Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

[darwinism]

Sylar's gears were still turning as the nurse and a burly orderly escorted him down long halls and through a strange, sunlit room. He'd been forced to drop his pen when the orderly had seen it, and since then, he'd realized that this place had better security than he'd originally anticipated, as well as a large population of patients. It looked like he'd have to bide his time for now, pretending to be this 'Zachary Blaine' and trying to figure out how the hell he'd gotten here.

His mind went over and over the events in Mohinder's lab, tracing every second that led up to his unconsciousness. According to the computer logs and the decked-out loft, Mohinder was working for the Company now, so had that woman with the electricity been an operative? Was this all a Company front? Even so, it didn't make sense for them to drop him off somewhere without any close supervision. They knew how dangerous he was. How special he was.

But right now, his abilities had been nullified and he was left only with the option of playing along. It was a very good thing that it was something he excelled at, even with his sudden loss of the cure clouding his thoughts and telling him to do something drastic.

Still, it was fun to take ahold of strings and let someone think they were pulling him when in fact he was the puppetmaster. Who knew? Maybe he could find a new toy now that his last one had worn out.

Sylar took his syrup-covered waffle to a table and tried to keep track of both the security and the people flooding in. Soon, he'd find an opening, a weak link he could exploit. It was only a matter of time.

Comments

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

Ed's expression brightened as soon as Tamaki came over to see him, especially with the smile on the other's face. He looked happy which was something that suited him so much. "Tamaki!" he replied with a grin, moving his tray over to give Tamaki more room.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "The clinic is important. You can't just ignore people who are hurt."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"I'm just pleased it's working properly," Tamaki went on, as he began to cut his waffles. "Though I think I may need to make a few announcements." If people wanted to volunteer, they had to learn what they were doing.

"And thank you so much for the books you brought! I didn't have a chance to look at them, but I know they'll be helpful!"

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"Announcements?" Ed asked curiously. "And I think you need to expand it," he added. They had too many patients for just one room. "Make it a few rooms next to each other instead of asking everyone to come to one room and then move later."

He took another few bites of food, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ah, you should thank Hughes," he said. "He found them and asked me to bring them over to you. I'm glad they're helpful."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"Oh, we're going to expand," Tamaki said, nodding. "We just don't have enough room now, and with so many people coming..." He still needed to work out the details with Raine, though.

"Oh, some people just...don't realize how serious the clinic is," he said, vaguely. "And I'll be sure to thank your friend."

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, and you can only work inside people's rooms because they're the only safe places." Huh, that did suck. There wasn't anywhere larger that could be used. Even the corridors were dangerous.

"Oh. Well, if you need any help..." he offered. "And he'll be glad that you have a use for them."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"I wish there was some other way we could do it..." Tamaki sighed. "Oh well. People don't have any trouble finding us, and we have been able to help everyone so far! I think it's a roaring success!" And he was extremely proud of it.

"Thank you. I'd hate to take you away from other things, though. I know you're very good at exploring and finding things." And even though Tamaki worried, every night, he knew it wasn't fair to ask Ed to not try and fight to find a way out of here.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"I guess as long as people can find it, then you can move into the adjacent rooms as you need rather than stretching your supplies and people." He smiled genuinely. "I'm glad its a success."

He shrugged in response, a faint touch of irritation crossing his face. "I haven't managed to get anything much done since me and Adel met Jack... uh... the man on... on the Radio." Who'd been killed by that bastard.

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"That's what we've started doing. I don't think my neighbors mind." How could they? It was such a good cause!

"It's been a difficult couple of nights," Tamaki pointed out. Without the nice radio man, it was harder to figure out what they were supposed to do, or what the right direction was. "What with... what's happened. But I'm sure things are going to get better!"

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"Who cares if they mind anyway? If they mind then they're idiots." Who could mind injured people using their room to get medical attention? They'd have to be pretty cold hearted.

Tamaki's optimism was kind of infectious. It was good to hear someone so confident and he needed that boost after what he thought had happened to fox last night. "Yeah. They will," he agreed. "There's more people here now. That has to start putting a strain on things, right?" He wondered what had happened to the cat that Jack had had.

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, it would be very rude to use their rooms if they didn't want us to. But..." They couldn't really do anything else. And he supposed Ed was right. They weren't very good people if they didn't let injured people recover.

"I wonder how many people this place can hold? And, well, the more people here the more people who are looking for a way out!" That had to be a good thing? It was terrible that people kept being brought here, but... they couldn't do anything about that now. All they could do was make sure that the people who were brought here were taken care of.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"When people are injured isn't the time to be thinking about whether things are rude or not. Helping them is more important." It was sweet, sort of, but they had to be pragmatic. And he wanted the clinic to be successful for Tamaki.

He glanced around at the crowd of people in the cafeteria. There definitely seemed to be more people than there had been yesterday. "I don't know. They must run out of space at some point. There's only so many rooms that they can put people in and they can't just build more bedroom overnight." He frowned as soon as he said that though because this place was just weird enough that he was considering it possible. "BUt yeah. The more people there are, the more people can find out."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"No, I suppose you're right..." It was still hard for Tamaki to think about being rude. Even if Ed was perfectly right.

"Maybe. I don't think there's anything this place isn't incapable of. But I'm sure we'll make progress!" They had to. Otherwise...what? "Lots of people are going down to the basement, aren't they? And there's important things there, right?"

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

Ed nudged Tamaki gently with his shoulder. "Really. You're doing a good job. People should appreciate that. after all, they might need to use the clinic sometime too." It was a service for everyone after all. They should damn well appreciate it!

"Of course we'll make progress!" Ed agreed with Tamaki's once again infectious enthusiasm. It was hard not to believe it when he spoke like that. "Yeah. The basement seems to be the next destination. There doesn't seem to be so much on the upper two floors that hasn't been explored several times over."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

Tamaki turned and wrapped his arms around the other teenager, resting his head on Ed's shoulder. "I'm just being silly, aren't I?" he asked, sighing. He knew he was. "I'm just... well, I'm glad something's working. That I'm doing. It really is wonderful, waking up knowing I helped people!" And it really was.

"Well, I'm sure the people who are going into the basement will find something soon!" And then... well, he didn't know what would happen then, but he was sure things would work themselves out.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

The hug took Ed a little by surprise, but after a moment he relaxed, slipping an arm around Tamaki, a faint blush colouring his cheeks. He could feel Tamaki's hair against his neck and it was kind of weird, but nice too in an odd sort of way. "Not silly. Just concerned for people." He could respect thta, it just couldn't fit the same way here that it did in whatever kind of world Tamaki came from.

"Yeah. I'll ask Renji or someone if they've found anything, or Hughes, since he was going there last night. They seem to go down there pretty often. Would be nice to get an idea of what's going on."

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's good!" Tamaki agreed, nodding and settling in against Ed. This was nice. And he didn't care if the twins teased him about it. If he wanted to hug his boyfriend at breakfast, he could! "I wish we could set up a... a clinic station closer to the basement. It sounds so terribly dangerous, and it isn't very close to the clinic...."

And carrying people through the halls was very dangerous.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it is..." Ed agreed, although he was by that point thinking more of how Tamaki felt leaning against him like that, rather than anything about escaping or information. "Yeah. It would be nice if there were more safe places where you could have outposts," he agreed. "Lots of people get hurt in the Sun Room too. But I don't think there's anywhere except the rooms that are safe enough." No sense taking injured people to a room where they'd be sitting targets after all.