Day 66: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[his_legacy]

Link wasn't in the mood for 'rest and relaxation,' as the boss had put it. Daytime here was completely unproductive, and it was frustrating. There was little he could do, other than keep up with recording his map. He supposed he ought to take the chance to get to know the other patients: Who was powerful, who needed help, who knew what... Perhaps some of the people who had been here longer. Link was lucky he had Sora as a friend, who seemed to know a good deal about how things worked.

It was a two-edged sword, though, that the boy had to have been trapped here for quite some time to be as settled as he was.

The Hylian settled into a chair with his journal, tapping the strange sort of writing device he had been given against his chin. It had become evident last night that the building was relatively organized, the second floor being similar in its main layout to the first floor. That was somewhere to start, at least.

[Nina, dearest!]

Comments

[oyaji]

"Well... I mean, that could be the case..." Barnaby was really testing his optimistic fortitude today--Not that he could blame the blond. Honestly, he wondered if he could keep up his usual airheaded attitude in the face of such debilitating horror. Death was one thing; continuously and painfully shifting into a monster was quite another.

"But we won't know until we keep trying! Who knows, maybe we'll stumble onto a cure those bastards didn't want us to find. We just, you know, have to keep going." His smile was confident as always, but his amber eyes held a sadness that couldn't be so easily masked. Wild Tiger refused to accept that this was their lot in life. It was too painful to imagine that they would forever be separated by this terrible disease. That he wouldn't be able to comfort Barnaby at night for fear of losing a hand to the beast he had become. The more he tried not to think about it, the worse the imagery became, permanently burned into his mind.

Swallowing a bitter taste in his mouth, the older man rested his forehead on Barnaby's knee for a moment, hoping the dark would cover up the visions. All it did was remind him how he held his partner while he turned and covered him in blood and gore.

"It won't end like this. It won't."

[baniichan]

Despite the confident-sounding words, Barnaby could sense his partner's sadness and grief. When his warm forehead pressed against his knee, he unconsciously flexed his pale hands, wanting to reach out and touch him, but held back just the same. The spectacle would have normally embarrassed him in public, yet Barnaby didn't have it in him to care. He hated what was happening to him. He hated seeing Kotetsu like this. He hated all of it.

"We can't let it," Barnaby quietly said. In the end, whether they would get through this depended on their own actions.

"I won't be able to help you like this, though," he confessed. That thought tore at him more than anything else right then. "At least, not at night. But we can plan our strategy during the day, and we can...quarantine me after dinner so I don't accidentally hurt someone."

He mainly had Kotetsu in mind when he suggested that, but it was true that there were other lives at risk here.