damned_institute | Day 49: Late Afternoon

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Day 49: Late Afternoon - Lil' Tyke Toys

Scott had barely gotten a few feet out the door of Tasty Burger when the nurses started blaring their megaphones and shuffling people back indoors. He was definitely getting just a little tired of this, not least due to the dazed and confused mood he had been in since breakfast. Would he get any chance to just walk down a street in a straight line again today? What if he liked the rain, huh? Did the nurses think about that? ...Okay, he didn't like the rain, but that was beside the point. The point was that seeing more of the town was turning into pretty much a non-option.

He was caught by a nurse in front of the door to a local toy shop, and before he could get out so much as a protesting yelp, he was hurried inside with a strong, encouraging shove. Great, thought Scott, reluctantly peeling off his coat again as he wandered down one of the back aisles and resigned himself to staying. What am I gonna do in here? It's a toy store in Outer Bumblesticks. What are they going to have to keep my mind off things? Dolls? Tin soldiers? Teddy bears? This is gonna su— "HEY is that Godzilla?"

Sure enough, it was. Or rather, it was a large Godzilla action figure sitting on a shelf just ahead of him. The toy was wired into the box good and tight, but the front was open to allow kids to test out the toy's arms and sound before buying. Drawn inexorably to the blinding red "TRY ME!" written on it, Scott pulled the box down and pressed the button on the back of Godzilla's head.

"AAEEEEEAAAAARRRR."

The roar was small and tinny, but it made Scott grin a little.

"Heheh."

"AAEEEEEAAAAARRRR."

"Heheheheh."

"AAEEEEEAAAAARRRR."

"Hee. Oh Godzilla, you wouldn't leave me, would you?"

"AAEEEEEAAAAARRRR."

[For ~~Mothra~~ Peter Parker. Stein can come too.]

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Rain had turned to spears by the time they'd brought her indoors, hair and coat practically dripping. If Ange particularly cared about this development, she did not show; instead, she wiped her shoes on the mats provided and settled on surveying her surroundings. The knickknacks and various colorful items indicated the place to be a toy store--further observation had Ange adding "candy" to the list. It was the type of place a cousin might have loved as well as the furniture they might have befriended.

Her eyes unintentionally met the store clerk's. She watched with a kind of detached civility, as though ensuring her presence had more to do with the rain than the store's contents. If her expression was convincing, Ange couldn't say. These townspeople all had the same brand of countenance. Whatever they had against the patients, she decided it must have been justified.

[Battler.]

In a way, it was a little disheartening to venture back out into the rain only to discover that it had gotten worse. While Battler wanted to look around the town a bit more, he couldn't exactly complain when a nurse directed him inside. A heated building was definitely preferable to being cold and wet, especially when the shoes and jacket he'd been given weren't quite the best choices to protect against the weather.

Once inside, he resisted the urge to pause that the sight of a familiar face--wasn't that feeling of uncertainty exactly what he was trying to avoid around her? It didn't need to be weird if he didn't make it that way. That was what what he told himself.

"... Didn't think you'd be into this sort of thing," he greeted casually. It was a true enough statement. She really didn't have that sort of vibe, not like the little girl he knew. It was only natural. Certain interests tended to diminish over time. He was no longer the same kid who spouted a bunch of embarrassing crap without thinking about it, either. ... It was a strange thing, what time could do to people.

She stiffened at the familiar voice, each muscle jolting against bone as if to protest this individual's presence. Battler seemed to have the uncanny ability of showing up at the least expected time. In a way, it was unwanted and somehow not unpleasant. Ange did not want to consider the implications of such a view.

"I'm not," she snapped, only to huff at her mistake immediately after. That probably wasn't the correct greeting to give someone you were only pretending to know casually. "I never had time for 'this sort of thing'." Between the murders, Eva oba-san, and the bullies, one had barely enough time to breathe.

"And what about you?" Ange regarded him with suspicion. "Most guys don't walk into a toy store." Never mind that most of its current denizens fit the description.

No matter how many sharp reactions Battler got from this girl, he just couldn't seem to get used it, although this time, he was at least able to keep the resulting discomfort more to himself. It would certainly make things easier if he could slowly learn not to react, but the thought was unpleasant somehow, as though the difference would be caring less. He bit his lip slightly, more than aware of the glaring contradiction in his thoughts. Still.... Even if the weight of the situation was horrible, it was better than the potential price.

"... No, I guess not," he said quietly, more than aware of the hidden meaning. It was probably an odd thing for a 'stranger' to be saying, but for some reason, the thought failed to connect.

"Oh, that? One of the nurses forced me in here," he explained more lightly. "I guess they don't want us running around in the rain, although if they were so concerned about that, it would've been easier to leave on another day."

He shrugged, idly picking up a brightly-colored stuffed animal from a nearby display. It was kind of cute, not so much in a personal sense as it was the sort of thing that would make a good present. Of course, even thinking that, it wasn't like it was possible to buy anything here, not without some creative negotiating.

Edited 2010-05-09 03:35 (UTC)

Battler didn't appear particularly comfortable with her response. Although Ange was never the type to care whether her words and actions caused any amount of distress to another individual (most deserved what happened), this caused her to falter. The young woman stared intently at her brother, a severe form of concentration lurking behind her blue eyes. What she was considering was up for discussion.

Instead, she eventually sighed and shook her head. The part that held onto the first topic gave up its grip, slipping away in favor of the second. "Makes sense," she conceded. "Guess we're stuck with each other again." Great fun, that. Ange could use another dose of awkward in her life.

Without meaning to, her eyes followed as Battler took something into his hands. Slowly, she realized it was a stuffed-animal--bright colors, cushy linings, and everything that shouldn't remind her of another but somehow did. Ange looked away quickly, mildly disturbed.

And then - the missile struck. Bright red with a suction cup on the end, planted directly onto Godzilla's heart. A box-like toy robot held its gun aloft in triumph, nimble fingers waving it back and forth from behind.

"Foolish Reptilian! This planet is ours for the taking."

Peter hadn't meant to follow the other boy out of the Tasty Burger. They had happened to leave around the same time, and he simply didn't notice they were going in the same direction when he was ever so rudely shoved into the Toy Store (lest he contract pneumonia, a valid concern in this weather). It was only after he was lamenting how the bandages over his hands had been soaked that he spotted Scott wandering down the aisle ahead of him, poking a Godzilla toy. To his great relief, this time the other boy was crutch free.

If there was one nice thing about the place, it was how quick everything healed. Even his hands were letting up. Not a lot, but now he could move his fingers without wanting to cry. Curling them or doing anything that would make his palms scrunch was still out of the question. Hopefully by tomorrow the bruises will have cleared up enough that the nurse wouldn't try to find people to spoon feed him.

"Robot beats lizard. I don't care how much fire it breathes." Peter smiled kindly at the taller boy. There was still the tingling unease of being around someone who knew about the comics - Peter didn't think that would ever go away - but Scott was a nice guy. Keman and Indy wouldn't hang around him if he wasn't. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

Scott nearly dropped the box when the red missile unexpectedly struck. He whirled around, nearly slipping on the water from his own rain boots before his brain registered Peter and the robot there in front of him. Oh. It's only Spider-man. That's okay, then. A slightly awkward look crossed his face at that. God, Spider-man. Has someone broke your fourth wall yet, I wonder? He wouldn't be surprised if someone had, but he wasn't going to be taking any chances, not when he'd been kind of a jerk with Keman's wall earlier.

"Oh, no way, dude! Haven't you ever seen a Godzilla movie? Military stuff does jack-squat! Not even Mechagodzilla can beat the King of the Monsters," he shot back with a grin, hoping that Peter hadn't caught the awkward look. He started walking in Peter's direction; the limp in his leg was still apparent, but it was definitely better than it had been. "Wish I could say the same for you. What's with the bandages, man?" he asked.

"Um, excuse you, this robot was obviously constructed by a species with ten times the intelligence of man. Godzilla can stomp around all he wants. Ain't nothing gonna save him from the power of Pluto."

The guy was still limping. That wasn't going to help if things got all George A. Romero again. Peter frowned. It was probably a good idea to stick with him until night fell. He could manage carrying him if they found an easy rooftop real quick. He would be heavier than Brainy, no doubt, and Peter's hands would give bitter revolt, but he could do it. If he was fast he could do it.

"Ah - just some jerk." Peter replaced his own toy on the shelf and turned his volume down a notch. The aisles were empty aside from the two of them, but you could never be too careful. "It was this nut I clobbered during Special Counseling. He caught me wandering around in my costume and took a swing at me with a shovel, and I didn't have room to dodge, so." He gave a weary shrug. "At least I saved my beautiful face."

"The original Mechagodzilla was made and controlled by aliens, you rank amateur," Scott argued back, though he was already moving to put his toy back on the shelf as well. It seemed like the real, grown-up conversation was about to really get underway, disappointing though that was. And Peter was looking at him in a way he couldn't quite describe, like he was sizing Scott up or something. He wasn't sure what to make of that, but didn't question yet. For the moment, he only gave Peter an odd look back.

"Thank god for the important things," he answered with a wry smile. "Think you'll heal up soon enough, at least? We could sure use another hand with tackling the basement sometime now that we know how to get down there."

[Before meeting Tsubaki]

Ah, this weather was really starting to be a pain. Rather than a refreshing precipitation, this was more like a pounding wave that was trying to crush him under its weight. Heck, he couldn't even get his cigarette lit in this kind of weather.

And now Stein was in a Toy Store, the closest shelter he could find. No chance of them letting him light up in here.

So it was with sodden cigarette hanging pathetically from his mouth that the tall man began stalking the aisles idly, thinking about where he could go. Ah, plus he still had shopping to do. What a pain; just thinking about it gave him a crick in his neck.

Turning a corner, Stein loudly cracked his neck to one side. But before he could do it the other way as well, he noticed a pair of boys talking. One of them looked familiar... and a quick scan of his soul confirmed it.

"Why, if it isn't young Tyler!" he said cheerfully, disconcerting coming from a six-foot-something tall doctor covered in stitches with a screw in his head and even worse when he was dripping wet and had his head tilted almost ninety-degrees to one side. Pushing with one hand, he cracked his neck the other direction and righted it. "Fancy meeting you here."

"What? Seriously?" Peter's pulse jumped. With all the hullabaloo about Luxord and webbing and things, he had entirely forgotten about the basement. Way to go, Parker. "How did you find it? When are you going down there? Does Indy-"

"Why, if it isn't young Tyler!"

And that was when his heart stopped dead.

Peter knew that voice. Eyes blown wide, he turned a one eighty and came face to face with Stein just as he pushed his head back into place with a revolting crack. He tried not to flinch. He really did. Please stop being such a freak.

His silent prayer would, of course, fall on deaf ears.

"...Yeah. Uh. Fancy that." What he really wanted to do was get at least three aisles between him and Stitchazoid and start chucking every Cabbage Patch doll he could find his way, but such things were generally frowned upon in polite society. Instead, Peter did the proper thing.

"Scott? This is Dr. Franken Stein." He paused. "...My therapist."

It was physically painful to admit. He was fairly certain his spleen just ruptured from the strain. If he was lucky he would hemorrhage out in the next five seconds and Scott and Dr. Stein could make polite conversation over his newly fallen corpse.

A man could only dream.

Scott had heard a crack as Peter started asking him questions, but thought nothing of it, assuming that some little kid had stepped on some colourful plastic thing or another. Unfortunately, following Peter's freak-out face, what Scott turned around to find was probably the tallest, stitchiest, screw-in-head-iest "kid" he had ever seen in his life. He was just in time to watch said "kid" snap his apparently dislocated neck back into place with a shudder-inducing crack, too.

Scott blinked a few times.

What am I looking at?

He had to take a while to just stare with mouth agape. Had nightshift snuck up and football-tackled them both when they weren't looking? Or had his brain really been broken that badly by S.T. earlier? There was no way he could be seeing the sort of person he was seeing right now, Scott thought. Even if they hadn't been in a place that was trying to maintain a front of being all smiles and sanity, and thus not be seeing anything even the slightest bit weird during the day, something like this just shouldn't have been. People just . . . didn't survive with . . . screws . . . in . . . place . . . what?

"This is Dr. Franken Stein."

He was half-tempted to croak out "Give my regards to Dr. Al U. Card," in response, but his neurological circuits were a tad out of whack at the moment. Instead, he opted for something a little easier.

"Nice to— Uh. Pleasure. Honored. I'm Scott. Much obliged. Pleased to meet you have a screw in your head why do you have a screw in your head?"

Easier, if not necessarily more coherent.

Ah, now that was a delightfully terrified expression the boy had their. His friend too. The benevolent smile widened into a not-so-benevolent grin.

"Nice to meet you, Scott," he said, though he had to wonder if that was the boy's real name. Well, he wasn't one of his patients, so he hadn't looked in his file. "Just Stein will do, since we're outside the institute and all."

And then Tyler's friend started babbling away. Ah, right, the screw. He'd gotten so used to the nurses and townspeople saying nothing about it, he'd forgotten how much it had upset some of his patients. Amusing, really.

"Is there something wrong with it?" he asked, reaching up and twisting the over-sized screw head. The ratcheting sound of winding gears filled the aisle with each crank.

Smooth move, Travolta.

"Nothing! It's just fine," he assured, putting on his best poker face to combat the urge to twitch as Stein cranked the screw. If they had been sitting at a table, Scott's toes would have been crushed under the reprimanding force of Peter's heel. Sadly, their legs were in full view and Scott was being too much of a dumbass for even a swift kick to the shins to fix. You did not tell crazy people about their crazy. You simply did not talk about it. Like Fight Club.

That first time in Stein's office was totally different. Peter could punch through steel. Scott giggled at plastic Godzillas in toy stores. There was a severe disparity in what the two of them could get away with.

He subtly stepped a small ways in front of the older boy, a silent sign to zip it if there ever was one. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

Edited 2010-05-06 09:30 (UTC)

Scott was about to tell Stein that probably at least one or two laws each of physics and biology were wrong with the screw, but Peter moving in front of him did indeed send him the message to zip it. He looked down at the floor, trying to let his brain catch up with what his eyes had seen. He also listened in slight awe to the teen hero trying to talk to his improbably-named doctor. It was a wonder that anyone could talk to this "Stein" as though he were a normal person; somehow, though, Peter was doing it. Clearly, whatever had gone down during therapy with this guy, Peter did not want to risk it happening again. Scott could only imagine what might have happened.

"Er, uh, yeah, it's fine. I was just curious," he finally managed after looking back up, trying to keep his gaze below Stein's face. He knew that would probably open him to some variety of "my eyes are up here" joke, but he figured it was worth the risk to keep from himself bugging out again.

Edited 2010-05-06 22:02 (UTC)

"It seems to be a common thing to be curious about," said Stein with a lopsided grin. "Tyler was even curious as to whether it would grant wishes. Of course, there's no way such an un-scientific tool could exist." Outside the realm of demon tools, anyway. "To answer your question, it helps me think." He gave it a couple more cranks, as if to prove his point.

Ah, amusing. Stein watched Peter's actions like a scientist observing insects - because that more or less exactly what he was. Stepping in between them, both shield and barrier, trying to keep him from interacting with Scott or the other boy from interacting with Stein. With himself in the way. That kind of heroic impulse was familiar to Stein - in others, anyway. No, not himself of course.

"Oh, nothing much. Just thought it might be nice to see you were doing, Tyler," he said. "And get to meet your friend as well! So how's the trip treating you two? Shame about the weather, huh?"

Scott's aversion was amusing as well, but there wasn't much point in calling him out on it, since he already knew what the problem was. He'd let Tyler have this little victory for now and concentrate his questions on him for the moment.

Wonderful. Now Scott was going to think he was a jerk for silently getting on his case over the screw. The best he could do now was shrug uncomfortably and provide himself with a lousy defense. "Well if you're going to stick things through your head they had better be pretty special."

He needed to end this conversation. Pronto. His hackles were raised and he did not trust Stein even in a public venue with a shmuck in a nametag peeking into their aisle every five minutes to make sure the crazies weren't stealing anything. (Hello, who was the bigger freak here? The two well-behaved boys or the man patched together by medieval science? Everyone in Doyleton was stupid.) The man had pinged his spider-sense before. If he was dangerous enough to do that when the thing was this broken, that meant he was a genuine threat. Maybe not now, but it was getting closer to nightfall. Peter didn't want to deal with both zombies and psychopants surgeons. That just wasn't fair.

"It's been all right," Peter said shortly. His voice was clipped and polite, as if this were an accidental meeting with his school principal rather than a ten point creeper. "Wet, but I think we missed most of it."

By the time she had found the correct aisle, more shoppers (or patients more likely) had come in, giving Asuka and Junpei a bigger distraction in order to nab some clips. She was sad,however, to see how truly childish they were. The clips were a bright pink, chunky, with little flowers embossed into the plastic.

"Well, better than nothing I guess..." Asuka quietly pulled away from the shelf and looked around as subtly as she could manage, gauging when the best time to strike would come.

[For Aigis, Minato, and Junpei]

...yeah, those were going to clash horribly with Asuka's hair, but Junpei totally understood that desperate situations sometimes called for horrific looking things. Like Ken juiced up in a case of TAP Soda. Okay, that was more hilarious than horrific.

"So... what's your plan?" Junpei whispered as he picked up something from the opposite side of the aisle to look at. "Totally your show, babe."

After splitting up with Anthy, Minato found himself wandering around Doyleton again towards the corners of the town. The rain was getting heavier now, and his coat was finally showing itself to not be particularly water-resistant.

The end of Wicker Street was one of the emptier parts of town, with only one store on either side of the street before it turned off to Gamma Street. Minato stopped in front of the toy shop, looking back over his shoulder and off into the rain down the way he had just walked. Was he on the wrong track? It didn't help that he had not actually met the "friend" of the woman on the radio, so he wouldn't be able to recognize him even if he did find him.

With a sigh to himself, Minato attempted to dry his shoes on the doormat and walked into the store. If he wasn't making any headway, he might as well get indoors before he caught cold.

Aigis' encounter with Scar and von Karma had left her feeling all the more resolved to take down Head Doctor Landel. His disgusting crimes against all these poor, defenseless people was just intolerable. But she didn't have much time to think about that for now. She had promised Heat to search for possible escape routes. Even though he had warned her against walking around on her own, she didn't want to completely waste the day.

Heading west down Wicker, Aigis pulled the hood of her parka down to try to keep the pouring rain away from her face. It wasn't working. Behind her, she heard a nurse call out for her to take shelter in one of the buildings. She was almost tempted to disobey, but then she saw a familiar figure across the street, looking over his shoulder before entering a building.

Minato-san... Aigis, all thoughts of finding an escape route flying out of her head, made a beeline for the same store. "Minato-san! I have found you again!"

Her voice echoed a bit in the small shop, though she had not meant to speak so loudly. She smiled, unaware of the volume. How nice it was to see him again, especially since it had been over twenty-four hours since their last meeting.

My show...

Truth be told, she didn't have a plan. Asuka had never stole something in her life, she never needed to. The little redhead always had money on hand or a hopeless boy to hang on and coo over until he got her what she wanted. This was quite obviously different, and she wasn't exactly sure how to approach this.

Should I just...?

Stuffing it into her shirt seemed a bit pedestrian and easily noticed by the owner. Or maybe she was just paranoid. A soft huff came out of her mouth, wishing she had more than Junpei at her disposal. Barrettes in hand, Asuka took another look around to make sure the clerk didn't have his eyes on her. He did.

Mother f--!!

She made sure to slowly glance away as if the young pilot hadn't been looking for him in the first place. Feigning want and then resignation, she put the barrettes back (for now) and looked up at Junpei glumly. Something else caught her eye though. The front door opened again and a familiar boy walked in. Ohh what was his name? Minao or Minato or something like that. Maybe he wouldn't mind helping...

The best she could come up with was an open smile and a large wave over Junpei's head, beckoning him to come over.

Junpei was a lot more skilled in the arena of stealing than he appeared to be. Sure, he wasn't the shoplifting type, but considering how many times he'd pilfered things from his dorm mates to sell and make a little extra cash, he was far more useful than Asuka was giving him credit for. He only spoke up because he figures the girl liked to be in charge and stuff. Sadly, it was clear to him that Asuka was an amateur the way she looked over at the clerk with the merchandise in hand.

This was going to need a bit of good ol' Iori magic. Thankfully, the door opened at the moment and Asuka started waving to whomever was coming, easily drawing the clerk's attention to the door to see who else was coming in. At that moment, Junpei turned to check out the door himself, deftly swiping the barrettes in the same motion. Plaming them wasn't hard given he had big hands, and seeing Minato and Aigis coming inside, Junpei grinned and took a step toward them.

"Sup, Minato!" he called, his hand with the concealed barrettes dropping down to slip the loot into the pocket on the rear of Asuka's pants, purposefully giving her rear a bit of a squeeze to make it look like his soul reason for putting his hand down there was to cop a feel.

Coping a feel was just a perk.

Minato blinked when he realized that he was being greeted as soon as he entered the shop--and most certainly not by the wary-looking shopkeeper. He tilted his head, seeing a familiar redheaded girl and an even more familiar hat-wearing boy near some shelves.

What was the girl's name now? Asuka? They had spoken only briefly, but her temper definitely kept her memorable. He wondered when she and Junpei had become acquainted. Nonetheless, he pulled a hand out of his pocket long enough to wave, walking towards them without noticing he had been followed inside.

Along the way, his uncovered eye caught Junpei's hand slip down suspicously close to Asuka's butt, and his calm expression faltered slightly. Really, Junpei? He didn't think the other boy was that forward with acquaintances.

When Minato kept walking Aigis almost called out again, but then she noticed the reason for his distraction. Junpei was also here and he had a friend with him. Both of them were waving in greeting. Aigis followed her friend further into the store, giving Junpei a small smile.

"What a surprise to see you here, Junpei-san," Aigis said. The awkward touch flew completely over her head, just as any come on would. Innocently, she looked to Asuka, continuing on as if nothing was amiss. "Are you an acquaintance of Junpei-san's?"

Seeing Junpei with another girl brought thoughts of Evangeline, but Aigis was not one to jump to conclusions. Junpei was not acting as though something was amiss. If his smile was any indication, he got along better with this girl than the young mage. Still, Aigis felt a little anxiety. Junpei had made her promise, so she couldn't say anything while Minato was here. If she got a moment alone with him, she would ask him if he was still having trouble.

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Day 49: Late Afternoon - Lil' Tyke Toys

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Is that like Dr. Acula?

J.D. needs to be a doctor here. I don't care how many RPers I have to troll, I will find one.

Dammit, forgot about Dr. Acula. Why did I miss the most obvious joke? DX

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wow I totally posted this to the wrong thread last night x__x

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