damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

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Well, that just about broke Astrid's heart! She hugged her little sister close, feeling that faint tremble, and made a soft noise of dismay. "Oh, my poor Dalia. I wish I knew. It all depends on how well the doctors think you're doing."

Astrid stroked her sister's dark hair gently and tried to nudge her towards a chair. "Shall we sit while we talk, Dalia?" She of course didn't mind if Dalia wanted to sit in her lap, though the girl was really a bit big for it, but Astrid would prefer to be sitting down just in case Dalia had one of those awful panic attacks.

Skuld froze; Depends on the doctors...? That wasn't what Belldandy should say at all. Calling her Dalia, maybe, to keep up the pretense... but...

She let herself be guided to a chair, hoping for more privacy; as soon as they sat down, she whispered, "So... what else do I need to do?" If she didn't get the answers she wanted she was trying the language of the heavens just to make sure nobody could eavesdrop. That would get Belldandy to explain it all for real, right?

"Have you been behaving?" Astrid took Dalia's hands, an earnest, hopeful look on his face. "They didn't tell me much when I got here. I wanted to see you as soon as possible." Not that Dalia had ever been deliberately harmful to anyone--she'd just been scared and upset and trying to defend herself from what she truly believed was a genuine threat. It really did break Astrid's heart to have to send her here.

"Yeah." Skuld's voice was small and uncertain; what was going on?

She thought to look around; maybe Lind really was going to give her the next part of her instructions (although... she'd never gotten a first part) but Belldandy seemed to be alone. Maybe they were waiting for something...?

"Did anyone else come?" She would not let herself get obviously worried; she was going to stay strong, no matter what.

Astrid shook her head, smiling gently. "Just me, Dalia. You know how... exciteable... our sister can be, so we decided it was best if she didn't come. She's worried about you too, of course, but this probably isn't a very good environment to let her loose in." Astrid felt bad about that decision, like she was being cruel to Dalia or Tyra or both, but goodness knew what kinds of delicate people there were in this place.

"You have no idea," Skuld muttered. Just because Artemis wasn't here now didn't mean much.

Right now especially, her patience was close to nil, so she switched to Latin in the hopes of Belldandy answering her in kind and not playing along anymore. "What am I supposed to do next for the test?"

"Dalia..." Even without Tyra actually present, Astrid still felt like she needed to mediate between her sisters. She had faith that someday, somehow, the two of them would get along--certainly they loved each other dearly.

And then Dalia started speaking in a foreign language. She was always so smart, so quick to learn, but once those terrible delusions about "demons" started, all the foreign language talk tended to remind Astrid of that old thing about "speaking in tongues." Was Dalia having a fit, right here and now? Even though she'd seemed so much better at first? Astrid felt tears threaten to well up in her eyes, but she straightened her back and firmed her self-control. She would be strong for Dalia. "Dalia, dear. I can't understand you."

Skuld didn't know if she wanted to apologize for making Belldandy sad, or burst into tears herself. She clenched her fists and tried to pull herself together; not now.

If they could bring me here, no matter how they did it, they could make a--a copy of Belldandy. It's probably not really her.

But she still had to check. "Onee-sama... you don't understand this, either, do you?" She had the hint of tears in her eyes, but she met Belldandy's as steadily as she could. She had to know.

The first doctors that they'd taken Dalia to had suggested that whatever was causing the delusions and hallucinations was also somehow confusing her as to which language she was using at any given time. None of it made any sense to Astrid, but all she could do in any case was wait for things to sort themselves out again and for Dalia to revert to Japanese. "I'm sorry, Dalia..."

Part of Skuld wanted to stand up and scream, "You're not Belldandy!" but... what if she was? She'd seen Urd get manipulated just like this before, and it had still been her, or at least part of her. Even as a full demon, she hadn't been able to really hurt her sisters.

And Skuld didn't really have it in her to hurt Belldandy, no matter how upset she herself was.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. It was an effort not to cry; she could handle being here, but not getting any help or even any reassurance during the entire test...

It wasn't any different than the rest of the people here, and she knew she shouldn't be spared anything just because of what she was. But that didn't make it any easier.

Astrid felt tears prick at her eyes again, and leaned in to give Dalia a fierce hug. "Oh, Dalia. It's okay. We know you don't mean any harm. You're ill. Everyone just wants you to get better. We miss you." Not that Tyra would ever admit to any such thing, but Astrid could tell.

Skuld hugged back, just as tightly; she missed Belldandy so much that even knowing the one in front of her was an impostor, she needed the comfort. Finding out that she was alone in this was so much harder than she would have expected that she couldn't hold back a few tears.

"I'll do my best," she whispered, voice cracking. She meant it, even if it wasn't in regards to what it sounded like.

She didn't want to just cling to this copy of her sister and cry for the entire visit, so she finally wiped her eyes and looked up. "How are Banpei-kun and Sigel?" She should have their names right, since the robots were hers.

Except while it had been with permission, Belldandy had named Sigel...

The topic of Dalia's little mechanical toys was a bit of an uncomfortable one, considering the fact that many of her hallucinations seemed to involve them being much more intelligent and self-aware than they actually could be. "Well, we had to shut Banpei-kun down and put it into storage. Even Keisuke didn't think he could fix it if anything went wrong, so we decided it was safer to just put it away until you come back." Plus it was easier on everyone's mental state, not to have that thing puttering around and... staring at them.

"As for the other..." Astrid pulled away from Dalia for a bit, just enough to open her bag and pull out the doll named Sigel. "I'm afraid the mechanical parts are gone, the doctors here didn't want to risk you having anything you could hurt yourself or someone else with. But I thought it might be some comfort for you to have at least the doll itself." And indeed, it was Sigel, though doubtlessly smaller than what "Skuld" would remember.

Skuld was much better about Keiichi as of late (unless he was anywhere near Belldandy), but she was horrified to hear what he'd done to her beloved robots. She held Sigel up--far too small, but it was still her--and found her uneasily light. Worse, with the machinery behind them gone, her eyes wobbled in their sockets in a way that even she had to admit was creepy. One of her creations, gutted by that idiot?!

"What did he do that for?" she demanded, voice cracking again. Maybe all this was a lie, but--maybe not, and what did he think he was doing touching her stuff?!

There was technically nothing in there to care anymore, but she pulled Sigel to sit in her lap and gently closed the little construct's eyes. She'd fix her later, as best she could.

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Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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