damned_institute | Day 43: Sun Room, Second Shift

"No. I'm stayin right here," Junpei told his nurse.

"Josh, dear, you need to eat. Since you spent the early morning in here, you must go get something from the cafeteria," his nurse replied, the woman trying to be logical. "If you miss this meal, you won't be getting anything until dinner tonight."

"I said no," he napped back. "You have wax in your ears or something? I told Chidori I'd be here until I saw her, so I'm going to stay here until I do, damnit!"

The woman sighed and crossed her arms. "I would prefer it if you would refer to her by her real name, not this made-up one. I believe hse stayed in her room this morning, so she'll be brought to the cafeteria for brunch as well. You can see her there."

Junpei stared at her for a long moment. "No," he repeated slowly as if the woman was stupid (which he was pretty sure she was). "I said this was where I'd be, so this is where she'll come. If you want me to move, you're going to have to drag me out of here!"

"That can be arranged," the woman said, finally losing her patience. "With new patients coming in today, some in your age group, you should be setting a good example for them..."

The arguement continued, but Junpei was refusing to budge. This was not going to end well the longer it continued.

[for Ryouji!]

Ryoji had chatted with the mysterious dream-woman as she led him around the (equally mysterious) building, but the things she said made less and less sense, even for a dream. For one, she claimed his name was really 'Horace Mooney'. Two, she said he was in some kind of mental hospital... which was nonsense. Ryoji was, if he said so himself, the very picture of good mental health.

He was rather disappointed to learn that the nurse and this 'Horace' guy didn't have something going on between them. That, at least, would have been a wonderful silver lining to an increasingly bizarre situation.

Even more disappointing was the fact that the pretty nurse excused herself as soon as they had arrived at their destination--the Sun Room, she called it. He'd been about to try his hand at convincing her to stay when his attention was drawn away from her by a familiar voice.

It didn't take long for Ryoji to spot Junpei arguing with an older woman (another nurse, by the looks of things). The nurse who had escorted him already forgotten, he headed straight for his friend. He wasn't sure what they were arguing about, but the atmosphere seemed pretty serious.

"Hey, Junpei-kun!" he said cheerfully when he got close, trying to lighten the mood. He gave the nurse a glance and a friendly smile. "What's going on?"

Junpei stopped mid-sentence when he heard a familiar male voice. He stared at Ryoji for a full minute, blinking, before he was pretty sure that was his friend standing there and not some fucked up apparition driven from apparent zombieitis.

"Sup, Ryoji. Tell this bitch that I don't have to get food, that I have to stay here to wait for Chidori and apparently explain this fucked up level of, like, I dunno - Okawhiphawpa, ro whatever place in America we are," the junior said.

He then shot a glance at his nurse when she objected to his choice of terms for her. "Okay, this hot nurse bitch."

It felt awkward for Junpei to be staring at him like that. He enjoyed attention, but to be stared at by a guy (even if he was a friend) was... Well, he probably wouldn't complain if it were a girl, but that would have been a different sort of staring, obviously. Best he could tell, it looked was like Junpei was surprised to see him, or maybe surprised by his appearance? The clothes he'd been wearing since he'd woken up weren't exactly fashionable, but Junpei's were no different; maybe there was something wrong with his hair?

He was relieved when his friend finally spoke and stopped staring, but that merely provided a new point of confusion. "Whoa, Chidori? 'Chidori' as in your girlfriend?" The one who had died? He bit his tongue on that particular question.

...And what (where?) was Okawhiphawpa?

He needed to talk to Junpei now, to get things straight... like why he was waiting for his dead girlfriend. A stranger hanging over their shoulders (and trying to get Junpei to go eat?) would just be in the way. The nurse had to go.

"I'm sure she's just a little late, ma'am," he tried to persuade the woman. "Can't he wait for her a little longer? We can all eat together once she gets here."

Junpei gave Ryoji a look. Who the hell else would he be talking about? It's not like he knew any other Chidoris. Then it occurred to him that the last time he'd seen Ryoji, his friend had been trying to cheer him up after he'd pretty much dumped everything about Chidori's death on him. Of course, he'd be all confused and stuff.

The nurse tutted a little, but decided to give into Ryoji's logic, which annoyed Junpei a little. The other junior had always been pretty smooth when it came to persuading the ladies (except for Mitsuru and Yukari), but it was almost a godsend at the moment. Junpei was so tired of his nurse.

He flopped down into a chair, leaning down to rub his injured ankle, once the nurse had moved on to watch them from the door. He still didn't see Chidori.

"So... when did you get here?" He wondered if he'd be allowed to tell Ryoji about the Dark Hour now that he was stuck in this place with them. He was probably going to find out about it anyways...

That had been even easier than he'd hoped. Ryoji gave the nurse another smile and thanked her before she moved away to leave them alone. She'd only gone to the door, so they probably weren't out of the woods yet; he wondered if she was going to come swooping back in when it became apparent that Chidori wouldn't (couldn't) join them. But they'd been given some privacy, at least for the time being, and that was what he'd been hoping for.

"Just a little while ago, I guess," Ryoji answered, finding a seat nearby. "I'm not sure how I got here, though. Another one of the nurses told me some nonsense about this being in a mental hospital."

Though if Junpei was standing around waiting for his late girlfriend to arrive, maybe it really was. He studied his friend's face for a moment, wearing a serious look. "Are you alright? I know you miss Chidori, but..."

Shit. Ryoji was one of the new ones (well, duh) and so he hadn't gotten the this place really blows, oh and you have to fight for your life and your friends have monsters living in their minds that come out to cause destruction when they shoot themselves in the head speech. Junpei was just getting ready to tackle the first half of the speech when his friend's words and look made him forget about the order of the speech.

"Oh, no, dude! She's here - like breathing and drawing and being all morose and stuff," he replied, a little grin on his face. "I know it's hard to believe, but this place... It brought her back." He then scowled. "And don't go thinking I'm crazy and all cause I'm not. You just wait... she'll show up here at some point today and then you can finally see how gorgeous she is!"

Ryoji frowned. Junpei had said not to think he was crazy, but... The idea of the deceased coming back to life didn't sit well with him. Dead was dead, after all; it wasn't something that people could just recover from.

"That's..." he started to say, trying to decide what word he was looking for. 'Impossible'? 'Improbable'? 'Crazy' was an obvious fit, but he couldn't say that now. Besides, it was hard to think that Junpei had actually gone crazy, even with how down he'd been...

"I guess I'll just have to wait and see her for myself, then," he concluded, smiling a little. He wasn't giving Junpei the benefit of the doubt as much as going along with him until things cleared themselves up; there had to be some kind of explanation for why Junpei thought she was still alive. His smile widened as he added, "Of course, I'll be the judge of if she's as gorgeous as you claim!"

Junpei narrowed his eyes just a little. "Okay, but don't you be flirting with her," he stated. Chidori would probably just blink at Ryoji anyways.

Rubbing his ankle again, he then gave a shrug. "So, I take it you got the we're supposedly crazy bit from the nurses," he said. "And during the day, this place is just like any annoying mental hospital where they treat us like children. At night, though..." Here was the tricky part. "The doors unlock, the place warps and sha-- monsters try to eat us. We're trying to find a way out. Yuka-tan, Mitsuru-senpai, Akihiko-senpai and Ken are here, too, aside from Chidori."

He frowned. "Yeah, I know. Sounds like a plot from some kind of MMORPG."

"If it were anyone else's girl, I could make no promises," Ryoji said solemnly. He grinned then, and added, "But since she's yours, you've got my word. I won't flirt with her."

...Not that he'd be able to flirt with her, anyway.

The rest of what Junpei said was just as surprising as the claim that his girlfriend was alive, but he found it much easier to accept. "It does sound like a game," he agreed. "I don't suppose there's a princess that needs saving, too...?"

Well, there was Yukari and Mitsuru, but already been rejected by them. After a brief paused, he added, "Apart from the ones we already know, I mean. How did you all get here, anyway? I have to admit that the past couple of days have kind of been a blur..."

If Ryoji needed a princess to save... "There's this hot redheaded college chick named Dahlia that needs herself a knight in shining armor if you wanted to. i was playing the part for a bit, but... the girlfriend gives me this looks so... she's all yours," Junpei offered with a wink.

He shrugged again and gave an exaggerated sigh. "We have no idea. And what's worse? We're all from, like, different points in time. Like Yuka-tan and Akihiko-senpai won't even know who you are since they're from a time before you transferred in. Pretty much just me and Mitsuru-senpai know you." He gave his friend a compassionate look. "Sorry, man..."

A redhead college chick? Nice! "Dahlia? I'll definitely keep her in mind," Ryoji said, tucking the name away in his memory.

It really was just one surprise after another, though, wasn't it? He cocked his head to the side, considering what Junpei had said. "Is that... even possible?" he asked. How could they know him? "Not that I'd exactly complain if Yukari-san doesn't remember me, because that gives me a second chance with her, but... They've been here since before November?"

"I wish I understood. I keep waiting for a space-time singularity to show up and suck us all into a black of suckitude or something," Junpei replied. He then scratched the back of his neck. "Not that long... only a few weeks, but the last thing they remember from home is back in October."

He took a quick glance around then lowered his voice. "Oh, Mitsuru-senpai last remembers the trip to Kyoto, but not the not the whole hot springs thing, so keep that hush-hush unless you want to get executed again."

Something dawned on him. "Oh, Yuka-tan's got something going on with one of the guys here, so I don't think you should waste your time on her. Go for the bigger fish!"

"But I saw all of you guys just the other day," Ryoji said, thinking. "Even if there's something like time travel, you all can't have been there and here... right?" And the way Junpei was talking, it sounded like he'd been here for more than just a few hours, or even a day or two.

And then there was the trip to Kyoto. They had all definitely been on the trip to Kyoto. He paled visibly at the mention of the execution. "My lips are sealed on that subject."

He shuddered, and tried to block the (execution part of) the incident from his mind. The change of subject to Yukari was a great distraction. "Whoa, seriously? She never seemed interested in anyone at school; she's actually got a boyfriend now?"

"Nah, not a boyfriend, just someone she's circling around and he's circling back," Junpei replied. "Not that she'll admit it, but I already gave the guy a talkin' to."

He shrugged. "I've been here something like four days and the others have been here longer. I think Yuka-tan and Ken have been here a couple weeks. It makes no sense, but apparently this guy that yoinked us all here and stuck us in Okiwhiphawpa has some creepy-ass powers and shit."

He paused, uncomfortably. "If you, uh, believe in that stuff."

"Oh. Yeah, I get it," Ryoji said in understanding. She wasn't specifically taken yet, but... Well, that wasn't exactly going to stop Ryoji from taking his blessed second shot at charming her, but it wasn't like he entirely expected her to fall for him this time, anyway. You couldn't blame a guy for trying.

He leaned back in the seat, resting his hands on his knees. Junpei was right; it made no sense. If he and the others had been here anywhere from four days to a couple weeks, why hadn't anyone noticed they were missing? Or was it that when someone 'beat the game,' he went back to the time he'd come from?

'Creepy-ass powers' was sounding like a really good explanation.

Ryoji turned his head to the side to look at Junpei. "If there are monsters, there might as well be magic," he concluded. "I guess we're probably from different times, huh? For me, December's just barely started."

"End of November. The week after Chidori..." He didn't finish, but the rest of that sentence didn't need to be finished. "Everyone else is from earlier than me. Well, except for you."

He tilted his head. "Anything weird and freaky happen between my time and your time? Like... any increase in Apathy Syndrome victims or whatever." Man, this dancing around the bush thing was getting annoying.

Ryoji nodded. So there wasn't too much of a gap between Junpei's and his own times, but the others would be further and further away. He hoped introducing himself to Akihiko and Yukari wouldn't be too awkward; the idea that they wouldn't know him was already strange enough from his point of view, but from theirs...?

"I don't think anything 'weird and freaky' happened," he said, thinking a bit. Aigis had been staring at him a lot recently, which was kind of unnerving, and exams were coming up, but he doubted those were the kinds of thing Junpei was getting at with his mention of Apathy Syndrome. "At least, not beyond a personal scope. There hasn't really been any new changes with the Apathy Syndrome victims, as far as I know. I can't really think of anything out of the ordinary happening around town, either."

Oh, that was good to hear. Junpei was happy to find out that Ryoji was not going to be the bearer of bad news. Now, he just needed to find out from Mitsuru what they were going to do with him and the matter of their Personaa.

"Awesome. I've had my fair share of weird and freaky," he replied. "So... we should probably get you armed with something tonight just in case you come across any of the monsters. I've got a baseball bat and know where they're kept. Will that work for you or do you want something else?"

Oh. A weapon, right; when up against monsters, it made sense to be equipped for it.

"I guess that'll work. I haven't really fought anything before, so I don't know what I'd be best at," he admitted. A baseball bat wasn't really that much of a weapon, though, was it? It certainly couldn't compare to more traditional weapons. He grinned and added, "And I don't suppose they keep swords laying around here, do they?"

"Nope, though some of the other people in here have them. Maybe we'll find one laying around somewhere if we're really damn lucky." Junpei grinned. "But a bat's not that bad of a thing to have when it comes to staying alive. There's this really stuffy guy that puts together a pretty good thing on the board for noobs to look at. Give it a look when you get a chance. It'll explain some of the more fucked up aspects of being stuck here."

Junpei looked around for Chidori again as the intercom went off. Damnit, where was she? "Ugh... come to my room when the doors open tonight. I'm in M8. We'll meet up with my girl and then go get you a bat." Or something like that.

"Sounds good," Ryoji replied, nodding. A bat for now, and maybe a sword later, if they could find one.

He glanced at the bulletin board. It probably wouldn't be too hard to find M8, but maybe the... instruction manual for noobs would come with a map. "Okay, I'll see you then. And I'll be sure to read up before I meet you."

Day 43: Sun Room, Second Shift

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