damned_institute | Day 34: Breakfast

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

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So it was possible to get outside the Landel walls! It didn't sound like Peter got very far with his friends, but it made sense, getting attacked by a bear - normal bears would be formidable enough, but he has a feeling the Landels variety were in a league of their own. Clark's face was an open book on concern and sympathy, not one for having much of a poker face. Peter was probably lucky he hadn't gotten badly hurt if he ran into a bear - it didn't occur to Clark at all that Peter would be anything other than a normal college guy - but Clark still had to admit that at least he tried to get out.

Someone had to get out and get help.

"Maybe there's a way to get down to Doyleton," Clark said, thinking and frowning to himself. "I know I saw phones there. What if someone could get down there and get to them to get calls out?"

"Yeah, we thought about trying to get down there, but..." Peter paused when Clark mentioned the phones. "Really? Huh..." That was something to consider, though he didn't know how much luck they would have even if they did get to one. The line might be dead, and even if it wasn't, who were they going to call? He doubted that dialing up Mary Jane would result in anything, since he wasn't sure this was even the same dimension or whatever.

"The thing is that I don't know if there would really be enough time to get all the way down there," he said with a sigh. "I mean, we had to take buses to get down there, and there's a chance that all of the people who live there would be, well... different at night."

Still, it was something to consider. In the meantime, they might as well do their best to explore the surrounding area. There was probably a whole lot of new ground to cover, which was both good and bad.

Probably not enough time unless you knew where you were going. Or had super-speed.

Unfortunately, Clark had only been to Doyleton once and as for his speed, knowing his powers right now, he could end up being as slow as a regular human or he could end up half-way across the state (or run into a tree and he already knew that could be dangerous to him now). He frowned, trying to think around this problem. Did whatever changed the staff here every night do the same to the people in town? Clark wasn't sure what exactly caused it - someone with powers or maybe it was a disease? - but just because they made it to Doyleton didn't mean they could let their guard down.

"Maybe it'd be safer with a big group," Clark thought aloud, trying to bounce off Peter. "There's gotta be a map somewhere around here, you'd think. Especially if we're out in the sticks like this."

"A map?" Peter considered, putting a hand to his chin as he thought it over. While that would have been nice, he really didn't think they would be getting any freebies like that. The only maps they were going to get were ones they made themselves, and trying to map out territory like that was a lot harder than drawing out hallways and the placement of doors.

"I don't know," he said, voicing his thoughts. "I wouldn't count on it. You definitely want at least two other people with you if you plan to try going outside, though," he warned. Any more than that might lead to crowding that would be more of a hindrance than a help.

"Speaking of which," he said, glancing the teenager over, "do you have people to stick with at night?" He remembered how Clark had been so willing to explore on his own the night they met, and he'd like to hope the kid had learned since then.

Clark couldn't say he was part of any real organized group, but he did have some people he'd traveled with before. Claire, for starters, although he guessed it was pretty much all new to Claire at this point and maybe it didn't quite count. Before a few days ago, when he'd noticed his powers flipping out, Clark would've insisted he didn't really need help, much less people to "stick" with. But things were different now.

"Sorta," Clark said. "Just a few friends I made here," okay, Claire might not remember him, but he still counted her his friend, "but that's about it."

That didn't sound too reassuring, though Peter tried to remind himself that if Clark was still here, he obviously knew what he was doing.

"Well," he started, without really thinking. Here he had been about to say that the teen could meet up with him any night he didn't have some friends to travel with, but he couldn't do that unless he was willing to let Clark find out who he was.

There was a good chance the kid hadn't even heard of Spider-man, and Statesman and Logan already knew, but Peter couldn't help hesitating, purely out of habit.

"Just take care of yourself," he said, eventually finishing that sentence. "Though I guess you've probably figured out how to handle this place by now."

Clark nodded, flashing a small, somewhat nervous smile at Peter.

"I will. What about you?" he asked.

Peter probably had a group since there was safety in numbers, but somehow Clark just couldn't picture him taking on the monsters or staff here. Then again, he probably didn't either. Anyway, if Peter ever needed any help, Clark decided that all he had to do was ask - he couldn't go around dropping the whole "Hi, I'm an alien from Kansas" into Peter's lap, but he'd see what he could do while keeping hush-hush about the other hairy details.

Almost done with his food, Peter finished off his sausages and then washed it all down with the last of his orange juice before responding.

"Well, I get along pretty well with my roommate, so we usually head out together at night," he explained. He wasn't going to get into the fact that Logan sort of knew him already, since he didn't need to confuse Clark with unnecessary details.

"And a friend of mine from home showed up here a few days ago, so I've been helping him get used to this place. Not that you can ever really get used to it..." He didn't want to make it sound like danger was a common thing for him, after all. Nor did he need to mention that Harry was supposed to be dead. He couldn't help wanting to keep up the act, as pointless as it might be.

Clark hoped that his friend was doing well enough. While he still wasn't sure how people got picked (was it like a random lottery or was there any pattern?), you had to have some bad luck to get the short end of the stick to be thrown in here.

"I don't suppose he remembers how he got here?" Clark asked. Somehow he had the sinking feeling he already knew the answer. Did anyone?

But whether or not he knew the answer, it looked like their breakfast was already over. Clark threw a little wave at Peter as he was led away by his nurse, empty tray in hand.

Day 34: Breakfast

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