damned_institute | Day 27: Breakfast

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Day 27: Breakfast

Day came too soon.

Sora hadn't been able to find Rena, had instead been forced to crumple onto the grass of the recreational field and bleed all over himself, and hadn't even accomplished what he'd been sent out to do. What he'd been entrusted to do. He didn't know how he was going to be able to face Renji and the others, but he also knew he wasn't going to hide from them, either. That would just be low, after all, and he was ready to face up to the consequences.

He didn't try to make excuses for himself. Even though there had been a Special Counseling patient, they had managed to take her down by sheer numbers. The fact that he hadn't seen any sign of Rena was what had him the most worried. He hoped he could find her today.

The boy laid in his bed for a good while that morning before his nurse finally came in to collect him. She clucked over the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and leg, and asked him if he was okay to walk.

Once Sora assured her he was fine (he didn't really want to use crutches, as that would just attract attention to himself, and he didn't need others worrying over him), they made their way to the cafeteria. Sora yawned and winced against the bright light of morning - it seemed even earlier than usual, and he realized why when they entered the cafeteria and found it empty.

The boy shuffled over to grab a chocolate chip pancake, a bowl of cereal, and a glass of milk (good for the bones, or so his mom had always told him) before settling at a table. He kept an eye on the door, hoping he would see Rena walking in soon.

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"Close enough." Keman shrugged, and now he was grinning. Maybe Max was better at this 'cheering up' thing than she thought. "And I know that I'm not the only Improbable Person here. Just more Improbable than most," he added impishly.

"I think so too, and it intrigues me. According to the board, there are people here without any special abilities at all. Just regular humans. What could the purpose be of bringing in so many different types of people like this?"

"Maybe," she countered with a smirk and a laugh. "There are some pretty Improbable people here."

"I don't know," she answered, turning a bit more serious. "I don't know why any of us have been brought here, unless it's some whack experiment. Maybe to even out the results? I don't know."

Keman laughed. "There are indeed. Some of them make me feel positively normal by comparision!"

Max turned a little more serious, and so did he. The dragon bit his lip, thinking. Why indeed? Max's experiment theory certainly made sense. But what kind of experiment? He had read a few elven treatises on raising and breeding humans--all of which mentioned exposing the product of a successful breeding (or, at least, the ones destined to become gladiators) to danger early on to weed out the ones that were 'unfit'--but he'd been so disgusted with them that he had completely blocked the memory of any specifics. "Or maybe to cripple those of us who do have some ability to defend ourselves by making us protect the ones who can't?"

"Normal is overrated," she informed him with a wink.

"If that were the case, there would be more in need of protection than there are to protect," she commented thoughtfully, puzzling the matter over. "That would wear us thin and wear us down. That doesn't seem to be the case."

Keman grinned. "Highly," he agreed, sagely. This sort of cheerful banter was...well, it was fun. And he didn't have to think. That was an added bonus.

He shrugged and raked a hand through his curly brown hair. "Well, then I'm out of ideas. That was the best one I had."

"It was a good guess," she reassured him with a crooked smile, reaching out to ruffle his hair. "We'll find an answer. They're not perfect. They've got to slip up somewhere and we'll find it. I promise."

Keman responded to the pat on the head just like a puppy...well, just like a puppy responds to a pat on the head. It felt good!

After a few moments, he laughed and gently batted Max's hand away from his hair. "Exactly! The Kin don't take very kindly to being locked up, that's for sure."

"The Kin?" Max inquired, the term unfamiliar to her. She leaned back in her chair in a comfortable slouch, a crooked smile on her face as she popped bites of plain pancake in her mouth. "Is that your people where you come from?"

"Yes, my people." Keman figured he might as well tell Max. She had proved last night that she was very trustworthy, and it wasn't as if it was that much of a secret anymore.

"This isn't my natural form. I can assume whatever shape I wish, because of what I am. I'm a dragon. I mean, I'm pretty much stuck in this two-legger body right now, so this is me too...but I feel most comfortable in my own skin. And I miss my tail."

He grinned. "So that's why I'm Improbable. Because dragons aren't supposed to exist, and yet we do."

Max blinked.

Then blinked again.

"A dragon?" she echoed, dropping her voice for their ears alone. "Are you serious?"

Keman just kept on grinning. "Perfectly serious."

She stared at him for another long moment, looking as if she was still wondering if he was pulling her leg, then burst into a delighted laugh. "Well, that can't be much weirder than elves, I suppose. What's next? A dwarf? A centaur? Do you have a mermaid cousin, by any chance?" she asked with a grin.

"What's a 'mermaid?'" Keman asked, honestly curious. "And I don't really know if I even have cousins, so I guess that's a legitimate question. My sister's a halfblood, though. Well, foster sister, really."

"Half of what?" Max asked, looking curious. If there were elves and dragons where Keman and Valyn came from, there could be half-anythings. That, at least, wasn't so strange to her. She was half-of-a-lot-of-things, too.

"A mermaid is... well, sort of half-human, half-fish. They're as much lore as dragons are where I'm from. They live in the seas, like fish, but from the waist up, they've got human torsos."

"Half elf, half human," Keman recited in a sort of sing-song voice. "Looks human, but has slightly pointed ears, green eyes, and more powerful magic than both. I'm in halfblood form right now," he added proudly, brushing his hair back from his ears. "The Elven Lords are terrified of halfbloods, and have them killed at birth. But some survive, like my sister. Her mother died in childbirth, and my mother raised her."

He frowned, trying to imagine a half human, half fish. "That's...odd." He kind of wanted to try that, when he got his ability to shift back. "How would they breathe? You'd have to add gills on the neck..."

"Why are the elves afraid of them, when they're partially responsible for them being born in the first place?" Max inquired, looking puzzled. "They have to get the 'half-elf' part from somewhere."

"They have them," Max added, then caught herself, looking sheepish for a moment. "I mean, they're supposed to. Some lore says they can breathe air as well as water, but most say that being out of the water would make them suffocate."

Keman didn't answer that question directly. Instead, he chewed on a thumbnail and looked away. "How much did Valyn tell you, about our home?"

He blinked, looking thoughtful. "Hmm, that makes sense. Still seems rather impractical, though."

"To be honest?" Max replied sheepishly, "I think I was in shock over the whole 'elf' thing and didn't absorb much of it. Plus it was my first day. I was still thinking this whole place was some epic joke of some very spiteful karma out there. I remember him telling me that humans were slaves and he was a lord, but not a normal lord, because he's all moral and stuff. Or something. And then he chased off after some tail across the room."

"He blushes very easily, have you noticed?" she added at random, waving her fork around for a moment. "Granted so did you last night. It was very amusing. Is it a common trait in your world? Or am I just lucky?"

Keman smiled gently. "It's understandable. I was too shocked at finding Valyn alive to really pay attention to anything he said, on my first night. Anyway, yes, the humans are slaves in our world. And the elves rule over them. Valyn was right--he's the only elven lord that we know of who realizes that humans are actually people, not livestock, and is opposed to slavery.

"All of the highest lords keep harems of pleasure slaves...and the lower-ranked lords use their overlords' harems. They try to sterilize the concubines, but every so often, one conceives. Or a field hand or house servant is raped, without the benefit of contraceptives. Bearing a halfblood means death for both the mother and the child, so the woman has to rid herself of the child as soon as she is able. A few are rescued by the wild halfbloods living in the forests, but most don't survive." He looked...almost tender, for a moment. "You wonder how a mother can kill her own child, but then you think of how scared she must be..."

Keman cleared his throat. "But I'm getting away from myself. Several hundred years ago, there was a huge war called the Wizard War. Halfbloods and humans with mind mage abilities against the Elven Lords. Remember how I said that halfbloods are more powerful than either race? Well, the Wizards almost had the elves beaten. They almost won the war, but in-fighting among the leadership and a horrible plague--both manufactured by the elves--allowed the elves to take back control. Ever since then, halfbloods have been creatures to be feared. The surviving Wizards have been living in hiding, terrified of being discovered...much like the dragons."

Then Max proved her own point and Keman blushed. "Ah...that's...well..." he stammered, turning pink. "You remind us of someone. You act just like my sister." The dragon laughed nervously, hoping she'd take that as a compliment. Because it was. "But, yes, Valyn does fluster rather easily, doesn't he? He's fun to tease."

Max blinked at all that. "Wow. You guys really had a shitty background where you came from, didn't you? And I thought mine was bad. Although I guess Valyn didn't have it too bad, being an elf, even if he didn't like it that much. Where did the dragons fit into all of that? Or didn't they?"

She grinned at his blush, reaching out to poke his shoulder. "See? I rest my case," she winked, looking very pleased with herself. "You're both rather fun to tease. And your sister, huh? The halfblood your mother raised?"

Keman laughed. "Pretty much, yes. And yes, Vayln was extremely well-off, before he ran away. He was the heir of the most powerful High Lord in the world. He lacked for nothing. As for the dragons..." He trailed off, thinking. "Well, we played a much more passive role, until the end. No one wanted the two-leggers finding out about us--we'd be hunted for our skins, you see--so we hid the mountains and only came out when we were shifted. But we did quite a lot when we did go down into the cities and onto the estates. We could gather information...or even play tricks on the elves. My mother used to love playing tricks, when she was younger. Then, Shana was banished from the Lair, and I ran away to be with her. One thing...led to another, and soon we had the Second Wizard War on our hands. So I went back to the dragons and got their help. I was...basically ostracized from the Lair for doing so, but several dragons--including my mother, and several of the Elders of our Lair--joined me and helped the Wizards fight the elves." It had been one of his proudest moments. After that, he'd been perfectly content to just fade to the background, but the knowledge that he had helped, in so great a way...

Max's grin just made him blush even more. "Yes...well..." he said, flustered. "That's..."

Ah! Good! Change of subject!

"Yes, that's Shana," Keman laughed. "And I had just as much of a hand in raising her as Mother did. I was...about nine or ten, when Mother brought her back to the lair. Mother was about to give birth herself, so I fostered Shana off on my pet..." What was the human word for two-horns? Oh, right. "...goat, Hoppy, and took care of her until she was big enough to take care of herself. But two-leggers grow up faster than dragons, so that didn't take very long." He smiled proudly. "She's about sixteen, now."

"Talk about epic," Max gave a low whistle, taking the tale in. She still wasn't sure she believed the whole thing, but there was a lot of unbelivable stuff she'd heard since coming here. She supposed it was as believable to some as she was, though. She doubted Keman had ever heard of chimera or transgenics or Manticore, either. Not to mention Seattle, EMP's, or cheeseburgers. She thought he'd like cheeseburgers, though. Dragons ate meat, right?

"You sound like you had your hands full for a long time, then," she commented with a crooked grin. "Valyn knows your sister too? I think he mentioned I reminded him of someone when we talked."

"Epic?" Keman looked pensive. "I suppose." It certainly seemed that way, now that he was so detached from it. While it was actually happening, he hadn't exactly had time to think about it.

"I gues you could say that," he laughed. "I was older, but she was always the one getting me into trouble. But...then again, she was always getting me out of it, too." Keman's voice turned thoughtful, remembering. "I'm not particularly big, for a dragon. I'm still growing, of course, but I'll always be small. There is a bully at our Lair, a big brute named Rovy. I was his favorite target. One day...he was beating me, and Shana stepped in to save me. She lost control...like I did last night...and hurt him. Nothing he couldn't recover from, of course, but since Shana wasn't Kin, she was banished. So I had to get her back..."

He snickered. "Yes, Valyn knows Shana very well. She's in love with him, you see. Rather hopelessly, too."

Max smiled at the change in his tone of voice when he spoke of his sister. "I can tell you're very fond of her. You two are close, aren't you?" She knew the feeling. She wondered if her voice changed when she spoke of her siblings, or Alec and Joshua. Or even Logan, for that matter. She had a feeling it did for Logan, Original Cindy often gave her That Look when she started talking about him. Or avoided talking about him.

The latter revelation drew a laugh from her. "Really? Good for her. Does she make him blush on a regular basis too?"

Keman looked wistful. "Very close," he said softly. "I miss her terribly." He didn't want her here, of course, but...he wished he could just talk to her, at least. Things always made so much more sense after he talked to her about them.

"I'm not sure either of them think it's very good for her," he laughed. "I think they both find it pretty inconvenient. And yes. You are the only person I've met who's managed to fluster him almost as much as she does."

Day 27: Breakfast

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