damned_institute | Dayshift 34: Men's Showers

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Dayshift 34: Men's Showers

Albel had wasted an entire night, but he couldn't quite figure out how he had actually wasted it. He had left his room early, didn't stand around doing nothing and no pathetic worm had dragged him down. Finding Fayt's room and smack the foolish maggot against the nearest wall shouldn't have taken a full night, but yet he found himself back in his bed before he even had so much as located the right door.

What the hell?!

But he didn't have much time to think about it, as one of the wenches instantly stepped into his room as soon he sat up. Had she had been waiting behind the door or something? He ignored her useless babble along the way to the showers. Apparently, he had slept through most of the day. Perhaps the lack of sleep was taking it's toll, though the warrior wouldn't even think about admitting that thought. And who cared about it anyway? The days were useless!

By the looks of things, Albel was the first one to arrive. Not that he cared. After stripping himself of his clothing he stepped inside the shower area and picked a stall by random. It took some fiddling with the knobs before the water temperature was good enough, but he eventually let the water wash over his body.

[Free!]

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The water soaking his bandages did concern Roy slightly, but he did his best not to worry about it, instead focusing on lathering all the places he could reach with soap. He was careful to make sure that none of it dripped down and got into the bandages, however, since dealing with a terrible stinging sensation while trying to carry on a conversation wasn't his idea of a good time.

Hearing the other's response, Roy could only mentally smirk. He had come across his share of people who had such tendencies, though he didn't consider himself one of them. Maybe he was being too hard on himself, but it had been past sins that had led him to current attempts at fixing what was wrong, and that didn't seem particularly honorable to him.

"What you were raised to do?" he asked, not sure what the younger man meant by that. "Oh, and it's Roy Mustang, by the way," he added. He really needed to get better at introducing himself off the bat.

"I'm Sumeragi Subaru. I was raised to be an onmyouji." But 'Roy Mustang' was definitely not a Japanese name, so Subaru thought after a moment that he probably ought to explain what that meant. "I exorcise harmful spirits, communicate with spirits, remove curses, put up protective wards, that sort of thing." And calendars and healing and consulting on directional taboos and astrology and... so many things. It was very difficult to explain onmyoudo to someone who was not familiar with it.

And there was the added complication that so many people around here, just like back home, didn't necessarily believe in things like wards, curses or astrology, despite the presence of monsters and other things every night. Subaru sighed, just a little, as he finished with his hair and moved on to soaping up his body.

That wasn't something he heard every day, that was for certain. Roy raised an eyebrow, but it was more to himself than in response to the other man, since he was doing his best to be respectful and keep his eyes to himself. He knew some others weren't as used to communal showering as he happened to be.

It did sound a little far-fetched to him, but he wasn't about to question it. With the existence of homunculi confirmed, who was he to say that surpassing death wasn't possible in one way or another?

"You must be prepared for what this place has to offer, then," he said as he grabbed for shampoo and started running it through his short hair. "What have you been doing with yourself here?" Someone who was used to fighting supernatural creatures and who liked to help others seemed like good recruitment material, but there was always a chance that Sumeragi was part of another club, or doing his own thing. It would be best to get a read on him first.

Subaru wasn't sure there was any way to be prepared for this place. Hokuto being alive, his powers being gone, monsters he'd never seen or encountered in his years of working with the occult... it was all a little overwhelming. "Well, somewhat. My powers are more limited here than I would've thought possible. And I've mostly been trying to go around and find people who've run into more trouble than they can handle."

At least with this shower coming right before dinner, Subaru would not need to perform any ritual purification tonight. That should save a little time and energy, though he did need to make more ofuda. "I didn't get very far the last two nights, I was attacked by rats just a few halls from my room the night before last, and last night was taken up in working with a healer who took care of my wounds from the battle."

"One step forward, two steps back," Roy said somewhat grimly. He turned around so that his back was facing the shower and then leaned his head back to wash out the shampoo, making sure that all of the water would run down his back.

So it sounded like Sumeragi was trying to do it all on his own -- but if he was focused more on helping others, he might not be willing to take on specific missions that sometimes required passing by those who were in trouble. Roy hadn't forgotten the corpse he had seen last night, and hearing a confirmation of who it was made it all the more real. If he ever saw someone fighting on their own, he wasn't sure he could just look the other way anymore.

"So, have you ever thought of joining a club, or do you prefer working alone?" He wasn't exactly being discreet, but he didn't see why he should hide what he was about, either. There was nothing wrong with trying to find more members, as far as he could tell. His goals were similar to everyone else's, after all.

Subaru smiled a little--everyone asked him if he'd joined a club, it seemed. Or maybe it was only that Hokuto was so insistent about it every time the topic came up. "I don't think I'm really suited to the clubs. It seems like none of them really prioritise helping the people who are in danger. I understand the necessity for gathering supplies and information, but it's really not my thing."

Even when working as an onmyouji, Subaru had always been told he was excessively compassionate. He took risks he didn't need to take, always trying to speak with the spirits first, or solve the problem in some way that didn't harm anyone. Other onmyouji would have simply skipped directly to exorcising many of the spirits Subaru had worked with, and would have put themselves in rather less danger in the process. But, alive or dead, people were people, and Subaru wanted to help them all, not just the one who hired him.

It was more or less as he'd guessed. Roy supposed he could understand, though he personally didn't see how helping every person you came across was going to lead to escaping. Then again, maybe Sumeragi just didn't care about getting out. It was hard to know what people's personal feelings on getting out were, especially if they had been dead before coming here.

"I can't imagine you have much luck in actually helping out, though?" he asked with a frown, doing his best not to come off as rude as he grabbed for some conditioner. He was almost done, which meant he could get out of the uncomfortably wet bandages and hopefully get some new ones.

"Do you do it on your own?" He didn't think that one person with limited powers could be a huge help, but maybe he was just being pessimistic again. He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I'm sorry, it's just that with people getting attacked all over the institute, it must be difficult for you. And lead to lots of injury."

It was true that escape was not quite the first thing on Subaru's mind. Though now, with Seishirou gone, it was something that disturbed him greatly--he was essentially having to choose between his sister, and Seishirou. It should have been an easier choice than it was, too. Not that anyone seemed to know how to escape, anyway. "Well, the last time I actually managed to get far enough to do something, I did help two injured men escape some sort of... fire-breathing two-headed creature."

Subaru laughed, not exactly bitterly but a little self-mockingly, "And then I needed help myself. Which is, I think, pretty much how it's always gone for me when I take risks." Seishirou wasn't around to be the one who stepped in now, though. Not that he had been there that night, either. And not that his brand of 'help' was exactly healthy for anyone.

The fact that the other patient was willing to keep trying at the same thing with the same results and not get frustrated by it was admirable in a way. On the other hand, Roy thought that one should have learned by that point. So long as Sumeragi didn't mind it, though, it wasn't the colonel's business to tell him how to spend his time in this place.

He was curious about the creature that could breathe fire. While Roy could obviously relate to a monster like that, he also got the feeling that he would be useless against it. Unless fighting fire with fire actually worked in that situation, but who could say.

"So, who did you go to for healing last night?" he asked. Roy still wasn't sure if he wanted to search someone out, but it would be good to have the information nonetheless. With the conditioner in his hair now, he decided to give it a minute or two before rinsing off.

For Subaru, his duty and his ability to save people was more important than his own life. He'd always thought that way. Though now he needed to stay alive to find Seishirou, except... well, his reason for pursuing Seishirou was because he killed Hokuto. And Hokuto was alive here. It muddied the already extremely murky waters, and Subaru was very confused by what he should do. So he reverted to his default behaviour of sacrificing himself for the good of others. "Actually, he came to me. We met during the day yesterday and he was very concerned about my neck. A rat took a large bite out of it. His name is Fayt, but... I haven't seen him today."

The name wasn't familiar to Roy, and the fact that this Fayt hadn't been seen around could mean a variety of things. In any case, he wasn't comfortable contacting someone he hadn't even heard of and asking for their help.

"It looks like there are some others around that are like you," he said with a small smirk before he repeated the same process from before to wash the conditioner out.

"Now, I should probably go and see if the nurses will bandage me up," he finished. He figured that it was probably close enough to the end of the shift by now that it wouldn't seem like he was ditching the younger man. Not that it should have mattered all that much, but Sumeragi struck him as the sensitive type.

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Dayshift 34: Men's Showers

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