Night 59: Disciplinary Therapy Corridor

[bitpartgod]

[from here]

Instantaneous by name, instantaneous by nature. The floor seemed not to give way under his feet so much as vanish entirely- a pretty strange illusion, given that they were the ones who'd vanished- but the move was so quick that Kibitoshin didn't even see their surroundings blur before they were planted back on the ground again. The

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[wantsyourzex]

At least the two of them were involved in their own issues for the most part to notice new scratches. ZEX was all too aware of how insane it sounded whenever he explained what was happening to him. He had trouble believing it himself, even when he felt another sting as something cut into him again.

"Are you sure they're here?" ZEX didn't see any harm in continuing the conversation. Perhaps it would calm the angrier human down some. "I'm the only person here from my..." He winced, and his skepticism about the entire scenario bled into his voice. "From my 'reality', I guess you could call it. Or, at least, I haven't met anyone here who knows reality as I know it." The thought that everyone else here was insane was far more comforting than the thought that he was. Everything he knew being false was a hard thing to swallow.

Speaking of which, he was somewhat curious... "If you aren't human, than what species are you? A Thraddash, maybe?" That was probably a potentially rude question, but if the human didn't know the word, it wouldn't matter. And if they did... well, he'd deal with that if it came up. Somehow he had a feeling it wouldn't.

[meanandgreen]

"Solitary?" He could almost laugh, but settled for an arrogant smirk instead. "They're gonna hafta do a lot better than that."

Solitary only worked on people who did something wrong enough to let their guilt eat at them. Raph, on the other hand, was never wrong. Everybody else was. The last time someone locked him up in solitary, he just beat on the door 'til he got bored then waited for his bros to break him out. Really, there were worse things in life.

Then it was time to be confused again. These guys really knew how to lay on the questions. Was this supposed to be some kind of interview? It was making him seriously uncomfortable. Sure, these guys seemed to mean well, but they still had to prove they could really be trusted.

"And you wouldn't of met them 'cause we got taken at the same time. I don't get why you people keep askin' me that." All of this crap was making his head spin. The alternate reality thing wasn't as hard to swallow as the others probably thought it would be. Definitely wasn't the first time, probably won't be the last. But whether he was still on Earth or no, why the heck wouldn't he be sure his brothers got kidnapped? He was there. "So before we start playin' Twenty Questions, let me ask one first: If they ain't here, where the heck else could they be?"

[toxicspiderman]

"What year is it? They have a fucking time machine in the closet or something, man. Sure, fine, they grabbed them at the same time. They could have dropped them off here a week ago, or next Tuesday at tea-time."

It wasn't that fucking hard to understand. You didn't have to believe it to put together the picture. This guy wasn't a complete dumbass, he was just fixated. Obsessed. It'd eat him from the inside if he didn't learn to adulterate it with something. Chemical or psychological, didn't matter.

It was probably too much to hope that he was from a time when anything around here would impress him. S.T. could pull out the transporter ring, but being stuck in a crowded pantry with a would-be Avenging Angel and a twitchy alien.

Who was more twitchy than he'd been before. "Zex? You O.K.?" This corridor wasn't a warm fuzzy place to be even with the pastel mood lighting.

[wantsyourzex]

So touchy! Humans could be so sensitive, although ZEX reminded himself, he had said he wasn't human. Perhaps he was another species that had a shorter fuse when it came to anger. Entirely possible... perhaps he was a Thraddash after all, although he hadn't really answered his question.

"I just want to know so I can better help you." That should be placating enough. ZEX wasn't in the mood to get into a fight with the other not-a-human after all, although so far it didn't seem like anything he'd said had calmed him down any. "If they aren't here, they could still be... back where you came from." Or, they could come and visit with an entirely new set of memories, but ZEX didn't think that possibility would go over very well. "As I said, I'm the only one from reality- my reality here. As far as I know, the others are back home."

ZEX did gesture slightly at Taylor's statement. "And yes, there have definitely been some temporal anomalies involved here... most of the humans I've met here haven't even discovered interstellar travel! Much less encountered the Ur-Quan..." Still a hard thing to imagine. Both things had been fixtures of his life for decades.

The question, whoever, was a little more awkward. ZEX winced again as something dug at his neck, and he touched it gingerly. Still not entirely used to how long human necks were... "Oh, I've... well, I've been here before under a... less than ideal set of circumstances, and there are still some unpleasant side-effects from... what happened." Not that ZEX was trying too hard to think about it right now. "It could be that the proximity is aggravating them- it, somehow."

[meanandgreen]

A million possibilities ran through Raphael's mind. Time travel... Did Renet have a hand in this? He swore he'd kill her if she did. Or maybe some Utrom hit the wrong button on his transmat again. But that didn't feel likely. Then what the shell were those wooden ninjas about? Did they really have something to do with it, or did all of this happen just out of the blue? It was starting to feel like someone found it funny to roll together every crazy experience of the last three years of his life and throw it in his face; make him deal with it alone.

That was the worst part. He was starting to entertain the idea that these bozos actually knew what they were talking about. Sure, they seemed to know a lot about the place, but that didn't mean he was gonna take their word on this. It wasn't just some friendly advice they were handing out, here. His brothers' lives were on the line. If they were here and he gave up on them now, who knew what could happen? They could still be off getting tortured somewhere, getting their skulls cracked open like this ZEX guy did, and here he was standing here being all philosophical and crud.

The idea made his chest ache even more than it already was. Every second he sat around talking with these morons was a second off the ticking clock. If things really were going screwy around here like ZEX and S.T. said, this could be their only chance for escape. If they don't find each other and find a way out before everything got fixed, they were probably screwed.

These guys were just trying to help, yeah, but that wasn't good enough. He had to see for himself. "You gotta understand I can't just take your word for this, all right? Maybe you're right. Maybe they ain't here. But I can't--" The words died in his throat. This was getting too close, too personal. He hoped the others could understand he wasn't mad at them. Just life in general, just the kind of crud he always landed in, just the fact that he was doubting himself. He tried to keep the frustration out of his voice, the sinking dread that so easily turned to anger, but it was impossible. Growling, he turned back toward the door they came from. "I ain't givin' up, got it? So you guys can find your own way out. I'm done talkin'."

No more wasting time. Raph slipped back into the hallway and vanished without a trace.

[to here]

[toxicspiderman]

"Shit." S.T. had been paying more attention to Zex, who had that look. The one most of them had, the ones who ran rescue missions. PTSD, a real headshrinker might call it, or maybe just "shit happens", but he knew the feeling.

"C'mon." He raced after Raphael. Good as an excuse as any to blow this joint.

[to here]