Nightshift 62: Main Hallway, 1-West

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

Taura took up station midway between the two halls leading back into the dormitories. Alone with her thoughts; the hall was quiet. Too quiet. Dead quiet, a little voice hissed in the back of her mind.

This was no time to be getting superstitious. It was unavoidable, really, in a profession with so much risk involved in daily operations, that those who survived found things to credit. Beyond their own skill, because they'd all seen better men/women/herms when their luck ran out, and skill only improved your odds.

Her luck was holding, tonight. Was Rita and Goku's?

[Rita and Goku]

Comments

[hasnomeaning]

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.

[corvus_veritas]

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.

[hasnomeaning]

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.

[corvus_veritas]

"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.

[hasnomeaning]

...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.

[corvus_veritas]

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?"

[hasnomeaning]

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.

[corvus_veritas]

"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!