damned_institute | Day 48: Intercom, Evening

Entry tags:

Day 48: Intercom, Evening

"AACHOO! Ahem!" The Head Doctor's slightly-better-but-still-congested voice came on clearly over the intercom. The sound of Nurse Lydia sighing and pulling out a tissue from somewhere in the background was also audible.

"Ah! Yes, thank you..." the Head Doctor muttered before continuing: "Well, it seems like today, like all days, must come to an end, even if it wasn't quite as bright and cheerful as we would like, hmmm? In any case, everyone will now be escorted to their quarters.... mmaahh... AAACHOO! Ah! Erb– yes, to their quarters, where they'll be served some Atlantic wild-caught salmon seasoned with garlic and herbs, along with mashed potatoes and a small garden salad. Our usual vegetarian alternatives and drinks are also available, along with a chocolate mousse dessert.

"And that's all... all ...aaaachoo!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. I think Court said something about the new roomies not being completely sorted out yet? :O She'll probably post about that later, so hang tight! ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Aside from writing a bunch in her journal, Anise hadn't gotten much done today. It was an annoying feeling, being escorted back to her room while feeling like she could have done so much more. She even forgot to make Nightshift plans! Again.

Besides, she wanted to talk to Luke, after hearing about what happened to him. He was probably going to be okay, but the less time he spent moping around, the better. Besides, Anise just didn't like hearing special counseling victims act so apologetic. It made her start to think; maybe she hadn't taken her own brainwashing seriously enough...? When her friends assured her that things had worked out better than they could have, Anise was quick to agree, wanting to put it all behind her as soon as possible. Was that wrong?

--Ugh, she couldn't start thinking about that again. Luke was just being Luke, and things were going to blow over soon enough.

By the time Anise reached her room, she had managed to push most of her worries aside. But when she stepped inside, something was missing. Immediately, she broke away from the nurse who escorted her, and sharply pointed at the top of the dresser.

"Where are they!?"

The nurse looked confused for a few seconds, but then it seemed to dawn on her. "Oh! Those flowers from your boyfriend." Her expression turned sympathetic, and she bent down to speak to Anise directly. "I'm sorry, Dolores, but flowers don't last forever. They were completely dried up when I came here this morning, so I had to take them away. You understand... right?"

Anise just glared at the woman's patronizing words. Of course she understood. She saw how those flowers were withering, but... she didn't want to get rid of them. Those flowers, along with the chocolates on her desk, were from Ion. Even if he wasn't really himself when he gave them to her, they were the only things Anise still had that were from him.

The nurse eventually left, and Anise threw herself into her seat in a huff, unceremoniously jabbing her fork into the salmon on her plate as she began to eat her dinner. That stupid old hag. It was none of her business!

Shinji felt drained. He'd broken down and cried more then once today and he felt empty, if also a bit better. Kaworu was coming to see him tonight and Dr. Wilson had said he'd try and find out about his SDAT player. And he'd met Rei. Rei Ayanami. He had left his dinner untouched so far and was simply staring at the ceiling in quite contemplation. He and Rei had a complicated relationship to say the least and he remembered the first time he'd met her, wrapped in bandages, struggling to obey orders. He didn't want to know how his father could be so cruel to Rei, to Shinji. Not that he seemed to pay Shinji any mind.

That took his mind down a different track and he rolled onto his side with a small scowl and a sigh. He hated his father. He hated him. He wasn't loved or wanted, just a tool his father could use and then discard when he was done with it. Not for the first time he missed his mother. But... she was in his Eva. Or had that all been a strange hallucination? He wasn't sure anymore.

Ayanami reminded him of his mother sometimes. He should try and see her again. Just so they could talk.

Dinner shift meant night was one step closer, and for that, Yomi was as glad as she could be. It was only in the dark that Yomi was beginning to feel like herself, where memories lost their potency and she could drop the act completely.

She wondered if the rain clouds would clear up, too.

On her way back to F7, Yomi filtered out the intercom antics of Landel and instead focussed on pulling her hair into its sleek ponytail now that it was dry. Every time the nurse spotted her using the hair tie she’d “borrowed” at the start of her stay, she seemed to think it was an invitation to once again try and get chummy with Yomi. For most of the walk, Yomi had to listen to paltry comments on her looks: how healthy and pretty her hair was, how she must be a heartbreaker with the guys back home.

Che, where exactly was home? How attractive had she been before the sesshouseki given her her body back?

The inanity of the Institute’s daytime façade was enough to get under Yomi’s skin if she let it.

For yet another night, she was apparently the first one back to the cell. With nothing more left to do, the nurse finally bid her goodnight and locked her inside while Yomi pulled the chair out from her desk. At the sound of retreating footsteps, however, she paused. Her gaze went to her closet, to the door, and back to the closet.

Yomi sat without a sound.

He could not have gotten out of therapy fast enough.

He didn't have to see Stein again until next week sometime, but even that was too soon. Between the office, the creepy staring, the tingling spider senses and the fact that he was Doctor Fricking Frankenstein, Peter would have gladly waited until he was a stooped little old man to see him again. By that time he would be way too senile to give a damn and on enough medication that he wouldn't feel a thing.

And now? Now he was going to have deja vu jitters all over again, because now he had no excuse to put off thinking about the meeting with Luxord. If the man showed this time (and he had better) Peter had to come up with a pretty spectacular offer for him so that his roommate could live on in one piece. Something told him his autograph wouldn't cut it. But of course, this wouldn't be complete without an extra layer of paranoia on the suck cake that was his life. A day later meant a day more for Grell to put his stinky finger on it. If Luxord ratted him out or Grell paid unnerving amounts of attention to any message with clock metaphors, then Peter was walking into his stabby fate tonight. With any luck he could punch faster than Grell could swing a scalpel. Maybe he could just toss sharp things at him from a distance.

Oh yeah. And this would all be taking place in his beloved therapist's office. If the doctors transformed at night like the nurses, he was going to curl up into a ball and sob himself do death, self defense be damned. At the very least he could be certain Badou wasn't going to kill him. He was bringing him cigarettes. That guaranteed him five whole minutes where he didn't have to fear for his life.

The nurse seemed disgustingly pleased with Peter's lack of retorts as she bustled him back to his room and readied his salmon. "There. Michael will be along shortly. Get a good night's rest tonight. We've got the trip to Doyleton tomorrow, so you need to wake up bright and early."

Peter froze. His voice came out like a wheeze. "What?"

"Good night."

And she was gone.

Peter stared at the gently steaming fish, eyes growing wider and wider as silent horror over took him. Wonderful. If he made it through tonight, he could look forward to the zombies tomorrow.

The sudden image of Stein winding his screw wasn't helping. Crank crank crank.

"AUUGH!"

Edited 2010-03-19 19:47 (UTC)

Rika frowned a little as she walked into the room, but she almost immediately forgot her own worries. "Are you okay, Anise? What -- "

Then she looked around the room, noticing something different. "What? Why in the world would they just throw out your stuff without asking?", she asked, as she sat down on the other bed, poking her fork at her fish. "That's really awful. I'm sorry."

It really was. When you only had so many things to hang on to? Things like flowers mattered a lot. Rika understood that and was definitely sympathetic.

Tsubaki sat at her desk, absently mixing her salad with one eye on the door.

Apprehension had its claws dug deep into her belly. A part of her worry had to do with the coming night as it always did, knowing what kind of known and unknown dangers could crop up (not to mention, she’d made a new friend who was in turn new to the Institute himself; that alone made her worry), but the majority of her thoughts rested on the weekend to come.

Tomorrow was the field trip. The memory of decayed corpses lunging at her and Honey and Mori still chilled her after a week to ruminate on them. Anticipating another ambush like it didn’t make it any easier to prepare for it, either. What if those things came out of the ground again…? She turned over a piece of lettuce listlessly. Hopefully those who weren’t aware of what might happen had been--or would be--tipped off… And then after that, there would be visitors again. Tsubaki hadn’t forgotten. The photo album was still in her closet, rising up in the back of her mind every time she had a free moment.

Casting another long look at the door, she wondered when Reinforce would arrive. Tsubaki would rather smile and talk with her. For now, it was the small something she could do.

Much to the nurse's dismay, Ranulf was particularly excited after hearing what the man in the box had said about dinner. Salmon? SALMON?! He was practically skipping! The "sausage" and "chicken tenders" had been good of course, but to be served salmon...

"Alex, please stop tugging so hard on my arm... AND STOP SKIPPING!" the nurse shouted angrily. He'd learned her name was "Florence" from the odd shaped rectangle on her uniform.

"Sorry Flo... but it's salmon! You heard it didn't you?! It's sa-"

"Yes, you've told me multiple times now." she said with an exasperated tone, as she opened the door to his room and sat him down on the bed. "And don't call me Flo."

She left the room for a moment to grab his tray, and as she did, Ranulf peered curiously at the other bed. He wondered who occupied it and was about to ask Flo when his mind stopped. The smell of cooked fish filled the room as she brought Ranulf his dinner and set it down in front of him.

He grinned widely as she left, staring down at a meal that even King Caineghis would've drooled over. He placed one of the cut up bits into his mouth, closing his eyes and savoring it's juices.

The sound of her roommate's voice made Anise conscious of her fuming, and she calmed down a bit as she looked over at the other girl. Right away, Rika seemed to have figured out what the problem was. She had probably gotten used to the sight of flowers in the room, making it easy to notice their absence.

...So she probably also saw how quickly they were dying. It made Anise happy, in a funny sort of way, that she'd take her side despite that. "Right!? That makes me so mad!"

Still irritated, Anise made another jab at her food, though the motion was far less violent this time. Having someone around who seemed to understand her feelings was helping her calm down. Anise chewed and swallowed the piece of fish, and then sighed. She knew she couldn't keep fuming all night.

"Um, so anyway, how've you been? We haven't talked in a bit." Actually, Anise had been pretty worried about Rika. Not only was she fairly new to the institute, but she was young - really young. This had to be a scary place for her.

Hokuto had had a long day, and she hadn't even been conscious for most of it. She hadn't so much as tried to eat lunch--which might have been why when she tried to get up at her nurse's prodding, she blacked out. She was aware of being taken to the infirmary, but she'd just just curled up on the cot she was placed on and drifted off.

She wasn't happy to wake up and realize she was in a wheelchair, but her nurse said something about it being for her safety while she was so unsteady on her feet. Hokuto didn't much care, but she didn't have the energy--or at the moment, the will--to get up, either.

She did not intend on letting herself go completely catatonic, though; she had enough spark left in her to refuse that much. Knowing she needed to eat if she possibly could, she looked her dinner over; she wasn't in the mood for fish, but the chocolate mousse... well, at least one thing was going right for her today.

Looking at her roommate, she added very softly, "Good evening."

This fish again. It was healthier than what they'd had for lunch, certainly, but the spices used left much to be desired. The salmon should have been treated with a lighter flavoring - something that enhanced the natural taste rather than covered it up. ...Perhaps he'd been here too long if he was thinking of ways to improve the dinner. Since when had he complained about the taste of anything?

The dessert was sweet, at least. Sai set his on Honey's desk as he'd done before, leaving his tray on his own as he went to check the closet. It would be problematic if he told Usopp to come by and pick up his weapon only for it to have disappeared over the course of the afternoon. Thankfully, when he opened the door it was still waiting, situated behind his usual ninja attire. Now he just had to hope that Usopp didn't go out and try to take too much on with it.

He didn't change yet (no need for Honey's nurse to possibly take notice of that) but go ahead and start on his dinner. Years of training kept him from making a face at the flavor.

People were going to be coming here. Here. And expecting him to tell them what to do and where to go, and--

And they had somehow already reached his room without him realizing it and Hanatarou jumped a little as the nurse addressed him, bobbing a wide-eyed nod when she asked if he was all right. She didn't seem entirely convinced, but smiled and told him to be certain to get some rest tonight, then patted his shoulder and left him alone with his dinner. He stared after her for a moment before breathing out a long sigh, letting his shoulders sag as he turned toward the desk and slumped into the chair. Dinner didn't look all that bad, but he was, as seemed to be common lately, not at all hungry.

Still, if he was going to be running around tonight he had to. And especially if he was going to be healing anyone, he needed the energy for it. He stared for a minute longer, then picked up the utensils and started in on his food, cutting neat bites of fish and putting them in his mouth almost mechanically.

The shower only provided a temporary relief, then the headache was back growing to full force the moment he stepped out of the hot water and steam. The salmon smelled decent enough, but at the same time, the headiness made his stomach flip flop. His appetite hadn't quite recovered just yet, and since there wasn't any Jim or Nurse Chapel to see him skip out on some of his own advice, McCoy decided to forgo it for the moment. A meal here and there wasn't too big a deal, as long as he caught up later.

First things first: he had catching up on the personal logs from last night and today, then he'd see if he was hungry. McCoy sat down slowly in the chair, rested his head in a hand and pulled the notebook open. The doctor picked up a pen then looked down, somewhat drearily, at the blank pages. Nothing was springing to mind, not even any dry, clinical observations about his day so far. Just an ominously blank white page that also wasn't going to fill itself out no matter how much he willed it to either.

What he really wanted to do was lie down and get some shut-eye before night fell. At the very least, a few hours break from the pulsing in his skull.

McCoy stared at the pages for few more minutes. He managed to jot down a total of two sentences within that time before he gave up. At the rate this was going, it'd take an entire night to get anything worthwhile down. Better to just wait and come at it from another angle later. The doctor got up and lay down instead.

Lelouch waited until his nurse had left before turning a glare on his food. Another shift lost. Fantastic. As if the day hadn't been enough of a waste-- yes, he'd met with both Lunge and Homura, but there had been so much more he'd wanted to accomplish. He'd completely neglected to advertise his club, for instance, and how the hell was he supposed to gain more support for G.A.M.B.I.T. if no one knew about it? That wasn't even touching upon the projects he'd failed complete any work for, and at this stage... even if it was no longer possible to prove his competence by sharing his work on the board, he still had to at least get something done.

He sighed, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes, as if affecting outward calm might somehow effect inward calm. The list of problems that had arisen today seemed interminable. Suzaku still hadn't replied to either of his notes on the board, and while it was entirely possible that he had turned up during fourth shift and missed them, it was more than slightly worrying to think that he had been absent for so long. Lelouch was perfectly capable of continuing his work without him, of course, but with Nunnally and Euphy around-- and what of Euphy? Had she appeared at all today? He should have left a note for her, even if it would have worried Nunnally.

He let his eyes open a crack, then sighed again and picked up his fork. Whatever the case, it was too late now. He would just have to check on Suzaku as planned, then travel to Nunnally's room and see how she was doing. She'd need her sleep tonight, of course, so once he was satisfied that she was all right, he'd either return here or, assuming she didn't mind the disturbance, remain in her room and block his flashlight as best as he could while he worked on his notes.

Maybe in the future he should keep track of the schedule and convince Yue to shift back the night before the shower shift. It was only fair that he had a chance to be himself (for no matter how accustomed he was to being in Yue's body, it still never felt the same) and it would save massive amounts of time in hair-washing. It seemed like whatever happened to one of them happened to both, so it would make sense that if Yukito had clean hair, then Yue would too. Right?

Yukito hesitated briefly, wrinkling his nose with vague amusement as he realized just where his train of thought was leading him. A few weeks ago this all would've seemed incredibly strange to him -- even the awareness that Yue existed hadn't meant that he really comprehended it. It was so much more immediate when he could look in the mirror and see his other self and not his own familiar features.

He managed a polite farewell to the nurse and smiled as she turned to leave, then moved to address the dinner tray she'd left behind. Dinner was always the smallest meal of the day, here, but that wasn't the only reason he missed having Ken as his roommate. Yukito glanced at the other desk, sighed, and started in on his fish. Well. Whoever was here, was here. Or would be shortly. There wasn't really any point in being upset about what couldn't be changed.

Well, today had gone from great to awful right at the end, but at least there was chocolate. Sort of. It was mushy and in a little cup, but it was advertised as chocolate anyway.

HK ate the chocolate stuff, making a happy humming noise, trying to focus on nothing but the chocolatey taste. Well, now he had likely two Autobots who knew he was now a Decepticon, and one that he knew was at least shout-y at him because of it.

And there was going to be a meatbag coming in within the next few minutes, too. Wonderful. The galaxy just loved to shovel giant piles of the most notable and smelly bantha-made product into his way.

622's hair was still damp, a weird feeling after a life so used to the sonic showers always used by the troops, but at least he was clean and feeling refreshed. He wondered if he was going to have another cellmate now, since Loz had disappeared so soon after he'd arrived. Hopefully the odd man was still alive, he hadn't exactly seemed the brightest.

He followed his nurse without comment, curiously looking into the cell once the door was opened. Well, this one certainly took first prize for most unnatural hair color for a human so far, which was certainly saying something.

His nurse gave him his tray of food and left, closing the door and locking it. Thank the Emperor, now I can eat. But he might as well introduce himself first. "I suppose you're my new cellmate, then." He held out a hand politely, "Stormtrooper Sergeant TK-622. I've been here for quite a while, if you need anything explained to you."

Momo was very glad she had her appetite back as the fish smelled very delicious. In a surprisingly pleasant mood, the shinigami started on her dinner while she waited for her roommate to arrive. Celes had said she'd tell Momo what was going on, and she was curious to know.

If he never saw Stein again, it would be too soon. That was a bit of a cliche, but Hayes was just too rattled to come up with an original way of expressing the disturbing presence of that person. And nothing had really even been done to him... not like ZEX, whose disfiguring wounds were still in the front of his mind.

Not the Captain's, though, because Hayes hadn't mentioned any of that to him when he'd had the opportunity, or even arranged a future meeting, or found out what the Institute was calling him so that he could ask the nurse. He'd tried anyway with "Zelnick", of course, but just as predictably she'd insisted there was no one of that name around. He found he wasn't even annoyed about that, or about the patronizing announcement. He was just too relieved to be out of therapy intact.

The cell, when he got there, was downright comforting in its plainness and its containing someone who had never threatened to stab him. As the door shut behind him, he just... stood for a moment, trying to collect enough of his thoughts to actually do something.

Mello's day had been reasonably productive despite the bullshit therapy session and being forced to fight the sedative effects the whole time. Take that, fuckers, he gloated silently, following the nurse to his room. The pain from last night's injuries was back in full force now, though he still hadn't entirely lost the feeling that his head was stuffed with cotton wool. But his injured arm felt almost back to normal. Weird.

Chocolate for dessert, thank god. Maybe Emmett would let Mello swipe his portion again. He was surprised to find that he was starving, and that the fish actually smelled good. The nurse left him with a sickeningly sweet admonition not to let himself get too worked up again. Mello flipped the bird at the closing door. He perched on his desk, feet in the chair, hampered somewhat by the sling, and ate the mousse first.

After his conversation with Lunge, he was more eager than before to see those ruins for himself, but they'd have to wait 'til he recovered, and-- Goddamn it, what the hell was he thinking? The mysteries, the supposed feud, the whole fucking lot of it, none of that mattered as much as getting the hell out. He kicked irritably at the back of the chair. What could he do tonight to further that goal?

Falis was almost glad her personal vulture gave her more poison capsules. Sometimes she just didn't want to think and after the confrontation with Kagura, not thinking sounded good. Ignoring her dinner, Falis laid down on her bed, staying on her good side. While she floated in her mind haze, she wondered if Senna would say anything to her when the girl arrived.

It was closer now. Only another hour or so and the doors would open. It was that much closer, this stupid plan of Sheena's. The ninja was so damn nervous, she was glad she was making curry so she didn't have to try to manage eating without getting bits of fish all over her front. She gave up on the idea of making some cards. She couldn't concentrate enough and her hands were shaking and... just better not to in case she accidentally blew herself up.

On crispy charred ninja would really kill the mood she was trying to set with this dinner/date/pact thing.

Sheena gave a bit of a whimper whilst alone and double-checked all the items she needed to take with her.

Agatha's pen darted across the page.

The bad news of her continued affliction just couldn't compare with the anticipation of fixing it or the joy of making plans. Plans for the night's expedition? Well, that too. Mainly, though, she was drawing plans for devices.

The first few items on the page were really just modified flashlights. Further down, though, exotic power sources and foci started to be added, and it was increasingly unlikely that any of it could be made with the items she'd seen here. Still, you never knew, right?

Junpei was feeling all weird by the time he got back to his room. Woah... Aigis human version 1.0.

Sitting down heavily on his bed, Junpei sighed. This was so fucked up.

The nurse eyed Guybrush cautiously as she handed him his dinner tray, as if she expected the smile on his face and the pleasant conversation he was trying to have with her was all some sort of a show. In the end, she shook her head and simply closed the door before him without a word, leaving him alone. The pirate smirked, confident she hadn't a clue what he was planning.

"All right, got to get ready," he told himself, setting the tray on his desk before opening his closet door. The sword and shovel he'd crammed in there that morning were still in their places right against the door- they both clanged to the floor again the moment their support was gone, making just as much of a racket as they had earlier. Guybrush hissed through his teeth, begging the tools to quiet themselves as he listened for his nurse to return.

He took a panicked look toward the door- no footsteps, no questioning of what in the world that noise could be, no attention at all from the nurse who couldn't have been more than two or three steps away from the room. "Wow, she's either completely deaf or really, really doesn't like me," he mused grimly. He collected the shovel and sword from the floor, dropping them onto the bed. Next was the flashlight, which was tossed beside the other items. "Can't forget that, either."

Preparations as made as they could be, he had a seat at his desk and started on the meal. Worse than wandering in the dark was wandering on an empty stomach.

Edited 2010-03-20 04:44 (UTC)

The door opening and closing, signaling Mr. Hayes' arrival, rang through his head like a red alert. McCoy swore quietly under his breath and covered his eyes with a hand.

"You mind keeping it down, commander?" the doctor asked quietly, his voice muffled. He probably wasn't even being that loud, but it felt as loud as standing right in the thick of the engine room. It'd hopefully go away once he got some sleep, but now that he was lying down, he was finding it hard to fall asleep. His mind was working rapidly, going over today's events, that shift Venkman, the previous night, what happened to his Enterprise, where they even looking for him(?), their assignment this night. Everything that wasn't conducive to falling asleep.

Edited 2010-03-20 04:53 (UTC)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 10

Day 48: Intercom, Evening

F14

M21

F7

M71

Re: F14

F31

M100

Re: F14

Re: F7

M60

M7

M41

M31

M11

M64

Re: M100

F12

no subject

M33

F22

F2

F28

M8

M85

no subject