Day 52: Game Room

[full_score]

Lunch had taken his mind from his worries, if only for a few minutes. But after the intercom sounded and the nurses began leading patients onto the next activity, one look at the bulletin board brought everything back in full force. No replies from Ashton, Dias or Dad. By now Claude felt like he was practically counting down until the end of the

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[pullstrung]

The nurse wasn't too happy that he hadn't touched his food, and had even gone as far as to threaten to sit with him tomorrow until he swallowed something. Well, sorry if nearly dying and waking up in the wrong body makes me not want to stick food down my throat, he silently grumbled, but he had enough sense not to mouth off at the nurse for now.

Besides, he had more important things to worry about, like his friends. Where were they? His note on the bulletin had drawn all kinds of people out of the woodwork (battle androids, the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, apparently, and who knew what else), but not a single toy. When he'd seen that guy from Japan reply, he'd almost gotten his hopes up. Almost. Too bad he was probably as crazy as the rest of 'em.

"Why don't you play a nice game with someone?" his nurse suggested as she led him away from the board and toward another room he'd never been in before. He'd heard someone mention a Nintendo over the intercom, but that only made him think of Rex. He probably would have been thrilled to have a crack at a video game where he didn't have to reach clear across the controller to jump. The thought made something clench in Woody's chest as he turned away from the television sets with a sad expression.

Instead of letting himself become distracted with a deck of cards the nurse had given him, though, Woody took a moment to gaze around the room. At first glance, it was obvious there were a lot of games neatly organized for the patients to use. Bringing his fingers to his mouth, it was hard not to consider what he'd do if he found some toys lying around. Scott had mentioned that there were some young kids in here, right? So maybe...

Giving the nurses a quick look over his shoulder, Woody moved his way toward where some of the games were stored. But after rummaging through the boxes, it was apparent there weren't any dolls, action figures, or anything like that. Monopoly...Scrabble...Operation... He shook his head and straightened up, scanning over the rest of the room with an uncertain look. Oh, come on, there had to be a toy chest or something.

[For Kairi!]

[kingdomless]

Kairi had enjoyed her talk with Riku during lunch, and she was slightly excited to know that they were doing something tonight that would benefit everyone. Helping was one of her favourite things, after all. She liked to help the new patients as well; although breaking the news about the surroundings often ended ... badly.

Maybe that was why when she saw the man she had never seen before looking around lost, she knew she had to go to him.

"Want to play something together?" Kairi asked, moving to stand next to him with a bright smile after leaving her nurse back at the entrance to the Game Room.. "I don't believe I've ever seen you around. My name is Kairi."

Her eyes looked towards the boxes of games, gently tapping her index finger against her lips. "Hmmm ... the only game I'm really good at is checkers ... but I'm up for anything else!"

[pullstrung]

Woody had been so engrossed in what he was looking for that he hadn't noticed anyone walking up to him. A girl's voice cut into his thoughts, and he gave a startled jump, head whipping around to see who it was. At the same moment, he was gripped with the same uncomfortable feeling of being exposed that every toy felt when people suddenly approached like this, but tried to shake it off for now. It wasn't like he could just go limp and be left alone anymore.

Eyebrows raising, he looked down and saw a young girl who looked around the same age as Rita and Kaworu. (Why were there so many kids here?) His hand was still clutching his chest, but he awkwardly let go as soon as he realized he could still feel the thump thump thump thump of his heart beating against his ribcage.

"Uhhh..." Woody stood up straighter and adjusted the collar of his shirt, trying to recover as smoothly as he could. "No, I just got here today, actually. I'm Woody." This was the fourth time he'd introduced himself, but it didn't feel any less strange for him. And that wasn't even touching on being asked to play a game with her. Not that games themselves were weird, of course -- he was a toy, and it made sense for someone as young as Kairi to want to play something.

"Oh, hey, they've got a checkers board here?" he asked, looking a bit surprised. There had once been a time when he and Slink would play at least one game everyday, back before Buzz even showed up. But that was years ago. These days, they usually had to rely on things like Andy's computer to keep themselves entertained. Or, at least, that was what they'd been doing before--

Woody shook his head and focused his attention back onto Kairi. "But, uh, yeah, sure! Checkers sounds good. I might be kinda rusty, though. It's...been awhile."

[kingdomless]

"Nice to meet you, Woody," Kairi greeted him happily, looking around the boxes of games before finally finding the checkers she had been looking for.

Moving back towards the man, she held the box up and smiled. "They do!" Then, her smile turned sheepish. "I have to confess, though; I'm not that good at checkers. It's kind of the only game I know how to really play other than scrabble ... but that's kind of boring, don't you think?" Scrabble was the kind of game they made you play in English class when things were getting boring and whatnot. She didn't need to be reminded of class here, of all places.

Moving towards an empty table, Kairi began to set the game out, separating the pieces according to colour. "Hmmm, which colour would you like to be? I have no preference."

It's better to be nice and gain trust, she thought to herself as she took a seat at the table. It made breaking truths better, after all.

[pullstrung]

Woody glanced toward the box, and sure enough, it was a game of checkers. He allowed himself a tiny smile. "Aw, Scrabble's not that bad, is it?" he said with the smallest trace of a laugh, though his tone was slightly warmer than it'd been all day. "But, nah, checkers is a good game, so let's just go with that."

Judging off of first impressions, Kairi seemed like a nice, polite girl who was easy to get along with -- no teenage attitude problem like Rita, and no...well, whatever Kaworu's bag was (seriously, someone even younger than Andy didn't need to be thinking themselves that far out about everything). Heck, she was probably the kind of kid who took good care of her toys during her earlier years.

That thought helped Woody relax just a bit for the time being, and he willingly followed Kairi over to the table. Now, if they could only have a regular game of checkers in order to pass the time while waiting for this terrible day to end...

When she asked what color he'd like to be, Woody didn't have to think twice about it. "I'll take red, then." It meant Kairi would get the first move, which suited Woody just fine in this case.

[kingdomless]

Kairi laughed at Woody's comment about checkers as he moved to sit down across from her. "Well, no, I suppose not ... but it's kind of boring with only two people, don't you think?"

Though, the last time she had played, she had played with Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus ... and Tidus had mostly just spelled things like "cat" or "dog" or "quhzk" and the game never really got anywhere. She knew things would probably be better if she played them here, ... but really, how interesting could Scrabble really be?

Once Woody took the red pieces, Kairi proceeded to scoop the black ones into her palm and bring them to her side, nodding her head. "Hmm," she hummed to herself, setting up her pieces before looking at the board to see where she would move.

After moving a black piece (diagonally towards the edge of the board) the princess looked up and tilted her head to the side, a curious expression crossing her face. "Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking? I like to hear about all of the different kind of Worlds that other patients are from."

[pullstrung]

Woody watched her as she moved one of her pieces, and it didn't take him long to settle on a place for a red one to go. The question took him by surprise, though, and he glanced up from the board to see her quizzically looking at him. Different kind of Worlds, she'd said. Woody held back a sigh. Was Kairi sick, too? Even though she didn't exactly come across as straitjacket material, he guessed he'd been quick to assume she was a normal kid.

But instead of getting a bit derisive like he had with Rita, Woody mostly felt sorry for her. This place was already crazy enough -- he couldn't imagine having weird delusions on top of dealing with the nurses. Or maybe that just made it easier for some people?

Well, whatever. He didn't have the heart to burst her bubble right then, so he tried to answer the question as naturally as he could.

"Oh, uh, I'm from the Tri-County Area, actually, if you know where that is," he said slowly, though he already got the feeling she didn't. "You know, just a regular city."

Woody wasn't sure why, but he had to make that clear so people wouldn't think he thought he was from another planet or something. Maybe it was because last thing he wanted was to be lumped into the same category as some of the other people he'd run into here.

"What about you?" he asked, though he knew he'd probably regret it the second he brought it up.

[kingdomless]

"I don't know where that is," Kairi admitted sadly, shaking her head. "But still, it sounds nice. Normal is good."

As opposed to her life, where one minute she was home at Destiny Islands, the next her body was being whisked away from world to world to be kept safe ... then the next she was in some strange castle and then suddenly back home, THEN she was suddenly in yet another strange town ... and finally back to another strange castle.

She hated castles. Seriously.

"I'm from Destiny Islands," she told him, smiling. "You're probably never heard of it. It's small, but ... nice. I live only a few yards from the beach with my parents. I haven't been home in a long time, though," she admitted sadly, sighing. It was true, though; she wondered if her parents were worried.

Moving yet another black chess piece, Kairi kept her eyes down on the board. Time to get to business. "How much do you know about Landel's?"

[pullstrung]

Yeah, normal was good, which was why it would have been a lot better if Woody hadn't been separated from his body and his friends. It was like whoever had done this to him had gone out of their way to make this is as difficult as possible. But there had to be some way to get out of here, go back to the way he'd been, and return to his friends.

But before he could get a chance to do that, he was obviously going to have to spend the shift playing with Kairi. Even if she didn't sound 100 percent sane now that he'd had a chance to talk to her a little more, she was still nice, at least. That made her a lot easier to sit with than some of the other patients here. Hearing her talk about how it'd been a long time since she'd seen her home or parents was too sad, though. "How long have you been here?"

After she moved her piece, Woody considered the checkers pieces for a moment, though he glanced up at her as she asked him about what he knew about Landel's. "Enough to know I want outta here," he said without missing a beat as he moved one of his red pieces to another spot on the board. "A lot of the stuff I keep hearing about this...this nightshift, or whatever, makes absolutely no sense, though."

He wasn't going to sugar coat things: monsters didn't exist, and no one was going to get him to say otherwise.