damned_institute | Day 46: Sun Room

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Day 46: Sun Room

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that...

After that, Zach had jumped in front of him like some kind of martyr, like the exact opposite of everything Sylar stood for, to take the next hit for him. It got pretty fuzzy after that, so night must have ended right around then.

The man let out a pained grunt as he straightened himself up in bed. For some reason, he got the feeling that he'd slept in. There was no way for him to really tell without a window in the room, but he just knew. The fact that Sam's bed looked long since vacated was another clue.

Sam, but was he Sam again? Had the brainwashing worn off, as he and Roland had hoped, or was he going to have to go through this nightmare for even longer? He didn't know how long he could handle "Zach" and "Harrison" before he started going batty himself.

Pulling himself out of bed, Peter lifted his shirt and saw that he was tightly bandaged. The scratch most likely wasn't nearly as bad as the bite that "Zach" had received, but it still smarted. He let his shirt fall and then had to deal with a nurse chiding him for sleeping through the morning announcements. Not that Peter really cared at the moment. He was too busy thinking about last night and the fact that in a way, he now owed something to Sylar. Except it hadn't been Sylar. That was something he was sure of now.

Lost in his thoughts, Peter reached the Sun Room right as the rest of the patient populace was trickling in from breakfast. Sighing to himself, he headed over to the bulletin board and then saw a note written in familiar yet unpleasant handwriting. Holding his pen in a vice grip, Peter scribbled out a reply and then stalked over to an armchair and fell into it with a huff.

While Sylar was maddeningly frustrating, there was one good thing about the fact that he was himself again. It meant that Nathan was too.

[For Spock!]

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Breakfast had been pretty quiet. That was good, really. He had been worried last night when Hayes hadn't shown up. If things had gone all to hell before they even started, he would have blamed nothing but himself.

622 was quietly obedient (if eternally wary) as his nurse shooed him towards the Sun Room, finding a seat away from everyone else, trying to relax. It wasn't really easy since he was the only Stormtrooper here, but at least no one was bothering him.

[Come and bother him, Xiggy!]

Maybe it was selfish, but Kagura was feeling a lot better after breakfast, while Ritsu was probably... well... he'd be alright, wouldn't he? Maybe she ought to tell the nurses about the secret technique for calming him down when he had one of his fits. They were a lot more likely to just try their needles and... well... that wouldn't end well either.

The nurse cut their conversation short and she hoped things would turn out alright. It might take a bit longer, but she could pick up Ritsu and Bridget and they could go out tonight together if they had to go out at all. At least, that was the plan. Those didn't always turn out the best either.

There were few familiar faces when she entered the room, though whether that was because there were more people vanishing and being replaced by new ones or just that some were taking longer with their breakfast, she wasn't really sure. She hoped it was the second one though. At least there was one familiar face that was easy to spot with that mess of bright red hair. Kind of like how Kyo or Yuki or the others were usually so easy to spot in a crowd.

She walked over and stood in front of the couch, trying not to fidget nervously as she approached. "Ah- Reno-san. I- U-um... if it's alright... Would you like some company?"

[Hi there, Remy! Tell me about Paris!]

Rika smiled in Hanyuu's direction as she walked into the Sun Room. She didn't want to worry her right now, but at least seeing her helped a little.

Now...to worry about Greta. She had already silently decided that she would watch over the older girl as much as she could. Rika still wasn't entirely sure of the connection between the witch and the redhead, but anything where the witch was involved couldn't be good.

With that decided, she composed her features into a shy smile. She could use a little cheering up, and was hoping to make a new friend.

Good, everything was okay with Loz. He'd felt so awful when he'd woken up and realized how bad he'd blown him off yesterday. Well, comparatively. By Beelzemon standards.

Only problem was, now there was nothing to do. Well, nothing that came to mind that wouldn't get him drugged, because priority number one was still finding a way out (as directly and stupidly as possible) and blasting this place to rubble. Until then? Not much. He wasn't really good at this whole sitting still and relaxing thing.

...Although the chair he was sitting in was pretty comfy.

[Free!]

Reno cracked open an eye and glanced over at the sound of the vaguely familiar voice to see that girl from yesterday. His first thought was, That's not Rude, and his second was, Close enough.

Well, in terms of being company, that was. Obviously. He couldn't quite bitch to this chick, but he could occupy his time which was about as good as it was gonna get around here these days.

Man, his life was gettin' sad. He used to at least be able to go get plastered or find a lap dance or shoot some people, or something. But no, now he was mostly sitting around bored and hoping nobody else he knew went MIA.

He flashed waved a lazy hand at the empty space beside him. "Can't say no to an offer like that."

After checking the bulletin, it looked like all bets were off on a certain boy being an Uchiha heir in her future. (Not that she was giving up or anything. This changed nothing! Hell yeah!) It was disappointing, but at least it gave her attention a new focus. They were bringing people from the past as well as the future. Time was getting seriously messed up.

She didn't know if it was a good thing Obito had been lost in a mission before the massacre or not. Even if he'd survived that, the massacre would've done him in soon after. A grim thought, but one she'd let Kakashi deal with. He'd insisted and she wasn't feeling much obliged to stop him. Especially after he'd used her forehead like a giant memo-pad. Classy. At least the redness was dying down.

It wasn't long before she found herself in front of the bulletin board again, perusing the posts and other happenings and getting a feel for just how much the nurses were planning to censor them.

[Shikamaru]

Ugh. At least the day was still overcast, but not enough. Recluse's only response to his nurse's irritating cheerfulness was a baleful glare, finding a chair in the most shadowed corner of the room to sit. He'd had a small chance to vent his frustrations (unfortunately, without killing anyone) with talking to Falis, but all the problems he had to deal with were still clamoring for his attention, none of which really seemed interesting or feasible enough to deal with at the moment.

One of those problems was Marcus. As odd as it might seem, if that man disappeared, Recluse would be incredibly annoyed. All his hard work would have been for nothing.

[Free as a bird! ...A grumpy bird overlord.]

Even if it seemed lacking in enthusiasm, Kagura's cheeks colored slightly when he agreed as an almost automatic response. She smiled softly and took up the other seat on the couch, folding her legs casually underneath her instead of sitting as stiffly as she had yesterday.

"I'm glad to see you're well," she started. It was a fairly normal greeting, but here it held more weight than at home. She never knew if she would wake up and find that someone she knew had been injured or worse.

That...Euphy had to laugh, just a little, as she bid Lelouch farewell and stepped into the Sun Room. All she could think was Yep. That's my big brother., at the turn the conversation had taken before it had ended. It wasn't a bad thing, she just really hoped it didn't get in the way of her making friends.

She plopped down onto a sofa in an entirely un-princesslike manner, sighing up at the ceiling for a moment. She wasn't as all right as she should have been, or so she thought. She needed to put on that brave face, the one that said she would be perfectly all right, around most people. On the inside, though, her nerves were still raw, still aching. Euphemia might have given into the urge to cry again...

...if not for the kitten that had suddenly jumped into her lap. She couldn't cry with a kitten purring away, after all. She smiled down at it, gently scratching behind its ears and stroking its soft fur. She had always heard that animals just knew these things, and in that moment, she believed it.

[please recruit her into the Living Dead Girls Club, Meche?]

(It can be stabby time naw?)

Haku's talk with 'Arlene' at breakfast had been... well, he was no longer one flinch away from tearing the limbs off of other people at least. He even managed to work up a polite response to some vapid question the nurse asked him. Once they made it into the Sun Room however, he was quite glad to get away from her.

Oh, hell. Spotting a familiar face, Haku bit down on a sigh and walked over to Lord Recluse. He stopped short three paces and kneeled down. He was careful to do so in such a way that wouldn't attract too much attention, but he was clearly facing the older man, and he bowed slightly.

"My apologies for my behavior yesterday," he said softly. He didn't offer an explaination, since if the man was worth anything, he would have figured it out by now.

Miles had a lot to mull over as he stepped into the Sun Room. The conversation with Renamon was fresh on his mind, and he was glad to not have been called for therapy. He didn't want anything that the false doctors here had to offer; he had already had enough of that for a full lifetime.

He glanced around, looking for other familiar faces, then saw one he hadn't for quite a while. The voice in his head murmured low for just a moment, but he ignored it for the time being. This was the daytime. As much as he hated to admit it, the nurses would take care of any problems.

He took a seat in a chair opposite Mello's, bowing his head once. "It's been quite a while, Mello. Have you been ill?"

With Ruby here, Sam wasn't certain how he was supposed to feel. She was a resource, and she was the only one who had the same details he did about Dean and the deal, who knew exactly what'd happened without him having to tell her because she'd been there. In some ways that was...a relief, that he wouldn't have to worry about deflecting questions from her. Or at least, not as many questions. But at the same time, it made things more complicated with Dean around.

He shook it off. There were still other things to be concerned about aside from Ruby. God, he should start writing out a list at this point or filling in a calender or something. Tick things off as he went along.

The Sun Room was empty enough that when he stepped inside, it wasn't too difficult for the blonde woman from yesterday to catch his eye. That conversation had been weird to him as—well, as whatever he'd believed the previous day. Today, though? Today it was nothing but intriguing. It bothered him that he remembered telling her things he shouldn't have had he been in his right mind. He wasn't worried if she was a demon because if she was one, she'd already know his life history inside out, but if she was something else...

Never mind. The only thing left was to find out more about her and how the hell she knew about him from a look. She obviously wasn't human.

And she really did remind him a lot of Jess on top of all that. It was throwing him off.

Sam walked over to where she was resting by the wall. "We met yesterday," he said. "In the library. Do you mind if we talk?"

[Mind a lion?]

That had been irritating enough, and Scar was even somewhat grateful when the nurse finally showed her face and began ushering him towards the Sun room. He had been planning to locate a usual seat upon the floor rather than sitting on that silly human furniture, but the nurse had seemed to notice what he had in mind and began to chide him how he shouldn't sit on the floor as she ushered him towards a couch. Scar rolled his eyes in annoyance, but had little choice but to comply. She left after her charge had finally taken a seat, and the former lion didn't pass up the opportunity to glare at her back before looking around the area.

And only then he noticed he was sharing the couch with someone else. How surprising. The other patient was a little girl with a rather curious color for a mane. Or hair, how they called it. Then again, most of these humans had hair colors every color of the rainbow.

"Good morning," he greeted, more out of habit than the sake of being friendly. Breakfast had left him a little too irritated for that.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/771306.html?thread=62868714#t62868714)]

Before the intercom sounded off and the nurses began shuffling them out of the cafeteria, Zack did something that Anthy recognized as an attempt to remain optimistic. She had smiled back and nodded to him just before a nurse pulled her off into a different direction, since it was clear that he'd wanted to inspire some of that in her with his advice, but her features deadened almost as soon as they parted.

This was a trap even more elaborate than she could've guessed. The Rose Bride was a trap designed to keep her suffering all wrapped up in a title, but she'd found a way out of that coffin. This was something else entirely and she saw little hope in escape, eventual or otherwise.

Regardless, she needed to speak with Utena, who was apparently back to normal, if the bulletin board in this room was to be believed. Anthy sat on a couch with her hands folded in her lap and watched the entrance, waiting for a head of bright pink hair to pop into her vision. Her hands trembled very slightly and she realized belatedly that her heart was beating fast in her chest.

Nervous -- was she nervous? Strange.

[closed to Utena]

Dist missed his chair. Of course, the Sun room had plenty of chairs and things to sit in, but none of them moved so Dist really didn't see the point. He was still surly from breakfast though and didn't see anyone worth talking to so he found a chair in a particularly nice sunbeam to sprawl in, watching the other patients and occasionally glaring up at the nurses on the balcony. It was going to be a slow day.

As Forte leaned back against a wall, he still couldn't stop himself from worrying about what he'd said to Sheena, what she'd think of him, if she knew it wasn't really him.

But then he looked up, and there she was... looking right at him, coming his way! He panicked, his face turning red. Did she know he was just thinking about her? What was she going going to say? What would he say? He didn't even know what he'd meant, or what he wanted from her, let alone what he was supposed to say in a situation like this. He'd probably screw it up somehow!

As she approached, he looked around frantically for some kind of escape, but it seemed this was the one in the whole institute they were all stuck in this room together. Finally, still panicking, he turned and fled to the other side of the room, moving as quickly as he could with the crutches.

Edited 2009-12-16 19:19 (UTC)

Reaching the other side of the room, Forte stopped to catch his breath, without looking back. Dammit, what was wrong with him that he couldn't just talk to one girl?

[OOC: Sure, one more should be fine, though caveat: I'm probably going to be slooooow. And vK here won't be the greatest company ~~as if he ever really were~~. X3 ]

"Mr. Fuchs! Come on! You've already missed breakfast. Are you planning to stay in this dreary room all day?"

Manfred von Karma shot the blasted nurse a defiant look, his arms folded and anger rumbling in his chest. Like hell was he willing to show his face in public today. Not after what had happened yesterday and the night prior to that. Never mind that this was all Martin Landel's doing. Oh, he would make the insolent bastard pay for the humiliating torture two nights ago... and for the mind-tampering that had manifested yesterday, in front of five too many people at that.

Worst of all, his daughter would never again regain the esteem she had once held for him, not after their apoplectic meeting during lunch. von Karma had already been losing his iron-fisted grip on Franziska ever since she arrived at this hellhole, but yesterday's incident would most likely clinch it. At the thought of possibly encountering her again, a muscle twitched under his left eye.

Squeezing his upper left arm perhaps a bit too tightly, he responded through clenched teeth, each word deliberate. "I need some quiet time to think, Nurse. This is perhaps the first chance I've had to do so in several days. Leave me here."

His demand was in vain. The nurse shook her head at him and waved her finger at him, as one might do to a misbehaving child. "Oh no, you don't! You're coming with me!"

How... how dare she mock me like this?! von Karma was just about to voice his irate thought when he saw the glint of thin metal extending from her hand. A syringe. That convinced him; the events of two nights ago were still painfully fresh in his mind.

Still, the prosecutor would not be completely outdone here. "Hmph. Very well. But first, I need a minute before leaving this room. I have a note I must post for an acquaintance."

"Oh, okay!" the damned nurse chirped. "Take your time, Mr. Fuchs. I'll wait right here while you write your note for your friend."

Of course, she also felt the need to watch him do so. Oh, how he hated people who hovered so close that he could feel their disgusting breath mist onto his shoulder. Aware of her scrutiny, the older man took special care not to include any questionable wording in his note.

She then led him to the Sun Room, where there were already a number of people gathered. He pinned his note to Ms. Taura onto the board, then looked around to ensure that there were no familiar faces present. There was one that... seemed familiar. A gray-haired young man sitting next to an even younger blond man. Neither seemed to notice him as he studied the former, trying to recall precisely why he initially thought he knew him. A chill ran through von Karma as he realized that his memory was just as unreliable as it had been yesterday. Disturbing.

As he emerged from his daze, he discovered that he was sitting on one of the couches, next to a man he was sure he had never met before. ...Or had he? Oh, curse this hellhole! Instead of advertising his uncertainty of this other man's identity, von Karma merely gave him the same greeting he tended to give everyone else: a forbidding glare.

Edited 2009-12-16 20:11 (UTC)

His head hurt.

He woke up feeling like himself again, as much as that was a good thing. His body again felt clumsy and unfamiliar, thousands of tiny differences all nagging for his attention. He could almost feel where his head feelers should be, where his trunk should be, where his tail should be but no, he was still a VUX trapped in a human body.

Although he was now missing an eye.

Yesterday felt like a strange dream, and if he didn't have the odd entries he'd left in his journal as proof, he might have just written it off entirely. As it was, it seemed that he was not himself the day before, which was putting it mildly at the least.

Or so he believed. Max had had an awfully easy time with his body, like it was his home... access to memories that now seemed faint and indistinct but still there. It didn't feel real, but it certainly didn't help him with any of his unanswered questions.

There was that and how his head hurt, and how things still flickered at the edge of his vision. Not Max's fault, it would seem, although he had no explanation for them either.

Well, for now it might be best to try and recover. He'd had a stressful couple of days, to put it mildly, and it might be a good idea to recharge. So ZEX sat down in one of the chairs near the door, leaning back and watching the humans walking by with a little of his normal interest. It was hard to entertain more... interesting thoughts when he had so many problems to consider, but the more he observed them, the easier it would become. Or so he hoped, at least.

[Sechs?]

Scourge woke up, and fought back the urge to scream.

He remembered intensely what it had felt like when Starscream possesed him. He'd felt his body acutely (including the pain, gah), it had just been moving without impulses from his CPU to guide it. He'd still been himself, cowering and beating against the walls of his own mind, but he'd had that accursed jet in there with him laughing and forcing him around like a puppet. It had been near unbearable even without the parts where he'd fired upon Galvatron.

What they'd done to his body and his mind this time had been far, far worse because they'd taken away his personality completely and replaced it with something suicidally impudent and horribly, horribly organic. He'd take a time share on his body with Starscream before he let them scrape his CPU out of his head like congealed oil from the bottom of the barrel.

Scourge spent breakfast (tasteless in his mouth now, nothing but squish and crunch) hunched in the corner, avoiding everyone's eyes and trying to pretend he wasn't there. Lord Recluse had somewhat forgiven him, but Lugnut hadn't and no one else had replied to say he and Joshua hadn't been the same person and anything this body had done was null and void. He wanted to go home now more than ever, especially before someone showed up to beat him to organic mush and stuff him in one of the bathroom stalls until the cleaning drone came for him.

In the Sun Room Scourge again picked the darkest corner he could find and huddled in it. He'd snuck his bottle of claw paint out of his room in the little hip pouch of his pants, and once the nurses left him alone dug it out and began quickly but thoroughly repainting his nails. He'd originally had it taken off to better fit in with the other humans--but he wasn't a human. He was never going to be a human no matter how much this disgusting place tried to beat him down and if he had to half-drown himself in pink paint to prove it than by Unicron himself he was going to be pink.

[Scarecrow]

Loz was glad Beelzemon was back to normal. But he still felt like kicking himself for not listening to his gut that something was wrong with him yesterday. Well, next time he got that feeling, he was going to listen to it for sure.

It also made Loz wonder what else Landel had in store for him and everyone else. Why did that man have to be such a big meanie? This wasn't the kind of playing he liked. It was mean play. Loz hoped he'd get to Landel one of these days so he could teach him a lesson. Then he'd go back to his world. Maybe he'd even take Beelzemon with him. Or they could go to the Digimon's world instead. Either world was better than this one.

The Remnant wandered into the Sun Room and parked himself on a couch, lounging back with his eyes closed. Luckily there were pleny of couches to choose from, since it was still early in the shift and most people were probably still finishing breakfast. Plus, Loz had heard that announcement about some patients being taken to "therapy", whatever that was, so that thinned out the crowd more too.

[Free. No limit]

Cloud's mind was still reeling when he was led into the sun room, so much so that he was hardly paying any attention to the other patients around him. There was something mentioned about 'therapy,' but he was told he wouldn't be having any this week. Whatever it was, he was glad not to be going right now. There was enough for him to deal with at the moment.

The blond took a seat at an empty sofa and slouched with his hands clasped in front of him. He'd been in this place before? How was it even possible to forget that? It was like he was an experiment all over again, years where he didn't remember half of what was done to him, since most of the time he'd been even mildly coherent he still couldn't tell which way was up. This was unforgivable - worse, since they'd dragged his friends into it.

He took a deep breath, trying to focus on the now. There'd be time to throw a fit once they'd escaped from here. If he focused too much on what had already been done to him he really would go crazy. All the same, he could do with a few less reveals for now.

[sorry Cloud - strict reserve to Aerith]

Edited 2009-12-16 21:31 (UTC)

Well, he had gotten through breakfast. The headache from his concussion was still persisting, to the point where Minato almost missed the nurse mentioning he could spend this shift resting, since he didn't have therapy with one of the doctors. He was fairly relieved to hear that; without the mental ache that came with Souji's presence distracting him, Minato was left to deal with his pain alone. After what had happened last night, he didn't trust the medicine that the nurse had given him.

He slumped against one of the sofas in the Sun Room, idly rubbing at the tender spot of his head for a moment before shutting his eyes. A nap would be great right about now.

[The Bride]

The events of last night was initially blurry in Rey's mind as he woke up. After lying in bed a few moments, he remembered--not that there was much to remember in the first place. It wasn't as if he'd done much, other than have a headache and fall asleep. Though, he supposed, it was a good thing that his condition had chosen then to act up, and not earlier. A more convenient timing than his last one, for sure. How long ago, that felt, even though it couldn't have been more than a couple of days. Everything about his world seemed far away now.

The bad part was that it appeared that his 'CM-US Trial' had had its effects, after all. But of all things, it just had to go with a reminder of Gil, whom Rey didn't want to remember. Yet, at the same time, he didn't want to forget the man either--grief was illogical like that, wasn't it? He couldn't simply run away from what he'd done, even if he wanted to (but, his mind taunted, haven't you already?). Still, that didn't mean he enjoyed being forced to recall it through a condition he despised, even before.

And, to top it all, he still needed a sling for his shoulder. His wounds were healing surprisingly quickly--another effect of the Institute, no doubt--but it was annoying, all the same, being useless. Unfortunately, wishing wouldn't make anything better, so Rey decided to drop the subject.

It didn't take long for his nurse to come and fetch him, after which he learned how long he'd been asleep. Vaguely, he wondered when was the last time he slept in, his first day here excluded. It was just another sign of how different things were in this place.

Speaking of different--it seemed that whatever had happened yesterday wasn't going to carry on today, Rey noticed as he looked through the notes on the bulletin board.

[Free]

Sudden movement jarred him far from sleep even as it had been hovering tantalizingly close, and he unwillingly took stock of the situation. His cheek was pressed against soft fabric covering a warm chest that rose and fell with breath, arms around him tightly as though the person had no intention of ever letting go. After half a second to process the thought, he recognized Touya's scent, and the surprise traced a line down the center of their shared self like a fracture, as both halves reacted to his presence in entirely opposite fashions.

There was a moment of relief in Yue's mind: relief that after last night Touya was all right, wasn't upset or angry at them for what Yue had done. But then he pushed that away and simply retreated, determinedly seeking sleep as he had before. It was more difficult now, to sleep while Yukito was in control, but he was certain he could manage. He would manage.

Yukito, though, dragged himself farther toward consciousness, opening his eyes to peer up at Touya a little groggily, and automatically reached up for glasses he wasn't wearing. "You're...okay?" he asked, with obvious worry, and just as obvious sleepiness. It was hard to be awake when half of you was trying to sleep so stubbornly that he was practically pretending to snore.

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Day 46: Sun Room

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