Day 51: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

"Well, that's it for today's activities and hygiene!" The Head Doctor said with a jovial tone just after the sound system's jingle. He seemed excited and maybe even giddy. "Our nurses will now be escorting everyone back to their rooms, and some of you might find that you have brand new roommates to share your dinner with! That's right: we've gotten

Comments

[notstealing]

Now, that didn't add up at all, did it?

Locke frowned at the thought, opening the door to the closet as he looked through its contents-on the bright side, he was looking to get some new shoes...

Not that... that was the point at all. Regardless, he counted up the clothing, stared at the smiley face on each and every one of those shirts, and then his own, and let out a groan. "These faces? Not helping. I might go crazy just staring at them." Wear them everyday, every night, to bed and on a grim note, to death... that was its implication, wasn't it? Not happening. Not on Locke's watch, and certainly not anytime soon. Or any time at all.

Shutting the closet door shut and looking a tiny bit more and more frustrated at the prospects of getting out, doing something, anything at all, Locke searched the remainder of the bed, the dresser-and whatever he found, he left it at its original spot. No use carrying all of them around, right?

And finally... the door. As he approached the exit, he kneeled down and looked at the knob. Locked from the outside, but not the inside, huh. Typical. And no room to pick at the lock on the side... it didn't give Locke much of an option, a lockpick in hand or not. They really thought this one through, huh?

"If you can't run, then..." he trailed off, turning the knob-no such luck in figuring out the door completely, of course. Nothing was ever that easy. "... take down what's already established. You're telling me no one's ever gone against the doctors head-on, here?"

[zack_fair]

The faces certainly seemed to bother some people. Zack thought they were as ridiculous as the next person, but he didn't think it was the main thing to get worked up about in this place. Not when there were far worse things going on. He realized that it was just the icing on a pretty terrible cake, though, and sometimes it was the little things that got to you the most.

"You better get used to them," he said nonetheless. "Everyone has to wear them, at least during the day." At night anything was possible, but if you weren't lucky enough to end up with your own outfit, then the only other options were going around shirtless or with the garment turned inside-out. The first was reckless and the second was a bit too much effort for no real reason.

"But I'd rather my roommate didn't go crazy on me, so try to kept it together, all right?" he joked as he watched Locke inspect the room at his own pace. He didn't take it apart too intensely, but he was also thorough. And the way he examined the lock of the door seemed to indicate that he knew what he was doing. Too bad the locks were pretty much impenetrable. Zack didn't know if they had some sort of spell on them, but he wouldn't be surprised if they did.

When Locke brought up the other possible option for how to handle their situation, Zack sighed and shook his head. "That doesn't work, either. The second someone steps out of line they're assaulted by an army of nurses with syringes. The sedatives are apparently pretty powerful." Zack had managed to avoid the prick of a needle so far, but that was because he was pretty good at laying low when he had too. Angeal would have been shocked, but it was true.

[notstealing]

If this was cake, Locke would have strangled whatever horrible baker was responsible for this. Though, at Zack's joke, Locke only offered a cheeky grin as he finally let go of the knob. It was like something he'd expect from the Empire, tools and the environment included, but not quite. Something... not quite where he was before.

"You know, I might be crazy to begin with," Locke commented, finally standing up and stepping back from the door. He would kick it, in hopes of knocking at least his frustrations out on that door, but that was out of the question-he didn't want to draw any unwarranted attention to himself, did he now? Instead, he finally sat down the only other chair in the room, and leaned back. "... someone, but what about a whole group?"

Though, the risks in that kind of plan... too high. It would lead to people being left vulnerable, and that was the last thing anyone would want. Locke shook his head at that thought, closing his eyes. "Either way, from the way you're putting it, we can't make a move until nightfall."

Finally, he stared up at the ceiling, bright white just like the room's walls, letting out a sigh. This institute was something beyond his realm of knowledge-rare, especially when it came down to places as odd as this one. Beyond his world or no, it was still a stab at his pride.

"Guess I can cross out Kefka in having a hand in this. Just my crummy luck," he murmured.

[zack_fair]

Maybe Locke was crazy, but Zack didn't think so. Even if he was staring at that lock like he might be able to break through it, that only showed that he was resourceful and had been around the block a few times. Their conversation had been normal enough, with all of the crazy-sounding stuff coming from Zack's end. In fact, the only indication that his roommate might not be all there was that he was taking in his explanations without much complaint.

"Pretty sure a whole group must have tried it by now," Zack said with a sigh as he turned back toward his dinner and grabbed for the caramel apple, taking a testing bite as he went back to watching Locke. He considered urging the man to eat, but he knew he hadn't had the biggest appetite when he'd first woken up here, so it would be sort of hypocritical of him.

It looked like regardless of complaint, though, Locke had gotten the point. Zack nodded when night was mentioned. "That's right, yeah. Luckily, night should be coming on pretty soon, so you won't be stuck in here for much longer." It was the only time when they were completely confined, but Zack didn't mind so much so long as he had someone to chat with. Unfortunately, this was one of the only dinners so far where he'd been given that luxury.

Even if it seemed like Locke was mumbling to himself, Zack couldn't help being curious. "Kefka?" he asked as he took another bite of his apple. "Who's that?"

[notstealing]

No, not much of an appetite at all. If it would come bite him in the ass later, he wasn't really thinking too hard about it. Maybe later, if there was a later at all in this place, but not now. There were other things to consider, and Locke wasn't one to be bogged down by a lack of food or anything of that sort.

Or, well, so he hoped. Discipline wasn't one of his strong suits, but it couldn't hurt.

"That doesn't leave a lot of options open," he replied, more tired at the sudden influx of information than anything else. He welcomed it, of course-any information was better than none-but even Locke had his limits, especially when caged in an unfamiliar room. He sighed. "Nothing to do but eat and wait..."

But, when Zack had asked about Kefka, Locke jumped a slight bit, letting the chair fall from its leaning position with a neat 'thump,' its legs once again, settled firmly against the floor.

"Never heard of Kefka, huh?" Locke questioned, arching a brow. There goes that idea. Even the previously reclusive knew of Kefka, back in their world, and the only other explanation... well! That made a lot of sense. A place like this-especially populated places like this-couldn't go under Locke's radar. That was his specialty, wasn't it?

"Let's just say he belongs here more than anyone else I can think of."

[zack_fair]

"Eat and wait and talk, yeah," Zack said with a laugh and a shrug as he leaned back in his seat. He figured they might as well take it easy while they could, since things were about to get serious, but Locke didn't quite realize that yet. No wonder he was so antsy. "You see why I use the journal now," he pointed out, gesturing down to the book as he took another bite of food.

Whoever this Kefka guy was, he was apparently pretty well-known wherever Locke came from, considering how he asked that question. Either Locke had figured out that this world wasn't his, or he thought that Zack had lived under a rock or something. He just brought his hands up in the air to show that he didn't have a clue, but then frowned when the other man gave his explanation.

That sounded like Sephiroth to a T, although Zack had to admit that he was glad that the general (or ex-general, as the case might be) wasn't here. It was better that he wasn't around to terrorize people, and was instead staying defeated or whatever it was that had happened to him. More than that, Zack just didn't know how he would react if he had to face him again. There was a whole jumble of feelings that he had about the man, and he didn't really want to have to sort through them, especially not here.

"I think I know what you mean," he said with a sigh. "But I don't think sanity has much to do with whether or not you end up in this place." Who even knew what the criteria were? Zack hadn't really made much of an effort to try and figure it out, but he was pretty sure he was better off for it.

[notstealing]

Locke's gaze followed to Zack's journal, with a nod of his head. "Right, your diary," he replied, his arm slung across the backrest of the chair. Keep rational, keep rational-as crazy as all this sounded, he'd seen worse. Perhaps not in this context, but! It wasn't as if Locke hadn't gone through worse situations before, right?

But this waiting... he hated nothing more than sitting around and waiting for something to happen. There was nothing worse than that, in his mind, and opened them up to nothing but vulnerabilities. Locke exhaled, tipping his chair back once again. "Either way, our captors are pretty generous." Or confident about their abilities. Fact of the matter was, it would have been more advantageous for them to keep their prisoners in their cells, day and night.

Lucky for them, huh?

But if Zack hadn't heard of Kefka... all the better for them. That means here, in this facility itself, he didn't make himself known-or even better, exist. He would have to make certain of that, in any case, but for now, Locke was willing to put just about anything into the category of good news.

"Well, if night's as bad as you say it is... guess I've got to keep an eye out."

((ooc; wrapping up thread sometime soon? IDK, anything you want, bb. :C))

[zack_fair]

Zack wasn't sure if generous was the right word for it. It was more that Landel liked messing with them, and it wouldn't be very fun if he just kept them locked up the whole time. He had to let them stretch their legs and give them the illusion of being able to win, but that was exactly where he was making his mistake. Someday he was going to slip, or there was going to be an opening, or someone would break in to help them. This couldn't last forever.

He was pulled from his thoughts at Locke's next comment and immediately nodded in response. "Yeah, that's for sure. You shouldn't run around on your own too much. Try to find someone to stick with, even if it means you have to walk up to a stranger in the middle of a hallway." People were used to that here, so it probably wouldn't be a problem.

While he wanted to say that the guy should try to find a weapon soon, too, Zack couldn't give too much advice there. He didn't have one for himself yet, for one thing. Yuffie and Cloud had gotten lucky in that department, but the Buster Sword hadn't come back with them. Materia was good, and he'd take his Thunder down to the basement with him, but it was still a shame.

Before he could say much else, though, the intercom went off and Zack was forced to pause and listen. There was no saying that the Head Doctor would have much of use to say, but Zack didn't want to assume that, either.

[ooc: I'm good with wrapping it up here! I'm going to move the rest of Zack's reaction into NS itself.]