damned_institute | Day 30: Staff, Morning

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Day 30: Staff, Morning

Burly orderlies and agile Calm Effect nurses flooded the cafeteria from the Courtyard while regular hall nurses filed in from the Sun Room and ushered out those not involved in the rebellion. It indeed seemed as if Landel was sending out all the cavalry, and an effective cavalry they were: The riot didn't continue for much longer after the alarm sounded, though it seemed strange just how quickly all of the mutinous patients fell, even the ones who hadn't been injected with anything.

The hall nurses were quick to escort their well-behaved charges back to their rooms, praising those who hadn't joined in and chiding those who muttered under their breath in response. There were some exceptions, of course: One nice young man had even defended one of the nurses from the violent patients! Now, wasn't that exemplary behavior? Dr. Landel would be so proud to hear about it...

Within half an hour, all of the so-called "loyal" patients had been safely deposited in their rooms, and it was then that the alarm finally stopped and the true difficulty of the situation was tackled. There certainly weren't enough rooms in solitary to accommodate such rampant disobedience, and yet measures would have to be taken to ensure proper consequences for each and every patient involved. After all, something like this couldn't be allowed to happen again!

Different options were considered. Perhaps they should make an example out of the girl who had sparked the riot, but then again, perhaps not. This certainly wasn't the first case of patients attacking nurses or their peers in a crowded area, but what had been different this time was the sheer support that the other patients had shown for her. Should the staff then make examples of all those who had tried to "protect" her from the well-meaning nurses? No, there were too many for that...

In the end, it was decided that the best immediate solution would be to treat the rebellious patients in the Medical Wing while they were unconscious and then move them back to their rooms to await punishment. To ensure the safety of both their roommates and the patients themselves, however, the staff decided to securely fasten their limbs to their beds and keep them heavily drugged. Such a sad sight they were to see, but... it was necessary.

Finally, when each and every patient had been escorted back to their respective rooms, the staff hurried off to an emergency meeting upstairs. Strangely, Head Nurse Lydia was the one taking care of the proceedings in the Head Doctor's stead. She calmly told them that he was preoccupied with more urgent matters, and as she began to speak to the crowd, the staff could only wonder what could possibly be more important than an unprecedented patient riot...

[ Comment to this post with separate threads for each patient room, and please put your character's room number in the subject line. Thank you! ]

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Still reeling, Zelnick only protested that the nurse was taking him away from his conversation with Xigbar-- he had hardly noticed the riot going on around him, which either spoke very poorly of his awareness of others, or of the very great (and unhappy) surprise of learning more about this place...

Trying to pull himself out of his unhappy mood, he tried to pay attention to where they were going-- and was that a sort of message board over there? He tried to get his nurse to stop for him, but she frowned and shuffled him along, apparently unwilling to risk him attacking her.

He wouldn't do that; Zelnick never attacked non-hostiles, and even then he tried to talk it out first...

Within a couple of minutes, Zelnick was in his room, left to his own devices. Sighing, he decided to investigate the place more thoroughly-- his heart wasn't in it, but it was something to do until this lockdown ended.

His heart was slightly more in it when he found the basket of apples and supplies from the night before, set in a corner of the closet-- in a momentary burst of happiness, he took one of the apples and began to crunch on it, a blissful look making its way across his face.

At least he was alive?

Kenren was damn near kicking himself for not having got into the fight before the nurses had come to drag him firmly away, saying that they knew he had a history of getting into brawls. Well yeah! He enjoyed them! He usually helped to start them! And then when they were over he turned himself over to Tenpou's cruel and unusual nursing methods. He should have been there fighting, not being dragged away by the bitches.

He was practically snarling when he got back t his room, all the stress of the last couple of days building up to sharpen his anger again and he so wanted to beat something into submission.

He gave the other man in the room a flat look when he entered, and then threw himself down on the bed, glaring up at the ceiling because if he tried to move, then he was going to kill something.

... what an awfully friendly guy.

Zelnick didn't particularly feel like conversation, either, but a seed of thought had planted itself in the back of his brain, and he had left his journal in Yuber's room... considering his options, he continued eating his apple.

After a few moments, Zelnick set the half-eaten fruit on his desk and said, in as calm a voice as he could muster, "I'm Captain Zelnick." (He was sorely tempted to add "of the New Alliance of Free Stars," just to see if the other man recognized the name, but he'd rather not be reminded that this wasn't his Earth if it wasn't familiar.) "Want an apple? I have a few."

Oh well, if they were pulling rank... Kenren grinned, a not entirely friendly expression, but better than the glaring of a moment ago. "General Kenren," he said, turning his head a little so they could carry on a better conversation. Or glaring match. Either way was fine.

"I had breakfast already so I'm fine, thanks for the offer." And even that felt like lead in his stomach.

The smile Zelnick forced in response was... forced. "General, huh? Would I know your military?" He paused, then asked, "Do you prefer to be called by rank or name or what?" The other man didn't look much older than Zelnick himself, though he supposed there were a million extenuating circumstances that could get someone that rank while still very young.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Zelnick collected his half-eaten snack and set about making it a completely-eaten one. "Is this sort of thing common around here? The riot, I mean," and he waved vaguely with the apple. "I was kind of distracted by... my conversation," about how nothing my crew and I have done means anything in this goddamn place, "so I wasn't paying much attention until one of the... nurses... dragged me away."

Kenren shook his head with a faint grin. "I really really doubt that you would," he replied. As far as he knew, no-one else here was from that military except Homura. Besides Tenpou, he wouldn't want to have any contact with anyone else from there. "And Kenren is fine. You?"

He had to wonder if this one was someone who was like those back home, staunchly following the rules, not actually living. "Nah. There's usually a couple of fights, but nothing so big."

"Fair enough," Zelnick said. "I doubt you'd recognize mine, either." His smile was pained. "You can call me whatever you like, though I think I'd prefer just Zelnick."

"Huh. Then I wonder what started this one..." Bemused, stared at the apple core he held. "I suppose the stresses of the night and being torn away from everything you've ever known could drive one to some pretty stupid things."

Not that he was one to talk.

Setting the apple core on his desk (there didn't seem to be a rubbish recycler), he smiled as winningly as he could (the stresses of being torn away from everything he'd ever known were stressful, to say the least) and asked, "You wouldn't happen to have some spare paper, would you? I seem to have left my journal in another patient's room."

Well, looked like they were on a level footing then. Militaries other than his own hadn't been much of a concern. No-one interfered with the Heavenly Armies unless they wanted to be forcefully subdued. "Zelnick then," Kenren replied with a nod.

"As for what started it... the girl who attacked the nurse first is well liked by a lot of people. It's not so difficult to know that a good few would want to defend her, and others just joined in. "The nighttime just becomes routine though. They have worse things to inflict on people." His lips twisted into a pained smile for a moment. What they'd done to Tenpou...

"You can use some paper from my journal if you want," he offered. "I don't use it much."

Zelnick nodded along with the explanation, though he'd hardly noticed the riot starting... the cafeteria had been so noisy, and the conversation with Xigbar had distracted him even more, to where his thoughts were louder than the people around them. But the last bit... "Worse?" was his wary inquiry. "What sort of 'worse things'?"

He accepted the offer with an earnest "Thanks," and scrounged around until he found his roommates journal. He ripped a couple pages from the back and settled at his desk to write and draw, and hope against hope that it would come to something.

Well, he should be warned. Kenren sat up and traced his fingers over the scars on his cheek, and then tapped just below his eye. "Every couple of nights, they take some patients and experiment on them. Something different for every person." He couldn't help but wonder what had been done to the others who'd been hurt like this.

He waved off the thanks. "No problem."

"... oh." Not much you could say to that, though watching his roommate, Zelnick got the feeling Kenren had first-hand knowledge of these experiments. "Yeah, that's... worse than giant rats."

Frowning down a his desk, Zelnick tried to think of something to say, and failed miserably; after a few moments, he just sighed and leaned his elbows on the desk, cupping his chin in his hands. If Kenren wanted to talk more, Kenren could choose the topic, he supposed...

"There's a lot that's worse than giant rats here." He shrugged. "tThere was worse than giant rats in my own world. But at least this place is more interesting than home, even if I'm looking forward to tearing it down stone by stone." And the idea of creating their own perfect world was kind of appealing. This place was more entertaining than the Heavens after all.

"The nights they don't do that, they brainswash some patients to attack the others. That's what they should be doing tonight."

"There was worse than those where I came from, too," Zelnick admitted. "I've even met people who're all for the experimentation and the brainwashing things. I just... had a lot of very big weapons between me and them, or an artifact to keep the mind-control from happening, or could avoid them all anyway. I don't have any of those, in a place like this." He smiled half-heartedly. "I've had more than enough of 'interesting' for a while, too-- adventure is all well and good, but I'd love for there to be an outbreak of peace, at least long enough to get our footing and work out the politics of defeating the Hierarchy... ah, if I were at home, that is." Which he wasn't, damn it all.

Hearing about the brainwashing, Zelnick almost hoped it was a Dnyarri, because then at least this place would seem a little like home... but no, that one intelligent Dnyarri should have died with the Sa-matra, and he doubted even the Umgah would be stupid enough to raise another one to sentience.

Kenren chuckled softly, appreciating the sentiment. "I know what you mean. I really wish I had my guns here with me. I have a sword, but that was always more my commander's weapon." Damn, he'd kill to have Tenpou here. Tenpou would probably enjoy it as much as he was.

"Well, your world sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than mine. Several hundred years of boredom makes this place look almost appealing apart from, you know, being prisoners and all. And you have my condolences at being involved in politics. Hate the stuff."

"Mmm, guns, yes." With a melancholy smile, Zelnick continued, "Or a fleet... though your sword is probably more manageable. Where did you get something like that, anyway?"

Zelnick snorted. "There were high points, true enough, but the situation was hardly ideal. It was a three-sided war-- my one fleet against two near-unstoppable forces, where if these guys win humanity and its allies remains enslaved, and if the other guys win every species they can get their claws on is slaughtered... I'm pretty sure my fleet won freedom and safety for all, but I woke up here before I could know." His smile was rueful. "I was terrible at the diplomatic bits, but at least when I was talking, my ships weren't being attacked."

Belatedly, he caught a nuance of Kenren's speech, and looked wide-eyed at his roommate. "... you've been bored for hundreds of years?" There were species that lived that long, but they didn't look human...

Yes, guns were definitely a good thing in situations like this, right there just below a good friend watching your back. "There's people here who can make weapons with some kind of magic. The Alchemists. You might see 'em posting on the bulletin. It's a pretty useful skill." A sword beat a vegetable peeler hands down any day.

"Huh, I guess that does have a few downsides, but at least you didn't end up getting killed. That always puts a damper on things. And personally, I always did better at the fighting than the diplomacy. I remember the last time I tried being diplomatic: I got roughed up, thrown into military prison and then subjected to my CO's nursing skills."

The god gave Zelnick a faintly surprised look and nodded. "Yeah. A good few centuries. It really takes it out of you."

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Day 30: Staff, Morning

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