damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room

"Turn?" Yukari was dubious, naturally, and despite what she told herself before, she was reluctant to accept the news right away. She wasn't about to get up and walk away, no matter how tempting it was.

"I'm only alive because I got lucky." It was something she hardly wanted to admit to anyone, and Yukari would have rather never said it. Unfortunately, if she wanted any hope in disproving Falis' worry, someone who-- apparently-- knew what they were talking about, then she was going to have to say as much. It wasn't easy, and the way Yukari relayed her words made this obvious. "She intended to kill me almost every night, whether it was by force or... this." Her words trailed off hesitantly as Yukari brought up her hand, brushing the side of her neck softly with her fingers.

That certainly added up to the signs she'd seen in F29. "That doesn't mean your death was her only intent. Weakening a victim through physical force just facilitates the transformation, when the body can no longer fight it off."

She glanced at Yukari's neck a moment before focusing back on her face. "Please." That was a rare word coming from her; it felt so unfamiliar in her mouth. "Please... let me examine the bites. I need to check your condition, so I can see if you're suffering any of the adverse effects."

"I'm fine, there's nothing..."

Yukari cut herself short from the outburst, once again nearly claiming everything would be all right and she didn't need help from anyone. The latter she would still claim true, and if she knew where to begin fixing all this for herself she wouldn't have stopped. But there was the problem: she didn't.

It was difficult to say by now if there was anything wrong at all. Yukari truly felt okay, and the only problems that arose all this time were the physical pain that came with what Diva decided to inflict on her.

Although... Yukari was left worried enough to consider what Falis was telling her. She sounded genuinely concerned, too, which struck the teenager as a little odd considering they didn't even know each other outside of this situation. So, after swallowing a bit of pride, more hesitation, and whatever other anxious feeling, Yukari unraveled the wrap around her neck. She glanced around to see if any of the nurses would give her disapproving glares-- they'd been insisting to let it heal-- but none of them seemed to be doing so, or at least notice yet.

Falis would be getting what she wanted: the scars, not yet fully healed but close enough on getting there, were there on both sides of her neck, one looking much worse than the other. There were times where she tried to give a fight, after all, and then one where Yukari nearly gave up.

The bounty hunter's eyes narrowed slightly when Yukari first opened her mouth, ready to call bullshit, but the girl thankfully shut her mouth. Falis was trying to do this tactfully, which was quite difficult at times, and the other really didn't want her to stop trying and just resorting to the other methods. This was all because of Amada and that look he got on his face when he realized what this stubborn girl had been keeping from him.

Maybe being a princess really had softened her up some. Maybe Milano had finally managed to bring that side of her out. Damn girl...

She watched carefully as Yukari unwrapped the bandages from her neck, a part of her slightly amazed the girl was doing so. Maybe it was the please. Hmm... perhaps Falis would use that word more often if it granted her results like this. Funny word - please.

The bounty hunter also glanced at the vultures, noting that a few less were watching her than before, and then she carefully climbed over the back of the couch to sit on it next to Yukari, a small grunt slipping from her thanks to her leg. She kept her distance at first, shifting positions so she could observe one mark and then the other. They... appeared at first look to be healing properly. That was a plus, but that didn't mean everything was alright with them.

Her brow furrowing in concentration, Falis reached out and, with a touch surprisingly gentle for the fierce bounty hunter, probed the skin surrounding the worse of the two bites. Her focus was on temperature changes, growths, various other things that could indicate there was something going on at the source of where the vampirism would have entered her body.

"Tell me if anything starts to hurt or if you start to feel sick," she said in a soft voice as her fingers moved with purpose across the wound. "I'm Alita Forland, by the way, crown princess of the Forland Kingdom. We've talked on the board."

The touch was unexpected, and the slight twitch that came afterwards showed it. Yukari really hoped nobody was watching, because this was embarrassing; she felt like a little kid being checked over after hurting themselves. Everyone had to have been paying enough attention to not notice what Falis was doing... hopefully. In her quick scan around the room Yukari was already spotting some familiar faces, and she didn't want to explain why someone was prodding at her neck if she could help it should they see.

"Oh," Yukari blinked, realization hitting her once again. "So you're one of the people who helped Ken-kun the other night." That's why they were corresponding, after all.

"It hasn't hurt for a few days now," she finished off with a matter-of-fact tone. "I wasn't lying when I said I felt fine."

"Yeah, I'm the one with the sword," Falis replied, moving her fingers over to do a cursory check of the less nasty of the two marks. "I don't doubt you when you say you feel fine," she continued, knowing the change took time with some vampire types.

The examination revealed the wounds were healing properly, no infection that she could detect like she had in some victims back home and there were no signs of dead skin about the bite. The wounds appeared to be more like Kagura's and she'd healed with no adverse effects.

Now that she finished, she sat back, giving Yukari room again, taking the time to purposefully stretch so that anyone looking over at them would focus on her and not on the other girl as she wrapped her neck again. She sighed. "I wish I'd seen these when they were fresh. How long ago did she first feed on you?"

Did she have to word it that way? Yukari gave an audible sigh of her own, although it was far more annoyed.

"... It was about a week ago," she answered, both hands primly folded on her lap.

Falis scowled a bit at that sigh. What did Yukari expect from her? The bounty hunter wasn't all roses and sunshine and shit like that.

"Look. I know you don't want to talk about this - any sane person wouldn't," she stated, "but I'd rather find out as much as I can now while you're still in control in case you do turn." She let out a long breath.

"I'm not trying to scare you; I'm trying to make you aware so if something does change, you know what's causing it." She paused. "And then you can come to me before you become... dangerous. IF it happens. There is hope - a friend of mine has also been attacked by a vampire. The bloodsucker that got her isn't the one that got you, but she hasn't turned and hasn't shown any signs that she will. This does mean, though, that I'm going to be asking you some questions, some that'll probably seem pretty fucking ridiculous to you, but I need you to answer them honestly. Can you do that for me?"

Yukari had to bite her lip to refrain from interjecting with another comment. One that probably would have insisted on one thing or another, protesting this or that wasn't going to happen and god, could she just redo today already?

The look on her face was hardly a willing one, but if this was going to get this done and over with, who was she to say no? Maybe then Ken would stop worrying over it so much and Renamon wouldn't continue saying she needed a hand and Falis would go away and stop talking about all this vampire stuff. This was more than enough, thank you.

Despite herself, Yukari gave a very casual gesture of her hand. "Yeah, I can."

"Thanks." The bounty hunter calmed, though the scowl only tempered some. Falis was just as stubborn, if not more, than what she gathered this girl was.

"I'll get the most important, and most disturbing, out of the way first. Did you ever ingest any of her blood? I can see that you did fight back; that you didn't just lie there and take it. If you ended up ingesting even the slightest trace, be it from her forcing it on you or through you biting her in self-defense - anything - it changes your situation drastically."

She'd pretty much ruled out vampirism by disease; there would have been evidence at the bite site if that was the case. Since the wounds were healing normally, she was dealing with the magical kind.

Easy enough to answer. "I didn't," Yukari replied simply. She couldn't imagine why Diva would have ever wanted to do something like that, but then again, the same question could be applied to pretty much everything. The possibility was not mulled on for long, though; merely thinking about anyone's blood in her mouth was enough to leave her feeling sick.

Falis was silent for a moment as she locked her eyes on Yukari's, searching them for truth. And truth was what she got. She visibly relaxed then, her biggest worry about all this gone (well aside from the possible turning). Kagura hadn't been sure if she'd gotten any of the vamp's blood in her mouth when she'd bit its hand and she hadn't turned. The other questions came out a bit easier.

"That's a damn good thing to know. Ok, have you had any changes in your diet, say a craving for rarer meat? What about blood? How does seeing blood make you feel? Does the scent of it affect you? Have you been finding yourself having hard to explain mood swings, paranoia? Are you a virgin? Any fascination with the moon or any other aspects of the night? Any weird dreams... Anything?"

Yukari was beginning to frown an awful lot today, considering how much she was doing it during this conversation. This time, however, it wasn't an annoyed or frustrated or angry kind of frown; no, the only way to describe this was a good, visible, 'are you freaking kidding me?' kind of look that could break any language barrier effortlessly. Granted, the whole language barrier thing was a moot point in the institute, but the point was it could be done.

As Falis began to list off questions like some crazy nut, Yukari's mouth hung slightly open as if she were to answer, but that girl was right-- these were ridiculous!

"W- what kind of question is that?!" Yukari barked at one in particular, then paused. Now flustered, she belatedly corrected herself; "-- Are those?!"

To Falis' credit, she managed to stop the smirk that so desperately wanted to find its way back to its customary place on her face. She'd been far too serious, far too long, and she was rather satisfied in her method of questioning. By throwing so many questions at once, it puts her target off-balance and reacting only to the questions they have a strong connection to.

It was such an opening to flirt, especially since Yukari was rather pretty, but even the bounty hunter that had no shame knew this was not the right moment. Such a disappointment, too. She figured this one was fun to tease and get all flustered. Much like she was now. Instead, she simply raised an eyebrow.

"Questions that will give me insight into any of the more subtle symptoms of beginning vampirism, though I see one in particular grabbed your attention," the princess replied, still managing to keep the smirk from her face, though her eyes... that was a different matter. "You don't need to answer that one - I can already tell." It did complicate things given pure flesh is a requirement for certain types of vampirism.

"So, the others?"

"That's a personal matter I think we can keep out of this!" Yukari muttered, and it took every ounce of willpower and more to keep her face from turning ten shades of red. There was no way that could have mattered in the least-- Falis was doing this to mess with her, she knew it!

"No, to all of it," she finished answering, finding her hands a lot more interesting now. "If those questions are going to be the basis of figuring this out, then I think I can safely tell you nothing is wrong with me."

"Of course it's a personal matter, but it is relevant. Some vampires need that condition to be present to complete the transformation." And the smirk peeked through for the faintest of moments before she got it under control again. "Which therefore places you at risk."

She waved her hand a little, moving away from the topic of Yukari's virginity and the adorable manner in which she was acting. "And those questions are the basis to figure it out, they're a way of gauging the situation. It's through further observation and time that will tell whether you've been infected. That being the case, if there are any changes, any at all, even ones I didn't mention that you can't come up with an honest answer as to why they're there - no rationalizing, you hear me - you need to tell me right away. I'm sure you don't want to accidentally end up hurting your friends because this place put you in a locked room with a bloodsucker."

Leaning back, getting comfortable, the blonde pulled her mane of hair out from her back and then grabbed the single file labeled Kara Blenn left in her journal (the vamp's picture still left between the pages) and offered it to Yukari. "Here. I didn't read it, so don't jump down my throat about it. I just figured I'd grab yours while I was at it." A pause. "You got any questions for me?"

Oh, great, all this and she still couldn't give her a definite answer? There was still that possibility? Was her life not already crazy enough that it decided to toss in that, hey, she might become a vampire? Man, this was almost pathetically laughable. Out of every single person that could have been roomed with Diva, and it had to be her.

Going to her-- a, any-- room and never coming back out sounded far, far too tempting.

And to top it all off, she had to go to Falis if there were any problems. It was wrong to say Yukari thought lowly of the girl; possibly, far from it, but she had to admit there was something about her that struck her the wrong way. On the other hand, that could have been hot air talking and she had no problems at all, rather, she just hadn't had any time to cool off yet and then make her decision. Sometimes, Yukari was a little too quick to judge.

Both eyebrows rose at the file being pushed in her direction, and carefully Yukari took it, fingering the corner of the file with as much caution. This was... Oh. This thing. The file both Renamon and Kaito mentioned, and if the latter of the two spoke any truth, it was nothing but more false things about them. She was reluctant to look at it right away-- an even better excuse not to do so was that Falis was sitting right beside her, so Yukari tucked it beside her for now, leaving it out of obvious sight.

"I've got nothing." It wasn't like she was willing to talk so casually after all this.

"If you think of any, I ain't hard to find," came the reply.

For the first time during this conversation, Falis took her full attention off Yukari. She looked out across the room, her expression subdued. A week. The bloodsucker sank her teeth into Yukari a week ago and Falis had only found out about the possibility three days ago when she'd been hired. Damnit, they'd been in the same hallway and the bounty hunter still hadn't known. In fact, she'd never even seen the vamp herself, only the girl sitting next to her.

She took the photo of the blue-haired vampire and stared at it for a moment before she clenched it so hard the photo crumpled. Damnit. She grit her teeth for a moment, fighting back the anger, and shoved the photo back in the journal. This one has been feeding on Yukari for a week. The bloodsucker that had gotten Kagura was still out there. Who knew how many more that one had attacked? There was at least one more out there, she knew, and yet she hadn't actually gotten a chance to do anything about them yet. Not until after the fact and then it was almost pointless.

To Falis, it was like a monster had descended upon her kingdom and she was neigh powerless to stop it. This put such a sour taste in her mouth, that she couldn't protect her people.

What? Did she just think of the people trapped in this land of ancient technology her people?

Damnit! Milano had softened her up; she cared too much. It was like you could take the princess out of the kingdom, but you couldn't take the kingdom out of the princess. Ridiculous. She wasn't even the real princess, no matter what everyone said, no matter that she was trapped in this body and had to carry the royal duties out. No matter that Milano practically refused the idea of returning to the royal ranks again. Falis missed the days of being a simple bounty hunter where all she cared about was the money she'd be paid and the chance to fight magical creatures, so she could get strong enough to kill the witch-bitch. And now that she had killed Cecelia, she'd become... a princess that loved the kingdom she served.

Fuck.

"I'm... sorry," Falis said, in a quiet voice that matched her subdued expression. "I should have... I mean, I was just down the hall... damnit, keeping this shit from happening is my job and I..." Fuck.

Huh? An... apology?

She didn't need to say she was sorry. There wasn't anything to be sorry about-- if anything, it was Yukari's fault for never asking for help in the first place, but she wasn't ever going to realize that far. Nobody needed to help her with anything, for anything; Yukari always told herself this, and the last thing she would ever consider the thought to be was an obstacle.

So when Falis ended off with an apology... Okay, Yukari did feel guilty; she always did when someone ended up being genuinely concerned for her well being, if only because it meant she screwed up and she didn't want to be the kind of person people had to worry over.

"Stop talking like this is your fault." If Yukari sounded chiding, she didn't intend to. "Do you really think anyone should have expected this to happen?"

Falis shot Yukari a glare at the tone she used, but reined in her natural urge to snap back. Well... mostly.

'I should have. As soon as I knew there were vampires among us, I should have known the bloodsuckers might be using the roommate as a source," she said. As the words left her mouth, a sudden dawning happened and it was clear on the bounty hunter's face that something had clicked into place.

Had she thought about it, it made perfect sense for a vamp to feed on its roommate. A perfect target locked in a room alone with it, unable to get away - day after day. As long as the bloodsucker didn't kill its victim through moderation, it had a constant food source. This was definitely a tactic a female vampire would use, as women were generally easier to overpower than men and, most, wouldn't want to let anyone know some other chick was sucking on her neck.

Guys on the other hand... Well, she'd never encountered a male vampire that didn't feed on a female. Males were even more picky about their victim selection and she didn't quite understand why. From her own perspective, had Falis been a vampire, she'd prey on anyone she thought was hot, which meant it could be either a guy or a girl that she'd choose. Unless, she had no other choice for survival. A bloodsucker could only be picky to a point.

Hmmm... given these knew thoughts and the evidence, with Yukari at least, it seemed foolish for the vampire to try to turn her. Not only would the vampire be losing her readily available food source (whom obviously stopped fighting back at some point), but it'd be introducing competition into the populace. Unless, the vamp's bite simply turned anyone it was inflicted upon and the fiend was simply using Yukari as long as it could before disposing of it, before the girl fully turned.

Fuck. She still couldn't say for certain if the brunette was going to start eating her friends or not. Time... time was still needed. Fuck.

Yukari returned with her own glare, and whatever Falis may have been mulling over, she didn't bother attempting to figure out what it was.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Yukari declared softly; it sounded quite contradictory to the look she had just given, but now, she went right back to staring down at her hands, twiddling her fingers as if it were a nervous habit.

"Okay," came the quiet reply. Nothing more would come of them talking about the vampire. Time was the only thing that would bring anything more of it to light.

"Just remember the things I said and the importance of telling me if something happens. That's all I ask. The details of this conversation ain't gonna pass from my lips to another. I give you my word." Falis wasn't sure how much stock Yukari was going to put into that, but the princess' word was solid. She wouldn't repeat the details to anyone, not even Amada; she was no longer under contract with him.

Falis glanced over. "What's your world like? This place is a land of ancient technology and I'm finding a lot are also from places like this. It's... unusual to me."

Ah... they had better not. Yukari couldn't exactly say there would be consequences if they did, but needless to say she would Not Be Happy should it happen. Already it was bad enough Falis got this far-- she didn't want to think what would occur if anyone else she knew found out. Especially one of her seniors, now that they were here... Uhg.

The girl acknowledged as much, even if she didn't outwardly show it. Her hands were, once again, a seemingly intensely interesting subject should any onlookers glance in her direction. Yukari fell silent even after Falis asked her next question, which was a common topic she was starting to find; perhaps one of the reasons she bothered to look up again was because Falis' question puzzled her so much.

"'Ancient technology'?" Yukari inquired quizzically. "There's nothing 'ancient' about anything here at all."

Falis sighed and almost rolled her eyes. "To you, maybe, but it is to me. The stuff here, the technology and such - some of the magic even - are Old World things to me. That was hundreds of years ago."

Huh. How did that work? It sounded so backwards; weren't things supposed to progress forward, not revert back? All these places were so different, it was almost mind boggling.

"My home has all these things, too," Yukari replied, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "If I didn't know any better, I could barely tell the difference." At least, if they gaged by the day and left out the fact they weren't supposed to be here.

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