Day 57: Game Room (Third Shift)

[zack_fair]

Having already met two new people today, Zack found that his mood was slowly starting to improve, if only out of necessity. While he didn't like dumping his problems on his friends, he was even less willing to do so with a stranger. More than that, Rose had been very personable and he'd felt good about himself for being to help her with a few

Comments

[ofthemotions]

In retrospect, perhaps, Mikado should have specified when he had repeatedly wished for someone familiar to be here.

The moment the piece clacked on the table, a hand reached around him to snag it gracefully, the owner following suit to slide around into view. There was little allowance for this--the man had not been heard at all, and Mikado, inside his own thoughts, of course, took the sudden appearance with poise and grace. "O-orihara-san?!" ...In his own way. His eyes widened entirely. Of everyone, Izaya was the one Mikado had--

...Least expected. Should he question though? Mikado had been wandering around for half a day and had seen no one else. If both he and Izaya were here, then... If Namie-san knew the man had assisted, maybe....

It was plausible but held too many fractures for him to trust in it fully. For one... Wouldn't she be the type to gloat? At the least about how, in the end, this act could be used as proof her way had won. Or was she just the kind to simply throw others away, like with Harima-san, as soon as they served their purpose?

Circles! Again, circles, and not ones he could escape on his own. And as if in answer to that, here was the one man who would likely know what was going on, if anyone; the man who had assisted him, despite the claims of danger by Masaomi. His mouth opened to speak, when his mind finally registered what Izaya had asked. It worked for a moment instead, the boy silent. "...Shall we...." Play? The game. Chess. Mikado's mind struggled to keep up, even as he moved to sit in the seat opposite, nearly staring. "What?"

[predictator]

Mikado was surprised to see him, Izaya was pleased to note, if his wide eyes and the way he'd stammered his name was any indication. Izaya had been maintaining a low profile-he'd left a note here and there on the board and made a few moves to his own benefit and to prime potential pieces, but he had yet to do anything to really spice things up around here. If that meant his name didn't reach the ears of newcomers like Mikado, all the better.

He idly picked up a different piece in the silence that followed-the black king-and watched Mikado closely as the boy open his mouth silently... and then, finally, responded. Perhaps the surprise had been a little too much, if he was taking this long to process things. Then again, it was something Izaya could understand, at least-until he'd seen Shizuo (or perhaps more accurately, until Shizuo had seen him), he hadn't expected to run into certain people, even if the idea of finding a familiar face hadn't been completely unthought-of. But did that mean that of the people Mikado might have expected, either as a captor or fellow prisoner, Izaya hadn't been one?

-how fortunate, if that were the case. Izaya set the king down, and then moved the black queen beside it as he began to set up a new game from the half-played one.

"Shall we play?" he repeated helpfully, smiling at Mikado. There was much, much more to be played than just a game of chess, but for now, this would do. Ah, but maybe... He paused in the middle of moving a rook to a corner. "Do you know how?"

[ofthemotions]

Izaya said nothing while Mikado floundered, and Mikado finally just took to watching him set up the board. The shock was wearing off, and honestly, maybe he should have expected the one expected least. As... much sense as that made. It would go hand in hand with this place so far, at least. The man smiled over at him, and Mikado was reminded of the first time they had come into contact suddenly. The helpful grin and wild laughter, one after the other.

"...Okay," he finally replied, reaching out to straighten the white king that had fallen over. "I don't... Know anything fancy but I know the basic movements." More or less. There were some techniques he had watched in others, but whether or not he could duplicate them and at the correct moment... Basically, this was probably a loss from the start, and anyway, he had no idea why Izaya was even here.

He hesitated asking. Both of Izaya's presence and the details of this place. Not yet, maybe. If there was anything Mikado knew of the man, and that in itself wasn't much, it was that when Izaya had something to say, he would say it. If there was something beneficial to know, the man would likely share.

Maybe. Hopefully. Mikado would probably end up asking if the other remained in cheerful passivity.

[predictator]

Such an honest answer, or perhaps a modest one? Still, it was enough to know that he wasn't going to need to explain the rules. Izaya resumed setting up the board, humming softly as he moved each piece to its correct position: black on his side, white on Mikado's.

He wanted to know when Mikado had arrived most of all right now, but how to phrase it? Revealing he was at a disadvantage in the breadth of information at his disposal here was something he didn't want to do unless it served to his advantage-and in speaking with Mikado right here, right now, it did not. There had been no reply to his Dollars message yesterday, which he expected meant that the boy had either arrived today or hadn't gone near that particular board yesterday. When had his last note using the name of Dollars been before that? Five days ago? But he'd also used his own name on the bulletin in the meantime, and Mikado had looked genuinely surprised to see him. That was enough to make Izaya believe that he really was new, not simply overlooked.

"Have you spoken to anyone already?" he asked affably while he lined up the pawns. "If not, I could share some information with you, free of charge. This place is rather different from an 'ordinary life' in Tokyo... Oh, but perhaps you'd rather know nothing? After all, even if there's a difference between hearing about things and actually seeing them for yourself, they'll just become 'ordinary' sooner if you know about them beforehand." Of course, in this case the line drawn between knowing and not knowing was also the line between being prepared for danger and unprepared for danger.

The last pawn was put into place. "You get the first move. To spice things up, why don't we place a wager?"

[ofthemotions]

There was something that both comforted him and slightly set him on edge at Izaya's appearance, but Mikado tried to focus more on what was going on. If it was like what Peter had said, then Izaya was possibly stuck here as much as Mikado was at the moment, and he should gain information instead. 'Free of charge,' was never really that trusted, for anything really, but he would take him up on that. Despite what the man added at the end--close enough to what he had said two days ago to make Mikado blink at him, watching.

This was different, though. Mikado held no real power here, or had anything he could call on. His hand moved before he replied, fingers tracing the air above a pawn before settling on the knight he had touched when he first paused at this table, moving it to an opening. Mikado glanced up at Izaya. "I've spoke to a couple of people but a lot of what they said..." Being in America, for starters, half-dead dogs for another. Mental patients. "Didn't make a lot of sense."

He nodded slightly, chin tipping. "I'd rather know in this case, if you're willing, Orihara-san." There were too many mistakes that could be made otherwise. "What kind of wager?"

[predictator]

Mikado had given him confirmation, just as he'd hoped. If the boy had spoken to a couple of people already, that meant he'd already been here long enough to do so-but not yet long enough to have confirmed any of it for himself if he was still doubting their words.

The opening move was an interesting one, and Izaya wondered for a moment whether Mikado did indeed have little knowledge the intricacies of chess, or if there was again something more to him than met the eye. Izaya lifted the black pawn from file the knight had landed in, moving it ahead two spaces. It wasn't until the piece was in place that he began to answer Mikado.

"It wouldn't make much sense," he agreed, "but once you've seen even a fraction of what this place hides... It all becomes much more believable then. In that sense, it's rather like a certain urban legend, I'd think." Should he mention that Celty was here? Mikado would certainly find out in time, but the real shock was that the headless subject of that certain urban legend was no longer quite so headless as before.

"But in short: yes, what you were told is almost certainly true. There are monsters here. There are experiments. The doors will unlock at night, and you're free to roam. Ah, and while it may not seem like it today, the hospital has recently come under military supervision." -To put it delicately.

He watched Mikado from across the chess board, smiling idly. "As for our wager... It'll be boring if the winner of the game and the winner of the wager are one and the same, so I propose that the game's loser may ask one question of the winner, to be answered honestly."

[ofthemotions]

Izaya moved a piece, and Mikado watched it, then moved a pawn of his own forward. The man seemed to agree with what Peter had told him, at the least, and comparing it to an urban legend... to Celty... made it a bit more believable. Mikado frowned in thought. It was more than a little to take in, in all honesty. All of the details known already and... "...Experiments?" The boy's eyes had widened again at the word. And military as well.

"...Orihara-san, I may be wrong, but is this connected to the Yagiri Pharmacy at all?" To the woman that ran it, and grudges she might hold. The more details that were added, the more it seemed likely.

And unlikely as well. If, again, he took Peter's words to heart, there were many others in this predicament. Unless all were just... something to be used and thrown away. Materials in immoral tests. Ahh, it wasn't something so easily found out. And with the added details... Mikado's head hurt.

He rubbed at his temple for a moment, before looking back at Izaya. He didn't know how good Izaya might be at chess, but that he suggested it and asked if Mikado knew the rules hinted that Izaya was at the least familiar. It was more than likely the man would win, so he wondered if the wager meant anything. A question to be answered entirely honestly? There were so many things to think of. The boy nodded in response. "That sounds fine."

[predictator]

Ah, what to do? He'd wondered about it himself-though in his case he'd wondered about Nebula, not the now-defunct Yagiri Pharmacy-but Mikado asking him like this was practically begging for a vague, misleading answer...

But, no. He would continue to deal with Mikado with a certain measure of honesty for now, since he'd even said he would provide some information. However, the limits of what he himself knew gave some flexibility for the boundaries of truth, of facts, of reality.

"It does seem similar, doesn't it?" he said, moving a knight of his own this time. "However, I doubt they're behind this, since Yagiri was gobbled up by another company-ah, but the possibility that that company is involved isn't zero... Still, I've found no evidence to suggest a connection, aside from our presence."

The words were left a little vague, but he meant more people than Mikado might have thought-Izaya himself, Mikado, Celty, Shizuo, Masaomi... Well, the strongest connections to Nebula would have been those who were involved with Celty, so Masaomi as the odd man out (despite his 'friends') put the situation in a slightly different light.

"As for the experiments, all I can tell you are the rumors."

[ofthemotions]

Like he had thought. The Yagiri company had fallen--though what Izaya said had weight. If a program with a virus was placed into a new machine, the virus still existed. And possibly gained potency from the new environment and surroundings. But the man said there was no evidence, though even that wasn't completely zero in possibility. Izaya was one man, and if he was as trapped as Mikado, they were closer to an even standing.

Mikado watched the move, and gave a small grimace as he moved another pawn. Maybe... not so even standing. He had no idea what he was doing at all.

Rumors made things worse, in the end, and Mikado had a mild distaste for secondhand information like that. But finding out first hand was unwanted, for either Izaya or himself. He wouldn't wish things like that on anyone, really. He'd have to settle for what there was. "Okay," he agreed, surpressing a stutter at images of what experimentation there could be. It was possible that it was completely normal--ha, saying normal when it was anything but--or couldn't it be like he had thought before? Things more fantasy than the given reality?

The thought was disturbing, but still, something in him was excited. There was something larger than himself in this, something that held greater meaning than a day to day existence.

[predictator]

Good; he was going to get a chance to spread rumors a little further since the boy had agreed to hear. Of course, since he was telling Mikado all of this personally he couldn't embellish too much-but he'd read about the 'sleep studies' on the bulletin a few times, and there apparently wasn't very much information floating around about them outside of what those taken knew of their own experiments.

"Unfortunately, there's little that can be verified-it seems that those who have been experimented on are reluctant to speak of the procedures, but there are also those who don't actually remember what happened to them after being taken." From the one case he'd heard mention of for the latter, it seemed to be a rare case-but there was the possibility he was the only one who'd ever stepped forward to say so. "But word is that the 'patients' are taken from their rooms in the evening and any number of things might happen after that-there are apparently lingering effects from the 'studies', but the accounts all differ, so it would seem the experiment done is different every time, suited to the victim's particular... peculiarities."

Izaya paused, as if considering what to say next, and in that time, he moved the knight again, capturing a pawn. He rolled the piece between his fingers. "Of course, there are also the animals-I've heard there's a lab for them, and the 'monsters' around here are likely the results of those experiments. There's a possibility the same has happened to humans: some people here go missing after a while, after all."

He set the pawn to the side, and leaned back. "Of course, that is just a rumor. There are people walking around who look completely normal after the experiments, and no one has an extra head-" He cut off suddenly, titling his head and then adding, softly, "Ah, no; that's not quite accurate..."

[ofthemotions]

Mikado watched intently as Izaya spoke, nerves touching his face before dispersing altogether as he stared. Most of what was said was completely believable. Being taken from rooms, having specialized tests.... But the man's emphasis on a word made Mikado wonder completely. It was as if Izaya had guessed Mikado's thoughts to touch on them. His brows drew together slightly. "What kind of peculiarities?"

The question of the animals made more sense now. If Peter had seen some kind of skewed versions of known animals, horrific experiments would explain that well. In fact-- And yep, here started the losing Mikado had thought from the start. He grimaced lightly, then moved a piece on the side out of the line if direct combat. People were taken here, and then went missing from here. It was certainly a bleak picture... And not one that he fully understood yet. "Do you know what the reason for all of it is?"

That encompassed more than just the why of being taken and being experimented on. They were playing chess right now, and outside this room, a group was watching a movie. Why all the weird... normality, when it seemed easier to just lock them in cells? Was it some kind of weird mentality, a kindness for guinea pigs? Mikado breathed out heavily, disturbed by the thought more than anything else. That kind of contrast was just....

What he had been about to think flew from his mind at the man's soft-spoken words. The boy's eyes widened entirely, looking near to the same as when Izaya first appeared. "Someone has an extra head?"

[predictator]

Mikado's question was, unfortunately, one that Izaya did not yet have an exact answer to. While he had gathered, from various posts he'd read, that the experiments may have been tailored to the subject in question, there were precious few details divulged in that forum. If he wanted something with a little more detail, he would likely need to speak directly with one of the subjects-something that he had not yet had the good fortune of. He did, however, have his guesses. "Peculiarities such as whatever might make them stand out amongst others, I would think... Some suitable aspect of mind or of body, or else an abnormality like Shizu-chan's monstrous strength."

Perhaps that was where Shizuo had gone in the past days: he'd been taken in to be dissected. Izaya silently wished the doctors luck cutting through that tough flesh.

"As for the reason... I can't say." The purpose of their captors was one line of speculation Izaya wasn't yet willing to verbalize to someone face-to-face, even if it were for the sake of spreading rumors. There were still too many possibilities-perhaps there was some grand goal at stake here, or perhaps Landel and Aguilar and anyone else involved were like him-so until he knew more to at least narrow things down...

He'd focus on Celty instead. Izaya slid another piece forward. "It's not an extra head so much as...." He trailed off and tilted his head, an almost fond smile on his lips. "There's a headless rider here who's no longer quite so headless."

Even without naming her, Izaya was sure Mikado would realize who he meant.

[ofthemotions]

That explained one thing at least. Experimenting on people above the norm made sense (...that he was thinking it made sense was starting to concern him; none of it made actual sense), but it really didn't explain why the rest of everyone was here. But it would be unfair to press further for answers that Izaya didn't know either.

Though, to be honest, the man had said... an aspect of mind or body. Mikado glanced over to Izaya, cautious. Wasn't what Izaya did something extreme and of the mind? Was that enough for whoever was in charge to gain interest? What exactly would be defined as something interesting enough to--

The boy shook his head, escaping the circle of thoughts that would lead him nowhere at this moment. Mikado stared down at the chessboard, moving a piece forward in the only way he thought possible. So now, what he should do was....

Was forgotten in a moment. Again, for the third time, Mikado's face detailed astonishment in the clearest of ways, but here there was an edge of light joy. He leaned forward slightly. "Really? Celty-san is here, and she's--" Normal. Was she still what she was or just something human and mundane? "Did they do that?"

[predictator]

Who it was that had restored Celty's head was quite the question-one that Izaya himself could as of now only wish he knew the answer to. The facts, as he knew them, were that he'd found himself amongst the 'patient' populace a little earlier than Celty, with no memory of his own abduction. Up until he'd seen the courier with a head (and without so much as a scar to show where it had been attached), that head had been hidden away in his possession. It was certainly possible the head had been stolen from him at the same time as his abduction (which could narrow things down-the list of people who knew he had it was rather short, all things considered), but if it had been surgically attached to Celty's body, shouldn't there have been time needed for healing?

-But then again, despite how she acted at times, Celty Sturluson wasn't human. Perhaps things were different for a dullahan

"She's here, yes," Izaya answered, entirely skipping the question that was bothering him. Mikado's reaction to the news had paid for the mention in full, but wasn't quite payment enough for Izaya to admit his own uncertainties. It also left Izaya wanting to see more: should he mention Masaomi, too? Shizuo? Even if they were truly no longer among the crowd, there was always the possibility of Mikado imagining fate after Izaya's suggestions...

He slid a pawn forward, leaving it exposed as bait. He'd talk about the others later, he decided, after Mikado had gained a little bit of familiarity with this place.

"I'm sure you'll recognize her when you see her," he added.

[ofthemotions]

The calm in which Izaya reaffirmed the fact made it more believable, and Mikado leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his lips. So she was.... Heh. It was interesting, so interesting, and he wondered if she was happy, having found her head like she wanted despite everything that had happened. Was this place maybe okay, then? Hadn't it given her what she wanted?

Mikado glanced up at Izaya's sentence. "Ah..." Recognize her. It'd be strange, he thought, to see two people with Harima-san's (Celty-san's?) face. He nodded, still, slipping a piece forward to capture the pawn Izaya had left unattended. "So there's some interesting things about this place..." he murmured lightly. At this rate, it seemed more exciting than purely something of torment.

[predictator]

There were many, many more interesting things about this place than just those he'd shared with Mikado-but not everyone had or even understood his hobbies, and Izaya knew that well. Still, Mikado's reactions to the various pieces of information he'd shared had been payment enough (in lieu of proper currency), and he wondered how the boy would react from here on out. He'd have to keep a more careful eye on him than he had on Masaomi.

Mikado had also risen up to take the bait. Izaya's fingers moved to his next piece, but he paused before moving it. "I wonder if her head was returned out of kindness or cruelty," he mused aloud. On the one had, it was back in her possession (though perhaps in a different way than before), but he couldn't imagine it had come without a cost. At the very least, it had been stolen from him-and at most? Hmm.

He lifted the piece, moving it to take advantage of the opening Mikado had inadvertently created. "Check."