damned_institute | Day 28: Morris Park

Ken dodged the knee to the crotch easily enough--it hit him in the thigh instead, which definitely wasn't as bad. Nerve centers and all.

But the guy had Artemis. And a knife. Ken was seeing red. His eyes narrowed. "It's my business because I say it is."

He let the guy jump on his back--he was certainly stronger than he looked, though small he was all muscle. Artemis might remember the move he pulled next--he let himself fall backwards, elbow positioned to fall into Lackey A's stomach, with all Ken's weight behind it. He then rolled and pinned the kid under him and stared at Larry. "Touch that kid, and I'll break your buddy's neck," he said flatly. "It's been a fucking long time since I killed someone with my bare hands. It'll be fun." His face twisted into a crazed expression--reminiscent of the one from two nights ago, but this time far less real.

He was bluffing, but hell if the punk bastard needed to know that.

"AGH GOD!" The kid that Ken was threatening was, literally, freaking out. One minute he'd been on the guy's back, and now he was going to die. Shit, he was going to die. "LARRY!"

"Fuck... he's a crazy too!!" Larry, terrified out of his mind, shoved Artemis forward and made a break for it. The boy fell face first into the leaves, curling into a fetal position where he fell. He was definitely in pain now. The guy who had tried to knee Ken backed up a couple steps, as though really sorry he'd picked a fight with a crazy man and ran off after Larry. The pinned boy just remained there, sniffling and whining.

"God, please don't kill me, it wasn't my idea, pleasedon'tkillmeohgod!"

"I'm not going to fucking kill you." Ken moved off him, looking down at the sniveling boy. "Yet. I could change my mind, so I suggest you get the fuck out of here, and never bother that kid again. Do you fucking hear me? Because if you do, I will track down you and your two wonderful friends--leaving you here, wasn't that just so nice of them--and you will be very fucking sorry that you were ever born."

Ken hated threatening people. But sometimes, it got the message across very well. "And you will not tell anyone about this. Pass that message along. Got it?"

The kid nodded until he thought he was going to be sick from rattling his brain. "Yeah, yeah, sure! Of course! I won't say anything I swear Mr. Crazy Guy, just, just...!" He turned tail and ran before finishing his sentence.

The leaves rustled under Artemis as he attempted to get up, "Scintillating bunch, all three of them..." He growled.

Ken deflated the instant the kid was far enough away that he wouldn't be a threat anymore. He was still angry, but they were gone, he didn't have to impress anyone anymore. "Don't move. How bad are you hurt?" He looked over at Artemis, concern replacing the anger. "I'm not going to do anything to you, by the way." He'd understand if Artemis was uncomfortable around him--hell, he'd nearly cut his arm off two nights previous.

"I'll survive. I've been through worse, as you know," Artemis muttered, sitting up and falling backwards onto the leaves. He had a split, swollen lip, a black eye, and his nose was bleeding. He'd probably have some bruises on his torso too.

"And," he continued with a grunt. Getting up wasn't an option now, so he stopped trying. "I don't think you're going to hurt me. Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered to rescue me, right?" Things were starting to make sense again--even if he was a complete and total mess right now. His eyes were probably bright red from crying, too. At least it was Ken and not someone else.

"Pain is pain. Just because you've had worse doesn't mean it hurts any less." Ken couldn't do much with injuries like that, except find the bandanna that had been hiding in the pocket of his vest to help stem the nosebleed.

"And here I was going to apologize for the other night. Too damn slow to help much."

"Not at all, Mr. Ken," Artemis said, doing his best to look at Ken, but it was proving difficult. "If you hadn't come, I doubt I would have been able to remain conscious for much longer.

"And there's no need to apologize for last night, either," he said with a small shrug. "There's nothing you could have done.

"But if you really want to apologize," Artemis said, his tone a bit sheepish, "Could you possibly help me get up? I don't particularly enjoy laying on my back."

Ken grimaced. "Don't call me 'mister' and you have a deal. I'm not that old." Ken reached out a hand to pull Artemis up.

"A lot of people have told me that. And I haven't listened to any of them."

"All right, Ken," Artemis said with a smile. He was just used to being polite. He didn't think Ken was old or anything--it was just hardwired into his system. The boy took the offered hand and proceeded to pull himself to his knees. He then crawled over to the tree he'd been under before Larry interrupted him, and sat against it with a sigh of relief.

"Do you remember what they did to you?"

Ken collected his crutches before following Artemis over to the tree and sitting down himself. "No, I don't." That certainly bothered him. Because if they'd done it once, they could do it again. It was doubtful that he could do any more to stop it the second time than the first, but he felt that at least if he knew what they had done, he could possibly do more. "Aside from knocking me back a good year or so mentality-wise."

"Then how can you possibly blame yourself for not stopping something you don't remember?" Artemis pointed out. "Listen, you could have killed me. It would have been very easy to do so--but you didn't. The damage could have been much worse. Sometimes part of taking risks includes accepting that a bad outcome replaced a worse one, and being grateful for that."

The boy sighed slightly. He had been hoping that Ken could tell him more about his brainwashing experience, but it seemed that Martin Landel had his bases covered. Clever bastard.

"Landel wants us to feel helpless and afraid," Artemis said simply, "Are you going to give him what he wants by letting him 'knock you back a good year or so'?"

"What I fear the most, I did. Because they fucked with me, sure, whatever. But I have no way of knowing that I couldn't have stopped them somehow. Even if I had to do something to make myself useless to them. That's what bothers me."

Ken looked at Artemis flatly. "I wanted to kill you. The only reason I didn't is because they wouldn't let me." Honesty...maybe not quite the best thing in this situation. But Ken was nothing if not blatantly honest whenever he could afford to be, and often when he couldn't.

"Though maybe I should be grateful, at least I'm not Farfarello," Ken muttered.

Artemis' eyebrows nearly touched his hairline. "They wouldn't let you?" Well, this confirmed his suspicions. He couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth into a satisfied smirk. He was now the proud owner of some very valuable information.

"I see... That's very true. If we knew how to make ourselves useless to their brainwashing, things would be very different," He smiled. "And please don't worry about the sentiment. There are many people who wish they could kill me. I'm rather resilient though. Like an insect."

He laughed, "And what's so bad about Farfarello?"

He nodded. "Hurt, sure. Couldn't kill."

"...you shouldn't say things like that about yourself." Ken looked at Artemis. "It might not seem bad at first, but enough talking yourself down, and you'll begin to believe it."

Shit, he hadn't meant the kid to hear that--or even to say it out loud. He'd seen Artemis hanging out with the rest of Schwarz, they obviously had some kind of alliance. Ken sighed. "Did he tell you anything?"

Artemis thought that Ken was joking with him for a moment. When he realized that Ken was serious, he started laughing, "Ken, I am the last person you should be lecturing concerning self-esteem," He gave the assassin one of his best smirks, "Where I come from, my IQ is the highest in Europe, and I beat the Chess Grandmaster in an online tournament. I've written countless psychology books and engineered technology that rendered everything else obsolete. I'm a genius. But when it comes to combat," He looked up at the sky, "I am sadly lacking. I am persistent though--you've seen that. Persistent, and stupid." He smiled, "The Captain has said that on more than one occasion."

The boy looked at Ken, "He told me that you're with a group called Weiss, and that his group and yours tend to get into little spats every once in a while. If you're going to tell me that he's a sociopath and a sadomasochist, he's already told me that himself." He frowned slightly, looking troubled, "I found out just how sensitive he is the night you attacked me..."

Ken looked at Artemis. "That might be the case, but hell if anyone knows how to take care of themselves in a fight right away. It's hard, but if you either get a good teacher or...well, I wouldn't recommend the way I learned."

"...I'm guessing he told you who the others were, too, or you saw them that night. It'd probably be best if you didn't tell them just how much you know. I'm not that thrilled with you knowing either, but I can deal."

"And saying that he's a sociopath and a sadomasochist is like saying the sky is blue and at night the doctors throw a disco party. He's nearly killed me more times than I can even remember--the head injury he gave me the last time made sure of that--but that's nothing. He kills innocents, needlessly. Drowns priests in acid for fun. He killed his entire family, blamed it on God, and blocked it out--then started killing pretty much anyone he could to 'hurt God.'"

"You have no reason to worry, Ken," Artemis said in an assuring tone, "I don't share information at the drop of a hat. It must be purchased from me at the correct price. And frankly, I can't see anyone wanting to know whether or not you're an assassin. Who would come to me for such information? No one that I can think of who doesn't already know." He gently batted at his bleeding nose, checking to see if it had stopped. Fortunately it had--his face felt awful. But he listened to what Ken had to say about Farfarello.

"Oh," Artemis said, nodding a little. "Interesting. Well, we can't all be saints." The boy smiled.

"We can take care of ourselves. But people who find out what we do don't exactly have the best survival record. In fact, it's pretty much everyone who finds out dies. Sakura was the lucky exception."

"...that is quite possibly the biggest understatement I have heard in my entire life." And he regularly heard people say that he loved soccer. "Maybe I'm biased, but until you've stared down the point of his poinard..." Ken shook his head. Farf would have gotten him that time, if not for...

"Mm," Artemis didn't seem all that phased. "But I didn't find out--I was told." He grinned at his own joke. "I'll watch my back though, if that will make you feel better."

The boy smiled weakly, his eyes clearly tired, "Please don't tell me that you're worried about me as well. We've only just met..."

"So was Sakura, and Ouka before Farfarello shot her." Ken gave Artemis a flat look.

"Actually, yes I am. You said it yourself. You can't fight. And that is a serious problem here. Not all the patients are willing to leave a non-fighter alone, and certainly none of the monsters or staff are."

"I do hope you're going to be learning from someone, especially if you're going to keep insisting on throwing yourself into fights. Because if you don't know how to do something actually helpful, you're getting in the way of those who can."

Logic. Good. Logic was good. Artemis perked up. "Agreed. I am constantly in the way of those who are actually able to defend themselves. Fortunately, this situation is going to be rectified tonight--"

Artemis was unsure of how to phrase the next part. It was clear that Ken and Farfarello were far from chummy, so was it really in his best interest to tell Ken who his teacher was? So he should lie. Or just not say anything at all. Silence was good.

"--by--" His mind still wasn't processing things fast enough. If Larry had given him a concussion, once Artemis had escaped he'd return to Doyleton and sue the young drug addict. His sentence stopped short. He had to put something in there--anything. "--someone."

Ouch.

Ken stared at Artemis. That...wasn't a good sign. The stuttering really did nothing to make Ken feel better.

"...don't tell me. It's Farfarello. Isn't it?"

And for the record, 'far from chummy' was yet another understatement. Artemis was on a roll tonight!

"I can neither confirm nor deny that statement," He said with a smirk. "Confidential. Everyone who finds out ends up running into monsters."

"...you realize, learning how to avoid being hurt from someone who can't feel pain is kind of counterproductive. And he's a brawler. You're not suited to that."

Ken frowned. "There's ways to defend yourself that don't involve brute strength. You don't have that, and that's probably what Farfarello will try to teach you. You don't need to fight. There's plenty of people around that can do that. The most important thing you can do is get yourself out of danger without injury so you can do what you do best. There's nothing wrong with specialization."

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject