damned_institute | Night 43: F1-10 Hall

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Night 43: F1-10 Hall

Breaking down the bed frame after she'd eaten some of her meal had given Teresa something to do while she waited for the night time phenomena to arrive. Having not been conscious when it occurred the previous night, she was curious. She was not disappointed. The overhead words were certainly something different.

As the door opened, Teresa finished wrapping shredded bedding around the bottom portion of the six foot long metal bar that had once been a main side support of the bed's frame. It wasn't good quality metal by any means, but it was better than nothing. At least, she didn't think it'd break the first time she hit something with it given her reduced strength. As she hefted the weapon, she swung it around to get a feel and decided that it would do for now. Should she manage to find the right kind of stone or a file, she could even work a rough edge onto it.

A few more strips of cloth and the hybrid tied the makeshift weapon across her back, the 'hilt' sticking a foot and a half above her shoulders, and fashioned the cloth so she could pull on the knot by her right shoulder for a quick release. That done, Teresa took her flashlight and exited the room.

[to here]

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"You aren't the only one to see a friend suspected or known dead. I'm surprised my father didn't show up..." Raine sighed. "I haven't actually spoken to many people, but I've heard a few stories. I'm informed that Lloyd was here to visit once... along with his mother." Sheena could guess how Kratos had reacted to that.

"That's different, though," Sheena replied. "You're not a summoner; you don't know how it works." Finally, she pulled herself into a sitting position. "Can't make a summoner feel a pact that's not real..."

"I don't know enough about summons or alternate worlds and timelines to speculate," Raine admitted. And as interesting as such things were to ponder, this wasn't the time. "Especially since we have no idea what's possible here."

What made her the most curious right now was Corinne's form--how had he been made into a human and yet remain enough of a summon-spirit to still have a pact with Sheena? Maybe she could get more information later...

"The basics, Raine: You can't force a pact onto either a spirit or a summoner. It has to be mutually agreed upon by both for the magic to be binding."

She fell silent, chewing her bottom lip as she rolled the bell around in her hand. "I could have summoned him right then. I don't know why I didn't." That was a complete lie. She knew she'd been in too much shock to even think about it, much less focus enough to complete a summoning. "I could have gotten us all out..." And again she teared up. Such a failure...

"I doubt his powers would have been unsealed even if your summoning ability briefly was," Raine pointed out gently. Sheena was being much too hard on herself, and Raine had no trouble guessing why she hadn't tried doing a summon.

She wanted to ask if Sheena was willing to come with her tonight, but considering Reinforce was coming to the clinic as usual... it wasn't a good idea. Before she left, she'd just try to make sure Sheena was either asleep or expecting someone.

"He was inside. I'm sure he would have been..." Sheena hung her head, tears pattering down on her hands. "I could feel him still... until I was almost at my room. Then... his presence, the pact, just vanished." She hugged herself. "He'd gone beyond the barrier."

A moment later and Sheena flopped onto her side, a small grunt of pain accompanying it, and she reached toward the covers.

Raine caught her hand. "May I look at your back first? I'm still worried about how everything's healing." She hadn't noticed any blood, but that wasn't much comfort. She had her clinic bag with her, so anything that needed to be re-bandaged could be taken care of.

"Fine." Sitting back up, Sheena carefully set the bell down on her pillow, watching to make sure it wouldn't roll away, and then pulled her shirt off.

Dropping the garment onto the bed, she turned so Raine could get a look at her injuries. The side wound only showed a flowering bruise and the area near her shoulder where the bite was located had a very large, thick bandage over it, spotted with dried blood from earlier.

"Ripped my stitches this morning," she said, taking the bell back into her hands again.

"Tell me if this hurts too much." Raine pulled carefully at the tape, wanting to get a good look and figuring the bandage probably needed to be changed anyway.

She didn't have much experience with quasi-human bites (not counting a certain incident with a toddler some years back), but this did not look normal... discoloration was one thing, rotted flesh was something else. It was minor, but gangrene setting in this quickly... she shuddered a little and checked to see if it was spreading. Thankfully, it didn't appear to be, and as far as she could tell it wasn't infected.

"How much does it hurt?"

"A lot when you poke at it. Stop that," Sheena groused. "Otherwise, it's just a throbbing ache unless I move my arm quickly or bump my shoulder against something."

She scowled. "Still sensitive from the stitches this morning, though." Of course, that was mostly because she'd talked the nurses into not injecting that numbing stuff in before they took the needle to her.

"Can you feel this?" She touched a jagged rip in Sheena's skin that looked completely dead, as lightly as she could. She was expecting the answer to be no, but she would have no idea what to think if Sheena said yes. But, any information might be useful...

She wondered if she was going to be stuck actually taking a scalpel to anyone's injuries from the night before. If so... she was sending Tamaki out of the room.

"Feel what?" The ninja craned her head around in an attempt to see what the hell Raine was doing. Unfortunately (or fortunate), she couldn't see her own wound.

"What are you doing?" She frowned and shifted a little. "The bottom's kinda itchy. Can you... Never mind."

"Just seeing if you have sensation." Raine got out the antiseptic and a strip of cloth. "Hold still; this won't be comfortable." Something of an understatement, especially since it wasn't anything they had at home...

As a courtesy, she did at least get the dried blood off Sheena's back while she was at it.

"There," she said when she had the wound bandaged up again. "Can I convince you to take it easy tonight?"

Sheena was used to having her wounds looked over, poked and prodded by Raine, but she still hadn't gotten used to the stinging liquids this damn ranch used. She hissed when the stuff was applied, her back arching away reflexively. After a moment, she got her reaction under control and stayed still for Raine to finish.

Once bandaged up, Sheena turned toward Raine and looked at her a moment before she laid back down without bothering to put her shirt back on. She wasn't going anywhere and no one was going to come see her, so why bother? She just didn't care enough. Grabbing the covers, Sheena pulled them up again.

"I'm never getting out of bed again," she told her pillow since it was right in front of her face.

Raine rubbed her back again; she knew Sheena wasn't that depressed, but she wanted to be comforting, anyway.

Oh, she'd missed a spot. She took up the strip of cloth again and tried to rub away what looked like the last of the blood on Sheena's neck, but it wouldn't budge; after a moment she realized it was a bruise. Or... was it? She leaned close to see, and discovered there were definite teeth marks.

"What happened here?" she asked, touching it lightly.

Sheena had been delving back into her own thoughts, not really registering what Raine was doing, so when the half-elf asked her a question she was confused.

"Uh... what are you talking about?" She had so much on her mind, she didn't even remember there was still evidence of the youkai's bite on her neck.

"You have a bite mark here, but it didn't break the skin." Raine honestly couldn't figure out how that had happened, but the only culprit she was thinking of was another zombie, or the same one that had caused the bite she'd just bandaged.

"The bruising is in something of an odd pattern, too..." In some ways, it had been a long time since her teen years.

At the description, Sheena realized exactly what Raine had discovered. Her eyes widened and a bit of color touched her face before she shoved Raine's hand away and hunkered down so her friend couldn't see it anymore. Hopefully, Raine would not remember asking Sheena about the marks the first time Yukari had bit her.

"Ugh. It's nothing. I get into a lot of fights at night, you know. It's not like it hurts or anything. It'll go away eventually," Sheena replied quickly. "Don't you have places to be so I can bury myself alive alone and try to will myself out of existence for sucking so much?"

Raine raised her eyebrows, wondering why Sheena was acting like... ah. She managed not to chuckle. "I am supposed to be heading for the clinic, but I can stay a little longer if you want company."

She'd save the "are you being safe?" questions for later...

"No. Go," Sheena replied, burying herself even more in the covers as if she could read Raine's thoughts. "You've seen me cry enough today as it is. And if you tell anyone about that, I'll kick your ass."

The bell jingled as the ninja held it up to look at. "Thanks for the offer but... you're not..." She sighed, her eyes misting over again. "You're not the type of friend that can make me forget about this void inside me. Sorry."

Can anyone? Raine brushed a hand over Sheena's hair again. "All right. Is there anything I can do for you?" She was willing to pass on messages if requested, even if she had to lie and say Sheena was sick. It wouldn't be much of a stretch.

She wanted to do something for her... one of the hardest parts of being a mother was knowing you couldn't fix everything.

Is there anything Raine could do for her?

"Yeah, I guess," she muttered. "In my dresser drawer are a bunch of red ribbons. I've been meaning to give them back, but never really got around to it."

Sheena had been meaning to hold them hostage thanks to the youkai's teasing ~~and her own curiosity~~ but she didn't think she had the energy to keep it going. Besides, maybe it could be like a silent show of gratitude for the way the youkai had taken care of her at the end of the previous night. Or something.

"They should be next to my cards." A pause. "And I know how many cards are in there," she added on as a silent warning that she'd know if one was missing.

I still don't see what harm peeking would do... Still, when Raine found the ribbons in question, she made it a point not to pick up any of the cards while she was at it... though she still examined the one on top very curiously.

Before Sheena could yell at her for it, though, she closed the drawer and turned back. "Where would you like me to take these? I'm going to the clinic, as always, but I can take a detour."

Sheena had been counting the seconds, so she knew Raine had looked a little. As much as it normally would have annoyed her, she knew the symbols were hard to make out on the playing cards given the pattern of the backs that she'd used as her card facing.

"Yukari's in F20; those are hers," Sheena replied, rolling onto her stomach. "You met her last night," she continued, mumbling. "Warn you, she'll probably be wearing a purple dress and a stupid-looking hat. Feel free to make fun of the hat." The dress did look nice on the youkai.

Raine put the ribbons in her pocket. "All right." She wasn't sure it would be appreciated, but she wasn't expecting thanks, either... she came over and tucked Sheena in. It was a gesture usually used only on children, but Raine knew what it was like to have a childhood cut short, and it had happened to Sheena at an even younger age.

"I'll see you in the morning." With that, she left.

[[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/698750.html?thread=58083198#t58083198).]]

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