Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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[human_sponge]

Claire's response turned out to be pure shock, and Peter couldn't really get more out of it than that. That was more or less what he'd been expecting, but he just hoped that deciding to tell her about this didn't end up backfiring in some way. Albedo certainly hadn't seemed interested in hiding what he was capable of, at least. The kid he'd taken care of last night was another story, but either way he didn't necessarily have to name names.

"It all kind of happened by chance," he said after a pause. "The other night, when I went up to the pharmacy with those two kids, we were attacked by a brainwashed patient. That was the night when I wasn't able to feel pain randomly." He still hadn't sorted out why that had happened, but it hadn't recurred and so he'd done his best to just let it go.

"Anyway, one of the kids got hurt, but he healed almost instantly. He acted like it was normal for him." That was probably the strangest part, how Albedo had touted around that shotgun and taken hits like it was completely normal for his age. Peter still couldn't figure out what kind of story was behind that, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Then, last night I went up to help the people who'd been taken for experiments. The kid we found came out covered in blood, but he didn't have a single wound that I could see. I'm not sure about that one, but it definitely seems weird." It was possible that whatever he'd been put through in that room had resulted in being able to heal, although Peter didn't know why the institute would do anything helpful like that. You never knew with this place, though.

[autophoenix]

Acting like it was normal for him. She almost let the ghost of a smile hit her lips at that. She kinda had to wonder if that's how the other Peter had looked at it when he'd seen her do it. If it was that weird to see someone just walking off mortal wounds like it was nothing -- because, to her, after everything she'd gone through in the past year, it really was. But, for Claire, there wasn't time to sit and wonder.

"Do you know their names? Peter, I have to talk to them." Have to. It wasn't an option. It wasn't a want. It was a biological necessity. She needed the solidarity, she needed the tie to normalcy and, more than anything, she needed to know if they were having the same problems with her powers as Sylar breaking her had done to hers. The lack of pain.

Being able to talk to another regen. Just the idea left her skin chilly.

[human_sponge]

So she did want to talk to them, then. Peter still didn't know if Claire was happy about this or if she just had mixed feelings, but he figured that it wasn't really the time to pick her brain on the whole subject. Better to get her the information and then let her go seek it all out herself.

"I only know the name of one of them," he admitted. "He's called Albedo, but Claire, he's... really young. I'm talking pre-teen." And how was he supposed to explain that the kid was also kind of weird, that he'd gotten a kick out of unsettling him on the bulletin board and carried a shotgun around like it was nothing?

"He's... pretty strange, though. Fair warning." He wasn't sure how much else he could say without turning Claire off entirely, so she would just have to look into it and see what happened. Maybe Albedo would act a little more normal around someone who was closer to his age, even though Peter still felt like there was a large difference in maturity level between the boy and Claire.

"The other one... yeah, I only spoke with him for a few minutes at most. And I'm not sure he'd be willing to talk, anyway." He'd just been through a traumatizing experience, after all. Peter wouldn't feel quite right sending Claire to go talk to him.

[autophoenix]

All things considered, including her own experience, Claire couldn't blame the other guy for not really seeming willing to talk. And she didn't even have that undercutting urge to, either, which was a big point of personal growth for her. More maturity, less selfish demands of people. She finished off her drink as Peter talked, then gave a definite nod.

"Well, if you think the other one gets more comfortable with talking, let me know. I'll try and reach out to this … Albedo." Her nose scrunched a little. Her maturity only went so far. "What kind of name is that, anyway? Guess that's credit to the strangeness, at least." Her brain to mouth filter didn't always operate. Maybe as she got older she'd get a little better at it, but for now, she was just a kid and sometimes the judgment reminiscent of her days as a cheerleader was hard to shake.

Already, though, she'd moved onto considering the best way to get in touch with him. The bulletin, probably. But, was there even a way to subtly word her message and keep it from getting taken down without making him think she was just some weirdo? Maybe if she mentioned Peter's name …

[human_sponge]

"A lot of people here have pretty odd names. It's better not to question it." In reality, Peter knew it was because a majority of them weren't even from Earth, but he didn't know how Claire would handle that explanation. Being able to magically heal all wounds was one thing; other planets and dimensions was another. When had their lives turned into a comic book?

"But yeah, I guess start with him and see what happens." Peter didn't feel all that comfortable around Albedo personally, but he also didn't think he was going to harm Claire. If anything, he'd probably find her just as interesting as she did him, right? And Claire would let him know if anything weird happened.

Honestly, he didn't know why he was so worried about someone who hadn't even gone through puberty.

For once, the intercom went off at a convenient time. Their conversation had hit a logical ending point and they weren't going to get pulled away from each other when they were in the middle of things. "Well, good luck with that, all right? And leave me a message on the bulletin if you want to meet up tonight." He didn't know what the girl had been up to these past few nights, but he always wanted to leave that option open for her.

[autophoenix]

Weird names wasn't really something she'd encountered so far. Natalia was probably the closest, and she was … well, her weirdness fell into different territory entirely. She still wasn't sure what to make of the other girl, and was flummoxed on figuring out if she was actually crazy or just as displaced as Claire and Peter were. Then again, it wasn't exactly Claire's business to judge that.

But, she didn't have much time to consider it, anyway. The intercom crackled to life, the soldiers started nudging them out of the cafeteria, and Claire found herself getting to her feet compliantly. She gave Peter a warm look.

"I'll let you know," and that alone seemed to cover both how it went with Albedo if she could get in touch with him, and if she was going to risk going out again that night when she'd spent so much time shut in by the fear of hallucinating. There was no way to keep the patients obeying then to send them up against their worst fears night after night. "If I don't see you, be safe tonight." And with that, she turned and followed the soldiers to their next activity.