damned_institute | Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

"And I believe it's time to start wrapping up the day," was what the Head Doctor said after the intercom's initial jingle. "Now that everyone's all cleaned up, I think it's time for some... that's right, dinner!

"Tonight, we're serving some scrumptuous rotisserie herb chicken, seasoned with rosemary, lemon juice, and other delicious seasonings. On the side, we have cooked asparagus with bits of grilled onion, as well as small roasted potatoes with garlic and butter; for dessert, we'll be serving vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top. Our normal assorted drinks and specialized diet alternatives are available.

"Some of you might find that you have new roommates since your old ones were fortunate enough to recover and leave us. Hopefully, you'll be able to see them again the next time we have visitors if you wish, but in the meantime please treat your new bunkmates kindly.

"I believe that's all for now. I hope you had a wonderful day and that you have a delicious dinner! ...Well, you'll definitely be having a delicious dinner, but there's nothing surprising about that, is there? Hahaha..."

With a seemingly good-natured chuckle, the Head Doctor turned off his mic.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. Find your character's room assignments here.

All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

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"You can say that again!" It was a relief to have a roommate he got along with, Akihiko thought. That would make things a lot easier" to handle. And the fact they could talk about stuff they had in common was that much easier. He'd never been the world's best at small talk, but if it was about stuff like food, and sports, and all that? It was a hell of a lot easier.

"We've placed first in the last few tournaments we've been in. Though the underclassmen need to get a little more serious about their training. I worry that after I graduate, they'll slip a bit." He gave a half-smile. "How's the kendo team doing?"

He got a more serious look on his face at that last question. "I appreciate that, Heiji, but I think it'll be all right. There's a group of us here that fought together at home, and we're going to meet tonight and see what we can do about things here. But if you've got connections on weapons, I'd appreciate it. I generally fight with my fists, but there's one of us that uses a sword, and she'd appreciate having one."

There was one last question, and he almost hesitated to ask about it, but needed to. "...and one more thing. One of us - he's just a kid, it seems unfair - got taken for a CM-US Experimental Trial. Do those happen often, do you know?"

Heiji grinned. Typical upperclassman. Worrying about the future of their club. "We're pretty good, actually. I've been carryin' a lotta the matches, but our underclassmen're actually strong. But y'know, s'prob'ly because they have such a great leader t'look up to." Heiji laughed, but he thought that it was at least partially true. The descendant of Hattori Hanzo, leading Kaihou to victory.

"He's a kid?!" Heiji said, suddenly straightening up, eyes wide. "Shit... man, this doctor guy is scum! Yeah, I know about 'em. They take ya from yer room and do experiments on ya. I thin' it happens ev'ry other night. I... know a guy who was taken. Two guys, actually. I... don't know what they did t'one, but th' other guy had serious memory issues. He wasn' the same person. 'S your kid friend okay?" Heiji asked, looking deadly serious. Two roommates taken, Okita and Homura messed with, now Akihiko's friend taken. This was getting to be too much. Heiji was going to lose it.

"Sword? Yeah, y'may have t'get in line, but there's a guy the History Club uses. We call 'im Weaver on the board, but Homura'd tan my ass if he knew I was directin' people t'him. His name's Adelheid. Tell yer friend t'ask him--in person. He may be able t'help. Y'just need material for 'im t'work with."

"I'm sure they'll be fine, then," Akihiko said, with a chuckle. It wasn't that the Gekkoukan underclassmen weren't decent, they just didn't have focus or discipline.

And then, the serious expression reappeared. "Every other night? What the hell is this place trying to do? Between brainwashing patients and screwing with them..." He would have punched something, hard, if there had been something - or someone besides Heiji - in the room to punch, just to work out the frustration and anger from that news.

"He's fine, physically. Mentally, he's pretty bad off. I talked to him earlier, about everything that happened. He's tough for his age, so I think he'll be all right, it'll just take some time. They screwed with him by showing him some bad memories." That was the gist of it. Akihiko didn't want to say too much more than that - he liked Heiji, but, well, it was better to keep the Personas out of this for now.

He nodded. "I'll remember that - thanks. What kind of material would he need?"

"Y'jus' woke up, so I don' blame ya for bein' surprised. But I gotta tell ya, this place is really fucked up. Y'can' expect anythin' t'make sense," he gave Akihiko a wry smile. "They don' pull any punches around here.

"'Course I dunno what they're tryin' t'do yet. Haven't gotten much evidence. Jus' been tryin' t'survive, for the most part." The detective sighed and laid down on his bed, hands folded behind his head.

"Dependin' on... she'd need some metal equivalent to th' weight 'n size of the weapon she wants. Like, I got a katana about," Heiji indicated with his hands. "This big, 'n I got four pipes for it. No clue if there was anythin' left over, but yeah. About that."

"Good thing I don't pull punches, either, if I'm going to be dealing with it." Akihiko cracked his knuckles, throwing a punch at the air. "It's going to be a tough job getting to the bottom of all of this, though."

He sighed a bit, thinking to himself. "Between everyone here, I'm sure someone'll figure it out." If anything, Mitsuru will get down to the bottom of it, and when she does, she'll tear this place apart. "Is it hard, getting evidence around here? You'd think, if this was a hospital, there'd be computers or something..."

He nodded, jotting down a note about what would be needed in terms of weaponry. "She usually uses something more like a rapier, so I'll let her know that, and she'll work out the math. Thanks."

"Yeah, I haven't managed t'find anythin' past, y'know, what he says at night," Heiji indicated the intercom. "No computer, no coherent files, nothin'. 'S been real frustratin', I gotta tell ya. I haven' been pullin' my strike neither, but I'm gettin' a little worn out..."

Shinichi had shown up at just the right time, though Heiji wouldn't admit to it. He had been getting burnt out, unable to really deduce anything solid. Now, at least, he'd have a fire lit under him, and he'd have to push himself to work faster and harder than his rival.

"Yeah, no probl'm. 'M glad y'got people t'travel with. This place ain' no cakewalk."

Akihiko was quiet for a minute. He honestly liked Heiji, but at the same time, the thought of Mitsuru's reaction if -- wait, she'd told people the basics about S.E.E.S on the bulletin board. In that case, it wouldn't hurt anything if he explained the basics.

"Damn, that sucks. Well, we're planning on launching an investigation ourselves, too. I don't know if we'll get further than you, since the lack of computers and files affects everyone equally, but, well... we were investigating some strange things back home. I'll keep you posted on what we find out."

He had to laugh at that last bit. "Yeah, we found this out the hard way last night. Mitsuru - one of the folks I know from home - and I ran into someone who'd been brainwashed. Hell of a way to welcome people to the place."

"That's good," Heiji said, rolling onto his stomach. "Th' more people we have lookin' inta this, th'better. I used to solve cases all th' time back home--solo--and even I know that I need help on this one."

Which reminded him of Mello's little club, and how fishy it sounded. He wasn't one to pass judgment so quickly, but something about this whole 'sharing information' thing rubbed Heiji the wrong way. It made him suspicious and--

Oh. Shit. He'd used Kudou's name.

"Huh...?" Heiji said, trying not to think of all the ways this could go awry. "Oh... jeez, what a way indeed," he laughed. It was a little more forced though, seeing as he was terrified Kudou was going to meet up with Mello and blow his cover. "But y'seem t'know how t'fight. 'M not worried about you~" Heiji laughed.

Huh, that was interesting. "That sounds cool," he began. "So you were like a detective? I can't say what we did was quite so cool, but it has its moments. And we're kind of used to dealing with weird shit." It didn't get weirder than firing a gun at your head every night around midnight, killing monsters that most people didn't know existed, in the middle of your school, after all.

"Something wrong?" Akihiko noticed the forced laugh. It could just be nerves, he guessed, and didn't want to push too hard.

"And yeah. As long as we can fight - and we all can - it'll be all right. I'm sure of it."

"Yeah," Heiji said, grinning. "Back home, I'm known as the Great Detective of the West. Cool title, huh? But I only dealt with normal things, like murders, kidnappings, hostages, bomb threats... y'know, stuff like that. What do you investigate?" Heiji asked, apparently oblivious to how strange he was sounding at the moment.

"Eh... nothin', jus' worried about a friend'a mine," Which was true... "'is firs' night here 'n all."

"Very cool title," he nodded.

"Well, what we investigate --" Akihiko was cut off by the intercom cutting in. "I'll explain later, because it's kind of a long story."

With that, he stood, gathered his notebook, Ken's notebook, and - reluctantly - his flashlight, and walked towards the door. "Good to meet you. Hope your friend's going to be all right. Sorry to cut this so short, but I promised to meet with someone early tonight." He nodded a goodbye and then stepped out.

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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