Night 64: West Wing, North Hall 1-A

[dualistic]

[From here.]

Along with his weapons and supplies, Harvey also had two other very important things with him, and he checked his pockets for them as he moved down the halls. First was his coin, which he wasn't surprised to find was there, as he couldn't think of a time when he'd let it be removed from his person. Second was the bracelet that the talking skeleton extraordinaire had given them. Forgetting the whole morbid quality of it, Harvey had to wonder if it could really be trusted.

On the other hand, Sangamon had made use of that ring and it had never come around to bite him, so maybe it was fine. Maybe every once in a while, this place actually made their lives easier rather than more difficult.

With the hall completely empty, Harvey didn't have to waste any time moving down it toward the meeting spot.

[To here.]

Comments

[knightspirit]

This guy... The 'wait a minute' would have sufficed. He didn't mind in certain contexts, but this wasn't one of them, and Kyousuke bristled at the touch. He shrugged the hand on his shoulder off him and took an extra step forward to regain his sense of personal space.

He was mildly surprised he'd never seen anything like that, though. Avatar users were rare, but the ability was getting a lot of attention lately because of the Holy Road. Kyousuke might not have used his Avatar proper, but most people have would have seen that same energy on TV through the course of Nationals. ... Maybe Murphy just wasn't very connected to the world around him. Kyousuke couldn't say he'd be surprised.

"Spiritual energy," he explained. "It usually can't be seen, but certain people can learn to use it in a physical form."

It was far from the full, proper explanation, but it was all that came; it was hard to keep connecting his thoughts together, and talking was aggravating his headache.

[stop_the_rain]

Murphy took a step back, his hands raised apologetically. He hadn't been trying to...do anything. He had just been reaching out, really. Physical contact was a thing long denied to him.

"I'm sorry. And...what?" Did...did this kid need medication of some kind? Or did Murphy? He guessed he'd heard stranger things, but...it was hard to reconcile them. This was an entirely different kind of strange, despite what he'd first assumed.

"I'm sorry, you're just not making any sense to me. Are you okay?"

[knightspirit]

... Was he okay? Kyousuke raised his eyebrows, mildly offended, and unable to comprehend this man's sense of ... well, anything. It was common enough to use certain types of energy, and while this was a bit different, it wasn't a huge stretch from the norm or anything that should be hard to accept. This same person claimed there were monsters around with easy enough acceptance, nor did he seem to think much of the fact they'd just been attacked by some kind of robot. Both were cause for a lot more concern if you asked Kyousuke, yet this guy made it sound like he'd hit his head over a spiritual aura? ... Unbelievable.

Kyousuke honestly didn't know what to tell him. There was a lot in what he'd said he could expand on, but if Murphy couldn't even process what he did say, that wasn't going to do much good. ... He didn't have the patience for this right now. Not with his head hurting like this.

"... Think of it as concentrated willpower," he decided on finally. That much was true, in a sense. And then, "If you can't understand that much, then anything I tell you will be a waste of time."

He just didn't want to deal with dumbing it down, and frankly, whether or not Murphy understood was his own problem. It wasn't like his comprehension of it was going to help them get out any faster.

[stop_the_rain]

Concentrated...willpower. Okay. Murphy could wrap his mind around that, but...it was still messed up, as far as he was concerned.

"Okay. Yeah." He nodded, showing he understood that, at least. Man, what had happened to this kid to make him lash out in a crisis? Obviously something.

"I'm sorry, I've just never seen anything like that. Not...not that a person did, anyway." He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "But hey. I've seen a lot of stuff I've never seen before these last few days. And...that was really great. Stunning Catbot back there."

Maybe he could earn a few points in his favor. Usually he was great with kids.

[knightspirit]

That went over easily enough. ... Maybe his headache was making him too harsh. Kyousuke wasn't about to apologize for it, but he supposed he could ease up a little. It wasn't Murphy's fault Kyousuke was mentally exhausted. He wasn't really helping it, exactly, but it wasn't his fault.

Still, he'd never seen that ... in a person ...? Kyousuke had never been unfortunate enough to come across anything he'd consider inhuman, but his experience in that regard was exactly the opposite. That was strange, and a little disturbing. What in the world had this guy been running into? Although he did have to snort at the mention of 'catbot.' Was that what he was calling it?

When complimented, Kyousuke shrugged it off as if it wasn't worthy of praise, which, in his mind, it wasn't. ".... That was nothing." It was possible it sounded it egotistical, but to him, it wasn't; he was merely stating the truth. "It didn't work the way it's supposed to. Nothing did. I should have been capable of a lot more than that."

He still didn't understand, and was more than a little put off by it, but then, moping wouldn't change things, and it was pointless to put any reliance in something that wasn't going to work properly. That in mind, he forced himself forward again.

[to here]