damned_institute | Night 41: Patient Library

[From here]

Sousuke and Miku broke into the Sun Room first, and Miku stopped herself by pressing her free hand against a book shelf to keep from running into Sousuke's arm. They'd made it! No one had been hurt yet! It was a small, but important, victory as far as Miku was concerned. She reached into her bag and pulled out her camera.

"We made it here before anyone else, it looks like," she murmured to Sousuke as she turned on the camera and waited for it to boot up. Washu's smiling, super-deformed face greeted her on the digital screen. Miku wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to that. It hadn't been very long ago that they'd met Jack in this very room, where she'd given away her first kiss in return for a camera while Sousuke had inspected everything Jack had handed her. The only things different about the room now was that the smell of books was musty and old, Jack and his rotting cat were no where in sight and it was much darker than it had been that night. "I'll start taking pictures, alright?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Alright," Sousuke agreed, staying close to Miku. He looked over his shoulder at Rey. "If you hear or see anything, let the group know immediately before attacking."

He felt confident in his ability to protect Miku in this area. It was Rey he was concerned about. He could only be in one place at a time and another within a few seconds.

"What exactly are you taking pictures of? And why?" Sousuke asked, following Miku and keeping his eyes sharp.

"Right," Rey replied, glancing around the room as he trailed behind Sousuke. He was hardly claustrophobic, but with all those book shelves, anything could be hiding here. Briefly, he was reminded of his and Shinn's investigation of the Lodonia Laboratory, before he pushed the memory out of his head. It wouldn't do him any good to let down his guard.

As Miku moved away from Rey, her headache lessened. She was considerably more cheerful-sounding, though hushed, as she brought her eye up to the viewfinder. "Well, the institute changes during the night, doesn't it? I want to have proof of what kind of changes occur." She stopped before a table and took a picture of the battered furniture, pulled down a book and opened it, checking it for the black mold that happened to plenty of unkempt libraries. The flash of the camera went off a few times as she continued to move between the shelves.

"Ah, Sousuke, this was where we met Jack, remember?" She brought down the camera and turned around to smile at him. "That seems like so long ago."

"Affirmative," Sousuke said, wrinkling his nose at the mold. He'd noticed this sort of wear-and-tear on the building itself, but this seemed to suggest that the building was abandoned. But they were all still in there. It didn't make sense.

"This proof," Sousuke continued, watching the shelves like a hawk. "Who do you intend to show it to?"

Rey felt a bit like the third wheel here, and the situation was beginning to remind him of two certain fellow ace pilots back home (if he could even call it that anymore). The main difference was that, as far as he knew, Sousuke and Miku weren't emotionally needy at the moment.

"Changes?" he repeated, assuming that she wasn't referring to the monsters, or how the atmosphere seemed to be more frightening.

Miku looked back over her shoulder at Rey and nodded vigorously. "I told you, the whole institute changes. It's... it's like the building has been empty for years. Have you ever been in an abandoned house?" she asked and shone her light around the room. "For instance, this place looks like it's messy now, but in the morning, everything will be picture-perfect again.

"The institute is made to unnerve us, so, for things to be so opposite between night and day, it certainly doesn't help. And then, of course, there are the monsters that come out and try to... eat us, I suppose." Miku pursed her lips and lifted her camera up again. "Is there any place you'd like to go, Rey-san?"

Sousuke clicked on his flashlight and started pointing it around the room. Nothing had leapt out at them yet, so it seemed safe enough to put a light on. After all, if something was going to attack them, it would have done it already. Miku's flash kept going off.

"So we think," Sousuke said, looking around warily. "To eat or kill, it doesn't much matter in the end." And he couldn't recall seeing a body that had been eaten, truth be told.

Yet another not-quite-possible aspect of this place--to change so suddenly. It wasn't as incredulous as the idea of alternate worlds, although Rey was beginning to wonder what else there was to know. All in due time, he supposed.

At Miku's question, he paused and thought for a moment. "What are in the file rooms?"

Admittedly, he was also curious about the room marked 'Patient Possessions Storage,' but that could wait.

Miku stopped her photography and turned around to face Rey, "Nothing important; lies designed to make our false-lives outside of the Institute seem plausible. They even use people from our real lives to convince us." She rested a hand over her heart, feeling it twinge when she thought about Mafuyu and that... woman together, despite everything.

If they had wanted her to believe them, it would've been so easy to pluck Kirie from the picture. "I guess it's only interesting if you like to be on top of what lies they tell you. I don't say anything during my 'therapy,' and they've stopped sending me visitors, so it hasn't been so hard to completely ignore their attempts." She wasn't ever going to give up. No matter who was ripped away from her. She would find them and fix them, somehow. Miku's mouth was a hard line as she turned away and went around a corner, heading for the next section.

Sousuke watched Miku move into the next section to photograph it, keeping silent for the moment. Something always seemed to bother Miku about the realities that were created for both him and her, but he didn't understand why. Lies were lies, and what felt right was the truth. What he believed in was the truth. That was what he was he was taught--that the enemy's philosophy was built on lies, and his was built on what was true and right.

He looked over at Rey, expression neutral. "Knowing too much might make you wish it actually was your life," he said. "You've only recently arrived, but the stress will make you want to surrender. Not knowing what waits for you if you do... is probably for the best."

Now Rey was even more curious about what kind of lies they made about him. It wasn't as if he were dying to know, but it'd be nice, especially if they used people from their real lives as Miku said. Still, Sousuke apparently thought it was a bad idea, and Rey would respect his roommate's judgement.

"I don't think I could fall to their lies, even if I wanted to," he replied quietly, feeling a wave of sadness pass through him. Even if he managed to forget about Gil and everyone--everything--else, he'd never be able to ignore his own shortening life. "But I see your point."

If he ever gave up, it'd be for different reasons, however.

Miku was quiet, and seemed to follow a path around the library that was somewhat random. Finally, she paused and came up behind Sousuke and Rey. "I've gotten the pictures I wanted. Shall we go?"

Sousuke turned, having monitored the sound of her movement as she'd moved through the stacks. He nodded to her.

"If you have everything you need, then we should go," he turned to Rey. "Is there anything you needed tonight?"

"No, I'm fine," Rey replied. He glanced around the room, thinking, before something occurred to him. "How much time do we have left?"

Morning would eventually come, and surely they weren't allowed to roam the halls forever. Yet he couldn't think of how exactly the staff would gather all the patients.

"How ever much time they think we should have; Night seems to run differently for everyone, with some getting more done, and some getting less. It's very strange." Miku stowed her camera and grabbed Sousuke's hand, lacing her fingers with his. "If there's nothing we can think of doing, let's not invite trouble. I say we head to the patient blocks again."

She started towards the door.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/637196.html?thread=54328076#t54328076)]

Night 41: Patient Library

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject