Day 35: Bus 1

[misterprince.livejournal.com]

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Comments

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

"I imagine that that wasn't because of any hard knocks?" Roland himself had never experienced pains that weren't inflicted on him, and those hadn't been very many at all during his time in the Institute. He assumed that it was possible that Peter was suffering from power overload or something, but still, he had to ask and make sure. Especially since this was one time where he got to see someone else who'd gone through something similar and not reacted quite the same as others might have. Namely, Peter had seemed to react different from the average patient, doing his own deal- or so Roland had guessed from the flashes of light and such. So why not make sure?

Roland didn't bother eating his packed food, instead focusing more on the person with him- Roland already knew that there was no point in eating something without sufficient data to provide nourishment. Why worry about that, then, when there was something else that could be more important was presenting itself? "Also, unless my eyes deceived me, you went over the wall and out of your room. I've never heard of that happening before."

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

"No, it wasn't that," Peter quickly responded, though his hand was soon returning to clutch at his head again. It was bad enough that it was making his vision blur, and he really wished he could have just stayed in bed at this point. But he needed to find Claire, and he also needed to figure out just what Sylar's role was in all of this. Either way, he was certain he hadn't hit his head last night - he'd barely been injured, other than some light burns and his own self-inflicted wound, all of which had healed without a problem.

This was something else, and as Roland brought up the way he had abandoned his post, Peter glanced up again, eyes widening slightly. "Really?" He hadn't known that it had been such a rare event for someone to do that, though he could see how it went against the whole idea of brainwashing. He figured there was no harm in explaining, though, even if he was having a difficult time following his own thought process from the night before. "I saw someone from my world, someone who's really dangerous. I had to stop him." Everything else had taken a backseat to that, and even though he was suffering for it now, he knew it had been the right thing to do.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

Now that was interesting. Peter had seen someone he knew as a threat, someone he had to stop, and he had? If that was enough to stop someone from their brainwashing... perhaps it was an effect of perceived duty? Something that was held to be more important than what the Institute convinced the person was 'right' could break the brainwashing? Interesting, but Roland felt a brief pang of despair; nothing was more important to Indra than food. Which meant that what worked for Peter likely wouldn't work for Roland.

...not that he'd admit that was the thought going through his brain, anyway. Instead he inclined his head, letting his mind digest all the information he was getting. "First, you might want to ask a nurse for some tylenol if it's getting worse. And second... that's good to know. How did the light show end?"

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

Would they actually give him some medication? Peter hadn't considered that, even though it made sense. They were kept on pretty short leashes, after all, and the nurses didn't seem to respond to much of anything, instead just herding them from place to place. Though this trip at least showed that they were allowed some freedom, even though he got the feeling that it was just a larger cage they were being put in.

"I'll try that, thanks. And... it turned out all right, I guess. I can't believe that he's even here, but I was able to stop him from hurting anyone too badly." Claire had been forced to deal with the trauma of dying, but Peter knew that she was strong enough to handle that sort of thing. He still wanted to find her today, though, since there was a good chance Sylar would be looking out for both of them.

At least Sylar had been helpful in one way: now Peter knew that Claire's blood (and his blood, when he had his abilities) had the power to heal others. It wouldn't do them much good here, but it was still valuable information.

It was around that point that the buses stopped, and Peter glanced around as the other patients started to get out of their seats. "Well, it was nice talking to you," he said to Roland with a half smile. With that, he stood up and started toward the front of the bus.