damned_institute | DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

Entry tags:

DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

There was something fishy going on in the Institute today. All over the bulletin board, people were talking about having "woken up", having been "cured"... and it seemed as though ZEX was one of them. Tanaka wouldn't have recognized the note at all if it hadn't been signed - his wording, his handwriting, even his name had changed - and a part of him still wondered if it had been an imposter, trying to pull the wool over the Captain's allies.

But it'd be easy enough to find out the truth. Whoever it was had agreed to meet him, and Tanaka was waiting for him just outside the cafeteria doors, ready to catch him as he came from breakfast. If "Max" was an imposter, then he'd discover the identity of a hidden enemy. And if he was really ZEX...

...well, he'd have a whole new set of things to worry about.

[for a ~~spoiled rich brat~~ brainwashed Admiral]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hokuto wasn't sure if she wanted to cry, or shake her. "You are not. You aren't sick, and you are fantastical and amazing and cool. Who told you that you're not?"

The hunter taking over was scary--she could admit that much. But nothing was wrong with Falis and she wouldn't stand for the girl saying there was.

What happened, my love? Where are you?

"Yes, I am," Rose insisted, shifting onto her side to see Kazuko a little better. Maybe if she presented more of herself to the girl, she'd come across better. "I killed someone. Before that, I got kicked off the team because the girl made a comment about my mother and I lost control and put her in the hospital. I don't have any friends back home; they're all scared of me and what I might do if they say the wrong thing to me."

Rose started running her hands through her hair. "This... this bounty hunter you like is just another me that... was obsessed with finding that woman. She was strong enough to do it, to track her down. I... I'm just... I'm not the girl you like."

Her hands tightened in her hair so much her knuckles turned white.

Hokuto reached over and tried to get her to unclench her hands. "Then what are you so stressed about?" If you're not Falis, then how do you know me? Why are you worried about what I think?

Was her girl brainwashed? Falis was strong, seemingly too strong to fall for anything like that, but... nobody seemed able to resist what they did here.

She wanted to find Subaru, now, but... she couldn't leave Falis, either.

At Kazuko's urging, Rose let go of her hair.

"Because... I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you again. I barely kept myself from having an episode a little bit ago," she said. "And..." Her hands were shaking. "I like you," she said in a very quiet voice. "Like, really like you. Me - Rose, not that other girl, but me. And I'm kind of new to this whole liking girls thing, my mind really likes to jump off of cliffs when it comes to that, so... I just--"

She looked away again. "I might not have been in the right mind and all, but I deceived you. Made you think I was-- Hell, I, no, Falis was a slut. I even kissed Sarah once when I was stuck in the crazies. I'm sorry..."

No. Somebody else is deceiving you. Hokuto put an arm around Falis to pull her close. "It's okay." Hearing that she'd kissed Senna was new, but she was only jealous that she'd missed it/been beaten to it.

What was going on? And what were they going to do? Hokuto didn't have any answers, and she didn't want to just babble, so she tried to just take solace in being close to her girl. Even if inside her was someone she didn't know.

Okay, technically that's not new... She would have laughed, but she was afraid it would come out as more of a sob if she did.

Rose rest her head against Kazuko, feeling oddly comfortable, as if this was a natural thing for her. She kind of liked it. Still...

"Why are you taking this so well? I know I hurt you. I know I had a couple episodes when you were there. Why do you... it drives everyone else away."

"You have to do a lot more than that before I'll stop liking you," Hokuto murmured. Everything that had happened with Sei-chan proved that, once and for all.

"Besides, you didn't choose to hurt me, did you? That would be like punishing a kitten for scratching someone--they don't mean to do it." She smiled slightly at the mental image of Falis as a kitten, all fluffy yellow fur and fangs.

"No... I don't like it when I get that way. I just can't stop it when it happens. Sometimes, I can feel it coming and can get away so that the only one that gets hurt is me. There's always blood involved," Rose said, feeling a bit of deja-vu with that last line, like she had said it before. She might have, for all she knew.

She fell silent for a moment, closing her eyes. "I... I don't deserve you," she said quietly. A moment later, the girl's eyes flew open and she turned bright red. She really needed to get a handle on her hormones and the whole liking girls thing.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make it sound like you're my girlfriend or something." No matter how nice it sounded...

Hokuto had to admit that hearing that stung. How much did "Rose" recall? "I seem to remember committing to at least that much," she said, looking her girl right in the eyes. So does she think us being lovers was just a weird dream?

Dammit, if this lasted long... she was going to throw a FIT. It wouldn't be right to let on, but she wanted Falis back.

'At least that much'? Did that mean that thing in the showers had actually happened? Rose remembered having an episode in the showers, hurting a nurse badly and then being left in darkness, but she had never been certain what she thought had led up to it was something that had occurred or just something she just made up. Like those heavy dreams.

"Oh. Um..." Now what was she supposed to do? She didn't want to hurt Kazuko, but that had been something between 'Falis' and "Hokuto'. Whereas Rose really liked Kazuko and kind of wanted it to be true, she wasn't 'Falis'. She...

"M-my sleep has been very r-restless as of late," Rose admitted with a fresh blush. "Showers haven't really helped any either. It's hard to recall what all was actually said and what I thought was said."

She paused briefly. "If you said that... and even with me having lied to you and pretended to be someone I'm not... If you want..." She then mentally slapped herself. Kazuko didn't know anything about her - the real her. She wasn't strong and noble and powerful like the bounty hunter. 'Princess' was just a nickname David had for her.

"You don't even know me - the me, me. Not a fucking thing." And with the cuss word came a panicked look as she covered her mouth and shrank away from Kazuko. No, no... she was getting too worked up again.

The girl I fell in love with wasn't pretending anything. "So let me get to know you. Rose." Hokuto didn't have a clue what was going on, but she wasn't about to go hide in the bathroom and cry. She didn't know if there was anything to be gained from this, but she couldn't just walk away from Falis. Even if she wasn't Falis right now.

Calm down. Remember that feeling of being in control. You are okay. You are not that hunter. You don't have to be strong like that because there's nothing out here that will get you. That woman is gone. You made sure of that. Calm down.

Rose's hand was shaking when she finally lowered it, the panicked look leaving her eyes, though a thin sheen of sweat clung to her forehead, stinging the cut on it from the episode she had the previous night. She winced a little, rubbing the area, and was glad the staff stopped her before she hurt Sarah.

"What do you want to know? I used to play varsity soccer. I was all-state my junior year."

"What classes did you like in school?" It was a dumb question, but it had a purpose. There was almost no way Falis knew anything about modern schools--Hokuto certainly hadn't filled her in--so if Rose showed any knowledge of the usual subjects, that would be... um... interesting.

Not that I know what to do with whatever information she gives me... Maybe she could pull aside Hitsugaya later. Or someone.

School? Well, that was one place to start.

"I really likes my physics class, to be honest, even if I didn't do really well at it. It's fascinating to see how forces act on each other, the conservation of energy and perpetual motion's kind of cool," Rose replied after a moment of thought. "The only problem was it was AP Physics, which meant it was calculus based and I... don't do calculus. Had I finished the school year, I probably would have only squeaked by with a D."

She tried not to linger on why she hadn't finished the year out. "Social Studies was interesting, getting to learn about the way society meshes and all that. I always did like people-watching and Social Studies seemed a lot like it was made for them."

...okay, somehow she'd wandered into Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

"I mostly liked Home Ec," Hokuto admitted, for lack of any other conversation topics. "I was okay at most of my subjects, but I seriously preferred the electives."

What's the Shinigami Academy going to be like? I can totally see the old classics coming back to haunt me in an analysis class.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Kazuko did kind of have that happy-at-home feeling about her. "I took choir instead of that, which was for the best since I've set my house on fire more than once..."

Her words trailed off then, a haunted look coming to her eyes as her mind replayed scenes of a village burning to the ground, hearing the cries of her parents. Her breathing sped up and she closed her eyes. "S-sorry," she whispered.

Hokuto's eyebrows drew together; was she remembering something from Falis' life? "What is it?" Her voice was gentle, but she was really hoping for an answer. "Even if it sounds crazy, you can tell me." Saying that felt like a risk, but she thought it was worth taking. Hokuto wasn't being nosy, she was offering nonjudgmental acceptance.

Come on. If you can't open up here, where can you?

It took a bit before Rose could say anything about the flickers in her memory.

"F-Fire. Everywhere fire," she whispered. "All around me, them, everything." She pressed the palm of her hand to her forehead. "But it's not real... not real..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject