Day 50: Chapel

[full-score.livejournal.com]

The last thing Claude heard was the Head Doctor's voice faintly filtering into the corridors of the ship before he found himself tucked beneath the sheets of his bed. It took a moment to register he'd even changed locations, but then he he abruptly sat up, fought the wave of nausea that washed over him, and felt the blankets beneath his fingers. The room. He was back in his room now. Under different circumstances, he might have wondered if last night had been some horrid dream, but the sharp pain in his eyes gave him a rude awakening. Hissing through his teeth, Claude buried the heels of his palms against his lids, only to discover two cold compresses had been taped over them.

"Good morning, Thomas," he heard the nurse's cheerful voice from beside his bed. Her sudden presence nearly made him jump out of his skin, and he sharply turned toward the source of the greeting, heart beating rapidly in his chest. "I'm sorry you're not feeling well today, but hopefully you can still enjoy some of the activities we have planned."

'Not feeling well' was a bit of an understatement. His hand hurt, his stomach kept turning with every movement, and it felt like someone had dumped a bunch of sand into both eye sockets. Right now, Claude just wanted the nurse to leave him be, but it didn't look like that was an option. Taking his uninjured hand, she gently tugged him out of bed, despite his protests that, no, really, he just wanted to stay in and sleep, please.

"I think getting out of your room a little bit will do you good," she told him. "I'm sorry your eyes are probably hurting, though. If you're ever feeling uncomfortable, don't hesitate to ask one of us for some pills."

"What about eye drops?" Claude asked tightly.

"Oh, no, too much of that could damage your eyes," she cautioned, and the sheer irony of the situation hit Claude so hard that it would have been laughable if he didn't already feel like crying right then. The nurse was as oblivious to it as always, however. "I know you usually go into the chapel during this shift. Would you like to go there again?" Claude didn't answered immediately, but that didn't deter the nurse. "Yes, I think that sounds best..."

In truth, he probably should have requested the sun room -- it was closer, for one, which meant the nurse didn't have to lead him as far of a distance. For another, lying down on one of their sofas sounded like a good option. But by the time Claude came to that conclusion, he was too stubborn to say anything, and he made his way up to the second floor, his footing slow, but steady.

The nurse deposited him on one of the central pews, next to the aisle, before leaving him to himself. Thankfully, it was still early in the shift. As he paused to listen, the room was mostly silent, save for the footsteps and hushed voices of the occasional staff member or patient who trickled in. But it was probably only a matter of time before others came. For some reason, the thought of being stuck in a crowded room made him tense, not necessarily because he thought anyone would pay him any mind, but because he simply didn't want it right then.

Somehow, the full implications of what happened last night hadn't sunken in: experiments, healing himself, the issue of whether he could actually go home after this, not being able to see, the ship, father. Instead, he just felt saturated with all of it, paralyzed by the horror of what they'd done to him, and the uncertainty of what it all meant beyond this moment. Claude took a shuddering breath, uninjured hand balling into a fist in his lap.

[For Guy.]

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[heraldric.livejournal.com]

"It's... well I'm not a hundred percent certain." Leon scratched just behind one of his ears, feeling suddenly awkward trying to relate this when the details were still so sketchy. If it hadn't actually been Haseo's world, or game, then Landel had sure done a good job of duplicating it - even down to the portals that worked with no one around to operate them. "We ended up somewhere that looked like the place a couple of my friends are from. It's actually a game of some sort, but it looks like a whole distinct world."

Yeah, Leon still didn't know all the details surrounding that so he wasn't going to even try explaining it. "It was empty of anyone else beside us, though, so I'm not sure how real it actually was. It might just have been some sort of copy, or a false reality that we stepped into. There's no way of telling just yet."

Had his group been the only one to run across this? If Kibitoshin's group had been having the same issues with the doors, then others would have too. Someone else had to have ended up somewhere as strange as they had. It would just take a little more asking around.

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

"You're not sure? O-oh..." The Kaioshin's face fell briefly before he remembered himself and tried not to look too disappointed. What had he been expecting? There was no way they'd genuinely be sent home, not properly. Still, if it had looked enough like wherever Leon's friends had come from to confuse them, who knew what kind of use someone like the Head Doctor could put it to? It was probably a good thing he hadn't found somewhere like that himself- the odds of walking straight into a trap if it had been his world were probably higher than he'd have liked to admit.

He sighed a little, giving Leon an anxious smile. "Well, if there wasn't anyone around, I'd say that was pretty suspicious. Not that I'm an expert or anything. Are your friends okay?"

Now there was one other reason Kibitoshin could find to be grateful, even in spite of his homesickness. Getting so close to freedom, only to wake up back in the Institute again the next morning as if nothing had even happened... he couldn't imagine how Leon's friends had felt after that. Like they'd been cheated. Even if he couldn't quite get his head around how their world could be a game: did Leon mean like the ones his Ancestor always played?

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

The boy nodded. "Yeah, they're fine." At least they had been the last time he'd seen them, which was before the end of night. As he'd never seen anything happen to someone from the point night ended to the first shift the next morning, he could only assume they were both at least physically all right, if shaken mentally. And besides, he'd already seen Endrance. Looking back over, he saw that Haseo had joined him as well. So yes, they were both fine.

He could understand why Kibitoshin would be disappointed over the lack of information. Leon himself was disappointed about that. It was as though Landel had waved some important truth about the Institute in front of their faces, but then snatched it away before anyone could get a good, proper look. Like they'd been given a taste of home only to have the plate taken away after a single bite. It was a game, moreso than the world Haseo and Endrance had come from.

Leon gave the man a weak smile. "At least we all made it through that mess."