damned_institute | DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

Kenshin was exhausted, physically and emotionally. His only consolation (which offered him no comfort whatsoever) was that Yuffie's "condition" was not an isolated phenomenon. Whatever was happening to the patients here, it was fairly widespread. He was just grateful it hadn't yet touched Kaoru or himself.

But how did they have until it did?

With a frustrated sigh, the rurouni collapsed onto a couch in the Sun Room, trying (in vain) to get his thoughts in order. He just had to hope that this--whatever it was--would pass eventually, leaving all of the "changed" patients back to their old selves. The last time he'd seen both Sanosuke and Yahiko before they'd disappeared, they had both been decidedly themselves. Kenshin could only pray that this didn't mean that Yuffie--or any of the others--would and up vanishing.

A faint mewing tore him from his thoughts, and the rurouni looked down to see a kitten winding itself around his legs. Absently, he picked it up and started to play with it. It was certainly a good diversion from his troubled thoughts.

[For "Yuuko"]

Edited 2009-11-08 00:54 (UTC)

Well, Asch had mostly taken the news pretty well, all things considered. It was probably hard to find out your friend was sane again while you were still crazy. Poor guy.

Tanaka, on the other hand, might be a different story, and honestly Max was a little worried. They'd been the last two sharing the same delusion since Caleb had left and Fwiffo and Talana had disappeared (probably released, although he'd never found out for sure). Tanaka probably wouldn't be happy about being left behind by Max either.

Well, it wasn't like he'd exactly wanted to wake up in the first place. He'd rather be ZEX than Max, but he didn't really have a choice now. Not unless he had another breakdown or something. Hopefully they could just talk things over reasonably like adults and it'd all work out fine.

Even so, Max played with his fingers a bit nervously as he left the cafeteria. Probably nothing would happen, probably...

He started when he caught sight of Tanaka, then laughed nervously in an effort to cover it up. No need for him to get jumpy or anything, nothing was going to happen. "Ah, sorry, you startled me a little."

[unknowingly waiting for Sechs]

Normally, Harley didn't pay attention to most of what was going on around her. Not that she was dumb, she just didn't care about whatever most people considered important. But even she was able to tell something funny was going on around here with the people. Everyone was so serious today; melancholy and lifeless sacks of flesh, like the kind of stuff you find outside. People tended to be grumpy or angry or mopey here, no doubt about that, but this was... different. She didn't like it. In fact, it was making her really uncomfortable.

There were only a few places in the whole entire world she felt she could be really 'at home,' and that was either with the boss or in an asylum. Both had their ups and downs but they still felt real to her. Today things were feeling... fake and far away. Like a dream. That sensation was getting to her. Where was the life in here? Why did it go away?

She plopped herself down into one of the couches, fidgeting and looking around the room restlessly. Behind closed lips, she was gritting her teeth. This was ridiculous. She might do something desperate if the rest of the day went this way. And she'd rather get a needle in her arm than put up with this. (Okay, not really, but it was close.)

[closed to Rey]

Junpei headed from his interesting meeting with Sho into the Sun Room. A quick look around showed him no short blonde vampires, so he let out a long breath and then wandered to the bulletin board. After a moment of reading over the notes, he pouted. No one other than that anonymous dud had responded to his call for mobile suit pilots. Rey didn't count since Junpei already knew him.

This totally blew. How was he going to learn more and get better insight into where the suits might be if the other pilots didn't talk to him?

Turning back to the rest of the room, Junpei fiddled with the collar of his shirt, pulling it up a bit more in an attempt to hide the bandage on his neck. Stupid vampire. Well, maybe he could will a pilot to present himself.

[closed to 'Violet']

Sheena left the cafeteria in a hurry. She didn't understand what was going on with Raine and was way too upset to deal with anything. She quickly ducked into the bathroom and splashed some water on her face, wincing a bit at the stinging sensation that accompanied it thanks to the slashes on her face. At least when she blotted the wetness away, she didn't really look like she'd been crying. Her eyes were still a tinge red and someone really perceptive might pick up on that, but she looked better. More composed. At least she was keeping the freakout internal for the moment. Something terrible had happened to Raine and Sheena didn't know what to do about it.

Leaving the bathroom, the ninja decided to avoid the library as clearly Raine would head there, even as Jeanne. Besides, Sheena needed to put things in motion to keep her friend safe tonight when the doors unlocked if that didn't knock Raine back into being herself. With the new restrictions, it took a bit, but then ninja posted a note (http://community.livejournal.com/damned_bulletin/594379.html) for Harley, hoping hr friend was still who she normally was. Hell, Sheena would be okay if Harley had to tie Raine up to keep her from wandering out come nighttime before the ninja got there.

Sheena felt a tiny bit better having done that. She still had no idea what to think about the whole thing. She couldn't believe Raine refused to acknowledge Iselia. Sheena wasn't even from the small Sylvarant town, but she knew how much it meant to Raine. To call it a figment of her imagination...

The ninja wrapped her arms around herself and bit her bottom lip. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she wanted comfort. She wanted something familiar. She wanted something that would make her feel...

She wanted her youkai.

Cats. There were cats all over the sun room. Heath stared at all the bundles of fur for a while, wondering how he'd managed to walk through the area as many times as he had without noticing this. Sam would have thought it was adorable.

Despite the large breakfast he'd had, his stomach still felt empty. All he could do for now was ignore it. First chance he got he was going to have to approach one of the doctors about it - definitely not something he was looking forward to, but otherwise he'd just suffer further for his stubbornness.

He walked slowly over to an empty sofa and flopped down on it so that his face was buried into a throw pillow. For now, he was just going to tune out the rest of the world and hopefully get some sleep while he was at it. Maybe he wouldn't dream of demons for once.

[free]

Edited 2009-11-08 04:39 (UTC)

Sokka had thankfully been allowed to spend some extra time in his room before he'd been forced into greeting the day. It might have been because he'd asked his nurse why someone had lit her on fire, but he wasn't going to argue with the extra time to feel better. After last night.... what had happened last night? He felt like he'd eaten that cactus from back in the Earth Kingdom, only this time he'd felt more sick than loopy. He remembered being in the office, but after that? Nadda.

The Sun Room spun a bit as he was led in and his nurse was nice enough to get him to a couch before he could fail to get there on his own. As she left, he gave a floppy wave after. "Bye nurse-lady," he drawled with a grin on his face.

When Anise woke up, she could feel tears in her eyes. She felt like she just had a bad dream, but she couldn't remember it. She only wished she could say the same for the waking nightmare she went through last night.

Guy was dead. Through her hellish stay at Landel's, the one person who had always been there for her... was gone. Anise didn't know what to think. It just didn't seem real. Her wound from that night had vanished too, without leaving so much as a light scar. It really was like it never happened... but the memory was much too fresh, and too painful, for Anise to believe that for even a second.

The girl wiped the tears from her eyes, and like she did every morning, she shoved her nightshift gear into the usual hiding places. Her hands trembled as she did. The pointed shard she brought in case she needed to use it against Sync... The time of need had come and gone, and she never once reached for it. Even when Sync had his hands around her throat, she didn't have the resolve to try to kill him. Maybe if she hadn't been so reluctant, it wouldn't have come to this...

Anise wrapped her arms around her body and held them there for a minute, waiting for the shaking to stop. The sound of the Head Doctor's voice on the intercom didn't help. That bastard... After everything he did, he was already back to his despicable, cheery act! Anise wanted to kill him more than ever.

"Oh Dolores, you're awake now?"

Anise bristled at the sound of the nurse's voice. She clutched Tokunaga close to her chest, hoping to get some comfort from it. She wasn't in the mood for playing along with the Institute's games today. Really, she wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone. Without a word, she just regarded the woman with a wary look.

"How did you sleep?" The nurse inquired with a concerned look. "You were tossing and turning when I came to get you earlier this morning..." Did that mean she missed breakfast? That was fine with her. Anise didn't feel like eating.

"...I'm fine," she muttered, not looking at the woman.

The nurse didn't look satisfied with that answer, but she didn't push the subject. Instead, she smiled gently at the girl. "Everyone's going to the library now. Do you want to come? Or would you rather go to the Sun Room?"

"I don't want to go anywhere."

This made the woman pause, but it did nothing to dim her smile. "Oh, don't be like that. You can't stay cooped up in your room all day, can you? Come on." Anise could have fought against the nurse's gentle nudging, but she didn't have the strength for it. With the woman's hand on her shoulder, she was guided out of her room, through the halls, and to the Sun Room. Once there, she shrugged the hand away and retreated to a corner in the room, finding a couch that faced the wall.

Still gripping Tokunaga tightly against her chest, the girl curled up on one side of the couch. She wasn't crying anymore, but she didn't know if she could face anyone without starting again.

[for Claude]

Instinct told Hokuto not to press Senna too hard right now, which was a big part of why she was more confused after the conversation ended. Was that her evil twin or something? It'd make about as much sense as anything else!

She did have one idea, though--check Senna's spirit threads. Obviously she couldn't do it herself, but she knew who'd be willing to.

[[For the littlest vice-captain.]]

When the nurse asked him if he wanted to go to the library or "sun room", Lance chose the latter. He'd never really been much of a reader. Only things he ever read were car magazines, the newspaper, and once in a while he would dig out some old Playboys he kept in his closet. He'd only been in a library once, at an old girlfriend's insistance, and immediatly found it boring.

First thing Lance did was go look at that bulletin board. He'd stopped by this room on the way to breakfast and had looked at the board. He figured it might give him a clue as to what was going on. Lance had ended up replying to some post asking who was "feeling sane" today. Checking in on the message, it looked like he'd gotten a reply. Lance ended up having a conversation with the message-poster, some guy named Stefan, through the board. Kind of like an IM conversation, only on paper and with the time of replies further apart.

However, what Lance soon learned through these replies was... stunning. That Stefan guy had confirmed the nurse's statement that he had... that multiple personality condition. Stefan had even met his other self, this Lockdown.

Lance needed time to think, to absorb all this. He laid down on a couch, one in the shade, and stared at the ceiling. Was it really true? Was he really crazy? Did he really have another personality in his head? Or was this all just a dream, and any minute he would wake up?

[FREE. Acquaintances and canonmates would be appreciated]

...that had been really hard for Rose. Maybe if she prayed real hard, God would let her try that conversation with Kagura again, this time without hurting her. Predictably, God didn't answer her prayers, just like he'd never done before. That was why she'd had to take matters into her own hands.

As Rose sat down on an empty couch, she stared at her hands. She'd shed blood with these hands many times. Even as she was now, she believed she killed that woman. At least she was pretty sure. People usually didn't get back up after ending up at the bottom of an escalator. Even so, that didn't excuse her from hurting Kagura. And her friend had been so understanding. That's what hurt the most.

Laying on her stomach, Rose pillowed her head with her arms and closed her eyes. She needed to stay calm. Remember that feeling. Remember that feeling.

[closed to the girlfriend]

Breakfast had passed quietly, which had given Javert time enough to mull over the events of the previous night in his head. Of all the patients he'd been expecting to be taken, his erstwhile roommate hadn't been among the first. While he felt no sympathy and no regret for the fact that von Karma had been taken, the event still plagued his thoughts.

He requested to be taken to the Sun Room--he had no time for books that offered no information concerning his whereabouts--and seated himself, journal and pen out as usual, before returning to his thoughts. In all but one of the experimental cases he'd learned about, the patient had received some sort of supernatural power. The last thing he or anyone else here needed was a man like von Karma with ridiculous abilities to further his lies.

And then there was the matter of the patients here. From the look of things, some of them had given into their real lives at last. Javert doubted it was entirely voluntary; a pattern like this one was far too suspicious. He'd been here for nearly a month now and nothing of the sort had ever occurred before. And the last week had been anything but normal (if, indeed, anything could pass for normal in a place like this). He only hoped none of his contacts had succumbed to it.

A faint weight on his lap distracted him from his thoughts: a black and white cat had clambered into his lap, arranged itself on top of his journal, and was now staring at him with something approximating hopefulness. Javert almost deposited it onto the floor before remembering that he was under the watchful eye of his nurse, and Philip Hunt had been showing such improvement lately. Grudgingly, he scratched it behind the ears. He had never particularly liked cats.

Nutritional needs deftly dealt with, Sho headed out into the Sun Room. Hearing about whatever weird experiments the higher ups were up to left him restless and wishing he could be the one reiterating the values of others and modifying their data to satisfy his curiosity. Unable to access this particular option, he settled for scanning the bulletin as his hands hastily folded and unfolded pieces of paper into polygons and polyhedrons.

So, some of the sick were feeling sicker? Sounded like a case of malfunctioning identity matrices.

[Free]

Minato turned away from the bulletin board after scanning it one last time, glancing at the nurses around through his hair. All of the notes about delusions and being sane were worrying, and he felt the need to get someone else’s thoughts on the matter; this was only his third day in the institute and the discomforts of the situation made themselves more and more apparent with each passing day.

He settled on a couch closer to the music room, hoping to hear something from there to distract him from the rest of the chatter going on. The amount of patients in the room made it harder to eavesdrop, to the point where it was more distracting than helpful to listen.

A mewling sound made him avert his eyes from the glass ceiling to the ground. One of the cats in the room had wandered over, looking at him briefly before brushing against his legs. The boy quietly leaned forward, scratching the cat’s ears as it continued its display.

Maybe it could tell just how troubled he was by these rumors.

[For Yukari]

[Prosecuting Princess!]

Rude had spent breakfast intimidating some kid, on purpose and by accident. Happened sometimes. Anyway, nothing useful had come from it except that he knew some little girl/boy had good reflexes.

Whatever. He was gonna keep an eye on Loz when and where he could (you know, without making an effort) and think more about any plans there. Probably it'd be nothing, but if he could get the guy doing stuff for them instead of getting in the way? Why the hell not.

Rude had already had his after-food nap at Breakfast. Now it was time for...work. And he wasn't even getting paid. There just....wasn't anything else to do.

Okay, so things were still on shaky ground between Matt and him, but at least he'd agreed to talk it over. It was still a step in the right direction, although he was pretty sure Matt was gonna bitch him out and make all these retarded demands like stop drinking and stop sleeping around while he was at it, as if he wasn't a big boy with his own job and car and by the way, Matt wasn't Mom. He'd just have to take it: at least Matt was talking to him at all. Rick couldn't help feeling like he'd stepped over a hurdle and he was in a pretty good mood - the morning wood was dying down a little too, thank God - as he hit up the Sun Room.

It was weird, actually, 'cause he could still remember some of what the last week had been like before he woke up with a woodie and a real clear head. Rick wasn't sure how much of it had actually happened, how much of it he'd tripped out on; for starters, there was no way he was just walking around the halls at night, and yet he could still remember some stuff, like talking with Matt, doing things with him, hugging him once, and it was kinda messed up that he was closer to him in some delusion than he was in real life, even if "Sam" was kind of a fruity name (seriously, "Sammy"?). Now he wasn't proud of stabbing himself and putting his family through all of that, but Rick wasn't stupid, and he didn't think he needed anything more than a GED to be able to come to a conclusion. The delusion, all that stuff he'd thought he'd gone through, it did have a good point. Being brothers again with Matt? He wanted that and while he wasn't gonna go spouting to Hello Nurse that being nuts made him see the light, he was gonna try to make things better if he could.

Although he had to admit, it sounded pretty badass on paper to be traveling around the country hunting evil. Sure put "mechanic for eight years" to shame. Although he had no idea why he'd been flipping out over Alexander showing up - the guy was a way out, a real ticket, and he was pretty sure when his year was up, Matt would actually be proud of him for a change and not just sneaking glares at him while he posted his bail again. Okay, maybe he wouldn't quit drinking, but he could drink a little less. And maybe actually let someone be designated driver instead of insisting on driving his own ass home all the time.

It wouldn't kill him to do that.

Rick settled for lounging back in one of the couches, slouching as he got comfy and leaned his head back, just closed his eyes, chilling out and letting today's totally awesome breakfast digest. He cracked open an eye when he realized something was sitting on him, and got treated to the sight of one of the cats, a tortie with a crooked nicked ear, curling up on him like he was just another piece of furniture. Its tail flicked, and he could've swore it knew he was debating shoving it off when it gave him a don't even think about it pal look before lazily closing its eyes.

That smug sonuvabitch.

Fine, whatever, plenty of space for the two of them. Rick shut his eyes again and just basked in a day where there weren't imaginary monsters gunning for him and the worst thought he had was hoping that damn cat was house-trained.

[Dean gets ousted by the cat to here]

Edited 2009-11-10 00:34 (UTC)

Aaron left the cafeteria as quickly as he could, beating out the tension in his muscles with every heavy step he took towards the Sun Room. He'd never been a reader and anyway, how the fuck was he supposed to focus on something like that now, anyway? It occurred to him that his teeth were still gritted and his hands still clenched, but also that he refused to let himself relax either of them. Damn it, Peter!

But then, what did it matter, anyway? He wasn't going to have anything else to do with any of them. Oh, no, he'd learned that lesson already.

Well, whatever. He threw himself down on a sofa with a soft thwump, sprawling across it so that his legs dangled off of the arms haphazardly and his fingertips trailed patterns along the floor. Slowly, he let himself calm down, and the release was almost euphoric. God, he was tired. The room was quiet enough that, with his eyes closed, he could retreat into the calm darkness of his own head. Hell, he could almost pretend that he wasn't here. Almost.

Endrance's nurse led him into the Sun Room - he really didn't feel like the library, as much as he might normally have appreciated the relative quiet. He settled on an open couch, and right on cue, the Mia-lookalike cat jumped up next to him and into his lap. "You..." he murmured softly, before petting her behind the ears; she curled up into a ball and purred contently.

Haseo...what happened? I still don't understand, I just know that you're hurting and you're afraid and you don't want anyone to know any of that. And...what do you mean, about the Key of the Twilight? Aura was...wait. How could you know that...?

[for Tsukasa.]

Hiro had gone from breakfast and argued with his nurse some more before being told he could go to the Library or Sun Room. He watched Jordan go to the Library and then checked the Bulletin. Several minutes later, he'd pushed away another of 'Soubi's' friends and was in an even worse mood.

Forcing himself to stay away from that stupid brat, he found a seat and opened up the book that had been in his room. The one....Jordan picked out. The one with a candid photo of Jordan being used as a bookmark.

What the hell was wrong with him? Why was 'Soubi' like this? Was Hiro connected to him through that? Through those people he touched and let touch him. Through a child? No, Soubi was the sick one. And Hiro was not Soubi.

And he didn't want to be. He didn't need those people. He didn't need anybody. He had Ritsuo. Maybe. Ryu at the very least. Maybe things had changed now, maybe it was safe...

Hiro found himself with his head in his hands again, the photo tucked in the back of the book. He couldn't bring himself to tear it up just yet. He ought to though.

[Kio~!]

Breakfast had been more than a little worrying. Alita, no... Rose's behavior was different, that was for sure. She didn't talk the same or act the same and while Rose was still nice, there was definitely something amiss.

When Breakfast was finished though, Kagura obediently followed her nurse into the Sun Room. While the Library was quiet, she did keep meaning to look at the bulletin more often. Maybe this would be her chance.

She looked over the notes here and there, but it seemed like there was a lot less than usual. Was it just a slow day? Or was there something going on? Had more patients gone home? She could never completely rid herself of the uneasy feeling she had in this place, but that didn't mean it couldn't grow when things got worse. Kagura sighed and kept skimming over the notes.

[Closed to Reno]

He'd startled slightly when Aiden returned, clattering a tray in front of him and demanding he eat, but after sitting in silence for a moment, the other man had retreated, leaving him alone as requested. While his body told him he was hungry, it was hard to comply. In the end, he took a few bites and pushed it away, preferring to sit with his head down.

The shift ended all too soon and the nurse came by to see if he was feeling alright. While she gave him some painkillers for the stitches, she offered little else. He followed her into the next room and found a couch to occupy. Luckily, there were few faces he recognized, so he could at least pretend to nap while he tried to sort things out.

The last tie had been cut, hadn't it? There was no reason to feel guilty or attached to his other life. Whatever he'd been before, maybe this place wasn't so bad for trying to give him a new start, even if it wasn't a conventional way. There was still a chance of saving Aaron after all.

[Free for threading. Limit: # 2]

Euphemia curled up on one of the sofas - she'd asked to go back to her room, but the nurse refused. So, this was the best she could do. She didn't feel social at all, and that was just completely unlike her. She wanted to be alone - but one of the cats roaming the room decided she didn't need that. The small calico kitten mewed and jumped up next to her, cuddling into her chest. She smiled weakly at the cat, scratching behind its ears.

[fkdjdkj sorry this is so late, Meche.]

Telling off Lugnut had been...surprisingly anticlimactic. He'd expected some big humorous explosion and all he'd gotten was a vague feeling of guilt. The guy obviously had it pretty bad, whatever he had, and Joshua couldn't help hoping he found a new robot friend to hang out with. Maybe Depth Charge.

He found himself a spare couch and stretched out, hands folding up behind his head. But he really did need to separate himself from people like him, crazy people, controlling people.

Joshua closed his eyes and tried to remember all those little pamphlets Levi kept leaving in his locker. Stuff about removing yourself from areas and people associated with the addiction (or the crazy), not associating it with good things, finding replacement habits, support networks--not likely to find a support network anywhere around here, everyone but the nurses seemed to be just fine with their little delusions. And he wasn't much fond of the nurses either, they kept talking down to everyone and now they were censoring the bulletin board of all places. It didn't seem to make sense.

Still. He needed to think about him now, not what everyone else thought of him or what he needed to do to play with the cool kids. Just himself and getting better. Everything else would come later.

[Free? I think?]

Lugnut hadn't eaten a thing.

Everything was all wrong. Blitzwing was gone, Lord Megatron was gone, Scourge had deserted, Depth Charge was gone... he was, for all intents and purposes, alone, without hope of escape or rescue, doomed to this place for the rest of his short organic existence.

It had taken two nurses to shift him away from his untouched plate, leading him to a couch and depositing him to stare blank-eyed into space.

He had never been alone before.

There had always been someone within reach-- his wingmate, his consort, his liege-- someone loyal or reliable or useful, someone for him to help, or to help him.

Against his will, his body began to tremble.

[Free to a good home.]

[for Dean]

Suzaku had never hated the nurses as much as when they separated him from Euphie. She needed him now, for God's sake, couldn't they see that? On the other hand, he did need a minute to sit by himself and try to stop shaking. That was one conversation he had never, ever wanted to have, and he still couldn't believe he'd had to tell her.

As much as he wanted to blame Rolo for it, however, he knew he couldn't. To Rolo, she was just the Massacre Princess, and he couldn't know better. He was only a kid, anyway. It was Suzaku's responsibility to protect her, and that's what he should have been doing, instead of moping around because his life was difficult.

And now he would have to tell Lelouch, who wouldn't take the news well, either. At least they were planning to talk at lunch, so he had some time to collapse onto a sofa and try to calm himself down.

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