The Scarecrow of Oz (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scarefaux) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
damned_institute2010-11-26 02:48 pm
scarefaux) wrote in damned_institute2010-11-26 02:48 pm
Entry tags:
- aerith,
- aigis,
- anise,
- austria,
- bella,
- brainiac 5,
- buzz,
- castiel,
- chuck,
- claire bennet,
- claire littleton,
- claire stanfield,
- damon,
- dean winchester,
- depth charge,
- edward cullen,
- elle,
- ema skye,
- erika,
- gambit,
- goku (dragonball),
- guy,
- haseo,
- ilia,
- ishida,
- izaya,
- jo,
- kairi,
- kaito,
- katniss,
- kibitoshin,
- kirk,
- kratos,
- lana skye,
- leela,
- leon (so2),
- lightning,
- lunge,
- matt,
- maya,
- mccoy,
- mele,
- mello,
- minako,
- minato,
- niikura,
- peter parker,
- prussia,
- riku,
- rita,
- rubedo,
- ruby,
- s.t.,
- sai,
- scar (tlk),
- scott pilgrim,
- snow,
- sora,
- soren,
- stefan,
- taura,
- the doctor,
- the scarecrow,
- tifa,
- tsubaki,
- tsukasa,
- two-face,
- venom,
- watson,
- xemnas,
- yomi,
- yue,
- yukari,
- zack
Day 53: Sun Room, Morning
With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he could have thought of something!
As much as he didn't like to admit it, it was unlikely his former roommate was still within the Institute's walls at this point, though the Scarecrow wouldn't know for sure unless Kaiji returned to visit him as Dorothy had, encouraging his supposed recovery. There was still the concern that Landel, despite his vile methods, was actually right and he was suffering from the delusion of having been a scarecrow in Oz. After all, that movie had been a pretty elaborate trick. Would he have planted it in town on purpose, knowing the Scarecrow would be taken there the night of the enchanted doors? And how could he guarantee that once he did find it, he'd take it and actually watch it? There was so much guesswork involved- it seemed the Wizard Landel either liked coincidences or he had more power on his side than any of the patients could have guessed.
The Scarecrow stopped by the bulletin board before heading for a seat, considering writing a note to his friends to check on them. He'd heard from Depth Charge, Remy, and Kibitoshin within a day's time, so he figured they were probably fine (as fine as Depth Charge could have been after last night, anyway). He'd seen Mele and Scar the day before. He put a finger to his head, thinking- he'd not heard from Abe or Sangamon in a day or so, but being professionals, they were probably very busy. Perhaps a note would be best for them.
[Kibby]
As much as he didn't like to admit it, it was unlikely his former roommate was still within the Institute's walls at this point, though the Scarecrow wouldn't know for sure unless Kaiji returned to visit him as Dorothy had, encouraging his supposed recovery. There was still the concern that Landel, despite his vile methods, was actually right and he was suffering from the delusion of having been a scarecrow in Oz. After all, that movie had been a pretty elaborate trick. Would he have planted it in town on purpose, knowing the Scarecrow would be taken there the night of the enchanted doors? And how could he guarantee that once he did find it, he'd take it and actually watch it? There was so much guesswork involved- it seemed the Wizard Landel either liked coincidences or he had more power on his side than any of the patients could have guessed.
The Scarecrow stopped by the bulletin board before heading for a seat, considering writing a note to his friends to check on them. He'd heard from Depth Charge, Remy, and Kibitoshin within a day's time, so he figured they were probably fine (as fine as Depth Charge could have been after last night, anyway). He'd seen Mele and Scar the day before. He put a finger to his head, thinking- he'd not heard from Abe or Sangamon in a day or so, but being professionals, they were probably very busy. Perhaps a note would be best for them.
[Kibby]
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Good old, fun time Peter who didn't quite get why his roommate was being so awkward with Scott, but he was willing to chalk it up to being a Coluan thing and unfamiliar with the basics of human socialization. That was okay. They could work on that. They were off to a good start with Scott's stellar effort in the lame joke department. It had Peter's eyes rolling to ceiling and put the smile back on his face. "Actually Scott, I've been meaning to tell you. You're the other woman."
He supposed some form of explanation was needed here. It was only fair to both of them. "I met Scott something like a week ago? We met through a mutual friend, and there's a group of us that's been trying to get a crack at the basement. I've only gone with them once and we didn't...get very far, but you said you've been down there already? Right Scott?"
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What did strike him as odd, however, was Peter's comment to this Scott. "...but he's male, isn't he? Or..." He glanced at Scott curiously. "Were you a different species before you arrived here? With different sex norms?"
That had to be as disconcerting as the first day or so after he suddenly found himself organic, and the Coluan relaxed a little more, trying an almost apologetic, yet hesitant, smile.
A smile which disappeared almost immediately when Peter began talking about the basement. "Isn't that dangerous, Peter?"
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Scott squinted at the splotches on Brainy's forehead, now wondering if they were for calling the mothership or something.
Whatever, though, he thought. If Pod Brain here was okay by Peter, he was probably going to be okay by Scott too. He couldn't fault the guy for being awkward if he wasn't from 'round here. Maybe he just took some getting used to was all. "Sacre bleu! And here I thought we had something special, Peter!" Scott said with a swoon, putting a hand to his forehead. "Am I just a cheap whore to you? Is that it? You only want me for my boobs, don't you?"
Of course, getting to know a potentially awkward alien-ish guy didn't preclude messing with him at the same time.
Scott sat back up after a moment, letting his little moment of "drama" pass before he could remind himself too much of the boobs he was trying to forget ever existed. "Uh, yeah, I did get down there once, but not far in. Only to, like, the first room." He turned to Brainiac at that. "And you're right, it is dangerous. All the more reason to go in a group. I only went with one other guy last time. It was... not fun."
Memories of nearly getting lightly roasted and making an ass of himself in front of Wolverine.
"Yeah. Not fun at all." Twitch.
This entire tag was composed to the dulcet melody of Trolololo
Augh, whatever. Moving past that.
The question prompted a short pause from Peter. Largely due to the fact that he was confused as to how his roommate came to that conclusion, but then he remembered. Alien planet. Zillions of years into the future. Gender-swapping folk like that probably existed somewhere in the fictional universe.
Well he was a woman that one time.
Tempting as it was, Peter was not going to mention that. Scott would likely retaliate with the fact that he'd been blessed with boobs once, too, and his life would be ruined. (Moreso than it already was.)
"The only special thing in our sordid love affair was your special wallet." Peter delivered a friendly kick to Scott's shin. "Your boobs aren't all that."
He then turned to Brainy again, explaining the deal with an easy smile. "Scott's definitely a guy. He's from Canada - the country above this one. Calling him a woman was a figure of speech. In a sense. Usually this joke is about like, a guy dating two girls, and it doesn't quite roll off the tongue if you change the wording. You get what I mean?" He shrugged, skipping to the next question.
"Well yeah, it's dangerous. Anything worthwhile around here is dangerous. But from the sounds of it, Landel might be down there. Or something equally important. There wouldn't be so many safeguards down there if there wasn't."
This was the first time he was hearing about the basement itself in any sort of detail. Which was a generous description, because Scott was not expanding on much of anything right now. Peter squinted at him, rolling his hand in the universal 'Carry On' sign.
"Aaaaand...?"
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"You seem to have become good friends despite not having known each other for very long," he commented icily. Not to mention the jokes centred around the possibility of them dating and...
He glanced at Peter sidelong, then back to Scott. Was that what he'd walked in on? But, hadn't Peter said he had a girlfriend? Not that that precluded the chance of him having interest in same-gender relationships necessarily, but most humans tended to only have relationships with one person at a time, in his experiences.
Not to mention in all honesty, it shouldn't even be his business at all. It was Peter's personal life, not his. Brainiac 5 should be more interested in the talk of the basement; the data Scott had would be useful in figuring out more about this place and how it might be possible to escape. Or he should be considering the chances of him getting his own tests underway.
But instead he butted in with; "Are you dating Peter?"
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He nodded and let Peter do some 'splainin', but of the more relevant kind. If he had to spell this out to Brainiac 5 in this much detail, it was pretty much confirmed that the guy was not entirely one with Planet Earth.
And it was that fact alone that stopped Scott's brain from flipping over inside his skull at Pod Brain's next question. He had been about to continue telling Peter about the basement when suddenly the matter of his dating a fifteen-year-old boy came up, and frankly, Scott had not been expecting to answer that kind of question today.
"Are we—? You mean in that—? Oh, no, no, god no! What gave you that— No! Ew! Sick, dude!" In the middle of that blabbering, Scott had inadvertently gotten a vision of him and Peter having some kind of illicit secret affair and making out in a closet. Now he was scrambling to find the brain bleach because never should that happen in any way in any universe and you should feel ashamed of yourself for even thinking about it good god you creepy pedophiles what the hell.
Scott managed to calm down quickly enough, though, because again, alien. He shouldn't have been surprised that their remarks would get taken seriously by someone like this. "No, we're just joking around, relax," he assured Brainiac, forcing an awkward smile. "If there's one thing guys do when they're friends, it's tease the hell out of each other. You can't take everything so seriously, man."
no subject
What on earth was going on - oh god WHAT?!
Peter was stricken with a vision of that one night with Mary Jane in his basement. They had made out in the dark with only the computer blinking in the background, way past curfew just because they were teenagers and totally rebellious like that. Except now, instead of having a gorgeous redhead in his lap and attached to him by the lips, there was now a man seventy pounds heavier crushing his legs and sticking his tongue down Peter's throat like he was fishing for a stray piece of asparagus.
Something inside him screamed in agony and perished in a burst of flames.
"Dude, no!!" Debunking this myth right the hell now. Even if he had to do it in a pitch only meant for dog ears. "He's like ten years older than me, never ever ever! That's pedo-central - a-and I have a girlfriend! She'd gut me if I even - no no no!"
Scott, in a surprising show of maturity, came down from the hysteria faster than Peter did. He was still pushing himself back into the couch cushions as if they could swallow him up entirely and trying to hide his beet red face when the other boy offered a sane explanation. All Peter could do to help was give a meager, "What he said."
Man, hadn't he just explained that this was a joke two seconds ago? What the hell Brainy?
A+ on the FoC reference! XD
"It just seems like an odd topic to joke about, that's all," he grumbled, settling back down into his seat and avoiding looking at Peter. Unfortunately this meant he was stuck with looking at Scott or not looking at either of them, which made conversation awkward.
Eventually Brainiac 5 settled on a halfway point, which was gazing somewhere slightly to Scott's left. Call it petty, but he still resented the other patient for the initial mix-up between the three of them and while he wasn't going to be open about it and would try to keep it from affecting their ability to work together too much, should it come to that, that didn't mean he was willing to just forget it either.
"And anyway, shouldn't you be focussing more on the serious matters here? Like this information you supposedly have on the basement?"
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"It's honestly not much," Scott answered, poking Peter in the shoulder to make sure the kid hadn't died of embarrassment. "I made it to the basement once with this guy Logan by just running the hell through the Sun Room and not stopping to let any hidden nasties take us by surprise. We got about as far as the first room, a ballroom-type place, which was being guarded by a two-headed fire-breathing boss monster. It was already holding its own against three other guys, and nearly toasted us too. Night ended around there."
Scott conveniently left off the part where he had fallen on his butt and gotten sent back upstairs with his tail between his legs on orders from Wolverine. That part wasn't even really necessary to the report or anything, right?
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He really could have died at that moment. At least nobody had put the icing on the cake: Indy had yet to conveniently walk by and overhear anything. Thank the lord.
Luckily, everyone had opted for a change in subject matter. The basement it was. Much safer. Perhaps not in the physical sense, but conversationally it was something he could handle right now. Pity Scott didn't have much of a story to tell.
And hold the phone. Peter suddenly frowned. "Logan?" he parroted, regarding the older boy curiously. "You knew Logan?"
Scott had mentioned having knowledge of the basement ages ago, so this trip had to have been from a while back. That didn't stop the tiny bubble of hope from rising up. As far as Peter knew, there had only ever been one Logan here. It wasn't that common of a name.
The guy had already come back from the dead once. Who was to say it wouldn't happen a second time?
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He was tempted to sarcastically add a question about exactly how many people Peter knew, and why he seemed so suspicious of anyone Brainiac 5 asked to meet of a night when he apparently knew all these people he'd never mentioned before now. But... he was a little afraid that he might not like the answer he got, for one thing.
Another aspect was that Peter was a lot like Clark in a way; he seemed to have that personality that seemed to make people like and trust him easily. As with Clark, it had made the young Coluan a little uncertain and on edge, especially when he made friends with people whom might not be the best of influences (in his book anyway). But all the same he couldn't deny that Peter had that affect on people, and it was the sort of trait a hero should have. So... he supposed he could put up with it.
At least until it proved more of a problem, like Clark's temporary friendship with Alexis had been.
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"Uh, yeah, I know him, unless something happened that nobody told me about?" Scott wondered whether Peter was talking about the Logan that had apparently disappeared not long into Scott's stay in the Institute, or to the one that (as far as he knew) was currently running around getting his mutton chops into things. Come to think of it, he really hadn't seen or heard from the fellow Canuck for at least a couple of days now. Possibly not a good sign. "I just met him kinda randomly one night. Literally bumped into each other in the hall."
Scott wasn't going to get into the whole thing with how he had recognized the guy, considering the conversation he and Peter had just had. Save that for another day. Or no day, maybe.
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Brainy was feeling left out.
The conversation was mostly between him and Scott, and Brainy had only wandered in halfway through and didn't know any of the people they were talking about, wasn't involved with any of their nightly escapades or anything else that had come up so far. And the awkwardness that came from being raised in a cold alien society seemed to only amplify his reactions. Oy. Maybe he should explain a this to Scott later because Brainy wasn't exactly giving off a stellar first impression here.
And let's face it: Brainy needed friends. (Ones that weren't tools.) Maybe if he tried to smooth things over with both of them later they could eventually work their way up to that. Scott was a nice guy, and so was Brainy. There shouldn't be a reason for anyone to get snippy here.
Still, the clock was ticking down on their stay in the Sun Room. Nurses were already whispering to one another and the bustle on the balcony had already begun. No time for a rousing chorus of Kumbaya.
"Logan's a guy from my world, or another version of it or something. He's short, super hairy, super manly. Uh - he has metal claws that can shoot out from between his knuckles-" Peter mimicked the motion with his hand, "-and his power is basically healing from anything. He took a couple bullets to the head once and his forehead just squeezed them right back out. It was gross."
Not a pleasant memory, that one, but still rather tame in his collection of Happy Tales of the Majestic Mr. Wolverine. Peter smiled at Brainy, trying to draw out a less dour face from the other boy. "He's kind of hard to miss. You'd know him if you saw him. He has more hair than skin and his face is like, set in a permafrown."
He turned back to Scott, the smile fading a tick or two as he thought the matter over. "I don't know. I haven't seen or heard from him in a few days and he's already disappeared once before, so. I don't know, maybe I'll try grabbing him on the bulletin sometime."
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It was really all he could think to say in answer to that. Both Scott and Peter knew this Logan person, and he knew that Peter apparently had other friends, and Scott likely would too.
Clearly he'd interrupted something he wasn't really welcome in.
The information hurt, no matter how much Brainiac 5 told himself that he hardly had reason to feel this way. It wasn't as though Peter had an obligation to tell him everything that was going on in his life.
Possibly it was fortunate that the nurses were starting to move to collect patients, then. Brainiac 5 stood up quickly, doing his best to try and control the heat rising to his face through sheer willpower.
"I... wanted to check the information board before we're moved again," he lied. "I'll see you tonight, Peter."
And then he left.