damned_institute | Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

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Well that just wasn't very entertaining. Trust Parker to take the boring approach to things. If he'd just be willing to loosen up and experiment for a change, Brock was convinced that he'd be singing a different tune. He only rolled his eyes at this response.

As for "useful" information:

"That's awfully vague," Brock commented. Just what was he looking for? "Useful" could be a lot of things and it probably wasn't their business...but he was determined to make it his business and Parker wasn't going to get away that easily trying to brush him off. If Parker was up to something, he wanted to know what it was, whether it was trying to get some quality time with that idiot midget or something else they didn't know about.

"And that wasn't subtle at all," Peter countered, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't know why Eddie was so interested in his plans, though it seemed that Eddie was interested in anything he was up to these days.

"I'm not really looking for something in particular, though. I haven't figured out as much about this place as I'd hoped to, so..." He paused, sighed, and shrugged. "Just wanted to get more proactive."

He didn't think he had to explain himself any further than that. There was more to it, of course, but Eddie didn't need to hear the fine details, as much as he would have liked to.

"How about you?" he said, figuring he should put Eddie off-guard for once. "Just skulking around like usual?" As he spoke, Peter balanced his journal on his right arm as he opened it with the left, looking over the notes he had taken at breakfast.

Brock happened to be glancing around when Peter gave him some lip along with some explanation. Normally he'd be hanging onto the Spider's every word like it was the last thing he'd ever hear and he had been until he looked around and saw a face that was familiar.

No, it was more than familiar. Maybe not to Brock personally, but it resonated with a face, a name, from the Spider's genetic memory deep inside them.

Yes, they remembered him. They remembered him just as if they were Parker himself, remembered how he used to help "coach" him through the hard subjects in high school, rooming with him before Daddy Dearest went and impaled himself on his idiot glider. Finding the symbiote, listening to its call and taking the fight to him in his penthouse, no holds no barred and for once he didn't hold back as they slugged it out. The memory of ruining his face with his own pumpkin bomb was especially vivid in its delicious irony, like Brock's very first Christmas.

Oh they knew him alright, even if Eddie Brock hadn't specifically met him.

Harry Osborn.

Brock felt his blood boil. How the hell was he even still alive? You didn't just get up from bomb blasts to the goddamn face like that! He just barely resisted the urge to turn to Parker and demand to know why he hadn't finished the job. Instead - and he was proud of himself for his self-control - he took a renewed interest in what Parker was looking at, off-guard for different reasons that the other patient might think.

"Pretty much," Brock said, trying to herd Parker in the opposite direction of Osborn. Goblin Jr. was chatting it up with another patient. He didn't think they'd spotted each other yet. And hopefully they wouldn't, because if Brock had any say in it, he was going to get a piece of Osborn before they eventually ran into each other. "What's this about experiments?"

It came out more as a demand than a question. Not only was Osborn being here putting them on edge, the whole subject of experiments was distracting as well, enough for Brock to forget that he was supposed to be making Parker's life hell in any way he could, petty or otherwise.

Completely unaware of who Eddie had spotted, Peter didn't think much of it as Eddie continued their trip across the Sun Room. He didn't usually do so much walking around during shifts, but when he was with Eddie he would rather not get too cozy on the couches.

He was also going to do his best to make himself scarce in the showers from now on.

Surprised that Eddie hadn't even gotten up in arms about his barbed statements, Peter figured that the other man had gotten distracted by eavesdropping. He pulled the journal closer to his chest, not seeing why he needed to share what he had found out with Eddie of all people.

"I met someone earlier who it had happened to," he said by way of explanation. "He told me what they did to him. I saved this kid the other night, but he wasn't quite so open about it... Not that I could blame him," he admitted with a sigh. That kid couldn't have been older than twelve, after all, but apparently the people in this institute really didn't have any morals.

Brock would've shrugged off any sympathy for the unlucky bastard if it wasn't for the fact that one, he wanted to keep Parker distracted and two, this was pretty damn relevant even if Goblin Jr wasn't here. They still didn't give two shits about this "kid's" fragile emotional state, but the other hairy details did matter.

"So what'd they do exactly?" Brock asked. Sensing that he was being too damn nice and was probably going to make Parker suspicious, he added: "I'd say if I were you, I'd be pretty damn concerned about being next."

There. Throw in a little callousness and lack of respect for human life - and all that bs - and Brock already felt validated. While he'd said it mostly to cover his back, he still stood by it. If there was anything that the symbiote and he could get behind (other than a certain Spider and occasionally in the literal sense), it was the whole self-preservation thing.

The fact of the matter was that he had already entertained the thought that it could be him, and Peter had been trying not to think too hard about what sort of experiments might be done to him. Even though tons of people had powers here, he still got the feeling that his was pretty unique. Then again, he wasn't destined to be reincarnated eternally like this other guy.

He sent a quick glance at Eddie as he debated about telling him. When it came down to it, there wasn't reason why he shouldn't. Eddie had just as much right to know, and it wasn't like there was anything dangerous he could do with the information.

"Well, apparently they injected his eye with some sort of dye...? Don't know how that works, but his eyes were different colors. And they gave him some memories that weren't his, too." He decided not to get into the details, not knowing how much of it Eddie would actually believe and not in the mood to get into an argument about it (or deal with Brock's smartass remarks).

Brock wasn't sure why the doctors would think it worthwhile to start taking up art classes with someone's eye for a canvas. Maybe one of them had a tie dye fetish or some shit like that. What was more interesting was this memory business.

Genetic memory?

They weren't sure. It very well could be but that didn't necessarily mean it was symbiote-related or a real indicator they were next.

Brock just couldn't fake being genuine here: the human impulse to give false sympathy even if you didn't really mean it wasn't in him today. "Sounds like fun for the whole family." It just popped out, probably a little asshole-ish but better than going that sucks, is he okay? "Wonder what the deal is with the memory bit though. I can't imagine what it'd be like with someone else's memories in your head."

He stared at Parker as he said this, probably a few seconds too long to be polite, and wondered just how much the Spider knew. Did he remember having genetic memory from his Other? Did he remember what it'd been like to have lifetimes of sights and sounds at your disposal? Or did the kid throw it all away - or, even worse - forget? If anyone should've been up on that experimentation table, it should've been Peter Parker, Brock found himself thinking a bit venomously.

Eddie's comment wasn't all that surprising to Peter. Even before the whole deal with the symbiote, Brock had always been something of a jerk - going on about his precious lighting and all that. Peter had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at the memory.

"It sounded pretty complicated," he responded vaguely, still not wanting to bring all of that stuff up about future incarnations, partly because he wasn't sure he could wrap his head around it himself.

He sighed and tucked the journal under his arm, sending a quick glance at the other man. "So, worried they might mess with the symbiote?" It was a valid concern for Eddie, probably, since that seemed like something those scientists would just be jumping to check out.

The question was where exactly Parker was going with this. Of course Brock was more than a little worried his Other would be targeted; it was one of those things that even if he wasn't actively thinking about it, it was still there in the back of their shared mind, a nagging fear that wouldn't ease until they were out of this dump. But did Parker actually give two shits or was this just him wondering about tying up loose ends?

Glancing at him suspiciously, Brock was silent for a bit before he realized that not saying anything was probably saying a hell lot more than he wanted.

"Unlike you, I happen to like it," Brock muttered. He sounded distracted. "It's got as much a right to live as anyone else."

Just because it wasn't human or didn't buy into human ideals - ones that looked increasingly flimsy when put into the proper perspective - didn't give the doctors here a free card to experiment on it.

As expected, Eddie had taken his question as his cue to get defensive. Considering that Peter had made a few attempts to talk some sense into him regarding the symbiote since they had gotten here, he couldn't really blame the other man for immediately assuming the worse about what he'd asked.

"I was just curious," he said with a shrug. "It's... pretty unique, so it'd make sense if they ended up picking you. Though you've been here for a while, so maybe not." He shrugged, not sure himself where he was going with this. He hadn't meant to take a jab, really, but he didn't exactly want to reassure Eddie, either.

He was really mixed up when it came to the other photographer, so he was relieved when the intercom cut their conversation short. It was already time for lunch, and while he wasn't too hungry, the mention of pizza did make him perk up somewhat.

"I'll see you around," he said, figuring he could be the better man and end things decently.

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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