Day 73: Library (2nd shift)

[redcladidealist]

Don't let them snoop? If Lloyd didn't already know the secret the library held, that would have practically been asking him to poke around as much as his nurse would let him. But since he did know about the trick to the secret door, he settled instead for searching for Kratos or Castiel. If he didn't find one of them this shift, he'd have to think about putting up a note on the bulletin, but considering what he wanted to talk to them about, it would probably be better if he kept it off the board and spoke to them in person.

"Here, why don't you settle down with a nice book, Nigel?" his nurse encouraged him as she guided him toward a chair. "Poor dear. I noticed you didn't eat anything for breakfast. Maybe you just need to get your mind off of whatever's tying your stomach in knots."

Lloyd made a face at that comment, unable to hold himself in check. "Maybe if the doctors gave me my Key Crest back it wouldn't be a problem."

His nurse sighed, shaking her head. "I thought you were making more progress than that, Nigel. Here," she said, handing him a book. "I'm sure a good book will help."

Lloyd grumbled, but accepted the book anyway, albeit reluctantly. He should have known better than to expect anything from his nurse. Rather than cracking the book open, though, Lloyd set it in his lap and watched the room. Surely one of his companions would come in soon...

[For Castiel.]

Comments

[envy_the_sinners]

"Still alive." Scar looked up at Tsubaki as if that said it all. He was, by some unfair force that seemed determined to keep him breathing, still here. he pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. He was tired.

"No recent deaths, at least among those that I know of." There was the paranoia. Not seeing a person for even a shift or two. Somebody doesn't show up for breakfast. It takes them a little extra time to get started at night. It was constant and draining, the need to account for every familiar face at every given moment. It was like being in the war all over again. Has anybody seen him? Is she all right? Where are they, they should have been here an hour ago!

And there was nobody to take it out on, because the madman behind it all hid behind a microphone.

[thecamellia]

"O-Oh, well, we can't take things like that for granted," she said after a moment's silence. "I'm fine and so is everyone else I know."

Accounting for people's death was a rather dismal way to get through the days, but even so, there was no denying that it was a fact of life in the Institute. After what Scar had been through himself, focusing on life or death was probably more important to him than before. And she... she had learned not to underestimate the Head Doctor, if she'd learned anything at all. Death was right around the corner for everyone if their situation turned for the worst.

Maybe with the rebels' more aggressive intervention, though, things were turning around instead.

She nodded at the chair beside his with her chin. "Do you feel like some company?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"You are welcome to stay." Scar wouldn't directly invite her for some reason even he himself could not quite place, but he wasn't going to object to Tsubaki's company. Though he couldn't imagine why she would want to. There were other girls her age here, weren't there?

"It isn't like there is much to be done during the day."

[thecamellia]

"In that case, I'm happy to." Pulling out the chair, she took a seat. "The time we have makes for a good chance to catch up. I'm glad you seem to be doing well. How have things been going?"

Ever since Sora's return and finding the note in her things, Tsubaki's plans had turned in a brand new direction, which she suspected was the rebels' intent. Things were changing. Landel's enemies were planning for another strike. Had Scar gotten swept up in the effort to reach the third floor, too?

[envy_the_sinners]

Catch up? On what, the thrilling personal lives led by the denizens of Landel's Institute? Obviously, Scar kept the thought to himself. He knew that Tsubaki was simply trying to maintain normalcy. He could appreciate the effort, but in reality... This was about as normal as it got as of late. Scar's life had been chaos before he had even set foot in this place.

Should he mention the third floor? Part of him dearly hoped that she hadn't taken to venturing up there. God only knew what could be waiting for them. He opted for a different route.

"Fine, considering." He frowned. Perhaps Tsubaki would be able to answer his question. He trusted her more than most here, anyway. "Forgive me if this is private, but is there anybody here that you knew before this place?"

[thecamellia]

Her smile faltered, expression turning perplexed. Anybody she knew... before the hospital?

"What do you mean?" she asked, tipping her head.

Something was obviously on Scar's mind, but she couldn't guess what.

[envy_the_sinners]

"Yes, like... Somebody from your home whom you already knew before you came here." It was a wild concept; Scar could get that. In the seemingly random way people arrived and vanished from here, it should have been crazy that of all the people in all the supposed 'worlds,' two people who already knew each other would arrive.

Or four.

[thecamellia]

Oh. Somebody from home.

Tsubaki thought of her visitors, first and foremost--her parents, who were still looking forward to Miyu's recovery, and then her brother, the person the Institute chose to show her again and again. There was Sakura, too, the poor girl Landel was probably still holding hostage to use against Kurogane and Fai if the opportunity presented itself.

She hesitated before answering, chewing her lip. Scar was asking about something different, though; he couldn't have known all of those things or even guessed at just how far the Institute had gone to dangle their homes in front of them.

"I... yes, I've met someone here I know personally," she replied. "He isn't here now, though, and he didn't recognize me at the time."

None of her friends had ever suddenly appeared amongst the prisoner ranks like so many others had experienced, but Professor Stein counted, in a way.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar nodded, a slight movement of his head.

"I apologize." So Tsubaki had encountered familiar people through the brainwashed visitors themselves, but seemingly not among the actual patients.

"The purpose for which we are brought here... It doesn't appear to be random."

[thecamellia]

Tsubaki shook her head, folding her hands in her lap. "It's all right, these things happen here. I don't mind."

There were probably still people around who remembered Professor Stein. Not many, perhaps, since he hadn't appeared amongst the other doctors in a long while, but a few.

If Scar was asking, he must have had his home world on his mind, maybe even had found someone he knew in the hospital. Slowly, she nodded at his observation. Given everything Landel and Aguilar knew about their homes, about even their darkest and most closely-held secrets... No, nothing could really be the product of chance.

"It doesn't seem so, does it?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"No." Scar hesitated. Was there a point in sharing this with Tsubaki? He trusted her with the information, but would it do her any good?

Well, he supposed, the more she knew, the better off she would be.

"In the institute right now, there are three others who come from my own world. And I knew them before we all arrived." Perhaps not on a personal level, but they were all bound by the same events, the same goals.

"And all four of us sought the same thing, though we weren't necessarily allies, and what connections we do share were known by a scant few." And by 'few,' he meant almost no one.

[thecamellia]

She waited, holding herself still. What did he want to tell her, exactly...?

Finding friends and acquaintances from home was so sadly commonplace that Tsubaki didn't think twice about Scar admitting that he had people from home in the Institute with him.

"I see..." She nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry that's the case. Did they just arrive recently?" Regardless, the way Scar described his relationship to the other three only highlighted the underlying coincidence. "The people who brought us here... It's like they know more about where we come from than we do."

There was no mistake about that. The Head Doctor had proven time and time again that he was aware of things only someone who looked inside their heads and their hearts could have known.

[envy_the_sinners]

"One arrived before I did. The others afterward." And the timing made no sense, either. As far as Scar could tell the brothers arrived from a moment within minutes of Lust's death, which was the last thing she remembered.

And here he was, in the middle, yet taken from a couple of weeks prior.

"You don't think he actually visits these worlds, do you?" It was an honest question. Was this Head Doctor somebody he had been seeing without realizing? An unassuming rebel, just another soldier? Their presence here was too much of a coincidence to be ignored!

[thecamellia]

His question earned a thoughtful pause.

Now would be the time to pass along what she'd heard the night she'd visited the Head Doctor's office, but he'd made absolutely sure the specifics weren't ones that could be shared. She felt dishonest, like she were intentionally hiding something of importance from a person who deserved to know, but she also knew that she could sit and try all day and the words would never come.

Half-truths it was.

"They probably have the means to do it." She'd come to that conclusion herself long before it'd been confirmed and it wasn't so much a baseless theory as a piece of common knowledge. "If they can bring us here they must be able to gather all their information they need about where we come from."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar nodded. Tsubaki had been here longer than he, and he trusted her judgement.

"Or he could send in others to do it." Landel was too important a man to actually be doing his own dirty work. It hardly mattered, who had been privy to whatever private conversations had led to their specific capture. It only mattered that someone had been there.

He scowled as his nurse approached him, encouraging him to get moving to lunch.

"I'll speak with you later, then."

[thecamellia]

"That does make sense," Tsubaki offered. "It seems there's a whole military devoted to this place."

Aguilar was no secret, after all. If not Landel leading the charge, Aguilar would be, for better or worse. A military unit couldn't operate on its own, either; someone had to be overseeing both Landel and Aguilar in some way.

The Institute's complicated history never got any easier to work through.

She would have continued if not for the nurse's interruption. After glancing between the nurse and Scar, she got up from her chair at the same time.

"Yes, let's check in later. Um, have a good day if you can..."