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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[damned_ivy]

Hakkai blinked as he sat up, momentarily confused by the change in location both from where he last remembered being, in the kitchen, and where he should theoretically have woken up, in a single room that was not here. He growled a soft curse when he noticed the roommate that went along with the second bed. The knives were still in his pockets so he hid them quickly, just in time for the nurse to quietly open the door

[31st_of_china]

Chapel or Sun Room.

A rare moment of curiosity finally got the better of the priest: there wasn't much leeway for anything during the day, and he hadn't seen the chapel so far. A chance for some peace and quiet, possibly some meditation... although Sanzo didn't like this mention of a "surprise" that the Head Doctor had mentioned.

The only consolation was that at least it wouldn't be as completely inane and mind-numbing as something like the Arts & Crafts room. Sanzo's mood lifted at the thought

[damned_ivy]

Well, it seemed they'd both let curiosity get the better of them this time.

Hakkai was far from religious. Really, as far from religion as one could get while still acknowledging the existance of gods. Gods, plural, that he had neither desire nor reason to interact with on a normal basis and even less desire to praise. They were only slightly less incompetent, it seemed, than the Christian god he'd been raised to believe in.

Belief. Ha. There was an amusing idea. Hakkai didn't believe in anything.

In the relative peace of the chapel, it didn't take Hakkai long to note that someone had joined him. He opened his eyes enough to glance in Sanzo's direction, giving a small nod of recognition. "Sanzo."

[31st_of_china]

Sanzo only nodded reply at first. He glanced around. More patients were trickling in. The ones that entered were looking around at the ornate interior, while several were already knelt and deep in prayer. The monk didn't know what good prayer would do here. The Gods had a way of letting things just play out when their help was needed most, thanks to a mix of twisted, divine humor and whim - and meddling when it wasn't.

Sanzo knew better than to expect the hag to come down from heaven and set things back on track. He was pretty damn sure she/he was actually enjoying watching all of this.

"Did you find anything useful?" Sanzo finally asked, his voice low. He honestly didn't think that Hakkai could've found any sign of Goku or the sutra, but it couldn't hurt to ask. He hated to admit it, but he was starting to get worried about the monkey.

[damned_ivy]

Hakkai closed his eyes again, enjoying the peace of the chapel. Even with the extra people coming in all the time, the place was uncommonly quiet. It had been a while, even before he woke up here, since he'd last been able to just sit and enjoy the silence. Maybe he was just getting used to the place, becoming less wary. That could very likely get him killed, but he would worry about that later, if it became a problem.

He hadn't seen anything of Sanzo the night before, although that was hardly surprising. Sanzo wasn't the sort to seek out company even among those who could and would help him if asked. He was far too fond of not being dependent on anyone. Not that Hakkai himself was too much better. Pot, kettle, and all that.

"Useful for whom?" He was playing with fire, and he knew it, but this place was every man for himself, it seemed. "I haven't found anything especially interesting, if that's what you mean. And you?"

[31st_of_china]

Hakkai was playing with fire and he was about to get away with it. This time at least. Sanzo wanted a level head, and Hakkai was about as level as they came, for the most part.

The monk just settled for a small grimace, both at Hakkai and at himself. It was embarrassing to admit it, but he hadn't made any leeway the night before.

"No. It's hard to make any progress without a working flashlight," Sanzo said. He was frustrated enough with last night's failure as it was that he would've accepted even having the half-breed nearby as a pair of seeing eyes, so long as the asshole kept his mouth shut.

Even finding cigarettes and a lighter would've been good. He resisted the urge to tap fingers restless for one of them. It was always easier to hide the uneasiness that came when the cigarettes ran out when he had the robes.

[damned_ivy]

"Oh? And what did you do to yours?" He was watching Sanzo out of the corner of his eye now. Even with the robes, Hakkai could usually tell when Sanzo was extra irritable from something or other. He had to be able to. A Sanzo without cigarettes was a Sanzo twice as likely to shoot Gojyo for his. Not that he would even enjoy Gojyo's cigarettes, but he did more brooding than smoking anyway

[31st_of_china]

The slight smirk that ghosted over Hakkai's face wasn't missed., although it looked like the other man had thought better about whatever he'd been about to say. Good. He still had a sense of self-preservation.

Sanzo shrugged. "I was opening a locked door."

Opened it and had been about to enter when day arrived. Sanzo still wanted to go back to that room and check for his files, but he was going to have to replace the flashlight before he did anything. That or get someone to see for him. He preferred the first: there wasn't many here that he'd trust to any extent, aside from a Hakkai who still had to be verified as being Hakkai, and a missing monkey. Even Gojyo he'd put up with at the moment, even if it was just for the cigarettes. The kappa had his decent moments, although they were few and fare between. He was a perverted retard most of the time, but he could still fight decently, and Sanzo also didn't see him as having the brains to pull off a back-stab

[damned_ivy]

Hakkai's sense of self-preservation was debatable at best. His business sense, though, was impeccable. A time for work and a time for play, after all.

Then again, all work and no play...

Ah, but if Sanzo only knew that it was the.. less intelligent portion of their party who'd come up with the idea in the first place. Hakkai was smarter than to give him that much ammunition, though. "I wasn't surprised that it was a popular destination, but it was too easy. Like they don't care that people might have been finding their way in there. The monsters are scattered at best, and half the locks are inadequate."

He hadn't seen hide nor hair of a monster last night after getting past the spider. Not even where he would have expected some resistance. He shook his head, telling himself that Sanzo was right. Following that line of thought was futile at best. "And why we're here in the first place. I'm aware of the problems in the argument, Sanzo. Still...Ah, well. A more immediate consideration, I suppose, is the sudden change in sleeping

[31st_of_china]

There wasn't any rhyme or reason as to where the monsters lurked and how many appeared, at least from what Sanzo'd observed so far. Nurses seemed to swarm around the medwing nights ago, but nothing had protected Dr. Crane's office. Nightshift didn't follow many rules of logic, but the dayshift here pretended to at least. The second body in the room wasn't nearly as random.

"So I wasn't the only one to wake up with another patient in my cell." At least it was happening all over and not just to him: the realization mollified the priest, but only slightly. "It's possible that they're doing this to keep an eye on the other patients."

Sanzo hadn't exactly been in that many prisons before to know the exact workings of them, but he could hazard a guess. It wouldn't be too far off the mark to have a rat or two somewhere in here. If not now, then this new development could easily result in them.

[damned_ivy]

But two nights in a row, there had been a monster in the lower block hallway. Perhaps it had to do with where the patients were most likely to spend most of their time? It had certainly taken long enough both nights just to get organized enough to leave the patient blocks.

"You weren't. In fact, I was in a completely different room." If people had had non-standard issue things in their rooms, had those been moved, as well? And if so, why? It was a neverending circle. "I suppose it's possible that they would be setting things up so as to watch us more easily. At the very least, people would be more concentrated in fewer rooms."

That didn't seem right, though. It was the obvious solution, and like everything else here, the obvious solution wasn't always the right one. It was too easy to get thrown off the trail by what seemed correct. He just didn't like the whole situation. "Why now, though?"

[heavensequal]

Dinner? Ha! Proving once and for all Goku was the god of sleep he woke up at the smell of food, devoured it, and fell right into a coma. Seeing as after the fair supper the word 'coma' was used in place of the word 'sleep,' any other meals served went unnoticed. The nurse that ritually came to wake him also was neglected, so much so that after several days of comalikeness she'd decided to use a bit of physical force. This mainly consisted of her shaking one Son Goku's shoulders, and give a bit of motivational speech. That is, yelling.

Amazingly enough, it worked.Cut to Goku rubbing sleep out of his eyes and blinking up into the face of .. someone unfamiliar. He'd managed a "wha" before her voice tried to penetrate his brain; it didn't work, something about the pitch was too high to compute, but it'd been a good attempt nevertheless. An informative one too, had he been listening (if he had he would have been told that he was asleep for a number of days and that he was very, very late meeting his new family). Well, he had a bit, there

[31st_of_china]

"I wouldn't know. They didn't do anything like this after my attempt to--" Sanzo never got any further than that. That void where Goku's "voice" had been missing suddenly filled.... and a very familiar body, the owner who'd managed to get Sanzo of all people worried and distracted from pursuing the sutra, plopped itself right next to him.

As if Goku had just woken up from a nap and didn't see anything wrong with the place or his absence. As if he hadn't vanished at all. As if he showed up from out of nowhere every single day. As if these shitty uniforms weren't out of place on them.

Sanzo's fingers twitched for the harisen, before he remembered that it'd been confiscated with the rest of his belongings.

The priest settled on the next best thing. He cuffed the idiot, and he didn't hold back.

"Where the fuck have you been?" the priest hissed, although he made sure to keep his voice down.

[damned_ivy]

Hakkai blinked at Goku's sudden appearance. Neither of them had been able to find even a trace of him, and now he just appeared out of nowhere. Ordinarily, Hakkai would be wary, but the way Sanzo was acting...

Well, he was pretty sure it was Goku.

Ordinarily, he would try to talk Sanzo into calming down, but he was already keeping his voice down on his own. Hakkai was obviously not needed at the moment and it wasn't at all because he was feeling just the tiniest bit malicious for having been made to worry. He would just be over here chuckling softly. The group wasn't quite complete, but things felt better with Goku accounted for.

[heavensequal]

"Ow!" That.. summed it up pretty nicely. He was used to being hit by Sanzo, but it never changed the fact that reacted the same way everytime. He yelled, held his head, and in a sore tone cried out, "Hey, that hurt you bastard!" He used other phrases, this one was reserved for when Sanzo hit him a little harder than normal. It didn't mean much considering he had an especially hard head, but this time.. This time he sort of just blinked. That had hurt. Really, really hurt

[31st_of_china]

The priest winced at the exclamation and the too-loud laugh.

"Keep your voice down," Sanzo snapped. "This is a chapel."

Goku was hovering nearby, staring at the ridiculious shirts Hakkai, himself, and just about every patient in the room was wearing, as if he'd never seen anything like it before. Thankfully, the monkey shut up once he noticed Hakkai was also wearing a matching uniform, because Sanzo was close to smacking him again. Sanzo pushed him back out of the little bubble of personal space he'd just invaded, glaring, and already bristling that he'd been laughed at.

"Have you gone fucking insane?" The kid'd already seen these uniforms - a weeks' worth of them, if Sanzo's memory was correct- and he was also wearing one. "And you didn't answer my question: where the hell've you been?"