damned_institute | Day 69: Breakfast

Entry tags:

Day 69: Breakfast

Scar scowled, both relieved and angry that he had woken up once again in his own bed. That lanky man who had become his new roommate on the night of his death was sound asleep one bed over.

This was coming to be the new "normal." It was infuriating.

As always, he begrudgingly followed his nurse into the cafeteria and took a seat. He preferred to file in with the majority of the patients in order to avoid sticking out, but no such luck this morning.

Scar stared at his food rather than starting in on it, despite the newly found appetite that had been lost thanks to that blasted sickness. He had a lot to think about. He hadn't managed to find Frank last night. The damn intercom had beaten him to it. And judging by Tsubaki's reaction to him, he had been out for at least a day's time. How many had noticed? Cared? It couldn't have been many.

But it was the few who did whose detection Scar was desperate to avoid.

[Eddyyyy!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Are there ghosts here?" he asked with as innocent a face as he could muster. It wasn't the real question he wanted to ask, but he hadn't decided yet which serious one he wanted to ask first. In the end, the foremost thought on his mind had won out. He wasn't even sure where he was going with it, but he didn't exactly have a good track record with questioning.

"A friend of mine is interested in that kind of thing," he confided, lowering his voice, leaning forward slightly. "I thought I'd tell her about it."

"Ghosts?" That wasn't what Guy had expected. Asking about the nurses, or where to find something, or why they were all here -- those were the normal questions that he pretty much had pre-loaded answers for. But with the way this stranger was talking, it sounded like a friend of his wanted to go try and find a ghost on purpose, which was a horrible idea in general and especially here.

"I'm pretty sure I've heard that there are some around, but anything you run into here is going to be really dangerous." The sort of thing that would really give people something to have bad dreams about, not to mention potentially lethal. "Your friend shouldn't go looking for one just because she's curious." It was something that the patient could probably ask about on the bulletin, but Guy didn't know if he should even suggest that.

'Heard', this guy had said. Not confirmation either way, then. But Miketsukami had said something about certain creatures, and Gabe had said mountain lion. Don't go out, Kurogane had said. Too much to ask that things would be easy.

"From home, I meant," Ryusei said distractedly, picking up his fork. "I think I saw one last night, so I thought I'd impress her...." Not even Tomoko's influence could induce him to start seeing things, could it? It'd certainly never happened before.

He hadn't been able to confirm anything here yet, not really. But how did one go about confirming the existence of a ghost, anyway? About all he could do was ask Miketsukami and Gabe about what they'd seen and hope it wasn't a shared delusion. And what if it was? He could work around it. If he accepted certain things as a condition....

If he accepted certain things as a condition, he was going to have to accept that contradictory thing in his memories as a condition, too. It didn't make any sense for him to do so. But he could deal with that later. He had to deal with that later; he had other things to do right now.

"Uh, dangerous in what way?" he asked, looking up again. "What— what other things are there besides ghosts?"

"It's definitely possible you saw one, yeah," Guy said. There were probably a few monsters here who could be confused as ghosts when they were actually something else, but did it matter that much in the end? So long as it was ghost-like, it would probably impress this stranger's friend.

Though that was one of the odder reasons Guy had heard of when it came to foolish decisions to track down monsters. "But as much as you might want to impress her, I really don't think you should go looking for one. You never know what might happen..."

And then the other patient asked a more typical question, which made it clear that he hadn't been here that long after all. If he hadn't had a few monster encounters of his own by now, then he'd probably only been here for several days at the most. Probably not even a week, but that was just Guy's guess.

"Well, there are... lots of different things. Some are more humanoid and have powers they can use against us. Others are like mutated, rotting animals. And sometimes you'll even run into the transformed nurses..." Guy frowned as he trailed off, because that last one was probably the most disturbing of the whole list, if only because they knew the nurses were humans who'd been altered by Landel and used for his whims.

Ryusei glanced up from under his hair. That answer had been too easy, too casual. Ryusei had worded his question the way he did so that he didn't seem threatening even if he wasn't believed (unless this person was one of those who was irritated by cheerfulness, but it wasn't that much of a loss if that were the case) and he could go on making other conversation. The answer he'd received was not what he'd expected. But then, he hadn't expected much of anything, not really. So why did this bother him?

What did the answer indicate? A miss? Ryusei didn't know enough yet to say for sure. "You seem knowledgeable!" Why had he trailed off? "... Did something happen? With a transformed nurse?"

Knowledgeable? Well, Guy would definitely hope so after having spent so much time here. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged, taking a bite of food when he got the chance. "I guess you could say that I have a lot of experience. I've been stuck here for a while." He didn't know if that painted him as someone who was a survivor, or as someone who wasn't innovative enough to get out. Technically neither of those were correct, since no one had control over when they were pulled from this place. Guy remaining here for so long was pure luck.

As for the question, Guy was put on the spot. He didn't realize that he'd made it so obvious, but it was fine since he didn't mind explaining. "Well..." He looked at the closest nurse as she walked past them. "It's just hard, knowing that they're turning into monsters and have no idea. And I know we have no choice but to defend ourselves when one attacks us, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I guess."

His other hand was under the table, so he didn't stop himself from tapping his fingers on his leg as he thought. Definitely a miss. Ryusei couldn't actually tell whether this person was lying or not. Not that lying was much of an indicator of anything, considering other circumstances here. Someone could be perfectly sincere and still be wrong.

If he accepted certain things as a condition....

No, he still couldn't do that. He stuffed some food into his mouth so as not to seem like he was thinking too hard, then after swallowing, asked, "How long have you been stuck here?"

It looked like the questions were getting more typical as they went on. Guy only hoped that this stranger took his words at face value and didn't go ghost hunting like he seemed to want to. It just wasn't worth it, even if the opinion of a pretty girl was on the line. Whoever she was, she'd probably prefer if this guy stayed safe.

"I think I hit the forty day mark a little while back, but to be completely honest with you, I kind of lost count." Guy smiled disarmingly and went back to his breakfast. He realized that a number like that was bound to blindside the new patient to an extent, but there wasn't any good way to sugarcoat it either.

"Oh! And my name's Guy, by the way." Now that they were further into a conversation, it seemed only right to exchange names.

"Sakuta," Ryusei replied after a moment. Small talk. What did people small talk about? It wasn't like they had anything in common, as far as Ryusei could see.

"... Nice to meet you," he added, belatedly. "Terrible weather yesterday, huh?"

Oh, no... If they were talking about the weather, then that meant they'd already run out of other things to discuss. Guy doubted that, and while he was polite enough to answer, he planned to switch the topic as soon as possible.

"Yeah, kind of, though at least it wasn't snowing. It's been bad weather like that for a while now..." Guy wondered if it would ever improve. It'd be nice to have some hot days for once, although chances were -- knowing this place -- that it would get too hot and humid and they'd end up sweating off half their body weight. There was no winning, was there?

"So I guess if you were asking about the monsters, you haven't run into much yet, have you? What have you been doing since you got here?" Hopefully Sakuta wouldn't mind that Guy was being so forward.

Trying not to go crazy, he didn't say. It wasn't even quite true, really. Not true at all, actually.

"I've been..." What had he been doing? Getting shuffled around between rooms every day, getting caught in portals. "... I've been getting to know my roommate."

He'd sounded slightly ashamed. He cleared his throat and straightened a little in his seat. It wasn't like he wasn't being waylaid at every opportunity. That he hadn't reached his goal last night hadn't been his fault. "What else is there to do...?"

That he hadn't scoped out the greenhouse had, in fact, been his fault, he thought suddenly. He remembered clearly thinking it; that he didn't have to do it right at that moment. Instead, he'd stayed on the couch and stared at something. Ugh.... Clearly Ryusei needed to do something about that. But he'd never had motivational problems before. Probably... Probably just a side effect. He was taking care of it right now, so it would be fine.

That wasn't much of an answer, was it? Guy couldn't necessarily judge Sakuta for it, though. It was hard to get one's bearings here in the first place, and there were plenty of measures that the Head Doctor took to make them feel like they couldn't take a single step forward.

"Well, there's plenty to do, but how easily you can do it is another story... especially if you aren't used to fighting. You should definitely make sure to team up with someone who knows the area, if you can. Maybe your roommate would be good for that?" Guy felt a pang of guilt at the subject, because he'd lost two roommates already.

Locke he hadn't known so well, but Okita he'd become very close with. Guy honestly felt that this place wasn't the same without him. He knew it was wrong to wish that someone was still here, but he couldn't help but think that Okita was worse off right now. Brainwashed, or maybe worse than that...

It wasn't something he could think on for very long, and so instead he focused on his meal.

Ryusei could do that, if he could bring himself to trust his roommate. Ryusei stared at Guy for a second before remembering that he shouldn't do that, and lowered his gaze to his food.

Implicit trust among the patients. Naturally; that was what happened when everyone told you not to trust the nurses. Whether that a natural phenomena in a place wherein the patients felt imprisoned was a bit of a different story, if only because it seemed to him that it shouldn't be occurring as often as it was. On the other hand, Ryusei didn't exactly know what the ratios should be in a place where mental patients were allowed to roam at night.

Guy hadn't really answered the question, either, Ryusei noticed. 'Fighting,' as in, creatures other than ghosts...? "I see." He paused for a second. "Is it normal for people here to know how to fight...?"

That was an interesting question, and Guy wasn't sure he had a solid answer to it. Not when there were so many of the other patients who he hadn't met yet. Even though they were all grouped together, he had to admit that he didn't know what most of the people he passed by each day did once night came. Sure, he saw them in the halls after dark, but everyone was so focused on their own plans -- it was hard to keep up with anything else.

"A good number of us do, but there are definitely a few people around who haven't really dealt with monsters... or fighting of any kind." Guy felt for those people, but it wasn't like he could watch out for everyone. Most of the people who had no combat experience were at least smart enough to team up with others who could keep an eye on them.

"How about you?" he asked Sakuta. "Do you know how to fight?" If not, then it was even more pertinent that he find someone he trusted to travel with.

From the way Ryusei had approached and subsequently acted, did he seem like the kind of person who knew how to fight? "No."

He was in here for fighting, more or less. If this place was specialized for those kinds of patients, then it made sens—deranged. It made it deranged that this place was where things like creatures and... stuff happened to people whose problems were or stemmed from their propensity for fighting.

Experimental, if it were true, but Ryusei didn't think so. Imagination. Just his imagination. Stuff like this didn't happen in reality, right?

"Why, do you?"

It was just as Guy had guessed. Sakuta came off as a normal person, who hadn't been forced into battle before now. That didn't quite add up, but he could tell that it wasn't something he should press too hard on, at least not yet.

Still, if Sakuta couldn't fight, then that only meant he'd have to be more careful during the nights. Guy knew it was pointless to try and convince anyone to stay in their room, so he didn't bother with that.

"Yeah, I do," Guy said with a shrug as he took a few last bites of his breakfast. "Monsters aren't exactly uncommon where I'm from, and I learned how to use a sword from when I was young." It wasn't like everyone on Auldrant knew how to fight, but it seemed to be more common than the worlds of some of the people he'd met here.

Right. That explained the casualness with which Guy had talked about the monsters. "I guess this isn't that strange to you, then," he said with a nervous smile.

Well, obviously, but it didn't matter if Ryusei came off as a little dim to this person. "Thanks for answering my questions," he said after the intercom announcement finished.

"It's no problem," Guy said with a shrug, standing up from the mess hall table as the nurses sprang to action.

They didn't have any time left, but he did want to issue one last warning before he headed off. "Make sure you don't travel alone at night, all right? I mean it when I say this place gets dangerous."

With that done, he nodded to Sakuta and moved away to meet a nurse.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 69: Breakfast

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Should we start wrapping this up?

Sure! o/

no subject