that he knew of. Either the kid was being paranoid, or he knew something now that he hadn't before.

There was some other possibilities as well.

"You're sure nothing happened to you after I was taken?" he asked suddenly, hitting on the most dangerous of the possibilities.

M55

[sixth_attack]

Success. Sechs let out a victorious chuckle as soon as the nurse closed the door behind him. Grinning, the Replica pulled out the reason for his good mood out of his pocket: a single yellow flower he managed to sneak out of the greenhouse without getting caught (and subsequently sedated) by the staff. He had triumphed in his quest to find a cure for Aigis! Now all he had to do was eat his dinner and wait for the doors to unlock.

Placing the flower on his desk (which was still dirty from the stem down to its torn roots, as it had been unceremoniously plucked out of the soil), Sechs plunked himself down and began chomping down his dinner, occasionally gazing down at the plant as though to make sure it didn't suddenly disappear from his watch. He wasn't going to screw this up and let Aigis down!

Sechs' victorious mood began to fade. Getting the plant in the first place was just the start; from here it would be a race to Aigis' room before any transformation may occur to her... Waiting for the moment when he would have to get the precious plant to his friend grew increasingly nerve-wrecking. Sechs could only hope for relief from his waiting once his roommate Niikura arrived, that last conversation they had was pretty enjoyable actually...

M55

[behind_my_smile]

Fai had chatted with his nurse the entire walk back to the room, almost missing the announcement completely. Unfortunately his nurse wouldn't have that so she shushed him repeatedly until he listened. Finally nodding his head that he understood and thanking her for his dinner, he headed into his new room with a bright smile. Not yet jaded by this world or it's practices, Fai's smile seemed genuine.

As he spotted his roommate as he walked in and raised one hand in greeting. "I guess you are my roommate now. Or rather I am your roommate now since I just got here and this was probably your room first. It's nice to meet you. My name is Fai..ahh but that isn't the name they say is actually mine. Should I use the fake name..it is pretty catchy even if it isn't actually mine."

Fai sat down on what he was going to assume was his bed since the other man was on the other side of the room.

Re: M55

[sixth_attack]

As though it had read his thoughts, the door opened once more just as Sechs recalled his last evening with his roommate. "That oughta be Niikura now..." he mused to himself in the midst of slurping up some spaghetti. Expecting to see the white-haired youth walking in, Sechs turned around to grunt out a greeting to his roommate -- and froze at the new person who entered instead. With some pasta still dangling from his mouth, Sechs stared wide-eyed at the stranger-- no, not a stranger-- a familiar face whom Sechs didn't think he would ever see again.

"Fai...?!" Sechs stammered, remembering to slurp up the rest of his spaghetti. As he gulped down his food and watched the blond take a seat, Sechs felt a surreal mix of relief and confusion wash over him. He couldn't quite grasp the strangeness of Fai's remark, but for that moment he didn't care. "Fai! You're alive!" Sechs blurted out, "I haven't seen ya for weeks!"

Getting up from his seat, Sechs approached Fai's desk with a relieved grin. As much as Fai annoyed the hell out of him, it still felt good to see a familiar face in a world where anyone could suddenly disappear-- or worse... "Where the hell have you been, man? I didn't hear from ya on the bulletin board or see you anywhere! What happened to ya?"

Re: M55

[behind_my_smile]

Oh..well that wasn't exactly the response he had been expecting. Weeks..? Didn't he just arrive last night? Clearly something was amiss..

"Excuse me? You have my name right but are you sure you aren't mistaking me for someone else? I just got here." Fai blinked a few times as he stared up at Sechs. Fai was still a little uncertain about the people of this world and what was true and what wasn't. What if this was all just a game of the institute? Was he supposed to play along and act like he knew this man? But that would be far too difficult..

Fai couldn't even just smile this away as it had caught him off guard. Had Kurogane mentioned him being here before? He couldn't quite remember..he had mentioned others..and how sometimes there were illusions of people.

That smile returned as Fai tried to ease some of the uncertainty inside of him. At least this guy seemed happy to see him. That's a good thing, right?

"I guess I want home for awhile but I don't remember being here in the first place. I wonder if that is normal."

M10

[idolism]

Another long day, leading into another long dinner... Aidou suspected his brain was probably atrophying from lack of stimulation by now.

As soon as he entered his cell, though, he knew something was up. The smells in the room had changed again. That boy... the one who'd stared so openly... "Don't tell me he's gone already," the vampire complained, shooting Mikado's side of the room a dirty look.

Not another new cellmate! Ugh! He couldn't remember his nurse saying anything about a change in his rooming situation, but if she had, Aidou had probably tuned her out. But was it too much to hope that he'd be left on his own for a few days? Solitude was far more preferable to forced companionship; every time someone went missing, the chances of him being assigned to another weirdo increased.

He sank back into his desk chair and gave his dinner a look. It was as unappealing as ever, but his choices were slim.

[trollverine]

By the time his nurse led him back to the room, Daken was burning with anticipation: night. Night, the third floor, and the fascinating question of whether he'd be able to use his claws. If not, he'd just have to get creative. He was starting to think he wouldn't mind the challenge.

Seeing someone else in the room halted his train of thought. They'd put him with a teenager, it looked like. That was unexpected.

The door locked behind him before he finally moved toward his own desk.

Logically, he knew that this person could have useful information; that showing him a little courtesy would be unquestionably worthwhile - but his patience for bullshit was running low.

He sank into his chair, one arm thrown lazily over the back, and gave his roommate a condescending once-over. There were a number of disparaging variations of delicate that could have been used to describe him, but none of them would have changed the strong probability that teenage girls fought to monopolize his time.

"Don't worry," Daken grinned, tipping his chair backwards. "I'm easy to deal with."

[idolism]

Kaname-sama... my luck's finally run out...

The moment Aidou sensed someone outside the door, he shifted his attention away from his dinner and to the nurse who entered not a moment later. Who she had in tow--or what, rather--instantly confirmed his suspicions about Mikado.

He also fervently wished Mikado had never left, if this was to be the alternative.

The vampire stared, blank-faced, until the man dared to give him an appraisal as if Aidou were the questionable presence in the room. Then he lowered his eyelids to half-mast, giving the stranger an equally unimpressed look that contained decades of aristocratic distaste. His haircut alone deserved a slap in the face.

"I pray not for long," he replied. "There's only one rule while caged together, and that's stay out of my way. Otherwise, you don't exist. Fair?"

[trollverine]

Daken had involuntarily raised his eyebrows. People who felt that way - including he himself - usually said it with much more subtlety. Obviously, his thus-far nameless roommate was used to getting his way.

He was going to be disappointed.

"A little direct," Daken said, as pleasantly as if he hadn't just been completely dismissed, "but I like that. You get to the point. Here's the thing: what you're proposing benefits you, as in you and not me. 'Fair' would be if you had something to trade. So." He lowered his chair to the floor and turned toward the kid, propping his elbows on his knees. "I have a rule for you: if you have a map, it's now my map. Fair?"