gald_digger: (Send money. Lots of it.)
Anise Tatlin ([personal profile] gald_digger) wrote in [community profile] damned_institute2012-04-19 10:23 pm
Entry tags:

Day 63: Lil' Tyke Toys (noon)

Upon leaving the Bath and Beauty Shop, Anise quickly found a secluded space for herself and applied a generous layer of the concealer to her hand. It didn’t hide the rash completely, but it faded it to the point that it couldn’t be seen from a distance, and no one would notice it unless they were specifically looking for it. The downside was that the makeup rubbed off on things easily. She fortunately had long sleeves, which meant only a small part of her hand was readily visible, but she was going to have to be careful not to touch anything with that part.

Once that was done and she was reasonably confident that no one could see her affliction, Anise made her way to one of her favorite shops in Doyleton: the toy store. It wasn’t like her tastes were childish or anything! She just appreciated the cute dolls and stuffed animals.

And that was what she went for the moment she stepped inside. Some of the plush animals were ones she recognized, but others were completely different from anything she saw on Auldrant. It still looked like there were no signs of rappigs or cheagles. From a bin, she picked up the stuffed bear she’d looked at the last time she visited – a ‘panda,’ Honey had called it. He’d disappeared since then… and now Anise had to wonder if it wouldn’t be long until something happened to her, too.

It already had, even. What could she do? Some people were talking about ‘beating’ the infection, but was that really possible? Chances were that the Head Doctor was going to keep any real hope just outside their reach. Maybe the best thing she could do was prepare herself for the worst-case scenario… but just imagining that was so terrifying, she couldn’t move. For the time being, she merely stood still with the doll held close, hoping to get some comfort from it.

[For Badd! I hope this location’s okay?]
tasteoftruth: (Lollipop)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-19 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
He really needed a lollipop. Badd wasn't sure if he'd made things with Byrne better or worse, but it was better than letting the issue fester. Once he'd extricated himself from the conversation he made a beeline for the toy store, wary of Niikuras waiting to stalk him and vaguely accuse him of hanging around a candy counter for unsavory purposes.

Nothing wrong with a grown adult having a sweet tooth. It was better than a cigarette habit.

When Badd entered he initially mistook Anise for a local kid. He wasn't sure he'd seen any Doyleton drones who weren't adults, which in itself was a bit fishy. Walking closer gave Badd a better view of her face and hair, and the craggy scowl cracked into a smile.

"Hey, Anise." He lifted his hand in a slight wave, even as he eyed the candy hungrily. She seemed pretty intent on that doll...hm.
tasteoftruth: (Family)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-20 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
Badd jerked his head at the candy counter. "Sweet tooth," he admitted, slightly sheepish. "Stocking back up on suckers." He'd gotten a variety last time and the peach flavor seemed the closest to the ones he preferred. The flavor was comforting, a tiny taste of back home.

"What about you?" he asked, gesturing to the doll. "Looking for a new toy?"
tasteoftruth: (Default)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-20 06:57 am (UTC)(link)
Badd chuckled quietly. "Only in zoos. Pandas live in China, we've got...pigeons and squirrels and things." And Gourdy, if you believed that nonsense. "So no pandas where you come from either?"

The clerk still hadn't come back, which bothered Badd. A kid shouldn't just go walking around unattended in a place like this. At least during the day she had a chance to stop, enjoy the silly animals, all that sort of thing...but he didn't trust this place not to pull a fast one.
tasteoftruth: (Testify)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-21 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Badd sighed. Kid her age...but no, no point in dwelling on that. She was dealing with it now and that would need to be confronted. "Couple of possibilities," he said, sticking one finger out and tapping it. "One is that he's telling the truth. That's not the option I want to think about but I'm keeping an eye on the matter anyway. I've seen a few people being ill or getting rashes." He wasn't sick, and Byrne hadn't said anything about it, and beyond that everyone was fair game.

He flipped out another finger and tapped the pair. "Second option, however, is that this is just another experiment." Even if she wasn't from another planet/time/whatever, she was probably too young to have heard of the Twilight Zone. Badd couldn't remember the name of the episode but he distinctly recalled an episode where an entire town had become convinced that one of their number was an alien monster. They'd gotten paranoid and turned on each other and the entire thing had ended in a bloody riot. The obligatory Twilight Zone twist was that none of them were monsters and the entire thing was a demonstration by the real aliens in how easy it was to get humans riled up.

"It'd be just like Landel to want to make us all paranoid. Psych experiment or maybe just a way of controlling everyone. We start suspecting each other of being potential monsters and then nobody trusts anyone. We spend all our time being terrified that our friends are going to grow fangs and try to eat us, and so we can't get anything done. And knowing Landel I'd cast even odds on either option."

Stay wary, but acknowledge your sources could be false. That was the way of the detective.
tasteoftruth: (Default)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-22 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"I was with a guy last week who turned into a monster," Badd said, trying to raise her spirits. "He was fine in the morning and seemed to know what was going on."

He leaned against the counter, twisting a lollipop stick in his fingers. "But...I don't know what the rules are here," he admitted. "None of this is possible where I come from. I could tell you anything you want to know about crime scene analysis but monsters, that's a blank area for me."

That was the scariest part. He had to rely on flawed witness testimony and easily-manipulated senses and it terrified Badd to find himself unable to rely on the tools that had solved so many cases. He was a novice again, at the whims of a world he didn't understand.
tasteoftruth: (Lollipop)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-23 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Badd opened his mouth to ask the details, but the clerk was there. And probably wanting to keep an eye on the old man lurking around the little girl.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I want sixteen of the peach lollipops." He pointed to the relevant ones, turning around to the counter.

"Will that be all?"

Badd hesitated. "Not quite." He reached over and took the little doll Anise had been holding, then set it on the counter with the lollipops. "This too."
tasteoftruth: (Family)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-25 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
What else was he going to buy, ammunition? A new coat?

"You looked attached to it," he said lightly as he handed over his card to the clerk. He didn't display a smile, though his tone was soft.

The real answer was that she didn't need to work the cute act, she just had to exist. And exist in the same general age range as the little girl who'd plucked his heart from his chest with her raven's claws. Badd didn't fool himself into thinking he wasn't using Anise as an emotional proxy for Kay, but felt no harm could come from it. She needed someone to be nice to her right now.
tasteoftruth: (Family)

[personal profile] tasteoftruth 2012-04-29 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
She was hitting his buttons perfectly and probably didn't even know it. Badd succumbed to temptation and smiled very, very slightly in a way equivalent to a full beam on anyone else. "I have my moments," he said, acting as if he was admitting something something.

He really wanted to ruffle her hair right now. But unrequested it would be weird and requesting would be even weirder.