DAY 23: Shift 2, Game Room

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia had been about to ask Renji what that 'never mind' had been all about, but the intercom clicked on, interrupting her. Right away, the nurse approached, cheerful as always. "Okay, Shiori, would you like to go to the Sun Room, the Game Room, or the Music Room?"

Rukia stared at the woman, open-mouthed, for a moment. Hadn't the man just said that adults were to go to the showers...? And then Rukia realized that, yes, she looked like she was about 15 years old. Great. She almost protested, but, remembering her vow to be good and try to get information from the staff, she smiled, saying, "Aah, how about the Game Room? That sounds... fun."

Casting one last unreadable look at Renji, Rukia followed the nurse out of the library, to the room next door. Really, she felt like she should be trying harder to chat up the nurse, but she was still in shock over Ichigo's disappearance. And things with her and Renji...

Padding over to one of the large, brown couches, Rukia sat down. The couch was surprisingly comfortable, so she kicked off her slippers and tucked her feet up. Taking out her notebook and pen, she stared at the notes she'd made during breakfast, not really seeing them.

Comments

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

The sun room was boring, and the music room sounded too noisy for Ed's tastes at the moment. He wasn't musical in the slightest and although he could enjoy it from time to time, it had never been high on his list of priorities. At least the Games Room seemed like it might be a little more interesting. Maybe he could get a card game going or something?

He entered, noting that the one other person in the room was that girl Renji had been talking to. He didn't approach her, instead settling himself at one of the tables and grabbing a pack of cards which he shuffled expertly. He was good at cards, even if he hated losing enough to cheat a lot of the time. He'd been on too many long train journies to not develop a fondness for card games.

With no-one else in sight, he started to lay out a game of solitaire to occupy himself.

[daddyslilkiller.livejournal.com]

Omi would probably never admit it, but he was secretly glad of the excuse to get away from Kurama. It wasn't that he didn't like him or that he didn't want to spend time with him, but Kurama tended to ask a lot of questions that Omi would really rather not answer. Questions he might have to answer during dinner, if he wanted to keep good relations with his roommate.

Well, life was all about sacrifices.

He found himself in the Game Room more by chance than by choice. He wouldn't be able to find Yohji and Aya until later, it seemed. Of the people already in the room, the blond playing cards at the table seemed the most approachable, so he did.

"Hi, I'm Omi. Do you mind?" Hopefully the blond wouldn't mind too much, because Omi was already flopping down into a second chair. Sometimes, the best way to meet people was not to give them a choice.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

Ed looked up warily as another boy sat down nearby. He shook his head, deciding he should probably be polite at least and use the few social skills he had left. "I don't mind," he said, scooping up the cards from the failed game of solitaire and returning them to the pack, shuffling it carelessly.

"I'm Ed," he offered after a moment, setting the cards down on the table in front of him.

He shifted awkwardly for a moment, unsure of how to continue a conversation with someone he didn't know and which didn't involve fighting or alchemy."

"Have you been here long?" he asked finally.

[daddyslilkiller.livejournal.com]

Ed probably didn't have to worry. Omi was usually more than friendly enough to make up for any social awkwardness.

"Since yesterday. Did I interrupt your game? Sorry." Omi already looked younger than he was, so when he propped his elbows on the table and dropped his chin into his hands, it was a conscious gesture to make himself appear as young, cute, and harmless as possible. Young, cute, and harmless were usually a good combination to encourage conversation.

If that didn't work, he might actually try acting his age for a while and see where that got him.

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

Ed shook his head again, forcing a smile for the other boy. "I'd lost anyway," he said with a shrug. "You're not interrupting anything." Solitaire was only interesting for a very short time anyway.

"Yesterday, huh?" he said consideringly, wondering how old this kid was anyway. He looked fairly young, but Ed had learned not to let that deceive him. He leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice so the nurses couldn't hear. "You know about nightshift then?" he asked. If this kid didn't, then he needed to know.

[daddyslilkiller.livejournal.com]

Omi wondered if telling Ed that he didn't have to smile like that for him would be out of line. Most people didn't like to know that their fake smiles weren't necessary when they put so much time into them.

He nodded. Obviously, not everyone felt the same way as Kurama did about the nurses finding out about things. He smiled in a 'look, I can take care of myself, so don't worry!' sort of way. "Monsters and everything, yep. Well, big rats, anyway."

[lost-metal.livejournal.com]

Ed rolled his eyes at the mention of the rats and nodded, relaxing slightly in his chair. "Yeah. Not seen any rats myself," he began, "but I've fought a couple of the cats. All rotted and mangy."

He paused for a moment, considering what else he should warn Omi about. "Oh, and there's this machine thing. All metal but it moves really quickly and has these light sword... things." He really didn't know how else to describe them really. "It was near the Sun Room the first time, and then up by the MU rooms the other night."

[daddyslilkiller.livejournal.com]

"The rats were the same. The smell was the worst part, almost." And, of course, the fact that there'd been so many of them. But nightshift had ended, so it had all been okay, anyway.

The warning about the 'machine with light sword things' was duly noted and filed away. If people were thinking to warn about something, it was probably bad enough to keep an eye out for. It wasn't the warning that caught his attention, though. He'd heard about the various monsters before, but not...

"MU rooms?"

[devils-tactics.livejournal.com]

Kazuo debated. He'd been in the sunroom yesterday, and while he liked music very much, he didn't feel like it right now. So, that left the game room. Kazuo was most interested in exploring right now, anyway.

He took note of the two people in the room, walked past them, and browsed through the shelves. He hadn't heard of most of these things; all he'd ever really played was cards, gambling and taking vast amounts of money from his gang. It looked like the other guy had a fondness for cards, too, but Kazuo wasn't one to initiate a game. He grabbed a deck of his own and fiddled with it, flopping down in a chair.

[dancingdagger.livejournal.com]

Penelo had a rather rude awakening that morning - she had overslept and missed breakfast! Penelo was normally able to get up whenever she was needed, but she was unusually drained this morning.

Maybe because she hadn't eaten anything ever since she arrived here. Regardless, she missed breakfast, so Penelo requested that she be taken to the game room (apparently she wasn't considered an adult quite yet). Maybe a good game with one of the other patients would take her mind off of food until lunchtime.

The game room seemed relatively empty when she entered. A girl was reading on a couch and two boys looked like they were discussing something. That left the last young man, fiddling with a deck of cards.

"Hey there," She greeted him, taking a seat across from him. "Waiting for someone to play a game with you?" It was worth a shot to ask, Penelo thought.

[devils-tactics.livejournal.com]

Kazuo looked up from his cards. The girl was decently cute. He gave her his usual expressionless gaze. "If you want to," he said. "What do you want to play?"

They didn't have anything to gamble with, but he didn't mind; at least it would pass the time. "Kazuo," he said, after a moment's pause, pointing to himself. He shuffled the cards quickly.

[dancingdagger.livejournal.com]

Penelo thought for a moment. She knew a few card games but... if everyone was from a different world, then would he know the same kind of games she did? Were card games universal? It was a bit confusing, to tell the truth.

"Poker?" Penelo asked. That seemed pretty well known in all parts of Ivalice, maybe it was well known to the rest of the universe too.

"I'm Penelo," She smiled, pleased to know Kazuo's name. "It's nice to meet you. Are you new here too or you've been around for awhile?"

[devils-tactics.livejournal.com]

"Nice to meet you," Kazuo replied. He might as well be pleasant; people could come in handy sometimes. "I've been here since yesterday. It's a strange place. Are there actually any doctors here or anything? I haven't seen anyone but other patients."

In repsonse to her comment, he started to deal the cards. "I can play poker. But I don't have anything to bet with."

[dancingdagger.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, one needed something to bet with for poker... Penelo looked around, but didn't find anything that could be used immediately. "Right... I guess we can improvise for now."

Watching him deal the cards, she nodded to his response. So he came around the same time she did. "I got here yesterday too. I haven't seen any doctors around either. Just other patients and the nurses... I guess it doesn't matter, since none of us are sick to begin with."

[devils-tactics.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't seem like a real hospital," Kazuo said, pushing Penelo's hand over to her. Kazuo considered what to say next carefully. He wanted to see if his Battle Royale theory was true. "What were you doing before you came here?"

[dancingdagger.livejournal.com]

Penelo had to agree. This was no hospital. But the question remained - What was this building for, then? She had the feeling she didn't want to find out.

"I was um... flying an airship," Penelo answered, taking her hand. "I'm a navigator and my friend Vaan was the pilot. We encountered some fog and our airship started to fall out of the sky. I don't know if it actually crashed or not, because I blacked out and woke up here."

It still terrified her to think about it. Yet she had to wonder... what happened to Vaan?

"What about you?"

[idolism]

_{[from here]}

Somehow he didn't mind the Landel's standard uniform as much as he had before his experiences in the shower. That had been...

There was no suitable adjective. Just the idea of him being naked and Alucard being naked and both of them in the same vicinity - Ugh. Even allowing a room full of people to eye up his - er, him - was preferable. At least the warm water and soap helped with his wounds; despite not having to worry about infection and the like, they were still healing slower than he'd like. The ones on his stomach and shoulder would be nothing more than angry red marks by the end of the day, and the scratches on his cheek were the most fresh.

And now? It was time to sleep. Being awake in the daytime was ludicrous for a vampire, and Aidou took his sleep very seriously.

Since he'd finished his shower earlier than expected, at the choices laid out by his nurse, Aidou settled for the Game Room. Out of all the rooms available to the "patients", the Game Room was the only one without a window and thankfully devoid of natural light. It was more productive than getting into another fight, especially with her. That woman seemed indestructible and followed him as doggedly as his own shadow.

Fortunately, there weren't too many children when Aidou arrived, just a few groups of two and a lone girl on one of the couches. He'd had the same basic idea. Flopping onto the couch sitting perpendicular to hers, he stretched out his legs and pulled the jacked he'd been dragging around all day up over his head. It was still too bright.

"Don't make too much noise, okay? I'm trying sleep."

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia had been sitting quietly for a while, listening to the conversations around her, but not participating. People were talking about fighting rat monsters, as well as those cat things, and airships and something called "Battle Royale", and she had to wonder, jokingly, if maybe she was crazy. Sighing, she leaned back against the soft cushion, watching as another boy came into the room and flopped down on the other couch.

She wasn't even sure he was addressing her, but his tone was annoying, so she replied, "I wasn't making any noise to begin with."

[idolism]

"But you will. Eventually. I was being pre-emptive."

There were odd conversations going on around them - about the potential experiments, disappearance, things that went bump in the night that weren't vampires - but it was her voice that caught his attention.

Aidou sat up a little, letting the jacket slide off his head. When he had been conversing with Renji on the bulletin board, there had been more than one girl. Claire was too Western of a name for this one, though... "Hey, you must be Rukia-chan. Right?"

Abarai Renji's companion, eh? The one who had been sitting with him at breakfast. Not that Aidou had had a chance to look her over for curiosity's sake because of what had happened. This close, the scent of her injuries was pretty nice.

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia raised an eyebrow at the familiar term. "Don't call me that," she said, before she could remember not to sound annoyed. She stopped herself, offering a small smile. "Sorry. Just, Rukia is fine. And you are?"

The boy was very tall and thin, with a pretty face the likes of which you didn't see in Soul Society - or anywhere else - very often. She wondered what sort of... world he was from.

[idolism]

Aidou settled back, folding his arms behind his head. So he'd been right. Although her snap response was more entertaining - Yuki-chan hated him calling her that too, but she was too polite to say anything about it. It was more or less when he grabbed her around the shoulders and tormented her when she'd finally rebuke him.

"Aidou. Aidou Hanabusa. I recognized you from the cafeteria this morning," he supplied. When she looked at him, Aidou quirked his lips in a smile; he was adept at knowing which variety of stare he was receiving. "Something wrong?"

[haiiro-no-chou.livejournal.com]

Rukia, still distracted by everything that had been happening, mistakenly connected Aidou's statement and question. He'd seen her in the cafeteria, where she had passed out - twice - then grabbed Renji and left. Yeah, a lot of 'somethings' were wrong, but she wasn't going to pour out her worries on someone she didn't know.

"Ah, no, just trying to get used to this place." Rukia looked around the room, paying particular attention to the windows, but as with all the windows she'd seen so far, they looked very sturdy. "So, Aidou, what brought you to the Game Room this fine morning?" It was as good a question as any, she figured.

[idolism]

"Yes, Landel's Institute for the clinically insane is pretty trying, isn't it? Especially with all those annoying intercom and radio announcements." Not to mention the fact that the majority, with a few glaring exceptions, were in perfectly fine mental health.

Rukia herself didn't look particularly sunny - at least not everyone like "Captain Jack" was overly bouncy. In fact, her color was off too. A minor injury like the one she had wouldn't normally be more than an aggravation. Something else then.

At her question, he gave a relaxed smile. Fine morning? Feh. But he could stand to talk with her awhile. After lunch, he planned to be sleeping until dinner, anyway. "No particular reason. Any place is better than the showers. But since you're here too, I assume you'll be doing so in the fourth shift? Good luck with that." That reminded him, he'd caught a glimpse of Renji-chan in there also, hadn't he? Going at it with Ichimaru Gin.

"Ne, you're friends with Abarai. How's he doing this morning? Perky?"

Aidou's question was innocent enough; he was somewhat curious as to how Renji-chan's bid for truth and justice and the protection of small children was going.

[per-ardua.livejournal.com]

[[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/89236.html?thread=5215380#t5215380).]]

After she'd dressed (and made sure her still-damp hair was covering her ears), Raine made it a point to ask a different nurse to take her elsewhere... not particularly caring, she agreed to go to the Game Room. Although it occured to her that it might be easier to talk to the other two there without the nurses wondering about anything... she was going to be pissed off about that one for a while.

Feeling the need to make certain it looked as though they were simply keeping themselves occupied, she grabbed a deck of cards before finding a place to sit.

[never-learns.livejournal.com]

[From Male Showers]

The games room was fairly quiet when they entered, only a couple of small groups using it, which boded well for them managing to chat and play cards without having to fight off kids.

Yohji settled down at a table, grabbing a pack of cards and starting to shuffle them while he looked around the room. His eyes widened slightly as his gaze settled on one of the kids in the room with them, starting at the familiar face, one which he hadn't seen for a long time. Omi...

He turned his attention back to the cards, not ready to face that yet unless he absolutely had to. He glanced up at Cliff, smiling faintly. "Game?"