damned_institute | Dayshift 20: Dr. Washu's Office [Doctor Office 5]

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Dayshift 20: Dr. Washu's Office [Doctor Office 5]

For Doctor Hakubi Washu, it was like Christmas had just come early, especially delivered by Santa Claus himself. She'd leaped at the chance to use her knowledge for good- well, at least kinda-sorta good?- and more importantly to advance her brilliant new theorem. All she needed were the minds for study, and it just so happened that the Institute had plenty of such minds for the studying, and plenty was being offered for her to do so.

Wasn't capitalism such a wonderful thing?

Thoroughly in her element, Washu had pored through the patient files and gotten everything ready, even managing to add a little 'flair' to her office. Several unidentifiable but quite flashy machines were on her desk, sharing the space with a small bowl of sweets, and the standard-issue padded couch had been 'modified' while she was at it.

She couldn't quite hide her glee as she clapped her hands together and grinned when she heard the intercom. Any moment now, aaaaany moment...

((OOC: For ~~Ichigo~~, ~~Tamaki~~, ~~Darman, Fayt~~, Nigredo, ~~Takaya~~, ~~Yazoo~~, and ~~Zoe~~.))

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A long pause, and Washu burst out laughing, putting down the utensils and motioning for him to sit down on the couch. "Sorry kid, but you aren't my type; I won't be doing any 'touching' or 'taking', and the only thing I want you to surrender is a couple of minutes of your time."

...she couldn't help it, though, he was so cute when he was flailing. "I'll even keep my inventions to myself, if you want me to. I just wanted you to see that you were being absurd in thinking that I'm here for anything other than to make you well."

Tamaki blinked. He really didn't know what was going on, and now the strange haired doctor lady was laughing at him. His lower lip quivered and he drew himself up once more. So they weren't going to torture and brainwash him?

He sat down awkwardly, staring at her like she was mad.

"I don't need to get well," he said, wide eyed. "I'm being held here against my will!"

Ah, yep, that old game. And here she'd thought she had a winner.

"Listen... I'm not going to lie to you. You probably are here against your will. The problem is that you're delusional, and that means you're a threat to society at large." She hated saying this, he was a cute kid, but... he was delusional. And who knew where that could lead?

"I'm not delusional..."

A threat? Tamaki knew then and there that this was just more lies. He wasn't a threat to anyone. He couldn't be, even if he wanted to be! He'd learned that last night. He couldn't do anything.

"I'm not delusional," he repeated again, more firmly this time. "And I'm not a threat to anyone! How dare you insinuate such a ridiculous thing!"

But he still didn't have all of his spunk back. He sounded more sullen than dramatic.

A sigh at that, and Washu grabbed a gleaming device- it looked a lot like a magic wand, with three buttons along one side of the 'grip'. Primary colors, naturally. She offered the thing to Tamaki, a faint smile on her face.

"Do you know what this is? It's okay to touch it, it won't break and it won't effect either one of us."

"No," Tamaki said, looking at the strange stick. It looked almost like a remote control of some kind. He didn't know if it really was okay to touch, but Tamaki had always been far too trusting.

"What is it?" he asked, hesitantly reaching out to touch it.

"It's a Nightmare Reverberator. Part of my research says that dreams can be influenced by certain kinds of waves. This thing can, theoretically, manipulate those waves."

Her voice was quiet, but serious. "If you knew what you were doing with that thing, or even worse, if you had no idea, you could permanently scar someone's psyche. One bout of delusional behavior with a car, or a gun, or anything, and you could end someone's story just like that. That's the kind of science we have nowadays."

She gazed into the boy's blue eyes, trying to get him to understand. "Even someone like you could be a 'threat', because of your condition. Now do you see why you're here 'against your will'?"

"But... I've never seen something like this before," Tamaki said, confused. It sounded like something from a video game. "I don't drive, and I don't have a gun! And I'm not crazy. This place is crazy. I just woke up here and there are monsters at night and bad things happen to people and I want to go home!"

He looked away, sulking again. "I don't have a condition."

"...hey, calm down, all right? Take a deep breath, and let's try this again."

Washu ran her hand through her hair- quite the feat- and tried a smile. "Okay, what was that about monsters at night and bad things happening to people?"

"There are monsters!" Tamaki exclaimed. "I saw them last night, three of them! Two big huge monster cats with rotting skin and a... a... machine man!" That was the best way he could explain it. And she wanted him to calm down? What was wrong with her?

"And I know what happens to people here. I know about the brain washing. You're very bad people!"

That was a lot of accusations being flung around, and Washu was severely tempted to write it all off as raving delusions and be done with it. But at the same time... he honestly seemed to believe it. It would be best to deal with this head-on, then.

"Listen. I don't know what it might mean to you, but I took an oath, a loooong time ago. 'May my inventions never be used except for the betterment of all cre- mankind.' I may bend the rules a little, but I've never brain-washed anyone, and I haven't made any monsters either. So, if there are any 'monsters' or 'machine men', I want all of the details. What did they do? What did they look like? And why did you see them?"

She was listening to him! Tamaki wet his lips. Maybe... maybe she wasn't one of the bad doctors. Maybe he could trust her.

"It was last night. By... by the sunroom. I was with my friends. We were trying to find the laboratories, the ones where they do the experiments, the brainwashing. We heard these noises, they were horrible! Screaming noises. And then the cats came. They had red eyes and they were huge! They came at us. And then there was this... this machine man on the wall. He made whirr whirr noises when he moved and he had a... a glowing stick thing. I don't really know what happened next... one of the cats jumped at us, and Ed kicked it and it went down and then we were running and all of a sudden I was waking up in my bed."

That was possibly the most disjointed account Washu had heard in a long time, and it made absolutely no sense.

"Okay, okay, let's try this another way, all right?" She held her hands over her desk, and out of nowhere, two flat planes of black energy seemed to form themselves. Then she began typing, just like from a computer, and reached into her desk to grab a headband ringed with lights.

A light toss to Tamaki, and she motioned to his head. "Put that on, and I'll just link your thoughts to the computer. A lot less confusing for both of us, kiddo."

"You want to go into my head?!?" Tamaki recoiled again. He didn't trust strange technology. He knew Kyouya did, but Kyouya wasn't here.

"What will it do? Will it hurt? I... I don't want anyone looking inside my head!"

"I won't be going into your head. For one thing, who knows what kind of stuff I'd find?" A roll of the eyes at that. Honestly, this guy really did blow things out of proportion, didn't he? Though it made her wonder if she could get him to go with some of her experiments...

...no no no, she had to stay on task! "To avoid giving the long explanation that you probably wouldn't understand anyway, this thing picks up surface thoughts only. Basically, whatever you're thinking at the time, that's what it'll pick up. So no naughty thoughts~!"

A giggle at that; this guy was far too much fun. "But it won't hurt, promise. Hey, I'll put it on myself if that'll make you feel better."

"D-dirty thoughts?!?!" What did this doctor think of him? He didn't have dirty thoughts! Then he remembered what he'd been thinking about Haruhi yesterday in the shower. But those weren't dirty</>! They were.... they were.... well, they were't dirty!

He wasn't sure if he trusted this. But... well, if it would help...

"Okay. I'll try it." He had to be brave. He had to be strong. And he could tell Haruhi what he'd done, and she would be proud of him!

"What should I do?"

"That's the spirit! Bravely forge ahead, push the boundaries of knowledge!" She even applauded the boy, pleased with his spirit.

"Just put the headset on your head- it should start flashing when it's in position. Then just think about what you were talking about earlier, and it should show up. All right?"

...and she couldn't quite hide a little giggle. Oh yeah, too cute. Almost a shame he was so unstable, he really wasn't a threat to anyone if he was in his right mind. But that's what the woman was there for, after all.

Tamaki took the device and stared at it. What if it did something horrible to him? What if it sucked out his brain or stole his memory? What if this was how they brainwashed people?!?

But the doctor seemed so nice. If he had been feeling better, he would have given her the full King Host Treatment. But as it was, he was still recovering from the previous night.

"Right." Tamaki took a deep breath and placed the device on his head, adjusting it so it was comfortable. He kept the night before in his mind - Azel, Ed, Darman, the monsterous cats that had come creeping out the darkness and the strange mechincal robot thing that had crawled along the walls and attacked those other people.

"... ... ... ..." Washu was completely and utterly befuddled by what she saw. Her expression slowly shifted from one of anticipation, to confusion, and finally to resignation, as she dismissed her computer and motioned for Tamaki to return the device.

Delusional. Painfully, unmitigatedly, and unspeakably delusional. And he seemed like such a nice kid, too. But if that was what he saw, then there was no way he'd be fit to return to normal society.

"...so, er... tell me about those three who were with you? They look like pretty good friends of yours."

"Oh, I just met them here," Tamaki said, somewhat breathless. "So you saw it? You saw what happened last night? Azel-kun warned me about what happens, he's the first person I met here. He's very nice. So is Edward, but I don't know him quite as well. But I'm sure we'll become very good friends!"

"Kiddo... I'm not going to lie to you. You were running away from Felis silvestris catus, the common house cat. Your imagination made it seem like it was a lot more dangerous than it was, and when you saw one of the orderlies trying to get you back in your rooms, you must have thought he was a monster."

The woman frowned a little, tapping her lip with worry on her face. "...when did 'Azel' tell you about what happens here, and what did he say?"

"But you saw!" Tamaki frowned, lower lip quivering. "It wasn't a delusion! We all saw the same thing! How could we all have seen the same thing? And what about the robot on the wall? Orderlies don't crawl around on walls!"

So she didn't believe him. Well, he wouldn't be trusting her with anything from now on.

"It doesn't matter. You don't believe me anyway. I want to call my father."

"...here's what I saw." She flipped the screen around, so Tamaki could see it, and she attached a similar device (where had that come from?) to her own temples. The image that flashed- in crystal-clear quality, no less!- was exactly as she had said. The group was running from common house cats, orderly and all.

"Science doesn't lie, kiddo, and neither do I. The way I'm seeing it, Azel told you about what he thought was going on, and as you're impressionable, you believed him when you were in a stressful situation. That's part of the problem in institutes like this; when one person really believes, it's easy to follow their lead."

She took a deep breath, trying to organize her thoughts. "...I can tell your father that you want to talk to him, but so far the file indicates that he's not to be contacted until you're well again. Sorry kiddo, but that's the best I can offer."

"Science can lie!" Tamaki said, face screwed up in anger. "Machines can show anything you want them to!" He'd seen what people who knew what they were doing could manage. Altering images and making digital images show anything they wanted them to.

"That's not what we saw. I know what I saw. And I know that my father would do anything he could to be in contact with me. And I also know if I was really sick, I'd be at an Ootori run hospital." He folded his arms, glaring.

"I'm not really as stupid as everyone thinks I am."

Breathe in, breathe out. C'mon, Washu, you can do this.

"Kiddo, have I said anything that wasn't true? Besides what I said I was going to put you through at the start, that doesn't count. I saw what I saw, and that machine isn't programmed to lie. For one thing, it'd be a lot more interesting a show."

"I never said, and I don't believe, that you're stupid. That's why I keep telling you the truth, even if it would be easier to say lies or just to hop you up on drugs and send you on your merry way. You're a bright kid, and a nice guy too. But facts are facts. Your dad doesn't want to have any contact with you until there's some improvement. If there was anything I could do to change his mind, I'd do it. But there's not. I'm sorry."

The sad thing? She truly was. Children should never, ever be separated from their parents. Nor should they just be abandoned like that.

Dayshift 20: Dr. Washu's Office [Doctor Office 5]

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