damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room

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Day 37: Sun Room

Joe had read some of the larger notes stuck up on the bulletin board when the announcement came on the intercom. All things considered, this Landel guy didn't even seem so bad. Even if these people were held here against their will, he was certainly nice about it.

Apparently, the new patients - including Joe - were to hang around in the Sun Room or go to Arts and Crafts with the kids. Well, there was plenty of information on the board, including maps and descriptions of monsters, for Joe to prepare for the nighttime, when he could seriously get going on fighting his way out. He could look for where the boss would probably be waiting, or where his V-watch might be, and figure out how to fight the monsters. In fact, he had plenty of time to work all that out... but this the first time he'd had to really relax since he got his powers. So it couldn't possibly hurt to enjoy the calm period, could it?

The red-head stepped back from the board, and hopped back onto a comfy-looking couch to digest in the sunlight. He reached up to pull his cap down, and sighed when he realized it wasn't there. "Oh well, nothing's perfect. I still wouldn't call this hell."

[free!]

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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.

"Ah." So it was like with Hokuto. "Well... when you get back home, keep an eye on the people in power, the ones that think they're above nature. There's a reason this technology was forbidden in my lands."

She sighed and leaned back into the couch. "I'd hate to see more lands destroyed thanks to the greed and arrogance of a few."

Yukari couldn't help but raise her eyebrows, and belatedly she realized it was kind of ironic she was telling her this.

"It's happened," Yukari responded, sounding awfully casual about it. Although it was true; plenty of history included people trying to do exactly that. Not to mention the entire root of the reason they were fighting back home... "It's kind of hard to follow through with anything too bad, though, unless you're made of money or something. Usually with enough opposition, those sorta things can be stopped."

"Unless the few find ways to harness forces that should never have been used," Falis replied. "Those are the people that will end up using magic and other kinds of technology to destroy lands whole, at their whim, or because they think it will stop some things from happening. It's more a show of power, because they can, than anything else."

She pursed her lips. "It's not a question of having enough opposition, but having the right opposition." She paused. "I hope your world has it before your time is over. Numbers only help so much; it is the few with the drive and ability to effect change that will determine the path such things take."

She closed her eyes. "And then... I hope your land chooses the right people to lead." She chuckled lightly, finding the fact that herself apparently counted as one of the right amusing. "You'll be surprised where such people may be found."

"No one's going to try to destroy anything," Yukari insisted, shaking her head slightly. Maybe if they jumped back about a few hundred years, but these days? It didn't sound likely someone would decide to invade or destroy anyone anymore. "Nobody has magic, either-- everything is science now. If you talked like that to anyone back home they'd think you were crazy."

Thanks to Dominikov and her grasp of the Old World language, Falis knew what science was - at least in a rudimentary sense - plus she had explored many ruins from the Old World.

"And if you were to talk of science in my world, unless you were in my kingdom, you would be thrown into jail; Forland is the most tolerant of ancient technology than the others given our line," Falis replied, not bothered at all that Yukari sort of called her crazy. "I know science, Yukari, I may not have formal education but I am learned and I've read the writings left behind of the Old World. It's kinda essential for my job anyways. In the end, there really isn't much difference between magic and science."

Falis shrugged. "I hope you're right, though."

"If you say so..." Yukari wasn't in the mood much to debate it-- generally, she wouldn't be debating this whatever the situation was, but now it was more so. So their worlds were different, nothing they said would change it.

"Still, it's nothing to worry about," she finished off. "My home isn't that dangerous."

"That's good." Falis tended not to dwell on things like that too long anyways. It wasn't her world, so she'd only give so much input.

"So... what do you do for fun in your world?"

At this rate, Falis was going to start making Yukari homesick again. Oh well, it was a considerably better feeling than when they were talking about their last topic.

"There's a few things, I guess," Yukari answered. "Usually I'll go with a friend to the shopping center by the station, or head to the mall. Or I stay at our dorm if I don't feel like going out."

Day 37: Sun Room

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