Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 1

[forgot_my_life]

Oh yeah. This was bad. Grabbing a chair and ignoring the woman who had brought him in, Takaya crossed his arms and glared at the wall. He wasn't going to participate in this bullshit. Being told he had 'company' and that he should he happy about it had ruined what was otherwise an okay day

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[whiteychan]

He'd been here for weeks and weeks, and yet this was the first time he had been told he had a visitor. The fact surprised him. He knew the people sent in were those people who would most influence him negatively, but everyone except his grandmother was here already, and he was fairly well convinced that every one of the visitors here were fake approximations so clever as to fool all the senses, or brainwashed victims. In either case, their efforts would fail with the captain. He knew he didn't belong here, there was no one from his world they could send in to convince him otherwise.

So he agreed to follow the nurse, and took a seat in a chair in the waiting room to see just who they would send in to try oh so valiantly to mess with his head.

[damned_visitors]

With the exception of his former office, Hannibal Lecter found the decor of Landel's Institute hideous. Admittedly, neutral colors were often soothing to the mentally disturbed, but a limited palette did not automatically preclude good taste. The carpets of the waiting room were especially cheap, and he loathed the way the stench of polyester mingled with the already terrible odor of the mentally ill. Had visitor's day at the Institute not been the perfect research opportunity for his paper on Capgras delusion, Lecter would have been content to never set foot in the institute again

[whiteychan]

No one from his world. That's who they sent in to torment him.

Hitsugaya stiffened as Hannibal entered the room, his eyes widening first in shock and horror at the sight of him. Though he had only met with Hannibal once, the man had a profound and lasting effect on Hitsugaya's psyche. The simple act he had done, so simple and seemingly innocuous, had been the first great discomfort he'd suffered in this damn place. He could survive the limitations, the monsters, and the imprisonment with his trademark callous cynicism, but to challenge the foundation of his beliefs? What Lecter had done went beyond the pale, and it made his stomach sick just thinking about it. I will not throw up again, he thought. not here. Give me at least that much self-respect.

Yet what started as shock and horror turned to anger. The anger settled his stomach slightly and gave him something new to focus on. Remembering the past made him ill. Keeping from thinking about the past and only thinking about the present made the illness subside somewhat. "

[damned_visitors]

Tsk. The boy's expression was less than welcoming. Had he spoken with other patients regarding Lecter's history? Regardless, it was a matter of politeness and evidence of good breeding to treat others with a modicum of respect, until such a point when that person had made it clear they were unworthy of such formality. Lecter did not reveal his displeasure at the adolescent act. After all, Tommy Winters was an adolescent.

With very rare exception, he did not like teenagers, though they contained valuable insights into human nature. They'd shuffled off the coil of childlike innocence, but lacked the adult awareness that the world did not begin and end with one's perception of it. The fault did not lie in their selfishness itself, but in the fact that their selfishness was so crass and unrefined.

"Yes," he said. "I'd hoped you'd made progress in my absence, but it seems that you've grown angrier. Tell me, Tommy. Are you still waiting for Hyorinmaru?"

[whiteychan]

"Progress?" Hitsugaya said, shocked. "You're a sick and twisted man. I know what was in that pate you served me in our last session, Lecter."

And there it came again, that urge to throw up in some instinctive urge to get it out of his system, but there was no way he'd be able to. No matter how much he vomited, how much he showered, how much he strove to distance himself from it, what had happened had happened and there was no way to run from that grim reality.

[damned_visitors]

Lecter's expression did not express surprise or displeasure, but rather a very faint whiff of amusement. Tommy Winters must have read his journal, or been informed of Lecter's gastronomic tendencies by another patient. He always took pleasure in the element of surprise when unsuspecting guests realized what they'd eaten, as had happened with certain members of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra. He looked Tommy over, gauging the boy's size against his memory to see if he'd lost weight. Beneath the shapeless uniform of the institute, it was difficult to judge.

"Yes, it was quite a delicacy," Lecter said, in the tone one would use to discuss the quality of a particular vintage of wine. "The ingredients are hard to come by, as I'm sure you understand. You seemed to enjoy it, however. I appreciate when my associates have good taste." The pun was a bit heavyhanded for Lecter, but when dealing with children, a certain level of subtlety had to be compromised.

[whiteychan]

You seemed to enjoy it, however.

The only way to keep from throwing up all over Lector and just about anyone else in the room was to fight it back with rage. Rage not just for this, but for every other gross indecency committed against him, committed against his friends, committed against every single person in this damned hellhole. "Go to hell!" Hitsugaya shouted, leaping from his chair at Lecter with the intent of toppling him to the ground and bringing his fists down on the man...no, not the man, the monster's face

[damned_nurses]

The nurses had been on standby, but they were hoping not to have to act. That hope was lost the moment Tommy Winters lashed out at his visitor. One nurse gestured to a pair of orderlies, and the three dashed across the room to where they were.

"Tommy! What on Earth has gotten into you? And after Dr. Lecter took time out of his busy schedule to come and check on you, too!" She hadn't expected him to lash out - he had always been such a cooperative patient. The one time he had gotten upset, it had only taken a word to calm him down.

She looked apologetically at Dr. Lecter as she reached into her pocket, quickly preparing a syringe. The orderlies each took one of the boy's arms, and when he was safely restrained, she expertly injected the sedative into the back of his neck. "I'm so sorry, Doctor. I can't think of anything that you could have said that would make him react like that! You're not hurt, are you?"

[Jen]

[damned_visitors]

Lecter hadn't explicitly provoked Tommy into violence, but he'd known there was a fair possibility it would result. What he hadn't expected was the sheer strength of someone so small, and when his flimsy plastic chair fell backwards, he frowned at the inconvenience. Lecter had a strong sense of dignity in the face of absurdity, as he'd been subjected to far more embarrassing things than being hit by an angry teenager, and as he picked himself off the ground, he lifted a hand to his nose to check for blood

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya struggled against the orderlies until the sedatives finally worked their way into his system, and where there was a red fury instead he felt the cold emptiness of despair, knowing there was no way to prevent what happened, no way to get around it. Not even a chance at revenge.

"I'll..." he said as the orderlies helped him to his feet once he no longer resisted. He meant to finish the sentence with 'kill you,' but the nausea he had been fighting off retuned with force and he could no longer contain the contents of his stomach. With a very unpleasant sound he violently vomited over the ground, over his own clothing, over lector's shoes and a little bit on the orderlies. He fell back down to his hands and knees and continued retching until there was nothing left.

[damned_nurses]

"I'll see to it that he gets an iron supplement going forward," the nurse replied, relieved to see that the doctor wasn't hurt. Her relief turned to dismay when Tommy had an unusual reaction to the sedative injection. She may have been a professional, but that didn't mean she didn't take a step back to avoid getting vomit on her new uniform shoes.

"Oh, my. The sedative we use here doesn't usually make patients feel so ill. Tommy, we'll get you changed into a clean uniform, and then you can rest in the Sun Room until dinner. Dr. Lecter, I'll have someone clean up this mess, and we can have your shoes cleaned up, as well."

She gestured to another nurse, beckoning her over. "Please have the janitorial staff paged, while I take care of this. I'll be back down shortly."

With that, she nodded to the orderlies, and they picked the boy up from the ground and got him to his feet, and the four of them left the area.