Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

[damned_intercom]

Despite the rough start and the heavier snowfall, the buses managed to stay on route and on schedule. With minutes to spare, they arrived at the gates of Landel's Institute, back to the waiting arms of the military. All pretenses seemed to drop at this point, and the soldiers again took on their patented gruff exteriors. Patients were filed out of

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M12

[rocksthecourt]

If there was one thing to be thankful for, it was that they had been truthful about returning their purchased items once they'd returned to their rooms. Klavier was in a pretty mellow mood at the moment and didn't exactly feel like pitching a fit at the staff right then. It would be nice to continue like this and simply relax before the doors opened again... and it became impossible to remain calm for too long. Sigh

[saviored]

Since he'd consumed his purchase, the only item he had returned was the book his little brother had thoughtfully purchased, which his always talkative escort threw over without a word. Damon caught it and swung open the door to his room. The rustling told him that his roommate was already inside and sure enough, Herr Blondie was at his desk, chronicling his innermost feelings for the day.

His gaze swept over the grocery bag as he walked by it. "How was retail therapy?"

Insofar as that town even counted as retail. Did the locals just rely on Amazon.com or was there a hidden underground network of actual shopping? Come to think of it, were their six year olds all doing online distance ed, as well, or what? He'd found a town or two that was too small to have a college. He'd never found one too small to have a school, period. If there'd ever been a reason to label a town a setup, well. There you were.

As usual, he didn't give a second look at the food. Instead, he tossed the copy of Gone with the Wind on top of the dresser and got onto

[rocksthecourt]

It wasn't terribly long until Damon was returned to the room as well, the man simply walking in like he was plenty accustomed to the rhythm and rhyme of this place already. It was a relief of sorts, really. He knew little to nothing of his roommate, but he didn't want anything happening to him. It was good to see he was still alive and well.

But as usual, Klavier found it completely impossible to get any kind of read off of him. It wasn't that Damon refused to be forthcoming or steeled his emotions or anything like that. That Klavier could deal with. It was simply that he was... ambiguous to the point of being near impossible to perceive. Unreadable and untouchable. He still had no idea why that was or even if it was deliberate, but it was strange. Klavier was normally good at reading others and shifting to accommodate as needed, but here he couldn't even tell if Damon was in a good mood or not. Even the remark given could have been taken either way, and his tone of voice was just as ambiguous

[saviored]

Oh, twenty, was it? It'd been obvious from the beginning that his roommate had been here longer than him (really, it was a safe bet that most had been here longer than him), but he hadn't managed to pin down how much longer. There was no corresponding spreadsheet of alloted monetary value to the duration of one's stay, but assuming the institute wouldn't want to make things more complicated than they had to-also probably a safe bet-then the math was easy. Four times the cash, four times the length.

Either someone had a hell of a lucky streak or Klavier was of that rare breed who were smart enough to not attract attention. If the latter, maybe Wally could learn a thing or two from him. Not that it mattered, normally, but when it interfered with his plans? It mattered.

And a part of him still wasn't sure why he'd allowed it to interfere. It was actually happening more than he liked, he'd noticed, and that was not what he'd ever wanted to make a regular occurrence