damned_institute | Day 43: Sun Room, 4th Shift

Forte was having a long day, and it was refreshing to reunite with someone that didn't bombard him with questions. He still felt like he should say something, though, and he hadn't had a chance to ask anyone else about the strange intercom messages in person.

"So, did I miss anything? What's with the new voice? They're saying on the board that someone finally got to Landel."

Edited 2009-08-26 04:14 (UTC)

Zombies? Feldt thought she remembered reading something about those things at one point or another. Her memory was a bit fuzzy on the details of zombies - she remembered that they usually had rotting skin and apparently liked to eat brains. ... But as far as she knew? They were fictional. What this man was saying now... it didn't really make a whole lot of sense to her. The fact that there had apparently been zombies the previous night seemed so unreal. There was no way it could possibly be true.

So... was the man a liar? There was no way he could possibly be telling the truth about this whole thing. But since he was offering to talk to her in the first place, it probably didn't hurt to at least continue to ask questions. She'd just file the information away for later, when she could talk everything out with Setsuna.

"... Zombies are fictional. How are they able to show up?"

Even if he didn't have an answer, it still didn't hurt to ask.

Of course she didn't believe. He would have been more worried if she had just taken his word at face value, since that would have been another sign that she could be swayed far too easily. On the other hand, Harvey wasn't sure that he had the energy to try and convince her. She'd come to realize he wasn't off-the-wall crazy after she'd been here for a few days.

"That," he said, pointing at her with his index finger as he shifted in his seat, "is a very good question. If I were in your place I would be reacting the same way... but I saw it with my own two eyes." (Or one, as the case might be.) He couldn't keep trying to convince himself that he had just been dreaming or hallucinating, either -- not when everyone else had been through the exact same thing.

"They came out of the ground and swarmed around, biting and scratching and God knows what else. Some people have the bites to prove it," he finished with a dark frown.

Chemical storage, second floor - reference maps. She dotted the period emphatically in her journal, but said nothing. She could have looked that up herself, but having Miles...offer his help shaved a few minutes off the things she needed to do tonight. Or during dinner, if her roommate would allow her to work in peace. At any rate, the fact that she didn't scold him for telling her something she could have possibly known? Was the same as if she said thank you. At least, it was to her.

Besides, the more important conversation was at hand. Whoever harmed her brother? Would pay. She would make sure of it, if it meant tracking the person down herself and giving them a taste of von Karma justice until they were begging for the electric chair. She liked to pretend it was because she wanted her victory over him to be the only mark of shame he possessed, but she knew it was more because, well, he was her brother. And she was rather short on family she actually liked enough to continue relations with (her sister was exempt - they rarely met anyway).

The CM-US Experimental Trials. Franziska noted this name in her mind, but kept it from her notebook. The way Miles was lowering his voice, it was evident that this information was both secret and volatile. But more importantly, why replicate the Fey ability? And in a male? Since it was unsuccessful, it was possible they'd try taking a woman next to perform the same experiment on her. But why? Was it related to the 'federal sponsorship' this place was under? Or even to Martin Landel's absence? "It seems to be quite the weakness indeed," she said, her grip tightening a little on her pen as she recalled Phoenix Wright's testimony. He was on the ground - it must have been from the pain of the attack coupled with the pain of the consequences of the failed experiment. Just what has happened to you since you left my sight, Miles? "And? How far are you to uncovering a way to reverse it?" Franziska paused for a moment and then added, a little quieter than before, "And who else is investigating this? I want in."

Leon's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly as he replied, perfectly calmly, "Yes, I heard. From Kratos."

"That's good!" Kibitoshin laughed, albeit a little self-consciously, and lifted his stare out of its hiding place in his lap. "I haven't been having the best luck with explanations today."

Before he had the chance to drift into anecdotal nonsense he swiftly caught up with Chihaya's end of the conversation. "What kind of stuff do you think you'd do? I mean, like a job or something? I can't even imagine what kind of work I'd be fit for." Other than not law, of course. Thank you for that, Franziska.

Er... uh-oh? "Yeah, we weren't sure if we should go find you or... what," Stahn said, knowing full well he sounded more than a little awkward. "We kept an eye out for you, but since we didn't know where to look we stayed on a roof. Good thing, too, I guess..."

This was going to hurt, wasn't it?

Naturally the kid would ask something that Teisel couldn't answer. Feeling foolish, he twirled a piece of his hair. "Beats me, kid. I've been having some..." Blackouts? Memory problems? Or was Todd just lucid all those times that he couldn't remem- No. That was no road to go down now. That doctor had called him by his name; that should be enough proof that he wasn't some nutcase. "Well, I've had some issues the last couple days, you could say, and I'm not caught up on the news yet. Tell you what, though," he grumbled, "If Landel is out of the picture then I feel friggin' cheated."

One of the things that kept Teisel, and probably half the patient population, going was the thought of giving that man his just desserts. Explosively. Having someone new in charge was galling on several levels. For one, it was looking like taking out the head doctor wouldn't really get them anywhere if someone new would just step in to fill the hole. Also, a new head honcho meant the rules of the game were likely to change, and just when Teisel was getting used to the way things ran here, too. Noticing that he was beginning to sulk, he shook himself out of his thoughts. "A new boss might make things around here more dangerous. Landel's a bastard, but he seemed happy enough to just watch us run around. These new clowns might be more...what's the word? Proactive."

It was upsetting, now that he really thought about it. Sure, sometimes a nurse would take over the announcements for ol' Pencil Neck, but today's announcements were different. Official. Businesslike. Teisel hated businesslike. "We'll have to get you back on your feet and armed. You can't afford to get hurt like this again." Teisel's nerves couldn't afford Forte getting hurt again. He had more than enough to worry about.

The only way to explain how he'd known was to explain the conversation from the previous shift. It was still a bit strange to think about it, but...Alkaid had been responsible, in a way, for Endrance's second chance. He couldn't help but think her having been forgotten about was acutely unfair.

"Someone else from our world was here, disappeared, and then came back, waking up here again last night...and was most upset to find that she had been forgotten by those she had known. I didn't know myself that she was here, otherwise I would have asked after her. So...I'm sure, if she does return...she would be glad to know someone had thought of her."

Euphy picked up on that brief flicker - a memory? Regardless, it looked sad. As much as she wanted to ask, she sensed bringing it up would only make things worse, not better. With that in mind, she pushed the thought away, thinking back to the present.

"I'd like an escort to the clinic, if you can. I'm worried about something like the bats attacking and not being able to fight them off. If it's not too much trouble."

Edited 2009-08-27 00:59 (UTC)

In a way, she was glad Euphy asked her as she was concerned about the girl wandering on her own, but she wasn't quite comfortable with offering her protection. As it was, it felt very odd. But she did like the girl...

Teresa's lips quirked up. "None at all. Shall we meet where we met last night?"

Oh, he was one of those men. The ones who couldn't stand it when girls thought they were cute or sweet. Try to deny it all you want, but it still came back to the same thing; you were weak for a cute girl with a pretty smile. Though, in all fairness? Dahlia really didn't think it was cute. It was disgusting.

"Really?" She brightened up at that. "I'm so happy for you! It sounds nice to have people you know to keep you company."

But were her friends here? "...No. They're not." Poor Feenie didn't count, sadly. The things she would do to have Iris around... "But there's always room to make new ones! And I'd be happy to be yours, Ji-Ji. I-if that's okay with you, of course..."

Miles acknowledged the 'thank you' with a nod - that was really all that needed to be said. It was a complicated dance of things said and left unsaid, one they had perfected in their younger days. Some things truly never changed, and that wasn't something he had expected to ever feel comforting, but in its own way, it was.

He pushed any nostalgia to the back of his mind once he heard the quieter, but no less forceful questions. He had expected them to be a bit louder, and that in and of itself was a relief. "One might call it a fatal weakness," he said, a hint of dry sarcasm in the statement. "I suspect that your father's interest in it only grew once he found that the experiment also..."

Miles swallowed against the sudden dry feeling in his throat, but didn't show any other outward discomfort. "As I've said before, it was an attempt to replicate the Fey ability. It turned rather more personal once I realized that the effort to replicate it involved my father. It reacts most strongly to your father."

Enough of the talk about what the experiment had entailed. This next part of the conversation was the hardest part. He attempted to remain composed, but a flicker of something unsure flashed in his eyes for a brief moment before he was able to speak again. "Due to the lack of suitable laboratory equipment and lack of physical evidence the experiment doctors leave behind, it's still in the earliest stages. Our biggest breakthrough so far was three nights ago. One of the experimenters left physical evidence in the form of needles used in one of the experiments. They're being analyzed as best as we can under the circumstances. As for the experimental team, while others are involved, M. Javert, Phoenix Wright, and I are all on the case."

Miles sat back in his seat for a moment, thinking. Yes, on the one hand, they could use another set of talented brains on the investigation squad. On the other...

"I'll agree on one condition. Any information you uncover in the process cannot, in any way, be shared with your father."

Whatever Harvey was describing, it sounded like some of the horror movies that Feldt vaguely remembered reading about at some point in time. None of what the man was saying actually made sense. This sort of stuff wasn't even supposed to exist, and yet... here this man was, telling her about the previous night. Of course, because she didn't exactly know him or this place, she still wasn't sure how much she could trust what he was saying. She was just being cautious.

She looked back down at the floor, thinking about what her next question would be. If this was true, and if people were injured by this... was that what his injury was?

"How many people were injured?" She asked, even if he probably didn't have an answer for her. "What were the effects of the bites?"

"Well, I didn't survive everything in it, but I get your point." With it being rather distant now, Roland could afford to laugh at the irony of not having lasted through the entirety of the experiences of his world. It wasn't every day that someone got atomized, and while he had been blessedly unaware of most of the physical sensations, there was still the firm realization that he'd been blown into data.

Even still, he had to wonder about that. Heat had survived longer than he himself had, and yet he seemed to be gone... ah, that reminded him, he should probably mention that. "...by the way, I don't think I ever told you this, but considering, you probably would want to know. Heat's disappeared." There was a decided note of regret to his voice at that. He'd promised himself that he'd look after Heat, and just like before, he'd failed...

It was too late in the day for it to be some sort of drug-induced misconception - Siberian actually meant it. Where the concern stemmed from Schuldig couldn't even guess, unless it was perhaps a vague fear that Aya had something to do with it - certainly Ken and Yohji had been on pins and needles as to Aya's reaction to the revelation that Schuldig had formed a connection with one of his teammates, and not entirely without good reason.

In any case...Schuldig allowed himself to lower his guard, however slightly. "Crawford's gone. Again." There wasn't much point in not telling Siberian, anyway; if he hadn't read it on the bulletin board, he'd notice eventually anyway.

Ken stopped reading, wincing. No wonder Schuldig was in such a bad way. Farfarello had gone recently, and now Crawford? For the second time, even...

"...fuck. I'm sorry." There were things out there that no one deserved to go through, personal feelings aside. He hadn't liked Crawford, the smarmy bastard, but...Jesus, he'd been gone just as quickly as he arrived.

It seemed like Badou was trying to play the 'unaffected' card. Giovanni didn't buy it. From what Giovanni had seen of them, Haine and Badou were wildly different; the only similarity Giovanni could discern was that they both tried hard to come across as dispassionate. Haine fooled most people because he was, as much as it pained Giovanni to admit, inherently good at what he did. Badou, however, was another story entirely.

Given Badou's alliances (namely, cigarettes ~~and possibly attractive women~~), Giovanni guessed that it would be easy to coerce him, at least while he's under the influence of nicotine deprivation. And so he breathed in and told himself not to get carried away.

"I'll tell you what, Badou. I'll make sure a pack of cigarettes gets sent your way; all I want in exchange is information."

That took him by surprise, but the day Badou turned down a pack of smokes was the day Haine rubbed himself up against a pair of breasts and had a fucking orgasm. So he didn't bolt or give into the screaming at the back of his mind, he just sat facing forward now with his arms resting against his thighs. This shit he could deal with. He was a professional PI.

"What kind of information?" Badou asked, trying to sound skeptical. It was mostly real, but it had an edge of how many cigarettes are we talking here.

[askdldgalf; so sorry for the lateness! D:]

Raz stopped sulking and looked up. Some really old and kinda fat guy was greeting him as if they were . Wait, this was Porky? With a name like that, the boy was expecting someone... more his age. Well, this was surprising.

He frowned when he was reminded why he was sulking in the first place, but he waved it off. "Not really," he replied. "I just met some- yeah, never mind. So how are you?"

"Conveniently high turnover rate for Schwarz these days, isn't there?" Schuldig remarked with an ugly chuckle. "It'd be terribly convenient for all of you, if we were actually bothering you at all...and if there were still a 'we'." Schwarz had actually been quite low-key about that, but then they'd had more pressing concerns...and Schuldig, at least, had promised good behavior to Yohji, although that had really only extended to Omi.

Maybe antagonizing Aya a bit would improve his mood. He really ought to; it had been ages, and the assassin was clearly set to hate him no matter what he did. And was Aya really any more likely to kill him than anything else in this damned place?

Leon was always aware of the presence of the Institute staff around them, and getting sedated was not something he had any intention of allowing. Stahn was lucky that was the case, and would be free of serious reprisals until tonight. For now, Leon only made a grab for one of Stahn's ears, aiming to pull the tall idiot's empty head down closer. "Are you completely incapable of keeping your fool mouth shut?"

Stahn managed not to yelp. Barely. "Well, if we'd found you I knew you'd be pretty sc--uh--alarmed, and I thought he'd need to know why I was so worried for you..." he got out, trying to keep his voice down even though Leon was very likely to start yelling.

"And I didn't tell him much, honest!" Just that, uh, Leon had been a zombie briefly and that the party had had to take him down themselves. I think that's all I said, anyway... It had been a long night.

She was asking the right kind of questions, at least. That didn't mean he could answer them particularly well, but she was giving him the benefit of the doubt at least to the point that she was fishing for more information, even if she probably didn't believe him all that much. That was probably how he should have handled himself when he'd first arrived here, but he had been largely skeptical at the beginning. He still hadn't kicked that completely, but he was a lot more accepting now that he'd spent a few days here.

"I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing a lot. The things were pretty ruthless, and at least one of the people I was with got hurt." He wasn't as sure about Jones, even though he had seen the man earlier in the day -- wounds were pretty easy to hide if they weren't on the neck, lower arms, or face.

"There seem to be different stories about the bites. Some people were going on about infection, but everyone's been hush-hush about it," he explained. For obvious reasons, as far as he was concerned. If you ended up with some sort of possibly contagious infection, then you probably weren't going to spread that information around unless you were a real martyr type.

Thankfully, it seemed ZEX was beginning to snap out of his self-indulgent depression, and Tanaka gave the VUX his full attention as he began to recall what he'd done towards their goal so far. At least one good thing came out of his constant philandering: he seemed to make a lot of friends, and if one of them knew how to make an explosive charge, and had left him a list of what they needed, all the better... especially if they'd end up with something more powerful than black glory for their troubles, which, if a list was necessary, was probably the case. After all, even if the powder was effective against people, it might not be enough against the kinds of alloys some of the other races used - and Tanaka suspected Landel would be securing his labs with the strongest stuff he could find - and even if it was he wouldn't feel quite right using black glory for something that wasn't at least a little suicidal.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as he'd hoped, and instead of finding the list ZEX seemed to have found a stereotype in his oh-so-open mind. That was a laugh... even if the stereotype happened to be accurate, in this case. "Hah!" he barked, smirking a bit. "Unfortunately, Admiral, most of my knowledge is of how to use the end product..." - he pantomimed flipping a switch - "...and I wouldn't exactly call myself familiar with that either, since I'm still here to talk to you." He wasn't going to mention that the one time he had tried to use his glory device was against ZEX's own fleet... and that it had failed because he was a bit too enthusiastic and broke the switch. Humiliating himself for the sake of this mission would only go so far.

"But I would like to see that list," he continued, glancing down at the other papers ZEX had found, "so that I know what we're looking for tonight. If we're quick about it we may be able to get most of them in a single trip." And then wait who-knows-how-long for the bomb-maker to do his magic, but that was another issue. At least they'd have their part of the job done quickly.

Day 43: Sun Room, 4th Shift

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three days what's wrong with me

Day 43: Sun Room, 4th Shift

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three *days* what's wrong with me

three days what's wrong with me