Day 47: Sun Room [4th Shift]

[forgot_it_all]

[For Yuna!Fish and chips weren't his favorite thing ever, but he did make sure to eat it all. He just liked to think of the fish as the Filet'o Fish without the bun and it made it easier to eat. The french fries had been pretty well cleaned off and he'd even managed a bit of fruit, although he avoided the oranges and other sour things his nurse

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[no_dont_go]

Aigis was led by the strange woman--“her own personal nurse” the woman had explained--to a large room filling up with other patients of the institute. Normally Aigis would have focused on gaining her bearings when introduced to a new place but the sudden transformation had been, well, too sudden. She could barely keep up with anything her nurse was saying, let alone focus on the building they were in when her body was just so… so much more human.

“You really should get some social interaction every day or else you won’t ever get over your anxiety.”

Anxiety? Aigis’ mind finally caught up with her nurse. She hadn’t been able to address the "Angela" issue either.

“Excuse me, but I’m not the one you call Angela. I am Aigis.”

The nurse frowned at her and shook her head. “Angela, I don’t want to hear you say that about yourself. It’s hard to face who you are, sweetie, but we all have to be honest with ourselves. It’s just a little harder for you than most others, that’s all.”

Aigis blinked, surprised by the woman’s insistence on the matter. She wasn’t given enough time to reply before the nurse was speaking again, her face returning to the gentle smile from before.

“Now see this room? I didn’t think you’d want to wear yourself out any more after sleeping the day away, so I brought you to the Sun Room. Go mingle and make some friends. If you feel tired or need anything, I’ll be nearby, okay?” And with that the nurse left Aigis standing alone in the middle of the room.

Aigis watched her go then surveyed the room quickly. She certainly didn’t see any of her friends here. The woman had called this place Landel’s Institute but what was it really? All Aigis knew was she didn’t need to be here and something odd had happened to her body.

Her body… Aigis looked down at her hands, amazed once again by the craftsmanship. Whoever had created the faux flesh had done marvelously. Even the “skin” around the knuckles was seamless, crinkled just right to mimic the natural folding of skin around the joints and palm. It was too natural…

[Free to be helped or hindered.]

[idontregret]

Sera would have liked working in a place where flowers were kept. Heat, however, wasn't so sure about the idea, and he could have sworn the nurses seemed relieved. It might have had something to do with being able to avoid handing him any instruments he could possibly harm any of the other patients with. Or the staff, which was really the more likely choice. And it was just as well, since he figured he could check the bulletin again to see if Argilla or Roland had responded.

Neither had.

The somewhat better mood he'd been in since his talk with Saucekay over lunch all but vanished when he saw this. What the hell was taking them so long? Did they even read the damn board, like most of the other patients seemed to? He figured he'd written the word large enough that they should have been able to see it just passing by on the way to meals.

There weren't a lot of people in the sun room yet, and the demon found himself watching an unfamiliar girl standing in the middle of the floor. It looked as if she was examining her hands, for whatever good that would do. He backed up, looking to find a seat to crash in and maybe keep a watch on the board, but almost tripped over something living in the process. Cursing, he just avoided stepping on a small cat that appeared to have taken an interest in a loose string hanging from his sweatpants.

Any attempts to move out of the way only caused the cat to follow, occasionally pawing at the thread. He thought of kicking it away, but some latent part of his being told him that one didn't go around kicking cats. It didn't look anything like the one that spoke, but any cat reminded him of that one all the same. Eventually, he bent down and scooped the animal up, holding it awkwardly.

Of course, now came the matter of what to do with it. It wasn't as if he wanted to actually play with it or anything. Cielo liked cats. Sera liked cats. Girls liked cats, right? With that thought in mind, and without giving so much as an introduction, he walked right up to the blonde girl still standing nearby and held the cat out to her. "Here."

[no_dont_go]

Aigis snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head to look at the stranger. A man with messy red hair was holding a kitten out towards her. It struck her as odd. She found her new body automatically blinked in confusion for her.

"Do you need me to hold that for you?" she asked. People didn't normally act so familiar with strangers did they? Perhaps he was just confused like her nurse had been. Did he think she was "Angela" too?

Keeping her eyes on the man, Aigis tried to scan the area for data but her sensors refused to work properly. It seemed that her new body, while feeling and acting more lifelike, had somehow taken a step backwards in the area of data analysis. And that... wasn't good.

[idontregret]

It wasn't obvious? Sure, it might have helped if he actually knew what he was doing himself, but he'd thought the gesture would have been enough. Perhaps he'd been wrong about girls liking cats. If he set it down it might just go back to toying with his pant leg again, and that would get annoying fast.

"Just take the damn thing," he grumbled. Maybe he could rip the thread from the hem in the meantime. He'd rather be forceful about things than stand around looking like an idiot. There were far too many other things for him to worry about than whether or not she had any actual interest.

Not being able to find his comrades here didn't mean anything yet. Argilla could be on the rec field while Roland could be in the greenhouse with the other men. They simply hadn't seen the board, was all, and next time he spoke with them he'd try to get across the necessity of it. That sounded a little ironic even in his head, but that wouldn't keep him from saying it all the same.

[no_dont_go]

"U-understood." Aigis took the cat from him, unsure if his unexpected irritation would turn to violence. It startled her to hear her own voice stutter and she nearly dropped the kitten in her clumsy haste to take it from him. It felt unmistakably soft and warm in her hands, and much lighter than she had expected.

Aigis still wasn't sure about the advantages of this new model. Certainly experiencing the world similar to how a human did could benefit her. But if it meant loosing her ability to perform certain functions she otherwise would use to determine critical moves and plot strategy, it seems like a step backwards.

She certainly wanted an answer for this unbalanced up-grade but that was second in her mind right now. More than anything Aigis just needed information, and the impatient man was just as good as any other source. Better than her nurse, at least.

"Excuse me but may I ask a few questions?" she said, absently stroking the warm kitten in her hands. "I'm afraid some sort of misunderstanding has occurred."

[Hope you'll forgive the late post. My work hours are kinda heinous. And I didn't realize you were Cloud-mun until after my last post. XD It's lovely to thread with you again~]

[idontregret]

[Don't worry about it! ♥ I'm happy to see you here. :3]

Good. Now she was being cooperative. Maybe scaring someone into helping you wasn't the best of ideas, and the others might have had something to say about it, but it was the best way he knew how to handle the situation. It wasn't as if Heat was actually going to hurt her. He hadn't even raised his voice.

As she took the cat, he dropped down into a crouch and tugged at the string the cat had been messing with before. A couple good yanks tore it free along with half the hemming, but that hardly mattered. There were several copies of these pants in his room if the nurses got annoyed with him for it. So now his leg was no longer a cat toy. Problem solved.

He was about to tell the girl she could go ahead and let the animal go when the questions started coming, immediately giving her away as a newbie. Well, she'd come to the wrong person for that sort of thing. "You can ask, but if it's anything like 'Why am I here?' or 'How did I get here?' or 'What do they want with me?'" Heat's imitation of a female voice was pretty terrible, "then I can tell you no one knows and asking around won't get you anywhere. As far as I know, we're all just lab rats." Not that he could actually explain what a lab rat really was if someone asked him.

[no_dont_go]

He seemed to have calmed down. That was good. She did not often have to subdue humans but she was prepared if such a time came, especially after Ikutsuki's betrayal. Either way, Aigis planned on keeping the kitten out of the man's reach. It seemed happy enough to bat playfully at her fingers, a soft pressure against her sensitive hands.

She watched the man as he tore a large rip in his pants hem. The pants he wore were identical her own. She didn't often wear clothing unless she was supposed to be in disguise. Was her new role to integrate herself within this community? She was normally briefed before given an assignment. Or was this a different kind of training? What about fighting Nyx?

His words were not encouraging. Apparently he didn't wish to cooperate with her. Perhaps he was just as confused as she was. One thing he did say struck her as odd.

"Lab rats?" Aigis had heard that term once long ago, a joke between some of the researchers at the lab. "Do you mean to say we are here as experiments?"

[idontregret]

"Dunno." Heat shrugged. "It's not official or anything. That's just what some people think."

It made sense, what with the way things had gone for him the other day. They must have tampered with something in his brain for him to believe he was really somebody else. ...A somebody else who had Seraph to go home to, but a different person all the same. It hadn't been natural, whatever it was. The demons that weren't really demons, the monsters that came out at night, might be able to be explained this way.

"I told you it's hard to get straight answers out of people. I shouldn't be here either." He should be dead, ready to move on to the next life or whatever happened once they'd finished their task. This whole mess was anticlimactic. "Guess I can tell you what I know. It's not much."

He wasn't sure why he'd even bother, except that a couple others had at least tried to give him a few pointers since he arrived. That probably meant he should try and answer someone else's questions too. She didn't even look like a fighter or a demon - just some lost girl. That didn't touch any soft spots. At all.

[no_dont_go]

Ah, it was just a rumor then. Aigis didn't put much stock into rumors, especially after seeing just how powerful they could be when strengthened by fear and doubt. But even the Doomsday cult back home had been built around a small nugget of truth. Aigis needed to find out that one small thread of truth, then she could follow it to the core of this misunderstanding.

"You shouldn't be here either?" That made Aigis immediately categorize all information he might give her as secondhand knowledge. He may not have information she needed, or have anything better than sketchy bits of data. Still, he seemed to have become a little more receptive, albeit grudgingly.

Aigis placed the cat down on the floor and leaned in a bit closer to the man, hoping to grab his full attention. "Then, if you don't mind, could you please tell me exactly where we are? I'm not sure how they transported me here without my knowledge but it is imperative that I get back home."

She stopped for a moment, then realized she had skipped over a very important step in human protocol. Biting her bottom lip, her cheeks heating in an unusual way, Aigis made a proper bow to the man. "Forgive me for the late introduction. I am Aigis."

[idontregret]

"Heat." The demon had been about to hold out his hand, as he'd become used to as a method of greeting now, but the girl did something else. She was... bowing to him? As far as he knew, bowing was some sign of respect. He wouldn't have minded that if he knew what the hell he'd done to deserve the gesture. Rather than return it, he just stood there awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck with the hand he'd intended to hold out before.

"Uh. If you mean where on a large scale? Don't know. They just call the place Landel's or something." Landel's Institute, though that just made it sound like someplace decent when it clearly wasn't. "And if I knew how to get back I wouldn't be here either."

He said as much, but in the back of his mind he wasn't certain. He'd been prepared for whatever was supposed to happen to him right before they arrived here, but now that he was alive again things were just... different. There wasn't that same feeling of being at peace with the world; the world had been slammed back up into his face without much warning.

[no_dont_go]

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Heat-san," Aigis said, straightening back up. She was relieved he has willing to pardon her rudeness from before. Not only was she having trouble with her sensors but even her pre-programmed responses were slow. Perhaps her new body had already short-circuited before her transfer? It would also explain the severe drop of input data she was now receiving.

"My nurse had mentioned the name." She had also mentioned various other things Aigis wasn't sure what to think about. Something about her having anxiety? The papillion heart may have given her a sentience similar to the human soul but even that had its limits.

"I do not simply wish to be back home. If I do not return to fulfill my duty within two weeks time, where we are will no longer be an issue."

[idontregret]

There was that adding of an extra word to the end of his name again that he didn't understand. Heat frowned. "Just Heat." He already had the Institute staff trying to call him something he wasn't, so he didn't need patients doing the same. It was a simple enough name - just the four letters. (And he was willing to bet his tribemates had used it as a replacement for certain other four-letter words over time.)

Then she went on to say she had something important to do. He would have understood the feeling, had he been taken from just a few minutes prior to when he had been (if time even moved the same in that place as it felt it had). There wasn't much he could tell her, though. "What do you mean?"

She looked far too harmless to be a savior of humanity, but then he could have said the same about Sera.

[no_dont_go]

"Oh, a... alright, then." Aigis bit her bottom lip and hoped she would be able to fight against her own knowledge of etiquette. Maybe if she added -kun to his name... but then, he had said "just Heat" so perhaps it was best to just obey instructions in this area.

Now the question was if Aigis could tell him the truth of the matter. Most likely he would not believe her, or even worse would be if he were on the side of the cult. Of course there were precious few people who had not cared for the preaching of Takaya and his "salvation." From Heat's rather terse words and quiet ways Aigis was reminded of Aragaki-san. But that did not guarantee him to be of the same mind. Could she trust him not to turn on her or scoff at how ridiculous the end of the world might sound? She desperately didn't wish to harm him or force potentially painful knowledge on him, but she had to get some information.

"What I mean is I am part of a team opposed to the Doomsday cult's form of salvation. I am needed to counteract the coming of the Fall." Aigis felt her body tense, a strange feeling she had never experienced in her previous model. It felt like locking up to prepare for a blow. "You may be of the mind to wish for Nyx's coming but I firmly believe that humanity is still worth fighting for."

[idontregret]

Heat didn't understand the situation at all. Hadn't they just fought for humanity's survival? It was already being threatened again? Or was this a threat they were unaware of that occurred at the same time as the one they fought against? Unsure of how to respond, the demon just shifted his stance and stared thoughtfully at his feet. Aigis's words reminded him of Seraph's.

"I'll take responsibility. I know people make mistakes... and they probably always will. But they do their best! Please, you can't destroy humanity!"

He rubbed at his eyes, knowing Seraph wouldn't have wanted hir efforts to have been wasted by some new threat called... wait. "Nyx?" Frowning, Heat's eyes shot back up at the girl. "That's just a regular demon, isn't it? How could you be having trouble with something like that?" Then again, if she wasn't a demon herself he could see how that would be problematic. "I don't know what cult you're talking about, but something like that's not going to bring about the end of the world."

If he was there he'd just devour it for her.

[no_dont_go]

Aigis felt a strange feeling grow in her chest when Heat recognized Nyx, but when he spoke of her as if she were just a run-of-the-mill monster she felt that feeling deflate within her. What a strange sensation...

Aigis couldn't let herself focus on how she felt, though. She had to correct him, to tell him what Nyx really was. If she isn't stopped... but Aigis' thoughts took another turn and she was suddenly curious as to how he could know about Nyx in the first place if he hadn't been told of her by the cult. She frowned.

"Nyx is no ordinary Shadow that can be destroyed. She is a goddess of destruction. She's amassed great power through her control of human emotion and is going to strike within two weeks"--Aigis hoped she hadn't been sleeping for very long, she could no longer be sure how much time until the appointed day--"and inflict the world with death."

Aigis looked into Heat's eyes and tried to judge if he had Persona. It was strange. Normally she could feel if someone had the potential. She could sense various attributes of a person's Persona and had noticed right away when the Personas of each of her friends had undergone their transformations. But this man...

"Tell me, Heat-sa-" Aigis stopped herself, correcting the name. "Heat, how do you know of Nyx?"

[idontregret]

"A shadow?" Was that just another term for demon? People gave them all sorts of names, so he supposed it was fitting enough. Sounded better than tuners, anyway. "Nyx is a demon, right? Reddish-purple skin, sings a lot?" He knew she could cause plenty of status effects, but there was mantra for blocking those. Even Cielo could counter his weakness to them after a while.

"Just create some anti-death shields and take her out." The way she spoke of her made her sound like some special case, but he knew he'd seen more than one among Angel's soldiers. Why some tuners had such similar demon forms he'd never know. "Are there no other tuners left to help you?" If not, he'd need to make sure he and the other Embryon got out within two weeks as well so they could help her.

As for her being a goddess, there were plenty of demons that might have considered themselves that. He'd even heard somewhere along the line that his demon form was named for some god or another. It could mean they were powerful, but he only knew of one actual God with the power to crush humanity as a whole. This Nyx sounded false to him - a stronger demon trying to scare their way into power.

She didn't even look all that threatening.

"I'm a demon," he answered her question with a bit of a smirk and a tilt of his head. "An Asura. And I've fought lots of others like me. What's so special about this one?"