damned_institute | Day 73: Breakfast

Entry tags:

Day 73: Breakfast

When Sora woke up, he was so worked up that he practically thrashed his way out of bed. He probably would have fallen straight out of it and onto the floor if he hadn't caught his foot against the ground and then forced himself upward into a sitting position.

But it didn't feel like he'd slept at all. His heart was pounding, his face flushed with worry. Tsurugi... It had been Tsurugi, but he'd looked different. And he'd barely even been able to talk, he'd been so out of it. What had this place done to him?

If Sora went out to the cafeteria, would he end up talking to a Tsurugi who had purple hair? And what would that mean? Would Tsurugi even show up for breakfast this morning?

There was just too much he didn't know, but sitting around in his room worrying about it wasn't going to do any good. Sora stood and let out a bracing breath, glancing over to Link's sleeping form in the opposite bed before he approached the door and anticipated his nurse.

She seemed to sense that he was worried, because she didn't chat with him too much on the way over to the cafeteria. Sora didn't even have the presence of mind to stop by the bulletin. He just went straight to the mess hall and got a tray of food while half-distracted, parking himself right near the entrance from the Sun Room. He barely ate his food, instead keeping an eye out for Tsurugi with two shades of hair in mind.

[For Tsurugi.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was as he and Kratos had started the tedious process of checking (and breaking open) all those doors when the intercom had come on and the Head Doctor had taunted them one more time before night's end.

They'd made progress, but only a very small amount of it. Would those enchanted keys save their position? Castiel had no idea, but he could only hope that would be the case. Then again, if Lloyd came along with them next time, he would be a few rooms behind them...

It wasn't something there was much point in pondering over now. He was certain that Lloyd and Kratos would be in contact with him over the course of the day, so they could discuss it then.

If Lloyd hadn't been badly injured in the fight they'd been forced to leave him to handle on his own, that is. With a frown, Castiel sat up from his bed as his nurse stepped inside, not remarking on the fact that Kobayashi was nowhere to be seen.

On the way, Castiel checked the bulletin board briefly, but with nothing of interest to see there yet, he soon enough moved into the cafeteria. Pigs in blankets... Castiel still found that name was somewhat crude, but it didn't stop him from getting a plate of food and then taking a seat to begin eating.

[For Soushi.]

The morning left Soushi feeling battered, bruised, and sore in ways he could barely comprehend. The night had felt more like a dream than reality, but waking to find the multiple injuries were still there was something of a surprise. His head was pounding in time with his heartbeat, pulsing strongly at the bludgeoned wound at his temple. It wasn't bleeding at least, but he could feel the swollen lump near his hairline.

His right shoulder was wrapped and in a sling. The axe wound followed by the smashing blow of that ethereal shield had broken his arm, if he remembered correctly. Then there was the stab wound in his side, which he reached with left fingers, carefully examining the work.

It still didn't explain why he'd been working against the patients last night. Why had he felt the need to protect that room? How was it he'd been able to release his demonic form? Would it happen again? Was it as he'd feared? Was he now one of the monsters that stalked the halls of this wretched building at night? And most importantly, who had been masquerading as his master?

The last filled him with a cold anger as he stiffly sat up and composed himself. A nurse arrived moments later, though she had no explanation for his injured state other than to cluck at him and say he needed to take better care of himself. She even went so far as to collect his food tray for him, filling it with a variety of things she hoped he might actually eat, but he had little interest. With some dismay, she beckoned him toward one of the other patients, claiming that she'd seen them together often enough to consider them friends and wouldn't he like to sit with a friend when he wasn't feeling well?

Soushi offered no argument, only inclined his head slightly in greeting when he approached Castiel. "It's good to see you are well this morning."

It had been a few days since Castiel had checked in with Soushi, which was proof enough that he had deemed him to not be much of a threat.

And when he approached this morning, it looked like he might be the victim more than anything else, judging from the way that his arm was in a sling. Castiel caught sight of other bandages too, particularly a swath wrapped around his head.

It was hardly out of the ordinary for someone to get injured here, but Soushi looked as if he'd been through more than a typical monster fight.

Castiel didn't waste any time with asking about it, either. Setting his food aside for the moment, he simply asked, "What happened?"

Soushi wasn't terribly interested in the food offered him this morning and turned his plastic cup of water idly in his good hand. Castiel was, as usual, quick to ask questions Soushi had no desire to properly answer. If Castiel found out that he'd been injured because he had attacked the other patients and was working for the very institution that kept them hostage here, how would he react?

"I learned why it is unwise to go alone at night," he said after a moment's thought. Not a lie really, but he hadn't gone into great detail. Would it happen again? From the sound of things, Landel needed monsters and demons every night to keep the patients out of his business, but how often did he draw from among the patients themselves? From what he understood, demons were a bit of a minority.

"How did you fare?"

It wasn't a descriptive response by any means, and while Castiel shifted in his seat, that was his only sign of annoyance as he took a bite of his food. He was well aware of the dangers here, but learning specifics about each monster or foe that walked the halls would have been valuable for future nighttime excursions.

He could push the subject, but Castiel decided to leave it alone for now. He could return to it if they ran out of other subjects to talk about, but he'd come to realize that trying to force someone to speak of something they'd rather not discuss was usually a pointless endeavor.

"We made it through a few more rooms on the third floor, but it wasn't as far as we'd been striving for." It wasn't clear that he was disappointed, save for his tone and the slight furrow of his brow.

Soushi was a bit surprised when Castiel didn't push the matter further, but instead offered information about his own evening's adventure. Exploration of the third floor. So there was more to it now, something beyond simple theories and speculation. Soushi nodded slowly, sipping his cup from time to time.

"It's a start," he said, trying to sound optimistic in spite of himself.

"Much further than most have made it I'd imagine," he tried to shrug, but thought better of it when his shoulder gave a painful twinge.

"Are the rooms very different up there?"

That was an optimistic way to look at it, and while Castiel had a difficult time taking on that kind of mindset, it was true that his group had most likely made it the furthest of all the patients. Or so he guessed. He hadn't heard anything different, though chances were that most patients had the presence of mind to keep that kind of discussion off the bulletin board.

That reminded him that someone was going to need to ask around about anyone who'd received notes about the security system, though. If they were going to coordinate with others, they would have to start with the board and then transfer to the radios afterward. Neither option appealed to him much, but Castiel was going to have to push past that.

"Not particularly," he said after a pause. "What makes it different is how you get around. There are these teleportation pads that send you from room to room, so moving through the third floor isn't a linear process. And there is one room that's strange... it has this device that will electrocute you if you walk through while carrying any mind of metal."

Luckily, there was an easy way to get around that.

If he hadn't experienced the strange room teleportation one of his first nights in the institution, he might have regarded Castiel with a bit more disbelief. Even so, he had a difficult time wrapping his mind around the idea. How did one even know they remained on that floor if there was so much skipping about? It seemed more like a dead end with a lot of busy-work in front of it. Something to keep them occupied.

"That is..." he struggled for the right word, "unexpected."

"But I suppose if you've been here long enough, not much would be surprising. Though it seems the good doctor has certainly taken enough precautions to keep himself safely tucked away."

It was possible that they were being bounced around to different places, maybe even outside of the building, but Castiel didn't think that was the case. Judging from how uniform the rooms were, everything from the walls to the ceilings... It felt like they were remaining on the same floor, even if they were cycling around to different parts of it.

There was no real way of knowing, but this was the largest lead he'd found since his arrival here, and so he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"He has," Castiel agreed. "My hope is that we'll eventually find something rather than going in one large circle..."

He huffed and peered over at Soushi, brow furrowed. "Though I don't think there's anything 'good' about Landel."

Castiel was a difficult read, but Soushi was intrigued enough to keep trying. He gave up what some might consider valuable information quite easily, assuming all the patients were after the same goal, perhaps? At any rate, he stood to gain from the conversation, even if it was just a basic knowledge of what might be ahead. If he could get clear of this place, maybe he could convince Ririchiyo that he wasn't crazy, that she was under the influence of something beyond her scope. She would never have said those awful things otherwise, would she?

"I hope so as well," he added, finding that he meant it. Even if Soushi's goal was a further reaching one, it still began with getting themselves out of this place.

"Pardon me, I meant no offense. The doctor certainly does more harm than good. If there is any good."

Castiel was willing to hand out information to someone like Soushi because he'd also given him plenty of scrutiny. Part-demon he might be, but he hadn't stepped out of line thus far, and his goals were ones that Castiel took no quarrel with. Which meant that it benefited him to share what he knew, because the more people who were aware of what the rebels were up to, the more likely they could actually succeed.

At Soushi's apology, Castiel shook his head. It was a matter of semantics, and so he didn't bother dwelling on it.

There was something else he was curious about. "Where have you been focusing your attention?" he asked, because at this point Castiel felt that everyone should be contributing in their own way. There wasn't any point in wasting time, now that they had some leads.

Where had he been focusing his attention? So it hadn't gone unnoticed, his vague answers about his injuries or the previous night. Soushi winced mentally, though it didn't make it beyond the faint smile that remained. How to diplomatically say that he was one of the institution's monsters, that he might turn on the patients at any moment, somehow hypnotized or brainwashed into believing the doctor was his master...

Luckily, the patients he'd run into last night had been skilled and strong enough to best him, to put him in this condition. Not only that, but they'd seen his human form as well as the demonic one and it was likely just a matter of time and chance until he encountered them during the day. Then what?

"I was able to find my possessions, the ones I supposedly owned before being taken here. While none of them were familiar to me, the handwriting was eerily similar to my own. Aside from that, I've not had much thought of where to go from here. I attempted to go to the third floor myself last night, but I clearly had less luck."

The last wasn't a complete lie. He had planned, after all, to visit the third floor, or make some effort toward it, but instead had found himself in what looked like a large ballroom. From what he could tell, it was downstairs, rather than up, but he could be mistaken in that as well.

Seeing how Castiel had been with Soushi when he'd found those possessions, he was quick to nod in response to that. He hadn't been that interested in his own box, as whatever items might be in there most definitely did not belong to him. The note about handwriting was interesting, though. It wasn't beyond the realm of reasoning to assume that Soushi had at one point been brainwashed into writing something, and that those memories had then been wiped.

Which was an eerie thought, and it reminded Castiel too much of some of Heaven's practices and conditioning methods.

At least Soushi had attempted to make use of the information that Castiel had given him. He took another bite of food, chewing on the french toast before he asked his next question.

"Did you encounter the one in the Sun Room? Who'd been brainwashed?" He imagined that plenty of people had been stopped by the obstacle that young man had presented.

Edited 2013-10-01 14:20 (UTC)

Castiel didn't seemed nearly as surprised as Soushi had been to find the notebook he had supposedly created, but Castiel didn't seem to express a terribly broad range of emotions. Soushi, on the other hand, felt his own poker-face being tried time and again as he spoke with the man. He seemed to know just where to poke and prod to get the answers he wanted.

Obviously, if he'd tried to get to the third floor, he would have gone through the Sun Room, but apparently there was an obstacle there he ought to have known about. One who'd been brainwashed. He had opened his mouth to reply, but closed it a second later, the slight reaction betraying a small measure of his thoughts. He was certain he hadn't been in the Sun Room, but he was just as positive he hadn't been himself either.

"Ah- No, I'm afraid I didn't see them. Was there a problem?" he hedged, avoiding any real answer as to where he'd been instead, but hoping Castiel wouldn't mind giving him more about this allegedly brainwashed person. Or thing.

"A minor one," Castiel replied. "One of the people I was traveling with was separated from our group due to that guard." It wasn't someone Castiel recognized, though Lloyd had known him as a friend. Which must have made the fight between them that much more difficult.

"I thought that may have been where you'd received those injuries," he explained. If not there, then where? It could have also been in the library, though that room had been quiet when Castiel had gone through it. Then again, different things could have been going on depending on what time of night Soushi had made his trip.

The important point here was that Soushi didn't know any more than Castiel did. Still, the more people working to get through the third floor, the better their chances of actually finding something. "Do you plan to try again tonight?"

Edited 2013-10-03 14:56 (UTC)

Soushi's brow knit in concern, though it was more for his own worries than over the welfare of whatever person Castiel had been traveling with. This guard had only separated them? Not insisted they return to their rooms or tried to fight them? Was it different depending on the patient?

"I'm afraid not," he shook his head. He was almost certain the man expected more of an answer about the injuries, but he was just as sure he didn't want to provide any. But what else could he say? He didn't know enough about the monsters and demons here to mention them. Aside from whatever had torn up that man the first night and the lingering spirit, he'd seen little else.

"It looked like a dog," he added, without a second thought. If there was a demon he didn't mind defaming, it would be the one that was behind him being here in the first place. "Or perhaps some sort of wolf. I didn't see them terribly well, I had loaned out my flashlight to another patient."

Hoping that was enough, he moved on to the other question. That was it, wasn't it? If he was in control, he'd certainly try for the next floor. But if not? What if this brainwashing continued? What if he had to hurt another patient? He was beginning to think his original idea had been the best; if he could not stop himself at night, he had to stop himself, permanently, while he still had control.

"I'd like to give it another try, yes. Though I'd hate to be a hindrance to anyone on such important business."

Castiel didn't blink when Soushi mentioned it was a dog that had attacked him. The first monster he'd ever seen here had been a dog, something rotted past the point of reasoning and filled with an insatiable hunger. It had bit into his arm with no remorse. So he only nodded, wondering why it was that Soushi had been so reluctant to share that detail.

If there was anything more to it, though, Soushi wasn't offering that up, and Castiel doubted that pestering him for information would do any good.

"Why do you think you'd be a hindrance?" he asked after a pause, looking Soushi over. Was it because of his injuries? It could be problematic, but Castiel had done as much as he could while hurt, so he wouldn't blame Soushi for pushing himself despite that. "You'd still be better off than going on your own." That was only likely to get Soushi killed.

Castiel seemed to accept the answer, which only served to increase his anxiety. What if he had to fight the other patients again? Castiel would find out sooner or later, wouldn't he? Given how agitated he'd been on their first meeting, he could only imagine how he might react to find that Soushi had not only used his demonic form, but used it to attack other patients.

Luckily, the subject seemed to be making a slow shift. He was about to open his mouth to mention his injuries; his sword arm was healing, though it wasn't strong enough to stand up to anything he'd seen in this place, but hadn't he traveled with Castiel when the other was injured? To rely on such an excuse when Castiel had endured...

"I could only run, if it came to a confrontation, I suppose," he admitted, hoping that was reason enough to satisfy him. "I could hardly watch others fight while I do nothing."

It was a sentiment he could relate to, and so Castiel nodded. That feeling of uselessness in a place where combat was a common thing was particularly difficult to bear. But he did have one suggestion when it came to Soushi's predicament, especially since they'd reached a point where taking a night or two off wasn't an option.

"There are people here who can heal," he said. "I imagine at least one of them would be willing to help you." Both Aigis and Kratos were capable of it, and those were only the two he knew about. There could very well be others.

Whether or not Soushi would be willing to rely on someone else to heal him was another matter, but at this point Castiel thought it would be foolish for him to endure the injuries when he didn't need to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 73: 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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject