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damned_institute2011-08-30 11:58 am
human-sponge.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2011-08-30 11:58 am
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Day 58: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)
Peter's lunch meeting with Tear had gone far better than he could have even expected. It was a good thing that he wasn't the sort of person who judged by age, seeing how the girl had proved herself to be very capable despite the fact that she was only a teenager. Not that Peter would ever admit it out loud, but Tear was a lot more mature than his own niece. He could only assume that Tear's circumstances had forced that onto her, though, which was the downside to the whole thing.
Or maybe it had something to do with her being a healer. She'd probably seen a lot of horrific things in her life already, things that some other people would never experience. Then again, Claire had seen her own body mutilated, so personality might have something to do with it too.
Either way, they had a basic plan. He was going to try and look into safe areas while Tear was going to work on their alliance with Search and Rescue. He wasn't too worried about the latter, but the former might be a pipe dream. Seeing how he had no interest in playing with beads and glitter, Peter chose to remain in the Sun Room.
It didn't take him long to draft up a message with his question, and once he'd posted it up (covering a few other replies in the process, but at the end of the day the board was low on real estate) he went ahead and found himself a seat. This way he could keep a careful eye on the replies that he got.
While he had already agreed to meet with Max tonight, Peter realized that the earliest this paramedic group could get going was the following night anyway. That was something to aim for, at least. Even if it was just him and Tear taking care of things at first, that was a start.
[For Haruno Sakura.]
Or maybe it had something to do with her being a healer. She'd probably seen a lot of horrific things in her life already, things that some other people would never experience. Then again, Claire had seen her own body mutilated, so personality might have something to do with it too.
Either way, they had a basic plan. He was going to try and look into safe areas while Tear was going to work on their alliance with Search and Rescue. He wasn't too worried about the latter, but the former might be a pipe dream. Seeing how he had no interest in playing with beads and glitter, Peter chose to remain in the Sun Room.
It didn't take him long to draft up a message with his question, and once he'd posted it up (covering a few other replies in the process, but at the end of the day the board was low on real estate) he went ahead and found himself a seat. This way he could keep a careful eye on the replies that he got.
While he had already agreed to meet with Max tonight, Peter realized that the earliest this paramedic group could get going was the following night anyway. That was something to aim for, at least. Even if it was just him and Tear taking care of things at first, that was a start.
[For Haruno Sakura.]
no subject
After a quick shower, Ritsuka headed back to the Sun Room to have a lie down. The hallucinations were getting worse and he kept having flashes of something he didn't understand. He thought it was just because he was tired, but something about the voice he heard and the sudden panic that welled up then died away was familiar. Was he remembering something from his forgotten past? Or was it something else entirely?
There was no way to know really and as long as Ritsuka was awake, he knew those spiders and moving shadows that lurked at the corners of his vision were going to haunt him. It'd be better if he closed his eyes and let the familiar dark take him for a bit. There weren't many couches open anymore though so Ritsuka found a chair and eased himself into it. Resting his head on the table in front of him, he looked at the bulletin off in the distance. At first it looked normal, but after a moment or two shadows began to move behind it and then came the legs of a giant spider.
Even knowing that such a thing was impossible, the instinctual fear rose up in him and he had to turn his face away. Hands covered his ears from the sounds of someone screaming and yet the sound came through anyway. Was it in his head? Were these memories? Or was it something else? Was it those drugs he took last night...? He was going to get sick if this kept up, he realized and, as the sounds trailed off, he lowered his hands and sighed, keeping his eyes closed.
no subject
His meeting with General Berg was far from pleasant, and it left Sechs with scant answers about the institute. To hear that Alita was "integrated into society" as "Yoko" bothered Sechs to no end. If what the Officer told him was true, then Sechs had been searching the institute for his Original in vain all this time. To only get hints about the military's intentions with their prisoners vexed Sechs as well. The battle android hated being on such uneven ground with his enemies, especially if he and others were suffering beneath such tyrants...
...Like Aigis, as Sechs learned recently over lunch. She had lost everyone she knew from her home, and her suffering over that loss was powerfully evident. To see Aigis tormented all in the name of the military's secretive project infuriated Sechs... Yet he couldn't do anything about it, but just be there for his ally. He hoped what he did for Aigis was enough; he wasn't very good with the whole comforting others thing...
Then there was the concern over the horror of the nighttime visit to the infirmary... Sechs' arm seemed to have gone completely back to normal by lunch, but as the sun began its slow but inevitable decent, Sechs could feel a hint of numbness crawl over his arm, and a darker tinge that seemed to faintly dye the skin of his fingers. It could have just been the trauma and the growing shadows of the evening that was leaving Sechs with such physical impressions, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that the drug he ingested the night before was still in his body...
Along with his anxiety over his organic body's health, Sechs was growing all the more antsy to find Ritsuka. He would likely have known more about what happened after Sechs blacked out. There was also the chance that Ritsuka may have taken some of the military's medicine himself, and if he did, what could have happened to him? Having only just met Ritsuka the night before in the dark, the kid's cat ears and tail were the best traits that Sechs could recall, but during the day Ritsuka would have lost those unique features. Plus with how short that kid was, Sechs likely could have missed him amongst the patient population -- at least he hoped that was the case.
As the day drew to a close, Sechs wondered if Ritsuka was even still alive and well in the first place. Yet when Sechs was doing his usual agitated pace about the darkening Sun Room, he spotted a small figure curled up on a chair, his hands gripping over his face as though hiding from some horrible nightmare. When the youth dropped his hands, Sechs thought he might have recognized the patient's face and dark hair. It was only when the Replica got closer to the boy was he able to see that the non-feline stranger was definitely Ritsuka.
That discovery brought on a small rush of relief over Sechs' inner tension, and he approached the kid with a face lightly softened with concern. "Hey! Ritsuka!" Sechs said as he stopped to stand beside the chair over Ritsuka, "You alright? Nothing happened to ya last night, right...?" he asked, his voice low and hesitant.
no subject
He sighed and was about to sit up and face the imaginary monsters when a voice from above caught his attention. Normally, he might have heard someone approaching, but normally he had a second set of ears to help him. And it wasn't really the voice itself or the words said that forced him to stop dead in his tracks, eyes flying open as if in fear, but the memories. Memories that had been blocked out until now as a survival mechanism to cope with what had happened and what he had seen. The memory of Sechs turning into that creature and trying to... Kill him - eat him - destroy him - harm him. The harshest words ever spoken because they were true and the fear that came with a visceral reaction against the one who had tried to kill him last night.
Without hearing Sechs' words, Ritsuka jumped from his chair, knocking it and himself to the floor. He grimaced and put his arms up over his head as the visions from last night - ones of Sechs, rotting away and overtaken by some shadow horror - overlapped with the sight of the taller man standing over him. "Get away from me!"
no subject
Without thinking, Sechs took another step closer to the frightened kid, stooping over to push the fallen chair away while reaching a hand out for Ritsuka's trembling shoulder. Whether his actions would just make things worse or not, all Sechs could think of was to calm Ritsuka down and figure out what was wrong before any soldiers came to barge in on the commotion. After his meeting with General Berg, the last thing Sechs needed was to get dragged off by more guards again!
"Crap! What's going on with ya?!" Sechs exclaimed, bewilderment joining the growing concern on his face, "It's me, Sechs! I'm not gonna hurt ya! Calm down before those soldiers come stomping in on us!"
no subject
And it was good that it did.
Words. Real words, in a voice he recognized, untainted by venom and whatever horror had taken control of Sechs that night, came at him along with a slight shake to his shoulder. It made him remember: monsters didn't come out in the daytime. There was no way this man - Sechs - could be that fiend he was at night. Not only that, but Ritsuka had seen his arm practically fall off. He couldn't have gripped him this strongly or this cautiously.
I'm not gonna hurt ya!
"...ow can I trust you?!" Ritsuka found his voice, it cracked and it sounded forced, but he found his voice. Too quiet, though. No one else could hear him like this. "How can I trust you?" he repeated, trying to squirm away from Sechs' touch. "You tried to kill me last night!"
no subject
The Replica's words trailed off, silenced by the all consuming thoughts that were suddenly speeding through his mind like racers in a violent Motorball tournament. Just what happened after he blacked out? There must have been more to the pain that knocked him into unconsciousness last night. The infection he sustained in his right side... When it reached his back, it must have given power to the living drug that resided in his spine and...
No...
Forgetting everyone else in the room, Sechs' focused his gaze on Ritsuka, his heart pounding furiously against his ribs as he struggled to grapple with a situation that threatened to throw him into another frenzy of untamable emotions. With how his ally was behaving, and the huge memory gap between Sechs' decaying state and the moment he woke up the following day, Sechs now had to know what occurred. Yet he felt he already knew the answer -- and it agonized him to no end.
Dreading the question he was about to ask, Sechs' whole body seemed to cringe as he took in a shaky breath. "I don't remember anything after I blacked out..." he said after a dry gulp, "I... I became someone else last night, didn't I...?"
sorry for the huge wait ;A; i lost ritsuka's muse for a bit
Sechs let him go and Ritsuka moved back, scooting back on the floor. His limbs couldn't quite get enough strength back into them to allow him to push himself off the floor yet. Still, he could feel his muscles tensing in case Sechs made a move and he had to run. Taking his mother's abuse was one thing, but what had happened last night wasn't something he could simply walk away from.
"...You-?" Don't remember? He didn't remember? Then that thing he'd become was literally like a possession of some sort? Ritsuka wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't have been for the way Sechs' body had rotted away before his eyes, but... "...You really don't remember?" He relaxed slightly, frowning at the way Sechs seemed just as disturbed as he was at the whole situation. "...Yeah. You said you were going to eat me. It was...like you weren't you anymore."