damned_institute | DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

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DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

There was something fishy going on in the Institute today. All over the bulletin board, people were talking about having "woken up", having been "cured"... and it seemed as though ZEX was one of them. Tanaka wouldn't have recognized the note at all if it hadn't been signed - his wording, his handwriting, even his name had changed - and a part of him still wondered if it had been an imposter, trying to pull the wool over the Captain's allies.

But it'd be easy enough to find out the truth. Whoever it was had agreed to meet him, and Tanaka was waiting for him just outside the cafeteria doors, ready to catch him as he came from breakfast. If "Max" was an imposter, then he'd discover the identity of a hidden enemy. And if he was really ZEX...

...well, he'd have a whole new set of things to worry about.

[for a ~~spoiled rich brat~~ brainwashed Admiral]

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Suzaku blinked up at Dean in surprise. That was a little -- well, it seemed like a lot of people had stranger things than possession happening in their own worlds. And if a terrible power like Geass could be real, why not demons? Was that what he and Sam had been hiding? Maybe it was even why they'd been trained to fight, though Suzaku wasn't sure you could punch a demon.

And yet, something didn't add up. Dean seemed convinced he'd been not only wrong, but stupidly delusional about it. Why would he suddenly reject something he and his brother had obviously been making a serious attempt to hide until now? Not to mention that he was still using a lame alias, so he couldn't be telling the truth even now. It made no sense, and Suzaku didn't have the energy to try to figure it out. Maybe he'd just report it to Lelouch later and make him do the thinking.

"So, how did you realize you were wrong?" he asked, playing along for now. He shouldn't, he really, really shouldn't. But he couldn't help being curious, and Dean was the one to come over and talk to him. Not to mention that Suzaku couldn't very well move, not without dislodging a cat who would probably gnaw off his flesh in revenge. So he was stuck here making conversation, and as long as he sounded no more than politely interested. . .

I woke up with a woodie was probably not the right way to go about that question, even if it was the truth.

Rick leaned back against the couch, propping his chin up with one hand as he shrugged lazily at Suzaku. "Woke up more clear-headed today, guess the medication they give actually works after a point."

Yeah, it'd felt like forever since he'd woke up here (maybe he'd been sedated for his first day), but looking back on it, it wasn't even that long. A week? A little over a week? Wasn't that pretty fast to be making steps forward like this? Gazing at Suzaku, he wondered if he'd gone through the same thing already; it was hard to tell when he seemed like a pretty normal, if well-behaved kid (and the kids he knew back home could be real punks, too), and he definitely wasn't foaming-at-the-moth crazy. Maybe he had, and Rick was just late to the party, he didn't know. He couldn't help wondering what Suzaku was in for. The kid looked like he belonged on some high school debate team or messing around with soccer or something.

Probably wasn't his business but hey, he was curious.

"So what about you? I told you I was scared shitless of Casper."

Although maybe that wasn't quite the word when he'd apparently made the jump from scared to just psycho and thought trying to hunt these imaginary things was the best way to deal with his issues.

Ah. . . what? Suzaku had been under the impression that the entire mental hospital thing was a farce. Could there really be a legitimate operation going on here? But that was impossible, they couldn't be legitimate if they were abandoning patients to monsters every night. Abandoning them to just the kind of thing Dean had been afraid of. . .

This was starting to make a little more sense, in a more alarming way than Suzaku had originally anticipated. He could be wrong, but it was starting to sound like the doctors had done something to Dean. Something along the lines of those nighttime experiments, maybe, or maybe it was a different treatment under the guise of regular counseling. Whatever it was, he seemed to be believing the Institute's lies.

Well, it wasn't Suzaku's job to fix it. He wasn't supposed to be getting involved with the Winchesters anymore, so he would have to leave this mess to Sam. He couldn't help being worried, however, so maybe he could fish around for a bit more information.

"When did they give you medication? I don't think they've given me any." Some fake mental hospital, honestly. They could at least try. He wasn't sure what Dean wanted to know about him, either, but it was probably something along the lines of what he'd been "imagining." "I haven't woken up with any new realizations yet. And anything I'm paranoid about is real, unfortunately." He smiled thinly. "Sorry."

Y'know, that was a good question.

"Come to think of it, I don't actually remember when they gave it to us," Rick said, frowning as he chewed that one over. Maybe it was in the food? But then again, you think it'd have to be tailored to each person, it wasn't like there was some blanket treatment out there, and while he wasn't some fancy Masters degree waving college graduate, that was really just common sense right there. Okay, probably wasn't in the food, and he didn't particularly remember Hello Nurse actually handing him a cup of pills or Doctor Kisugi saying he'd made leaps and bounds. "Maybe they vent in the laughing gas while we're asleep," Rick snorted. "Either way, I'm not gonna sweat it - figure the faster I get better, faster I can get home."

For a guy who hadn't made as much improvement, you couldn't tell it from Suzaku and the way he talked. Rick wouldn't have believed he was crazy if he wasn't already sitting right across from him, willingly holding Bitchy on his lap, and that was a Matt non-answer right there, wasn't it? Then again, maybe not everyone was willing to talk about what got their ass landed here, so it wasn't like he could fault the guy for shooting him down. Least he was polite about it and not, y'know, a total dick.

"Well, at least if it's real, you got a defense against it," Rick said and then paused. Okay, being Dean had its ups and downs, but when you talked like that, you started sounding like some kinda survivalist and not some garage monkey from Lawrence. "Did you have therapy yet?"

Well, that was enlightening. He didn't even remember them giving him medicine? It wasn't very helpful to Suzaku, because he didn't have a way to pinpoint when they might have messed with Dean's head, but he also just couldn't believe Dean didn't see the logical flaw here. Honestly, if Suzaku could figure it out, anyone could.

"That's kind of suspicious, though, don't you think?" He didn't want Dean to think he was the suspicious one, but if he could just make the man think a little, it might be worth the risk.

Then again, if Dean had had therapy with the doctors, that might have been when they'd brainwashed him, or whatever it was. Suzaku hadn't really heard about therapy specifically, but it made sense for them to do it at some point. "I haven't had therapy, either. Maybe that was where they helped you out?" Fishing, again. If he could get any description of this supposed therapy session, that would be great.

Rick glanced aside at Suzaku. "Jeez, man, you weren't kidding about being paranoid. Look: I doubt they're gonna start slipping us roofies or something, you think someone would've caught on and complained. It's kinda weird...but if I'm getting better, I think I'd like to stick with whatever's working."

It was either that or get stuck here for who knew how long, and Rick would rather he hightail it outta here with Matt in tow. Now that he was a lot more clear-headed about things and he was fairly sure he wasn't gonna bite the big one in a year - fairly sure 'cause if it wasn't imaginary dogs from Hell, it could be something as mundane as a car crash or an accident at work - Rick was determined to make the most of it this time around. He was done pretending like Matty didn't exist and that it was okay to run to college. Things were gonna change and he was gonna be the brother he'd been when he'd been neck deep in the crazy as Dean...just hopefully without any of the other BS that came with it.

"Could be," Rick said, frowning. Honestly, his therapy before with his doctor hadn't been that great, not when he'd been hitting on Kisugi and then there was the whole incident with Doyleton and getting his ass sedated. He was pretty sure that didn't help. Rick fixed a look first on Bitchy, as if making sure the cat was content to sit on Suzaku and stay there, then back up at the kid.

"That was a few days ago though. Maybe you'll feel better once you've had yours," he added, figuring he might as well be optimistic and not Doom and Gloom with the poor kid. He looked way too long to be in a place like this.

Suzaku nodded unhappily. Dean had no idea how much danger he was in, but he wasn't going to want to listen to Suzaku. Why would he, when he thought all that danger was an illusion, and that he'd be getting out of here soon? Of course he'd prefer anything that made him "better," regardless of how suspicious it was. And Suzaku wasn't going to push the issue, because he didn't want to piss Dean off, have him tell Sam, and make Suzaku's own life that much more difficult. It wasn't worth it, not for someone he shouldn't even be talking to.

"I'm glad you feel better," he said finally. "Whatever it is that the doctors did. And yeah, I don't know when I'll have therapy, but. . ."

Suzaku looked around, brow furrowing in thought. Had a lot of other people had therapy here? You'd think they would have a tighter schedule with it, to keep up appearances, but maybe all the technical difficulties or whatever were holding them back. Then again, if it wasn't a common thing, maybe it was something to investigate. Who they picked for it and why, what really went on in that time, etc. "What was it like?"

Rick blinked. "What, therapy?"

Well, he didn't think that had been the cause of his wake-up call. Doctor Kisugi was kind of a bitch, and yeah, he might've been acting out in Doyleton, but he didn't think he needed to be friggen sedated over it - that and wasn't it dangerous to go mixing a drug cocktail with cheap beer? He wasn't gonna look it up, but that was just common sense, like not mixing over-the-counter crap with your booze 'cause that was a surefire way to end up needing your stomach pumped. On one hand, he probably shouldn't go running his mouth off about how much of an ice queen she was, but on the other, if Suzaku ended up getting her, he might as well give the kid some fair warning.

"Gotta be upfront with you; therapy wasn't my thing," Rick said with a shrug, and went on, "I got a doctor who's not exactly personal, y'know, the kind you'd expect to be running around in an ER. Made me feel like I was under a microscope or something even when she was asking me to spill my guts on my feelings."

Suzaku frowned. That was a little weird. Dean hadn't even liked his doctor, but he had gotten better somehow? Suzaku wasn't an expert, but he was pretty sure people with psychiatric disorders didn't just get better. Well, obviously not in this case, because she must have done something to him. Still, it was hard to figure out what that something might have been when Dean didn't remember anything more remarkable than talking to her.

"You'd think they'd try to hire better people," he commented for the sake of replying. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get much else out of Dean, though he could always ask for more details on therapy. Dean was probably under the impression it had just been a typical therapy session, though, and there wasn't much to say about that.

"Did she really just ask you about your feelings? Doesn't seem like that contributed much to you feeling better. Not to say," he added hastily, "that it's not a good thing you're better, even if she didn't do anything."

"Well, she does have some great tits," Rick said absently, almost more to himself than to the kid. Kisugi had a nice ass too, from what he'd been able to check out, but even if she was game for it, he'd have to pass - she seemed like the kinda chick who'd bite you if she got pissed, and he wasn't sure he wanted to see her switch from ice queen to super bitch in a situation like that.

Technically last time, she had done something, even if it was to be a royal skank and get him sedated when he was already drunk - he was just glad he hadn't needed a stomach pump or something, even if everything after that was pretty much just a shot in the dark memory-wise. As far as Rick was concerned, she was a crap therapist; he didn't feel better about himself or his delusions, or even his relationship with Matt, and her having a decent set of boobs and ass weren't really much of a consolation in his opinion. Suzaku was probably right; she hadn't done much, and if anything, she'd probably made his paranoia even worse at the time, especially when he remembered how he somehow twisted around her words in his head to mean a threat against Matt - well, against "Sam", apparently a Matt who wasn't a douche all the time and could get rough and tumble if he had to.

Yeah, sometimes Rick did miss parts of his delusions. Some of it hadn't been that bad.

"She kept bringing up my parents," Rick said, scowling slightly. He wasn't gonna go into detail about that kinda personal stuff to some kid he barely even knew though. "And yeah, she asked about my feelings, but it's like, dude, what am I even gonna say? I don't do this therapy crap. See, whatever they did now? They did it right. Therapy, I'd take it or leave it if I were you."

Suzaku flushed, looking away a little awkwardly. He wasn't used to guys speaking so bluntly about a woman's appearance like that. Not that he hadn't heard it often enough in the army, but it never made him very comfortable. Was it that hard to look -- well, at the very least, a little further up? And preferably not to judge by appearance at all?

He wasn't going to go around criticizing other people for things like that, though, especially not someone who was already a bit confused in the head. And Suzaku didn't know what kind of background Dean had, but it might already be difficult for him to be talking about something personal like therapy. Maybe Suzaku shouldn't have asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's hard to talk about that with a total stranger." Which was ironic, because Suzaku was a total stranger. It wasn't like Dean had been saying anything too revealing, other than the content of his supposed delusions, it was just the principle of the matter. Suzaku was concerned about what had happened to him, but he wanted to respect his privacy as well. "I'm not really looking forward to it, honestly."

He almost missed it, but…was Suzaku actually blushing? Rick almost grinned at that. Aw, wasn’t that cute? Kid was still shy about cooties and boobs. Honestly, he looked a little old not to have done a little bit of experimenting on the side, but some guys were late bloomers, and it wasn’t fair to give him crap over something like that.

“Hey, look on the bright side – it’s like, what, an hour or two of the whole week? Never know, maybe you’ll get someone with a pulse,” Rick said. “Whatever you gotta do to get this over with.”

That was he was gonna treat it, even if he really wasn’t looking forward to his own therapy. Sometimes you just had to jump through some hoops to get to the finish line and sure, he liked the food here, but there was a point where you started getting stir-crazy, bored, and you needed to actually get out and work without having to get told you couldn’t handle big-kid scissors with edges or something. At least that was his take on it, he was sure there were people here who probably wouldn’t mind chilling out here for however long and it wasn’t his business to judge ‘em or not.

Suzaku nodded along, disappointed in himself that he was acting a part yet again. But it would be better just to agree with Dean, to keep their relations smooth, especially because there was no point in upsetting him. If Dean was brainwashed, it wasn't his fault, and Suzaku wouldn't be having much contact with him anyway. Not enough contact to help him, at any rate.

"Yeah, I guess I'll see, whenever it's my turn." There wasn't much else to say, not without crossing the border of "casual acquaintance." So it came as a bit of a relief when the shift changed, and a nurse came to drag Suzaku off to lunch. "See you around," he said, smiling the tiniest bit at Dean. Probably not, actually. He should have just avoided the guy in the first place.

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DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

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