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

[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

[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.

[vsyourface]

Landel barely had to say "Super M-" before a blazing streak of grey and brown zipped out of the cafeteria faster than its nurse could keep up with, leaving naught but a trail of confused looks and the occasional taco crumb in its wake.

Scott Pilgrim had hoped, and the heavens had answered. This was going to be great.

He plunked himself down in front of one of the few NES stations. A few quick switches later and the TV and system turned on, followed soon after by a very familiar chiptune melody. Mario was practically rote in Scott's mind at this point, but he didn't care. Just the sensation of the controller in his hands and the pixel graphic-goodness lighting up before his eyes felt like a familiar, warm blanket being thrown over him after spending a week out in the cold.

What was so bad about Landel's Institute again?

[Ohhhhh Canada~]

[flou_canadian]

After bumping into Japan during breakfast and learning that many other nations were also trapped in the Institute, Matthew had spent the time leading up to lunch searching whereever he could for more familiar faces. During this quest (that left his nurse incredibly confused on where Matthew wanted to go) he had looked about the library, the Sun Room, and even the bathrooms. Unfortunately, each attempt to search a room was met with as little success as the one before it, and by the time lunch arrived he was just as alone as when he had started

[vsyourface]

"Thanks, I guess?" Scott mumbled without taking his eyes off the screen for a second. He was in The Zone now, that special state of mind known only to self-proclaimed gamers. If one didn't know any better, one might have sworn there were swirls of concentration in Scott's eyes as he played; that's the level of absorption he had going. He had mastered the art of playing video games and talking to people at the same time as a young age, though, allowing him a bizarre combination of rudeness and conscientiousness in this state

[flou_canadian]

It only took Scott to say "thanks" for Matthew to realize that the young man was Canadian-specifically from Northern Ontario, although he seems to have spent some time in Toronto. The accents in the different regions of Canada were impossibly subtle but Matthew was capable of recognizing them all. After all, he couldn't be "Canada" if he didn't know those kind of things about his people! Still, Canada was stunned. Normally he was able to recognize a fellow Canadian as soon as he saw them, as though he could sense their Canadian-ness within them. He could even sense it within immigrants that had grown attached to Canada, but did not have actual citizenship yet. He never had to rely off of hints like accents or appearance. So how could he have only realized this young man was Canadian now

[justthedealer]

So far, Remy's attempts to learn much about this place aside from what Logan had told him hadn't gotten him very far. The general attitude of the nurses was disconcerting. He could easily say he'd been through worse, however, and this just meant he was going to have to put more effort into whatever plans he ended up making.

But for now, he was just going to sit down with a deck of cards and listen. At least the nurse was willing to give him that much. If he was polite, maybe she'd even let him take a deck back to his room? Purely to pass the time with, of course.

Wearing sunglasses indoors was already getting to be bothersome, so he set his pair aside and began carefully constructing a large pyramid from the cards. Playing an actual game with another person would probably be more entertaining, but he'd take things as they came.

[free...]

[justthedealer]

Looking up, Remy found himself faced with a rather small man (at least he was assuming it was a man for now...) with possibly the most red hair he'd seen unnattached to Jean Grey. He gave him a grin and a brief salute with one of the cards.

"Ain't nothin' that can't be taught to just about anyone given a bit of patience, mon ami." He gestured to the chair across from him. Anyone he didn't know in this place could be a possible source of information, and this red-head seemed friendly enough if he could go by the simple introduction. "Don't suppose you know any games yourself? Dis only be entertainin' for so long."

He hadn't considered interacting with other people when he'd removed his sunglasses, but it didn't bother him so much. Mutants were well known about by now, and it would be good to know of any discriminatory types right off the bat.

[hat_einen_vogel]

He'd felt a little relieved when the intercom announced the end of lunch, and even more so when nurses came to the table to pull him away to the next shift. It wasn't like he was retreating or anything, because he wasn't. Wouldn't. It was just because of the women, really; they needed him elsewhere now.

It took him a moment to realize the (now slightly less annoying) woman was talking to him as she led him out of the mess and into the sun room, "-lbert, do you want to try playing a video game this afternoon?"

Prussia stared at her. What was she... What was with that random Latin word? "...A what?"

"A video game!" she repeated. "Didn't you hear the announcement? We've set up a few games for multiplayer interaction! You may not be a teenager any more, but men your age still like games, don't they?"

He supposed more players was good for any kind of seeing-game (maybe the game was to guess what someone saw?), but he wasn't sure why the nurse was so keen on thinking he'd want to participate... competitive spirit aside

[full_score]

The nurse had been right about it not taking long for another patient to join him. Only a few minutes passed before a member of the staff showed up and placed another person next to him. Still, the suddenness of it all was kind of unexpected, which was why Claude couldn't quite mask his surprise as he watched her place the other controller into his hands. And then as quickly as she'd came, she was gone, leaving the two of them alone

[hat_einen_vogel]

So it was Claude!

Prussia wasn't too bothered by the fact Claude didn't recognize him-given the state he'd been in that night, he would have been more surprised if the kid did. He was obviously doing better now (more or less) than he had that night, which came as something of a relief. The only other guy Prussia had found bleeding had been in a worse state, but he was also gone... At least he could be sure that Claude had survived, unlike Raph.

"Yeah, we've met. Name's Gilbert Beilschmidt... and I heard your name from Ronixis," Prussia explained. Hopefully the kid would at least remember something about that night, but he couldn't blame him if his memory was a bit foggy. Just in case, he added, "We ran into you on that fancy spaceship a few nights ago."

[full_score]

"Gilbert?!" he echoed so loudly that some of the nearby nurses glanced in their direction. Claude ducked his head a bit, rubbing the back of his head with one of his hands while the other still clutched onto the control. It was so weird not knowing what this man's face looked like until now, when he had his vision back. Claude suspected if he had, he would have thought to find him sooner. But as it was, he'd had a lot on his plate until now

[its_the_mileage]

Lunch had been quiet--no new information, but no ridiculous revelations either. For the moment Indy was all right with that. The morning shift had already yielded more than he often managed to learn in a day, although he still wasn't sure what there was to do with that knowledge. Maybe nothing, really. Or at least nothing for right now. He might just have to acknowledge that he'd acquired--maybe--some insight into one piece of the puzzle, and see if he could fit it with anything else later on.

He stopped to check the bulletin board and found nothing new to take care of there either, so the nurse led him to the Game Room. Indy nodded to Pilgrim, did not nod to Gilbert Beilschmidt or the Free State of Prussia or whoever he thought he was, and sat down by himself with a Tetris. As alien as the device still was after only a few uses, the repetitive logic of the falling shapes was soothing, and he soon found himself absorbed in the game.

[for Mihai]