Day 29: Chapel

[deathbymidget]

Hiei didn't give a damn about religious services, meditation, or pretending to be social. The always sudden waking after night put him in a bad mood, this one particularly so. Even with Kurikara licking him like some perverted moron, the warmth the dragon provided was welcome in Hiei's bed, and missing when he woke, giving the surrounding air a

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[arc_wrench]

Religion? What is that ever good for? ...Oh, right! The little rituals force the meatbags to congregate into groups that make a frag grenade more useful, the silly robes mean they can't run away as fast, the large windows, open spaces and complicated architecture make for perfect sniping... And when they're under the delusion that some higher power protects them, they just stand there and let me get on with carrying out my assassination protocols.

HK was more of a mind to put the fear of him into the hearts of all meatbags than anything else! Except maybe the fear of his Master. But she was so incredibly good at that, even without the help of a droid. This all made HK particularly cheerful as he sat down in an empty row of seats.

Even so, he almost wanted to squirm impatiently. He could get a visual on his primary target today! He doubted he'd be able to actually get to alter the meatbag's appearance, but he still had a scalpel hidden within his grey uniform. He almost missed that odd shirt with the cross with the 'R' in it from

[sugarsweetblood]

Rhode was not happy once morning came. The sore feeling that she had been forced to get used to was back again, and this time, it was far worse than any time before. She would have preferred the pain to this annoyance, but at least she was no longer dealing with that goody-goody and his stupidity. He may have helped her (if she would ever admit to having been "helped"), but his assistance had been less than welcome, and she had no intention of thanking him for it. Next time she had to deal with him, she'd make good on her idea to beat him with his own arm or to lick his brain.

That'd put him in his place.

She'd had to cling to the annoying nurse to keep from tumbling over while being lead down the hallway. Everything was still so blurry and her head was spinning. It was no wonder the nurse made her own choice in taking Rhode to the chapel - Rhode would have never gone into one willingly. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to answer when the nurse had asked, so the dumb woman had just taken her to the closest location and thrown her

[arc_wrench]

HK looked up as a rather odd-looking little meatbag was guided towards his row. Usually, this meant bad things for his sanity. The smaller ones almost always asked stupid questions or hurt his ears with their screeching.

But from the mumbled words he picked out, he found himself a little more charitable than usual. "Agreement: They are quite mentally deficient, aren't they?" Anyone who called humans 'stupid' automatically gained a few points in their favor. "Observation: It's fortunate they're so easy to kill." His face was absolutely blank, but his voice was cheerful and not at all hushed as most others seemed to be in the chapel.

[sugarsweetblood]

Rhode rolled her tired eyes over to the one that had started speaking to her. She assumed he was speaking to her; there didn't seem to be anyone else he was addressing, and he'd made reference to her mutterings as well. The comment had been a passing shot, but it was nice to have some agreement for a change. Xellos had never flat out agreed with her about human destruction, but there was no question where this one's opinions stood. He'd even said "agreement" before making his comment

[arc_wrench]

"Statement: I can thoroughly commiserate, mea--" Wait, no. Maybe that wasn't technically correct in this case.

"...Query: What were you before finding yourself a squishy human meatbag?" HK hoped this was a fellow droid. Too many meatbags here really were what they appeared to be. "Statement: I was an HK-47 model assassin droid, prior to my capture and forced acquisition of this disgusting body."

[sugarsweetblood]

His speech was really familiar. She now knew it was probably important that she remember why that was. Her brain still refused to process though. It was having a hard enough time following the bigger words to find some meaning.

"Noah," she answered once she realized what he was asking: what were you before here. Strange way of putting such a simple question, but he apparently had a strong hatred of humans to be calling them "meatbags". She would have gone for bloodbags herself, but to each their own.

He probably wouldn't understand what a Noah was, but that left them even for the moment. "Whassa dro-eed?"

[arc_wrench]

HK sighed, slightly disappointed. He had no idea what that was. "Statement: I do not know what a 'Noah' is." And the meatbag was going to be confused by any definition of 'droid' that he gave... Oh well. It would at least provide a small amount of entertainment.

"Definition: A droid is an intelligent mechanical being, far more capable and durable than any meatbag." He watched to see how long it would take the meatbag's thought process to get a handle on all those words with so many syllables in them.

[sugarsweetblood]

Good. Only Noah were supposed to know what Noah were, and the Earl, and Akuma, which were exactly what this guy was explaining with his definition of a dro-eed. Well, except for the "intelligent" remark, but she guessed they could be considered that so far as being able to speak and think went. Level ones couldn't do any of that, but the higher levels possessed some level of intellect. Still, they were pretty stupid in her book. Underlings usually were.

Skipping over his first statement, she grabbed his dro-eed definition and ran with it. "Got those. We call 'em... Akuma," she yawned unintentionally, "They're minions. 'N take orders..."

Though he was blurry, Rhode was pretty certain he had a human shape. He said he was a dro-eed, but maybe they could take on human skins just like Akuma. She supposed that different places called things different names.

"Dro-eed" sounded stupid.

[arc_wrench]

"Objection: I am insulted by the insinuation that I am merely a drone. I am far more intelligent than any meatbag, and more than capable of creating mass slaughter of my own free will." Honestly! Whatever a 'Noah' was, they needed to have some sense knocked into them. Thinking they were better than droids.

[sugarsweetblood]

His anger went ignored; Rhode herself was angry enough not to care for his offense. "Whassa drone?" Well, he hadn't specified that there were levels of... whatever he was... which is what he seemed to be indicating.

Drone sounded more like an Akuma, were that the case.

Then he said something that seemed to override whatever drousiness she was still feeling. Enough of an override to make her grin devilishly, "Slaughter's fun."

And enough to manage complete sentences, it seemed.

[arc_wrench]

"Definition: Menial labor droids programmed to perform non-intelligent tasks such as salvage, mining and sanitation." HK started contemplating taking out one of the scalpels he had hidden in his clothing. "Simplification: A very stupid metal thing that does very boring jobs." There. Would the meatbag be able to get all of that, now?

...The meatbag couldn't be faulted for priorities, though. "Agreement: Of course it is."

[sugarsweetblood]

Bah, this guy was confusing. He said some fun things though.

"Akuma dun do that," she persisted. Even with his definition, the only thing that made his drones like Akuma were that they were unintelligent. "They kill. Dun hafta be told. But th' Earl makes 'em, so they obey us."

He wanted simple, she'd give him simple.

"Like pets," she decided, finally landing on a good term. "We're better at killing though. S'fun." And really, the Akuma were just the Earl's side project, they weren't actually needed. The Noah were good enough to purge the world themselves. Akuma just came in handy for mass killings that weren't worth her family's time to deal with.

[arc_wrench]

"Query: Earl?" HK did have a list of more names than a meatbag could ever remember, devoted to possible assassination targets. He might be able to recognize at least the name from his files, if this meatbag was even from the same dimension as he was. That did tend to complicate things.

"Statement: Well, I am most certainly no meatbag's pet." Except possibly the Master's, and he hoped that he would never be referred to by that term. "I am completely above that level, or any meatbag's capabilities."

[sugarsweetblood]

The Millennium Earl simplified... not an easy thing to do. Even thinking of the fun things she could do once the Earl came to get her didn't get her mind to think of any simplified explanation for him. Was there a simple explanation for the Millennium Earl?

Doubtful.

"Yup, the Earl," she settled on, not giving anything away. She wasn't really allowed to give anything away, so that was as good as he'd get.

"You mi'ht not be, but Akuma are. Not fo' meatbags... Noah," she corrected. She still assumed that he was using the meatbag title for humans, and she certainly wasn't one of those inferior weaklings.

[arc_wrench]

HK decided it wasn't worth following that line of inquiry. Correcting the meatbag as to their status was more important. "Negatory: Unless Noah happen to be inorganic like droids, then they are meatbags. The term encompasses all organic life forms, although humans are the most prolific among them."

Really, why did meatbags have such difficulty understanding this? They were membrane-bound, watery sacks of meat. Thus, meatbags. It really was so simple.

[sugarsweetblood]

"I dun hafta explain Noah t' you..." she finally told him. She doubted he'd understand even if she did; he was so dense. He did have some things right, but he also had some things wrong, and some things she didn't even understand! What use was there in correcting him then? She wasn't really in the condition to correct him anyway.

However much she may have wanted to.

Really, he was calling humans meatbags, and she was anything but. Well, except for when she was taunting Allen Walker. Then she could be human. Otherwise she was no more human that a dro-eed, if this person was even one of those.

Still, he talked really weird. Now, where had she heard that before? She knew it at least sounded familiar, so where...? Oh!

"You're th' one who likes eye-gougin'! From th' boards!" she exclaimed, still a bit weakly. She knew it had been important! Some weird person had been writing like he was talking on the boards. He had sounded fun.