damned_institute | Night 52: M71-M80 Hallway

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Night 52: M71-M80 Hallway

((Continuing from here in room M79.))

"Woah, woah, woah," Woody cut in the moment that brief, yet very, very disconcerting message was finished. What did they have in store for everyone? Why couldn't they just go to sleep like people in a normal hospital did? The staff tried to act like everything was peachy during the day! Would it have been so hard to actually keep that up at night, too?

"What was that about just now?" He turned to Wally, wanting answers that actually made sense and didn't include anything about monsters. "Does he seriously say things like that every night?" By now the food sat practically forgotten on his plate, but Woody wasn't sure how someone could think of food at a time like this.

Some part of him hoped that maybe this was some twisted prank played on some of the more...imaginative patients in order to get them worked up over things that weren't there. If that was the case, then maybe he could still take it easy and not let himself worry so much over things that didn't have anything to do with his getting back home. But the longer he stayed here, the more he was starting to realize that thoughts like that were the result of wishful thinking.

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"...Yeah, that," Peter mumbled, eyes on the floor. Thank god, he was spared what would have no doubt been a most uncomfortable lecture on human modesty and medical etiquette. He wasn't ready for another disaster of the 'fap' variety.

Aaaand that sounded totally wrong and out of context here. When I was explaining the meaning of fap, the meaning of fap! Not even the fierce inner retraction could stop Peter from going fidgety at the implication.

Though the verdict was out on whether Muraki swooping in to his rescue there was more patronizing or sympathetic, Peter would just roll with it for now. He cleared his throat and averted his eyes anyway, knowing what the likely answer would be. He did not envy Brainy his spotlight one bit.

Not to mention they were going straight in for unwrapping the band-aids. He was concerned about Brainy, definitely, but Peter had never been a fan of staring at wounds. Wounds that, for all intents and purposes, should be kept covered for the time being. He supposed an examination meant getting a good look at the injuries, but wasn't this a little too soon to be peeling things away? What if Brainy got infected?

He frowned, hesitantly chiming in, "Should we have brought a first aid kit, or something? I mean if we're going to be unwrapping things we should have something to help clean up before we put the bandages back on."

This was going to be a long night, wasn't it?

"Oh." So that was what bothered Peter about all of this? It might also explain why he was so on edge as well, beyond how the institute itself was... behaving. The thought that there might be a cultural issue here hadn't really occurred to him, particularly since Brainiac 5 was used to handling a lot of the Legion's field medical requirements, where privacy was generally not a priority.

Still, even with that experience in mind, it was difficult not to tense up as the doctor touched his head.

"Alright," he agreed after a moment, reminding himself to keep still and quiet as Muraki worked. The implants in his forehead hadn't been as bad as other locations, so theoretically this would be the easier of the--

He jumped again as Peter raised what was a very valid point, one that he should have thought of before now.

"Peter's right; we'll need further supplies." His eyes flicked over to his roommate's. "There's a rudimentary first aid kit in my room."

The boy was awfully tense. Muraki felt a brief flutter of excitement as he jumped at the touch, and again at Peter's voice. The boy just became more and more useful. He would have liked to speak to Brainiac 5 without his lover hovering over them, and this provided the most perfect opportunity. Better yet, Peter had suggested it himself.

He withdrew his hands for the moment.

"My apologies. I didn't know you had anything like that or I would have suggested it earlier." Muraki's gaze shifted to Peter. "You can take the flashlight if you like."

If you were a real doctor, you would have suggested it yourself and not risked infecting him in the first place.

Oh the things Peter would say aloud if there were no such things as manners.

Instead Peter only shook his head, pressing the flashlight back into the doctor's hands. "Nah, I'll be fine. Most of the lights are on now. It'll take me two seconds."

And he hoped it would. He didn't like the idea of leaving Brainy alone with the man for any amount of time, but he also didn't like the idea of him getting sick. And if he was coming back soon, chances were Muraki wouldn't risk doing anything unseemly when he would definitely be getting caught.

Yes, he was already thinking of him as a full blown villain based on evidence of absolutely nothing. But you know what? He did not care. Peter had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts, which weren't usually too shabby in the creep-detecting department. He had had a few misses before (Eddie Brock for example), but rarely did he ever smell a stinker where there wasn't one. Muraki was oozing skeeve vibes, and no amount of flawless etiquette was going to cover that.

"Be back in a bit," he said, directing a brief smile to Brainy. All Muraki got in parting was half a nod.

The door swung open, and Peter disappeared into the hall. Searching their room wouldn't be too hard. There were only so many places you could hide stuff in there.

[FEEL FREE TO CONVERSE WITHOUT HIM FOR A ROUND OR TWO, GUYS? Let me know when it's okay for him to jump back in.]

"All right," Brainiac 5 agreed, watching Peter go before turning back to the doctor. It wouldn't take the other boy long before he found the little kit, theoretically. There were only a limited number of hiding places in their room and Peter was intelligent enough that it shouldn't present too much of a problem for him. Instead he focused on the doctor and their current task.

"Should we continue or wait for him to return?" he asked curiously. His forehead shouldn't be too much of a problem if they did continue on, but they might need the kit afterwards.

This was why medical technology in his own time was that much more useful; he would have had everything on hand and this would have been over in a few seconds.

Muraki took the flashlight with a short nod, his gaze shifting back to Brainiac 5 once Peter had left the room. It was tempting to continue without his scrutiny, indulge his curiosity and then some, but he had more than one goal in mind tonight. No one could accuse him of lacking self-control. Unless it came to a certain violet-eyed shinigami, he made certain not to bare his fangs until he was ready to kill.

"I don't want to risk infection if it can be helped, and it seems like you... need a little time." That was the most delicate way to put it, he supposed. He put on a sympathetic expression. "Did they put you under at all?"

An easy conclusion to make, from the boy's reaction and Ritsuka's description of the place as a 'torture room'. At the least, the patients must be conscious when the doors opened for them. Unnecessarily risky, Muraki thought. At least in some cases it would simply compromise the experiment, and if it didn't, letting them out so soon after surgery would. Unless the emotional and physical trauma was a part of the desired outcome. The institute itself was run with enough fine control that he had to wonder about it.

He thought he caught another flicker of shadow out the corner of his eye, but when he glanced in that direction nothing seemed amiss. He frowned, shifting his attention back to the boy. The rooms were relatively safe, weren't they?

Edited 2010-12-14 15:50 (UTC)

Brainiac 5's eyes slipped away from the doctor's face as he answered, concentrating instead on a blank wall in the room. It likely wouldn't have mattered exactly what he was looking at, however; his mind's eye conjuring up images of what had taken place that night.

"No," he said quietly. "They didn't. I was given something minor for the pain during some of the more... extreme moments, but much of it was without anything to dull the sensations."

He absently rubbed his wrist as he spoke, recalling the way the doctor had cut into him, slid the implants into his flesh so deeply that it felt like it surely must have been nestled on the very bone itself.

"Peter wants to find a way to reverse it," he continued carefully. "But I don't think it's really possible. There were implants, which could theoretically be removed, but the main component was a form of liquid technology that's no doubt penetrated most of my system by now."

Well, that certainly lent his trauma theory some credibility. That or Brainiac 5 had simply fallen into the hands of another particularly sadistic doctor. He would find out soon enough if this was an anomaly or an intended effect.

He made a mental note to check the wrist as well. "In that case, it would be too dangerous to remove even the implants. We don't know how they're meant to interact with the technology, and there's no guarantee that they wouldn't be replaced regardless. It may be wise to check them regularly. Do you know what they're meant to accomplish? Did the doctor mention anything at all?"

After a moment he added, "I'm sorry, for what it's worth. Something like this should never have happened."

"It's fine," Brainiac 5 answered automatically. "I'd rather have practicality, to be honest. Saying it shouldn't have happened won't change the fact that it did and there's little you or anyone else could have done regardless."

The silence that threatened to press in when they weren't speaking was a little unsettling, though the Coluan dismissed the concerns as paranoia about the institute of a night in general. All because it was night time didn't mean that they were in immediate danger, and the rooms were supposed to be safer.

Unless the nurses themselves removed you from them, that was.

His hand clenched a little and Brainiac 5 pushed the thought away. There was little point thinking about that now.

"No," he said, looking back up at the tall, pale doctor. "He only said they were an upgrade that would assist me, but nothing beyond that. I..." He hesitated. "Is there anything you can do until Peter returns? I don't like simply sitting here waiting."

"I suppose you're right." He replied. He could appreciate practicality more than most. Scientific minds were useful without being to caught up in frivolous emotions, and the only appeal they required was logic.

Still, it wasn't hard to see that the boy was still nervous and obviously upset. He had reason to be. Muraki was intimately familiar with some of the 'upgrades' that could be made to the human body, and few of them could be appreciated by the test subjects. Furthermore, the ones he had preformed himself weren't quite this technical in nature. He couldn't predict what this might accomplish.

"I understand," He thought for a moment. "Do you need help getting your shirt off? Once we start, it would be best to look after things as efficiently as possible."

"I can handle it," Brainiac 5 answered swiftly, both because it was true - he was a little slower than normal but it wasn't entirely beyond his capacity at the moment - and because he wasn't comfortable with the idea of Muraki helping him, doctor or no.

"My torso wasn't a major site of tampering," he began as he slowly tugged the shirt up and over his head. "But with the use of liquid technology, I can't be sure where it all ended up, assuming it has stopped moving, or what effects it might have."

With the shirt finally clear of his head, he folded it to the best of his ability right now and set it on the bed next to him. Presumably Muraki would want to inspect the points the doctor had used for injections, as well as his general physical condition, but the exact methods he'd use for such things he wasn't entirely certain of. Physical exams without highly advanced computers had died out centuries ago from his perspective.

Muraki didn't care much either way. A measure of caution was useful, and the point of the question was to check on the boy's mobility, which he had improved since lunch, when he could barely manage to eat on his own. He'd experienced a similar effect when it came to his own wounds. The cut from the other night had healed rapidly and left only a faint scar.

Muraki nodded once, his gaze thoughtful but distant. "My sentiments exactly. There doesn't seem to be any obvious external damage, but..." He pushed his glasses up with the heel of his palm and crouched in front of Brainiac 5. "Let me know if you feel anything unusual."

Though this wasn't a normal physical, he supposed it would be typical to start it off that way. He pressed two fingers against the boy's neck, checking his pulse and moving on to other points with clinical efficiency.

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Night 52: M71-M80 Hallway

SCREAM I THOUGHT I HAD POSTED TO THIS AGES AGO. /)___(\ Sorry gaiz.

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ONLY A BILLION DAYS LATE, SOB

HOLIDAYS DON'T COUNT. Also I think Peter can come back now?