damned_institute | Day 43: Chapel

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]

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Kio's face changed to show the concern he was feeling, although something did not ring quite true about her words. His eyes carefully scanned hers for anything that might give her away, but there was nothing concrete. He sighed softly. Either the people here were much harder to read, or he was still so strung up from the meeting with Soubi. "I'm glad you got out of there okay, Ophelia-kun! So many of my friends have been going lately... I thought I'd lost you too."

He leaned over and hugged her briefly. It felt good. "I can't help you there, I was asleep. I think my nurse gave me some strong pills to make sure I would sleep." He felt bad because he could have been useful, but he wasn't. "Ophelia-kun, which of the clubs does scavenging?"

Damn. The only further use I'll get out of him is the usual, then, thought Ophelia in annoyance, making certain to ask Kio to come straight to the bulletin with her when they were done in the chapel. She could barely wait for the day when her reading and writing would become sufficient enough to the point where she could finally play with him properly.

She was about to assure him that it would take more than a few corpses to take someone like her out when suddenly she found the man's arms around her. Instinctively, Ophelia flinched; it was a miracle that she did not do more than that, otherwise Kio might have found himself with a broken arm or two. After the initial moment of surprise and disgust had passed, she forced herself to relax, putting one token arm around Kio as well. "It's all right, Kio. You couldn't help being asleep," she cooed, mentally rolling her eyes. "In any case, what type of scavenging are you after? I know several of the clubs do various types of material gathering and item hunting."

Kio easily agreed to help her with the bulletin, though his ears did pick the somewhat bossy tone. He knew he wasn't being the best of teachers, but she busy too, right? Well, the brief moments of messages across the board had had their cheery fun, but now everything was changing. Things would be very different from now on. Much more different.

The flinch did not go unnoticed, though he kept his expression puzzled. Her arm was reluctant, he could feel it. Kio was beginning to suspect his friend did not have the best of intentions, but there was too little to go on. How could he ever be sure? Everyone was on edge, everyone was trying to survive. He let her first remark pass, simply smiling sheepishly. "Objects, items, map discovery. You know I'm not a fighter and I won't learn." No matter how much Sou-chan wants me . "I don't want to get myself killed, but I need to find a use for my nights and fast."

Day 43: Chapel

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