damned_institute | Nightshift 22: 2nd floor, top of stairs by the medical reference library

Quite a disappointment, the Pharmacy storage was filled more with white plastic bottles and cardboard boxes with unfamiliar names printed on them as opposed to the dry herbs, raw chemicals and custom concoctions in amber-glass bottles that he was used to in relation to medicine. It had never very well served his areas of interest to know the intimate details of healing the human body, so while he did know a few years' study worth of certain healing sciences, his focus was far more sharpened when it came to the opposite effect of such things. Poisons and toxins were a subject he could easily rattle off details about with as much enthusiasm as an excitable young alchemist. Of course, he hadn't taken into account the possibility of the sciences being turned against his own body, up until now granted immunity to such weaknesses.

The woman still seemed to know what she was doing, so entrusted finding whatever would heal him to her. He folded up his arms, starting at the sharp reminder of his injury where the drying blood stuck to bandages and pulled back the tender bruised skin around him. He still felt like hell from the inside out; woozy and achey in the pit of his stomach and his mouth still held that disgusting aftertaste. He hated this. Had said it in his mind a thousand times already, but it would have to bear repeating; he simply hated it.

He scanned the labels of foreign names, prodding through things and checking ingredients, some of which he recognized, and most importantly, checking for syringes.

'Lorazepam' was the kit he came upon that was of most interest. It contained a collection of conveniently pre-loaded small syringes (An interesting invention; a collapsed and spring loaded handle for easy storage; none of that messy business of loading and preparing the syringe; likely for convenience of nurses who needed to use it in emergencies on uncontrollable patients) and instructions. He grinned in spite of his still feeling generally dreadful. It was a sedative, one quickly absorbed in the bloodstream. This would be most useful.

"Somehow, I doubt they have what I actually want." Lyta frowned as she passed her flashlight over the rows of medications. These were all hundreds of years behind what she was used to. They didn't even have devalera! Or any oxy-caps. And syringes instead of skin tabs. Great, she really was stuck in the past.

"Amoxicillin..." Lyta peered down at the pills, trying to remember her history courses. She was relatively sure that was a form of antibiotic. And if it wasn't... well, it's not like they could do worse damage to the kid. Either he'd die of his wounds or he'd die from taking the wrong pill.

"Here, take two of these." She filled a small bottle with a few more and stuffed it into her bra. Morphine followed - she knew what morphine was, at least. And then she let out a frustrated noise. All of these medications, and she didn't have a clue what most of them were. And therefor, they were worthless. That was just her luck. It would take too long to read the labels....

"Alright, just look for pain killers." Those were always needed. "And you," she pointed to Envy, "just sit down somewhere and try not to die."

The Queen glanced over at the ones the other woman took, and then moved down the shelf, searching around for matching ones. Hopefully she was right: the wrong medicine could very likely make him even more sick than he already was. It wasn't exactly usual for something like that to happen on Naboo, but she'd heard rumors of it happening on Coruscant's lower levels. Drugs and credits changed hands freely when those who couldn't afford the normal treatments had to search for alternate methods.

Padme returned with two bottles, matching the name she'd mentioned. She showed them to the other patient.

"Will this be enough?" She asked.

Envy frowned and tightened his lips in annoyance when the woman told him curtly, in her own way, to sit the hell down. Not that his body wasn't telling him the exact same thing, but he'd needed to find himself some kind of weapon, and he didn't like being ordered as though he was a child. However, his frantic inner voice that desperately told him not to bitch because this was his only shot at living another day came out victorious and he stepped out of the way, leaned against a spare wall beneath the light switch, grimy and cold as it was, and sank to a near sitting position, clutching at his find like a child with a jar of candy.

He doubted just a few pills would fix up whatever he had. The wound on his arm should have been cleaned and re-dressed. He probably didn't- at least hoped he didn't have anything ruptured from that kick in the gut. It still made him feel crummy and woozy, and he just let his head hang down, awaiting the verdict of his fate from a couple of charitable amateurs.

Lyta sighed and knelt down in front of their injured companion, watching him carefully.

"That'll be more than enough," she said, glancing up at Padme. "Alright, I'm going to take some of the pain away. Since I don't think I'm good for much of anything else right now." It wasn't like she could use her powers for anything else - just scanning.

"Just take those pills and sit back. This is going to feel... weird." She hadn't taken pain in far too long. Giving pain was far more what she was used to. But there needed to be balance - neutrality. She'd learned that at the feet of the Vorlons and G'kar.

Lyta reached out and put her fingers at his temples, not searching inside his mind for any thoughts, just for the pain. She touched the nerves, finding this much slower going than ever before. It was like moving through water, sluggish and murky. And all she had was the pain to guide her. And she knew he could feel her, that he'd feel something like a pressure, moving through his mind. But there was nothing she could do about that.

Once she'd found the pain receptors, she touched them with a tendril of her own mind, calming them, soothing them. At full strength she could have closed the wound with a single thought, and now she was struggling just to calm down a few pain receptors.

What is she doing?

The Queen watched, startled, as the woman reached not for the wound, but for the boy's head. Padme's eyebrows furrowed as she watched all this. The woman was concentrating very hard clearly. But how would that help the injury without touching it? Because all she could see was just the woman putting her hands on the other patient's forehead and going very still.

Unless...

Unless... this woman was a Jedi. Padme wasn't familiar with what the full extent of their abilities, but she wasn't going to dimiss the possibility too easily.

She kept silent, keeping an eye on the two and the door. Even if the (probably hostile) alien outside was dead, that didn't mean there couldn't be more of them.

Envy took the pills as he was instructed, wishing he had some water, but making a good effort to swallow them all the same. A slightly bruised throat was worth bearing through to keep his arm on him.

He was surprised when she knelt closely to him and then reached out to touch him. As she had warned him, it did feel... weird. Not just the sudden odd sensation of his mind and body being invisibly probed, but even the simple contact of hands to the sides of his head. He couldn't remember how long it had been since the last time he'd been touched in a way that wasn't violent or sexual (he'd had more humans and homunculi than he could even recall who'd tried and failed to bed him over the centuries) and though there was also the faint pressure of whatever sort of alchemy she was performing on him, he felt more of a need to shy away from the closeness than anything else.

He distracted himself with an attempt at analyzing her actions. There were alchemists in Xing who could command and control some functions of the body. He'd seen it done; metabolism sped up in the skin to knit together an open wound, mild alteration of chemicals in the system (a process both used and abused for medicine and recreation), the repair of fractures and injured joints. Maybe this woman had studied there.

He thought for a split second of bringing her to Dante to share her skills; Dante had tried and been unable to decipher the texts or find a student of the science who could speak their language. She had so wanted to employ that type of alchemy in her own works. But he then remembered where he was. Where Dante was... supposedly. It just tossed him right back to the confusing and overall angering topic of wondering where he was and what had brought him here, and more infuriatingly, what Lust had said about Dante in this place. He tightened a fist tried to force himself to relax and push the thought away.

His nerves were beginning to cool, by the will of an outside force, and he was developing a sort of woozy, warm feeling. The pain was becoming dull, and even with the uncomfortable proximity and invasive sensation, he felt... relaxed, sleepy.

Lyta sank back, exhausted from even such a small thing.

"There," she said, wiping a hand across her forehead. "That's all I can do for you. This place makes people weak." And she did feel weak. It was like she was back to being a P-6, and had just done a deep probing scan on a Psi-cop.

"Apparently the doctors around here patch up any wounds by morning. Unless you die, they can't seem to fix dead here. But this should keep you going for the night - assuming you don't get eaten by one of the monsters."

She leaned back against the wall, trying to regain herself.

"I don't suppose either of you two know how to make weapons?"

Whatever she'd just performed had worked, because judging from the boy's facial expression, he wasn't in any splitting pain at the moment. At least something was going right since she'd woken up to this place. Although it seemed like a temporary reprieve at best: pain or no pain, the wound had to be treated better than just a bandage over it.

Padme hesitated at the woman's question. The Queen was used to the Naboo firearms at best, but blasters - when it came down to it - had the same basic parts.

"I know how to assemble and dissemble a basic blaster," she answered.

It was clear when asessed in complete logic that the injury would actually need to be attended to properly; more properly than just a torn up shirt tied around it, but separated from that knowledge, Envy felt fine. Still a little tired and drifty, probably an effect from being separated from some of his sensory nerves, but he felt much less uptight about the situation. He was still reluctant to anwer her question fully, though he did feel he owed these two something, or at least that he ought to offer something as a down payment of sorts in hopes that they'd stick around and help him to not die. He had pride, but he also had survival, and in a place where powers were dampened for everyone, it hadn't served him well to re-make old enemies. He at least had to act the part of a team player

"Well, I'm not so sure about actually making weapons; I'm not an alchemist or anything, but I can usually figure out how to use nearby objects as weapons."

It was usually easier to just use basic lethal hand-to-hand attacks or to shape his own arm into a blade, but there were some circumstances in which he could be creative.

He hesitated before checking the kit he had pulled from the shelf. He really didn't want to share what were currently his only weapons, but...

"I'm keeping these for self defense," He said, offering the box he'd been clinging to, open to let them take some for themselves, though hopefully they wouldn't keep too many; it was such a useful drug, "They're loaded with a fast acting sedative. Don't know if they'd work on creatures like the one out there, but they would on human adversaries. And if you can find any more syringes... just the needles could be enough to blind or stun something if applied right."

He looked around the pharmacy shelves again. More plain plastic bottles and not enough practical medical supplies. A topical antiseptic would probably be most useful for his wounds.

"We might be able to find more useful things in other rooms. If there's a kitchen nearby, maybe, or another supply closet. Hopefully we could find some real sterile bandages, and if we're lucky, maybe even knives or scalpels."

He was cautious to give too much away on the subject of how much he really knew about aggressive fighting tactics and the arts of asassination and torture. The more innocent he seemed, the more likely he was to stay in their favor.

"Blasters?" Lyta raised her eyebrows at Padme. "You aren't going to find any of those here. There are knives and there are big sticks to hit things with. So unless you or somebody you know can make something a little better, that's what we have to work with."

She turned her attention to the kid - Envy, her mind supplied - and raised her eyebrows once more. This time, it was appreciative.

"You're smart," she said, eying him and nodding. "Not smart enough to keep yourself out of trouble, but smart." She took a few of the syrignes, giving them a quick look over. She'd leave him the bulk of his find.

"There should be a supply closet around here somewhere. Maybe..." she closed her eyes, trying to send her mind out. After taking so much energy to take away Envy's pain, she could barely sense outside the door. Damnit! All she could get were the thoughts of the two other people in the room.

Which offered her a cornucopia of valuable information. She turned, giving them both a piercing, calculating look. The girl was royalty, and the boy.... oh, Lyta knew what it was like to be like him.

"Alright, we shouldn't stay here much longer. And you -," she pointed at Envy, "when you're feeling better, I wanna talk to you."

So the woman was familiar with blasters, which had to say something, especially after Omi's reaction to the very idea that there were other inhabited planets. It was a little sad that she felt the slightest relief at that

Sticks and knives though.... Somehow Padme got the feeling that the other patient wasn't talking about vibroblades either. If that's all that was available to them, then the ability to actually make a weapon out of it didn't seem too relevant. At least outside of how to wield it, bu there wasn't much that could be done to improve it.

Those needles did look particularly ominious. She couldn't identify the liquid either. The Queen left the needles in the boy's care. He'd told them enough, but something seemed like it was missing. Padme understood well enough about the need for secrets; at times, they were necessary for survival. But her gut told her that whatever he was omitting was related - even if it was a little distantly - to the needles somehow.

For all she knew, they could be more powerful than tranquilizers, and Padme wasn't quite ready yet to go committing murders. Talking was still a viable course of action still if something arose with the other prisoners. More aggresive actions were a last resort.

"Well, we should get moving then. The longer we stay here, the more we're at risk of more of those thing coming back."

He had to wonder what the hell a 'blaster' was supposed to be anyway. Sounded like one of those 'cute' names for weapons that clueless military wives tended to make up when they had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

The girl looked at him uncomfortably, and he wondered if he'd said too much, when the woman spoke up, seeming impressed.

"Yeah, well, staying out of trouble isn't really my forte`." He replied wryly, smirking a little. No, no, quite the opposite. The girl didn't take any, probably afraid of what they could do, but the woman fetched a few for herself. She seemed like the type who would know when to make good use of them at least. Not freak out and have second-thoughts at the last crucial moments. Humans did that so often. He didn't understand it. (Besides that, it wasn't as if they were poisoned darts; if anything, they were merciful weapons. Many of his victims would have given anything to get a shot of some before he got to them.)

'I wanna talk to you'

It was a fairly innocuous statement, but one of those classic catchphrases that had a natural tendency to be dangerously loaded. He had a feeling this wasn't a good 'wanna talk'. But he nodded cooly, and stood up, swaying for a moment, with the new numbness of his supernatural painkilling process. To not be feeling pain from a wound that was still clearly there and bleeding through his bandages (possibly his insides as well) seemed unnatural. Then again, he'd never really been a part of nature anyhow. He let the others go and stepped out the door, box and flashlight in his arms, scanning the dark hallway.

"Let's see what else is down here," Lyta said, swinging her flashlight about. The needles were a start, but she wanted something she knew could kill. Otherwise, she knew she'd get herself in a tough situation.

But they'd just have to keep looking. And she had taken charge of the group - it was what she did. Though her resistance force back home was a lot more useful than the one she had now. Of course, if she could hand pick her own team out of the patients she knew...

The telepath gave Envy a slightly knowing look as she passed him.

"No, it isn't," she said, in response to his comment as she headed into the hall. "You are trouble."

The Queen followed behind the boy, keeping up the rear. It would be better to keep the injured between them both, so one of them could keep an eye on him, while the other could keep their own eyes on the way ahead.

"So he attracted his own injuries?" Padme asked wryly. It was true that some people did things that brought on a retaliation in kind. The Trade Federation invaded her planet, she had retaliated: they'd attracted their own loss of face in the Senate because of their actions.

It was just something else to call someone to task on it so openly. It was a bit harsh of the other patient and that bluntness wasn't too common among the Naboo advisors around her.

It was refreshing, in a way. The boy probably wouldn't find it too amusing though.

He just blinked initially, surprised at her frankness. He had been thinking it, and then she just said it so plainly. It was stunning at first, and then... almost amusing. A little frightening, but amusing. Though all the things she said were more and more revealing her to be quite astute, and that did put him on edge. The girl spoke neutrally, almost sounding mildly offended on his account, at least the way he heard it.

Hesitant to let on any to any other revelations, he raised one side of his mouth in a wry smirk and said,

"I get that a lot."

Hopefully, something more important would come along and they could stop discussing him. It wasn't as easy to fake nice in these circumstances.

"That's not exactly what I meant," Lyta said, glancing up and down the hallway to check for creatures. She could feel the emotions off of both of them, and she was almost tempted to have a little more fun. Almost.

She wasn't completely lacking in morals, after all. And she may as well let Envy know how she was managing to be so observant.

"I take it you two don't have telepaths on your worlds," she went on, casually. "Of course, even if you do, you wouldn't have telepaths like me. You see, I've got this neat little gift. I know things about people without needing to be told. All kinds of things. Even the things you don't want other people to know. Usually I can control it, but here..." She shrugged, lying easily. "I can't seem to get a handle on it anymore. This places fucks with powers and abilities." She glanced over her shoulder, smiling.

"But don't worry, I'm really good at keeping secrets."

"We have Jedi, where I come from." Padme said. At least this woman recognized that there were other populated worlds. It was a start "You aren't one then, are you?"

Perhaps she was reading it wrong, but it almost seemed irresponsible. The Jedi she knew - admittedly few though - didn't go around reading minds out of curiosity's sake, or without other's permission. Although that was more of a general ideal. Master Jinn had turned that image of a Jedi on its head. His apprentice was someone more along those lines, but the Jedi Master himself had been anything but. Wise, serene, but far too willing to bend a too many rules here and there, even so much as taking risky actions once he assumed he'd been out of her sight.

The Queen's face was carefully neutral. The thought of someone being able to root around her memories and thoughts, without her even knowing about it, and with (very likely) no way to prevent it, didn't sit very well. If the woman was telling the truth, she knew her true identity. The other patient didn't, however.

"I hope you're as honorable as you claim you are."

It was an unexpected little revelation, one he hadn't calculated for to say the least. He was rather at a loss as to how to react, in the newness of the idea; that sort of 'magic' was reserved for fairytales where he came from, but if there were other rules here...

A neutral bearing and a well acted fake calmness were usually his saving graces when he had things to hide, but the idea of being unable to pretend in front of someone who could literally see through him was alien, and the idea made his adopted cool exterior skip a beat. She didn't need to read his mind if only she'd have looked at him right there. The words "Oh, fuck!" were clearly written on his face.

A quick attempt at recomposition and he sorted out that maybe she was bluffing. He wasn't going to risk testing that assumption for fear of pushing her, but... well if she really was, she'd prove it on her own. Adopting an acted stance, albeit with some nerviousness, he replied with a familiar, bemused tone of mild sarcasm.

"Well isn't that special?

"I'm a telepath," Lyta repeated. "I'm not sure what a Jedi is, but I've only run into one other telepath here. There are people with mind-gifts, but not telepathy." She shrugged, running her flashlight over the walls in case there was something important along them.

"Look, I can't control it here. I come in close contact with someone or I touch someone, and that's it." She looked over her shoulder. "Trust me, if I could keep out, I would. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to constantly hear a streaming jumble of other people's thoughts? It's like having ten different vids going in the background, or ten different radios going. And you can't tune them out."

She couldn't help but snicker.

"It's funny how everyone always assumes what they think is somehow important to me. I'll let you in a little secret - most of the time, what's in your head? Isn't all that important or interesting to other people. Sure, there are a couple of exceptions, but not often. I'm not going to be going around telling people anything." Besides, if information was shared freely, it lost its value. She'd played the 'I know your secrets' game before.

"So relax, both of you." She glanced over at Envy. "Especially you. Let's just say I've got some personal experience with some of what I saw in there. I think you and me have a lot in common."

He raised an eyebrow at the way she casually passed off the importance of other peoples' minds, thoughts. It was meant to be a defensive cover, but it came off almost with a hint of disdain for people in general. He smirked faintly, the way handled the subject seemed to be genuinely jaded and unimpressed.

And yet, he was still uncomfortable, especially to wonder what she meant by 'some of what I saw in there'... It wasn't so much a matter of embarassment, but that there were certain secrets he guarded fiercely; knowledge and memories that only those most deserving would be awarded. And the last comment... he iced up a little to that out of habit. That sentiment from others was far too familiar. When someone tried to sidle up to him with some kind of contrived 'sympathy', it always made him grow indignant and defensive. He scanned the doors they passed, distracting his thoughts before he slipped to think something nasty. After all, it wouldn't serve him well to treat her poorly even in thought, if her abilities proved true. She could be useful, even...

"So... if that is the case," He said, edging away from the potential conversation that might have been stirred up from her last implications, "I must wonder if you've extracted anything useful from the staff."

Lyta paused for a moment, her lips tightening at the question. He had to bring that up, didn't he?

"I can't get anything from the staff," she admitted, her shoulders tense. "They're blank. Like... like they don't have any thoughts at all. They're not blocking me or using shields that I know of, they just aren't there. Like these patches of silence in the noise. The monsters are the same way." And she didn't have any explanation for it, either. She wanted one, but she couldn't come up with anything. Even machines felt like something.

"There isn't any pain like when I try to break through a shield," she explained, to give a slightly better explanation. "If someone who's stronger than me is trying to keep me out, I have to fight them. It's like pushing against a wall. But with the staff, it's like...like the wall is made of oil, and I just slide right over it. It's not like anything I've ever felt before." She huffed some, clearly frustrated.

"People say they're human, but I've never encountered a human or humanoid mind like that. And I've been in a lot of different minds." More than she could count, and more species than she could name. And as painful and distorted as some of those had been, they'd still been there!

Nightshift 22: 2nd floor, top of stairs by the medical reference library

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