Day 44: Arts and Crafts Room, 4th Shift

[ryuuzaki]

The day had been slow for L so far, slower than he required: the events of the previous night were traumatic, but they did not outweigh his need for information and a useful way in which to apply whatever he might learn.

When the nurse shepherded him from the cafeteria, through the Sun Room, and over towards the door of the Arts and Crafts Room, he experienced a small internal wince: this was the room where it had happened the night before. Unpleasant, yes, but likely to be irrelevant in terms of my own welfare, except in terms of what I can learn from it, he reminded himself.

He had the impression that he could avoid the room if he wanted to, but there were several convincing reasons to push past his reluctance: his meeting with Lunge was necessary, the opportunity to see the room in more usual circumstances might be valuable, and he did not want the staff to see that he had been affected. He wasn't sure how they were tied to the events of the previous night, but the buzz of information around the Institute suggested some kind of strong connection.

As he stepped into the room, feet feeling imprisoned in the slippers that the staff kept insisting that he wear, he avoided the area where he had collapsed. Instead, he turned to the right and proceeded as far into the room as he could, then left, then took a seat in the back corner.

If the nurses pressed him to be more creative, he would take up painting. However, he expected to express his creativity in other ways.

[For Lunge.]

Comments

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

Ah hah! Another personal victory for Sechs to relish! With one inner demon spurred by his doppelganger exorcised and his reluctant promise to find Kibitoshin's friend finished, Sechs felt like he was on the roll! He even had a good, fulfilling lunch without any interruptions! Sechs was in a pretty good mood - or at least the best mood he could be in while imprisoned within Landel's institute...

Although there was Kibitoshin's rather... flashy... display of gratitude on the board... Sechs had tried to rub off the embarrassing amount of glitter that adorned the message but ended up getting most of the blasted stuff on his fingers instead. When he tried to wipe the mortifying sparkles off his hands, they only seemed to increase in numbers all over his clothes! Damn, if the glitter multiplied like nanomachines they'd be far worse than Grey Goo! They'd be... Glitter Goo! Hoo boy... better not give any ideas like that to Desty Nova...

Another thing that tested Sechs' short amount of patience was the nurse escorting him off from the cafeteria. "You sure you weren't a Deckman before or at least related to one?!" Sechs growled after receiving a lecture over his "inappropriate" behavior in the showers. The way the nurse who chased after him earlier certainly reminded him of Deckman #100. The only difference was that she didn't have that irritating lisp...

After receiving the usual patronizing response from his nurse, Sechs was far from pleased to find himself in the "arts and crafts" room. The only sort of "art" Sechs could do was the art of destruction! Not... pencil crayons, play-doh and... more of that awful glitter. Elf and Zwölf would have been quite happy in such a room, but not Sechs! Why couldn't he have been let outside like yesterday? He hated being cooped up in this stupid building...

Once he was left on his own to do some art "therapy", Sechs gave out a weary sigh and plunked himself down by a table with a pile of multi-colored markers. Well, he might as well kill some time by drawing scenes of violence, firearms and annihilation. Sechs wasn't too bad at scribbling decent stick-figures, but he'd rather partake in the actual carnage than just draw about it... Boring...!

After scribbling doodles of himself impaling what he imagined to be Dr. Landel with his Titan Blade, the Replica found himself feeling homesick for his past possessions. This wasn't helping him feel better at all! Letting his black marker roll off his fingers, Sechs gave out a loud, rude sigh. This damn place took everything away from him... If only there were something he could get back in the mean time while he found a way to escape...

Then Sechs' eyes rested on the small six that he drew on his stick figure self's forehead. Hmm...

In an instant Sechs abandoned his messy drawings and scrambled for his black marker before it rolled off the table. Next he searched for the most reflective thing he could find and ended up with a blunt edged scissor. Using the reflective blade as a mirror, Sechs went straight to clumsily drawing a large six on his forehead. Hah! One step closer to being back to my normal self again!

Yet despite seeing his trademark number through the make-shift mirror, the tenacious android was unaware that his six was actually coming out backwards....

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

At first the nurses had been content to let Cody draw in peace, seeing how they were blissfully unaware of what he was drawing. They didn't usually offer up that amount of supervision, though it was possible they would have come across the sketch later and been forced to wonder at who had drawn it.

However, there was now a more pressing matter. Cody was handling scissors in a possibly dangerous way (he could poke his eye out!) and vandalizing his own face! It just wouldn't do.

One of the nurses walked over, not imagining that this would be a difficult job. "Now, now, Cody," she said with a small sigh, "we don't allow our patients to draw on themselves like that!" She didn't know what the symbol meant, but she didn't hesitate to reach out to take the marker and the scissors away from him.

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

Sechs was just about done putting on the finishing touches to his mark when yet another nurse had to bug him again! Ugh! What now?!

"Don't call me that." Sechs growled at the nurse's annoying chiding. His protests against the fake name had grown to be an automatic response for him at this point. How many times had Sechs told them to cut it out? A hundred times so far? Stupid, brainless...

"I'm supposed to be making art, right!?" Sechs snapped with a hint of sarcasm at the word 'art'. "Well THAT'S what I'm doing AND I'm getting back what you assholes took from me! So leave me alone!"

Thinking that his reason was enough to get the irritating caretaker to go away, Sechs shifted his attention back to his work. He needed focus and a steady hand to do the job, but when the nurse began to reach out to take his tools away...

Oh THAT'S it!! I've had ENOUGH of this shit!

Leaning away from the nurse's outstretched hands, Sechs angrily slammed the scissor on the table with a snarl. While he continued to fill in the last remains of his backward six, Sechs used his free hand to keep the pestering nurse an arm's length away from him. He could barely tolerate having that one staff member chase him down in the showers and apply those plastic coverings on him but this... THIS... had gone too far!

"HEY! SCREW OFF!!" Sechs yelled. He gave the nurse another not-so-gentle nudge. He was too angry to care whether he pushed her over or not, he just wanted to get his symbol back...

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

As many times as Cody asked not to be called by his real name, the nurses weren't going to relent, and that was no different this time around. The woman hardly seemed to notice his demand.

"Art does not include your body," she explained with a frown. On top of it all, that symbol likely had to do with his delusions, which meant that they couldn't encourage such behavior.

She hadn't been too worried until the man suddenly slammed the scissors into the table, causing her to gasp. She knew that this patient was a particularly difficult one, but to make such a fuss over something as trivial as this? On top of that, he started to shove her, and--

"Orderlies!" she called out, not prepared to let this degenerate too far. Two burly men appeared like clockwork and started for Cody, ready to manhandle him in order to get the marker out of his hands.

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

Sechs bitterly scoffed at the nurse's reproach against body marking. "Oh yeah? Go tell that to the G.I.B corporation that made me..." he bitterly thought to himself with an ever worsening frown.

The nurse's call for reinforcements only fanned the flames to Sechs' hostile mood. Giving off another loud growl, his yellow eyes snapped towards the two uniformed hulks heavily approaching him. (Wait, just two of them? Why couldn't they have sent a few dozen? ...Oh, right. He wasn't in his Fizziroy body right now. Two should be more than enough in this case...)

Alerted to his approaching challengers, Sechs regarded the nurse as an onlooker from the sidelines; whether she knew it or not, she was just a brainless pawn for the institute. Sechs had bigger fish to fry now! He was finally starting to deal with more of the brawn in Landel's staff! The infuriated Replica bore his teeth. Sechs was going to make sure his rage was heard and felt by the tyrants running this sick place!

Keeping his marker tightly clasped within his right fist, Sechs savagely stumbled to his feet and violently sent his chair clattering to the floor. In a swift but strained motion, Sechs faced the two orderlies within a hostile stance. He tried to shift his footing farther apart for better balance but found himself flinching from the agony shooting up from the wound in his thigh. Ugh! His leg was really giving him hell for this! But he couldn't let his injuries hinder him! He just couldn't! The intense rage that pounded in his head all the way into his very blood was just enough to pull him through the pain. Despite his currently weaknesses, Sechs kept aggressively posed and ready to strike out at his uniformed tormentors.

"I am SICK of this STUPID game!!" The Replica roared with a fury that burned more venomously in his eyes with every enraged word he spat out. "You aren't gonna take my six away and I WONT let you stop me from getting everything else that BASTARD Landel STOLE from me! Stop being so DAMN STUPID about what this place REALLY is and all the SICK stuff that's being done to everyone here!!"

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. It looked like the man had fallen into rambling, and loud rambling at that. The nurse stayed where she was, watching with pity as the two orderlies drew in, more than prepared to deal with this kind of problem patient. Since Cody only had a marker to defend himself, one of the orderlies was able to approach him from the front while the other grabbed him from the side and pulled him into a stranglehold, though without the pressure that would actually harm him.

With Cody properly restrained, the nurse strode over with a syringe she had already pulled out of her uniform's pocket, where it was always safely secured in case of such incidents.

"I'm sorry that it has to come to this," she said with a sigh once the man had stopped shouting for long enough for her to speak, "but you've simply gone too far this time." She reached forward and stuck him in the arm with the needle as gently as she could. There was no reason for it to hurt more than necessary, after all.

She glanced to one of the orderlies, her brow knit. "We're going to have to wash that marking off of his face, as well..." It was an inconvenience, but not one that they were ill-prepared for. He would just need a trip to the bathroom and all would be taken care of.

[sixth-attack.livejournal.com]

Sechs surged forward to place his first strike against his hulking opponents. Everything seemed to happen in a violent blur of motion and pain, leaving Sechs momentarily confused to find himself losing the fight. They already got him?! But he barely had a chance to land a punch on his challengers! For a second Sechs was unable to believe what was going on. He lasted longer against Alita and Qu Tsang than this! No! He wasn't going to go down without a fight! He continued to thrash within the two men's hold but he couldn't escape the approaching needle. The pain from his arm and leg only worsened the situation.

"NO! YOU'VE gone too far! LISTEN TO ME! THIS PLACE-- ARGH!!" Sechs' shouts were cut off by a strangled holler as the syringe entered his arm; his reaction was more of desperation to not be silenced than feeling the needle's pinch.

Sechs continued his violent struggle once the syringe had left his skin but his fight against the two bigger caretakers didn't last long. Within moments the Replica's aggressive efforts slowed down until his whole body reluctantly relaxed and fell limp within the orderlies' restraint. His strident fury gradually shifted into weary mumbles.

Whoa... What... what was going on? He didn't feel so great... He felt so tired... NO! He HAD to keep fighting! He wasn't down yet! His marker-- ...so tired... He just wanted to sleep... sleep until he'd wake up back in the Z.O.T Tournament again... this game sucked... No!! AR-6... thrown out... finished... 6...

"No... I'm not... disposa...ble..." was all Sechs could murmur before he was dragged off by the staff.