damned_institute | Day 50: Patient Library (3rd Shift)

Given a choice, as should have been implied by the whole "Free Choice Day" thing, Scott would have gone straight for the Game Room. Maybe it didn't have the greatest selection of games, but he was raring for another epic Tetris match with Indy or anyone else who cared to challenge him. Unfortunately for him, however, his nurse was already onto his line of thinking.

"Now Bryan, I know how much you love your games, but don't you think some more time away from them would be good for you?" the woman asked him in a soothing tone, gently taking his shoulder when he turned toward the Game Room.

"Uh, why would I think that?" he asked, blinking at her in honest confusion.

"Well, I know your family was worried about more than just your condition before you came here. They're hoping you can start to wean yourself down to a more healthy level of enjoyment with your games, too," the nurse explained with continuing gentleness.

"Yeah. And?" Scott raised an eyebrow. "It's Free Choice Day, isn't it? Don't I get to choose and stuff?"

"Of course, Bryan. But I'm still here to make suggestions, and I think you'd do well with a different activity today." The woman smiled at him, genuine care and concern in her expression. "You can always come here later in the week. It'll probably be more rewarding if you wait, too."

Scott was silent, considering the advice. He raised an index finger. "Well, I suppose... Uh, yeah no. Please to be going to the Game Room now, thanks."

The nurse frowned.

Five minutes of irritatingly gentle coaxing later, and Scott found himself in the patient library. "Stupid guilt tripping never even talked to my real mom and dad I bet I could be playing Tetris right now they don't even have any cool books in here..." he grumbled to himself under his breath as he lazily perused the shelves. He picked a book completely at random, The Oxford Book of English Verse. He was half-hoping that maybe pulling the book out would trigger something more exciting, like a secret item appearing, a bonus stage unlocking, or a new shortcut tunnel opening. But no, Landel's reality was boring as ever. "Maybe there'll be an awesome poem or something in here, at least," he told himself as he headed over to an empty seat with a short sigh.

[Unknowingly waiting for Sam]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So much for the (admittedly very distant) hope that Grell would decide to do something other than hurting other people in his boredom. It seemed like the man was determined to insist that there wasn't any way for him enjoy himself if he wasn't hurting someone else, and that Brainiac 5 himself could either stand aside or make himself a target again. Neither of which were options he wanted to consider, for obvious reasons.

Which left trying to think of some other method to work around this situation, and the first step there was to try and learn more about the other man.

"So what makes a..." It was difficult to say the words without lacing them with heavy sarcasm, but he managed. "...death god a death god? I remember you cl- saying that you don't normally have a heart-" Which reminded him of Luxord as well. "-and are immortal, but what else is there?"

A topic change, was it? Well, Grell could go with that. It only frustrated him more to think of what he wanted to be doing and couldn't, so changing tactics and talking about what he used to do would be something like a trip down nostalgia lane. That was supposed to be pleasant, wasn't it? He didn't often reminisce since it seemed so silly when he was always so busy killing this man or reaping that woman's soul, or stalking down someone or another. He did like to think back on some of the more interesting reapings though. The particularly interesting Records that caught his attention were never forgotten. Some people had such dark and dirty pasts while they lived their lives pretending to be saints - so very interesting.

"We have them," Grell said, waving off the question like smoke in the air. "They just don't beat. A death god stands in the interim between God's Kingdom of angels and Him, and the realm of Man. We're closer to mortals in that we need sleep and food, but closer to gods in that we can't die naturally, we're rarely seen on the mortal plane, and none of this breathing or heartbeat nonsense."

The god smirked as he turned his gaze away from the rest of the room and settled it on Brainy. The boy was grasping at the foreign concept of deities. This was a good start. Science certainly had a very important place in the world - medicine, surgeries, research, that whole...Enlightenment thing - but it was hollow without a sense of faith to back it. The world would be so flat if there were no wonder left in it.

"We keep to the veil between God and Man, watching for when the soul is reaching the end of its journey. When the time is right, we read a man's Record, judge his soul and reap it - killling him. It is our job to break the string that ties a mortal life to the world of the living and send it off to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory." And how he loved that job. Grell sighed and let his eyes wander away again, amused at how much he seemed to be talking for once. He supposed there was no harm in telling Brainy all these things. It wasn't like it was classified information or anything - more like Death God 101. "I do miss reading a person's Record. They reveal such interesting things, things that a man might wish to hide, but cannot. God sees everything and it is our job to judge what He has seen."

Day 50: Patient Library (3rd Shift)

so late I don't even DX

it's okay o/ I'm slow as idek what