damned_institute | 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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It was good that the other person wasn't asking many return questions. Kurogane might not have been able to answer some correctly had they been posed. His coherency was getting increasingly better, but was not yet to the point where he could latch onto more than one thought at a time. Even the thoughts he had kept sliding off to things he usually did not think on like the past.

He could, however, manage the simpler questions. "Got here last night," he answered. Apparently people arriving at different times was expected. That seems to be what had happened with him and Fai. He had to wonder if the kids really were here anymore, but again, if they weren't, then they'd have some problems.

The mention of staff made Kurogane think along the lines of a store, though he knew that wasn't right. This was a prison, wasn't it? Or something made to resemble one. Then again, anything could be considered a "prison" even if it was lacking the usual bars. All you needed was a place that held people against their will whether they deserved it or not. And Kurogane was certainly being held against his will. He took a moment to translate staff into that context and eventually landed on it being some kind of subordinate setup. There had to be someone (or thing) behind this place, so the nurses were the ones who supported whoever that was. The impression that this place was a trap was still with him and wouldn't be leaving him any time soon. Not until it could be disproved, at least.

Maybe this person could help with that? He seemed inclined to explain whatever questions Kurogane had which made getting answers easier. The only explanations he'd had so far had come from Fai. "Who's in charge?"

He saw the man's attention stray and heard the ruckus but wasn't able to get a bearing on it to watch. Sounded like a fight for what he could hear though. It certainly got the other man's attention. Fights must have been common in a place like this.

That explained some of the man's clueless behavior, at least. Though Peter still figured he should have known what a sedative was. Maybe he wasn't being open-minded enough about where the other patient could have come from, but it was hard to try wrapping his mind around that when he had spent his entire life figuring that there was only one world or dimension or whatever that had sentient life.

He would have done his best to answer that next question (and gotten himself ready to give a more complete explanation of Landel's in general), but as more and more patients got involved in that one fight (and started some of their own), he was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore. One guy was even trying to get more patients to add to the insanity, and Peter was starting to think that it might get bad enough that they could get caught in the crossfire.

For one thing, he didn't want to have to deal with that. Even though the nurses turned into something much more sinister at night, he couldn't shake the feeling that hurting them during the day wouldn't be right. Secondly, if he joined in he'd be crossing the line between Peter Parker and Spider-man - now that he had his outfit, he wanted to keep the two as separate as possible.

The plan was to stay in his seat and try not to get hurt, but he wasn't sure how well that would work. And the other patient definitely didn't need that, considering he was already incapacitated. "Maybe we should try to get out of here," he commented, raising his voice so that he could be heard over the noise.

Kurogane was far more open minded himself thanks to his recent travels. He couldn't ignore things like he'd done when first arriving at that Japan (but not his Japan) of that Witch. Things were always new or otherwise different everywhere he looked now. The closest he'd ever managed to get to his own home had been in the Shara and Shura worlds. Everywhere else though at least something had needed an explanation.

The noise of the growing fight was now impossible to ignore. It felt like it was all around them. Kurogane ignored his own question as well and again tried to get his attention somewhere on the fight. Finding part of it wasn't difficult this time though, the intensity had escalated with the number of combatants. There were many of the men and women in white swarming what he could assume were other patients. Made sense that they would fight. He had. That hadn't gone very well, but it showed resistance to being forcibly locked up. It showed that will to fight.

As much as he would have also loved to return the favor of the men in white, Kurogane was in no condition to join the fray. Keeping his eyes to one part of it was hard enough, and the focus he would have usually had for a fight just wasn't there. Even if it had been, he was more aware of how this placed worked now. Rushing in wasn't going to work anymore with how his power was restrained. They (and just where was that magician in all of this?!) needed to work out a plan before taking any action, otherwise they'd only end up causing another unorganized group effort.

"Ah..." he agreed with the other after taking a moment to process what he meant by "get out of here". Being forced into battle wasn't a good idea.

Before things could get any worse, Peter noticed that most of the aggressive patients were starting to lose energy and slump to the ground, most likely thanks to some heavy sedatives. It looked like trying to slip out before either of them got hurt wasn't really necessary anymore.

The intercom came on soon enough, announcing some sort of lockdown. It looked like they just needed to stay put and they would be taken back to their rooms. Peter felt a little bad about going along with this without any sort of resistance, but the downed patients were proof enough that he had made the right choice.

As his nurse moved over to usher him out, looking relieved that he wasn't one of the "bad" patients, Peter slowly stood as he glanced over to the other patient. His nurse would probably take care of him, too, so it looked like their conversation ended there.

"Good luck," he said with a quick nod. "My name's Peter, by the way." He doubted the stranger would remember that through the drug haze, but it would have been weird to have departed without some sort of introduction.

"Come along now, Peter," the nurse insisted, grabbing him by the arm. Together, they headed out of the cafeteria, weaving through the other staff members who were working on getting the unconscious patients to the medical wing.

Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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