damned_institute | Day 61: Intercom, Evening

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Day 61: Intercom, Evening

Like clockwork, the intercom came on at the end of the hour. And like clockwork, the Head Doctor began the first of his concluding daytime announcements with abnormal levels of cheer and good will.

"Good evening, everyone! What a fun-filled day we've had, hm? You must all be tuckered out and ready for bed."

Why, the man seemed unwilling to say.

"Never fear. We're nearing the end." He paused thoughtfully. "The main course of our dinner menu tonight is gourmet spaghetti topped with our signature marinara sauce. We have garlic bread and Caesar salad for your sides as well as your choice of vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate ice cream for dessert. As usual, we will have our assortment of drinks and vegetarian alternatives. If you're partial to that little extra omph, we have parmesian cheese available upon request."

There was another pause, this time with papers rustling in the background. "Take care not to stain your letters now. Bon appétit!"

The intercom clicked off.

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The likelihood of their roommates being alright didn't seem high, but there wasn't much that could be done about it now. Hopefully they were alright after all... not that hoping ever did much to change anything, as ZEX knew all too well.

ZEX turned to his food for a moment, remembering McCoy's warning to eat more. His human body did like this food, if nothing else. Although, he kept forgetting where his human mouth was, even after all this time... a stumble before he caught himself and raised his hand to where his new mouth was.

"Mmm... I've been here for some time." ZEX tried to think. It was difficult to keep track of time here, with how much he'd been losing lately. "Thirty days? Maybe more?" He sighed. "It's hard to say for sure... I've been losing time a lot lately.

And it certainly felt much longer than that.

Thirty days, give or take? Damn. The only other person Byrne knew that had been here about the same length of time was Renamon. Long lasting patients must be a rarity. Not a comforting thought.

"About three times as long as I've been here," the prosecutor sighed, letting his smile slip for a moment as he reflected upon his own length of imprisonment. Technically, it had been eight days for him now, including today. Guess he should be thankful to have made it even this long. He couldn't imagine being stuck here for another twenty-two days...without literally going mad in the process, of course. 'Zex' must be a really tough fellow.

The smile returned to Byrne's face; it wouldn't do to stay depressed over this, would it? "Well, don't lose hope," he tried to encourage his roommate, "especially if you've survived this long. We'll get out of here soon, I know it. We've just got to keep fighting."

"That doesn't surprise me." ZEX waved a hand in a vague approximation of a VUX gesture. "Most people don't seem to last very long here... and I've seen my share of them go."

His poor Captain...

ZEX laughed somewhat humorlessly. "Well, survive is all it seems I can really do here... I wonder when my luck will run out? They do seem to get such enjoyment out of tormenting us... when will they get bored?"

He stuck another bit of food in his mouth, then waved an arm again. "Ah well, that's not really dinner conversation, is it? I suppose we should get to know each other... we may be spending a lot of time together in the future." With a more natural smile there. "I guess my first question would be - are you familiar with interstellar travel at all?"

So according to 'Zex', the average survival rate of the patient population here was a low percentage... The subject immediately reminded Byrne of his daughter Kay, and the last day she'd been here. It was worrying...but Badd had sworn he'd helped her escape, and he trusted his partner's word more than anyone else's. So despite whatever 'Zex' or anyone else told him, he knew Kay must be one of the rare lucky few to make it out of here alive. Well, maybe it wasn't totally luck; it had been the night the military took over, after all, so perhaps security here was much looser on that particular eve than others.

Who knew. It hurt to think about it too much, to consider the less positive possibilities, so Byrne would put it out of his mind for now and assure himself that his daughter did not fit his roommate's description of 'most people'.

Likewise, he had to agree that thinking about the daily torture here wasn't such a great topic for a first conversation, either. Byrne nodded and wordlessly moved on to the question 'Zex' asked him.

...Which made him blink in surprise. Okay, so Renamon had told him about sentient programs, but interstellar travel? "Only in movies...and I guess here, if that's how Landel manages to bring people from other dimensions to this place. How come?" Byrne asked that even though he had a feeling he knew what the answer would be. Or at least, generally knew what it would be.

Another human who didn't know about the universe as he knew it, and he sighed a little again. It was so strange, to know how things were and have to discuss it with others who had no idea what he was talking about. It was enough to drive one mad, which was no doubt the point. Still, it would have been nice to have at least one person here who remembered how things really were... even if that would have meant dealing with the prejudice between their species again.

That he did not miss.

"Ah, I was just hoping you might know reality as I know it..." ZEX tried to smile back at him. "Very few people here seem familiar with things as I know them... strange, since I'm so used to dealing with the unpleasant history between our species when I talk to humans." He picked at his food a little more. "Sometimes it's hard to even imagine living without interstellar travel... it was such a fact of life back home."

Woah woah wait. This guy was claiming to be a different species? Not just that, but a species that apparently didn't get along well with humans? ...Well okay, Byrne had guessed the answer would have something to do with 'Zex' being from another dimension or something; he probably should have expected that being non-human would be a part of the equation, too - not to mention the unusual name Zex was kind of a tip-off on its own. But still.

What kind of species did he mean, anyway? All Byrne knew were animals and apparently sentient computer programs after what Renamon told him today. It had to be something that could travel through space, so (ignoring the immediate thoughts of how technologically impossible that was as far as he knew) 'Zex' was probably some sort of alien. Thing.

Seriously?

Hopefully Byrne wasn't staring at his roommate a little funny right now. (He was staring, wasn't he? Crap.) "So if you weren't human, then, uh, what were you, exactly?" Could that question have been asked any more awkwardly? Geez, clearly he was going to have to get used to conversing with people like Renamon and 'Zex' in a way that wouldn't make him sound rude...or just completely stupid.

Was Byrne staring at him? Perhaps the idea of interstellar travel really was completely foreign to him... such a strange thought! How trapped humans must have felt in this age, to be restricted to one planet, unable to explore and see all of the universe's mysteries...

Although, he could have been projecting a little.

"I was a VUX." The likelihood of Byrne knowing what that was was incredibly low, but ZEX couldn't help but hope for a little recognition in his tiny eyes. "An alien species native to Beta Luyten, although I no longer reside there personally." Prejudiced fools. "When I came here, they gave me this body instead of my natural one." He touched his forehead, where his hair was slowly starting to grow back around his scar. "It's been... an adjustment."

So he was an alien. Or more specifically, a 'vux' from Beta Luyten. ...Sounded exactly like something out of a sci-fi novel. At least the guy's story matched Renamon's as far as the whole 'being put in a human body upon arriving at the Institute' thing was concerned.

But now Byrne was curious. What was a 'vux' and what did it look like? Yeah yeah, 'Zex' said it was an alien species, but that could mean anything. Was it one of those creepy insect-like aliens, did it have tentacles, did it look like a human with blue skin and three eyes? Normally he'd refrain from asking for details to avoid any sort of faux pas, but for crying out loud, how often did one meet an alien?

Oh, the stories Byrne would tell Kay whenever he got out of here!

He became more and more aware that he was staring at his new roommate funny, but at this point he just couldn't help it. "I've never heard of a 'vux' before. If you don't mind me asking, what does one look like?"

ZEX was never particularly good at deciphering human body language, so he paid no attention to the intensity of Byrne's stare. He leaned back from his food, his hand hovering near his chest.

"Let's see...well, firstly, we don't have your tiny double eyes. We have one central eye, here." He gestured at the center of his face. "We also don't have your odd patchworks of hair, and tend towards green in terms of color. We have a series of feelers around our head that let us keep track of our environment, and we don't our mouths so close to our faces." He traced his hand downwards from his face a little. "We have a trunk instead, with a long and prehensile tongue we use for various tasks."

A moment, and ZEX held out his hand, turning it back and forth. "And we don't have these, your hands and fingers, correct? Our arms are much longer and more flexible, and much stronger, and just taper down to a tip." He paused in thought. "We were also amphibious and had webbed tails... I haven't seen any humans here with tails, so I assume that's specific to our species."

ZEX tried to give Byrne a smile, just as unnatural looking as always. "It's been an adjustment getting used to this body... and the various ways humans communicate with each other. The showing of teeth and maneuvering of the strips of hair over your tiny eyes, things like that. Not that I'd complain about having to study your species so closely..." If only the circumstances had been somewhat different, this would have been a dream come true.

As his roommate explained the many unusual features of a 'Vux', Byrne drew a mental picture in his head of what the alien might look like based on the description given. Admittedly? It...wasn't a pretty picture by the end of it all.

In fact, it was hard to stop himself from smirking outwardly at the picture in his mind. Really hard. To the point where Byrne quickly threw a hand to his mouth and coughed to cover himself the moment he caught a smile creeping across his lips. Whoops.

Welp, he couldn't say he didn't expect to hear something like this. Guess this also explained why Zex seemed to move around a little awkwardly, especially when he smiled. "I see," the prosecutor mused, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. At least he'd finally stopped gawking at Zex like he'd just seen a two-headed horse. "I can't imagine what it must be like to suddenly wake up in a completely different body. How does Landel do it, I wonder?" That was something Renamon had only been able to answer with a few possible guesses. Did Zex have an answer, perhaps? Or maybe nobody knew. Wouldn't be a surprise if that were true.

ZEX was used to humans regarding his species with disgust and horror, so Byrne's reaction was somewhat puzzling. He was almost positive that expression indicated some kind of amusement or pleasure. Was the mental image that ZEX had painted that pleasing? Well, that was a nice boost to his ego. As much as ZEX prided himself on his own open-mindedness, it would have been nice if someone from the human side of things was equally as enlightened.

"It's been very difficult. Your human hands have been particularly troublesome, and your vision is so poor. Not having a proper tongue has been an adjustment as well..." ZEX waved a hand in a vague way, something that would have been clearer with a sinewy tentacle arm. "I've been investigating how this has been done myself, without much success... they went through a great deal of effort to create false lives for all of us, and I still don't know for what purpose. It's very frustrating."

A moment, and ZEX scratched at the wound on his forehead. "They've done things here that shouldn't be possible... they appear to have a mastery of the body that even the Umgah would envy. To put it to this purpose..." ZEX paused, then sighed. "I do wish more around here made sense."

Yeah, the whole 'fake life' business the staff were trying so hard to make the patients believe in was still getting to Byrne, especially after that 'therapy' incident from earlier today. Zex was right. What was the point of it all? There was no longer any doubt in his mind that every person held captive here was completely sane, and he was sure that everyone who'd been here at least a week would also understand that.

As proof, the admiral's frustrations at being changed from an...alien thing into a human were believable and real. And as further proof, well, everything Renamon said ever proved that this place was just full of lies. "It really is frustrating, and I don't get the point of our so-called real lives, either," Byrne agreed, shaking his head. "It's just something there to piss us off." Seriously. Beyond making the staff and the nearby town believe this place was full of crazies, it made no sense. They could just as easily leave this as a secluded military operation and leave it at that.

And--wait. Did Zex really just say 'umgah'? Umgah?? Oh--there it was again. Having to cough to cover another grin. This not being offensive thing was really, really hard to do. "You're telling me. I'm still trying to get used to the idea that there are actually people from other worlds here." Just because he'd agreed that there were definitely other dimensions out there didn't mean it was any easier for him to truly accept that fact. But...maybe he'd get used to it. Eventually.

The false lives apparently only irritated Byrne... the complexity and depth of the false life created for ZEX had left him feeling all too doubtful. It made ZEX curious. "Have you had any visitors from your 'other' life yet?" ZEX said. "Their... attention to detail is... astounding."

He thought about his encounter with DAX, the identity crisis that came with it, and hopefully that wouldn't show too much in his tone. Byrne didn't seem terribly upset so far, and lighter conversation could improve his mood. ZEX tried to smile again.

"Such an odd idea to me... it's been difficult for me to adjust to people not being from other worlds. A vast coalition of species united against each other all across hyperspace... the idea of humans not knowing any of the species I'm familiar with... it's like going back in time. Very strange." No harm in glossing over the War for now.

Visitors from his 'real life'? He remembered Dr. McCoy once talking about meeting his daughter here, but Byrne himself had never met someone from his 'real life'. He looked at the man--or rather, used-to-be-Vux, with curious interest. "No? I mean, I've gotten a letter in the past from my daughter - or who they'd like me to believe is my daughter. But never a visitor. You had one?" Byrne figured the answer'd be yes because after all, why was Zex asking if he'd never had the experience of meeting one?

Then Zex went on, briefly mentioning something about 'a vast coalition of species' across space all 'united against each other'. Now that sparked up a whole different kind of interest. "You mean there was a huge space war where you came from?" Byrne asked, blinking in surprise. ...And there he was staring dumbly again. It was hard not to, though, after what his roommate just said. Aliens, space travel, and now an intergalactic war? Zex just...just popped right out of a typical sci-fi movie, didn't he? Goodness.

"A letter?" ZEX had yet to receive a letter from DAX, although, perhaps that wasn't necessary since he'd visited him personally. "I see... maybe they haven't found an appropriate actor for you yet." Interesting that he had a daughter. ZEX hadn't encountered many humans here with families. "I was visited by my Sub-commander. He was in a human body as well, but his way of speaking... it was unmistakably him. I wonder if they brought him here and wiped his mind, or..." ZEX still didn't have an explanation for the entire matter.

Byrne seemed to show some interest in the War. Understandable, it did involve his species after all, and if they hadn't been involved in this reality, surely there'd be no reason to hold any of his actions against him. "Yes, there was a war some time ago... almost twenty years ago." If his sense of time hadn't been completely ruined here. "The Ur-Quan Hierarchy against the Alliance of Free Stars. In the end, the Hierarchy was victorious, and sealed the surviving members of the Alliance underneath slave shields on their respective home worlds." A slightly awkward moment. "Unfortunately, your species was a member of the Alliance. As a result, I didn't have much chance to speak with humans until I was brought here."

Zex described basically what Dr. McCoy had described before about meeting his daughter. Both were convinced that the person they'd met was actually that person, but their familiar's story was whatever the Institute had come up with rather than what should be right. Were they the real thing, but brainwashed? Or were they (using the word Zex used) actors? Who knew. Perhaps Byrne should feel lucky that all he'd gotten from Kay(?) thus far was a letter...he didn't know how he'd be able to handle actually seeing her(?).

"My last roommate told me a similar story," he said, frowning. "It all sounds so suspicious, but I have no clue why it's all happening." No matter how he tried to find reasons for the whole 'real life' thing, it still made no sense.

Byrne also had no clue how to respond to this war Zex was telling him about. So in his other...dimension-like place, humans are slaves to this Hierarchy group? Should he at least be glad to hear humans decided to join the side called Alliance of Free Stars? Should he be wondering what happens to those under these 'slave shields'? Besides, y'know, slavery. Whatever - point is, what was he supposed to say to that, anyway? 'That sucks' didn't seem like the proper response here, as much as he just wanted to just leave it at that. How to word this...

"I...see. So it's safe to assume that humanity is in a, um, bad situation where you come from, then?" There. That was a more roundabout and polite way of saying 'that sucks'.

"Really? Who was your last roommate?" ZEX was idly curious; he might as well ask. "Although, it seems that the odds are against you seeing each other again at this rate."

ZEX leaned back a little, not entirely sure how to express the gravity of the situation with human features. They jumbled them up in such strange ways, it didnt make any sense.

"Yes, you could say that. It really was such a shame... I'd always had such a fascination for your species, and after you went under the shield, I thought I'd never see another human again." Until his Captain had appeared so suddenly, and what a delightful surprise that had been! "Coming here where everyone is human, or appears human at least, was something of a shock at first. So many beautiful bodies to admire..." He was trailing off slightly near the end.

"Oh...Dr. McCoy." Byrne wondered if Zex would even know him. Probably not. In any case, his new roommate was right, unfortunately; odds were he likely wouldn't see McCoy ever again. If that also meant McCoy was dead, then that was even worse, especially since the poor guy was a father.

But it wasn't so great to think too much about depressing details like this, so Byrne went back to thinking about that intergalactic war and the other depressing fact that apparently humans were in a terrible situation in Zex's dimension-place. At least it wasn't a fact that specifically applied to him and someone he'd come to know, right? Instead, he could be content to listen to another non-human person talk about his world (a place that Byrne would never see), how humans fascinated him, how it was strange being human, andandahwnahohawoahwoahwaitwait what did he just say about bodies?

Byrne's eyes shot over at his roommate again, and this time the staring was for a damn good reason. No doubt about it. Zex seriously just said something about admiring beautiful human bodies. Uhhhh. Awkward, much?

"You're, uh..." Uh. "Um..." How the hell was he supposed to even respond to that? "'Admire', you mean...?" Yeah, just what did he mean, exactly? Because Byrne could only think of one meaning for that, and it wasn't a very clean meaning at all. (Even though perhaps he shouldn't think like that because the guy was supposedly an alien, so maybe it meant something...different to him? Uh. Hopefully.)

McCoy! ZEX didn't know enough about human emotion to know how to hide the striken look on his face, and he probably would not have made the effort either way. After he'd given him such advice before... he'd been so helpful to him. Another of his meager contacts vanished from this terrible place... such a shame. Perhaps he was back wherever he'd come from and was alright. ZEX preferred to think of that option.

"Oh... that is sad news," ZEX said eventually. "I'd spoken with McCoy before... I didn't know something had happened to him."

However, something else he'd said apparently had bothered Byrne in some way, as his expressions and speech patterns changed. ZEX ran over what he'd said in his mind and couldn't find anything objectionable. How peculiar! He might as well elaborate either way.

"Yes, admire." This topic did always brighten his mood somewhat. "Your species is so different from mine, so marvelously varied and strange! Your odd patchworks of hair, your tiny double eyes, your calcium protrusions, your gaping mouth holes, it's all so wonderful to behold." ZEX sighed fondly. "You really are such works of art... it's a shame more of my people don't see things the same way."

Oh, so Zex did know McCoy after all? Small world. "Yeah...let's hope it's not as bad as it seems. For both our roommates' sakes."

The pained look on the apparently-was-once-an-alien's face made Byrne feel rather bad for telling him that it was a friend, even though he'd had no way of knowing that Zex was familiar with McCoy until now. (This was why he always let the detectives do that whole 'breaking the news' thing to families during murder cases. He'd never found it easy to tell someone such bad news...) He still felt bad, even after Zex apparently said that one thing that was um. Yeeeah.

Well wait. After Zex's explanation, it made more sense. In a 'different cultures, different mindsets' way. So admire did mean...oh. O--okay. Ha. Ha ha. He thinks humans are aesthetically pleasing because he doesn't know much about them or something. Not...yeah. Ha ha. Byrne knew what he meant. Meant that all along. Yep. Yep...

"Oh." He laughed, trying to shake his awkward feelings off. Wasn't really working so well, but at least he was trying. "I understand..." Aaaand leaving it at that. Before this topic got any more awkward. Sheesh.

"Yes..." ZEX didn't have much hope; too many of his former roommates had just vanished, and he was fairly sure he'd never see them again. So many people lost here. "Perhaps they did get lucky, and they are well." The odds were against it, but who knows?

There, it seemed that Byrne had been eased by his explanation! Really, there was no reason it should have alarmed him in the first place. Humans were such silly creatures. "Ah, I'm glad. I've had so much trouble with people understanding my... unique viewpoint before. My countrymen in particular disagreed with me strongly on several points. Their loss, really."

ZEX turned back to his food to try and eat a little more. Dinner wouldn't last much longer, and McCoy had told him to eat more. He could at least do that much in his memory.

"Yeah, I can, uh, imagine." And not know exactly how to respond to that except with an awkward smile and holy geez can we get off this topic now. Thankfully, Zex turned to his dinner after that, and so Byrne would do the same. Not just to find an excuse to end that particular thread of conversation as quickly as possible; he might as well finish eating before the night settled in - which didn't feel like it'd be much longer now. Looks like he'd gotten too caught up in conversation to worry about eating or otherwise again...he really needed to quit that.

After finishing one bite of spaghetti, he glanced back over to Zex and said, "Well, ah, try to eat as much as you can and be careful when they let us loose, okay?" Not that Zex needed the warning, he being here longer than Byrne, but the prosecutor wanted to be polite, and even if his roommate seemed a little...weird, he didn't seem like a bad guy who deserved to get eaten by something out there.

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Day 61: Intercom, Evening

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