damned_institute | Night 41: M01-10 Hallway

[in M7]

Hanatarou had managed to choke down about half of his dinner before finally giving up and pushing the tray away. With a glance back at Sora to make sure his roommate wasn't looking, he'd opened the closet door to get his uniform and started to change; he thought that if he was going to act like a healer he could at least look like one. Right?

He was just settling his pack in place when the intercom went off, and he gave a startled glance back toward the speaker. The announcement was creepy and disturbing as usual, but considering that he was already a bundle of nerves as it was...well, there wasn't really a visible impact on him. There were supposed to be two people - two strangers - coming by to be healed, and he hoped that he'd be able to help them.

The healer paused for a moment, staring blankly at the imitation Hisagomaru in the corner of the closet before finally deciding to leave it there for the time being. He'd have to see how he felt after trying to heal two people before deciding what he was going to do next.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"She offered to heal the injuries of my group - too many of us at once," Dias observed, glancing down at Celes pointedly. "Against my advice. She just needs to rest, I hope." Then, because Hughes was still standing in the door, he nodded slightly past the other man. "I think the sooner you let me put her down, the better she'll like it."

Celes returned the pointed look, her lips thinning into a fine line. "I'll be quite fine. I'm fine now." Fine being relative, of course, but damn it all if she wasn't going to cling to her pride in this instance as a drowning man clung to driftwood. "It isn't as though you were an army," she muttered and crossed her arms.

"Alright, alright." Hughes held his hands up in defeat to Celes as he moved to let them inside.

"But you ought to take it easy. I know how worn out Roy was when he pushed himself. It wasn't pretty." He sure as hell wasn't going to blame her for it. People needed healing. Just like people needed weapons and everything else. The whole point of all these group efforts was to make sure people had those things.

"Speak for yourself," Dias said with faint amusement as he stepped into the room, putting Celes down gently on the nearest bed. "Even though I would have preferred you didn't strain yourself to this degree," he murmured as he straightened again, "thank you. It's going to be a great help to us."

"You're welcome. Now," Celes turned her face away from Dias' and pointed to the door. "Show me your thanks by getting something done tonight, Dias. That's all I require." She wouldn't even care if he managed to gather metal or just discuss his strategy for getting into the basement. "It's reward in and of itself."

Celes sat up and rested her back against the headboard. "Another thing; I don't know how well that spell of yours is going to hold, so be careful, and let's make sure neither of us have to be in this position again?"

Edited 2009-06-12 20:34 (UTC)

Hughes managed to hide his slight chuckle at Celes' 'orders', finding it funny how she still managed to hand out orders even now and like this. Yeah, she'd been the perfect person to take over this Club with him.

"I'll make sure she gets rest," he assured Dias, in case the man was worried about leaving her.

"I intend to," Dias replied with a slight nod. There was no point in his wasting the opportunity Celes had given them for the night, after all. And he'd taken care to make his answer ambiguous; he could have been replying to any of the things she'd said, or all of them.

With another nod to Hughes - who, despite not knowing very well, Dias trusted; if Mustang had, then he would do the same - he slipped out of the room again.

[Heading back here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/629246.html?thread=53233662#t53233662).]

Celes watched Dias leave, and turned to Hughes, letting herself finally flag. "I wasn't expecting so heavy a punishment for using my abilities." She leaned her head back against the headboard again and breathed shallowly. "If he ever mentions needing to carry me, Hughes, I will probably make him regret it." Celes knew she felt a bit punchy as it was, but there were other things more important than her suddenly drained body.

"I had wished to speak to you about the list. Who is on it, who do we have left to get through to?"

"Don't worry about it," Hughes said, holding up a hand. "You did what you had to do, and now you've just got to take it easy for a bit. And I sure didn't see anybody carrying you in here." He gave her a small wink.

He took a seat on the opposite bed, leaning forward casually. "We're doing good with the list," he said. "Ed's got it right now, but I think we're through the folks who confirmed. We're doing okay on metal, but we'll need more soon. Especially with all these newcomers."

Celes chuckled, and immediately regretted it as her head swam. "You're damned right no one's carried me in," she replied after a moment. "Ugh."

"Do you think we'll be able to get more metal from places other than the bathrooms? Better grade metal would make better weapons, wouldn't it?" Celes breathed slowly through her nose and out of her mouth until the wave of dizziness passed. "What about our membership list? I have a feeling our numbers have dwindled substantially, especially if we intend to have any kind of impact. Is there... is there anything we can do to help Ed? Should we make copies of the information we do have if one of us... happen to vanish?" It was a hard to think about that, but Celes knew they needed to be prepared for any instance. Having him vanish just the other day had driven that point home quite thoroughly.

"I'm already ahead of you on making copies," Hughes admitted, nodding. "I've been copying over everything I've got in my journal for you. That way both of us will have all the same information, just in case."

Hughes knew he wasn't immune to whatever happened to people in this place. And if something did happen to him, well, Celes would be fully prepared to take over the club.

"And yeah, our numbers are pretty well down. I talked to Utena today, though, so I know she's on board. I just don't know how to recruit people, when there are so many damn organizations out there now."

"Good, good," Celes replied, feeling relief flood her features. "If only there were a way of cleaning up those clubs that do the same thing we've been doing. Though they don't take well to that, as any attempt to unite them thus far has failed. Stubborn chocobo." If she were feeling better, she'd corral the little fools up and give them a very pointed request.

"What shall we do in the meantime, Hughes? Put up a notice for club members as all the others do?"

"There's just too many people running around, wanting to help, and not quite knowing what they're doing," Hughes pointed out. "We need to get organized, but...no one can spare the time and effort it's going to take to do that." Hell, he wanted one solid force working against the institute. But it wasn't going to happen.

"That's all we can do. Detail what we do, what we expect from people, and then we just have to hope. I've never been in charge of recruitment before. Not really sure how to do it right."

"That makes two of us," If Leo was with them, then they'd probably would have had a chance at recruiting. The mohawked general seemed to simply flock bright-eyed, ambitious soldiers to him. But that was neither here, nor there, no matter how much Celes would've have loved to see a familiar face from home. She toyed with the red gem on her necklace, thinking. "We'll muddle through it somehow, I'm sure, Hughes."

Celes closed her eyes, and let her mind drift, "I shall continue to see what it is Dias and his comrades are doing down in the basement. I must admit curiosity over any particular agenda." She cracked open an eye and watched Hughes. "He seems to be a good man, if his loyalty to his friends is any indication." Wholly a different kettle from Luxord, in fact. Though the young general was sure that her interest in the Nobody was one borne of curiosity. "I don't think he'll disappoint us."

Edited 2009-06-19 19:17 (UTC)

Night 41: M01-10 Hallway

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