Day 43: Sun Room, Second Shift

[arc_wrench]

When the shift changed, HK stayed put. Even after a long night of zombie killing, he had no interest in meatbag fuel, especially after all the discussion of chocolate with that rather strange meatbag. It was just making him crave the stuff even more than he had previously, if that was possible

Comments

[mister_fine]

In all honesty, it'd been kind of refreshing to talk to someone sort of sane for a change. That plus the fact he'd put something a little more substantial than a rotting burger in his stomach helped calm Apollo's nerves to an extent. He still wanted to thank Asch personally at some point, but right now he really needed to roll up his sleeves and do some serious research about this place. After all, just because people were freely posting messages now didn't mean the staff wouldn't start removing some of them after a point.

Still, even with something important to occupy his attention, Apollo still felt tense and unsettled. His typical daily routine had been knocked off kilter (oh, it was awful -- this was his second morning without any voice training!), and his hair fell pitifully over his eyes if he wasn't careful. Part of him wanted to grab the gel he'd left in his room and sit in front of a mirror for as long as the nurses would allow, but he had to get cracking on his investigations. After all, the sooner he got to the

[catstreetblues]

Sanae strolled into the Sun Room feeling much better now that he'd gotten a quick brunch. No company, but that was alright: he could fly solo sometimes if he wanted. No, nothing could flick him off of cloud nine, now that he had paint. Alright, so pen drawings weren't that bad, but really, you could only get so much dimension. The way the spray paint just spread out, that was him, not those tight, thin lines pens gave.

He checked the board and posted a quick reply to Tony Stark, Flamethrower Building Extraordinaire - common courtesy, after all - and happened to notice a young man scanning the board with a fairly high degree of intensity.

Oooh, young, aspiring professional right there. Yup, no doubt about it - just look at that determined face. "Y'know, there's not going to be a quiz later." Sanae couldn't help but laugh a bit.

[mister_fine]

Apollo wasn't sure how long he'd been reading the board. There was so much to go through, it was easy to let himself practically drown in all the new information. Every so often, when he caught a piece of info that looked especially important, he'd pause long enough to jot down notes in his journal. The timeline and speculations over what had happened to the Head Doctor were especially interesting, if not a bit creepy. Somehow he got the feeling a lot of this was tied up in the apparent rivalry between Martin Landel and Alec Doyle, and maybe this mysterious woman they seemed to be fighting over. Yet how would that explain why so many people had fallen victim to the Institute?

Federal training sponsorship, he thought to himself as he tapped his pen against his notebook. What could that be about? It almost sounded like they'd been drafted into some kind of army, which was completely ridiculous, considering the fact that

[catstreetblues]

Oh shit. This guy had lungs. Caught totally unprepared, Sanae jumped nearly as high as the kid did. He needs one of those whatchamacallit pins...the ones that respond to screaming. He'd be expert at it. "Wow, uh, nice set of chords there. What are you..." He tried to think of a job that involved screaming and yelling - in a completely chaste way. "...some kinda military guy

[mister_fine]

Apollo blinked at the remark, and he couldn't help but feel genuinely flattered. When was the last time someone had said something that nice to him, anyway? They weren't called Chords of Steel for nothing, though, so maybe it was a matter of time before someone appreciated them for what they were. "Oh, um, thank you!" he replied. "I try to keep them in good shape, you know?"

He tucked his pen behind his ear. "And, no, I'm a lawyer, actually." But maybe the military and the court of law had a few things in common, now that he thought about it. They were both institutions of order that strove to uphold certain laws, and, really, the courtroom was kind of like a battlefield. Both institutions even had the never-ending list of useless procedures going for them.

Of course, the key difference was that soldiers got shot at, while people generally just pointed and yelled at lawyers. That had certainly helped narrow down Apollo's career choices

[catstreetblues]

"Yeah, good...good job, that," Sanae said as genuinely as he could. Okay, this kid had problems, namely being unable to read between the lines. Send a guy's blood pressure sky-rocketing and then...he's supposed to be complimenting you? Crazy.

"So you're a lawyer, huh?" The barista took a step back and reexamined the young man in front of him. Young professional with way too much stress and a penchant for bellowing - yup, sounded like a lawyer. "Is that what the voice is for, then?" Maybe for screaming at unresponsive witnesses or something...

Guy was pretty closed up with his ideals too. "And you see, that's part of the whole deal: they want us to be all panicked all the time - makes it easier for them to predict what we're gonna do. You gotta back up once in a while and get out of the tunnel vision mode - look at things from a different angle once in a while. Can't do that if you're always thinking 'I have to get out of here or else', can you? What if there's an easier way? A different option other than escaping? 'Sides, I think it

[mister_fine]

"Thank you, sir!" he said again, an even more earnest expression on his face now. It looked like all those 5 AM vocal training sessions had paid off! Which meant he couldn't afford to slack off on that now that he was being held captive in a crazy mental institute. Maybe he ought to get started on his training again once he finished with his research. He'd need to sound good when he finally got a chance to give Martin Landel a piece of his mind, right

[catstreetblues]

"Huh. Didn't know that about lawyers." He would've thought the perfect objection to have more to do with good arguments than loud voices, but he was a barista, not a legal expert - and therefore couldn't properly raise his own objection in the first place. "Well, you learn something every day, I guess."

Sanae shoved his hands into his pockets. "'Course I want to go back home, but you know, what about taking control of this place? Getting all your powers back first - priorities gotta be straight, see. I mean, I understand if it's a little different if you don't have powers to begin with, but say you do. And also, not to sound a little creepy or anything, but this crazy house has some serious capabilities to be harnessed. Dimension-warping technology, for example - now there's something I'd like to have my hands on." He shrugged. "In the end, it's like playing the game out to the end and going for the grand prize, rather than settling for a consolation, although I know some people have their own ways of wanting to do things - and that'

[mister_fine]

"Well, you have to figure out what they did to everyone's powers before you can find out how to get them back, right?" he said. "That still involves being serious about all this."

It wasn't like he didn't have a stake in finding out how to get everyone's abilities back -- he just didn't like advertising it. To be honest, aside from his missing bracelet, he wasn't sure what sorts of limitations had been placed on his power to perceive, if any at all. He hadn't actively tried using it, and, as far as he knew, no one had even really been a position to try lying to him, much less feel under pressure for doing so. Sure, a lot of people said a lot of ludicrous stuff around here, but by this point, Apollo had come to accept that either it was true, or they just honestly believed it and were mistaken (or just plain nuts).

As far as Apollo was concerned, though, dimension-warping technology in anybody's hands was too dangerous. That was one Pandora's box that just shouldn't have been opened, and this place only served as proof of that

[catstreetblues]

"Yeah, of course you have to do some dirty work - which is why I said you shouldn't be serious all of the time. You have to relax once in a while, right?" Sanae laughed. "It's a fine balance, I know

[mister_fine]

"Yeah, but how can anyone possibly relax?" It sounded like good advice on the surface, except for the fact Landel's wasn't exactly some kind of resort, even without the bloodthirsty zombies and cruel experiments. True, they had stuff for the 'patients' here to enjoy. The problem was that Apollo honestly didn't think he could bring himself to relax with the knowledge that night would fall, and he'd either be forced to stay in his room, or venture out and risk getting involved with the weird creatures that came out.

At least someone here could describe some part of this mess as "fun", though. Apollo understood it was a figure of speech, but no one would ever catch him using it, that was for sure

[catstreetblues]

"Depends on the person. Me, I like coffee and company. So I drink joe when I can get it and go out of my way to meet as many people as I can, because really, if we're going to have all these worlds colliding, we might as well take the time to discover 'em all." It also gave him an excuse to avoid Minamimoto, who was probably the only thing (not person - thing) in the institute that Sanae would actually admit to avoiding. "Expanding our own little bubbles - sounds like good fun, right? Oh - and I guess night time's kind of cool. Like a video game, except that it's your own life you've got on the table. Ups the risk factor

[mister_fine]

...Come to think of it, Mr. Hanekoma kind of sounded like he belonged in a nut house, too.

Meeting new people, broadening one's horizons -- those things Apollo could understand, since it was probably best to see the good in an otherwise horrible situation if possible. But comparing nighttime to a video game? Yeah, sure, it was just like one of those awful first-person shooters, except you were stuck with something like a food tray for a weapon, and you died for real if something bit your face off

[catstreetblues]

Oh, yes, he'd just sent the kid a bunch of mixed information, and now Nerves was dutifully sifting through it all. This one was much sharper than he came off. The problem was that Sanae wasn't so sure how long he could keep this going before the lawyer just gave up and concluded that he was completely nuts. And that'd be a shame, because he did kind of like talking to this kid with his straight up manner

[mister_fine]

Apollo was a big fan of the truth, actually -- while it didn't always make life easier, it definitely made his job a lot simpler. After all, it wasn't like he was a trained detective. Everything he'd learned in school revolved around the cumbersome courtroom procedures and the countless laws, clauses and subclauses that came along along with them. Actually going out and getting his hands dirty was something else.

Maybe it went to show that book smarts and street smarts were entirely different things. Apollo had a feeling he was sorely lacking in the latter, but that didn't mean he couldn't learn.

He'd probably have to if he wanted to get by in Landel's. That wasn't exactly the most comforting thought, though, so he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand

[catstreetblues]

[mind a backthread?]

Oh good. He'd taken to the change in subject much better than Sanae had expected. Now they could start talking about some relevant things. After all, his background wasn't too interesting if you didn't know half the things he was talking about.

"Well, if the intercom's anything, I'd have to agree with that conclusion of yours. It's gonna be an interesting next couple of days; wonder if this 'iris' deal's gonna really shake things up or just kind of sneak in all quiet. Doesn't sound like they're changing much except for the automated play-by-play."

Really the intercom messages had seemed less for them and more for some unseen observers who apparently liked their tour guides metallic and boring. Personally he would have wanted a more human touch if he was checking out this place, but some people wanted the information minus the build-up.