damned_institute | Dayshift 61: Doctor's Office 1 (Dr. Yumeno) [second shift]

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daedalus

Dayshift 61: Doctor's Office 1 (Dr. Yumeno) [second shift]

Daedalus was a creature of habit. The day he was to be welcomed back for his sessions, he had arrived as early as possible and not strayed far from his office since. Acting as a doctor for Landel’s Institute was his job, after all, and he was accustomed to immersing himself in his work to the fullest, even if his employment was temporary and of little significance. The hospital was where he should have been, working as he had been directed to, not on a involuntary “vacation” where he had little to occupy himself with except the passage of time.

To say the young doctor was ready to return was an understatement. Being separated from his sphere of influence was… uncomfortable, no matter the reasons for it. That was not to say Daedalus had spent the week twiddling his thumbs ineffectually, per se, but he certainly had been bored.

And boredom was a curse for a person like him, who enjoyed his routines.

A review of his work wasn’t necessary to get up to speed, but Daedalus did it anyway, while he waited for the day’s meetings to begin. He wasn’t excited, not really… ‘eager’ also implied more emotion than Daedalus was willing to exhibit. But he was intent on the task at hand.

There were many things he wanted to know. More that he wanted to do.

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One minute, Rose was standing in front of a doorway, her own blood smeared on a giant snake's fang.

The next, she was lying in her bed. She sat bolt upright, just in time for the intercom to start squalling with a tuneless, arrhythmic series of shrieks and clanks. An obvious ruse followed it. Clearly, this couldn't be renovations. That would just take a little editing and a decent computer. Even the dated crap technology in town could probably run the necessary routines, with a bit of coaxing.

No, the Head Doctor was taking apart something far more sinister than a hapless piece of architecture. Or assembling it. But before she could contemplate this any further, the door opened.

"Oh, goodie. You're awake." The nurse burbled away, and Rose merely arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm aware. If I weren't, telling me so wouldn't make much sense, so this is all a bit redundant." Smirking when only just arising was difficult, but Rose managed.

"Well, dear, it wouldn't do to miss your first therapy session. That's more important than a little beauty-sleep." Therapy? Rose hadn't really expected them to try. She'd seen psychologists before; theirs were an ancient and noble profession, as old as humanity, since the first caveman had run out of clubs and had tried to substitute words, instead.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Rose replied. The nurse had a face that would break men's hearts -- if her nose was stabbed into their chest.

"Now". Her patience, it seemed, was shorter than the aforementioned nose. Rose was tempted to escalate this little tete-a-tete, but the banality of fighting a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent joined forces with curiosity, and she acquiesced. The nurse led her in stony silence down a hallway to a door, opened it, and then retreated.

Rose walked into the room, took her seat, and opened her notebook to a fresh page. Her air of professional nonchalance was tempered by the fact that, in the seat, her feet didn't come even close to touching the floor, and she was swinging her feet slightly. "Let's start with the basics. Aren't you a little young to be a psychologist?"

After an entire week of it, waiting the few minutes for his patient to make it to his office was a simple task. Daedalus spent the last little bit of time reclined in his chair, head back. When the knock on the door finally came, he straightened and put a cordial smile on his face. Addressing patients was perhaps the oldest routine of all for him.

The young girl did not waste time sitting, so Daedalus didn't bother rising out of his seat, either; instead, he rolled his chair closer to the desk and leaned forward to entertwine his fingers. It was good that one of them had paper and pen at the ready, was it not?

"How professional. All right, let's do." Daedalus' expression remained steady as the first and all too familiar question was broached. In fact, his smile took on a greater humor and he looked down as means of modestly concealing the flash of amusement. "I suppose appearances are nearly as basic as it gets, yes. But I believe most people would agree that appearances are deceiving. Forgive me if this isn't the case. To answer your question, I am not too young to be a psychologist, though to be precise a psychologist is not what I am in a offical capacity. I can practice psychology, however. Does that help or confuse things more?"

"I've seen clearer mud. But yes, that helps." It was about as helpful as a Magic 8-Ball, even given the expert shaking of one meant to see more than the ordinary, but it was also all the answer she was going to get. She could ponder its ramifications at another time.

"Why do you say appearances are deceiving?" Rose didn't disagree with the statement as it stood, of course, but the question it invited was more interesting.

"Is it because you seek to assure me, through claiming nothing of the sort, that you have no intentions of doing so?"

Edited 2012-01-21 04:49 (UTC)

“Heh, 'clearer mud', you say?” He laughed quietly. “Perhaps so. But it’s not my desire to be needlessly opaque. If you have further questions, please, go ahead. But since we’re starting with the basics, perhaps introductions first? My name is Daedalus Yumeno. Pleased to meet you.”

Though they were off to a predictable start--how many more times would he have to explain away his physical age before his employment was through? Daedalus could only guess--it was at least in an interesting fashion.

“Deceive you through appearance, you mean?” he clarified, returning to her second question. “Is there anything I could say at this very moment that could convince you I wouldn’t? Where physical appearance is concerned, I merely meant that my youth can rather be misleading. I will assure you that I’m as qualified as any other. That, at least, I hope you'll believe.”

This could be an ideal opportunity for name-related shenanigans, but Rose didn't take the bait. "I believe you know my name."

"It wasn't your capabilities I was questioning. More the circumstances under which such an august mantle was laid upon young, if able, shoulders." Adults were strange. They drank vile potions, cavorted like children while conducting the most boring of tasks, and indulged in bizarre fetishes for fun and profit. While simultaneously making their charges miserable in wildly varying, if situationally appropriate, ways.

She gave his question further consideration. "There. I'm convinced. So, shall we begin? I expect you have some questions for me."

Daedalus didn’t mind splitting hairs in his good-natured way; it would help set a foundation on which to build.

“If you mean I’ve read your file, then yes,” he replied when she broached the question of what he did and didn‘t know. “But I wouldn’t really consider it the same thing.” Following this, he released another light laugh. “If you have such faith in me from the start, then I should thank you. But although it’d be nice to claim a unique status, I’ve found the issue more or less merely that adulthood is held in higher regard here. That can be disappointing, sometimes.”

He wasn’t bothered by her obviously disingenuous assurance, but from the smiling look on his face, it was also clear he didn’t believe her. Taking one at face value would be too easy, though, wouldn’t? Too civil for this place.

“You’re correct, of course. Where would you like to begin? I’d rather you didn’t have to suffer your way through this if at all possible.” Naturally, he was being wry as he said this.

"I'm guessing you wouldn't believe me if I said there was a gene sequence locked in my subconscious mind. Or that the world has already been destroyed in a rain of meteors."

"So I guess that leaves my mother. You might have expected me to avoid the topic," she added, a tiny smile starting to tug at her mouth. "I assure you, I have my parental issues under control."

She didn't, but she hadn't admitted that to herself. She'd admitted she had them, obviously, and she'd breached the sanctum boozorum that passed for her mother's bedroom, albeit while making an emergency transportalization out of an underground lab on the brink of destruction into a house which was in slightly worse shape due to being ON FIRE at the time. So leaping into a liquor cabinet not even remotely disguised as a bedroom had not been one of her brighter ideas, except that she hadn't had a choice.

"Or we could start with my cat." It was easy to talk about Jaspers now that he was reincarnated. Sort of. As a floating, talking, font of purrrryptic wisdom and unconditional affection.

There were some patients who guilessly let him guide them in whichever direction he wanted, and some who participated with great reluctance if not obedience. There were others still, like Re-l, who wanted to control everything from the beginning. This girl shared a similar desire with her; she was ready to take the lead if Daedalus gave it to her.

The resemblance was a weak one, however. As he made a mental note of each of the patient’s “topics” as she vocalized them, he thought of Re-l and the last time they’d spoken. Re-l. Now further from him than ever before.

It had been a long week of remembering the past and awaiting the future.

A part of his attention had begun to drift, and Daedalus checked himself before his thoughts went too far down that rabbit hole again. Revisiting old memories was a trap of the mind if it happened too often. Outwardly, though, his demenaor toward his patient hadn’t changed; he listened without interrupting, finally cocking his head to give her words some thought. Where the patient was concerned, her confessions weren’t so alarming. But if they been designed to garner an overreaction from him, regretfully Daedalus could not provide it. To conflate the world’s destruction with a house pet within the same conversation bordered on parody, but he nodded all the same, a gesture of acceptance.

“Letting presumptions dictate perception is a handicap like any other,” he eventually admitted, “so I’d be remiss to disregard anything you tell me. You can talk to me about any of those things you want. Though I have to wonder why you’re here, if the world’s already gone.”

"I had a feeling that assertion would go over about as well as running a torrent host over a cellular connection." Living out in the back of beyond had its trials and tribulations, though at least those had evaporated with the planet.

"You can put down paranoid delusional disorder, if it makes you feel better. Commonly the result of" -- this was when an obsequious hands-free computing device with a hotline to a certain online collaborative grimoire would be extraordinarily convenient -- "childhood trauma from an overly-authoritative household."

Blaming her mom was an amateur move, but Rose was only getting started. "Or I could ask you what we're really trying to accomplish here."

This wasn't about comparative psychology, as diverting as that was for the prepared mind. Unfortunately, Rose still hadn't figured out what it was for, which had her a little frustrated.

Daedalus got the gist of her reference, or so he thought. At any rate, what he believed based on patients’ assertions was of less importance than what the patients themselves believed, but they didn’t always see it that way. A great many seemed to believe all hope was lost in gaining his ear from the very beginning.

This patient in particular seemed less interested in expounding on any of the points she had made and more in demonstrating that she could tell how they all went together. The corner of his mouth lifted, both at her display of technical information and her roundabout inquiry.

“Soon we might have to stop just to narrow down our options,” he said jokingly before adding, “As for why I’m here, it’s very simple. So long as you’re my patient, it’s my job to ensure your good health. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish. I think what’s more important is what makes you feel better, so we can do away with the generic classifications.”

Rose gave that some thought. Some actual, honest-to-goodness contemplation. A modicum of cogitation, as it were.

No one offered help without strings attached, unless they were as much of a simple-minded (not in the sense of feeble-minded, but a more accurately simple sense) idealist like John. Or Jane, when she didn't have any particularly astute bits of precognition coloring her viewportal.

"You could start with not asking us to kill people." Really, that would be enough.

"And I could use some yarn." She'd only had enough to buy knitting needles, and offense was more important than passive-aggressive gifting. Especially when the primary target/recipient hadn't found his way here yet.

That earned a raised eyebrow. “Are you saying someone has?”

If Daedalus alone had that kind of influence and intent, it would not be him sitting here. That was the simple truth.

He was quickly coming to learn that she had no reserve about voicing seemingly unconnected thoughts in the same breath, he still looked momentarily bemused as she spoke her request. “Yarn?”

They weren't disconnected thoughts so much as the top two of an increasingly long list of grievances. But if Daedalus couldn't see the connection, that was his fault.

"Yes." To which question she was directing that affirmative, he would have to guess. In truth, it pertained to both.

Obviously, he either knew nothing of the mission, or he had an excellent face. She was tempted to say more, just to see if she could get him to do the Spock Eyebrow again, but it wouldn't suit her purpose.

"It's like large thread. Brightly-colored, good for making scarves."

“Yes, so I’m aware.” Although Daedalus could have let his reply become droll, he refrained.

“I wouldn’t say one matches the other in importance, however. Exactly who solicited you to harm someone?”

"If your house was on fire and a meteor was seconds away from taking out a several-mile radius around it, importance becomes a different question. Hypothetically speaking."

"Of course, I don't have a time machine, so the yarn is the only thing I can do something about now." There was only so long that Rose could talk around the topic without answering it, and she finally lifted her eyes to meet Daedalus's.

"General Aguilar." That wasn't entirely fair, as they hadn't seen him in person. "Or someone claiming to be working for him."

More details that Daedalus had to be careful about approaching.

“We can deal with those things one at a time.” Or not, depending on how much time it would waste. The patients found at Landel’s Institute were hardly above trying to lead him astray with whatever they thought would distract or deter a person, like this girl.

So he waited, wondering if he would have to start pressing harder.

When a name did come, Daedalus didn’t recognize it. He wasn’t sure if there was a reason he should. “When the regular staff was away?”

"Indeed. The man who replaced Doctor Landel was a bit peculiar." Did he really not know? Hmm. Perhaps there was more to the deception going on than she'd thought.

"What does your file say about this?" She held up a bracelet, festooned with a sticker bearing a golden eagle. It had shown up the next morning, and the link was obvious to anyone who'd heard Aguilar's code name. If he really didn't know -- well, she'd just have to ask. "It's hard for me to tell you what you want to hear without a little bit of prompting, you know."

“And that was this… General Aguilar?”

There was a beat of uncertainty in the way Daedalus spoke the words. He wasn’t new to militarized forces; they did, in fact, have more involvement with medical facilities such as this one than the average person might expect, at least in his experience. But they were still talking in hypotheticals.

Why would a general take over the Institute and, more to the point, ask the Institute’s patients to commit murder? It was obvious why someone would be hesitant to tell him this story just on the grounds of logical viability.

He turned his attention to the bracelet, leaning in to get a closer look. “Should your file say something about it?” he returned. “It looks like a normal piece of jewellery to me. Some patients have always been allowed to keep little trinkets like that, haven’t they?” Obviously it meant more to her than that, though, or she wouldn’t have brought it to his attention. He transferred his gaze from the bracelet to the girl’s face when she made her observation. Prompting, huh? “Oh, is that the case? And why is that?”

"I can't exactly take it off." She'd tried; it respawned as soon as she wasn't paying attention. "This was his symbol."

She wasn't going to get anywhere by needling him about psychoanalysis. That was a shame. He had mastered the art of aplomb, one that Rose was still cultivating.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was that all about? The takeover, and the subsequent resumption of normal operation?" Normal was relative, after all.

He looked confused at her claim not to be able to take it off. “Why not?” A sticker bearing the symbol of a military general did not make any more sense, not that it necessarily should. “So what is the reason you have it?”

It was fair to say they both had a right to questions--Daedalus wasn’t lying when he invited his patients to question him if they so wished--but now they had degenerated to merely passing inquiries back and forth, inquiries which continuously missed the larger picture. It was time to escape that cycle.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to explain things from the beginning. I’m not positive what you mean.”

Interesting. Perhaps they didn't give their own agents the whole picture, either.

"Aguilar. You might remember him?" She flashed the Eagle sticker at Daedalus again, brushing a thumb over it. "When I got here, he was in charge. Now he isn't."

She smirked. "It's very difficult for patients to form a sense of stability when everything keeps changing."

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Dayshift 61: Doctor's Office 1 (Dr. Yumeno) [second shift]

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