damned_institute | Day 44: Sun Room, Second Shift

[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]

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"That would have been awkward," Endrance agreed. "But yes - if this hadn't happened to me, and if I hadn't seen the same happen, at almost the exact same time, I would have thought myself insane, too." Not that telling people you were from a video game didn't make you seem a bit insane, but there were levels of this kind of thing.

He hummed thoughtfully. "It seems that all of the deaths echoed someone else's. A dear friend of mine died in the same way a friend of his did, and...there are so many other stories like that on the board." Though it was a bit of a surprise realizing that injuries taken before dying remained.

"You weren't caught in that explosion outside, were you?"

"I saw the board," he said, recalling his surprise in finding it, especially considering the sort of messages that were on it. Did the nurses so fully believe that the patients were deluded that they did not even take the messages on that board with a grain of truth? Maps, posts of apology, of searching... and one about vampires, that this one had quickly skipped over. He had tried to offer help to one anonymous poster, but a second was a larger risk. It was bad enough Venom was aware of what he was. "I thought it was interesting that someone was mapping out where the deaths had occurred... my glance at it was cursory, but I couldn't see any relationship among them."

He'd have to go back and look a second time - if the map hadn't been ripped down by now.

With Endrance's last question, Edward nodded. "Yes. The burns were the result of wayward... missiles." Even saying it himself didn't make is sound more believable. The girl (cyborg? weapon?) who had fired them had apologized for it. Apologized. The mere absurdity of that message alone was the one reason he had put any credit into her explanation of "brainwashing". "The patient who used them said they had been brainwashed into attacking others. It seemed a little far-fetched to me, really."

"I didn't see any relationship among them, either...though I don't know if it matters or not. I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter...if people outside the walls could be affected, even though they weren't able to hear any of the strange intercom announcements, then it seems to me that if you were going to be affected, it didn't matter where you were. The patient rooms are supposedly 'safe', but that's where it started for me..."

Endrance sighed just a little, wishing once again that the others hadn't been able to see him. There was nothing to be done about it now, though.

His eyes widened at the words 'wayward missiles'. "What in the world...? I've seen 'brainwashed' patients before, but...nothing like that. I'd sooner believe some kind of spell or attack."

"No," he agreed, "I don't think it mattered where one was either. Though what you said is surprising to me - that patients have gotten outside the walls?" The wall separating that field from what must have been the courtyard wasn't exactly easy to maneuver over (especially when being shot at), but it hadn't been impossible to manage, either. Could the walls surrounding the institute be the same?

But why make escape so simple? Why had most - if not all - of the patients not escaped yet?

It seemed striking up simple conversations with other patients was more a wealth of knowledge than he had previously imagined. "Why are the patient rooms considered safe? I find that particular adjective hard to pin on any place here that I've seen so far."

So it also seemed "brain-washing" patients was a regular occurrence. Did wonders never cease? With every answer, more questions seemed to bubble up. It was completely infuriating.

"Spell?" Magic, he thought with distaste. Edward had not taken a liking to the connotations of the word once he had "heard" what Alice had been through because of the belief in it. Ignoring his skepticism he asked, "Are spells common from where you're from?"

"I'm a bit surprised by the fact as well. What surprises me more is that they were brought back here, though...it seems that just climbing over the wall isn't enough. I suppose they don't want to make it too easy," Endrance replied, sarcasm dripping from the last statement. It was a bit infuriating, once he thought about it.

"I think the reason they're considered safe is that no one's been attacked by any kind of creature while in a patient room...at least to my knowledge." It really was a hard adjective to pin on any room within this place. This room was dangerous at night, the entry room had been changed into the Hulle Granz Cathedral, the chapel upstairs... A shiver went down his spine when he thought about it.

...and there was the rub. The easy answer would be 'yes', but...it was only half-true. There was magic in The World, but...this was the real world. The real world didn't have spells or magic or anything resembling it. In the end, he shrugged his shoulders, unable to answer either way.

The vampire simply nodded, throwing off the other's lack of response. Even seeing what he had during his years, ignoring his apprehension about the subject didn't lead him to easily believing it. Except that this institution has already destroyed several grounds I found to be quite stable.

"The rooms being safe is certainly interesting... but I can see how it would entice patients to stay in their quarters. But it seems sort of counterproductive, seeing as the doors are unlocked during the night. I wonder if that's something Landel cannot control?" From the fragmented message he had heard that morning, it seemed the head doctor wasn't exactly in the best condition... had it always been this way?

It was quite infuriating to have no past experience to draw from. Instead, he could only muse out loud to a complete stranger - who he couldn't even read. Desperate times. "The transformation from night to day caught me by surprise, honestly. I hadn't expected to just... wake up where I began." He hadn't expected to wake up period. "Has that happened every night?"

Day 44: Sun Room, Second Shift

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