damned_institute | Day 31: Intercom, Evening

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Day 31: Intercom, Evening

The intercom's jingle came on with its usual overly-cheery quality, echoing through the halls and doctors' offices.

"I trust, as always, that you all enjoyed the last shift and that all the staff-patient interaction went smoothly. Of course, we're nearing the end of another day and so we must begin to bring things to a close. Nurses and orderlies, please escort all the patients to their respective rooms and make sure everyone gets their dinner--which is, by the way, chicken teriyaki and assorted tempura, along with rice and miso soup--before they retire for the night. A vegetarian substitute is of course available, and we have our usual assortment of drinks; we also have a special of hot green tea to go along with the meal.

"Thank you, everyone, for an exceedingly pleasant day, and our therapy sessions will continue tomorrow as scheduled. Enjoy your dinner, and I will be on again before bedtime to say goodnight."

The announcement ended.

[ As always, individual dinner threads go in response to this post, and it helps to put your character's room number in the subject line. Thanks! ]

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Haku grinned, tossing his pillow over his shoulder towards his bed. "Mercy? You ask me for mercy now?" He stepped closer to Artemis. "Why should I offer you mercy now?"

"Be... cause..." Artemis stared up at Haku, trying to think of a reason why he shouldn't be assaulted.

"I'll probably make some sort of embarrassing noise if you don't take pity on me?" He offered.

Haku laughed and sat down on Artemis' bed. "Well, I suppose I can't have that now, can I?"

He was quiet and considered his roommate for a moment before smiling again. "Are you feeling a bit better now Artemis?"

Well, it looked as though he'd escaped a fate worse than death... for now. Artemis stood up and sat down on his bed next to Haku, frowning slightly.

"About what?" He asked.

Haku smiled. "About yourself. You haven't seemed very..." He tilted his head, thinking. "You haven't seemed like you've really been on top of your game lately. I know that you've been feeling a bit off kilter lately, but you seem a bit better tonight."

Haku shrugged, still smiling warmly. "I was curious and a bit worried

"Oh... yes," Artemis nodded, feeling a little guilty for having made Haku worry. "I haven't been very on top of myself lately. But I'm doing better, yes.

"Mostly because..." He looked down at his hands, embarrassed, "Mostly because, I think you've been keeping me sane. Everything that happens during the day, suddenly doesn't matter as much when you're here. With me."

Artemis felt his face flushing again. Had he actually said that?!

"I'm sorry, that was probably a very strange thing to say. Please forget I said it."

Haku blinked, a bit surprised to hear a sentiment like that, then smiled and tilted his head.

"I'm glad that I can be your support when you're feeling out of it," he said, reaching out and lightly tapping a finger on his roommate's head. "And it wasn't a strange thing to say, though I'm sure there must be someone a bit better suited to you for you to rely on?"

Artemis blinked when Haku tapped his forehead and looked at bit confused. "Why wouldn't you be well suited to it? You seem to understand well enough when I'm upset and know how to counter it perfectly.

"I only wish I could do the same for you, but you always seem so calm and collected..." Artemis sighed, "And here I am, running around and disintegrating at every little thing."

Haku smiled and shook his head again. "Where I grew up, and how I grew up, being able to control your emotions is all about survival." He laughed lightly.

"After all, I was perfectly 'calm and collected' while I was trying to commit suicide by self neglect."

"True..." Artemis looked even more uncomfortable now. To think that the person he cared so much about now had probably been trying to kill himself when they'd met. And he hadn't done anything but probably make the problem worse by prying.

"That's why I worry so much, though," Artemis said. "You could be ripping apart at the seams and I would never be able to tell." He turned to Haku, a pained and worried expression on his face. "I don't know what to do about it."

"Artemis, I'm ... I'm not used to sharing my feelings." He frowned and glanced away towards his bed. "I've spent a long time trying to dismiss emotions from my life. I was only recently given permission to feel them again."

He laughed then and waved a hand, turning to face his roommate. "I'm sorry, that must sound strange to you."

"I'm not so different, though," Artemis said, jumping on the chance to help. "Until a year ago, I was as cold and unfeeling as any rock--because I had to be. Emotions and feelings and having a conscience all got in the way of doing what I needed to in order to restore my family."

And entertain himself, but that was a separate issue.

"But now... I can feel things. And I have friends, and I'm happier than I ever was," He gently took Haku's hand and clasped it firmly. "And I can tell you all this too. Easily and without any restraint, because I trust and care about you, and don't want you to worry.

"So... here, let's try this," Artemis looked straight at Haku. "Tell me how you feel right now. Just anything, whatever comes first to your mind."

Haku blinked and firmly stopped his first reaction to having his hand taken. He looked down at their joined hands with a curious expression then back up at Artemis.

"What do I feel? Right now? You hand is warm." He didn't think he understood this exercise.

Artemis laughed a little, "No, as in, how do you feel emotionally? Is anything bothering you, did anything today make you especially happy?"

This wasn't very easy, but Artemis was going to do his best for Haku's sake. "How about the game we just played? What were you thinking during it?"

Haku smiled warmly. "I was thinking that I wanted to make you smile. I like when you're happy and not tearing into yourself." He tilted his head.

"But today was very uneventful for me. I spent most of it," plotting a murder, "planning for tonight. Nothing to get emotionally worked up over."

This was going to get difficult, maybe. The likelihood of him hearing something he didn't want to hear was rather great, but Artemis was going to ask the question anyway.

"Why do you like me when I'm happy? What motivates you to do that?"

Haku blinked. "Because I like you, and you're my friend." He frowned slightly, looking confused. "Aren't you?"

"Yes, of course I am," Artemis felt great relief to hear that. "But, since we're friends, that means you like being around me, correct? That you feel something different when you're around me.

"Like, for example, if I were to come face-to-face with Mr. Garwin, I would want to cause him as much pain as possible. He makes me angry in every sense of the word. But when I'm with you, I'm always happy on some level or area because I'm with someone who cares about what happens to me.

"And because I care about you as well, I don't want you to worry that I'm hiding something important. Because if I caused one wrinkle on your face, not only would Momochi-san ritualistically slaughter me, I would feel responsible and guilty that I had intruded on your emotions."

He paused, not really sure where he was going anymore. The subject of feelings was one that he had read about and could apply in theory, but he was far from an expert. "Does any of that make any sense?"

Haku smiled and nodded. "Yes, I understand. I understand emotions on an intellectual level, it's simply the expressing of them I'm a bit behind on. But," he added after a moment of thought, "I'm learning, thanks to my friend."

"Oh!" Artemis felt a bit embarrassed about going on like that when there wasn't a need, but what was said was said.

But now he was faced with an even larger problem. How on earth would he train or coax Haku into expressing his emotions? He'd already tried, and he'd only gotten a tangible feeling.

"Yes... expressing how one is feeling is rather difficult sometimes. Especially if you aren't sure how you feel to begin with." Examples. Maybe examples would work.

"Let's try something easy. I'll ask you how you feel about a person, and just say the first thing you think of. It doesn't matter what it is, you can say whatever you want to me. So," Artemis thought for a moment. "How do you feel about Jack Horner?" That would be easy, he hoped.

"A worthless human." This could be interesting, Haku thought. Like a word-association game. And he could gauge both his own reactions to people as well as Artemis' reaction to what he said. Jack, however, meant nothing to him any longer, so it perhaps wasn't the best place to start....

Artemis nodded, "Okay, that's a start. So you feel aggravated by him? Or just simply annoyed that he is taking up space and air?"

Artemis didn't care much for Jack either, so he wasn't bothered by Haku's rather harsh opinion.

"He means nothing to me," Haku said, utterly serious. "Until you mentioned his name, I had dismissed him from my mind almost entirly." There was no reason to think about him anymore, so why do it?

Crash and burn.

"Okay..." His mind scrambled to find another subject. Something simple. Something that didn't require any conflicting feelings or thought. "What about the Head Doctor?"

"I don't know enough about him to form any kind of emotional opinion." Artemis didn't seem to know how to take his dismissal of Jack. Clearly, his idea of 'emotionless' was slightly different than Haku's.

"I don't think particularly highly of him though."

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