damned_institute | Day 27: Intercom, Evening

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Day 27: Intercom, Evening

The intercom gave its cheery jingle just before the Head Doctor's equally buoyant voice rang through the halls.

"Ah, and finally, our day is coming to a close! Rooms and roommates have been reassigned with care, though what great partnership can start without a good meal? Ah, yes, after the nurses escort all of our patients, new and old, back to their proper rooms, everyone will have the chance to enjoy a savory chicken pot pie, full of peas, carrots, potatoes, and of course, chicken. On the side, we'll have buttery corn on the cob and green beans, and to drink, you may choose from the regular slew of water, milk, or assorted juices, which your nurse will bring to you.

"I believe that's all for now! Phew, long day, huh? I know I'll be happy to get some sleep, and thank you to all our vigilant doctors and nurses, although Dr. House seems to have gone AWOL... Hmm... Well, in any case, have a good dinner, everyone!"

The intercom clicked off again as the nurses began organizing the patients for the small trek back to their rooms.

[ OOC: Remember, room threads go in response to THIS post, and please put your respective room number in the subject line of your first post. Thanks! ]

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"Oh, we were definitely talking to two different people then." Axel replied back in a silky voice, leaning forward from the edge of his bed to give Ashton a sly look. "You see, the guy I was talking to was absolutely gorgeous."

And as usual, the mood hardly lasted and the redhead laughed out, flopping on his bed and balanced his plate onto the side of his face out of boredom.

"That might've been the name he used, but I definitely got a reaction when I called him out as Raiden. But considering what he's been through I wouldn't be surprised if he was having some sort of identity crisis." He murmured, using a hand to keep the plate steady while he buried his face into his pillow. Considering how big the patient population had been Axel was surprised that his roommate managed to meet up with the same person on the same day.

"Did he say anything interesting?"

Hearing Axel talk that way about the man made Ashton gaze at him nervously from the corner of his eye and switch hands on his fork - the right hand was becoming a little clammy. "Ahh.. maybe.. I think it could be him, if you describe him like that..." He wouldn't admit it right off, of course.

He brought his hand up to his mouth to chuckle as he watched Axel's antics. His roommate sure was in a good mood tonight, but perhaps that was only mirroring Ashton's inner excitement. It was hard to say from what he knew of the redhead, but it wasn't something he really minded. Ashton had always been the type to accept things as he was told them, anyway.

Though as Axel buried his face into the pillow, he couldn't help but reach out a little bit. "Oh, be careful! Don't get hair into your pot pie!" he admonished worriedly, but somehow he doubted Axel would even listen.

But there was still the question he had to answer.. "Umm, as for Jake.. he was really weird, I guess. He told me that there weren't other worlds, and that I was delusional..." Ashton trailed off a moment. "But he didn't believe me when I said there were monsters. I hope he's okay tonight."

Axel guessed that his attempt at light-hearted mockery had all been in vain, but it was amusing to hear Ashton stumble over his words like that nonetheless. He raised his other hand in the air, motioning that he'd be fine and that he was just too awesome to get hair in his food.

"He's a special case, I guess. I don't want to delve into too much, but there were a lot of people that screwed him over back in his world so I'm not surprised that he said all of that." He himself only knew what Snake told him, and the redhead was somewhat curious to hear the tale from the blond's point of view. However, considering the fact that they had just met today, he probably wouldn’t have the luxury of finding that out for a while, if at all.

"I told him to come here once the doors opened." He asked, finally poking his head out and smiled a little over at the brunet. It was pretty obvious that Ashton was going nowhere for the night.

"Are you expecting any company tonight?"

"Oh, that poor guy. I knew he needed a friend." Ashton had been worried about Jake (or.. Raiden, maybe?) when he'd said he didn't know if he had any friends. People like that shouldn't be allowed to continue saying things like that! Being alone.. it was one of the most damaging things there was, or at least Ashton thought so. Once Ashton had had friends (and dragons) to fill the void in his life, everything had seemed to brighten. This Jake or Raiden guy needed some of that! If he even had problems with his own identity...

Of course, Ashton was one to speak of identity. There were some times he found himself wondering exactly who he was without the dragons.

"But, ah.. oh, he'll be so surprised to see both of us in the same room! I hope he's not freaked out by it or anything," Ashton said worriedly. The last thing he wanted to do was put forth a bad impression!

He took a bite of pot pie that he'd rid of peas, mulling over it for a moment while he thought of who all was coming to visit. "Ah.. my friend Claude's going to stop by to pick up a sword. Dias too probably, though that's nothing new, really.." And how it made him smile to realize that! "...but then they're both going to leave pretty fast. I suppose that another friend from my world, Leon, will also be stopping by, though I told him to come late." Ashton didn't really like having so much of a crowd in one room!

"On that note, do you like kids?" Ashton had spotted his roommate with a youngster today or the day before, but that didn't mean he liked them..

"Sadly, I think he needs a lot more than that." Having sat up from his bed, Axel moved around until he was sitting cross-legged on the middle of the mattress, scooping up as much pie as he could in one forkful before stuffing it in his mouth. He listened to Ashton talk, nodding whenever it was appropriate and swallowed before attempting to reply to anything the latter said.

"Well it's good to know you have people that care. Just as long as you aren't expecting Xigbar or Luxord then that's as good of a sign as any." Except it suddenly dawned on him the reason why he was going to meet up with Ed in the first place. Raising a finger as if motioning his roommate to wait, Axel set his plate aside and lifted one end of the mattress. He was quick to shove his whole arm there, waving it wildly underneath him before his fingers scraped against the surface of a box.

"A ha!" With the object now safely secured in his grasp he stood up and walked across the room, situating himself on the edge of Ashton's bed.

"I was in the Kitchen last night and stumbled on this. Apparently it was one of the radio guy's clues." Axel began, lifting the top open and revealing rows upon rows of bullets.

"This is just one part of the prize, somebody else has the other half."

Ashton unfastened the two felt belts that he'd made and nodded, then smiled when Axel came to join him. The distance between the two beds was always a little odd for him, especially when he wasn't mobile. Well, he guessed he could get up, but then it would hurt, and that wouldn't be good.

"Woooow, one of the radio guy's clues?" Ashton scooted in a little, rather interested in what Axel was showing him. You had to be super-smart to find one of those! The swordsman himself had never really gotten the hang of the stuff that the guy on the radio said. It all seemed to be references he couldn't understand.. maybe that was one of the downsides to being from a planet no one had heard of.

Yet he was staring at the set of bullets with blank eyes. "That's so cool! What are they?"

He knew what a gun was, but the technology of Nede was so advanced that no gun really ever needed to use bullets..

Axel forced himself to suppress a groan at the seemingly innocent question, forgetting for a moment that their knowledge was very different from one another's. So instead he plucked one of the bullets from the box, holding it steady with his thumb and forefinger and stretched his arm out for Ashton to see.

"They're bullets, ammo for the gun that the other guy found." He summarized, holding it out for his roommate to take if he wished. After all, there were plenty where that came from, and it wasn't like he was going to use it for himself anyway.

"I'm not keeping them though. My aiming is passable but I don't want to risk getting it stolen, so I'm heading down the safe route and trading it for a weapon."

Ashton accepted the bullet, turning it over in his hand and studying it interestedly. "A gun, huh? The guns I know don't have things like these 'bull-its,' they just have lightning Heraldry, and make a bzzzz sound and.. uh, knock things out." He gestured animatedly with the bullet in his hand, shaking his arm to demonstrate.

The correct word for what Ashton had seen was 'taser,' but Chisato had always refered to hers as a gun. And Claude's Sword of Light was something like a gun, sort of - even though he'd never seen the product of it, since it was out of energy. He guessed that guns all over the universe and through time and dimensions would be different!

..Personally, though, he was a fan of his sword. He always would be, and more 'futuristic' sorts of weaponry had never really appealed to him like the power of a nice, clean, shining blade always had. Still, weapons were always fun to study, and Ashton had been quite interested in Axel's depiction of his weapon last night.

"That's so cool, are you going to get a chakram like you were telling me last night? Haha, I guess this means we won't be the blacksmithing team.." Which was.. kind of disappointing, after all.

Axel stroked his chin in thought while Ashton tried his best to describe what he saw. A 'tazer' was definitely one of his guesses, but why on Kingdom Hearts would his roommate claim it was a gun? Maybe their terminology was as different as night and day. Maybe.

"Yup, and I'm pretty lucky that I didn't have to be put on that list." Of course, he'd lost a substantial amount of metal last night since he was forced to drop it while looking for the gun. He would've liked to look again, but that'd probably have to hold off until the next life. For now, he had priorities, and it wouldn't have been fair to just drop them like that.

Axel suddenly frowned. Being 'fair' wasn't something he'd be worrying about back in the Organization. But times have definitely changed, and it was best that he adapt to the situation accordingly. Still, it had been better when he was only worrying about one or two people. Carrying so much baggage with him wasn't really a smart decision.

"I'll let you check it out once I come back," He offered with a small smile, leaning back so that the upper part of his back was now against the wall. "In the meantime, make sure you don't scare Raiden away."

Ashton nodded vehemently at Axel's first comment, and put the bullet down by the felt belts and the pretty, pretty picture. He could only assume that Axel was having an alchemist make him the weapon, but who could it be? Not Colonel Mustang, it seemed evident, if he didn't have to be put on the list.. maybe there were underground alchemists!

"Oh.. ahh, sure..! I'll do my best not to." Ashton nodded quickly, though his face clearly showed that he was nervous about something. Oh goodness, this sure was going to be a big crowd in their room! What with Claude and Dias both, and then Jake, or Raiden, or whatever his name really was. Hopefully.. hopefully they'd all get along.

"And hopefully Dias and Claude arguing won't scare him off either." He looked rather sheepish by now. "I.. I wish I knew how to make them get along, but it's so difficult, and.." He sighed. "They're just like my dragons, except worse, and I have a- a- um, a something for one of them."

He finished off his green beans with a good swig of juice, trying to distract himself from his sudden confession. Then he sighed again. "I'd ask you advice, maybe, but someone who can't really feel probably couldn't give it very well.."

"I don't know about Claude, but Dias could probably scare anyone off if he glares at them long enough." Axel teased out with a smirk. It was almost invigorating in a sense that he'd be able to get several things accomplished today. He wasn't exactly sure what he'd do after he reunited Raiden with his boyfriend, but as long as everything went according to plan he'd be fine.

And then the doorknob began to jiggle and the redhead's plans all came crashing down.

The Nobody gave Ashton a wary glance before nearly diving over the latter to shove the box of bullets underneath his roommate's pillow. It was a good thing he moved quickly, because as soon as he stood up to return to his own bed the door finally opened, revealing the cheerful smile of a nurse with two orderlies standing behind her. Axel froze, looking nervously over to the newcomers all the while bringing a hand to his chest.

"Good evening, you two." She started, ushering herself inside. "My deepest apologies, Mr. Flynn, but we'll be needing Mr. Pritchett for the night."

Ashton was grinning, about to add some comment about Dias - oh, he's really not that bad, even if he's absolutely petrifying at times - when that telltale sound of a door opening made Ashton's head snap over, his hands gripping the sheets instinctively.

No, they were coming for Axel again, they were coming for Axel again and this time Ashton wouldn't be able to save him-

When the nurse started talking, though, it took Ashton, mind fresh from the shock of the fear for Axel's safety and still rather unused to the names the nurses were giving him, a while to realize that they were here for him.

He sighed unconsciously. What.. what a relief. But that didn't mean he wanted to be made into even worse damaged goods!

Without Ashton even knowing what he was doing, and painfully aware that there was no way he could resist, the nurse was helping him up off his bed and into the wheelchair that he'd been wheeling around in all day.

Cold sweat was beginning to wheel on Ashton's forehead. What.. what was in store for him? He looked at his roommate, his eyes panicked. "You'll - you'll tell Dias sorry for me, won't you? Six doors down.." He knew in his wildly-beating heart that Axel would reciprocate what Ashton had done for him almost a week ago now, but it just didn't seem right to ask for it.

It was bound to happen eventually. It was, after all, just his luck.

Instead of feeling the same relief that Ashton felt, the redhead's anxiety increased tenfold when he heard his roommate's 'name' instead of his own. His mechanical heart was beating faster than he ever would've imagined, almost to the point where he could've sworn that it'd burst out of his chest any moment. He was very aware what this Institute was capable of, but he'd been healthy at the time he'd been taken.

It was obvious enough that the latter wasn't going anywhere tonight without some kind of aid, and being taken in that kind of state was nothing short of murder. And so, after listening to Ashton's words, Axel just shook his head, a small frown escaping his lips as he watched the nurse cart him away.

"No. I'll do more than that."

Even though he had already flopped back on his seat, the redhead was already mentally reorganizing his plans, fingers itching to grab his notebook to write the note he'd voiced out in his head.

"After all, I owe you one."

Words unbidden, terrified words, escaped from Ashton's lips - "I - I'll be counting on you!" It was completely unlike the situations he'd been in before - he was very rarely the one being saved. He didn't do a terribly high amount of saving, on the other hand, but the ratio of saving to being saved was much higher than the other way around.

And now look, he'd have to be saved twice in two nights! It was a miracle of Tria that his friends were as good as they were. But what - what were these Institute people going to do to him? It wasn't like there was anything.. anything special about him! There was.. nothing he could do! They'd already taken the dragons off..

Ashton's entire body twisted around in panic as the nurse methodically wheeled him away, the stitches on his abdomen straining and sending searing pain through him as he tried to get one last look at his dear roommate before he was carted off to regions of the hospital that would stand to break his spirit.

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Day 27: Intercom, Evening

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