damned_institute | Day 34: Breakfast

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Day 34: Breakfast

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

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"Leave him be!" Armand said, trying to sound as stern as possible while fighting down actual fear and anger.

As far as he could tell, she wasn't even listening to him anymore. He reached one-handed for Bridget's shoulder to yank him back, away from her. "Can't you see he wants you to leave him alone? We mean you no harm, but please go away!"

He didn't care if his voice attracted attention now. The staff might separate him from Bridget, but they'd take away the girl-woman too. He didn't want to have to try to hurt her, but he wouldn't let her hurt Bridget either.

Bridget started to lean into the touch when Diva placed her hands on his cheeks, but blinked, suddenly startled when Armand pulled him away.

Looking up into the worried, stern face of his friend, he again felt torn. What should he do? If only he hadn't gotten himself into this mess...

Trying to get in Diva's way would end poorly for someone, and if she was wily enough, it would not be her. No matter how much the humans hated her.

She didn't let go of Bridget, and instead grab his shirt to pull him back towards her. But it wasn't to bring him to closer to her. The Chiropteran turned him aside so that she could get at the demanding food who was trying to say no to her--and she rammed her knee up towards Armand's stomach with all of her monstrous strength behind her.

What Armand expected was for her to try to grab Bridget back, and he let go so as not to hurt the boy. He'd be able to--oh God!

Armand fell over backwards, gasping for air, as the knee punched all of it from his lungs. He gagged as his sore stomach muscles tightened in rebellion, rolling to his knees just in case, so he wouldn't choke. He wasn't going to be able to get back to his feet for several moments. He'd not been able to help his friend at all.

Two fights already, and the morning was only halfway through. What were the patients up to today? It was disappointing, really.

The nurse rushed over. The orderly caught hold of the girl to prevent her from doing any more damage while she helped the patient on the floor. She hadn't seen what had caused the fight, and so she chose not to do anything more to the girl. The patient was young, and perhaps Mr. Larue had made her uncomfortable.

That didn't completely excuse anyone's behaviour, though, of course.

"You all know what our policy is on violence," she said sternly. "Am I going to have to separate everyone?"

Bridget gasped and struggled against Diva for a brief moment before the staff appeared.

He'd never been in touble with the staff here before and he didn't want to start now. "No, please." Bridget stepped forward, hoping to diffuse the situation as best as he could.

"It was a misunderstanding." He couldn't come up with a sutiable explaination and saying that they seemed to be fighting over him was a blow to his own pride. "He was just trying to help me."

So easy to break, even as weak as she was. And she hadn’t even drawn blood.

Diva’s initial and final reaction to anything she didn’t like was violence, a response that had carved her a certain kind of niche throughout the decades. Her Chevaliers found it charming, Diva found it both useful and fun. Fun, when it came down to hurting those who would hurt her. For some reason, though, the Chiropteran didn’t find as much satisfaction in the amount of damage she caused in Landel’s. It was small and no one even cared. Hurting Armand was merely one more thing that would be forgotten by the staff soon, and then what? They went back to disregarding her feelings again. They always did.

There was so much going wrong all at once, she felt no joy at showing how assertive she could be. Not even a real flicker of emotion. Diva had been in the facility long enough to know that the scampering footsteps headed towards her meant there would be men and women attempting to stop the fighting. With their needles. The male who grabbed her from behind probably had one ready, just for her. She didn’t move when she was touched, not even to fight back, because although she badly wanted to kill the staff more than any other people in the building, Diva had learned.

It made her even more miserable to think on it, and her forlorn expression showed it all. She was just a little girl being ignored by the one she’d come to see.

It was humiliating to need the nurse's help to get to his feet again, but Armand had swallowed more than his pride in the past. He wrapped his good arm around his belly, holding it while still trying to draw in enough air to speak. He leaned on the nurse. "I'll do anything you like," he whispered to her, "if you'll keep--" He realized he didn't know Bridget's Institute name. "If," he began again, "you separate them. She was bothering him, and I only wanted her to stop."

That sounded terrible, but he didn't care what they did to him so long as Bridget was safe. He made the mistake, though, of glancing at the girl. And her expression, so lost, tore at him. He didn't know what drove her to try to force Bridget to be hers, but he pitied her in her failure. He was a kind man, usually quite concerned with not causing such distress to anyone, but Bridget came first. Even before his own comfort.

"If you must punish someone," he went on in that same breathless way, "it should be me. They're children." Though, in truth, he had no idea how old the staff thought the girl was.

The nurse planted her hands on her hips and sighed. She wasn't sure what was going on here--it was like being at a schoolyard with children--but in the end, what mattered was that things seemed to have calmed down.

"All right," she replied, still frowning. "I will only separate you for the time being. But I don't want to see any more signs of trouble from any of you."

Bridget bowed his head to the nurse, utterly mortified by this. Taking a breath, he looked up and smiled up at Armand. "Thank you," he said. "And think about the offer, okay?"

He turned to look at Diva, a worried expression crossing his face. "I don't mind talking with you and you can see me anytime. Please be careful, alright?" He offered a small smile to her as well.

With another glance up at the nurse, smiling and ducking his head, he turned to head to a different part of the room. If it would keep everyone safe and drug-free, Bridget didn't mind the separation, and perhaps the girl would find him in the next shift and explain just what on earth was going on.

She had learned, but that didn’t mean she could easily quell her rage. At the continued actions of the humans around her, it only grew and swelled, making her bristle. This would be no cheerful killing spree. The Queen was in that cold, hard place her sister never seemed to understand. Her expression twisted into something equally cold and sharp.

Her? A bother? And this pathetic creation of hers--something that was supposed to be a Chevalier--doing nothing to prevent any of it?

Cowardly and unfaithful.

“You… You’re just going to walk away?” It sounded more like ‘you think you’re just going to walk away from my blood?’

That pained smile on Bridget's face made Armand worry more, but there was nothing else he could do. "I will think about it," he promised. "Check the bulletin board before the end of the day." Still having to breathe shallow against his aching muscles, he bent and picked up his plate.

"Yes, miss, he's going, because we all have to go or get punished." He didn't turn away from either of them, but stepped back enough to look around the cafeteria for somewhere he could try to eat his stone cold breakfast--look around and still watch to see if they left quietly. The girl seriously frightened him now.

The orderlies didn't do anything yet, but they hovered close to the patient. This was unfortunate. The nurse had truly been hoping not to take any more action than was necessary.

She stepped in between the three, facing the the young female patient. "We would prefer everyone take responsibility for themselves and walk away until they feel they can resolve their conflicts peacefully," she said firmly. "I trust you are all capable of doing this?"

The violence hadn't started up again--but she was ready with a syringe just in case something broke out.

Bridget turned to glance at Diva. "We can talk later, when everyone is calm and nobody has to get angry. Just to talk." He tried another smile. "Okay? Nobody wants to get into trouble, right?" He looked over at the staff then back at her. He had to stop this before it got even more out of hand.

"We can talk as soon as possible, promise." He was looking at Diva, but his words were for both her and Armand. He hoped the older man understood that.

Talk, talk, talk! Walk away, don‘t get angry, be as Saya-neesama would be.

It wasn’t what Diva wanted or needed. Why did no one understand that.

This ‘Chevalier’ was even more of a wretch than the other one had been, what with only paying her half a mind when at least the other had outright refused. Treating her on level with a human was unacceptable. Amshel would have known that. Solomon would have paid her attention as she desired. James would have had eyes only for her. Carl would have killed anyone for dare speaking down to her. And Nathan would have treated her like the dear princess he wished to see in her.

All of these humans around her… she’d kill every last one of them one day! She’d done it before! She would bathe in their blood all over again, content with drinking away their sin and making them pay for the harm they’d done.

“No!” bellowed the Chiropteran, and it was an outmost refusal to everything and anything that was standing in her way. Perhaps what enraged her most of all was the use of the word 'promise.' Lies, all of it. Her eyes lit up with a blue battle glow as she stared into the face of the female nurse… but when she lunged, it was to the side, her elbow cocked for an orderly’s solar plexus. She knew it as the most unfun place, the place for quick deaths.

Don't move.

Armand's head whipped around to watch Bridget. "Bridget, don't get involved. Just walk away," he ordered the child, again trying to keep his voice as stern as possible. Somehow he knew he wouldn't be obeyed. He didn't like knowing that the girl was setting herself up for punishment, but there wasn't anything he could do about that either. It was her own choice.

His one hand holding his plate trembled with his own suppressed anger as his attention returned to the girl attacking the orderly. Why did this have to happen? But if he could keep himself and Bridget out of trouble, then he'd done his job. He just didn't think he'd be able to.

One of the orderlies fell to the side, letting go of the girl as she elbowed him. Fortunately, the second still held fast, with another on the way. The other two patients seemed willing to behave, but this one was another story.

The nurse moved quickly as the other orderly attempted to restrain young Miss Danielle. It would only require a swift prick of the needle to sedate the girl. Poor thing. She was clearly troubled, but the nurse had no other choice if she was going to insist on causing physical harm.

The startled cry of No caught in Bridget's throat as he stepped forward to prevent the young woman from being sedated, but he wasn't fast enough. Hands clenching into fists, breath hitching slightly, he bowed his head.

He shouldn't be feeling so protective over someone he didn't know like this. He shouldn't be courting sedation and injury by jumping into the fray, so why was he? What had happened?

Diva wouldn’t stop fighting even when the nurse closed in with her tranquilizer. If she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn it was another Joel closing in on her with one of his sickly sweet smiles. She moved more like an animal than a person, swinging her lower body up and kicking at the nurse with her eyes ablaze.

She wouldn’t stop fighting because she couldn’t. She couldn’t make it easy.

They’d robbed her of everything, after all, from her children to her own Chevaliers. They’d let her come to harm. She’d kill them all for it.

As long as Bridget stayed out of it, Armand could too. He stood, almost frozen, watching with horrified disbelief as the girl fought viciously to avoid being sedated. He had to look away, sickened and angry at himself that he had failed to calm her and prevent this mess.

When the girl attacked again, the orderlies seemed to move almost unnaturally quick in order to restrain her from completely reaching the nurse, her foot just grazing the shin as the nurse stepped swiftly out of the way

They only needed to keep the patient steady for the split second it took for the nurse to administer the sedative. The tranquilizer worked fast; the girl would be subdued in seconds.

That was too much. "Please, stop!" Though who he was asking to stop wasn't clear. He could have been asking the staff to stop trying to sedate Diva, or he could have been asking Diva to stop struggling. Even he wasn't sure.

Bridget couldn't help but take a few steps towards her though in an attempt to do something.

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Day 34: Breakfast

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