Day 57: Sun Room

[bodhiandspirit]

It figured that night would end before Rita and Taura could progress any further. Rita wasn't particularly disappointed to wake up abruptly, as they had reached a dead end. Really, the institute was doing them a favor by bringing them back to the starting point, where they could regroup.

What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time,

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[escapedpandora]

...Okay. Perhaps what was more unnerving than anything else had to be how he seemed to be blacking out. Ending up back in his room. With different clothes each time. (Although as much as he had disliked the baggy Doyleton outfits or the stiff uniforms, this was much worse.)

Good enough for pajamas, but not anything else. But maybe that was just him being picky because he wanted his own clothes back. Even if they had been dirty and worn from the number of times he had tripped or skid on crystals and dirt. He wanted his gloves back, and his scarf. It felt weird to go without them, and even the outfit yesterday had covered his neck, even if they had skimped on the gloves in the snow.

Another thing he was more than ready to complain about to someone, anyone, was just how crappy he felt in general. Tired with an itchy throat and far too warm even in this cold weather (it was still cold outside, right? This strange place hadn't magically changed seasons through the night, right?). Maybe they had cranked up the heater, and he really wished they would cut that out. And he just seemed to hurt in general. Not as bad as two days ago when he had marched all day and into the night with little breaks, but irritating none the less as it grated on his nerves and made him feel extremely lethargic.

Still, his protests fell silent as he met the glare of the nurse this morning, and he shrunk back subconsciously and tried to ignore all his physical aches as he was herded to... somewhere he had never been before.

[Open?]

[ofthemotions]

[from here]

And... No. Being deposited in a large room with numerous others was nothing close to gaining answers. Mikado stood there for a moment, dumbstruck, as the man who had escorted him just left. The attempt to follow him out the door was stopped by another man, who shooed the boy towards the center of the room. Uh. He. Had no idea what was going on now. A holding area? If it was a holding area, what was it for? And why were everyone dressed the same? It was as if--

He looked down belatedly. "Ahh!" He pulled the shirt out from his chest, staring at it. Okay, he was dressed the same. Obviously, this meant something that he couldn't discern. The men who escorted him and stopped him were dressed differently, and weren't... All that willing to answer questions. He'd do better focusing on someone dressed like himself, maybe?

What was going on?

Nearby there was a boy that looked around Mikado's age, maybe a little younger. Mikado approached hesitantly, stopping a few feet away. "Ah... Hello," he greeted, smiling nervously, the expression soon deteriorating back into pure nerves. "Do you know what's going on here?"

[escapedpandora]

Hope jerked his head toward the sound, still a bit jumpy from... well, the last few days, really. Everything the last few days.

He hadn't expected to see someone else closer to his age, though, despite all the things he had prepared himself for mentally (and it was a lot of strange things in his head, from a sudden Behemoth attack to fairies of all things. Because with his luck lately (and it was bad), it could happen).

"Ahh-- hello?" He responded tentatively, hands going to grip at the hem of his shirt, unused to not being able to just tug on his gloves when he was nervous. Another patient? It looked like it, from the way they were both dressed, if patient was even the right word. But people had said hospital, even if it wasn't like anything he had ever seen before. Not to mention the staff here were crazy, always trying to call him by a different name.

Was that a trick question, though? Hope wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to that... although it wasn't as if he knew an answer, anyway. Instead, he opted to shake his head, looking more at the ground than anything else.

"I just got here... yesterday?" The night before? That was if that hadn't been some grand delusion... "I-- don't really know."

[ofthemotions]

And Mikado supposed that was a long shot. The other had got here before Mikado had, but not by much. So people were being gathered. Was it possible there had been a nation-wide emergency, and people were rounded up for their own safety? His hand slid to his chin in thought. A possibility. He wished he saw someone he knew here.

Mikado moved to the chair across from the other boy, and dropped into it, eyes looking around the room nervously. No. None here were familiar. How would he ever get an explanation at this rate? Mikado glanced back at the other, moving a hand in concern. "Oh, no, that's okay. I guess we're in the same situation then."

A frown. A situation that was offering no information on itself. Shouldn't the people in charge at least be letting them know what was going on? "I'm Ryuugamine Mikado." Maybe an introduction would help the other boy relax a little. If anything, he looked more upset than Mikado felt. And that... Was impressive.

[escapedpandora]

"I'm-- Hope. Estheim." He wasn't sure if last names would really matter here... probably not, especially with how the dogtags he had seen yesterday had insisted his name was-- something else. He shifted, though, rubbing his wrist against the side of his sweat pants nervously. He had never been really good with talking to people, even in school. "Hello."

Still, it was easier to know that people here were just as confused as he was (okay, maybe not as confused, or at least about the things he was confused about. And, for that fact, perhaps panicked for a different reason). It was unnerving to go without his gloves, the brand on his wrist in plain view unless he tried to shove it against his clothes, pretending to himself that it didn't exist at all. He wasn't so much concerned about... what was going on or what would happen during the day so much as he was concerned about home and stuck in the memories of the past few days.

And Lightning. This entire time he had to think about her, and he still couldn't figure out how-- what-- the whole situation was messed up. No way back, no way to finish his Focus (although there was a nagging doubt in his head that he would have gotten far on that idea anyway). And with her here and behaving so strangely...

He shook his head, trying to push the thoughts away. He didn't want to think about it. Not right now, anyway, not while he could be thinking or even talking about other things. Something else.

"Sorry." He murmured, somewhat distractedly. "I'm just. I guess I don't really get why we're here."

[ofthemotions]

Estheim was... a bit uncommon to say the least, but 'Hope' likely took the prize for unique names. And Mikado had thought 'Izaya' was strange. He repeated it once, mostly to himself for the sound of it. "Ahh, were your parents into western culture?"

...If they weren't, he probably just made a fool of himself--but really, why was he even worrying about that in the middle of who knew where, in a safe house or prison? Some kind of hopelessness crossed Mikado's face at the thought. And here he was thinking things were going to settle down for a while. The thought of something like serenity was too dumb, really, and not all... That likely with someone like Masaomi as a friend, for one thing.

And anyway, if it came down to it, Mikado probably wouldn't choose that with the option given to him. He wanted things to remain as they were forever, and he wanted things to keep moving forward. He had thought on it and--

And, well. Here he was, in a place he didn't know. Talking to someone who was in the same situation that neither of them likely wanted to be in. At the other's apology, he slid a hand to the back of his neck in habit, waving off the apology abashedly. "I don't either. They wouldn't even tell me what this place was for."

[escapedpandora]

"Western?" What did west have to do with... anything? Not that he wanted to think about parents right now. Still, there's a very slight headtilt while he tried to figure that out, even though he just filed it away a little later.

Instead, he latched on to something that he could answer, even if the answer felt... unsettling and crazy. But he had his fair share of crazy recently, at least enough that he didn't really question it anymore. Being here was just as crazy as the rest of his life right now... or maybe not as crazy. He wasn't so sure.

"We're at a hospital." He leaned forward a bit, his voice slightly quieter even although not a whisper. "At least, that's what I heard. I've never seen one like this before, but--"

He bit his lip in thought. "People seem really sure this is another world."

[ofthemotions]

"Uh." He had guessed wrong, then. Something cultural, maybe. Maybe just a whim picked at birth and there wasn't anything behind it. It would have... been better to just not say anything, wouldn't it? "Never mind. It's not important. It's nice to meet you, Estheim-san."

Something to pick up at another time, maybe, if he ever saw Hope again. For now, Mikado was a little preoccupied with what was in front of him, which, largely, was a lot of nothing and confusing details put together. Really; nothing here was familiar, and some of the hairstyles of the people present put anime and manga to shame. Or at least matched it. Did that girl have pink hair? That had to have taken a lot of bleaching with the length. And those tattoos on that other girl....

He almost didn't hear when Hope continued speaking. "What? A hospital?" So he had been right? But the other boy was correct--it was nothing like a hospital that Mikado could recall. His brow furrowed in thought, going over the aspects. If he thought about it, maybe....

His gaze snapped up to Hope, disbelief passing through him. "What? They can't be serious."