Day 54: Lunch

[full_score]

All things considered, last shift had been pretty low key. After this morning's disaster, though, that was perfectly fine by Claude. Some fresh air and a chance to make sure Guy and Okita were all right weren't things to take for granted. It was also good to have a fairly normal, conversation with Guy that didn't slip off into awkward territory

Comments

[antiheroed]

What Landel's announcement stated was that some of Riku's theories weren't entirely unfounded. While he thought that it seemed likely that Landel himself would be booted, he seemed to grasp that it was a little more than that. Maybe Landel would stick around, after all-but at what cost? And wasn't it strange that they were just now finding out about this? Wouldn't Sora have mentioned if he knew the place was under someone else's hold, rather than Landel himself? Then again, there was a chance it just didn't come up. Either way, Riku could tell there was more to the announcement than one might initially perceive; it sounded like a harsh, somewhat unnecessary, reprimand, but the pause was what caught him.

It was what he paid attention to. That, of course, and the tone. Landel could have been putting on an act, but he wasn't sure. Riku was certain that his act was the cheery persona in the daytime, and that this was different. But why ... tired? It didn't add up. He didn't quite have an explanation for Landel was so different.

Riku frowned as he left Rei to go join everyone for eating. Talking to her let him sort some things out, but he knew there would be more. More discussion led to more questions, and he was beginning to think that what they needed to know, what they needed to explore, was Landel's behavior-and, if possible, Landel himself. But how would they manage that? He'd have to talk to Sora.

After he acquired his food, he saw that it wouldn't be like he'd have to wait on that for long. He moved to join his friend, and he didn't bother hiding that he wasn't happy or completely at ease. There was a frown on his lips as he peered over toward Sora's journal to see what he was writing down.

[scintillatingly]

Sora had been so engrossed in copying down the note that it took him a second or two to even realize that someone was there. This sort of work wasn't really what he was the best at, but he could tell that this information was really important. A note from the Head Doctor to the old radio man? That was a really big deal. More than that, it was about Jill!

But he stopped in his scribbling when he sensed that someone was watching him, tilting his head up to see none other than Riku sitting there. "Oh, hey!" he exclaimed. While he noticed immediately that his friend wasn't in a good mood, Sora was too excited about his own discoveries to let that stop him. "You won't believe this! A friend of mine lent me this note -- he found it by following one of the radio clues a few nights ago!"

He quickly handed it over, knowing that this was something Riku was going to be interested in. He felt pretty proud, actually even though it wasn't through any work of his own that he'd gotten the note. No, Venom had just decided to hand it over, which had been really nice of him...

That guy really wasn't as bad as he made himself out to be!

Sora already knew from Kairi's bulletin message that Riku had missed the gassing, so that meant that there was something else that was bothering his friend. Riku didn't usually respond well to being asked outright, but Sora wasn't about to completely ignore it, either. "You okay? How were things last night?" If the older boy wasn't upset about what had happened his morning, then it had to be last night, right?

[antiheroed]

Upon taking the message from his friend, Riku started reading it carefully. What was said disturbed him somewhat, because it only seemed to open up the possibility that there were things he didn't know. Given Sora's excitement over what it said, it meant that these words were meant to be remembered. He looked them over carefully and committed them to memory; he knew Sora would keep the copy, so he handed it back over. His friend would keep it safe. He was good about that.

"From what I can tell, things are gonna be changing around here," he told his friend. "I don't like it. It means anything we know might mean nothing when we wake up tomorrow." It wasn't an optimistic note, but he knew that Sora would listen to him. Someone needed to point it out. Any research they've done might mean nothing. Even that note could mean nothing. "I thought ... that Landel might be leaving, but that might not be it."

He paused as something suddenly occurred to him, and he reached over quickly to read the last parts of the note again. "She's one of the nurses ... the one who makes announcements sometimes." He paused to consider this. "Why do you think the soldiers think we're here? Isn't it a bit nuts to go to the measures they had? And to be prepared for it?"

Riku hoped his friend would follow his logic. If not, he figured he had some explaning to do as to why he was asking this.

[scintillatingly]

Even though Sora could tell that Riku was giving the note his attention, he didn't react to it that much. How could he not be shocked by the fact that Jill and Nurse Lydia might be the same person? Then again, Riku hadn't really been around when Jill was talking over the radio a lot, so maybe it didn't stand out that much to him.

While he wanted to explain, his friend quickly moved on to a different topic, talking about how he thought things were going to change for them. Sora had to admit that the appearance of these soldiers made everything feel like it was unstable -- and more than that, things had changed before (the whole building had rearranged once!) and could again -- but it was still hard for him to imagine Landel being gone.

"Leaving? I don't know about that. I mean, he's... always been here." As far as Sora knew, anyway. He took another bite of fish and nodded when Riku brought up Lydia. Now they were on the right track. "Yeah, she's the head nurse, so she's always talking with Landel. But she might also be the radio lady! And on our side." Or she had been at one point. Maybe Landel had done something to her, like Venom's notes had said.

Riku had a good point about the soldiers, though. The nurses had done a decent enough job of controlling them when a riot had broken out before, so why had they decided to bring these other people in? "Maybe they know that we can be dangerous," he suggested, seeming uncertain about it even as he said the words. Sora wasn't so great at this kind of thing, but he wanted to help Riku. "Not that any of us can do much during the day, but..."

[antiheroed]

"No, it's not just that. Think, Sora." He wanted to ask about the rest, to point out that it was weird that she had been reconditioned like them-but they needed to stay on one topic. Riku's realization about that made it clear that this was all likely connected, to something more. If that was the case, why carry on the sham that they were meant to be patients? It didn't make sense. "When Xemnas ran the Organization, there was a hierarchy. They would be sent out to stop you, but they wouldn't know why. They just knew that was their job, right?" He had a feeling Sora wouldn't follow, but he needed to use this example. It seemed to be the best one.

He paused to reconsider. He needed to think about all of this, because it was a bigger picture rather than the little things. Before, Riku knew he was right to question clues and follow up on them, but he didn't have the right information to do it. In a way, he was going blind on it. And maybe, in the end, it would all add up. Maybe it already was.

"But in this case, we're not like you. We don't have keyblades. We're weak. But instead of sending in dusks, they sent in the members of the Organization itself to take care of us. They were prepared. It was like they had their weapons summoned before we even did anything. They reacted quickly, didn't they?" And even stranger was the part where Landel seemed to be warning them-or was he simply trying to bring about this reaction? That seemed unlikely, but they couldn't predict either way. Maybe Landel wanted to have more power over them.

"It's a way of admitting they want control over us. They aren't committing to their show well."

[scintillatingly]

Even if Riku wanted him to think (and he was trying!), it wasn't that easy. Things didn't fall into place in Sora's mind the same way it did in his friend's, but he knew that well enough to be willing to listen to what Riku had to say. If he had some idea of what was really going on here, then Sora was going to make sure that he understood what it was as best as he could.

Though when Xemnas was mentioned he couldn't help making a face. Riku had to have noticed that the Organization's superior was here by now, but that was something they could probably talk about later. Xemnas had been laying low and keeping to himself for the most part, so Sora wasn't allowing himself to waste too much energy worrying about what he could do.

Still, he nodded along with Riku's analogy, frowning when their weakness was mentioned. It wasn't something he could argue with; even though he did still have his Keyblade (and Riku had his), they weren't as powerful here. Not when there were no Heartless. Still, Riku was making a pretty good point, and Sora didn't find himself disagreeing (for once).

"Yeah. The nurses always tried to be careful when they sedated us before now. They'd have the orderlies grab us and stuff, but that was it. Today it's like they suddenly didn't care if they had to be violent, even though they probably could have stopped us the normal way." But what did it all mean? Sora didn't really know, but maybe talking with Riku would help his friend to puzzle through it.

[antiheroed]

Riku thought back to the only other circumstances and experience he had with this-and the biggest one had to do with Roxas. A different one was with his replica. In the end, his replica didn't have a point other than to fight, and they didn't care if Riku killed him. Axel used the replica in such a way so that he would meet that end. Castle Oblivion seemed to be a mess for things like this, and Roxas, later, received similar treatment-or worse, as Riku had come to realize by now-from Ansem.

He didn't want to share this entire comparison with Sora. By now, he figured with the presence of Naminé, Sora knew about his lost memories from Castle Oblivion, but it didn't mean that he knew about the replica. Some part of Riku wanted to keep that as a secret only dragged up by shadows that lurked in the walls.

"It reminds me of how Ansem treated Roxas and Naminé. He treated Naminé well enough while she had a purpose, and then he wanted her destroyed. She was just a tool. Roxas was the same. He was a scientist, and they were his methods to complete a task." It was a lot for Sora to hear, but he figured that his friend got a hint of how much Ansem had done before the machine got destroyed and he was sent away. "But there's a reason why it's different. If there are people trying to infiltrate this place, they might perceive it differently, too. They'll have answers that we couldn't imagine finding."

Riku figured that was a good way to link it back to the note Sora showed him. "But things might change. There's no point in pretending we have families outside of here who can visit us if they can hurt us that freely in the daytime." He wondered how the therapists perceived all this. But he didn't exactly have sessions with them, so he didn't have a way of knowing.

[scintillatingly]

With the mention of both his Other and Kairi's, Sora couldn't help frowning to himself. It wasn't something that he liked to think about, even though he knew that both Roxas and Naminé had been through a lot of bad stuff, mainly while he'd been busy sleeping. Roxas didn't remember a lot of it, though, which made things even more awkward. As for Naminé, he never did seem able to keep proper track of her in this place, and that was enough to bother him.

Still, Riku had just been using that as a comparison, which meant that Sora had to search for the real meaning. He was saying that they were all just tools, right? So these soldiers thought they could do whatever they wanted with them. That made sense, though, since the staff had never really treated them like people. The nurses tried to be nice, and Sora appreciated that, but in the end they were treated like children, unable to take care of themselves.

The soldiers didn't even bother trying to be nice, though.

Though when Riku mentioned the possibility of fake families waiting for them, Sora paused and glanced down at his plate of food. Right, he was supposed to be eating. He took another bite of fish as he sorted through those fake memories, the one of a mother who'd cared for him when he'd lived as Matthew Lawrence, on that island called Hawaii...

"You're probably right," he agreed after a long pause. "But there are still visitors who come. I mean, you even visited me once. And then Donald did, too!" Riku was as good as family, as was Donald, and so Sora figured that counted. Not to mention Donald had spoken about his fake mother -- she probably didn't exist, but if she did... Was she really waiting for him?

No, it couldn't be.

[antiheroed]

That wasn't the point, though he wasn't surprised that Sora didn't get it. Riku considered how he would explain this, and just decided to handle it as best as he could on the spot. What he got from what Sora said was that they had him for a while in this world-not too surprising, but it meant that he was just as susceptible to things going on. That wasn't too surprising, was it? He frowned, though. If they were seeing people they knew, why didn't they bring in people they didn't know? Wouldn't that hit home the point further?

The only thing he could conclude was that it didn't matter, not with their plans.

"It doesn't matter if they come. They might still come, but odds are, they'll be people we recognize. I would be surprised if it was any other way." That was a way of surprising them but it could have been another part of the experiment.

"But this isn't about the visitors or the people outside. It's the fact that they keep it up. It's easier to do that when we're treated like children. But this is different. No matter how much they pretend, or how much they're forced to believe this is how things are supposed to be, what happened isn't normal. It isn't how people treat patients. It's how you treat tools. Things you don't care about. Things that it doesn't matter if they get better or what happens to them." It was the actual point with bringing up Naminé and Roxas.

[scintillatingly]

For someone like Sora, being visited by a person he didn't know wouldn't have hit him as hard anyway. Yeah, it would have been weird to have someone acting like they knew him when he'd never seen them before, but that kind of thing was easy to fake. Someone couldn't act exactly like Donald or like Riku -- he just couldn't believe in that. When they'd visited him, it had been them. He was lucky to have Riku back with him now, but still... it showed just how much control this place had over them.

He was getting himself distracted, though, and Riku was still trying to explain. Sora continued with his meal as his friend described how the careful image of a mental hospital had suddenly been shattered by what had happened this morning.

The boy sighed and nodded. "This place has always gotten really close to feeling like a prison, but..." That was definitely the way people would have responded to a bunch of criminals trying to riot, wasn't it? Because prisoners were considered dangerous. Or, like Riku was saying, they'd just stopped caring and had decided to drop the act.

"But yeah, it also looks like the nurses were really bothered by what happened." Sora had always believed that the nurses thought they were doing the right thing, so... "That means that Landel really has nothing to do with this anymore, right?" He was doing his best to keep up with Riku, and he could only hope he was doing a decent enough job. Having been here for so long gave him a small advantage, at least.

[antiheroed]

That was exactly what he was getting at, but even if Landel didn't have anything to do with this, they didn't have to count him out. There was no way of knowing that Landel didn't have some hand in this. For now, he didn't point that out. Complicating it too far might make it harder for Sora to keep up with how he was sorting out his thoughts.

What was apparent was that these men were meant to come in and look at things. They were prepared. That meant that Landel always expected a chance of this. It seemed odd that he would just be surprised, though. Riku considered it for a moment, and realized what it could also mean: if Landel wanted to change the conditions, he didn't need to tell the nurses or anyone else. He could drop something small, like a hint that things might go poorly, and he'd know how they'd react. They were prisoners, and Riku would have concluded the same thing given the circumstances. Of course, in action, it seemed far less wise to involve himself.

"We don't know that," was all he added to that matter. "But either way, Landel said there would be some changes. He might want the changes and he might not, but they'll happen. I'd guess he does. Because he let us know things would be different, when that doesn't usually happen. Maybe ... maybe he wants to change what he's allowed to do." It was a theory, and it was clear from Riku's features that he wasn't sure. Usually when spouting off ideas, he was more certain. Right now, he couldn't even fake it.

He poked at his food, but he decided he was mostly disinterested in its contents. "I think we'll have a better idea after tonight. Things are gonna be different."

[scintillatingly]

Even if Riku was making some good guesses, Sora knew that they were just that -- guesses -- until they got more information. It was still hard for him to imagine that Landel might end up totally out of the picture, since he'd always taken charge of this place. But were these other people really forcing him out of power and doing things their own way? If what had happened this morning was a sign of what was to come, then Sora didn't really know if he wanted that.

The boy sighed and rubbed at the side of his head, giving up on puzzling through it now that all the possibilities had been laid out on the table. Like always, only time would tell with this, but they could at least try to be prepared. That was probably what Riku was getting at; they had to be ready to adapt.

"Tonight, right. That reminds me! How did we want to do things tonight? I can put up the assignments next shift, but did you have any ideas?" Seeing how Riku had been putting a lot of thought into this, Sora wanted to make sure that he got his opinion on the matter before he did anything.

More than that, he really needed to work on recruiting more members, but he could focus on that later. He didn't like to force the club on every person he met, for one thing.