Dayshift 22: Chapel

[claire_ity]

Claire woke up in her room just like before, with little idea of how she actually got there. This time, though, she noticed something different about the room. There was another young woman, a blond, sleeping in a bed across from her. Before questioning that, though, she made sure to hide the items she'd gotten that night in her closet, shutting

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[stray_shinigami]

Renji woke in confusion. For a long time, he simply lay in bed, trying to figure out what had happened the previous night. He remembered clearly getting Nowe and Sora down to safety, and after that, things became completely incoherent. He sat up slowly. His side ached, his throat was sore, his stomach churned, and he was terribly dizzy.

But on the plus side, he could breathe. That was a distinct improvement from the previous night.

When he sat up, the dizziness transmuted into a dull ache behind his eyes. In the hopes that it would pull less - and therefore not help his headache get any worse - Renji put his hair into a loose braid. It seemed to help, or at least not make things worse.

The room looked different, but before he could really start wiping the cobwebs out of his brain and start thinking about it, the nurse came in. She cheerfully bullied him up to his feet; they were out the door when he threw up on her. It looked like clods of dirt.

While it was embarassing, Renji couldn't help but take some perverse pleasure in the whole thing. Maybe if he thought of it as accidental revenge, it would be a bit easier to take. After some excitement that involved getting a different nurse and drinking water and a pill that he managed to get out of taking (even if he felt sick, it was better than bending to these people) and a breath mint (which he did accept) he was lead to the chapel. Given the choice, he'd gone that route because he wanted to see the place, and a little meditation sounded kind of nice right now.

At first, he was going to avoid the only other person there; but he recognized Claire after a moment. He sat down next to her, his movements rather slow and painful. Hopefully he'd warm up in a bit. "Hope you don't mind," he murmured. His voice was a little hoarse, though not nearly as bad as it had been.

[claire_ity]

Claire opened her eyes at the sound of someone approaching. At first she wasn't too keen on the idea of company, but recognized Renji.

"I don't mind," she said honestly. Looking at him, fear and worry started to spread through her. He looked terrible, and his voice was weaker. "Renji, are you okay? What happened to you last night?"

She thought the nurses were bad, but it looked like he'd gotten something ten times worse.

[blacksustenance]

A night's sleep did wonders.

Too bad Brock spent a good portion of it just staring up at the ceiling, quietly terrified in the back of his mind that he would start PMSing. Naturally he knew that was ridiculous, but he distinctly remembered his wife - former wife, he amended - each month just going apeshit about her periods. And of course she had described it in graphic detail, as if he could possibly forget, saying how "I'm bleeding out my ass" and "you're lucky you're not me" when she was particularly cranky from cramps.

Brock was now scared he was about to become her.

Your fears are unfounded, Host, hissed the symbiote patiently. As I have repeatedly told you.

Still. He wasn't supposed to go through all this and if he was already getting the indigestion/cramps, he was convinced it could only get worse. His bond with his alien Other told him that it really wouldn't, but it was hard to dismiss what was apparently deep fears about turning into a woman and getting pregnant.

The symbiote wafted amusement in their shared mind. Our type of reproduction of offspring isn't anything like yours. Humans are messy, ineffiencent. Mine will be fairly quick.

Oh, that made Brock feel much better. The fact he was actually starting to get used to Landels and its schedules and shifts seemed to be a lot less problematic than the idea he might have to worry about fucking tampons.

I already told you that your human female custom of blood lose won't happen.

That didn't make Brock any less humilated. His face was still pale and drawn as he was escorted to the chapel...and the former reporter had to stop as he was led inside, for it reminded him far too much of the church that fateful night, for a moment a wash of memories pushing his present fears aside. Back then he had been praying for forgiveness for the suicide he was going to commit. Still, uncanny resemblance aside, he did feel surprisingly relaxed as he entered and he figured at the very least he could enjoy some time spent in prayer and reflection.

God probably wouldn't want to listen to this sinner's prayers - too many killed, nevermind the cannibalism they needed to survive - but it couldn't hurt to give it a try. Brock seated himself in the pews not far from a red-haired man (with some of the weirdest tattoos he'd ever seen) and a teenage blonde who looked more like she belonged in a cheerleading squad than a crazy house like Landels.

[not_a_savior]

If Nowe knew what a truck was, he might've felt like his head had been run over by one when he woke up that morning. The intercom's voice was nothing but babble, and he groaned and waited for it to turn off.

The nurse practically bounced into the room once the noise faded, grabbing his hand and dragging him out. Nowe's head spun. Renji had done a decent job healing his head, but moving too quickly still made him dizzy.

The room was different. Nowe didn't have time to stare too much at the other bed before the nurse pulled him out the door. Nowe took a few automatic steps in the direction of the cafeteria, but the woman pulled him some other way he didn't recognize.

"Chapel or sun room, Mr. Scarborough?" she asked. Nowe shook his head.

"I don't care. Chapel, I suppose," he answered. He was tired still, and wanted to go back to sleep. But that didn't seem to be a choice he had, so he picked the chapel, wondering what kind of gods the people in this world worshipped. His nurse led him up the stairs and into a huge room. Nowe's eyes widened as he stared around the room. It was an exquisite church, the room resembling the castle of the Knights of the Seal. He spotted Renji sitting next to another girl, with another man sitting near them, and smiled to himself. Good. Renji was safe, and alive. He made his way between the pews and over to them.

"This seat is open, I hope?" he said, sitting down on Renji's other side and slouching. He was tired. Maybe he could sleep in here. He offered a small smile to the other two sitting near his friend, not wanting to appear unfriendly. Normally he'd introduce himself, but he was still so drained that he felt like pleasantries would be even more tiring.

The colors and light filling the room was distracting and almost dreamlike. He needed to find Caim. He needed to talk to Caim. But Nowe's eyes were already heavy and he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay awake. He'd need to be awake in order to talk to anyone, first.

Before he knew it, he'd drifted back to sleep, slumping to the side and against Renji. It would lead to much embarrassment when he woke up, but he was out almost immediately and didn't notice.

[ Sorry to be such a burden, but feel free to skip my turn. I wanted to put Nowe somewhere but I'm not sure when my next opportunity to post will be. I will talk to you guys before I post again if I get the chance. ]

[stray_shinigami]

Renji was a little surprised by just how quickly Nowe dropped off, but he didn't say anything about it. The kid probably needed sleep even more than he did. He was relieved that he seemed to be doing a lot better, though. Looking rather bemused, he draped his arm around Nowe in an almost parental gesture.

He looked at Claire, shrugging his free shoulder. "I'm fine," he said. He probably would have said the same if he were missing half of his limbs. "We ran into something nasty. We managed to get the kids out okay. That's what's important." He shrugged again. He needed to keep an eye out for Kurosaki. He seemed to remember him being there, but he couldn't be certain of anything. He frowned at that thought.

Don't bury him until he's actually dead, he told himself, pushing aside the worry.

He was still feeling rather nauseous; something was bothering him, niggling at the back of his mind. Renji found his gaze drawn to the man who'd just sat down nearby. It was hard to tell, with the unhelpful input from his complaining body, but he thought that was the source of this extra discomfort. He stared at the man through red-rimmed eyes, curious and intense but not yet hostile, trying to discern what the problem was.

It'd be easy if he just looked at his spirit thread. But he had a nasty feeling that if he tried something even that uncomplicated, he'd end up passed out on the floor. His dignity had taken enough bruising for one day already.

[claire_ity]

Claire smiled back at the newcomer, and was about to introduce herself before he nodded off. She wasn't offended - heck, with all the excitement that went on at night, she could hardly blame him for being tired.

Renji wasn't quite off the hook yet, though. He was trying to wave off his condition when he obviously looked like hell. "Nurses attacked me last night, but it didn't look like they could have done this to you. What happened?"

Just then, she noticed the blond girl from last night approach their section. "I remember," she said, smiling in welcome. "I'm Claire."

She looked over curiously at the other blond - a man - sitting near them. He looked pale and kind of stressed. "Looks like everyone had a rough night."

[prisonerofdeath]

It was always very troubling for Fox when he couldn't remember something, such as how he got from one place to another. That lack of memory was particularly disturbing because it meant one of two things.

Either he'd had one of those break-downs like the ones he had experienced in Shadow Moses, or someone had been moving him around and doing stuff to him. The fact that he was in new clothes and had new bandages indicated the latter.

Wonderful. Add to the fact that he'd woken up in the room with someone else in there, sleeping in another bed. Fox had been briefly tempted to do something to his unsuspecting room-mate, before coming to the conclusion that the man had probably just as little choice in the manner as he had.

His reason for going to the chapel was two-fold. First, it was on the second floor, a place he hadn't seen enough of for his liking yet. Second, because he knew Snake wasn't the religious type, and had hoped to avoid him. The fact that Snake now had an eye-patch and was sitting and talking with Otacon... oh well. He'd just sit somewhere else while he sorted everything out.

Instead he sat down next to the next person he recognized, the morbid girl from the other day. Fox was very glad his bandages were hidden. Her comment about cats and scars the previous day, that was just strange.

He sat down just as she said 'Rough Night'. Fox couldn't agree more.

[blacksustenance]

((Ack, gotta pop off to work after this. I'll be back around 6PM PST, so I guess just pretend Brock's uh, praying. FOr hours. YEAH. xD; ))

Brock looked up.

There were a surprising number of people starting to collect in the pews and Brock wondered how many actually were religious and how many were just...there. He glanced at those around him. The redhead was looking like he'd been run through a grinder and then had his ass kicked, the two blonde girls looked highly illegal, there seemed to be another teenager glued to Red's shoulder and someone else had just joined them. Brock was very relieved that he could look at the teenagers and not feel anything in one way or another about them. Apparently his attractions were centered to a select few the symbiote felt any interest in.

"I'm Eddie Brock," Brock said. He left it at that for now, closing his eyes and keeping his hands together as he prayed.

[stray_shinigami]

"I don't know what it was. A thing that looked mostly human except it had a giant metal pyramid covering its head. And a sword longer than I am tall." Renji shrugged again. "It cracked Nowe's skull open by slamming him into the wall." He indicated the boy that leaned on him. "Kurosaki played distraction and I got this guy and Sora to safety." That was the bare bones of it, and he couldn't really put together a coherent idea of what had happened afterward. "If you see that thing, or hear it - when it walks, it drags its sword - just run. It's not something that either I or Kurosaki could defeat."

His lips set into a grim frown. Again, coming back to Kurosaki. He hoped that he was alright. They had done the best they could - and Sora and Nowe were okay, which was the most important thing. But he was still furious with himself for leaving Kurosaki to take the brunt of the punishment instead of doing it himself.

He looked at Eddie when he introduced himself, the frown deepening a little. It still bothered him, and goddamnit, he couldn't figure it out.

Maybe it was just leftover... whatever from last night, But he doubted it.

[claire_ity]

Claire was slightly surprised to see Fox again. She nodded to him in greeting, but he looked just as annoyed as Eddie.

...Eddie?

"Uhm, excuse me," she said. She felt terrible for interrupting his prayer, but he'd been at it for a while and she was curious. "Eddie, from the bulletin board? You're the one from New York?" She hoped she was right on this.

Claire gasped when Renji told her what happened, leaning over to look at the slumbering boy. She'd been slammed into a wall in a very similar fashion, but she had her healing...this boy, though...she couldn't imagine the pain.

She turned to listen to Elena, getting more and more anxious. The nature of this place was starting to truly hit her. She felt way in over her head.

[prisonerofdeath]

"You can just call me Fox."

He put a hand on Claire's shoulder, she looked very anxious and overwhelmed. He'd seen that look on many faces. Usually soldiers, sometimes children. "If you let it get to you mentally, it's that much harder to fight physically. They're playing with us, testing us. Seeing how far they can push us before we break. I know the type." He considered this for a moment.

"Physical damage is easier to forget. I've had body parts cut off and reattached, eventually you forget what it felt like. Psychological damage is much more difficult to deal with. It's not as immediate, but it builds up, and you remember it more clearly." Realizing he probably wasn't doing such a good job at comforting, in fact, he was probably doing the opposite, he decided to move for a better point.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is survival is a two-part effort. Even if you manage to get through something without a scratch, if you let it overwhelm you, they've still won. It's better to take the hits as you get them and keep going, than to let them manipulate you through fear and doubt." Probably best to stop there before he dug himself in deeper. He could've said more about the resiliency of the human mind, but that would mean bringing up things he didn't want to talk about with strangers.

[blacksustenance]

Brock looked up, a bit surprised that someone had figured out who he was just from the message board. He hadn't been signing it or giving much indication to hint his identity (or so he thought), but obviously he hadn't gone far enough. He just hoped that the staff hadn't figured it out so quickly - he had pretty much threatened several people, although he supposed threatening to kill Kasady didn't quite count.

"Yeah, I used to live in New York," Brock said, opening an eye and glancing aside at the blonde with the long hair - Claire, he supposed. "

He hadn't been paying too much attention to their conversation, but the part where they started going on about men with pyramids for heads had caught his attention. He was of the opinion that they were losing their minds, but decided that he was in some fucking bizarre mutant crazy house and that would answer all his questions.

A sigh. He wasn't going to get much done if he kept unconsciously eavesdropping on these people. At least he wasn't looking at them and thinking how absolutely delicious they would be. Not yet. But one of the people, Red, was looking at him as if he wanted a taste and Brock found himself staring back.

"And what's your deal?" he asked. He had to admit it felt weird to be on the receiving side of these kinds of stares. Gotta tone it down then, he thought.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji didn't look away, or back down. His eyes narrowed slightly. "Because there's something wrong with you," he said. Blunt was his style, anyway, and he was too damn tired to really think about what he was saying. "And I'm trying to figure out what it is."

He glanced at Claire for a moment, and reached out to touch her arm. "Trust your friends to guard your back as they trust you to guard theirs. Understand that death, pain, and life are all the same thing. Overcome your fears with your will, and they will become your strength." He smiled. "When we stand resolved, together, there is no chance of defeat."

That said - coherently, he hoped, but his head just hurt - he turned his attention back to Eddie.