Day 57: Library (third shift)

[unpriest]

The meal shift had come to an end without being able to ease Seishin's confusion. In fact, the conversation with Vino-san had only served to raise even more questions than he initially had. It had all sounded so strange and unreal, though he didn't think the other man had any reason to lie to him. He couldn't help but to be a little skeptical,

Comments

[anemptydecapo]

People could say whatever they like about the quality of a movie, but Venom was not going to stand around and watch a flickering screen for an hour and a half

[commentated]

Sitting in the dark for two hours surrounded by possibly crazy people? Sounded about as appealing as sitting through a screening of The English Patient, only twice as exciting. Because, you know. Paint drying would be twice as exciting as that goddamn movie.

Not that the library was all that thrilling, either, but the nurse hadn't gone easy with the glaring and it was the first option Harry managed to blurt out before they decided his silence was some kind of unspoken code for, "I would like to spend time with the rats; please take me to a dark scary basement."

So now he was in the library surrounded by books. Obviously. What else did you think would be in a library, strippers? Anyway, there were two people in the room, not including (hello) yours truly. He tried to leave those people alone, he really did, because he knew libraries were places where you weren't supposed to socialize unless you were in one of those study groups for smart people who socialized by multiplying large numbers. But after two minutes and five seconds of

[anemptydecapo]

Despite trying to will himself to read slowly and enjoy the book in his hands, Venom still managed to rush through the pages, his mind far too eager to process something that wasn't what he dealt with every other day. He'd gone thirteen pages in the two minutes of silence he was given when a voice broken the quiet of the room.

He was going to assume that wasn't directed at him and ignore it, but there hadn't been anyone else in the room who was pacing back and forth like a madman. Hn.

Venom never actually stopped to speak with the stranger, only continued his pacing at a slower rate instead. He bent the top of the page he was on and closed the book, raising his head to at least cast one unamused glance at the man who'd called at him. Explaining the situation would obviously require patience and a sense of calm and, thankfully, he was always calm.

Unfortunately, patience was never something he could manage when he was tired, even if that patience involved rethinking his own words to be more polite. "I'm sure they would," he began,

[commentated]

Oh. Did he manage to piss this guy off somehow? It was hard to really be sure with some people, you know? Sometimes you just ran into those perpetually irritable types and after awhile, you started to realize that was just, like, their default setting.

He should know.

Wait. Rewind just a second. Or, okay, no, maybe closer to twenty...two seconds-okay, right there.

"I'm sorry, did you just-did you say you might get shot?" Harry looked at the surly orderly to the side and then back at the surly patient. His hand slowly closed the book on its own

[selfnighted]

[HI SEISHIN]

A new approach was in order. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing who had been present at the asylum for the length of time she supposed was necessary for one to collect useful information, save for how confused someone might look. Which wasn't a good indicator at all.

The hard way it would have to be, then. She had intended to meet as many patients as possible, she thought: it made the task less daunting. But only marginally so. For example, she hadn't seen Haseo for quite a while.

Things happen, I suppose, she thought as she slowly made her way through a bookshelf, but that was hardly comforting. What 'thing' could have 'happened' to cause patients to disappear? Recovering was out of the question; the asylum wasn't an asylum at all. Much like sending electricity to the brain, she thought, morbidly amused. Possibly this was a sort of secret experimental method of treatment, but the books (or the books' titles) didn't seem indicative of this at all

[unpriest]

[;D]

The library wasn't very large -- he was fairly certain even Sotoba's was bigger, though Seishin couldn't say he had expected otherwise. As he continued to walk past the shelves, scanning the titles written upon the book's spines, he couldn't help but notice that the selection solely consisted of fiction. He recognized many titles, having read a number of them himself at one point, but none of them had what he had been looking for. He did not know what he had hoped to find in such a tiny library -- perhaps a history book or a geography book -- but none of it was here.

A dead end, then. Even finding out about his whereabouts proved to be a difficult task.

Seishin had paused his wandering, standing still before a bookshelf when a woman finally approached him. Soothing poetry. He didn't think now was the moment for leisurely reading. "Unfortunately, I couldn't find what I was looking for," Seishin admitted, offering a polite smile.

[selfnighted]

"And what would that be?" Maya asked. She hadn't given the shelves much scrutiny the last time she was here, but it was merely that she hadn't found anything that appealed to her interests. She'd not made much effort to categorize what books were contained in this small library, but now that she was thinking of it, perhaps it may prove beneficial to her. "What books have you seen here?" she added casually.

Had she forgotten something? ...Ah. "I'm Maya," she said, smiling in return. "Pleasure to meet you." It was a pleasure; she didn't know yet whether he would be useful to her in the grander scheme of things, but conversations with people were never quite the waste of time they could be, especially today. At the very least, here there seemed to be a wealth of information she needed (for her eventual escape or otherwise) or methods for obtaining it that she could try.

[unpriest]

"I'm...not quite certain myself. I had hoped to find something helpful, about where this Landel's Institute is supposedly located, for instance..." Seishin admitted, his voice neutral. "But all you can find here is fiction. There is not a single book on geography or history in this library." Perhaps it could have been expected that they wished to keep their captives unknowing. After all, Vino-san had been here for four days and he had been unable to tell him their location. Others had surely thought to look in the library before him...

The hope to find anything here, as small and fragile as it was, may been a little naive of him.

"I'm Muroi Seishin," he answered to the introduction, the polite smile making its return. He offered her a polite bow of his head. "Nice to meet you, Maya-san." He paused for a moment, glancing at the books on the shelves before returning his gaze to the woman.

"Pardon me, but have you been here long?"

[unheroed]

Harvey didn't really know what to make of the conversation he'd just had with Grell. All he could really say was that it had been more interesting than most conversations that he'd had in this place, though it hadn't been anywhere approaching helpful. Granted, it wasn't like he needed much in the way of direction at this point. He already had his plans settled for the coming night or so

[herr_inspektor]

They'd changed the selection of films on offer. How very generous of them

[vitale]

( NEW DADDY. * A * )

After chatting with Elena (always a joy. Finally, someone who knew what she went through!) and after shoving some sort of food down her throat (not a joy.) Bella decided to head towards the library. She wasn't really in the mood to sit down and watch an old movie she had no interest in, and outside wasn't even considered because it was cold and that was always a do not want. The art room was ... boring, because she couldn't do anything even remotely artistic, and everywhere else wasn't even thought of. Deciding the library was the best choice, she headed towards the quiet room

[herr_inspektor]

The trouble came with the fact that the Institute was still as unpredictable as ever. The introduction of the military made things somewhat easier, with their regimented control and observation, and he could easily guess that they would be sitting back and seeing how the patients reacted to Landel's latest gambit: would they charge head-first into it or carry on with business as usual? There was a chance they'd throw out a few sticks to fetch, too, perhaps as a distraction.

Landel was the spanner in the works.

What was he planning? What was going on in that narcissistic little head of his? That was difficult. His actions might have been more predictable in the confines of the Institute, but running free outside he was a wild card in every sense of the phrase

[vitale]

The teenager smiled warmly as the older man said she could sit down, and she took the seat next to him with a soft thump, wincing out of embarrassment at the way she flopped down. This isn't school, Bella, she scolded, brushing her hair out of her face, You could at least try to look happy.

Even though it was an impossible thought, she tried away. At least, until the mention of her neck. Bella looked down, fingers playing with the slightly curled tips of her long hair. "Oh, um, a few nights ago I ... ran into a monster that looked like someone I knew, and I didn't know until it ... tried to eat me."

How funny, to think that even though Edward was a vampire, she knew he would never hurt her ... but now some fake Edward had done just that. Landel had taken the one thing she believed in and trusted the most and turned it against her. If that wasn't nightmare fuel, she didn't know what was

[fourstonewalls]

As soon as brunch had ended, Lana and Edgeworth went their separate ways, at least as much as one could do so when they both intended to stop by the bulletin board.

The library was quiet, as it ought to be, with just a low murmur of conversation. The loudest sound was coming from Dent, pacing up and down the aisles. Nervous energy, perhaps; the basement didn't sound like a hospitable destination, and nerves were understandable. She was looking for a little more peaceful afternoon, and so after flashing him a reassuring smile, she walked to the next aisle.

She stepped up to the first shelf and looked for something she hadn't read before -- it was a nice collection of classical literature, too little of which she'd had time to read. She slid The Island of Doctor Moreau off the shelf, and turned around to find an empty chair.

[Meekins!]

[dork_at_duty]

After the very pleasant conversation with Mr. Tolten (or wait... just "Tolten," as the man had asked him to call him), Meekins found himself ushered out of the cafeteria and into the large room where he had run into Mr. Wright only a few hours ago. Except that now, calling it a "Sun Room" would be a misnomer, since it was dark, like a movie theater

[fourstonewalls]

"I believe you're right." For what was quite possibly the first time in his life, it seemed.

She looked at the young man, dressed in the standard-issue Institute sweats, and tried to imagine him in an LAPD uniform. It might have been easier if he'd at least been in that farce the soldiers dressed them in, but she was beginning to think that nothing would help in this case. She finished sitting down, and motioned at a second chair.

That might not be obvious enough. "Please, sit down." She spoke just above a whisper, hoping she might lead by example and at least keep this one-sided reunion marginally private. Maybe it would give Dent some entertainment.

"Tell me, Officer Meekins, wasn't it?" The name wasn't ringing any bells, but the man looked junior. She hoped. "Did anyone ever tell you that libraries are supposed to be quiet places?"

[dork_at_duty]

"Y-Yes, Ms. Skye," he cringed. Though it was nice to be right about something for once, it was much nicer when it was about getting letters correct on a hangman game than in knowing how clumsy he was. "At least I wasn't fully running this time, Sir? I guess you could call it 'speed walking...'"

He remained standing, looking wistfully at the chair before him as Ms. Skye seated herself. "I'm sorry, Sir, but... I'm not allowed to sit down until dinner tonight, Sir." His face was now contorted in shame. "You see... I... was a little too loud to a soldier last night, and he put me on notice for 'insolence'. So, I'm not allowed to sit down until tonight, and I wasn't allowed to eat breakfast today either. If it wasn't for Police Chief -- er, I mean, ex Police Chief -- Gant, I would have had to starve all day, Sir