damned_institute | Day 37: Men's Showers

I wouldn't really call this a locker room. More like a bathroom with lockers. The place was uncomfortably crowded, with almost every adult male patient being hustled into the showers at once, but Phoenix wasn't as annoyed by the claustrophobic, milling throng of bodies as he might have otherwise been. Every extra person was one more person who might end up standing between himself and Edgeworth.

He knew that the prosecutor would have a fit if he found out about this. He'd known since he'd tacked that first response up on the bulletin board. And in a way, he couldn't blame him. Phoenix knew that he jumped into things all-or-nothing more often than most people. At the same time, he had some kind of reality testing. He wasn't going to learn the basics of how to defend himself and suddenly decide that he was Rambo.

He found an unoccupied locker in the southwest corner and glanced around, trying to gauge how long he could possibly stall in a locker room, looking as if he was expecting something, before people started looking at him strangely. It would have been easier if he'd known something of the description of the man he was supposed to be meeting. As it was, all he had was handwriting and a military rank, neither of which guaranteed any particular appearance.

It's not as if there was a better way to plan this, though. "Yeah, meet me by the lockers. I'll be wearing gray and a smiley face, just like about a hundred other guys."

[for Hughes]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Just as Starscream noticed him, Forte got to wetting down his massive hair, which caused it to fall, limp and heavy, over his face and back. It was another... interesting, and unpleasant sensation. "Yeah. I miss only getting useful information from my sensors. So, have you made any helpful discoveries since we talked?" Forte had some things he could share with Starscream, but he wanted to get whatever information he could first, before one of those announcements cut them off.

"Only a bit," Starscream scowled, grabbing the bottle of shampoo and awkwardly dumping a ridiculous amount of the substance into his own hair. Looking around, he observed the flesh-creatures massaging the substance into their scalps and so did likewise, slowly building a bemusing afro of lather. "A 'Captain Ussop' has directed me to locations where I could find a wide variety of chemicals; I'm sure I could quickly develop gunpowder and other explosive-like compounds for use during the evening hours. Aside from that...there are a number of individuals here who call themselves 'alchemists' that can apparently construct all manner of weaponry. I doubt they'd be able to recreate our incredibly advanced weapons systems, but I may yet attempt to reach one of them in the hopes of using them to my adv...ow SLAGGING SCRAP! THIS SLAGGING SUBSTANCE HAS PENETRATED MY OPTICS!" Violently turning toward the shower nozzle, Starscream bellowed in agony as he attempted to pry open his eyelids, hoping to wash the shampoo out of his eyes.

Forte felt for his companion, but didn't try to help or even look - he would be dealing with Starscream in the future and didn't want to to see his flailing, naked, human body every time he looked at the 'bot. Truth be told, he just didn't want to see a flailing, naked, human body period.

After giving him a moment to get to the soap out of his eyes, Forte responded. "Well, I've learned that the muscles of the human body can be strengthened by heavy use and exercise, followed by rest and repetition. Efficiency of certain actions can also be improved by repetition. I'd like to study your book, if you still have it, to see what it says about muscles and exercise."

Starscream was huddled against the wall for a few minutes, desperately hoping to be relieved of this unimaginable pain. He was still able to hear Forte's words, however, and fought through the agony to make his reply.

"We...well, it's not MINE, really I procured it from this facility's 'library'; if memory serves, it's a simple book on anatomy by a flesh-creature with the name 'Grey' . It does, indeed, mention how human muscle-tissue is destroyed and repaired at greater efficiency after strenuous activity. Highly inefficient, if I may so - I much prefer a simple upgrade - but if that is what it takes, so be it." Starscream at last stood up, his eyes still quite red and only partially open, but enough where he could make out objects around him. He quickly slipped underneath the waterjet and continued to rinse off the rest of the suds on his body.

"Well, repetition seems to be the key. I think if you do the the same thing over and over, the body adapts to that action. I want to look at the book to see if it has a list of individual muscles and ways to exercise them, to train more efficiently."

Forte had been ignoring the various cleaning substances available, and after Starscream's reaction, he decided to continue simply rinsing his body and keeping his mind off the present situation as much as possible.

"I'll grant that I paid little attention to the humans over the last 20 or so of Earth's stellar cycles during which we inhabited their planet," Starscream responded, succeeding in finally getting the last of the suds off his body, "but I have noticed a particular interest on their part in running about during the early morning hours. I can tell you that THAT particular exercise is vital for improving the organs responsible for oxygen intake and distribution throughout their systems, a substance without which their metabolic functions would fail. So at the very least, we must be sure to perform regular activity throughout the day lest we succumb to multiple systems failure ourselves. I'm sure there are more books in that library that can guide you to specific activities to improve certain parts of the body."

"I tried to run yesterday, on the round track outside, to see the limits of this body, but the muscles malfunctioned and seized up. They need to be initialized before strenuous activity, too - that's the kind of thing that I want a book for. One of the humans I met on my first night has been teaching me, but there's always something new to find out. Usually in a painful way."

"I'm telling you," Starscream replied, reaching blindly for the shut-off valve after having sufficiently rinsed off, "human bodies are so unbelievably inefficient. If it's not understanding their anatomy for proper...organ strengthening, it's having to eat the proper foods for maintenance purposes. Oh! I do know of one particular exercise; I witnessed a number of their military personnel lying down on the floor and pushing themselves up with just their arms . From what I could observe it looked strenuous, so it might be useful for strengthening the...biceps, I believe are these at the front of the arm, and the pectorals on their chests."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to go to the library myself sometime soon." Matching Starscream, the cleaning period almost over, Forte shut off his shower. "There was one more thing I wanted to ask you about. I talked to another 'bot, and there's more on the board saying you're a legendary traitor where you come from..." he didn't actually ask a question, but left a space for Starscream to respond to the statement. Forte assumed he already knew what Starscream was going to say, but wanted to be sure.

"Is that so?" Starscream responded, the sneer on his lips curling up to his ears. Surely he speaks of Lugnut and Blitzwing, he thought. "Well, those that would say that are a slanderous bunch; one of them was a fellow Decepticon from my world who, at a time, attempted to usurp control of our group, while the other is unrecognizable to me, one who worships our former leader with a disturbing zealousness and considers my leadership a traitorous one."

The Decepticon placed a comforting hand on Forte's shoulder and continued smiling sinisterly. "I assure you, words of my disloyalty are greatly exaggerated. It is true that I felt I could lead the Decepticons better than Megatron, but I would never do anything to overtly usurp his position. You must believe me over the words of cowards who would attack me on paper."

Day 37: Men's Showers

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