damned_institute | Day 40: Lunch

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Day 40: Lunch

*hobble wobble*

"Damn that SCOURGE!" Starscream cried out, the slowly-filling cafeteria producing a jarring echo of his raspy voice. His limping, already bad enough from not knowing how to properly use his crutches, was now exacerbated from the injuries he'd received the shift prior. Despite the gauges in his non-casted leg so lovingly provided by the aforementioned 'patient', Starscream could still put some weight on it, but not so much that he could really stop and rest; relieving the soreness under his arms was out of the question. The nurse that walked behind him with his tray, already upset at having to deal with yet another troublesome inmate, was growing rather impatient as his charge slowly made his way down the food line.

"Just...give me a standard serving of the aquatic creature's flesh, some of those fried potato slices, two bananas, and three bottles of juice," Starscream sighed, his anger from just a moment ago assuaged by the physical exertion needed to move the way he did. "I'm going to sit down here...bring it to me when you're done."

He was hardly surprised to find that one of the bananas was completely bruised along its inner curve, or that the handful of 'chips' on his plate were all on the small side. Tired and frustrated as he was, however, he could barely muster a 'damned flesh-creature' before moving his fingers to the plate, picking one of the longer 'chips' and shoving it into his mouth listlessly.

There was an unusually high concentration of sodium chloride crystals on it. Of COURSE.

[For Tony Stark]

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[slinks in to disturb your theory! ...sorta]

Ritsuka had quickly hidden the camera away once the photo had been taken and as he was led to the cafeteria, he smiled. It had been awhile since he'd been able to take a photo and now that he had one of Seimei's friend, Gin, he felt a little better. He wished he could take pictures of things like the food he ate and the people he saw, but he had limited memory (even with the new card) and no way of printing the photographs out. Maybe he should pass the camera to Miku and see if she could get her doctor to do it.

Picking up a tray of fried fish and fries, Ritsuka noticed Soubi talking to Miku already and decided to go find someone else. Not that he knew who... But apparently his nurse would be the instigator for that one. A gentle push at his back brought him to a table and left him there. He guessed meeting new people wasn't a bad idea, even if the guy looked a little busy. "Hey. Mind if I sit with you?"

"What about radio waves or something? There's got to be some way to get a signal out-" Too late, Jaime realised that someone was standing near his table and talking to him. Why hadn't the Scarab said anything? Now he'd been caught talking aloud to the voice no one else could hear. Again.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Help yourself." Provided whoever it was hadn't changed their mind since asking. But he hoped that they hadn't, he needed more information and it was looking like talking to people was his only way of getting it.

A closer inspection showed why the Scarab hadn't bothered to say anything. As near as Jaime could tell, he didn't have any powers or magic or anything odd about him. Which was, what, the second person like that he'd met? Not including ZEX, who'd turned out to be an alien. It really shouldn't have been so much of a big deal, but Jaime was starting to wonder if the normal guys were in the minority here.

It wasn't all that weird to have people talking to themselves. Ritsuka did it sometimes, too, when he was thinking hard on something. At least the guy wasn't talking back to himself. That was as sure a sign as any that the straitjacket wasn't just a fashion accessory.

Taking a seat, Ritsuka sat up on one knee so he could get at the table a little better. He hated being short. "If you're thinking of getting a signal out, the best way would be to piggyback on the radio transmissions at night. However, there has been no way found to do that yet, and unless you have equipment sufficient enough to boost your signal, it'll likely only reach the people who already know we're here and don't seem inclined to do a lot about it."

Reading books in a library had paid off in little ways ever since coming here - and this was no exception. "What's your name? I'm Aoyagi Ritsuka."

That sounded helpful, Jaime had heard a little about the contacts over the radio, but nothing in detail. "These radio transmissions," he asked, cutting up some of his fish with his fork, "how often do they happen and what are they about? I only got here yesterday, so I haven't heard much about them."

Even if they weren't helpful normally, the Scarab might be able to boost a signal enough to try contacting someone, and once he'd contacted someone else, he'd at least know it was possible and not a waste of effort. But all this was resting on the hope that his Scarab's communication abilities hadn't gone missing with almost everything else. Sure it couldn't seem to get a signal out now, but maybe that was just the daytime problem...

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking about what you said. I'm Jaime Reyes." He offered his hand and shot a questioning look at the other patient. "Aoyagi?" It took him a couple of tries to get it sounding similar. "Is that Chinese? Japanese?"

Apparently, Ritsuka's offhand comment actually had been of some help. He hadn't really expected to spawn a conversation about radio transmissions, but if the guy had been talking to himself about it and if Ritsuka could be of help, he didn't mind. It wasn't like he was being pulled into a philosophical debate. Then again, he might have liked that. "It depends. When it was Jack, it happened once or twice a night. With Jill, there's no guarrantee. She pops up and fades out at random. I heard Jack used to give clues to useful things hidden throughout the Institute, but I never followed them so I don't know. Jill started out doing the same thing, but she's been quiet lately - and recently it seems like she may be in trouble."

Especially considering that last night had been the first time they'd heard from her in awhile. The Head Doctor seemed to have settled now that Jack was dead, meaning that Jill and whoever was backing her wasn't a big enough threat for him to care. There was a short period when Ritsuka thought maybe Jill would do something, but following the opening of the outer walls, not much had happened.

A hand was offered along with a name and Ritsuka looked at it for a moment before taking it. He'd forgotten that foreigners shook hands. He wasn't used to it and it felt awkward. Pumping his arm hesitantly once, Ritsuka pulled his hand back and then turned his attention to his food. "Japanese. Call me Ritsuka though. Where are you from? America?"

"Jack and Jill?" Jaime asked sceptically. "That's either a joke or a really bizarre coincidence." But either way, it sounded like they knew more about the situation than most other people did at the moment. "So, has anyone tried getting into contact with either of them?" If not, maybe he could give it a shot with the Scarab. It might end up with him learning something interesting, and what was the worst that could happen, it didn't work? Or he might end up drawing attention to himself, but with how the armour had been the night before, Jaime figured that was likely to be happening anyway.

Ritsuka seemed a little uncomfortable with handshaking, though Jaime wasn't sure if that was a cultural thing or something else. "Yeah. El Paso in Texas, if you want to get into specifics," he answered. "Your English is really good though, if it weren't for the name, I probably wouldn't have guessed you weren't a native speaker."

"Code names, really." Ritsuka poked at his food and finally cut into the fish, breaking it up into smaller pieces that would be easier to chew. "Jack's real name was Alec something. Alec..Doyle, maybe. I don't remember anymore. We don't know much about Jill, other than she's Jack's successor."

At the question of whether or not anyone had tried to get in contact with them, Ritsuka fell silent. Jack had been in the Institute once. He'd walked among them and no one had realized it. And then the jackass had left, like he and the Head Doctor were playing games and the patients were meat shields and bargaining chips. If he really had the power to move among them undetected, he should have done something to help. Instead, he'd played his game and lost.

"No. Jack's dead. Martin Landel murdered him when he got too prideful for his own good and came here like an idiot. Jill stays away, probably for her own good." He hadn't meant to sound as bitter as he did, but it sickened him. All the lies and the murder and the deception flat out sickened him. If they really wanted to help, they should give them information. If they wanted to play their game, they should just leave the patients out of it.

Jaime's comment, however, broke him out of his miniature rant against the machine. English? Sure, Ritsuka had studied a bit and he'd passed a test or two, but he wasn't native speaker level by any means. And he'd thought Jaime was speaking Japanese. "What? I'm not speaking English." Making a concentrated effort, Ritsuka tried to recall what English he knew and finally said, "This is my English." Augh, the accent. He hated it. He wished he'd spent more time listening to the language tapes at the library now, but reading philosophical texts and history books were more his thing than language learning. "Not... good. Ah, not very good speaking." Okay, so it was pretty fail. Letting out a sigh, Ritsuka shook his head. "I'm speaking Japanese - and so were you."

"Sounds like the kind of code names you'd pick if you were inviting disaster," Jaime muttered. He listened as Ritsuka spoke, using the break to eat some more of his lunch and think over what the other boy was saying. It sounded like a lot more had been going on than he'd been able to piece together so far, and understandably people weren't happy with all of it, judging from how bitter Ritsuka sounded.

"So Jack came here?" he asked in surprise. "Did anyone meet him or did he do anything, you know, helpful or anything?" Obviously anything he had done hadn't been that helpful in the long run, but maybe, just maybe, there would be something worth looking into.

Something like however it was that Ritsuka and Jaime could actually understand each other. He flinched sympathetically as Ritsuka switched to English and shook his head. "I don't speak a word of Japanese," he explained. "I'm pretty sure I'm speaking English..." Unless the Scarab had some kind of translator it hadn't felt like mentioning to him, which was entirely possible. Jaime hadn't really been in any situations where he'd had to use something like that and the Reach had all had their own when they'd come to Earth. And it wasn't like he could just ask the Scarab with Ritsuka right there.

"Well, they found it, whether they wanted it or not." Jill had been mysteriously quiet lately and Jack had died. Things couldn't get much more disasterous than dying. "And yeah, he did. I never met him, but I heard someone did. If he did anything helpful, it was only for the people who saw him. Nothing to benefit the patients as a whole."

And nothing done to save them from this place.

Ritsuka didn't know how he was able to hear Japanese when Jaime insisted he was speaking English, but it had to do something with this whacked out place. It had enough power to take away his ears and tail without taking his virginity, and to rob people of their powers. So long as there were no Spell Battles, Ritsuka's power was pretty much a moot point, but even then, Soubi said he was having issues, too. Shaking his head, Ritsuka sighed. "I'm not. Trust me. If I was, I don't think you could understand me. I don't know how we're communicating, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with this place. It...changes things."

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Day 40: Lunch

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