damned_institute | Day 41: Breakfast

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Day 41: Breakfast

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute.

He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, not sitting up just yet. He could tell already that his torso had been heavily bandaged, even more so than it had been the night before. The cuts on his arms were covered with fresh bandages, and the one on his cheek seemed to no longer be there at all.

Endrance had been expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, but even that seemed numbed. "They must have given me something," he murmured quietly, as he slowly sat up.

At that moment, his nurse came to get him, pushing a wheelchair along with her. "Peyton, dear, good morning. I've come to take you to breakfast, so..." He shook his head. "I'm fine. There's no need for that...I can walk perfectly well."

She sighed. Well, if he insisted, she wasn't going to stop him. She motioned for an orderly to take the chair away, and walked him to the cafeteria. Once they had gotten there, she pointed him toward a seat, then set a full tray of pancakes covered with syrup, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Now eat all of that, Peyton, or else you won't be strong enough to keep walking like that."

He glared at her back as she walked away, then stopped suddenly. There was that faint pulse he'd felt the night before...it was exactly the same.

And so he completely ignored his food in favor of staring at the cafeteria doors, looking at every patient that came in.

[thread will be closed to Haseo. ♥]

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Kibitoshin flushed again at the command and stared down into his lap again, momentarily silenced. "I'm sorry, sir, it's just... all happening so quickly." He slumped back, biting his lip anxiously. Frankly, he couldn't understand how Javert could just sit there and explain it all so calmly. This was serious! "I can't believe this is happening."

The mention of a head doctor at least renewed a little hope for him. "A head doctor? As in, he's in charge?" His eyes widened. "He must be a powerful warrior!" Powerful enough, at least, to keep a Kaioshin here and take away his powers. Even an untrained one.

Javert hadn't actually expected the order to work. That was surprising, but he wasn't about to complain about it. "I can't blame you, M. Kibitoshin; it's quite a lot to take in a matter of minutes, and I don't expect you to react calmly. Frankly, the fact that you believe me at all is surprising."

He wasn't entirely sure why the other man's face brightened at the mention of a head doctor, unless he was thinking of taking the man on himself. Stupid idea. "There's a Head Doctor, yes - Martin Landel. I wouldn't call him a warrior, but there's certainly more to him than meets the eye. I haven't seen him myself, but he appeared in the chapel on the morning of the day I arrived, and there are quite a few patients here who have seen him."

"Huh? Why wouldn't I believe you?" Javert looked older and sounded a lot smarter than him- that was reason enough to trust him, wasn't it? "I can't imagine why you'd want to lie to me, if we're in the same situation."

So this Martin Landel person wasn't a warrior... probably a good thing. He'd probably have been a lot stronger than him if he was. "Then is he some kind of wizard? Like Babidi?" A thought struck him quite out of the blue and, with his self-control caught unawares, managed to carry off his mouth. "Do you think he was the one that changed my colour? After all, I used to be purple but now I'm earthling-coloured, so he must have used magic to change me!"

The young Kaioshin paused for breath. "... I'm not crazy, you know."

Javert raised an eyebrow. Naïve to boot, then. But presumably not mad - or at least, no madder than most of the patients here.

"He appears human, at the very least, but nobody is entirely sure who he is, or how he manages to make such trouble for the rest of us. It's entirely possible that he's the one who changed your color, though how he might have done that is up for debate. Perhaps magic is involved; perhaps it isn't." A dry laugh. "You see our knowledge about the man behind the scenes is not exactly extensive."

He took a bite of egg. "Very few people here are crazy. We're simply trapped in here for no apparent reason, much like yourself."

"I'd call this a little more than 'trouble'," Kibitoshin answered, staring glumly down at his plate. Now he really didn't feel like eating, no matter how good it looked. "And I thought the universe couldn't be any more difficult than it already is."

Javert, on the other hand, didn't seem to be having any trouble putting away his meal. Actually, he didn't sound all that bothered about the situation. In a strange way, it helped. Maybe he was part saiyan or something? Though the saiyans Kibitoshin had known had been big and brawny, and Javert was, well... "How long have you been trapped here, anyway? You sound like a real expert."

"It gets worse, I'm afraid. Are you any good in a fight?" Kibitoshin looked capable enough from a physical standpoint, but the man(?)'s apparent tendency to wax hysterical wasn't exactly a point in his favor. Still, almost everyone here had some hidden secrets or another, and Kibitoshin had already revealed that he was capable of some unidentifiable power in his home world, dulled as it might be here.

"Almost three weeks now - not a particularly significant time, but I suppose I've been here longer than most." Javert shook his head slightly, half-smirking. "I only keep my eyes and ears open, nothing more."

Kibitoshin broke into a sunny smile. Now that was something he could say about himself! Or, at least, he hoped he could... "I may not be as strong as Goku or Ve- ah, anyone else I know, but I'm no pushover! Well," he added swiftly, "I like to think I'm not." Whether anyone else would agree was another story. "Can you?"

Even if Javert didn't look like a fighter, that didn't mean that he couldn't fight at all. That was easy enough to understand. Or maybe he was a master of the mind, like Piccolo? He must have been doing something right to be okay after three weeks in a place like this, at any rate.

Javert snorted slightly. "Well enough to stay alive." It was easier now that he'd gotten something actually resembling a proper weapon; spending the first two weeks swinging ineffectually at anything and nothing with a scrap metal bat hadn't exactly been the best of times.

"That's something I haven't talked about - Nightshift. What happens during the day is something of a nuisance, but one gets used to the nurses' pitying glances and the doctors telling one that one is hopelessly mad. At night, though, the patient doors unlock and we're permitted to roam free in the Institute." A dry laugh. "The only catch is that some patients are taken for experimentation; some are brainwashed, given their powers back, and told to fight against their fellow patients; and horrific monsters are set loose on all and sundry. Hence my question."

It had been going so well. Javert had sounded smart enough to be reliable and trustworthy, and maybe even strong enough to not have to worry about. And then, just when Kibitoshin had thought things might be okay, he'd dropped a bombshell on him. Experimentation. Brainwashing. Monsters. Kibitoshin's blood pressure soared.

"What?!" he spluttered, voice shooting up by several octaves, "You... you can't be serious! There's got to be some way of escaping, there just has to be! That's just plain sadistic! Who in the galaxy would do something like that?!" He shook his head furiously. "I can't believe this! How am I ever going to get out of here in one piece?" The question wasn't rhetorical; staring desperately across at the table, the Kaioshin seemed to be willing Javert to have some kind of answer for him.

Splash. He'd just hit the bottom of the well.

This time, Javert had been expecting the other man's reaction.

"Calm down," he said sharply. He wasn't smiling now. "I'm not going to say there's a definite way of escaping just yet, because if there is one, we don't know about it. But we're looking. Letting us loose still gives us the opportunity to search the institute, regardless of what Landel throws in our way. I've heard some patients have even managed to get outside of the building, though they still find themselves returned to their rooms come morning."

He fiddled unconsciously with the fork in his hand. "Those patients who were here before me have formed various organizations to deal with exploration and the like in a more efficient manner. If you see any advertisements for clubs on the bulletin board in the Sun Room, those are the organizations in question. I'd advise lending your services to one; you can make allies and travel relatively safely at night if you do."

The reaction was equally sharp. In an instant, Kibitoshin was sitting bolt upright in his chair and listening hard, trying his very best to project the very picture of a dutiful servant. “Y-yes, sir! I’m sorry, sir!” Under the table, however, his hands were clenched tightly, white knuckles out of Javert’s line of sight. No need to ruin a good image, after all…

“R-right. I guess I could do that. ” But what services would he have to offer to them? Especially since he couldn’t even use his instantaneous transmission anymore, and hadn’t that been his only major job back home? Glorified intergalactic taxi driver? “Umm… not pry, sir, but what have you been doing since you arrived? I can’t imagine you’ve been doing the same sort of thing every night. Not that I’m saying it would be boring or anything, but…” Great. Talking about being bored in a place like this. Really mature. If the Elder Kaioshin had been here he'd have him doing laps for weeks.

Probably a soldier, or whatever the non-Earth equivalent of that was. At least it sounded as if Javert was being believed, which was saying something, considering he wasn't exactly giving the other man time to react properly. Definitely time to ease up from the sound of it.

"It tends to vary nightly. Sometimes I've done exploring on my own or with others; sometimes I've collected supplies or files from rooms upstairs. My pet project at the moment is investigating the experimental treatments that take place every other night." Which finally seemed to be taking off after nights of fruitless exploration. "If you're at all capable of defending yourself, I'm sure you'll be able to help in a variety of ways. What powers did you have before you arrived here?"

It certainly sounded as though Javert kept himself busy at nights. And maybe, with everyone in the room all working at the same kind of thing, there really was some kind of hope for him!

"Let me see." Kibitoshin sat back thoughtfully, counting off on his fingers as he spoke. "I could teleport between dimensions, use ki energy, heal people, use magic materialism (that's creating things out of nothing), sense people's ki energy..."

Ah! Of course! Instead of pondering over Javert's strength, why didn't he just check himself?

Letting his list tail off, he smiled brightly, gave the man a quick, "One moment, please!" and began to try and mentally separate his energy signature out from the rest of the universe's. Human, to his surprise, maybe a little over average but nothing like the humans he'd known to have fought on Earth, like Yamcha. And for some reason, the universe felt a lot smaller than it had before. Almost as though he was only picking up on the ki energy of the people in the room.

... oh, no. What kind of guardian of the universe was he supposed to be now?!

"Quite a list." Javert's eyebrow raised. To be honest, he hadn't expected such an extensive range of capabilities. No doubt some or all of them had been weakened here, but it was still impressive.

Briefly he wondered when he had started thinking of the existence of mystical powers as 'impressive' as opposed to, say, 'preposterous' or 'ridiculous.' This place did do bizarre things to people.

The look on Kibitoshin's face said enough. "Powers a bit dulled now, are they?"

"Y-yeah..." Kibitoshin nodded weakly. "I can't believe I didn't notice until now." And that begged the question of what powers he had left. It would be tough to check now, but if the night more open, like Javert said it was, he could always try then. Oh, why couldn't Goku have been here?!

Swallowing down his concern, he just about managed to give the man a grateful smile. "Thank you, sir! You've been very helpful. If there's anything I can do for you anytime, just ask!"

Not that he wouldn't have been able to do it better anyway, most likely, but it was always polite to offer.

Javert shook his head slightly. "There's no need for recompense. It's simply best if everyone knows what's going on. If you've any more questions, feel free to ask me. Good luck, M. Kibitoshin."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his nurse approaching. With a final nod to Kibitoshin, he stood up and left with her.

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Day 41: Breakfast

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