damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

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One of the nurses had, of course, helped Forte up after his leg cramped, and led him inside. He cursed loudly on the way inside, wondering just why this body couldn't have come with a manual or some instructions. There was always some little thing he didn't know. At least when he was a robot, he had Wily to do all the upkeep and repairs.

Forte had heard something about visitors, and there was some talk about them on the communication board, but he didn't pay any particular attention because he knew no-one would visit him - whether this was some kind of prison or research facility, even if someone knew he was here, none would care.

So, when the nurse said he should act more civilized for his family, he was confused. She led him into a room down the hall from the one he'd walked through the night before, and sat him down at a table to wait for his 'visitor.'

It became apparent whom the nurse was referring to when a man walked up to the table, but didn't sit down. Instead, he seemed quite content with looking down on Forte with an unreadable expression. It wasn't hateful, but it wasn't welcoming, either. He seemed to be inspecting Forte, instead.

"You look well enough," the man finally concluded before his eyes narrowed slightly. "I suppose you still don't remember who I am, don't you?"

Forte jumped to his feet, slamming his hands on the table. He snarled, "So you did have something to do with this, old man."

The man didn't seem at all perturbed by Forte's reaction, not even flinching at the sudden movement; instead, he smirked softly. "I had nothing to do with you going insane and getting committed, boy. You did that all on your own."

"You still think I'm that 'Dr. Wily' person." It wasn't a question.

Forte narrowed his eyes, clearly confused - this was definitely Wily, but what reason could he have to deny it? He opened and closed his mouth, then sat down. "What is this, some experiment? You decided I'm a lost cause, and hand me over to these people so they can make me... like this?"

"Dr. Wily" returned a confused look, albeit a slightly one--was Frank remembering something from reality? He seemed to be a bit more in control than he had been, previously, so improvement wasn't out of the question....

"You're here because you went insane," the man said at last. "But, of course, you don't remember that part. You don't remember anything at all, not even your dear brothers and sister." Light sarcasm slipped into his voice at 'dear'. "Not even Rick, or Bruce, or Jill."

And now... he was just babbling nonsense, and naming nonexistent family (had Wily built other robots now that Forte was here? They didn't even sound like robots' names). There was a nagging thought about the names, that they seemed familiar, but he had wasn't going to buy into this... this nonsense.

"Dammit, I don't have any time for your games, Wily. Or Mr. X, or whatever you want them to think your name is. You need to get me out of this facility, and out of this weak human body, before I find a way to do it myself." The last part had the clear tone of a threat behind it.

The man continued smirking at the threat, although his expression faltered at 'Wily', if only for a moment. "Still running away from reality, I see. Just because Rick bested you...."

"And I will do no such thing to remove you from this place, even if you were still my charge," He didn't elaborate, and the man went from smirking to general displeasure. "My name is Albert Wilhelm. I'm your grandfather. The one who raised you since you were a child."

The words ungrateful brat weren't said, but were clearly implied.

"I have no idea what your game is, Old Man, but I'm not playing it. But if you want to take the blame, fine, you built me, and you programed me. You did something right for once in your life, then gave up and moved onto your usual failures."

He sighed, and turned his head away, "And what's with this 'Rick'? Rick this and Rick that, you'd think you were talking about-" his head snapped back to attention, "what, Rock Man?" He mouthed the other two names silently. "What would the Light-bots have to do with this scheme that you can't say their names?" It was nothing surprising for Wily to be involved in some deception that didn't make any sense, but the world loved them. Or maybe it was back to that different-world idea? Bringing that up again just made it more confusing.

Albert was silent for a long moment, no doubt considering if he should mention Frank's siblings any further. Obviously, he still believed that his delusional world was the truth. It was irritating, at the least.

"I suppose it's too soon to hope for improvement," Albert stated finally, looking at Frank with outright irritation. "At least you're clean, now. No more risk of you arriving at death's door by overdosing. Curing substance abuse with insanity...."

And now he changed the subject, to... Forte's health? If he didn't know who he was talking to, Forte would have thought there was a hint of concern, which caused a brief, confused wave of emotion. In fact, he wasn't even sure who he was talking to anymore. Dr. Wily was treacherous and dishonest, but he always managed on gullibility and pity. This man, as irritable as he was, seemed genuinely... sincere. And overdosing and substance abuse... it was like he was talking about a different past of Forte's.

That was when it clicked, just like the names - this was the fake life to go with his fake name, and here was a fake Wily to tell it to him. "Oh... oh okay, I get it now. You're Wilhelm, and Rock is Rick, and I'm Frank, right? That's what you're here for, to tell me I'm Frank, and I've always just been some pathetic human, with a pathetic life!?" He was standing now, and shouting. "And I suppose 'Rick' and 'Bruce' are going to come in now and promise we can be a happy family if I just give up who I am and lie down?!"

He wasn't sure if he was angrier at this reminder of his confinement - to this body and name and existence that wasn't his, or that this fake had him thinking, for a single moment, his creator had showed the smallest concern for him.

The man, for the first time, stepped back from Frank, eyes widening slightly. One moment, the "boy" had been calm, and the next, he was beyond angry. It had been a while, and Albert had forgotten about the mood swings that were present even before Frank lost his mind. He was obviously worried that Frank would attack him.

Yet, he was also angry at being treated so disrespectfully. Noticing that the nurses were watching their interaction intently, he felt emboldened. They'd protect him, and Frank couldn't possibly have any weapons hidden on his person.

"You're pathetic because you made yourself that way! You were the same as your siblings--you had the same potential as them--and you wasted it on drugs and gangs!" Albert grew angrier in turn. "You don't know what you've put them through--what you've put us all through! They can't even see their own brother in fear that you'll attempt to kill them!"

"You know what? I'm glad they're not here. Because the one reason I exist, which you would know if you were really the man who built me from scratch and gave me my purpose, is to prove my superiority by killing Rock Man. And you're such a pathetic shadow of Doctor Albert Wily, I don't think I could stand to see... something like you pretending to be him, or Blues. I'd consider it a favor to them to get rid of such insulting... doppelgängers."

Albert frowned deeply. "I'm the pathetic one? You're the one who went insane. Just because you couldn't handle messing up one more time...."

He had gone from slightly worried to more spiteful, not enjoying Frank's tone with him--so what he said next was meant to make him angrier, "Rick and Bruce told me to say hello."

Forte had been aware the whole time, on at least some level, that there were nurses all around and any attempt to attack would probably be futile (the dayshift had an oppressing aura of peacefulness and futility as it was). But he couldn't stand this doppelgänger with Wily's face insulting him any more - he dove across the table, ready to beat the thing's face until it was a less offensive shape.

The nurses had been keeping an eye on the situation since the argument had started, though they hadn't stepped in out of hope that it would not come to that. After all, it wasn't unusual for patients to become over-excited when seeing family and friends again. Unfortunately it seemed that Frank was more than just overly-excited, suddenly throwing himself across the table to attack his poor grandfather. A nurse who had been keeping an eye on the situation quickly signalled one of the nearby orderlies and both of them converged on Frank, the orderly gently but firmly restraining him as the nurse prepared a sedative.

"Frank! Your grandfather came all this way to visit you, and this is how you behave around him?" she chided. The orderly held the struggling boy still as she administered the sedative. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Wilhelm. Frank has been a bit difficult, but we had hoped that seeing you would be good for him. We never thought he would suddenly attack you like that."

Albert collected himself after a long moment, heart still beating fast from the attack. "It's... It's quite all right. I should have known it'd be too soon."

He stared at Frank in the orderly's arms. This was not how he thought everything would turn out.

As Forte struggled against the orderly, blind with rage, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. His muscles stopped straining and relaxed, and a fog filled his head. While his thoughts grew unfocused and vague, he tried focus his eyes on the thing once again, and attempted to shout one last time.
"Go 'way... doppengeng..."

"I hope you're not injured, Mr. Wilhelm," the nurse asked, concern for the older man evident in her tone. He appeared to be fine, but the suddenness of the attack had to have startled him badly.

The orderly kept a firm grip on Frank as the sedative took affect, only relaxing as the struggles stopped. He didn't let go of the patient, instead keeping an eye on him and steadying him. "We'll take you into the Sun Room where you can get some rest until dinner, Frank," the nurse said calmly. She smiled apologetically to Mr. Wilhelm and the two of them escorted Frank from the room.

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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