damned_institute | Day 27: Library

Libraries, he'd found, were rarely as dull as people made them out to be. Though he felt no magic in these tomes, they were still full of useful information. Maybe some of them could tell him a little bit more about this world he'd landed himself in.

For that matter, why hadn't he run into any of the others yet? They'd all been fairly close together when they'd left Rekord, but he hadn't seen a trace of any of them. He was able to communicate easily with the people here though, which led him to believe Mokona was within a mile or so. Unless the ones running this little game had some other way to let all these other-worldly people communicate amongst themselves. In which case, the others could be very far away indeed.

The library had that wonderful smell of old books, and Fai traced his fingers along the shelves, skimming titles and pulling books that struck his fancy. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The War of the Worlds, and with a smile, he found Bram Stoker's Dracula as well. Raven had been telling the truth then, in spite of his own lies. Ought to be a good start. He sat leisurely at one of the tables and began flipping through his selections.

[waiting for Tamaki~]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hikaru shrugged. "Well, he's my twin. We understand each other, or some sentimental shit like that. I can't imagine life without him."

Fortunately, Sam's question didn't sound at all strange. "Not really. Apparently that's pretty common. Like...well, my brother and I and our friend got pulled from right after the school festival. I remember this very clearly, because I broke my arm. But another friend of ours says that the festival hasn't started yet. That sort of thing."

"Huh." Sam frowned pensively, considering for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure whether or not I should be relieved. If it's that widespread a phenomenon..." He trailed off, flipping one hand in an approximation of a shrug, though with less motion involved. "The more I hear about this place, the more sinister it sounds."

Hikaru frowned too, but for different reasons. He lifted up his shirt, revealing the still-healing wounds he had received from the cat a few nights before. "It doesn't just sound sinister. It is."

Sam straightened, leaning forward to inspect the wounds through narrowed eyes. Not for the first time since awakening in that unfamiliar hospital room, he wished he had some sort of material for reference. "I heard about the monsters," he admitted quietly, and more than a touch grimly. "Haven't seen any myself, but that doesn't mean anything. What caught you?"

"A cat," Hikaru replied hoarsely. "A cat the size of a fucking German Shepard and looking like a reject from a Resident Evil game."

"A..." Sam paused, frown deepening as he considered and came up with nothing. "Shit. I've never even heard of anything like that before. How'd you manage to drive it off?"

"I didn't." This was something that Hikaru hadn't ever admitted to anyone, even Kaoru. "I just stood there. Tamaki stabbed it, and...Robin and Yagami-san kicked it, but I just stood there. I didn't do anything. I couldn't do anything."

"Was it your first time running into something like that?" Sam asked, still quiet. There was no judgement in the words - freezing was natural enough, and by far better than the opposite extreme. After all, a person could learn not to choke.

"...My second. I did the same thing with the rats on my first night."

Sam nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "Violence like that takes some getting used to," he replied. "Especially if - did you know any of this existed, before you got stuck here? The supernatural, I mean. Things like that cat."

Hikaru shrugged. "Well, there's this kid at school who likes to go around wearing black capes and cursing people with a wooden cat doll...but, no. I didn't think any of it was real." He raised an eyebrow at Sam. "But you've dealt with this kind of thing before, haven't you?"

There was a pause, if only a brief one, in which Sam considered lying. It would be pointless at this juncture, he decided - he'd overplayed his hand if he wanted to keep quiet, and besides, there seemed little merit in maintaining complete secrecy. He nodded once, shortly. "Since I was a kid. You could say it runs in the family. But I've never heard of anything quite like this place before - even the worst haunts aren't usually so diverse."

"Wow," Hikaru said at length. "That sounds...like a really shitty way to spend your childhood." Of course, his own childhood hadn't been that great, either. He'd only had Kaoru. Their parents had always thrown all that money at them, but they'd never really given them any real love.

"You're familiar with 'haunts' then, huh? So...what are you? Some sort of Ghostbuster?"

Sam shrugged uncomfortably, the remark hitting a little too close to home. The old bitterness had never quite faded, had simply been masked by guilt that he had never - and now would never - reconciled. "It could've been worse," he said simply. "A lot worse."

He smiled at the question, though the expression held only the barest touch of honest humour. "Hunter," he corrected. "Though I can see how you'd make the mistake. Easiest way to tell the difference is that we get demons, monsters, and murderous spirits, and they get giant marshmallow men trying to destroy a city. Ghosts are just the most common supernatural being out there - which is damn lucky for the rest of us."

Hikaru was used to making people uncomfortable. In fact, he and Kaoru had gotten it down to an art form. Still, he could see that what he'd said had touched a nerve. Sam hadn't been an asshole to him, so he felt kind of bad.

"...Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

And apparently the Ghostbusters comment hadn't earned him very many points, either. He shrugged. "Hey, I was just going with what I knew. And what I knew happens to be a bad American film from the 80s."

Sam gave himself a mental shake, and forced a smile that conveyed more than bleak humour. Whatever his own difficulties might be, there was no reason to inflict them on someone he'd just met. One shoulder hitched up in a shrug, and he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Most people'd say the same. Not that long ago, I'd probably have agreed with you."

He snorted quietly. "Guess the uniforms here don't help with that impression. All I need is Casper instead of the smiley face, and I'm all set."

[ooc: since the shift is being extended, would it be okay if Kaoru also joined the thread?]

Hikaru yawned. Where the hell was Kaoru? He hoped his brother was feeling okay. That had been a pretty nasty stomachache earlier.

"Like I said at breakfast, my mom's a fashion designer. She'd probably have a conniption fit if she saw everyone dressed in like this."

Sam snorted, a short sound that, while not quite a laugh, came close. "I don't think they really worry about how the uniforms look, as long as we can't easily smuggle a weapon in them."

Day 27: Library

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject