damned_institute | Day 38: Patients' Library

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Day 38: Patients' Library

The intercom rang out, disrupting what had turned out to be a rather pointless breakfast conversation, at least in Brainiac 5's eyes. He couldn't wait to put more distance between himself and Scar's blather of how logic, of all things, might not work the same way in this dimension. It was almost enough to make him believe that the man may very well have been a lion originally after all, as he'd never heard anything so very... ignorant and uneducated.

He quickly finished up the fruit he'd been nibbling on - he was no longer as hungry as he had been - and looked around automatically to see where Clark was. Unfortunately with the press of people around, some being led off to the library and others to the mentioned 'therapy sessions' - if that was what they really were - he had lost sight of the Kryptonian. Still there wasn't many places he could go, so Brainiac 5 would be able to catch up with him eventually to check on his condition and try and learn more about what had happened last night. That the Chapel had healed him - admittedly by passing his injuries to another - was interesting, but far more important in his eyes was what had happened to Clark and his powers. They hadn't been working correctly and that worried the Coluan boy more than he would normally have admitted. Without Clark's abilities... he wasn't sure what they would have to rely on in order to escape.

Another problem he would have to deal with was Grell... or, if he was to believe the notes on the bulletin board, the person pretending to be Grell. But that was going to require more careful planning before he made a move. Come to think of it, he had agreed to meet another in the library today on that same post that had sparked this whole mess. At least then he would have something of interest to look forward to, as he doubted any of the 21st century books were likely to be worthwhile to someone of his advanced intellect.

Following the nurses led him to what must have been the library; a reasonably large room filled with a range of archaic books on tall shelves, a few tables and chairs interspersed around the room. The Coluan boy couldn't refrain from wrinkling his nose in distaste as he entered the room, not liking the cumbersome books and the dust that he knew would have gathered on them; he much preferred the clean arrangement of his C.O.M.P.U.T.O. systems back in the Legion headquarters. It was much more practical then shelves and shelves of books on fictional worlds and dated information.

Trying to avoid as much of the room as possible, Brainiac 5 settled himself down on a chair to wait, keeping an eye out for a tall, dark-haired man with a red... something on his forehead.

[for Homura]

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Matsuda regarded the other man for a moment. As much as he wanted to just drop it and leave, he figured should probably answer the question. He couldn't deny that Mello had a pretty sharp brain, and could probably help him to figure out just how much danger L was actually in. At the same time, though, he definitely couldn't just forgive Mello that easily.

So much for the planned apology. The only thing he was really sorry about was that he'd wound up sedated for it.

"I'm just worried," he finally said, also taking a glance around. It didn't look like Mikami was anywhere around yet, so he could probably get away with admitting at least a bit more to Mello. "I'm thinking someone might try to kill him." Again.

This was getting confusing. "And...there's not any in yours?" It would sort of explain why Zex was being so lyrical about skeletons and skin and stuff like that. Come to think of it, maybe that was Zex's deal. He wasn't coming on to Teisel at all; he was just curious. And a little overly warm. There! All those euphemisms were just misunderstandings, right? Nothing to it at all. Probably. Hopefully.

As for the hand thing, that must have been what Zex's people did when they were talking, or something. Just another little gesture that Teisel had misinterpreted, that's all. Zex was squeezing his hand a little now. Teisel squeezed back, hoping that that was what he was supposed to do. He didn't want to make a stupid blunder and end up offending the guy. He'd already mistaken what were probably perfectly innocent statements as...other kinds of statements.

Zex looked...well, frankly he looked kind of spooky, but maybe he was just thinking for a minute. If he was seriously considering Teisel's offer, that'd be the first thing that had gone remotely right in the past couple days.

"You were?" Teisel wasn't sure just how 'unique' a big Digger was, but he'd take what he could get at this point, no questions asked. It wasn't like he had much else to contribute to this little partnership, unfortunately. And while there was something vaguely smarmy about the way Zex worded things, Teisel wasn't in a position to say no just because the guy's social skills were a little off the level. "No, no plans. Actually, I'd appreciate having something to keep me busy." The less time he had to think right now, the better. And after last night, he really didn't like the thought of running around the halls alone.

Forte was impressed by the other bot's devotion. Of course, if I ever act that way about working for Wily I hope someone shoots me. He nodded, "Yeah, that's me. And I thought Starscream was being useful, but last night he acted like a coward and wasted our time. I was not impressed. He claims he found a book on humans in this library, but I can't find anything."

Forte also looked the man up and down as he spoke. He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd learned about Decepticons - larger than buildings? Living for thousands of years? Of course, just like Blitzwing he could tell that Lugnut would tower over them if they were both standing. Even if they weren't in their real bodies, he felt small talking to him.

The library had fairly narrow rows that the patients had to maneuver through, and for that reason Guy didn't notice Sync heading toward him until the God-General was practically face-to-face with him.

He didn't fail to hide his disdain. While the younger man made no comment about his arm, he must have noticed that it was perfectly fine now. In the end, his attack hadn't done all that much damage. It had delayed him a few nights, but if Guy let that bother him, then he was really just giving in.

Part of him felt the urge to just let his fist meet Sync's face, right then and there, but that would be giving the teenager exactly what he wanted. Claude had already fallen into that trap, and Guy knew that he could be the epitome of calm if he put his mind to it.

"It's not like I have much choice," he said, keeping his tone pleasant and letting the words speak for themselves. "Though there's not much to join in on."

Glad to hear that the other man had gotten something he could really defend himself with, Peter was tempted to ask him about that instead of responding to Roland's own inquiry. Roland had probably asked merely out of courtesy - returning the favor - but Peter did feel compelled to answer.

"Well, yeah... you remember that guy I told you about? That enemy of mine?" Roland had already heard the whole story, and Peter doubted that Sylar was very easy to forget. "I ran into him again last night."

That was certainly an understatement, but explaining all of it wouldn't be easy. Being powerless like this - no, he'd had some power, but he hadn't been able to use it properly - was harder than he thought it would be.

"I was with a... friend," he added. Maybe Roland could infer from there.

This time, a sew seconds passed before Mello looked up. The statement could mean several things: was he talking about Light? Mikami? Had L told him about their previous conversation in the library? He raised an eyebrow, briefly listened to Sen and Matt, then closed the book and returned it to the shelf.

"What makes you think that?" he asked. Mello had already outed himself to Mikami as one of L's successors, and if anyone was going to have to take that visible role here, it was better himself than Near for a multitude of reasons. He still would have preferred to have the conversation in private, but depending on the direction it took, he might be able to twist it to his benefit. For now, vague questions would have to suffice until he knew everything Matsuda knew. Mello would offer no information on his own.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Sora responded with a brief smile. "Are you not big on reading? I never was very good at paying attention in school..." But could he really be blamed for that? When there was the ocean to swim in and their treehouse and everything else, being crammed into a desk just so he could learn about things that didn't really apply to him seemed pointless.

Now, though, maybe there was more to it. He had seen much more of the world, but strangely enough, it left him with a sense that there was still so much that he didn't know. But finding the time to read up about it wasn't easy...

Since this had turned into more than a simple "excuse me," Sora figured it was about time for introductions. He stepped forward and extended his hand to the older boy. "I'm Sora, by the way."

"Well, not where I live, no," ZEX said a bit casually. "They were all slaveshielded back on Earth some twenty years ago. But we did have some contact before then," some contact didn't quite cover all the details, but no reason to get into it just yet, "but unfortunately our two species seem to have had some... diplomatic difficulties in our past. Thankfully, my dear Captain came along and changed things." It was a shame he wasn't here right now! Well, ZEX would just have to be patient.

Hmm, he squeezed his hand! That was almost familiar, in a way, and ZEX laughed a bit at the sensation. A brief glimpse of home, as distorted as it was. Teisel certainly was a great find... he'd have to make sure to take full ownership of this human when he had the chance. Another fine addition to his collection here...

"Yes I was." Well, not exactly, but why mention that now? ZEX squeezed his hand again. Human skin had such a unique give to it. "So you don't have any plans after all, how fortuitous." ZEX tried for a smile. "I'm sure I could keep you very busy tonight, if you'd like."

"You know, I get that a lot." As far as Schuldig was concerned, banter was an acceptable alternative to causing someone exquisite agony. Most people wouldn't have found the two interchangeable, but then, last time he'd checked, most people weren't sadistic telepaths with his unusual taste in pastimes.

Running an idle finger along the spines of several books, Schuldig remarked, "You know, I haven't seen much of you since Rufus vanished." There was absolutely nothing surprising about that fact, of course, but it was a slightly more tactful way of raising the subject of ShinRa than 'so you lost a boss and gained a partner; how's that tradeoff working out for you?' And the Mastermind was, for once, acknowledging tactfulness in a way that went beyond doing whatever the exact opposite of it was.

"I doubt they'd leave anything useful lying around for us to find, at least during the day," Dias replied, glancing along the shelves. "And if they did, I'm not sure how you could smuggle it out of here without being noticed, anyway." Still, he could hardly blame Claude for trying to get something useful accomplished; Dias himself had been making the same sort of effort, with equally limited results.

At Claude's inquiry, the mercenary shook his head slightly. "Well enough," he said simply, a suitably vague phrase. "What about you?"

"Well, it was the same song and dance at the the bookstore in Doyleton," Claude sighed. "I was just kind of hoping for some history books, but it looks like they only have fiction in here." Anything to help sort out the confusion he kept running into when he talked to other Earthlings. But then again, who was to say any history book he found lying around here was the truth? Lies was this place's specialty, after all.

"I'm all right," he replied. "Actually, last night was really productive." He turned away as if to glance over a few more titles, trying to act nonchalant. "I've got a real sword now, you know."

"A lie, most likely," Lugnut grumbled. "He lies often, especially when it will benefit him." Evidentially, Lugnut wasn't very fond of his fellow Decepticon. "Even Blitzwing is more reliable, and he is insane."

Reno lifted a casual eyebrow and drew one leg up onto the seat of the couch, arm resting on one bent knee. There were a lot of things he could say to that, but it wasn't a topic he was looking to get entangled up in. Shin-Ra? Off limits. Rufus especially so.

He opted for deflection. "Did you miss me?"

This was well past what Phoenix would have even charitably called 'pacing.' At this point, he was making a lap around the small room of the library, weaving in and out of shelves, convinced that he'd missed something somewhere along the way. He hadn't expected a book on world history - that was far more charitable than he could imagine the Institute being on its best of days - but something, anything to give him an idea of the world he was in now. Even a dictionary would have been nice, but no. There was nothing here but storybooks of varying quality and age. The closest to nonfiction that he'd found was a Bible, everything by Shakespeare, the Oxford Book of English Verse, and maybe the Socratic Dialogues. The last one was a strong 'maybe' - he hadn't dared crack the thing open to try to read it.

He was frowning at the thick volume of Shakespeare, flipping through the half-familiar pages of Henry V and finding no comfort in them at all, when he spotted a recognizable figure from the corner of his eye, pulling a book neatly from the shelf beside him. That was Edgeworth's roomate, wasn't it? The other prosecutor? He seemed like a safe bet for someone else who'd noticed the strictly fictional content of the room.

"Excuse me." He moved a half-step closer, closing the heavy volume. "Do you know if the Institute has any books besides these?"

There was that name again, and Teisel had to remind himself that Zex was probably referring to a planet, not an island like he'd originally assumed. Was that where they were? Planet or island, 'Earth' was still a pretty crappy name, but whatever. He wasn't sure what a slaveshield was, but it didn't sound very pleasant. "That's too bad." Not that Teisel had understood more than half of what Zex had said; hopefully the admiral's tone had said enough. "At least it sounds like you're getting past it, though, right?" There. That was probably a good enough answer. A sympathetic ear could go a long way. He wondered for a moment if Zex was talking about the captain he'd met, the one who talked about having a space ship. In a place this big, though, it was pretty unlikely.

When the admiral laughed Teisel let himself relax a little. So, he'd done the right thing after all! Maybe he was finally getting back into the groove.

"I guess it's a good thing I ran into you, then," Teisel replied, smiling. This was going really well--much better than he'd though it would. Zex squeezed his hand again; Teisel squeezed back. He wondered how many times they were supposed to do that. "Great! The busier the better; it'll keep my mind off things." Like how he was a failure who constantly put his family in danger and deserved whatever happened to him here. ...Hopefully Zex had a long to-do list.

Ritsuka was... well, fuming was a good way to put it, but he didn't look it so maybe quietly raging was a better description. The bulletin conversation with Soubi had done nothing to improve his mood. He'd been all but useless last night and had spent most of it worried about Soubi and now the idiot wanted to go back up to that place and had lied to him to get information from him. Ritsuka hated liars, but he couldn't hate Soubi and that just irked him even more. Worse was seeing Soubi and Kio together and just not knowing what to say. The way they talked made Ritsuka bristle, but he didn't know why and he couldn't say anything against it. They were friends after all.

Ignoring his nurse as she led him toward the Sun Room, he quickly ditched her and fled into the library. Wherever Soubi was, he wouldn't come in here and if he did, Ritsuka could just hide among the bookshelves. Finding the book he'd been reading earlier, Ritsuka pulled Dante's Inferno off the shelf and headed out to find somewhere to sit. He found an empty seat, but it was next to someone else. Swallowing his annoyance at the bulletin and his stupid Fighter, Ritsuka bowed his head a little and cleared his throat. "Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Mm? Oh, no. Of course not." Yukito seemed momentarily startled to be addressed, though he wasn't reading: the book was still closed in his hands as he was staring blankly at the cover. He glanced up and gave Ritsuka a cheerful smile, though, apparently not minding the interruption at all.

(He didn't, of course; being distracted from the direction his thoughts had been tending lately was generally a good thing.)

The newcomer looked pretty young, perhaps a little older than Sakura and her friends, which was why Yukito noted the title on the book he was holding with some interest. "Have you read that one before?" he inquired, without any hint of condescension to his tone; he was honestly curious. "Oh, sorry. Before I forget my manners. I'm Tsukishiro Yukito, nice to meet you."

Indeed, Sync would've had to been blind not to notice how fast Guy recovered from his broken arm, much to his dismay. It would've been nice to have the blond suffer from his handicap for a little longer, but as long as he dampened the latter's plans for at least a couple of days then that was enough. The God-General merely smiled when Guy gave in, chuckling lightly as he did so.

"What are you talking about, Guy? Of course you have a choice," He corrected, all the while mirroring the swordsman's pleasant tone.

"I'd just kill you if you said no." And just like that Sync turned his attention towards the books in front of him, picking a novel out by random and glanced at the cover.

"Brave New World," The God-General began before glancing up and giving Guy a look as if asking for his opinion. "Have you read this yet?"

"Such is the life of a ninja as well," Jiraiya stated, understanding somewhat where Renamon was coming from. "The mission goes before all else."

He listened to her talk about theory, and nodded from time to time as he listened. The ideas were sound, anyways. Although he didn't like the implications.

"So they break our spirits until the cannot be broken anymore, then discard us like trash," Jiraiya summarized out loud. "It'd make sense, if they got some sort of energy from our emotions, particularly the negative ones, then get rid of them when they see no more use in them. Sometimes, they even bring people back."

He crossed his arms in thought. "Experiments and Special Counseling provide opportunities to mess with our emotions by hurting those that we care about, or forcing us to hurt them. And when someone close to you is taken, it's almost impossible not to feel something. Even if you block it out for a while, it'll come back to haunt you later."

Another moment of thought, and then, "Naruto and I appeared the same day, and then Kakashi and Sakura appeared here soon after that. If they thrive on emotions, it makes more sense to take multiple people from the same world."

Suddenly, an idea occurred to him, one that made him frown all the harder. "... It also makes sense to take children--the younger, the more emotional--but there would be a limit to how young of children they'd bring in. Younger children break faster, and wouldn't have much of a 'lifespan' in this place, except for some exceptions--either from breaking too quickly or getting killed by a monster. Which would explain why there aren't a lot of young children here. There doesn't seem to be an upper limit to patients' ages, but there definitely seems to be some lower limit. Unless they've taken small children, too, and they're simply someplace else entirely that's still threatening but doesn't immediately break them. It's possible there are other 'Institutes' like this out there."

Jiraiya decided thinking out loud was the best choice for that one--Renamon didn't mention anything about that in their theories before. It was something to consider, and he wanted her input.

What a delightful way to spend the first meal! Grell had found himself a lovely little 'protector' who was willing to stick up for him on the bulletin and would 'save' him from Brainy's wrath whenever that should come to pass. Grell wasn't all that worried should they come to blows though. Brainiac 5 had bravado on his side now that the sun was in the sky, but come night, the lights would be out and he'd be at a disadvantage. He could be brave all he wanted, but Grell had seen him crying in fear.

Letting the nurse lead him into the library, the death god felt his head swim a little now that he was in tight quarters. There was a familiar feeling in the air, something stronger than the last time he'd sensed it. Something that felt...off. Putting a hand to his forehead, he swooned a bit, causing his nurse to take his arm and lead him to the first chair she could find. "Stay here, Geoffrey. I'll get you a book and you can rest, hm?"

Grell waved his hand at her, nodding slightly, but he didn't fail to notice that the feeling was worse now that he was sitting. Glancing to the side as soon as the nurse was gone, he spotted a rather dapper looking man next to him. Could he be..? No, he doubted that. Which meant he had to put up the act for now. "My apologies. I'm a little flustered - you don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

Bruce caught the man's strange reaction. The almost puzzled look at the bandages seemed to indicate some kind of surprise...but what for? Considering the monsters around at night, it wasn't surprising that most of the people here were injured in one way or another. Did something about the injury bother the stranger? Or...

...jumping to conclusions was useless this early in the game. Just because there were people with supernatural abilities here didn't mean that everyone had them.

"Oh?" Bruce said, looking up again.

"How frequently do new patients get admitted, then?"

"Yes, it was a great loss." Well, to ZEX anyway. The rest of the VUX populace had practically thrown a party about never having to see humans ever again. Ah, the difficulties of being the only open-minded sophisticate in a populace of bigoted xenophobes. "I'd really given up contact with your species for a loss, until my Captain came to see me." ZEX smiled fondly at the thought. "And then there was my incarceration here of course, and my transfer into this body, which has given me far more insight into your species than I'd ever hoped to achieve before." A bit more than was comfortable at times. He really wanted his old body back.

"Yes, I think this has been most fortunate for both of us." ZEX tried to mimic Teisel's smile in response. It took on a more natural look for a few seconds when he squeezed his hand in response. Humans didn't squeeze each other enough! "Mmmm, a mutually beneficial partnership between us... what we could achieve with one another. Mmmm..." Entertaining fantasies of just such things for a moment before getting himself back on track. What had Teisel said... "Ah, and I can sympathize about wanting to keep your mind off of certain things. This place does wear on the nerves over time." ZEX waved a bit to gesture at the Institute before returning to caressing his hand. "As for my plans tonight... I have a certain objective in mind that might require some exploration. But surely someone of your skills will have no objections?"

"Thanks." Climbing up into the chair, Ritsuka settled as far back into it as possible, tucking his legs up to use them as a bookrest. He couldn't get comfortable if he sat close to the edge so his feet touched the ground and if he let them just dangle, he felt like an idiot. Cracking the book open to the last page he remembered, he found his place and put a finger to the line.

Glancing over, he noticed that his companion for the next shift still hadn't opened his book. Jekyll and Hyde? Interesting choice. Not something Ritsuka would have picked, but then he was here reading the Inferno so he really had no place to say anything. "Yeah, a couple times. Although I read the entire thing once, I prefer the Inferno - it's more interesting." Tsukishiro Yukito - what a pretty name. Ritsuka bowed his head again as he introduced himself. "Aoyagi Ritsuka. ...um, if you don't mind me asking - are you not interested in the book you're holding? We can switch if you like."

Sai wasn't one for reading fiction. In ROOT, there wasn't any need for it. It was for those with real emotions, who had time and need to devote them to stories and leisure activities. There wasn't much else to read here, however, and the young ninja was actually interested to see what people saw in these works.

What he pulled down at random didn't seem to be regular prose. It was a book full of some sort of poetry, a bit antiquated by the wording. He decided it would do for now, and found himself an empty seat in which to sit and absorb the material.

A kid that young had already read the Inferno a couple of times? Pretty impressive, really. Yukito rather doubted he would have done so, if he'd ever really been that age, and once again he was starting to think about things he'd rather not.

Still, Ritsuka seemed like a smart kid. Although why did that name sound familiar? Yukito blinked once, trying to remember, but was distracted by the question. "Oh, well. I just picked the first thing I saw and...I guess I should have looked first." He grinned a little abashedly and shrugged. "But I wouldn't want to make you read something that didn't interest you."

And there he paused, tilting his head to one side a little as he took a second look at his new acquaintance. "Are you the Aoyagi Ritsuka who posted that message about the activity clubs a couple days ago?"

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Page 8 of 24

Day 38: Patients' Library

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