damned_institute | 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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Christopher, you've got to take better care of yourself." THe nurse was fluffing his pillows. Again. For what felt like the millionth time, but was really only the seventh. Haku had been counting and it was getting harder and harder to just not snap.

"Really, I'm fine." He tried a tired smile. "Just a bit tired."

"Well, if you get hungry dear, I've put your dinner right here by the bed, nice and covered so that it stays warm." Haku wanted to say that he was missing part of his throat, how did she expect him to eat, but he mostly just wanted her gone. Once she'd left,he lay back against the pillows and began to count.

"Now Sean," Artemis' nurse said, resting a hand on his shoulder as she guided him back to his room. "I know that you and Chris are very good friends, but he does need his rest. His injuries are very bad, so it would be best if you didn't bother him."

It didn't take a genius to see that, and Artemis was about to point this out, but decided that he didn't want to expend the energy. Besides, he was in a good mood having redeemed himself in the chess rematch against Brainiac 5. It was good to be the Grandmaster.

"Here we are, home sweet home~" his nurse sang. "Let's be quiet, just in case Chris is asleep, okay?"

Artemis nodded his assent, but he doubted that Haku would have fallen asleep when Artemis was returning to the room shortly. If anything, he wanted to assure Haku that he was alright so the ninja could rest properly.

He moved quietly into the room with his tray, the nurse shutting the door behind him with a small smile and a wave. Artemis tried not to think about how horrifying that would be if it were night. Instead, he set his tray down on his desk and approached Haku, sitting down on the far end of the bed.

"How are you feeling?"

Haku opened his eyes when Artemis spoke and smiled happily. "You are the seventh person to ask me that today." He glanced up at the iv. "I'm fine, really. I've certainly had worse. How are you?"

He shifted up a bit to sit up properly in the bed and look over his friend with a critical eye.

Artemis smiled softly. "Yes, but I'm allowed to ask you that compulsively--I'm a special, exempt case."

He scooted a little closer and gently took the fingers of the hand that had Haku's IV in. "Fine. I was a little shaken at breakfast, but Schuldig straightened me out a little. Though he's lost Crawford again, which worries me. He didn't seem nearly as enraged or despondent. It makes me worry that he's getting used to the idea."

Squeezing Artemis's hand, Haku laughed softly. "True. That's all that's keeping me from beating you with something heavy too."

He listened and frowned thoughtfully. "Perhaps all of us are getting used to the idea that people we care about might be taken from us. Or he simply doesn't want to trouble you with his emotions."

"It's possible," Artemis admitted. "But I worry about any of us 'getting used to' anything in this place. It doesn't make what they're doing to us any less outrageous, whether we're accustomed to it or not."

He sighed and ran his thumb over Haku's fingers. "The edge of desperation has been blunted a bit, as far as I'm concerned. I wonder if this affects my ability to fight back, or if I'm just getting used to the idea of constantly running for my life."

"Being desperate can be useful in a situation like this," Haku agreed. "But it's been my experiance that the most dangerous fight is against someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, perhaps losing the irrationality of desperation will make you stronger."

He smiled and turned to look at Artemis. "And really, you can use all the help you can get," he teased.

Artemis gave a short laugh at the tease. "A point well-made," he conceded with a smile. He supposed that once he'd been stripped of everything, including the facts of life, death, and the universe, he really wouldn't have anything to lose except his life. And... risking becoming a member of an undead army hellbent on devouring human flesh. But really, that was just a possibility more than a if-then statement.

"Speaking of all the help I can get, how long do you think you'll be healing--and be realistic," he said.

Haku smiled and shifted slightly in the bed. He closed his eyes and flexed his shoulders and leg with a wince and sighed.

"Tonight and tomorrow, provided I don't do anything to provoke the injuries, and I should be on my feet." He spoke in a soft, almost clinical tone, then opened his eyes and looked over at Artemis with a smile again.

"That should be about right." Though he wouldn't be 100% for a little while after that, this was enough.

Artemis nodded, appreciating the objective response. He knew Haku was different, and thus had to treat him as such. What he didn't know, though, was how much damage Haku could operate with. By his calculations, the wounds would take (at the accelerated healing speed), between three and five days to be well on the way to mending. But if Haku thought he could do it in two, Haku could do it in two.

"I can stay with you tonight, if you'd like," he said, putting Haku's hand between his. "I don't have anything planned. The attack last night threw everyone for a loop, I feel."

Day 43: Intercom, Evening

M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47

Re: M47