damned_institute | Day 52: Game Room

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Day 52: Game Room

Lunch had taken his mind from his worries, if only for a few minutes. But after the intercom sounded and the nurses began leading patients onto the next activity, one look at the bulletin board brought everything back in full force. No replies from Ashton, Dias or Dad. By now Claude felt like he was practically counting down until the end of the day, when he was going to have to finally grapple with the real possibility that most of his friends from before Landel's, as well as his own father, had fallen victim to the institute.

And now he was going to have to deal with his mother being here on top of that. It didn't seem like a coincidence that she'd show up right when his father's whereabouts were so up in the air. But what did it mean? Why couldn't Landel leave his family out of this?

Normally, the announcement about new video games would have made him perk up, but his eyebrows only knit together with concern as his nurse led him into the game room. That didn't seem to stop her from trying to get him to unwind, though.

"Oh, come now, Thomas, you've worn that expression for most of the day!" she told him with a frown. "Why don't you have a bit of fun now that your eyes are all better? I'm sure you could use it."

The last thing he wanted was to be reminded of his "sleep studies", he darkly thought to himself. But before he could protest, his nurse had sat him down in front of one of the television screens. There was an old gaming console, one Claude had never seen before, and he glanced at her with a confused expression. "Go on," she encouraged as she placed one of the controllers in his hands. "I know how much you enjoy these kinds of things. Someone will come play with you soon, too, I'm sure. Doesn't that sound nice?"

He didn't have time to answer her, because she'd soon bustled off to tend to some of the other patients. Claude watched her leave with a sigh. He realized the daytime staff meant well, which made knowing what they turned into at night even worse to think about. But now he was just being negative for the sake of it, wasn't he?

Taking in a small breath, he reached over to the console and turned it on. As long as he was waiting for some kind of answer from the bulletin, there probably wasn't much he could do except pass the time. Claude watched the title screen appear on the television, his expression growing more curious in spite of himself. Super Mario Bros....

[For Prussia!]

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Okay, this guy was definitely French. As Peter shook the man's hand and then pulled away, he couldn't help laughing briefly and shaking his head. "No need to be so formal. We're just working together, right?" Which meant no one was a servant of anyone else. While he realized Javert had probably meant it as a turn of phrase rather than being literal, Peter still didn't think that so much politeness was necessary.

Seeing how Peter wasn't that great with the Japanese names himself, he could hardly judge. He was surprised that Javert had noticed, and that he also took the time to offer his condolences. It seemed like he was definitely the sort of person who'd be interested in helping (and rescuing) others.

"It's all right," he said with a shake of his head. "Well, it isn't, but... I really wasn't that close to him, compared to other people. I'm just not sure if the paramedic group is even still active, now that he's gone." He'd been displaced, that was for sure. Maybe it would be easier for him to just throw his lot in with Search and Rescue, but he also wouldn't mind keeping an eye out for someone else who was interested in taking over Hanatarou's spot.

Javert had never held much truck with formalities in his own time, and it was almost reassuring that they were even less important now, but he was finding it difficult to stop here. Force of habit, perhaps.

"It does appear that many of the established club leaders seem to have vanished in the past week." It seemed improper to call it release; the word left a bad taste in his mouth besides. "It's either a sign that they were growing too close to the truth for Landel's liking, or it's entirely random. That, I expect, is the problem with a place like this."

He was growing heartily sick of chasing leads that went nowhere and following after clues that could have been anything. With luck, Sechs's note would prove useful in changing all of that. "That said, there must be some healers out there--either veterans or newly arrived. Has anything come up on the bulletin board?"

Was that really the case? Peter didn't keep up with most of the clubs that closely, so he hadn't noticed that the leaders were getting snatched off like that. It was pretty worrisome, and he found it kind of hard to believe that it was a coincidence. "I'm pretty sure Landel is planning it," he said while his eyes narrowed. He didn't think that would just happen by chance, not when it was the clubs that tended to stand out the most.

It sounded like Javert had heard about the healers already, which made sense. If the guy had been around long enough to be running a club, then he'd likely seen the thinly-veiled notes about healing before. "Yeah, I've met a few of them, actually. I can't heal myself, but..." He wasn't letting that stop him, and that was that. He knew that a healer would probably be more welcomed than someone who only had their hands and some bandages to work with, but there were more injured patients than there were people who had the power to mend wounds with a sweep of their hand.

"Still," he continued, "I think most of them were following Hanatarou. Now that he's gone, I don't know if they want anything to do with me." When he'd tried to make a post yesterday to check up with everyone, they had all just asked after Hanatarou. And while that was understandable, it wasn't really helpful now that the kid was gone. He wasn't sure if it had something to do with most of the healers being younger, but they didn't seem interested in working with him.

Javert shook his head, making an abrupt gesture of dismissal. "We'd be in a fine state of affairs if the only people capable of assisting in a medical capacity were those who possessed some supernatural ability. Doctors and nurses should be sufficient; I expect you have those here."

Disbelief appeared on his face as Peter continued, and he let out a faint snort of derision. "Understandable as their concern for their friend might be, it would be a poor healer indeed who chose not to continue serving as one simply because that friend went missing. Regardless, I'm certain there are other members of the patient populace who would be amenable to working with you."

It seemed that this man, at least, wasn't going to judge him even though he didn't have the power to heal. Normally, he might have been able to. He could have absorbed that ability from someone, but the fact of the matter was that Peter was used to doing it the old-fashioned way. It was one of the few things that he was good at without having any powers to back him up, and so he was going to make the best of it if he could.

"Yeah, I'm a nurse," he explained, "so I've got formal training. I just need to get myself up to the pharmacy so I can gather some more medicine and supplies." Now that Hanatarou was gone, chances were his stockpile of medicine was too. That was a shame, but Peter figured he could build up a supply of his own. No, there was no question to it; he had to.

Javert definitely had a point, though. As upsetting as it was to lose someone, that didn't mean that anyone should stop wanting to work and help. He wasn't going to expect anything out of anyone or force people into doing what he considered right, but there had to be some who wouldn't hesitate to throw their lot in with him. "I guess I'll try to see who's still on board tomorrow. The question is how we even find our patients." Hanatarou's idea had been a good one, but the execution had never been figured out completely.

"Formal training is better than I'd hoped. You are from around this time period, correct?" Javert had seen the storerooms on the second floor, almost all the contents of which had yet to be invented in his own time. Treveylan and Taylor had known how to use them; if Peter did, that was already immensely useful. It was true the injuries one saw in this place were usually severe, but all, regardless of severity, were treated come morning; all one had to do was keep the patient alive until then, and he imagined a trained nurse from this time period would be more than capable of the task in most situations.

"One of my associates has advised that Search and Rescue carry certain items of medicine around with them at all times, particularly on nights when experimentation takes place." What were the names? "Vicodin, amoxicillin. Something else for...anaphylactic shock, I believe, though I can't remember the name. A syringe of some sort, in any case."

He shook his head slightly and offered a brief, humorless smile. "It's useful advice, but I expect I'd rest easier if someone who actually knew how to use them were traveling with me on any given night. If you can find willing participants, I'd be most grateful. The question of finding those in need could easily be settled if we had enough volunteers patrol the corridors."

Better than he'd hoped. That was a nice phrase to hear, Peter had to admit. He was used to disappointing people, and that hadn't necessarily changed even when he'd had abilities. He'd been a hero to a few people here and there, but he had also been a nuisance to others, and to some extent, he realized that. It was in retrospect, but he knew he'd burdened some people and he knew that he had blood on his hands. To feel like he was being appreciated was nice, especially from a stranger who didn't feel obligated to stroke his ego.

"Yeah, this time period," Peter answered with a solid nod. He knew what he was doing. It really hadn't been that long since he'd graduated from his nursing program, so the knowledge was fresh enough that he wasn't too worried about screwing something up. His bigger concern was that he didn't have all the supplies that he needed.

But it seemed like Javert already had some idea of the good medicine to have on hand, and Peter looked somewhat impressed as the man rattled off a few familiar names. "Yeah, those and a few others. I think that anti-anxiety pills would also be good to keep on hand, just to calm people down after they've been through something traumatic." Maybe he could get up to the pharmacy tonight, if he could find someone else to go with. Peter considered asking Javert, but he also figured that the man was pretty busy with his own responsibilities.

"I wouldn't mind heading up there with you sometime," he offered. "Though I'm curious... what does Search and Rescue do on the nights when there aren't sleep studies?" Maybe those were just their nights off to go look into other areas of interest.

Javert made a mental note. "Is there another name by which those pills might be known? I don't recall that specific label on any of the boxes in the pharmacy."

Anti-anxiety pills. They had some sort of medicine for everything here, and no doubt multiple ways to pervert their use as well. But Peter's next question pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Ah." A slight inclination of his head. "There you have me, I'm afraid. I wasn't entirely intending to take on the mantle of leader, and given my personal interests in the sleep studies, it was inevitable that I would direct volunteers toward that particular area. I confess I haven't given the matter of off nights much thought."

He rubbed his chin. "That said, if we did manage to acquire any experienced fighters, it might not be a bad idea to purposefully seek out Special Counseling patients and incapacitate or at least delay them; it would save a great deal of other patients time and injury. Granted, it's an ambitious project, but one that might be achievable given the right people."

Considering the way Javert had greeted him, his question about the time period, and now his clarification about the medicine, Peter had to wonder if he was from the past or something. While most people probably didn't know the names of most medicines, they would probably at least have known of Valium or something.

"Oh, I think there was... Xanax, Valium, and Seroquel," he said as he tried to mentally picture the bottles of pills that had been set out on Hanatarou's bed two nights ago. "I can write that down for you if need be, though I wouldn't mind heading up to the pharmacy with you sometime, either." That way he could also show Javert what was worth grabbing, if he ever needed to restock.

While Peter had to wonder why it was that Javert was so interested in the sleep studies in particular, that didn't seem like something he should ask when they'd first met. It could just be that he was concerned for his fellow patient, after all. That was why Peter did it.

The man's idea about the brainwashed patients was a valid one, but it also seemed extremely risky. Peter wasn't really one to put safety first (for himself, that is), but in this case he knew he had to be practical. "I don't know how helpful I'd be there. If I had more of my abilities, maybe, but as things are all I can really do is swing a shovel around. They'd probably knock me out before I even left a scratch. Still, there are others who might be interested." Javert would have to make sure that those who signed up were capable, but it was an idea that was worth researching.

"I'll remember. That said, I wouldn't be opposed to a trip to the pharmacy at some point. Likely in two nights' time, to account for experimental sessions tomorrow night."

Javert offered a brief smile at Peter's words. "I'm hardly a seasoned warrior myself. Still, it's something to consider, especially if we find ourselves in need of something to do. At some point, I expect more able fighters will step up." He paused. "For the time being, however, I expect we would do better to concentrate on the experimental sessions. Assuming we have volunteers, it would be sensible to assign one healer to each Search and Rescue group."

Two nights' time... Peter wanted to clarify, and so after a pause he asked, "So then, not tomorrow night, but the night after that one?" He wanted to be sure of this, since he was going to have to coordinate his plans carefully so he didn't end up letting anyone down. He was glad that Javert seemed open to the idea, though, even if it meant he might have to wait even longer to get the medicine he needed. Peter might just end up going up tonight if he got the chance and had the time.

As Javert made his point, Peter nodded in agreement. It was an idea worth considering, if they could find enough interested people. "Focusing on the sessions sounds good to me, yeah. And I'll do my best to be one of the people heading up there whenever I can." He knew things were bound to come up and tie him up, but on any night when he didn't have other obligations, he was going to try and go up there -- because it was starting to feel like he should have been doing that a long time ago.

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Day 52: Game Room

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