damned_institute | Dayshift 22; First Shift; Sun Room

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Dayshift 22; First Shift; Sun Room

As always, Tamaki woke up in his bed. He didn't know how he got there, but he woke up still in the clutches of fear he last remembered from the night. The fight in the hallway, Ed and Adel, the thing...

He was out of bed immediately, determined to make sure his friends were alright. He listened to the man on the intercom, not liking the idea of some big surprise. He didn't imagine any surprises could be good. And he hoped his friends felt the same way...

When his nurse came to get him, he chose the Sun Room instead of the chapel. He wanted no part of whatever was going to happen. He only hoped that Ed and Adel had the same idea....

They probably didn't. Agitated and worried, Tamaki paced along the window, hands behind his back, and waited.

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Card tricks? Was he supposed to be impressed...? Okay, so maybe he was a little, but as far as Kadaj was concerned, they were nothing more than that: tricks. Just what was the point?

Deciding not to let that bother him right now, he chose a card and random and examined it for a moment. Luxord would probably have something specific in mind for him to do with it, so he would just wait for whatever instructions came up while he explained the situation. "They've always targeted her. It started off with the Cetra-- you're not from my world, so I suppose you haven't heard of them, right?" He glanced up for confirmation, then continued anyway without bothering to wait for it. "They were a people who shared a special bond with the Planet, but that doesn't matter. They got in the way. Mother managed to eliminate some of them, but they got lucky and managed to seal her before she could destroy them all. They're all dead now, though. Isn't that nice?"

Grinning broadly down at the card still in his hand, he paused to savor his words, obviously pleased by the thought of eradicating that entire race. What was that called again? Genocide? Whatever. "Eventually she was found again, but that time they were after her power. Shin-Ra Electric Power Company turned her into a lab experiment just to achieve that, and they succeeded." Back into unpleasant territory. Before his mood could sour again, Kadaj quickly added, "The president I told you about is the one in charge of that company. I still have to kill him for all of that, but getting him to admit he was wrong is a start, isn't it~?"

Giggling, he went on. "Then they targeted her because she was helping Sephiroth get revenge on the Planet. It was only what they deserved, but they fought it. Foolish of them, right? They should have just accepted it. The last time they did it was because we needed her for the Reunion. With Sephiroth gone, Mother's cells were all that was necessary to bring him back. They tried destroying her to prevent that, but they failed. He returned, and..."

He trailed off, clearly sinking into a bad mood again. Why couldn't they just give in already? Why did big brother always have to fight them? It was so tiring to have to go through this over and over again. Did they never learn?

Shaking his head, he sighed and said, "That's why they're always targeting her. Now, what do you want me to do with this card? I'm bored and I don't want to talk about this anymore, so tell me."

He nodded along, twirling the other cards between his fingers. Mass murder, escape, capture, sinister government, apocalyptic nightmares, rebels, heroes, science-fiction… Overall, it would make a wonderful movie. Word of mouth seemed so horrible a medium, however.

Also, it did not seem too interesting. It was nice to note the other could open up like a bottle of champagne, but none of the information was particularly intriguing. Still, he would log the information away for later, in case something did happen to be important.

Back to the task at hand, though. "Turn the card to its back and ask it a question. Anything you wish to know, anything your heart desires," he waved his free hand, voice taking on the tone of a ringmaster, if anything. "The card will answer you. 'tis of no importance if you've seen the face or not, it won't speak until you ask."

His eyes narrowed in pure amusement. "Cards can never lie."

Another wave of the hand, another sweet smile. "When your question is asked, flip the card over. You will see your answer in its face."

[SORRY, typos. Had to fix. D:]

Interested in spite of himself, Kadaj did as as he was told, turning the card to its back and... well, first he had to think of what to ask. The first thing that sprung to mind was, naturally, asking about where Mother was. Considering the state of things, though, and how he'd been so horribly disappointed when he'd first arrived here, he quickly dismissed the idea. For all he knew, Luxord had known he was going to ask that and had arranged for the card to reveal something insulting. From his experience with everyone here so far, that seemed very likely, so he would just have to ask something less predictable.

... Oh, to hell with it. "Where's Mother?" he murmured to the card, hopefully quiet enough that Luxord wouldn't be able to hear him. It was one thing being teased on the bulletin board for it, something else entirely if it was done in person. Besides, he just knew he'd attack the man if he said anything about it, and this early on in the day was too early to get sedated.

Sending Luxord a small glare as if just daring him to comment, he flipped the card over. Now, to see what the answer was...

His smile grew even wider at the sight of the other actually doing as told. How fun.

His eyes, however, were more drawn to the card. "Queen of Spades, is it? A beautiful mistress to lead you to your grave," he examined it, leaning in closer. He tilted his head, almost tempted to touch the edge of the card; it'd been a while since Luxord actually sat down and read them.

"She's close," he gave after a while. "Closer than you may think. Perhaps even in this very building, though she's not as you might want to see her." He pointed at the card with his free hand, shuffling the others. "Spades are characterized by their misfortune, so while she may appear, it will not be a good thing for you."

Hmm…

A beautiful mistress to lead him to...? That was probably more accurate than Luxord knew, but then Kadaj didn't know what the man's abilities were at all besides the tricks he'd seen so far. Was there really more to him? He almost didn't want to think that, especially after seeing how much of a nuisance he could be, but it wasn't an option that should be dismissed so lightly.

The explanation also was honestly more confusing than Kadaj had expected. Rather than try and puzzle it through on his own, though, he decided to ask. It should be all right in this case, right? Mother would understand him asking for help. He'd be able to figure it out on his own too, of course, but the quicker the got to the bottom of this, the sooner he could meet her. "Can you give a better estimate about where she is? Just how close? When can I see her? Why wouldn't I want to see her? I've been searching for her my whole life. Why would seeing her be bad? She isn't angry at me, is she?"

He made himself stop there, partially to give the man time to answer and also just to try and calm himself. The prospect of seeing Mother again, even if it was in a way that would be bad for him, was just too much for him to bear waiting for. He wanted to see her now!

So that was how this is, was it? The smile faltered, almost turning into a frown at Kadaj's desperation; he knew that pain once, a long time ago ~~hedidn'tmeanforhertodie~~. He took pity on the boy, really.

So, the Gambler moved from his perch, sliding down to actually sit on the couch, rather than on its arm (it was big enough for the two of them, anyway). He shook his head at the question, as he really didn't know. "All I know is that she's close, and she'll be here soon. However," he fanned out the other cards, putting them in the man's reach, "we can find out."

Now he was getting oddly interested.

His expression went from pained at the announcement that Luxord knew no more to eager and hopeful at the idea that he might be able to learn more. Shifting on the couch so that there would be more room for the other man if he wanted it, he gave a single short nod and turned his attention towards the cards. The words "thank you" hadn't entirely been absorbed into his vocabulary, but depending on how this went, Luxord might end up being one of the very few people he'd said it and meant it to.

But they'd just have to wait and see. Picking out a card, he paused again and considered. Same game as before? If so... "When?" he asked simply, half to the card and half to Luxord. Flipping it over, he held it out for the man to see. If it wasn't soon, Kadaj was damn well going to pick another.

The card was flipped over, and Ten, for once, had no words. He merely stared at the paper and plastic as though it was going to slide out of the boy's hands and gut him.

The eight of hearts was staring right back at him, and it took a bit to notice his mouth had opened without the words to come out. He cleared his throat after a bit, and the Gambler made sure to act as though such an image of him even appearing surprised was mistaken; he hadn't the heart to be surprised, anyway. He brushed his hair back with his empty hand before regarding the card once more, still a bit… bothered by the message it gave.

He'd have to tell the man eventually…

"Today."

"... Today?!" Kadaj echoed, his whole face lighting up with joy. Today! Today! It was today! He was so lucky! He was going to see her so soon and he hadn't even known it! He had to tell Yazoo, as soon as he saw him. He was going to see Mother today!

Quickly, he snatched up another card, words coming out in a rush as he asked yet another question... and then another, picking up a card for the second as soon as he had finished asking the last. "Which shift today?! Where will I see her?!" It was a struggle not to snatch up every single one of the remaining cards and ask a question for every single one. There was so much he wanted to know!

Sigh. He had a feeling he would quickly become the Ms. Cleo here. However, he supposed such a thing could come to his advantage; after all, if he could prove trustworthy, this boy and his obvious psychosis might come in handy to the Organization…

Luxord was quick to become all smiles once again as he glanced at the two cards, giving them their voice as they had none of their own. Four of Hearts… "Here, though which room is not specified." As for the shift… well, Four of Diamonds did not have much to do with anything.

The Gambler tilted his head again, reaching to take the card and look it over. That didn't make any sense… not unless, he was looking to deep into it.

He made a face at it, not particularly sure if this was correct. Cards did not lie, though. "Fourth…?"

He couldn't tell him which room...? Well, that was fine. Kadaj shouldn't expect the cards to tell him which room, not when they had names which probably couldn't be linked up to a corresponding card. Fine. He could wait and find out, really. Mother would be proud of him for showing such restraint. If there was any way he could change that, he'd of course do it in a second, but that probably wouldn't come very easily. Damn it, even when she was so close, things were STILL getting in his way! He just wanted to see Mother, so why did everyone have to interfere like that?!

The fact that it was the fourth shift that he would see her and it was currently only the first was just another reason for him to get frustrated, and really by now he just wanted to tear the room apart to vent for all of this. How could he wait for that long? How?

He abruptly got to his feet and began to pace, just for something to do while he waited for the shift to end. Would pacing make it go by faster? He had to try. Or should he ask the cards that? No, they'd just give him a yes or no answer (probably a "no") and he'd have wasted his time for nothing. But wasn't this about wasting his time anyway? How could he wait until the fourth shift?

He stopped in his tracks just as quickly as he he had gotten up, then without explanation, returned to his seat. Maybe he could sleep for the rest of the shift. That would work. Yes. The only problem was that he didn't think he could sleep, not now. He'd only just woken up, and besides which, he wasn't even human! How was he supposed to sleep under those circumstances?

He tried taking a deep breath, then looked over at Luxord and said very quietly, "Thank you. If you ever need anything, let me or my brother know and we'll help you." He realized a bit too late that was probably too much, but then again, this man had told him about Mother. That deserved something, and besides, he might need to ask for another card reading later.

He watched quietly as Kadaj fluttered around the area, obviously a tad too eager for his own good. It was nice to note how… simple this all had been. Pleasant, really. While Luxord always enjoyed a good challenge, something nice and simple was welcome as well. Besides, if the other's words were true, that meant he hit three birds with one stone.

A job well done, he thought.

"Keep in mind," the Gambler began, plucking the cards back from the boy's hands, "the first message." He glanced at the aforementioned Queen of Spades, deciding to hand it back. "While you will see her, it will not be what you wished. Keep this card and remember that; this hospital runs on lies, and only the truth," he narrowed his eyes, all charming smiles as he held out the visage of a darkly dressed queen, "will set you free."

Of course, it took all his strength not to snerk at II graciously dumping his cat friend on the floor. The blond took it as his cue, placing the other cards back into his pocket before giving the boy a polite bow. "And if you or your brothers ever need me, my name is Luxord. I, or one of my coworkers, would be glad to assist you."

He turned around and began to walk away, a lion's smile growing across his face. "There are Thirteen of us. X marks the spot."

Yes, of course, the Queen of Spades, whatever. Kadaj accepted the card with impatience marking his every movement, obviously still too wrapped up in the idea of seeing Mother to remain polite for long. If the need to do so came up again later, he'd probably be able to at least feign it, but right now, even that was beyond him. Too bad.

"I'll remember-- and my name is Kadaj and my brother's is Yazoo," he added as an afterthought. No time like the end of a conversation to give introductions, was there? "I'll see you later, Luxord."

Not even bothering to watch the other man go, he forced himself to relax on the couch again, staring at the card still in his hands. Just a few more shifts... and then he'd be able to see her.

... Waiting was hell.

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Dayshift 22; First Shift; Sun Room

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