Day 55: Courtyard [2nd Shift]

[sheepwood]

After what seemed like an eternity of being amused, irritable, bored, in pain, in excruciating pain, and any combination of those, Guybrush was met by the same soldier who had led him to the cafeteria. He wasn't offered a trip to the Sun Room to check the bulletin board, but didn't push for it anyway. That would have been more walking, and moving

Comments

[swornandbroken]

Mello didn't disapprove of the leather jacket, but he kept his expression blank as he put it on and followed the soldier out into the cold. Was it snowing?

With a terse reminder that he wasn't to sit, the soldier left Mello on his own. He knew she'd be keeping an eye on him for further disobedience, which was fine. He'd learnt what he needed to, and he was more than able to follow the letter of the law while subverting its spirit. He thought Aguilar was banking on the prisoners accepting the system, buying into it, even. Landel had poured on the oily charm during the day, and had often seemed, even at night, to be trying to convince them he was on their side. Mello had long since decided that was a symptom of his particular mental disorder. The bastard probably even believed, at times, that he was acting for the prisoners' ultimate good. He had certainly claimed as much in the moment of his defeat.

The new system was less complicated. Intimidation, clear and immediate punishment; and the reverse, presumed rewards one could earn, if the class system and the pins on the berets were any indication. It was easy to see how it would appeal to some of the prisoners. Hell, Mello himself had an instinctive distaste for having been lumped into a group called C. It remained to be seen if the benefits to climbing the ranks were worth it. He would have to ask around. He irritably brushed snow out of his hair and eyelashes, and began walking a circuit around the courtyard. He definitely approved of the boots. Those fucking slippers had been an affront.

[for Sai! <3]

[tsunagari]

[from here]

It was clear to Sai now. He wasn't imagining things, and the shift before hadn't been any sort of fluke. The soldiers really were being less harsh with him than they were with many of the other patients. Was it because of the 'S-Class' now marked on the tags around his neck? Preferential treatment, apparently, simply for having been around longer?

But then what determined who stayed longer than others? If they were getting rewarded for remaining, then what was it that decided who was taken away? Was it various factors involving how they acted during their stay? What had he done differently from someone like Naruto? And if Naruto wasn't showing them the results they wanted, then why did they keep bringing him back? Did they believe that taking him from a different point in time would change the results of whatever test they were being put through?

His mind wandered as he crossed the field, and he didn't take much notice of who he passed in the process.

[swornandbroken]

It had been a while since Mello had spoken to Sai, and when he spotted the ninja, he called his name quietly. The younger man appeared distracted, and Mello wasn't surprised. He knew Sai had been here longer than most of the prisoners, and the changes must've provided plentiful food for thought for him.

Mello stepped closer, his boots crunching faintly on the snow that had fallen so far. "I'd be interested to know what you think of all this."

He'd dismissed Sai as insane in their first conversation, mostly on the basis of the ninja having memories Mello didn't share; had known enough by their next meeting to make amends, insofar as he could stand to. Now it was sobering, though not wholly unpleasant, to realize he regarded the other as a trusted source of information.

[tsunagari]

When Sai heard his name called, he stopped. He hadn't spoken to Mello for some time and was somewhat surprised to be approached by him now.

But only somewhat. The blond was crafty, and he'd be looking for answers just as much as the ninja was. This just meant he considered him a worthwhile source of information, as well he should. Sai nodded a greeting as he waited for the other to get within better speaking range. He didn't think the soldiers would bother them if they wanted to talk.

"I'm not sure I know what to think." He shook his head, lifting his tag a little so that Mello could read it. "They seem to be dividing us up based on certain requirements. I believe it has to do with how long we've been in the Institute." And there was more. The bottom number contained his ninja registration number with two others tacked onto the end. The other man didn't need to know this yet, though. If it seemed to be important, he might bring it up.

[swornandbroken]

Mello went closer to inspect the tag, and to make private conversation easier. The numbers on Sai's tag held no significance for him, and it was on the assumption that Sai wouldn't know how the series of 2s annoyed Mello every time he thought of it that he held up his own tag in return. Seniority made as much sense as any criteria could be expected to, particularly if there were some sort of judgment of suitability for the presumed next stage involved.

Mello knew the previous version of himself who had been here had vanished after ten days, which, interestingly enough, was exactly how long he'd been here. It was ridiculous to take pride in the prospect of outlasting someone who was essentially him, given the apparent randomness of arrivals and departures, but he felt a flicker of satisfaction at the thought, all the same.

"Landel mentioned an 'extended selection process' not long before he was deposed. I can only think they're accelerating it. Results are what Aguilar's after, and he doesn't just want them for their own sake. He wants to show how much better he is at achieving them than Landel." Sai didn't have to know why Mello so readily recognized that mindset.

/fails everything ever

[tsunagari]

The ninja's eyebrows raised slightly. That was right. Mello could approach this scenario from an entirely different angle than he could. The blond was good at examining thought process and motivations, a skill that Sai was lacking in. He was better at it than he used to be, but he was nowhere near the level of someone who was used to studying those patterns for a living. He needed to speak with Mello, or people like Mello, if he was going to get anything else done around here.

Sometimes he just needed to be reminded of things like that. There was a reason he'd first formed an alliance, after all. He gave the other man his full attention. "And what do you think will happen should any of us be 'selected'?"

Being separated from his fellow ninja was bad enough as it was. He didn't like the idea of them being chosen or discarded by whoever ran this place. Even if, perhaps, they already had been.

pff, nonsense <3

[swornandbroken]

That was the question. What was Landel's for? Mello had theories, of course, but it was next to impossible to gather evidence to support one over another. He'd been focusing on the things it seemed the Head Arsehole had genuinely let slip, like the 'altverse' comment.

"It'll be all of us, or all of us who're left." He expected some thinning of the ranks to begin sooner rather than later. Why expend the resources to feed and clothe people who didn't in some way serve the ultimate goal? Which had to be, in one form or another, control. That was what the experiments at night were about, and Mello had long since decided those were what the mental hospital façade was meant to cover up. On a less focused scale, all the mindfuckery at night fit that category. "Could be they'll flip a switch, and have themselves an army."

But there was still something he couldn't put his finger on, something too roundabout in the way they'd gone about it, if soldiers were what they were after. The torture sessions had conferred benefits on the majority of the victims; the effects of last night's project had done the same. "But I don't think that's exactly it. Landel wanted us on his side, at least some of the time. Aguilar doesn't care. That makes me think he's looking to exploit something that may have only been a side effect of what Landel was after. Maybe he wants the army, and Landel wanted something else." Something to do with the gratitude he presumably felt he deserved, but Mello couldn't imagine what that was.

[tsunagari]

So much of this place didn't make sense. Mello's theories were sound ones, he couldn't deny that, but how did everything fit into the larger picture? If someome could just snap their fingers and turn the patients of Landel's into an army, then why hadn't this been done long before? And why restrict them as much as they did?

He'd had these thoughts before, and he'd gotten nowhere with them. It was true that Aguilar wanted something different than Landel, though. That much was apparent. Whether it was just an army or something more was yet to be seen. Sai didn't think he liked being ranked higher on the scale in this instance.

Maybe Aquilar would be easier to figure out than Landel. Though even if he was, would knowing what he planned make the task of getting everyone out any easier? "One might have to wonder if he was actually in charge from the beginning, if their methods are so different."

[swornandbroken]

"I certainly got the sense Landel was answerable to Aguilar, before the grunts took over. But I doubt Aguilar would be so focused on getting results if he weren't answerable to someone higher up. They've sunk a lot into this place, in terms of hard cash and resources. Someone lit a fire under Aguilar's ass to try to make sure they get a return on their investment."

All of this was perfectly sound reasoning, and also felt true. People weren't driven by abstracts, not usually. It was when the godless heathens were occupying land the church wanted that they acted, after all. If an alleged hospital started hemorrhaging money, of course the higher-ups were going to step in, and of course they were going to mouth platitudes about making the prisoners more valuable.

And if someone kills one of the only people you ever gave a damn about, of course you're going to talk about the right thing to do instead of revenge.

Shut the fuck up. There it was again, and the bugs had distracted him from it: the sense of something... not even something concrete, yet, but the shape of it, just beyond his mind's eye. Mello felt he had always been skilled at picking the relevant pieces out of the detritus of most people's words, which was especially useful here. A process, accomplishments; was Landel's a puzzle they were supposed to solve to prove themselves? The idea had fled again, and Mello shook his head in the barest motion. "They can't control us outright. For a night, sure, but not longer, or they already would've done. Maybe that's the next step. Extending that control." He would have liked to believe he could fight that. There were all-too-vivid memories that told him differently. If it came to it, he'd just have to try to take as many of them with him as he could.

[tsunagari]

Extending the control... That was a terrible thought. Sai wasn't sure what enforcing a social order or placing them in uniforms had to do with that, but it was possible that it could just be a method of getting them used to the scenario before the brainwashing occurred. That one night he'd been under Landel's control had been disastrous, at least to people he cared about. Never mind that he'd hardly known most of them.

This was all still speculation, of course. Mello would most likely admit that. No one in this Institute could know anything for certain, given how in the dark they were kept both literally and figuratively. Although the blond's speculation was better than most.

What they really needed was cold hard facts. Speculation was all any of them had, and that alone wasn't going to get them anywhere. Guesses upon guesses upon guesses... "Perhaps. It's also possible that the focus of this program, or whatever we're in, has been altered completely."

[swornandbroken]

Mello nodded. As always, with the maddening dearth of available information, there were any number of equally viable theories. "If Landel strayed from the original goal, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Aguilar were brought in to put this place back on track." He'd implied as much in his announcements, and Landel himself, as he was being dragged off, had claimed (calculatedly, for the audience, or not?) the prisoners were his concern. It was tempting enough to construct from these pieces a scenario in which Landel had altered the program for their presumed benefit that Mello felt certain that was what they were meant to think.

He was still trying to follow that elusive train of thought. Clearly, there was a progression, or one was intended: a next stage Landel had paid lip service to when the military arrived, in that euphemistic way of his. Interesting that he'd never mentioned it before. "They've handpicked us, put us through hell. They can't possibly expect us to do anything they want willingly." He huffed, irritably, his breath visible in the cold air. "All this really means is we start from scratch figuring out what the hell it is that they want."