May 20, 2008 08:37
Sanosuke hadn't quite been ready to part ways from Kenshin, but his nurse was insistent, and she was offering food. That second thing was what really got Sano off the couch and headed to the cafeteria. And at the very least, the thing about Okita had been settled, which meant the fighter could focus on his meal
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star dragon sword,
zelos,
qui-gon jinn,
anya,
kagura,
edward elric,
yuna,
tyler,
nia,
melissa,
danny phantom,
wolfram,
jade,
allen,
naminé,
seiya,
demyx,
clark kent,
zex,
angel,
zelnick,
claire bennet,
misa,
leon kennedy,
shana,
peter parker,
kurogane,
artemis,
mello,
aya,
ion,
xellos,
usopp,
nakago,
heiji,
peter petrelli,
yohji,
fwiffo,
archer,
zuko,
sync,
matt,
farfarello,
zoro,
takaya,
sanosuke,
haku,
tyki,
wolverine,
esmeralda,
kratos,
lia,
willow,
haseo,
bridget,
rubedo,
sanji,
toboe,
rhode,
shito,
glados,
homura,
nami,
bella,
kaito,
elle,
fayt,
alexander conklin,
sora,
momo (xenosaga),
luffy,
leon (so2),
albel,
reno,
renamon,
claude,
amelia,
oriya,
rukia,
mark,
edgeworth,
zexion,
harry osborn,
max,
sousuke,
dean winchester,
peony,
brook,
chopper,
ren,
argilla,
sakura,
kenren,
hanyuu,
yuber,
guy,
kimbley,
kairi,
armand,
reid,
vlad,
allelujah,
roy,
frey,
cloud,
fai,
sai,
leon magnus,
yue,
sasuke,
daemon,
edward cullen,
brooklyn,
eddie brock,
rangiku,
omi,
gin,
scar (tlk),
subaru
"Or..." the other man finally muttered, "I haven't actually woken up yet, and whatever gas they have me on is giving me loopy dreams about crazy supernatural hospitals." Because Mello wouldn't say anything like that unless he actually meant it. "Or they've got you on something that's messing with your head."
And yet it felt too awfully real to be a dream. Too many of his senses were affected, and it ran in a linear fashion without changing scenarios every few moments like his dreams normally did. Then the second option... no, that wasn't right. Not with how Mello was acting otherwise. It was even less believable than the first in a way.
He made an indecipherable noise and covered his face with both hands. Not possible. Not possible. He'd proved the whole deal with the book that killed people, but this? New Jersey? "The hell, Mello?" His voice was muffled. "What the hell."
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"If I was going to hallucinate I'd come up with something a little less cliche than this shit," he snapped, glaring again. As unlikely as the institute seemed, he'd only questioned his sanity briefly before introspection reminded him that he sure as hell wasn't weak enough to be manipulated by the type of person who would create something so juvenile-horror-novelesque. His outburst of anger was gone as soon as it appeared, and he yawned as he folded his arms behind his head.
"What the hell," he said with a nod. "I know. But we can't reject evidence because its improbable. I've spent two days gathering info about this place, and I'm telling you, that's how it is. Being wrong isn't my style."
Aside from the whole 'getting you killed' thing.
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There were monsters here. Dead people. Other worlds and times. Dead... "You got us both killed, didn't you?" he started quietly. "You got us both killed, and whatever crazy shit was involved with that fucking book dragged us both here, right??" He should have known. He should have known. You didn't mess with the supernatural like that and expect to come out unscathed.
And there was no chocolate for Mello. The man had taken to chewing on his nails, of which there wasn't much left now that he got a better look. So chances of him getting a cigarette or three were probably next to nil. And his games... "Fuck, Mello. FUCK."
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He stabbed a breadstick into a puddle of sauce and bit off the tip, his nose wrinkled in annoyance and disgust.
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Maybe Mello hadn't been directly responsible for Matt's death, but if he hadn't gotten into this whole mess with him it wouldn't have happened. Mello should know that as well as he did.
"Sorry if I've hurt your pride."
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After another moment of silence he resumed eating the breadstick with slightly less aggression, though he was far from pleased. "It might have to do with the book, in our case," he said. "The book didn't send us here, but when people show up in groups they're always connected by some important event."
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But he'd agreed to this mess all the same. He couldn't entirely blame Mello, either.
"You say 'group,'" Matt's face was once again covered by his hands. "Who else is here?" There were any number of people connected to that book, and Matt didn't recognize anyone else's faces right off the bat.
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"If someone doesn't appear here when they die, they fork off of their living counterpart and the living one stays in the real world. The man here doesn't know about us. I don't think he knows anything that happened after autumn of 2004." L hadn't been firm on the matter, but Light looked years younger than the man Mello remembered, and if people were pulled here out of significant points in their timeline, as he suspected, it would make sense.
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"Fork off...? An alternate timeline?" So there was then more than one of this person in existence? He thought a few Star Trek episodes had handled this issue, but that series just made shit up all the time anyway and he hadn't bothered following it very well. "From 2004?" That was a good six years ago, going by his time at least. It was the year...
The year when L died. Significant points. Right.
"This is such crazy shit." He wanted to shove down every little voice in his head that told him Mello wouldn't play games with him, would lie and make up sill reasons for why he was there. But he couldn't. Mello simply didn't.
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He took a bite of pizza and chewed as he shifted his weight to balance his chair on two legs, making it easier to cross his ankles. "It's not an alternate timeline," he said. "I don't think it's a timeline at all. More like a nexus."
He'd hurt Matt's brain enough for one day. "Anyway," he said, hoping to shift the subject from the theoretical and put Matt back on solid ground, "It's not easy to get cigarettes. I hear there's some kind of black market, but you should probably just kick the habit."
If Matt came across anything worth trading, Mello was sure there'd be a better use for it.
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It would be better, but you didn't just demand that of someone! Especially not someone in the utterly confused position Matt was currently in.
"I'm going to kill you in your sleep," he added, though the threat was only half-hearted. Mello was already dead. Did they even sleep here? He certainly felt very much alive at the moment, despite everything the blond had said. Was it a semblance of living, or was he really alive again? He considered trying to stab himself with the plastic cutlery, but then decided against it. He would assume they'd been brought back to life somehow until he found out otherwise.
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"That's another thing," he continued as he wiped the grease from his fingertips. "We don't sleep like normal; we kind of pass out in the middle of whatever we're doing and wake up in bed. You could only do it if you caught me sleeping during the day, and I've got better stuff to do than that."
Which was true, regardless of whether he actually accomplished it.
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"Like a sort of controlled narcolepsy?" Matt frowned. "Everyone at once, or-- you know what, don't bother. I'm sure I'll see it for myself. Or not see it, as the case may be." His head was already starting to hurt from the sudden onslaught of impossible information, and he didn't even have a cigarette to calm his nerves with.
"About catching you asleep during the day, though," he couldn't help but add to help lighten his mood, "... how's the caffeine withdrawal coming along?"
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"There's tea," he said in a tone that made it clear exactly what he thought of tea, "but for all I know, it might be decaf." It was sadistic enough for this place. His thumbs were still intact, but he figured the torn skin around his other fingernails spoke for itself.
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The same sort that had monsters running about at night, apparently.
At least he knew he wasn't going to be alone in suffering the loss of vices. Mello's might seem sillier, but for someone who ate practically nothing but chocolate for years, such a change was going to hit him pretty hard. When he was feeling less vindictive, he might feel some pity. Maybe.
The hated glasses slid partway down his nose and he instinctively pushed them back up with one finger, hating himself for the action even before he'd finished.
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He'd noticed on the first day that none of the staff wore timepieces and there were no visible clocks in the institute. He would have expected nothing else, given what he'd learned about the nurses, but even if time was subjective it was still quantifiable. Mello glanced to the ceiling as his mind shuffled through possibilities. The distant expression lasted less than a full second before he sat up and looked at Matt with renewed interest.
"Have you ever built the type of equipment you used out there from scraps?" he asked. Mello knew a fair amount about the way electronics worked, but there was a difference between understanding something and putting it into practice. The radio made it through surgery, but the more complex something was, the higher the chance of error when modifying it. Matt's expertise could be invaluable.
Although his self-satisfied smile was a shade less confident than usual, he felt far more like himself than he had when he entered the cafeteria.
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