Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

[damned_intercom]

Despite the rough start and the heavier snowfall, the buses managed to stay on route and on schedule. With minutes to spare, they arrived at the gates of Landel's Institute, back to the waiting arms of the military. All pretenses seemed to drop at this point, and the soldiers again took on their patented gruff exteriors. Patients were filed out of

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[saviored]

Since he'd consumed his purchase, the only item he had returned was the book his little brother had thoughtfully purchased, which his always talkative escort threw over without a word. Damon caught it and swung open the door to his room. The rustling told him that his roommate was already inside and sure enough, Herr Blondie was at his desk, chronicling his innermost feelings for the day.

His gaze swept over the grocery bag as he walked by it. "How was retail therapy?"

Insofar as that town even counted as retail. Did the locals just rely on Amazon.com or was there a hidden underground network of actual shopping? Come to think of it, were their six year olds all doing online distance ed, as well, or what? He'd found a town or two that was too small to have a college. He'd never found one too small to have a school, period. If there'd ever been a reason to label a town a setup, well. There you were.

As usual, he didn't give a second look at the food. Instead, he tossed the copy of Gone with the Wind on top of the dresser and got onto the bed without bothering to kick off his boots. After a moment, he picked up the book, flipping open the cover absently.

Stefan, he knew, was worried. Not about him, of course; about the rest of the surrounding population. That was the only reason why his brother was going out of his way to play nice. Hardly the first time Stefan had done this. It would pass, and then they'd rinse and repeat. That was the problem with eternity: after awhile, you realized things didn't ever change or grow, they just cycled forever.

[rocksthecourt]

It wasn't terribly long until Damon was returned to the room as well, the man simply walking in like he was plenty accustomed to the rhythm and rhyme of this place already. It was a relief of sorts, really. He knew little to nothing of his roommate, but he didn't want anything happening to him. It was good to see he was still alive and well.

But as usual, Klavier found it completely impossible to get any kind of read off of him. It wasn't that Damon refused to be forthcoming or steeled his emotions or anything like that. That Klavier could deal with. It was simply that he was... ambiguous to the point of being near impossible to perceive. Unreadable and untouchable. He still had no idea why that was or even if it was deliberate, but it was strange. Klavier was normally good at reading others and shifting to accommodate as needed, but here he couldn't even tell if Damon was in a good mood or not. Even the remark given could have been taken either way, and his tone of voice was just as ambiguous.

Actually, no. There was one thing he could tell. Damon was most certainly not anxious regarding the coming night. He must have been fairing fine enough come nightfall despite everything. Or at the very least, he hadn't come across anything dangerous. How frequent were "monster" attacks in this place, anyway? He heard about them far more than he encountered them, and even then it wasn't very frequent. Was there actually only a handful of creatures terrorizing the building at large at night? Maybe if those few were disposed of... Ah, what was he even thinking? Who was even going to do such a thing? Certainly not him.

Well, in any case, it was a thought to consider.

"Hah. About as good as it could be for under twenty dollars, I suppose. Not that there's much of interest to buy in town the first place. Next time they decide to send us on a little shopping spree, somewhere other than the usual dustball of a town would be nice." Though honestly, he couldn't say he cared much for them shipping the patients off like this no matter where it was they were sent. It was just a reminder all over again of how much control they had and how difficult it will be to find help even once they did to escape these walls.

"Did you manage to find out anything useful in town?"

[saviored]

Oh, twenty, was it? It'd been obvious from the beginning that his roommate had been here longer than him (really, it was a safe bet that most had been here longer than him), but he hadn't managed to pin down how much longer. There was no corresponding spreadsheet of alloted monetary value to the duration of one's stay, but assuming the institute wouldn't want to make things more complicated than they had to-also probably a safe bet-then the math was easy. Four times the cash, four times the length.

Either someone had a hell of a lucky streak or Klavier was of that rare breed who were smart enough to not attract attention. If the latter, maybe Wally could learn a thing or two from him. Not that it mattered, normally, but when it interfered with his plans? It mattered.

And a part of him still wasn't sure why he'd allowed it to interfere. It was actually happening more than he liked, he'd noticed, and that was not what he'd ever wanted to make a regular occurrence.

Damon frowned slightly, flipped a page, and peered over the top of the book with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, I found plenty of useful things." Like, say, the bourbon, the cars, and the sheriff's office which undoubtedly contained an item or two or twelve that would make up for his current...state of being.

His eyes returned to the book, but it was hard to tell what he was paying more attention to, the novel or the conversation. It could've been neither. It could've been Klavier's heartbeat. Could've. "I think the better question is, did I manage to obtain anything useful, the answer to which would be a resounding no. You?"