Day 33: Greenhouse (Men)
[About to make a new fan friend.]By the time Aidou arrived at the greenhouse, he was once again immersed in his own thoughts. Idle talk with Anise was over. Where the hell was Kyon? Nurses usually gave the excuse of “they’re sick” or “they’re sleeping,” which were no doubt lies, but given out during the instances where prisoners actually came back
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He could only imagine how unsettling it would be to come here at night, though. After experiencing a few of those nightshifts, he had started to look at stuff during the daytime in a different way. At least he knew everything was safe for now, though he made a conscious decision not to come here after hours unless he had to.
As he continued to search through the greenhouse, he came across a patient who was being given an impromptu lesson by one of the nurses. The nurses weren't usually so involved (from what Peter had seen, they tended to just stand around and watch for trouble), so he paused for a moment to listen in. As for the patient, it looked like he was zoning out -- not that Peter could blame him. Plants weren't terribly interesting. Even stranger was the purple hair, but by now he was getting used to odd hair colors.
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Then he realized someone was watching him, and turned, smiling. He didn't introduce himself, since the other person hadn't said anything. Maybe the man liked gardening and had been wanting to hear more about pruning. Xelloss would be happy to step aside and let the man have temporary custody of the plant, if that were the case. Xelloss didn't exactly have an attachment.
Seishirou had used the soil and some of his own blood to draw out power here. If Xelloss could have known more about the mechanics behind it, it might have been very useful. But witnessing a spell from a foreign sort of magic didn't seem to help. Xelloss could remember the design clearly, even if he hadn't had the ofuda still in his notebook, but using that power was a different question entirely. It might have been easier if he were a human sorcerer, and already trained to call on alien powers for his own use. At any rate, even if Xelloss had decided to give it a try for the sheer joy of experimentation, it wasn't the sort of thing he could do in the daytime. He was starting to wonder why he'd even come out into the gardening room.
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Judging by the other patient's yawn and bored expression, Peter got the feeling they were thinking along the same lines. The stranger had probably been here before, since he wasn't even looking around with any sort of curiosity.
Drawing a little closer, Peter tried not to stare at the man's hair and instead looked over the plants. "So I guess you don't have a green thumb?" he started, tone light. The question itself was kind of stilted, but that was better than just standing there in silence.
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Xelloss didn't introduce himself, particularly considering his favorite introduction was for at least a day or so possibly not a good idea. Not everyone read those boards, but still...! If he had to get punished, it was really more fair if he'd have gotten to cause harm first. Well, serious harm. Maybe things had gotten worse than he'd expected when he left; it was a consoling thought.
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"I'm Peter, by the way," he introduced himself, pulling up next to the man so that he could offer his hand. "Also not gardener material," he joked back. At least some people were getting into it and planting seeds or shrubs or whatever -- mainly the kids, it looked like. If they could find something to get their minds off of their situation, all the better, though.
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Xelloss kept up his smile as he glanced around the room as well. Aside from one of the young men he'd met during his brief period with the Arts and Crafts Club, he didn't recognize anyone here. The population did have quite a startling turnover rate, didn't it? "Since you haven't been here before, does that mean you're fairly new here? It's a bit disconcerting at first!" Xelloss's smile didn't waver as he spoke, although he thought that it had to be slightly more disconcerting for some than for others. At least Zelgadis wasn't here, pointing and screaming hysterically about the Mazoku or something else equally unhelpful.
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While Peter noticed the man looking around at the other patients, he didn't choose to comment on it. Xelloss was probably just looking for his friends, which was something Peter was certain he did more than he realized. "Yeah, I'm pretty new, though not brand new. I've heard a lot of crazy stuff already," he explained.
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The room was stuffy and uncomfortably hot, but that only followed, since it was a greenhouse. Still, he preferred the nighttime atmosphere. "It was a little difficult to see, but it was cooler than now. I don't suppose you know magic or anything like that, do you?" He asked casually, off the cuff. Playing around was all nice and well, but for the moment, he was a bit tired of it. In a place like this, sometimes the direct approach was best.
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"To be honest? I hadn't really heard magic mentioned as something serious until I came here." Even then, when Brooklyn had brought it up, Peter had found it hard to swallow. At least his powers were based in science, rather than coming from some unexplainable source.
After his conversation with Claire, he had to wonder if it was really safe to talk about his powers with complete strangers, but considering how easily the man had brought up the subject, it probably wasn't anything he had to worry about, at least not in this case. "I do have powers -- or I did, anyway -- but they're a result of evolution, not... magic."
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Most of what Xelloss knew about evolution involved ways it could be twisted via magic, which wasn't much help here. Unless... but he doubted it. Peter seemed to be entirely straightforward with his surprise at the question. "Magic is something very serious here, of course. To be honest, some people are very open about their powers, and some people are very secretive, as though almost everyone here weren't strange in some way. I'm happy to see you're part of the former group!"
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"Yeah, I've noticed that too. I guess some people are used to hiding it, but... I think it's better that people know what I can do, since it can be dangerous." If people hadn't known what was going on when he had started to lose control, things could have turned out a lot worse for New York. "And you're right... It looks like here it's stranger not to have some sort of ability."
Even if Claire decided to continue to hide her ability, though, Peter wouldn't blame her. That sort of thing was ingrained, and for a reason. If she wanted to keep it up at Landel's, maybe it would be for the best. It was true that her power was particularly special, and people might still want to target her even at Landel's if they knew about it.
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He wasn't sure it would be the kind of ability he'd understand or have any use for, but he was still curious. Maybe it would surprise him. And if not, it was at least nice to know what other patients had available to them in case of emergencies. The fact that he hadn't spoken about having any special abilities was deliberate, although he'd be honest if asked; the question about 'magic' was probably already answer enough, really.
'Dangerous' sounded interesting, at the very least. Even if the man seemed more concerned about that danger than proud of it.
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"Well, I don't think my powers work here much at all, but basically... I used to be able to absorb whatever powers other people had, so long as I was around them. I was starting to learn how to pull them out even if the person wasn't around, but I hadn't perfected it yet."
Not by a long shot, actually. The fact that he couldn't keep a lid on his own abilities is what caused that whole mess, but he wasn't going to get into that with a stranger.
"How about you?" he asked, glancing to Xelloss. They might as well exchange information equally.
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"My! That is impressive. But they don't work here well? No one's powers seem to, I'm afraid." Xelloss sighed. And of course, it would be a long shot even if his powers worked perfectly well. "I had some small ability in magic that seems to be mostly gone now." To his mind, it felt that way. "I don't suppose you've tried absorbing powers from people whose abilities work differently from those in your world? That aren't 'evolution,' but something else? Or do the powers not work even a bit? That would be a pity."
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"I haven't actively tried it with anyone other than that, but I don't think it would work," he admitted with a shake of his head, raising his hand up to brush his bangs back.
So Xelloss used magic. Peter would have guessed that, but unfortunately, it didn't really cut it down for him. He didn't really have a sense of what magic would be if it were real (which it apparently was?), so... "What could you do with your magic?" He had to try very hard not to think about pulling rabbits out of hats.
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And if the man before him did have the ability to draw out others' powers, what would happen if he could have done it on Xelloss as he was? What had that one woman said to Xelloss, when he'd first arrived? That his power was himself? It was true... it would be an odd route to freedom, but tragically hypothetical again.
"It is difficult to adjust to the change. If you wanted to try using your powers on someone not from your world, I wouldn't mind the experiment, but it might not be a good idea to attempt it in front of the nurses. They get very odd when patients seem to be up to trouble, you know!" He smiled.
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