Day 26: Cafeteria, Lunch

[right-handed.livejournal.com]

Scar felt cold and sick, though more the latter than the former. As he rose from his bed, he didn't quite know which way was up, and the artificial light coming from overhead seemed as hot and as blinding as the Ishbal sun.

His head hurt, but that was nothing new. After all, the last thing he remembered from the night before was fighting a homunculus off of Lust and then having a conversation about events best left forgotten. The man hadn't been his brother. He just hadn't. And if what Lust had said they'd done to her was true...

Scar stood with shakiness that he wanted to attribute more to a bizarrely weakened physical state than a mental one. Had he been knocked out by some kind of lurking monster before the morning had come? He felt as if he had been out for days, being a veteran of such circumstances, though as he took the practiced role of being an obedient follower behind the nurse and orderlies that came for him, it didn't seem as if much had changed.

This place was probably just playing tricks on him again, and he was tired of being the man left out of the loop. He grabbed some food he didn't really care for and sat down, not seeing anyone he knew already seated. On one hand, he wished he had someone to talk to, and on the other, it scared him that he was no longer used to being alone.

He dug his fork into his food and tried to block out any related thought.

Comments

[wiz-kid-redfive.livejournal.com]

Dairine looked up when her fellow patient talked to her. She was dying to know what exactly was going on here, so she nodded at him. "Sure, go ahead."

She poked at her spaghetti for a few seconds before asking any questions. "So, been here long? I just got here last night, myself...what's this place called, anyway?"

[opposingheaven.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Kenren replied, setting his tray down, stretching and then sitting down. "I'm Kenren," he said cheerfully, nodding to her before taking a few bites of his food. Mmm, decent enough, he supposed, and plenty to sate his hunger.

He leaned back a little, waving his fork around absently as he replied. "Calls itself Landel's Institute and claims to be a mental hospital. They'll try to say you're delusional and that your whole life hasn't really happened. 'course personally, if I was going to be making up a life, it would probably have involved something more interesting than what I really lived so..." he shrugged dismissively. "Just... watch out at night. It's not pretty."

[wiz-kid-redfive.livejournal.com]

"I'm Dairine," she said. "Nice to meet you, though I guess I wish the circumstances were better." She listened to Kenren as he explained what was going on, her expression sliding from disbelief to grim resignation in record time. Any way you sliced it, this was bad news. And me without Spot...!

"I didn't see anything last night, but I didn't get very far," she said, stabbing at her spaghetti moodily. "What do you mean, 'not pretty'?" If there was one thing Dairine Callahan prided herself on, it was being able to handle any situation that came her way.

Still, the lack of wizardry was troubling. She'd had the power for all of a year and a half, and yet the thought of a life without it was painful to her. It wasn't like she was helpless without it - she silently thanked the Powers for those jujitsu lessons her parents had signed her up for - but she still preferred to have her ace in the hole.

She chewed the garlic bread thoughtfully, trying to think of a way to phrase her next question so it wouldn't sound too insane. "Have you...heard of anyone with special powers before?" she asked tentatively. "Like magic?"

Well, it was a start.

[opposingheaven.livejournal.com]

Kenren nodded, looking around the room again at the assembled captives. He could see Hakkai off with a couple of girls and Goku over with someone else. At least they were safe during the day. "Yeah. A prison's never been my favourite place to spend time." At least he didn't have broken bones this time. Yet.

He sat back in his chair shrugging lightly. He had no qualms about telling a kid what went on in this place. They needed to know and they'd either handle it or they'd stay in their rooms. "Monsters. Giant rotting cats and rats. Giant spiders and scorpions. And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Reluctantly, he pointed to his eye, the one dyed blood red. "Every couple of nights, they take some people and 'experiment' on them. Happened to me a couple of nights back. And they can brainwash people, make 'em work for this place for a night."

The question about powers was far less crazy sounding in this place than Dairine would have expected. The god smiled reassuringly at her though. He knew powers were sometimes looked down on or feared in humans, so it shouldn't be too surprising. "Where I come from, youkai and humans live in the same world, and youkai can use plenty of magic. I'm a dab hand with a kekkai myself. And one of my best friends, that kid over there," he gestured across the room to where Goku was sitting, "was born from the concentrated spirit of the earth in a mountain. And on a more specific level for here? There's some people making weapons through something called 'alchemy' and I'm fairly sure there's plenty of others using magic."

[wiz-kid-redfive.livejournal.com]

Dairine listened to the repertoire of monsters without batting an eye. Okay, it was weird. Okay, it was really really weird and sounded like something out of one of those video games her friend 'Shash played, the one with the chainsaw controller he'd been really enthusiastic about. She'd said she was going to go over to his house and check it out sometime, but it looked like that was going to have to wait.

When Kenren got to the part about the experiments, her blood ran cold. The brainwashing concerned her too, but she'd dealt with overshadowed wizards before, and doubted that here it would be much different. "If...if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your eye?" she asked.

Youkai...oh, that word sounded so familiar, what did it mean again? Dairine hadn't been listening in the Speech, one of the powers that still remained to her, and so the meaning of the Japanese word eluded her. She wished that Spot was by her side again, the sound of his drives whirring in thought a constant comfort in this strange and frightening place. Alchemy, though? That sounded familiar, and not just because of the laughable practice it had historically been.

"Good, so I guess I'm not alone," she said. "Do you know if there are any limitations on people's powers, though? I seem to be...well, a lot less powerful than I was before I woke up here, and it's fair bugging me."

[opposingheaven.livejournal.com]

His fingers ran idly over the scars on his cheek, still fresh and a little sore, but healing. Healing far more quickly than they should've. "Some doctor injected it with something. Gave me these scars too." He sighed in frustration. "Long story short, they were trying to turn me into someone I'm not... yet anyway." Not for another five hundred years. Or had he just come five hundred years forward somehow, to be able to meet up with them?

He nodded seriously in response to her question. "Yeah, a lot of limitations from what I gather. Not sure about anyone else, but I know I'm damn near at the level of a human when it comes to speed and strength." It was frustrating as all hell. One thing he didn't mind as a god were the abilities which came naturally. "Makes fights seem that much slower."

[wiz-kid-redfive.livejournal.com]

Though Kenren's syntax might have confused someone else, Dairine was used to dealing with beings who existed outside of time. Well, as used to it as she could get, anyway. Although she'd helped redeem the Lone One, the repercussions hadn't yet echoed both "ways" in time, so she still had to deal with Its avatars and shadows.

'Damn near the level of a human'? So then what was he, an alien? But he was also speaking about events in the future, his future, which meant that he was either precognitive or...

"This is kind of a forthright question, but I'm not up to subtlety or protocol right now." She took a deep breath. "Are you one of the Powers that Be?" I hope he isn't, 'cause if he is...boy, are we in trouble.

[opposingheaven.livejournal.com]

Kenren shrugged dismissively. "Never been fond of protocol myself," he said genially. Waste of time, as far as he was concerned. All the damn bureaucracy. The Heavens were the worst place for it too.

He blinked in surprise at he question, looking a little bemused. He got the general idea of the term, but it was still unfamiliar. "Never heard us called that term before," he said with a little amusement. "I'm a god. General of the Western Army of Heaven. Uh... Ex-god actually. Got executed and sentenced to eternal reincarnation. Wasn't exactly expecting to be in any position to have to discuss it with anyone so I'm still trying to figure it out."