damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 2

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"True, true." Kratos remembered seeing that overlarge sweater on Leon. It hadn't been a point of interest, but it had given the teen a sort of scrawny look- which he certainly was not.

"How have you been?" It had been a matter of days since they had last talked, and that had been after a certain nighttime experience he didn't want to repeat.

Well, Leon was certainly not built like most soldiers he knew, and was indeed very slender, but he was no helpless waif! Hopefully no one would find any reason to grab his shirt and pull, today, though, because he had no desire to end up suddenly naked from the waist up.

Leon decided against making a snide comment about Kratos' question--after a certain point, one just had to take the 'being trapped in this hellhole' thing as a given, and deal with smaller matters. "Well enough. I've been travelling with a very practical young woman lately, we're as well supplied now as we're likely to get." No real sword, of course, but a lot better off than he'd been this time last week.

He was definitely desensitized to the Institute, Kratos realized, if he could now casually ask after someone's health without thinking (The process hadn't even taken very long- only a little over a week.); most of the shocking things about the place now seemed so routine.

"Is that so." Leon seemed to be getting around; he on the other hand was still stuck in his normally secondary role as a healer. He'd only meant it to be temporary, but now there were simply too many people depending on him for him to resign from the position. "Through one of the clubs?"

Leon made a face and shook his head, at the mention of the clubs. "No, I've cut my ties with the clubs. I met Seiya at breakfast one day, and ended up showing her around that night. She turned out to be a much better partner than anyone the clubs ever saddled me with, so we've ended up sticking together since then." They'd even managed to kill that cat-thing that had attacked them, which had been a nice change from being horribly overwhelmed.

"Ah." Kratos nodded. "Yes, I haven't been exactly impressed with any of the clubs, myself. I was asked by a member of- I believe it was the Arts and Crafts club? - to be a part of her team for one of their assignments recently. Everyone participating was competent enough, but barely anything was actually accomplished." So little progress, in fact, that he noticed that Momo hadn't bothered with asking him for a second night- which he preferred. In recent days, his focus had been on the clinic, and in particular, Tamaki's well-being. Raine's concern was contagious, it seemed.

Leon nodded, the story sounding awfully familiar. "They assign new teams every night, so I often found myself working with people whose skills and weaknesses I knew nothing about. It didn't make for very good teamwork. They also seem to assign team leaders based on personal connections, rather than actual leadership experience." Allen hadn't known a damn thing about leading a squad, though at least he hadn't been so arrogant that he believed that he did.

"The clubs are composed completely out of volunteers from different worlds, so from the start there is a lack of cohesion," Kratos said, although seeing how well Momo and Signum had worked together the other night told him that teamwork was eventually possible in the club environment. "I would assume that they choose team leaders based off of experience or ability, but yes, an effective leader isn't necessarily the strongest veteran there."

He took another bite out of his muffin. "What they should do is train people before sending them out on a team, or at least let the members meet during the day to familiarize themselves. Unfortunately, I think everyone lacks the time to coordinate that sort of effort." Kratos smirked. "Or maybe it's just a matter of impatience and demand for results."

"Meetings during the day seemed like the logical thing to me, as well, but when they only get the list of groups up at the very end of the day..." Leon shrugged. Re-organising the clubs was not his problem anymore. He was fine working with Seiya, though now that they were a little better supplied, it was probably time for them to start exploring more--either that basement, or outside the walls.

Kratos finished off the rest of his muffin, dropping the paper back into the bag. That would suffice for breakfast. "Hah, well, we'll leave them to figure the problems out." When it came down to it, improving the clubs were really not any sort of priority for him.

"If they ever decide to do anything about the problems, I might look into working with them again. Otherwise, yeah, not something I plan on worrying about." Leon finally poked around in the paper bag a bit, and pulled out the apple slices. They were turning a touch brown, but that wasn't a problem. "And you? Been working in the clinic the whole time?"

"Aside from that one night with Arts and Crafts? Yes, I have." Kratos smiled ruefully. "I never intended on staying there for more than a day or so, but now I think Miss Sage has begun to depend on me to back her up." Funny that he would actually say that, considering how little Raine trusted him.

"There hasn't been an exceptionally busy night for a while now; I'm hoping tonight will not prove to be the same as the first time we came back from Doyleton." The odds were against him, though.

Day 35: Bus 2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject