DAY 33: BREAKFAST

[yin_yang_fox]

Renamon blinked, and suddenly she was laying flat in the bed she had originally woke up in. The timing was impeccable, accenting Orihime's explanation perfectly. She just hoped that she hadn't freaked the girl out with her little disappearing act. She quickly shifted out of bed, and grabbed the journal she had wrote notes in last night, and jotted

Comments

[traitors_smile]

There'd only been little time to play around with the toy he'd found last night, so it would just have to wait. It wasn't the most convenient object to hide when morning came though, but he was creative with rearranging things in the closet so that it didn't appear too obvious. As far as he could tell, they didn't really check all that closely anyway. What was the point of letting them run free at night and collect things if it wasn't a game?

He tucked away his other items, noting how odd it seemed that all the blood from last night was gone. No stranger than countless other things in this place though.

Gin smiled his usual smile when the nurse entered, and was just as polite as always, even in spite of his new injuries. He was fairly early to breakfast; not many patients were out and about yet, so he took a seat at an empty table. There were a couple of girls he didn't know yet and one he recalled quite clearly from a few nights back. One wasn't quick to forget when someone held a blade to their back, no matter how crude the weapon. He sent the woman a most insincere smile before he started eating.

[[Waiting for Gobby]]

[littlegoblinjr]

Stretching lazily as he woke up, Harry was disconcerted to find himself in a strange room. It took him a minute of looking around before he recalled just where he was. Even more puzzling was the fact that he didn't remember coming back to his room last night. He was fairly certain he wouldn't have been able to find it on his own, so how had he gotten here?

His musing was interrupted by a nurse entering and telling him he needed to get a move on or he'd miss out on breakfast. Nodding absently in response, he followed her to the cafeteria, still trying to puzzle out the mystery of waking up in bed.

Upon entering the cafeteria and seeing the tables already filling up with patients, he was reminded of his 'conversation' on the bulletin board. This would be the best time to try and find the Brock guy he was after, he'd just have to be a careful how he went about it. In hindsight, putting up a public notice asking for information probably wasn't the best way to avoid alerting the guy that he was after him but it was too late now. Besides, it wasn't like there was anyway he'd know who Harry was or why he was looking for him.

As he slowly filled his tray, Harry looked around the room searching for anyone who could fit the description of Eddie Brock. There were a few patients who fit and he didn't want to approach anyone in a group in case they got defensive. There was one guy sitting alone who could be right if it weren't for his hair colour. It was more white than blond, unless the people on the board had meant platinum blond?

Something about this guys smile set him on edge though, and that seemed good enough reason to go over there and take the seat across from him, taking a bite of his breakfast before saying "Hey there. You been here long? I'm Harry, by the way." Even if this wasn't the right guy he should be able to get some useful information out of him.

[traitors_smile]

It wasn't often that people approached him, but he smiled pleasantly all the same. The man looked fairly young, and Gin was certain he hadn't seen him around the place for very long. He was getting a little bit bored of the usual welcome speeches and the vague descriptions of what he knew about the place. But he supposed he might as well. The kid might have something useful, after all.

"Been here a lil' while," he admitted, "you c'n call me Gin." Since he'd given his first name, Gin would as well. With all the different cultures here, it wasn't as if he could expect the boy to follow any sort of protocol. "An' lemme guess. You're new an' y'got some questions?"

[littlegoblinjr]

Harry couldn't suppress a chuckle at Gin's response. "Sounds like you're a real old hand. Yeah, I got here-" he hesitated unsure what to say. If he admitted to arriving yesterday then someone might be able to link his questioning of people to the post he'd made on the bulletin board yesterday and the last thing he wanted was for his target to find out who he was before he was ready.

"Not that long ago," he finished. Hopefully Gin hadn't noticed his hesitation or at least wouldn't find it suspicious. "I think I've got a good enough handle on the situation, though there is one thing that's bugging me. Is it normal to wake up back in your room with no memory of returning during the night?" While he waited for the answer, Harry looked his companion over again. He seemed a little young to be '30-ish' but he could at least ask a few questions, make sure this wasn't the guy he was after. It was entirely possible the people on the board had been trying to mislead him and had given a fake description. Which would leave himback where he started, so it was best not think too much about that possibility.

[traitors_smile]

"Maaa... I S'pose you could say that," he said easily, looking up at the boy through slitted eyes. Compared to a lot of the people here, he'd been inside this place longer, but he wasn't sure that was something he ought to be bragging about. Some of the other shinigami had been here just as long or longer.

He kept a careful watch on this Harry person though. If he thought he could pull one over on Gin, he'd another thing coming. He'd noticed the boy's hesitation, but gave no indication he had. His pleasant smile never wavered. Even though the boy had tried not to give himself away with his answers, asking about waking up as he'd just done only proved how little time he'd spent in the place.

"Sure is," he replied, "though I don't know if you c'n really call it normal. It's a lil' strange, but there ain't any avoidin' it, far as I know." It was something he'd wondered about plenty of times, but it only reinforced his belief that the people above them were just playing games. It showed them just how hopeless their situation really was. "Ain't exactly ideal, but y'get used to it."

[littlegoblinjr]

"Huh, that's not exactly reassuring, but I'm glad to know it's not just me." It sounded like it was a common occurrence here and something he'd just have to learn to accept. Would have been nice if Peter had mentioned it last night but then, he probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.

"Do you know how they do it? I mean, how they get us back to our rooms without anyone knowing?" That was a lot of people to move without their knowing. He wasn't sure how you could pull it off.

That constant smile was honestly unnerving him a little. Harry wasn't sure if it was Gin himself or just that he wasn't used to people smiling all the time. It did serve as a good reminder of why he'd come over here in the first place, however.

"Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?" It was way too much to ask that he'd say he was an alien that had stopped by New York or anything, but the answer might give him some idea how to question this guy without giving himself away.

[traitors_smile]

"Don't really know," Gin admitted, "everyone's got their theories, ne? Could be th' food, could be somethin' in the air. Could be any number a' things." He shrugged his shoulders as though baffled by the problem. While it was a concern, it wasn't at the top of his list, not when there were plenty of other interesting things to look into. So long as it kept happening and they didn't get carted off somewhere in their sleep, it was good enough for now. And really, when they were already at the mercy of the people here, there wasn't much else they could do.

"Me? Nowhere excitin'. Little town out in Osaka. An' you? Don't s'pose you're from 'round here, eh?"

[littlegoblinjr]

That wasn't at all helpful. Harry had never been fond of mysteries and this place seemed full of them. Mentally adding this problem to the list of 'things to help Peter figure out' he focused instead on narrowing his list of Brock candidates.

"Osaka? That's in Japan right?" That was two people so far he'd met claiming to be from Japan. He was convinced wherever they were had to be someplace in America, the staff and the menu seemed pretty indicative of that. In that case, it was weird there were so many foreigners here. Unless Gin was lying or just meant he used to live in Japan. Maybe he'd come here from someplace else entirely.

"Does anyone actually know where 'round here' is? It's kinda hard to say whether we're anywhere near where I'm from. Did they actually take you from Japan? That's a hell of a distance to transport someone without their knowing." It was best to give away as little about himself as possible for the moment. He could only hope that this guy wasn't that interested in finding out about him. Though the situation did manage to make Harry actually feel grateful for being required to sit through all those Oscorp business meetings. He'd gotten plenty of practice at maintaining a friendly, attentive expression regardless of how he actually felt and he was putting that to good use now.

[traitors_smile]

For a new person, he seemed far too interested in Gin's personal details than he did about finding things out about this place. He seemed to be focusing on the wrong details. It was understandable why he might not think Gin was Japanese; his features didn't quite fit the standard. Pale hair, blue eyes, tall as a rail. But something about this kid just seemed a little off.

"There's a town nearby, called Doyleton. Geography ain't my strong point, so that's about all I c'n offer ya." Gin set his fork down, deciding that this boy required a bit more attention. "An' where they took me from, I c'n promise you it's much further n' just Japan. There's a lot more ways t'travel n' most humans comprehend." How else did they expect shinigami to collect souls from all over the world? It wasn't like they could use something as slow as human transportation! That's what the Hell Butterflies were for, creating a gate between this world and Soul Society. It was much faster than anything they used in the human world.

[littlegoblinjr]

"Doyleton? No place I've heard of either but it sounds American enough to me." Of course, if you were going to run some sort of testing facility or detention centre for potentially dangerous individuals, several of whom were more than human, it would make sense to stick it out in the middle of nowhere. This Doyleton place was probably some dinky little country town where no one would even notice or care if someone here went on a killing spree. Well, no one important anyway.

When Gin started talking about where he'd been taken from, Harry had to force himself to stay still and keep eating instead of jumping across the table and strangling the bastard like he wanted to. 'Much further than Japan' and 'more ways to travel than most humans comprehend'? It seemed way too good to be true that he'd found the right son of a bitch the first try! But just how many non-humans could there be in this place?

Tightening his grip on his fork, Harry eyed the man across the table speculatively. From what he could remember of the fight with the bastard he'd been pretty fast, if he was going to try anything now it'd have to be quick and unexpected. Casually taking a sip of his drink he asked, "You say human as if you're not. What are you then, if not human?"

[traitors_smile]

So it was more than simple interest. Harry might be able to play pretend, drinking so casually, ,but Gin could almost feel the tension start to rise between them. Apparently Harry wasn't very fond of anything that didn't fit his classification of "human."

While he'd no desire to start a fight so early in the morning, provoking others was one of his favorite things to do too. Such a difficult decision. He was a little curious about the boy's reasons and it might be fun to see where the conversation lead them.

"Ara~ Dunno if you've been told, but it ain't just people from your world, but lots of others here too. Not sure it's a term you'd be familiar with. Y'ever heard of Shinigami? Death gods? Hn... Soul reapers?" with all the different cultures, it was always so difficult to figure out which description they'd recognize. He watched Harry's reaction carefully, ready to move if the boy did. He was about a hundred years too early to take Gin by surprise.

[littlegoblinjr]

Harry wished he'd asked Peter for more details about this alien but he hadn't wanted Peter to worry about him, which he would if knew what Harry was planning. The names Gin listed didn't mean anything to him but one in particular did draw his attention, "Death gods? What's that supposed to mean? Do you kill people?"

It was seeming more and more likely that he'd lucked out and found the person he was looking for first try. While Gin's words seemed to indicate there might be a lot of aliens here, that had to be a misdirection. Harry really didn't think little green men would come all the way from some other planet just to invade earth and get locked up in some whacked out mental institute.

Still, he really needed to be cautious here so he'd just have to make absolutely certain this was the right guy. And then try and murder the bastard while his guard was down. He was pleased that he could keep eating so calmly when all he really wanted was to try ramming his fork through the grinning bastards eye. All he had to do was wait until he was certain 'Gin' wouldn't be able to stop him in time.

[traitors_smile]

Kill people? That'd be easy. No, a shinigami's duty was a little more difficult than that. He gave a short chuckle. "It ain't quite so simple," Gin replied, still appearing relaxed as he played with the remnants of his meal. At least the boy was able to understand a little bit, but it sounded like he was jumping to conclusions.

"Death gods're the ones that keep th' spirits of th' dead from gettin' unruly. We send 'em to the other side so they don't go causin' trouble for th' livin'." In truth they did much more than that, but most humans wouldn't even begin to understand until they'd experienced death.

[littlegoblinjr]

"Send them to the other side? And how do you do that? It sounds like a fancy way of saying you kill people to me." Harry had given up all pretense of eating and was staring intently across the table, squeezing his fork so hard it was painfully digging into his palm. How dare he just sit there across from him, taunting him with that smile!

The small part of his mind that was desperately reminding him that he couldn't be certain this so-called Gin character was in fact the one he was looking for was being rapidly drowned out by the rising tides of indignation and rage. Sinking down with it went his common sense, as it tried to point out that murdering or assaulting someone in broad daylight was an incredibly bad idea and wasn't it this sort of thinking that had led him to nearly killing his best friend and alienating the only people who'd ever really cared about him?

[traitors_smile]

"Well that's because ya ain't listenin' properly," Gin smiled. The boy was obviously growing more and more irritated by the moment, but he couldn't help but be amused. "I said spirits. They're already dead son. You've heard of ghosts before, ne? Wandering spirits. I put those t'rest before they turn nasty. Ain't nothin' to be gettin' so flustered about."

[littlegoblinjr]

That constant, patronising smile was becoming more irritating with every passing second. Never mind the whole bullshit story about being some sort of a ghost buster. He'd only had experience with one ghost and, much as he hated to admit it, that most likely hadn't been the departed spirit of his father seeking vengeance.

"That's a load of crap. Ghosts? Right." He snorted derisively. "You collected any of these so called 'spirits' from New York recently?" Harry figured he may as well stop dancing about the subject and ask straight out what he wanted to know before he gave into the desire to wipe that smirk off his face.