Day 46: Music Room

[moral_liberty]

Kaworu immediately gravitated towards the keyboard. It was not a piano, not truly, but it was attractive in all of the same ways. Music freed the mind from conscious thought, and Kaworu was feeling exceptionally weighed down by exactly that. There was a heaviness, as well as a lightness. He did not know where to begin approaching the situation with

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[ruthless_hunter]

So there were two Autobots here (three, if you counted the Maximal). Lockdown wondered if there might be any more he had missed. This could be trouble, especially when it came to keeping Prowl to himself. Since a lot of the Decepticons had just disappeared, it looked like the Autobot to Decepticon ratio might even out some day.

Lockdown avoided the instruments this time around. He'd looked at them his first time in here and decided he hated the so-called "music" they made. Lockdown didn't care for even Cybertronian music, but at least it sounded better than the audio-scraping sounds that passed for music on this planet.

Instead, he just decided to sit the shift out on one of the couches. The couch just happened to have a meatbag who came off as weirder than normal. His optics looked blank and he looked really edgy. Or maybe he was just bored. Meatbags could be hard to read sometimes. Well, maybe they could just ignore each other until the shift ended. Without waiting for permission or an invitation, Lockdown sat on the other side of the couch.

[quarter_english]

Excellent. How did this happen in an almost completely empty room? The only other person there was a teenage boy who sat at a keyboard, plucking out a Beethoven tune.

The man who had taken a seat near L was approaching middle age, and he had a distinctive, imposing appearance. He had facial tattoos of no recognizable origin. L concluded that he closely resembled an albino with dyed-black hair, but even that was inaccurate: his eyes were not the pale blue color shared by most albinos. Instead, they were a more intense red than could be accounted for by that condition. He was difficult not to notice around the Institute, but they hadn't spoken before.

The Music Room seemed to have been built to thwart any attempts at concentration on L's part, anyway, and the man had captured his interest. He put on his friendliest face (not very friendly, being more of a combination of a benign expression and an undisguised stare). He said the first thing he could think of to strike up a conversation.

"This room - does it get noisy? I have never been in it before." His voice was cool, edged with curiosity.

[ruthless_hunter]

Well, so much for ignoring each other. Still, there was something about this young human that struck an odd note to the bounty hunter. That expression came off as fake. There was really no other word to describe it. It was like the kid didn't know how to express real emotions. That thought brought up images of HK. According to HK, his real body could only express emotions through voice, so he usually just had a blank expression now that he was human. Maybe this kid he was sitting with was actually a robot too.

He also couldn't help but feel like the kid was scanning him, analyzing him. That backed up his robot theory, in his processor.

In response to the question, Lockdown replied, "Sometimes. Just gotta learn to tune it out." That's what he and Starscream had done when they first met in here. That felt like so long ago.

[quarter_english]

To L's knowledge, the Music Room was used only once each week, perhaps twice. That meant that his new acquaintance had probably been at Landel's for at least that long, which meant that there was a good chance that he had information. Even so, there was no guarantee that he would be willing to share it, or that, if he did share it, it would be accurate.

Nothing in L's demeanor changed, except for a subtle realignment of his expression and posture, one which suggested that he had absorbed and processed the information and was adjusting his plans accordingly.

"Noise is distracting. Do you have any suggestions for tuning it out, Mr...?" The leading tone in his voice suggested that his companion introduce himself.

[ruthless_hunter]

"Lockdown," the bounty hunter introduced. "Just Lockdown."

Again, he couldn't help but get a weird vibe from this kid. He kinda reminded Lockdown of those scientist bots who took time to process new information.

Deciding to just keep playing along, he replied, "Just try focusing on somethin' else." Talking with Starscream had been enough to mostly distract him from the noise in here. The seeker's voice had been enough to distract anyone, though.

[quarter_english]

Lockdown. L had heard and seen the name a few times over the few days he had been trapped at Landel's, but it took him a moment to contextualize it. It was most relevant to his very first meeting with another patient, the one who had believed himself to be a robot assassin. So this was his roommate and partner in crime? Interesting.

The interest showed in his expression, which became fractionally more intent, less benign. HK-47 had claimed that he and Lockdown had killed forty-two "meatbags" between them on Saturday night.

"Lockdown. It's good to meet you." With the goal of focusing on something that wasn't the room's ambient noise, and seeming to follow Lockdown's advice, he decided to put the conversation to good use.

"If you don't mind me asking, were you a victim of yesterday's incident? I am curious about it, about people who believed that they were patients, rather than prisoners, and whose memories of their lives matched what was in their patient files."

[ruthless_hunter]

Even the way this kid talked was weird. Like his face, his voice was blank, almost monotone. Plus, he hadn't been bothered by the fact that Lockdown clearly had a non-meatbag name. Maybe this kid had at least met the other bots here. Or maybe even if he wasn't a robot himself he might've been used to being around robots in his world.

"Yep. And if Landel tries it again, I'm gonna crush his neck with my bare hands," Lockdown growled. He really hated what they'd done to him yesterday. Expression taking on a more neutral look, he asked, "What're you, some kinda detective?"

[quarter_english]

An astute observation, he thought, but if this man is as capable a killer as his roommate suggested, it would be better to keep my own history to myself for the time being.

"Some kind?" A very specific kind. He frowned, as if to say that he didn't feel it would be fair to call himself a detective at all. "I am a student. I have an academic interest in what happened, because I was also a victim of those circumstances. Primarily, if you don't mind talking about it, I am curious about what you might have experienced last night."

His expression brightened, and he added, "I think there will be a line to crush Landel's neck -- if we can find him. You will be at the front of it?"

When L meditated on what he would like to do with Landel, he nurtured a small internal spark of anger and malice, but killing the doctor was low on the list. In his mind, there was a cell, small and unpleasant, with Landel's name on it; he amused himself in slow moments by imagining what the conditions of the doctor's ultimate imprisonment might be. Making sure that he was cared for well was a given: L wanted Landel to live a long, miserable life.

[ruthless_hunter]

A student? Well, that could explain his curiosity. The bounty hunter had never been to any Academies himself, but he figured he knew what students were like. Eager to learn and all that slag. Still, Lockdown had the feeling that the kid might not be telling him everything. Then again, almost everyone here had their secrets and were determined to keep them.

"Same thing that happens every night. Went out, saw monsters, almost got scrapped," Well, more like he'd been kidnapped. While all of Lance's memories weren't all that clear, Lockdown definatly remembered the kid in the Sun Room and the Sphinx.

The bounty hunter smiled in his usual sadistic way, "You bet I'll be at the front, even if I have'ta fight every patient in line for it."

[quarter_english]

"Scrapped? Hm." A peculiar choice of word. "But you did see monsters. Have you heard of anyone who didn't?"

L had seen nothing, nothing at all, and was at pains to understand why. Keman and Lockdown had both encountered monsters. Had L and Lunge just been lucky? If so, why had Lunge been able to see the ruins, when L had not? Dr. Jones had also seen them, though not last night.

He bobbed his head, once, indicating Lockdown's strong frame, and said, "I think you would have a good chance of achieving your goal. I know I wouldn't stand in your way."

[ruthless_hunter]

Lockdown raised an eyebrow. "How could anyone not see 'em, brainwashed or not?"

What was this kid getting at? Had some of the unlucky patients really not seen anything? Once again, Lockdown thought, What's that slagger, Landel, playing at? He'd temporarily reprogrammed some of them, but a few of them had also been reprogrammed to see monsters? Well, for now he'd leave it for someone else to figure out. Right now all he cared about was getting out and showing Landel what happened when you messed with Cybertron's greatest bounty hunter. Maybe he'd even let HK have some of the slagger.

The bounty hunter flexed his arm muscles smuggly at the compliment. These muscles were nothing compared to his real body, but they still came in handy when it came to fighting.

[quarter_english]

L made a show of intensifying the thoughtful element in his expression.

"That's what I'm trying to determine: who saw what. I do not think that it is possible to use the bulletin board to make a general survey of the population anymore... not on this point, anyway. Regardless, I am certain that there are people who were affected who saw nothing at all last night. I would like to find more of them... to ask, for example, whether or not they had unaffected companions who could see things which they, themselves, could not."

Nothing in L's demeanor changed, even by a flicker, as Lockdown flexed his muscles.

[ruthless_hunter]

Lockdown still could hardly believe that some of the affected patients hadn't seen anything last night. Landel must have been one Pit of a brainwasher. The bounty hunter wished that his brainwashed self had been tougher than he really was.

"Got a friend who thinks this whole thing's a virtual simulation," As long as he didn't mention Prowl by name, he figured there was no harm in telling this meatbag the ninjabot's theory, even if Lockdown wasn't convinced of it. If this meatbag was really as smart as he claimed, maybe he could make something of it. "Don't really believe him myself, but he does make an interestin' point."

[quarter_english]

L took a moment to absorb this information, considering it with care before speaking again. He had been trying his utmost, in the past few days, to keep his hands away from his mouth; it was a habit developed in seclusion, and its inappropriateness in a communal living situation was obvious to him. Even so, his right hand strayed to his face, and he tapped the tip of his index finger against his chin.

"It sounds absurd, but some of the circumstances of the other night -- Sunday -- support the idea, at least enough that it might be worth further consideration. There was some instability in the appearance of the walls; there were a few moments where they seemed to change. Is that the sort of thing your friend was discussing?"

In point of fact, the idea was ridiculous -- but so was their situation. Then again, if I entertain this possibility, there are a number of more or less absurd possibilities which must also be evaluated and discarded. It left him unsure of exactly where he should focus his energies.

[ruthless_hunter]

Lockdown didn't pay much attention to the kid's weird gesture. People developed habits when they got to thinking a lot. You saw it all the time. Since this kid was apparently a student, and therefor did lots of thinking, it made sense for him to develop a habit here and there.

"Yeah, I know, I was there," the bounty hunter informed. Happened on the same night he and HK had their little spark-to-spark actually. "We talked about it. He was thinkin' the same thing you are."

[quarter_english]

"In that case," he said, a careful note in his tone, "I think I would like to meet your friend. If he is willing to talk to me, will you send him to me sometime soon? Also, did you see anything more of that nature yourself, anything worth talking about?"

If he could maintain his own safety, interacting with the Institute's more murderous element, even befriending them to some degree, might not necessarily be a liability. It was his habit to play as many sides as he could, and he found that it often paid off. Not every criminal was his quarry. The trouble was that it was a tightrope act, and he knew that he could not control the variables as he would have in everyday life.