Day 44: Sun Room, Second Shift

[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

[from here]

He really had beat the rush. Suzaku found a chair as close to the corner and as far from the bulletin as he could, and turned it to face the wall before curling up in it. His nurse frowned at him again, but she was still being cooperative, and frankly he didn't care what she had to say in the slightest. He didn't care even if he got sedated. All he cared about was finally having a few moments to himself, to sort out what Euphie's love meant and what the hell Lelouch's problem was.

It felt like he had all the pieces of a puzzle and was just too stupid to figure out how they fit together. What Lelouch had said about Shirley at breakfast and the tone he'd taken with Euphie on the board, Lelouch asking how Suzaku was, Lelouch dying. . . "All we can do is move forward and look out for the ones we care about." Euphie struggling to get out her last words, pain overtaking Suzaku's consciousness while he fought pathetically to carry out Lelouch's order. . . The last couple days, when he'd felt like he was finally figuring this out, seemed so far away now.

There were a couple things that were certain, at least: he hated what Lelouch had done, he always would. But he -- he didn't hate Lelouch, and he hadn't for a while now, and that wasn't going to change. And he didn't have much time, because everyone but Suzaku was terrifyingly mortal. And Lelouch was an idiot, but he still wasn't sure about the how and why of that one yet.

[for the Saucinator]

Comments

[constellates.livejournal.com]

When Spock asked her where to find them, Alkaid was happy to answer. "Patient Possessions, natch! It's on the second floor in the far east hall, if, uhh.." She gestured to the cafeteria with her forefinger. "Supposing that this is north, I guess." Hey, the free flow of information was always a good thing.

Really, she just wanted to talk to get some stuff out of her head. Like people getting the wrong ideas on the bulletin board. Guys.

She rolled her eyes after Venom barked at her to shut up - though she wasn't facing him, so hopefully he couldn't see it. Who knew what kinda poison she'd somehow find in her food if he did see something like that. She didn't mean to be cruel to him, and she hadn't really meant to step on his buttons - it'd just happened. He didn't have to get his panties in a twist over it! Man! What was it, PMS?

So she decided to keep talking about the second floor instead. "If you ever decide to go, what you find up there might not exactly be the most useful stuff. Nothing... out of the ordinary. Just stuff that our fake selves are supposed to have. Lotsa wallets."

Then, Alkaid's expression darkened. "The monsters are much higher leveled when you get too far away from the patient halls, though."

[dual-worlds.livejournal.com]

Spock would not have immediately guessed that the institute contained items that belonged to the "lives" Landel's had liberally assigned to them all. If what Alkaid was saying was true, then it was logical that they would reflect the era they were supposed to be in -- hence why there were photographs that were supposedly Venom's, even if such a thing would seem strange on the surface. For a moment, he wondered what sorts of possessions they had given "Aidan Penn", and if it looking through them would shed any light concerning why he'd been brought here. It was something to note, at least.

Regardless, it appeared Venom was not in the best of moods. Perhaps seeing the photographs had upset him somehow. Spock was curious, but he deemed it inappropriate to make any related inquiries for the time being.

"When you say 'higher leveled', you are referring to their physical strength?" the half-Vulcan asked instead. "How do such creatures compare to the decaying humanoids we encountered the night before last?"

[poolcuemurder.livejournal.com]

The other two kept talking and Venom kept his mouth shut, opting to listen quietly as they went on about the Patient Possessions room. He was curious; if they had pictures, was there anything else? He was too pessimistic to imagine his cue was somewhere in there, but if they had faked this much, would there be any clues as to why? Why go through all this effort? He knew he wasn't insane (or maybe he was, but not to the point of having created his entire life in his head) and they couldn't convince him of that.

Besides, he wouldn't have even thought of that room until Alkaid went through everything and just happened to find his box. There wasn't a point to do so much to accomplish nothing. And he could have asked her if there was anything else in there, but...

In the middle of this thought, Alkaid opened her mouth and showed her ignorance yet again, reminding him why he wouldn't want to ask. Higher leveled...? He finally looked up at her instead of staring uselessly at his journal (he wanted to open it. He wanted to look at what lies they constructed about him, about Master Zato and that bitch, but knowing Alkaid...), tilting his head at her. This wasn't a game! Didn't she know that? From her condition, maybe not.

He just held his tongue for now, shaking his head at her words. Spock could handle her; Venom wasn't in the mood to.

[constellates.livejournal.com]

Alkaid thought about the baddies she'd encountered on the second floor so far. Well, there was the thing last night... but there was also the vampire from - how long? - a week and a half ago? And he'd just looked like a normal human.

"Well.. mostly higher strength. Those zombies went down faster than any of the other monsters I've seen here," Alkaid explained. "Anything's stronger than them. But no, we're talkin'... really strong. To top it off, my bat didn't seem to hurt it at all, but it might just be strong versus blunt weapons. There are monsters like that in my game, too. I gotta find something edged."

She knew Spock would know what she was talking about when she said 'the game,' but Venom wouldn't. Oh well - he'd probably just call her crazy anyway.

Alkaid looked over at Venom, who looked to be stewing in his seat. She was kind of sorry for what she'd said about a guy who'd ended up dead, but it was hard to let on more than she already had without looking like a huge blubbering failure. So she'd keep her mouth shut. For now, anyway.