damned_institute | Nightshift 22, Sun Room

Entry tags:

Nightshift 22, Sun Room

Raine stopped just outside the Sun Room, which was only a little lighter than the rest of the Institute now because of the skylight; the moon was apparently out. She wondered briefly what the moon looked like, here, but pushed that thought aside. She didn't hear anything from inside...

Standing just outside the doorway, so anyone inside the room wouldn't be able to see her, she looked back at her companions. "It sounds empty. Let's go in." She'd only gotten a few looks at the room during the day, but she was fairly certain that once inside, they should take a left to get into the Arts & Crafts room; it still sounded like a poor place to find weapons, but it was worth taking the chance. She had yet to meet a god at full power, but the myths she knew were informative enough. If they could just retrieve what Amaterasu needed to perhaps get her to a stronger state...

Raine clicked her flashlight on and jumped into the Sun Room's entrance, flicking the beam of light around to hopefully reveal any monsters hiding in the shadows. She held Reinforce's discarded crutch, her only real weapon, at the ready just in case; she wasn't letting herself be caught off-guard just yet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He listened with half an ear as Sasuke talked - acting like an adult, when he was still just a boy. Kids. They were so predictable. Still, like him, Aidou had been equally unimpressed with the clumsy fighting. At least up until the point the woman waving the paintbrush around (like a person of legitimate mental instability) had created a corporeal attack out of nothing. When Sasuke announced his departure, Aidou spared him a glance before moving towards the girl's side.

"You shouldn't defer to him like that, it only encourages him. But maybe next time we talk, you'll feel like telling me what you're really doing with that bag of goodies."

With the other one - Hisoka? - momentarily brought down by a man who seemed to know him, Alucard had come to a standstill, which was good. This girl, however, had his full attention. Lifting her upper body off the floor and supporting it with one arm, like one would expect someone worried over her health to do. In actuality, his mind was making cold calculations - Aidou examined her carefully, more interested in the sudden lack of red marks than her exhausted state. The broken pieces of brush were from a regular paintbrush, nothing special.

She had cut a line, and there had been a strike like a blade. And earlier she'd drawn a circle towards the ceiling... and then a miniature sun had appeared out of thin air. This girl had done that of her own power. Had she been using the brush as a conduit of some kind? But how? How?

Touching her face, Aidou tilted the girl's head towards him. Passed out cold. "Come on, you're uninjured. Wake up."

One patient down, yet not without a price. A large wound across his chest and his weapon being rendered unusable, to be exact. Normally the boy wouldn't have had a problem with it considering how the result was one of the idiot patients had finally gone down, yet now the other fools were growing bold. Never a good combination.

Fools.

Hisoka prepared to retaliate as the female crutch-throwing patient and the male patient he had burned moved to attack. Before any punch could be thrown though, the boy was thrown to the floor, his wounds jolting painfully from the impact as Tsuzuki attempted to ~~rape~~ protect him from further blows. Reacting quickly, Hisoka's eyes rolled backwards into his skull as his body slumped.

The perfect image of unconsciousness.

Remaining as such, Hisoka listened to all around him-- the thoughts, the voices, all-- as he began to prepare his next barrage of attacks and allowed himself to heal. Let them think him defeated, in all due time they would see otherwise.

With things at a standstill for the moment, Raine went carefully back to her teammates, giving Hisoka a wide berth; though still hoping to conserve her power for a while longer at least, just to be safe, she knelt across from Aidou on Amaterasu's other side to see for certain if she was all right. When a quick check showed that she was, Raine just stood up again, eyes on Hisoka; to her knowledge he was the only threat in this room, and she wouldn't be taken off-guard.

With Amaterasu likely in no condition to run for the next few minutes at least, and the group being less than unified (not that Raine trusted them all completely yet, honestly), she was resigned to staying in the Sun Room for a while longer. At least there were couches in here, and it might be best to put Amaterasu on one if she didn't wake up for a while... if Hisoka's apparent lover was willing to take him out of there first.

If he wasn't, or if Hisoka was only pretending to be unconscious, now that he no longer had the gun he was going to see what Raine could do even with an improvised weapon; she had no objections to taking out her stress on him.

It was the fate of the sun to be cyclical, to die and to rise anew in a never-ending pattern; so, too, was the fate of the goddess of that heavenly light.

Amaterasu, her body limp as it was cradled in a vampire's arms, was utterly motionless even despite Raine's concern or Aidou's cold calculations. Her pale skin was drawn over the delicate bones of her human face, and the goddess was cool to the touch, like the sun behind a bank of clouds; her spirit blazed as brightly as ever, but until this strange new shell recovered her light would be trapped as in a stone tomb.

And perhaps it was the hope of the brothers upstairs turning into despair, or perhaps it was a sign that the battle was not yet over, or even a simple token that the goddess did not have the praise she needed to blaze forth in her full glory... but the sun she had drawn finally died. The brilliant light was surrounded by darkness, struggled for a few futile moments... and then dimmed into nothingness, leaving the Sun Room as dark as it was before. In the sudden gloom, Amaterasu's pale skin seemed to gleam ever-so-faintly, like a distant star.

Who could tell when she would awaken from such a state?

Finally. The attacker was incapacitated and that damn light was gone. Except…
“What the—“ Why hadn’t he noticed that before. The message board… As he tried to concentrate on it, it became unfocused. But it was still glowing more brightly than the moon outside. What? How... I suppose I'm hallucinating now as well. He hadn’t known it, but his attempts to block mental intrusion had made it near-invisible to him before.

He spoke up, trying to catch someone’s attention. They’d ignored him pretty thoroughly before now ~~just like back when he was human~~, but with the attacker down…

“Excuse me, but I seem to be loosing quite a lot of blood.” He couldn’t bring himself to act like that was actually making him weak. “And either I’m hallucinating, or the message board has a 404 error.” Please, tell me I’m not hallucinating. That would be so embarrassing.

Reinforce glared at Tsuzuki, her rush to attack halted at the last second by his intervention. "He has already attacked us." She let the spreading bloodstain on her shirt bring that point home.

Much though the wounded, adrenaline-high human and the old self in her demanded she inflict some kind of permanent damage on Hisoka, he did look to be unconscious, and his rescuer showed no signs of letting go of him. Not equal to her gunshot wound and whatever had been inflicted on the others, but as long as he didn't do further harm it was acceptable. Had to be acceptable. She just had to keep him incapacitated... with as dark a look and intonation as she could muster, she addressed Tsuzuki. "Keep him secured or we will do so through you."

With that she knelt quickly to the ground, gathering up the remaining unspent rounds from the shattered remains of Hisoka's firearm and depositing them in her pockets. They were smaller than the cartridges used by the Knights for reactant-binding, but she was sure they'd be more than enough with her reduced powers here. Whether she could overcome the general suppression remained to be seen but at least now she had a potential workaround for her limited capacity.

The sudden fading of Amaterasu's miniature sun brought her attention back to the rest of the room. She quickly spotted the fallen god and began to rush back to her, but the... strangely calm request for help from partway across the room demanded her attention. Amaterasu was already being attended to by Raine and another youth- her priorities were clear.

She made her way to the sitting patient and knelt by him, inspecting the wound on his leg. More severe than her and Zelos'... though she should probably do something about those too. Using strips of cloth from her shirt and a pen, she set about making a pressure bandage and tourniquet. Here at least her knowledge was useful.

Ordinary people would probably have found something strange about a lone man sitting in a chair while he bled out calmly describing his wounds to the themselves-strange passerby. At Landel's, and from Reinforce, it apparently evoked little wonder.

While the wounded were being tended to, Zelos stood by Hisoka and the newcomer, not loosening the grip on his sword or taking his eye off them for a second - the boy could have been faking. He was confident Raine was probably thinking the same thing - she wasn't too trusting, either. Right now he was thankful for that.

"So - friend of yours?" Zelos asked. One hand was on his hip and his head cocked to the side, waiting for an answer.

Tsuzuki felt a brief moment of relief as he looked up, realizing the other people had stopped and a few were turning their attention elsewhere. Like to the others that had been injured. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't want to see anyone get hurt here.

"He's my partner," Tsuzuki replied without thinking to the red-haired man, avoiding the gazes of his roommate and the woman when they spoke. He didn't want to have to address why Hisoka was shooting people. It probably had something to do with the 'brainwashing' that Renji had told him about, but thinking about it actually happening to Hisoka was difficult. And painful. Like that cold and calculating look that he'd seen in the boy's eyes before the shots had gone off.

"I lost track of him when... when our last assignment ended." Tsuzuki had almost mentioned what happened with the Kyoto incident. Almost. Except that it still hurt too much to think about. If it wasn't for him, would either him or Hisoka be here right now? Probably not.

Looking back down, he frowned at the sight of his partner, the worry building up again. "Hey," he called, shaking Hisoka just a bit. Had he really been hurt that bad? Tsuzuki had seen the boy remain conscious from wounds much worse than this... But there were already enough things that didn't make sense here. Why not add one more?

When it didn't seem that the boy was going to wake, Tsuzuki loosen his grip, despite the warnings of the woman. He really didn't think Hisoka was going to get up again, being out cold as far as the shinigami could tell. There were splatterings of blood all over from the boy's wounds, something that made Tsuzuki feel uncomfortable. Hisoka didn't deserve to be like this, even if he was being controlled... Lifting a hand, he made to wipe a bit of the blood off his partner's face before thinking that perhaps he should move off of him. People might start to wonder things if he stayed where he was...

"You may leave," he replied, nodding to Sasuke as the boy slipped off. This looked like it was about to get messy anyway. Blood everywhere, wounded people -Reinforce was off tending to a victim now- and generally chaos. A good thing that he had fed earlier too, otherwise things would've gotten uglier. At least the one who had been shooting at the others had seemingly been knocked up. Seemingly, being the relative term. But the gun...Alucard could smack his palm against his forehead and sigh. Ruined. Utterly ruined, unless they could find someone with a bloody acetone welder. Damn it.

A quick glance around told him most of the patients were still on the alert, and Aidou was hunched over the unconcious girl who, created a bloody light sword with a paintbrush. He saw the reddish marks fade from her flawless skin, but she was unconcious and no questions could be asked.

The vampire loomed over Tsuzuki and their unconcious attacker. He didn't care if they knew each other, the fact remained that the other boy had openly fired his gun at the others. In fact, he was poised to strike already.

"It doesn't matter. Now hold him down, or else," Alucard spoke sharply when Tsuzuki relaxed.

_{(Assuming Sasuke-mun is happily frolicking in France and thus not here to post. If not, feel free to hit me.)}

Aidou watched the others from over his shoulder, inwardly agreeing with Alucard - that alone made his mouth pucker into a frown. The faint touch of telepathy was sending slight shivers down his back - he could sense it, despite not being prone to the art himself, and harbouring even less of an interest in learning. It meant the kid was faking unconsciousness, and probably planning another wild assault.

It only brought his earlier question to the forefront of his mind: why someone dressed in the same unsightly uniform like the rest of the captives was mindlessly attacking them? It didn't add up. Of course, he'd expected humans to do stupid and nonsensical things, but still.

Slowly, Aidou's gaze returned to his current issue. How annoying this all was! His night had been wasted putting up with absurd creatures (undead E classes included), and now he had an unresponsive woman in his arms that obviously wasn't about to revive herself anytime soon. With the sputtering (and not unwelcome) death of the faux sun, a product of her power, it was irritatingly apparent she was beyond simple exhaustion. He wanted to know how she'd done that! Effortlessly rising to his feet, Aidou dropped her on the nearest horizontal surface, deciding slapping her to wakefulness wasn't the best of plans. Unless she died, he'd get answers from her eventually.

And now, it was about time to deal with someone else. Knocking around that one until he got his due reparations was a nice thought. At least there'd be one minor piece of business settled.

"Or else nothing, Alucard. You may have a fondness for men and little boys, but don't think I'll let you lay another paw on them!" Aidou snapped. He levelled a finger at the other, pointing at the space directly between his eyes. "We have an unsettled score. You know what I'm talking about! We can't do it in a room this crowded!"

[[Hope this doesn't count as breaking posting order! Running off to the bottom of the page, here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79032.html?thread=4865976#t4865976).]]

[[Likewise.]]

Hisoka did not move or respond in the least to all the commotion that went on around him nor did he act when Tsuzuki shook him. Instead, the boy merely continued to listen to the voices as his skin began to stitch itself back together again, allowing himself to be handled like nothing more than a rag doll in effort to continue feigning unconsciousness.

The shinigami quietly thanked the heavens his wounds were no deeper, muscles were such a pain to mend-- they itched like hell too-- and bones were obnoxiously loud when they snapped back into place.

Hisoka quickly abandoned this train of thought as he felt Tsuzuki loosen his grip on him. It was almost time. His wounds were not completely healed, but this was not the time to worry about such things. Now he only had to wait for the perfect moment...

The abandoned goddess lay on a couch, her breathing quiet and her radiance dimmed, nor did she seem to respond to anything that was going on in the room; she was spent, and while she could have repaired the damage she herself had done to the weapon, without the means to communicate this knowledge it was to remain unknown, and likely to the detriment of all involved.

Recluse was glad--if not actually thankful--that someone had given him some assistance. He sat for a moment, listening to the other patients and taking a closer look at the glowing patch of space that had replaced message board. He would normally have devoted all his attention to this bizarre object, but he didn't trust the attacker to stay down. Many metahumans could make miraculous recoveries from near-fatal injuries and even death. There was no chance of at least finishing off the boy now, with the arrival of his deluded companion, but it would be a waste of time anyway.

He had been delayed far too long, and the night's events had only made him all the more anxious to obtain a weapon. He stood carefully, testing his leg. It hurt. A lot. But that was no reason to stop, now that the bleeding was abating. He wasn't in any danger of serious blood loss, and he would rather distance himself from the scene, in case his instincts in regards to this boy were correct.

In any case, he thought as he limped towards the door, the bickering between the other prisoners was nothing he would be sorry to miss.

[[heading to here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79842.html)]]

"Touching. You might want to keep a leash on him, though," Zelos said, eyes still on Hisoka. This was ridiculous. He hadn't been hurt that badly - it had to be a trap.

His grip tightened a bit more on his sword as the "partner" loosened his grip. Zelos was ready for the slightest jerk to strike.

Tsuzuki frowned when his roommate objected to him moving. Hisoka was unconscious! There was no need to hold him down any longer... He was about to voice just such an opinion when suddenly a complete stranger stepped forward to challenge Alucard instead.

Tsuzuki couldn't say he wasn't surprised. By this point, he kinda assumed that everyone was going to be against them...what with Hisoka firing into a crowd like he was. He didn't say it at the moment, but he was deeply grateful to this kid, despite whatever personal reasons he may have had for speaking up.

Other people were leaving, which eased Tsuzuki mind even more. The less people around, the less that would be caught in the crossfire if something did happen. He noticed that the woman from earlier still wasn't moving, but he couldn't exactly leave Hisoka unprotected...

Lifting a leg, Tsuzuki unstraddled his partner, choosing to kneel beside him instead. "He's unconscious. He's not going anywhere," the shinigami explained to the red-head, his gaze shifting to the sword he held. He didn't like at all the way the other's hand was gripped around the hilt, and he was fully prepared to come between to two again if he tried to lash out against Hisoka.

The boy wasn't unconcious, he knew this. After centuries of experience, he could tell. Alucard simply allowed this to slip simply because, well, Alucard liked his chaos. Without making another new enemy of course, if Hisoka fought back, the vampire could simply claim that he mauled the boy only in self defence. More blood equals more fun after all.

"If he wakes up and kicks you in the groin, don't say I didn't warn you," he spoke, grinning ferally again. And yet he was ready to attack, clawed digits tapping against the floor softly.

The vampire did almost, roll his eyes when Aidou piped up again. Oh, how brave. Only opening his mouth when the initial threat had been exposed of, while hiding in the corner like a rat, during the initial fight. How courageous indeed. Bratty little whelp. Besides. He was simply down on his luck, the only people that had chanced across him were boys. And one made a deal with him too.

"And what are you going to do about it? Whine me to death?" he goaded, spreading open his arms as if beckoning to Aidou. "Of course I know what you're talking about. I want to see, if you actually have the means to back up your threats."

The two girls left had scurried off, along with the man who'd been blabbing nonsense about the bulletin board. Despite studiously ignoring them, the scent of their blood was going to stay with him. It was everywhere, and it made him antsy. The last thing Aidou wanted, or needed, was more to be spilled from the remaining three humans - controlling himself wasn't the problem, it was leashing the so-called vampire in front of him. He almost reminded Aidou of Ichiou: misplaced arrogance and a threat against something vital. And if Kaname-sama were here...

In any case, now that he knew Alucard's... disposition, he had no idea how to kill something that was already dead. However, this E class was a contemptuous pig that would have to be dealt with one way or the other. He'd find a way. Aidou's dignity and upbringing couldn't allow otherwise. It was a core principle of their society.

Fixing Alucard with his luminescent eyes, he held his ground. He wouldn't give in to the taunts this time.

"If you continue to disobey me, I'm afraid you're going to humiliate yourself," he said simply, leaving no room for doubt in his voice. "In fact, if you ever try to draw blood from me again, I'll kill you. The same applies to everyone in this room." He gestured at Zelos absently, more so to the sword he held. "I'm sure that one can deal with the situation. So make your choice: stay here and die, or come with me and we'll have an educative talk."

Aidou especially wanted to leave before the kid took a position and attacked again. As much as he loathed the idea of being near dead flesh, it was preferable to getting dragged into another scuffle and wasting more time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nightshift 22, Sun Room

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

no subject