damned_institute | Day 41: Intercom, Evening

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Day 41: Intercom, Evening

When the intercom's jingle sounded, there seemed to be some kind of tapping in the background noise, like letters being punched into a keyboard. It stopped and the Head Doctor chuckled.

"Hello, everyone! I'm actually taking a break from paperwork for once – everyone needs some recreational time, you know! – and of course, now we can all look forward to a scrumptious dinner from our cooks. Tonight, herb-seasoned grilled salmon is on the menu, served with buttery mashed potatoes and asparagus. All our regular drinks and vegetarian options are available, and for dessert, we will be serving yellow cake with a whipped cream icing.

"...Well! I can hardly wait to get my own dinner after saying all that. Good bye for now, everyone, and enjoy your delicious food!"

The intercom clicked off.

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Chihaya tensed and stared straight ahead. He wasn't averse to touch but....there was something about Arachne. He forced himself to relax a little more.

"Well, no," he said, sadly, "they're not." Chihaya missed his black wings now that they were gone. But he wanted so desperately to know why he was the only black Angel. Well, only one in good health.

"D-d-demons?" he squeaked. He didn't know if they even existed! He just knew people liked to call him one sometimes. Did Arachne know how much his words meant to Chihaya?

"Demons," Arachne echoed, widening his eyes for emphasis. Whatever--if Chihaya was too stupid to figure it out by now, that was fine.

He dragged his arms back off his roommate's shoulders and turned to dig through the contents of his desk. "So you're looking to get out of here, aren't you?" he asked, glancing back at Chihaya. "Tell me you didn't come here by choice."

"Arachne... um... are you a-a... what are you?" he asked, refusing to actually suggest 'demon'. It might be taken as an insult!

Chihaya accidentally let slip a relived sound when Arachne released him. He didn't mean to be so rude! He tried to ignore it and hope Arachne would do the same.

"Oh, no! I don't want to be here, it sounds awful and they say there are monsters! One of the boys here...he's been hurt."

Arachne ignored the question for a moment. There was nothing useful in the desk drawer; he nudged it shut and turned to look at Chihaya. "Monsters," he murmured, "that does sound awful." Exactly like Hell, in other words--no problem there. Humans were so hilariously helpless when it came to things like this, and Chihaya seemed to be exceptionally naive about it.

"I'm just Arachne," he said, leaning back on the desk. "Want to escape with me?" If for whatever reason he wasn't under Belial's protection, and his own powers couldn't quite get him out of a jam, he could always throw this human to the monsters, whatever they were.

Arachne's tone suggested he didn't seem particularly bothered by monsters... Chihaya had to wonder why. Surely it was frightening to everybody?!

"Oh... are you the only...only one like you? That's...well, it must be lonely. I'm a little different too," he smiled, softly.

"Es- do you know how?"

'Lonely' wasn't the word for it, not anymore. Arachne looked away for a second to reign in the long story--he always had a tiny little inclination to go off on a rant about it, but he'd been resisting the thing for years.

"Different because of what, this?" He leaned forward and reached for Chihaya's hair, just short of touching it. "You'd better not think of changing how you look for other people." He let his arm drop. "Anyway I don't know how, but we can look, can't we?"

The red tint came back to his cheeks as Arachne closed in, but he only looked away, sadly. "It wouldn't have done me any good. How... how does your hair make you different?" he asked. "I think it's very beautiful..."

Chihaya nodded slowly. "We'd come back for everybody though, of course? Oh! I'm...I'm meeting somebody tonight. We'll go together!"

Arachne quirked an eyebrow at him. "It's effeminate, obviously.--It doesn't matter," he decided, waving the subject away. There was the question of what exactly made Chihaya 'different' if it wasn't his appearance, but that wasn't terribly important.

Meeting someone was perfect--more shields for him, if he needed them. "Good, then that's settled," he said, tossing his hair over his shoulder. Coming back for everyone, honestly. He was almost like how angels were supposed to be; the ones who'd invaded Anagura would have been shamed by his attitude. Demons would have eaten him right up.

Some sixth sense in him stirred and whispered that maybe this was important after all. "What was it that made you different?" he asked, careful to keep his voice casual.

"Effeminate?" he repeated, slowly. He supposed it...it wasn't untrue. But... "Everybody has long hair where I'm from," he smiled. "I think it's much nicer than short hair."

Oh! So it was going to be three of them, that was good. Apart from one small thing that he wasn't sure about.

"The... the person I'm meeting might be human. That's ok...isn't it?"

Chihaya began to move the food around on his plate. Another thing he was going to miss. Kagestuya's cooking.

"Well... I'm... I'm black."

Edited 2009-05-26 19:07 (UTC)

"I expected him to be human," said Arachne. Or her, he supposed; but with luck it would be a man, and with even more luck he'd be smoking--both in the figurative and literal sense; he kind of wanted a cigarette.

"Referring to what, exactly?" he asked, smirking. The hair was obvious in that respect too, but if it wasn't his appearance...

Chihaya smiled, relieved. He didn't want his new friends to be awkward with one another. And Kio seemed so nice, maybe he'd help Arachne to really like Earthians!

"My...hair...my wings...." he said with a shrug. "There's nothing I can do to hide it and even if I tried...I'm the only Angel born black. I'm...a little infamous," he laughed, softly. "But it's not so bad anymore. I have more friends beca- well..." He took a deep breath and sighed. "I should eat my dinner."

That shocked Arachne into speechlessness for a full minute. He raked his eyes over Chihaya's form, looking for something familiar: he had the beauty thing down, but he wasn't exactly killing material, and just about every angel that Arachne had ever seen had been a soldier, and certainly bigger and more threatening than this.

Then again, he had never heard of black wings on an angel, either; black wings were for demons. That definitely fit with him saying he was infamous--maybe it was just in Heaven.

"You're an angel," he said, and then his sense of humor caught up, and he collapsed onto his bed and laughed until he cried. It was like divine irony, or something--Belial would have loved it.

The reaction was... well, in some ways it would have been expected. From somebody who hadn't been talking about Angels and Demons so casually....

And the way Arachne has looked him up and down as if he knew what an Angel SHOULD look like!

"W-well. Yes, I am. Don't you believe me?" he asked.

Arachne sat up and wiped his eyes, still smiling. "Oh damn it, my mas--I'm not wearing mascara," he interrupted himself, staring at his fingertips. That was going to take some getting used to, at least until he could find makeup.

"Don't worry, I believe you," he said, flipping his hand over to examine his nails again, as if they were of more concern than what came next: "It's just funny because angels murdered my entire family."

"What?!" Chihaya shot up from his seat, staring in horror. "N-no...they wouldn't do that!" His eyes betrayed his doubt and he sank back down into his seat, awkwardly. The Angels he loved so dearly...they were watching Earth, ready to decide on it's fate...

"Why would...why would they kill your family? I-it doesn't make sense. You said you're not an Angel..."

He really was a model angel--the naivete, the blind faith in the idea that his side was the right side--it was almost endearing, but it was just a little too annoying for that. It would be fun to disillusion him, though.

"Because we lived in Hell," said Arachne casually. "Angels kill demons; they don't need any other reason. Obviously you haven't met any of the especially dedicated ones."

"No," Chihaya said, determined. "We're not like that. I never even knew Demons existed. I'd...I'd have known. Angel's do not kill." They just judged and destroyed. And had the death penalty in place for deviants. Like Chihaya.

"It must have been a mistake. A rogue!" There was still the doubt. "Where is hell?" he finally asked. Was it another planet, the same way Eden was? Something the Earthians confused in their religions.

For a minute Arachne was too busy laughing to answer anything--if angels didn't kill, it must have been his imagination that had decimated the top layers of Hell; that made sense.

The question stopped him cold, and he raised his eyebrows at Chihaya. "How can you not know? Were you raised in a room with no windows?" That would explain a few things, at any rate. "I'll give you a lesson in geography," he added, "Hell is connected to Heaven. All you have to do to get there is go down." He got up and leaned into Chihaya's space, close enough to touch but not quite there--it was so fun to do this to people who blushed easily. "And I'll give you an extra lesson in trusting people," he said, in a lower voice, as if it were just between the two of them: "don't do it."

Arachne got the reaction he wanted. Chihaya tensed and his skin returned to that delightful shade of hot pink. A part of him wanted to cry a little, maybe. But he'd promised himself not to. He was alone now. He had to be stronger and...crying would mean that he'd been wrong. It would let Kagetsuya down even more.

"B-but... Heaven's just another name for our Planet. Our base too. Edan and Isana. H-hell would be...Earth." In a sense. The only one he could work out.

Chihaya leaned back further and tried to turn his attention to his dinner.

"So you are a Demon. Of sorts?"

Oh, he was trying the just-ignore-it strategy; how cute. Well, he could get away with it this time. Arachne straightened and leaned against Chihaya's desk, crossing his arms. "I have no idea what you're talking about, with regard to Heaven, but you're not too far off with Hell. It doesn't really matter," he said dismissively. "But you're right about me, at least...in a general way." He would have leaned in again here, if he hadn't just tried it; instead he smirked down at Chihaya. "Does it bother you?"

Chihaya shook his head. "Just because people say bad things about Demons doesn't mean I should believe it. Besides. I should be able to decide for myself. Besides... everybody's unique. A society or race can't be judged solely on the acts of one person."

He looked at Arachne's hair and frowned. "But...I did think that Demons enjoyed...tempting people. So it seems strange that you wouldn't be liked because of your hair..."

"What an admirable viewpoint," said Arachne dryly. To this angel's credit, it was more independent than his fellows were capable of, in Arachne's opinion--but he wasn't in the habit of giving anyone credit for common sense.

He wasn't particularly interested in discussing why his appearance made him stand out even in Hell, partly because he didn't have the makeup, the heels, or the fake B-cups to demonstrate what he was supposed to look like. Instead he latched onto that stupid hackneyed (typically angelic) thought about demons, and said, in an affected sultry voice, "We do like to tempt people, yes. Especially angels; we tempt angels right out of their pure little hearts. And you make it even harder to resist, because every-- time-- I get close to you--" he inched closer as he spoke-- "you turn pink." He tapped Chihaya on the nose and leaned back again. "You're lucky you're not my type."

Chihaya pouted a little at being made fun of. He wasn't trying to be admirable, he was trying to be fair. If only the other Angel's felt the same about Earth...there was so much to enjoy!

Once again Chihaya's reaction was perfect for Arachne's needs.

"W-w-what do you mean not y-" his eyes widened. The blush didn't fade, but his expression turned sad and he quickly looked away, thankful for a dinner plate to distract him.

It wouldn't matter if he was Arachne's type. He'd already been tempted by somebody, so to speak.

"I'm sorry about your family," he said, quietly. "If...if it really was Angels like me...Angels from Eden, that is...then I'm sorry. We're not all...well, nobody I KNOW is... is so terrible."

Arachne laughed again and moved back over to his own desk. Chihaya was sorrier for his "family" than he was; that was funny. Fitting, actually, for an angel; but this was the first really nice angel he'd ever met. Still funny, anyway.

"Or maybe you're a terrible judge of character," he suggested, lifting the side of his dinner plate with a disdainful fingertip and letting it fall. He wasn't hungry.

"Maybe. But... I've followed my heart so far and..." Ok, lots had gone wrong in regards to Kagetsuya. But he...didn't regret it. The chance to love and be loved, however brief, had been more wonderful than anything he'd ever known.

"I'll only have myself to blame," he said, smiling. "Don't you think I should give you a chance?"

Chihaya could admit he was wary of Arachne, but it didn't put him off trying to be friends. Clearly Arachne was grieving his family. It was a good show of character that he was even talking to Chihaya.

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