Day 29: Waiting Room/Lobby 2
She was still picking pancake pieces from her hair as her nurse lead her towards another room. The stickiness was all right, but only Jasdero wandered around with old foodstuffs in his hair like an idiot, and Rhode had enough etiquette not to fall to his level even without the Earl around to scold her. Picking at her hair was a helpful action
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It wasn't a place she'd been to yet, but unfortunately the sense of newness was the only exciting thing about the room. There were still nurses around and random people everywhere, some not dressed like patients. No toys or even books were present to keep her entertained. Just people. She'd had enough of those for one day.
"Boooooooooooring," she pouted, placing her hands on her hips and slamming a foot to the ground as though the action might change her situation. If things weren't going to naturally go her way today, then she'd just have to make them. She didn't care for any visitor; she just needed to have some kind of fun before she lost it.
Her attempt at leaving only lasted for all of one step before her ears caught a familiar voice on the air. She hadn't been listening for it, but that annoyed, yet understanding tone was hard to mistake no matter how softly it was sighed. The last time she'd heard it had been when the Earl had brought help for her homework.
"Tyki?" Her head turned back, eyes searching hopefully for what she knew she'd missed at first glance.
Was that what the nurse had meant? Was Tyki really here? But there were no Akuma, and things weren't being destroyed left and right! If anyone had come to get her, then things should have been dying in retribution. She wasn't able to believe it when her eyes finally did set on her "brother" sitting calmly in a chair not too far from where she'd been herself.
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One white glove reached into a jacket pocket and slid out a deck of cards. "Father suggested I come visit," he said, not bothering to respond to the fake name she had called him by. Telling her just how wrong she was sounded more like a chore than being here in the first place, and certainly didn't sound like fun. He enjoyed breaking the will of many people, but seldom his baby sister. "He sends his regards."
He expertly bridged the cards and looked over at her with a slight smile. "How have you been?"
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His presence only left her feeling more confused than she'd been on her first day; it was more baffling than her powers being absent. How was he being so calm? Did he think this was a joke or something? Had the twins put him up to this!? She recalled having thought them behind this charade at first. If they really were playing their tricks on her...!
Before she could even begin to sort out those questions she needed to decide what to do about the Tyki she saw. She felt she should either do or say something instead of just standing there in shock, but nothing was coming to her. Actually, there was too much coming to her for her to sort out a proper course of action. So many options were open, and each conflicted with the other. She wanted to both throw something at him and hug him, scold him for taking so long, yet say that she'd missed him... possibly hurt him even as a means of affection (Tyki would understand something like that, wouldn't he?) and get scolded by him in response!
She knew she was happy to see him - it had been so long since she'd viewed the face of someone she knew who was on her side - but she also knew she was mad at him. She had every right to be mad. He finally showed up and all he was doing was just sitting there! Did he know what she'd been through?! Wait... did he?
"Tyki...?" she tried again much more unsurely and moved to take a step back towards him. She stopped after the step though, listening and watching him. What part of her hoped it to be Tyki was faltering under the circumstances. Too much was wrong here, and she knew it.
Only Lulubell had the ability to impersonate Tyki so perfectly, but even the Noah of Lust would have made Rhode feel more at ease. The person before her though, who was so much like her "brother" gave off too much of a strange feeling. He even spoke strangely, though the tone matched Tyki Mikk perfectly. What did he mean by "father"? She had no father, or none that she would claim. Only the Earl. And the Noah Family.
She stepped back again, eying him carefully. As much as she wanted the man to be Tyki, reason wouldn't let her admit that he was, and she was afraid of dealing with the probable truth. She really did want Tyki there, but she wanted her Tyki, one that didn't feel so wrong.
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"Even Father's gotten tired of the game. He threw out that ratty old umbrella you used to steal from him and play with as if it were real. He said it would hinder your recovery when you get home. If you come home." He smirked slightly, sliding the ace of clubs back into the middle of the deck.
"Anyways, enough talking. Why don't we play cards, instead?"
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Except for the speech (and a few of the lacking Noah tendencies), he was so perfectly Tyki. He was even chiding her like he would have! That couldn't be copied. Lulubell wasn't even able to get that right, and she had tried!
What if... what if it really was her Tyki?
She wanted it to be night. She wanted what little powers that darkness granted her so that she could know without a doubt whether or not this was the real Tyki. Even if it meant knowing that he was real - that he was her Tyki - she just wanted know, not to be stuck here with the doubts and the confusion.
Her eyes had trailed away from him and now studied the floor. She couldn't look at him; it confused her even more. "You mean... Relo?" she asked softly. She didn't know what else she should say, but it was as good a question as any at the moment, and far more important that playing any card game.
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He didn't really care all that much, but it'd make Father happy.
"Relo...yes," he said. "I believe that was the name you gave it. It never was much use to Father, but you always seemed to love it. Father always thought it was just part of being a child, having imaginary friends. Even as morbidly entertaining as they were, they seemed innocent enough."
He played a few card tricks casually. He would much prefer they just play cards and not have to talk about all of this family business. His very being here was a waste of time, and he knew it. She'd never change.
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"Relo is not imaginary!" she hissed on reflex, eyes turning angrily back up at him. That annoying umbrella was one of her absolute favorite playthings (second only to Allen Walker, of course), and when it came down to it, she was pretty defensive of the thing. As much as she'd tormented it, she didn't like for others to have that kind of fun with her pets, or to say that they weren't real! "Don't say that he is!" she ordered.
Him being the real Tyki may have been doubtful, but she was still Rhode Camelot. If she didn't like it, he would know.
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"My name is Rhode, not Catherine, so stop calling me that!" she ordered, vowing not to use the name for herself anymore, even during the day shift. "I don't have any "father" like you keep saying, and you don't either!" Tyki's human life was as a homeless bum, for crying out loud! "And just who are Jasmine and Debbie?!" she yelled without restraint. Her anger wasn't letting her make the connection between the names he'd listed and the Noah twins, but if it had, then she would have been even more upset. "And Tyki knows I don't like cards!" she finally finished with a huff.
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"Then who do you call the man who took us in and made us a family?" He asked. "Calling him Earl would be too formal, after all he's done for us. Jasmine and Debbie. I don't remember what you called them in that silly fantasy of yours, but they're your adopted siblings. Twins."
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When he said that Jasmine and Debbie were twins, the connection became clear, and it only make her more aggressive. "That's Jasdero and Devit," she corrected, stamping her foot to the ground once more.
No, probably not. Others like this Tyki... that's probably who Jasmine and Debbie were. Rhode would be happy never having to see other versions of the Noah twins. She was having a hard enough time dealing with the Tyki. She didn't want to have to shout down other members of what should have been the Noah Family.
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She had lived all her life as a Noah, or had for what she remembered of it. The human part of her was long forgotten and buried beneath what she deemed as her truest self. She was a Noah, and no part of what came with that was dumb! It only angered her more to hear the Noah family referred to as such, and by Tyki! She was the only one he was targeting though, but an insult to her was an insult to the whole family. Any Noah would have agreed, even Tyki! The Noah memory was always there. Her dreams were there, with her, always an forever. They weren't make-believe! They weren't!
"Stop talking like you know! You don't! You're... you're not Tyki! Tyki wouldn't! He wouldn't say..." ... things like that..., she wanted to finish with, but it didn't come. She knew she wanted to scream it at this pretender, this fake, but the words just refused to pass her lips. There was too much doubt blocking the way. Doubt that even her anger wasn't overriding.
Would he?
"... he just wouldn't!" she managed finally after fighting with the stubborn words.
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"If everything you believe is true," he reasoned, the grin so commonly associated with his black side plastered on his face. "Then why don't you magically summon one of your candles to break out? Or lock me in a dream world if you don't like what you're hearing, or don't believe it's me. Although...you're right. I'm not Tyki. I'm Timothy. Just like you're Catherine, not Rhode."
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But could she prove that?
If ever she had wanted her powers to work, it was now. She wanted to show him, to prove him wrong, and in doing so prove herself right. Being right wasn't as important as her knowing that she had something to believe in. She wanted to stop the doubts. Just one candle was all it would take for her doubts to stop plaguing her. Just one and she could shut them out and shut this false Tyki up. All she needed was one. But it didn't come. It had only taken minimul concentration for her to sommon thousands of candles on a whim, but now even her strongest concentration could not manifest even the tiniest flame. She shouldn't have expected that it would though; she couldn't even tell if this Tyki was human or not. She couldn't tell anything!
Her body trembled where she stood, her wide, teary eyes fixed on Tyki's smiling face. "It's not fake..." she whispered for herself, then shrieked for the world, "IT'S NOT!!!" And then her legs gave out and she was on the floor.
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It was possibly the most compassion Tyki had ever shown her, and yet it still came out shallow on his lips. He wasn't given to worrying about the pleasure of others when it conflicted with his own pleasure, and there was always such a conflict. "Are we done here?" he said at last impatiently, picking up his top hat. "I don't think either of us want to be here any longer, do we?"
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