DAY 26: Men's Showers (Second Shift)

[canieathim]

Gluttony didn't want to leave his Lust, not after he'd just found her!  But the mean tasty nurses said he had to.  "You can't join her in the women's showers" was a bad excuse.  He didn't like the mean tasty nurses.  Maybe Lust would let him eat them later.  Still, he knew he would see his Lust again, and that was good.  He liked Lust.  She was

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[stray_shinigami]

For the first time in his long life, Renji realized that he felt uncomfortable being naked around other men. It made him feel strangely sick; he was happy to channel that in to more anger. The angrier he was, the less he cared about things. And whether or not it had been true, when he'd told Sora that he was scaring himself, it was better than feeling that sickness and thinking about whyAnd more than anything, he just wanted to be clean

[stray_shinigami]

Renji had never heard of Kaelee; it was probably another of those not-Earth places that he now knew existed. "What kind of place is Kaeleer?" he asked. It was something to talk about that didn't just make him angrier. That seemed like a good idea.

"It feels just a binding spell," Renji said. "But one only on the spirit." He was familiar with how those felt. Rukia used to do bindings on him all the time until he got good at breaking out of them, because she thought it was hilarious that he was pathetic at kidou. And, he grudgingly admitted, it really was. "But there's got to be more to it or one of us would've broke free long ago."

Everyone had lost something important to them, just being brought here. But he was still curious. Allen had his Innocence, the Shinigami had their zanpakuto. "What'd the take from you?" It could be anything from the mundane to the powerful, and one more thing to look for.

[bastard_sadi]

"It's... very different than here," Daemon admitted, unsure how to explain a world that was all you'd ever known to a person who'd never heard of it. He'd already tried explaining the Darkness to Ren and failed miserably. Sometimes there just weren't words to explain something that just was. "It's not perfect, but it's home."

"There must be more to it than that. I don't know anything about binding a soul, but I don't think it's my soul they've bound," Daemon answered skeptically. Although he supposed there was always a chance it was all somehow connected, but that was more than Daemon could guess at. "And they took something that should be impossible to separate from me. They're jewels. A Red and a Black. I haven't been severed from them, and they haven't been shattered, but I cannot reach them, either."

[stray_shinigami]

"Soul. Spirit. It's all the same," Renji said. He made a low, disgusted sound. "They took my zanpakuto from me. My... soul cutter. He's part of me like my fucking arm is. I can't hear him, can't feel him, can't even see his thread." And he hated it. Another thing that he would have vengeance for. Jewels, black and red... he made a mental note to keep an eye out, just in case some night he actually found where they were keeping everyone's stuff. Unlikely as that was.

He realized he was clenching his hands. He made himself relax them, one finger at a time.

[bastard_sadi]

"Perhaps. I admit I don't know very much about that subject. I've never given it much thought," Daemon admitted with a slight inclination of his head.

Pausing a moment to tilt his head under the spray once more, he reached for the soap to begin lathering his body, washing away any remaining remnants of the previous night's battles.

"I am sorry for what they have taken from you. It cannot be easy. Have they... 'cut' everyone off? Like us?"

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shrugged. "Not like I have either. It's more Ru--." He stopped, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's not really my thing." Back to the subject at hand. "Anyone that had something. There's lots of regular kids here... normal mortals," he said. "But everyone that had something to lose is missing their weapons, unable to use their spirit fully. We can use a little, but... well, I bet you already know what happens."

And because it felt better to talk and share - as long as it wasn't what was really bothering, he said. "I've been here almost a week. We've learned some, at least..." He continued on to tell Daemon concisely everything that they did know, all the locations, the monsters, every useful tidbit that he and any in his group had gleaned.

Except, of course, what he knew personally of the Head Doctor's spirit thread. That needed to be played close.

[bastard_sadi]

The amount of information revealed was staggering, and Daemon listened with rapt interest as Renji revealed piece after piece of information. He stored all of it away, knowing the information would come in useful at some point, he was certain.

One thing bothered him, though, as Renji seemed to be winding down in his exposition. "Has anyone successfully gotten away?" Daemon asked. "There are so many here, and you mentioned some vanish. Where do they go? Do they get out? Does anyone know?"

[stray_shinigami]

"None that we know of," Renji said. "The ones I knew who disappeared... wouldn't have left us behind." Not Nowe. And not Kurosaki... though Kurosaki was back. And if Hughes was to be believed, Kurosaki wouldn't remember anything.

...not that Renji was about to ask. Not when he'd just broken the kid's nose for no reason.

"I don't know where they go. I know that they're far enough gone that I can't find their thread any more. Which normally means... dead or not in this world. They just... vanish. And if they return, they remember nothing that happened here."

[bastard_sadi]

"There's been ones that return?" Daemon echoed, looking startled at this piece of information.

[stray_shinigami]

"According to one of my people," Renji said. "And... I've seen it myself. One of the ones that disappeared a couple nights ago, Kurosaki, was back today." He frowned, briefly. "I haven't spoken to him yet. But I trust what my people tell me."

[bastard_sadi]

Daemon frowned at this, disturbed. It seemed as if getting away was no guarantee that you'd stay away, and it wasn't even a matter of avoiding capture - he'd eluded Dorothea for over a hundred years; if Daemon didn't want to be found, he was very good at getting what he wanted - since Daemon had no recollection of being captured in the first place. One moment he was falling asleep at the Keep, and the next he'd woken up here.

So that destroyed just leaving as an option. If Daemon left, there would have to be no place left here to snatch him away again. He had things to do, people waiting for him. JaenelleHe didn't even know if she was safe, if she was really healing, as everyone hoped. Even now, an ache filled him at the thought of her, and though it pained him, he forced it away, reaching out to steady himself against the cool, wet tiles, even as he felt his unstable control falter for a moment

[stray_shinigami]

Renji smiled. It was the first smile he'd managed all day that approached real, if something that fierce could even truly be called a smile. He sympathized with what he heard in Daemon's voice; he felt it, himself. "We are gathering information and supplies. Many of the people here are capable warriors that only lack weapons. There is a person that can find the Head Doctor, but we only have a chance if we are prepared." He'd seen that the day in the chapel. Even Adel hadn't been able to get close to the man. "If you will help with any of these tasks, and help protect the children here

[bastard_sadi]

Seeing the blood startled Daemon, and he reached out to steady Renji instinctively. He didn't know what the redhead had done, although he'd felt a faint sort of probing. Renji hadn't tried to force himself inside, but he had... looked. Or something. It had felt strange. Different than anything Daemon had experienced before.

Normally Daemon might have been furious at even a tentative probe to his Self, without the other asking for permission first. He'd burned people out who'd tried to force their way in before. But this was different, people were different here, and such things might not be considered rude and dangerous wherever Renji was from. Plus, Daemon was well aware of the drain on magic here, and was also well aware of the results of stretching yourself past the limits of your body's own strength.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly, his golden gaze searching Renji's face.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji's eyes went wide and he reacted on instinct at seeing the hand reach toward him. He slapped it away and managed an unsteady step back, to put his back firmly against the wall. "Don't touch me." There wasn't anything personal in this anger and fear, as there hadn't been before.

He wiped at his nose again. "Sorry," he muttered. "Jus' needed to know what your thread looks like. So I can find you again." He didn't really know what to do; he was angry, and - as much as he hated to admit it - frightened, and he kept doing strange things that he didn't want to explain to anyone, let alone someone he'd just met. Because...

He gave his head a little shake, as if to forcibly remove himself from that track of thought. Normally he was a lot better at just not thinking about things.

[bastard_sadi]

"Don't apologize," Daemon answered, his voice calm and quiet as his hand dropped back to his side. He knew better than anyone the intensity of an aversion to be touched. "I was just worried you would fall. I overstretched my magic last night, but managed to cut it off before I expended myself too far, but I know what it's like to go beyond your physical barriers. I've done it before. You should be careful, you may need that strength." The words weren't condescending, or even chiding, but spoken in a low, husky voice that was Daemon's gentler side, concern still faintly lit in golden eyes.

Curious about what Renji had just done, however, he asked, "You can't recognize and find people normally? Sensing their threads?"

[stray_shinigami]

"Heh." Renji shrugged. "I do what is necessary. It shouldn't be enough to knock me over unless I heal someone again." He snorted. And it wasn't like he could ever get other spells to work right anyway. And spirit threads were more important; last night had proved that; he could recognize more people than Hitsugaya, and he thought he was probably better at making certain he knew how to find every person.

Another shrug. "There are a lot of souls here. A lot of threads. It normally wouldn't be something I needed to make effort on, but they've got us closed in so tight that I can't get a sense of it unless I actually take the time to look. It's fucking annoying."