damned_institute | Day 43: Intercom, Evening

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Day 43: Intercom, Evening

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

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The comms' jarring inconsistency with the facts of this place was of note, but nothing more. It wasn't anything that could be used, not in their position. 622 simply followed the nurse to his cell, sitting down at the desk and eating mechanically.

He wondered if Subaru had survived last night.

Loz was practically dragged back to his room, complaining all the while, "But I wanna be there when the monsters come out!" He was then all but shoved into the room and gave a dissapointed groan when they locked it. Hopefully night would come soon, and they would be let out.

The Remnant turned around to go sit on his bed and saw that there was another man in here with him. He raised his hand briefly and gave a curt, "Hey."

Even before the door was opened, he could tell it wasn't Subaru. So, another dead. Or just gone. It happens. Deal with it.

He gave a small salute in return to the wave. "Stormtrooper Sergeant TK-622. I'm guessing you're new here."

Loz nodded, "Yeah, I'm new. I'm Loz."

The Remnant sat down on the closest bed, not really caring if TK-622 had already claimed it. "Never heard of a 'stormstrooper'. That like a SOLDIER or something?" Perhaps other worlds had their own SOLDIERs. Before he could think, Loz also blurted out, "Your name is weird."

He'd come to expect by now that most of the prisoners here didn't know anything about the Empire, and the remaining few thought it was a fictional, evil galactic regime. This was routine by now. "The Stormtrooper Corps. is the Galactic Empire's elite force of shock troops. We fight terrorists and criminals and keep the peace until stable Imperial governance can take over."

Loz didn't exactly seem to be the brightest person 622 had ever met, but at least he was direct. "It's the designation I was given. I'm a clone. It makes things simpler for everyone, rather than using unstandardized names." Would he have to explain this concept to his new roommate as well?

Loz gave TK a blank look and just nodded, "Oh, okay." He'd never heard of the 'Galactic Empire', but it sounded important. However, the part about 'fighting terrorists' and 'keeping the peace' he understood. "That sounds like SOLDIERs alright. They worked for Shinra and fought the company's ememies." Like Big Brother and his friends, before Shinra went down.

"A clone, huh? That's really interesting," Didn't Kadaj once mention that Shinra did some cloning before or something?

That wasn't it at all, really, but it was probably too complicated to argue. He just nodded and continued eating.

"I'm just one out of millions. I do my job as well as I can." Failures were always the result of unforeseen events. But with no one to give orders here, he was feeling lost. He hadn't felt like this since he arrived. "This place insists on referring to me as 'Temuera' or just 'Tem', if that would be easier."

Loz tried to imagine millions of someone running around. Millions of Kadaj, millions of Big Brother, millions of himself... he didn't know how he could handle something like that. It would get confusing after a while.

The Remnant poked at his own food, not really all that hungry. "Well, I guess 'Tem' might be easier to remember than TK, um... whatever," He racked his brain trying to remember the numbers, but couldn't.

"Then that's fine." He didn't care what people called him. That had never mattered.

"Do you need any questions answered about this place? I've been here for..." his voice cracked just a little, but he tried to cover that up. "Long enough to be able to answer most questions that anyone here knows the answers to."

"Well..." Loz thought about it for a minute. He already knew about the monsters, the whole "other worlds" thing, and that Kadaj was here. He couldn't think of what else he'd need to know, except for one thing.

"What are the monsters here like?" Were they big? Small? Weak? Powerful? Loz figured he may as well know what he was up against.

"Some are known to be versions of the staff who work here, somehow mutated. The rest usually seem to be in various stages of decay, ranging from relatively small cats to birds twice the size of a human." He could get into more detail, but he wasn't sure if he gave sizes in meters if they'd be understood.

"There are also more powerful creatures that seem to only appear to guard one place at night, if at all. There is no known pattern to their deployment, but they can be very dangerous." He pulled the neck of his shirt to one side to show a large stab wound bisecting one of his collarbones. That bone was never the strongest, but it had snapped cleanly in two like it was nothing. "One of them, now terminated by another prisoner, nearly killed me." He'd been lucky that the night had ended so soon after he'd been hit, considering the artery that had been hit.

"There are also prisoners who are taken at night, brainwashed, given their kit and any special abilities they had before, and released to guard an area." He swallowed slightly before continuing on, tone almost dead. "There is also at least one prisoner who may go berserk and attack anyone in their path."

Loz listened intently to everything Tem said, nodding occassionally, like a kid being told a very entertaining story. He also raised both silver eyebrows when the man showed his scar and explained how he got it. "Well, I'm not scared. I'm strong and fast, and I don't get hurt so easily."

The 'brainwashing' part really got his intrest. "They can do that? My brother Kadaj can do that too."

"Just be careful. I used to have another cellmate, but he's obviously not here anymore. And one of my friends died last night." Kriff it. He couldn't keep his tone professional.

"Yes, they can. The brainwashing is only in effect for one night, after which the subjects regain their normal personalities." He really didn't feel like asking the obvious question raised by the last thing Loz said. It wasn't his business.

Loz could tell that Tem was hurt by the loss of his friend, but Loz wasn't exactly sure what to say. So, he just murmered, "I'm sorry." That was what people usually said in this type of situation, right?

"Neat," The Remnant said. "Well, my brother once brainwashed a bunch of children, so they could lead us to Mother." Loz could never resist talking about his brother or Mother, even though Tem hadn't asked about them. His face then fell, "But then, that didn't work, and..." And then the Turks tried to kill them, and then Kadaj and Mother... For the third time today, Loz sniffed a few times, and covered his face with his hands to hide his tears.

"It happened and it can't be changed. That's all." He had to accept that. But it was hard to force himself to do so.

Great. Now he had absolutely no idea what to do. "You don't have to talk about it unless you want to if it's upsetting." He didn't know how to handle people who were this emotional, especially when he didn't know them at all.

Loz quickly wiped his tears away, trying to gain control over himself again. Why did he have to get so emotional whenever he thought about Mother?

"I'm fine," He said, trying to sound adament. "My new friends are gonna help me find them." He couldn't wait to see Beelzemon again, and Alex would surely have nothing but good intentions.

"Are they going to be with you tonight? Even if you can fight, it's best to not go out alone." Like he might do tonight himself. It was a terrible idea, but he had to see if he could do as Armand had asked him. He had to try.

"Yeah, we're all gonna meet in that big room, with the chairs and couches, and the board," Loz explained. "Beelzemon and I can't wait to play with the monsters, and we might even play with each other. Alex is gonna be our leader." Alex wasn't Kadaj, but Loz would take him, for now.

'Playing.' That seemed to mean... 622 sighed slightly. "Then you should be fine. That room often has difficult hostiles in it that are dangerous to fight, even in a group. I'd advise caution." If he even knows what that means. He finished up the last of his food, scraping any crumbs up with his fork.

"Really?" He hoped what Tem said was true, so he and Beelzemon could start playing right away. "Well, even without my Duel Hound and Materia, I'm sure I'll be fine." Which reminded him. "Do you know anything about 'weaponsmiths' or the 'cooking club'?" While Loz could fight perfectly well with his bare hands, having a weapon probably wouldn't hurt either.

"I have absolutely no idea what those are, but you should at least take the glowrod they give us. It should be under your pillow," 622 pointed to illustrate. "It's got a fair amount of weight to it and you'll need it unless you can see in the dark- all the lights turn off."

"I haven't met anyone from the cooking club, but if you ask them they'll take any metal you can find and use it to make weapons. There are other people who offer their services, usually for a price."

Somehow, he'd only just noticed something... sort of important. Not only was Loz's hair gray, his pupils were slitted. "...Apologies if this is a bad question, but are you human?"

Loz reached under his pillow and pulled out the 'light rod' Tem mentioned. The Remnant weighed it in his hand and nodded approvingly. He pressed the button on the the handle, but with the lights on, he didn't get a good idea of how much light it gave. Well, he'd find out tonight.

Replacing the rod under his pillow, Loz said, "Metal shouldn't be too hard to find." He'd have to leave a note for the club tommorrow morning.

When Tem asked his question, Loz frowned slighly. "Well, I am human, but Kadaj once said that we're... different. Because of Mother. He told us that Mother wasn't really human." He didn't even know what Mother really looked like. He'd always pictured her as this beautiful being, who would bring happiness to Loz and his brothers.

"I haven't tried to look, but they'll take any metal, as far as I can tell." He didn't know what they did with it. Probably some of that 'magic' or whatever people called things that couldn't be explained here.

"Ah." Some sort of genetic cross, either natural or through the same sort of manipulation cloners did. "Do you know what she was?"

"Wait until Beelzemon hears about this," Loz said excitedly. He was sure Beelzemon would want something too, and maybe Alex too.

The Remnant then frowned and shook his head. "No. We... never met her. We don't even know what she looked like. Kadaj said that she came from the sky." He pointed upward for emphasis.

Well, at least someone here was happy. At least for the moment.

Planet-bound? He didn't know what level of technology it took to make genetic manipulation viable, so he still didn't know if Loz was talking about a real mother or not. If he even knew. "I didn't have parents, so these things are new to me anyway." Just brothers. Apart from the cloners, he hadn't seen anyone else for the entirety of his training.

Day 43: Intercom, Evening

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