damned_institute | Day 27: Sun Room (4th Shift)

Entry tags:

Day 27: Sun Room (4th Shift)

Momo's mind was turning over all the possibilities surrounding this "field trip" to the surrounding town when she settled down in the corner of the Sun Room away from the Arts & Crafts room. She curled her legs underneath her as she waited for Shouko-san to find her. The shinigami had no idea what she looked like, so she kept an eye on all those entering the room.

It was still very cold, or at least she was cold, and the momentary thought of getting her coat from her own room passed through her mind amidst the field trip thoughts. She pushed it away and decided to deal with it being as cold as it was since she'd already been late to one meeting today and didn't want to start making it a habit.

As she waited, she pondered the next day's possibilities. Maybe, just maybe, once away from the institute the shinigami will have access to their full reiatsu. And if not, maybe they'll have a better idea of how they are being limited so much. Maybe Aizen would be able to find her then. He'd save her... right? Right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Um, waiting for Peogay I guess. >:O]

Jade was grateful to be blessed with a quiet lunch, taking the opportunity to organize his thoughts and file them as neatly as possible in their own respectable categories. Unlike a certain ignorant God-General, the Colonel found the subject of human experimentation to be a horrifically fascinating one, but that also meant that he had to be cautious for the others. After all, he was the only one that had any bit of common sense.

As tempted as he was to reclaim his spot in front of the bulletin board, he figured his Majesty would rather lollygag around than do any sensible amount of work. This easily included the Library, but he made note to take a look once he was able. In the meantime, Jade chose to situate himself on one of the couches, folding his hands over his lap and glanced around the room.

The faces of his fellow patients were becoming all too familiar, and the brunet managed to catch his brash roommate looking as banged up as he expected him to be. According to yesterday's events, they'll be returning back to their respected rooms after this shift, which left Jade absolutely brimming with excitement for the man's company again.

Muscular, tanned arms slid their way across the couch around Jade's shoulders, marred only by old bandages over one arm, and a probably all-too-familiar weight - Peony's head, blond and beautiful - pressed against the side of the colonel's. Peony was bending over the couch to embrace his best friend from behind. The creepiest way, of course, and the most difficult for Jade to get out from.

It was just that after spending some time with Rika, the embodiment of all that was good, he needed some pure evil to balance him out. Peony was all about balance. Especially when it involved a girl on each arm, yeah~!

But uncute Jade would have to do in a pinch. He looked enough like a girl anyway.

"Pretty sure it's time for your daily report," Peony murmured breathily into his best friend's ear, then unceremoniously withdrew his arms and anchored a hand on the back side of the couch, launching the rest of his body over it and landing with an oomph next to Jade, and that unmistakable grin.

Jade made sure that his sigh was evident when he felt those arms slide over his shoulders in an embrace. However, the Colonel didn't bother to show any other reaction, instead feeling quite content with looking straight ahead and remaining, for the most part, completely oblivious of the latter's presence. He was far too used to Peony's lack of personal space to show any signs of caring.

He waited until his Majesty moved over to sit next to him to acknowledge that the blond existed.

"I'd rather you not do that in public." Jade finally said as he turned to face his best friend with that infamous smile of his. "People might start getting the impression that we're actually friends. Or worse."

Seeing that bandage around Peony's arm was still a foreign sight for him, but he chose to turn a blind eye on it and, instead, moved on to present matters.

"Why, no lovely lady at your side? Or are you simply too afraid that I might sweep them right out of your arms?"

Peony handily ignored that first remark. He'd never really cared what people thought of his clear affection toward Jade Curtiss of the Third Division; the people who actually mattered knew with whom his heart truly lay, and the true reason that the Malkuth Empire would be hard-pressed to find a direct heir to the throne.

And his reaction was so Jade.

"Oh, yeah, like there'd be a threat of that. You're not cute at all, Jade." His eyes were wide and earnest - this last statement was probably the most serious and heartfelt thing he'd said all day. He pivoted a little bit, dangling one arm over the side of the couch. "But nahhh, no luck today. Though I'll warm her frigid heart yet."

He chuckled a little bit, deciding to deliver the news. "Oh, yeah, I'm pretty sorry about your mop. It broke."

Any normal friend would feel compelled to encourage Peony to keep trying, but Jade couldn't help but chuckle and give a look that expressed extreme doubtfulness. This was simply the nature of their friendship, and their unorthodox way of interacting was nothing more than two people that weren't afraid to act like themselves in front of one another.

Or at least, that's what most people would like to think, but Jade would never admit to something as disturbingly heartwarming as that.

"It broke." He repeated with a sigh when the blond confessed. "Please, do tell me the reason while I think of a way to dispose of your body without leaving any evidence."

Jade had enough sense to assume that his friend got in some kind of battle, and a difficult one at that if Peony managed to break his housewarming gift. Already, red eyes were grazing over the tanned man's form, looking for any signs of injuries.

"Hmm, thought about cutting me up into little pieces and shoving me in all the places with locked doors?" Peony drummed the back of the couch with his fingers. There were plenty of ways to dispose of a body, but Peony was sure that Jade had already thought of a plot to kill him years ago. Even so - "If you're gonna finally give in and do the assassination thing here, it should have a touch of this place in it, I think."

Yeah, his time in the Arts and Crafts room had really made him extra creative!

"Oh, I know you're looking to see if I'm hurt." He was, of course, but Jade didn't really need to know that just yet, did he? The sweatpants were handily covering the thick bandage on his leg.

But that meant that his first present could be delivered! He looked around surreptitiously, and when he was sure that no nurses were directly monitoring them, he pulled a stethoscope out of the band in his pants and leaned forward to position it around Jade's neck.

Creepy doctor getup for Jade? Check. "Maybe you can use this, then. Though I'm afraid that I'd have to strip down for you to see anything that might have happened. Bummer, eh?"

"Oh no, that'd simply be too messy of a procedure to do so without the necessary tools." He remarked as if he had actually done something similar before, and what only made it worse was that no one would really put it past him. Jade chose not to give Peony that condescending look when he vocally danced around his examination, looking back up when there didn’t appear to be anything wrong.

"Indeed I am." But Peony wasn't fooling anyone. He glanced down at the stethoscope that was now looped loosely around his neck before plucking it off and gave it a closer look. Jade chuckled then, fitting the tool properly over his ears and positioned himself so that he was now looming over the man, all the whole holding the end up and inching it towards him in an almost menacing manner.

"Oh, I don't mind. In fact, I encourage it. After all, there isn't anything I haven't seen before."

Peony was content to play the part of a scared victim, widening his eyes. His entire expression seemed to soften and he bit the side of his lip for a moment before gasping and sinking further into the couch. "Oh, Doctor Curtiss, you mustn't!"

It was short-lived, though, as his features settled further into a relaxed smile and his hand snaked up into Jade's hair. "Maybe you can come make a house call later and I can show you everything you want to see." He had every intention of doing so, but then again he knew Jade would really only want to see the chunk bitten out of his leg, and the puncture wounds and lacerations from each of that thing's teeth.

Unless he was feeling particularly frisky, that is. Oh god, wouldn't that just be the worst?

"Though I've the sneaking suspicion that you won't let me out of my room after you see it," Peony said. He sure was toeing the line between the two meanings of their dialogue, wasn't he? Then again, their relationship was one that tended to make people wonder, more often than not.

Jade quirked an eyebrow amusedly at the blond's dramatic (but hardly convincing) act before forcing out yet another sigh when that innocent demeanor was short-lived and replaced with something more devious. For someone who was having his hair touched, the brunet looked awfully bored of the whole ordeal.

"So you have been injured." Unfortunately for Peony, Jade took the technical meaning over the gutter version, looking rather displeased at his discovery. He'd spare the man from the inevitable interrogation for now, but the look on his face made it clear that he'd be expecting an explanation when night finally fell on them.

For now, he carefully removed the stethoscope, pausing for a moment before stuffing the tool in his pants similar to what Peony had done, ignoring the fact that this could've been indirectly provocative considering where it came from only moments ago.

"I've managed to gather a moderate amount of information regarding the effects of mind control in this Institute." Jade started as he swayed the conversation in another direction, carefully moving back to his original position on the couch.

Peony settled back in his original position, one arm behind the couch and the rest of him draped casually over it. It was almost like nothing had transpired between the both of them; honestly, nothing really had. Peony really did have no sense of personal space around Jade, but it wasn't like he cared if Jade cared. That or he was gleefully unaware of it - no one could really tell.

"Yep, sure enough. The Fon Master Guardian too - she was very impressive and cute, but pretty sure something happened to her shoulder. Kicked some serious butt, though - and you should have seen the little dream!" He sighed happily. Seeing Cyrille overturn the table on that raggedy monster was one of the high points of his entire week.

The emperor closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting the afternoon sun shine down on his face. "Effects of mind control, mm? Thinking of picking up some of their secrets, are you? Well, I'll have you know you'll be hard-pressed to poke into my mind," he said lazily.

"I have to say it's worth a try. Think of the possibilities: giving me a raise, promoting me to Field Marshal. You may even hand me the title as Emperor of Malkuth, but then I'd be doing you a favor." Of course, Jade couldn't care less about Gald or his rank, but this was nothing more than just tossing sticks in the fire. His posture remained straight, quite the opposite of Peony's own less than flattering slouch against the piece of furniture.

"Apparently, every three or so days a few of the patients are taken and brainwashed to do the Institute’s bidding for the night. From what my source told me, they regain all of their previous abilities and other possessions they may have had before they arrived. Their main objective is to prevent others from reaching certain areas, but..."

Jade’s expression remained passive as he explained this, but his voice took a more cautious tone than usual.

"If either Luke or Asch is taken under the Institute's control, then I can only fear the worst."

"Hahaha. You know if I could suddenly make your family royal, I'd do it in a heartbeat," Peony quipped jovially, making a passing reference to the problem that had eaten him from inside for years. But even if he could do something like that, it wouldn't do any good, would it? She was married, and-

..and things like that weren't worth thinking about. Not here, not now.

Surprisingly enough, Peony could get serious when he had to, and his talks with Jade could seamlessly switch between moods. "Well, there's always the chance that they don't know about the hyperresonance. Even if they did, and they used the Fabre boys - I don't think their goal is to kill us. If it was, they would have done it by now. Easily. Just take one of those syringes and hold you while they poke it in your neck!"

He wiggled his toes in his slippers. "When's the next time that's supposed to happen?"

Jade chose to spare his friend by refraining from commenting any more on what he said since he already knew how deep those words cut. Instead, he listened amusedly to Peony's predictable, but admittedly logical, standing before chuckling. That certainly made sense, but the Colonel knew not to let his guard down so soon. After all, if either both of them were at full power it only took a few seconds of concentration to unleash an attack that could easily dematerialize half of this building.

"You've a point there, so I guess we'll just have to find out how much they do know." And wouldn't that be a fun little adventure to partake. Considering the situation they were facing, that'd be quite a challenge to accomplish, but nothing was ever impossible for him~

"I can only guesstimate that it would come either tomorrow or the next, so it'd be advisable to issue a headcount at the start of every night just in case."

The emperor didn't need to say that he had every faith in his best friend. He'd assigned him the most difficult task so far - finding enough information to get them out - and this was just part of it. It made him wonder just how much Gailardia had managed to glean from the other patients in the Institute. Perhaps he'd be able to assign him directly to someone or other.

"Took long enough for a lunkhead like you to figure something like that out. Including me in your little headcount, or do I not have enough cool powers for them to hypnotize me, d'ya think? I dunno. Battle rappigs could be pretty scary.." he trailed off.

The emperor scooted down a little further, scooting so his head was directly against the couch, the top of his head on the side of Jade's leg. "What are we doing tonight, anyway..?"

"My apologies, I've been too busy fretting over the more miniscule and unimportant things to notice." Jade chuckled to his friend, feeling the latter's body weight shift around on the couch until the blond's head was pressing against the side of his thigh. He sighed quietly to himself, reaching his hand over to pick at a few strands of his Majesty's hair and tugged lightly.

"I plan to stop at the closet where I picked up those makeshift weapons. Considering the shape of the last one I gave you, it'd only be feasible that I search for something more durable." He replied in a calm tone, letting go of the latter's hair and set his hands on his lap once more.

"I advise you to stay your room until I arrive, and from there we can traverse to Anise's room together."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 27: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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