damned_institute | Day 38: Game Room

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Day 38: Game Room

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

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"It's not a stupid name!" Kon snapped, voice rising with irritation. No one had tried telling him it was stupid. He'd been told he didn't deserve it or accused of stealing his name but never flat out told it was stupid. It wasn't stupid, it was his name dammit!

"And pardon me for being friendly! I didn't realise you were a complete ass who'd rather sit on his own than get to know someone!" He was very quickly regretting deciding to talk to Sanzo with his stupid red dot and his stick-up-the-ass attitude. There were plenty of people who appreciated his company, he should go talk to one of them. But 'quit' wasn't part of Kon's vocabulary - along with most other polysyllabic words according to some people - so he was staying right here. He had just as much right to this spot as anyone else and he wasn't going to be chased away by a measly bad attitude.

Sanzo folded his arms over his chest, glancing over at him. He was quickly getting pissed off, but then again, the monk hadn't exactly been gentle with the truth.

"Finally, you're catching on." Was it really that hard to see he wasn't in the mood for talking. Then again, despite his attitude and the 'hands-off' wall he practically had up, people still gravitated towards him. Damned if he knew why. Maybe it was thrill seeking or some form of masochism.

And yet Superb- the patient was still hanging around.

..Dammit, he refused to actually use the stupid name seriously. It was one thing for the young man to go around saying it himself, another for Sanzo to actually use the damn thing.

"I didn't know 'friendly' was the same as trying to hit on someone. Badly." Sanzo added.

Well, at least he'd backed off on calling Kon's name stupid. That counted for something, even if Sanzo hadn't apologised for it like he totally should. Calming down slightly, Kon eyed Sanzo thoughtfully. This was going to require a different approach obviously.

"Well I wouldn't call flirting with someone unfriendly, would you?" He didn't think his pick up line had been that bad. No more than usual and most of the time people he'd hit on didn't complain. Sanzo must just be picky.

"If you prefer I can start over man. Just tell me how you'd rather I kick things off and it's done." Kon wasn't about to give up on his target yet. For one he was way too hot for Kon to leave without a fight and he also looked like he seriously needed some help lightening up. What else were heroes for but helping people in need?

Sanzo was pretty sure that lame pick up line was an attempt to flirt, if anything. He might not be an expert on hitting on someone - and he wasn't ever interested in becoming that way - but he knew enough. Something that began with 'hey, baby' probably was a good indicator. Sanzo certainly didn't consider friendly and flirting to be one and the same.

"I'm not interested in arguing semantics." And that's what it was going to come down to. Sanzo wasn't going to budge on it, and he doubted the other man would. He wasn't quite getting the message to leave, but at least he was dropping the immediate come-on and attitude. They could talk like human beings. Maybe.

Sanzo looked at him, studying his face. Was he being honest or about to be a smart-ass? He was still feeling like too much shit to really tell... but it wasn't anything a little bitching could solve, if it turned out to be the latter.

He lifted an eyebrow at him. "Why don't we start with your name? What did your parents call you originally?"

If he was going to be stuck with the patient this shift, Sanzo wanted to at least call him by a reasonable name.

"Or you can fake it. I am not calling you that other one." he added.

Did that mean he didn't think flirting was being friendly? What was with this guy? Well whatever, he was acting half-way decent now and eyeing Kon in a way that didn't feel entirely hostile. Good enough to start with.

The next thing that came out of his mouth managed to pretty much knock every other thought out of Kon's head. This was the second time today he had to try and explain the whole clone deal. Then there was the whole parents assumption. He got that clones weren't anything like common so it wasn't like Sanzo had any reason to know but- it still kinda bummed him out to have to explain. A little. Sometimes.

Grinning as cheerfully as possible Kon answered flippantly, "Sorry man, never had any parents. I'm a clone we get like, test tubes and-" Implanted memories. And evil project directors. "And stuff. But most of my friends call me Kid or S.B. if you really got issues."

Well, issues with Superboy as a name. Anyone who thought flirting with someone was not friendly obviously had issues completely unrelated to his name.

Up until now, he'd never heard of a 'clone'. He wasn't too clear on what it was, but the absence of parents suggested something unnatural. If it weren't for the taboo breaking back in Shangri'la, he'd have passed it off as bullshit.

"I'm not calling you the second one," Sanzo said instead. S.B. he definitely wasn't going to use, it was still Superboy. The first one was iffy, but better than the other two.

Not that the other man didn't have his full attention on that bit of information on his lack of parents, because he did. The only people fucking around with science on this level were the very ones who were behind the Minus Wave. Suddenly 'Kid' was a lot more interesting. "What's this about test tubes?"

"Uh you know, my mother was a test tube, my father was a- something. 'Cause I was grown up in a lab, yeah?" Kon stared at Sanzo in confusion. Cloning wasn't an everyday kind of occurrence sure, but he'd thought everyone at least knew what a clone was. Unless Sanzo just didn't believe he was really a clone. Whatever. Kon had explained it, if the guy didn't want to believe him that was his problem.

"What about you? What's with that mark on your face?" It wasn't like it was off putting or anything, after spending most of his life around guys like Robin who wore a mask all the freaking time a little red dot was barely worth mentioning. But it wasn't something Kon had ever seen before and he was curious. It had to mean something. Maybe it showed that Sanzo was a hero in his world, that was what almost everyone else he'd met so far was normally. He'd be some sort of hero like Batman, the gloomy, (intimidating), paranoid sort. Kon would bet anything on it.

An eyebrow rose at that. He wasn't making an ounce of sense, and with the way he trailed off, he was expecting Sanzo to know exactly what he was talking about. He didn't. All he could pick up from that was that it was definitely along the lines of the taboo.

Before he could press the matter, Kid had switched topics. Sanzo should've seen it coming. The mark on his forehead usually drew a lot of stares, but then again, most people had a good idea what it meant to begin with. They stared for a different reason.

"It's a chakra," Sanzo said. "It's a symbol of those closest to the gods."

Kon got the feeling that Sanzo still didn't believe him. It was that or there was something wrong with what he'd said and he knew that there wasn't. But the guy didn't say anything so at the least he wasn't going to start accusing Kon of lying about his origins. He was doing better than he'd dealt with Kon's name anyway.

"Which gods, man? Do you mean like, um- Zeus and stuff? The ones who give Wonder Woman her powers? Or the new gods?" There might be other gods around, he was a little fuzzy on that sort of thing. His powers came from him and from sunlight so Kon didn't pay much attention to gods and magic, they'd never been particularly important for him. Sanzo had said it like he should automatically know which gods but as far as Kon could tell gods always acted like they were the only ones ever. It didn't mean anything.

It was almost immediate. "Who the hell is Zeus?"
Sanzo just barely managed to clamp down asking about this 'Wonder Woman' in time. The last thing he wanted to do is encourage him. "No, I'm talking about Buddhism."

It was almost as bad as Superboy. Almost. Either there was something else to the name (he certainly wasn't seeing it), or wherever Kid came from, they weren't very creative. Or if they were creating their own nicknames like this, it was a serious case of ego.

Stranger still was coming across someone who wasn't familiar with Buddhism.

"Zeus, he's one of the Greek gods. The Amazons worship him and his crew. You've never heard of them?" That was weird. Sanzo must be from a world that didn't have Amazons or Greeks or anything like that or if it did they went by completely different names. Go figure.

But Buddhism was a name Kon recognised so it was even weirder that other gods and stuff had different names but that one didn't. "I didn't know your god-" Buddhists had a god right? He didn't think he'd heard of one associated with the religion but he really didn't care about that sort of stuff so it was expected he'd have some of the details wrong.

"I didn't know he was real. Or the type to hang around like the other gods. So do you have like powers from the gods?" What else did gods do when they hung around on earth anyway? OK, he didn't think the new gods were known for giving people powers but they had to be the only ones. Otherwise, gods gave people powers. It was what they did.

"No, I haven't," he hadn't exactly traveled outside of China until the Three Aspects assigned him on this mission, nor did they get that many foreigners in Chang'an.

Kid was rambling on. Was he trying to steer the priest's attention even further from the issue of this cloning business? Or he was easily distracted himself. Sanzo wasn't nearly so quick to count out Kid being smarter than he looked. Even if Gojyo thought with his dick (nearly all the time), even he had some cunning moments. Sanzo wasn't nearly as ready to drop the issue about this taboo that might have created the patient.

...He just had to get a word in before Kid got any further.

"It's more than just one god. And what abilities I have is none of your business, I'm not a monkey." Sanzo said. He wanted to shut that down quick, especially because he'd quickly grown tired of requests like that. His ego was just fine. "I'm considered to be the highest ranking Buddhist monk. I have better things to be doing than showing off just for you."

Kon was a little impressed by the whole 'highest ranking monk' deal. That had to mean Sanzo here had some pretty impressive powers. Too bad he didn't want to share. That did explain why he was so bitchy both now, with his whole 'not a monkey' deal (whatever that meant!) and before when Kon had introduced himself. Being a 'highest ranking' anything meant he must be used to people being kinda wary of him, too intimidated to really get close. Guy probably wasn't used to strangers just coming up and being friendly, though hopefully he had some friends back home who didn't care who he was. Didn't mean he couldn't use some more though.

"Chill out man, I wasn't asking you to put on show - unless you really wanna." He leered unconsciously at the thought of Sanzo putting on a show for him. Not what he'd meant sure, but it'd be just as interesting.

"I just wanted to know what powers you have, I mean they must be totally awesome!" A little flattery had gotten Kon plenty of places before, he didn't see why it shouldn't work now.

Edited 2009-01-22 05:44 (UTC)

Kid had almost showed a moment of decency just then, and then he had to ruin it within the same sentence. He had the exact same tact as the goddamn roach, which wasn't saying much. He wouldn't know tact if it hit him in the face. That sudden leer gave away the double meaning pretty easily. Even Sanzo wasn't that blind to it.

Did he absolutely have to look at him like that?

Sanzo's eyes narrowed. He wouldn't even dignify that stare with a response this time. It'd only encourage him. If he kept it up, it wasn't anything a few well-aimed gunshots or punches couldn't solve.

"Well, tough shit. I'm not some performer, and my abilities aren't 'totally awesome'" he said dryly. Flattery wasn't going to get very far with him

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Day 38: Game Room

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