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revealed that it had been spoken word-for-word by Landel precisely a week before: they'd simply replayed it and cut the outdated references to the weather.
Side-by-side with his escort, Lunge walked to the Sun Room. Even with his new-old nurse's uniform, it was easy to recognise the tall, broad-shouldered soldier hidden behind them, faintly ill at ease out of uniform so far as the trained eye could measure. Just as they had been in the town, the military were undercover.
It had made sense, there, trading the military uniforms for clean white medical gear; overt military presence was likely to alarm the townspeople and raise suspicion. Perhaps the same was true of today, and the aim was not to surprise any of the usual Sunday visitors. But that didn't make sense. Surely the visitors were brainwashed to some extent anyway, or simply empty ciphers made to look like friends and relatives? In that case, why was the military making such a careful effort to conceal their activity from them? Surely their opinion was either a moot point or nonexistent? In fact, if Doyleton was the illusion Landel claimed it was, why had they bothered at all yesterday, too? Was there some sort of double bluff going on here simply to throw the patients off, or had he overlooked something critical?
The lack of a conclusion frustrated him. Lunge surveyed the Sun Room briefly for anyone he could air the thought to, but it was still too early for there to be many people around or new bulletins put up. The young woman sitting by herself and writing looked promising enough, at least; it implied a certain level of organisation, and that she actually had something interesting to write about. Very few patients here seemed to actually use their journals at all.
How tenuous- but then, he hardly had a fistful of options.
His approach was casual, and he settled into an armchair opposite with a thoughtful sigh. "Hardly convincing, is it?" he commented, eyes swivelling briefly to the intercom before he gave a faint smile. "Would you mind if I sat here?"
[do you mind?]
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Rita's pen stopped for a moment when she heard a man speaking to her. Normally she'd completely tune out any voices around her while doing research, but with the room relatively empty that morning, it wasn't so easy to ignore her surroundings. She glanced up at the person who'd addressed her, and gave a small snort. "Hmph. You mean how they're pretending to pretend to be a normal institute now? It's pretty stupid if you ask me."
To his question, Rita gave a slight shrug of the shoulders, indicating that she didn't care too much either way. She was almost done recording what she learned from the object Taura brought to her last night, and the man wasn't so disruptive that she couldn't finish writing while he was there.
Since there were plenty of other seats around, Rita supposed the stranger might be interested in conversation. While she wasn't much of a conversationalist herself, Rita knew by now that the other patients were the best source of information there was in the institute - books and staff members were pretty much useless.
Without looking up from her journal, she asked after a pause, "That announcement this morning... It's the same one we heard a week ago, isn't it?" That was assuming this man was around back then, but this was one way to find out whether he was new or not.
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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 right away.
The smile became a little more genuine. "That's right. It's absolutely identical, save for the interference- the rain's let up is what used to be there. But obviously they couldn't leave that in." He tilted his head. "It may be for the visitors later today."
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The idea that it was more to convince the visitors than the patients was one that she had also been considering, but using the Head Doctor's morning announcement like that didn't seem to serve any purpose other than being obnoxious. "If the visitors are anything like I've heard, it's probably enough to fool them, though." Somebody who'd been brainwashed to believe the institute would have to see something pretty radical to even begin to question that trust, after all.
Rita lifted her pen to continue writing, but just as she did, she caught a "nurse" approaching the bulletin board in her peripherals. Pausing once more, she turned her head to watch the woman set up a pair of boxes and a notice just by the board.
When Rita saw the blank board earlier, she thought the military had just been too lazy to edit out more from the Head Doctor's speech, but... "Looks like they actually plan on following his schedule."
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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."
And that included visitors, though Lunge silently willed that he would be spared the emotional manipulation of it all this time. It was irritatingly unavoidable, and struck right to the heart of what he supposed ninety percent of patients dreaded. Including, he'd come to realise, himself.
"Still, if it is for the visitor's benefit, it seems odd that they would start so early." He looked thoughtful. "Have you heard of visitors turning up in the morning at all?"
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In any case, it was a nice break from all the idiocy Rita had been subjected to over the past few days.
To the question directed to her, Rita answered with a succinct, "No." There was a brief pause before she elaborated. "I've only been here for a little over a week, but I've never heard of them deviating from the schedule that much." She had to admit that her knowledge was limited in that area, but both Landel's staff and the military seemed to always diligently follow the schedule.
"I wouldn't put it past them if it's just to get on our nerves, but... as far as practical reasons go, they could be trying out an unfamiliar system, to make sure it won't fail when the visitors come." That would make sense, considering what Landel said about Aguilar. It would be troublesome for them if the recording failed when it was supposed to be fooling the visitors.
"... Or it could be to control our own reactions," she added as she considered the possibilities, tapping her pen against an open page of her journal. "Lots of people woke up angry and confused to hear Landel's voice. They could be trying to get that surprise out of the way so people aren't acting so shocked once the visitors come." In other words, it'd make the whole ruse go a lot smoother.
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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 matter to them."
But there was something else to consider. Lunge blinked for a moment, considering her suggestion, and then he nodded. "I hadn't thought of it like that. They're definitely both likely contenders- and Aguilar does love a clean operation." He paused, then suddenly extended a hand. "Ah. That's right- I haven't introduced myself yet. Inspector Lunge."
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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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It wasn't, however, until she began to speak about magic that the inspector realised just how different their worlds were- there it was again, open discussion of magic. By this point the topic was one that he'd desensitised his cynicism to, having seen it in action himself, but even then that was only through the understanding that it was that which simply hadn't been explained in rational terms yet.
The approach that Rita seemed to take to the matter both here and at home was a refreshing one, to say the least. "So the science of magic, in some way?" he asked. The smile returned, briefly; maybe this would help him get his head around what Edgar referred to so frequently. "I can appreciate that. I've had some difficulty in understanding it at all, since I arrived here."
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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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Since the latter question was the more general one, it made sense to answer that first. "You're right, it doesn't. I've learned of several different magic systems, and while some share certain elements, none of them are exactly alike." It was interesting to see that other systems used mana, which was extremely new on Rita's planet. It gave her an opportunity to see what sort of issues could arise farther down the road.
As for her findings... "I was able to reproduce an offensive spell using heraldry, a type of magic used on the planet Expel. There are a few details I had to work out to make it work effectively, and I'll need to do a follow-up test, though." Rita was confident she'd worked the kinks out with that spell, though. She just needed to perform it in order to properly record her success.
"I also succeeded with another kind of magic just last night, though I don't know the type or origin of it. It's a type of magic that uses a special kind of stone. I suspect the stone has a formula applied to it which designates its purpose and allows it to be used... but I'd need to examine it more to be sure."
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