Day 72: Sun Room (2nd shift)

[redcladidealist]

After eating breakfast, Lloyd gathered up his journal and pencil and followed his nurse out of the cafeteria. He made a quick stop at the bulletin to leave a note for Lee, then let her lead him on to take his shower with the rest of the adult men. Not sure how old Lee was, Lloyd kept his eyes peeled for him just in case, but again he didn't catch even a glimpse of his friend's shiny black bowl-cut hair. Okay, no worries. Maybe he was with the kids in Arts and Crafts.

Cleaning up quickly, Lloyd grabbed a towel and dried himself off, then got dressed and headed back to the Sun Room to wait out the rest of the shift. His nurse hovered at his side until he'd situated himself at a table, then she backed up and withdrew to the edge of the room to keep an eye on him from there. He was fine with that. Of course, it would have been better if she left the room completely, but at least she was far enough back that it felt like he had at least some privacy.

While he waited, trying to catch sight of Lee, he pulled his journal back out. As far as he knew, no one else had been to the third floor before. There weren't any maps yet. That was something he could fix. Picking up where he'd left off, the teen went back to his work on the sketch.

[For Tsurugi.]

Comments

[rebonding]

Korra had, for some reason or another, slept straight through breakfast. Normally, she would have been annoyed, hungry, and little else. But after what had happened last night...

Tsubaki's note, though kind and well-meaning, did little to calm the frantic state in which Korra woke. How many people had she attacked? There'd been that first group... The two kids and the big guy. Then the second with Tsubaki, Tsurugi, and that other kid she'd seen around. She didn't care what Tsubaki said- she needed to talk to them, even if just to make sure they were okay.

Underneath her guilt, Korra was furious. The freaks running this place had made her do it. The need for revenge burned stronger than it ever had before. That they'd set her loose on their own prisoners just for the fun of it...

Korra stormed into the Sun Room, ignoring her nurse's suggestion to try the Arts and Crafts room. It briefly occurred to her that she should be checking for the club Tsubaki had mentioned, but after last night, she had more important things to be doing.

"Hey!" Korra's expression and voice were frantic as she approached the group. "You guys... Last night, I-" She was clearly struggling for words. "I didn't know what I was doing, I..." She cut herself off, bowing deeply to the three of them. "I'm sorry."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar turned to face the girl, expression unchanging in spite of the relief that she was okay.

"There was nothing you could have done. We are all fine." Not overly sensitive words, but true. Nobody had been mortally wounded. The idea of the Institute controlling people was disturbing as ever, but...

"Thank you, though."

[armoredsoul]

Al startled a bit and turned when the girl spoke up, blinking a few times before he frowned and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We know it wasn't your fault. You're not hurt or anything, are you?" She didn't seem to have taken any damage, but that could easily mean that Landel had simply fixed what damage they had done.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed folded his arms uncomfortably, suppressing a wince when he put pressure on a burn by mistake. "We're all fighters. We can handle it."

[rebonding]

"So you guys are all okay?" She took a better look around the group. They didn't seem to be badly burned... Though the little guy's sweatshirt could have hidden it. Her shoulders fell when Al rested a hand on her.

"Thanks for putting me out and not... you know." She smiled halfheartedly at the big guy.

"I'm Korra, by the way."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar only nodded, folding his arms. He didn't offer his own 'name' in return. At least she wasn't angry with them about how they had dealt with her, and she was reasonable enough to understand their situation.

He hardly wanted to deal with an overly apologetic patient slobbering all over them for something that wasn't their fault.

[armoredsoul]

Al smiled and nodded. "We're okay...for the most part," he added, glancing over to his brother. "But we'll manage. We've been through worse back home."

"I'm Alphonse. It's nice to meet you--y'know, without the being-messed-with involved."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed smiled thinly. "My name's Edward. Last night wasn't the first time I've had to dodge fire."

[rebonding]

"Right... Yeah." Korra scratched the back of her head, her smile widening awkwardly. She looked over her shoulder.

"So I'll see you guys later? I've got more people I gotta talk to..." She pointed over her shoulder, shifting her weight.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar nodded again, beginning to wander away from the trio toward the bulletin board. He hardly cared if he was followed, but needed to check for the morning.

[armoredsoul]

Al nodded with a small smile to Korra. "Sure. Take care of yourself."

Once Korra headed away again, he noticed Scar out of the corner of his eye and followed along--partly to stay with the older man, and partly because he needed to check if there were any more responses to his note yesterday as well.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed had been originally planning on flopping down on a couch, but Al trailing after Scar took care of that. He tailed his brother instead. "Checking for responses to your note, or just following him around?"

[envy_the_sinners]

No death or disappearance announcements. Hell, there were hardly any announcements. Scar silently scanned the board, making sure. He looked closer upon noticing Lloyd's message. It was far from subtle, yet somehow it had avoided being taken down.

Did the nurses truly buy into the idea that three quarters of the board was actually about people dreaming?

"It seems somebody expanded on our discovery last night."

[armoredsoul]

"A bit of both," Al said to his brother.

He looked over at Lloyd's note as well, raising an eyebrow at how blatant it was. "Looks like." He grabbed for some paper to copy it down--messy and slightly disorganized it certainly was, but it was still useful information.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed looks around the both of them to look at the note. "How long do you figure the nurses will let that thing stay up?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Not long. Do not let them see you copying that, Alphonse." Scar gave the paper one last discrete look before thumbing through the rest of the board. He continued to eye the doors, both to the hall and to the cafeteria.

"No countermeasure for the hallucinations, though... Not even a mention of them." What did that mean?

[armoredsoul]

Al nodded and glanced around, making sure the paper and what he's writing down couldn't be seen as he made a quick sketch.

"Maybe they managed to avoid that? I thought I saw something on the book itself before I lost it." Al grimaced. "It's kind of hard to remember since it was so dark, but we can pull the book off the shelf with a tool or something, see if that avoids it."

[fullmetalheart]

"So basically Al got to be the lucky victim for the night last night. Great." Ed winced at the memory of the previous night. He really wasn't looking forwards to a repeat.

"I guess we'll add to the map tonight, assuming nothing happens to hang us up," he added as he made a mental note of what Al was drawing. "I don't like the mention of that trap. While it's all well and good for him to take off anything metal to avoid getting shocked..."

[envy_the_sinners]

"I will remove the book tonight. And yes, we need to find a way of doing so without directly touching it." Scar shot both boys a pointed look. He wasn't having any arguments in that department. There was no reason that either of them should have to go through that again.

"I have never heard of brainwashed patients appearing two nights in a row. We may have a better shot tonight. As far as the trap is concerned..." He looked at the map Alphonse had drawn. "We will see how it is set up when we get there. If you cannot get through-" Scar looked to Edward. "-then we find another route."

[armoredsoul]

Al frowned, shaking his head. "If you go crazy like I did, it'll be harder for Brother and I to handle you. I'll do it again, or Brother can."

He tucked the map deep into his pocket, glancing around again to make sure the nurses weren't keeping an exceptionally close eye on him as he did. "We might be able to disable it, if it's a mechanical thing. If it specifically targets metal, though, whatever's beyond there has to be important."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed contemplated trying to stop Scar if it was him that got hit by a hallucination instead and grimaced. He did not look forwards to that possibility. "I certainly hope we can take that thing out. Otherwise, things will really suck for me."

[envy_the_sinners]

"Then transmute me to the floor if you need to. Neither of you is going through that again." Scar spoke firmly. This, he felt, was a perfectly rational thing to become stubborn about.

The trap, he was less worried about. The boys could destroy whatever they pleased, as long as they were aware of its makeup.

[armoredsoul]

"That's...!" Al bit his lip and looked down, not able to come up with a real retort. It had hurt, far too much, but he didn't want Scar to go through that, either. His past was even more painful than theirs, when it came to it. How would he react if Scar thought he saw his brother?

[fullmetalheart]

Ed frowned. "How about for the sake of everyone's blood pressure, we assume that won't happen again and that something else unpleasant is going to happen tonight instead?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Think about the nights you have spent here, Edward. How often does something go according to plan?" He only shot the older Elric a brief look before returning to thumbing through the bulletin board, as if something else would have been added to it in the past few minutes.

Obviously, there was nothing.

Scar leaned against the wall, folding his arms.

"We will do what is necessary to advance."