damned_institute | Day 46: Sun Room

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that...

After that, Zach had jumped in front of him like some kind of martyr, like the exact opposite of everything Sylar stood for, to take the next hit for him. It got pretty fuzzy after that, so night must have ended right around then.

The man let out a pained grunt as he straightened himself up in bed. For some reason, he got the feeling that he'd slept in. There was no way for him to really tell without a window in the room, but he just knew. The fact that Sam's bed looked long since vacated was another clue.

Sam, but was he Sam again? Had the brainwashing worn off, as he and Roland had hoped, or was he going to have to go through this nightmare for even longer? He didn't know how long he could handle "Zach" and "Harrison" before he started going batty himself.

Pulling himself out of bed, Peter lifted his shirt and saw that he was tightly bandaged. The scratch most likely wasn't nearly as bad as the bite that "Zach" had received, but it still smarted. He let his shirt fall and then had to deal with a nurse chiding him for sleeping through the morning announcements. Not that Peter really cared at the moment. He was too busy thinking about last night and the fact that in a way, he now owed something to Sylar. Except it hadn't been Sylar. That was something he was sure of now.

Lost in his thoughts, Peter reached the Sun Room right as the rest of the patient populace was trickling in from breakfast. Sighing to himself, he headed over to the bulletin board and then saw a note written in familiar yet unpleasant handwriting. Holding his pen in a vice grip, Peter scribbled out a reply and then stalked over to an armchair and fell into it with a huff.

While Sylar was maddeningly frustrating, there was one good thing about the fact that he was himself again. It meant that Nathan was too.

[For Spock!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not here, but it's not something I'm unfamiliar with," Hime admitted, pulling her hand back as the kitten tried biting again. She let her fingers dangle where it could bat at them but not get its teeth around them. "If anything, it's been easier here. Three whole days and not one serious attempt on my life."

She gave a silvery laugh, soft and short. For this place that was hell, in some ways it was a respite for the princess.

"They certainly are, in a variety of ways. Just what sort of monsters did you fight back home, Kagura?" she asked, her tone idly curious. The youma of Teresa's world, the Akuma of Allen's, did this girl too fight demons that hid behind human smiles?

"Why would people be after your life?" Kagura asked. If Hime didn't want to answer then Kagura would be fine with that. Every person had their individual circumstances, and Hime might not be ready to share hers. Besides, Hime didn't seem like the sort of person that could be forced to do anything.

When Hime shifted the conversation, Kagura had to admit she was relieved. Talking about monsters was somehow easier than talking about the ugliness of the human heart.

"Let's see. As an exorcist, my job was to deal with evil spirits that posed a threat to the living. Even though many spirits couldn't be perceived by people without spiritual sense, they were still able to cause disasters in the natural world. There were even some spirits that were powerful enough to manifest themselves in front of normal people."

But Kagura's life as an exorcist was behind her. She couldn't go back to the Agency; not after what she'd done, and she couldn't let them have Yomi either.

"It's a matter of succession," she explained with a shrug. It was no big secret, especially here where the struggle wasn't going on. "Only one Royal may ascend to the throne; all others must die. That is the rule set down by the King who stands above all monsters."

An inconvenient one, as far as Hime was concerned. She had no desire to kill her siblings - with some exceptions - but neither had she any desire to be killed by them.

"An exorcist, hmm? I've always found ghosts problematic," murmured the princess. This was the kind of thing she was more familiar with. "Certainly sounds like a busy job."

Kagura didn't have any siblings, at least not by blood, but the mere idea of killing them repulsed her. Kagura had killed Yomi, who was like a sister to her, before, and the act had nearly broken the teenage exorcist's heart. She wondered how Hime felt about killing her siblings? It was hard to read Hime. In the end, Kagura could only say, "Siblings killing each other... That's so sad..."

Kagura wanted to ask Hime if she had killed any of her siblings, but Kagura was too afraid to ask. If Hime had, she might not wish to share that information, and even if she did, Kagura didn't have the right to judge her.

"Yeah. My fight never seems to end," answered Kagura. The exorcist knew very well that her job would never be finished. As long as people lived, they would die and then become spirits, some of them evil.

"And it sounds like yours almost doesn't either. What is it that you do?" And by this, Kagura meant aside from killing her siblings. "If you ascend the throne obviously you'll become queen and rule over your country, but I mean right now, as a princess."

Hime's feelings about killing her siblings wholly depended on which sibling it was and under what circumstances. Killing Severin had been nothing short of extremely satisfying. Sylvia? Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"The assassination attempts have a way of occupying a certain amount of the time," explained the princess. "And as a Royal I have a duty to investigate and catalog certain supernatural phenomena and monsters. And of course, taking care of my people... though that groups currently contains far fewer vassals than it previously had."

All thanks to Severin, once again. He really got better than he deserved with such a swift death.

As she listened to Hime's words, Kagura discerned that the topic of her vassals must have been a sensitive issue, because Hime didn't seem like the person to stutter or pause for no reason, so Kagura suspected that Hime's vassals hadn't been fired or resigned. Then again, Kagura could be reading into this too much and imagining things. She hadn't been having the greatest day so far, and her mind was clouded with gloomy, depressing thoughts.

"Hime, you mentioned 'the King who stands above all monsters.' I assume that means you're a monster too?" Kagura asked, trying to change the topic; however, the answer was pretty obvious. If the King was Hime's father then it was only natural that Hime was a monster too.

How Hime's servants had died, how her brother Severin had ousted her from the Kingdom and forced her into the lifestyle she led now, that tale was one of the few things Hime was uncomfortable recounting. It was just as well Kagura didn't ask, for she wouldn't have gotten an answer.

"Well, I'm certainly not human," she said with a smile and a chuckle. "No mortal man has eyes nor blood like mine."

Kagura nodded in agreement; in her time as an exorcist, she had only seen non-humans possessing similar eyes. "I haven't seen any normal human with eyes like yours; they're very pretty. As for your blood, is there something special about it, or is it different just because you're not human?"

The teenage exorcist was happy to learn new things about Hime; the blond was a very interesting individual. The blond reminded her of Yomi in some ways; both had a noble aura, though Hime's was more dignified. Also, Yomi tended to act on emotion, while Hime seemed to prefer logic.

"A drop of blood is the dew of life," Hime quoted elegantly raising the hand the kitten had bit; it had since stopped bleeding but there was still a spot of red where the wound was on her fingertip. The kitten in question looked up from the hand it was batting at towards the raised hand before going back to flicking at the closer plaything.

"A Royal's blood can grant immortality to those that drink it," she explained. She did, however, leave off the other details. Kagura would know what any commoner in the Kingdom would. The details of being a Blood Warrior were something she didn't particularly want circulating about in this place quite yet. "Just a few drops and you can have eternal life."

Day 46: Sun Room

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject