damned_institute | Night 41: M01-10 Hallway

"Dude, that totally bites! You had to clean the whole thing? Man! And I thought Guardian and Dubbilex were bad when they wanted to punish me!" Before Kon could ask what Kurt had done to get a punishment like that someone was knocking on the door. Which meant it wasn't Bart 'cause if he actually started knocking like a normal person Kon was going to assume he'd been replaced by his clone or something.

"What was the name of the guy who's gonna heal you again?" he asked, squeezing Kurt's shoulder reassuringly before he walked over to the door. That had been really fast. Hopefully this guy would really be able to heal all of Kurt's burns. Being stuck in a place like this when you were hurt had to be a little worrying, even with Superboy watching out for you.

Kurt looked up at the door when the knock came, perking his ears a little. That was pretty fast. Almost too fast... Kurt's stomach started twisting uncomfortably, like it always did when he met someone who didn't know his 'secret'.

"Euh, Freyador, but he said Frey was fine," Kurt said, his tail moving under the covers. One thing at a time, really...

Tim looked up, and there were no words for all the emotion that screamed through him.

Kon.

Young and alive and his hair wasn't all short somehow, even though Luthor had made him shave it off, and alive alive alive.

Alive and so obviously Kon. Not a lie, not a trick, unless somehow he was dreaming or hallucinating.

"Kon..." he said, but there wasn't anything else to say. He didn't move, because he didn't trust himself not to do something really stupid in front of whoever else was in the room.

Making sure to block the view into the room, Kon blinked uncertainly down at the guy on the other side of the door. How did he know his name? And why was he looking at him like that? Eh, maybe Kurt had mentioned Kon or he'd seen him mentioned somewhere. Or maybe he knew who Superboy was? But that didn't explain the weird way he was looking at him. Whatever. It wasn't a big deal. Grinning he replied, "Yeah, that's me! Frey, right? Look, before you see Kurt there's something I gotta tell you..."

How did you say 'my friend looks really different at night to how he looks during the day and he thinks he looks like a monster which he totally doesn't and if you freak out and hurt him I'm going to kick your ass into next week' tactfully? Eh, he'd just go for it, that plan normally worked. Plowing onwards he said, "He doesn't look the same at night as he does during the day, but he's still the same guy, OK? And he thought you'd appreciate some warning before you saw him." That... seemed to cover it. Looking at Frey he waited for some sort of confirmation before he let him in.

Kurt looked around Kon's body, catching sight of the other young man's black hair. Frey had silver hair, not black--and obviously Kon would recognize his friend. So whoever that was, it wasn't anyone they knew.

"Kon..." Kurt said, voice edged with fear. His good hand drifted to his bandaged one, ready to pull out his IV and teleport both of them if necessary. "Kon that isn't Frey..."

Tim frowned. "Are you kidding me? What the hell, of course I'm not Frey. Who is Frey?"

And what the hell was going on here? Who was...oh. Right. Kurt must be Kon's roommate. But why would he look different? That was weird. Well, whatever, it wasn't like Tim had some basis of comparison. He hadn't heard the name Kurt until now.

"Some girl take it the wrong way and hit you in the head, Superboy?" he asked, all of Robin's scathing cynicism obvious in his voice. "Or do you just have selective amnesia because you're afraid I'm going to hit you?"

The idea was actually laughable. He wouldn't waste time trying to hit Kon. He could break his hand that way!

There was...something he was missing. He thought for a minute. Something about the timeline difference. Superboy wasn't dead, but why wouldn't he recognize Robin? There was some vital piece to the puzzle here. Tim thought back to the conversations on the bulletin board, but he wasn't quite sure what was going on. Yet.

"What?" Kon looked between Kurt and the new guy in confusion. So this wasn't the guy to heal Kurt? And it wasn't anyone Kon had met here so who? And how did he know him? Kon was even more confused when the guy opened his mouth and started bitching him out. But he wasn't going to stand there and take that sort of thing, answering hotly "Girls never take me the wrong way! And why would I expect you to hit me?" He frowned, looking the guy over again. There was something familiar about him. Like they'd met somewhere and Kon only half-remembered him. But he had a really good memory for people and he didn't think he'd have forgotten whoever this was.

There.... had been that person on the bulletin board who'd said he knew Superboy and had signed his note 'R'. Kon had thought it might be Batman setting him up to get in trouble again but this guy- If Kon pretended he couldn't see his eyes, like there was a mask there and if he started lurking in the shadows like a total freak-

"Rob?" Grinning hugely Kon poked him in the chest. "Dude! Rob! What the hell? Why didn't you say you were here? And why would I ever be scared of you?" He was older than Kon remembered sure and maybe there were some other differences if he really looked but everything else fit. It had to be him!

Edited 2009-06-02 08:39 (UTC)

It sounded like this person was another one of Kon's friends--one that Kon hadn't expected to come visit tonight. It made Kurt a little nervous, realizing that there would be three new people tonight, but from Kon's tone it didn't sound like he had anything to worry about.

So he relaxed and pulled his sheets up a little, trying to seem, if not unobtrusive, non-threatening.

"I had reasons," Tim said. Had Kon honestly not recognized him? That was weird. That meant that this Kon hadn't ever seen him without the mask. That seemed like a thousand years ago, to Tim. Kon had given him such crap for it, then not believed him when he said his name was Alvin Draper...

Wait, did Kon not know his name, either?

Wonderful.

"Look, are we going to stand here in the hallway all night, or what?"

He'd been right! It was Robin! Right there and maskless - even if it was only because this place had taken his mask away, it was still cool to get to see what he really looked like.

Cool, and a little weird. In just the stupid patient uniform they were made to wear Robin looked- well, weird. There was still something Robin-y about him but without the cape and mask and whatever else he also looked.... normal. Like if he stopped being such a huge freak he might actually be a normal guy under there.

Kon jumped when Robin spoke again. He'd been kind of zoning, trying to figure out what was different about Rob now but he quickly replied, "Why should I let you in? You've been avoiding me and Imp and siccing you-know-who on us!" In spite of his words, Kon stepped aside to allow Robin to enter the room. Turning to Kurt he said, "Kurt, this is Robin. He's one of my team-mates from Young Justice."

'Siccing you-know-who on us'? That... didn't sound promising. Nevertheless, if this person was one of Kon's friends (and it seemed that way... they tended to banter back and forth a lot like Kitty and Lance, but she'd kill him for saying so), then he figured that he didn't have much to be afraid of.

"Nice to meet you," Kurt said, his thick German accent laced with a nervous undertone. "I'm Kon's, euh, roommate."

Tim looked visibly confused. Siccing...wait, was he talking about Bruce? Well, wasn't that something. It kind of made sense that the Batman here wouldn't trust Kon. He wouldn't know Kon, and Kon was a Super. He wondered if Bruce had any idea just who Kon was cloned from. Really, the answer to that was obvious. Kon didn't know about that, yet. Although this time, Tim didn't plan on enlightening him. That had been pretty nasty last time. At least Luthor himself wasn't around to break that ice.

He stepped into the room, making a point not to brush against Kon. He didn't want to touch him. Well, no, that was a lie. But after that ridiculous emotional response with Bruce in the Sun Room, he didn't want to touch him when someone else was around. He was already having a hard enough time playing this game. He didn't know how long he could keep it up. Maybe it would be better if he just left.

But for now...

"Nice to meet you too," he said, nodding to Kurt. The other boy sounded pretty nervous, but Tim wasn't that concerned with him for the moment.

"Kon, I just woke up here today at lunch. Unless there's more than one of me, I didn't talk to you until earlier today on the bulletin board."

Shutting the door, Kon grinned pointedly at Kurt. Robin hadn't even blinked when he saw Kurt. If that wasn't proof that he was right and the people Kurt had met before were total losers he didn't know what was.

Turning back to Robin - who he kind of wanted to poke again to make sure he was really Robin or something like that - he said, "You did? So that wasn't you the other day?" After getting jumped by Batman he'd thought it had to have been him but when Robin showed up he'd thought maybe he'd been right to begin with and Rob was just avoiding them 'cause he didn't have his mask. But if Robin had just woken up here today then that meant it had been Batman after all. Great.

"No wonder he was pissed," he muttered, scowling at the wall. It wasn't fair for Batman to pretend to be Robin to catch him and Imp out. Not that Batman did fair. Stupid Bats. Shaking it off, Kon gave into the urge and poked Robin again. "You were being really weird - more than usual - then. What was with those notes?"

Wait, wait! Other realities, remember? He'd mentioned having met two Superboys, this Robin must be from another world. "Uh- I mean- It was weird for my Rob, yeah? I dunno what's normal for you. You look just like him - I think - just older. But you can't be that different, you're both giant freaks."

Okay, so maybe it was true that Robin hadn't even taken a second look at him--but he was a special case, wasn't he? Like Kon had been. Even though Kon's first reaction had been 'touch without asking', but whatever. He smiled back at Kon, trying to look relieved.

As for what they were talking about, Kurt didn't have the faintest clue what was going on. It sounded like there was some sort of misunderstanding. Like Kon thought Robin was someone else? Or someone else was Robin? He didn't even know.

Kurt normally didn't like listening in on personal, serious conversations, but he couldn't really help it, bedridden as he was. Kon's way of connecting 'his' Rob with this person nearly had him facepalming, though.

Tim shook his head and glared at Kon. He would do something retarded like touch him when he least wanted it. How like him.

He didn't really think they were from different worlds like he and Bruce; he just thought they were different times. Only a few years, but so much had happened in those past years.

Tim didn't know yet if this would be worth it. If they would be friends this way. If they would...

No, it didn't matter. This Kon was younger, brasher, slightly more annoying. He was still definitely Kon, but Tim was pretty sure things between them couldn't be like he wanted. There was too much that he knew that Kon didn't - and Superboy's death wasn't really the part that mattered the most.
"I don't know if it's another world. I think it's just...another time. Not like Batman. He's from a different world entirely."

He stared off at the wall. He wanted to cross his arms, but the closet rod he was holding made that awkward, so he didn't.

Instead, he changed the subject.

He tilted his head at Kurt. He'd noticed that the kid was off, but...wait, was he blue? So he was a meta. If he was bad news, Kon wouldn't be all nice about him like that. But Tim was curious as to just what kind of meta he was.

"You know, I don't think I saw you around during the day," he said. "I'm sure I'd have noticed."

God, Robin was still a prissy little bitch when it came to people touching him. The way he acted, you'd think Kon was groping him or had just been picking his nose or something. Rolling his eyes he asked, "How do you know that? Batman didn't seem that different to me."

Robin probably had a good reason for thinking they were from different times - he usually did with stuff like this but it'd be nice if he decided to share for once. Rob did look older than Kon remembered so he was probably from the future. Which was really cool, it meant no matter what happened here, Kon's mission would work out and he'd save the world. And it meant they were going to escape 'cause Robin would've mentioned it if Kon had just vanished one day and never been seen again. But then, Bart was from a few months ago and he hadn't mentioned anything about this place before so maybe not? .....Time travel could really give you a headache!

Shaking his head, Kon resolved to stop thinking about stuff like that, instead watching Kurt and Robin. He kept quiet for the moment, figuring Kurt could explain the whole looking different thing on his own.

Kurt looked a little surprised when Robin addressed him. He expected this back-and-forth questioning to go on at least until Frey arrived to break it up. So he stared for a moment, processing Robin's question.

"Euh... right! I uh, have this thing."

...yeah, awesome introduction to his image inducer right there.

"I think," he amended, holding up his bandaged hand. The bracelet was still tightly clasped around his wrist, even though the bandages made it a tight fit. "Back home, I had a holograph projector in the form of a watch that made me look, well... normal. So I could go to school without people harassing me or something. I think this bracelet does the same thing. I look normal during the day, and at night... it stops working."

He felt a little strange, like he was defending why he looked so weird right now. "Normally, I have black hair with some blue tints and black eyes. And four fingers..." He thought it was necessary to specify.

Tim glanced at Kon. "I talked to him earlier today. He's not from my world. Not even close. Not from yours, either, even if you and I are from different ones." He didn't bother elaborating on that. It wasn't Kon's business, and getting choked up now sure wasn't going to help anything.

It had been a long day.

Turning back to Kurt, he said, "Let me guess. The so called doctors don't know a thing about what you normally look like, do they?" It was a gamble; maybe they did know. But he was a smart kid. Following the trend of how weird everything was (aside from them knowing his real name, somehow), they probably acted as if the blue guy wasn't supposed to be blue.

"What happened to you, anyway? Looks pretty bad from here."

Making a face at Robin's completely unhelpful answer, Kon poked him again. He was still kind of caught up in being able to see Robin's face so he wasn't going to complain that much but geez! Would it kill him to explain?

Winking at Kurt he said, "That's the amazing deduction of the world's second greatest detective there! 'The doctors in this crazy prison where they tell us we're someone we're not don't know what you really look like!' Isn't he brilliant?" If Rob was going to be like that - admittedly 'like that' was normal for him but whatever - Kon was going to have to make his own fun.

"...actually, both of the holograms look the same," Kurt said, raising an eyebrow slightly. He wasn't exactly getting what Kon and Robin were dropping. 'Normally' for him meant 'Not Mutant'. "But the one I have now must be more advanced, because it looks like all of my fingers are independent--and I can't feel my tail or my fur. Or my teeth. But other than that, I guess they do know what I look like normally. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to make a reproduction, right?

"And nothing happened to me," Kurt said, his ears drooping a little. "This is how I was born..."

It didn't really occur to him that maybe Robin was talking about his injuries. Whenever Kurt met someone who didn't immediately respond positively to his appearance, it felt to him as though there was an elephant in the room that no one was looking at. It was probably dumb to think, but honestly, how else could he respond? Everyone in Germany was constantly staring, whispering, throwing things at him, chasing him out of places, putting rocks through his family's windows... to say nothing of his recurring nightmares.

Edited 2009-06-03 10:36 (UTC)

Tim didn't bother telling Kon to knock it off this time. Maybe if he didn't respond at all to it, he'd stop on his own. Not that Tim was that lucky, but...it was worth a shot.

He rolled his eyes at Kon's remark, though. "I'm not the second greatest," he said, but he had to bite down to keep from adding not anymore. Now wasn't the time to get into that. Maybe there wouldn't ever be a time to get into that; that would have been his preference. But things like that, well, who could say? If he caught Kon alone, he had no idea what would come out of his mouth. He'd have to be careful.

He raised an eyebrow at Kurt. "What? The holograms? I mean the doctors don't acknowledge that you normally are blue. The fact that you can't even feel your fur or tail during the day, though...that doesn't sound like any holographic technology I've ever heard of. Are they giving you any medication at all?"

What was going on here?

It took him a second to understand the other part of Kurt's answer. So he was a meta that was born a meta. Okay, great, was that really such news? There were others out there like that. Not all of them, of course. Gar Logan hadn't been born green, after all. But Starfire had been born gold. She wasn't a meta, of course, but still.

"Wait, you think I was asking about your appearance? No, no, I mean your injuries! You look all banged up. Your appearance doesn't bother me."

Did Kurt usually get crap about it in his world? Well, he must, or why use a hologram, duh. Although he couldn't say Kurt would have necessarily fared better in any other world. Prejudice was a nasty thing.

"That's not what you usually tell us, Boy Wonder," Kon muttered. Robin normally couldn't shut up about that or how he'd been trained by the world's greatest detective. Though there was maybe something weird about the way Robin had said that. He wasn't sure and there was still something about this Robin that was bugging him. He seemed really different from the way Kon remembered him and he wouldn't think a few years - or however long it had been - would make that big a difference.

Frowning at Kurt's gloomy answer Kon walked back to flop in the chair by his bed, poking him - gentler than he'd been with Robin because of the burns - as he said "You look normal now doofus. Didn't I tell you your world sucks? No one where I'm from'd think you look weird."

He perked up when Robin asked if Kurt was being drugged here. He hadn't even thought of something like that but it made way more sense then him getting switched between bodies or whatever. Unless there was a super-powerful telepath screwing with everyone's heads or something. But then the other telepath would've picked it up, right? "You really think they could be drugging us? 'Cause I've run into a few guys who are normally aliens or robots but here they're human and that doesn't sound like drugs to me. But," Kon hesitated, he didn't want to admit it but Rob had probably already guessed since Kon was still here and all. "My tactile telekinesis doesn't work properly here. And I guess that could be drugs."

Kurt looked embarrassed now. Great, he'd assumed Robin was being just another anti-mutant jerk, but he'd been asking about his injuries. God the idea of meeting three new people was getting to him.

"I-I'm sorry, Kon's right," Kurt said, twisting his bedsheet in his two-fingered hands. "Everyone... well, pretty much all the non-mutants I met back home were... more than a little afraid of me. My world is not the same as yours. People who don't understand us--mutants, I mean--are afraid of us. And a lot of them don't hesitate to show us just how afraid they are...

"A-anyway," Kurt continued quickly, trying to get off the subject of mutant-haters. "I got these injuries last night. Some guy who could shoot fire out of his hands obviously didn't like me very much. He shot columns of fire at my two teammates, and I tried to save one... but I couldn't teleport." The points of his ears drooped again. "So I kind of... got a little crispy there."

Kurt looked thoughtful on the topic of drugs, eyebrows furrowing. "My nurse hasn't given me anything," he said slowly. "But I definitely can't feel my tail or my hands. I mean, sometimes I'd get a little worried because I couldn't feel my tail. But Professor Xavier told me that was normal--it was just my brain being unable to 'feel' something that my eyes couldn't see. But I'd consciously move it, and I could feel it again. It's not like that here..."

Drugs would make sense, though. Perhaps he was being given a drug that neutralized his X-gene during the day? But then why could he teleport at night, and why the bracelet? And why the limited teleportation as well?

"But at night," he continued. "At night we just... black out. And end up back here. What happens during that period? Does anyone know?"

"Things change, Kon," Tim said, and he couldn't keep all of the sadness out of his voice. Everything was different now. Everyone he loved was dead. Well, no, not everyone - but close. And Bruce...

He didn't want to think about that. He didn't have any mask to hide behind, anywhere to run away to. He'd be better off here with Superboy and Kurt than he would out in the hallway by himself. Where would he go, anyway? He'd have to formulate a real plan. He could ask Kon, or he could stick with Bruce. He wasn't sure which one of those options would be easier. They both had their good points, but they both had their bad points, too.

"How is that possible? Are you saying that people have gotten out before, and then somehow come back in the morning? That doesn't sound right. If you get out, you get out..."

He'd never heard of anything like that before. Although, there might be a time-release drug that was given to the patients that forced them to pass out at a certain hour. Maybe if he kept an eye on the clock...

But surely that wasn't foolproof. A drug like that for a human being wouldn't work on a Kryptonian, for instance. And how could they possibly restrict Kon's beloved tactile telekinesis?

"Kon. Are you able to use the TTK during the day at all? How far is it restricted right now?"

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/629246.html?thread=53652990#t53652990)]

Looking back at Juri and Takaya for a moment, Frey said hesitantly, "Well, this should be it." It seemed silly to state the obvious, since he'd just explained a moment ago that it should be the farthest door in this hallway, but saying nothing to his companions seemed rude. Frey was just no good at conversation.

Stifling a sigh, Frey turned back towards the door and knocked politely.

Night 41: M01-10 Hallway

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