damned_institute | Day 28: Bus 2

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Day 28: Bus 2

Momo tugged on the collar of the light blue sweater she was wearing as she followed her nurse to wherever these buses were, winding her hair up into its customary bun as she went. It was an odd feeling, knowing she was about to go outside of the institute's borders. Maybe the Head Doctor was about to make an error and the shinigami, as well as everyone else, would no longer be limited and they could finish what they started several nights back.

That was probably too much to hope for. She was feeling better this morning, even with the blood moon, and was mildly looking forward to the bus ride. Captain Jack said he was going to be here this morning and even if it wasn't customary breakfast in the cafeteria, she's be satisfied with him sitting next to her on the bus.

The nurse handed her a muffin, some napkins, and a small box with a straw. She stared at this box for a moment before shaking it. From the sound it contained liquid. How odd... Momo wasn't sure why they would but liquid inside a small paper box - it didn't make any sense to her and she wasn't sure how one was supposed to get it out of the box.

Clambering onto an empty bus, Momo chose to sit in the very back near the emergency exit. Maybe she could force her way out of it as they were moving and escape the limiter enough to come back and level the institute, freeing everyone. Or maybe she just wanted to be able to see everyone that was on the same bus as her. Wishful thinking versus reality.

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"Yes, those are the same." Lust continued to smile. She wasn't a fool, she knew the reactions she was causing. "Alchemy is a science, though many confuse it with mystical arts."

She laughed again and brushed her hand against his arm, playfully. "I assure you, I am. Despite my lack of humanity, I'm very much the same as you."

"The same?" Keman laughed nervously. "I very much doubt that..." Suddenly, he launched into Kin-tongue. "...Unless you happen to be a shifted dragon," he muttered.

"I'm afraid I can't understand you," Lust urged. "You're either mumbling or speaking in tongues." Her tone was still playful and teasing. She leaned over, her mouth near his ear as she spoke.

"You needn't be so nervous."

"It's--it's a different language," Keman admitted. "I learned this one in my childhood...but the one I was just speaking is my native tongue."

Lust started to...whisper in his ear, and he jerked away, reddening even further. "S-sorry..."

"Everyone speaks the same here," Lust said, and she laughed. How innocent was this boy? Perhaps moreso than she'd originally thought.

"Are you alright? You really do seem quite jumpy. And you can't seem to stop flushing. Whatever is the matter?"

Keman blinked. "Do they? Where I'm from, all the humans speak the same language. I didn't really realize that it was anything out of the ordinary."

He turned to Lust, green eyes wide. "I...don't know. I feel kind of...funny."

Now he was fairly certain that she was doing...something to him. But what?

"Are you ill?" If he was ill, Lust wasn't certain she wanted to be sitting so close to him. Perhaps she'd misjudged his reactions. Anxiety and fear could easily produce similar effects. It wasn't as though everyone was welcoming this small chance to see something beyond the same walls everyday.

"Lean down and put your head between your knees," she advised, resting a hand on the boy's back. She had no desire to deal with oral human waste.

"Maybe. I don't know." Was he ill? Keman didn't know. He'd never felt this way before.

He did as Lust asked, leaning over and resting his forehead against the tall back of the seat in front of them. It felt cool against his hot face.

But then Lust was touching him, and he tensed up again. Whatever she was doing, it wasn't helping.

But he was too polite to ask her to stop.

"You don't know." Wonderful. "Does your abdomen feel disturbed?" Lust honestly didn't know much about human body sensations. Even though she'd been experiencing them herself for some time now. She knew something of illness, but the proper words to describe it failed her.

She had to rely on what she'd seen humans doing.

"If you have to evacuate your breakfast, do so in the aisle, please." Wondering if perhaps she should summon a nurse, Lust began rubbing the teenager's back in slow, hopefully soothing, circles.

"I don't know!" Keman said defensively, his voice somewhat muffled by the seat in front of him. "Disturbed? I guess. It feels strange. Fluttery." He also had problems describing his feelings. He'd been a two-legger before, but...before coming here, he'd felt a little more detached from his body. Now that this was his body, he had to deal with all of the unpleasantness that he hadn't had to worry about before.

Whatever it was, Lust's touch was only making it worse. "Th-thank you for your concern." His voice was strained. "But...I think I'm okay. I don't feel like I need to vomit."

He'd vomited enough the night before last to know what that felt like.

"Alright." Lust removed her hand from the boy's back and leaned against the back of her seat. "Perhaps it's simply the stale air in here. Here, you're welcome to my juice. I don't care for the taste of it. Perhaps it will settle your stomach." She offered him the box of liquid, trusting that he wasn't going to be ill.

"Thanks."

Keman took the juice box but didn't make any move to do anything with it...because suddenly the floor was moving and the scenery outside the "bus" was also moving and he'd never experienced anything like it before!

The shock made him forget all about the strange, fluttery sensations in his stomach...and everything else. He jerked out of the seat and landed in the aisle with an undignified squawk.

"They do move you know." Lust chuckled again and leaned over, offering the boy a hand up. He was quite an odd one, but cute, she supposed, in a bumbling sort of way.

"Come up off the floor, I'm curious to see what the lands around this place look like."

Keman took her hand and hauled himself back onto the seat, flushing vividly red. "I...I knew that!" he bluffed. "Just...never been on one of these things before. It just startled me, is all."

"It is rather loud, isn't it?" Lust glanced out the window, once more taking up a subtly inviting pose. Nothing interesting, overall. Trees and bushes and rocks lining the side of a mountain. Nothing she hadn't seen in Amestris a dozen or so times before.

"So where are you from, Keman? And do all young men where you come from blush quite so readily?"

"Very loud. And rather...rickety." He had the mad urge to laugh. Was this what Valyn had felt, when he'd had to ride him to Triana's? If so, he was going to have to apologize. He hadn't realized just how very...unsafe this felt.

"Hmm?" He did his best not to look directly at Lust. He didn't want to blush even more, after all. "Oh, my world doesn't have a name. Not an official one, anyway. And..." he ducked his head. "I'm not sure. I'm not used to being a tw--looking like this, I mean. I'm not a human either, and I haven't quite figured it out yet."

"The thought had crossed my mind," Lust said with a small shrug that made her dress shift and cling. "There are a great many non-humans running about. I've already gathered your world is lacking in technology, but that tells me little." She cocked her head, eyeing him.

"Mmm. It is rather a shock to be human, when one isn't used to it. Human bodies are ridiculously inconvenient."

...Not looking at Lust. Definitely not looking at Lust.

Keman nodded, eyes still firmly fixed on the road outside. "There are! Actually, none of my friends from home are completely human. Half-human, certainly, but not full-human. And elvish. Valyn's an elf."

He glanced at Lust and smiled. "Lacking in technology?" he echoed, teasingly. Now that he was calming down again, he was feeling like his old self. "No, just lacking in technology that is as advanced as yours. All civilized societies have technology. Technology can be as simple (and anachronistic) as a rock pounded into a sharp edge to create a tool. I'd say that this world and yours are quite a ways ahead of mine, in terms of technological advancement, but that doesn't mean we haven't got technology."

Okay, so that had been a little snobbish of him. But he was feeling awfully defensive of his homeworld, as bad a place as it was.

"They are," the young dragon-turned-halfblood agreed, stretching his back. It had gone rather stiff. "I mean, I've been human before. And elvish. And a halfblood--half elf, half human--like I am now. I'm a shapeshifter, you see. But walking on two legs is much more inconvenient than walking on four. I always feel like I'm going to overbalance!"

"Tools aren't technology," Lust countered. "Even animals can use tools. There's no shame in coming from a place where gas or steam powered machines have yet to be developed. I suppose there are worlds that don't even need them. I doubt you're all living in caves and eating your meat raw, after all." And if they were... well, Lust hardly cared about being polite.

"A shape shifter? House fascinating. Though I'll admit I can't think of any body I'd prefer above my own."

Keman grinned. Now this was more like it. "But the application of the scientific method and use of tools to improve the collective good is also technology isn't it?" He laughed. "And caves can be quite cozy. I grew up in one, you know. They're very economic to heat. And," he added, eyes twinkling, "there's quite a lot to be said about raw meat. More nutrients, and all that. Can't break it down in this body, unfortunately." Two-legger bodies really were inconvenient like that.

Sighing, Keman looked down at his very human hands. They were pale and kind of freckled (like the rest of him), with long fingers that ended in short, blunt nails...not claws. Great tools for tasks that required a delicate touch (and/or an opposable thumb), but pretty useless otherwise. "This body has its good points," he admitted. "I mean, I've been in it often enough, even before I came here. My natural form is quite a bit bigger than this, and it's a little more...imposing, I guess. I don't stand out as much when I'm like this."

The dragon stared wistfully out the window at the sky. He could almost feel the sun warming his back while the chilly Autumn ran over his scales. Far above the trees, a bird (he couldn't tell what type) was drifting on a thermal. It didn't even have to move its wings. The air currents did all the work.

Keman, grounded, flightless, was jealous.

"Before I came here, I could fly. I think that's what I miss the most."

"Everyone looks human here," Lust responded. "No matter what you were before. It speaks great volumes of the power of the people here." They had made her human, after all. Sapped away her powers, her gifts, leaving her something she didn't quite understand. She didn't honestly care what Keman had been before he'd come here.

"I wouldn't call that technology. I'd call it using one's intelligence. Simply making something that makes life a touch easier isn't exactly a technological advancement." She smoothed the skirt over her knees and crossed her legs, leaning her cheek on her hand.

"And I could scale a building in single movement, see in the dark, cut stone with my nails and heal from any wound dealt to me within moments. We've all lost a great deal. You get used to it."

Keman nodded. "There were others that I spoke with on the board. They'd also been changed." He had been in two-legger form (specifically this one) often enough over the past year that waking up in that way hadn't really thrown him (even if he was still working out some of the kinks). He couldn't even begin to imagine how disorienting it must've been like for the people who weren't used to it.

Smiling, he shrugged. "I do call that technology. But I guess we can agree to disagree, can't we?" He didn't want it to turn into a stupid argument. He hated those. Myre, on the other hand, had loved them and would bicker with him for hours over a dumb technicality.

"I guess..."

"It doesn't matter either way what either of us call it." Lust shrugged and shifted once more, her thigh brushing against Keman's leg.

"It's all that you can do. I've been here the longest of anyone in this place, and I can say with complete authority that no one gets out. And no one will, any time soon. There are far too many puzzle pieces undiscovered. So simply adjust to your body, try not to mourn what you've lost, and don't do anything foolish in an attempt to escape immediately. You'll only wind up dead like the others."

Lust wasn't one to offer false hope or sugar coat the situation. She saw no point to it.

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Day 28: Bus 2

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