Nightshift 55: F01-F10 Hallway

[savagesolitude.livejournal.com]

They'd taken her to a new room at dinner. Her roommate wasn't there. Instead, there was an unfamiliar figure wrapped in blankets, seemingly dead to the world.

There had been a box as well. Beside it was her axe, and inside there was her bag and her knife, and her old clothes. Claire had stood in front of it for some time, wide eyed. Anger boiling, scarring her insides. They had it the whole time...they had...

So nothing mattered then. Did it? They knew all along that she had this stuff. They knew she had weapons, that she had gone to Doyleton with Andrew to get them. They knew this whole thing was a stupid joke, and they could take her from wherever she was and drop her wherever they wanted. Could give her stuff from before. Claire had pursed her lips and clenched her fists around the musty flannel shirt. It was all just a joke to them. They had total control of their lives, and they could just...

Shocking how good of a sleeper her new roommate was. Claire could have sworn the fit she had thrown after finding the box would have woken the dead. Her desk lay in splinters, gruel spilled upon the floor amongst the shattered remains of dishes. Even her bed was slashed to ribbons, the knife drawn through the mattress and sheets until it looked as if a wild beast had been set upon it. The box, being metal, was impervious to the axe and the knife. But it did make a rather large dent where Claire had hurled it against the wall.

Now that night had come and the latest ominous message delivered, Claire stood at the ready. She was out of the military uniform, back in her ragged - but familiar - clothes from the island. Her bag slung over one shoulder and axe in hand, she left the room, seething madly.

They had better get something done tonight. Claire had had enough of this.

[To here.]

Comments

[hairraising]

That's a lot of hair.

Everyone always said that, it seemed.

"Ah, yeah! Yeah, it is," Rapunzel said with a strained smile, relieved that she had been right about Soma not freaking out, but also feeling incredibly awkward watching her new friend stare at her like she had just seen a unicorn. She knew it - Soma was uncomfortable with this. She should have just told her about the hair to start with, though Rapunzel; it wasn't like the girl had seemed untrustworthy or anything. Was paranoia about people like Gothel betraying her going to keep messing her up for all kinds of personal connections for the rest of her life? Stupid, stupid, stupid—

It's really pretty.

"Huh?"

It took Rapunzel a second to process Soma's words, but when she did, a more complete relief washed through her. The other girl had just been overwhelmed. Okay. That was a little easier to take, she thought. "Oh! Uh, thanks," she answered, her smile a bit more at ease now. "It's, uh, actually not even as long as it was back home! It was about double this before. I don't know why they'd bother letting it grow back out if they're not gonna put it all back, but there you go," she rambled, letting words fall out of her mouth while she gathered some more of her thoughts.

She paused then, and started to reel in the hair, gathering it up into her arms with her flashlight still held in one hand. "So... Yeah. I bet you can kinda guess, but this is what the person who kept me in that tower wanted for all those years. This is the thing I thought this place took away from me when I woke up at first, too."

[madeinthehrl]

"Really? Is it heavy? How do you keep it from tangling?" Soma's tone of voice was one of faint wonder rather than skepticism. Rapunzel was practically radiating nervousness, and in a situation like this it was easy to push back the lingering doubt of Isn't this more of a liability than a blessing? If the woman Rapunzel had mentioned had kept Rapunzel hidden away for her hair, there had to be something special about it. Landel didn't just take away things that had no value.

She leaned forward to get a better look, curious. Does it do anything? seemed too rude a question to ask. "This place usually takes away what we find valuable--abilities, powers, things like that. You said you could heal, right? I should warn you--if you get your powers back at night, they're usually reduced significantly."

[hairraising]

Rapunzel gave Soma a quizzical look at her questions. Of course her hair wasn't heavy, she thought. Should it be? Why would it tangle? It all stayed together easily enough, like fibres of a rope. Didn't that stop most people's hair from tangling?

Then she thought back to when she had first woken up and remembered: hadn't her hair felt a little heavier than she had expected it to? She had gotten used to it since, but now that she thought about it, it was strange. "No, no it's not that heavy... Huh. I wonder if that's just me, then. Is hair suppose to be heavy if there's a lot of it?" Rapunzel asked, honestly curious. "And I never really had to worry about tangles either. Nothing that a hair brush couldn't take care of, anyway."

She really hoped that her abilities weren't just limited to keeping her hair light and tangle-free, if they were indeed "abilities." She supposed the only way to find out whether that was the case or not was to go out and do a test. "That's what I've heard," she answered back after Soma's warning, nodding. "But yes, my hair heals when I sing, actually." Again, she hoped that the revelation didn't throw Soma off too much. "It's, uh, it's simple enough, I think. So here's hoping there's not much they can limit short of just taking that power away." She swallowed a small, dry lump in her throat before it could grow any larger. "I mean, it's worth it to try, right?"

After another awkward silence, she coughed to clear her throat, pulling up the trail of her hair into her arms. "So. Uhhh. You wanna get the door?" she asked with a nervous laugh.

[madeinthehrl]

Soma nodded, faint curiosity in her eyes. Having hair that long that could stay that well-behaved was...an interesting special power, she supposed, though she wasn't sure why on earth Landel would see the need to limit it. "I'd imagine it should be a lot heavier than it feels." That, or Rapunzel had neck muscles of steel. "You're lucky--mine tangles all the time after I've flown a mission."

She tilted her head slightly, not comprehending. She'd expected Rapunzel to have some sort of healing ability--like Hinamori's, she supposed, some kind of glowing light that sealed injuries shut. "I'm not sure I understand. Do you have to touch your hair to the wound? Is it just injuries, or can broken things be fixed, too? How severe can the injuries be before they don't heal?" And what sort of injuries did she have to deal with in her own world, if her hair was that long?

Abruptly she realized she was babbling and stopped short, a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry. We can talk on the way to Kratos's room."

She pulled the door open and gestured for Rapunzel to exit ahead of her. Hopefully whatever power she had would still make a difference. Otherwise, there probably wouldn't be much point in Rapunzel keeping it that long.

[madeinthehrl]

[to here]