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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[stray_shinigami]

Renji woke in confusion. For a long time, he simply lay in bed, trying to figure out what had happened the previous night. He remembered clearly getting Nowe and Sora down to safety, and after that, things became completely incoherent. He sat up slowly. His side ached, his throat was sore, his stomach churned, and he was terribly dizzy

[stray_shinigami]

(OOC: just a quicky jump so that the girls can have girl talk without being interrupted by their favorite big dumb redheaded tard. ^_^ )

Renji reached out to give Elena's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "There's a lot wrong with this place. There is nothing wrong with you," he said. "Be strong." He smiled. "It will be okay." As hoarse as he was, there was still confidence and strength in his voice; he truly believed what he had said. He let go of her shoulder; he wouldn't interrupt if she wanted to talk to Claire.

There was still the puzzle of Eddie to examine, after all.

[claire_ity]

Claire felt better after Fox and Renji talked to her. She nodded, thinking things over. Everything had changed too fast. It seemed hopeless to even wish for something normal.

She focused back at Eddie. "I'm Claire - the girl from Texas. Nice to meet you in person." Good to know there were more people from America - she'd be sure to remember his face. Renji was unsure about him - but technically, wasn't there something "wrong" with her? She didn't know anymore.

What she did know was that Elena was starting to look miserable. As much as Claire wanted to be social, she understood just as well the need for some kind of talk that wasn't about death and horror. She considered it for a moment. "Hey, guys, mind if Elena and I have a little girl talk?" she asked, and then looked at Renji. "Won't go far."

The last part was only slightly teasing at his protectiveness.

[prisonerofdeath]

[[Following the girls]]

[blacksustenance]

Brock was torn between feeling irritable and actually surprised. For the last time, there wasn't anything wrong with him - he didn't think that having his Other as company was wrong and, aside from the apparent "discomfort" the symbiote said he would feel for now, he was fine. How had Red figured it out? He didn't actually say he knew though, Brock thought suspiciously.

Maybe he was trying to flush it out. Make them just blurt it out in a panic if it looked like he knew their little secret. Brock wasn't about to fall for that - he'd used that very trick before in his reporting career (before it crashed and burned) and he wasn't about to fall prey to his own tactic. The blond just stared back at Red.

"You can try figuring it out as much as you want," Brock sneered. "But there's nothing wrong with me."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji snorted. "Maybe not wrong as in evil," he said. "I wouldn't expect Hell to collect you. But still wrong." He tilted his head to the side, his eyes half closed. "Not dead. Very much alive. Not an abundance of spirit. I've met one other person so far that has bothered me like you bother me."

His arm, still around Nowe, tightened slightly. "Human, and not. So tell me, Brock-san, what exactly is right about you?"

[blacksustenance]

Brock had no idea what Red here was going on about. He hadn't really dealt with mutants before, but he'd heard that some could see weird shit, even supposedly hear thoughts and see through walls. He did figure he would go to Hell, despite his Other's assurances that nothing of the sort existed, but he still didn't know how much this red-headed mutant knew. Or if he was just bluffing.

He did seem genuinely puzzled when he looked at Brock though, as if he was unsure where to focus.

Brock stubbornly folded his arms over his chest, figuring that prayer was really a lost cause now, and glowered at Red.

"I'm not in prison, for starters. And I'm not insane, so I think that's a big plus," said Brock irritably. "What's it to you? You're awfully noisy about my personal life."

[stray_shinigami]

"Because I like to know what I'm dealing with," Renji said. "I have a duty to execute. And before I came here, it'd been over a hundred years since I encountered something new like this. There are some truly evil things here. I don't think you're one of them. But I'd still like to know what I'm dealing with."

He smiled thinly. "I'm not big into dancing around shit. So I figured I'd ask. Don't tell me anything if you don't want to. It just means I'll keep staring holes into your back until I figure out what it is that makes you... not-human. I can't help it. It's like having an itch you can't quite reach."

[blacksustenance]

Brock bit back the urge to just dismiss Red as crazy. He'd seen a lot of crazy shit recently; seeing more wouldn't make a difference in his general outlook on life and on himself and his relationship with his beloved symbiote. Still, annoying or not, Brock did grudgingly find himself agreeing with Red - it seemed like a long time ago he had been big into believing in duty, believing that there was evil, that justice needed to be carried out.

He still believed in justice, but he had a feeling his own views on it would probably clash with the majority of people out there.

Brock still didn't plan to tell anyone about the symbiote. He wasn't sure if Landels knew about it - or the fact that Kasady was also a Host - but he wasn't going to offer them ammunition if they didn't.

The symbiote reasoned that it was fine if Cletus Kasady and their supposed "off-spring" got themselves killed, but they still wanted to live.

After all, they still needed to reproduce. And they still needed to find Peter Parker and make him theirs. Just the

[stray_shinigami]

Renji laughed. "I don't know if an explanation is really going to help," he said. "But here's the summary. Everyone has a sort of spirit, an energy to them. Most people are just plain and normal. Some are stronger than others. If you can feel that energy... you can sort out what's normal, what's not. Strong from weak. Dead from alive. And human from... other." He shrugged. "I have a bad fucking headache, so I'm having a hell of a time sorting things out. And this place makes me practically deaf, dumb, and blind. But I can still get that little itch in the back of my head that tells me something interesting is going on."

He smirked, just a little. "And the fact that you're asking me to explain myself tells me that I'm haven't completely lost my touch even if I'm having a rotten excuse for a morning."

[blacksustenance]

Brock didn't look fazed. "I'm asking because I want an explanation for why you're being a nosy fuck."

It sounded like Red here was one of those mutants with the other kinds of sight, although thankfully he didn't look like one of those mind-readers, like whoever the hell lead the X-Men. Brock supposed he really should have tried writing more pieces on mutants back when he worked at the Daily Bugle, but Jameson hadn't thought they were worth much investigation, not when Spider-man was still on the loose with his "cute" attempt at being a vigilante.

"Sorry to hear you got a migraine, but I think you're shit out of luck with these mutant abilities of yours," Brock said. He debated getting up and putting some distance between them. "I'll give you some advice: you better watch who you start prying into next time."

Brock left it at that.

The blond once again closed his eyes, knelt, rested his hands on back of the pew in front of him, and went back to praying. He doubted praying would help, but it was hard to kick old habits.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji laughed softly. "I wonder if you're the one that told me what a mutant is in the first place. Sorry, kid, not one of them."

A couple centuries too late, and way too dead.

But he left it at that. Sometimes being direct worked. Sometimes it didn't. He sat back against the pew a little, still holding on to Nowe, and mulled over the possibilities in his mind.

[braidless]

[Coming from here.]Obi-Wan didn't want to spend the entire shift meditating. Like most people in the chapel, he was aware of this "surprise" that was supposed to be taking place here at some point. His heart was steady and his breathing was calm and relaxed now. He'd centered his focus to where it needed to be, and that was good enough for the time being

[stray_shinigami]

Renji looked up, his frown as he puzzled over Brock falling away to a tired smile. "Morning," he said. "Tangled with something kind of nasty last night. Human-looking thing with a giant metal pyramid instead of a head. Steer clear of it if you can. But we got the kids out okay. That's what matters."

He fell silent for a moment. He wondered just how many more times he'd hear that question today. Did he really look that bad?

...well, he pretty much felt that bad.

Still half distracted by the current puzzle, he gave Brock another quick glance, the puzzled frown returning momentarily. "Hopefully your night went better than ours," he added, as a sort of afterthought.

[braidless]

"Giant...metal pyramid for a head?" Obi-Wan echoed, his eyebrows raising. The Jedi had seen a lot of strange things in his life, but nothing quite like that before. He wondered how such a thing was possible - perhaps this "head" was really some sort of mask or helmet? Either way, it definitely sounded like bad news. "I'll keep that in mind..."

Renji seemed a little preoccupied with something, but Obi-Wan chose not to comment. "Unfortunately, my group didn't make it past the M cells block. We were attacked by a giant spider almost the moment we stepped out into the hallways." He gestured to Renji's bandages. "None of us sustained any serious injuries, though, so it could have been a lot worse."