damned_institute | Day 34: Intercom, Noon

"Good afternoon, patients, and I am glad to see our new arrivals are already making such good friends with our current population!" The Head Doctor's words were usual, unremarkable, which meant that whatever had gone out of control these past couple days was evening out into some form of Dr. Landel's nefarious schemes. For now, however, he simply chuckled with good humor. "We'll be bringing in new patients during this shift as well, of course, but what I'm sure most of you are most intrigued by is... food! Yes, although lunch is posted up on the bulletin board on the schedule, I doubt many of you pay attention to it.... Ahem.

"Today's meal is chicken tenders made from fresh, juicy chicken breasts. As sides, we have potato chips, vegetable soup, and cole slaw, and we of course have honey-mustard and barbeque sauce for dipping. As always, our fruit and salad bar is open for anyone looking for a different meal, and our drinks are water, milk, apple juice, and pink lemonade.

"Mm! Sure sounds delicious, doesn't it? In any case, I hope you all enjoy your meal and your new company."

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (Have your new character wake up in a random empty room, as we aren't yet able to officially assign rooms.) Thanks! ]

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Something was very, very wrong. Matsuda could tell that as soon as he woke up. He was used to loud voices waking him up, usually berating him for falling asleep on the job, so that wasn't anything new; and he hadn't spent much time in his own bed since the Kira investigation began, which wasn't anything new either. No, what stuck out most to Matsuda in his still half-asleep state was that something loud was waking him up and none of the others were around. It wasn't Aizawa's voice, or Ide's. Mogi wouldn't have said anything, rarely did, and Light was nicer about it than his other colleagues. It wasn't even the Chief--

Oh. Right, he thought a bit sullenly as he rubbed at his eyes and took a closer look at the room. The Chief was gone, so it couldn't have been him. Light was probably with his family taking care of things, and poor Sayu...she hadn't been responding to much of anything since she'd been abducted, and this definitely wasn't going to help. It was just one big streak of bad luck for the Yagami family, and Matsuda wished that there was more he could do to help. Well...there really was, and he could help figure out Kira's identity when he got back.

What Matsuda couldn't figure out, though, was where he was now. It smelled like a hospital, and was all white like a hospital, but he shouldn't have been in a hospital to begin with. He'd been discharged already, and this definitely wasn't the same place they'd gone after Mello had blown up his own hideout. What had the guy been thinking? If Matsuda ever saw him again...well, it probably wouldn't happen, anyway, so there wasn't a point in thinking that. And it still didn't help him answer the question of what the hell was going on.

At that moment, the door to the room opened, and a woman came in, dressed up like a nurse. "Good afternoon, Mr. Aoyama. It's nice to see you're already up," she said cheerily and he gave her a smile. It still seemed like a hospital, at least, and she seemed to be pretty pleasant. He didn't know what else it could be, but the whole thing was kind of strange.

"Good afternoon, miss--" he began, pausing as it dawned on him what she'd called him. "W-wait a second! You've got the wrong person. My name's Matsuda." The woman gave a sigh, and was it just him or did she look like she was tired of something? Was it something he'd said? But she had to have the wrong person. He knew who he was, even if he didn't know who this Aoyama guy was; and where did the guy get off leaving Matsuda to get mistaken for him? "A-are you okay?" he asked the nurse hesitantly. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to upset this woman if she was supposed to be taking care of him. She was so pretty, too...

"Yes, of course. I just get that statement often," she replied, putting a smile back on that Matsuda suspected was just a little bit of an act, but he couldn't really tell. He'd never been good at picking out that stuff until it was obvious. Kinda like a big neon sign or something.

"Oh..." He paused for a moment, then decided he might as well try to see if she would tell him anything. "Um...sorry, but could you tell me where I am?"

"Of course, Mr. Aoyama. This is Landel's Institute. You were brought here by some close friends who were worried about you. It seems the death of your superior affected you badly." It seemed like all she was willing to say, and it took him a second to put it together. Institute. They thought he was crazy or that he was having some massive problems after the Chief's death or something.

Well, could they blame him? His line of work didn't seem to matter when Kira was involved; the Chief was the third of them that the case had claimed, even though this one was more directly related to the notebook. Still, that was the sort of thing that Matsuda thought would make him want to catch the bastard even more, instead of getting himself landed in a institution. And what sort of name was Landel's? Something American? How had he gotten here? The way she'd said it, it seemed like he was supposed to know the place, but nothing rang any bells. He was only vaguely aware that she had begun to speak again, but looked back over and tried to pay attention. "--you have any other questions? If you'll come with me, we can get you some lunch, and I can try to answer what I can on the way. I'm sure you're hungry after sleeping in for so long."

Almost as if on cue, Matsuda's stomach growled, and he gave her an sheepish grin. "Oh, y-yeah, I guess so," he replied, even more confused than he'd been when he woke up. She sure hadn't explained much, but at least they were going to feed him.

He slid off of the bed and got his first good look at what they'd dressed him in. The grey was kinda boring and depressing, but the smiley face on the shirt almost made him laugh. The thought of putting a not-quite-happy-looking smiley on an outfit like this was...well, ridiculous and weird. Kind of like the situation. He snickered a little bit, and the nurse gave him a strange look. "It's nothing," he assured her. "Just wondering whose idea the outfit was." It didn't occur to him until afterwards that she might have been the one to pick it out. Oops. She didn't seem to say anything else about it, though, so he forgot about the smiley as he followed her out of the room.

Day 34: Intercom, Noon

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