damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

And for that, she was glad.

Yukari welcomed the topic change more than Renamon could probably imagine, although unlike her, she couldn't say she had any particularly exciting news to deliver. To say Yukari accomplished anywhere near as much was far from the truth. "To be honest... not much," she admitted with a sigh. "Maybe now I'll be able to do something, but..." She shook her head some, almost sheepishly. "It's been a while already, and I don't think I've gotten far at all."

She shrugged. "There's nothing you have to do. Everyone's contributing in their own way."

Speaking of... "In that vein, Yukari, could I get your opinion on the theories we've made? Don't feel obligated." Renamon felt a twinge of guilt at involving the girl, as she did with Orihime, but Yukari was intelligent. She might have something to add, a new perspective not seen.

Renamon just hoped that she wouldn't add more weight to the girl's shoulders.

"Of course there is," Yukari responded, furrowing her brow. "I can't sit around and wait for things to happen. I need to be able to actually make a difference, somehow. I know I'm not the strongest person out there, but... I'm tired of just aimlessly going places. I need to know what to do."

She then fell silent for a moment, hands folded together in her lap, before eventually turning her sights back toward Renamon. "You understand, right? You've done a lot already, so you must feel the same way, too."

At the offer, Yukari blinked in what was some mixture of vague surprise and interest. How could she deny? Information was information, and with Mitsuru here now, she definitely needed as much as she could. "Alright, shoot."

Renamon looked at the girl with renewed appreciation and respect, before replying. "I do. And if you feel that way, there's a lot you can do. If your feelings are that strong at least. Working to find things out, and the truth... I've 'done a lot', as you say, because those things matter more than my safety or comfort. But I know that you know this."

Renamon needed a day still to rehash all her information that she'd gathered before coming up with a new plan of action, but she put forth an offer to Yukari anyway. "I also know that now that your older classmates are here, you'll most likely be spending time at night with them. But if you're ever not, I could always use help gathering items and information, and perhaps more. If you're willing and able."

She put her thoughts in order regarding the rest. She had spoke to Kakashi on the matter, and Orihime, and of course, Mello, Jiraiya, and Edgeworth, but these were still new theories, and they still made her cautious. "They have backing to them, but parts of it are shaky still. And some of it... is disturbing to think of." She endly awkwardly.

[will put the theories in the next comment because they're long--damn Renamon--and I wanted to finish the other subject they were talking about before switching over =P]

She did, and that kind of mindset worried her, a little. Yukari was all for putting forth her best and more, and she wasn't the only one who had these ideals, but if it meant subjecting yourself to harm's way... Well, she knew at night around here, there really was no such thing as a safe place, so one always was in one way or another. Still, she would prefer if her friends didn't get hurt, or at least seriously so. Yukari wished Renamon would be a little more concerned for herself.

"Probably," Yukari answered, yet it was hard to tell if she was pleased about this or not. "Mitsuru-senpai's gonna have all sorts of things in mind for us to do..." But some direction was better than no direction. "... If you need my help though, I'm sure she'll understand." Yukari then paused, as if a light bulb turned on over her head. "Y'know, come to think of it, you remind me of her a little." In the intellectual aspects; Yukari felt far more comfortable in Renamon's presence than she did with her senior. "I bet if you talked to her, she would be able to come up with some ideas, or at least be willing to work with you on things."

Yukari then made a small nod. "I think I can deal." How bad could a few theories be? "Well, shoot."

"I'll contact her then," she responded. "And you're free to use me as an excuse if you need to get away from responsibilities for a day," she added blandly, with no emotion in her face to show that she had any feeling one way or the other on that.

"I'll summarize," Renamon started. "If you want to know any details, I'll expand in depth. We first came up with the theory of the people here with power are used to restrain the powers themselves. The energy from the abilities is what dulls and restrains them.

"The energy from our emotions is what powers the Institute itself. The heightened stress, along with them telling us our lives are a lie... as well as people disappearing day in and day out... monsters, restricted abilities, ones that you care about in danger... Any emotion we feel here powers it. And unless a person has grown up being composed and in control of themselves, there's no possible way to stop the process.

"There's also the face of the people who have died before coming here. Supposedly there's a kind of Death Magic, that needs sacrifices to resurrect the dead. And with this place, I wouldn't doubt there would be a shortage of that."

Renamon paused here. "The last points are the most recent, and they're being looked into currently by myself and another. The first is finding out what the Institute was like before it changed overnight. An Adel-" Had Yukari also mentioned someone with a name similar to that? Renamon wondered if she knew the man. "Told me vaguely of the changes but I haven't had a chance to speak with him more about it yet.

"The second was the belief that if people disappear from here, it's because Landel no longer had use for them. As in, he found out or took what he wanted from them. It's imperative that we learn what that is. So we're trying to conduct interviews with people close to the ones who have vanished so try to gain insight on what he might have gained from them."

And there she stopped, waiting for the girl's response. Renamon liked Yukari, and believed her someone intelligent, someone like her perhaps, and Yukari's response would show her if that was true.

Edited 2008-12-08 01:41 (UTC)

Well, Yukari couldn't say she was the type to 'get away' from her responsibilities-- she was actually pretty good at doing what she needed to get done-- but the offer was there, and it was nice enough. Who knew? Between yesterday and today, she might even find herself wanting to do just that eventually... It almost gave her a newfound appreciation for their battle back home; no Shadow she came across would imitate her father or acted like a vampire or god knows what else.

That aside, Yukari listened, careful to catch all the details. She understood it well enough, even if it all sounded strange. Powered by emotions? 'Death magic'? Man, nothing here was ever going to sound normal. If only things were simple... No matter where she was, it felt like these things were so out of reach.

"I... think I get it," Yukari responded tentatively, looking thoughtful; it was a lot to take in at once, and she wanted to make sure she had made heads or tails of it. She knew she couldn't contribute to the issue about powers, however-- without being able to use her own, it was difficult to say how limited it was. "So you're saying everything we feel-- supposedly-- gives Landel all his power?" She seemed skeptical of the idea, but she wasn't going to rule it out yet, no matter how much she wanted to. "If that's the case, then nobody'll ever bring him down. I mean, it's impossible to keep everyone from feeling... afraid, or scared, or even a little happy. The cause of this can't sound that hopeless."

Yukari hoped that was the case, at any rate. As insane as the man was, he had to be human just like the rest of them-- okay, most of them. It would be hard... but it can't never be done.

And, ah, death; in all honesty it was a subject Yukari didn't want to touch for now. It had still left an ill feeling in her stomach, and talking about it at length? Maybe another day. Still, that didn't mean she completely ignored the idea-- she'd have to face it someday, she knew, but today had been taxing enough as it is.

Then changes of the institute, the disappearances... The latter made sense, because they had to be here for a reason in the first place. If there wasn't, then, well... this would be even crazier, but that was a whole new can of worms right there. "I don't know anyone who's disappeared yet," Yukari said-- thankfully? Or otherwise? Sigh, she hated these sort of emotional conflicts. "But I can see where that makes sense." She paused, and hesitantly so as an idea came to mind that she wasn't quite sure she wanted to say aloud. But Renamon needed to know... With vague familiarity of the subject, she proceeded on; "Do you think that's what the... the experiments are for? If someone had a power another could benefit from, and tried to do something to them to gain it..."

Urgh. The idea made her sick to think about, especially when Yukari had Ken in mind regarding the topic. He had the same power she did, and she knew it could be used rather destructively. It already had been, by their enemies back home.

Exactly. The smile flashed for a moment on Renamon's face, then vanishing like it was never there. "Yes. There's been cases of that in multiple worlds of people that I've talked to--mine included. It's the most dangerous type of power, and it almost destroyed both of my worlds. And with this many people.... Even if they did all believe it, having all of them control their emotions at once would be literally impossible. There's no way to win that way."

Renamon thought for a moment. "There's obviously still the issue of there being a glitch somewhere, but we're not sure what we're looking for. There's also the fact, that that kind of thing, the emotional powering, no matter how different this place is, cannot run without having some kind of weakness, some hidden attribute that stabilizes the whole process. A person even. But that attribute would be well hidden, and with Landel's control we'd never be able to get at it."

She tapped her finger on the table twice. "There's also the third option. An emotional overload to short out the system. But considering that most are highly stressed at night, and the Institute has no problem returning us to our beds each morning, it's built, or made, to handle a lot of stress."

She stared openly at Yukari. "What do you think?"

Switching topics effortlessly, Renamon replied to the girl's question. "That's what some have said. I've talked to a couple who've been experimented on, and heard from others, and they seem to be completely personalized to suit the individual. But not all have been about power, and not all individuals have had power. I think the experiments are only one part of the equation."

"That would explain why we're all so powerless here," Yukari said in agreement, crossing her arms. "If that is the case. I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for a loophole in something like that, though."

She paused, mulling for a moment or so, before speaking up again; "If the source causing it is physical, then... It would probably be in a place we can't easily get to, and there's a lot of rooms we still can't get inside. If not..." Yukari trailed off, as she couldn't imagine what it would be otherwise. It was hard coming up with an idea when you had nothing to go by.

Yukari then made an affirmative nod. It sorta dashed whatever idea she was coming up with, but it sounded logical enough. "Only part, huh..." She made a small sigh. "It's troubling knowing they know things they shouldn't have found out so easily... It's like they know everything about our lives, even the secrets."

"Think on it," Renamon responded. "Let me know if you think of anything, even if you think it doesn't make sense."

She crossed her arms in thought. "I'll have to think about my own situation concerning the emotional constructs--it was called Chaos, and the D-Reaper--as well as ask others for details. The only way we were able to make any progress however was to find its tie to the world; its center. It was using a human girl."

But Renamon didn't want to think of Jeri, or Leomon, because that made her think of her conversation with Orihime about what happened to people that died here. And where they went.

"It's safe to assume that nothing about you is a secret to them. Nothing is safe." Something occured to Renamon then, something that had to be broached very carefully if Yukari didn't know yet. "Have you heard the theory of why that is?"

"Okay," Yukari replied. "I'll make sure I do."

Unlike Renamon, it was a little difficult to relate to the theory. As far as she knew, nothing back home was happening because of their emotions, or a single person... and with Mitsuru telling her earlier their plan all along didn't even work, they were right back to square one figuring out the source. A part of Yukari didn't feel very confident trying to do the same thing, here.

"Huh?" She stared in slight surprise, shaking her head. "No, I... I don't have a clue. I didn't even know how much they knew until a few days ago."

Ah... How to go about this? Renamon thought she knew Yukari somewhat by now--the girl was stubborn and strong-willed, and while those were traits that Renamon admired in her, those might make this difficult. Likewise, Renamon remembered the first time they had spoke--Yukari seemed to have trouble grasping things like other beings in human form and alternate worlds altogether. So how to word this correctly?

There were times when Renamon could turn a phrase more poetically than the haiku writer on the board, but more of the time Renamon was Renamon, blunt and straight to the point. Which is what she went with now. "There's reason to believe that most of us here are..." She stopped, paused a moment to think about the implications of the statement that did sound crazy, moreso than anything else she's said before. It couldn't be helped though.

She looked at the girl calmly. "That most of us are fictional."

Renamon was right-- she did sound crazy.

If there was one thing that had changed about Yukari within the past week, it was her willingness to believe and accept a lot of things. She couldn't stop and roll her eyes at the impossible anymore, because as far as this place was concerned it was.

But that? That sort of claim was enough for Yukari to show off one of her finest in contorted faces.

"R... Renamon-san," she began, disbelief at the mere idea apparent in her tone. "Do you really believe what you're saying? It's gotta be one of the..." Yukari trailed off, catching herself before being too blunt with her thoughts. But it was true, it was completely absurd. "I don't believe that."

And she was correct. This would be difficult.

"I don't have an opinion one way or the other," she replied ambiguously. "I was told this by multiple people, people that didn't work for Landel. People that stated intricate facts and secrets of my life, things I had shared with one person, because they told me I was a television show."

Renamon closed her eyes. "There are others who are told that they are from books or video games. Not only Landel and his team of doctors list off facts about them, but other patients as well. There's theories for this."

She continued, hoping that if she talked, Yukari could actually hear her. "There's other worlds; that's a fact. Some would say that every story ever written was a world or universe first, and the creator of that story tapped into a universal truth to make it."

She sighed, realizing she had indeed talked too much. "Understand that I really don't know for a fact one way or the other--other than my personal experience. It's just something else that seems to be a common theory going around."

Yes, Renamon. Point out that you're not crazy, you simply listen to crazy people.

"I don't know," Yukari said half-heartedly. "If they say they are, who knows, but I'm not falling for it." Hrm, but Renamon said someone knew about her? Yukari frowned some, unable to come up with a reason for it that sounded logical enough.

Or maybe there were just some things that were never going to be explained. And seeing how Yukari felt about this particular situation-- and Renamon, as well-- she didn't find herself wanting to get much into it.

"Anyway, people make up weird stuff for things they don't know all the time. I'm sure there's some other reason."

Yukari's black and white view on reality was refreshing. Renamon smirked. "There must be," she replied wryly. "Though nothing else makes much sense. We're probably better off forgetting about this item of interest."

The past fox Digimon thought, trying to think of something that wouldn't make the girl uncomfortable. Renamon did care for Yukari, and making her upset was not something she wanted to do. There was that whole issue Jiraiya mentioned to her... But Renamon wasn't even sure if others at the Institute were moving in real time enough to cause that.... Though there was something else that was irritating her lately.

"Yukari, I was wondering something," Renamon started, "about the human body's reactions. Specifically what the reasons are for a person's cheeks to heat up." Renamon knew the flush of embarrassment, but that wasn't it at all. And if she knew why it was caused, she could work to control it so it wouldn't happen.

Now with that subject pushed aside, Yukari blinked; it felt like an odd question to ask, but on the other hand, it was pretty easy to forget that Renamon wasn't originally a human. Still, wouldn't she know these things, or was it really so different?

"Um, well." Yukari paused for the quickest of seconds to wonder why Renamon was asking, but maybe she'd tell. "Sometimes it's when you're embarrassed or..." Hm, how could she describe this? "Get flustered, and things like that."

"No. Not embarrassment." Renamon frowned. "I was just talking. But I'd rather it not happen again, so I needed to know why it was." She shook her head. Maybe it was a meaningless subject.

She tried to replay the conversation in her mind. She was talking to Orihime, before they had even started talking about the difficult subjects. Renamon had asked how the girl was, told her she made theories with Mello and Jiraiya, and Orihime asked how Renamon and Jiraiya were getting along.

....

"It doesn't just happen for no reason," Yukari further explained, but once she thought about it some more, a playful grin colored her features. This was almost kind of hard to imagine with Renamon, being someone who was usually so serious and rarely ever the casual sort. Regardless, it didn't keep Yukari from asking. "Hey... Don't tell me you like someone."

Renamon stared at the floor, stunned for a moment, as one of her eyebrows started to twitch. She moved a hand up at press at her temple, closing her eyes. This was... ridiculous. She was Renamon. She did not 'like' people, she did not have school girl crushes simply because someone understood her and accepted her, thought the same way that she did, and could intellectually keep up with her as well as having martial skills.... Her eyebrow twitched more. She would blame this on this human body. That's all there was. Because anything else was simply ridiculous.

...Right.

"I'm kidding," Yukari teased, covering her mouth with a hand to stifle a laugh. She felt a small twinge of guilt for it, but on the other hand, it was good to finally be able to lighten up the mood some, especially after her last two conversations. "Sorry, I know it's annoying when someone tells you that. But it's one thing or the other, y'know?"

Continue with the conversation, Renamon. If that's true... then learn about it so you can control it. You seek knowledge, correct?

"Is that..." She sighed. "Is that a normal reaction for humans?"

It was true that she knew more about humans than almost any other Digimon, having lived years in the human world, but having Rika as a partner was difficult at times for learning's sake. Like for this. She wouldn't imagine Rika liking someone enough to react like that. And who would it be? Takato? Henry? Laughable. And the same should be true for her. Granted, she was fond of Impmon, but....

She was putting too much thought into this.

"Happens to everybody," Yukari assured with a casual gesture of her hand. "There's a lot of reasons for it and it's different depending on the person, but... It's not weird. Don't worry about it."

Day 37: Sun Room (4th Shift)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject