damned_institute | Day 38: Game Room

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Day 38: Game Room

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

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He was battered and bruised all over from that beating the young lady (he hadn't gotten her name, he didn't think?) that had decided to use him as a punching bag. But despite all that, Brook was still allowed to head for the next shift without too much fuss. No broken bones, though how that was he didn't know. That woman had certainly been fierce!

Regardless of his beating, he kept as much energy as he could and spotted someone he'd only just responded to on the bulletin. Well, if Usopp had wanted them to report in, then Brook saw no reason why it couldn't be done both on that board and in person!

"There you are Usopp-san! Yohohoho! I just saw your message on that little board they have," he laughed, greeted, and explained all as he went over and took a seat with his friend, "It seems harder to keep up with everyone in such a large place, doesn't it? I haven't spoken with anyone in a while, but that doesn't mean they're not here, right?"

Usopp jumped a bit, but managed not to knock over his fledgling production, which was coming along very well if he said so himself. An impressive castle, too bad there was no king of cards to come along and live in it. "Hi, Brook. Thanks for checking in! Weren't you going to look for Zoro, though?"

He leaned around to see his crewmate once Brook was seated, although it hadn't been neccessary at all while Brook had remained standing thanks to the height. "Or Chopper. They still need to check in. Chopper's not irresponsible, I hope he's okay... maybe he just hasn't thought about the board lately." Frowning as much in thought as in concentration, his lips pouting a little, Usopp carefully balanced two more cards and then started another level. "Everybody's probably okay and just busy. But I hadn't heard anything and wanted to be sure."

"Well, I was, but I think he got lost getting here before I could. Yohohohohoho!" Because that was just something Zoro would do, wasn't it? He didn't seem to be around anywhere, and he'd actually not see the mossy green head of hair around for a bit either. "There are other rooms to go to here, aren't there? Perhaps he's over in one of those?" he suggested, sounding hopeful.

He considered about Chopper, but he was pretty sure he'd seen the boy around recently. "Yes, I'm sure everyone's just fine. It's all right to worry though! That's what friends do! Yohohohohoho!"

It was easy to say everyone was okay, but Nami had gone, and Luffy'd said Zoro and Sanji had gone before too. For weeks. Now there was a crowd, even new crewmates, but it could disappear just as fast, or it seemed that way to Usopp. They barely even saw each other as it was, just in passing or by chance. When was the last time he'd seen Luffy in person?

And the nurses tended to be pretty good about not letting people go into rooms they weren't allowed in, at least from Usopp's experience, but he just nodded at Brook's suggestion. Even if Zoro were in the Sun Room napping somewhere, which was pretty likely, he might be hard to find as it got crowded.

"Hey, uh, Brook? Do you remember--that thing we saw--that time? You know, the creepy thing? At night?" Usopp shifted around the topic carefully, since Brook was kind of a mood swingy sort of guy and he didn't want to scare the ex-skeleton and get his table jostled mid-construction.

At the question, Brook lost his smile a bit. "Eh, well, yes... that was kind of hard to remember. Yoho... b-but is there really a reason to bring it up? I mean, it was a terrible night for us both, Usopp-san!" Brook had been hoping to forget the bleeding snow and the... the skulls there at the lakeside, but now they were back, fresh in his mind, and a chill went down his spine just thinking about it!

"I just was asking," Usopp answered a little defensively, but shifted too, also uncomfortable with his own topic of conversation. Concentrating on the cards was more pleasant, especially with the height he was getting on this deck. It'd really be something when it got knocked over, too.

"Do you think... it's the kind of thing... we should, or somebody should, look into? I mean... look at closer, to figure out... well, they had to come from someone, I mean somewhere! Had to come from somewhere, so..." Sai had suggested it should be investigated, but Usopp was pretty sure his own hope that it'd all turn out to be a very cleverly done fake upon closer inspection wouldn't pan out.

Nami. Zoro. Sanji. The three who had been here before and then disappeared, two of whom had come back. People here were brought back from the dead, like Brook had been, but Brook had flesh on his body too and before Brook hadn't. Where did the doctor get people from? Where did they go when he was tired with them? Usopp stopped what he was doing to shut his eyes and shake his head firmly to try to get the mental image of a skull with a little red hair still attached out of his mind.

"Look at... Usopp-san, I didn't know you liked that kind of thing?!" Brook shrieked, hands slapping each side of his face as he was both horrified and yet a bit impressed at the same time. Investigating the dead.. wasn't that Robin's thing? Maybe she'd been taking an influence on Usopp. Wait, but did Usopp know Robin yet? What time was he from again? Brook had forgotten. But still...! For Usopp to suggest investigation where there had been blood and skeletons (that weren't Brook) was something Brook never would have expected!

That sent the cards tumbling, all right, but Usopp didn't get to enjoy the show since he was too busy slapping his own hands down on the table in frustration and yelling back, "I don't like that kind of thing at all! I hate that kind of thing! I don't want to go out there and do something like that! I just--I thought--well, somebody said that we should, maybe somebody should! But not me and you. Other people! But we should talk about it."

All his cards scattered on the table, and a little on the floor, Usopp crossed his arms to sulk a bit. "I definitely didn't mean I wanted to just run out there right now or something. I mean maybe we could go with some kind of super investigative army made of the strongest people we know, or something. We don't even have to go, since we only got there being lost! We could just say where it was, and someone could go look at it!"

"Ehhhhhh!! Really?!" Then he'd bee wrong?! But Usopp had just said...! Oh, no! He meant for others to go do things. Yes, others could do it. Just... just not them. They weren't cut out for that kind of thing. At least, not on a second go. "W-well, if others are going to do it, then it's not so bad right? Yohohoho," he laughed a little nervously, relieved somewhat.

He looked to the strewn about cards, wondering if they should move to pick them up before the people in white got upset. He'd already been in trouble with them once today, and he supposed it wasn't good to press his luck twice. "Yes, taking is fine. Do you think we could remember exactly where it was though? Without being there, I mean?"

Usopp let out a little sigh, and bent over to start picking up cards from the floor. After all, he had further to go to get to them. Brook had a good point, anyway, about direction. "Well, we went... forward... then we followed a trail for a while. Then we went off in another direction, and things got colder and rockier. After a while we started seeing snow and... things. It wasn't long after that. Right?"

They weren't really very precise directions, but maybe someone could make sense of it. Or even just go looking and work out the directions a bit more sensibly. But Brook was right, not them. Especially not them alone. He sat up again, restacking the deck. "I haven't read anyone else talking about it on the bulletin board, what if nobody else has seen that yet? Maybe it's important."

"I don't think anyone would get very far with that, Usopp-san..." Brook saw that the cards were being picked up and helped with those on the table, looking at the faces of some before stacking them in a neat little pile.

"Oh, I know! how about we tell Zoro-san to go find something completely different, and perhaps he'll end up there by getting lost?" Since the swordsman would get lost regardless, wasn't that as good a plan as any? No one else would be able to find the place again by Usopp's directions. "Perhaps it's one of those places that you can't find unless you're lost? If no one's found it yet, as you say. Yohohoho."

"I bet that would probably work, if we could just find Zoro in the first place," Usopp answered back, although in a slightly disgruntled mutter. His bad mood didn't last for more than a few moments, though, as he took the cards he'd stacked and started another little house. "Maybe it's just one of the things around here that are awful for the sake of being awful. Like the death slugs. Those seemed pretty impossible too. Maybe they have a skull and death slug and other stuff factory in the basement hidden away somewhere. You've been down there, did you hear anything like machines or something?"

"Yohohohohoho! That is true!" Brook found that problem rather amusing. They couldn't find someone who they needed to make sure got lost! "What would we do if he stays lost only to find the place on his own?" Since Zoro had yet to be told of what Usopp and Brook knew of it, he'd... well, he'd probably frown at it and go whichever way he thought was right, getting more lost.

That wouldn't be good would it?

The topic of death slugs snapped Brook's thoughts away from Zoro and to a terrible place. "A f-f-factory?! For stuff like that?!" That was just terrifying! "Do... do you think that was it, Usopp-san? That little house?!" Did all the terrible things in this place come from there? "Hey, let's never go there again, all right? Or send anyone else, hm? What if we..." end up sending them to their deaths! Brook paled at the thought, and then hearing about the basement made it even worse. "I'm never going down there again!"

".... the little house? I don't think so..." Usopp frowned, as if seriously considering it. "We're trying to figure out how things can be less scary, I mean insane, so that'd make no sense, it's too small. I don't know how big downstairs is, I haven't been there."

He shook his head and shrugged, then frowned as someone's flung card knocked over his growing card construction, and started to pick them up yet again. "I mean, the monsters and scary things have to come from somewhere, right?"

If it wasn't the little house, then it had to be the basement then. Right? Or maybe there was another explanation about the strange things happening here. One that Brook was more familiar with. "Hmm, Usopp-san? Do you think, ah, maybe the one in charge here might have a Devil Fruit ability?" he questioned, watching the stacking of the cards. "That is... well, you've not been to where you met me from, yes? So you wouldn't know, but Mor- the one who was in charge of that place could make zombies with his ability!"

Zombies from shadows didn't seem to be the case here, since everyone seemed to have their shadows during the day, but people did disappear sometimes. Was it possible that they'd gotten their shadows taken and then were being held captive in the basement while the zombie/monster/whatever was out and about at night? They couldn't have been forced into the sun since that would have meant death for the zombie too (could they die?), so maybe...

"Yohoho. This place seems just so similar to back then."

"It's too bad I don't remember any of that. That'd make it easier to know what you're talking about." Usopp grumbled, then reconsidered. Was he wanting to remember a horrible zombie monster nightmare? Had he hit his head last night and not remembered?

"Maybe it's a devil fruit, or something like it. I guess... if you can 'make' zombies, you could 'make' monsters with a devil fruit power. But the monsters here all seem so different! Last night there was this woman-looking monster, or well, she looked like a mermaid, except..." Except something was really wrong with the whole situation, and he'd been lucky to have Sai drag him out of it. "Also she was naked," he added in a softer voice, as though confiding.

"Eh?" Had he just said...? "You don't mean in the courtyard do you?" he blinked. The Vampire Mermaid had certainly made an impression on the former skeleton last night, putting his returned skin to the test and everything to do it! And yes, she had most definitely been unclothed.

"Were you in the courtyard last night too?" Usopp blinked, surprised. "We must have missed each other, or something. Yeah, she was in the water...? I wound up getting to go into the gardening shed finally, by the way! It's great in there, there's so much stuff!"

"It seems so. Yohohoho!" Brook couldn't believe the luck! Or lack thereof. It was probably better that they hadn't seen each other since Brook hadn't managed very well against the Vampire Mermaid. "She was in the water. I was for a time as well actually... it's a little fuzzy though." He knew some of what had happened, but he'd been so dazed by the music and drained from the water that "one big blur" just about covered the experience. "And she bit me!"

But on a lighter note... "Oh, you got there? That's wonderful! Yohohoho! You found some things that would help, I'll assume?"

"I'm glad you didn't drown, then!" Usopp was surprised to hear Brook had gotten into the water itself, and survived. Well, it was pretty shallow, or it looked that way. Hearing about the attack was strangely satisfying, though, despite the fact that Brook had been hurt in the process. "I knew she was gonna try to eat me!" Not that it had stopped him from having to be dragged away, but that was a different issue.

"Anyway, the shed was wonderful! It's like a paradise. I didn't even see spiders, Brook, normal cute or evil monster ones." Usopp's nod was enthusiastic, and he forgot about his partially-reconstructed card castle as he gestured. "By the way, Brook, is your closet space still available?"

"Eat?!" Had Brook almost been eaten?! He knew the woman had at least bitten him, but that she might have been planning to devour him was just... just...!

Just not something he wanted to think about anymore.

"My closet is still open, yes," Brook answered, latching onto the other subject in hopes on never returning to the other for a bit, "Ah, but that does remind me! That small piano I took, it's still in Luffy-san's closet. I almost forgot! Yohohoho! I wonder if it's still there or if maybe he removed it. Perhaps I should go check..." It had been a while since he'd visited his Captain's room. Just a quick check tonight wouldn't be too much trouble.

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Day 38: Game Room

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