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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"Good turn." She figured encouraging the guy was better than cheering for the fact that it was her turn again, which was what she actually wanted to do. But Jo was trying out the whole civilized manners thing, something her mom would have paid good money to see. She had a feeling that if she didn't play nice, the game would be taken away and she'd be escorted over to do something else.

She focused on the screen once again as she played, rushing through the level without hopping on all the turtles and mushrooms. "So this place not only brings in people from all over, but from all different times too? That's good to know." Real great to know. Maybe her mom would be able to show up, after all.

"Mhm. So all this stuff is all new to me." Carter studied her movements with a serious, dedicated expression, as if this was intense serious businses rather than a simple game. When it came his turn he grabbed up the controller gleefully, doing his best to jump on every single goomba and turtle with perfect timing.

"Do they have a lot of games like this around here?" he asked, after he'd fallen off a cliff and give the game another pout. At least he'd gone longer this time. Boy, it was kinda embarrassing to be shown up by a girl, but he at least had an excuse. Jo had probably grown up with...Super Maria Sisters or whatever the female version of the game was.

"At least it's a classic. Some of the new games where I'm from are total trash. Not things like this, though." She grinned, leaning over to rest her elbow on the arm of the chair she was in. Her chin rested in the palm of her hand,and she watched him up until he jumped off a cliff and killed himself.

"You're doing better, don't worry."

She was unable to help a triumphant little laugh as she took the controller back into her hands, and started playing another turn. She wasn't outright saying this was a competition, but in her head, it definitely was.

"I'm not too sure what they do and don't have around this place, I just woke up here this morning. It's all brand new to me." Which sucked, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

Day 52: Game Room

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