damned_institute | Day 43: Chapel

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Day 43: Chapel

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn, someone had gotten to it before her. And who was the voice at the end there? It was like she'd been allowed access to some kind of strange mystery that she could not understand, one that had been going on for a long time before she had arrived and would be going on for quite a while in the future, after she was gone. Had these strange sets of circumstances been bugs in this place's programming? Who could say?

The morning's intercom greeting was strange, as well. Federal training whatsit? It didn't seem like this happened very often, from the sound of it, but so much had happened since the last day she remembered that the former Demon Palace Emperor was ready to take pretty much anything at face value.

The room she woke up in was still empty. Wondering where to stick the half-cracked bat that she'd picked up last night, she shoved it under the mattress hastily when she heard footsteps in the hall.

The stupid nurse was the same as ever, though. Some things never changed. "Ahh, good morning, Eileen. It's so nice to see you awake."

Alkaid rolled her eyes at the nurse's chuckle, and shook her head. She didn't care that the NPC thought it was nice, she just wanted to see the rest of the institute already.. see what had changed! "Yeah, it's fantastic. Whatever! Just take me where I'm going and be done with it!"

It was just then that she realized that she was not wanting to devour the flesh of the nurse in front of her. And that the pain on her arm had kind of abated - she couldn't see through the thick bandages they had covered her arm with, but she wondered if her skin was still rotting off like a zombie. Had they somehow cured her infection overnight? Or was the nurse not human, like Alkaid had always thought?

There was only one thing for it: she had to go somewhere else.

"Chapel, sun room, or cafeteria, then?"

"Does it look like I care?"

The nurse sighed, then started walking Alkaid down the hall, up the stairs, and down another hall to the chapel. No one here yet, huh? That was weird. She couldn't imagine that no one else'd show up, but who could say? This place had been turned on its ass.

The chapel was empty so far, and kind of nondescript. She shooed the nurse away, and stood in the middle of the space between the pews, standing akimbo. What would happen today? What would she learn about herself... her situation? How long had she been sleeping? Was she really still going freaking undead, or had that been somehow taken care of?

All this would come to light really soon. She hoped. Geez, too many mysteries!!

[unwittingly awaiting Haseo]

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"And you cannot now?" Teresa was genuinely curious. Sure, humans were worthless against youma (or they wouldn't have created her kind in the first place) but even a human could raise a sword and make a reasonable attempt not to cut his own foot off.

"What was your occupation? Even the lowest of humans can fight when cornered."

"Not really. I can still fight, but that's not much good when the thing you're trying to punch can just bite your hand off, or stab you, or-" Urgh. Maybe he shouldn't have been so... colourful with that. A distraction was in order.

Very quickly indeed, he said, "I'm not human- I'm a Kaioshin. The guardian of the universe, actually." He sighed quietly, shoulders sagging. Not that the role meant much; 'passenger' was too light a term for it, and even though he wanted to do more... "What about you, if you don't mind saying? Earlier, you sort of implied you weren't human either."

"I've experienced nothing of the sort myself, but as far as I know this is hardly an isolated occurrence. Von Karma probably wasn't lying about not knowing what happened, in that case."

His nurse appeared like clockwork as the intercom switched on, and Javert stood up, inclining his head slightly to Edgeworth. "Your efforts are much appreciated. Likewise, M. Edgeworth."

Not human... Teresa's silver eyes narrowed as she focused on her senses, but she didn't pick up any demonic energy coming off of Kibitoshin. The expression eased some. The concept of a 'guardian of the universe' was very foreign to her. Was he implying he was one of the silly gods humans clung to?

"I am only half human," Teresa replied. "The other half of me is youma - a demonic being that hunts and feasts on human flesh." That faint smile slipped onto her face once again. "I was created to exterminate the youma and was ranked Number One."

She was silent for a moment. "Are you claiming to be a god?"

Kio's face changed to show the concern he was feeling, although something did not ring quite true about her words. His eyes carefully scanned hers for anything that might give her away, but there was nothing concrete. He sighed softly. Either the people here were much harder to read, or he was still so strung up from the meeting with Soubi. "I'm glad you got out of there okay, Ophelia-kun! So many of my friends have been going lately... I thought I'd lost you too."

He leaned over and hugged her briefly. It felt good. "I can't help you there, I was asleep. I think my nurse gave me some strong pills to make sure I would sleep." He felt bad because he could have been useful, but he wasn't. "Ophelia-kun, which of the clubs does scavenging?"

"I think I'd rather... have it so nobody else shows up here who we'd know," Haseo said surely, if still clearly slowed in the way he spoke and held his posture. Even if someone who'd have a better idea about what the hell is going on here would help... but nobody deserves this.

He let out a long sigh as he too watched the nurses begin to escort "patients" from the room, but Alkaid made no move to leave just yet and that was something Haseo could live with for now (even though he'd managed to keep the conversation running so awkward somehow). He felt the slightest bit guilty for just going on like the misfortune was restricted to him... that was probably half the reason people seemed mad at him all the time- for not thinking of others...

He cleared his throat again, irritation breaking just barely as he aimed the ghost of a smile toward his found-again friend for the second time that day- even if this time he kept his hands to himself. "Likewise, Alkaid... thanks. If you see anyone else you recognize... tell me, got it?" Another beat passed, and he glanced at the nurses out of the corner of his eye, tone turning solemn once more, "And... if you need anything, just say the word."

The kid had demonstrated he could fight, possibly even better than Jason ever had as Robin and had the same calm attitude while dismembering the living dead that most professional killers did. If it weren't for his mention of heaven and gods, Jason wouldn't have had much trouble believing the story. He knew that Nataku's age was no barrier to bastards trying to use him like that - fuck he knew members of the 'family' with similar stories. And the way he'd spoken about these so-called gods made it sound like they were just another bunch of power-hungry assholes willing to make a kid do their dirty work.

"Yeah, I can buy that. Never got why people got so hung up on god anyway." Jason paced a few steps back and forth, too restless and agitated to stay still. Nataku seemed almost resigned to his position, which made him think he'd been doing it a while. And considering his age, there were only so many ways he could've gotten to this point. "How'd you get the position? It's not the sort of thing you volunteer for."

He stood with his arms at his sides, eyes tracking Will as he paced back and forth. He still reminded Nataku a lot of Kenren, one of the few people who never failed to get angry on his behalf. He hoped he wouldn't have to punch Will too. It wouldn't do him any good getting all worked up again after last night.

Still, it was clear that he wasn't going to lose interest, so Nataku stayed where he was, fingers curling slightly at his sides, but otherwise still. "You understand what gods are, basically? They're forbidden to sin, to kill or so much as eat another living creature because its corruption.

"But I'm only part god. Heresy, because my blood is tainted. I was born from the sin of a god who chose to mix his blood with that of youkai. Demons," He clarified. "Among other things."

Though his tone remained neutral, his hands were closed into fists at his sides, his shoulders set with tension as if he expected Will to change his mind and dash off or accuse him at any moment. He had no intention of hiding what he was, but he wasn't eager to explain unless he was asked, and so Will was the first person outside of Homura and Kenren who he'd mentioned anything to at all.

"When the gods needed a War Prince to kill where they couldn't subdue, I was presented. I was allowed to exist so long as I remained obedient. I was created by my father like the failed Natakus before me specifically for that purpose."

Edited 2009-08-13 23:00 (UTC)

"Um." The question threw Daphne, and her expression screwed up in thought for a few seconds. "I guess...some people like to prepare in advance for the next holiday, y'know? Get things when the prices aren't so inflated. And sometimes you just don't get what you'd hoped for for gifts, so you want to treat yourself. Or you find out you're going to see that relative who wasn't going to show up after all, and you need to get something last-minute." She managed to reassemble her wobbly smile, and shrugged a little. "And sometimes people just really, really like to shop."

She plucked at the hem of her pants again, wracking her brain for some way to explain credit cards. They were something she took for granted, to the point where she hardly even bothered thinking about them any more. "Credit cards...okay. It's sort of like a short-term loan. The card works like an account, and if you want to buy something but you don't have the money, you use it instead. You have to pay it off eventually, but it means you don't have to carry a lot of cash around."

Daphne paused, then asked in a rush, "Where are you from, anyways?"

"Meche," he repeated, thick tone almost a question. "'Mechanical?'" Or maybe that was her name, strange as it may be. Did he have room to talk? And why was he fixating in this direction? His gaze rested on her hand where it was lightly pressing on his own, stopping his process. Fixations. Funny things. They consume, you know. Keep your mind occupied until the fixation dispersed. Why was his psyche so fond of them?

Regardless, the bandages gave his mind a stable point to hold onto, even if memory and habitual behaviors were still missing. Irony, however, wasn't. A finger traced one edge of the wrapping lightly, head tilting to the side as he watched. "Heal?" Almost confusion there. "I don't need to heal."

While she hadn't answered the question in the way that he'd meant to ask it, Guy didn't mind listening anyway. It would get them further and further away from the previous topic, which was what he was aiming for. It was a good thing that Celes and Dias had stayed together during the attack, and Guy only wished that he and Claude had been able to get out as unscathed as the other pair had.

"I actually meant about how you first met," he said with a small smile. It was a little embarrassing when someone misunderstood like this, but at least it gave them more to talk about. He was only curious because Dias and Celes already seemed to be rather close, which meant they might have met a while back -- although there was also that other man who had cut into their conversation yesterday, so who really knew?

"To the contrary, miss."

Sebastian's eyes remained fixed, but something about them softened.

Or was it sharpened?

"I am quite the pious man indeed--but to my God of choice."

Celes gaped at Guy in open-mouthed surprise, and closed her mouth with a quiet clack of teeth. "Oh," she murmured after a moment, and even managed to nearly blush. "My apologies, I misinterpreted."

She fingered the end of her braid to regain her composure. "We met at breakfast one day some time ago," she started, "and found we had similar interests." There wasn't really anything much to that initial meeting, to be fair. "Though he is rather obtuse." Which wasn't the half of it, as the two of them seemed to fight more than agree, but she did enjoy his company.

"Meche," she confirmed. "It's short for Mercedes." Which was a machine, and a car was the first thing a lot of people thought of when she introduced herself. Probably not Albedo, if he really was from the future, but she pronounced it in Spanish anyway, just to be clear. Mercedes--mercies. Even her name was good. She wondered idly if it still suited her.

Albedo was still playing with the wrapping, but at least he'd stopped trying to get it off for the moment. Meche let his hand go. What did he mean, he didn't need to heal? Maybe it was just the sedative talking. It might make sense in his own mind, but she didn't know what he meant.

But kids made illogical statements all the time, and she thought it was best to try to give them a reasonable answer if she could. She gave him a smile. "Don't you? If the places you got hurt heal, they won't cause you any pain, and it'll be easier to move around. And leaving them alone will help you make sure they don't get any worse. Those all sound like good things to me, don't you think?"

Scowling intensely, Jason wheeled around and strode up to Nataku, staring at him intently as he declared "That's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard."

Just the thought of some bastards spouting those kinds of lies, about being unable to kill or eat meat because they'd be 'corrupted' while sending some kid out to do what they didn't have the balls to do themselves had his fingers itching for a gun, or better yet, his dagger so he could teach them a lesson. And that wasn't even touching on what he'd do to some dickless asshole who'd tell his own son that he only existed to be used, that he was 'allowed' to exist. Even Sheila Haywood hadn't tried to act like what she was doing was right.

"You better not be telling me you buy into that load of crap. Sending someone else out because you're too scared to get your hands dirty is worse than killing or fucking eating meat. All the bastards who'd send you out to kill for them are already plenty corrupted, no matter what they say."

Dean hadn't expected to hear about people actually helping them. Usually it was the other way around. Civvies were supposed to run around, crapping their pants cause a Jersey devil was on their ass and that was when they'd step in. Being the rescuee was a new one. Technically he'd been unconscious for all of that, so he'd missed out. But Peter? Wishy-washy, good kid Peter? He hadn't exactly struck him as the kinda guy to dive into the fray like that. Dean's eyebrows rose. "Yeah, I ran into a kid like that first day here."

He'd arrived during the night and had spent an unknown chunk of it unconscious on the floor after getting friggen flashlight-whipped with his own flashlight - something, he realized, was starting to turn into a running gag in this joint. Getting your knocks on in the job was just part of the risks, but he could safely say he hadn't spent as much time unconscious (or near it) as he had just within this week here. Hopefully he wasn't gonna get brain damage or something permanent, even if he had a pretty hard skull. Dean decided he was gonna keep the whole getting brained by your own flashlight to himself for now. Sam had enough things to be worried about. Something that happened once and looked to be just a random thing wasn't really that high on their To-Do list.

Dean was still trying to wrap his around him that nerdy, probably-shy Peter had been the one to put on the superhero cape and save their asses when the dead were walking. "You serious though? Him? I mean, I talked to him a little, but he came off as just some college kid that time."

And not the badass kind, like Sam. Sam had come prepackaged with all the know-how on surviving and handling a gun; somehow he doubted they taught how to hotwire a car and bypass security at Stanford. Still, Peter had toughed it out to last here during the nights, which meant either he knew the meaning of "stay put" in the rooms or he could handle himself more than Dean had guessed at first. Peter told him about being "brainwashed", which had been his first warning there was a real danger of getting possessed and attacking people with no say in the matter - he just wished he'd paid more attention to that, 'cause he still had no memory of the actual moment when he must've gotten tagged. No stray memories leaking into him from the demon, either. Come to think of it, how had it gotten into his room? He'd laid salt lines down...

Unless there was more he forgot and he didn't even know it. That night had just been obvious. Dean wasn't sure if he wanted to bring that up to Sam just yet, not when the kid knew more than he did and could just get away with hedging around it. Sam probably had good reasons but Dean could handle himself. Especially now that he had the tattoo and he couldn't get turned against his brother like that.

Dean caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, shifting slightly to watch as the first nurse came in to escort the patients at the same time as the intercom sounded. Looked like their time was up for now. Dean gave his brother a back-handed tap on the arm before Hello Nurse showed up:

"Take it easy, Sammy,"

Edited 2009-08-14 08:12 (UTC)

Guy wasn't sure what other kind of answer he had been expecting. How else did people meet here? Sometimes they ran into each other by chance at night, but it looked like in this case Celes and Dias had just hit it off for one reason or another. They didn't seem like the best of buddies, but the swordsman could definitely sense a certain amount of respect.

He laughed for a second or two at Celes' last comment, though. "That's an admirably courteous way of putting it," he remarked. It reminded him of the way he might have watched the things he said around the Duke or something. Then again, Celes was more polite than most... Maybe that was what Dias liked about her? "But yeah, he's given me a lecture or two," he admitted.

"I can hardly throw stones, myself," Celes smiled, pleased to see that Guy had appeared to relax a little. "Though, if he lectures me, he'd best bring a shield." She would spit the vitriol right back; Celes Chere would not stand to be lectured like some recalcitrant schoolgirl. Especially if she didn't deserve a lecture (which would only be served by a certain man in a yellow coat, thank you).

"And how did you meet our obtuse friend?" she said, turning the tables on to Guy. She wasn't much for keeping the interrogator's light on her, after all. Celes had quite enough of that for one lifetime.

As expected, Anise looked surprised to hear that Ritsuka didn't know. Ritsuka himself was pretty damn surprised about it, too. Turning his face away, he picked at the loose fabric of his sweatpants and shook his head. "I slept in this morning and missed the announcement."

At least she was willing to explain though. Ritsuka's hands stilled as Anise filled him in, giving him a better idea about what people were whispering about. Someone had hurt the Head Doctor? And it was the dead guy? Ritsuka was absolutely certain that man had died. People had talked about it, confirmed it all, and yet last night with the dead rising from their graves like they had been, why was it so impossible to believe that the radio man couldn't do it too? Furrowing his brow as he thought over this particular piece of information, Ritsuka had to wonder if the radio man didn't have something to do with the raising of the dead. What if it was his fault?

"Yeah...but if the radio man came back and got the Head Doctor, who's to say he didn't up and get the nurse, too?" Not the happiest of thoughts, but that was certainly a possibility. The Head Nurse transformed at night, too, just like everyone else. And if the radio man had gotten through to Martin Landel, then he'd probably gone through the lady to get to him. "...It's possible, at least."

Damn. The only further use I'll get out of him is the usual, then, thought Ophelia in annoyance, making certain to ask Kio to come straight to the bulletin with her when they were done in the chapel. She could barely wait for the day when her reading and writing would become sufficient enough to the point where she could finally play with him properly.

She was about to assure him that it would take more than a few corpses to take someone like her out when suddenly she found the man's arms around her. Instinctively, Ophelia flinched; it was a miracle that she did not do more than that, otherwise Kio might have found himself with a broken arm or two. After the initial moment of surprise and disgust had passed, she forced herself to relax, putting one token arm around Kio as well. "It's all right, Kio. You couldn't help being asleep," she cooed, mentally rolling her eyes. "In any case, what type of scavenging are you after? I know several of the clubs do various types of material gathering and item hunting."

Half human, half flesh-eating monster?! Kibitoshin stared at her, bewilderment written all over his face in block capitals. But she looked so normal! Pretty, too! How could she possibly be...? Realising he was probably staring again, he shook himself out of his surprise and managed a polite nod. "I... see. No wonder you're so confident."

As for himself... well. He only wished. "Me? A god? The job description's kind of the same- I keep an eye on everything- but I'm not what you'd call a god. Actually, I'm still in training."

"...Yeah, it's possible," Anise agreed after a pause. There was probably a lot that went on in the institute that didn't make it to the intercom broadcasts. There were some other possibilities, like that she was busy doing damage control, or that the whole thing was a lie. "But that new voice that did the announcements this morning was really weird. It sounded kind of unnatural, like..."

Hello, ! This is I.R.I.S. again, hoping that all of our guests are finding our facilities adequate during your tour...

The intercom came on as she was searching for the words to describe it, and with a glance up at a speaker, Anise just finished her thought with, "...like that."

Anise was sort of surprised to hear I.R.I.S. again. She half-expected the Head Doctor to be back by now. If there was anything she learned from fighting the Six God-Generals and the Commandant, it was that powerful enemies didn't die easily. And sometimes dying wasn't even enough to make them stop. She didn't have high hopes about Landel being gone.

As far as Guy could tell, Dias wasn't the sort to lecture unless he thought it was necessary, and he found it hard to imagine the man scolding someone like Celes. It seemed like the two would be peas in a pod, but maybe that wasn't the case, especially with how they had bickered over the healing a few nights ago.

Seeing how he was unsure of what was the best way to comment on that topic, he instead chose to respond to her return of the question. "Oh, I just met him through Claude. Me and Claude have been friends for a while, so I guess it's inevitable that I meet his friends from home eventually." They weren't really from Claude's home, strictly speaking, but they didn't need to get into that at the moment.

It looked like the shift was about to end, but at least they had managed to get some normal conversation in among all the zombie talk.

Nataku stared, too taken aback to worry about the intensity of Will's gauze. He didn't know the man well enough to interpret the fury on his face one way or another, but it turned out his initial assumption was right. Will was much like Kenren, at least in this respect, and that was plenty enough for him.

He shook his head slowly. "I know it's not right," He replied firmly. "And I know it's not fair. It's just the way heaven works."

He broke eye contact abruptly, his gaze skipping over Homura in a different corner of the room, engaged in conversation with a woman Nataku didn't recognise. It was oddly appropriate to find him here, in a strange temple, while they spoke about heaven.

He turned back to the man in front of him. "You're a warrior, Will. What do you do back home?"

Mercedes. Something in his brain leaked forward to translate--forbidden knowledge slipping magenta inside his mind. His eyes closed, lips tugged in something like a smile. "You're in the right place, then," he said, only tripping over the last word. "Mary, Mary, quite contrary." How does your garden grow?

Distracted but unfulfilled, loneliness churning in his stomach even as pain pounded a refrain in his skull--for this moment, Albedo wanted to sleep. The benches weren't comfortable, but he had rested in worse places. The Song itself was metal everywhere, but his resting spots were hidden corners and high beams. Softness was a luxury he didn't need. Like the fact of healing itself. His eyes opened, catching her smile. She didn't understand. It was alright. She didn't need to. She probably couldn't. His voice had lowered without him noticing; no threat thickened it, merely a pain of its own. "This pain doesn't matter," he stated, clear as fact. "This pain doesn't count."

He remained silent for a second, the haze in his eyes shifting to reflect a deeper pain, making him look older than he was. A minute passed, then the moment as well.

He blinked, dragging a finger to his mouth. Opening, he bit down on the side of it hard, sharp teeth tearing through the thin flesh. Albedo removed it, looking at it almost intently through his sedated gaze. There was a pause as a line of blood trailed to drip downward. One drop, two... More slid then, and then light softly glowed on the wound, shifting it away centimeter by centimeter. Albedo sighed, chest tight for a minute. He leaned his head back against the bench. So tired. "See?" he said slowly. "I don't need to heal."

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Page 11 of 14

Day 43: Chapel

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