damned_institute | Nightshift 62: Main Hallway, 1-West

Her name being called registered before the owner did, and she glanced up, hand unobtrusively near her mouth. It shifted slowly down as she looked at the man, then she nodded carefully. "Byrne Faraday." It was too even to fully be a greeting, but it was an acknowledgment all the same. She had not seen the man since he had admitted to his memories touching her mind, but here he stood before her, as if there was something wrong.

A question of concern for her never touched her mind. She instead blinked once at him. "Was there something you needed from me?"

Rei seemed calm, at least. Which was good. But once again, just like the first night he'd met her, she was standing around out here by herself and that was something a parental worrywart like Byrne could not accept. Not when there were so many dangers in this place at night, or very (possibly) real threats being spoken about over the intercom by a certain head lunatic.

Concern was more than obvious on the prosecutor's face now. "Well, not really, but... What are you doing out here by yourself, Rei? Are you waiting for someone?" Hopefully the answer would be yes. If no, then Byrne was already prepared to strongly insist on sticking with her for the night. Granted, his...questionable condition might not make him the safest person to travel with - not to mention the shard of glass he had on hand wasn't the best weapon in the world to use against the creatures here - but it was much better than leaving her alone, right?

(Ignoring the fact that he had used his condition and lack of weapons to justify to himself earlier why it was too dangerous to travel with Badd, who was a full grown man with a pistol rather than a young girl. But details are details...and it wasn't like Rei was the one on Byrne's personal 'do not talk to forever' list right now, anyway.)

He seemed to have a fondness for inane questions. Instead of replying, she stared at him for a moment... Then blinked carefully. "I'm not waiting for someone. I am out here so I can gain more of an understanding of this place." Spoken blandly, and yet it was something that should have been rather obvious. What else would she be doing out here?

...Of course, moving by herself seemed as if it might be faulty if she could not use her mind to its usual degree, and if the soreness present slowed her reaction time.... She glanced to the side, unsatisfied with her body's condition. She couldn't deal with this, if it continued like that. And with no back-up... All of the pilots gone. Ayanami was alone, and for a brief moment she missed Aigis.

It was enough to shock her lightly, and she blinked back up at Byrne somewhat tiredly.

'Gain more of an understanding of this place'? By just standing around in the darkness like this? How could she even...what? Byrne didn't understand at all, and Rei's lack of concern, plus her calm, almost tired look there, made him worry even more. Was there something she wasn't telling him? Or did she just really not care about her own safety?

"Rei." His look became more serious. "I don't want to barge in on whatever other plans you have, but I'm not comfortable leaving you here in a place like this to just--just stand around in the dark by yourself." Where you could possibly be eaten by something, y'know? "It's too dangerous." Which was an obvious fact, yes, but he felt the need to repeat it.

If asked, Ayanami would have had no excuse. She was standing for rest, and because she did not, yet again, have an idea of where to start. Idle unrest had pressed her to movement; she had not been trained for passivity in motion, and she could not just--

It was, perhaps, that the single thought that Soryu's note might not all have been false. That all the pilots had left, or returned home, and she was still yet here. When any purpose she had was not in this place. When nothing she did here accomplished anything. Her throat closed, and she coughed again, that quiet, grating sound.

"...Then accompany me," she said, tone tired and resigned. She had given up. She had already given up on details of her existence before she had even arrived at this place. "Lead me. Tell me where to go. What should I be doing in this place?" The pilot looked up, a neutral mien as always, but something added to her eyes. Something desolate touching the edges. "What purpose is there in this place?"

That response was...troubling. Was Rei really alright? It looked and sounded like she was being truthful, that she might be depressed and that she really did not know what she should be doing. Like something really had happened to her before that she just wasn't saying out loud. But perhaps she was actually being sarcastic, and she was only saying she'd go with him because she didn't want to fight him on his or something? Which was possible, even though Byrne strongly suspected the former possibility was actually the case here.

Whichever it was, something was clearly bothering Rei in some way, so he was going to take the girl seriously and try not to force her to do anything or go anywhere that she didn't want to. (Besides, it wasn't like he had any idea where to lead the two of them off to yet...) Reassurance was probably his best bet for now.

"It doesn't matter what our purpose here is, and whatever excuse Landel gives for us to be here is a load of b--" Woah woah no. Language, Faraday. This is a child you're speaking to here. "...lies. We need to all just figure out a way to get out of here and not let that madman get any more satisfaction out of torturing us. Better yet, we should be getting him punished for kidnapping and harming all of these people. Somehow, some way. We can't give up, okay?"

...Huh. He hadn't even given much thought to his words before saying them, but they were all true, weren't they? He could be curious and feel down about their 'apocalyptic prevention' purpose all he wanted, but in the end, it didn't really matter, did it? They still needed to escape one way or another, and that wasn't going to change no matter why Landel had brought them here.

W-wow. In trying to reassure Rei, Byrne had pretty much reassured himself in the process - or perhaps, only reassured himself, if his words had no effect on the girl. How does that work.

But he couldn't just stop to pat himself on the back for that, as it wasn't him he'd been trying to reassure, after all. Not to mention he still couldn't shake the feeling that something else beyond purpose was bothering the girl. Byrne sighed softly, letting concern become clear as day on his face and in his voice. "Is...is everything alright, Rei?"

If she had been another, one not herself, the man's words would likely have reached her. But they existed on polar wavelengths, and Rei's concern in full was not 'escaping and punishing', but 'completing a task and purpose'. What didn't matter to Byrne was the entirety of Rei's existence. But there was no way for him to understand that. No way for him to understand a girl who was not wholly a girl, who had not been raised as an ordinary human, and knew only purpose and goals. Nothing else. That--

"...I am not giving up, Byrne Faraday," she replied without thought. "But we have different priorities." Her tone was firm, resolute, despite the edge of exhaustion. This was a fact that she was sure in. His last question was one that required further thought. Again, her eyes tipped down, contemplating her condition. "I am uninjured."

Again, Rei was avoiding explanations and acting so calm. Was something wrong? Byrne just couldn't tell. The way she acted, this time and previous times he'd been in contact with her... Just--just what was with this girl, anyway? She was so unlike most other girls her age. Why did she behave the way she did?

It was way too easy to jump to conclusions, so Byrne was going to try to ignore any possible answers to that question in his head and focus on what was in front of him. A simple answer, that she had different priorities. "Then what are your priorities?" he asked gently, not in any sort of way that suggested he expected an answer. She didn't have to explain if she didn't want to. Again, if there was something else here, something that she didn't want to talk about, that was just fine. Not going to force anything here.

At least it was a relief to hear that she was uninjured. (Or was she lying? He just couldn't read this girl.)

She was uninjured. That was fact. But he had asked if everything was alright, and she had only seen fit to answer in that way. And now he would question her, when others would leave her alone, as if he wanted to understand instead of merely change and shape her, and--

And she was tired. So tired. Perhaps she wouldn't have opened herself to a query if she wasn't, perhaps she would not allowed this opening, but it still remained, and Ayanami-- "To do what my purpose requires," she said quietly, after a pause. And still clear, she added, "And I do not know what that purpose is here. Those that might have told me," could have requested it, as one to another, "are gone now. All of them." Was that it? It could not be so simple. And yet--

It was fact and truth. Movement without motion was becoming too lacking for her as she remained.

Finally, answers. Maybe. (The way Rei said that, though, describing her 'purpose'... It kind of sounded like she...no, let's save that kind of a question for a better time and place, Faraday. Although, it would explain a lot of things if the answer was yes...)

So all of the people Rei knew who could have given her a goal or motivated her in some way were not here anymore. This alone, without assumptions, explained a lot about Rei's responses tonight. "I'm sorry," the prosecutor apologized softly, looking downcast. To have everybody you count on in the way Rei described to no longer be here was awful. It might be good in a way, if the reason for them being gone wasn't actually because of death or worse. But having support here was really helpful, and it could be tough to survive without it. Byrne himself couldn't even imagine what he'd do without Badd and some of the wonderful people he'd encountered here, even if he'd rather them all not be in this situation at all.

"But I can at least assure you," he continued on, voice still soft, "that your purpose is not to fulfill a single one of Landel's goals." Please promise me that if nothing else, his expression seemed to plead. He didn't want Rei feeling hopeless, or that being here to serve Landel was ever a good thing.

His apologies came as fleeting, and she could not attribute them to sense. She could comprehend the impression behind it, but something like that... was just worthless. "An apology is not required," she said, somewhat softer than before. It was this place, she thought, then. This place that was treating her like she was more than what her role dictated, and all of that was simply strange. Irregular. There was no point in simply asking her to exist for herself.

It was not something she was capable of. Or was interested in doing.

To his second comment, Rei stared. Quietly and outright, no emotions or changes visible on her mien. Stared as if contemplating the answer, as she rightly was. Did it matter to her, whose goal she served? As long as it didn't go against her original purpose, the purpose from her original world, it didn't matter to her at this point. She hadn't seen enough of this place to judge it as right or wrong.

And Rei herself was half-incapable of making that judgment. It was not something she placed substance in.

Byrne waited for Rei to reply with something other than 'an apology is not required' (good god, she sounded more like a machine than a human at times...), but after a moment of the silent treatment he sighed softly and ran a hand through his hair. No answer was even better than a vague answer, really. This conversation was certainly going somewhere fast.

What was it going to take to get Rei to open up a little more? Nothing he was saying was working. It almost felt like they were on completely different wavelengths here. Should he just give up? After all, it wasn't really fair for him to keep prodding her about her purpose (or what else might be bothering her, if anything) if she didn't want to talk about it. They should be trying to figure out what to do about the rest of the night anyway, so maybe he could switch subjects to that and let the purpose talk drop. But he didn't really want to do that, because it just didn't feel right to ignore something that felt wrong here. What should he do?

Before he could act on his concerns, however, the intercom suddenly came to life and interrupted his thoughts. Not only was the random broadcast poorly timed, but it was literally painful to listen to this time around, too. What was that high pitched sound-?! The static, those numbers...Byrne winced, resisting the urge to throw his hands up to cover his ears. He was trying to understand what he was hearing, but none of it made any sense. Ring around the Rosie? Something that sounded kind of like binary code? What in the--?!

And then just as suddenly, it was all over. Silence. Nothing happening as far as he could hear and see around them. "What was that all about?" the prosecutor wondered aloud, frowning deeply as he looked around them for any sign of change. Without some new immediate threat around, there didn't seem to be much of a point to that broadcast. Besides, y'know, the typical 'scare the living daylights out of every patient' excuse. But honestly, that was getting pretty old now.

The harsh grating cut through her sensitive ears, made worse by her apparent illness. She winced, even as her mind sought to understand the words. Binary, and she didn't know nearly enough to translate it. It was a dead language, used only for the most basic of programming, and she could only--

The girl squinted her eyes in concentration. The only thing able to be translated was the part that was repeating, simple and to the point. "...Dead," she said, seemingly out of nowhere to his query. "It's saying that someone is dead." The rest was beyond her abilities to make out.

"Dead?" Byrne looked back at the girl with obvious concern on his face. She meant the binary when she said that, right? If so, then that was pretty amazing, that she could understand binary. (And it was one more piece of evidence to prove his case of 'Rei might not be human'...but it still wasn't enough evidence to persuade him to ask her about it right now. Especially not at a time like this.)

So who died, and why would the intercom announce it in binary code of all things? It was curious and quite worrisome, but perhaps it wasn't worth it to ask. So Byrne shook his head. "I bet Landel's just trying to frighten us," he concluded, although his tone made it rather clear that he wasn't firm in that conviction. "Let's forget about it. It probably doesn't mean anything."

No, he didn't actually believe that, but honestly? It was starting to get kind of tiring worrying about what all of this meant, especially since it seemed like every fact he learned contradicted another. As much as he was dying to know how every piece of the puzzle fit together, it was easier in the end to just believe Landel was an asshole and leave it at that. Not to mention it was way too easy for him to over-think things sometimes. If the broadcast didn't make sense, well, maybe it wasn't supposed to.

Even though he didn't actually believe that deep down.

...It was possible that he was correct. Speaking of others' deaths seemed far too random, and in such a way that it seemed doubtful. She nodded, accepted Byrne's excuse, and seemed content to think nothing more of it.

Perhaps that was why--that her mind had emptied out of thought, and she was instead in a state of bland openness. Her attention went to her body, cataloging its state, and she placed that function aside, because she knew well that nothing had happened--

Her eyes, caught the shade, what could be a shadow in the gloom. Still, it caught her attention, enough for her to move the flashlight to her hand and let the light touch her skin.

Red. The flesh there was red. She stared, blankly wondering, and moved to run fingertips over the skin.

Despite the heavy topic, Rei was still as stoic and unreadable as ever - no big surprise there. At least this time she nodded her head at what he had to say instead of just staring at him. Progress? Perhaps. But Byrne still looked concerned regardless of her answer. (He had to admit, even though he'd said that it likely meant nothing, it was hard not to worry about a broadcast like that...)

His concern only grew in the next few moments when Rei turned her attention upon herself, and the prosecutor caught sight of an odd red ring present on the back of her hand as she shined the flashlight on it. What in the world? The way Rei stared at it seemed like she'd just now noticed this, too.

"Rei?" He couldn't help moving a little closer to the girl as he was trying get a better look at the marking (a rash? Bruise? Tattoo?). "What is that? What happened to you?"

What had happened to her. Wasn't it obvious at this point? Rei began to cough again, small form curling under the weight of it. Yes, obvious, and it didn't even matter anymore, did it? When her coughs stopped, she still looked down at the ground.

"You heard what he said." A statement, question, and accusation rolled into one--all to point out the very real possibility of what Landel had spoken.

A monster. This was how they made them.

Edited 2012-04-23 02:45 (UTC)

"Yes, but--" ...Byrne stopped, took mental steps back, replayed Rei's words in his head. Yes, of course he had heard what Landel had said about the illness. How could he not have--

...Illness. Red rash. And Rei was coughing.

There was a clear look of shock on Byrne's face now. "You're..." Sick. Sick, but more than just that. From what Landel said, and this rash--did this mean--oh god--Byrne quickly checked his own hands over, hoping and praying that he was jumping to conclusions. No-- There, on the back of his right hand, a mark. A red ring, just like the one on Rei's hand. And he knew for damn certain that had not been there before dinner, or just after dinner, or hell, even five minutes ago.

After staring at it for a moment, the prosecutor glanced back up at Rei and swallowed hard. What could he say? This proved it; they were both marked. If it were only him, he would have been less horrified, but the fact that Rei was marked as well, and if Landel was right...no! She was too young for this!

Nightshift 62: Main Hallway, 1-West

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