Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

[winged_moon]

Yue was all too pleased to leave the cafeteria by the time lunch was over, even if he still wasn't satisfied that Fai was properly taking care of himself. It was clear that Touya hadn't accepted the answers he'd been given and intended to find out just what the guardian wasn't telling him, and being watched so closely was beginning to get uncomfortable.

It was clear that the truth would have to come out at some point, especially if they were going to be spending any amount of time together. Avoiding him was entirely out of the question, but at the same time Yue stubbornly refused to consider the idea of just outright telling him about what had happened in the last week. It was a dilemma indeed, and only served to make him even more irritable than ever.

How could he admit any of it? That he was weak and crippled, betrayed and altered by his creator? That he'd almost broken the promise he'd given in exchange for Touya's power? The latter he couldn't help but be reminded of every time he saw this Touya, who had only just gone through it, and would remember it even more clearly.

Fortunately Yukito was staying silent for the moment, although he could feel his other self's disappointment at being unable to speak to Touya so far, and it didn't make him feel any better.

In the midst of all this Yue was rather dismayed to realize that the nurse wanted to lead him to the music room, of all places: that was the room where he'd met the Sakura-who-wasn't-his-Sakura the week before, and needed neither the reminder nor the inevitable noise in that room. He abruptly halted in his tracks and refused to continue on. The nurse seemed initially disappointed, but finally agreed to let him stay in the Sun Room instead; the guardian found a corner in which to stand, arms folded across his chest and lost in his own brooding thoughts.

[for Sokka]

Comments

[lossofface.livejournal.com]

Blitzwing so wanted to visit the Music Room (they had a piano in there, or so he was told) but it was necessary that he stay in the Sun Room so as to monitor his message to Lugnut and Scourge. Being the leader was far less fun than he'd suspected; he was either waiting around for the others to show up so he could give them orders, or riding their backs to make sure they followed those orders. But he didn't know why he'd suspected something different in the first place; he'd already known that getting just one mech, namely Lugnut, to do anything he didn't want to do was nearly impossible. But still, Blitzwing was beginning to understand why Megatron always sounded half a cycle away from simply shooting them all...

Deep as his thoughts were, it was only a matter of moments before Blitzwing was suddenly shook out of his pensive mood. There was kitties in the Sun Room! He'd always wanted to hold a kitty; they looked so soft and interesting, and humans made such funny pictures of them on the internet! And now he was the right size to finally do it! Finally, something good had come out of being turned into a human! With a cheerful, nearly childlike laugh, he scooped one up and sat in the nearest chair, petting its fur and cooing over it. The cat seemed at first reluctant to accept his enthusiastic attentions, but it settled down after a moment as Blitzwing calmed himself and began stroking it gently. Yes, it was quite soft...How nice.

[free!]

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

[Yahiko]

After his conversation with Okita, Kenshin still wasn't at his best. Sano's disappearance had hit him hard. He wouldn't be smiling or oro-ing or acting like himself again for a while. And yet, what Okita had told him had also been...oddly comforting, in a way. Okita Souji, the man who had sworn to kill him on more than one occasion (and had attempted it not so long ago) had told him exactly what he needed to hear, had repeated the same speech about protecting others that Kenshin usually gave himself.

Physically and emotionally exhausted, the rurouni climbed into an armchair and dozed, hovering in the place somewhere between sleep and waking.

[no-chan-allowed.livejournal.com]

Yahiko still wasn't completely convinced that disappearing from this place was a bad thing. Wherever Sano was now, it was better than here, right? And he was sure that Kenshin could handle the absence. After all, Sano'd been gone for five years outside, and even though a little part of Yahiko missed him sometimes, he knew he was having a ton of fun exploring the world.

Still, he figured that he'd do that ninja girl a favor and check on him, just to prove that he'd be okay. He never turned down an opportunity to talk to Kenshin, so it definitely wasn't any trouble. Yahiko sat down at the other side of the sofa and folded his legs before him, facing the prone redhead. "Hey, lazyhead! Wake up." His voice carried its usual optimistic confidence, and although not grinning, there was still a smile on his face. It wasn't like Kenshin to sleep in the middle of the day like this...he was usually up and about doing things, even if those things were laundry or other errands. But there was no way Sano's girlfriend had been right about this. Yahiko had only seen him in the depths of despair once, and that had been because he blamed himself for what he'd thought happened to Kaoru. There was no way to protect someone from disappearing. It was like protecting them from getting headaches or getting old.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin opened an eye and looked up at Yahiko, trying his his best to smile. That was right. Yahiko was still here and even though he looked like he was shaping up to be a fine swordsman in his own right, Kenshin couldn't help but see the determined little pickpocket who had tried to rob him that day on the bridge. Even though he was an 'adult' now, the rurouni had never gotten to see him grow up. In Kenshin's mind, he was still that child.

And that child needed protecting. Kenshin couldn't just sit around and mope because Sano was gone. There was too much that needed doing here and now to let himself fall into that cycle.

"Oro? This one wasn't asleep. Just...resting." He rubbed his eyes as if he really had been asleep and smiled again. "How are you, Yahiko?"

[no-chan-allowed.livejournal.com]

The smile was less than convincing, and with it, Yahiko's smile dimmed as well. Kenshin wasn't supposed to lie. He didn't lie when Yahiko was a kid, and he definitely shouldn't lie now that he was an adult. After a few seconds of a concerned expression that seemed somewhat out of place on the boy, he scowled and crossed his arms.

"You don't have to pretend for me," he grumbled, almost adding 'I'm not a kid anymore' before reminding himself that Kenshin shouldn't have pretended for him back then either.

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

Kenshin shook his head and smiled, and this time it wasn't forced. "No, obviously not," he said gently. "Apologies, Yahiko. This one keeps forgetting that you're not the boy he remembers." Kenshin hadn't tried to keep things from Yahiko then, not really, but despite his strength and his determination, he had still been a child. The rurouni had tried to allow him his innocence, at least a little. Now that Yahiko was standing in front of him, nearly a man, he realized that he had to treat him like one.

Yahiko needed protecting, yes. All of his friends did. But the boy--who wasn't a boy--didn't need someone there to hold his hand. That much was clear to Kenshin now.

"Yahiko, we need to talk."

[no-chan-allowed.livejournal.com]

The second smile cooled most of Yahiko's anger, and within seconds, his expression had shifted to something more neutral. Kenshin's voice was serious now, so he responded to it in kind, letting his hands fall back to his lap as he tilted his head to listen. It was about Sano, most likely...maybe Kenshin knew something that Yahiko didn't. He'd assumed from the bulletin note that the man had disappeared the way everyone seemed to disappear, but that might not be the case. Still, Yahiko tried to keep the worry from his expression, grateful that Kenshin no longer seemed to be protecting him from the truth and determined not to give him reason to change his mind.

"Sure," he said, closely watching Kenshin's expression and mentally steeling himself for whatever he was about to be told. "Talk about what?"

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

"Sanosuke," Kenshin said heavily, sighing. "It's very likely that his disappearance means that he has not, in fact, gone back home. He isn't back in Tokyo with..." he faltered. "With the rest of us. This one has it on very good authority that those who are 'released' are brainwashed into actually thinking that they are the person this place tells them they are. They're just as trapped as we are here, only this time they're not able to fight back.

"You've learned by now that one cannot merely leave the walls to escape--you'll just wind up right back where you came from come morning. Before we can help those other former prisoners, we must break the hold Landel's has over us ourselves. In order to do this, we must continue to work with Homura and his group. Now that it's just the two of us, this work is even more urgent. This one finds...taking orders to be distasteful, but necessary." Kenshin peered at the boy, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Yahiko, if you don't want to be tied down to a group every night, this one understands. But if you do agree to work with this one, you need to know that full cooperation is...expected. Our relationship with Okita is a delicate one at best. You are this one's friend, and that's enough to make you an enemy in his mind, never mind that you were born in the first year of Meiji and missed the Bakumatsu entirely."

[littlegoblinjr.livejournal.com]

[Free]

Still contemplating what he'd gained from his conversation with Meche, Harry limped into the sun room. He wasn't interested in going to the music room, he'd never been much of a musician and the ever present ache of his injuries was getting to him again, enough that he wanted some quiet. Relaxing gratefully into a couch, he tried to tune out the pain, focussing on the whole idea of dying and coming back.

He'd 'spoken' with a few other people over the bulletin board who claimed to have died before they arrived here. None of them seemed that certain what would happen to them if they tried to go home either.

To be perfectly honest, he didn't care much. It was something to think about but Peter was here - it had to be Peter, it couldn't be anyone else - and that was pretty much all he'd ever needed to be mostly happy. Once he got his revenge on Brock and made sure he couldn't go near Peter-

Brock. He hadn't even mentioned that he was around to Peter. But they were meeting tonight and the staff were good at preventing the patients from hurting each other. Peter would be fine. He would. Harry could warn him tonight, make sure he stayed the hell away from that bastard. Brock wouldn't even recognise Peter. Harry hadn't and he knew Peter better than him. He did. It would be fine.

[fencing-captain.livejournal.com]

Juri had never been one to keep to herself--not for shyness. As a member of the student council, she hadn't mixed with the other students except as the leader of the fencing club. That gave her plenty of exposure and contact. But being a model and a model student didn't make her retiring. So after her rather uninformative talk at lunch, she wasn't in the mood to keep to the corners and observe quietly.

There was the bulletin board, but there were the other "patients" too. She walked up to a man who was by himself and held out her hand. "I'm Juri Arisugawa. Who're you and what is your story?"

[OOC: Okay? Feel free to treat her like she's from Mars. Direct and aggressive seems to be her mood today.]

[littlegoblinjr.livejournal.com]

Harry arched an eyebrow at the attractive younger woman, surprised and amused by how suddenly she'd marched up to him and started questioning him. Smirking, he took her hand and shook it, pointedly replying "I'm Harry Osborn and it's nice to meet you too."

She wanted his story, hmm? The question was, what was he willing to share with someone he'd just? "I'm CEO of Oscorp, the multinational corporation my father founded. What about you? What's your story?"

[fencing-captain.livejournal.com]

"You must be some sort of prodigy then, like Miki. You don't look old enough." Though Juri supposed he could have inherited it all. That happened commonly. Then she shrugged, as if dismissing her own importance, an act, of course. "I'm the fencing captain and on the student council at Ohtori Academy."

She nodded politely then. "I'm always glad to meet new people here. It's quite a place."

[littlegoblinjr.livejournal.com]

Him, a prodigy? That had to be one the most amusing ideas he'd heard yet. Harry snorted, smiling as he corrected the girl, "No, not at all. I took over after my father died. It was all his work."

He didn't think schools would allow the students to practice fencing, though maybe some of the more exclusive private schools would. Juri had to be from a similar background to him then, even if he'd never heard of the academy she mentioned.

"You got that right," he said wryly at her assessment of the institute. "How are you finding it here?" A high school student, even one who could fence, hardly seemed capable of handling herself here. Peter might be equally young, but he was a special case. Unless there was more to this girl than there appeared to be, which he doubted, she must be having trouble coping. It could be why she'd came over to him, after seeing how badly he'd been injured. He was still alive in spite of it all.

[fencing-captain.livejournal.com]

"I see," Juri said, trying to keep her cold demeanor forward instead of showing a little curiosity. "I am trying to find out if there's a connection between Ohtori and here. Two of my... classmates are here, and that's unusual isn't it?" She had no idea really about how this place operated. Most of what she'd learned had been from Utena who was as new as she was.

[OOC: backthread or no? I know they started late, but it's up to you. Because of being sick and slow, I've been dreadfully behind all day.]

[cnflctofintrst.livejournal.com]

The lunch of group leaders hadn't been particularly productive, but then, Mello hadn't expected it to have been. Unfortunately, he still needed to summarize it for the rest of the patients, since 'liason to the unaffiliated patient body' was a role that would ultimately benefit him. Subtlety in writing had never been his strong suit--manipulation was something best done using charisma, since natural unconscious empathy led people to trust someone in front of them more than an impersonal letter--but unfortunately, that was what he had to work with.

Not much had been discussed beyond fairly simple statements of intent, and most of those had been either common sense or widely known already. They talked about wanting unification, but he'd believe it when he saw it. The difficulty in consolidating clubs meant that one club leader would have to relinquish power to another, and he was fairly certain that no one at that table would have been willing to do so. The reason so many groups existed in the first place was that too many people wanted to give orders rather than take them. Mello had no intention of bringing ambitious leader-types under his sway. The goal was to convince everyone that they were each capable of being their own leader, and the report he wrote would have to reflect that.

Mello snatched a pen and a few slips of paper from the bulletin board, then found an empty sofa toward the edge of the room. He frowned in thought as he tapped the pen against his knee, mentally replaying everything that had been said and searching for subtle weaknesses to exploit.

[Renamon]

[diamondstorm]

Lunch had shown just how much the counseling session had gotten to her. And it shouldn't have. That, as well, showed just how human she was becoming. The inconsistencies in her thought processes, the emotional outbreaks... These were all things that pointed to the chemicals in the human brain overriding her normal senses and attributes.

That reminded her of the person on the bulletin who claimed to know where their 'true bodies' were being held. Renamon had took note of it, but mostly dismissed it. This situation didn't allow for anything that simple. But perhaps she would look into it, just to be sure....

Entering the sun room, she caught sight of Mello sitting by himself. The man seemed preoccupied, but Renamon had a few things of note to offer him, if he didn't already know himself. She paused briefly by the bulletin to write out a note for Badou regarding the transcripts, then walked over to Mello. She stood in front of him, bowing slightly. "Mello."

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

The conversation at lunch had involved far more soul-searching than Javert felt was entirely warranted. At least Depth Charge hadn't been the sort to burst into tears and bemoan his own existence. Besides, if anything, the former inspector felt he might have gained an ally of sorts from the experience.

His head still hurt slightly and the noise that would almost inevitably ensue if he chose to go to the Music Room would only worsen the pain, so he opted for the Sun Room instead. Here it was slightly quieter, and he doubted anyone was likely to bother him.

Choosing a seat relatively out of sight from the others, he settled back and closed his eyes, trying to get a little rest before night fell.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

((For Peter Petrelli))

It was time for another shift, and Roland found himself in... well... a bit of an odd mood. If 'odd' was the right word for it. Hard to describe, even for an author, what kind of mood he was in, so he'd just settle for 'indescribable' as the best kind of adjective.

For now, though, he had a question gnawing at the back of his mind. There was a fellow demon who was supposed to have showed up by now, and yet Roland hadn't seen even a hint of Heat. He wasn't too worried yet, considering the source, but... there was still a vague sense of unease. He just wished he knew what to do with the other demon. Clearly, the current situation was untenable, but what could he do?

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

After that therapy session, Peter had decided to spend the lunch shift on his own. He had way too much to think about after unexpectedly running across Mohinder like that. He would have preferred a meeting between them to have gone way differently, but it looked like Landel's got a kick out of screwing with all of his friends (and even his acquaintances) in one way or another.

It was frustrating to know he would have to wait a week before he saw the man again and found out what the results of him looking into the Sylar issue were. In the meantime, he was just going to have to think of things he could do to convince the man of what was really happening here. There had to be a way to make him see reason, right?

In the end, Peter had decided that he needed to give Mohinder's office a detailed search. He'd already found out that the doctors weren't here during the night, so it would probably be easy to get into the office and look around -- provided that it wasn't locked too tight, at least.

After putting a message up on the bulletin in order to search out someone who could go with him, Peter had been pleasantly surprised to get an offer from Brooklyn. It had been way too long since he'd seen the kid, so it would be nice to team up with him again.

As Peter turned away from the bulletin with those thoughts in mind, his gaze immediately landed on Roland. At first he was excited to see a familiar face, but then he remembered the company he'd seen the man in last night. Frowning, Peter moved over to where Roland was sitting. This might be kind of awkward, but he needed to know.

"Mind some company?" he tenuously asked.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

As soon as he heard that voice, Roland looked up and... well, his smile faded as he saw that frown and the awkwardness in the other man's voice. Either something bad had happened, or something bad was going to happen. Peter looked like he was in the uncomfortable position as the bearer of bad news, and Roland really didn't like hearing bad news.

What he said was, "Sure. What's on your mind?"

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

That had gone well enough, but that was the easy part. Trying not to act too strange, Peter went ahead and sat in the armchair that was next to Roland's. The Sun Room wasn't particularly interesting, but at least all of the furniture was comfortable.

"Uhh, well..." Normally, Peter probably would have told Roland all about his therapy session, since they tended to exchange information with each other during these chats, but right now he had something even more important to address. At the same time, though, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the truth about why Roland had been with that man. Still, it wasn't something he could ignore.

"I don't know if you saw me last night, but... I saw you with some other people trying to get out onto the recreational field. The guy you were with... Is he a friend of yours?" Depending on how Roland reacted, maybe this would start to make some more sense.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

The change in routine was enough to put Roland on-edge anyway, as it was clear that something was on Peter's mind. What it was would be a good question, but still, Roland was on alert. Especially considering how his conversation with Argilla had gone.

But then Peter asked about Heat, and Roland was even more on his guard, tapping his fingers nervously. Heat was becoming infamous in the Institute, his hunger leading to various indiscretions, and it was only a matter of time until their association came back to haunt Roland. For now, though, he simply nodded. "He's a comrade. We came from the same world."

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

"A friend of yours?" Peter asked incredulously. Roland had used the word "comrade," but that was close enough to "friend" that it was still shocking. Why? Why would Roland associate with someone like that?

There was a possibility that Peter was getting people mixed up. It had been dark last night, obviously, and he had only seen the man who had taken a bite out of that girl for maybe a minute before night had ended. Maybe Roland's friend only looked like the other guy.

Or it was the same person and Roland just didn't know about the man's true nature. If that was true, then bringing it up was going to be a lot more difficult--but he couldn't leave Roland in the dark, either.

Of course, the last option was that Roland knew all about it, but that left an unsettling feeling in the pit of Peter's stomach.

"Do you... do you know the sort of things he's capable of?" That wasn't the best way to phrase it, but Peter wasn't in the position to be eloquent right now.

[forthewinry.livejournal.com]

Although Winry's nurse had taken to suspicion at her insistence on writing in her notebook all day, she was not quite strong enough at attempting to convince the young mechanic to go to the music room to 'socialize and make friends'. Winry had work to do and contacts to make, and she was itching over the fact that she didn't have the chance to get her hands on her projects until night time, so fiddling around with musical instruments and missing bulletin updates was a big no.

It was hard to say what was stranger, the concept of this place, or the people imprisoned here.

[Kaoru!]

[willhexabitch.livejournal.com]

Granted, there was some consolation in seeing the same kind of shit go down almost every hour--somebody breaking into a screaming fit, somebody getting sucker punched, somebody duking it out with the staff, the last of which was Reid’s personal favorite. It all kind of made him feel less like an island. Or however that saying went.

But it didn’t really change anything. Still here, still magically castrated until sundown, still just part of some asshat’s prime time amusement.

He’d gotten a little dizzy on the way to the bathroom, and the water he’d splashed on his face had felt like a mask of ice against his skin. With night so close, he just wasn’t in the mood to put up with the staff who just so happened to multiply like rabbits in heat. And he definitely didn’t feel like talking to another drone in smiley face grey. So he laid back on a couch, foot rapping against the armrest like a hummingbird’s wing, and watched staff members scurry around on the second floor. Damn it, they thought they had it all figured out, that they had him in line like a good little lunatic, didn’t they? Well, fuck them.

At least he wasn’t so down and out he was willing to go bake cakes for kicks.