Day 30: Staff, Morning

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

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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[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia's hand twitched at the contact, her eyes fluttering open. She wasn't looking at anything in the real world, though. Renji was there again, telling her it would be okay. She squeezed the hand a little, murmuring his name.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

The soft murmur of Renji’s name made Kairi let out a sigh – she should have known that was whom Rukia would be seeing in her drug-induced stupor. “Rukia, it’s me. It’s Kairi,” Her voice was a soft, gentle whisper, and though albeit hoarse, still had a calming sound to it.

She had no clue what to do in this situation. Rukia was clearly out of it, and Kairi had no means of trying to lure her out of the haze.

All she could think of was sit by the girl’s side and pet her hand.

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

After a while, Rukia realized that it wasn't Renji there at all. But it was someone familiar, someone reassuring. She fought through the haze of sedatives to turn her head and see who it was. The overhead lights were harsh; Rukia had to squint to get her eyes to focus at all.

"...Kairi?" she whispered. Why would Kairi be in Soul Society? For a moment, the terrible thought that maybe her friend had died crossed her foggy mind. "You're--" But then she remembered where they were. At the Institute. And Kairi had been hurt, hadn't she? But Rukia had healed her. "Are you okay?" she asked, her speech slurred.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

Kairi smiled, even though Rukia couldn’t see it. “Yes, it’s me,” a pause, and she whispered once more, “Just take it easy, alright? What … happened?”

The chaos had seemed rather random and sudden to her, and Kairi really didn’t know what to make of it. She hoped Rukia would have some kind of idea as to what had happened. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

Her bandaged hand continued to caress Rukia’s own, trying to keep the black haired girl calm while she remained lying down. She couldn’t undo the restraints, so she only hoped that Rukia would remain calm and not try to break out of them. Kairi knew if that happened, then a nurse would probably just come in and do something even worse.

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia's eyebrows furrowed in concentration; it was so hard just trying to stay focused on one thing under the sedatives. Wait, why was she sedated? "What happened?" she echoed, trying to figure that out herself. If she was in the room with Kairi, wasn't it dinner? But where had the day gone? She'd even met that nice kid... What was his name? Tyler.

And then Rukia remembered. "Oh," she mumbled. "Breakfast... was a fight, right? An' Tyler... he helped, but I feel bad. Good kid." She nodded slightly, as though that would make any sense to Kairi, and tried to sit up. It was then she realized that she couldn't. She wasn't just drugged; there was something holding her down.

Eyes going as wide as her condition would allow, Rukia pulled weakly at the straps on her wrists. "Wha--?" She looked at Kairi pleadingly.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

Kairi’s smile turned sad as Rukia had a hard time recalling what had happened, but such a thing was to be expected. “Yes, there was a fight. A big fight. And Tyler?” she didn’t know who Rukia was talking about, but she suspected it was the boy that had been close to her when she had practically dove into the fight.

At Rukia’s desperate look, Kairi chewed on her bottom lip and began to try and once again undo the restraints. They were hard, and for some reason, she couldn’t undo them. She even tried to tug on them using both of her hands, which only caused her broken hand to shoot stabs of agony through the rest of her body. Letting out a cry once she couldn’t take it anymore, the once Princess let out a pant and shook her head, a sad look crossing her face. “They’re locked with a key. I’m so sorry!”

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia frowned at Kairi's efforts to undo the restraints, though it took her a while to realize what they were, and why they might be on her. "No, 's okay," she said, smiling up at Kairi. "Gotta rest, anyway. Jus', if my nose itches, you c'n get it, right?"

Concentrating, Rukia tried to answer her friend's question. "Tyler's... a boy. From Massas...something. He likes, uh, science fiction. You'd like him. He's nice, like Sora."

She squeezed Kairi's hand again, trying to reassure her that she didn't need to fret about the restraints.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

Kairi couldn’t help but laugh at Rukia’s request, and she nodded her head. “Of course. I’ll try to do the best that I can.”

Tyler. Strange name, but then again, everything about the place was strange to begin with. “I see,” she began, a soft smile crossing her lips, “I’ll keep that in mind. I hope one day you can introduce me?”

As long as she kept talking about positive topics, things would be fine. Kairi grasped gently onto Rukia’s hand once more, once again rubbing the top in a soothing motion. “You should sleep. You need your rest, you know? Don’t worry, I’ll be here for you. I promise.”

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia smiled lazily up at Kairi, blinking a few times to try and clear her vision - unsuccessfully. "Knew I could count on you," she chuckled quietly.

"Yeah," she assured, "I'll bring him t' meet you. Later. Or tomorrow."

Rukia tried to wave her hand dismissively at Kairi's concern, but was stopped by the restraints. A brief look of irritation crossed her face, but she was too drugged to dwell on it. "Nah," she said, "Got 'nough sleep." She did let her eyes drift shut, though, as she continued. "'Sides, you got hurt, too. Hand's not all healed... Is it dinner?" she asked, wondering if she has slept the whole day.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

Kairi knew Rukia hadn’t gotten enough sleep – if anything, she had been only out for a few minutes … maybe twenty or so tops. She couldn’t really tell here – time was a strange thing.

“It’s not dinner, Rukia,” the young girl whispered, a frown crossing her lips. “The fight only happened a few moments ago. We’re under lockdown. They’ve locked the door – we’re in here until they let us out.” Whenever that would be.

Her frown only deepened at the comment about her hand, and Kairi let out a soft sigh. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about me, really. It’s you who I’m worried about. You’re all bandaged up. Last night you were …” a pause, and she continued, “Well, fine, to say the least. What happened to you last night in that time when you left the room?”

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia pondered Kairi's words, eventually just saying, "Oh." There wasn't much they could do about the current situation, now was there? So she wouldn't worry about it.

At Kairi's question, Rukia lifted her head enough to look down at her bandaged left knee and right foot. Oh yeah, the scorpion. "Ah, jus' ran into a big... bug," she said, and made a crawling motion with the fingers of the hand Kairi was holding. "Was comin' back here 'n it found me. Coulnd't kill it, though." She frowned.

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

“A big bug?” Kairi’s eyes widened at the thought, a frown crossing her lips once again. The hand motion made her frown vanish for a few seconds, but it soon returned. “I … see. It looks like it hurt you pretty bad, though. I’m sure you injured it enough so that it won’t be able to hurt anyone else? Maybe …”

At the thought of large bugs roaming the hallway, Kairi let out a sigh. This place really did have a bit of everything.

“Well,” she started again, giving Rukia a small smile, “Be sure to take things easy tonight, okay? Don’t want you to get injured any more than you already are.”

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia scowled; she hadn't hurt the thing at all!! "No," she sighed, "It had armor, 'n I wasn't able t' get its belly..." Which was possibly part of the reason she had been spoiling for a fight this morning; losing a fight always made Rukia more eager to dive back in a prove that she could kick ass just as well as the next shinigami. Usually that just got her injured, though.

Rukia didn't like the direction their conversation was taking. She was silent for a moment after Kairi's request to take it easy, then turned to look up at her friend with tired eyes. "Kairi, c'n you tell me a story? Maybe something you did back in your own world?"

[heartcrown.livejournal.com]

Kairi’s lips pursed as Rukia went on to explain the monster she had fought against. A monster with armor? Well, that wasn’t fair at all! “I see,” the younger girl whispered quietly, stroking Rukia’s hand in silence as she continued to think.

“A story?” Her eyes widened at the sudden question, her thoughts already running over memories that seemed ages ago. “Alright, why not. Let’s see …”

After a few moments of silence, Kairi smiled and shut her eyes, a memory filling her mind. “When Sora, Riku and I were younger, we used to always play make believe games. You know, stories about princesses and the princes that saved them. Anyway, Sora and Riku always used to make me be the princess – which is ironic, because we didn’t know back then I was a princess of heart! – anyway, I was really annoyed, so one day I told them that I was going to be the prince! They were so shocked with me. Sora was forced to be the princess, and Riku was forced to be my horse. He used to crawl around and I’d sit on his back, and we’d tie Sora against a tree and everything. But anyway! This one time, we forgot to untie Sora on the tree and it started to rain. He was pretty angry with us.”

Kairi couldn’t help but laugh at the story, her eyes opening as she peered down to look at Rukia. She had plenty other stories to tell.