damned_institute | Day 72: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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Day 72: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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.]

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Breakfast ended up completely silent for Kyousuke, which was rare for him; usually the nurses brought it on themselves to bring a stranger over whenever he tried to sit alone. So far, the note he'd left went unanswered, too, but since he did catch sight of Sora and Tsubaki talking at breakfast, it seemed safe to assume she'd gotten out of the night fine, which was all he needed to know. That was good, at least.

After he skimmed over the bulletin again, he caught sight of Lloyd, still damp from a fresh shower, and decided he'd just stay in the Sun Room for rest of the shift. Frankly, he didn't feel much like drawing or making or things anyway, unlike Lloyd, who seemed to be sketching something in his journal.

"Hey," he greeted, taking an adjacent seat. "Any luck finding anything last night?" Hopefully it was better than his own, since they hadn't actually managed to get much of anywhere.

Still trying to keep an eye out for Lee, Tsurugi's approach didn't catch Lloyd by surprise. He smiled, glad to see his friend was all right. "Hey," he greeted back, then offered a light shrug. "Sort of, I guess. I got up to the third floor last night. Wanna take a look?" He gestured toward his journal, then pushed it over so Tsurugi could see the drawing he'd been working on.

It was a map. Maybe not the best of maps, but at least it offered a sketchy idea of the path Lloyd had taken through the third floor last night. The path was disjointed, broken up by the warp pads that took them to who-knew-where in the building. Still, the connection wasn't what was important. The path was still plain and clear.

"I've been trying to draw a map," Lloyd said. "This is as far as we made it before the night ended, though." He tapped the room that was labeled with the word 'trap.' "What about you? Did you have any luck?"

A map of the third floor? That sounded useful. He pulled the journal over and glanced down at Lloyd's work, stopping to raise an eyebrow at the title of book in the corner, but he didn't comment on it. The rest, at least, was a little helpful, even if he couldn't be sure how the pieces fit together. "... So there really are teleporters up there," he thought out loud. It was just like the note he'd gotten said. Hopefully, that meant that the rest of it was true, too.

"... Not really," Kyousuke responded. "My group tried to go to the third floor too, but I woke up just as we were stepping off the escalator." Which was really annoying, but there wasn't much he could do about it apart from trying to faster about things come tonight. He glanced back at the room Lloyd had tapped, and frowned. "What's this about a trap?" Kratos had already told him the trip could be dangerous, but he hadn't heard anything like this.

Lloyd was more than happen to share what he knew, and if Tsurugi was trying to go to the third floor, too, he definitely needed to be warned. His finger traced the line that split the room. "There's a glass wall here so you can't get to the next warp pad unless you go through this big metal arch that's right here." He pointed to the break in the wall with the jagged line. "The door has a trap in it, though. It shocked us when we tried to go through it. This thing..." He tapped the bar next to the door. "Maybe someone small enough could make it through here. It's a giant belt on wheels that goes through this box thing here. It was the only other way through the wall we could see, but I don't know if it's trapped, too." They'd been running out of time and Castiel had decided not to wait while they investigated it. Besides, he didn't think he would have fit.

"We found some keys," Lloyd added. "But we couldn't figure out what they went to. That's when we woke up." Damn it, if only they'd had more time.

An archway... And what sounded like a conveyor belt? The more Lloyd talked, the more Kyousuke found himself drawing his eyebrows together. That... didn't actually sound like a trap at all, where he was standing from.

"... Isn't that just a metal detector?" he asked with a frown. To be fair, they usually just set off an alarm instead of shocking you, but they must have just ended up in a room with really high security. "I don't think you need to crawl through. If you just put all the metal you're carrying onto the belt, you should be able to go through the arch with no problem."

The boy shook his head. At this point, he wouldn't expect much less from Lloyd, but it still got bewildering having to explain things like this. Though what he wondered about was less the boy across from him and more whoever had accompanied him. Had none of them ever seen anything like that?

Keys were good news, though. "Maybe they'll work on those doors we tried the other night," he suggested. The third floor was important, but finding clues about saving Kratos and Lloyd was, too. Even if they found a route home, he wouldn't want to leave before he got the chance to tie up any loose ends like that.

"A... metal detector?" Lloyd echoed the unfamiliar term, no doubt confirming Tsurugi's suspicions that he had no idea what it was. Equally surprising to him was the fact that Tsurugi even knew them well enough to figure out what it was just by Lloyd's description of it. "What are they for? Just to make you take your weapons off?" That's what it sounded like to him, and that made it feel even more like a trap.

At the suggestion of what the keys might be for, a surprised and hopeful look crossed Lloyd's face. "Hey, you might be right. I hadn't thought about that! I thought they might be for the doors in that room, but we didn't have time to check. But those are the first keys we've found in this place. Who knows what they might go to?" Suddenly, a world of possibilities opened to him. If he could open even one of those locked doors, who knew what he might be able to get to?

"There were three of them. They looked the same, so we each took one of them. I mean, me and Kratos and Castiel." He tilted his head. "Do you know who Castiel is? I never met him before last night."

The night had been more productive than Scar could have hoped. Granted, he was still furious about the obstacles they had encountered along the way, but they had still managed to get somewhere.

But he still needed to make sure the boys were okay, especially after what had happened to Alphonse in the library. Were either of them burned after charging so foolishly at that girl in the Sun Room? Where was she? There hadn't been a trace of her when they had looked down into the Sun Room from the third floor. Did that mean she was okay?

And as if to top it all off, he had never made contact with Lust, and she wasn't anywhere to be found this morning. He knew that he had missed breakfast, and had peered into the cafeteria before settling in the Sun Room. Scar sat in one of his usual chairs only to stand moments later, pacing and eyeing the doors to both the cafeteria and hallway with a nervous energy. She had his radio number. If something had happened, she could have contacted him. There was no point in worrying about it. And Scar wasn't worried... He was frustrated. Nothing could ever go smoothly here.

[Elrics! Korra will be blundering in later.]

The absence of the boss's voice, both at the end of the night and this morning, was disconcerting. What it meant, Link could not fathom at this point. He liked to think that it was a good sign, that the crazed man was losing his grip over this prison.

Either way, last night had been a horrible waste of time for Link. He could only hope that Sora had been more successful. He would be seeing him tonight, so he didn't bother trying to hunt his roommate down at this stage.

[Free!]

"... More or less," Kyousuke responded. "They put them in sensitive places to make sure nobody's bringing anything dangerous in. You probably just ended up in some kind of security area." It sounded strange to have one of those in a mental hospital, but then again, it was a lot more normal than that secret passage, or the teleporters. Among various other things.

Though Lloyd's world of possibilities didn't necessarily sound like a good thing to him. As nice as having a key would be, there were a lot of rooms here, and it would waste a lot of time trying to check all of them. But at least there were apparently more than one, so they'd be able to split up to cover more ground.

Kyousuke found himself looking up in surprise when Lloyd mentioned Kratos' name, though. Did that mean he didn't know what a metal detector was either? He guessed that made sense, since Lloyd said they came from the same world, but Kratos had always seemed so sensible and with his head square on his shoulders, so unlike with Lloyd, it was pretty weird to think of him not knowing something like that. That was ... unexpected.

"Castiel?" he repeated, pulling himself out of those thoughts. "No, that doesn't sound familiar." But the numbers here weren't that big, so he'd probably seen him around even if they'd never spoken.

[From here, and for Sechs.]

Finally set loose, Zero immediately began searching for Ciel everywhere in the Sun Room, moving quickly and with purpose. It was ultimately a search made in vain, however; he couldn't find her anywhere, and after a few minutes, he was forced to stop and give up. Either she was taking too long in the showers, or...

Wait, they mentioned the Arts and Crafts room on the intercom, didn't they? That's right...she was fairly young. Maybe she didn't count as an adult to the staff here. If that was the case, then she was probably in that room--

"Yūdai, where are you going? You don't get to go in there until after lunch. Stay put and settle down!"

...But the nurse was still being a pain by preventing him from going to check, still insisting that Ciel needed to be left alone, still insisting that he 'calm down'. "Why don't you read the bulletin board instead?" she suggested, while smiling as if his concerns didn't matter at all. "You always love to check on that, don't you?" And then she began to encourage him to go in that direction, ignoring whatever he tried to say against it.

Finally, after enough of being blocked, Zero let out a sigh and made for the board after all, tired of dealing with his nurse. However, he wasn't going there purely to appease her, or even because the board was a good thing to check in general. Maybe if he waited and did what she said long enough, she'd leave him alone for a few minutes...and then he could slip into the Arts and Crafts room while her back was turned...

But for now, he'd check up on the Institute news.

[From here.]

After a good warm shower to ease his back, Sechs made his way to the Sun Room Much to the nurse's displeasure, the Replica had neglected drying himself up properly, shaking his messy hair dry and leaving droplets of water on the floor in his wake like an oblivious dog fresh out of the tub.

By the time Sechs reached the Sun Room, he was considerably drier (while the nurses were visibly more annoyed) as he began looking out for fellow androids with blonde hair. Right away he spotted Zero's particularly long tail of golden hair and made a bee line towards him.

As usual, Zero was looking all serious and grumpy. Being in a rather good mood and having developed respect for Zero after their endeavors the night before, Sechs was starting to consider giving his stoic ally a nickname...

"Hey Grump'o!" Sechs greeted Zero with a teasing grin. Standing by Zero's side, Sechs crossed his arms across his chest and amiably tilted his head. "We did awesome last night! We gotta get back there again for sure!" he said, his battle-hungry excitement was clear in his eyes. "So we gonna meet at the same spot as before, right?"

Well, the intercom was different today, but Ryusei didn't know enough about the institute's regular operations to know if that was notable. The nurses didn't seem to be reacting differently, at least; maybe the regular intercom guy just had a sick day. Speaking of sick, Ryusei followed the nurse to the Arts and Crafts Room, and then turned around and went back into the Sun Room when the nurse had left. She'd probably find him here once she came back to escort him somewhere else, but at least this way he could pretend he'd tried to follow instructions. Not that he had any purpose out here, either, but all things considered, he'd rather sit on a couch. He could claim he wasn't feeling too great if she asked. It was almost true, even, but not in any physical way.

For now, he found a spot, crossed his arms and tilted his head back. He'd just have to wait it out until he could find a chance to do something.

[Gabe!]

.....Grump'o. Really.

Zero wanted to believe that the familiar voice saying that was addressing someone else, but this wasn't the first thing to deny him his want today, was it? The only positive was that the voice belonged to someone he actually liked, but it wasn't enough to overturn his desire to talk to no one but Ciel right now.

That, and Grump'o. Really.

As if to perfectly put (nick)name to face, Zero turned to look at Sechs with one of his best grumpy expressions. Sechs, of course, was as eager and reminiscent of Fefnir as ever. Any other day, it would have been enough to inspire similar confidence in Zero, especially since the fellow android brought up the basement.

But today.....

Zero stared hard at Sechs for a silent moment, thinking. Then, his mind seemingly made up, he gave a single shake of his head. "Not me," he said simply, then turned to start writing a note for the board as if Sechs hadn't said anything.

"But why make us take them off if we can just get them back once we're through the gate?" As traps went, that was the part that didn't make sense. Not that Lloyd would complain if that really was the case. He didn't at all relish the idea of continuing their trek through the third floor unarmed.

Oblivious to the oddity he'd just posed for Tsurugi, Lloyd rubbed his chin for a moment, trying to remember all the locked doors he'd run into on various nights. Which one would he want to try to get through first? Should he go back to look for his Key Crest and Exsphere in the room the doctor had taken them from him? Would it even still be there after all this time? Or would it be better to keep searching the third floor? The note he'd gotten last night had hinted that what he was looking for was up there. Kratos's note had said that the third floor had the way to get out, but maybe his Key Crest and things were up there, too.

Too many maybes, and not enough to tell him what he should do. Lloyd frowned, then pushed the matter off. He'd put a note on the bulletin for Kratos and Castiel and see what they wanted to do, then make his decision from there what his own plans would be tonight.

"Oh." Considering Lloyd hadn't know him before last night, either, that wasn't really surprising. "Well, he was with us, too. I thought maybe you might know something else about him, but if you don't..." He shrugged. It wasn't that big of a deal. "He's pretty good in a fight. He and d- Kratos fought this snake thing that came out in the library. I didn't get to do much because it was too crowded, but they managed to hurt it enough to make it run."

"Usually there'd be a guard there," Kyousuke explained. "They'd confiscate your weapons, and let safe things through the belt. But since there's nobody here at night, you don't have to worry about that part." He wondered why it would still be on if it wasn't in use, but on the other hand, who cared? They could get past it easily enough either way.

D-? Had Lloyd been about to say something right there? ... Well, whatever. It probably wasn't anything too important. "You guys probably got there before us, then," he thought aloud. "Kratos said the passage is usually protected by something, but my group didn't run into anything at all." Not in the library or in the passage upstairs, at least. There was an excursion here in the Sun Room, bu that had been an entirely different matter.

Seeing Zero's perfectly matching expression to his new nickname brought a gruff snigger out of Sechs. With his toothy grin widening across his face, Sechs waited for Zero's reply, ready to tease the shorter droid some more if necessary...

...Yet Zero made no other reaction, just shook his head, declined Sechs and returned his attention back to the message board.

Sechs' grin froze for a second, unable to process what he had just heard. Once Zero's answer full registered in Sechs' head, his grin cracked and fell apart into a dubious pout. Zero's inexplicably simple decline made no sense to the Replica. He just stood there, blinking with confusion. Sechs had been expecting the usual quiet nod and confident confirmation from Zero, even hoping for some sign of annoyance for him to poke more fun at! What was Zero's problem? Did his new nickname for Zero piss him off that badly?!

"Wuh..?" Sechs' arms fell to his sides and shoulders slumped forward as his excitement seeped out of his demeanor like a downed balloon. "Whaddya mean, 'Not me'?! You did great last night!" he exclaimed, flabbergasted by Zero's sudden change of heart. By now Sechs had learned to expect a cold and distant attitude from Zero, but he didn't think his rather icy personality would involve abandoning him and Aigis. "Why the sudden loss of interest, huh?"

A second later and he hastily added, "If it's because I called ya Grump'o, I promise I won't use that nickname when we go on missions, alright?"

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess." At least more sense than taking their weapons off only to put them back on. Lloyd wasn't going to question why the machine was on at night. It seemed logical to him to leave it on all the time, instead of having to worry about whether it was on or off. At least from their captors' perspective, anyway. He would have preferred it to stay off. "You're right. If that's how it works, it'll be easy enough to get through if we go back up tonight. I'll have to let Kratos and Castiel know." Yet another reason why he should get a note up on the board. He'd do it as soon as he was done talking to Tsurugi.

"I'm not sure how much they hurt it. It might be back tonight. Or... maybe something else. Kratos said he didn't recognize it. If you go back, you should still be careful." Of course, that went for him, too, and whoever he might go with. He was becoming more and more grateful he had a sword now.

Now if only he had a more convenient way to carry it.

Zero waited to finish writing his very short note to X before he looked back at Sechs again, the same expression still on his face. The nickname was annoying, he had to admit, but it had nothing to do with his decision.

Though that might not have been obvious by his next response and the slight edge of annoyed tone it had. "That's not it." He turned back to the board again so that he could pin his finished note to it, intending at first to not say anything else. But having seen Sechs that second time, and seeing how disappointed he looked...hm. Guess it wasn't too fair to just not give him a reason, huh.

And it wasn't like Sechs was someone he couldn't trust...

"...I just found out that one of my friends is here now," Zero explained, eyes still on the board. "I have to be able to protect her." Short and simple. Just the important facts. That was all Sechs needed as far as he was concerned.

Sechs stared at Zero, feeling a tinge of anger join his surprised confusion as he waited for the shorter droid to respond. After what felt like minutes than just seconds, Zero's next reply came just as curt and unhelpful as the first one. Now some of that anger Sechs was feeling threatened to take up more space amidst his emotions. Letting out a huff of frustration, Sechs shrugged his shoulders and threw his hands down with exasperation. "Then what's the problem?!"

Zero's next answer took another moment to arrive and by then Sechs' patience was swiftly dwindling. "Oh! You found someone you know?" Sechs frowned, annoyed by how that was Zero's only reason for his suddenly uncongenial stance. Sechs thought something much worse had happened to change Zero's mind. "Well, you can bring her along with us then!" he added with a shrug, as though such an idea could have easily been thought up for the problem by Zero in the first place. "We could do with another pair of hands and eyes for whatever's next in the basement!"

Following breakfast, Kratos had taken a quick shower before retiring to the Sun Room, mostly to check the board. There were a few notes that he glanced over, but on the whole, the chatter that he'd expected about the things that had gone on last night was surprisingly minimal. In some ways, though, that seemed reasonable: the boards were watched by the nurses, so it was likely that anything too sensitive would be taken down or censored in some way.

He gave the board one last look before he went to go find a seat somewhere not too close to Lloyd and Tsurugi, the better to resist the urge to eavesdrop--not that he did that regularly. There were a few empty couches, so Kratos chose the one that looked the most comfortable and sat down. He couldn't think of anything else to do this shift, so he swiftly decided that a short nap was in order.

[--but not if Skulduggery has anything to say about it]

And for that response, Zero gave Sechs yet another look, this time seeming as if he couldn't believe Sechs had just asked such a question. (Which, he would probably admit later, wasn't very fair since Sechs didn't know...but he was about to tell him, so it didn't really matter, did it?)

"She's not a fighter or an android like us." Despite the annoyance on his face, Zero still spoke very matter-of-factly. "She's a scientist and my leader. I can't let anything happen to her." He especially wasn't about to take Ciel down to the basement, where the monsters previously encountered there were clearly more dangerous than the ones on the Institute's upper floors. It was bad enough that she was here as a prisoner in the first place...

Al went to the Sun Room after breakfast, wondering at the new voice over the intercomm. Landel had never given up a chance to cheerily rub their helplessness in their faces before, but if he was so concerned about whatever had happened last night (it couldn't just be their entry to the third floor, it must be something to do with that odd transmission mid-night) it definitely meant a big change for them all. Whether it would be good or bad...that remained to be seen.

He saw Scar pacing around almost immediately, and went over to him. "Scar! I didn't see you at breakfast--are you okay?"

Ed slept through breakfast and didn't manage to drag himself out of bed until his nurse verbally prodded at him. He poked and winced a bit at the burns on his arm and pulled on a sweatshirt to hide them.

After a bit of arguing regarding the sweatshirt, Ed managed to have his way and when she started to steer him through the Sun Room on the way to the Arts and Crafts room Ed went over to his brother and Scar, ignoring her insistence that he keep going. "I'm getting really annoyed by this bullshit."

Sechs blinked. "Y-your leader?!" That was surprising news to Sechs. To him, Zero always seemed to be the independent type, not one to take orders from others. "Geeze, this scientist person must be extremely grumpy to have such control over 'Zero the Grump'o' here..." Sechs thought to himself.

"You kidding me?!" Locking his wolfish glare at the cold droid, Sechs' disappointed slump shifted into a predatory stoop, bringing his eye-level closer to Zero's. "So now that your leader is here, you're gonna just abandon the rest of us?" he growled, his tone strained between furious and betrayed. To think that he was actually feeling good around Zero and even trusted him before...!

Straightening up, Sechs defensively crossed his arms across his chest and frowned furiously down at the shorter droid. "Keep in mind, whatever we may find in the basement is gonna help us -- including your dear leader -- get outta this hell hole!" he snarled. "You really sure you're not going with us this time?"

"I know that." ...He said that with the same gruff tone as before, but Zero couldn't honestly say he'd thought much of Sechs's point until it was brought up just now. It was true... Their mission to the basement wasn't technically complete yet, and Zero had made a commitment the day before to help out.

But things had changed since then. He hadn't expected Ciel to show up again, much less as a prisoner. No matter how much he wanted to go back to the basement or help his new friends, he felt that he had a duty to follow Ciel before Sechs and Aigis. And he just couldn't bring himself to put her in such a dangerous situation as the basement, especially not when she'd just gotten here today...

So Zero held his ground, refusing to break eye contact with Sechs now. "You're both capable of fighting without me. I helped you get started, and I trust you can both finish it. But I won't let Landel brainwash my friend a second time."

He'd revealed a little bit more about the situation than he normally would have, but when Sechs was reacting like this, Zero felt the need to justify himself more fully. Even if he didn't understand, though, the former Reploid's expression made it clear that he wasn't changing his mind.

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Day 72: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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