Timeline - Day 43
- Waking up at the Institute: He isn't sure what to make of the place, and thinks it might be an elaborate simulation, but has no idea why someone would go to the trouble. Meets Alison Carter (nurse), who is attractive and seems good-natured, but also evasive.
First shift (AKA, The One Where The Noob Screws Up):
- Sun Room: Arrival & chatter with HK-47: L interprets the assassin droid stuck in a human body to be a human under the delusion of being a robot. He learns that HK's master is Darth Revan, and that HK likes mayhem, any excuse to kill humans, and chocolate. He's not fazed by being addressed as "meatbag."
- Sun Room: Matt: The real info-dump. L approaches Matt because he looks familiar; he's trying to figure out the nature of the facility he's in. As the explanation comes, he begins to realize that an assumption that the whole thing was created specifically to mess with him is inaccurate and illogical.
Matt essentially tells him to accept the nature of the place as soon as possible to function in it.
- They grew up in the same place (L disagrees).
- Day Shift is all for show.
- Most of the patients are supernatural.
- Patients can come from all times and places
- Matt knows L as "Ryuga"
- Mello, Near, B, and Light have all been there in the past, but are gone.
- Matsuda may still be there [OOC - he's gone!]
- "A shinigami who likes apples" and goes by the name of Bob is there; looks like "an ugly human"
- Some conversation about Mikami, who L can't place and who is not mentioned by name
- Matt is from 2010 and has never worked under L
- L died some time in November of 2004; his information was lost; Light took over as L for 5 years
- At Landel's, Matt works as a spy under Homura, who is influential at the Institute.
- Homura heads the History Club, which seems to be called that because the people in it are mostly from a long time ago
- Most History Club members specialize in some form of combat
- Zombies were around the previous night: don't get bitten
- The Institute is supposedly in New Jersey, and all the area for miles around is controlled by Landel (L believes he would know about this if it were true; also, the timeline between New Jersey and Tokyo gives him pause, as does the fact that it should be Tuesday and it's Sunday instead)
- The constellations are not what they should be if it's really New Jersey
- The year seems to be around 2009 (but the documents that suggest the year could be planted)
- Technology there and in town suggests at least a decade earlier
- There are no timepieces in the building (disorientation -- interrogation technique -- L suspects brainwashing)
- The food at the Institute is good
*L makes a decision to shove aside his emotions related to his defeat and death, for the time being, as he feels they are counterproductive at best.
*Don't forget to address Matt as "Robin Prower"!
- Brunch: Misa: Established that she doesn't know anything that happens in DN canon after her arrest, which may work to his advantage. Some info about Doyleton and the Institute. Made her cry in forcing her to admit that she hadn't seen Light since her arrival and that he might have been killed by monsters before then. Fantastically callous about her feelings, but hey, she's the Second Kira. Concurrent with L eating a lot of French toast and fruit.
Second shift: Lunge: Language laws become apparent in some way, as L finds that his native English will work better than his slightly clumsy German. Credentials are established; their worlds are not the same (frustrating!), but they are similar. He isn't completely sure that Lunge is genuine, but feels that if he is not, he identifies with the "German police inspector" persona so much that he'll do whatever he can to maintain the facade, even to himself. In other words, "is a German police detective" and "is under the delusion that he is a German police detective" is the same thing, in a psychiatric hospital and for L's current purposes. The quality of the results can't be relied on, though; such a person might manufacture "clues" to support the persona, if they aren't able to discover any.
- L learned from responses to the earlier bulletin post that Lunge has "appointments" with several other potentially useful contacts that day: Javert, Miles Edgeworth, and Lelouch Lamperouge. After analyzing their interest (another detective, a prosecutor, and someone clearly interested in running an investigation at the Institute), he wants to follow up on what Lunge's impressions of these people are. Slight canon-puncture for Javert. L assumes it's a pseudonym chosen as a tip of the hat to the Les Miserables character, not realizing it's the man himself.
- L wants to either develop a systematic plan or become part of an existing plan.
- L tells Lunge about HK-47, who he considers sociopathic.
- L discovers Lunge's "keyboard input" mnemonic.
- L is fairly honest with Lunge about his identity, in the hope of establishing credentials, but eventually explains that he isn't comfortable revealing his real name.
- Team Lars is born. Vague messages, disguised handwriting, no ciphertext (draws too much attention to itself).
- Landel was attacked the previous night. Was the zombie attack intended as misdirection, or was the supposed attack on Landel misdirection in itself? Lunge points out that a Landel who would fake his own death is much more dangerous than one who is actually dead and who might be replaced. L points out that there is no body and no way to reliably identify a body.
- Landel is psychoanalyzed. L believes he has a childish need to control others, and is living out a fantasy, but which aspect of the Institute (if not both Day and Night) represents the fantasy, and which represents something required to support it?
- The motivation of the patients providing information on the bulletin cannot be trusted; some might not want to leave the Institute.
- They elect to look into Alec Doyle and the patient files.
- Lunge does not plan to join a club.
- Wikipedia's BKA article.
Third shift: Howl: L meets Howl ("Howell") in the library, where he is tearing apart the occult section; both are looking for useful information.
- L appreciates Howl's mild spiteful tendencies.
- Do the books represent Landel's values?
- If there are any clues at all, are they real or fake?
- Potential usefulness of the clubs? The patients do not seem to be making much progress against the staff.
- Howell claims to have esoteric skills and L is inclined, given his recent experience with shinigami, to at least consider the possibility.
- They exchange background details; L's are vague and somewhat inaccurate.
- Discussion of the purpose of the uniforms.
- Howell invites L to accompany him during his escape attempt that night (through the creation of a magical portal). They make plans to meet. L thinks Howell is harmless, and is interested to see if he can actually do what he claims to be able to do.
Fourth shift: Bruce Wayne (RICH-GUY DETECTIVE DATE!)
Dinner shift: Gale
By this point, L should at least be irritated by the lack of freedom and tired of being around people. He learns something about Gale's world (The Embryon Tribe -- cannibalistic demons -- had to fight with other tribes in The Junkyard as part of a program to create the ultimate soldier).
Night shift:
M21-M30 Hallway
M-A Block Hallway
West Wing, South Hall 1-A - Sees "flicker"
Main Hallway, 1-West - Meeting with Howl and Keman. Howl shows a haircolor change before Keman joins them. Keman has apparently met L before. They are interrupted by an unsettling intercom message: the phrase The dead can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary than the living. It is the question of ghosts in binary code, which L doesn't quite catch, and an off-kilter rendition of the Goo Goo Dolls' song "Iris," which he only vaguely remembers hearing in American airports in the late 1990s. He is angered by what appears to be obvious audio trickery and further attempts to control the patients at Landel's. It's decided that the trio will try to get to the Arts and Crafts room, so that Howl can arrange their escape.
Main Hallway, 1-Center - L continues to ruminate on the intercom message (translating parts of the binary here), while Howl tries to get Keman to schlep supplies for him. L catches the second intercom message but does not immediately catch the biblical reference.
Sun Room - Spiderman says "You shall not pass." L, Howl, and Keman scratch their heads in bemusement. Keman's arm is broken, much to Spidey's dismay, but then, the skylight ceiling is also broken, and the trio makes a dash for cover.
Arts and Crafts Room - Porky's corpse is found, as is the ghost of L's mother, who died in a car accident almost twenty years earlier. Howl attempts to create a portal, and fails, making it apparent that escape that way is out of the question. In the meantime, L remembers his mother's death, then experiences it from her point of view, spontaneously developing her wounds. He dies of shock as Keman tries to revive him.
Note: the biblical reference in the "Middle of the Night" intercom message is Revelation 20:12-13: And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. L did not put enough thought into it, plus this one was easter-egged in a blink-and-you-miss-it way (in comparison to the binary, which was obvious and lasted a while) while he was distracted; I'd assume that given the commonality of religious mania as a factor in crime, he'd recognize biblical references as such, but he wouldn't know the verses they refer to without looking them up.