Day 64: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)

[dividedby]

... ... ... ...

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!]

Comments

[diamondstorm]

After the events of last night, today was practically tame. There was the agitation that always came with the announcement of visitors, but as the day passed and Renamon wasn’t pulled away, the frantic nerves died to a alert wariness. There were a few she needed to speak to, and here--

Ah. And here was one. This child was one Renamon hadn’t spoken with in an extended while, and there was an actual need for them to catch up. She approached the boy quietly, noting his strange pallor, too reminiscent of illness. Was Nigredo one of the ones ‘marked’? It fed into an old anger, and she inhaled, before bowing her head to him. “Nigredo. May I sit with you?”

[Nigredo!]

[diamondstorm]

[from here --and for Byrne!]

The child was pulled away for a visitor, and Renamon watched him go with some kind of remorse. Hopefully it was no one too important, but even as she thought that, she wondered if that was the correct hope to carry. In the end, the Digimon shook her head, and moved to stand up. At the least, there was still some time left in the shift. Perhaps she’d find another to speak with.

…But the prospect seemed suddenly too tiring. She glanced at the aisles of books and then retreated to a table to sit at, leaning her weight on her arms atop it. How many days had she been here? How many visitors had come to torment the ones that loved them most? How much more would they all have to go through before this ended? What should she do?

She didn’t know. She didn’t know anymore.

[skeletonenigma]

When the intercom announced a shift change and Yomi took the opportunity to leave the library, Skulduggery asked the nurse who seemed to have attached herself to him if he was allowed to stay here and quietly read. When she nodded her consent and left him to it, he started scanning the bookshelf nearest to him, turning the day's events over in his mind.

The visits Landel had mentioned during the announcement were likely the same ones Badd talked about, and Skulduggery wasn't particularly worried about them. He hadn't met many people here yet, and none of them would have been 'cured,' discharged, and subsequently brainwashed in the space of half a day. The letters posed a bit more of a threat, but Skulduggery would tackle that problem if and when it arose. In the meantime, Yomi had been more helpful than she perhaps realized, and Skulduggery was anxiously awaiting nightfall. Some movement and danger might help to get rid of this bloody headache, even if his body didn't exactly cooperate with the whole 'movement' thing at first.

Why were all the books in this library fiction? Was that normal for a mental hospital, or was that another subtle way of making sure they didn't discover where they really were? Skulduggery pulled out a book at random, saw that it was War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and almost immediately put it back. In a choice between a religious musical out in the Sun Room and reading about aliens, Skulduggery would very happily choose to leave them both alone and maybe find someone annoying to hit. He was already beginning to miss hitting people.

[Rita!]

[hairraising]

Another shift, another gentle lecture about "branching out" and "personal space" and "don't you think it's time you let Mr. Bartowski make other friends, dear?" Rapunzel agreed that Eugene needed to make more friends here; everyone needed as much support as they could get in Landel's. She was of a mind, however, that Eugene making friends and her sticking close to him didn't have to be totally exclusive. Her nurse didn't see it that way. Rats.

At least she had a back-up place to go in situations like this: when in doubt, head for the library. Where had she left off in A Little Princess, again? She could barely remember after the excitement of the past couple of days. Rapunzel entered the library and tread along the aisles, heading for the shelf she had been frequenting lately.

As it turned out, there was a person already in the aisle she sought. This wouldn't have been a huge deal (though, Rapunzel probably would have said hello anyway), but for the person's hair. She knew she had seen that head of hair around in passing, but had never consciously picked up on it until now. It was almost as long as hers was, maybe the same length even, she thought. Never mind that it was a man sporting that hair. From the way Mother Gothel had always described men — thugs, ruffians, brutes — she never would have pictured one that looked anything like her before. Then again, she never pictured anyone like Eugene before he'd showed up, either.

Beyond just the hair, however, Rapunzel noticed the look on the man's face. By now, that look was getting to be familiar — a melancholy blankness, unsure of how to deal with the world around in the moment. She couldn't be sure if that was exactly what the man was feeling, but for Landel's, dulled trauma was never a bad assumption to make.

"Hey, I think I've seen you around," said Rapunzel quietly after a few moments, walking into the aisle toward the shelf where The Little Princess sat. "Need help with anything?"

[age_of_kings]

Tolten had spent most of the day in something of a fog. At least following his trip to the restroom to let loose his emotions and allow himself a chance to weep. At least the nurse had been kind and not bullied him out before he was ready. He supposed he really was a pathetic thing when he wept.

But he couldn't help it, not after reading the horrific news on the bulletin. It was one thing when someone he knew simply wasn't about anymore. Someone he cared about and considered a friend? Dying?

He'd never lost anyone quite like that before. He'd been young when his parents died, and while he had lost Seth, not to death. She'd simply gone back to her own world, a place he couldn't follow.

He didn't know quite how to deal with this, really, so he found himself just moving through the motions of the day. It didn't help that he was feverish now, and achey, and that stupid rash was only getting worse instead of better.

He couldn't even cling to the sweet memories of the night before. Not now. The young king, eyes still swollen and red, curled up in a chair in the library, ignoring the books. He didn't want to read. Or do anything, really, except feel miserable.

[Free!]

[hiddenbadass]

It was futile, but Mike didn't really care. He still wanted to find a comic book. Just one. He didn't even care if it was a super hero one anymore. He just wanted to hold one in his hand again.

Back home, he only had a box that he had hidden in the rebels' base. Funny, how it had been a library, too. The library. What remained of it, anyway. Somehow, in all the years, the foot police had never investigated the place, or even looked. Mike remembered something about buying off the right people, but it never sat well with him.

Either way, libraries were safe. Shelves to your back, quiet enough that you could hear practically anything. He used to complain that books without pictures were boring, but given enough time on his hands, he started reading those, too. Some of them were pretty good. Others were boring as shell, but even the boring ones had been a distraction from his life back then.

Mike wasn't sure if he needed a distraction now, or if he needed to feel safe in a place where they were "safe" most of the time. It was a prison, but a well groomed one. Kept his hackles up, but not all the way.

He ran his hand over his face, feeling his growing beard. ... Man. He was gonna have to figure out how to shave, wasn't he? That was going to be... weird. No other way to go about it--it was just simply going to be weird....

As he walked into the library, his mind wandered.

[For Niikura!]