damned_institute | 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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Games. Seriously. Did it look like Grell wanted to play games? Did he even remotely seem capable of playing games right now? Where did "I just spent the last shift screaming at some kid about how he almost ate me alive last night" and "I have a giant HOLE IN MY NECK" equate to "oh yes, let's play a nice little game of cards with betsy and john from down the lane"? Where? Apparently in this hellhole it did because his nurse wasn't letting him out.

"You need to relax, Geoffrey," she said in her most soothing tones. The sort of voice that Grell found increasingly irritating the more he listened to it. "We wouldn't want you to harm yourself again."

Anger meter rising, Grell started imagining ways he could sick the human-demon face muncher on her instead of him. Maybe if he tied steaks to her ugly face. Even if the demon only mauled her, that would still be an improvement.

"Will you behave?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am," he said, trying not to clench his teeth as he pushed the words past the burning hatred in his throat. His nurse released him and he turned, trying his best to find an open seat far away from where the demonspawn was sitting. He could see him. It was impossible not to notice him sitting there with the Doctor, the man with the impossible aura. It was impossible not to....sit in the same general vicinity. Grell made a face and sat with his back to the men, hoping they wouldn't see him. He hoped no one would see him today. He wasn't in the mood to put up the innocent act even if, in this case, he truly was innocent.

[For Lightning!]

Lightning was completely lost in keeping track of what her current predicament could possibly mean by now, but really... it wasn't long before she'd cooled down enough after her talk with Snow to find a handle on her confusion to try and do something about it. She wasn't really the kind of person who allowed herself to succumb at length to emotion any more... and so there were only two huge, complex problems playing foremost in her mind.

First, if Snow had forgotten so much, then what could she be missing too? The number of things that had happened to her and the whole of Cocoon since the Purge was staggering. Most importantly? Barthandelus and his plan for the demise of the land he was supposed to protect- even now the confession seemed to ring in Lightning's ears just as loudly as the moment she'd first heard it, and the last thing she could do was forget what that had done to them. Particularly Snow, even if he had soon been able to find new purpose afterward.

Yet now something had happened to the tall self-styled 'hero,' putting him under the illusion that they were still... reorganizing themselves above Palumpolum or something. Long before the problem that continued to eat at her came to light. It was difficult to fathom that she could quite possibly be the same way, with unknown events hanging over her but forgotten. The only thing she knew for sure was that she wasn't on Cocoon- she'd already seen the sky outside, noting it as distinctly different than the sight seen from her homeland at night.

Her second main question was, naturally: where were the other l'Cie from Cocoon? Even though she remembered being with the others right before waking up here, Snow was the only one she'd seen so far... and he had claimed to have been there already for two days. The thought immediately struck her with worry... her promise didn't have to be continuously updated for it to remain in effect: she was supposed to help and protect the others- particularly Hope. It was definitely within her responsibility to get that boy safely home and back to his father, in addition to saving that home in the first place and seeing Serah once more.

In the interest of blending in with the other grey-uniformed prisoners, Lightning was compliant for the most part in following the majority into the room situated off the large, naturally-lit room she'd already seen. It seemed that after the whole presentation of the food thing, the guards had little interest in what she did with herself for now. That was good. She definitely needed some time to think... away from the seemingly-amnesiac Snow.

... And what a room she'd found herself in. Lightning couldn't help but stare at the people there, some of which were obviously enthralled and gathered around what looked like primitive screens and computers of some sort. What in the world was their purpose?

The ex-soldier walked along the edge of the room, studying the rest of the occupants with a mindset undoubtedly left over from having to scope out a crowd under her division's jurisdiction. Most of them seemed tired or irritated, which wasn't all that surprising, but the number of injuries...? That seemed alarming. Lightning could tell the impairments not just from the bandages some of them obviously sported, but the way they moved and acted too. Had they all been attacked by the monsters Snow had mentioned or what? She paused, hand on her hip and exacting gaze landing on a person with long red hair... and what seemed to her to be either an especially defeated or brooding demeanor. Hm.

Edited 2010-10-08 00:30 (UTC)

Face in hands, Grell tried to ignore the world around him. He absolutely hated today. First, he woke up late. Next, he got stuck with Mr. Happy Jaws whom he was certain now wasn't telling him the whole truth about himself. Finally, he got shoved around to this bloody 'game room' when he only wanted to rest and recuperate. This was a hospital and they weren't letting him rest? Even for a fake hospital, that was simply pushing things.

After a moment, the death god let out a heavy sigh and sat back in his seat, trying to get his head to lean back. It was a terrible idea and soon enough he snapped back upright, hissing through his teeth.

It was then that he noticed the woman - no, the girl standing near him. She was staring at him, a hand on her hip. She wasn't someone he knew and she had an odd aura to her, too, but not so odd that it gave him a headache. Instead, her gaze was what bothered him. After rubbing his forehead to ward off the pain and tension his injury brought, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes? May I help you?"

With such long hair, Lightning had thought for a moment that this person was a female - when he spoke to her, however, she found herself quickly overwriting that assumption. He seemed to be having trouble maintaining his posture though, and curious about what had happened to him, she'd mostly kept her eyes on him despite everything else happening in the room.

She wasn't feeling particularly friendly, but... it did seem like she'd drawn a conversation out of the long-haired man. Might as well make the best of it in whatever small time she had left to be here... or for however long he felt compelled to interact - he didn't seem particularly friendly-feeling either. Lightning knew that people who were injured often had a way of closing themselves off.

"Hm. Are you alright?" she asked, voice low and somewhat blunt-sounding for such a question. Idly, she wondered to herself how well her healing magic was working, even though she wouldn't have gone as far as trying anything on a stranger in the middle of a random crowd of prisoners. But whether or not her l'Cie magic had been affected in the same way as her physical abilities did concern her.

Day 52: Game Room

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[warnin': FFXIII spoilers ahoy]

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idk I felt compelled to respond again to this \>_>/