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]

Comments

[rocksthecourt]

Heh. 'People from the future.' Klavier had been intending to avoid ridiculous phrases like that in favor for things more in favor of memory loss. It was still an absurd notion to try and honestly believe there was some kind of time distortion at play here. Just because he was being forced to accept things like alternate dimensions and powers didn't mean he had to swallow everything, right?

Speaking of which, that was an interesting little comment there, wasn't it? If he was referring to just Klavier and his brother, that wouldn't count enough for a 'popular year' to pull people from. ...Did that mean he knew Forehead was here as well? Maybe it should have been expected, what with that big mouth of his. He could only hope that was what it meant, and not that there were even more people here he wasn't aware of.

"That does seem to be the case. A bit unsettling when you stop to think about it, ja?" he agreed, not sounding very unsettled at all. He placed the elbow closest to Wright onto the back of their pew, leaving the rest of his arm to dangle down the front between them. "In other words, you're 'from' about two months before we first met. ...I myself last remember August of 2025. Late August, specifically."

He had to wonder... was there some kind if significance to the time Wright's memory was last placed? After all, Edgeworth had said something about him disappearing and returning with altered memories. What people last remembered must have posed some kind of importance. Somehow.

[pleading-ngri.livejournal.com]

It's not unsettling. It makes sense. They weren't picked randomly - he was more sure of that by the day. They were all part of some great chain of events, stretching backward and forward, and he kept finding his name etched on the links. He wanted to ignore this, and in truth, some of his reasons for doing so were ones he wasn't proud of. But he couldn't. There was a vast, dark unknown in the future, and more frightening than knowing that everything he'd heard was the truth - that he lost his badge, that in time he became someone virtually unrecognizable - was knowing nothing more than that his name was out there, floating somewhere in the black.

Apollo was from the last available date. He'd question him first - if his hunch was right, the younger man was just as tangled up in this as any of the rest of them, and he'd have at least some of the answers. More than that, he had something else. It wasn't the kind of trust in Phoenix that he would've liked from someone who presumably knew him, maybe, but Apollo had thought that he'd been canny enough to track him down out in the wilds of definitely-not-L.A., and more than that, that he'd been willing to. That was all the faith he needed, right now. The rest could sit on basics, until then.

Phoenix released a deep breath after a long silence, aware of the bright humming fallen to a lower frequency inside his skull, the way the rest of the room became dimmer if he tried to focus on the place where illusions should have been. It was the same as ever: he'd use what he had.

"Here's how it is." When he spoke, his voice was frank, eyes regarding the other attorney levelly. "I'm worried about these events that haven't happened yet, but I'm worried about getting out of this place more. Still, I still need to know one thing, Mr. Gavin, because it's like you said - this place is getting less safe by the day, and we all need to know who our allies are." He regarded him seriously, and though his voice didn't rise in volume, it seemed bolder all the same. "Would you or your brother have any reason to harbor some kind of ill will towards me?"

[rocksthecourt]

This was... very surprising. Both Wright and Edgeworth's discussions had turned out far different than he would have imagined. Honestly, though Klavier knew much about Wright from second hand information (rumors mostly), he only really knew him from that one case way back when. And though he couldn't say he had ever held much of a high opinion of the man, he was being thoroughly reasonable at the moment. Klavier could agree. Concentrating on getting out was more important than nitpicking at details regarding past and future (even though he had to have been curious).

But the question... caused him to pause. Had it been anything else but 'ill will,' he would have been able to answer without a second's doubt. Klavier wasn't exactly resolved on how to feel about Wright, especially after his brother's case. He could act civil, certainly, even laugh and work with him if need be. But that wouldn't mean he necessarily liked him.

What about Kristoph? How did his brother feel about the friend who went free while he was sent to prison in his stead? No. That's not right. He shouldn't think that way. Kristoph was guilty, wasn't he? He was held accountable for his own actions. Nothing more. In that case, would he harbor any ill feelings toward Wright or Justice? ...Did Klavier himself? That was too complicated to give a yes or no for.

The point of the question was to determine whether or not he and Kristoph were enemies. That was all. There could be bad feelings between friends, enemies, and everything in between. That was how people were, unfortunately. That he could answer easily without technically lying. He knew he would never hurt Wright or anyone else here. And his brother wouldn't either.

...Actually, Klavier had to admit there was a little doubt there. He truly believed from the bottom of his heart that whatever had happened with his brother, it wasn't supposed to happen. His brother was not a killer. He had been pushed by a circumstance he didn't want to share with anyone. It was not something that would repeat again. Ever. But it did prove what Kristoph was capable of if pushed to that one-in-a-million breaking point. However, this time, Klavier was here. And no matter what, he would never allow that happen. While he was here, nothing would touch his brother. ...And vice versa.

Klavier exhaled as though exasperated, even though the smile stayed in place. It painted the illusion that he thought it was a ridiculous question. "I'll have you know, Wright, I don't like speaking for my bro. And I don't like him speaking for me either. Personally speaking, however, I can't say you and I are best friends. Or friends at all, really. ...Truth be told, this is only my second time talking to you." He let out a small chuckle and smiled at him. "But as for 'sides,' I'll take the liberty of speaking for both Kristoph and myself. I don't think you have anything to worry about from either of us. We all want to get out just as much as you and Herr Edgeworth. ...With as few scars as possible, of course."

Maybe this had been a good chance meeting after all. Edgeworth was so vindictive and paranoid, he might have gotten to Wright's opinion of the brothers eventually. This way, maybe Wright could see there was nothing to worry about and could talk some sense into Herr 'Demon Prosecutor' before he started picking fights some more.

[pleading-ngri.livejournal.com]

This had to have been the first time here, in the Institute, that Phoenix had been wholeheartedly glad to see a psyche-lock. For a second, the metal glinting through the air between them wasn't anything but validation. Edgeworth wasn't being paranoid. Phoenix wasn't imagining things. There was something under the surface here, and neither of them knew it, but there had to be a way to dig it up.

He would've felt even more excited, if he hadn't felt like he'd just been dragged behind a truck, but maybe being a little subdued was a good thing. This was a delicate problem, by the looks of it. Jumping up, shouting triumphantly, and pointing fingers probably would've gotten the same response it gained all of the other loonies: being dragged off by a nurse, sedated, and put in his room. (Now that he thought about it, the arguments of, 'but you don't understand, I can see lies' probably would've fallen under the same jurisdiction.)

As it stood, the relieved little laugh that Phoenix gave was entirely genuine, as was the look of frank thankfulness. He didn't have to tools to break the lock; they were out of his reach in more ways than one. But even that little clue - that he'd found some doubt, or equivocation, or little thought-to-be-harmless lie - was something to go on. "Friend or not, you're being awfully helpful, so thanks." Phoenix looked up at the front of the room, slouching into a slightly more relaxed posture. Propping his elbows over the edge of the bench was more difficult than he'd anticipated, stretching muscles through his back and shoulders that last night had tied into unassailable knots, but it felt nice.

The rueful look on his face came naturally as breathing, along with the quip, acerbic but frank, lacking any kind of bitterness. "Anyway, I wasn't holding my breath and hoping you'd be my new best friend. The 'becomes my eventual ruin' thing would make that kind of awkward."

[rocksthecourt]

Ha! Amazing. The contrast between talking to Wright and talking to Edgeworth was astonishing. He was almost sure the prosecutor wouldn't have simply sat there and taken his word for it. He had to wonder just how long that one worry had been playing on the other man's conscience for him to be placated by a simple answer like that.

Regardless, Klavier let out a very honest laugh at the playful jeer, letting a huge smirk smear across his face. "I suppose that's true. I'll try to keep that in mind before we start signing up for clubs together."