damned_institute | Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Sylar's gears were still turning as the nurse and a burly orderly escorted him down long halls and through a strange, sunlit room. He'd been forced to drop his pen when the orderly had seen it, and since then, he'd realized that this place had better security than he'd originally anticipated, as well as a large population of patients. It looked like he'd have to bide his time for now, pretending to be this 'Zachary Blaine' and trying to figure out how the hell he'd gotten here.

His mind went over and over the events in Mohinder's lab, tracing every second that led up to his unconsciousness. According to the computer logs and the decked-out loft, Mohinder was working for the Company now, so had that woman with the electricity been an operative? Was this all a Company front? Even so, it didn't make sense for them to drop him off somewhere without any close supervision. They knew how dangerous he was. How special he was.

But right now, his abilities had been nullified and he was left only with the option of playing along. It was a very good thing that it was something he excelled at, even with his sudden loss of the cure clouding his thoughts and telling him to do something drastic.

Still, it was fun to take ahold of strings and let someone think they were pulling him when in fact he was the puppetmaster. Who knew? Maybe he could find a new toy now that his last one had worn out.

Sylar took his syrup-covered waffle to a table and tried to keep track of both the security and the people flooding in. Soon, he'd find an opening, a weak link he could exploit. It was only a matter of time.

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"I want to test a theory." On the fractional chance that he was right and this was all a dream, lucid and even applicable to computers, this might wake her up as well. She noticed that he was staring at the fork suspiciously, an in order to alleviate suspicions, she loosened her grip, even going so far to make it look like she was going to set it down on the plate.

And waited, hand still extended.

It looked like she was putting down the fork, at least. Maybe this theory of hers had something to do with dreams, but Crane was still a little suspicious. And then again, it was for a theory. She hadn't specified what the theory was, but...he'd wake up and go to work as usual, anyway, so what could it hurt?

After another moment's hesitation, he nodded and gave her his hand. "Very well."

The second his hand met hers, GLaDOS's grip closed like a vice over his wrist. Her other hand gripped the fork tight again, then brought it up.

And without any hesitation, brought it back down, the tines slamming into Crane's hand.

There was blood, but she was still a human. She hadn't returned to her proper form.

"Can you feel pain in dreams?" she asked, refusing to let go of his hand.

Looks like he had an answer: it hurt a whole lot. He had had his suspicions, but he just couldn't contain his curiosity, could he? Crane cried out in a mixture of shock and pain and tried to jerk his hand back, but GLaDOS held onto it tightly.

"Apparently," Crane replied, gritting his teeth and stuffing napkins around the fork in his hand. Even as he said that, though, he did start to wonder. They could feel fear in dreams, certainly, and it was possible that a person could feel pain, but to this degree? Even in that nightmare before this portion of the dream, there had been the taser that had left the little scar on his face. Not to mention he wasn't waking up like he thought he had the last time.

But now wasn't the time to be worrying about that, regardless of the woman's question. He had a more immediate worry of how much blood the napkins would hold, and whether or not any nerves had been severed.

Her grip tightened on his wrist momentarily before she jerked the fork back out and released him. He was still quite convinced he was in a dream.

"Lucidity can only go so far. This is not a dream. Many people here would be insulted to hear you say they are just part of your selfish subconscious." She eyed the blood on the end of the fork. "You are real. I am real. The monsters you will see will be real. The pain is real. The bloodshed is real. Learn this quickly, or you'll die of carelessness."

Carefully, GLaDOS set down the fork. It made her a little happier to see someone suffering because of her.

Even though there were so many other patients to keep track of, the nurses had sharp eyes (and there were quite a lot of them), so this attack was noticed almost immediately.

All things considered, the assault wasn't as severe as some other fights patients had tendencies to get into, so a nurse headed over on her own, posture straight and expression stern.

"Now, Ms. Lancaster, you should know by now that you can't treat your fellow patients like that," she warned. She had pulled it out, at least, so hopefully it would stop there.

Crane was trying to think up a good response, but concentrating on stopping the bleeding was taking his attention away from what she was saying. Thankfully, though, he didn't have to worry about it before one of the nurses showed up. He had never placed much on their ability to help the patients as well as doctors could, but he was surprisingly glad to see this one.

The former doctor was even tempted to play up the injury to more severe than it was, in hopes that something would happen to GLaDOS as punishment and a way to get back at her for it; but on the other hand, she had been helpful in some twisted sense of the word. Finally, Crane decided to just grit his teeth, remain silent, and see how she reacted. He glanced down at his hand, and continued to try to nurse his wound while he listened.

GLaDOS gave the nurse a flat look, clutching the edges of her tray stiffly.

"I was testing a theory," she repeated. "My theory was incorrect. If I am going to repeat those actions, I would do so under altered circumstances. I do not repeat anything unnecessarily."

She looked back at Crane, her eyes still emotionless but with a strange smile curling on her face.

"Unless the subject has proven themselves particularly durable."

While the nurse could hardly follow what the woman was saying, she could at least figure that she wasn't planning to do that again. She reached forward to take the fork, just in case, and then sent a smile at the male patient. What a terrible thing to happen to him when he was brand new!

"I'm very sorry about this, Mr. Finch. The shift is about to end, so how about you come with me so I can wrap your hand up before taking you to the Sun Room, hmm?"

There was a lot of blood, but hopefully the wound wouldn't bother him too much with proper care given to it. It was the least she could offer for the poor thing.

Crane gave the nurse a small smile in response, pointedly avoiding GLaDOS's look. He had no idea what 'particularly durable' was supposed to mean, but he did know that he would rather keep the use of at least one of his hands for the time being. Hopefully the wound he did have looked worse than it was.

At least the nurse took her fork away. "That might be best," he said after a moment, getting up to follow her out of the cafeteria.

Day 32: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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