Zero (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dividedby) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
damned_institute2012-06-12 12:04 pm
dividedby) wrote in damned_institute2012-06-12 12:04 pm
Day 64: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)
... ... ... ...
It was shock, like failing to recognize some heavy injury following a traumatic accident. Zero's mind was reeling, still trying to accept the fact that Ciel - or else, someone who looked and sounded exactly like her - had been standing right before him, calling him by a different name. She'd spoken untruths, supporting the Institute's idea that he was mad, but her face, her voice, her mannerisms...! It had undeniably been Ciel!
No, his mind couldn't accept that. Not yet. The so-called superior thinking power of the human brain couldn't do anything to help him.
And so the once-Reploid slowly walked out of the visitation room as if in a trance, following behind his forever cheerful nurse. She, of course, thought that there was nothing wrong and began chattering to herself about how healthy that visit must have been for him.
'Healthy'.
On any other day, he would have let out some sort of displeased grunt or, better yet, some rude remark about just how 'healthy' such a visit had been for him, but any sort of response became impossible when his brain was too busy just trying to process simple facts. So he simply stared past the nurse instead, only vaguely aware that she even existed. (Not that she seemed to notice. In fact, she probably took his lack of rudeness as a good sign. Wouldn't be surprising.)
Thankfully, it was only a very short walk back to the Sun Room and, therefore, only a short amount of time spent with that woman. Zero abandoned her and then slipped into the library in order to find some peace and quiet. He could sit in a chair somewhere and try to think about what just happened...
...He ended up standing in front of a random bookshelf mindlessly staring at the rows of paper-made novels in front of him rather than sitting, but oh well. His mind was in the same place either way.
[Long Hair Brigadiers UNITE!]
It was shock, like failing to recognize some heavy injury following a traumatic accident. Zero's mind was reeling, still trying to accept the fact that Ciel - or else, someone who looked and sounded exactly like her - had been standing right before him, calling him by a different name. She'd spoken untruths, supporting the Institute's idea that he was mad, but her face, her voice, her mannerisms...! It had undeniably been Ciel!
No, his mind couldn't accept that. Not yet. The so-called superior thinking power of the human brain couldn't do anything to help him.
And so the once-Reploid slowly walked out of the visitation room as if in a trance, following behind his forever cheerful nurse. She, of course, thought that there was nothing wrong and began chattering to herself about how healthy that visit must have been for him.
'Healthy'.
On any other day, he would have let out some sort of displeased grunt or, better yet, some rude remark about just how 'healthy' such a visit had been for him, but any sort of response became impossible when his brain was too busy just trying to process simple facts. So he simply stared past the nurse instead, only vaguely aware that she even existed. (Not that she seemed to notice. In fact, she probably took his lack of rudeness as a good sign. Wouldn't be surprising.)
Thankfully, it was only a very short walk back to the Sun Room and, therefore, only a short amount of time spent with that woman. Zero abandoned her and then slipped into the library in order to find some peace and quiet. He could sit in a chair somewhere and try to think about what just happened...
...He ended up standing in front of a random bookshelf mindlessly staring at the rows of paper-made novels in front of him rather than sitting, but oh well. His mind was in the same place either way.
[Long Hair Brigadiers UNITE!]
no subject
He'd left his little meeting feeling more confused than before. There were just so many things that they didn't know, and so little time...the temptation to give up was actually pretty tantalizing. The problem was that it just wasn't his style to surrender so early in the game. No, he'd keep trying even if it was a lost cause, just as Akumetsu had with its incomplete manifesto.
The movie was probably over or close to finishing up by now, so Niikura decided to head over to the Sun Room, figuring it'd be the best place to spot Mike. Instead, though, he found the former turtle hanging around not more than a book's throw away from him, perusing the shelves for something that he obviously wasn't finding.
"Whatcha lookin' for?" Being tall, the teenager craned his head over Mike's shoulder (or more like, his head, neck, and then some) to peer at the shelves himself. "If it's comics, don't waste your breath. I already checked."
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"You kiddin'?" Mike asked, turning to look at Niikura with a bit of an incredulous frown. "This whole library, and not a single page of comic print?"
He looked back at the bookshelf with a frown, as if the entire situation was its fault. It kinda was, if one considered how it was part of the Institute. Besides the food, some of the company, and the roof over their heads, this place wasn't too much unlike back home.
The food made it a lot more livable. His body was adjusting to it, now, getting used to real food again. He didn't feel a slight upset in his lower extremities nearly as often.
Mike glanced back to Niikura as his mind came back to the present, rubbing at his beard. "Hey, do you know how to shave? I kinda want to avoid the grungy, creepy guy look--" He smirked softly. "--even if it might be kinda fitting."
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Niikura held up his hands in a mock gesture of innocence. "Hey! I didn't pick the readin' material around here, okay?" If it were up to him, the whole room would have been filled top to bottom with manga, instead of things like that stupid Heart of Darkness. Ugh...that had taught him never to judge a book by its length.
He looked just a bit taken aback when Mike asked him about shaving. "Wha... C'mon, do ya see any hair on this chin?" The teenager ran a hand across his cheeks and chin, as if testing to see if there really was. "I'm not that old, okay." Niikura squinted as he peered in for a closer look at Mike's stubble. "I agree that it fits ya, though--better than me, at any rate."
Sheesh, how did they end up talking about facial hair? Right. Back to business. "--anyway, I gotta ask your opinion on somethin' too. It's, uh...it's complicated."
no subject
"I never bothered to figure out when humans started growing hair," Mike shrugged as a final word to that subject.
His eyebrow raised at the change of subject. Was Niikura suddenly... nervous? Like actually, honest to god, nervous? Mike never thought he'd see the day. It certainly wasn't related to fighting--the kid was confident with that. He was confident about a whole hell of a lot of stuff, actually. He wouldn't be asking Mike any of those coming-of-age questions, because he knew he wasn't always a human, and couldn't help him there.
So that really left teenager problems. Niikura didn't care about being popular. He didn't care about fashion or food or anythin' like that. This wasn't gonna be about videogames. Really, if it had to be something complicated, it had to be....
"Lemme guess--you got yourself a girlfriend," Mike replied with a smirk after a moment, unable to resist the chance to tease.
no subject
"Wh--wha...what the--NO!" Niikura sputtered, shouting that last word more loudly than he'd intended and earning himself a loud "SHHHHHHH!" from one of the nearby nurses. He winced and then continued rounding on Mike, this time in an angry whisper.
"She's not my girlfriend!" he hissed. Oh damn it, was he blushing? That was not going to fly...damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it--"She's sick, okay?! And she wants to keep goin' down to the basement! And I..." Niikura pulled back abruptly, as he realized just what he'd let slip. Then, he visibly deflated.
"Fuck. Look, I just...I don't know. I feel like we should be lookin' around for a cure, y'know? But I can't...I gotta respect her feelings too." He had to, because he did owe it to her. He couldn't deny that before, he'd done as he'd pleased as Akumetsu without stopping for one second to think of how his friends might have felt, because he couldn't afford to. Now, though, he had a whole different story on his hands.
no subject
There was a temptation to keep on needling the kid, but that deflated when Niikura started going on about how she was sick. Mike remembered the warnings from Landel, and some of the conversations on the message board that he had stalked. Putting two and two together was like a four piece puzzle. It didn't take much more than a few moments to complete.
"Shell." Mike spoke quietly, adding another curse under his breath for good measure. "You don't mean sick--you mean sick."
Shiina was going to turn into a monster. A real, honest to god monster. Shit. Mike's eyes widened slightly, his mouth barely opening.
That's what the kid was coming to advice about. What to do. How to handle the situation. Truthfully, as far as Mike saw it, there really wasn't much of a choice in the matter. There was only one thing to do. His eyes now narrowed.
"You can't respect her wishes anymore if she loses her mind. Does she realize that?"
no subject
"H-hey, I tried, okay!" Niikura said defensively, crossing his arms. "And I already asked her what she'd want me to do if it came to--you know, that."
'HNNGH' was indeed an accurate way to describe how he was feeling at the moment.
"I just..." He sighed heavily. Maybe this was it. He had to just say everything and get it over with. Couldn't keep secrets forever. Mike deserved to know what he was working with anyway. "Either way, I'd never forgive myself, y'know? Go to the basement, she dies; look for a cure, who knows what she'd do..." He looked away. "She doesn't want to hold me back, and she's too stubborn to have it any other way. And I..." Niikura pinched the bridge of his nose. "'s kind of my fault she's that way about me, since I was dyin' all over the place--well, not me, but rrrrrgh..."
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All Mike knew was that Niikura and Shiina were both being stupid about this. It was stupid. Incredibly stupid. 'Oh, but she wants to go to the basement! She doesn't want to hold us back!'
Yeah. That wasn't going to work with Mike.
Except his entire thought process derailed right off a bridge at that last bit. Dying. Multiple times. What--
"Dying? What do you--" Mike started, then stopped himself with a shake of his head. "Shell, tell me later."
He looked back up to Niikura, frowning deeply. "You both need to stop being idiots. We need to find a cure, 'cause she ain't exactly any use to us if she does change into one. Havin' the possibility of her turnin' into a monster at any moment means we gotta keep our guards up against her, too, instead of focusin' all our energy on our goal. Dead is dead. Dying sucks. She's a kid, and there's no way in shell I'm puttin' her through that if we can save her!"
There was no discussion from Mike's point of view.
no subject
It also hurt because man, he really was being stupid, but he wasn't going to try and save face; he wasn't that puffed up about himself.
"...right." He laughed. "Pretty bad, huh? That I'm willin' to put our goals ahead of her." It was just so much easier to deal with, for one thing.
no subject
It was as simple as that. Clear-cut. She couldn't want anymore if it was dead. Mike didn't have to go on and on about philosophy or even wondering about the choice just now. From his perspective, it was the only one that made sense. The only one that offered possibilities.
"If you love a person, sometimes you gotta do what they don't want."
Splinter did. He forced Mike to train. To study. To not sluff off. It was because of him that Mike had lived for so long back home, and why he was able to adapt to this place now. All because Splinter made him do things he didn't want to do.
It calmed him that Niikura caved so quickly. Stupid kid. A little too romantic for his own good, sometimes, but a good kid, really. Both of them were. Shiina deserved to live.
no subject
Well, maybe he'd give it a shot tonight. She'd be hurt, but Hazama definitely wouldn't mind, and hadn't he done the same thing for Katsuragi? Thrown all his being into something that seemed hopeless, even when the other party just wanted him to do his own thing. Right. Things would be different this time, too. He'd set things right.
"Thanks for hearin' me out, Mike-san."
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As for the thanking, Mike gave him a brief thumbs up, giving Niikura a genuine smile, "Anytime, man. Just let me know if you need some back-up with it, and I'll be there. I'm used to talking to stubborn morons."
Although, really, he was truthfully the best at pissing them off. Raphael for example. But pretty much anything pissed that turtle off.
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"Oh, thanks," Niikura said with a smile as he rolled his eyes and elbowed Mike. "Makes me feel that much better. Anyway, see ya tonight, okay? Let's get some stuff done for once."
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He was also a good friend. Besides April and a handful of others in the Resistance, Mike hadn't had one in a while. Not one that was this "whole" anyways. Niikura wasn't weary like they had been when only moments of happiness could be snatched from the constant depression of a subjugated world.
"Anytime, bro'," Mike continued smirking. "I'll see you later. Try not to get into trouble while I'm not there."