claire_ity
in
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Dayshift 22: Chapel
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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He left his new roommate, something he was very unhappy about, asleep in the room and opted for the chapel rather than the sunroom. He wasn't at all religious, far from it, but something about the Doctor's message intrigued him. Besides, he'd always found churches to be interesting works of art in their own right, divorced from any false significance placed on them by supposed gods.
The chapel itself didn't disappoint. He didn't see anyone he would want to interact with, so he found himself a seat in a back corner. He spent a few minutes surveying the chapel, appreciating its architecture and the light coming through the stained glass windows, before closing his eyes and settling into a light meditation. Hopefully, he would still be aware enough of his surroundings to notice people approaching, but he hadn't actually tried this with human senses before. He gathered what of his chi he could reach, slowed his breathing and centered himself, settling in to wait for whatever this surprise might be.
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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.
That was until Sanzo turned over and saw that he no longer had a room to himself: where there'd been wall before, the room had seemingly increased in size, and had another bed added to it, complete with an occupant.
He frowned. The nurse and orderly pair that came for him wasn't much help, but that was unsurprising. No explanation as to how the person came here, or even the reason, much less one for the sudden transformation of the room. Sanzo would have to find out on his own time and until then, just grow increasingly disgruntled with the fact that what last solace he had in his solitude had just been stripped from him.
The fact that there wasn't any religious icons in the chapel wasn't lost on the monk. Ornate, with pews and (to Sanzo's mind, gaudy)red carpeting, it didn't look anything like his temple back home. Even so, there should have been at least some hint at the area's religion, even if they weren't allowed any direct images of a deity, there were plenty of ways to represent one without it. All Sanzo saw were abstract designs, none of which repeated. At least some repetition would have given some hint as to a religion...
The only familiar aspect of all this was Hakkai seated in the back, and Sanzo hadn't known the man to be one for religion. Most religious people didn't go on massacres, but then again, Sanzo didn't know Hakkai anywhere near as well as he knew the monkey. It was likely he'd overlooked this part of the healer.
Sanzo joined Hakkai, but didn't say a word.
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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."
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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.
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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?"
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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.
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He wondered just how badly Sanzo would take it if he suggested carrot sticks.
The small smirk from that thought was probably visible, but he managed to refrain from actually making any comment to that effect. While Hakkai enjoyed a good game of Poke the Sanzo as much as the next demon, there was a time and place for everything.
"Kenren and I managed to make it to the kitchen last night." He didn't see any reason to mention Rabastan yet. Or the fact that he was starting to adjust to the lessened senses, which seemed to be just barely above human level. Perhaps that had something to do with the chi, then, but it was hard to tell. "Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones. It was cleaned out."
...And that led to an interesting question. Someone had moved him to the bed, but the knives had still been where he'd put them. "Which I'm sure they've noticed by now. Why do they allow us to keep things we find?"
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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.
"I"m not surprised to hear about the kitchen." It seemed like an obvious place to get something to double as a weapon. Somehow it didn't surprise Sanzo as much as it should have to find out that Kenren and Hakkai had apparently hit it off. "If you're going to pursue that line of questioning, you'd have to ask why they also let us out at night."
The priest didn't see the point of digging into either too much right now. This prison as a whole didn't make much sense, but what the monk saw was the only possible openings they'd been given. They needed to be taken advantage of.
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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 accomodations."
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"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.
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"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?"
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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 was something about his roommate going off somewhere. Probably Gojyo going out on one of his runs, nothing new there.
Insert a yawn here and the nurse gesturing towards two halls. Grogginess beginning to fade, Goku was able to take some look at his surroundings. He immediately stopped after, seeing how his eyes hadn't adjusted to the levels of light to continue inspection. That was fine, he didn't need sight to tell him which direction to head towards. Hakkai and Sanzo's scents were heading down one of the two corridors, and if that's where they were, he'd follow.
This time the woman at his side (Gojyo would be proud!) didn't lead the way, Goku did. She did decide to open the chapel door for him, halfway or so, but she didn't follow him inside. Instead she took the pillow he'd unknowingly brought with him, and let the door slam shut. Kinda rude attitude.
But that wasn't important, what was was that Sanzo and Hakkai were around. Goku followed his nose to where they were sitting and took his place beside Sanzo. He yawned, stretched a bit, and leaned forward so that he was resting his arms on the bench in front of them. He sort of grunted a greeting, but it was also possible he was just making noise.
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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.
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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.
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When had Sanzo become so strong? Er, physically anyway, Sanzo was strong, but.. not really like that? Geez, whatever! The point was that it hurt more than it should have, which meant that Sanzo had secretly been doing something. If Sanzo had been doing secret training, he wanted in on it too. That was only fair, right? Friends share their secrets.
His eagerness to get the information out of Sanzo was probably why he basically ignored what had been said. Or maybe it was the way his head was still throbbing just a tiny bit, hard to say. "Wow, Sanzo! You're almost as strong as I am now!" Goku moved so he was leaning close to Sanzo; something he knew was dangerous but since he was just too interested in seeing what had changed in the monk, he didn't care. Of course, that was when he'd noticed the shirt, and he was sent reeling.
Sanzo, in a smiley face shirt.
Okay, he was going to die, but that was just too great! First, the grin. Next, the roaring laughter coupled with Goku clutching his stomach. It wasn't until he looked up at Hakkai that he stopped, noticing that the two of them decided to raid the same closet. That was weird, and just a little bit creepy.
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"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?"
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