damned_institute | Night 58: Staff-Only Outdoor Patio Lounge/Eating Area

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Night 58: Staff-Only Outdoor Patio Lounge/Eating Area

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The rush of air that came with the opening door was not cold enough to be called biting, but was certainly cold enough to be a shock. Sesshoumaru's eyes widened in surprise at the smell of it - it smelled like the wind and snow, clean and cold and stripped of the harsh chemical scent that pervaded the facility so completely that the very smell of it had started to fade. He blinked before moving forwards again, out of the doorway, and into the moonlight.

The world was white.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flicked over the snow, which shone eerily in the moonlight. The muted light reflected dimly off of the white blanket, a few ice crystals that reflected the light a bit more strongly fading in and out of shadow, as clouds passed over the moon.

It was full tonight, or nearly full, Sesshoumaru reflected absently as he looked at it. The symbol of his house. And here, in the moonlit snow, he finally looked as though he might belong. The paleness of his skin, the silver blue cast of his hair - he seemed to be a creature of coldness, of the night. A few moments later he looked back down, taking in the scene. There were trees and what appeared to be benches covered lightly in snow, a small shed, a path that had been kept slightly clearer than the rest of the immediate landscape. And surrounding the grounds, there was a wall.

At last he turned his attention to the balcony that they were standing on. There were pathetic looking tables and chairs, poles coated in fabric raising high above them - some kind of umbrella, perhaps, as the fabric did seem designed to fold out, and Sesshoumaru could think of little else that it might be. There seemed little else in this place, between the rail and the wall - though the walls did hold two new doors.

He wondered where they might lead.

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Sesshoumaru had growled lightly, in surprise more than anything else, when his claws ripped into the bird - not in surprise at the hit, but surprise at the creature's blood, which smelled so foul and decayed that, were his nose anywhere close to what it should be, it would have been an effective weapon itself. He could feel drops of it spatter against him as the monster pulled back and growled again, in annoyance at the shallowness of the hit and annoyance that he was being hit by this blood. Even as weak as his nose was, he nearly gagged at it, at his gore-spattered arm and hand, and the flecks of blood soaking into the black material of his clothing.

But then they were pulling back and wheeling away, both of them, he snarled under his breath, wishing he could chase them down still, but he could not fly, he was weak, he was slow, this place, this place-

The sound of his companion falling again made him look over his shoulder to her, then move to her side to pull her to her feet - though her leg appeared to be injured enough that it would likely do little good. He looked to her leg, watched her examine it. He could tell that something needed to be done, the scent of her blood was singing, fresh and clean, through the rotted stuff of the monsters. Still, treating that would have to wait until their attackers were dead.

His eyes flashed sharp and hard as he looked at her. "If you bleed to death, girl, I will leave your body to them."

He turned again to look at the sky, which was when struck.

Behind him.

He heard it, but not in time to do anything, and then there was the soft thump of bodies hitting snow, the clatter of the tables and chairs. The girl still hadn't screamed, which was enough to leave Sesshoumaru somewhat impressed, but now was not the time to be concerned by that. And he was becoming tired of being ignored.

The thing was trying to strike at the girl, so Sesshoumaru hurled himself at it, trying to push it off of her. At the same time he struck, trying to shred its heart. Failing that, he could at least pump it full of the acidic poison that was his naturally.

Driven into a frenzy by the scent of blood—her blood, in particular—the animal was relentless in its attack, despite the freshly bleeding wounds the knife had opened up. It beat its wings, a deep red tinting its sharply curved beak. It was so focused on her that it paid little attention to anything else: when the other came for it, it noticed too late and its body wasn't designed to maneuver on the ground, anyway. It gave an ear-piercing cry—and then collapsed. Right on top of the girl.

All that was left was the other bird, slowed somewhat by the poison, but not enough to make it stop and the dead body of its mate only seemed to spur it further. It made to grab for the girl, ready to haul her from underneath the carcass and carry her somewhere it could actually eat in peace.

Where her knife slashed, feathers and blood were torn free, and trapped beneath the creature as she was there was was no avoiding such carnage from staining her body. The foulness of it clung to her clothes and smeared across her face. She tried not to gag at the smell or the taste of it; she was unable to clamp her mouth shut with her lips furiously laying the words and tinder for flame. She was terrified, the feeling greater than any she'd ever felt before, disorienting all its own. The creature was so large she could not even see her companion when he assisted; nothing more than wisps of white hair catching the moonlight.

Its scream caught her off guard, but the collapse was worse. It weighed so much, more than she could have guessed. It seemed impossible that something this heavy should be able to fly. It was crushing her ribs, her arms where she tried pushing against it. She was not strong enough to push it off her, or even dislodge it. She couldn't breathe. Between the feathers, the blood, the foul stench, the cold snow--

For that reason, it was a blessing that the second still desired her death. Its grab was successful, tearing into what fabric it could reach, and with a sharp tug and a tearing of her jacket it pulled her to freedom.

The knife, slick and dark from the fight, slipped from her hand. But it was alright. She could see the sky and the stars, and more importantly, she could see the bird. The blood of its mate was thick and dark on her face, in her hair, around her mouth. Within her grimace her teeth were a startling white.

"Fire!" was her unsteady shout, and once more the bright spell burst to life, seeking to consume the bird with as much hunger and ferocity as it desired her.

For the first time, Sesshoumaru found himself, bizarrely, somewhat grateful that, if this place was to weaken him, it had done so to such an extent. His arm was covered in blood, it was soaking through the material of his sleeve and the front of his shirt, causing the fabric to cling to him - a good deal of the fastidious neatness he was able to maintain in battle was, after all, a result of the power he wielded, and the speed with which he was able to bring it to bear. If his nose were not so weak as it was, this might actually have been a problem.

He felt momentarily dizzy as he pulled himself away from the bird, from the reek of its flesh and its feathers and the blood soaking from its wounds. It took him a few moments to even notice that the other bird was there, moments that he spent concentrating very very fiercely on not using his sense of smell at all, or any more than he could help. And, by the time he'd staggered to his feet and forced himself back into his usual icy control, the second of the birds had the girl. It had dragged her out from the corpse of the first, which had been sandwiched between the two of them, ready to resume its attempt at killing her.

Sesshoumaru snarled in frustration, but before he could move to once again jump to attack, the girl struck. She was rising in his estimation, certainly.

The daiyoukai jumped back to dodge the tongues of flame, then finally drew the knife with blood-slick fingers. It was not weighted nor designed for this purpose, but was still probably better than his hand, at least in this case, with fire licking across the decaying feathers of the thing and melting the snow.

He lept forward again, to stab, to drag the serrated edge through the creature's neck or chest or wings, anywhere that was easiest to strike, wherever he could inflict the most harm.

The bird had pulled her a foot off the ground when the burst of fire made it drop its prey again. It was hungry enough that instead of wheeling away to strike later, it went back immediately, even with the edges of its tail and wings aflame, crackling. The smell of blood and burnt flesh and feathers was overwhelming.

Still on fire, the creature lashed out with both flaming wings, half out of pain, like a giant torch. If they came too close, the blow was powerful enough to knock any full grown human flat and stun them if it struck. The knife would tear through the wing when it did, but that wasn't on its mind.

The girl fell with a muffled thump into the snow, twisting in air to catch herself on her elbows. Items from her belt fell with her -- the abused book, the condiment bottle, the wooden spoon -- and made their own small craters in the trampled white field. Thankfully the bags fastened to her belt remained closed and without tear, but for all the tossing around being done to her, she was sure to have bruises around her hips and upper thighs.

It was still alive, she'd misplaced her larger knife, and she did not have power enough to chain spell after spell in quick succession. Even if she had the advantage on land to the bird, between her injured leg and the beast's close proximity and dangerous wings, standing now would have simply knocked her back down. But she couldn't just lay there and wait for her power to grow; it would faster rip out her throat. The girl scrambled for cover, crawling on numb hands and through cold snow until she was under one of the plastic tables with its built-in umbrellas.

It probably wouldn't buy her much time, if any at all; regardless, the girl pushed at the underside of table, turning the whole structure over, the flat of the top and the staff of the umbrella between her and the burning beast.

The girl was not the only one who was knocked backwards by the blow, Sesshoumaru was as well.

And the damn bird was still attacking. He wondered if it was animated by some sort of spell, to explain its supernatural persistence - it would explain the stench if it was some thing that was already dead, raised by some kind of black priest or other magic user, as well as its sheer persistence. Of course, the question would then become why it was attacking the girl.

He was too slow, and too low to the ground, to react as quickly as he should have. As he normally would have. Too weak. Additionally, the sharp pain blossoming in his side was... distracting. But pain really was nothing more than a curiosity, and could be nothing more at the moment. Pain was only weakness, and weakness was not to be tolerated, especially in a situation such as this. At least, despite the fire raging across the bird, the melted snow and blood soaking through his skin and the briefness of the contact had protected him from serious burns. It was bad enough to fall.

The sweep of wings had knocked him backwards, sent him sprawling - which was humiliating and infuriating by itself, but the snow all around them was covered in gore, and Sesshoumaru had been knocked into it. Breathing without becoming dizzy or nauseous was becoming a battle itself, which Sesshoumaru shoved to the side as he rose once again. He did not look so elegant now, with half of his hair clinging to him in bloody strings, but that did not change who he was. He was Sesshoumaru, the Lord of the West, the Killing Perfection, and he would not lose to this animal. And the girl was a companion for the night, at least, and not as intolerable as some here - and, of course, there had been an implied agreement of protection.

She had scrambled under a table, was using it as a shield, and after a fraction of a second to consider, Sesshoumaru threw his knife to her - she appeared to have lost hers, and he preferred his claws, the pathetic thing was not weighted nor balanced for fighting, and did not have an edge that easily allowed anything.

He leapt at the thing again, to slam into it and drive it back as he had its companion, to give the girl time to cast more fire (it appeared to take time) or rip it apart with his bare claws, rip into it with his poison (though even that was beginning to seem odd - he felt oddly hollow, when compared to normal - still, enough to kill this bastard).

Such an attack would probably cause burns, but even in this place he was fast, and drove the limits of that speed as he struck, and power, and ignored the exhaustion already tugging at him.

And he would heal. He always healed.

The snow was crunchy and rough, iced over from the past couple of days, which made it difficult to move as it was and the bird wasn't made for fighting on the ground. Its left wing hung shredded and torn, almost skeletal. The monster wasn't even really attacking so much anymore as it thrashed, but it was still wild and dangerous.

When the male jumped on top of it, its already weak bone structure collapsed under the weight. There was a hiss as some of the flames sizzled out in the snow. It screeched and shook violently, trying to throw him off, but it was clear that all it would take was one well-placed blow before it was taken out for good.

Another scream. The girl flinched, her teeth grinding together at the sound. Everything about the beast was overwhelming in some way, from strength to stench to that piercing cry, but it did mean one thing. It was the sound the other had made just before its death; this, too, would die soon.

Better sooner.

Taking the knife her companion had tossed her way, the girl dragged herself to her feet with the help of the overturned table, balance cautious. The wound still hurt, and her leg throbbed under her weight and stung with fiercer pain as she walked. She limped, but did not fall.

She hesitated for a moment at the barrier of space, just out of reach of its natural weapons, but the pause was short. The girl practically threw herself onto the creature for the speed of her strike, the serrated blade plunging through the char and feathers at the bird's neck. She twisted the knife in the wound, blood spewing from the wider wound, and just as harshly the girl yanked the knife out, staggering backwards.

Sesshoumaru was having a difficult time reacting as quickly as he should have. Some dizzying combination of pain and weariness and the stench of this thing, particularly of its blood (mostly these last two, but the pain still didn't help) was slowing his reactions, making it harder to focus. As a result, the girl was there with the knife before he'd quite decided how he was going to kill it, and made the decision for him.

There was the knife he had lent her, and the blood spurting from the wound accompanying it - the spray mercifully lessened by the other wounds that the creature had sustained, but it was nonetheless in the air, he was breathing it, and that was motivation enough to move.

He was exhausted.

He didn't care.

Sesshoumaru managed to pull himself up and walk a few paces, over to where the snow was not covered in blood, and from there it was only with a great effort of will that he kept himself from collapsing entirely. His head hurt, he was weary down to his bones (more than he should be, but at the moment he was too tired to care), and a part of him just wanted to lie down in the snow and never move again. The only problem was that would require leaving him exposed to all the blood, which was making him gag. In the end he dropped to his knees and buried his hand in the icy snow, trying to scrape or scrub the worst of the blood away from that, at least, never mind the cold. It wasn't perfect, but it was a start, and his clothing was already filthy enough.

An almost pitiful gurgle was all that escape the bird when it crumpled into a heap of smoking feathers and broken bones. Its blood seeped into the remnants of the snow and the ground, leaving dark splotches of a blackish honey, like spilled molasses.

If there were others in the area, they wisely decided to stay away. The sky remained empty of anymore birdlike shadows.

The fury and fight of the beast had quelled, and with it the night seemed to return to quiet stillness. Her breathing was labored. Her body shook for the fear still tumbling through her veins. The winter was cold in her mouth, and rotten. Blood stained her face, and what of her clothing hadn't been black before the fight were stained dark enough to pass now. Between the ice and the blood and the dark night, the girl was freezing and growing colder. Her hands felt numb. Her boots were full of snow, water seeping between her toes. Around her the snow seemed just as wounded as she, uneven for the struggle and the heat, and the dark stains of blood seemed cancerous blights on the pale ground.

Was it... over? Really over this time?

Her blood-painted face cracked for a white smile. They did it! They really did it! For that moment, she was so glad to have emerged victorious that she threw her sore hands to the air, a breathy and exhilarated laugh escaping her in visible puffs of air. It was alright now, she thought. Nothing was trying to kill her anymore. She was only rank with the blood of those that had tried, and failed. She could sit down for a moment without much worry. She still had her magic, and her--

Oh, her things. Along with her kitchen knife, a small number of other objects had tumbled from her belt. One had already proved itself valuable; the girl couldn't leave it behind, and it would be a waste to leave the others as well. The girl had to hold her breath as she examined the snow, the carnage smelling so foul. Most were easy to find, near the first dead bird, and with slow care she retrieved the abused book, the yellow bottle, this and that.

As for the knife, it'd been covered in blood and gore when she dropped it, so it would definitely be somewhere the snow had been dyed. It took a few moments, but eventually her cold hands discovered colder metal, and she retrieved the blade from the black snow. She wiped it against the cloth covering her uninjured leg, for what good it did; even her pants were soaked through with blood, though not all belonged to the beast.

It was only then with her weapon returned that the girl began trying to wipe the blood from her face, on what clean patches of sleeves remained to her.

Sesshoumaru, for his part, was trembling lightly with some mixture of cold and exhaustion, and putting a full effort into not gagging. He held his hand in the snow until he could hardly feel it, attempting to wash it clean, and probably got it as close as he could easily manage. But his shirt was beyond salvage, and could not be washed - every time he breathed the smell was there.

The cold was preferable to this.

It was after removing it (tearing more than pulling, but what else was he to do?) and once again scraping his fingertips through the snow to remove the blood that clung to them, then wiping his hand on the unstained fabric that he began to truly notice things again - including the cleaner smelling patch of bloody snow next to him.

Ah. Yes.

After a moment of thought, Sesshoumaru delicately took his shirt in his teeth and then tore off the unused sleeve, perhaps the cleanest portion of all of it. It would do.

He forced himself back to his feet, forced himself to walk back closer.

"Girl."

The girl looked up from her mostly unsuccessful attempt at cleaning her face at the sound of the word, eyes wide, catching moonlight. He never asked for a name, so she never gave one; it didn't matter much, anyway. She felt no substantial attachment to any of them.

Oh, he'd taken off his shirt. This was ordinarily not a thing the girl would be much concerned about, but without it, she could now see where his arm had been severed from the rest of his body, a short stump. Her gaze flicked that way for only a moment before returning to his face, curious.

Sesshoumaru wasn't quite too tired to notice, but was certainly too tired to care. His side was burning, and he refused to move closer to the blood - he'd already had enough of that. But her leg was shaking, and he could see the brighter red of her blood shining through the tear in the fabric.

He held the torn sleeve lightly in one hand.

"Come here."

Uncertain, but having no reason to refuse, the girl carefully made her way from the scene of carnage. The snow was difficult to maneuver through with her injured leg, and the slick spots from blood and from melted ice made several steps precarious. Most of her balance was maintained with her halfway outstretched arms -- with a knife in each hand.

He refused to venture any closer and so did not, but she obeyed him. It was good, it made his life easier.

"Sit," he told her after they were an acceptable distance from the carnage, and waited until she sat on the edge of one of the snowy chairs before once again kneeling, this time before her. Perhaps it was some instinct born of taking care of Rin that he moved to bandage her, rather than instructing to bandage herself - something about her giddy celebration a few moments before that had brought it to mind, or something else entirely. Or maybe he was simply so tired that it seemed that way.

No matter. Whatever the reason, he reached gently out with his relatively clean hand towards her filthy thigh. The wound was dirty, but it was likely to be dirty no matter what they...

He did have the water. He thought he had the water. And yes, it was there.

He set the sleeve on the table that was next to them and reached down to pick up the sealed clear bottle that was all he had stolen that night. It seems it had found its use.

The fabric was in the way now. Almost surgically, and forcing himself not to shake with this weariness, Sesshoumaru reached out and widened the tear in her pants, then sliced through the thin material of the bottle, once again removing it. He poured a little over the now exposed wound, trying to be conservative despite its size, and then reached once again for the sleeve, and laid it with a surprisingly gentle hand over the wound, to tie it.

It was not perfect, but given the circumstances it was the best that could be done.

The odd thing was, now that the girl's blood was exposed, the sharp and clean scent cutting through the other rotten stuff, she... smelled odd.

It was difficult to tell, difficult to keep from focusing on the scent of her blood and unwittingly encountering the scent of the monster, but it was certainly enough to make him curious, and frustrated.

Considering how much falling and struggling she'd already done in the snow, sitting in a chair still covered in it was not as much of a discomfort as it would have been earlier. Still uncomfortable, but tolerable. Her first instinct was to scan the sky for any further beasts, but the night was quiet, and still.

It wasn't until he was ripping open further the cut in her pants that the girl expressed more than dull attention, sitting up now for surprise. Of course she had no idea what it was doing, but she said nothing for the long while. The water was cold, and it stung sharp on the cut. Her hands clenched around the handles of the knives. As she watched, he wrapped the clean, torn fabric of his discarded shirt around the gash in her leg, the fabric darkening for the water more than the blood. He fussed with the loose ends hanging down from her leg, eventually tying them together and pulling the band tight around her leg.

It was not until then that she found words to speak. "... ... What are you doing?"

He had climbed to his feet, and turned to look at her in a way that somehow managed to be disbelieving while still being almost completely blank.

"I had no desire to go through such trouble to protect you from those things only to have you bleed to death," Sesshoumaru told her, voice a little condescending. "You may not be entirely human, but blood is blood."

For a moment, the only response he got was several rapid blinks. Then, with a slight sag of her shoulder as she leaned forward, confused, "what?"

Sesshoumaru sighed a little and looked at her in the same slightly condescending way that was at least partially caused by weariness. "The scent of the other blood makes it difficult to tell - I have been weakened by this place. All the same, the scent of your blood seems strange. You cast fire, but your magic did not carry the danger of holy powers."

The girl seemed to draw herself inward, her eyes falling from her companion's face and what excitement the victory had breathed into her dissipated as easily as her clouded exhale. "And... but..."

She frowned, both at her brow and her mouth, struggling for words. "You think I'm not human?"

He blinked at her, seemingly entirely unconcerned. "Perhaps."

His lack of concern didn't ease hers. "Why?"

"It is as I said."

He turned from her then, and made his way to the final door, which was locked. Sesshoumaru didn't think he'd be able to break it, even were that something in the realm of possibility at the moment. He stood still for a moment, trying to figure out where to go from here. Collapse could come later, for now....

Night 58: Staff-Only Outdoor Patio Lounge/Eating Area

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