damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

There were still too many things on Armand's mind for him to truly relax. The morning with Alec had been a help. And seeing that TK was going to be well helped him know that it was time to work out something else, but what? He'd already, without success again, tried to reach one of the club leaders about his sole idea of something new and different. Maybe it was hopeless.

There was no way he was going to play with paper and glue like a small child, and he glared at the nurse as best he could until she gave up on the idea. There was a free chair in the Sun Room--in fact, there were many free chairs--where he settled down to see what the new patients looked like. Prisoners, not patients. He felt bad that he had to remind himself. Even if he was crazy, he wasn't going to give in to Dr. Landel's game, not today. He nibbled on an overgrown cuticle and kept an eye on the room. No dozing today.

[for Citan]

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Momo ignored everyone as she moved from the cafeteria to the Sun Room. She didn't want to think, but she also needed to. She was upset, but she wasn't sure how to deal with it.

So... the small shinigami sat on a couch and flipped her journal back open, turning to the page where the almost finished drawing of Signum was. She narrowed her eyes and then shut the journal.

"Mew."

She was shook from her thoughts, and emotions, when a kitten jumped up onto the couch and meowed at her. With a small sigh, Momo ran her hand down the kitten's back.

[Mitsuru, I believe]

Lunch could have gone worse. It was rather odd to discover that she was the only one, short of Chidori, who remembered what had happened, but she at least knew that the other two had been relatively okay on their own, and had gotten to hear more about this place.

Of course, upon checking the bulletin board, her mood soured. Really, it was more of a mix between anger and embarrassment. She would have searched Amada out that moment, were it not for two things: he was supposed to be in the showers, and she honestly had no idea quite how to handle it yet.

Instead of heading into the Arts and Crafts room, she thought it might be more prudent to stay in the sun room and decide exactly how to handle things both tonight and tomorrow. Not only would she have to handle that virginity problem, but the leaders of the groups wanted to meet tomorrow.

She'd found descriptions of some of the leaders of the clubs easily enough, and thought it might also be wise to do some research on them before tomorrow. If they wanted to accomplish anything at the meeting other than dumping information about the clubs at the newer leaders, then educating herself would be best. She and Rangiku had spoken about things other than the Arts and Crafts club, and Hitsugaya had given her a very brief overview.

There was a young woman about the same age as herself on one of the couches that Mitsuru thought might be a good place to start asking. The way she looked vaguely resembled one of the descriptions from Arts and Crafts, but she looked normal enough when compared to Hitsugaya's own description that it was difficult to tell for certain.

"I'm sorry, may I sit here?" she asked after a moment, trying to be careful not to frighten the cat that the woman was petting. If it was someone from Arts and Crafts, then she could ask further, and she might at least be able to have a conversation partner in the event that it wasn't.

Momo looked up at the voice, turning her head more to the left than one would have expected (to the observant) and managed a small, friendly smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course, you can," she replied.

The shinigami scooped the kitten up into her arms, albeit a bit clumsily given the cast on her left wrist, emblazoned with a beautiful orange, yellow and red firebird drawing. The kitten took a moment to settle but soon started purring.

"My apologies, but I've not seen you around," she said. "Are you a new arrival?"

Mitsuru refrained from frowning as she noticed how far the woman had to turn her head in order to see her, especially when accounted for alongside those scratch marks. Was she able to see at all out of that eye? Coupled with the cast, Mitsuru realized that both Takeba and Amada could have been much worse off, without their abilities to heal themselves.

"Yes, more or less," she replied, taking a seat beside the woman. The comment, at least, indicated that she'd been here for some time, if she was able to pick out the newer patients from the older ones. "I arrived last night, and I hope I'm not keeping you from something. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo." She paused, and nodded at the drawing on the cast. "That's lovely."

"I'm sorry you've found yourself trapped here, Kirijo-san," The shinigami replied. "I hope you've been given the beginner's lecture. If not, I can inform you as to the nature of this place."

She looked down at the firebird and smiled, this time it actually reached her eyes. "Thank you. It's the only way I can get to see Tobiume anymore. I am Vice Captain Hinamori Momo of the Gotei 13 and one of the Arts & Crafts commanders here."

"I have, thank you, Hinamori-san." The redhead bowed her head in a show of respect. She understood the responsibilities of having any sort of command, especially since the girl didn't look much older than herself. Keeping that up in a place like this for prolonged periods of time must be trying, and Hinamori had looked slightly sorrowful when Mitsuru had first approached. Their group had had a loss the night before, after all, so it was understandable.

It also made Mitsuru feel a bit guilty about coming for information, but it was also an important matter that Hinamori was likely qualified to answer.

"Oh, then it's a good thing I found you. I was hoping I might be able to find someone who could tell me more about the club." It seemed as though Arts and Crafts was the most various, from what she'd been able to tell. Cooking was the weapons supplier, as far as Ken had told her, and she wasn't certain about History, and would need to contact them sometime later. "You see, several friends from home and I were going to do some investigating at night. We're a bit familiar with looking into situations like this, but in order to better aid the groups that are already looking, I was wondering just what is already being investigated."

Momo took out her journal and pulled a set of folded up papers out, a slight browning on one end that could have been old dried blood, and she handed them to Mitsuru.

"The maps of the area have been compiled by my group as we've sent many groups out to explore the surrounding area," she explained. "You're welcome to these if you'd like. We've got a decent feel on the basement and the grounds outside the wall, but those are still new endeavors we haven't seen come to fruition just yet."

"Arts & Crafts have also spent a lot of time arming the other patients with rudimentary items as we've found them,. as well as working with the Cooking Club to provide raw materials for their alchemy." She sighed. "To be honest, Kirijo-san, my groups numbers have been dwindling over the last few days and the progress we had been making Landel has turned into very little."

"I am unsure if you are familiar with shinigami in your world, but we are Death Gods, charged with the duty of maintaining the balance between the living world and the spirit world, as well as protecting humans from non-human threats." She paused, putting a hand to her temple, fingertips running over the edge of the scars. "We're trying to do all that as well as destroy this building, but with our abilities as reduced as they are, thanks to the limiter placed on us, it's becoming rather difficult."

"I wish I had a silver lining for you."

"I'm used to working without a silver lining," she assured Hinamori, giving her a polite smile. She was used to conditions such as these, with just her hope of relieving her father from their family's shame. Escape was a far more plausible cause for hope.

"And thank you, but I took some maps from the bulletin earlier." She did take this opportunity to look them over, however, and see if there was anything in particular that she might need to focus S.E.E.S. on. Hinamori had said the basement and grounds outside, so perhaps that might be a decent place to start, after she armed herself.

"I certainly understand how that would be a bit of a problem." She brought her hand to her mouth in thought. "Would it help if I offered the aid of some of my people on a nightly basis? We may even be able to collaborate with the Lost and Found group to help raise the number of people all working towards the same goal.

"I'm unfamiliar with shinigami in my world, but I spoke with someone earlier who mentioned them. I believe she mentioned something called Hollows as the non-human threats. There is something similar to them in my world known as Shadows." She glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, then looked back over at the woman. "We may be different than you are, but we're a very similar situation, both here and back home."

The only differences between the map Momo had and the ones that Mitsuru copied were the shinigami's personal notations, such as where the trapdoor to the basement was in the walk-in, a picture of a sword in the Music Room, labels of high-danger zones such as the Sun Room, Rec Field, Entry Way and Courtyard. It also had arrows pointing to the west outside the walls and the kanji for mountain, an arrow to the north with the kanji for pit, and an arrow to the south with the name Doyleton along with a very realistic, though small, drawing of the giant birds.

A part of Momo found it difficult to believe that Mitsuru and her people were dealing with the end of existence back in her world, but she wasn't going to say so. She was willing to accept there were dire straights and leave it at that.

"I appreciate your offer to help. The only way we're going to overcome the circumstances we're in will be for all of us to work together." She offered Mitsuru a genuine smile. "Since getting humans and especially non-humans to follow one person is like herding cats, all the groups need to cooperate and keep open channels of information. Other groups are more selective, but Arts & Crafts will accept anyone into our group. Though the leadership is military, we are well aware of how important civilians are to a cause such as this."

Good, it looked like Hinamori shared her sentiments. This boded very well for the future. After noting to herself just where the trapdoor was, and the arrows to both the north and the south of the buildings, Mitsuru handed the maps back to the other woman. Those could be well-worth looking into. The only problem was that without communicators or someone like Fuuka to relay the messages, she didn't want to send people too far in case they were pinned down and needed assistance.

"Indeed." Mitsuru gave Hinamori a warm smile in response. "Not everyone would like the choice in leadership, or the idea of a leader at all, but there needs to be at least decent communication and cooperation between the groups." There was hope, though, if they could come to the agreement on the topic. It was simply a matter of implementing it.

"Currently, Hitsugaya-taichou meets with the other leaders during lunch every few days to discuss the situation," Momo informed Mitsuru as she returned the maps to her journal. "Unfortunately, I have not been present for any of them as a lot of things are on a need-to-know basis, but it is not in my nature as a vice-captain to question a higher ranking officer."

She gave a small sigh. "That is not to say that I, and any of the other shinigami, blindly follow our orders. Because our means of long-distance communication has been cut off here because of the limiters, it's imperative for the leader to trust in his officers and that he does."

"If I may, Kirijo-san, what does your group specialize in aside from the shadows you mentioned? There are creatures here that I've encountered that I would call a shadow, but I'm sure our definitions differ. I am more curious as to other ways to apply the strength your group will provide."

She may not look like it, but Momo was a vice-captain for reasons other than Aizen. People simply tended to forget that given her appearance and typical compassion. It was sad that her current typical was no longer 'typical'.

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Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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