Day 57: Sun Room
It figured that night would end before Rita and Taura could progress any further. Rita wasn't particularly disappointed to wake up abruptly, as they had reached a dead end. Really, the institute was doing them a favor by bringing them back to the starting point, where they could regroup.
What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time, ( Read more... )
What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time, ( Read more... )
Well. Weren't even trying to convince the patients, that was. An outsider might not have seen anything wrong with that little introduction, but a brief check of his database revealed that it had been spoken word-for-word by Landel precisely a week before: they'd simply replayed it and cut the outdated references to the weather ( ... )
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The answer and the snort that came with it was more than dismissive- she clearly wasn't impressed, and at any rate she didn't seem to have given it all that much thought. Mildly disappointing, but there were plenty of other things to discuss. Or was that just to be expected from someone her age? ... no, that was too general a statement. Sakura had been suitably insightful, after all.
He took a moment to actually look at the girl properly: small and young-looking, probably no older than sixteen, with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She hadn't attempted to make eye contact with him, but after the way she'd answered so decisively Lunge wasn't convinced that it was out of shyness. The way she'd gone straight on writing without bothering to ask for a name or stop for manners' sake seemed to indicate that she was simply the type who didn't have time or inclination for niceties.
Which suited Lunge just fine, particularly since she'd picked up on the announcement. Maybe she had thought about it and just wasn't interested in sharing ( ... )
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... or was it? He waited until the woman had passed them by with the boxes- suggestion boxes, just as Landel had decreed- and then he began to type against his knee. "While Aguilar can run his little men around like toy soldiers, he still doesn't know how to run the Institute itself. That was what Landel said last night. Maybe they genuinely don't know how to do any of this. Following the schedule may be a necessity ( ... )
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It didn't seem to be anything he'd said that had particularly caught her attention- she hadn't latched onto any one point with any sense of immediacy- so perhaps it was just that she'd hadn't expected to have such an in-depth conversation so early in the morning. Whatever the case, it was good to see he seemed to have earned some sort of respect from her.
"No, not during the day," he agreed. Thought that almost seemed to imply that the night had any sort of form to it, when in reality it was all but one step away from chaos. "I've been here for just over two weeks now, and aside from the morning spent cleaning nothing much has changed. Maybe the days simply don't ( ... )
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When the man extended his hand, Rita narrowed her eyes at the offered appendage. She didn't move to shake with him. Gestures like that were meaningless to her - and a little uncomfortable, too. "Inspector? So you're a lawman?" she asked instead. With the different planets and different civilizations people came from, the connotation wasn't so obvious, so she wanted to confirm it.
In the meantime, it seemed appropriate to give her name as well. Without moving from her position, she reciprocated his introduction with, "... Rita Mordio. I'm a researcher."
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Just how headstrong she could be was made perfectly clear a moment later, as she made it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested in shaking hands without a thought for manners. It made no odds to Lunge either way- it was a perfunctory, almost reflex for him- but it was interesting that she'd chosen to brush it off. A cultural difference, perhaps. Or maybe, from the way she'd looked at his hand, she simply didn't trust such an overtly authoritative gesture.
"That's right. I work with the BKA- the German federal police," he said with a nod; whether she recognised the organisation would answer the question of culture. He sat back in his arm chair, curious. "What sort of research do you do?"
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Well, whatever. Lunge's next question was about the one subject Rita actually enjoyed talking about, so she was content to give him a somewhat full answer.
"I research magic and magic technology," she replied, folding her arms as her journal sat open in her lap. "At home, I developed formulas and technology for things like spellcasting and energy conversion. Since getting stuck here, I've been studying the types of magic that some of the other patients use." The fact that she'd successfully reproduced some foreign spells was a cause for celebration - or it would have been if Rita were the celebrating type, anyway.
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"That's right. Some people, like on Earth, treat magic like some kind of wishy-washy spiritual ritual. The reality is that magic is like any other science. Anyone can do it if they have the materials and the understanding." That explanation may not have been completely accurate, as Rita had heard of some types of magic that required a particular hereditary trait in the caster, but if she counted that as a 'required material', then she was technically still right.
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"Interesting theory. Have you managed to get it to work in practise here?" He didn't bother to ask whether she'd experimented back at home; young though she looked, Rita spoke with all the confidence of someone who had poured time and effort into her research and would, there was a chance, simply be offended by the implication that she was working without evidence. And given the sort of attitude she'd already shown, Lunge didn't doubt that offending her would shut the conversation down immediately. "I can't imagine magic works the same way across each different 'world'."
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