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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 17:00:00 GMT 1
Focused mainly on research, this part of the University consists of a large building housing several offices and a number of laboratories. It has a large parking lot, and cannot be accessed without the appropriate identification.
The cab drove Sakura all the way to the parking lot, passing the botanic garden where parts of the scene were still roped off with leftover police tape, despite the fact that the investigators had closed the case and left the scene. Of course, Sakura had not been in Berlin long enough to have heard about the murders.
The taxi finally stopped, and the driver said his first two words of the day: "We're here."
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Post by Sakura on Nov 17, 2007 17:06:28 GMT 1
Her eyes sparkled as they drove by the police tape. What had happened here? Mysteries already! She would have squealed with joy if it weren't for the fact she was 'supposed' to be a respectable research type person. Composing her glee, she cast a more calm look at the taxi driver. "And what has happened here?" As she indicated the botanical garden they had passed.
She waited for a reply, as she slowly took some money from her purse, idly fiddling with it as she did so. Maybe this nice man would know and she did want to know before getting out of the cab.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 17:10:53 GMT 1
"You must be quite new in town not to have heard of the murders," said the driver. "It's all being kept under the lid, but what's leaked out is that some research team got slaughtered pretty badly. Seems they were doing some animal testing and the beast escaped. Or something like that."
Whatever it was, it seemed to have happened some time ago, because people were going about their business normally, and no cops were on the scene anymore.
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Post by Sakura on Nov 17, 2007 17:37:30 GMT 1
Silly humans! Always messing about weren't they? She wondered if what Akio, if anything Akio would know. She would ask him as well, after all as a 'fellow' researcher it is always nice to know what the competi...your comrades were up to.
Slipping the drier the fee and a small tip, she got out of the cab. Making sure her clothes were in order she headed towards the building Akio had directed her too. Once there she smiled at a passing student? Or perhaps Researcher. Feigning a Japanese accent she gave him a partial nodding bow. "Good Morning, I am here to see Akio Toshiro. Can you direct me to the elevator please?"
Upon getting that information she headed on up, humming to herself as the elevator rose and wondering what she would find.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 18:32:51 GMT 1
The young man with the thick glasses and wearing a pocket protector pointed to the lifts. "Professor Toshiro, third floor, take the corridor to the left, then the second office after the copy-room."
And Sakura went up, getting a feel for the place as she walked through the halls. It reminded her a bit of a hospital. There were lots of busy people walking the hallways, and everything seemed clean and proper, and smelled faintly of antiseptic. The third floor was mostly just the offices, and Akio's office was easy enough to find for anyone who could read. It had his name on the door.
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Post by Sakura on Nov 17, 2007 18:43:11 GMT 1
She thanked the young man before heading up to see Akio. Though the way up was vaguely disturbing. She was very curious as to what things were going on the required such setting. Maybe someday she would have to learn about some of this stuff...thankfully she had plenty of time to do that.
Knocking on the door she called out lightly "Akio-san...Are you there? It is I, Sakura. I got your most enticing invitation this morning." Even as she spoke she gave the door a slight nudge, just to open it a bit and get a 'peak' inside.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 18:58:06 GMT 1
Akio was a young Japanese PhD who had only just landed his first assistan professorship at Berlin's Free University. He hadn't been in Berlin very long, and his German was hardly as good as Sakura's. So it was always a nice change to meet another compatriot. "Sakura, thank you for coming," he said, reverting automatically to his native Japanese. "When I heard you were in the country, I said to myself: I really must invite her to the Department, she will be terribly interested in our work. How are you? How did you find the city so far?"
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Post by Sakura on Nov 17, 2007 19:21:51 GMT 1
Bowing politely she too lapsed into Japanese. "I am well and I am have not been in the city long enough to decide. Perhaps later you can show me about." She held his gaze while they talked smiling the whole time.
"But I am very interested in what you have to show me. I recall our previous conversations and they were most enlightening." She took his arm in a polite way to steer him to the hall and give her a tour of the place.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 19:44:40 GMT 1
He smiled when she took his arm and led her out into the hall. "Yes, I found them quite enjoyable too," he said. "We are very lucky to have a private funding here, so our research is much more advanced than in Osaka."
They walked down the corridor and back towards the elevator. "It is always so interesting to be able to study human developement at a scale like this," he continued. "But it is not always easy to find subjects. The last one, a feral child that was found in the Black Forest, has proven quite disastrous. But I suppose you have heard about that fiasco. It was all over the news for days." He called the elevator and waited.
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Post by Sakura on Nov 17, 2007 20:27:24 GMT 1
"Ahh I had heard but a few things here and there, but since I was traveling I didn't get too many details. A wild child? I didn't hear that. How interesting...Please tell me more about this...and how it relates to the research going on here."
A wild child how interesting...her mind began to run along so many different paths as to what this could mean. Had someone gone and misplaced one of their whelps? Sounded like something the Sunset people would do, misplace something as important as that. Of course, the wolf folk they were to bright...after all look what the Hakkan had done to themselves in Japan?
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 17, 2007 21:01:23 GMT 1
"Allow me to explain then," Akio said as he stepped into the elevator and pushed the button that went down to the basement. "Feral children, wild children as you call them, are typically brought up away from society in isolation. They never learn the basica social and linuistic skills that we acquire during our first five years of life. Of course, there aren't too many cases to study, probably just over a hundred in Europe. But you see how this would be interesting from both a sociological and psychological perspective."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Akio led her out into the hall. There were no windows here, just a long line of corridors. "Typically, children who have been raised in the wild never learn human language. They find it almost impossible to adapt to human culture and to relate to humans. Usually such rehabiliation takes years. This proves a lot about developemental theories, the importance of socialisation during the first five years of life."
He paused to look at her, possibly to see if she was following. Like most professors, he apparently liked to hear himself talk.
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Post by Sakura on Nov 18, 2007 14:26:37 GMT 1
Nodding as he talked yes yes bonding...amazing it has taken them this long to figure that out Sometimes she was truly amazed they had even made it this far...if not for Ching, they would still be living in trees no doubt. But despite her inner monologue she kept her face attentive and polite. "I know, bonds are very important, after all they set the social morals." She almost grinned at her own cleverness there, as she had once read or heard that somewhere. Now if it only didn't dig her in deeper.
"Well, with so few of the wild children around, you must certainly be doing more here than the study of them and rehabilitating them." Looking about the pace she resisted a shudder, no windows, she wondered why. She began to take a closer look at her surroundings, taking in every detail, an act that made her skin crawl. The place was heavy with Ching's work, and it felt closed in. Her instinct was to get out, but her curiosity wouldn't let her. Plus there was a reason she was here, after all for him to be here and know she was...I smelled of something bigger and greater at work.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 18, 2007 14:39:33 GMT 1
Akio looks a little puzzled, but her apparent eagerness spurs him on and he continues talking.
"Oh, we have found our own cases," Akio said. "But there is more to them, much more. You see, these children are special. They do not exibit the usual ineptness of adapting of most feral children. Subject 7, or as the late professor liked to call him, Martin, learnt at an impressive rate. He had mastered the german language in a matter of weeks, and even adapted human mannerisms. Subject 21, now there's slightly more difficult case."
He stopped in front of a door and used his swipe card to get them in. There was an increased amount of security in this area. Two guards were patrolling the area, and Sakura could see they were both armed.
"Now, this is the more delicate and much more classified area of our research," he said. "Tell me, Saku-chan, how good are you at believing things that are a little bit... strange?"
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Post by Sakura on Nov 18, 2007 16:07:44 GMT 1
If only you knew she thought to herself but out loud "Well, we are into research and we are apt to find a lot of 'strange' things. As they moved in further she could feel the hairs at the nap of her neck standing on in, if she were in her Roko from she knew the hair on her back would definitely be on end. The addition of armed humans only added to that feeling.
"So, how strange is strange?" She asked as she smiled at him.
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Post by Shehrazad on Nov 18, 2007 16:18:40 GMT 1
"It's alright, she's with me," Akio said in his heavily accented German, speaking to the guards. "A visiting researcher from Osaka."
The continued inside. Everything about this place screamed "Ching" to Sakura. Part of her just wanted to escape, another part really wanted to see it destroyed. Akio did not seem to be aware of her discomfort at all.
"The boy they found in the South, in the Black Forest, we assumed he had been raised by wolves," he said. "But another subject that was brought to us from Russia confirmed our suspicions otherwise. He was not wolf. But he was not human. He was, if that's possible, both. Do you see what I mean by strange? We are pushing the boundaries of science now. There is really no logical explanation for this one."
He stepped through another door, and Sakura found herself in a room with a large glass window looking into another. And in that room, there was a large black wolf with yellow eyes
"This is Subject 21," Akio said. "Neither woman, nor wolf."
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