Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

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]

Comments

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

That was by no means reassuring, and Peter wasn't sure if he felt better or worse knowing that it happened to everyone. At least he would be expecting it now, though he wasn't sure if there was any way to brace yourself for something like that.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they are." If this was the Company (and what else could it be?), that seemed like just the sort of thing that they would do. Having that lost time was really unnerving, but it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it at the moment.

Having noticed that Eddie was eating that cinnamon roll without a second thought, Peter glanced down at his piece of fruit. "I'm assuming there aren't any drugs in the food, then?" he asked. If that was the case, he might just have to go back and grab a cinnamon roll for himself. For "mental hospital" food, it smelled really good.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

[Ack, sorry about being slow. Getting distracted liek WHOA by the Anonymous vs Scientology protest reports]

Brock shrugged. He wasn't really worried about drugs in the food. If he wasn't dead now, he'd probably be fine if he pigged out on the cafeteria food here - which, as cafeteria food went, was pretty damn good.

"Nah," Brock said. He shrugged. There was the fact that conventional drugs probably wouldn't have much of an effect on him these days, but he wasn't going to just go around admitting that his immune system was through the roof because of his Other. "If they wanted to drug you, you'll see it coming."

Which was true. During the day, at least, he'd seen a few people earn themselves a good cocktail for starting shit; he'd even ended up sedated once, but Brock at the time had deserved it. He'd been trying to keep from gutting Jonathan Crane - something he was regretting now that it looked like Crane had gone all traitor on them. As for night shift...all bets were off. There were some nights were patients went missing. Probably plenty of time to pump them full of drugs or generally just fuck around with them. He'd seen it up close and personal with Luffy.

That still pissed him off. For a mutant, Luffy was okay in his book and he didn't like the idea of anyone fucking with Luffy, even if the kid was some crazy human Gumby.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

It was good to hear that he didn't have to starve himself any further, so Peter didn't hesitate to grab the apple and take a pretty large bite out of it. As he chewed, he thought over what Eddie had said. Did they only drug people who were asking for it by acting out? From what he could tell, they expected everyone to behave during the day, though it looked like that didn't stop fights from breaking out, or people from standing on tables and yelling as loud as they could.

Night was a whole different story, and Peter was still trying to reason through the point behind the way this facility was set up. It didn't make much sense at all as far as he could tell, but that might be because he didn't have all the information.

"Yeah, I guess. Oh, I was also wondering if you know anything about those radio announcements at night? I tried listening to some of them, but I couldn't follow them very well." He was pretty surprised that Eddie was so willing to field all of his questions - he probably had better things he could be doing, right? Then again, if he really didn't want to be bothered, he would have said so, or so Peter figured.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

"If you ask me," Brock snorted, "I think it's a load of bull. Just some kind of sissy fight between Landel and whoever's behind the radio. If he really wanted to help, he'd be doing something that didn't involve being a pussy and hiding."

Did "Mr. Radio" have answers? Brock didn't doubt that the guy had to know something, especially if he could get away with sneaking around and "helping" the patients under Landel's very nose. But if you wanted those answers, you probably had to play along with his little messed up mind-games, playing his little soldiers in some kind of grudge match with the Head Doctor. That might be fine with some people. Whatever. They, on the other hand, were going to get out of this without handing over what remained of their dignity.

Whether Peter here would feel the same was entirely up to him. Brock didn't care one way or another what the kid did; he'd basically asked for his opinion and he'd gotten it.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

Even with Eddie's (somewhat crude) explanation, Peter was still having a hard time following. "Wait, so... Landel - that's the guy who makes the intercom announcements, right? And he and the guy who makes the radio announcements get into arguments? What about?" The radio guy had definitely been unnerving to listen to, but if he was opposed to the man who was keeping them here, then maybe he was in the right?

Brock didn't seem to think so, and he knew a lot more about it than Peter did, so he was inclined to agree with him. He wasn't sure if it was even worth it to worry over - it was probably better to just focus on getting out, right? Or at least getting the others out, Peter reminded himself. He might be better off staying here, where he wouldn't be a danger to others.

He wondered if "Landel" was one of the heads of the Company. He had never heard the name before, but it wasn't like he knew very much about the Company at all. The man was smart to have brought him here, but Peter wasn't so sure about all of the other "patients." Maybe if he could just talk to the man, he could clear some of this up, but he was pretty sure that was an impossibility.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

Brock nodded. "Yeah, basically. I've never seen the radio guy myself, but Landel's made an appearance before. Real slick bastard, all dressed up and everything."

There wasn't much else he could tell Peter about the Head Doctor. They didn't know who he was working for. If he was even working for anyone. Brock got the whole distrusting people with powers tacked on, he really did. There was the camp that thought it was damn cool a guy could web-sling around in his underwear and be a cool guy kicking bad guy ass. And then there was the other camp, the types who'd raise their hands and go "hey, uh, what if they decide we're the bad guys?". Brock could understand that if you were given some inhuman powers that you'd probably be tempted to go balls out with it. You'd have to be a freak not to - which explained Parker.

"Anyway," Brock said, changing the subject. He was momentarily distracted as there was the sounds of a scuffle in the cafeteria, but with everyone in the way, he couldn't see who was causing the commotion. The orderlies on duty were already making a beeline for the trouble maker. "Since you made it through the first day, I'd say you're pretty much a vet by now."

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

So Landel wasn't completely inaccessible, then. That was good to know. All Peter really wanted to do was talk to the guy, though that might change depending on what sort of answers he received. Then again, it didn't sound like any of the other patients had gotten that opportunity, so there was little to no chance he would. Then again, he doubted all of the patients here had almost leveled most of New York City.

While Eddie hadn't really answered his question about what the two men fought over, that was because he was being distracted by something else, so Peter turned his head in the same direction. He couldn't quite see what was going on, but it looked like nurses and some big, burly men were surrounding a few other patients.

Eddie's comment caused him to look back. "Really? I don't feel like one," he admitted with a shake of his head. "I barely know what's going on still. What do you think is happening over there?" He was tempted to get to his feet to get a better look, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea. He straightened in his seat and craned his neck, though, unable to just ignore whatever was going on.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

Brock turned around in his seat, trying to peer over the heads of the other patients. There were some people who were already half on the feet, trying to do the same. From what he could see, more and more orderlies were crossing the cafeteria from one end to the other, toward what was quickly turning into a retarded bar brawl, only without the bar.

"You got to be kidding me," Brock said under his breath. He rose to his feet, food forgotten.

They briefly considered joining in. Crane is out there. So is the Crippled One, his Other hissed. So was Kasady. But no, they couldn't just pick out their enemies and use the distraction to try to get in a cheap shot. Not when he'd just recovered. Not when he was about as whole as he could be in this mutant dump. Fuck revenge at this point: he was looking out for numero uno.

The blond glanced at Peter. Okay, maybe he could look after numbero uno and make sure the rookie here didn't get strung up by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

All of a sudden, things got a lot worse. The cafeteria was turning into a battlefield as more patients took the hint from the ones who had started the initial fight. The moment Eddie stood up, Peter followed suit, staring around the room with wide eyes as he tried to follow all the different skirmishes that were breaking out.

He didn't see anyone using powers, which got him thinking that everyone else was as stunted as he was (if they had even had powers in the first place). He turned to Eddie with a slightly panicked look and pondered if he should move over to his side of the table. He didn't want one of the only people he knew here getting hurt in this mess.

"What are they trying to do? Do they think they can get out if they take enough nurses down?" He doubted that was going to work, and was surprised to see how many of the patients seemed to have no issue with punching, kicking, and elbowing more or less harmless women. At least Eddie didn't seem to want to join in.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

"They're just beating around the bush," Brock said, scowling. "I don't think they're even using their heads - kicking the crap out of each other and the staff just for the hell of it is retarded."

Kicking the crap out of people for the hell of it when you had all your abilities back? Not retarded at all. Unfortunately, it looked like a lot of the patients just loved their losing battles and were willing to get sedated just so they could have their idiot slap-fest.

Brock made sure to step out of the way and keep his hands where the staff could see them, motioning for Peter to do the same. He wasn't about to get his ass drugged up just because everyone else wanted to.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

It did seem pretty pointless, but Peter figured that all of the patients who were starting to fight must have had pretty good reasons for doing so. It didn't make sense that so many would risk their necks like this unless there was some point to it. Maybe some people liked to fight just for the hell of it, though it looked like a fair share were also taking his and Eddie's stance on the whole thing.

Following Eddie's lead, Peter lifted his hands up to make it very clear that he wasn't intending to start throwing punches. It was actually pretty remarkable how quickly the nurses and large men who were helping them managed to put down the rebelling patients, and he watched as more and more of them fell to the ground. At first he wasn't sure what was causing them to pass out, but he caught the sight of a few needles and put two and two together.

Still, they had to be using pretty heavy-duty drugs, seeing how fast some of the patients were passing out. Though then the sirens started blaring and an overly-loud announcement came through over the intercom. Grimacing, Peter glanced to Eddie and shrugged his shoulders. It was probably best if they just stayed put and waited for the nurses to come and take them back to their rooms, right?