damned_institute | Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

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"...oh. Right," he said, pretending to know what Vlad meant. He really had no clue what he had just said, but more or less, he got the gist of it. As long as he knew if it was a yes or no answer, it was fine with him.

"You could ask the nurses how we got here, but they'd tell you your friends and family put you in here or something," he said. "But I don't think that's going to help very much." Especially considering that when he had seen Jazz, supposedly one of the people who'd stuck him in this place, she'd been acting strangely. Beyond strangely, as though she didn't even know he was half-ghost yet. "And yeah, the monsters are around every night. As far as I've been here, you run around, fight them, and then run around some more." With a few injuries on the way. He rolled his shoulder back a moment, the injury from two days ago aching still. He could handle it, it just wasn't pleasant.

"Wait...you were here last night? But I didn't see you here yesterday!" As far as Danny knew, new patients woke up during the day. He hadn't heard of anyone waking up during the night yet.

"Yes, I've heard that cover story already." Of course, the nurse had been vague about exactly who had put him in here. 'Friends and family' indeed. Listening to Danny describe his nights as 'run around, fight monsters, run around some more' he felt a sudden headache coming on. Granted, he hadn't accomplished much more the previous evening, but at least he'd had the disadvantage of being confused by relocation. Daniel had been here how long and this was how much he'd accomplished?

Well, fortunately Vlad had been kidnapped, and further, kidnapped before any sort of life-altering events had made their relationship unacceptable. In a way, Daniel should consider himself very lucky indeed. Whatever he'd done to some other timeline's Vlad to induce that final burst of murderous hate, Daniel had gotten a second chance.

"I awoke last night, during the evening. It was a rather strange situation altogether." Vlad admitted, since there was little point in lying about how long he'd been there.

Danny had to wonder now--he could understand why friends and family would want to put him in a mental institution, but did he have friends and family? He had subordinates and plenty of people who hated him, but he couldn't imagine Vlad having 'friends.'

"Maybe there are different versions of us in different worlds?" he began to muse. It sounded sort of dumb when he said it out loud, but considering what Jazz had been telling him yesterday...he wouldn't have been surprised. Jazz wasn't one to joke that way--her jokes were usually bad puns that were worse than his. He knew something weird was going on with her, but with the alternate dimension theory, it could work...if an alternate version of Jazz existed.

But Danny didn't want to admit that he'd seen Jazz yet. Even if they were under a temporary truce, that was something Danny wanted to keep to himself for now. Even with the truce, Danny couldn't fully trust Vlad--he could still break the truce. He hadn't done it before, but Danny didn't have any trouble imagining Vlad doing something like that.

Now that was the way to think. Even knowing this Daniel had encountered the clones and somehow lived afterwards was a change, meaning Vlad was, from the moment he began this odd conversation, genuinely not the Vlad Plasmius who had done those acts, and therefore not guilty of them. True, it was hair-splitting that the boy himself wouldn't get, but encouraging his thoughts a little that way would be an excellent move.

And no idiot father Jack Fenton here, only Vlad to look out for the helpless boy in these strange circumstances...

"It seems likely," Vlad agreed, nodding. "After all, even a small change in time can create a new world. There may be other differences between our memories that we simply have yet to discover. For..."

And then the one person in this institute that he knew was standing on the table and shouting. Vlad glanced over at Kittan, then winced a little and ducked his head down, hoping the man wouldn't look his way before someone got Kittan calmed. So much for the man's possible sanity, then.

And honestly, such language, around women and children no less. He ought to be embarrassed at himself.

Danny didn't even have time to prepare a response to Vlad, much less say it. Did that mean that this world had an Amity Park too? And a Ghost Zone? Well, maybe not a Ghost Zone, if Jazz thought that he didn't have ghost powers after all. And for that matter, she still knew Danny, right? So where was her delusional-not-half-ghost-brother? It definitely wasn't him, he got here three days ago and the Jazz he remembered wasn't denying his powers--

Was someone screaming? Danny turned around slowly, following the voice to a table. On top of it was some guy screaming about...the moon? What happened to the moon? Why would anything happen to the moon, anyway? As far as Danny knew, nothing happened, but he wasn't about to answer the guy.

And yet, Vlad was ducking from him? He had nothing to duck from, did he? If anything, Danny would be the more likely one to look away, not Vlad. "Is he talking to you or something?" he asked, unsure of how else to link the two together.

He really should have played that closer to the chest, but he couldn't help it, it had caught him by surprise. Vlad admitted begrudgingly, still looking away, "Yes. I met him last night, while exploring this place. He's apparently from a world where the moon was falling." Or just a dangerous lunatic. "He'd satisfied himself last night when we briefly wandered outside that the moon was back in place, but now apparently he's decided to panic again."

And Kittan had accused other people of hysterics.

"Just ignore him, hopefully he will be quieted down before long," Vlad advised. "Now, as we were saying...?"

Vlad met a guy who thought the moon was falling? Danny couldn't help but stifle a laugh a bit. That was the weirdest thing he'd ever heard in his entire li--okay, maybe not his entire life, but it was definitely up there with the weirdest. "Why?" he asked simply, even though he knew that Vlad probably wouldn't know the answer.

But, pulling himself back on track now, and hopefully forgetting the shouting man, as hard as it was, he thought back on the subject of alternate timelines or dimensions or worlds or whatever they were going to be called. "Maybe...if there are different versions of us, there are different versions of Amity Park?" he said. "Like, without a Ghost Zone?" By now, he wasn't talking so much to share information as he was to get confirmation that the Jazz he'd talked to yesterday wasn't the Jazz he was familiar with.

"I genuinely have no idea," Vlad eyed the man a moment longer before returning his focus fully to their conversation. Their hopefully fruitful conversation.

"I see no reason to believe that's impossible. Or possibly an Amity Park with simply no openings to the Ghost Zone. After all, should your father have fixated on, say, zombies or vampires or some other arcane business..." Nevermind that Vlad had gone right along with the ghost obsession to his own detriment in college... "... there would be no ghost portal. Without a ghost portal, no regular ghost infestations, not even, ah, our white-haired mutual acquaintance." It was an assumption that Daniel's powers had come the same way Vlad's had, through a portal accident, but he thought it was a reasonable guess.

"Do you have some reason to be interested in this ghost-free Amity Park aside from the safety issues involved, my boy?" Vlad added.

"...riiiiight," he said after a few moments hesitation. He turned back to get a last glance at the shouting man, who apparently had attracted the attention of some woman.

He didn't respond now, but nodded instead to show he understood. That made sense, then. That explained a lot, actually. Now he knew how to explain, more or less, Jazz's strange behavior and how everyone here was from a different country. Or, most likely, world. But then, how did he end up here? Did his parents from this world send Danny from this world to Landel's because they thought he was insane? Then how did Danny (from his own world) end up in his place? Ohgod, now his head was starting to hurt. Too many Dannys to think about.

"Not really," he said. He wasn't going to mention Jazz's visit just yet. Maybe later... "So if these are all different worlds, how come we're all here? And why are we in here?" he said, motioning to the room again. If he was going to get pulled into some random world he didn't know, he would rather not get pulled into a hellish prison-slash-asylum.

Good, Daniel seemed to be following along now. The question he'd asked seemed rather specific to have no cause, but that could wait for the moment; they were having a very nice civil conversation and it would be a pity to ruin that by pushing Daniel for more information too quickly.

"That's an excellent question," which it was, and Vlad decided not to point out that Daniel was apparently asking it after nearly a week of being trapped here when it would have been a much better question to start on his first day. "As I said, we two as samples alone are... a rather odd mix, and frankly, a bit ominous. You said you've met people here with special powers? Whoever has taken us here probably has some use or plan for exceptional persons from various places." Much as he employed ghosts far more often than humans for his own work, if one were seeking the best and had access to other dimensions, staying with only one would be a waste. "What that purpose is, I couldn't precisely guess, having spent at best a few hours here altogether."

Okay, he could understand if someone wanted to gather up a bunch of powerful people in one place and use them for something. He'd been the victim of a few other plots like that. But what the heck would someone want to do that required so many people? And most of them probably had really varied powers, too...

"Well, it's not like they exactly advertise what they want from us," he said. He remembered someone mentioning something about a radio a few nights ago, and how some people here always carried them around. Danny was pretty sure it wasn't for music, since music would either distract them or attract a monster. If people found them that important, then maybe information was broadcasted? Maybe. It was something he could check later on tonight. "We have radios. I don't know what they're used for, but they might be useful."

Although he couldn't exactly bet on that--this place seemed to be anything but helpful, and he wasn't sure they would give everyone something that could give away vital information.

Vlad decided that Daniel must mean he didn't know what the radios were used for in the context of this situation; whatever his grades were, the boy at least followed popular music ("Dumpty Humpty," really, now) and some of that was through the radio.

"I see. I'll certainly have to ask around, see if I can't find out some more information. I don't suppose there was anything about the abilities you observed that linked them together in any way, hmm? Perhaps something not immediately obvious?" Vlad prompted. Daniel had obviously not been greatly observant thus far, but so long as there was a line of dialogue open, he couldn't neglect trying to get as much information from the lad as he could without inspiring hostilities again. Then, an addition, a bit quieter in tone, "I don't suppose any of them resulted in any... odd chills, for example."

Danny tried to understand what Vlad was asking, but he must've stopped paying attention somewhere along the line because he wasn't quite sure what Vlad was talking about. Linked what together? What wasn't obvious? The radios? They were radios, what wasn't obvious about them?

"What are you talking about?" he asked, somewhat irritated by the sudden onslaught of confusing questions. He'd been able to follow the conversation until now, but Vlad had pulled some other factor into the conversation, as far as he understood (which wasn't very far at all).

"... You said you observed people with unusual powers. Or abilities. Yes?" Vlad spoke slowly, resisting the urge to lean forward and either look the boy in the eyes to make sure he was paying attention or slap him beside the head. "Did any of those abilities seem similar to each other? In particular, did any of them result in... cold.... breath...?"

He couldn't say he was exactly pleased with the way Vlad was talking to him at this moment--it wasn't his fault Vlad was being vague. But he didn't mention it right now. Instead, he sighed irritably and left it for another time. Like when they were out of this horrible place.

"Yeah, I did. And no, they didn't." He was about to mention that he hadn't been able to transform or use his powers anyway, so what would it have mattered, but then realized maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to an enemy, truce or no truce. "What about you?" he asked instead. It was a subtle enough question to figure out if Vlad had his powers or not (or if he hadn't been around any ghosts last night).

"Ah. Thank you." Manners, manners. He leaned back, gauging Daniel's return question. The boy might not always pick up on everything at first shot, but in all honesty, Maddie's child couldn't be stupid, simply... untrained in organized thought. That would explain the math grades, for example.

"I haven't observed anyone behaving in a manner that couldn't be described as human," although the table act was a bit over the top, "if that's what you mean." But that wasn't all of what Daniel meant, Vlad was sure. He added, a bit begrudgingly, "There has been a strange sensation since I arrived."

Much of what Vlad said didn't register with him, partially because there was nothing really of interest in what Vlad just mentioned and partially because the last bit particularly caught his attention. If someone was acting human, that didn't much matter to him, since that was pretty much a given. But the other thing he mentioned...

"Strange sensation?" he asked. What did he mean by 'strange sensation?' Danny had felt it at first when he arrived, a little, like he was far weaker than he should've been, but that might not have been the same thing. "What do you mean, 'strange sensation'?"

"Oh, I don't know... why don't you tell me? Have you felt anything unusual? As though something were not quite right?"

Frankly, this was the exact opposite direction the conversation should be going, but it was bound to out for them both eventually if what he'd seen last night was any sign. Better to be aware of it than not.

Danny still didn't want to admit to it before Vlad did. Even if there was a big chance that his powers were gone too, there was also a chance they weren't, and he didn't want to admit he was powerless. It didn't really occur to him that Vlad would find out in due time anyway.

"I felt...something," he said warily. "What do you think you felt?"

Well.

This might last a while.

Seize opportunities in the face of the inevitable. "In the name of our little truce... honestly, a weakened sensation. As though I had been somehow limited. I haven't been here long enough to test my... unique traits." Vlad raised his eyebrows at Daniel. "Now, since I've been frank, what about yourself?"

So Vlad had been weakened too. Maybe he didn't have any of his powers at all? He didn't know, but Danny did have some of his powers up until last night...they somehow disappeared entirely.

"Me too," he said, sighing. "But I don't think we're the only ones. Some other people I saw were having a lot of trouble with their powers." At least, he thought it was trouble with their powers. Maybe it always happened to them that way, but he still couldn't be too sure about it. And besides, why would they take away his powers and not anyone else's? Danny didn't think the head guy had something against him. At least, he hoped he didn't--who knew around here.

"I see." Well, at least that had been wrestled out on both sides. With them alone here, the odds of his alternate identity being a secret to the individuals actually running this place were slim to none, and in privacy, he could test out exactly how badly he'd been weakened.

In a way, it was infuriating. Unlike the boy, who seemed to have come into his powers with nothing more than an awkward bout, he'd suffered before gaining the power he needed to balance out the scales again. Some days, he had to admit he thought of himself more as Vlad Plasmius than as Masters altogether.

But there was no time for having fits. He gave Daniel his best benign, parental smile. "I suppose that, in circumstances such as this, it's for the best that we've called a truce, hm? At least we can keep an eye out for each other." Granted, that applied in all senses of the phrase.

Danny didn't like the look of that smile. And that smile combined with that sentence made him feel all the more awkward. It was moments like these that really made Vlad creep him out more than anything else. It was also moments like these that justified his suggestion that Vlad should simply get a cat.

He had to wonder if Vlad would've been at least a bit less of a creep with a cat.

"Yeeeaaah," he said slowly, inching away slightly again. The last time he saw that face was when he asked Clockwork to change the future so that Vlad didn't get ghost powers, and that didn't even count since that wasn't part of the real timeline. "Right..."

All in all, that had gone very well, Vlad thought. True, Daniel looked a bit intimidated, but that was understandable. After all, given the circumstances, Daniel had just been informed he was probably not in reality he knew as home and both of them were weakened.

And even after the clones, Daniel was still apparently willing to make efforts at bonding... well, not bonding, but mutual non-killing. He granted circumstances were forcing them together, but even with his powers taken against his will and faced with a Daniel that by all rights another timeline of himself ought to have killed Vlad couldn't help feeling a bit cheered.

He'd simply not ask what had driven him to decide the boy was better off dead. It was just as likely Daniel had no idea himself, the poor dear boy did tend to be a bit insensitive that way. No, this odd prison was a second chance for them both. He finished his glass of milk with satisfaction, feeling nothing needed to be added.

It was getting more and more awkward by the second now. With nothing to talk about, sitting next to the man who had a vendetta against his own father and an obsession with his mother felt just plain wrong. Well, being within fifty feet of him was always wrong because of the reasons he usually breached the fifty-foot-range. This time, Vlad was being fatherly again. Sometimes, he thought he preferred the Vlad who was hellbent on killing him and his family (except for his mom, of course).

It was just his luck that there was a distraction at that moment. Turning his head around, he expected to see the same guy who was shouting about the moon earlier to be causing some more commotion. No, instead, it seemed to be a full-scale fight. "Whoa," he said simply, stunned into silence by the sheer amount of patients and staff getting involved. Danny decided he was going to stay far, far away from that group--he could spot some of the nurses with needles. The last thing he wanted was to have a nurse inject him with something. Especially since he couldn't be sure what those were--maybe sedatives, but there was a chance that it was something else entirely.

Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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