Day 29: Courtyard

[traitors-smile.livejournal.com]

Though he hadn't been able to stomach much of the cafeteria food, as the day went on, he did feel marginally better.  The fever seemed to have broken and he'd held down what little he'd eaten.  It made him a little anxious, to sit around so much, and even if it was difficult, a walk outside sounded like a nice break from the usual.  He had no interest in the visitors.  Likely as not they were the same as the creature he'd run into a couple nights ago in the form of Aizen Sousuke. 

He folded his thin arms across his chest as he started his walk around the courtyard.  The air was crisp, getting colder by the day it seemed, but it didn't dissuade him from taking a leisurely walk while he gathered his thoughts.

Comments

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

Hitsugaya was a grumpy man in general, but when it came to dealing with people who liked to dodge around the topic, he had very little patience. He sat up and glanced over at her. "I don't do this very often. Do you want to tell me what's wrong or did I misinterpret that sigh?"

Really, he wasn't entirely sure why he was reaching out to her in the first place. Normally he didn't bother with these issues and let people sort out their own deals on their own, but something about that sigh...and the fact that it was audible enough to disturb his nap...gave him reason to speak.

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

Miku rested her chin on her knees, pulled up to her chest, and looked at Hitsugaya through her lashes. It was almost as though she were trying to pull into herself so far that she would blink out of existence.

"I'm just very worried over many things at once. I appreciate your concern, sir, but I do not believe it's anything that you can immediately help me fix." Unless you know how to read minds better than I and have a grip on fate.

She sighed again and the resulting breath rustled her long bangs, "Do you ever feel like nothing can be fixed at all?"

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

Hitsugaya sighed heavily. "It's this place," he said to her. "Don't let it get to you. They want to take away any sense of hope and break us, and they'll do anything to make us give up."

He did feel that way at times, though. Especially here. Back in Soul Society he had the power to make sweeping changes. Here he led a small group of rebel prisoners who hadn't even been able to map out all of the area that they knew about, much less any real progress on escape. It was frustrating, how little progress they had made, and he hated this place and how it had affected him, how it had affected Momo...

He shook off the thought. "We'll find a way out. They can't hold us here forever."

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

"No," Miku agreed quietly, wondering what her mother would think of this whole thing, "they can't. She kept her chin on her knees and closed her eyes. That odd tired feeling was returning, and she shook her head.

"But somehow, I don't think they plan on keeping us here for an eternity. Some of us don't live that long." Just from the way the Institute churned out people and monsters testified that. "At least I can give up what little I know to those that ask." The sentence was murmured softly and the photographer played with the ends of her fingers.

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

"No," Hitsugaya said. "Patients disappear every day, and not all of them are killed, I don't think. Abarai-fukutaicho mentioned something about that...it's possible something else happens to them."

He glanced up at the sky as he pondered. He missed the winter. It hadn't even been a week here, and he already missed the winter. "What little you know?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

Miku's ears tingled at the use of Japanese. It was sad when one missed their own language in such a visceral way. The young woman half-nodded, and met his eyes again.

"They asked me what the tattoos meant and... and I know a little about their legend too." It was helpful, having a brother and a friend that worked in sheer folklore. Books upon books of it, pictures and photographs and tapes of interviews. "But just a little. Other things I know don't... don't work the same here," she confessed quietly.

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

"What tattoos?" he asked inquisitively. He recalled vaguely some conversation about an akuma-like ghost on the boards that left tattoos, but nothing definitive. It hadn't been a major concern, as they already knew to avoid any ghosts as they couldn't affect them like they normally could.

"That seems to be true for everyone," he commiserated. "Certain rules don't seem to apply."

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

"Snake and holly ones... they're more legendary around hospitals nowadays, and have taken an Urban Legend status where I'm from. Of course, that term is only used by folklorists and horror-novel writers now, I'm afraid. The community is small enough. My... my brother," the word came out in a hushed, sad tone, "was a researcher for such things."

She smoothed her pants across her shins and looked down at her toes, warm in their outdoor slippers. "I suppose I am now, by proxy."

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

He had no idea what this girl was talking about, but apparently it had some kind of meaning to her. His glance turned from the heavens to investigate this girl as he spoke. "So you research...tattoos. Specifically snake and holly tattoos. Why?" The inflection in her voice, the sorrow that carried both in her stance and her tone, everything seemed to carry a burden of sorrow, a sorrow she clearly didn't want to talk about. Was that why she had gone into the room despite his warnings? Was her life so meaningless that she no longer feared death...or was there something else?

"That is to say...what's the significance in these specific tattoos?"

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

"No, no, not just tattoos. Legends and things, for my roommate when we investigate sites," she corrected gently. "The tattoos in particular are associated with the Manor of Sleep legends. Patients that had been in a large amount of trauma," Miku's tone suggested more than the average.

"They would claim to be covered in a tattoo-like bruise, and sleep for days on end... eventually, eventually they'd be drawn far away from the world and vanish, leaving only dust behind them. A woman I was asked to research was having those kind of dreams. I think that... before I left, my roommate was having the same kind."

Miku pursed her lips and took another soft breath. She had to go through all her information slowly, slowly, to be sure she did not forget a thing. "The snake and holly are popular meanings for loss and remembrance. I think the idea was that all your sorrows could be taken away using someone's consecrated body as an altar for the pain. Not very fair, using someone else for one's ease of conscious."