damned_institute | Day 43: Intercom, Evening

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Day 43: Intercom, Evening

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

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And now? Now was the moment of truth. He’d been too busy flying up and down all day to get nervous, but as the door to M71 came closer, his stomach erupted with butterflies. Giant, organ smashing butterflies.

All right, you can do this, Parker, he told himself. You’ve come clean with MJ and Aunt May and Gwen before.

But this was different. Brainiac 5 was still by and large a total stranger. Circumstance had made them weirdly…connected? Friends? Were they friends? Peter wasn’t sure. The other boy had trouble relating to people, obviously, but the two of them had been launched into a total crap storm together, and that had given them something to cling to. He wanted to help him, absolutely, but there was still this wall between them that prevented Peter from thinking they were anything closer than acquaintances. Even with the whole sobbing his shoulder thing that one time. Besides, it had only been five days since they’d met, and now he had to spill the beans on Spider-Man.

He really, really sucked at this secret identity thing.

The room seemed even narrower than usual as the nurse deposited him in his desk and handed him a tray. Brainy was already steadfastly working on his notes, and with some concern Peter noted that he’d barely touched his supper. His own nurse clucked at the other boy.

“Both of you. For goodness’ sake. If these plates aren’t licked clean by next morning, I’ll have no choice but to supervise all your meals. And Tyler - don’t you give me those eyes, young man - I realize that you aren’t feeling well, but if you start any more shenanigans tonight, I will notify your doctor. That clear?”

“Yes, ma‘am.”

She studied him suspiciously, but soon made her way to the door.

And that left Peter with nothing to do but confess. One of the butterflies was turning his kidney into pulp. Good thing he had two of them. He tried to smile, but it didn‘t come out quite right. More like someone had taken a ruler to his face and drawn a line straight across.

“…So…how…how was your day?”

Brainiac 5 had largely ignored both Peter and the nurse's entrance - even when the nurse commented on how little he'd eaten, he barely looked up from his work - and was, for all intents and purposes, oblivious to the other boy's nervousness until Peter suddenly addressed him.

He glanced up, frowning as though he'd only just recalled he even had a roommate. But unfortunately for Peter, the confusion was only momentary and rapidly replaced by an annoyed look.

"I had a lot to think about," he said flatly. His gaze dropped back to the page and he rapidly finished completing the inhumanly neat line of alien print he'd been working on before setting the book aside in order to direct a pointed look at the other boy. "I'm sure you can imagine why.

"I think you owe me an explanation, Peter."

Craaaaaaaap. That look did not bode well.

Peter ducked his head, poking distractedly at his food. It looked delicious, no arguing there, but with his mouth as dry as paper and his stomach all in knots it was impossible to think about eating.

He supposed Brainy could have been taking it worse. Aunt May had nearly kicked him out of the house. Gwen pulled a gun on him (although she thought that Spider-Man had killed her father, so that didn‘t count.) Strange, though, that he’d been so cavalier about it last night only to change his mind today. Probably just had enough time to let it stew.

Nervous as he was, he made a point of meeting Brainy‘s glare with if not a determined gaze then hopefully something less cowardly than he was feeling at the moment. Although he might as well not have bothered, seeing how he still couldn’t keep from shrinking in his seat. At least one out of two was better than nothing.

“Would you believe that I’m just a humble acrobat? Because that would be really nice. We can go back to our regular awkward conversations and not eat dinner.”

Brainiac 5 blinked, and there was a look of confusion on his face now that indicated he had no idea what on Earth Peter was talking about. "A 'humble acrobat'," he began, "what does that have to do with--"

Ah. The night before. Not only had it mostly slipped his mind considering everything that had happened to him today, but even if he had been thinking of then, he'd have been wondering more about Dorian and Christian than Peter's display of skill. And his unusual blue friend. He waved a hand dismissively at the other boy.

"Actually, I was referring to something more important than the possibly metahuman abilities you were keeping from me," he said, though Peter still got a pointed look about that as well. "Though I haven't forgotten last night and I do still have questions about that as well."

"No," Brainiac 5 continued. "Instead I was referring to something far more pressing and immediate." With some difficulty, he was able to shift his wheelchair away from the desk in order to face Peter fully, which made things much easier. "What were you thinking, antagonising Grell like that? If your goal was to try and help the situation, then I'm afraid it didn't work."

"In fact," he added quietly, lowering his eyes and staring downcast at his hands, "I believe it might be the opposite."

…Once again, Craaaaaaaap.

First of all, he was an idiot. Brainy wouldn’t have remembered his freakish display last night if he hadn’t said anything, and now there was no escaping. He had an out, and he blew it. God, he was so stupid. Matt would never do anything like that.

Secondly, how did he know it was him on the board? Peter wasn't the only one who knew about the attacks. And he'd spent a good half an hour making up a new handwriting style just to pester Grell with, so he couldn't have figured it out just by looking at the notes. (Unless he was one of those handwriting expert guys, too. Like if you cross your 't's diagonally you hate your parents and listen to Avenged Sevenfold.) Not to mention Brainy had never been exposed to his maximum potential of smart mouth, seeing as how most of their conversations ended in total emotional disaster. With that in mind, tacking waffles to the bulletin board should seem pretty out of character to the Peter that Brainy knew and didn't quite love. So how did…frick.

Play dumb, Parker. You’re actually kind of good at that.

“…Antagonizing Grell?” he repeated slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"Antagonising Grell," Brainiac 5 repeated, eyes narrowing at his idiot roommate. "Don't think I didn't see that display. It was difficult to miss." The smell of maple syrup was most likely going to linger around the bulletin board for some days at the very least. "Did you think it wouldn't be obvious who it was?"

He sighed and straightened in his chair as he began ticking points off of his fingers. "Firstly, I have told very few people the nature of my injuries, as for obvious reasons I prefer to keep them to myself. Secondly, I've told even less people that it was Grell who attacked me, and fewer still believed me. I estimate approximately three to four individuals who are aware of both pieces of information. You are one of them. And that brings me to my final point," he continued. "I can only think of one person who would be concerned enough about me to try something like that."

Grell was correct in that respect. He hadn't made many friends or allies here, and those that did know or know enough to piece together what may have happened between him and Grell didn't contain many people that actually cared enough about his wellbeing to try something so foolish. He couldn't imagine Christian or Dorian doing such a thing. Especially not Christian.

"So I ask again, why did you do that?"

If it all possible, Peter shrunk even further into his seat. For a teenage boy in a wheelchair, Brainy was doing a mighty good impression of Aunt May right now. If he didn't talk like a dictionary it would be dead on.

With each tick of the finger, Peter abruptly became more and more aware of just how dumb of an idea it was. Maybe taunting Grell seemed okay at the time, because he needed to dump on something and the guy was bullying Brainy again over nothing and he wanted it to stop. He knew that Brainy wouldn't approve, but Grell was stalking him. Watching his every move for the sake of entertainment, and he couldn't even post one note on the board without getting attacked. Peter just hadn't figured that Brainy would guess it was him. Wasn't thinking much at all, actually.

He wet his lips thoughtfully, but didn't meet Brainy's gaze. "Because he thinks he's invincible," Peter admitted, voice bitter and low. His eyes stayed on the plate. "And frankly? That sickens me. You can't even write a message without him jumping all over you anymore, and no one is doing anything about it. I mean, people - the notes have been all over, and there's people arguing about it. Maybe not a lot, but still. No one is even trying.

"And I knew you would hate it, but I can't just sit back and let him bully you. If he comes after me, at least I can defend myself. Better that than letting him keep stalking you and coming back until he gets bored and just...ends it." He shook his head incomprehensibly. "I don't care who or what he was back home. He's not all powerful here."

Edited 2009-08-28 03:59 (UTC)

Brainiac 5 dropped his gaze and looked away. He suddenly felt vaguely uncomfortable about discussing this, so busied himself with dragging over his notebook and scanning the lines of print instead. "Your concern is," he began, then paused, searching for a word before giving up. "I appreciate it. But this isn't the way to help the situation. You'll just make a target of yourself and I can't..."

He drew in a shuddering breath, struggling to keep himself under control. "I can't let someone else be hurt because of me..."

It was harder to keep the memories at bay now, in this room. It might look as though nothing had changed to differ it from his very first night here, but Brainiac 5 could still remember the exact place a scalpel had buried into the wall, or how the blood had soaked his clothing and speckled the floor. And it was all too easy to imagine that it might look like that again in the future. No. He couldn't, wouldn't allow Peter to be hurt - or worse - as well. If someone else were to die because of him, if Peter were to die because of him--

He didn't know if he would be able to handle that.

Unfortunately Peter didn't seem to understand how dangerous Grell was. Clark had been far from defenceless, but he'd fallen and been taken from him. And now Grell had hinted at gaining a new weapon of some kind, and Brainiac 5 didn't doubt that it was something more potent than his last choices, if he felt the need to boast about it. Something Peter most likely wouldn't be able to handle.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt," he said quietly. He hoped he'd be able to talk the other boy out of his apparent plan to draw attention to himself, but it was entirely likely that it was too late for that. In which case he'd have to hope that his offer of the deal with Grell would work for long enough to buy him some time to plan his next step. While he had no intentions of following through with the deal should the self-proclaimed death god accept, he would hopefully at least gain a day or so to think of something else.

He sighed and tapped his pen against the page for a moment, apparently considering adding something else before he gave a tiny shake of his head and set the notebook back down on the desk and cast a doubtful look at his dinner.

The pouring-over-his-notes act wasn't fooling anybody. The situation was taking its toll on Brainy - the choked voice, the beginnings of bags under his eyes, bloodless complexion, the refusal to eat. Utterly defeated. Peter's forehead creased with his frown, and he straightened a little to get a good look at his roommate.

To be frank, the last person he'd seen with that expression was Mary Jane. That day she broke up with him, having nightmares about the time Norman threw her off the bridge and watching him come home with blood and bruises all over. She'd said she couldn't handle it. Peter could understand that, but he couldn't stop. Not even for her. Although they were back together now and she was sewing his costumes and patching him up, there was the odd moment he'd catch her with that look from the corner of his eye. Like he was a marked man, and she was standing on the sidelines as he walked straight into the barrel of a gun. Which wasn't that far from the truth, sometimes.

Peter smoothed back his hair in trepidation, still damp from the showers. He knew Brainy had every right to be worried. It was kind of suicidal, he guessed, poking at death gods. But Grell was obviously just as powerless (or limited, as it were) as the rest of them, because if he wasn't he could have just levitated into the heavens or whatever and not have put up with Landel's crap in the first place. And the writers clearly weren't done with him yet, so there was a good chance he'd come out of the fight pretty clean. Maybe with some impressive new scars to show, but he wasn't going to die. He'd survived worse.

The thing was, could he convince Brainy of that? All he wanted to do was help. Keep the other boy safe. Do a better job of it than he'd done with Harry.

For a second time, Peter found himself kneeling on the floor in front of Brainy, crossing his arms and settling them on the boy's knees. He would have sat on the desk if it wasn't for the tray, and this way it was harder for Brainy to dodge eye contact.

"I'm sorry," he confessed. "I wasn't trying to make you worry or anything, and I'm really sorry that I did. I know you don't want anyone to get hurt, but that -" he licked his lips apprehensively, "- that doesn't mean you need to take all the hits yourself. I mean, look at what he did to you. He's crazy, Brainy. He's not going to leave you or anyone else alone unless someone makes him stop. Do you think I want to see you hurt?

"And you don't have to worry about me. I know how to take care of myself. I've been through a lot of crazy things - last night wasn't the half of it. Could have died a crapload of times, but I'm still here." A warm smile crept onto his face. Hopefully that would work better to put Brainy at ease than the sick-with-worry frown. "I'm shockingly hard to kill. Ask anybody. They'll tell you."

The joke fell flat in the silence that followed. Peter cleared his throat and moved on. "I know some people who could help too, honest to god superheroes. Big names back home. They take care of this kinda stuff for a living. If we tell them about it, they can help us both out - find Grell and show him what's what. So you don't have to keep letting him bully you. For anyone's sake."

Brainiac 5 abandoned his charade of being preoccupied with his dinner when Peter rose and crossed the small space between them to kneel in front of him. His mind darted back to the other night, when Peter had clung to him, sobbing from pain and grief, and how all he could do was try not to panic as he willed the other boy to let him go and... he tensed up, half expecting the same treatment again and not sure what to do about it. But fortunately that didn't happen, and Peter merely settled there with his arms resting on the Coluan boy's knees. It was still more contact than he normally felt comfortable with, but for the moment he could... tolerate it.

Peter's words he was less certain about. "I'm sorry, Peter," he said quietly, dropping his eyes from that earnest gaze and staring at his cooling dinner instead. "I understand that you're worried and want to help but... seeking out someone like that and challenging them isn't going to help the situation at all. You've just made a target of yourself and I'm afraid you don't know what you're dealing with."

He hesitated for a moment, before finally adding, "Clark was a superhero." Would have been. Wouldn't be now. "One of the greatest heroes in my world. Perhaps the greatest ever. And he--"

His breath hitched and he squeezed his eyes shut against the stinging tears forming there, desperately trying to remind himself that he couldn't afford to do this, to keep going through this day after day.

[AAAAAAAAAAAH fail fail fail ;___; IHU real life.]

The hesitant smile withered. Peter moved one hand to Brainy's good shoulder, knowing that anything more than an awkward pat would have the boy freezing up for the rest of the evening.

"Hey - hey, it's okay," he assured, "Don't cry." That was the lamest thing you could say to someone when they were crying, but he was at a total loss. What could he say that hadn't already been said? More importantly, what could he say that would actually convince Brainy things would be okay? Short of coming clean about the fiction thing, which was out of the question. He barely understood it himself, and it just made thinking about things ten times harder and made you angry when stuff like this happened. Torture. Murder.

He banished that train of thought - he was not going to start crying again. He wasn't. He had to focus on keeping Brainy alive and keeping Grell away from pretty much the entire patient population. Luxord, too.

As for Clark...huh. That explained a lot. Brainy's muted reaction to him and Kurt, for one. And how he was convinced that no one stood a chance against Grell. What sort of power would you have to have to be considered the greatest hero of all time? The closest Peter could come up with was Cap, but even his powers were a little generic. Enhancements on what people could already do. Logan might qualify. He looked thirty at a hundred years old and could heal from six bullets to the head in even fewer seconds. Not to mention his death claws.

Maybe Clark had more than one power. An amalgamation, then. Wouldn't it make sense to have his powers limited even further than the rest of the patients then? Or to lose some altogether? Peter couldn't crawl walls any more, but he got to keep his strength and some of his speed. So if he had a lot of powers he would have to lose more. They seemed to want to keep most everyone on par here. It was tempting to come out and ask Brainy instead of sitting there pulling theories out of nowhere, but he had more tact than that. The goal was to make Brainy feel better, not get him to pitch a fit.

"Listen. Nothing's gonna get solved if we just sit around and let him do what he wants. Maybe what I did wasn't the way to do it, but seriously? We have to think of something. And I'm not gonna sit this one out. I can't." He shook his head and drew away, but the arm on his knees remained. "I couldn't live with myself if I did. And I'm...I'm sorry. For Clark. I told you that already but -"

He broke off, drawing a blank. Where was he going with this? He didn't even know the guy.

"- it's rough. And I know things aren't going to feel right for a long time. A really long time. But it does get better eventually, you have to trust me on that. I've, um...I've lost people before. Before Harry even. And it sucks, it does, but things...even out in the end." Peter stopped when his throat began to thicken. Nip that one in the bud right there.

[WELL. THE AWESOME MORE THAN MADE UP FOR IT. *___*]

If you cannot endure the loss of a single 'friend', how can you hope to survive, let alone succeed, in the real world?

His ancestor was right; the time for purely emotional indulgences had passed and he needed to focus on ways to solve his problems. To make sure that what had happened with Clark didn't repeat itself with someone else. And he couldn't do that if he allowed his emotions to control him like this. It took a moment and more effort than he would have liked, but Brainiac 5 was able to regain control over himself and brush aside the specks of dampness caught in his lashes before addressing Peter again.

"No, you're- You're right," he said shakily. "I need to find a way to deal with the- my problem. I owe him that much. And I won't be able to do that if I'm constantly..."

His throat constricted and Brainiac 5 forced himself to swallow, his mouth twisting sourly. "Losing control of myself. I need to be able to focus, to think..." His eyes flicked to his notes again and a determined look settled over his face.

"But I will come up with something." Despite being in a completely different time and body, he was still a twelfth-level intellect and a Legionnaire. And it was past time he found a way to prove that Brainiac 5 was not someone to be trifled with by any means.

[WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU USED UP ALL THE AWESOME IN YOUR POSTS.]

It wasn't a complete one eighty, but it was better than two minutes ago. Peter's smile returned, a little more assertive than before, and he gave Brainy's shoulder a friendly pat. "I'm glad to hear it. I mean, it's okay to miss him, you shouldn't ever feel bad for that, but you have to take care of yourself too, right?"

He rose, feeling for the first time in days that he'd actually made a difference. It wasn't enough to get him all chipper again, but now there was a happy little bubble amongst all the queasiness and aches inside. Not like earlier, when he was messing around with Badou or tossing paint at that crazy lady. Those times, the feeling was fleeting. Bursting two seconds after the last chuckle. But knowing that he could still help people, even if it was just getting his roommate to snap out of his funk for a few minutes? It felt good. Like he'd finally done something right at Landel's.

His steak was not so hot out of the oven by now, but Peter wasn't going to be picky. He needed to eat. And nothing on his plate resembled...pieces, so he could dig in without fear of it coming back up again.

He settled into his desk and began to saw the meat, casting a narrow glance at Brainy's own plate. It was practically untouched. When was the last time he'd seen the other boy eat something? "You have a lot at brunch, or...?"

[CLEARLY THAT WAS A LIE, OTHERWISE I WOULDN'T HAVE FAILED SO HARD AT GETTING TO THIS. Dx]

Brainiac 5 relaxed as Peter rose and moved away. The contact hadn't been bad per se, but it was still something he wasn't used to just yet. Though Peter also seemed to feel better for it, which was something he supposed. He couldn't really muster up a return smile, however. It was still too sore a memory, losing Clark, and worse because of how easily he could have prevented it all if he'd only tried a little harder...

All the more reason to make sure it didn't happen again, he told himself firmly. There was nothing else he could do now.

Peter's question drew him out of half-formed thoughts and plans on how best to follow through with his conviction, and he blinked owlishly at the other boy before realising what he meant.

"Oh," he said, glancing at the plate and then carefully avoiding his roommate's eyes. "I ate, yes." It hadn't been much and had been some time ago, but he had eaten.

[UH HUH. :| I'M PRETTY SURE YOUR AWESOME WAS JUST NEEDED ELSEWHERE FOR A BIT. ~~SHUT UP AND TAKE THE DAMN COMPLIMENT~~]

Peter leveled his roommate with a flat stare. It was so tempting to up and lecture him on the importance of a balanced diet, but then he hadn't been doing so well with that lately either, had he? But at least I'm making an effort.

He toyed with the idea for a few moments, but ultimately dropped it. Things had finally calmed down, and this was not worth spending another dinner shift in (more) tears over. Call it a hunch, but Brainy didn't seem too keen on getting into another snit either. Honestly, he didn't know if there was anything to worry about: Brainy could have stuffed himself at brunch. It wasn't like he saw him at every breakfast and lunch. If he was still treating his plate like it was covered in Ebola tomorrow, then Peter would intervene. For now, he just wanted to finish his steak with a little dignity.

Except - right. Awkward ahoy. (They should write that on the door. No number, just M-Awkward. They hardly ever talked about anything nice in here.)

"You, um. You had some questions, right? About me and Kurt? You already know about mutants and stuff, obviously, so...is there really anything else I need to say?" God, were his palms going sweaty already?

[/PUPPY EYES AT]

Thankfully Peter didn't pursue the issue of exactly how much and how often he'd been eating. Brainiac 5 was well aware that he needed to eat far more regularly than he had in his normal form, but it was... difficult. More so than he cared to admit. He simply hadn't felt up to it after Clark had been-- had gone, and while it had been a couple of days, the hurt didn't feel any less, and he'd found himself with more problems to deal with...

Food hardly seemed appealing or as important in comparison.

Still, in the interests of appealing his roommate and to stave off any further questions, he picked up one of the slivers of fried potato and took a bite. Of course that would be the moment Peter decided to ask him something else.

Him and Kurt... Mutants and stuff...Brainiac 5 fixed Peter with a scrutinising look as he took his time finishing the piece of his largely ignored dinner, then took a sip of water before finally speaking.

"You mean people who gain metahuman abilities via some sort of unusual genetic mutation?" he asked. He wasn't used to people being called 'mutants' in that situation, though it was obvious enough what Peter meant with the term. "Yes, I'm familiar with such occurrences, but I would like to know more about your own abilities, not to mention why your alien friend was able to retain his normal form. He's the first I've seen who hasn't been forced into a human body after all."

[*PUPPY EYES BACK*]

Meta?

The term wasn't totally unfamiliar to Peter, but to describe mutants? That was new. Almost put a positive spin on it, which meant it definitely wasn't from his world. Or maybe just his time, seeing as how Brainy was from a thousand years into the future. They had to come to terms with mutants eventually, and using the word 'mutant' was pretty derogatory itself. It meant they were abnormal. Unwanted.

He could almost hear the beer bottles flying his way. Yeah, unwanted sounded about right.

Peter almost missed the slip, but drew his brows together after a moment. Where did...what? "Kurt's not an alien. He's a mutant. Human. Just with a few different genes." Sure, Kurt was all too easy to pick out from a line-up, but to call him an alien? That was a big stretch. Insulting, too, but maybe it was common where Brainy came from. Better to let it slide for now.

"I don't know why he changes. Back home he was blue all the time. But he's a different version of the Kurt I know, so maybe this one can change how he looks? It's really weird." Kurt with plain skin and dark eyes looked unnatural. He still had to take a moment and blink whenever he saw him, dumbfounded by the change. "I'll ask him, but he's really nervous about it. People aren't such big fans of mutants in my world, and when you can't hide it things get...things get rough."

"He's human?" Brainiac 5 repeated in surprise. "Oh, my mistake. I had just assumed that he must not have been, considering his appearance and how many of us come from other worlds. But I suppose some sort of genetic mutation or metagene could account for it as well." Stranger things had happened, from his experiences anyway.

Hearing that in Peter and Kurt's worlds people were less accepting of metahumans was unfortunately familiar. The Coluan boy's eyes dropped to his hands, quietly folded in his lap, and his voice took on a more pensive quality. "Unfortunately people aren't often willing to accept what's wildly different from what they consider 'normal'," he said. That hadn't changed, even across hundreds of years and different species.

Brainy had a point. "It's okay," he assured, "just sounds kind of weird to me because there aren't any aliens where I come from. Not many that I know of, anyway." He'd have to ask Johnny or Sue when they let him go back. If anyone had encountered aliens, it would be the Fantastic Four. And there were a couple of times where the news was pretty fuzzy on the details concerning them, so yeah. The possibility was there.

That was a look he recognized. Peter's heart sank a little, because really? A thousand years into the future and things still hadn't changed? Or was his story just written that way for the tension? Either way, he could relate all too well to the feeling. Bad enough when it was just humans and mutants, but aliens too?

He shrugged at the other boy, replying, "Fear of the unknown, I guess. But not everyone's like that, so it's not always...you know. Grab your torch and pitchforks."

"Not surprising," he answered with a slight smile. "Unless your world is similar to the ancient Earth I am familiar with, then there'd likely be few alien species around in your time period." And even though the twenty-first century Earth he was familiar with had experienced many alien visitations and the occasional invasion, it was still something that most normal people were unprepared to deal with.

Of course, he wasn't sure exactly what 'grab your torch and pitchforks' referred to, but from the context he could figure it out well enough. "Yes," he agreed. "People, even self-proclaimed 'evolved beings', might fear and ostracise that which is different but there's always those that are willing to accept you regardless."

Brainiac 5 paused for a moment, then added, "I suppose in that respect I can understand why Kurt was so cautious. But you don't have to worry, I won't draw too much attention to him. Though, if possible, I would like to speak with him at some point about why he is able to look so different at night. It might reveal something about this place."

He turned back towards the desk (again with some minor difficulty) and decided that maybe he would try and ingest a little more of his meal despite how much it had cooled during the conversation, when something in his pocket made a faint crinkling noise.

Brainiac 5 frowned and after a moment found the source of the noise: the lollipop Kio had given him earlier. He held it up critically, debating what to do with it, then glanced back over at Peter.

"How difficult is it to find things like this?" he asked curiously. Kio had mentioned getting more, but if that was going to prove too difficult, then he'd try returning the gift to the man. He no doubt would enjoy it more, after all.

"Yeah, sounds about right," Peter agreed quietly.

Oh man, Kurt was so jumpy already. Not to mention that if he had the choice last night, he would probably have been fighting zombies in that sheet. And there was that message on the board to Indiana Jones, too, asking him not to say anything. Was sending Brainy in after him such a good idea? He could be pretty...blunt. As far as inquiries went, anyway. Peter was just glad they'd cleared up the 'alien' thing right now, because that was a disaster waiting to happen.

"Um, maybe I can do it for you? Or be there when you ask him or something. I mean, he's been wearing a sheet every night because he's terrified someone is going to try to kill him. Or mistake him for a monster. I'll just be like, support?" He shrugged. "I know he's not that great with talking about it, so it might help if I'm there. Sort of."

The crinkle didn't escape his attention. The one word to describe Peter's face when Brainy pulled out a sucker was 'What.' It couldn't have been more blatant if it was stamped across his forehead.

For some reason the concept of Brainy with candy just wasn't clicking. Being a sugar fiend was a little below his brain bracket, right? Too smart for indulgence or however that worked.

"Where did you get that?"

That actually reminded him of the conversation he'd had his first day here with another patient, not to mention the argument he'd had with Elle on his first night. "I can see your point, Peter," he answered. "If someone did spot him looking like that, attack would be the likely outcome. And I've seen a surprising number of other patients who seem to prefer an 'attack first' strategy."

Brainiac 5 sighed, toying with the lollipop wrapper absently. "But, I suppose if you think it would help for him to have someone else there as well, then I can't see why not."

He glanced up at Peter's other question, fingers pausing in their tugging and twisting movements as he took in the other boy's confused expression. "Oh, another patient insisted I take it," he explained. He frowned slightly. "He said it was to make me happy..."

Peter watched as he fiddled absently with the wrapper. Granted, creepy men offering suckers to passerby was something you had to worry about more in the park than in evil insane asylums (and for kids much, much younger than they were), but considering Brainy's track record? This was ringing all the wrong alarm bells.

"Do you...know this guy?" he asked skeptically. It was probably nothing, but he doubted Brainy even thought to be suspicious of people like that. Complete lack of social skills. The thirty first century, Peter decided, was weird.

[asdflkjh I didn't realise I was up to tag here, sorry bbcakes. We can probably wrap it up in a round?]

Brainiac 5 shot Peter a surprised look. "No, of course not. I barely know anyone here, Peter." If he had, it would have solved a substantial number of his problems, after all. He would have had others to talk to and work out a strategy to deal with Grell and Luxord. People he could trust like the Legion. And the closest person he'd know like that here..

"Other than--" his voice wavered a little, and he suddenly found a patch of the wall vastly interesting. "--Clark, that is..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 43: Intercom, Evening

Re: M71

Re: M71

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