damned_institute | Day 46: Doctor's Office 2 (Dr. Stein) [Fourth Shift]

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forte,
stein

Day 46: Doctor's Office 2 (Dr. Stein) [Fourth Shift]

Stein stared at the ceiling as he leaned back in his chair, head lolling backwards over the back of the chair. He rotated ever so slowly on the chair, which was obviously well greased considering how long his inertia was lasting. As he watched the ceiling revolve around the useless bulb that hung in the lampshade and the trail of smoke coming from his cigarette, Stein thought.

He had almost lost it with his first patient here. He couldn't be doing things like that, not if he wanted to keep his cover. Even the man was on the path of the demon. He was in a secure asylum, it's not like it was in any danger of getting worse. Concentrate on the killer that was still at large.

Mechanical clicking filled the room as he turned his screw, smoke drifting lazily from his slack mouth. Just breath. Breath out the madness and restore order.
a
"Dr. Stein?" asked the nurse, knocking on his door. The rotations stopped, both of his chair and his screw, his arms falling slack. His head lolled over towards the doorway. The nurse peering in continued. "Your next patient will be in shortly. And could you please put that out?"

She frowned disapprovingly at the cigarette in his mouth, though putting it now wouldn't help the cloud of smoke around the ceiling and the smell of tobacco that now permeated the air. Still, the Stein obliged, sitting up and snuffing it out in the ashtray on his desk. Satisfied, the woman left to bring his patient in. While she did so, Stein looked over the next file.

"Frank, huh?" he murmured distantly, reading without taking the words in. Maybe this one wouldn't care if he smoked.

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It had been a long day, that's for sure. Talking with Sechs had put Forte in a vastly better mood, but he remembered his last therapy session. It wasn't so bad in comparison, but he'd have enough of women messing with his head today.

However, he was stopped before reaching Dr. Washu's office, and brought into a very bizarre room. It certainly didn't look like it belonged in this institute. Everything appeared to be sewn from similar but mismatched pieces - the walls, the chair, the desk, even... the doctor?

"You're not the same doctor I talked to last week." That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but for all he knew this guy could be worse. This office didn't instill him with confidence, the obvious theme reminded him too much of something Dr. Wily would come up with.

"Very astute observation, Frank," noted Stein, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he slowly rotated in his chair, looking over the boy's file. He was now sitting cross-legged backwards in his chair, lab coat trailing down to the ground and arms resting on the back rest of the chair. "Or is there another name you'd prefer? In either case, I'm Dr. Stein, your new therapist. Good to meet you."

His inertia eventually gave out, leaving him facing towards the front of the office and he looked over the top of the file towards the patient.

"Go ahead and take a seat," he said, indicating the other chair where it sat exposed. Given its position away from the walls with no other furniture nearby, it was more like where one would sit for an interrogation than a therapy session.

Forte frowned at being called Frank, and calmly corrected him, "My name is Forte." He watched the doctor warily as he went to the chair, slowly spinning to a stop. He sat, keeping his crutches at his sides.

"And I'm a robot, that's been stuck in this human- is that thing real?" Forte was far from an expert in human physiology, but he pretty sure that they didn't usually survive having metal jammed through their skulls.

"All right then, Forte," Stein agreed, still fine with referring to patients by their preferred names. Getting him to reply to Frank could wait; he'd rather hear the whole problem out first.

And what an interesting problem it was. Boy thought he was a robot, did he?

"Is what thing the real?" asked Stein curiously. "Oh, this?" He smiled and knocked his knuckles against the head of the screw, giving off the ring of metal when he did. "It's real enough."

Okay, he certainly wasn't expecting anything like this. "How are you alive? Are you human?" Maybe he was a robot? He'd seen enough crazy designs to believe there might be one with a huge bolt through its head for no reason, but why would one be here? Apparently looking like a human, except for the obvious contradiction.

Stein knew they were getting sidetracked and his own experiments weren't supposed to be the topic of this session, but he didn't see the harm in indulging Frank for now.

"I'm still human," he said with the hint of a dark smile. "The brain can take a surprising amount of damage and still remain fully functional; it's remarkable, really. Besides, it helps me focus."

As if to prove his point, he reached up and gave the screw head a few twists, a ratcheting crank filling the room with each turn.

"And what about you? You say you're some kind of robot?" he asked, a curious tilt to his head.

Was everyone with "doctor" in their name completely insane? Apparently humans were a lot more durable than Forte had given them credit for (admittedly, he was still alive himself). Well, apparently that was that question answered.

"Y-yeah, I'm a fighting robot. But when I was trapped in this place, they stuck me in this weak body somehow."

"Huh-huh, I see..." murmured Stein, clearly unbelieving. "So you were built to fight, hm? Is that the reason behind your violent tendencies?"

The reasoning behind the delusion was fairly simple: if Frank wasn't human, then as Forte, the fighting robot, he didn't have to follow the rules that applied to humans. This way he could ignore the moral codes that caused the guilt he felt and absolve himself of it, at least in his mind.

Forte was starting to get over the strangeness of the bolt through Dr. Stein's head, and mustered up a defensive response. "Well, yeah. I was built and programmed for fighting. What's wrong with that?" Life would be a lot easier if he could just go back to shooting at everything to solve his problems. It didn't necessarily work, but it was a lot easier.

That line of thought was more or less what Stein figured he was thinking. It was easier to use violence. To reject your problems by destroying them rather than solving them. If only life were so simple...

"It seems like a very one-track way of life," commented Stein, not confronting the supposed robot quite yet. "So all you have to do is fight? You don't spare any thought for the other things in life?"

He sighed; it was actually kind of pitiful to see someone try to simplify their problems this way. Going so far as to give up their humanity and become a machine, at least in his head. Really, it's not like ignoring the more complicated things in life would make them go away.

Well, this actually wasn't as bad as he'd feared. He didn't like having to defend himself, but an excuse to talk about himself as a fighter was worth it. "Of course not. What else is there? I was made to kill one robot. I'm trapped here now, but I'll fight until I can escape and get my real body back. And then I'll go back to what I was doing before - fighting until I defeat that one person and prove I'm the strongest. It's the reason I exist, it's my purpose in life!" He'd been leaning forward as he spoke, a wide grin spreading across his face, and hadn't even noticed the resulting pain in his side.

Maybe therapy was good for him after all!

The subject seemed to cheer Frank's mood, but only in the sense that he was taking refuge in his delusions. Obviously this imagined life of his provided just the sort of comfort he wanted in order to forget his real problems.

"So? Who is this one person you need to defeat?" asked Stein, drawing it out still. Just a few more preparations and then he could turn it around on the boy and begin cutting away these childish delusions like so many cancerous cells.

Forte laughed, losing himself in the speech and forgetting that this man was his enemy.

"Rock Man. Dr. Wily attempted to use his robot army to take over the world several times, but was thwarted at every attempt by Rock Man, one of the first robots he helped to create, upgraded for battle. So he created me, based on Rock's designs, but improved to be faster, stronger. I don't care about Wily's plans or anything like that, but my only goal is Rock, the supposed strongest robot in the world. I will kill him and prove my superiority." As he spoke of his enemy, for the first time in days, there was a mixture of hatred and excitement in his voice. He was reminding himself, as much as telling Dr. Stein, that all that was inevitable. Yes, somehow, he would make it back and fulfill his purpose.

Edited 2009-12-25 14:16 (UTC)

"Well, if you're faster and stronger than him, it's only a matter of time, isn't it?" said the doctor with a smile that may have been just a bit patronizing. Well, it was about time to get started. He'd let the boy get comfortable enough already; now for the first, probing cut.

"So? What will you do after that?" he asked, face still the picture of innocent curiosity.

Forte smiled and nodded - yes, exactly - but faltered on his next question. He never really thought about that part, but he wasn't going to give up that easily. "Well, then I guess... I'll be strongest in the world. People will try to build other robots to stop Wily, or he'll build new ones, and I'll keep proving I'm the strongest. Or... I'll go into space. I know there's robots outside of Earth, like Duo..." even he realized he was losing momentum, not feeling any enthusiasm for those possibilities.

"I'll figure that out later! The important thing is to prove I'm stronger than Rock!"

The corner of Stein's mouth curled with the start of a grin. Hadn't thought that far ahead, had he? If anything, he would probably be happier if he never beat "Rock Man". His brother Rick, was it? And Wily was obviously Wilhelm. The boy had not only robotized himself but also the rest of his family?

"And what's the point of being the strongest, hmm?" he asked, the pretense of asking out of curiosity falling away. These questions were his scalpels, meant to cut as deep as possible and reveal what lay underneath. "Why is it so important to be the strongest? Because you were told to? What's the point?"

Obviously, he just wanted a direction away from what his real life was like. When he'd created this delusion, what had mattered was not where he was running to, but running from. Bringing that up would probably be the next step.

What's the point of being the strongest? That's like asking what's the point of existing? Why do humans bother to breathe? It's what Forte was built for, it was ingrained in his very being.

"Because I am the strongest fighting robot. It's who I am. I know that I'm stronger than Rock, I just need to prove it to the rest of the world." Never mind how many fights he'd already lost. There were always extenuating circumstances, and besides, Rock always ran away without finishing him. That alone made him weaker.

Edited 2009-12-26 17:23 (UTC)

"And once you do? Is there some meaning to being the strongest? If you really are the strongest, why do you have to prove it?" Stein continued his questioning. His smile widened. "Or could it be... that you aren't actually sure you're quite so strong? After all, you haven't beat him yet. Rock's the one everyone looks up to now. Even you."

There was a fine line between admiration and jealousy, and it seemed Frank had crossed that in his delusions, focusing his anger on his brother. If he could just beat Rick, he would be the better man. Too bad that only worked for fighting robots.

"..."

Forte was struck speechless, for just a moment. Not because he didn't know an answer, of course not, but his eyes conveyed his rage while he struggled to find words for it.

"Of course I'm the strongest! It's. Who. I. Am! I'm stronger than him, no matter how many times he beat me! He's just a worthless, goody-two-shoes midget in blue! He thinks he's so much better than me he doesn't need to fight, but he's just scared that I'll finally defeat him! But I'll show all of you I'm not just some inferior copy, I'm better in every way! And once I do, you'll finally shut up about me not being as good as him or as strong as him! I'm not going to be Wily's robot, or Rock Man's copy, I'll be Forte, the strongest! They'll all have to measure up against me!"

As Forte was screaming at the doctor, he finally tried to leap up, off of the chair. As soon as he did, the wound at his side nearly tore and stopped him short. Fortunately, his arms were still holding the crutches, and what might have resulted in the boy collapsing on the floor merely had him slumping on his crutch to the right then falling back to the chair, still red-faced and out of breath with anger.

And there, that flash of anger, that denial so obvious. Stein's grin widened as he let his eyes focus in on that special wavelength so he could see the turmoil inside. He was sure the boy's soul was-

...not there?

"Okay, calm down now," said Stein as the boy slumped back, the grin disappearing from his face and being replaced with a look of seriousness. "Don't aggravate your injuries any further."

He got up and walked over to the boy, unceremoniously pulling up his shirt so he could check his wounds. There didn't seem to be any bleeding, and by the feel of it, as Stein probed with his fingers, it seemed his stitches were okay still. No real damage done, but it had been close.

"It seems you're okay, but try to be a little more careful, all right?" he requested as he let Forte's shirt drop back down, his voice now more what one would expect from a doctor than the questioning, mocking tone he'd been using before. In the end, these people were his patients and he was responsible for their well-being at the moment.

More concerning though was the fact that Stein couldn't see his soul. A quick glance out into the hallway confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him; there was the nurse, there was the doctor in the next room over. But from this boy, he got nothing. The probing wavelength he'd sent in when he checked the injury had also come back empty. What was going on here?

Gasping as he was, not to mention in pain, Forte didn't raise any protest as Stein examined his wound. He definitely knew what he was doing, not causing much (additional) pain as he prodded. He managed to respond, between breathes, "I will if... you stop asking... stupid questions."

Despite the doctor's reassurance, he still looked concerned. For a moment it seemed like he was going to call a nurse, but looked back at Forte again instead. It gave Forte more time to catch his breathe (and let the soreness subside a bit more), but if the doctor said he was okay, he was hopefully right.

"Right, right," said Stein absently, standing up and backing over to his chair before sitting down. Forte didn't have anything to worry about; between the risk of worsening the patient's injuries and this new conundrum, any thought of dissection had left the doctor's mind.

There was nothing wrong with Stein's perceptions, that much he could tell. Then why couldn't he see this boy's soul? He was human, wasn't he? Was this some kind of Soul Protect, only instead of disguising a Witch's soul as a human soul, it hid the soul entirely instead? But why would he... there was no reason a small-time punk like him would know a technique like that. Then had it developed naturally?

"Hey... you wouldn't happen to be any good at going unnoticed, would you?" asked Stein, a curious tilt to his head as he sat backwards in his chair, leaning on its back. "Like, stealth and that kind of thing. Or even just people generally not noticing when you approach."

It seemed unlikely, considering the boy's apparent nature, but you never knew. After all, Black Star was good at stealth... when he could be bothered to keep his mouth shut.

Alright, this was getting a little unsettling. The doctor's attitude and line of questioning had changed suddenly, and Forte didn't know what had caused it - his answer, his yelling, or looking at his wound. Still, asking him about sneaking around was... well, completely out of the blue. It sounded like an innocent enough question, though, and at least he shut up about why Forte wanted to fight.

"No, my opponents always know when I'm coming," he answered, trying to make it sound like a boast. Of course, the monsters always seemed to find him when he was shouting about his own greatness.

Well, maybe it was a case like Black Star... or just something else entirely. Why, out of all the people he met, was this boy's soul undetectable? Unless... no, that wasn't possible. This was a human sitting before him, no matter what kind of delusions he had. There had to be another reason.

"So, tell me about the other people in your life," said Stein, making idle small talk as he turned the problem over in his mind like a piece of an unsolvable puzzle. "Surely there's more than just Rock and Dr. Wily, right?"

Maybe there wasn't, seeing how one-track he seemed in his delusions. Absently, Stein reached into his lab coat for his pack of cigarettes and lighter.

"Mind if I smoke?" he asked as he pulled them out, tapping the box against the desk to get a cigarette to come out. He needed one about now.

Forte shrugged at the cigarettes. He didn't care about the doctor's habits, though he was only vaguely aware what they were for.

The other question made him hesitate, though. There were others around, sure, but none of them really mattered. Ah, of course, except for the one that he'd taken for granted would be there. "There's Gospel, my support unit. He's a robot wolf, and I'm stronger when we fight together. He's the only one I'd say I miss." Other than for revenge, of course.

Smiling gratefully, Stein pulled out the cigarette and placed it between his lips; a deft flick of the lighter later and it was lit. He inhaled deeply then breathed out, head tilted back. A look of calm spread across his features as white smoke drifted up towards the ceiling. Ah, that was better.

Returning his attention to the boy, he let a benign smile come to his face. So, a robot wolf? A glance down at the file showed no mention of any dog, but it was possible it just hadn't been of note when they'd written it. So, perhaps a pet? Or from how he worded it, a friend of his? It could go either way.

"Oh, is he?" he asked interestedly. "So a close friend of yours, would you say?"

"I... I guess, yeah." Forte had been using the term 'ally' because he didn't want to call anyone here a friend - he only wanted people to fight beside him and help him get his body back, after all. But Gospel was more than an ally or a friend. He was more like an extension of Forte - often literally. In fact, looking back, it was a bit strange that he hadn't been missing Gospel the whole time, and he felt a bit guilty. "He was built when I was - built specifically for me, to help me in combat, just like Rock has his own dog. He doesn't talk, but we always know what we mean. I mean, it makes sense, sometimes we combine and he boosts my power directly, so we have to understand each-other completely..." his voice started to trail off as his mind drifted. Where was Gospel, anyway? Forte was built to be a stand-alone unit, but Gospel was made to support him. Had he been deactivated when Forte was kidnapped? Or worse? Or did he turn around to find his master gone without a trace?

The idea of another Forte running around, fighting Rock Man while he was trapped was almost worth it if it meant that Gospel was still online, well, and happily following it.

That sounded more like a dog than another person; so this was probably a pet he'd had since he was young. It wasn't surprising that hadn't been mentioned in the file. Still, it sounded like they had a pretty close bond, especially since no others came to mind when asked about Forte's life.

"A team that works together, hmm? I'm surprised; you struck me as more of a lone wolf," he commented with a smile. The description was not unlike how weapons and meisters teamed up in Shibusen.

Still, it wasn't a particularly interesting facet of his life, but since the more interesting topics either riled the boy up too much - something Stein would, for the moment, refrain from in regards to his injuries - or were an unsolvable mystery of the soul - it wasn't possible that the boy didn't have one - it was all he was left with for now. Well, maybe he could give the latter one last try.

"Not to change topics on you completely, but what do you believe about souls?" he asked suddenly. "Do you believe people have them? Do you believe you have one?"

Stein wasn't expecting much considering the boy's delusions, but it was worth a shot; maybe he'd be surprised and shed some light on this mystery.

Forte couldn't help a tiny smirk at the description of him as a 'lone wolf' - it described the way he saw himself, too, as well as matching Gospel's model.

Of course, this was followed by another random question without warning. And this one was definitely creepy - what did that have to do with anything? Was this about trying to convince him he was a human? It was a weird way to get to that point.

"Isn't that the... thing... that makes people... alive?" He was obviously struggling with the abstract concept. "I don't know, it doesn't have anything to do with me, I'm a machine. Supposed to be a machine." Unless being human meant he had one now. Or maybe... he knew it wasn't supposed to be something real, that could be manipulated, but if Landel had some way to transfer a soul from one body to another... "I don't see why I would have something like that," he added, his voice uncertain.

Stein sighed. The answer was both uninformative and more or less what he predicted. Since Frank thought he was a robot, of course he didn't think he had a soul. He seemed rather doubtful, but his answer hadn't really contributed much to Stein's analysis.

"A soul is a person's essence, yes, the core of their being that gives life to the body," he explained since the boy seemed unsure. "Every living thing has one."

Except for Frank, apparently. There was no way that could be the case though. He was not a machine, no matter what he thought.

Forte was getting annoyed with this line of questioning. Other than his curiosity about how he might have been transferred to a different body, he really didn't care about all this stuff. He just shrugged, "well, according to Wily, I'm - I was - powered by something he called Fortenium. And my program is based off Rock's, programmed by his creator. So unless a soul is an experimental power source, I don't have one. Satisfied?"

Fortenium? For the robot Forte? Now that was just being silly.

"Right, right... while the soul is certainly a source of power, it's not like a fighting robot like you would need one, would it?" said Stein, some of his former humor returning to his face. He was thinking too hard about this. It was probably just a fluke, an anomaly.

"Well, yes, I guess that's all I need to know on that particular subject," he admitted. "And we have some time left over. Any questions? How has your stay here been so far? Problems? Anything you need advice on?"

His smile wasn't particularly genuine, but he was willing to answer anything Frank might ask. His mind was elsewhere though, turning over the things he'd learned today and examining their various facets.

Good, this was almost over. Of course, he had questions... way too many rolling around in his head after today, but like hell he was going to trust this guy and his answers. The sooner night came, the sooner he could talk to someone he did trust - Teisel - about his problems.

Of course, in the meantime, he just glared at the doctor. "It's been horrible, but you wouldn't believe me anyway. Or you'd say you didn't believe me. Either way, I don't care."

"Hoh-ho... it never hurts to ask, you know," said Stein. The boy was probably right, considering how disinclined the doctor was to believe he was a robot, but regardless of whether he believed the actual content, Stein was eager to gather any sort of data he could now, especially about how he was dealing with his current environment. After all, Landel's was still new to the doctor as well.

"But if you really don't feel like talking on it, that's up to you," he said with a resigned tone. "I won't press you for details at this time."

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Day 46: Doctor's Office 2 (Dr. Stein) [Fourth Shift]

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