damned_institute | Day 40: Greenhouse [Fourth Shift]

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Day 40: Greenhouse [Fourth Shift]

Most days, fish and chips (and a cold beer or three) was pretty goddamned high on S.T.'s list of perfect expense-account lunches. Today, the idea of picking at greasy hunks of unidentified bottom-feeder odds-and-ends (politely known as scrod, to the delight of teenagers all across the Northeast) didn't appeal.

He begged off and collapsed into his bed, after using his damp shirt as an excuse to surreptiously check the contents of his closet. Bingo. His nurse watched his little show, unimpressed but (more importantly) unsuspicious. Not that his hairy chest was much of a catch today, pale and sweating from fever. At least she didn't tuck him in.

The intercom woke up up right on schedule, and pulling the sheets back over his head almost won. But a handful of unanswered missives and a vague sense of duty dragged him out to the bulletin, and from there it was easier to stagger over to the greenhouse.

It was warm inside -- a deep, humid warmth that actually penetrated to the aches in more joints and muscles than he could remember the names of. Like a sauna, without the hassle of finding someplace to look that wasn't a mound of pasty middle-management cellulite. Or a sweat lodge, without the opposite hassle of being conscious that he was the only white guy in the room. In fact, besides the nurses in holding patterns, he was the only person in the room.

He located a tray of tomato seedlings going rootbound in their tiny six-packs, and a potting bench whose location was a quick-and-dirty approximation of equidistantly far from anything blooming. He assured his nurse he knew what he was doing, and after a couple of successful repottings, gently sliding the little seedlings out and loosening the tangled roots, she seemed to agree and backed off. It was, by far, the most fucking theraputic thing he'd found in this hellhole so far, and he let himself sink into the rhythm of the task.

[Free!]

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Scar entered the green house in an incredibly bad mood, for which he had a certain insolent patient to thank for. Where did that man get the nerve?! Thankfully for the King, the shift had ended before it could escalate.

But the mere thought made a low growl escape his throat, which earned him another scolding from his nurse. Not that Scar had every intention to listen to her, which he made all the more clear by simply pretending she didn't even exist. His attempt ended up as a success as she eventually went to tend to another patient, but Scar hardly took note of his little victory.

He sat down somewhere on the ground, pointedly ignoring all the items around him and opting for glaring daggers at the colorful flowers instead.

But the flowers didn't make him forget what had happened at lunch. In a sense, they seemed to be mocking him like that Rould have obviously done. His teeth clenched as he inwardly seethed with rage, unsharp nails digging into his palm. How dared he claim such things?! He was a better King than Mufasa! He, who had been the rightful heir all along! But that fool would learn, wouldn't he? He would learn indeed.

[Free, but in a bad mood.]

The boy from lunch had definitely been interesting, though Sora hadn't had much time at all to talk to him before the shift ended. It was too bad, since he was pretty curious about the Riku look-alike (but not act-alike). He would have to see if he could find him again some other time.

For now, though, it was time to go to the greenhouse. Sora doubted he was alone in thinking that the recreational field was a lot more interesting. Still, the girls had been forced to come to this boring place earlier in the day, so it was only fair that the guys went too. It would probably be better to cut it out of the schedule altogether - it wasn't even really outside!

Instead, it was hot and muggy. Sure, his islands had always been hot, but the air had never been this wet. Sora made a face as he walked through the area, but then he happened to spot a very angry-looking Scar. It was still odd to see the lion in human form, and Sora had almost forgotten the villain was here since he had been busy with so many other things.

Part of him just wanted to avoid the lion-man, but it looked like he might need to do some damage control. He had no idea what Scar was so upset about, but it could lead to him doing something dangerous if Sora didn't check into it. He knew the Heartless weren't involved, so it was technically wasn't his job anymore, but that didn't stop him.

The boy carefully moved over and stopped a few feet away from the lion-man. He tilted his head. "What happened?" Maybe Scar just need to vent.

As what seemed to be the law of Landel's Institute, Scar couldn't possibly be left in peace with his anger. And as coincidence would have it (or not), the one not leaving him in peace was the other person who had visited a different version of his world; Sora.

"Well, aren't you the curious one?" Scar growled in response, not even trying to be friendly to the boy. He directed his glare from the flowers to the younger patient.

Both Sora and Rould seemed to have one thing in common aside from being familiar with him; they both enjoyed sticking their nose where it clearly did not belong.

Considering how bad the man-lion's mood had been already, Sora wasn't too surprised that he was snapped at. It wasn't quite as intimidating when Scar didn't have huge teeth and Sora wasn't a lion cub, though.

He pulled his arms up behind his head and shifted his weight from side to side as he continued to watch Scar. "What, am I not allowed to be curious?" He knew that even if Scar lunged at him or anything like that, the nurses would take care of it pretty quickly. Scar had to know that too.

Normally Sora didn't toy with people like this, but he generally treated villains like Scar a little differently from everyone else. Even though this wasn't the same Scar, he still had the same ideas about things.

Scar was indeed very much aware that he couldn't quite do anything with these nurses around. Not that he really intended to with how useless his body was, aside from never really being a pillar of strength. It was why he had constrained himself during lunch, despite the fact it had been tempting enough.

"Not when it comes to matters that are of no concern to you, boy." Scar grumbled back. "Unless you are the type to stick your nose where it doesn't belong." Like a certain other individual. "In that case, I suggest looking up the meaning of 'curiosity kills the cat'."

It was rather ironic that Scar was saying this in the first place. First of all because he was curious, secondly because he was a cat.

Sora was already familiar with the phrase, but he didn't miss the backwardness of Scar saying something like that. While Sora had briefly been a lion cub while he was at the Pride Lands, his real form was human; Scar was the cat!

Besides, even though Scar was insisting that he was being nosy, Sora knew that he was more than justified in checking this out, considering his history with Scar. Scar couldn't understand that, but he had already tried to explain it to the lion-man and failed. He had no reason to think Scar would listen to him now.

"Good thing I'm not a cat, then," he said with a small smile and a tilt of his head. "But maybe I just wanted to check on you. You seem pretty upset about something..." If he could just find out what it was, he might be able to guess what kind of problems it would or wouldn't lead to.

Scar rolled his eyes at both of Sora's comments, mumbling something about 'figure of speech'. Couldn't that nosy boy figure that out for himself?

"How perceptive of you." He answered flatly, the tone of his voice betraying his sarcasm. "I honestly wouldn't know what to do without your concern for my well-being."

He had no intention of spilling everything to this irritating boy, in any case. As much as the feline enjoyed venting, it was rather humiliating to do so in front of some nosy human.

Even though Sora knew that Scar didn't want him around, this wasn't something he was just going to leave alone because the lion-man was getting annoyed. Sora could be surprisingly persistent when he wanted to be, even though he had mainly grown out of the brattiness of his younger years.

It didn't mean that he couldn't bring it back to the surface during times like this.

He moved a little closer, crossing his arms over his chest while he gave Scar what appeared to be a genuine look of concern. "I know," he agreed, flat-out ignoring the sarcasm even though it was impossible to miss. "That's why you should tell me what happened."

After that comment, Scar was actually silent for a moment. It was safe to say he hadn't expected such an answer. Not to mention that it wasn't often he received an answer like that.

An irritated sigh escaped his lips. Perhaps it was time for a different strategy.

"Very well, I will tell you one of the things that has managed to irritate me so much." Scar said, lowering his voice as if no one in the surrounding area was supposed to hear it. "There is this boy who keeps asking why I am in such a foul mood. It is making me even more annoyed than I already am. Since that boy refuses to leave me alone because of it, I suppose that my bad mood is simply a disaster of some sort."

He paused for a moment. "Honestly, I do not understand why my mood would be so important to him. Do you?"

It went without saying that this probably wasn't what Sora had meant.

At first Sora had been hopeful that he had worn Scar down, but it quickly became obvious that he wasn't getting the answer he wanted. His expression fell as the lion-man continued to talk -- he knew he was being difficult, but if Scar had just told him about what had happened in the first place, maybe he wouldn't have had to be so annoying!

"You're boring," he said with a sigh as he slowly started lowering himself until he was seated on the ground. He could have started digging a hole or something, but he didn't really want to.

Still, maybe this was a good thing. If he got Scar focused on him instead of whatever had been bugging him before, then maybe he would start to forget about it! Sora didn't mind taking that role, even if it might put him in a little more danger. He didn't think Scar was going to actually do anything harmful to him here.

"That so?" Scar replied simply. At least this had managed to make Sora give up, but that was only a small accomplishment compared to the insults he had to endure during lunch. Unfortunately, that left little room for socializing.

"If I am so boring, why don't you pester people of your own age, hmmm?"

"Well, I talk to people my age all the time!" Sora explained, glancing back to Scar with a grin. It was easy for him to put on the cheer, and he got the feeling that the villain was practically allergic to anything happy.

"Besides, I don't really feel like moving." He leaned back slightly, but he couldn't sprawl out the way he had earlier on the recreational field. There was too much dirt everywhere.

Since Scar apparently wasn't going to give in and tell him anything, Sora figured they might as well find something else to discuss. "So..." He searched for something, anything -- oh! "Is anyone else from the Pride Lands here?" Sora realized that if Simba or someone else was around, he would have no way of knowing. He'd found Scar through the bulletin, but maybe some of the others were being more secretive.

That was kind of hard to believe, but he figured he might as well ask.

Scar rolled his eyes, again. In a way, Sora reminded him of Simba when he was a cub. Not quite something the lion had wanted to be reminded of, in any case.

"Not that I am aware of." he answered. Unless they had a way to escape anyone's notice, but he didn't knew anyone who would be clever enough to do so. The King was fairly sure they'd be discovered sooner or later. Maybe not immediately upon arrival, but they couldn't possibly hide forever. Their mannerisms would be noticed and people would most likely end up recognizing them.

But Scar didn't mind he happened to be the only one, not because he was concerned for anyone's well-being, but he had the feeling it'd be rather problematic if anyone else of his homeland would arrive. That, and he'd rather if no one would ever know about this human experience if he could help it. It was rather degrading.

That was what Sora had been expecting, but it was still disappointing. It would have been cool to hang out with Simba or Timon or Pumbaa here, even though they most likely wouldn't have recognized him.

Maybe he was just that desperate for a familiar face that didn't belong to someone mean or someone who had a huge grudge. Though he had seen Yuffie posting on the bulletin, so maybe he could find her and chat sometime. She'd probably just end up confused, but maybe she would warm up to him! There was a better chance of that than there had been with Cid, probably.

"So what have you been doing since we last spoke, then?" Since Scar didn't have any kingdoms to try and take over, it was hard to imagine what he did with himself. "Anything interesting?" Chances were that the lion-man was going to be tight-lipped about this too, but Sora preferred talking to silence and the shift wasn't over yet.

"Interesting things, hmmm?" Scar repeated, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"You mean aside from dealing with the occasional idiot, trying to identify what you humans call food and having random expeditions during the night that turn out to be either unpleasant or outright useless instead of being some sort of benefit?" Scar paused, letting all what he had said sink in. "I'm afraid it is rather lacking in the 'interesting' department."

He wouldn't even consider bringing up whatever he had been up to, not that it had been too much aside from exploring the institute and the meeting with Mello. The rest of the nights here had been either wasted, unpleasant or simply spent asleep. It was rather frustrating, to be running around in circles without even the slightest result.

An investigation to the doors leading to the third floor sounded promising enough, even if it meant waiting patiently before others had collected the necessary materials and create this 'explosive'. Not that he particularly minded (lions were known to be a little on the lazy side after all), but he did hope this ZEX-character would indeed bother to contact him when they had managed. Even the hyenas back home were more reliable than this.

"How long have you been here, boy?" he asked for the sake of curiosity.

Sora hadn't even thought about how weird the food here must be for Scar. That had to be rough, and suddenly he felt lucky that at least most of the things in this place were familiar to him. Then again, he'd had to deal with a lot of the unfamiliar when he'd gone out exploring different worlds, so it made sense that not too much was new here. (Well, except for the really horrible stuff, but he didn't want to think about that.)

Most people struggled with the fact that they went out at night and attempted something and ended up failing; even Sora had that problem, so he wasn't surprised to hear it from Scar. If the lion-man was so upset about it, though, he could always just stay in his room. Then again, here he didn't have minions who could do his dirty work for him.

For once, Sora didn't hesitate when asked about the length of his stay. "It's been a little over a month now," he explained with a shrug, as if it wasn't a big deal. He knew that was longer than Scar had been around, but he hoped this didn't lead to the villain squeezing him for answers.

"A month?" Scar repeated. That was a long time, longer than he himself had been here. "Were you one of the first patients here?"

Unfortunately, the former lion definitely intended to squeeze answers out of the boy. One of the things wanted to know was how long this Landels Institute actually already existed. Another thing was what happened to the disappeared patients. Possibly it would give them more insight on why they were actually here.

Mello was going to investigate the files of the released ones, wasn't he? And now he had disappeared. Had he discovered something or was it mere coincidence? If it was the former, he had to wonder how much Landel actually knew about what they were doing. Him most likely knowing everything before coming here was uncomfortable enough as it was.

"Well, I don't know about that," Sora said with a shrug. He wasn't always a modest person, but in this case he wasn't going to make a claim like that when he didn't think it was the truth. "I mean, I'm one of the people who's been around the longest, I guess, but there were people who were here before me and have now disappeared."

It was hard to say how many others had been around before that, and Sora wasn't sure he wanted to think about it too hard. Landel's might have even started up years ago, for all they knew. To think that Mr. Landel had put so many people through this painful situation was just terrible...

If Scar expected him to know a ton of stuff, then he was probably going to end up disappointed. Other than that one time when he had found the television with Renji and Nowe, Sora hadn't ever stumbled upon anything too interesting. He had known about the building change that Mello had been so curious about, but he wasn't sure if that had actually led to any discoveries.

"Is that so?" Scar said. "A lot of people do disappear, it seems." Quite some people he had met had disappeared without a trace, which was rather inconvenient when you tried to form allies. It made others rather unreliable despite how useful they might be otherwise.

Who would have thought he would have this discussion with some boy?

Before their talk could progress any further, though, the intercom went off which meant it was time for dinner. Sora couldn't say he was as excited about nightshift as he had been yesterday, but he also wasn't willing to give up on the task at hand.

At least it looked like Scar had calmed down some. Sora still hadn't gotten much information out of him, but it wasn't like he could force the lion-man to tell him what was going on.

"Well, I guess that's all for today. I'll see you around." In other words, Sora would be keeping an eye on Scar if he could. That was easier said than done in this place, but still. The boy got to his feet and wandered off to meet a nurse.

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Day 40: Greenhouse [Fourth Shift]

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