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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Falis looked up from her detailed drawing of Yukari's Persona (didn't that idiot call it Io or something?) at the sound of her name. Oh, it was... what's-his-name. It took her a moment before the scar on the man's face refreshed her memory.

"Mm." Seeing this man reminded her that she hadn't seen Mozenrath around lately. Pity.

"You look about as fucking bored as I am, Scar. Not one for books?"

"Not quite." Due to obvious reasons, Scar had never developed any interest in them. Now that most of his curiosity about these objects had already been fed, his interest in them was also declining. All these books did were telling stories and the feline had never quite seen the gain in listening to them (or in this care 'reading', which was only a little less tiresome than the ramblings of the next person). In addition; considering most stories here seemed to be about humans and their ridiculous habits, Scar found himself being rather confused by them anyway.

"I take it you are not too fond of them yourself?"

"Not really," Falis replied. "I only ever read when there's something to gain from them and these fucking fairytale books of adventure, romance and other shit just aren't worth it when my own life is much more interesting."

She didn't shift her position in the chair, she was too comfortable, but she did tilt her head back more to see Scar. "Now, if there was a book in here about the nasty beasties running around at night, sure as hell would I be reading that one. Hopefully, it'd have pictures too."

Pictures were always more interesting than words.

So she claimed to have an interesting life, hmm? "Ah, now you've made me curious." Scar told her. Though she certainly had a point. There was no sense in bothering with such silly stories if you had a life to worry about.

He wondered if this said anything about their captor if Mello's theory was indeed correct.

"A bestiary would certainly be more informative." Scar agreed. He believed he had once seen a notice on the bulletin board, but some of these descriptions were a little lacking in detail from what he had remembered.

"Yeah, bounty hunter that works for profit turned princess. Much more interesting than," Falis glanced at the cover of the book she had open, "Anne of Green Gables."

She shrugged then flipped to a page in her journal showing the detailed drawing of the alien thing with notes concerning its anatomy and behaviors and showed it to Scar. "I'm putting together my own of what I've come across. You know, people keep talking about all these other beasties and I never see them - just the really strong ones." She grinned. "At least this place knows to not waste my time killing lizards and shit like that."

Scar studied the drawing Alita showed to him along with the included notes. He remembered a notice stating this particular creature had been killed, however, but there was no saying Landel didn't have more of them. Either way, it wasn't something the King would particularly enjoy running into. It looked like some insect of sorts...

"This a lot more detailed than the descriptions I had come across on the bulletin board, which are only a sentence or two long. Impressive indeed." he eventually commented, honestly impressed by it's detail.

"I haven't seen too many monsters myself, I am afraid. Only those who appear to be more...humanoid." Not that he was complaining...

"Thanks!" Falis wasn't against people complimenting her when she did damn fine work. "It was a bitch to kill with acid blood. Fucked me up for a while."

She wasn't sure if she should tell Scar that he was lucky he hadn't run into any monsters or offer condolences. He didn't seem like much of a fighter, reminding her of some of the Grandalian nobles with their shifty eyes and backyard schemes. Not that she cared much as long as they left her kingdom alone.

"Well, what all have you come across? I'm currently hunting vampires and I've also got a trio of demons that I'm keeping my eye out for again." She paused a moment. "Oh! Have you seen his Royal Whininess Mozenrath lately?"

"You're quite welcome." Saying Scar wasn't a fighter would be the understatement of the year. He'd rather avoid it if he could help it. He once again spared a glance to the drawing with the creature. Acid blood didn't sound too pleasant...

As for what he had run into, he supposed sharing his own run-ins could possibly gain him something. "Let's see, aside from the nurses...a man clad in gold with a rather large collection of blades. He seemed to be able to pull them from a gate of sorts. I have spotted a fellow patient crawling through it, but I fear I do not know what has happened to him." Scar had to wonder if these 'waffles' were truly worth such an antic. "And a woman with I believe is called 'a heated poker'. She kept mentioning we should return to our room and that it was cleaning time."

Ironically, he had met this female while he had been traveling with Mozenrath, who just so happened to be their next conversation topic.

"Not as of late." Scar said, looking thoughtful before adding: "I was wondering why it had seemed so silent recently."

So much for the fool being useful...

"Pity he seems to have disappeared; I was looking forward to killing him the next time I saw him at night," Falis replied with a genuine amount of disappointment. No one spit in her face and lived. Maybe this place tortured him before quartering him and tossing him out for Sparky and Fido to munch on.

Unfortunately, that made her think about Namine, since she disappeared, and it sobered her up a little. She didn't want to think about what might have been done to her friend before the girl disappeared. Anyways, back to the talk about nasty beasties.

"Okay, the man in gold armor was mentioned on the board before. Someone from the same world as him said he answers to the name Archer and that he's very dangerous, yadda, yadda, yadda and do on," Falis said. "Now the woman with the poker I haven't heard about. What else can you tell me about her? Can you draw what she looks like?" Falis offered up her journal.

"It would have seemed you would have needed to get in line." Scar commented dryly. Considering Mozenrath's behavior, he wasn't too surprised people wanted to kill him. No matter, the fool was expendable.

"I'm afraid I can't draw." Scar admitted, looking at the journal as if Alita had just suggested to jump from a high cliff and use it to break his fall. He couldn't even hold a pen and write properly with it, let alone provide a detailed 'drawing' of the lady he had run into during his visit in the morgue a couple of nights ago.

"I could describe her." he offered after a moment. How helpful he was being today...

"I'd kick all their asses to be the first one to kill him," Falis quipped. "Eh. Doesn't matter now."

She simply shrugged when Scar admitted he couldn't draw. Not everyone could, after all.

"That works," she said, settling the journal back in her lap, pen ready. "You describe her and I'll see what I can come up with based off of that. Then if you see something that doesn't fit, you can point it out and I'll fix it."

"Very well. Let's see..." Scar looked thoughtful for a moment. It had been rather dark, and the situations and his eyesight not as good as it should have been, he probably hadn't been able to catch every single detail. But even so, he still began describing how the woman had looked. Aside from her notable hair color, her paleness and her clothing there hadn't been too many interesting things of note.

"Additionaly, she had seemed to be rather emotionless and even uncapable to feel pain." He clearly remembered she had no problem carrying her heated weapon - even going so far as licking it - along with the sickening pop he had heard when she had titled her head.

"And as I had already mentioned, she carried a heated poker." Mozenrath would have been able to confirm that it was a rather painful thing to be hit with.

Falis' hand moved across the page as she listened to Scar's description. The face lacked any real distinguishing features when she was done but the clothing was very close to what had been described and the poker was drawn straight. She'd also made notes underneath the drawing of the woman's pale skin, the inability to feel pain and the status of her weapon.

"How's that look?"

Scar studied the drawing of the woman he had just described. He had a severe lack of artistic knowledge, so his own opinion regarding drawings most likely wouldn't weigh too much, but he could most certainly state if the subject drawn was recognizable or not.

In any case, he indeed recognized what he had just described. Scar nodded before voicing his comment: "Remarkably accurate."

This looked far more impressive than whatever that silly monkey back home would have liked to scribble upon the walls. Scar hadn't known humans could have such abilities. He would need to keep this in mind.

"Good," Falis replied. "What part of the building did you run into her?"

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Day 38: Patients' Library

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