damned_institute | Nightshift 41: Entry Room

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Nightshift 41: Entry Room

[From here]

Kibitoshin stepped into the room, hope renewed. It looked like some kind of reception area if the two desks on either side of him were anything to go on, both absolutely pristine as though everything had been tidied away only seconds before he'd stepped into the room. On top of that there were enough doors here to keep him busy for hours yet. But the Kaioshin's efforts were focused rather further away than reconnaissance; at the end of the room were a pair of wide double doors, and beyond them was the outside. A little giddy, he hurried towards them, reached out, pulled, and-

- nearly wrenched his hand out of its socket. They were locked! Kibitoshin stared at them blankly for several moments, as though they would spring open if he willed it hard enough. Once it became apparent that his night was going to continue being so very distinctly free of miracles he sighed and dropped his hand. "Of course they're locked. That would be way too easy..."

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At the front of the church, staring up at the stone pedestal before the rows of pews, he stood waiting. Waiting for what was unclear, but his program had been damaged so badly from the previous fight that he wasn't even being pressed to attack the two patient-designated entities only yards behind him. They wouldn't be getting through a door they couldn't see.

Slowly, he turned to watch the two patients at the back of the cathedral. Either they hadn't seen him, or they weren't afraid. Either way, they seemed more curious than aggressive.

...of course, that tended to change like many of his radio buttons.

No matter what else was going on and wrong, Rokuta was fairly certain he would have noticed something like a shoku, especially given the other signs present when one was opened. He'd seen and felt nothing in this case, just stepped through a door into something entirely unexpected. "No, nothing like that. It just..."

And there he cut off as he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, turning in surprise toward the source, halfway afraid of an attack - but whoever, or whatever what was didn't seem immediately hostile. Fortunately. He hesitated a moment, then took a cautious step closer. "Hello?"

It didn't look like another patient, but he wasn't about to dismiss any potential sources of information.

Youko didn't think shoku were possible to miss, either, but one never knew! And walking into a room that didn't belong at all was enough to make her question whether they were still in the same place, especially when they'd already somehow been transported out of the Twelve Kingdoms without their knowledge.

She noticed the figure sharing the room with them just as Enki did, and threw an arm out to try to block Enki from going any closer. Too risky, even if there were no overt signs of aggression right now. Was this person responsible for the room they were in? Some kind of illusion? It wasn't a power Youko was familiar with, but it was always possible, all things considered, and it could be very dangerous. "Who are you?"

Who? He didn't know. He didn't have a name, after all. He was himself. He was his purpose.

He took a few steps forward, tilting his head curiously at the two of them. They didn't appear to have weapons, and the only aggression he could sense was from the woman. Why the two of them were calling out to him when he was obviously armed didn't make sense. But it was the second time it had happened tonight, so perhaps it did?

Opening his mouth to answer the question, a low groan left him as he focused his one eye on the two of them.

Rokuta halted as Youko blocked his path, even though he frowned up at her with a look of mild exasperation. Yes, all right, the...person was armed. And they were in a strange place. But at the same time, he wasn't attacking them, and given that they were unarmed as well wasn't it better to try to talk than to fight?

He sighed and glanced around the area for a moment, but didn't see any way out except the door through which they'd entered. These dead ends were starting to become tiresome, and the search had only just begun. But hopefully whoever this was would know a way out?

At the odd sound the kirin glanced back at the strange figure, brow creasing in a deeper frown. It...was almost like he was trying to communicate, but it wasn't quite understandable, which was odd in and of itself. "There's no reason to start a fight if we don't need to," he muttered for Youko, before raising his voice a little. "Where is this?"

Whether it was attacking or not, Youko didn't want Enki to be the first thing in the strange boy's path. If he did turn out to be hostile, she wanted to be able to protect Enki and she couldn't do that if Enki was between her and the potential enemy. "Agreed, I don't want to fight. But still, stay behind me please."

Youko was having thoughts similar to Enki's, about the strange newcomer's actions. It did seem like he was trying to communicate, but somehow unable. "Can you not speak?"

Speak...? Speak... speech. He couldn't speak. His speech programming was only 23% complete. He could only make noises that were unintelligible to most other players, patients, and AI.

He stopped a few paces away from Rokuta and Youko, tilting his head. His eye focused on Youko and then Rokuta.

"/\ H1]]3n F0r81]]3n H01\/ Gr0|_|n]," he growled. Though he didn't expect them to understand. But so rarely had someone asked him a question that wasn't phrased in a hostile manner.

Rokuta just gave Youko a slight shrug in response to her request. He wasn't going to argue the point; that would've been incredibly stupid. He couldn't fight, after all, and she did have reason to feel protective of him. That didn't stop him from looking mildly exasperated, of course, but there were other things to be worried about.

This...person was too humanoid to be a youma, and yet at the same time he was a little too odd to be entirely human. It was almost as though he'd been designed to make people uneasy. If he'd been "designed" at all, with that strange patchwork-y look to him. Of course, Rokuta had lived with shirei for most of his life, and Yokuhi wasn't exactly what most people would consider normal-looking. Although thoughts of her just reminded him of the worry for the shirei, and his immediate reasons for getting out of this place.

But then the being spoke - kind of, it wasn't any language he'd heard before - and it certainly didn't make anything clearer. "Hidden forbidden holy ground?" Rokuta echoed, with a puzzled glance around the room. Holy ground...all right, it looked like a church of some kind. The rest of it, though, didn't help. "Is there a way out?" Preferably something other than the door leading back into the supposed hospital.

Enki could be as exasperated as he wanted, as long as he stayed relatively safe behind Youko. At least he wasn't sighing at her like Keiki always did.

Just when Youko was all but certain that the strange boy couldn't speak, he ground out a few unhelpful words. Youko didn't recognise the language, either, though something about it seemed almost like maybe she should recognise it. Almost. A puzzle for another time, though. The actual words were almost as much of a puzzle, themselves, unfortunately. Holy ground was pretty self-explanatory, but the first half of the description bothered Youko, especially the 'forbidden' part. Was the boy this place's guardian? If so, and if he took the 'forbidden' part seriously, that could mean trouble. Still, so far he'd made no aggressive moves, so Youko only stayed alert. "We don't mean to trespass."

There were ways out. Four of them, actually. But one was forbidden. No one could pass through it--much less be able to perceive it now. If one looked closely enough, though, they might be able to make out the outline of the door. But that required them to actually get close enough to see--which was impossible now that he was there.

The other two were rooms outside his territory, and weren't classified as ways 'out' of the building, but simply 'out' of his territory. Slowly, he raised one of his Fangs towards the door Rokuta and Youko had come from, and stayed poised as though pointing. A low rasping breath came from behind his collar as he watched the one who had understood what he'd tried to convey. No one had ever managed that before...

Rokuta followed the gesture and glanced toward the door indicated, then grimaced and lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck. Oh, good. Another dead end. Just what they needed.

There might be another way out, but given the fact that this person seemed to be guarding the place, it'd probably involve some kind of confrontation to find it. Even if he hadn't offered any violence yet, just the fact that he was armed seemed to indicate that he wasn't entirely unwilling to do so.

The kirin dropped his hand again and shrugged, taking a step back and half-turning toward the door. "Guess we go back, then," he grumbled, with a sidelong glance toward Youko.

Edited 2009-06-22 23:54 (UTC)

Barriers every way they turned. Youko sighed, starting to feel like they were rats in a maze. Did rats feel this frustration every time they followed the scent of cheese and ended up at nothing but a blank wall and a dead-end? Did they start to doubt the existence of the cheese, even though they could smell it? Probably not. Probably only people were that weak. "Guess we do."

More out of habit than anything else, Youko bowed from the waist before turning to go. What would the strange boy make of that, she wondered? He hadn't helped them, but he hadn't tried to harm them, either. That was worth a little common courtesy, in a place like this.

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Nightshift 41: Entry Room

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