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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[prisonerofdeath]

It was always very troubling for Fox when he couldn't remember something, such as how he got from one place to another. That lack of memory was particularly disturbing because it meant one of two things

[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."

[stray_shinigami]

"Yeah," Renji said, unwittingly echoing Obi-Wan's thoughts. "Never seen anything quite like that before in my life. I'm hoping the metal thing was a helmet or a mask, but considering the way shit is around here, I'm not going to hold my breath." He thought for a moment; he hadn't gotten a real good look at the thing, all told. "I think it was wearing an apron, like a leather one. Maybe it was going for the butcher look." He shrugged. "It has a giant weapon, longer than I am tall. Not enough finesse to call it a sword... more like an oversized machete. It drags its weapon when it walks, so I guess it's some warning. You can hear it scrape on the floor." He frowned. "And goddamn, it's strong. Practically turned the back of Nowe's head to mush, just with striking him on the wall once

[braidless]

"Never seen anything quite like that before in my life," Renji said. "I'm hoping the metal thing was a helmet or a mask, but considering the way shit is around here, I'm not going to hold my breath

[stray_shinigami]

Renji pointed at Nowe, still asleep against him. "This is Nowe." He smiled slightly. "Him and Sora were with us. They did good. They tried to run when we told them to run. Good kids." He looked down at Nowe. The kid still looked like hell.

"I was worried he wouldn't live," he said, quietly. "I... did the best I could. And it looks like it worked out." He sighed. "Like I said... we got the kids out. Kurosaki was willing to sacrifice himself for it. And I would have done the same... but he had a better chance fighting back. I was already injured." He couldn't help how much bitterness crept into his tone, then. Kurosaki was a Shinigami, yes, but he was also still just a kid, himself.

Hopefully he was still alive.

He looked at Obi-Wan. "There's so many goddamn kids here," he said. Hell, you look like you're still a kid, yourself. He seemed about to say something else, but thought better of it. "Thanks. For keeping an eye out for Kurosaki."

[braidless]

Obi-Wan's gaze settled onto the young man sleeping against Renji's shoulder. He looked exhausted - more than likely a result of the encounter with the pyramid-headed man last night.

Still, he looked like he was in remarkable shape for someone who got their head smashed in hours before. Whatever Renji had done must have been effective. The Jedi turned to the red-haired man, his eyebrows faintly rising with surprise. "Are you a Healer?"

He nodded a little at Renji's comment about the younger patients. "Yes, it's a little disconcerting," he admitted. "It just shows how low these people will stoop in order to have people to experiment on."

Obi-Wan gave a small, tight smile. "And don't mention it. We should help each other out whenever we can. Besides, the day just started, and I know a lot of prisoners chose to go to the Sun Room. He could be walking around somewhere else without us knowing it."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji laughed softly. "I'm more like the exact opposite," he said. "I just got lucky. They've taken my sword and chained my spirit, but I still had enough to give. I didn't expect it to work." And he was pretty certain it had been a near thing. That was probably why he felt so shitty. "It's something anyone can do, if they're desperate enough..."

He shook his head. "I hope you're right. There's no better death than that earned protecting others, but... Kurosaki's kind of young for that."

Damn, but he was being grim this morning. Time to try to change the subject. "I've been meaning to speak with you," he said, grinning at Obi-Wan. "If you're in the mood for less practical talk this morning. Had an interesting talk with Jinn-san at lunch yesterday... kind of made me wonder if you were one of the people that was kind of curious about death..."

[not_a_savior]

[ Leaping back in now! ]

Nowe finally stirred against Renji's shoulder, shifting in his seat. His eyelids opened slowly, revealing bleary but still bright blue irises, and he blinked a few times as he sat up.

"Ah!" he jolted upright once he noticed that he'd fallen asleep on Renji, his cheeks coloring a bit. He hadn't realized he'd been so tired... he must have slumped over once he'd fallen asleep. Damn. That was embarrassing.

"S-sorry, Renji, I guess I was a lot more tired than I thought," he muttered, staring at his lap before he realized there was someone else sitting on his other side. He blinked, looking up at this new man. Wasn't this one of the people Renji had pointed out when they'd first met, in the cafeteria?

Nowe shifted. This was horribly awkward. He wanted to introduce himself, but it seemed wrong to just wake up, stick out a hand, and tell this total stranger his name. Instead, he turned to Renji.

"Friend of yours?"

[braidless]

Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure what Renji meant when he said he was the opposite of a healer. Maybe he was some sort of soldier or warrior? Still, his powers must have been pretty well-grounded if he was able to heal a severe head wound. Obi-Wan had learned basic healing techniques over the years, but he didn't think he would have had it in him to do something like that, regardless of what Renji said