Day 43: Chapel

[constellates]

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn,

Comments

[gald_digger]

There was a lot to think about. The weird intercom conversation people were talking about, the talk about some infection the zombies were spreading, the disappearance of the Commandant... Anise was so wrapped up in it all that she didn't notice when somebody sat next to her.

The moment the boy spoke, she seemed to jolt back to life, whipping her head around to look. "I-I'm fine!" The words flew out of her mouth automatically in response to the question. It wasn't until after she answered that she saw who she was talking to: a young kid, maybe even younger than she was. But even if he was a kid, he probably wouldn't have found a jumpy response like that too convincing, she realized.

After a moment, the girl laughed awkwardly, and smiled at him. "Um, sorry. Guess I spaced out there, eheh." It was probably for the best that he interrupted her thoughts. She wasn't really getting anywhere with them. "It's pretty hard to be all right after what happened last night, but... I'm doing okay, all things considered!" Her smile brightened, but she paused for a few moments, looking the kid over thoughtfully. "What about you?"

[forgot_it_all]

The girl jumped and Ritsuka tried not to do the same when she whipped around to look at him. Her answer was definitely automatic and insincere, but he figured it was just because she had been startled. The laughter and the smile didn't help any though and Ritsuka didn't return the gesture, merely watching her with his usual detached expression. Spacing out was one thing, but she was definitely thinking on something. He didn't want to pry and he wasn't sure he should anyway, so he let the subject go.

Doing okay all things considered still said a lot and Ritsuka shrugged. "Yeah, guess so. I didn't get eaten." His arms still ached, but the wounds from two nights ago were healing up and by tonight or tomorrow he'd be fine. The bandages had been removed at least, leaving him with dark lines running up and down his arms where thin scabs were covering the cuts. More than that though was the worry about everyone. He'd seen that Kio was okay, but Miku wasn't - not with Sousuke gone. "...Relatively okay, I guess. Anyway, what's your name? Sorry that my nurses shoved me over here when you were busy thinking."

[gald_digger]

Relatively okay? Anise supposed that was about as good as anyone could hope to be, after a night like that. The kid was looking better than she expected for someone his age - assuming she was guessing his age right. It was pretty rare to see people who looked younger than she did. That was a good thing, though.

"It's Anise!" the girl replied cheerfully, turning her body to face the kid properly. "What's yours? Oh, and don't worry about that! I'd rather be chatting with someone than wasting the whole shift thinking about stuff that can't be changed." She said it rather bluntly, fully aware that what she had been doing was completely useless. Dwelling on recent events wasn't going to help anything. It was just hard to help it sometimes.

[forgot_it_all]

Anise. Interesting name, like the spice or the plant. He liked it, even if licorice and fennel didn't seem to suit this girl. She couldn't be much older than he was, but she certainly had a young personality. As she turned to face him, Ritsuka shifted in his seat slightly to do the same. "Ritsuka. Aoyagi Ritsuka."

He wished he could stop thinking about things that couldn't be changed. With Sousuke missing, Miku was alone again and that, he knew, wasn't going to settle well. He'd have to find her as the day wore on, and perhaps find a way to her when the night came. Even if Soubi wasn't with him, he would do what he could to protect her. She may have been older, but she seemed so fragile compared to Ritsuka. "I guess it's better not to dwell, but what were you thinking about so seriously anyway? Two heads can be better than one at least."

[gald_digger]

Another one of those weird backwards names. Maybe he was from Earth? Most people Anise knew with names like those were from there, so it seemed like a good bet.

"Um... everything, I guess," she replied with a somewhat sheepish grin. There were too many things on her mind to pick just one to focus on. "Like what happened last night, and all the things people are talking about on the bulletin, and that weird voice on the intercom this morning..." She stopped herself before she went on for too long, and sighed. "It kinda feels like a lot's suddenly changed here."

If something really had happened to the Head Doctor, then maybe whatever weird stuff happened was a good thing. But Anise knew they couldn't expect to be lucky enough to be rid of their one biggest enemy that easily. He was probably going to be back on the intercom later that day, laughing his stupid laugh and taunting everyone like the bastard he was.

[forgot_it_all]

[sorry for the delay! I was gone all day today. DX Would you like to backthread any or just leave it as is?]

Weird voice...? Ritsuka vaguely recalled not hearing the Doctor's voice over the intercom that morning, but he didn't remember any weird voice. He'd slept in though, so maybe that would explain it. But something definitely had happened and it seemed like he'd missed out. "Changed? Changed how?"

He hated not knowing and asking Anise would be faster than checking through the myriad of notes plastered helter-skelter over the bulletin. At the very least he'd have an idea of what to look for. Some days he just didn't feel like sifting through the seemingly millions of notes on there, looking for the one that might pertain to him. He liked reading, but even he had limits. "I heard people talking about something happening here last night, but I didn't hear what. Do you know?"

[gald_digger]

[I'm cool with wrapping things up a bit!]

"You don't know?" Anise looked surprised for a moment, then realized what a mess the bulletin was. It was probably hard to find the important messages among the sea of check-up posts. Anise tried to read everything on the board, but she supposed some people might skim past the good stuff by accident.

"There was a weird conversation on the intercom last night. Somebody posted a transcript of it on the board somewhere. It sounded like somebody confronted the Head Doctor... and maybe hurt him, too," she explained in a whisper. If it was true, then that was good news, probably. That bastard deserved whatever he got. "People are saying it was that radio man who did it. You know, the one who died?" She studied the kid's expression, wondering if he really did know. How long had he been at the institute, anyway? If he was a new patient, that bit would probably just fly over his head.

Anise sighed, crossing her arms as she thought hard about the events. "And then the Head Doctor didn't show up for morning announcements today... And the Head Nurse didn't do them, either. It's weird, right?"

[forgot_it_all]

As expected, Anise looked surprised to hear that Ritsuka didn't know. Ritsuka himself was pretty damn surprised about it, too. Turning his face away, he picked at the loose fabric of his sweatpants and shook his head. "I slept in this morning and missed the announcement."

At least she was willing to explain though. Ritsuka's hands stilled as Anise filled him in, giving him a better idea about what people were whispering about. Someone had hurt the Head Doctor? And it was the dead guy? Ritsuka was absolutely certain that man had died. People had talked about it, confirmed it all, and yet last night with the dead rising from their graves like they had been, why was it so impossible to believe that the radio man couldn't do it too? Furrowing his brow as he thought over this particular piece of information, Ritsuka had to wonder if the radio man didn't have something to do with the raising of the dead. What if it was his fault?

"Yeah...but if the radio man came back and got the Head Doctor, who's to say he didn't up and get the nurse, too?" Not the happiest of thoughts, but that was certainly a possibility. The Head Nurse transformed at night, too, just like everyone else. And if the radio man had gotten through to Martin Landel, then he'd probably gone through the lady to get to him. "...It's possible, at least."

[gald_digger]

"...Yeah, it's possible," Anise agreed after a pause. There was probably a lot that went on in the institute that didn't make it to the intercom broadcasts. There were some other possibilities, like that she was busy doing damage control, or that the whole thing was a lie. "But that new voice that did the announcements this morning was really weird. It sounded kind of unnatural, like..."

Hello, ! This is I.R.I.S. again, hoping that all of our guests are finding our facilities adequate during your tour...

The intercom came on as she was searching for the words to describe it, and with a glance up at a speaker, Anise just finished her thought with, "...like that."

Anise was sort of surprised to hear I.R.I.S. again. She half-expected the Head Doctor to be back by now. If there was anything she learned from fighting the Six God-Generals and the Commandant, it was that powerful enemies didn't die easily. And sometimes dying wasn't even enough to make them stop. She didn't have high hopes about Landel being gone.