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]

The voice that called to her was a welcome one. She blinked upward, half-surprised she didn't notice him in the room before. She nodded in greeting, then gestured at him to sit by her. "Byrne," then, more importantly, "Are you all right after last night?"

An irony, perhaps, as she was the only one of the three that would have been actually targeted, but a question to be asked nonetheless. His strange friend who denied their companionship earlier in the day yesterday might have had some combat or military experience, but Byrne Faraday registered as a civilian to her, and more-- Someone that she actually did not wish to come to any harm.

[corvus_veritas]

Byrne took Renamon's offer and sat himself down in the seat she'd gestured to, making no attempts to hide his painfully obvious rash this time around. (Hey, he trusted her. It wasn't like she was going to hunt him down knowing he was quote-unquote "infected", right? And she might be able to offer advice on his illness, too. Maybe.)

"More or less," the prosecutor replied with a weary smile, chuckling. At least he was mostly okay after last night specifically. Everything else was, well. Maybe it would all be alright later.

"Hopefully you're okay, too?" He couldn't help looking concerned when he asked that. Those magical virgin eating birds (...still gonna have to get used to saying that) had targeted Renamon rather than him and Badd, after all. Not to mention those corpses the group had stumbled across in the entry room - did she know them? He could only imagine how she felt about it either way. And was there a reason why she'd looked the way she had just a moment ago?

[diamondstorm]

The Digimon was 'fine' regardless of her condition, and she nodded as if to say as much. Byrne's response had her more concerned; that and the lesion showing itself to the air. She inclined her chin towards his arm. "'More or less?'" she repeated dubiously. The rumors Landel had spread were obvious, but were there other symptoms he was struggling with?

As to the truth of the matter.... She was prone to believe it, if only for her doubts at the beginning of her stay, and the strange creatures encountered. If they had once been sentient, then... It would perhaps explain her unease, if nothing else. The subject wasn't a distraction from her own thoughts--the topic was important, especially with Landel's hint that it could be undone. The man was extravagant, but when it came to showing how 'kind' he was, the megalomaniac tended toward truth.

[corvus_veritas]

Well, at least Renamon was saying (through gesture) that she was okay. Whether that was actually true or not was a different story, of course, but Byrne was going to hope that she was being honest.

Just as he was going to be honest now about this illness. Of course she would notice the rash quickly; how could anyone not notice it? It was so painfully obvious by this point, covering such a large area on his arm. Kind of unnerving how quickly it had grown in such a short amount of time. The older man let out a sigh at his friend's remark, letting his smile disappear from his face. Honesty, right.

"Just trying to stay hopeful, I guess. There's not much else I can do about, well. This." He held his rash-covered arm out for a brief moment. "Other than hope this is all just one big scare tactic by Landel."

It was the only thing he could think of that could help him stay calm about all of this. Did Renamon believe in it, too? He wondered...