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damned_institute2008-08-09 03:54 am
damned-intercom.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2008-08-09 03:54 am
Day 34: Intercom, Afternoon
The intercom clicked on amongst the usual sound of people eating and of forks hitting empty plates.
"Good afternoon, everyone!" The Head Doctor's voice was cheery and somewhat rushed, nothing out of the ordinary for such a busy and duplicitous man. "I hope you all enjoyed our delicious lunch and salads! Next up this shift, our adult patients will be heading to the male and female showers–respectively–while our younger patients may enjoy themselves either in the Courtyard or the Sun Room. We only have a couple more patients we're bringing out this shift, but that doesn't make them any less important, yes? Please give a warm welcome to them, as they and the other new arrivals will be joining the younger patients while the rest of the adults shower–er, speaking of which, orderlies will be watching over everyone very closely, so please keep to yourselves! No funny stuff!"
The Head Doctor paused, as if he'd realized he'd said just a little too much. He cleared his throat and sighed.
"In any case, I hope you all get something out of the next shift, whether it be cleanliness or relaxation. I'll talk to you all before dinner!"
The intercom clicked off.
[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (You can find your character's room assignment here.) Since we know it's probably really weird for new characters to get thrown in the showers on their first day: it is MANDATORY for brand new patients (and new patients ONLY) to hang in the Sun Room with whoever else wants to go there or if they end up in the Courtyard with the other age group. (The nurses will say that they were already cleaned up upon their arrival.) Thanks! ]
"Good afternoon, everyone!" The Head Doctor's voice was cheery and somewhat rushed, nothing out of the ordinary for such a busy and duplicitous man. "I hope you all enjoyed our delicious lunch and salads! Next up this shift, our adult patients will be heading to the male and female showers–respectively–while our younger patients may enjoy themselves either in the Courtyard or the Sun Room. We only have a couple more patients we're bringing out this shift, but that doesn't make them any less important, yes? Please give a warm welcome to them, as they and the other new arrivals will be joining the younger patients while the rest of the adults shower–er, speaking of which, orderlies will be watching over everyone very closely, so please keep to yourselves! No funny stuff!"
The Head Doctor paused, as if he'd realized he'd said just a little too much. He cleared his throat and sighed.
"In any case, I hope you all get something out of the next shift, whether it be cleanliness or relaxation. I'll talk to you all before dinner!"
The intercom clicked off.
[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (You can find your character's room assignment here.) Since we know it's probably really weird for new characters to get thrown in the showers on their first day: it is MANDATORY for brand new patients (and new patients ONLY) to hang in the Sun Room with whoever else wants to go there or if they end up in the Courtyard with the other age group. (The nurses will say that they were already cleaned up upon their arrival.) Thanks! ]
F22
It was around this time that Senna realized that she was thinking to herself.
Her eyes shot open and she sat up in one motion. She was still alive! But where... A room. A bed that she was in. Stuff. Not much really. She made a face. What a plain room. Even Ichigo's had more personality to it.
Ichigo.
Senna froze, the thoughts she had been thinking a second ago coming back in force. She had saved him. She was sure of it. And then... then she.... but....
But she was here. She patted the bed next to her. Yep. Real. She moved on to pinch her cheek. "Ow!" Real as she could be. Huh.
The door to the room opened, punctuating her exclamation. A lady dressed in a nurse's outfit came in with a clipboard. "Oh, Sarah, you're up! How are you feeling?"
Still sitting in the bed, Senna raised her hand to her chin and frowned. "Sarah? Sen-na," she pronounced carefully. She guessed the two names were somewhat similar.
The nurse smiled a little and shook her head. "No. You're Sarah. Sarah Gear. Your family brought you here to get better, sweetie."
This lady was making a lot of assumptions about Senna's personal life. And talking down to her wasn't going to win the lady any brownie points. Senna opened her mouth to shoot off a sharp reply when something hit her. She covered her mouth, eyes wide.
What if she didn't fade away? What if somehow what was left of her had lived on, and reincarnated? Maybe she was Sarah Gear, now, and had just only remembered her past. She might have a second chance at life! She reached to touch her hair in habit and her fingertips brushed something familiar.
"Sarah?"
She pulled the ribbon out of her hair, freeing it to fall to her shoulders. Red. A red ribbon; the small price tag still on the underside. 500 yen. The ribbon Ichigo had bought her. She stared at it a moment.
"Sarah?"
Her hands moved in a practiced motion to tie the ribbon back in her hair. She framed her face with her hands and smiled brightly at the nurse. "Look good?"
The nurse smiled back. "It does. Are you ready to go meet some new friends?"
Senna finally hopped out of bed, stretching her arms up over her head. "Sure! Why not?" She wasn't going to find out anything by staying her, that was for sure.
The nurse continued talking as she led her out into the hallway. "You just missed lunch, but dinner will be soon! I bet you're hungry."
Senna would have questioned the lady more, but... "Dinner? What's on the menu?" Food seemed a lot more interested to her growling stomach right now.
M71
"Time to get up, Mister Sinclair. You missed lunch, you slept so long."
Wait... What? The time of day became instantly unimportant because the voice didn't belong to one of his servants. Justin's eyes snapped open and he was already getting out of the unfamiliar bed in the very unfamiliar room. The nurse who had apparently spoken to him was only one of the details he absorbed quickly. She was watching him carefully now, having noted the patient's reaction upon waking.
Justin squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, trying to clear the cobwebs and assess the situation. The person in front of him was a good start for information. "I'm sorry, but, where exactly am I?" His clothing had disappeared to be replaced by a rather casual grey outfit with... a happy face patch on the shirt. A sense of dread filled him even as the woman spoke.
"Landel's Institute, the very best care available. You've had quite a hard time of it, but the doctors think you've improved enough to start interacting in a more normal environment. Good for you, I say. Health is happiness!"
Well, the setting did certainly match the concept of an institution, but this was absurd. Justin stared at the woman a moment longer before saying, "Very funny, Shalice. Cut it out."
The nurse paled at the words, but regained her composure quickly. "We'll have none of that, Mister Sinclair. I am obviously not that person. This is not a psychic hallucination, I don't want to hear you claiming such things again. Superheroes aren't real. You are real. I am real. The orderly is real too, do you remember him? I'd rather not have to call him."
Not a psychic hallucination? Yeah right. She was insinuating he'd claimed that before. Although it would be foolish to completely deny the slim chance that he'd actually managed to get himself committed (and he'd like to know the story behind that), the rest made no sense. Everybody knew there were supers. And his own identity as Manticore was well known by now, as his father's had been before him.
So it was a sham regardless. Was this some weird lesson Statesman was trying to teach him? It seemed a little cruel for Sister Psyche all on her own. Justin realized in the same moment that this might actually be some other psychic, perhaps trying to get revenge for Protean's death. Had his enemies learned of his suspension from the Freedom Phalanx? Unfortunately, he lacked the information necessary to make such calls.
The nurse cleared her throat. "I have other patients to attend to, Mister Sinclair. It's time for you to get some exercise, or socialize with the other patients, whichever you feel most up to."
"Of course. I apologize. As you say, I haven't felt well." Justin dug right into the game, letting his usual sense of aristocratic politeness take over. "Is there anything more... suitable I can wear?"
"Just more of the same, dear." She glanced pointedly at the slippers.
He slid his feet into the footwear, shuddering mentally at being forced to go out in public in such garb. "Well then, lead on, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." A little overenthusiastic perhaps, but if this was the work of a psychic he wanted to see if they would would expose themselves, make a mistake.
"Very good," smiled the nurse. "Which will it be, the Sun Room or the Courtyard?"
The Courtyard hinted at the possibility of outside. If this place was real in any respect, that sounded like the more useful choice. "The Courtyard, please."
He followed the nurse out into the halls, noting there was no visible security system. Either the psychic responsible for this had missed that little detail... or the system was hidden, be this some twisted version of reality. Surely they weren't presumptuous enough to go without one. He was still voting for hallucination, though he hated making uneducated guesses. There were other possible explanations, yes, but again, he lacked information. He kept careful observation as the nurse led him outside, noting how very detailed this world was... impressive, if it wasn't real. Disturbing if it was.
no subject
Something was very wrong.
At first glance, he was so disoriented that he thought he was stuck in a dream. The room was not his own on Serenity but it wasn't like any dream he had before. The room was too plain, too sterile to come from his own mind. Simon closed his eyes and shook his head, putting his hand to his forehead. When he opened them again he should be back on Serenity. It was as easy as that.
But when Simon opened his eyes he saw that the room had not changed and that worried him. There had to be an explaination. Perhaps it was some sort of temporary delusion brought on by high stress and little sleep. Being the doctor on a ship filled with people who were walking targets left little time for sleep. But he'd never had visual hallucinations before.
"Mr. Thompson?"
Simon looked up curiously to find a nurse standing over him. "I'm sorry?"
"Ah, Mr. Thompson. I'm glad to see that you're awake. We were worried that there had been... complications, but you seem to be doing well."
Simon looked around him, wondering if the nurse was speaking to someone else. "I beg your pardon, but my name isn't Thompson. I'm Dr. Simon Tam."
"Yes, of course you are," the nurse said, looking down at her clip board. "Well, it seems as though you've slept most of the day away but if you hurry you can join the others in the Sun room."
Hurry? Sun room?
Simon rubbed his eyes, wondering if this was some sort of prank that Mal thought to play on him. Well, he was going to teach that good for nothing Captain a lesson if he thought to do this to him. "Where am I?" he asked.
"Landel's Institute," the nurse replied cheerfully. "Come on then. Let's get a move on."
Simon stood up, deciding that it was the only thing he could do. He didn't know what sort of situation he was in and it would be foolish to begin fighting. He had to proceed carefully. If this was a joke he just might be able to outsmart them all.
Mal had to get up pretty early to pull one over Simon Tam.