damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 33: M41

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NIGHTSHIFT 33: M41 - M50 Hallway

The Head Doctor's announcement was intriguing, to say the least. Putting that information together with what Kagura had told him about trying to climb the walls last night made Leon quite curious to investigate the Rec Field.

But doing that in his current condition and with his current lack of weapons would be suicide. Leon pulled on the heavy, grey sweater and collected his flashlight and baseball bat. He tore the pages with the maps out of his journal, and tucked them into his pocket. The second floor supposedly had some interesting things. Things like knives.

With a goal in mind, Leon walked down the hall, relying on the light from other patients' flashlights to guide him, at least for now. [to here]

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"Easy," Lucivar replied, not finding the scene amusing in the least. He pulled his hand away as he noticed how Renji shied away from the touch. It didn't take Lucivar long to puzzle out what might be the cause of Renji's change in mood. The only question was how and whom? Perhaps Queens were involved in this place after all.

"How are you faring?" he asked, giving Renji a critical look. "Besides the bump in your head, of course."

Making incoherent noises, Renji half sat up, one hand coming up to prod at the new bump on his head. He recognized Lucivar, though was rather puzzled as to his presence. He was sure there had to be a reason for it, but his mind felt so sluggish.

Sitting up made the fresh bruises - and something else - along his sides twinge, and it was difficult to not stumble across thoughts of how that had happened with his thoughts still so jumbled. A wave a nausea washed over him and he leaned forward, covering his face with his hands for a moment. He took a deep breath and let it out very slowly, trying to regain some semblance of dignity and control.

"'sokay," he mumbled. "Jus' sometimes the... drugs'n'stuff they give me gets me real sick." That was the normal lie he used, so it was somewhat practiced at least.

Beneath his hands, his cheeks felt a little stiff and gritty. Insult to injury, humiliation added on top. He really hoped that no one had noticed.

Lucivar had seen this behavior many times not to mention had experienced more times then he'd like to ever remember. Seeing another Warlord in the same position made his rage burn and it took everything he could to leash his anger. He needed to find out who it was. But that could come later. Right now, what mattered was that Renji survived this without shattering which he seemed on the verge of.

"Can you stand?" Lucivar asked, crouching down in front of him. He wouldn't pry about what happened, not yet anyway. Renji would never tell him. Instead, he let his gaze roam over Renji's form, taking in the pale color of his face and the way he winced when he moved. "It's better if you walk it off," he said sagely. "It might hurt but your muscles won't stiffen."

"Yeah, 'm fine," Renji said. He rose stiffly, favoring one side slightly for a moment as he did. He was still too mentally fuzzy to be annoyed by the unsolicited advice; and Lucivar was right, besides. He began walking slowly around the room. "What're you doin' here?" he asked without looking at him. It was weird. Hisoka was his roommate, not Lucivar, and he couldn't think of a reason now why the man would have come looking for him. Or how he would have found him.

"We arranged to meet tonight," Lucivar explained, uncertain why Renji would forget. "This afternoon we were sparring. We agreed to continue this evening where the staff wouldn't interrupt. Perhaps you hit your head harder then I thought."

Lucivar walked over to Renji and put his hand on his shoulder, looking at the back of his head. "I don't see any blood but that means little when it comes to head injuries."

"Right," Renji said, rubbing his forehead with one hand. When Lucivar touched his shoulder, he stepped away, jerking his shoulder back. "Yeah, that's right. Just... kinda surprised. Since I didn't get around to tellin' you which room I was in or anythin'."

He started pacing around the room again, as much as he could. He was slowly starting to put things mentally in place. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't... couldn't really get to the bulletin board, 's all." For a moment he hugged his arms close against his chest. "Yeah, a real fight'd be good."

It would be, it really would be. Something clean and definite and honest.

"I followed your thread to your room," Lucivar said, wondering if Daemon had explained him how their jewels worked. His gaze was worried as he watched Renji pace around the room, struggling to make sense of his apologies.

"No need to explain. If you're interested, I'm still up for a fight. You look as if you might need it."

Punching things was as good a catharsis a man could get. Lucivar had been in Renji's position before and losing his head in a fight made the hurt and confusion melt away for a moment.

Renji shot Lucivar an odd look when he mentioned threads; the man certainly wasn't a shinigami. Well, Daemon had some interesting kidou as well, so maybe it was just something they could do. He knew Kurosaki could follow spirit threads, though he wasn't certain if the kid had been able to do it before he'd become the sort of bizarre half-assed shinigami he was.

"Yeah, guess I do," he said. Unless he really concentrated, there was still a hint of slurring to his words. He didn't think he'd give the man much of a fight, but it was still better than nothing, a way to get things back into some sort of order.

And, if he was being honest, he really felt like he deserved to have the shit beaten out of him, anyway, like maybe that would make it feel like his skin belonged to him again. The thought left him feeling strangely light as he turned toward Lucivar and gave the man a ghost of a cocky grin. "C'mon, then."

"Not here," Lucivar said, returning the smile though his was much more natural. "There's not enough room and we're likely to end up bashing our heads against the beds more then each other. I suggest we venture outside. If we move quickly and keep our distance we might be able to avoid any unwanted attention."

"Besides," he continued. "I won't be satisfied until I see the full spectrum of you skills. I can't judge them here in this tiny spce."

That was fair enough, Renji thought, and more walking around would probably do him some good, clear his head before they actually did fight. "Outside or the basement," he said. "Just depends on how much you feel like killin' some dogs." He hadn't yet seen anything nasty in the ballroom, and didn't particularly care if they ended up with an audience. There were so many other prisoners these days that there wasn't anywhere to go that there wouldn't be other people. But either sounded good to him, in the end.

Renji went back over to his bed, still keeping his distance from the other man as best he could, and pulled his sword from its hiding place, followed by his uniform. If he was going somewhere, he might as well be comfortable, and wear something that allowed him to feel a little less disgusted with himself.

He kept his back turned to Lucivar as he pulled over his shirt and quickly slipped the black kimono on. He knew he had bruises, this time, but it was probably dim enough that those particular badges of shame wouldn't be noticed. Or maybe the man would just take them as something earned in an honest fight. He tried not to think about it too hard as he got dressed, exposing as little skin as possible.

Lucivar kept his mouth shut as Renji changed his clothing, his anger bubbling beneath the surface. The signs were all there and it infuriated him to see another Warlord so scarred. The taint should have been pulled from the web but it seemed as though this land was beyond Cat's power.

Once Renji was fully dressed, Lucivar felt it safe to address him once more. "I believe outside would be best," he said gruffly. "We Eyriens prefer open places. Which is the easiest way to the sports field where we fought earlier today?"

Renji shrugged, settling his kimono a little better on his shoulders. "That's okay," he said. "It's probably a nice night out anyway. And it's quicker to get there. Just up the hall and we're out." He picked up his sword, checking to make sure that it was wrapped up well. He wasn't going to fight Lucivar with it, obviously, but he didn't want to be caught without a weapon, not after some of the stuff he'd seen around.

He thought for a moment as he tucked the sword into his makeshift belt. "Want a pipe or two off the bed frame?" he asked. He'd certainly made do with that sort of thing before he'd gotten his sword.

Lucivar nodded and walked over to the bed. He didn't know why he hadn't thought to pull the bed apart but then again, without his jewels and his sticks he mostly relied on his brute strength. "A pipe would be best in case we run into any of those monsters," he said, giving Renji a smile. "I'll finish it with one blow instead of taking the time to dismantle it limb by limb."

Renji chuckled softly. "Yeah, first couple nights I was here, all I had were my fists and those pens. I managed and all, but it just takes so fucking long..."

He went over to his desk and fished the trusty trauma sheers out, then squatted down by the foot of the bed and started working on the screws. He'd done it often enough now that he figured he wouldn't slip too often. "The metal they make the beds out of is shit, but it's better than nothing. Weird thing is, when you wake up in the morning, you'll still have the pipe." He dropped the first screw on the ground and quickly set to work on the next. "And I'll have a whole bed."

"The pens were a nice choice," Lucivar nodded, watching Renji work. He was glad that the man had something to preoccupy him from his thoughts. Hearing him chuckle made Lucivar confident that the man was strong enough to get past the horrors of what had happened to him. "I nearly took Daemon out with a wooden chair my first evening. Not as subtle as a pen but boy, was the Bastard surprised."

The information about the bed was interesting. There must be some sort of time lapse between the last message from the doctor of the evening and the first message of the following morning. Some how, they were all taken back to their rooms and their wounds were bandaged. Now it seemed as though furniture was also returned. It was very puzzling and Lucivar couldn't wrap his mind around it. Not yet, anyway.

Renji gave Lucivar a crooked smile. "I grew up in a rough part of town," he said. "So I learned to improvise when I was young." The smile became something of a grin when he thought about Daemon getting taken out with a wooden chair. It was a funny, funny thought. "That's a good one, too. 's funny here, hearin' people bitch about how they don't have their guns or whatever. Guess they're not smart enough to figure out what else they could use."

He pulled the second metal pipe free of the bed frame and handed it off to Lucivar. He'd managed to cut himself once with the shears. Out of habit more than anything else, he ripped a strip off the sheet still on the bed and wrapped it around his hand.

"Alright," he said. "Let's go."

[to here]

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NIGHTSHIFT 33: M41 - M50 Hallway

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