Day 58: Arts & Crafts (Second Shift)

[scintillatingly]

It was impossible for Sora to not be in a good mood when Riku had come back (with his memories intact!). He could only imagine how Kairi was going to react when he found her, and that thought alone put a smile on his face as well. He realized that there were still some things they needed to iron out about their plans, but Riku was already on the

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[witchdetective]

"Really?" Of course, the bulletin. Erika had neglected to look at it, which was strange considering her daily ritual of reading the updates after breakfast. Still, it was interesting to hear about how people were talking about other strange effects, though all could be explained by hallucinations and altered senses due to the drugs they took. It was so easy to explain that it didn't even require any thought and discussion, it was simply the actual affects of Unknown Drug X. And it could have been possible that the man she saw earlier this morning was still suffering from the effects.

... On the other hand, he looked so pathetic that Erika could have easily believed that the man was just normally like that. Sometimes a moron was just a moron.

When Erika heard Rita express her disinterest in trying the drugs for herself, the girl couldn't help but just snort in laughter, which was a mistake that resulted in her clutching her abdomen in pain for a moment. Yet the pain just made her chuckle more, reminding her of what could have happened if she had decided to take a break from the coliseum to check out the drug trials herself. Yes, she could have avoided all of this. Compared to the hell she went through, enduring some hallucinations would have been a much better tradeoff.

But it wasn't like she could tell Rita that. And ultimately, why would she? If Rita wanted to run into that lion's den, it would be quite rude for Erika to spoil the experience for her, and perhaps Erika was feeling vengeful and wishing her pain and humiliation on someone else.

"Yes, I guess that sounds unpleasant. But there are other things in the Institute that are worse, I think," Erika smiled knowingly, making a gesture as if showing herself as an example. "Were all of the drugs like this, or did you hear of other effects?" It would be strange if all of the drugs that were available for testing were merely hallucinogens, but they could just share the same side effects while having another purpose... Well, if anyone started dropping dead, she supposed she would notice soon enough.

[bodhiandspirit]

Rita stared back with an emotionless, though somewhat questioning look as Furudo referenced her experiences once more. She had to be talking about whatever happened in the basement... the thing that she apparently couldn't talk about. There was probably no use in asking questions that couldn't be answered, but Rita found herself growing more and more curious.

"Most people had about the same story, from what I saw," she replied, sticking to the topic at hand. "The people who talked about their 'transformations' in depth all said they turned into different things - but mostly monsters, it sounded like."

She gave a broad shrug, sighing as if exasperated. "They all seemed convinced that they're in the clear now, but I don't think that belief's got anything backing it up. More like hopeful thinking, if you ask me. Whether it was a real transformation or just some vivid hallucinations, there's no telling if or when their symptoms could come back." Which was precisely why Rita had no intention of trying the drugs for herself. What if the effects returned every night, or even just once a week? That wasn't something she was willing to deal with for the rest of her life.