Day 43: Intercom, Noon

[damned_intercom]

I.R.I.S. here again, and we continue to hope that you are enjoying your temporary stay at Landel's Institute! We hope that our staff have proved adequate for your needs so far, and we are now ready to showcase an uncommon - but vital - aspect of the lives of our future patients. Once every week, we will allow 'visitors' from the outside world to

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[subtlethreat]

Tenpou Gensui was supposed to be dead. The fact of the matter was, as he was shaken awake, he had been under the impression that he was. It was logical to assume he had died, after all: the blow had been fatal, there was no doubt about it. He had slipped into inky darkness, visions of a reunion of Kenren briefly flashing before his tired, weak eyes as they slid closed for the last time...

Or what he believed was the last time. Tenpou's eyes slowly opened, the world around him a colorless, featureless blur as damaged eyes attempted to focus and failed. He groped instinctively for his glasses, but then remembered that they had been broken. Stepped on. Did the afterlife have an optometrist? Since it certainly didn't see fit to correct the flaw in his eyesight. Afterlife for Gods was proving to be very anticlimactic.

"Mr. Aday?" a female voice asked, and Tenpou didn't register it was addressing him, reaching up with his left hand to push his hair behind his ear, his thoughts working through the entire situation analytically now, analyzing every possibility about where he was and how he had come to be here. None of them seemed to fit.

"Marvin," the female voice tried again, and as Tenpou lowered his left hand, he felt something pressed against it, cold and metallic against his hand. As he closed his hand around the object to identify it, the pads of his fingers made contact with smooth glass. A pair of glasses. Surprised, he took the offering and quickly put them on, blinking as he adjusted to the correction to his vision.

The room was still colorless, but at least it was no longer featureless. The woman herself seemed to match the decor: utterly unremarkable, bland but neat in appearance. She gave him no real clues as to where he could be, except that her clothing was rather peculiar. Then again, as he glanced down at himself, he realized that his was as well.

"Ah, thank you," Tenpou said quickly, just a little too late to be polite, or even let the woman know that he was referring to the glasses she had given him. "Pardon me if this is a peculiar question, but where am I?" His tone was even, completely devoid of any sense of panic. Really, he wasn't frightened. Just...confused, more than anything. He didn't like being thrown into unfamiliar situations, around unfamiliar people. It put his strategic mind out of its depth.

"This is Landel's Institute," the woman said politely, smiling insincerely (Tenpou knew a thing or two about artificial smiles), but her tone was completely condescending, as if she were speaking to a small child, or a person who was somehow mentally deficient. If she somehow believed Tenpou to be cognitively lacking, he could use this to his advantage, at least.

Tenpou reached up to readjust his new glasses, peering to examine her quizzically and openly. The woman seemed startled by the gesture. But Tenpou released his glasses and leaned back away from her. "Again, I apologize if this is an unusual question, but who exactly are you?" he asked her, hoping it would help piece together the puzzle the "Landel's Institute" answer had formed in his mind.

"I'm one of the nurses on staff, of course," the woman said patiently. "Is there something the matter, Mr. Aday? You seem a little confused."

Tenpou rose to his feet, patting his pockets. No cigarettes. No lighter. "I believe I just need a cigarette. By any chance, do you have one?" he asked, still not asking her to clarify her answers (it would put him at a disadvantage to appear completely ignorant). He had a gentle but completely artificial smile of his own now, a mirror of the nurse's.

The nurse seemed taken aback by the question, his movement, the sudden shift in his mood. "I'm afraid the patients aren't allowed to smoke on the premises," she informed him. Her tone then returned to that condescending note that she had used with him earlier. "But why don't we go to the sun room. Perhaps spending time with some other patients will help you clear your mind a bit." She put a firm hand on his shoulder, and Tenpou flinched momentarily, but allowed her to guide him from the room in the direction of this "sun room". Perhaps he would find more information there.

[subtlethreat]

[Gone here.]