Day 59: Cafeteria (noon)

[immortale]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning

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[human_sponge]

Getting to talk to Depth Charge again had been a relief, if only because it was good to keep on reconnecting with friends here. He didn't know if the man would be able to contribute to the group that Peter was trying to put together since it seemed like he had enough on his plate as it was, but Depth Charge had still given him some useful information. The basement was something that people literally could not discuss, but whatever was down there wasn't good

[immortale]

Berga didn't respond-not that Firo had really expected him to. No matter what he'd thought he'd heard, the middle Gandor brother wasn't here. Someone else had called out his name then, and if he hadn't seen Peter Petrelli standing before him, he might have almost thought it was still his imagination. As it was, someone actually talking to him was more startling than he'd expected, especially after he'd been just talking to ghosts.

"Oh, Peter! Hello!" he said quickly, hoping the man hadn't heard him earlier. He'd asked about the food, though, not who he'd been talking to, so...

Firo's gaze dropped to the bowl of pink gruel. "I'm not so sure, actually. Why?"

[human_sponge]

Despite the fact that Firo had looked a little like he'd been in his own world for a second there, Peter didn't think too much of it. Seeing how he'd been known as a daydreamer for most of his life, he couldn't really judge someone else for having the same habits. And it was easy to want to put yourself in another situation when you were stuck here.

Even though Firo had a plate of rotten food sitting in front of him, Peter still took a seat. He wanted to make sure that the younger man didn't actually eat that stuff, because that was basically asking for food poisoning.

He couldn't understand why Firo wasn't all that bothered by it, though. Recalling that the man was from the past, Peter wondered if back then food had been deemed safe to eat even when it was far past that point. It seemed like a lousy theory, but he didn't know how else to explain it. "Well, it's... completely rotten. If you eat that you'll be puking your guts out before dinner rolls around, believe me."

[immortale]

Firo had glanced at Peter's face again when the other man had said the food was rotten, but then focused on the bowl once more. "I heard the same thing from someone else earlier, but..."

He'd eaten at breakfast-before he'd first heard that the food was off, and he still felt fine... But what he saw and what Peter saw had to be different. The gruel definitely didn't look rotten-in fact, he wasn't even sure what it would look like rotten. Maybe it was just that something in it had spoiled.

Gingerly, he lifted the bowl up and leaned closer to smell it. It didn't have a smell at all.

"It seems alright to me." He set the bowl back onto the tray. "I'm not sure what this stuff is made from, so maybe I just can't tell... But it's just the same as it was yesterday."

[human_sponge]

Okay, something weird was going on here. Had to be. This wasn't just a matter of them being from different time periods where different things were considered acceptable. There was no way someone could look at what Peter was looking at and not realize that there was something wrong with it.

Which meant that one of them was seeing things -- or not seeing things, in Firo's case. Peter's mouth twisted to the side as he tried to think through it, but he figured he'd just explain.

His stomach twisted uncomfortably when Firo took a sniff of the gruel, but he managed to school his nausea out of existence, focusing on the matter at hand. Which was making sure that the kid didn't eat.

"Well, something funny is going on then, because I can see mold and I can also smell it from here." He shook his head, wondering how the people in charge had pulled this off and what the point of it was even supposed to be. "I'm not sure if it's just a hallucination, but you might want to watch out either way."

[immortale]

He'd wondered the same thing, earlier, but the fact that Peter could smell something that Firo couldn't was surprising. If it had just been a matter of seeing things, that would be one thing-but a smell that only one of them could detect? But what Peter was saying was so similar to what Hakkai said that it seemed he was outnumbered.

Firo frowned, giving the bowl one last look. "'Something funny' is right," he agreed, before pushing the bowl off to the side. "If it really is bad, it'll be better not to risk it."

Skipping one meal was no problem-but what if it turned into more? If the food was always like then, then...

...Ah, well, the least he could do was wait until he was sure that drug was out of his system; then he could see if he saw the same thing as everyone else. Really, it was probably just the drugs.

"What's this? You're into wishful thinking now, Firo?"He ignored Berga this time, though his cheeks did flush at the boisterous laugh that followed

[human_sponge]

Peter was glad that Firo was trusting him on this issue. While eating was obviously important, in this case it seemed like it was an issue of better safe than sorry. This was something that was going to have to get cleared up sooner rather than later, though. While the water seemed to be fine and that was in the end more vital than any food, they still wouldn't be able to last long on this spoiled stuff

[immortale]

Firo frowned when Peter answered that nothing had happened, but didn't answer the other man's question just yet. So it wasn't that they'd drugged everyone, after all; it had only been some of them, and he and Claude had been unfortunate enough to be selected... And in that case, of the two of them Peter was the one more likely to be seeing things correctly, wasn't he

[human_sponge]

That wasn't exactly what Peter had been expecting to hear. He didn't know what he'd had in mind, honestly, but it hadn't been that

[immortale]

At Peter's question, Firo let out a brief, sardonic laugh. "Yeah, I've noticed some things," he answered. "The problem is, I can't be sure if it's related to the drug or if it's something else entirely. I might be mistaking coincidence for the 'effects'."

It felt like the only thing he could do was wait and see... which was frustrating, to say the least. He wanted to be able to do something about it, make it stop. Berga('s voice) had been right; he was doing an awful lot of wishful thinking today. The idea that it was coincidence was more likely anyway, anyway; his body hadn't had any kind of reaction rejecting the drug, but wouldn't it have already healed from whatever effect it might have had? He could be waiting forever if he kept blaming the drug.

"There's absolutely nothing you can do, though," Maiza chimed in, and Firo winced. He'd been hoping he wouldn't be joining the voices-more wishful thinking. "You might as well just give up, because you're going to fail."His shoulders slumped at the thought, and Firo sighed,

[human_sponge]

Coincidence? Peter didn't know how strange effects could be mistaken for anything but that, but he was going to give Firo the benefit of the doubt here. There was a whole lot about Landel's that was confusing; in fact, their captors seemed pretty intent on always presenting them with questions and mysteries. It wasn't so shocking that even something like a drug could generate that kind of response

[immortale]

Unfortunately, sounding crazy looked like just about the only option. He could definitely blame the drug (whether or not it was actually to blame), but even so... For Firo Prochainezo, a proud member of the Martillo Family, to be hearing voices? It was ridiculous. If anyone from other Families heard about it, he'd be a laughingstock. The Martillos would be a laughingstock.

...But then again, Peter was a nurse. Perhaps he could say whether the drug could even be responsible for the voices in the first place.

A long moment of silence passed before Firo finally said, "You can't tell anyone, alright?" He paused, fixing Peter a hard look-it wasn't exactly a threatening one, but it would make sure Peter knew he meant business. "I've been... hearing things since last night. Voices." He suddenly broke off the stare, and shook his head with a scoffing laugh. "I was even convinced that someone I knew was here, but she's not."

[human_sponge]

Being sworn to secrecy wasn't too surprising, considering the circumstances. Honestly, Peter thought that most of the other patients here would probably understand what Firo was going through and even be sympathetic, but he was still going to honor the younger man's request. It was only fair, and that was probably the only way he could get him to open up. For that reason, he responded to Firo's stare with a firm nod

[immortale]

"No, nothing like that," Firo answered with half a laugh, relieved that Peter seemed to at least be taking this seriously. But with some people seeing the food differently than others... maybe it wasn't hard to be taken seriously around here.

"They've just been... talking. Mostly it's been them telling me things I already know myself," he said, carefully avoiding saying what exactly the criticisms they'd been spouting were. "The thing is, every voice I've heard belongs to someone I know. People I'm close to, even."

It was who the voices belonged to that bothered him the most, he thought. Voices he didn't recognize would be one thing, but every time he heard another familiar voice, he had to stop himself from looking around to make sure that the latest speaker wasn't really there. If Ennis or Maiza or any of the others really had wound up here too, and he ignored them because he thought he was imagining things

[human_sponge]

So it was as Peter had figured, and the voices were from people Firo knew, rather than being strange random whispers that were encouraging him to hurt others or himself. It wasn't as if Firo seemed like the sort of person who was mentally unstable enough for that to even bother him, so maybe hearing the voices of loved ones was more detrimental.

Peter had to admit that would have probably thrown him from a loop, too. Hearing Nathan's voice -- or even his mother's -- from out of nowhere like that would have definitely at least been a large distraction.

"I can't say I've heard of anything like that before," he admitted, "but with any luck it'll fade away pretty soon." Most of the things at Landel's didn't last forever. The idea of Firo having to hear that constantly from now on was a worrying one, since that would be a way to push someone over the edge

[immortale]

Firo felt surprisingly relieved at Peter's response. He would have thought that Peter not having heard of something like what he was currently experiencing would be more troubling, but instead, it felt as though a weight had been lifted. Hearing voices couldn't be any better than seeing things (and either one seemed like a symptom of insanity, if you asked him), so for a nurse to think it wasn't too much of a problem... Maybe it wasn't as serious a problem as he'd been thinking it was.

Still, the prospect of enduring the voices' ridicules without being able to do anything about it wasn't exactly cheering. At least Peter seemed to think there was a chance it would end on its own soon; since he knew more about both medicine and this place than Firo did, he was willing to take Peter's word unless something changed for the worse.

"I've been, er... trying not to respond to them," he said, a faint flush returning to his cheeks. He'd done a poor job of it thus far... He'd already said something in reply to Berga just before Peter had