Night 49: Head Doctor's Office - 3rd Floor
The room was almost cozy at first glance. A large oak table sat in the center of the comfortably-sized room, framed by two corner bookcases that seemed to be filled with thick texts and various legal binders. On the wall directly behind the desk, placed between the two bookcases, was a large head-on portrait of the Institute itself, framed in dark, polished wood that matched the rest of the furniture and complemented the forest-green of the thin carpet.
Although some knickknacks - generic awards, staff photographs, a golfing figure made of business cards - dotted the bookcases, the centerpiece of the room was clearly the desk itself. Its glass-paned top was tidy, though not necessarily pristine: the inbox and outbox were chock-full of looseleaf paper and manilla envelopes, and several folders were piled neatly on the far side of the desk's surface, as if they'd been only recently put aside. A keyboard and two flat screen monitors were the only immediate indication that the office wasn't pulled straight out of the mid-twentieth century, though some sections of paneling on the ceiling and walls seemed suspiciously rectangular.
Three chairs in front of the desk and a door off to their right were the last inanimate objects of note, and even those might have been completely missed due to the figure sitting in the desk's high-backed, leather chair. He was currently relaxed, paging quietly through the file currently open in front of him. A pair of oval-rimmed glasses didn't do much to mask his face from those who'd seen it before, and to someone who hadn't, the small microphone sitting just inches away from him was more than enough to reveal his identity.
After a moment, the man glanced up and smiled at the patients in a strangely non-malicious fashion. He slowly closed the folder and placed his hand over it as he leaned back in his seat.
"I was wondering when you three would get out of the hallways." He raised his hand and slowly slid the glasses off his nose, then nodded at each person in turn. "Fai, Kurogane, pleasure to see you again. Tsubaki, good of you to join us. I... wouldn't bring you all here if I didn't want to talk civilly, so can I assume you realize how stupid it'd be to try anything... or will the barrier have to stay?"
As if to illuminate his point, he tapped the glasses against his desk and a brief flash of a force field appeared in front of the patients. The Head Doctor raised a brow questioningly.
Although some knickknacks - generic awards, staff photographs, a golfing figure made of business cards - dotted the bookcases, the centerpiece of the room was clearly the desk itself. Its glass-paned top was tidy, though not necessarily pristine: the inbox and outbox were chock-full of looseleaf paper and manilla envelopes, and several folders were piled neatly on the far side of the desk's surface, as if they'd been only recently put aside. A keyboard and two flat screen monitors were the only immediate indication that the office wasn't pulled straight out of the mid-twentieth century, though some sections of paneling on the ceiling and walls seemed suspiciously rectangular.
Three chairs in front of the desk and a door off to their right were the last inanimate objects of note, and even those might have been completely missed due to the figure sitting in the desk's high-backed, leather chair. He was currently relaxed, paging quietly through the file currently open in front of him. A pair of oval-rimmed glasses didn't do much to mask his face from those who'd seen it before, and to someone who hadn't, the small microphone sitting just inches away from him was more than enough to reveal his identity.
After a moment, the man glanced up and smiled at the patients in a strangely non-malicious fashion. He slowly closed the folder and placed his hand over it as he leaned back in his seat.
"I was wondering when you three would get out of the hallways." He raised his hand and slowly slid the glasses off his nose, then nodded at each person in turn. "Fai, Kurogane, pleasure to see you again. Tsubaki, good of you to join us. I... wouldn't bring you all here if I didn't want to talk civilly, so can I assume you realize how stupid it'd be to try anything... or will the barrier have to stay?"
As if to illuminate his point, he tapped the glasses against his desk and a brief flash of a force field appeared in front of the patients. The Head Doctor raised a brow questioningly.