Day 43: Chapel

[constellates.livejournal.com]

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn, someone had gotten to it before her. And who was the voice at the end there? It was like she'd been allowed access to some kind of strange mystery that she could not understand, one that had been going on for a long time before she had arrived and would be going on for quite a while in the future, after she was gone. Had these strange sets of circumstances been bugs in this place's programming? Who could say?

The morning's intercom greeting was strange, as well. Federal training whatsit? It didn't seem like this happened very often, from the sound of it, but so much had happened since the last day she remembered that the former Demon Palace Emperor was ready to take pretty much anything at face value.

The room she woke up in was still empty. Wondering where to stick the half-cracked bat that she'd picked up last night, she shoved it under the mattress hastily when she heard footsteps in the hall.

The stupid nurse was the same as ever, though. Some things never changed. "Ahh, good morning, Eileen. It's so nice to see you awake."

Alkaid rolled her eyes at the nurse's chuckle, and shook her head. She didn't care that the NPC thought it was nice, she just wanted to see the rest of the institute already.. see what had changed! "Yeah, it's fantastic. Whatever! Just take me where I'm going and be done with it!"

It was just then that she realized that she was not wanting to devour the flesh of the nurse in front of her. And that the pain on her arm had kind of abated - she couldn't see through the thick bandages they had covered her arm with, but she wondered if her skin was still rotting off like a zombie. Had they somehow cured her infection overnight? Or was the nurse not human, like Alkaid had always thought?

There was only one thing for it: she had to go somewhere else.

"Chapel, sun room, or cafeteria, then?"

"Does it look like I care?"

The nurse sighed, then started walking Alkaid down the hall, up the stairs, and down another hall to the chapel. No one here yet, huh? That was weird. She couldn't imagine that no one else'd show up, but who could say? This place had been turned on its ass.

The chapel was empty so far, and kind of nondescript. She shooed the nurse away, and stood in the middle of the space between the pews, standing akimbo. What would happen today? What would she learn about herself... her situation? How long had she been sleeping? Was she really still going freaking undead, or had that been somehow taken care of?

All this would come to light really soon. She hoped. Geez, too many mysteries!!

[unwittingly awaiting Haseo]

Comments

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

"Well," Bridget looked a bit embarrassed. He was clearly oblivious to the white-haired man's fury. "Roger did put it together. He's a bit ... verbose sometimes."

He looked back up. "The people here have so far been telling us this was a mental hospital, but with the announcement today, I suppose that's going to change."

[poolcuemurder.livejournal.com]

"Roger?" Venom didn't remember Bridget having any sort of partner (aside from that nightmare inducing teddy bear. Was that Roger?). Furthermore, it still made no sense to have a folder of that size on him, no matter how verbose. Yes, he was the Guild Head, but... what was there to say about him, aside from that?

If anything, his thought was that it would only be a page long, maybe two pages, boiling down to "Don't bother."

That useless information cul-de-sac wrapped up in his mind, the imporant matter of being trapped within these walls and just what that meant came back to being the forerunner of the assassin's thoughts. "Yes, I heard what it said." Which was even more worrying. If this was in the past (which was plausible, even if he wished it wasn't true, but how in the world could they have the resources to bring them all here? If they hadn't tapped into Magic yet- Nnng, why wouldn't he piece this out?) it still made no sense for him not to know about it. Especially if it were some sort of federal training for A Country's military--he'd have all the more reason to be aware of something like that! "If their guise has been as a regular asylum, I'm not sure why they would suddenly change it. I don't think they took last nights events into account and, because of that, this I.R.I.S. system may only be temporary until they either find a new leader or Martin Landel regains his health." The latter was assuming the man was still alive.

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

"Yes! My teddy bear? You must remember Roger. He likes to meet new people almost as much as I do!" Roger, with his soft fur, soothing deep voice, spinning blades, flame thrower and near limitless memory space. His constant companion. "He's here too. But... he's inoperable and I can't get him running again." Admitting to a weakness like this wasn't a bad thing. They were all weakened here. This one just stung the most.

"What happened to the Head Doctor? I wasn't here last night."

[poolcuemurder.livejournal.com]

"...The stuffed animal." It wasn't a question as much as it was a need for conformation. The teddy bear liked to meet new people. He was aware of the weapons stored within it, but wasn't Bridget old enough to not personify inanimate (or, in this case, pseudo-animate) objects? It was a stuffed animal. It held no capacity for thinking or liking others or writing verbose documentation on bounties. It was senseless and careless think otherwise and, frankly, he was a little disappointed in the boy.

In the end, Venom just nodded his head in a slow, disbelieving manner. At least he still had the toy to comfort himself or wasn't too distraught at its malfunctioning.

"I didn't understand what was happening at first or who was speaking over the intercom," he tilted his head back again, crossing his right leg over his left as he recalled the incident, "but he was attacked. From the moaning and his words of surprise, it was most likely the doing of the undead creatures we had all faced that night, meaning their presence was not something he had planned. That, or it was and went horribly out of control."

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

Bridget leaned back in the pew, thinking and kicking a foot back and forth for a moment. "Well..." he began slowly. "The sheer amount of creatures set on us in the town below seemed to be far beyond the norm for this place, and indeed, the walking dead of this sort is a new tactic for this place. It would stand to reason that this was not the Head Doctor's doing. Or I suppose he is the former Head Doctor now?" His foot stopped and the hunter tilted his head.

"It could have had something to do with 'Jane' or even 'Alec', but the fact that both claimed to be on the side of the captives leads one to wonder what,exactly,is going on now." He turned and the intelligent young man was covered once more by the perfect picture of cluelessness. "I just hope not too many people were hurt up here at the facility. Are you okay?"

[poolcuemurder.livejournal.com]

"I've heard mention on the board of Alec Doyle and how he was supposedly dead, but who is Jane?" Did he mean "Jill?" Or was this another woman altogether? With all the talk of some woman the two men wanted (he'd have to thank his captors for giving him something else to feel uncomfortable about. Another love triangle), any information regarding just who it was could be a very important piece to solving a) the puzzle of what they were doing here and b) how they returned back to their own time.

He needed to be back in his own time. If this had just been a simple relocation, he had no doubts the Guild would find him and put this to rest if he couldn't escape on his own. But to be brought through the folds of time? He would be lying if he said it didn't make him feel dizzy and just how much he hated that. How could he have ever planned for something like this happening...?

...that question was another thing he didn't expect. Why was Bridget even asking that, aside from just being polite? He paused and glanced down at his now-bandaged right arm, his words losing a bit of their normally cold edge. "Yes, I'm fine. Are you?"

[roger-hug.livejournal.com]

(Gah! No Jane. That was a mun mess up. Teach me to post right before I pass out for the night. SORRY!!)

A moment of pain crossed his face, then it was a return to bright smiles. "I'm fine. Didn't get hurt at all last night. His own arm was still bandaged, but that was part of a request he had with the nurse to at least wait to see if the scars were going to fade at all.