damned_institute | Day 45: Breakfast

Mori woke with a start. He lay on the bed for a moment, staring up at the ceiling and sighed quietly. Another day, another round of shifts and people and-- Wait a minute. Breathing in carefully, Mori's brow knit together as he realized that his ribs were no longer broken. After testing his collarbone, he found that it, too, was healing faster than it should have. Not that he was complaining, but there was something odd about broken bones setting so quickly. Pushing himself up out of bed, the teen shook his head, knowing that he'd have another day or two of the sling and then he'd be free from it.

But more important than that was finding out how Mitsukuni was doing. The last thing he remembered was the bathroom and gathering metal. Since they were together at the end of the night, Mori was certain that Mitsukuni would be fine, but...well, he still liked to confirm such things with his own eyes. With the twins gone and Tamaki still missing, Mori didn't want to take any chances anymore. Especially not with the strange announcements this morning.

As usual, his nurse came to collect him and helped him into his sling. Then he followed her quietly into the cafeteria, taking notice of the unusually empty bulletin board. They really were cracking down on it already. Weird. Even weirder? For once, he was the first into the room. Picking up a tray, he pointed out what he wanted, making sure to take double of the pancakes (asking to keep them away from the sausages for now), double of the strawberry jam and biscuits, and an extra helping of fruit. To top it off? Milk. It'd help his bones mend. Hopefully.

Going to a nearby seat, Mori took a look around the empty room and shivered. Kind of eerie in here without anyone else but the nurses. Someone was certain to come sooner or later though, right? He hoped so at least.

[for Chihaya]

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"I was just thinking about this entire situation not making any sense," the Scarecrow said before finishing off his drink. He rubbed his neck with his hand, that scratchy feeling in his windpipe irritating his throat.

"It seems like all us who weren't human before coming here have been made human," he continued, "Or enchanted into human bodies somehow. I've met a surprising number of people in that situation. Rumor is that our original forms are somewhere on the third floor, though I've yet to find a way up there. I'm not going to stop trying, though!"

Abe hadn't known there was a third floor, the steps he'd found only went up to the second. "Has anyone ever seen them, or is it just a theory being passed around?"

Some of the bodies, such as those of the robots, seemed too large to house in an otherwise normal building without attracting attention. Of course that did include the assumption that this was an otherwise normal building.

"It's a theory," he answered. "I've not met anyone who has actually made it up there. I've tried a couple of times myself, but there's this hall on the second floor that's nothing but trouble!"

He shook his head thinking about that hallway. "If only there was some way to skip that second floor entirely. I don't think scaling the wall from the outside sounds very practical, though."

"I made it up to the second floor last night, but we were interrupted by a strange child in a gas mask and couldn't go any further."

Abe began jamming his second slice of biscuit. "Going up by the walls isn't the most unreasonable thought in the world, but the birds concern me. I..." Abe's lips pursed as he tried to find a way of approaching the subject with clinical delicacy. "I think I would have a problem with them."

"Not a fan of birds, huh?" the Scarecrow asked with a grin. "I've not met the birds here, but if I'm not sure I'd be worth anything against them, either. Not without my brains, at least." Oh, how useless he felt without them sometimes!

"Maybe there's a way the birds could be distracted, if they can't be frightened away?" he suggested. "Even if they weren't there, I'm not sure how we'd even climb the walls. They look fairly smooth, and it's not like we can fly up there."

Oh dear. "I had a look at Mr. Edgeworth's list, before the nurses removed it. The birds seem to be monstrous falcons or eagles of some kind, I doubt they'll be distracted by anything besides another source of food. And they, ah..." Abe moved his hands in confused circles, then finally realized that the chances of the Scarecrow being eagle-immune were minimal and probably not worth even talking about.

"We might be able to get some ropes or other support. But if we're climbing we might as well just try blowing up the ceiling and climbing through there."

"That would be one way to avoid the birds, I suppose," the Scarecrow said, picturing in his mind's eye the dangerous task of making a hole in the ceiling somehow. With all the rubble falling and witches about, it didn't seem very practical either- the noise would surely attract worse things inside the building than whatever birds could be outside.

He blinked, an idea forming in his mind.

"I wonder if there'd be some way to get all us folks who weren't originally like this together, to get us on the same page," he said quietly. "If we put our heads together, we'd surely succeed. I was thinking that making a hole in the ceiling might alert whatever it is that lurks around upstairs. Maybe if we had some folks designated to make the hole, and others to protect them while they were doing it?"

"With the recent censorship getting even a small group organized is going to be very hard," Abe mused. "Perhaps I can speak with the Evil Club about it, I know some of the members used to inhabit other bodies as well."

The Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "The Evil Club? That sounds... friendly." And he thought the Munchkins had some silly guild names. A name like that made it sound like a group of bad guys. Abe didn't come across as one of those sorts in the least.

"I know I'd appreciate it if you could speak with your friends about it," he continued. "I'll ask my roommate about it, as well. He's one who wasn't originally human, as well."

Abe hurried to correct the Scarecrow's mistake. "We're really not evil, it's just a name someone came up with. A little joke, you know? They're very friendly people." A little too friendly, actually. Still, sexual tension aside they seemed to be dedicated and very interested in the destruction of this place with as few casualties as possible.

"Clever, too. I believe they have some skill with explosives."

Day 45: Breakfast

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