Night 55: M11 - M20 Hallway

[spandexorgtfo]

And there was the evening announcement, timely as always, although he could have done without the noise at the beginning. It was still slightly jarring to not hear those mocking tones that he had grown so accustomed to, but he did prefer the more direct announcements that had been rolling in ever since last evening. No pathetic attempts at creating

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M20

[hairraising]

[From here]

Luckily for Rapunzel, M20 was the first room up in the hallway; there would be no need to search the whole hall for the right room. She felt butterflies flitting around in her stomach as they approached. She really hoped she could do something for Kratos, whoever he was. She wasn't really sure what she would do with herself if the only thing the institute had left her with was her hair length alone.

Speaking of which, she let her hair down to the ground behind her then. Even with the load lighter than it (apparently) ought to have been, holding an armful of hair still got tiring after a while.

She looked over to Soma, then took a breath in - and out. Then she knocked gingerly on the door. "Um, Kratos? It's Kratos, right? Are you in there? My name is Rapunzel. I'm here with Soma for Arts & Crafts. Can we come in?"

[spandexorgtfo]

[timeskipping to after Kenshin leaves]

Kratos let the knock go unanswered for a few seconds as he debated whether or not to answer the door. He didn't know why Soma especially would show up at his room at this time; didn't she have a mission to attend to? Something about helping a new member find a weapon...he hadn't paid particular attention to Sora's post or to the rest of the board in general once he'd confirmed that Sora had noted him as injured. What he was sure of, though, was that his room was not an ideal location by any stretch of the imagination for finding a weapon for permanent use

[madeinthehrl]

Soma tried not to stare as Rapunzel let her hair pool in the hallway behind her. That would have been rude. But wouldn't it get dirty, or trapped in something, or--although she supposed Rapunzel didn't really have a choice in the matter. Anyway, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. Perhaps she could be persuaded to trim it. Ankle length sounded reasonable enough to take care of a larger injury, and she could keep it tied back in the meantime.

There was a noticeable pause before the door swung open, and Soma resisted the urge to fidget. Kratos was silent for a moment before he finally spoke, and Soma straightened instinctively to respond.

"You're injured," she said matter-of-factly. "Rapunzel has healing abilities and wanted to help. We were just passing by anyway."

Hopefully, he'd be sensible and wouldn't argue about it--but that was unlikely. Soldiers always did.

[hairraising]

Rapunzel couldn't help but jump just slightly when the door finally opened. Kratos was a good deal taller than her and Soma, about the same height as Eugene. He had a much more imposing stare than Eugene did, though, which caused Rapunzel to make a quiet "ulp" involuntarily.

She soon forced herself not to get too caught up in the first impression, however. This was someone Soma and Sora both trusted; he wasn't going to bite her head off. With a short cough, she chimed in: "Right! It won't be too much trouble. I need to see how well this magic works, anyway. Best case scenario, you're totally fine! Worst case, we're, uh, kind of annoying and then we leave you be?"

She flashed Kratos a smile that was only slightly awkward. "So. Uhhh... Can we come in?" she asked, not-so-subtly grabbing the back of her hair and roping it around the back of the pile so that it could be more easily tugged into the room with her.

[spandexorgtfo]

There it was: that blasted, soaring feeling of hope, that maybe his forced confinement would truly be much shorter than he'd foreseen, that perhaps he could return to active duty by tomorrow night - or tonight, even. (Tonight was pushing it, actually.) Kratos had already resigned himself to a night of non-productivity; the stubborn part of him insisted that Soma and Rapunzel surely had better things to do than heal someone who had his own healing magic, thank you very much, when they might need it later if they ran into trouble taking care of what they were supposed to be doing

[madeinthehrl]

Soma obliged, waiting until Rapunzel had gotten the rest of her hair inside before stepping inside and shutting the door firmly. She supposed Kratos's reticence was only natural--she would have been insisting the same if it had been she who had been injured--but she couldn't help feeling a flicker of frustration all the same. Couldn't he see they were trying to help?

"We don't know how much they've reduced Rapunzel's powers yet," she said, moving away from the door. "It's better if she tests her limits in a safe location, like you said. Besides, our mission is to find Rapunzel a weapon, and--" she indicated the spear in her hand-- "I've already got a spare."

Honestly, it was like arguing with the lieutenant colonel all over again. The mission wasn't everything. It had taken time, but even she had learned that eventually.

[hairraising]

And Rapunzel had thought Soma was hard to read sometimes. Kratos was almost a blank slate, save for some flashes of frustration every now and then. At least he had let them in without putting up much fuss. Count your blessings, I guess? she thought, the smile getting slightly more awkward as she pulled her hair into the room and let Soma shut the door.

"She said it better than I could," said Rapunzel after Soma was finished her explanation, adding an awkward laugh to go with her awkward smile. Here was hoping that maybe Kratos would get easier to talk to once he got used to her presence in the room. She waited a moment, then gave a short clap to help break the tension. "Well! There's not really much point in waiting, huh? Have a seat and we can get going on this. What kind of injury do you have exactly?" she asked, gesturing for Kratos to move over to the bed. She couldn't see an injury yet, but the man was wearing long sleeves and pants; it was probably just under his clothes somewhere.

Wait. Under his... Oh! Oh. Uh... Let's. Hope

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos sighed almost inaudibly. "Very well." Regrettably, Soma did have some valid points - or at least, she knew which ones would work best against him. It was difficult sometimes to argue against fellow soldiers: you tended to know what sort of responses to expect from them and vice versa.

He obliged Rapunzel and sat down on the bed. If she was going to heal him, he wanted to waste as little time as possible, and that meant he would need to save the arguing for later. "Bruised ribs and several cuts on my left arm." He allowed himself another brief pause to recover and then continued. "If you must focus your efforts on a particular injury, I would prefer my ribs. My arm has been attended to."

His hand drifted up to the top most button on his shirt. "Do you need to see it directly?" The bruising would definitely be noticeable; he'd taken a look at it as he'd gotten dressed after his shower, and had been surprised that Castiel hadn't commented upon it almost immediately, given the lurid shades coloring sections of his chest.

[madeinthehrl]

Kratos was quicker to agree than Soma had expected he would. Either her arguments had hit a nerve, or he was in worse pain than she'd assumed.

In any case, she wasn't about to take that chance for granted. Besides, she was curious herself to see how Rapunzel's power would work. Soma glanced over at the other girl. "Let me know if you need help with anything."

[hairraising]

Rapunzel gave Soma a nod of thanks before turning back to Kratos with reddened cheeks. "Uh, well, I do need to be able to touch it, yeah," she answered, already starting to get visibly uncomfortable when the man reached for his top button. She could handle this, she told herself with a breath in and out. She had survived the showers. It wasn't even her taking clothes off this time. It wasn't going to be bad at all. Okay. Let's try this.And so, she nodded again for Kratos to take his shirt off. She was about to offer to help with both injuries, but then remembered Sora's warning about pushing her limits too much. "Maybe we can try the ribs first, and if everything's still good, we can do the arm after?" she suggested, trying not to look too much while Kratos shed the shirt

[spandexorgtfo]

...as he'd suspected. "That's fine." Kratos unbuttoned and shrugged out of his shirt without any further ado, folding it neatly and setting it down on the bed next to him - and then was caught completely by surprise as Rapunzel placed not her hand but the end of her hair on his chest and began to wind the rest of it around him. To be honest, it was a little unnerving: his lifespan vastly exceeded that of most if not all of the patients here, and yet he had never found himself in any similar situation before.

It was probably a good thing that no one he knew from the twin worlds - a certain Zelos Wilder in particular - was here to see this, too; he probably looked ridiculous.

Kratos was about to ask Rapunzel what the purpose of being tangled up in her hair was when suddenly, the girl began to sing, and the entire mass of hair, starting from the roots, began to glow in a definitely inhuman manner. He managed to have the sense to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched the light wind its way down to him, and inhaled sharply on reflex (

[madeinthehrl]

Even Soma, who had been told of Rapunzel's ability beforehand, found herself staring openmouthed. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting when Rapunzel had mentioned that her hair glowed when she sang, but it wasn't this. She hadn't seen many demonstrations of healing magic here--at least, nothing that worked like this--and she had to admit the sight was a little shocking at first. If this was what Rapunzel could do...

Marie's quiet thrum of appreciation sent a warm tingle down her spine. The girl in her mind had never seen anything like this before, and as usual she was more optimistic about it than Soma was. The last time she'd seen healing like this here, it had backfired horribly--with luck, nothing like that would happen tonight.

Sorry for the wait, guys! Was busy for a couple of days.

[hairraising]

They were staring, Rapunzel thought with another faint wince. At least they weren't freaking out. That would've made concentrating a heck of a lot harder

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos tilted his head somewhat to the side as he searched his memory for any cases that might be remotely similar. He came up with none. "In my world, there are those who possess supernatural powers from birth." As the magic worked its way deeper into the injury, he was finding it easier and easier to talk for more extended lengths of time; hence the more detailed responses and lack of awkward pauses to catch his breath. "As far as I know, those powers are never entirely confined to their hair - or to any single part of their body, for that matter

[madeinthehrl]

Soma shook her head in response to Rapunzel's question, still watching the other girl closely to make sure she was all right. "Supernatural powers don't exist in my world." And it was a testament to how used she'd gotten to this place when she could say that without thinking it was strange. "Enhanced abilities have to be given through experimental procedures."

But that explained why Rapunzel hadn't cut her hair yet, even when it seemed like such a burden to carry around. So there was no way to cut it without her losing her powers. That seemed like a significant price to pay for an ability as useful as hers. Perhaps she hadn't done much running about in her world, but in a place like the institute, that healing power might not be worth the extra weight.

Still, that was all up to Rapunzel--who was tiring now, visibly, and Soma took a quick step forward to support her. "How long does it normally take to heal injuries?" she asked. Hopefully if she could keep Rapunzel talking, it'd help her focus.

[hairraising]

"I'm okay! I'm okay," Rapunzel reassured the two with a smile, putting a hand to her mouth in an attempt to subtly hide a yawn (a move that packed about as much subtlety as a pelican dancing a jig on top of a bar while warbling "Hey Nonny Nonny"). "No really, I'm just a little tired so far. I can keep going." Rapunzel smiled and closed her eyes again, putting her focus back on the injury. She would be fine. This feeling would pass for sure, she thought