Day 52: Library (2nd shift)

[longlivetehking]

Scar possibly couldn't have been more thrilled at the prospect of being escorted to the library. He had visited this particular room plenty of times to know that it was entirely useless and uninteresting - like most daytime activities, for that matter. Still, the nurse seemed rather convinced he'd like one of those silly books filled with papers

Comments

[quarter_english]

"Active accomplishments, certainly," L replied, with raised eyebrows. "Still, while knowledge of all kinds may be useful, I don't think that anything we find in books here will have much practical application." Little was left for them to find that could constitute a clue. L was still convinced that his theory--that changing elements were more important than static ones in terms of his investigation of the Institute--would prove to be true.

The conversation moved to a topic that was more pertinent and interesting to him, and he was pleased, at first, by how easy it was to get the man to begin to talk about his friend.

"Mm," he replied, with a nod; the soft noise of acknowledgment preceded an intent expression. Focusing was more difficult for him than it should have been, but he gathered together the shards of his concentration and aimed them at the topic at hand.

When making a new acquaintance, L had a natural inclination to be suspicious of them. Sometimes, their stories were outlandish; in other cases, he had no idea how many of them were likely to misrepresent their own former importance, although he could guess based on certain behavioral cues. He had determined, early on, that most patients had a vested interest in leaving the Institute, but it would be naive to assume that everyone shared that goal. The best approach available to him was to make a decision about each person upon meeting and talking to them--to rely on his instincts--but he still wished that he had the time and resources for more thorough observation. He was irked by his inability to vet possible associates.

It was evident that Landel was childish, and most likely insane, but equally obvious that he wasn't a fool. Therefore, he probably expected patient plots against him. Either the balance of power was tilted in such a way that Landel didn't consider the patients a threat, or he had considered possible threats based on his personal knowledge of the patients, predicting their possible courses of action and planning against those contingencies, or he was able to keep tabs on them in some way. There was the watchful staff, the possibility of spies among the patients, and the possibility of hidden cameras and bugs. L hadn't found any of the latter, but it would help either to keep looking for them or to assume that they were there.

When he took all of those factors into consideration, it was easy for him to admit that they were discouraging... but what choice did he have other than to keep working? The doctor who had performed the procedure couldn't have any illusions about L's opinion of the situation, which meant that there was a strong chance that Landel was also aware of it. Furthermore, it would be easy for L to ask to meet his new acquaintance's friend and judge her condition for himself. It all led to one conclusion: the probability of the man being a spy for the Institute was low, because in this situation, a spy was unnecessary... and the concern in the man's expression appeared to be genuine.

"She's probably all right, or she will be. I can assure you that it won't have been an easy night for her; however, I haven't heard of any casualties directly related to the procedures. Please understand that I don't mean to downplay the severity, but to my knowledge, they're mostly minor procedures. Sometimes they have a psychological component." He had been able to gather little else, so far, from the notes Javert had given him; he'd had almost no time to study them.

"Your friend is strong, Mr...?"

[timedork]

The Doctor wasn't going to try to persuade the other man into taking time to read-it was true the practical application of fiction was a rather narrow field, but there were cases where it could come in handy. Very, very handy. But if he thought his time could be better spent towards other purposes-conversation, for one, which was useful in its own right-that was his choice.

"I'm the Doctor," he said, supplying the name the other had been fishing for. "Just 'the Doctor'. And my friend is-the one who was taken for the... procedure-'Donna' is her name."

He may not have asked for Donna's name as well, but the Doctor wanted to give it, in some slim hope that this man might have known her, might have seen her somewhere, and could tell him how she was since he hadn't found her yet to see for himself.

The Doctor gave the other man a small, albeit strained smile. "I'm sure she will be," he agreed. "Alright, I mean. Sooner or later. She's one of the strongest people I've known, but... I'm not entirely sure what they did to her, and it's the not knowing that-... Well, I'd just like to see that she's alright for myself. Tried to rescue her, last night, but by the time we got there it was already too late."