Day 40: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

[clockmongler]

Well, that was... special. No wonder he was losing respect for this place--the fearful Martin Landel was coming undone, most probably with boredom. So scary. Even Nursey seemed a little exasperated, though that most likely had more to do with X's constant insistence to stay in the Sun Room rather than go inside the Greenhouse

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[fourtharcana]

While being outside earlier had been fun, Akihiko declined the offer to go out to the greenhouse that afternoon. Plants were not particularly his thing, and he had a little bit of a headache after that conversation at lunch.

Well, at least neither Ken nor the girls within earshot, or they'd have killed both of us, nurses and staff be damned - either figuratively or literally. At least that was reassuring. If there had been any chance of any of them hearing, he'd have been outside this shift despite the slight headache, just to avoid certain death.

He flopped onto a couch not far from the bulletin board, rubbing at one of his temples absentmindedly.

[So what he's really saying is 'please scare the crap out of me, Mitsuru'.]

[marin_karin]

Lunch had gone remarkably well. It added to everything that needed to be looked into, where the Institute was concerned, but at the same time it gave Mitsuru a much better idea of the situation before she'd arrived. She also had the name of someone to speak with, when she got a chance.

Mitsuru was debating whether or not to go outside for the shift when she spotted Akihiko on one of the couches. She'd been planning on speaking with him at the beginning of the night, but now would work just as well; she could get his impressions on these club leaders, and give him the assignment for the night at the same time. It could even test a theory; the less things were said on the bulletin, hopefully the less Landel would be able to interfere with them.

So she walked over to stand in front of the couch. "I wouldn't have guessed a headache would prevent you from trying to further your training in a greenhouse," she commented, giving him an amused smile.

[fourtharcana]

Oh, shi--

Akihiko sat bolt-upright on the couch, stammering out a very surprised "Oh, h-hi, Mitsuru. I, uh, well. You can't really run around in an enclosed space like that, you know?"

Okay. Keep it together. You can do this.

"So, uh. What's up? You look like you've had a good day..." He added a silent 'please don't kill me' to the end of the sentence.

[marin_karin]

Mitsuru quirked an eyebrow up at the stammer. Had he gotten into trouble of some sort that he didn't want her finding out about? Well, if so, it would likely get back to her at some point. She'd deal with it then. "I suppose not," she replied. "And it has been a fairly good day, all things considered. There's so much to learn about this place, but it's helpful. It's nice to see what others have gathered, from their own points of view."

She took a seat next to him on the couch. "You said you would be up for an assignment tonight, correct? How would you feel about seeing what's over the wall, and how far you could get?"

[fourtharcana]

Akihiko let out a barely audible sigh of relief at the subject change. "That is a good thing - so what have you found out? And oh, yeah, you probably want an update on how lunch yesterday went?", he asked, settling in and taking out the notes he'd taken.

"The surprising thing is that the three most prominent groups have all taken some hard hits lately. One death, one disappearance, and one - apparently bad; Homura never got into the details - experimentation. I hadn't expected that to be the case - but at the same time, it means that it's not just us taking pretty big blows.

I got the feeling that Mello guy wasn't particularly trusted by the major leadership figures. If that's the case...as much as I hate to say it, it might be for the best that he's not here now and can't make trouble. And one more thing...our healer count is higher than a lot of others'. That surprised me, but overall, it's a good thing, I think."

He grinned at that last statement. "Do you even need to ask if I'd be up for going outside?"

[marin_karin]

She listened carefully to the explanation and held out a hand for the notes when he finished. She already knew that it wasn't just them taking large blows, but that death count sounded a bit wrong, if she remembered correctly. Were those statistics just for its leaders? That boded poorly for the rest of the clubs, in the future, but provided that it was the latter rather than either of the first two, it was just one more thing that they would need to take in stride.

And she had to agree that, from what she'd seen across the bulletin today with that 'Lelouch', it hadn't taken long to realize that many people hadn't trusted Mello, not just the leaders. Take one person concerned with information away, and a new one popped up. Perhaps things would work out better with Lelouch and the other club leaders.

"I'll be honest, I'm not too thrilled with letting too many people see our Personas, but if our healer count is higher than a lot of other clubs, we should help them when we can." Mitsuru paused. No, she really didn't need to ask, but

[fourtharcana]

Akihiko tore out the notes from his journal and handed them over with a nod. It'd be easier, and she would have more use for them overall. "I agree with you there, but this is one of those cases where it wouldn't hurt to jump in if we're needed. It's not great, but we've got an advantage there, it seems like, since there was never anything said about sending out clinic healers. The problem I see is getting them to agree to it - you know Chidori probably won't go anywhere without Iori."

He lowered his voice briefly, saying, "And personally? I'm getting a better feeling off this Lelouch guy on the boards than I did off Mello. The guy seemed like he was trying to start trouble."

Akihiko nodded at that last statement. "That sounds fair, but what about you? Taking a separate team inside?"

[marin_karin]

Mitsuru glanced the notes over when she received them, then slipped them inside her journal alongside her transcription of the club information from the bulletin board. She could compare them later.

"You're right, she probably wouldn't. But at the very least, we could likely do at least one healing, provided Takeba hasn't had that stripped of her entirely. We still need to test the Evoker's limits, so tonight may be a good chance." Mitsuru paused and glanced over at the bulletin board. "If nothing else, this Lelouch is honest, to a certain point. Time will tell for certain, but I'd like to hope that his arranging an information web will help."

Then she looked back over at Akihiko. "You could say that. I'm going to take a look in one of the rooms upstairs, where they're supposedly holding our possessions. It may just be things to try and convince us of these lies they're telling us, but there's really only one way to find out."

[fourtharcana]

"Yeah. Between the three of us, we'll see what we can do about figuring out the limits on the Evoker. At least we'll have a better idea about them, at any rate." Akihiko nodded, then added, grinning, "Don't worry. It'll be fine. Can't be any worse than the average run in Tartarus, right?"

On that second point, Mitsuru was right, and she generally had a better sense for that kind of thing. "Yeah, here's hoping that it will be useful. There's at least some better cooperation going with him. But I guess we'll see how it shakes out, in the end."

He quirked an eyebrow at that last question. "Looking for something specific up there, or just to see what's there in general?"

[marin_karin]

"Just be careful." While Mitsuru couldn't entirely agree with that comment, their group was luckier than many others. Akihiko didn't need a weapon, Amada and Takeba both had decent weapons, and they had an Evoker. Chidori was getting a weapon made, and for the time being Iori and herself could manage until they could commission swords. Mitsuru could envision several ways in which it could be worse than a run in Tartarus, but at the same time, she knew they could handle it.

She nodded at the comment about Lelouch and let it drop there. All they could do was wait and see. "Just seeing what's up there in general, really," she explained, nodding. Although it would be nice to see if she could find some clothes from home up there. The provided uniforms were decent, but she'd much rather have something that she was more comfortable running around in.

[fourtharcana]

"Don't worry. It'll be fine," Akihiko said, with a nod, reinforcing his previous statement. "We can handle whatever's out there." While he knew that they weren't invincible, at the same time, they weren't going out there blind to the dangers that could be out there. He'd taken a look at that monster list, and was perfectly confident in their ability to know what they could handle and what they couldn't. Most of it fell into the category of things they could handle, in his book. Just as long as they didn't run into anything incorporeal...

He had his suspicions about what she was actually looking for upstairs, but wasn't going to say any of those out loud, lest he be on the wrong end of those heels once she found them. "You be careful, too," he settled on saying. "You don't want to wind up, uh, teleported again."

[marin_karin]

She gave one more nod at his reassurance. "I know. And I will be." She didn't exactly want to wind up teleported again, either, but she didn't plan on sticking around if she saw that boy again. At least it would be less embarrassing if she was by herself.

"So..." she said after a moment, "what did Iori want to talk about?"

[fourtharcana]

"All right," he said, nodding. Okay, I'm in the clear, that lunch conversation didn't come up -- oh, hell.

"Oh, nothing important," he began. "Personal stuff from home, asking for girl advice. Nothing you need to be concerned about." And definitely not Kyoto. Or what happened a couple of nights ago. Nope. Nothing like that. At all.

[marin_karin]

Mitsuru's eyebrow quirked up at that. She was curious exactly why Iori was concerned with that sort of thing when they were stuck here, of all places, but...it was Iori. And with Chidori here, and those supposed virgin-eating birds, it wasn't terribly far-fetched.

She doubted that it only had to do with something from back home, but she was willing to let it drop unless it became something that she should be concerned about. "I see," she commented. "Tell me you at least told him to be careful."

[fourtharcana]

"I did. And I was actually surprised. For once, he's not rushing into things headfirst. I think he's taking things seriously for once." Of course, that hadn't stopped him from immediately going forth and antagonizing Mitsuru on the bulletin, but nothing short of grievous bodily harm would do that.

He paused, as if about to add something else, then decided to leave it.

[marin_karin]

"At least that's one thing he takes seriously. I wouldn't have expected that, under normal circumstances." Not that he was any different other than that, but it was a start.

Mitsuru tilted her head slightly. "Was there something else?"