damned_institute | Day 45: Intercom, Afternoon

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Day 45: Intercom, Afternoon

"Hm!" The Head Doctor gave a small, thoughtful exclamation just after the intercom jingle came on. "It's only afternoon and yet I'm already feeling a bit tired. I suppose it's because I had such a busy night last night. Some rare occurrences that caused a great deal of paperwork, I can assure you..."

He trailed off, as if realizing he'd let some of his Nighttime fun slip into his Daytime facade. He cleared his throat and continued.

"In any case, it only seems natural that such a well-behaved patient body should be rewarded by some very fun activities in the Game Room, doesn't it? Ha ha ha... Remember that today is a day that should be celebrated, not frowned upon, and those of you who are still struggling should be happy for your fellow patients instead of trying to dissuade their progress.

"But now I'm simply being unfair, aren't I? Yes, yes, we all have to go at our own paces, though I am sure some of you will soon be making your way out of the Institute and perhaps be making some more room for the very new batch of patients that has already begun to join us.

"In any case, I've rambled on for quite long enough, haven't I? Enjoy your fun and I'll be back to speak with you later!"

The intercom clicked off.

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The Starbase had changed a lot in the weeks since the Captain's arrival, but Hayes was damned sure it hadn't changed this much. For his quarters to look like this, all kinds of interior partitions would have had to be taken out, repositioned, and repainted-- overnight, without waking him up-- to produce the boxy blank whiteness associated with Human-made medical facilities.

That or he'd simply been moved. Which made, perhaps, even less sense. Hayes knew every part of the Starbase he commanded and there was no room like this, and he couldn't quite reconcile it with the design of a Cruiser or the Vindicator either. Those were really the only good possibilities, which left him with bad ones.

In which case, it was best to find out more as soon as possible. He swung his legs off the bed, noting in passing that he was now wearing more than the underwear in which he habitually slept. The shirt had a yellow smiley face on it.

Another Human thing, Hayes reflected. I can probably rule out the Hierarchy, unless there are some Androsynth out there with a very strange sense of humor.

He was about to check the nearby drawers when there was a knock at the door, the kind knocked by someone who had no intention of actually waiting for a response. Sure enough, the door opened immediately afterward to admit an unfamiliar young man in what appeared to be an old-fashioned nurse's outfit. This was just getting weirder and weirder.

"What's going on?" Hayes demanded. Better to take the initiative right away than wait and let his captor, if that was what he was, control the conversation. "Why am I not on the Starbase?"

The faintly bored expression of the nurse turned annoyed at the first question, then softened into a kind of frustrated pity. "Not again," he muttered. "Mr. Abrams, you're not on the Starbase because there's no Starbase. Don't you remember?"

Hayes' eyes darted around the room just in case there might be someone else around, but it seemed that by "Abrams" the nurse meant him. "I remember the Starbase perfectly well," he said firmly, "that my name is Daniel Hayes-- though from you I think I'd prefer Commander Hayes-- and that I was not in this room when I last fell asleep. I'd like an explanation."

Pity creased the nurse's face again, to Hayes' annoyance. "You've forgotten again. I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Abrams. This is Landel's Institute, and you're here to get help for that."

[Next: here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/751611.html?thread=61624315#t61624315)]

Usopp jerked awake, as though he'd been running in his sleep. The last things he remembered were Kuma--there had been two of them, right? Two Kumas, or one who wasn't the real one, but it shot beams out of its mouth, which would have been really cool if it weren't for the looming death aspect and all.

And Kuma tapping people so they disappeared. Nami'd shouted something about that Ghost Princess disappearing like this, and he'd been grabbing Sanji, trying to run, the way Luffy was screaming at them to do. Splitting up would have been the best strategy if they'd actually had time... and hadn't kept stopping to help each other at it, maybe.

Brook had gotten in the way while he and Sanji both been slowed down. He'd even been halfway through a skull joke when Kuma got him. Sanji had gone crazy after that, then been flung aside, and Kuma'd come right after Usopp.

He vaguely heard a voice over an intercom, and tried to make some more sense of what happened. This had all started when they'd tried to rescue Camie... right? Somehow it had escalated to a war between pirates and legendary first mates and Marine Admirals and Kuma and that not-Kuma lookalike and generally a massive riot. The sudden quiet and the feeling of a bed under him were as jarring as the fight itself had been, or the bizarre sensation of Kuma's power. For a second Usopp had almost felt as if he were flying, but...

Well, that part was probably just a dream. In fact, maybe the whole thing had been a terrible, terrible dream and they were all safe and sound back at whatever-this-was. Disturbingly blank and white hospital land.

Except that implied they needed a hospital, which still was pretty bad, although not as bad as what he'd just woken up from. He felt okay, in fact, better than he had in the dream itself. That didn't reassure him, since it meant someone else could have needed the hospital...

"Oh, good, you're awake, Mr. Housman." A nurse opened the door, and smiled at him a little oddly, as though hesitant. Considering she obviously had the wrong room, it made sense.

"I'm not a Mr. Housman. I'm Usopp." Sitting up fully, and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he still felt perfectly fine, but realized someone had changed his clothes. He reached up to push a stray bit of curly hair out of his face in irritation. He needed to remember to ask Robin (or pay Nami) to cut it sometime. Unless they were... "Um... do you know where my crew is at? See, I just had this weird dream, and..."

"I'm sorry, you slept through lunch, but your arrival was a little late. Don't worry, we'll be helping you stop having the bad dreams, Mr. Housman." She was still looking at him funny. Was it the nose? It couldn't be the nose, not this far into the Grand Line or compared to some of his crewmates now. He looked downright average compared to Franky or Brook.

"I'm not Mr. Housman, not even Usopp Housman!" That was a terrible name anyhow. Agitated, he slipped out of the bed to walk over towards the nurse, but she looked kind of frail, so scaring her with his great and legendary pirate strength would be kind of mean. Still, if she kept calling him that, he was going to have to do something serious.

Maybe run down the halls screaming 'Zoro, Brook, are you here too?!'

"Okay, Terence. Let's just take a little walk and get used to Landel's Institute again." For someone who looked frail, she was very good at pretending she didn't hear anything. What would be the point in calling him the wrong name, though? And--maybe Terence Housman was some other person blessed with a fine tan, luxurious curly black hair and an intimidatingly attractive nose? It was at least possible; anything was possible on the Grand Line.

"Listen, let's start over. Last thing I remember, we were--you're not with the World Government, are you?" Usopp paused, a little belatedly. Well, it wasn't as though his name were on the wanted poster, but the whole Strawhat crew had been kind of hard to miss even in the overall chaos. Still, she seemed to think he was Terence Housman, so who knew what he might be wanted for.

"Even though you missed lunch, we can make some nice friends this afternoon, and maybe they'll be able to talk to you about your bad dream so you won't feel so upset."

This dream wasn't much better, since he had no idea where the rest of the crew was and a crazy woman had taken his clothes and was now attempting to guide him down a disturbingly quiet and bland hallway. He resisted the earlier urge to yell, not hearing many noises around. Zoro might be quiet or even napping, but Brook had gone right after Zoro and he was pretty impossible to keep quiet for long. At least the idea of 'making friends' might give him some clue where he was and who this crazy woman was. How long had he been asleep? Someone had said something about days and Kuma's paw before, but it had been hard to make anything out over the panic...

It was kind of nice to have not woken up dead, at least. Assuming the afterlife wasn't just really, really weird.

[Onward to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/751810.html?thread=61633730#t61633730)]

Edited 2009-11-16 02:33 (UTC)

Sephiroth rarely slept. It was less of a personal choice than it was a choice by lifestyle, or would have been if his lifestyle had much to do with choice. And that lifestyle dictated that he couldn't simply doze off in front of his men; it looked unprofessional. He represented SOLDIER, and to a degree ShinRa itself - certainly his face was more well-known and more widely publicized than anyone on the company's board of directors, or even that of the president himself, but then a face like the president's had never been made for daylight, anyway. To be seen literally sleeping on the job wouldn't do, and the fewer meetings he had to endure with the PR department to discuss such incidents of unprofessionalism, the better.

So to wake up suddenly, disoriented, immediately had him on his guard, because he knew he hadn't lost consciousness of his own volition. Possibly a Sleep materia, though it was strange that there would be anyone willing to go so far as to attack a ShinRa convoy he was part of out in the middle of nowhere...unless, of course, it had something to do with Genesis, but neither Genesis nor any of his clones would ever waste time with something as indirect as status materia. Flashy and decisive was more their style; a successful attack from them would have meant never waking up at all.

And, of course, Genesis was supposed to be dead. But that was according to ShinRa, and Sephiroth found himself less and less likely to believe anything they said these days - and his faith in them hadn't been at a high point since he'd been a naive teenager who believed anything he was told, and never wondered about what he wasn't.

He rolled off the thing (bed, his mind registered, but it was unimportant information and pushed aside for later consideration) he was lying on, landing in a light, battle-ready crouch with his eyes open, scanning - well, he would have been scanning his surroundings, but the sudden brightness stabbed directly into his brain and he winced. He hadn't had much in the way of preconceptions as to where he might be, but he hadn't anticipated so much white. Still, what little he'd seen had reassured him that he was, at least, alone...although the reassurance only went so far. Where were Zack and the infantrymen? Or their driver?

Before his eyes had quite recovered, which was in itself strange - usually he adjusted much more quickly than this - a door opened, and someone entered the room. Sephiroth tensed momentarily as he forced his eyes to focus, then relaxed as he recognized the woman as some sort of nurse. A hospital, then? That made him uneasy; he didn't remember being injured, and certainly wasn't at the moment, so either he'd been out for so long that whatever wounds had landed him here had already healed(and he knew he would have woken if someone had cast a Cure spell on him), or he wasn't the person who was hurt.

Don't let it be Zack. It was a decidedly unprofessional thought - he shouldn't play favorites with his men, and while the infantrymen weren't strictly SOLDIERs, they were nonetheless under his command at the moment - but Zack was the closest thing he had to a friend left, even in what little time they'd spent together. And he'd lost enough friends recently.

"What is it?" he said warily, although he felt a bit nonplussed by how cheerful the nurse looked. If someone was hurt, then why -

"It's time to go to the game room!" the woman chirped. "Doesn't that sound like fun?"

As Sephiroth's train of thought thus far jumped the tracks, it occurred to him that he'd gotten a little ahead of himself.

Roxas’s return to consciousness was violent; he ripped through the covers, tearing away from the bed, scattering a handful of pens from a desk by his side. Scouring through the drawers, he looked for something – anything! – to write on.

His saving grace was a little notebook with the word “Journal” imprinted in black on its gray cover. Choking one of the pens that had rolled near his foot, he etched a name onto the paper.
The word was an arrangement of ink scars haphazardly forming letters. The ink stained the pages, smearing when his finger touched the tip of the last line. It didn’t matter that it was messy, a wound driven into the paper. He had remembered the name just long enough to write it.

But he struggled to remember her. The clock tower was perfect – he could see the golden shine to its roof, the swirling designs of rock right along the eave where their feet would swing above the town.

Twilight Town.

He could see Axel’s flame-red hair, a testament to his element, moving stiffly in the cool breeze. He could remember the taste of the sea-salt ice cream – the icing on the cake – the sweet-salt taste and how it would always melt on his gloves because he tended to talk too much sometimes. And he could remember his elbow would be propped up on a third shoulder –

He was as rough with the pen as he drew the haphazard stick figurine as he had been with the letters. A shock of black hair that hung in front of… in front of…

Were her eyes green? Blue? Red?

Blue sounded like the closest choice. He wrote the word in question with a question mark at the end, next to a blank face. Roxas sighed, frustrated, throwing the journal away from him. It slid under the second bed in the room, clunking against the wall.

White was a familiar color; it stained the majority of The World That Never Was. At first, he didn’t even notice that this wasn’t his white. It didn’t have the gray edges; the swirls of carved architecture he always doubted were necessary. But white hadn’t been the color he had last seen – he had been outside of that skyscraper, the sky above dark and the only light coming from the yellow-tinted windows of the building. He had been fighting the blindfolded boy, the one who had gotten in his way – stopped him from stopping Xemnas! –

He had been choked, the strength squeezed out of him. The Heartless’s – he had only guessed that was what that huge, hulking black thing that acted as the guy’s shadow was – hands had been cold and dug into his skin. With his strength had gone his memories of her – “Xion. It’s hard to even remember her name, isn’t it?” – her form vanishing from the clock tower as the two – the three of them joked.

The blond picked himself off of the floor only after scrounging around under that bed to pick the journal up. Hugging it close to his chest, he walked past the beds; the dresser with its drawer guts hanging out in a messy pile; and he placed two fingers against the cold door to the room. This wasn’t his room, though the atmosphere was just as cold. This was no part of the World that he had ever seen. It even smelled different – a bitter-edged smell that made his nose hurt.

Roxas thought he heard a sigh of relief, though he knew he hadn’t opened his mouth. Don’t worry, a small little feeling told him. Don’t worry, it sighed.

And he found that he couldn’t.

The door suddenly cracked open under his fingers. Clearly, old habits died hard - the Nobody had jumped back to the furthest wall from the opening, holding both arms out at his sides -

- To have nothing appear.

"Good afternoon, Keanu!" the nurse greeted cheerfully as Roxas stared at his hands, saying, "Huh?"

Nothing had appeared. He couldn't feel the Keyblades. They had always had an almost physical presence, even when he wasn't wielding them... was what happened to Xion (he remembered!) happening to him? That didn't make sense.

This wasn't the World That Never Was. It wasn't a world he recognized. And though it shouldn't matter that he was interacting with a local - the Organization was long behind him, and so were their rules - he was hesitant to respond to the woman.

"I'm Roxas," he finally decided, staring hard at the woman's face. It dropped for a moment, then her smile appeared as if to hide her momentary disappointment.

"Well, that's why you're here," she sighed to herself, bringing a clipboard up under her nose, making a short dot with the pencil she was carrying. "If you'd follow me, Keanu, I'll take you to the sun room."

Without much choice, Roxas followed the woman, a thousand questions all screaming in his head. The dark corridor that dropped him here had to be somewhere nearby...

Allen woke up and looked around, a bit disoriented. He was used to waking up in hospitals after fights, but he hadn't been losing, had he? He remembered the Level 3 Akuma attacking the Asia Branch, but after that, he'd...made it the Ark. Wasn't that right? He had to have made it. The others were there, and Kanda tried to attack him...

The thought of Kanda made him frown for a moment. Leave it to that idiot to mistake him for an Akuma for no good reason! But even Kanda wasn't the reason he was here in a hospital. At least, he assumed this was a hospital. The walls were white, and the bed felt like any other hospital bed. There weren't any tubes or fluids attached to him, which meant that either he'd been unconscious for a long time, or that there was no need for them. If that was the case, however, why had he been taken to the hospital at all? There was something strange about this. He'd always remembered being injured before!

He looked down. Nothing really hurt, which was...a little unexpected. After all, he'd been in that fight with the Akuma not long ago. The Innocence reactivating had restored him, for the most part, but he wasn't sure that there was no damage. He decided to count his blessings, and stared down at his left arm. It was a little strange seeing it there, having not had it for so many days. But there it was, whole and usable and...covered in bandages.

His heart skipped a beat. Had he managed to damage his Innocence again already? Everyone would be upset again if he'd done that. Anyway, he needed to be stronger. He absolutely couldn't go on fighting if he wasn't stronger. He was sure that he'd accomplished that much, though! He'd been able to Invocate the Innocence again, and find a form that suited it better than before! He'd gotten to Edo, as planned! Now, he wasn't even sure he was in Japan.

Allen tried to pull the bandages off of his arm, but they wouldn't come. He'd never met a bandage that wouldn't come off, so he kept trying. Somehow, though, it was as if they were glued to his arm. He tried scratching at them, but they refused to come off at all. What the hell was going on here?

He tried to activate his Innocence, figuring that would rip them off, but...nothing happened. Nothing at all. How was it possible that he couldn't get it to activate? Hadn't he been through this already? He couldn't save anyone - Akuma, Human, whatever - if he couldn't get his Innocence to obey him again! And to think, he'd put all that work into it, it had achieved a new form...

He climbed out of the bed, feeling his throat tighten a little. He had to get out of here and talk to someone. Even if it was Komui, who was a little scary, at least he'd be able to get some answers. He hoped that the others were okay, and reached for the door handle.

Just before he could grab it, however, the door opened and he had to step back. A lady was there, smiling at him. She certainly looked like a nurse, so he smiled back at her.

"Um, excuse me, but can you tell me if the director is anywhere around here? I really need to talk to him about my Inno-"

She cut him off, though she spoke as if she hadn't heard him at all. "Good afternoon, Marcus! You slept late, but it's time to get up and join the other patients in the game room! Doesn't that sound fun?"

Allen stared up at her for a second. Other patients? What? That was unusual for a hospital. It dawned on him that she hadn't called him by his name. What had she called him? Marcus? Who was Marcus.

"Um, I'm sorry, ma'am, but I think you've mistaken me for someone else," he said. "I'm Allen Walker, I'm an Exorcist, and I have to get back to-"

Once again, she cut him off.

Once again, she cut him off.

"Oh, yes, I thought you might say something like that," she said, a little sadly, shaking her head at him as if she felt sorry for him. "But don't worry, dear, we'll have you remembering who you really are in no time."

Allen crossed his arms and bit down on his tongue. He knew exactly who he was. He was Allen Walker, and he'd made a promise to carry on, no matter what! Even if this nurse was somehow confused about who he was for some reason, he'd keep walking. Now he just had to get past her to find his friends. Maybe if he went with her to, um, games, he could find someone to tell him what was really going on.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/751611.html?thread=61634555#t61634555)]

One would think that waking up in strange places each morning would be something you eventually got used to. One would be wrong.

Should’ve known it wouldn’t be so easy.

The first thing he noticed was the complete lack of sound. Like, anywhere. There was no dull roar of Shibuya's streets, no crosswalks, no train station. He didn't even have his headphones. He didn't go anywhere without his headphones. This was shaping up to be a sucky day and it hadn't even started yet.

Neku stretched and threw back the blankets. Wait. Blankets? Since when do we get beds in this game anyway? He examined the new room curiously. Not any part of Shibuya he knew of, but then, he hadn’t known there was a river running through the city either.

And then there was the clothing. If Shiki ever saw him wearing this, she'd do more than just make him take his pants off. It was nothing but dull! Grey pants, grey shirt, and what, house slippers? The smiley face might've been something out of Tigre Punks line, but only if they added in some spray paint splatters or put it on a base color that wasn't pointless dull grey.

Great. Now I'm even starting to sound like Shiki.

With a sigh, he shook out the blankets and sheets, searching for his ever present cell phone. Apparently it'd gone missing along with his headphones, not to mention his pins and the clothes he'd had on before. Yeah, that's not creepy. Not at all.

Not on the bed, not in the dresser, and the closet was full of nothing but more bland clothing. What is this? Reaper's Game in Boring-ville? And how was he supposed to know what the mission was? At least the countdown hadn't started yet. Geez. At least his headphones were sitting on the table near his bed. But little good it did him, his .mp3 player was nowhere in sight.

He placed the phones around his neck and just as he was down on hands and knees, checking beneath the bed, he heard the door open behind him and was instantly on alert. A nurse? This gets weirder by the minute. But then, she could obviously see him, so she was part of the game too? He stood quietly, waiting for her to talk or attack. Or whatever the hell it was nurses did in Reaper Games.

"You're awake already, that's great," she said with enough false enthusiasm to make even Shiki's toes curl.

"Where's my stuff?" he asked first. Best to get that one out of the way. The sooner he got back his headphones and mp3 player, the better.

"The doctors determined it would be too distracting to let you hold on to those things. But don't worry, we've got them kept safely in storage for when you're feeling better."

Okaaay. This was starting to sound more and more like a bad dream. He scratched his spiky head, feeling somewhat naked in front of this woman with neither his music nor his normal clothes. At least his favorite shirt could cover his face a little. These grey pajamas made him feel so exposed.

"Unless this is some new gimmick, I kind of need those to play the game. At least give me my cell phone back." Ugh, it was so like the Reapers to pull something completely unfair like this. Hell, they'd tried to put him in a game with no other players, making it virtually impossible to win, it wasn't beyond them to try something like this.

But it didn't make sense. He'd already beat the Conductor. Already had that showdown with Joshua, something he really didn't feel like repeating. What was left? Joshua had an annoying sense of humor, but he wasn't going to make someone play without a phone. Not when he was practically joined at the hip to his! So what was going on then?

"Game?" the woman seemed genuinely confused. "Oh, on your phone?"

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly as she seemed to understand. "You won't need it. We'll have plenty of activities to keep you busy Sora. Speaking of, it's almost time for Arts and Crafts. Is there anything you want to make? I'm sure even if you don't want to participate, we'll find a friend to sit with you for a while, alright?"

As if he had any choice in the matter. A couple of bulky giants weren't far behind the nurse and their eyes seemed to silently whisper the words severe bodily harm. Fun. It wasn't like he could fight back without his pins anyway, not to mention the lack of a partner. But if nursey here was right and his friends were waiting...

"My name is Neku," he said sharply, stalking past them into the hallway. He could tolerate being called Phones or Kid, or whatever else they came up with, but Sora? It wasn't even a funny nickname. "Let's get this over with."

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/751810.html)]

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Day 45: Intercom, Afternoon

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