Day 43: Chapel

[constellates.livejournal.com]

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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[constellates.livejournal.com]

"Haseo..." Alkaid sighed, voice a little gentler. She wasn't sure what to make of Haseo's current downtrodden demeanor. But it was kinda obvious that this Shino person was someone who meant a lot to her good friend, and she couldn't help but feel a little envious. It was like... instead of him being really happy that she'd come back, there was this big emotional wall there that not even she could hop over.

Maybe it was because of the drugs.

She tried to think if she'd seen anyone who was the spitting image of everyone's favorite cheerleader. "Someone who looks like Atoli, huh? W-well, uh.. I thought I saw someone who fit the description pass us- er, pass me a few nights ago, but I think that actually was Atoli. And that was in the Institute, so..."

She paused, searching for something else to say, then ended up lamely. "Ummm... Um!! Don't lose hope, though, Haseo! Your girlfriend's probably okay."

And that was a test. She'd see how he reacted to it.

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Haseo paused a moment longer, not quite sure what to do next. At Alkaid's assurances however, he finally broke from the spiral of close thoughts, looking up and breathing out slowly.

"Don't worry about it," he said, and tried to force himself to act like normal-- even if "normal" for now involved blatantly dismissing what was dragging him down. "Heh, if something happened to her, I probably wouldn't have... huh?" Without warning he cut off, feeling his brow draw together as he examined her expression. What was with the not noticing something she'd said until it was a bit too late this morning?

"Shino... isn't my girlfriend," he responded, and though it sounded steady, directly afterward he seemed uneasy, shifting and clearing his throat. Just a friend... probably. Er, a really close friend. Not that he was going to be making assumptions without her say, that is.

So far he hadn't been inclined to think that in these cases people weren't really taken from another time period or something- just that they didn't remember the the stuff between the present and what "future people" thought happened. After all, it had happened to him before, although it had been nearly seven years... maybe he should inform the nurses about his history of memory issues, haha.

He was tempted to ask how long she thought it had been from when he'd defeated Taihaku and Sakaki at the Sage Palace Tournament, but he also wasn't sure he even wanted to know. Instead he diverted his eyes once more to their surroundings, soon catching sight of Kibitoshin. Well, he seemed alright, which was... good.

"Wait, so were you in town last night?" he asked then, though he didn't look back. He should probably be more worried... dumb hags and their preemptive sedation.

[constellates.livejournal.com]

"Town...? No, I was stuck in this semi-hell," Alkaid said, looking disdainfully at the Westernized chapel around her. "Showing a couple of noobs the ropes of this place. It was so quiet and dark, it was kinda eerie. Nothin' like normal. Oh, and the zombies were there for some reason, just to mix it up a little. Haha."

It had made her worry, in a way. Not that the great Alkaid worried about anything, but only hearing two other alive people besides her immediate group had shaken her normally-solid foundation.

But any more talking about the zombies and he might start asking about her obvious injury, so she'd talk about Shino some more.

So she wasn't his girlfriend, huh? So even the plebeians had some hope with this guy! That was a good thing. Even so, she felt the serious need to comfort Haseo, 'cause talking about it obviously made him nervous, what with the clearing his throat and the tone of his voice and everything. "Well, even if she isn't, you caaare about her, don't you?" She poked at his shoulder, hoping to urge an answer from him. "You wouldn't have whaaat? This is total news to me, so you gotta tell me all about this Shino person."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

So the zombies had been here in the building too? Haseo couldn't even begin to consider all the uneasy possibilities brought forward by that revelation... and he kind of hoped Alkaid's comfort with the idea was a front of some sort, though it wasn't like he was about to go challenging her over it. Especially since the drugs made it so tempting to just resign himself to putting up his own practiced facade of indifference and try not to think about what he'd been forced to do in order to just make it through the night... and what might occur if it happened again the next time the lights went out.

Rrgh, but then Alkaid grabbed hold of the Shino topic and dragged it right back into the open, and more than ever Haseo wished that for once she could just leave something alone. He would have preferred not having to relive those scenes in his mind at the moment- he'd done it enough without one of the victims continuing to press it and insist on more information about the other. Then again, he'd already made the error of letting it go with Atoli, and that had... not turned out particularly well.

"About six or seven months ago she was the assistant guild master of the Twilight Brigade... it's not really a secret or anything," he muttered. Surely even if she didn't read the boards, she'd have seen the Arena match where Ovan was blabbing about being in the same guild... even if talk about Shino had since faded....

[constellates.livejournal.com]

"Oh... that Shino, huh. I get it." Actually, Alkaid didn't pay too terribly much attention to other guilds, choosing instead to train herself and become a strong Twin Blade fighter. Being in Icolo hadn't exactly broadened her view of The World, instead narrowing it so that her life had revolved around being the Demon Palace Emperor. And when she had lost that to Endrance, it had almost been as if her purpose in The World had dwindled, and she had done whatever she could to get her position back, and even that had been for naught....

No, suffice it to say that she didn't pay much attention to other guilds at all. But even she had heard of the Twilight Brigade, and a small spark of recognition made her nod. Still, what were the other names associated with the guild? Ovan? ...oh, Haseo was one of her former guild members! Ahhhh, that made sense. She worried about people like Sirius, too. Though it looked like he wasn't caught up in this business, thank goodness.

The nurses were starting to haul people out of the chapel one by one now, so she knew she didn't have much time to continue their conversation. Still, she enjoyed Haseo's company, even when he was kind of being overly reticent about everything for what seemed to be no reason at all, and when he wasn't nearly as happy to see her as she'd have liked, in a perfect world... So she'd stay put until the nurses came to get them. That was the least she could do, probably.

She bit her lip for a moment, then spoke, controlling the slight bitterness in her voice. "Well, if I find anything about her, I'll let you know. It was.. really nice seeing you again, Haseo. Sorry."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

"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."