damned_institute | Night 62: O.R. Observation Room (South)

For the moment, Loki decided to go along. He could be helpful by letting them know which pieces were worthwhile, if nothing else, and it wouldn't hurt to acquire another cauterizing device. He could always take his leave once that had been seen to, so he could look through the last of the medical wing.

He indicated the door through the operating room. "That's the supply room."

After a moment, he examined one of the computers, snapping the front off so he could look at the inside of it. Such components might be useful once he had a better idea how the mortals arranged their electronics.

It was the first time that Lust had encountered things she didn't recognize or find familiar at all. She moved slowly into the room, eyes running over whatever was visible. It was similar to a hospital room back in Amestris, but...

"What is that?" she asked, as Lingormr broke open some electronic box. Her curiosity momentarily overcoming her need to gather supplies. Besides, Scar could do that. He knew what it was they were looking for, and she doubted he had any interest in machines.

"This isn't like the surgery rooms I'm used to."

There wasn't really anything of interest in here- Just a bench and speaker of some sort.

"I'm looking in here."

Scar made his way across the long room to another door, which was also locked. Scowling, he threw himself against the door, breaking yet another lock. Making his way through the even smaller room, the Ishbalan opened another (thankfully unlocked) door.

[To here!]

[OOC: Katsu screwed up, the computer stuff is in the technical room. SO LET'S JUST PRETEND THIS IS IN THE TECHNICAL ROOM NOW YEAH. Because yeah. It doesn't really change anything.]

Loki shone his flashlight into the device, examining the parts. It was very different from the sort of technology he was accustomed to; so many little fiddly bits. Which could be useful when it came to customizing things - perhaps - but would make it more complex to figure out how to go about doing that. Mentally, he cursed the lack of useful books.

"I'm not entirely certain," Loki said, though he had a very good idea what the humans used computers for. Admitting that much would be a bit revealing. "Perhaps some sort of calculating device, though that is only a guess. The internal workings are quire interesting."

He glanced at Lust. "It's not anything like what I'm used to, either. It also smells rather unpleasant if you go in there. And is quite cold. The people of this time and place are obviously very different from those to which we're accustomed."

Lust allowed herself to relax some, once Scar wasn't right there. She wanted to enjoy Lingormr's company, but the Ishbalan made it so damned difficult! And she'd be more than happy to enjoy his company, save he made it anything but enjoyable.

And he most likely wished to feel useful anyway.

"I imagine they have a great deal to calculate..." she mused idly, coming to stand beside Lingormr and peer at the device he was dissecting. Her arm brushed against his. All she could guess was that it held information, recordings perhaps.

"This is much more advanced than anything I've seen in Amestris. A pity destroying their things probably wouldn't do much good. They probably have have hundreds of these lying around in some warehouse or basement room. But...I wonder if it might have records...like a radio with information on certain frequencies. Medical notes, maybe, or information on the experiments they do here."

They had to keep detailed records. Otherwise there was no point!

Loki smiled at the touch, though he didn't look up from the device. He leaned a bit, enough to bump her hip lightly with his own. "It's possible such records might be recorded in a device such as this."

In fact, he was fairly certain of it, but that was supposed to be much more advanced than his current persona should know with certainty. "A pity that there seems to be no source of power during the evening. Perhaps one could be constructed, using the materials from objects such as these lights. I need to learn a bit more about the topic first, and the lack of useful books has been quite frustrating."

Mostly it was a vocabulary issue, needing to know what the humans called what bits, how they were currently setting up their electronics.

"Though in this wing, there is a room with supposedly patient records. That might be worth a look once you've acquired your supplies, though I have little doubt that the files will contain nothing but lies."

At that point, the intercom went on. Loki scrambled for his notebook, writing down what the strange voice said, paying careful attention to the strings of numbers. All ones and zeroes, which made it binary... he frowned as he examined the list.

Lust was about to comment on how it really couldn't be that different than proceeding technology, but that was when the intercom pitched some sort of fit. What on earth was that? Some sort of code?

"Military coding?" she asked, not bothering to note it down as Lingormr already was. "Some sort of warning? Or instructions?" There were agents of whatever was holding them all about, perhaps it was some message to them.

Or maybe it meant nothing and it was simply meant to rattle them, put them on edge.

Loki looked over the string of numbers. "The numbers are binary," he said, then quickly translated them out into base 10. He stared at the list for a moment, frowning. "I suppose it's possibly some sort of broader code, but there are so many repeating sets... it's possible that it's just purely alphabetical?"

He went through and counted the various repeating sets, trying to get a feel for frequency if they really were letters. "I will need to consider this for a few minutes. Particularly this set of four numbers repeats several times, so it is possible that it's a simple four letter word with the first and last letters being the same. That certainly limits the possibilities...."

He copied down the number sequence again and began to work on possible letter substitutions.

"Binary?" Lust frowned, tapping her lips with her finger. "I'm not familiar with that term." But it did seem to be some manner of code. Numbers instead of letters, but...they were the same two numbers. Certainly difficult to crack, though she had never exactly been much of a code beaker.

"How many four letter words start and end with the same letter?" she mused. "The only two that spring to mind aren't exactly pleasant..."

After all, 'died' and 'dead' both fit the criteria.

"It's simply a counting system, only instead of having the digits zero through nine, it has only zero and one."

He nodded. "Those are the two words I was thinking of... let us assume for a moment that this is indeed a simple numerical translation..." He stared moodily at the list of numbers before adding, "Considering the frequency of this number, dead is more likely than died..."

Making that assumption, Loki went through the number set, putting in the three letters that they'd assumed:

-e-e--a--e-a--e----ad-e-a-e dead -e-e--a--e-a-d-e----ad-e-a-e dead dead dead a-e dead a-e

"Well, that's a bit... cheerful. I think that this three character set here is mostly likely are since I doubt ale would make sense, so making that assumption..."

-e-er-ar-era-d-e----adre- are dead -e-er-ar-era-d-e----adre- are dead dead dead are dead are

"Apparently more than one someone or something is dead. Unfortunate for them."

Edited 2012-03-30 19:07 (UTC)

"I doubt we'd be so lucky that it was our jailers and now whatever mechanized defenses this place has are shutting down."

Sighing, the homunculus leaned back against a desk, her arms stretched behind her to grip the edges. It was just a fleeting fantasy, but a nice one at that. She honestly didn't mind this place as much as some, but the vague shadow of these strange Powers That Were hanging over everything was...disconcerting. If she had a better understanding of who they were and what they were doing....

And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

At least Lingormr had skill in code cracking. It had never been necessary for Lust to learn those skills and so - like anything else deemed useless to her specific purpose - she never had.

[grumping in from here}

Scar cut through the operating room, rejoining his companions, who seemed to be doing... not much of anything.

"There are small knives and scissors in what seems to be a supply room." He held up his spoils- A pair of scissors and two scalpels. "There were drugs, too. But I don't know what they do." His tone was dry and as business-like as Scar could manage, as to not let the know-it-all pick him apart again.

Loki laughed quietly. "We're certainly not anywhere near that lucky." He considered the remaining mystery numbers meditatively, running fingers over his lips as he mentally tried substituting different letters. Though as Lust leaned back, he was momentarily distracted and gave her a small smile, bumped lightly against her again.

He didn't even look as Scar returned, remarking, "I've a pharmacopoeia in my room if you wish to check what the medicines do."

When he'd gotten to the letter M and come up with 'meter marker' for the first two words, which sort of made sense as a phrase, only he'd thought it was a name, and...

"Damn," he said quietly. "That's unfortunate."

Edited 2012-04-03 03:11 (UTC)

"Is there any luck at all in this place?" she asked Lingormr as she leaned in towards him, maintaining light contact. Of course she regretted it when Scar chose to return, but made no move to distance herself from the slimmer man.

Lust didn't know much about this world's medicine, either. Unless it was the same as back home, she doubted she'd be any more knowledgable than Scar.

"Blades are certainly worth the trip. We'll just have to learn about their drugs to make any use of them," she agreed. "And I take it the announcement pertained to someone you knew? I'm sorry." Though from what she understood, deaths weren't out of the ordinary in this place. Why broadcast it, coded, like that?

Scar pointedly ignored the physical contact between Loki and Lust, almost as if trying to prove some kind of point. What that point was, he wasn't even sure, himself.

Neither gave any indication of actually wanting one of the 'weapons' Scar had found, so he stowed them in his pocket for now. If he was lucky, they would reappear in that box in his closet.

Just like the picture had. He swallowed. He didn't want to think about that. Not now.

The Ishbalan had not given any thought to the strange intercom announcement. (He never payed much attention, anyway.) It had been all nonsense to him, especially the part with all the numbers. And he honestly had no idea what a... 'pharmacopoeia' was... But it was probably some sort of book on medicine. So as much as he didn't want to collaborate with this man more than he had to, Scar nodded.

"That would be helpful." From what little he had encountered thus far, medicine seemed to be an indispensable resource.

Loki laughed softly. "I don't believe that such a thing as luck exists."

"The scalpels are useful if you're one for delicate work, but they're not weighted all that well for throwing. Too light." The remark was offhand, just something thrown out there as he closed his notebook and stowed it away. "Peter Parker. I met him on my first day and he was... very kind. I think there's second name as well, but it's no one I know and I'm not familiar enough with modern names to guess with any sort of efficiency. I'll tuck a note onto the bulletin board in the morning, since I surmise there are others who might want to know. And might be able to divine the identity of the second person."

He'd rather liked Peter, thought of him as an adorable, nerdy boy with syrup smeared all over his face. It was annoying and a bit sad to know that someone who had been willing to show him kindness was gone, but Loki didn't get overly choked up over it.

"If you don't wish to make the trek to my room, you can show me the drugs in question and I'll look them up in the morning. Or there's also the medical library that I... liberated the books from and we could just poke our heads in there."

Loki tapped his chin with one finger, still leaning lightly against Lust as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "I need to look about a bit further in the halls here."

Edited 2012-04-04 23:01 (UTC)

"For anything in particular?" Lust asked, not concerned much about the deaths of people she didn't know, kind or not. "And really, I can just drop by tomorrow to make copies of the information. It would be best to have it on hand - neither Scar nor I know anything about this world's medicine. "

It was a rather good excuse, really, to visit Lingormr's private room. Alone. And she liked being efficient, getting business and pleasure taken care of in one errand. And by whatever gods watched over this place, she was going to have her pleasure with this man. She had chosen him herself, for no reason other than she wanted to take him as a lover.

And she could certainly never hope to explain that to Scar.

"And I doubt either of us would be throwing blades about. I come with my own built in and Scar...has always fought hand to hand. Scalpels are far better than what we had." And Scar had found them and retrieved them, he deserved the recognition and praise for such. Especially as he'd yet to burn either of them to cinders with a possessive sneer - even standing as they were, body to body.

"Could you get me the information also, then? Or at least tell me what will kill us and what won't?" The Ishbalan looked to Lust, letting a less-than-pleased look slip for a moment. Really, there was no need for them to stand like that.

"And were we going to do something else tonight?" He felt stupid just standing here.

He shrugged. "More information is always more useful than less." There were other reasons to communicate this particular bit of news. If nothing else, he doubted he'd be the only one who had figured out the code - perhaps - but he'd be the fastest. So it was not exclusive information, which meant it was next best used to make himself appear generally more useful, and also build the impression that he did want to be helpful.

Loki smiled at Lust. "Of course, you're welcome to do so." He'd give the lady his room number later. Call him paranoid, but for some strange reason he just didn't feel the need to let Scar know where he could be found.

He nodded. "I normally work with daggers, but I'm accustomed to ones that are much larger and more sturdy." He shrugged carelessly. "And well-weighted."

Since of course, when you could make the dagger return to your hand with a bit of magic, there wasn't a reason t not throw it if opportunity knocked.

"I haven't any idea what you were planning to do," Loki said, smiling cheerfully at Scar. "I'm planning to map out the rest of this area and see what I find."

With that, he gave Lust one last, very subtle bump with his hip and turned to leave the room.

[To here]

Edited 2012-04-06 21:55 (UTC)

Night 62: O.R. Observation Room (South)

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