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!]

Threaded | Flat

The nurse wasn't too happy that he hadn't touched his food, and had even gone as far as to threaten to sit with him tomorrow until he swallowed something. Well, sorry if nearly dying and waking up in the wrong body makes me not want to stick food down my throat, he silently grumbled, but he had enough sense not to mouth off at the nurse for now.

Besides, he had more important things to worry about, like his friends. Where were they? His note on the bulletin had drawn all kinds of people out of the woodwork (battle androids, the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, apparently, and who knew what else), but not a single toy. When he'd seen that guy from Japan reply, he'd almost gotten his hopes up. Almost. Too bad he was probably as crazy as the rest of 'em.

"Why don't you play a nice game with someone?" his nurse suggested as she led him away from the board and toward another room he'd never been in before. He'd heard someone mention a Nintendo over the intercom, but that only made him think of Rex. He probably would have been thrilled to have a crack at a video game where he didn't have to reach clear across the controller to jump. The thought made something clench in Woody's chest as he turned away from the television sets with a sad expression.

Instead of letting himself become distracted with a deck of cards the nurse had given him, though, Woody took a moment to gaze around the room. At first glance, it was obvious there were a lot of games neatly organized for the patients to use. Bringing his fingers to his mouth, it was hard not to consider what he'd do if he found some toys lying around. Scott had mentioned that there were some young kids in here, right? So maybe...

Giving the nurses a quick look over his shoulder, Woody moved his way toward where some of the games were stored. But after rummaging through the boxes, it was apparent there weren't any dolls, action figures, or anything like that. Monopoly...Scrabble...Operation... He shook his head and straightened up, scanning over the rest of the room with an uncertain look. Oh, come on, there had to be a toy chest or something.

[For Kairi!]

Landel barely had to say "Super M—" before a blazing streak of grey and brown zipped out of the cafeteria faster than its nurse could keep up with, leaving naught but a trail of confused looks and the occasional taco crumb in its wake.

Scott Pilgrim had hoped, and the heavens had answered. This was going to be great.

He plunked himself down in front of one of the few NES stations. A few quick switches later and the TV and system turned on, followed soon after by a very familiar chiptune melody. Mario was practically rote in Scott's mind at this point, but he didn't care. Just the sensation of the controller in his hands and the pixel graphic-goodness lighting up before his eyes felt like a familiar, warm blanket being thrown over him after spending a week out in the cold.

What was so bad about Landel's Institute again?

[Ohhhhh Canada~]

So far, Remy's attempts to learn much about this place aside from what Logan had told him hadn't gotten him very far. The general attitude of the nurses was disconcerting. He could easily say he'd been through worse, however, and this just meant he was going to have to put more effort into whatever plans he ended up making.

But for now, he was just going to sit down with a deck of cards and listen. At least the nurse was willing to give him that much. If he was polite, maybe she'd even let him take a deck back to his room? Purely to pass the time with, of course.

Wearing sunglasses indoors was already getting to be bothersome, so he set his pair aside and began carefully constructing a large pyramid from the cards. Playing an actual game with another person would probably be more entertaining, but he'd take things as they came.

[free...]

He'd felt a little relieved when the intercom announced the end of lunch, and even more so when nurses came to the table to pull him away to the next shift. It wasn't like he was retreating or anything, because he wasn't. Wouldn't. It was just because of the women, really; they needed him elsewhere now.

It took him a moment to realize the (now slightly less annoying) woman was talking to him as she led him out of the mess and into the sun room, "—lbert, do you want to try playing a video game this afternoon?"

Prussia stared at her. What was she... What was with that random Latin word? "...A what?"

"A video game!" she repeated. "Didn't you hear the announcement? We've set up a few games for multiplayer interaction! You may not be a teenager any more, but men your age still like games, don't they?"

He supposed more players was good for any kind of seeing-game (maybe the game was to guess what someone saw?), but he wasn't sure why the nurse was so keen on thinking he'd want to participate... competitive spirit aside.

The woman stopped to look around when they arrived in the game room. "Oh, why don't you join Thomas?" she suggested cheerily, maneuvering him towards one of the... televisions? He'd seen some in town, in the windows of a store, but it was a little weird to see so many here, in a prison (or hospital). And they were all color sets, too!

It wasn't until the nurse sat him down and left him alone with an object in his hands (...was this part of the game?) that he glanced at the guy she'd wanted him to play with. He looked sort of familiar, but it took Prussia a moment to place where he'd seen him before. He'd been bloodied up then, but Prussia was sure that this kid was the one from the ship. What had Ronixis called him...?

"...Claude?" he finally asked. "It's 'Claude', right?"

Edited 2010-10-05 21:15 (UTC)

Lunch had been quiet--no new information, but no ridiculous revelations either. For the moment Indy was all right with that. The morning shift had already yielded more than he often managed to learn in a day, although he still wasn't sure what there was to do with that knowledge. Maybe nothing, really. Or at least nothing for right now. He might just have to acknowledge that he'd acquired--maybe--some insight into one piece of the puzzle, and see if he could fit it with anything else later on.

He stopped to check the bulletin board and found nothing new to take care of there either, so the nurse led him to the Game Room. Indy nodded to Pilgrim, did not nod to Gilbert Beilschmidt or the Free State of Prussia or whoever he thought he was, and sat down by himself with a Tetris. As alien as the device still was after only a few uses, the repetitive logic of the falling shapes was soothing, and he soon found himself absorbed in the game.

[for Mihai]

The salad greens had been fresh, and once Uryuu had recovered from the shock of someone so young being imprisoned here, lunch had gone well enough. He hadn't even minded the loss of a chance for solitude; in part because it was difficult to hold anything against someone so young.

As most of the patients were filing into the Game Room, he assumed it reasonable that Sora would go there as well. Reading the notes in reply to Sora's had given Uryuu a better idea of how the club functioned (clearly at night), but all the same, he preferred to have this meeting before signing himself over to something. Though he could easily renege on any intention to join or assist, Uryuu did not take his word so lightly. So to be sure to catch the other guy before someone else could, he stood by the door, book under his arm, waiting.

His nurse urged him to a seat without success. "I'm waiting for someone," he'd told her, and with his best impression of a guileless smile, "I've made a friend."

Those kinds of expressions Uryuu had spent little to no time practicing before; it felt stiff on his face. Equally strange, to be standing so prominently, this close to being an impediment to those entering the room. At least he'd plenty experience with putting on a bored facade, one well-accustomed to stifling what would otherwise be awkward uncertainty. He remained still, not even succumbing to the reflex of adjusting his glasses.

[sora of the radioactive heart!]

After his talk with Sylar, Peter had forced himself to just take lunch to cool down. It was for that reason that he tended to stay away from the man, even though he knew that he needed to keep an eye on him. Sylar inevitably worked him up and got him going and then he wasn't left in a mood to talk to anyone. He'd been able to take his anger out on his Mexican food, though it had earned him a few strange glances from his nurse.

It was only as Peter walked into the Game Room that he remembered that he was supposed to meet with someone today. One of the people from Search and Rescue, who apparently also worked to save people from the experiments (though Peter hadn't seen him last night, likely due to whatever had plagued him and Claire), wanted to talk to him.

Though, at this point, Peter wasn't sure what to say. He'd been wanting to help with the paramedic group, but the kid who had been running it was apparently gone. Or so his roommate had said on the bulletin. Peter wondered if it was more than a coincidence. He'd come up with a good idea, so... had Landel removed him for that reason? It was a little nerve-wracking to think about, but Peter wasn't going to let that stop him from helping. He just wasn't sure if there was any real group left to do it now, seeing how the few who had been interested had mostly been following Hanatarou.

But maybe they could pool their efforts with Search and Rescue somehow. Either way, Peter needed something to do with his night other than worrying about people like Elle and Isaac, and even Claire. They were all targets of Sylar's blood lust, and he had no way of keeping each one completely safe. So all he could do was help others. Except the experiments weren't going on tonight, were they?

As Peter glanced around the room, he didn't yet see anyone who fit the description he'd gotten: someone over forty who actually looked it. So, maybe he was early. He ended up leaning against the wall near the entrance, arms crossed over his chest as he watched patients walk in.

After speaking with Lana at lunch, Harvey was a bit more conflicted about her, but not enough that he planned on avoiding her from here on out. The fact that a murder was surrounding her was strange on its own, but his main problem with her was that she seemed to think, at least to an extent, that corruption was permissible. While Harvey had already given up on trying to root out that sort of thing, he still couldn't approve of someone who would allow it so easily.

Though after his meal, Harvey had taken a moment to move back to the bulletin so that he could make some detailed notes about the results of the informal survey that he'd taken. It was highly likely that a few people hadn't replied, even anonymously, but now he had something to work with.

Not counting those who were already gone, he'd learned that there were at least five attorneys here, if he counted himself. All five were prosecutors, and there was only one other defense attorney that he had even heard of being here. Still, Gavin's notes had implied that there could be more. Harvey was glad that the man had been willing to meet with him.

There were four detectives, all from different parts of the world (two Europe, one America, one Asia -- though the last was just a teenager, so he was skeptical to include him in the count), and then five others who didn't fit into a category quite as easily. Altogether, there were fourteen people who could be connected to law enforcement, if loosely in some cases.

It definitely stood out, but it didn't seem as if anyone knew for certain why the number was so high. There were theories, but nothing definite, and so Harvey was definitely interested to learn more from this Gavin person. He entered the Game Room without complaint for that reason, finding an empty spot to sit. As he waited, he drew his coin out of his pocket and spun it around idly on the table he was seated at.

[For Klavier.]

Elle had never been in the Game Room before, but as soon as she was escorted there, she could already tell she preferred it to the Arts and Crafts room. The cards and board games weren't really her thing-- she didn't play well with others, and was a sore loser on top of that. She moved toward the video games, but cringed when she realized they were all co-player as well.

The Super Nintendo particularly brought back bad memories. She received one as a birthday present from her father, and caused a blackout in four counties when she started losing the game. She couldn't even remember what game it was. The memory was fuzzy at best, but she definitely remembered her birthday. And the blackout. That was how she ended up at Primatech.

Turning her attention away from the game, she scanned the room for someone to harass into playing with her. (And Sylar. Her encounter with him from the night before had raised Sylar Avoidance to a much higher level on her priorities list.)

[For Isaac~]

It was pretty eerie how much Gaia and Kratos' world had had in common, and their conversation at lunch had left Zack feeling weird contemplative and somber. The fact that he would probably never get to see for himself what Gaia's future would be -- if Shin-Ra would be taken down for good or if they would tear the whole planet apart -- put him in a strange mood. He knew that death was supposed to be for good, and so he didn't know if it was even right for him to wish he could make it back home to live out the rest of his lifespan. That life was already gone, wasn't it?

The whole subject was just too heavy to dwell on for too long, and for that reason Zack was relieved to be led into a Game Room where there were all sorts of things that could distract him. There were even televisions set up for people to play, though a lot of people had already gravitated to those. Zack figured he'd leave those to the kids and find something a little more adult.

Which was how he ended up sitting by himself with a pack of cards in hand. He shuffled them with a familiarity that came from being in the military. If there was one thing SOLDIERs loved to do to pass the time, it was play a friendly hand of cards. Or... not so friendly, if alcohol was involved. Still, it brought back some memories that were doing a decent job of getting his mind off of his own mortality.

He was going to need to find someone to play with, but for now he'd just enjoy the feel of the worn cards in his hands. Maybe he'd deal out a game of Solitaire and then see if anyone dropped by with an interest to play.

The room was still uncrowded; Taura nodded at Zack, who was expertly shuffling cards. She knew that sort of look; every soldier did. She almost sat down across from him, but she wasn't sure if he was dealing a solitary game because the other seat was empty -- or because he wanted to be left alone with his thoughts. Instead, she walked over to the game shelves. Go was familiar, as was chess. Both figured in any strategic education, though none of the people at the lab had bothered to mention that to their charges. They'd only been concerned with developing their competitive spirits; not their skills.

A brightly-colored box labeled BATTLESHIP caught her eye. She tugged it out, and took it over to a table. Inside was a primitive -- very primitive strategy board, and a thin flyleaf of instructions. Nothing very complicated, and the instructions detailed a simple game of statistics, but the pieces were cute. Like children's toys, for a bloodthirsty planet, with fine anachronistic detail in the molded plastic. She started sorting them out into two piles, neatly stacking the primitive "missiles".

[free, no limits]

More video games from the future. S.T. didn't feel like saying no to that. Scott had Mario out and running, and from the look of it, Player 2 was never getting a turn. About as cooperative as watching the Marathon. Someone could stand over him and wipe his brow when he got to the fire levels. Someone else. S.T. gave it a moment of hushed appreciation before calling dibs on one of the other machines.

He let the nurse explain how to put a cartridge in a slot, and booted up Donkey Kong in full 16-bit color. It was surprising the manufacturers had even gotten Joe Schmoe to know the word 'bit', let alone have any idea that 16 meant much more than 8. Exponential curves meant jack shit to the layman. It was usually pH that Sangamon was explaining, but the scaling factor for CPUs beat powers of ten hands-down. There were twice as many buttons, and he ran Diddly Squat off of several cliffs while waiting for someone to take the other controller.

[Mello, you're surrounded by gamers]

Edited 2010-10-06 01:34 (UTC)

Tim raised an eyebrow at the announcement on the intercom. Nintendo? Seriously? What the hell year was this supposed to be? Oh, right, they had Super NES, too. So this was the nineties all of a sudden? Right. Like they couldn't have found an XBox or something.

He allowed himself to be led off to the game room. It had been awhile since he'd played such an old school game, but he was really considering trying it out anyway. Maybe it would be a good way to do something mindless for awhile, just to take his mind off things for a few minutes.

One of the consoles wasn't in use at all, so he figured, why not? Even if he didn't have anyone around to play with - he had to force himself not to think of Bart - he'd manage. He probably wouldn't get all the way to fun, but still.

[Tifa! Whether you want to have them talk or actually play is up to you.]

This had sounded like such a good idea, earlier. A friendly game. Time to catch up. Then everything had spun out of control and Ema deserved to know what was going on, if she hadn't figured it out already. (Which seemed likely; deductive reasoning was something she still needed to work on. Another thing Lana hadn't found time to teach her.) She sighed. The incriminating evidence was everywhere; Harvey hadn't quite seemed to realize how much she was admitting to, but Ema would. Ema, in her heart of hearts, knew Lana too well not to know it was the truth.

She stared at the games. Sorry. Careers.. The Game of Life. Was Landel deliberately mocking them, even in this? Monopoly would be safe, but it didn't play as well with two. Lana remembered playing it with both of their parents; she wasn't sure if Ema did. Scrabble gave each of them unfair advantages; arguments over what legal terms counted as English (and which scientific ones weren't flights of Ema's fancy entirely). She'd just let Ema pick.

[for Ema]

Now that she'd dealt with Rotgut, Morgan was ready to have a chat with Ghost/Zombie/Demon/Human Pirate LeChuck. Luckily she still had time to find him during the day. That ensured that he couldn't try anything, and even though she didn't have her sword, it would prevent him from unsheathing his. Just hearing about it from Guybrush had been lunch-lurchingly gross enough; Morgan had no desire to undergo the experience herself. Eww.

She checked the Sun Room first in case LeChuck was hiding out there (writing more love notes to Elaine, probably), but he wasn't. At least not yet. Morgan put on her best innocent smile and went up to one of the nurses (not S.P., the useless old sea cow) to give her a description of her "good friend" LeChuck and ask her to send him Morgan's way if he turned up. It could lose her the element of surprise if she didn't find him first, but Morgan figured she could manage without that during the daytime. She headed over to the so-called Game Room.

LeChuck wasn't there either, but Morgan was fine being the one waiting for him this time. She took time to scope out the room carefully (open spaces, big furniture, not much to use as a weapon unless you could manage a deadly papercut) and pick the right seat (good view of the door and the whole room, close enough to the wardens to be seen but not heard, that kind of thing). She wasn't interested in the games, but she picked up a deck of cards to avoid wasting time on an argument with the jailers and took her chair, barely even pretending to shuffle. God, she'd be glad when she was out of this place and she could keep her hands full with a decent sword instead of playing cards and plastic cutlery.

[for LeChuck]

While Luke had been sympathetic and concerned for him after they had both realized what had happened, Guy couldn't help feeling disoriented and out of place as his nurse silently led him into the Game Room. Normally he would have been eager to go check out the new technology that had been placed into the room for their use, but for the moment Guy just found an empty spot in the corner where he could think.

Somehow, while he had been dead, his memories of the airship that they'd used to get around during their travels for what amounted to almost two years had been removed. More than that, he couldn't even remember the pilot, who Luke had made sound like someone he'd been close to. Somehow, this seemed to hit home more than anything. Landel had been able to just reach into his memory banks somehow and pull things out like it was nothing. Things that clearly had to be important to him.

And yet he couldn't know how important it was, and that was the worst part. He could guess that he had loved the opportunity to ride around on an airship to wherever they pleased, with a friendly pilot called Noelle to take them to where they needed to go. But that was it: he could only imagine, and be frustrated that he didn't know. He couldn't even remember her face, or how the ship had looked, what color it had been...

Now that he knew, the gaps were going to be more and more obvious. It hadn't come up that often here, but now he was never going to be able to ignore that itching feeling in the back of his mind that something was missing.

Guy stared off across the Game Room from his spot in the corner, not really seeing the faces of the patients or what they were doing.

[For Rita.]

Getting blamed for Elle running into Sylar wasn't exactly how Claire had wanted to spend lunch, but it was a hell of a way to get her to stop feeling sorry for leaving her to fend for herself. She was still on the edge emotionally from the conversation as she was guided by a nurse into the game room.

Her eyes fell on the gaming system and she couldn't help the twist in her gut as she thought of how, if she were anywhere but this creepy institute, she could have anticipated seeing Lyle sitting in front of it, mindlessly zoning out on the screen. Claire, though, wouldn't even know where to begin button mashing, so with one last mournful gaze, she took a seat at one of the tables and began to dig around the offered board games.

That would be easier. Less to focus on, less to think about how much she even missed her lame little brother at this point. At least he was something normal.

[ for Natalia ]

Eating lunch did L a world of good. While the headache was still there, and its presence was likely to continue for a while, its intensity had receded. His lower back still troubled him, but that discomfort was to be expected when a lumbar puncture was performed without anaesthetic. The stitches ached and itched... yet he was sure that he no longer felt as weak and dizzy as he had upon waking up. His gait was now more of a walk than a shuffle; he didn't have to lean on his nurse as heavily. His feelings of injury and helplessness had lessened accordingly.

Walking into the game room felt strange. He knew that he had been in it a week earlier—but he had visited it as Daniel Laurier, and as a result, the hours he'd spent there seemed unreal and dreamlike. He could summon a memory of the top of one of the mahogany tables, plastic-coated playing cards slipping between his fingers, neat stacks forming on the surface of the wood. He had detached from the memory, as if it was only something he'd seen in a film or been told about in an interrogation: a scene from someone else's life.

He would therefore regard this as his first proper visit to the room. Nothing about it was very interesting, but it was cozy, and the decor was more to his taste than most of what he had seen in the Institute so far. The uncomfortable faraway recollection of playing solitaire made him shy away from cards; instead, he selected a chessboard and carried it to one of the tables, waving off the nurse's offer of assistance.

He sat alone, for the moment, setting up the board, trying to ignore the electronic noises from the video game systems. His movements were as precise and methodical as he could manage; doling the pieces out into their proper places was a good test of his motor control. The pieces seemed to fall into line in the centers of their squares.

The probability that someone or other would want his attention was high. If they began to exhaust him, he could always redirect their attention to the board. If no one approached, he could make himself look busy by claiming to be working on a "chess problem." His mind would be elsewhere, then, focused on what Lunge had told him about a woman called Lydia.

Maybe there was some accuracy in describing the situation as a chess problem, after all.

[Howell, will you be black or white?]

Edited 2010-10-06 04:55 (UTC)

Video games! Glorious video games! Japan abandoned the cafeteria not a moment after Scott did, just as excited as the Canadian to get to the consoles. Unfortunately, others had been faster and they had taken all of the Mario games. Well, that was fine. Japan liked the Super Famicon as much as the Famicon and he could deal with playing Super Donkey Kong just as well as he could playing Mario. Even if it wasn't Japanese in its making, it was Japanese in its essence. And it was a video game. At this point, Japan was getting twitchy without his usual technology.

Which meant, when he saw a seat open, the country dove for it like his life depended on it. Which it did. Video game withdrawal was a terrible thing. People began punching buttons that didn't exist, calling their morning coffee their power-up, and started trying to bring down the company boss for loot. Never a pretty sight.

The game screen flickered on and Japan sighed in nostalgia at the sight of the graphics and comforting music. He remembered playing this when it first came out. While Japan preferred newer things on a regular basis, every so often his nostalgic side would kick in and make him wish for even simpler times than these. Times when 16 bit or even 8 bit was the wave of the future and they thought you were crazy for even thinking 3D was possible. This game was one of the first of the 3D renderings and thus held a special place in Japan's heart.

And with his mental trip through time finished, Japan began punching buttons and selecting his level, lost to the high only achieved when he was absorbed into the 2D world.

[For Mr. Grumpy-Pants-Assassin ♥]

Despite his initial shock at meeting Kibitoshin, the young man (or was he older? Age was difficult to read in someone with such strange features) had been both harmless and clueless. The conversation had been interesting, especially with the talk of other worlds, but in the end it hadn't given him much information beyond letting him know that the people in charge of this place somehow had the ability to transport people to Earth from other planets. With that in mind, Castiel couldn't help but wonder if the head doctor was from the future.

It had become more and more obvious that he was out of his league, especially when considering the fact that his powers had been taken. While Castiel had thought that maybe he had done that to himself after the reckless move that he'd made to clear the path for Sam and Dean to rescue Adam, now it was seeming more likely that Landel had done it to both himself and Gabriel. And that was worrying.

When he was led into the Game Room, Castiel looked around the area with a muted expression, taking in the different boxes with pieces that other patients were pulling out and setting onto boards. There were also decks of cards, which he was more familiar with due to the Winchesters. He didn't see a pool table, which had likely disappointed Dean when he'd arrived here.

Unfortunately, Castiel didn't know the rules for most of the games, and so he decided to keep to himself, making certain to watch out for either Dean or Sam as he also let his curiosity get the best of him while he observed the other patients' playing.

[Free!]

Meeting up with Rei had been delightful, but it still bothered Aigis that she had yet to see any of her new friends at lunch, particularly those with various shades of red in their hair. She had hoped especially to contact Heat, as she was sure he was still worried about her condition as he had seemed last night. "I wonder if Heat was not hungry today..." But then she remembered, he never was hungry, was he?

"You mean Heath, Angela," nurse Cathy corrected her. They had just made it to the game room, a place Aigis was not familiar with yet. She was about to continue farther in, but her nurse touched her arm gently to get her attention. Turning back, Aigis blinked up at her questioningly. "It's about Heath, Angela."

"What about Heat?" The nurse looked as though she caught Aigis' obvious drop of the extra letter but let it slide. Instead, she rested a hand on Aigis' shoulder and gave her a smile. "You see, Angela"--she seemed to be focusing on enforcing their institute names today--"Heath finished his treatment last night. He's better now, so we sent him home."

For a moment, Aigis just stood there, stiller than she had stood in a long, long time. Even her breath and heart seemed to stop. "I'm sorry, I believe I misheard you," she said at last, her voice sounding far away even to her. But Nurse Cathy just shook her head, frowning.

"Angela, you should be happy for Heath! He was allowed to return home to his family and friends. I'm sure they--"

"Shut up."

....... Aigis stood there, trembling, a hot sensation building around behind her eyes. Nurse Cathy's face was a mix of surprise and irritation, but the once-android felt no remorse. She bit her bottom lip, trying to keep herself from... from what? She wasn't sure why, but she could feel it, something wanting to burst forth. Something angry and hot and wild. Something she didn't know how to control, because it was unlike anything she had felt before.

"Angela, you--"

"Shut up!" Aigis would not have thought such a harsh command would be in her lexicon, and yet it came forth now, so much easier than anything else she might have wanted to say. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Her voice somehow managed to change registers. Had she the capacity to think clearly, she might have speculated on why it seemed to crack the louder she yelled.

It was a lie! It had to be a lie! "I saw him! I saw him just last night! He was there! And he... he...!" It was a lie. She repeated it to herself in her head. A lie a lie a lie. It had to be a lie. It had to be! Heat was here. He was. He wouldn't leave her like this! He wouldn't... He'd never...

Dean hadn’t played friggen Mario Kart since he was a kid.

It wasn’t easy hustling Mario Kart in some rinky-dink Pizza Hut in the middle of nowhere but once he’d figured out that damn feather could save his ass, it was easy to sucker the older kids out of their bus money. Sometimes Dad hadn’t left them enough cash for all those times he went on a hunt; sometimes it took longer than a “couple of days” and Dean was damned if you couldn’t put “badass at Mario Kart” as a job skill. Got Sammy fed, even if it was just a lot of candy and chips. Cheetos totally counted as food. He didn’t care what anyone else said, ‘cause hell, look at Sam – the kid just shot up and he’d been raised on Cheetos and Skittles, so Dean figured he hadn’t done too bad a job.

But that was then. Dean hadn’t played a video game in years and despite the fact he was, y’know, an adult, Hello Nurse parked him in front of an SNES, the console looking a little battered but still working, scuffs in the plastic and all.

“You’re kidding,” Dean said, that controller feeling tiny in his hands.

He swore Hello Nurse was enjoying this, even if that smirk was practically nonexistent since she had to be the professional here. Chick was good. “Think of it as good hand-eye coordination.”

She surprised him with a touch on the shoulder and a tight-lipped smile before she took off, leaving Dean holding the SNES controller and wondering if he really had to play this or what. In the grand scheme of things, kicking the computer’s ass didn’t really strike him as something that needed doing. There was a split second when he wondered if he still had it in him to rock this game into the ground. What would he even play for? Smokes? Money was out of the question and there wasn’t the same kind of system going on here like there had been in prison.

[For the Trickster]

Despite the relief that had come from just seeing Donna, the Doctor was still feeling down by the time they were separated. He masked it with a smile and his first attempt at chatting with the nurse all day, but he couldn't just forget what had happened and the responsibility he felt for it. They should have taken him instead of Donna. He could have done something about it, probably, and he wouldn't have put Dean and McCoy in danger during the attempted rescue.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, John," the nurse remarked before leaving him alone to attend to other patients. "I should have known that seeing Jane would cheer you up. It's a real shame about that tumble she took."

The Doctor frowned, and started to ask what she'd meant by that, but the woman was already gone. With a stifled sigh, he took a seat, hunching forward and raking his fingers through his hair. Games of any sort or their level of technology (late 20th century, like almost everything here) held little appeal right now, but that left the question of where to focus his attention to distract himself.

What to do; what to do...

[Spidey and the Brain]

The game room was filled with all sorts of unfamiliar yet irritating sounds when Scar entered, and he wished almost immediately that he could leave. The nurse seemed to think otherwise as she herded him through the room to make him sit at a table. At least the woman hadn't been so sadistic to make him sit in front of those strange devices providing those sounds (along with a variety of colors...), but the former lion couldn't quite say he was pleased. These sounds certainly didn't do any wonders for his headache...

An annoyed sigh escaped his lips as he eyed the human excuse for 'games' in front of him. It wasn't the first time he had visited this room, but it hardly made the activity any more appealing.

[Disney villain meeting~]

Zevran had done his share of gambling. It was simply something that happened when you were in Antiva and had too much money and a potentially limited lifespan. Why save for a future that might not be around? He had no one to give his money to if he should die on the job, as the Crows would just reclaim it. He was theirs, and therefore everything that was his was also theirs.

So, when a nurse strongly advised that he play nicely with the other children, so to speak, Zevran had agreed. There was no harm in it, and Zevran was admittedly getting bored just lying about in the sun room. He could only sleep and eat for so long before he felt as though he was starting to collect dust. Maybe a bit of friendly competition would help to keep his mind sharp, and it could also help him to feel less lazy. Laziness seemed typical during the day, though. All of them were simply biding their time until nightfall, wondering how best to arrange for their escape. Zevran was no stranger to feeling trapped, but he had never been so bored before in a life-threatening situation.

In the game room, he found entertainment in the form of overwhelming confusion. All of the games that the nurse offered were completely unfamiliar to him, packaged in boxed covered in colorful artwork. Eventually she left him to sort through the room on his own, and Zevran continued his hunt for something he knew the rules to. Elsewhere, medium sized boxes displayed moving... paintings, he supposed? They were kept under glass, like through a window, and the ones operating them seemed entranced by the whole thing. Zevran found himself staring as well as he tried to make sense of the game. He wished, not for the first time here, that he had a better understanding of what magic could do. This was not the fire and brimstone he had seen Amell and Morrigan summon up, nor was it comparable to Wynne fussing over his wounds.

Eventually, Zevran gave up on the pile and sat down empty handed (save for a set of dice he had 'borrowed' from one of the foreign games) to watch the picture boxes. No one else seemed particularly confused by them, and Zevran couldn't help but feel out of place. It was a bit pathetic to be homesick when you didn't have a home.

[For Franziska!]

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