damned_institute | Day 34: Men's Showers

Artemis Fowl was, yet again, exceedingly displeased to be naked.

As much as Haku insisted that since he had experienced public bathing before, this time would be easier, the feeling was not mutual. Artemis' body was his own personal business, as far as he was concerned, and no one else's. His only comfort was the fact that he was not hideously tattooed anymore with various and sundry insults branding him a moron.

Still, that did not stop him from taking a towel into the shower area once again, Nurse Hedgerow grudgingly allowing it. She could see no other way of getting the boy to bathe. He was as stubborn as ten teenage boys. And after that lecture on psychological torture through means of public humiliation...

The boy let the water run over his head, the towel clutched firmly around his body. And he thought. July. How was it July when it had been fall just a week previous? It was impossible, logically speaking. But what part of this place fit in with any sort of logic Artemis had ever encountered? No, if he didn't let go of the fact that things would be as insane as people claimed he was, he would lose his mind.

His fingers brushed the burn mark Caleb had given him for what seemed the fortieth time. ...He had to get himself together, or this would only be a small taste of what awaited him in the hallways.

[For Omi]

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"If you don't want anyone noticing the obvious, then maybe you should." It was probably a good thing that Omi was already less than fond of Artemis or he might have had to feel bad for so obviously upsetting him. But he was, and he didn't. It wasn't his fault the other boy overreacted to seemingly everything.

"Well maybe I should just cut it off," Artemis snapped, turning his icy gaze back on Omi. "Then perhaps I'd bleed to death and both our problems will be solved, hm? I won't have to look at it, and you won't have to look at me."

Haku would murder him if he could hear what he was saying. He hoped to Frond he couldn't.

"If you had any idea what gave me this," Artemis said, pointing at the upside-down cross burned into the flesh on his neck. "You would not mention it."

Omi didn't even attempt to fight the urge to roll his eyes at Artemis's melodramatic words. Because, obviously, cross-shaped burns were the worst thing he had ever encountered.

Once again, though, he decided it was just easier to ignore Artemis rather than answer him. Anything he could say would either set the other boy off even more, which would mean Omi would have to listen to him until he finished his shower, or would come across as actually caring. Normally, Omi'd go with Option B, but right then he wasn't exactly feeling like it.

Artemis fell silent as well. He didn't want to say anything more on the subject. What came across as melodramatic to Omi, was a completely serious statement to him. He had considered taking one of his scalpels to the mark and then healing the skin over as quickly as possible. But without a clear mirror, the operation would be too risky. And the last time he looked in a mirror, he nearly was pulled through it.

Determined to forget that the mark even existed, Artemis began washing his hair. Scrubbing vigorously, he'd even forgotten that his wet towel was now on the floor, forgotten. His head was filled with Caleb's words. And as much as Hitsugaya had claimed that the preacher was lying, his words were true. Artemis didn't know what he was doing here. His heart hardened and softened with the tides, his hormones fluctuated up and down without warning, and he was in a building he physically could not escape.

He screamed and kicked one of the shower stools behind him.

That... was an interesting reaction. Even for Artemis, who, in Omi's opinion, wasn't exactly above such childish displays. It was also probably not a smart one, considering how unfriendly the nurses were to outbursts like that. Part of him wanted to tell Artemis to stop before he got himself sedated, but a larger part of himself was still just sort of stunned. So he went with the latter impulse and just waited to see what would happen next.

Omi was right on more than one count this time. The display was a very childish display of frustration and defeat--one that attracted the attention of his nurse. But when he didn't move from the spot and instead stood immobile for a few moments, she stood down.

Playing possum: famous talent of Artemis Fowl.

"How do you do it?" The boy said quietly, his tone envying and dangerous. "How can you stay sane in this place when there is no way out? We will be here until we die. Doesn't that thought disturb you in the slightest? Frustrate you in the slightest? How can you stay so calm when the world has suddenly turned into hell incarnate?"

There were a lot of ways Omi could answer that. He could say he wasn't sane, which... well, lately, was possibly true. He certainly hadn't felt sane the last few days. He could also say he was used to being trapped in a dead end with no way out. Not that he thought of Kritiker as anything like Landel's, but he was certainly aware that he was going to be there until he died and any attempt to do otherwise would not end pleasantly.

He decided to go with the safest option, and his eyes narrowed. "Of course it does. My friends are stuck here, and I can't do anything about it. But I'm not just giving up because it looks hopeless."

"Well of course I'm not simply going to give up," Artemis spat. No, he had to fight this. He had to prove Caleb wrong. He had to make Hitsugaya's words true and Caleb's lies. "But expecting me to sit here and take this kind of abuse and not say one word is ridiculous. Unrealistic. I am merely human."

Artemis returned to stand under the showerhead, letting the water run over him. He wasn't depressed, but a heavy sense of the inevitable hung on him like several tons of lead.

"I went over the wall last night, and I ended up back here."

Omi sighed, ducking his head under the running water just to give himself a minute to think. Talking with Artemis sometimes really made him want to scream, too.

He closed his eyes and pulled his head out from under the water, taking a slow breath. "We did, too. Yohji and I headed north, but there's nothing there. Not that we could see. That doesn't mean there's no way out." It couldn't mean that. Couldn't.

"Nothing to the north... it sounds as though our experiences were similar. Perhaps there is nothing to the north, but that does not mean that there is something to be found to the east, west, or south. So someone was able to hack into Landel's mainframe and take down the barrier that was previously keeping us in. This does not mean anything. There is something yanking us backwards, like an invisible leash.

"Humor me for a moment," Artemis said, staring at the wall. "There is a possibility that we will never get out of this place. That possibility, with this new development, is even more likely. The only way to escape would be in a body bag. Or, to admit defeat."

The boy thought back to Bellman's visit. He was close, so close to caving in. To becoming Sean Malloy for the sake of making it stop. The prospect wasn't looking like a bad option right now...

"I don't have much left, Tsukiyono. I was defeated by a psychologist, I've been mauled repeatedly, been stripped of my dignity... Why I keep fighting is largely due to the fact that I am too arrogant and goal-centered to give up when I am clearly beat."

Day 34: Men's Showers

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