damned_institute | DAY 26: Men's Showers (Second Shift)

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DAY 26: Men's Showers (Second Shift)

Gluttony didn't want to leave his Lust, not after he'd just found her! But the mean tasty nurses said he had to. "You can't join her in the women's showers" was a bad excuse. He didn't like the mean tasty nurses. Maybe Lust would let him eat them later. Still, he knew he would see his Lust again, and that was good. He liked Lust. She was good and beautiful and smart and kind. Why did they have to take him away from his Lust?

Still, he would see her again. And she would tell him it was okay to eat the tasty nurses, and that would be good. His new friend liked eating people, too. That made him happy to find a friend who shared a love for eating people. Today was a very good day.

As he entered the showers, he stood under a shower head and opened his mouth wide to drink up the water. It wasn't as good as eating people, or eating waffles that didn't scream when he bit into them so weren't nearly as good as eating people, but it was still swallowing something, and that made him feel better.

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"Have a wonderful day, and remember to scrub-a-dub-scrub!"

Dean would normally have snorted at the Head Doctor's peculiar footnote. On this occasion, he simply sighed and glowered at the nurse approaching, who then punctually guided him to the shower block. The staff could proffer them some credit. They had the capacity to memorise their way to a bathroom, for God's sake...

"Don't worry," he spun about when they reached the door, granting her a tight and obnoxious grin. "I'll make sure to scrub-a-dub-scrub!" Veering into the room, he welcomed relief in leaving the employee's side.

Oh, he remembered, alright. The foundation of his grudge against Sephiroth – this is where the magic began, he thought with a listless yawn. Clothes off in a flash, he moved toward a currently vacant spot. He could almost hiss at the recollection of pain he'd suffered from the burns last time. Compared to the recent argument with Sam, however...

He closed his eyes as water ran over him, already lathering soap on himself. No thinking now. He wasn't about to allow these turbulent thoughts to throw him. If any shift was suitable for harnessing a tranquil demeanor, it was this one. As an abrupt addendum, he sternly rubbed his jaw. Damn, the stubble he liked to maintain was gonna start growing wild. Maybe he oughta ask a nurse for a razor, or he'd end up with a beard just like-

Mentally kicking himself, the man's glare was directed at the wall.

For the first time in his long life, Renji realized that he felt uncomfortable being naked around other men. It made him feel strangely sick; he was happy to channel that in to more anger. The angrier he was, the less he cared about things. And whether or not it had been true, when he'd told Sora that he was scaring himself, it was better than feeling that sickness and thinking about why.

And more than anything, he just wanted to be clean.

His face was very still, almost expressionless as he picked out his space. He turned the shower up as hot as it would go, which turned out to be not very hot at all, and stepped in to the spray with his back toward the wall. He didn't look at anyone else; he kept his eyes fixed on the wall, above the heads of the other men. If he didn't look at them, he could pretend they weren't there, and he could hopefully keep from losing his temper again. He'd already learned just how tenuous the feeling of cold detachment was.

Outwardly calm or not, something in his eyes, and perhaps even the spiritual feel of him still communicated his mental state.

Separated from Ren as the nurses escorted them back down the hall and into the showers, Daemon flashed a wary glance around him at the others in the room. He felt edgy and certainly not overly thrilled at the idea of enforced group showers, but on the other hand, he would be exceedingly glad to get the lingering grime from the night before off his skin. Exploding leeches weren't exactly the most hygienic things in the the world.

Stripping off his clothes - and grimacing again at the ridiculous excuse of clothing they'd supplied them with here - Daemon left them in a careless heap on the floor behind him as he stepped into the showers.

There were a few people here already - none that he recognized from the night before - and for a moment he considered finding an empty corner to shower alone in. But he couldn't hide away in this place forever, he needed to get more information, and that meant more people. The others in the room seemed agitated, however, but that was nothing new to Daemon, having balanced on the Killing Edge most of his life.

Moving towards one of them - a redhead whose body was decorated in tattoos, Daemon selected a shower head close by. He didn't say anything, not just yet, feeling the waves of anger ripple off the other man even at this short distance. He didn't want to interrupt if the redhead really wanted no company, but he hoped he'd be able to open a conversation with him, as awkward as their surroundings were.

Recluse was generally not in a good mood. Running into a telepath who had done nothing but threaten him over some thoughts that couldn’t possibly apply to anyone in this damned ‘hospital’ had rather destroyed any attempts to act like a normal human. He scowled, leaving the cafeteria as soon as the doctor mentioned where they were all going to be herded off to. The nurse had trouble keeping up with his stride, admonishing him the whole way for not being more considerate. He knew where he was supposed to be going, why waste time?

Upon arriving at the showers, the nurse told him to behave, before turning to leave. Recluse was angry enough at this point to ready a decapitating strike at the woman, running into the sickening feeling of trying to control the limbs that had been taken from him. He stripped and found a shower as far from others as possible, as far from the blasted lights as he could be. His constant near-migraine from the light was only making his mood worsen all the more.

Knowing his luck, some vapid, infuriating human would still want to be sociable.

Renji had known he wouldn't be standing alone all that long. There were a lot of men in the institute, after all. He hadn't quite expected someone to stand nearby so soon. He didn't step out from under the shower; water streaming from his hair and down his face, he slowly turned his head to look at the man. It wasn't someone he recognized.

Oddly, he'd become the more outgoing face of the Shinigami here. He knew he should get to work, speak to the man, be something approaching friendly to someone that was no doubt new.

Words didn't come to him.

Eying the other man curiously - he could still feel the conflicting emotions emanating from the other man - Daemon inclined his head slightly in greeting as the stranger's gaze turned his way.

"I am sorry if I am bothering you," he spoke in apology, his voice low and cultured and polite, despite the fact that they were both standing naked in an open shower. His golden eyes glinted as his gaze searched the other man's face. "Are you alright?"

Oh no. No no nononono. "Objection: I am not going to put up with this!" HK tried to back out of the room, but the nurse caught his arm.

"Now Peter, don't make a fuss. You need to get clean." Damn it. He couldn't argue with that. This meatbag body was disgusting. As much as HK tried to keep clean (apart from when it came to meatbag blood), this body would make itself dirty and oily and smelly. Urgh! It was so nauseating.

Still, he had to be pushed into the room by the nurse, and made sure he followed her instructions before leaving. HK found a spot under one of the water showers (Water? Not sonics? So messy and inefficient!), as far from the other meatbags as possible. He spent the next few minutes fighting the temperature control. It seemed to only have three settings: Off, give the meatbag hypothermia, and slowly boil the meatbag to death. Eventually, a slightly less painful temperature was found, and HK started trying to wash as well as he could.

There were meatbags around. Wearing no clothes. He didn't look at them. He did his best to not look at himself. He really, really didn't want to see all of what was potentially visible at the moment.

Again, Renji stared at the man. He was starting to hate that question, hate the fact that people were finding it necessary to ask it. And now complete strangers were apparently concerned about his... whatever.

"I'm fucking wonderful," he snarled. Then added, as a habitual afterthough, "Thanks."

If Daemon was taken aback by the agitated reply, he didn't show it. If anything, amusement lit faintly within deep golden eyes as he watched the other young man. "So I see," he replied mildly, not pressing the issue. "I did not mean to offend. I'm afraid I know little about what is considered polite and not, here. It seems to be far different than where I am from."

After a remarkably silent breakfast, Xemnas was once again herded to the next area which turned out to be none other than the communal male showers. However, the previous shift had given him some time to think, an activity he seemed to be doing quite frequently as of late. There were several matters needing to be taken care of, and the Superior found himself hoping for an opportunity to do so.

The Organization needed to have some kind of order before he could consider any next steps to be taken, yet the situation made such things slightly difficult. Regardless, he would need to try and contact a few certain members before announcing a meeting. He had noticed the absence of one of his subordinates, but there was always the bulletin board. A most useful way of gaining useful information and arranging certain matters.

After he had stripped himself from the ridiculous pieces of clothing he entered the showers, noting the few people within. However, the Superior didn't feel the need to interact with those present, therefore he chose not to stand next to another patient.

Turning the shower, he felt the water running over his skin as he reached for the soap nearby. For now, he just focused on getting clean.

Renji grunted. "It probably is polite," he said. "But sometimes it's a really stupid thing to ask."

The man sounded like a noble to him, which was not something that necessarily endeered him to Renji. Again, Renji reminded himself of duty, of what needed to be done. He wrestled down the unreasonable flare of temper as best he could. His expression relaxed even if the rest of his body still sung with tension.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Once again, Barret was whisked away from his conversation with Reno for the shift change. He might have grumbled very loudly at the nurse for this were it not time for showers, the exact thing he was bitching about last night. Well, it seemed even in a place like Landels' it was possible to have blessings come in small packages.

When the nurse left him to his own devices, Wallace was swift in removing his clothing, but taking the time to savor the warmth the shower spray provided. He finally noticed his bite wound was bandaged and probably partially healed. Yeah, when he thought of the rate their wounds healed, he wondered if magic had more to do with their predicament. Unfortunately, the use of magic and technology in tandem made more sense, which in turn made things more complex for the lot when it came to uncovering it's mysteries.

He just hoped this newfound alliance with the Shin-Ra crew wouldn't turn out to be a mistake.

"Daemon," he answered simply, not adding a surname. Ren's reactions to the realms Daemon came from made him a bit more wary about revealing too much to strangers here.

"I suppose it was rather stupid, considering where we are," he admitted, turning his face into the heated spray of water. "May I ask your name?"

Why was it that every time a shower shift rolled around, Hakkai found himself being admonished by some nurse to be careful of his wound and she would help him wrap it again after? It was probably just a trick of timing, but he preferred to believe in the malicious intent of whoever was scheduling shifts. Yes, that made him feel a good deal better. He'd regret killing them much less now.

He stepped under a shower head, turning on the water before prodding the stitched up and exceedingly ugly wound carefully. Not having actually seen his stab wound since it happened, he was.. well, not surprised, exactly. Intrigued was perhaps a better word. It would likely be leaving a nice scar, counterpoint to the one stretching across his stomach.

Convenient, that. Physical reminders of the stains on his soul. He really should track down the woman and thank her. Assuming, of course, she wouldn't just stab him again for his trouble.

"Abarai Renji," he said. After a long pause, he added, "Abarai is my family name." If this guy came from somewhere that people just gave out single names, he probably wouldn't be able to tell.

In a way, it was oddly soothing to talk to someone that had nothing to do with the current situation, someone that didn't know him and probably wouldn't get on his case. But even if that was nice, it didn't make much of a dent on the anxiety that was feeding all of that anger he was holding in. And on top of it all, he was worried about Rukia, which made things a thousand times worse.

"If you hear people talking about arts and crafts shit, I'm part of that," he said.

[Pre-planned thread with Peony and Dist. Prz 2 b not disturbing~]

It should've been no surprise to him that the showers would be communal. He was certainly no stranger to these circumstances, seeing as that every Military personnel started out as a grunt, so one could say that it was almost nostalgic in a sense. Either way, it was best to follow what the staff wanted out of him until he figured out their true motive.

Peeling off the dull and drab clothes off his body, Jade decided to spend his time mulling over the conversation he had with Luke only minutes before. The puzzle was jumbled, and it was no doubt that he was missing a majority of the pieces to get a solid picture. Oh well, they were bound to fall on his lap sooner or later. For now, he’d just have to work with what he had.

He pulled off his glasses and set them on top of his folded attire before making his way to the stalls. The whole room was still rather empty, so the Colonel had been graced with the luxury to choose a more secluded area. Jade stepped into one near the corner, twisting the knob and sighing when he felt scalding hot water pour from the showerhead and drench his entire body.

"Arts and... crafts?" Daemon echoed, a look of bewilderment crossing his face at the unfamiliar term. Not that he didn't know what art and craft were, but it had been such a random topic change that he didn't follow the other man's logic.

Renji shrugged. "People trying to get organized. The name got given to it as a joke. There's normally shit about it on the board in the sun room."

His shoulder itched. He looked over at it, curious, then snorted. Artemis' clumsy stitches were still sticking out of his flesh; the golden blood had healed him, but it made sense that it wouldn't make things like stitches disappear.

He started picking them out.

"I see," Daemon answered, although he really didn't. He wasn't sure he'd been to a sun room yet, let alone come across a board there. The first part, however, made a little sense. "People trying to get out of here, you mean?"

He watched as Renji picked at the stitching in his shoulder, evidence of a wound probably recently healed. He opened his mouth to ask if that was wise, but closed it again. If the other man felt he was healed enough, he could do as he wished. No one knew the wellness of a body than the person themselves, after all. In most cases, at least.

"Are they having much success?" he asked instead, referring to the group Renji had mentioned.

Before Albel's conversation with a certain maggot had gotten even slightly interesting (not that he had expected it to be interesting in the first place, but that was besides the point), said waste-of-time was interrupted by one of the annoying wenches.

As they arrived at the communal showers, the stupid woman had point out that he should be careful with his wounds, as they could be easily reopened. Albel rolled his eyes, muttering something about 'meddlesome wench' in reply. He wasn't that stupid, after all. Unfortunately for the captain, the nurse had heard the insult and decided to lecture him about 'minding his tongue', which only made him more irritated with the staff in this dump.

After hearing the woman's prattling and somehow resisting the urge to slam her head into the nearest wall, he was finally left to his own devices. Removing the sad excuse of clothing -- which proved to be quite a hassle with only one arm, but Albel the Wicked wasn't going to ask for help -- he finally entered the showers.

Picking a shower head well away from the rest of the scum, he focused on getting himself clean. Hopefully, none of those maggots would go and bother him, as nagging idiots was the last thing his irritated mood needed at the moment.

"Eventually," Renji said. "Gotta destroy some people first." The head doctor, of course. But Renji wasn't going anywhere until he'd killed M--

The previous stitches, he'd been careful to pick out, and they'd left no damage behind but a small, puckered hole. This one, he ripped out; thankfully the shower carried away the blood that resulted in thin red threads, before it really became visible. It hurt, and that was good. Better to inflict harm on himself than attack an innocent man that hadn't anything to do with the situation. And better this than to be sedated again, and...

He ripped out the last stitch as well, his expression remaining closed, neutral. His voice was quiet, barely audible above the shower when he spoke again. "Slow but sure," he said. "We plan and build."

Dist had spent the entire time he was brought to the showers kicking and hollering about not wanting to shower with so many other people. Even back at Oracle HQ, he was allowed to take care of other things while all of the other men took their showers, allowing him the entire area to himself by the time he snuck in. Suffice it to say that when he found out he'd be joined by goodness knows how many other men, he was greatly put off - which in itself was an understatement.

Even so, it was nice to get out of those clothes. He found a clean... ish place to place his folded up attire and placed his glasses on top of them. He avoided making eye contact with anyone on the way in, instead looking down at the people there by tilting his head up in a snobbish manner. ... which of course proved to be a rather moot point, as no one was looking at him in the first place. Relaxing, he discovered the place to be somewhat unpopulated for the time being.

There was someone off in a secluded area of the showers and Dist found that was a decent enough idea and began to turn away to do very much the same. But he found himself stopping, looking back to that person, and dropping his jaw. It... really couldn't be. Anise said she hadn't seen him, but maybe she just hadn't seen him yet...? Either way, Dist was confident enough that he knew his friend well enough to recognize even what little he saw of him and thus, headed over with a slight bounce in his step.

"Jade!!"

Red eyes snapped open the moment he heard someone calling out his name (which was starting to become all too common lately), though Jade refrained from turning his head towards the direction of the voice. From the moment he heard that inhuman shrill the Colonel was already well aware of whom it was, much to his dismay.

The first thought that came to mind was to ignore the blindingly effeminate man, but after picking apart the situation he figured he’d be at a disadvantage considering where they were.

"Have you lost your way? I'm sure the nurses can escort you to the women's showers if you asked." Jade finally answered, back facing the latter as he reached out towards one of the dispensers and pumped a good amount of shampoo into his hand.

Sparda was quite surprised to find that he was being taken to a public showers. While he didn't really have a sense of modesty, he was under the impression that most humans didn't like engaging in such activities together. At least not in modern times.

He spotted an unusually large man standing near the back, and decided to go shower next to him. It was unusual for humans to reach that size. Not only was this human as tall as Sparda, he was incredibly well-muscled as well.

Unfortunately it didn't look like the man was in a particularly pleasant mood, so Sparda refrained from speaking.

More showers. Good, Fox could use a shower after the past new nights. The only unfortunate part was that he'd be showing the rest of the institute that he was injured.

He undressed and calmly made his way to a shower, turning on the hot water and taking a shower that was almost unbearably hot. The warm water felt good on his muscles, though, and he dipped his head under the spray to feel the water hit his scalp.

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DAY 26: Men's Showers (Second Shift)

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