damned_institute | Day 50: Sun Room (4th Shift)

The Sun Room was dark when Taura re-entered it; her eyes adjusted quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid one of the 'techs coming over to talk to her.

"Were you going to join us for the movie, Kitty?" she asked, waving a hand at what appeared to be a 2-D projector screen.

"Movie?" This was, apparently, the wrong question to ask, as the woman's face fell into a moue of practiced disappointment.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, Kitty." Doing what, exactly, was something 'Kitty' was evidently supposed to know. Then the screen flicked on, and some sort of advertisement was playing while a staffer adjusted the volume. Oh. The term was unfamiliar, but entertainment hadn't changed that much.

"I mean, er, what movie is it?" Taura rumbled, keeping her voice low so as not to interrupt. That must have been the right question; the woman brightened back up and started explaining.

"King Kong!" she said, clearly expecting a reply. Then she sighed, and continued. "It's about a giant ape, brought back from an exploration," she began. "It's also a love story -- oh, just trust me. It's a classic."

"The ape falls in love?" That sounded a little outré, at least by Institute standards of entertainment. Not by Jacksonian ones, but those Taura had been just as pleased to leave behind.

"Oh, nothing like that. Well, the ape does fall in love -- but it's just a beast. Why, Fay Wray doesn't even come up to its waist." Taura blinked at her again. What did height have to do with it, anyway? She was leaning, just a little, without even realizing it. Perhaps looming would be a better word. The 'tech blinked back, and then finally the penny dropped. "Oh...oh. Maybe it wouldn't be to your taste, dear." And with that, she scurried off to adjust a chair that was already facing the screen quite adequately. Taura sighed, and slipped through the gathering crowd to the bulletin board.

[Zack]

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What kind of imbecilic... She hadn't even noticed? A week was no small amount of time in this place. It was better than it could have been, but it still meant Callisto had to have missed out on several events. (For as much as they usually mattered to her...) She pulled away from Yukari with a growl. The Institute had to have done something to the woman's mind for her to be acting this way, but it wasn't anything she had to care about.

Given the rate in which people disappeared here, it was possible that most of those who'd known her would be gone now. A couple would be easy enough to locate - Homura, for instance, used the bulletin board a fair amount. She'd check that later when the darkness of the room wouldn't make it difficult to read.

Things could definitely be worse, but it was still... irritating. "You're barely more useful awake than asleep right now," she grumbled at the youkai absently.

"It's been an awake-and-asleep kind of day," the youkai responded vaguely. She still wasn't sure whether it was from the rain, the portals or the summoning.

"So are you one of those fabled disappears-and-comes-back-with-memories cases then?" Yukari asked curiously, peering up at the woman. "Do you remember what happens in between?"

Oh right. One of those cases. Callisto didn't keep up with all the gossip, but that had been something that happened before, hadn't it? Except she knew for a fact that this wasn't the same sort of scenario. She hadn't just disappeared, she'd been killed. Homura had put a blade in her throat in a manner that a mortal being didn't rise from, and she'd felt the life ebb out of her. She knew what it felt like to die, seeing as she'd been through the experience multiple times already.

That did mean that Yukari didn't know she'd been killed, unless her current addled state had simply caused her to forget this little detail. "Looks like it, sweetheart." The other woman's question received an answer only as an afterthought. "And no, I can't say I do. Sorry to disappoint."

No, Yukari really didn't know what had happened to Callisto - all she knew is one day they were roommates, the next, the youkai had been moved. As far as she'd known, Callisto was still in their old room; it wasn't as if they saw each other outside it much. Still, if Callisto had disappeared, that explained the sudden move.

"Hmm, that's too bad. So we don't know if you went home, were in some other part of the institute, didn't exist or were riding the train to Gensokyo," she mused aimlessly, waving a finger about in different directions with each option she listed. "Just disappearing and reappearing... how indecisive of the good doctor."

Callisto doubted that the 'good doctor' was indecisive about much. If she'd been gone for a week, then it had been for a reason. It hadn't been a death in the Arena, so perhaps he'd simply wanted there to be some buffer afterward for one reason or another - if only to throw her off, perhaps. She wouldn't put that past him.

She had no idea what a 'train to Gensokyo' was. Clearly something from Yukari's world, which made it unimportant. Not existing during that time actually made the most sense to her - that or being set aside for study somewhere. Wasn't that what they did in this place? Study people for some unexplained reason?

"Yes, you'd think he'd go making it easy for everyone to figure out." Stupid girl.

"Rather than a method to the madness, I've always thought there was a bit of whimsy to this game," Yukari replied, slumping back down in the couch. All this thinking about the institute and Landel's motives was making her head spin. Maybe she'd stay in tonight.

"I wonder what the nurses would tell you? Not like they tell the truth though..." The youkai yawned loudly and snuggled deeper into the cushions. Why wasn't she asleep? Oh, right, because Callisto had approached her. Why was that? She couldn't remember why it was a surprise...

The nurses would be as worthless as always, and frankly Callisto didn't care to ask them. Whatever their lies were, she couldn't care less about hearing them, interesting or not. She might ask later, perhaps, if she was bored.

Yukari looked like she was ready to head off to sleep again, and the former warlord wasn't going to stop her. As it was, she'd most likely gotten all the information from her that she could. And even if she hadn't, there was no way she was going to get anything more useful from her if she was only half awake. Damn this place and the way it constantly made things more difficult for her.

Callisto made a small murmur of agreement just to have some answer for the youkai before turning her attention back to scoping out the others in the room.

Day 50: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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