Day 22: Shift 3, Sun Room

[stray_shinigami]

Renji probably would have just kept sleeping at the table in the cafeteria if someone had let him. He was just so tired (thanks to the drugs) and really didn't feel good either (thanks to the drugs?). But, as was inevitable, a nurse showed up and shook him, none-too-gently, into a state that resembled wakefulness if not closely inspected

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[haiiro_no_chou]

So apparently Renji was vomiting on nurses? That was... odd. And now this Eric fellow was talking about being dead, and Renji was saying that they were police. Okay, so he probably hadn't told Eric the whole truth about what they do, but the pale-skinned man at least knew that they were not alive. At any rate, they seemed rather friendly with each other. For some reason Rukia found herself irritated by that.

"Spirit thread, hm?" Rukia murmured, looking Eric over. She concentrated, trying to dislodge whatever it was holding her powers back. She managed to get a brief glimpse of Eric's spirit thread, as well as Renji's, but even the other people in the room seemed too far away. As Rukia felt herself shifting back into the normal realm of vision, she realized she was swaying, and the room was spinning.

Trying to get the ground to be down and the roof to be up, Rukia stretched out one arm, grabbing onto the closest thing she could find. After the world righted itself, she found her hand on Renji's shoulder. She let go, rubbing her temples. "That was strange..." she glanced at Renji, then back to Eric. "Your spririt thread is... different. Like ours, but darker. What are you?"

She was also curious to hear about this "Night thingy" Renji had mentioned, and perhaps Eric would tell her.

[dead_draven]

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, one you, zero nurses, I guess."

He waited her out, figuring that, after what Renji had said, she'd want to see for herself. "Don't try too hard. Things are tougher here." He cocked his head to the side, a distinct, avian movement. "Not sure. For a while I thought maybe Renji could tell me, but he seems about as confused as you or I. I wish I did know..." He trailed off for a moment, his thoughts continuing beyond what he would say aloud. He brought his concentration back to the conversation with a difficulty. Damn drugs.

"As for the 'night thingy'? When night falls, you'll be freed to wander about the building, but also chased by horrific monsters...abominations...they're difficult to describe. When morning comes again you'll be back in your bed with no clue as to how you got there, usually bandaged up if you've been injured. Dangerous time, night is. I rather like it." His smile widened, and, contradicting his description of the horrors of nightshift, he seemed to be telling the truth when he said he liked it.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji wanted to warn Rukia against trying to look, but he knew he wouldn't listen to himself, given the situation. They were equally stubborn. That was part of how they'd made it.

He almost jumped when Rukia grabbed him. He also almost reached up to touch her hand, but he managed to wrestle that idea into submission. Concentrate. He needed to concentrate. His hand made a small movement, little more than a twitch, but that was all.

"Most of the thingies... monsters... they're easy." He grinned. "Been killing 'em with ballpoint pens. But some of 'em... all you can do is run." He tapped his fingers, gathering up more thoughts. "Sometimes, they set other prisoners... set them against us. Sometimes they take people and... and... do things to them. Things." He was getting frustrated again. "Just doing my best to watch the kids."

[haiiro_no_chou]

Things are tougher here. What was that supposed to mean? Was there something special about this place that dampened Shinigami's powers? And what of this Eric person? He was no Shinigami, and yet seemed to understand that using such powers was more difficult here. Yet neither was he a human, and certainly not a Hollow. What a strange puzzle.

Rukia listened to both her companion's descriptions of night-time, still unsure of what exactly was going on. Frowning, she finally said, "Then, do you mean to say you've both been here for some time? Renji, how did you get here?"

[dead_draven]

"Yes, we both have, I think. A few days for me, I'm not sure how long for him."

He nodded in concurrence with what Renji had said. "They take the patients and make them believe falsities, make them fight for them against the rest of us. Or they whisk you away to a dark room and poke you with needles and knives. I've personally had that treatment. It's not exactly the most glorious thing to experience."

[stray_shinigami]

"Three nights," Renji said. "This is my... third day." He laughed, because it did seem kind of funny. "Feels like a lot longer. And... Kurosaki's been here longer than me."

Maybe time wouldn't drag so badly now that he wasn't constantly worrying about her... oh, what the hell was he thinking. He'd still be constantly worrying. But at least now, he had a chance to do something about it instead of just taking Kurosaki's word. (Not that he didn't trust Kurosaki's word, but it was different from being able to see yourself.)

Rukia's question made him fall silent as he started collecting his thoughts up again. Not that it was a particularly difficult question; he was just trying to figure out if there was a coherent way to go about answering. Finally, he gave up. "I don't know," he said. "I bled out. I woke up here..." He rubbed his eyes, then blurted out the rest of his thought before he could stop himself. "Thought you were dead."

This was really not going well.

"There's people here from other places," he said. "Not where we're from, at all. Different worlds..." He shot Eric a look that was a thinly veiled plea for help, though if it was help trying to express his point or help to keep him from further embarassment, even Renji wasn't certain.

[haiiro_no_chou]

Everything that these two were telling her was so unbelievable. Making people turn on each other? Experimentation? And people from all different worlds? Were there even other worlds outside of Soul Society, the real world, and Hueco Mundo? It didn't seem possible that, in all the long history of Shinigami, no one had come across one of these other worlds.

"Three days," Rukia murmured, folding her arms again. "And it's been weeks since," she glanced at Eric, wondering how much Renji had told him. She decided it probably didn't matter all that much, since Eric was dead as well, and circumstances had changed so much. "Since the execution. But you didn't... You survived. If Ichigo is here too, did he tell you everything that's happened?"

[dead_draven]

He wasn't exactly sure what Renji meant by what he told her, but assumed it was something between them and didn't pry, though he drew his own, silent conclusions, Renji had been executed...? That was new.

He caught Renji's look and tried to continue where he'd left off. "Yes, most of the people here are from totally different places. I myself am not from whatever world you two come from, perhaps not even the same reality. It all depends on who you ask...though no one seems to have crossed between their world and another of the ones represented here. They were all isolated until this place sprang up, as far as I can tell."

[stray_shinigami]

"Kurosaki hasn't told me fuck all," Renji said. "'Cept that you were alive. But I didn't really ask, either." Because that was all I really cared about. "I don't see the point in knowing about things I haven't done. Makes my head hurt." And just pisses me off, because it's not like there's anything I can do about it. I can't pretend like I've experienced those things and be all buddy-buddy and okay.

He glanced at Eric. He figured that if anyone knew what it had felt like, these last few days, he would.

He opened his mouth to - he wasn't sure what he was going to say. Another apology? A request for forgiveness he didn't deserve.

No. He forced himself over to a different topic. "The three kids I've been keeping an eye on... two are from places I've never heard of. The third, Claire... she's from America."

[haiiro_no_chou]

Renji should know what's been going on, Rukia thought. The sooner they could get back to look for Orihime the better. She made a mental note to fill Renji in at some point when others weren't around.

She looked from Renji to Eric. "Tell me if I have this right. This is a," she paused, searching for the phrase, "mental institute... somewhere. There are people - patients - here from many different worlds, or realities... By day it's like this," she said gesturing around the room. "But by night there are monsters and experiments." It really sounded ridiculous. Then again, if she were to tell a human in Ichigo's world about Shinigami, Hollows, the Arrancar, she'd probably get laughed at. Or put in a mental institution...

She looked around again. "How is it that no one had escaped yet?"

[dead_draven]

Eric nodded. "Essentially that's the story, yes. Unlikely as it seems."

"Escape is just a bit more difficult than you might think. The nurses seem harmless but they have drugs and tend to catch up with people very quickly. the orderlies have brute strength, and then there are only a few entrances and exits here. Of course there's also the dulling of everyone's abilities...I'd pull a cheshire cat and be out of here in seconds, but it just doesn't work here."

[stray_shinigami]

"Escape isn't my priority any more," Renji said. He was starting to feel a little less foggy. "Saw the head skanky bastard this morning. I'm not going anywhere until he's dead, not even if they open the doors and roll out the silk carpet at the exit. Not leaving the kids."

That was the most coherent thing he'd said so far. He was pretty proud of himself, ridiculously so.

[haiiro_no_chou]

Looking at Eric, Ruki asked, "I understand that we are weakened here. But no matter how many nurses and orderlies there are, why don't all the patients just overpower them? Someone must have a key. Knock out the staff, find the keys, get out." She frowned though, wondering what would happen if they did get out. If they weren't even in the right... reality, then where would they end up?

"What kids?" she asked Renji.

[dead_draven]

"It's a possibility," he said with a shrug. "But a slim one. Many of the patients don't want to work together. Some even hate one another to the point that they might sabotage escape just to spite the other person or keep them in their sight. It's a complicated situation. And, as Renji said, some of the people here are young or have little to no abilities at all, and might be caught in the crossfire if an escape was attempted."

[stray_shinigami]

"There are a lot of kids here," Renji said. "More kids than adults, 'least I think so. It's fucked up." He tapped the arm of the couch. "Some of 'em have abilities... that they can't use either. But a lot of 'em seem like normal kids with nothing to help them." He hesitated. "And there's some people in here that... belong here. In with the prisoners. I don't know them by face. But... bad shit. Really bad shit. Not much organization." He frowned. "And if they're taking people and drugging them and shit, doubt that anything can be kept secret."

[haiiro_no_chou]

If she hadn't known Renji so well, she would have thought he was giving up too easily. But Renji was not one to give up. Ever. Which meant they really were in dire circumstances. And they needed to get back to find Orihime--

"Wait," she blurted, looking at Renji with wide eyes. "If you're here now, but you were also with me just before I woke up here, then... Does that mean there is another me... back in Soul Society?"