Day 69: Sun Room

[rebonding]

[From here]

Korra wandered into the Sun Room while rubbing her hair dry with a small towel. The shower had been nice, at least. She had wanted her nurse to take her outside, but apparently there would be none of that for the moment. The "adults" were out there. What were they doing that they couldn't let her go outside, too?? She wasn't used to this, being cooped up. It reminded her of her time in the sewers.

She flopped down onto one of the couches, keeping an eye out for someone to chat up. Sure, her social skills weren't exactly 'honed,' yet, but that didn't mean she didn't want to talk to people. There wasn't anything else to do here, anyway.

[Barnaby!]

Comments

[baniichan]

"More than likely, yes." Barnaby leaned back in his seat, folding his arms over his chest. "I doubt the institute's influence is infinite, but the fact that they were able to bring us here in the first place should say a lot about their resources."

If it were simply a matter of running as far away as possible, he was certain more people would have escaped by now. More than that, he was certain he would have escaped by now.

"Someone once told me the basement could be an important clue," he continued. "But he seems to have vanished, so I can't exactly ask him what he may have found there."

[rebonding]

Korra perked up at the mention of the clue in the basement, but her excitement instantly dwindled when Barnaby mentioned his disappearance.

"You don't think he disappeared because he got down there, do you?" It made sense to her- cut out the people who were making progress. Of course, that theory also confirmed that there was something worth finding down there.

Which meant that she would have to get down there herself and find out.

[baniichan]

"With how often people disappear around here, I personally wouldn't bet money on it," Barnaby replied. "Correlation doesn't always equal causation. But I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility, either."

At the very least, it was one avenue he and Kotetsu hadn't explored. They would likely need to investigate it once they both managed to pull themselves together again.

"Do you have any unusual abilities?" he asked as he turned to assess the girl. Not that he had any personal interest in her background, but Barnaby had noticed many of the patients here fell into that category, and he wanted to have a better idea of their capabilities in case it became relevant later.

[rebonding]

"Oh..." Korra scratched her head. Then nobody really knew why people disappeared, then?

But that question sailed right out of her head at the mention of 'unusual abilities.'

"You bet! I guess you can think of it as martial arts that control the elements?" At least she'd had the sense not to call it 'bending' this time. "I'm a... special person where I come from. So I can fight with water, earth, fire, and air." Though the air was still coming with some difficulty.

[baniichan]

So she was a NEXT after all. There was no quick way to identify one outside of seeing them use their powers, but Barnaby decided to take her word for it. It wasn't the sort of thing a lot of people would lie about back home, and, depending on when they awoke, many people Korra's age and younger were able to master their abilities.

Why no one here seemed to recognize such a widely-used term was still beyond Barnaby, but for now he'd decided to accept it as one of the many strange facets of this place.

"I see," he politely said, not looking the least bit perplexed or doubtful over her answer. Someone using martial arts to control the elements was not out of the realm of possibility. Even if Blue Rose, Dragon Kid, and Fire Emblem didn't necessarily need to use extra body movements to activate their abilities, NEXT powers were vastly diverse.

He wasn't completely sure what she meant by being special, though. Barnaby just assumed there wasn't a large NEXT population where she lived.

"There are people who can do something similar where I come from too, actually," he added. Of course, there were people like that everywhere, but he wasn't going to get outwardly nit-picky over details like that. This girl probably hadn't heard of Stern Bild before, so there wasn't any point to it.

[rebonding]

"Wait, so does that mean you have benders where you come from?" Maybe if she used the proper familiar term, Barnaby would pick up on it. And the idea of another benders being here was a bit of a relief, for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on.

[baniichan]

"In a manner of speaking," Barnaby replied in a neutral tone. "We don't call them 'benders', though. Someone who can control the elements would be considered a Noted Entity of Extraordinary Talent, which is usually abbreviated to simply 'NEXT'."

Most often, elemental-type NEXT could only control one particular kind of element. But it certainly wouldn't be impossible for someone to have the ability Korra claimed to have. Combined with a proficiency in martial arts, Barnaby imagined her powers would make her a very formidable opponent indeed.

Hopefully they wouldn't cross paths while she was "brainwashed".

"NEXTs aren't limited to element-type abilities, either," he added. "I'm a power-type NEXT, for example."

[rebonding]

"A NEXT?" Korra pouted, thinking. She'd never heard of a term like that before, and couldn't imagine what Barnaby meant when he said his abilities were "power-type."

"So what can you do?" Bending originated from the Spirits and... something about chi, she remembered Tenzin telling her. That was why Air Nomads were always born benders- their intensely spiritual lifestyle made the chances shoot up.

But what made a NEXT?

[baniichan]

Korra's reaction wasn't unexpected, seeing how she hadn't given any indication that she was familiar with such a term. Maybe it had been useless to bring up, but Barnaby supposed it didn't hurt to spread the terminology around in case someone who did know that word could be directed to him by someone.

"Under normal circumstances, I can make my physical abilities one hundred times stronger," Barnaby answered. "Obviously, it doesn't work quite the same way here, or else I'd have escaped by now, but at night I'm still able to activate my powers on some level."

[rebonding]

"That's weird," she said without thinking. It sure wasn't like anything she'd ever heard of before. Then again, this whole stupid place wasn't like anything she'd heard of or seen before. Why should the people be any different?

"So it's like super strength?" It did sound pretty cool.

[baniichan]

"It's not considered that weird these days," Barnaby patiently responded. "At least, not where I come from." Compared to some of the other zanier NEXT powers out there, his could even be considered a little on the plain side.

"Super strength is one way to describe it," he confirmed. "It has more uses than that, though. For example, I can also use it to jump to higher places, as well as to boost my speed, eyesight, and hearing."

[rebonding]

"That's pretty cool!" Consider Korra impressed. If he was telling the truth, at least. And what reason did Barnaby have to lie about his abilities? That could prove dangerous here, right?

But all of this went against everything she knew about the world. There had been no such thing as any of this before she had woken up in this stupid hospital.

[baniichan]

Although Korra was probably closer to Blue Rose's age, there was something about her demeanor that reminded Barnaby of Dragon Kid. He wasn't sure if it was because of her tomboyish air, or her interest in martial arts and combat. There was also a similar sense of earnest honesty behind her words.

Of course, first impressions could certainly change, provided he even spoke to this girl again. Knowing how meddlesome his obnoxious nurses could be, though, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"You think so?" Barnaby responded, although he was only being half-modest. "It's certainly something that gets a lot of attention back home, but I'm afraid it doesn't do much good here if I can't use it to find an escape."

Everyone else here was dealing with a similar situation, which was the only reason Barnaby freely admitted to it. Normally, he liked to minimize weaknesses, and he still did so in this case, but there was very little to be gained by completely hiding the fact that he was a NEXT.

"What about your abilities?" Barnaby asked. "Have you tried testing them since you arrived here?"

[rebonding]

"I... haven't really had much of a chance to." Korra frowned, thinking of how quickly she'd wound right back up in her own bed. "They definitely came back, though." That had been a huge relief. No matter how much she told herself she wasn't scared of this place taking her bending, the notion still terrified her. She would have to meditate on it, later. Hopefully Aang would have some advice.

"They definitely don't work during the day, though."