damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 1

Entry tags:

Day 35: Bus 1

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Zelgadis was still shaking from last night's misadventure. Mason was dead.

Dead.

Because of Hellmaster Phibrizzo, one of the most powerful mazoku (if not the most powerful) he had ever run into. Who was also supposed to be dead.

Dead.

Was Amelia dead because of Hellmaster?

And what of Rezo, who he had believed dead but had shown up only last week, looking entirely alive.

A chill ran through his spine as he sat in the moving-wagon's seat, his mind reeling.

[Sousuke]

[[ack ok. sorry!]]

Gin took the offered seat and smiled his usual smile. "How y'been?" he asked as he opened the bag they'd given him on the way out to the bus. It wasn't his idea of a great breakfast, but he'd had worse.

Jinn seemed in pretty good condition given how much this place could tear a person up. It would be interesting to see how the man fought, or what he did with his time in the evenings. "Nothin' too dangerous?"

Qui-Gon's smile was small. "Productive, I suppose." Although he hadn't exactly gone out seeking those two artifacts, much less trying to run into two deadly training droids or that large feline creature with its riddles. Qui-Gon would act on what information he received since last night. "But surviving," he added.

He was about to say more when he noticed one of the patients he was looking for. Sanzo didn't seem to notice him at first, the monk looking dangerously pale and a great deal of bandages visible even with the Earthian clothes he wore. Excusing himself, Qui-Gon got up to check on Sanzo.

[Moving to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/445457.html?thread=36024081#t36024081)]

"Yeah, that was pretty much it," Peter agreed. Though he hadn't stayed to his assigned area, in the end. Seeing Sylar had managed to pull him out of the institute's sway, if not completely. Though he almost wished that hadn't happened, if it would have meant that Sylar wasn't here. Then again, if he had stayed on that other field, there was a good chance he would have ended up hurting people.

He was relieved that the other man was so understanding, though, and it made Peter warm up to Roland right from the start. The fact that so many of the patients here were so nice made him feel that much worse about the fact that he'd been ready to attack them last night. Though he had to remind himself that if Sylar was here, there might be others like him around as well. The hard part was picking them out...

At Roland's question, Peter dropped his hand away from his head and managed a strained smile. "Yeah. My head's just killing me..." He wondered if head pain was normal after being brainwashed, though it wasn't like he had any way to find out.

Rangiku nodded, giving Donna a reassuring smile. "Yes. I'm Japanese." Sort of. She wasn't certain how long the other woman had been around so she wasn't about to launch into an explanation of shinigami and Soul Society just yet.

Her enthusiasm was a little overwhelming admittedly. "Yes, I hear you as speaking Japanese. That's uh... fairly normal here at least though. Everyone hears their own language no matter what world they're from. It's been like that at least since I arrived here." And Renji hadn't mentioned anything so she assumed it had always been like that. "How long have you been here?"

"I haven't thought on that in quite a while," Artemis said honestly. "My original theory was an implant of some sort, but I haven't detected any scars that I didn't have previously. So something else must keep us tethered here. Any theories, Skuld?"

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/445457.html?thread=36029969#t36031249)]

"How are you feeling?" Qui-Gon asked.

The Jedi Master limped to a stop next to the chair and carefully sat down next to the monk, studying him. He was pale, too pale, and Qui-Gon thought he shouldn't be traveling, but instead resting. It was with regret he had to admit he couldn't offer to heal him right now - his reserves were spent and while he was overall fine physically, he was unable to surrender himself to the Force and have it respond in turn. The Jedi Master settled in his seat, hands folded in his lap as he turned his full attention on Sanzo.

Sousuke woke up, his first observation being that he was covered in bandages and couldn't sit up properly. His suspicions were confirmed when his nurse, bright and cheery, wheeled a wheelchair into the room.

Why she still wanted him to go to Doyleton, he didn't quite understand.

She dressed him in a pair of stone gray jeans, black socks and shoes, and a lavender dress shirt. His nurse commented that if he wasn't already covered in bandages, he would look quite handsome.

The nurses and orderlies helped him onto the bus and sat him down next to Zelgadis. Oh... it was the man who wouldn't talk to him. Zelgadis, was it? He frowned. The man didn't look very well.

"Are you okay?"

"M33. Got it." He'd been down that hall a couple times now, after all, and, unlike some other members of their crew who would for now go unmentioned, Sanji could actually remember this number for later. "Just don't stress yourself working on this if there are more important things to do." Which there always would be, and technically the chef didn't mind putting off some of them if it meant he'd get a proper grill, but he was at least going to attempt to sound responsible.

The wrapper ripped open some time during Sanji's chewing process and only then did he notice what he'd been doing. He glanced briefly to Usopp to see if the action had been noticed before taking a bite from the actual bar as though this had been his intent in the first place.

"Barely." Sanji looked thoughtful at the question about alcohol. "It would take a couple months under the proper conditions and even then it would be incredibly weak fuel at best."

Edited 2008-09-06 00:16 (UTC)

"I imagine that that wasn't because of any hard knocks?" Roland himself had never experienced pains that weren't inflicted on him, and those hadn't been very many at all during his time in the Institute. He assumed that it was possible that Peter was suffering from power overload or something, but still, he had to ask and make sure. Especially since this was one time where he got to see someone else who'd gone through something similar and not reacted quite the same as others might have. Namely, Peter had seemed to react different from the average patient, doing his own deal- or so Roland had guessed from the flashes of light and such. So why not make sure?

Roland didn't bother eating his packed food, instead focusing more on the person with him- Roland already knew that there was no point in eating something without sufficient data to provide nourishment. Why worry about that, then, when there was something else that could be more important was presenting itself? "Also, unless my eyes deceived me, you went over the wall and out of your room. I've never heard of that happening before."

"All sorts of beings, not just humans, as you yourself demonstrate," Vlad pointed out brightly, trying not to think too hard about that eloquent and slightly too heart-felt (if VUX had hearts) description of humanity's beauty. Apparently ZEX had a particular preference for humans, which must at least have been a blessing in comparison to those who probably found the human form cumbersome if not distasteful.

Vlad himself didn't mind the idea of interspecies relationships in theory, after letting it have some thought. For all the odd shapes to be found in the Ghost Zone, there were a few he'd admit weren't all that difficult on the eyes, even if they might have flaming hair or green skin or little oddities like that. But of course, none of them were of any personal interest; Vlad's own focus was strictly within the human race, even if he himself wasn't strictly a member of it. In fact, if he had to define himself, perhaps the term 'Maddiesexual' would be most appropriate. Yes... that was it on the button.

And totally beside the point. Why was he evaluating his own sexuality when he had an alien describing his technology and own home dimension or universe so helpfully? Unforgivable, that lapse in attention. "Slower than humanity in your home, I'm afraid. Where I am from, we're merely learning to explore our own solar system still." Vlad smiled a bit self-deprecatingly, then added, "It sounds as though there was quite a fuss between humanity and your species, however. What a pity. I'm glad that individuals such as you are willing to look beyond such petty differences, especially given the circumstances here."

"Lots," she said. "You don't need implants to control people. Just about everything here looks like the work of a demon; the only question is if Landel himself is, or he's in a contract with one. This looks like it might be Hild's work, too." Skuld grimaced; if she was involved, they were in even worse trouble than anyone knew. "On her own I don't know why she'd do this, but if she or someone else is working with Landel, it makes sense.

"As for our limiters, my sister Belldandy has one normally, and I've helped her take it off before, so I know something about those, too. The big problem is that limiters are really complex, and sometime it's virtually impossible to break a spell without... help." Some magics were so complicated that even Heaven, the ultimate magic institution, could do nothing without the one who cast it--but she wasn't about to say as much. Besides, those spells were rare.

"Yes, that's true." It was hard to recall at times that all the humans he saw may not have been human internally... after all, he was still a VUX, despite being trapped in this body. But it was so difficult to not see a human and be overwhelmed with thoughts about their wonderful, smooth bodies...

ZEX leaned a bit closer, curious as to how he would react, and tried to smile a bit at the question. "Mmm, that seems to be the general state of affairs here for many humans. It's strange, since hyperspace travel has been so common for so long. But I'm sure you'll find it out in due time." His expression fell a bit as he continued. "And yes, our species had something of a... turbulent relationship. I had nothing to do with it, and in fact worked very hard to circumvent it, but there was only so much one can do against so many." A touch of bitterness.

But it faded quickly enough, with ZEX's return to his favorite topic. "I've always been willing to look beyond minor differences between us, the mere aesthetic formalities that stand in the way of my countrymen, for the true potential of a relationship between our species." Smiling again, unconsciously. "I think a relationship between our species could be invaluable... if only I had my natural body! Ah, the things we could learn from one another..."

"Great." The fact that keeping a perpetual flow of visitors to his room each night meant he didn't go out and fight monsters on a regular basis had no impact on Usopp's urges to invite people to come see him there, of course. Not that it really kept him safe anyway... in fact, more and more, he was starting to wonder if maybe he wouldn't be safer with the monsters than sitting alone on a treasure trove all night. Even if Zelnick was an honest guy, and Mello thought it was more practical to work alongside Usopp, and even if Yuber or Sai would watch his back...

Maybe that was another appeal to the portable oven project. It wasn't something he'd have to worry about other people stealing and he wouldn't even keep it in his room, just in Sanji's closet. Sanji could be responsible for all of that. That would be great. And when would Chopper come by and get the medical supplies Yuber had found..? Hadn't he told everyone his room? Maybe it had been forgotten or lost in the giant crowd of the meety. He'd seen his crewmates here and there since then, but Sanji's paranoia about Nami was resparking old insecurities again.

The answer to the alcohol from juice question wasn't a surprise, but Usopp still sighed a bit. "We'll probably wind up being best off with diluted medical alcohol as a starting fuel, I think." It was what he'd planned on for the flamethrower, too. "How does that sound to you? If I'm right about something, and at this stage I really better be right, there should be a place where we can get gasoline, but I think that'll be harder to get to than the medical alcohol in the long run. And don't worry! I'll stress myself out over, I mean, I don't stress over anything! The mighty Captain Usopp always has all projects firmly in hand, and anyway, at least if this doesn't work out it probably won't explode and kill me or something." Usopp paused to consider. "... probably."

It was really, really very difficult to be sure what to do. He didn't pull away, but of course he didn't lean forward again either. Actually, Vlad remained perfectly still, smiling back politely while trying to decide for sure whether the man, er, VUX were flirting. It could still be that for his species, closeness was expected, that pulling away would be rude, or...

Stop being a ninny, he's got hickey-marks all over his neck.

Vlad coughed a bit behind his hand. "Well! Yes, it's a pity that so many of us have lost that which makes us unique in this place. Though I'm fortunate enough to have no such great adjustment to make, I'm very sympathetic with how difficult it must be for others. Just as it must have been difficult for a, ah, peaceful-minded person such as yourself to be forced to go to war." He managed to pat ZEX on the shoulder very lightly. "But you must have been good at it, to have become an Admiral."

[not quite the companion she might be hoping for, but here ya go anyway!]

Farfarello figured that the nurses either had a weird sense of humour, or they were trying to make him look more acceptable for the little trip out to town. But really, they could dress him in any preppy shit (http://z.about.com/d/mensfashion/1/0/O/6/00080m.jpg) they wanted to, and he'd still have a face full of scars, an eyepatch, and that cra~zy look in his remaining eye. Whatever.

"Breakfast" was even grimmer than usual, with not a hope of sausage or bacon, and Farfarello scowled at the stupid brown paper bag like he could make some real meat appear if he just tried hard enough. So he wasn't paying any attention to where he sat, except that it was an empty seat.

The human hadn't pulled away so far, which ZEX only took as encouragement. Then again, there was very little that ZEX did not take as an encouragement, and he was smiling again. Humans were so lovely! And this one had such pretty hair and tiny eyes...

"Yes, it is a shame that I don't have my natural body here. There are so many things that I could do with it... several of which I planned to explore with a human partner." ZEX giggled at the thought, although he sobered quickly enough. "Although, it hasn't been fun trying to adjust to your tiny double eyes, or these." He held up one hand and moved his fingers with noticable effort, then pressed his hand over his eye. Might as well get that out of the way, and closing an eye did help his headache.

"Ah, the War. It was such a tragedy. So many lives lost, but I had to defend my species." Simplifying somewhat, but ZEX never much liked this topic. "Hee! Hee! Hee! You might say I was good at it... there were some who said I had the most brilliant tactical mind in the known galaxy, but perhaps they flatter me unduly."

Winry looked up hopefully at the person who sat beside her, but upon taking not of his grim appearance, thought better of it. She couldn't help but make a bit of an 'oh' face to see the scars that marked his skin, and she looked away in an attempt at politeness, digging through her own breakfast bag. Digging through her paper bag made her feel like a little girl at school again, and the fact that they'd dressed her in a purple overall-style jumper with tights and pink tennis shoes hadn't helped that image much. At least they hadn't put a bow on her or something. Not that she minded bows, but she with this combination, adding more cutesy elements could go from silly to downright creepy rather quickly. She was seventeen years old for god's sake.

The banana nut muffin wasn't quite fresh, not at all like at home, but it was good nonetheless. She was used to eating on long train rides, and this wasn't entirely different from that, so she flattened out the paper bag like she was used to, and arranged her food properly, as she was wont to do when given a long ride and nowhere to go. And, considering that she had generally been able to make pleasant conversation with other train passengers without negative consequences, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to say something to the boy next to her.

"Good morning," She said, brilliantly.

Oh, for the love of fudge, it had just described having fantasies about debauching 'a human partner' in some alien body which had no hands and only one eye. The rest was left to the imagination, unfortunately, and Vlad was imaginative. Reddening, Vlad managed not to recoil only through supreme effort and the deliberate mental shutdown of that line of thought right away.

After all, the... VUX might be sex-crazed but it wasn't a threat so long as it was clumsy in this body still. Unless that were a lie, Vlad himself didn't exactly make plain his own true capabilities. Something about the overwhelming, painfully blunt honesty did seem to lend it an air of verisimilitude.

"Hmm. A brilliant tactical mind. That's admirable." Of course, the man, er, VUX was the one who'd said it, but it still could be true. If nothing else, the man was alive after a war, though would strategic skill in a space battle really apply well to a situation like this? Intelligence could be... quite directed, in some individuals. "It must be difficult not to be able to use your full talents here, then."

Frey was quite relieved to hear that the Night Rune and his companion hadn't run into any trouble the night before--had they been injured and Frey not there to provide aid it would have weighed heavily on the Prince's conscience. "Will you be heading in the same direction tonight? I am ready to accompany you this time, if you wish."

Though it was slightly rude to look away from the person with whom he was conversing, Frey was quite hungry and so he turned part of his attention to the brown paper bag he had been given when he boarded the bus. The fresh fruit was nice, and he started on that first.

"No, it wasn't that," Peter quickly responded, though his hand was soon returning to clutch at his head again. It was bad enough that it was making his vision blur, and he really wished he could have just stayed in bed at this point. But he needed to find Claire, and he also needed to figure out just what Sylar's role was in all of this. Either way, he was certain he hadn't hit his head last night - he'd barely been injured, other than some light burns and his own self-inflicted wound, all of which had healed without a problem.

This was something else, and as Roland brought up the way he had abandoned his post, Peter glanced up again, eyes widening slightly. "Really?" He hadn't known that it had been such a rare event for someone to do that, though he could see how it went against the whole idea of brainwashing. He figured there was no harm in explaining, though, even if he was having a difficult time following his own thought process from the night before. "I saw someone from my world, someone who's really dangerous. I had to stop him." Everything else had taken a backseat to that, and even though he was suffering for it now, he knew it had been the right thing to do.

Shito decided on the apple slices to start with--fresh fruit was a relative rarity in Japan, so he was still enjoying a chance to have it on a regular basis. The sweet-tart taste improved his mood marginally, and it was awfully early in the day to be sick of people already, so Shito decided to make an effort to at least pretend he didn't want to shoot everyone on the bus and be done with it. "Yeah. You been to this town before?"

Ahh, so it looked like she wasn't the only one left in the dark about this whole field trip thing. First they transfer patients with no warning in the middle of the night then they start loading them all into buses without even letting them know where they were going. Boy, this place sure had some weird regulations. What was this, a pound? Were they getting fixed or what?

The guy interrupted this train of thought with his surprised yelp. Harley actually hadn't been paying attention to the bag in the guy's hand until now. Judging by the soggy mess that was left of the bag, his breakfast probably wasn't edible anymore. She made a face at the bag the man was trying to hide by playing on the floor.

Her attention went back up to his face when he asked that question. So he was trying to be funny, huh? That was always a good sign. "Only on Thursdays," she said, a playful smile crossing her lips. "How 'bout you? Got somethin' against banana-nut muffins or ya just not hungry?"

It was always amusing to Farfarello, when people were so obvious about their discomfort over his scars. The predator in him tended to perk up at the prospect of such an easy mark, though it usually ended up being unsatisfying if there wasn't some kind of challenge to it. The girl recovered well, though, which was a good sign that she wasn't quite the wilting flower she'd seemed at first. He grinned fiercely at her, the look definitely more aggressive than pleasant, and said "It certainly is."

The monk glanced over his shoulder in time to see Qui-Gon sitting down. Sanzo leaned his head against the window and looked outside.

"I feel like shit," he replied. Was he expecting him to feel anything but that, after last night? Qui-Gon's movements were stiff; there wasn't any missing how the Jedi favored a leg. "You aren't looking that much better yourself either."

Sanzo licked at dry lips. "What happened after I passed out?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 9 of 19

Day 35: Bus 1

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[edited]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Re: [edited]

no subject