Comments | damned: DAY 59: CAFETERIA

touchedgod in damned

DAY 59: CAFETERIA

Sep 30, 2011 11:48

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress ( Read more... )

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corvus_veritas October 1 2011, 04:04:19 UTC

Day after day, this damn place was finding more and more ways to deal damage to poor Byrne's sanity.

His awakening happened the way he woke up most mornings here: violently. In fact, this morning saw a more violent awakening than usual. He jolted upright and sat up straight in his bed, sweating, heart racing, his thoughts in a half-awake jumbled mess.

Badd--where are you?--that ghost child--cold--Gren, where--wh-what's going on where am I what is this?

...Oh. He was in his bed again. ...He was in his bed again! The--the gun! Where was Badd's handgun? Byrne searched frantically for it but turned up nothing except for the things that were always in his room to begin with. No gun anywhere. Shit! They got Badd and they got his gun, too! How was Byrne going to explain this to him? Damnit, damnit, damnit! Could his life possibly suck any more ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 1 2011, 09:30:53 UTC

[assuming some business from backthreading!]Ah man, this was so annoying. If it had been anyone but Shiina with him last night, he'd have torn out there and taken Badd on, no skin off his nose. The cop needed to be taken down a peg, and if he got a chance to take some free shots at him (and vice versa: there would be some risk to his person, obviously), he was taking it ( ... )

corvus_veritas October 1 2011, 15:22:19 UTC

Byrne glanced up at the voice. Oh, was that... Niikura, right? (Good thing he was fairly good at remembering names, or else the start of this conversation would've been kind of awkward.) Well, it was good that he was being approached by someone familiar, he supposed. Sort of familiar. He remembered having a conversation with the kid in Doyleton a few days ago, but that was all. God, Doyleton felt like forever ago.

But back on topic. Not hungry today? What gives? Was he blind or being sarcastic? Byrne hoped it was the latter, because seriously. Did he not see or smell the fact that everyone's food looked like it had been barfed up, eaten by a dog, barfed up again, left to rot in the sun, and then served to the patients like it was nothing?!

...Okay, no. Bad Faraday. You do not need to be making statements like that to yourself. It's only going to make you even more sick to your stomach.

"Don't tell me you expect me to eat that?" Byrne pointed to Niikura's plate with a disgusted expression to match. "It's sick! Aguilar's gone too far ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 3 2011, 05:10:43 UTC

"Uh..." Niikura looked down at his bowl and prodded the gruel miserably with a spoon. "I know, it sucks." He made a face. "Gotta eat somethin', though." Byrne hadn't struck him as the picky type, but...okay, maybe he was. He wasn't going to judge. "Don't tell me you've been starvin' yourself or somethin' this whole time, though. S'not good to skip meals like that, even if they look like crap."

He shrugged, gave Byrne a sympathetic smile, and then downed a large spoonful of gruel. "Anyway--" Niikura swallowed. "--Faraday-san, I was wonderin' if I could talk to ya about somethin' concerning Badd-san. Y'see, a mutual acquaintance of ours, Gant...-san, told me a kinda interestin' story yesterday about Badd-san bein' some kinda vigilante." A short laugh. "I know you two go way back, so I was wonderin' if ya knew anything about it. 'S my policy to not trust stories like that unless more than one person confirms it, y'know ( ... )

corvus_veritas October 3 2011, 22:16:03 UTC

Oh my god he's actually going to eat it?! Why?! No, don't do it! Don't you see the green patches all over and--and--that little maggot crawling around on your spoon?? No no no don't do it don't--augghh

Byrne had to throw a hand over his mouth to keep from gagging at the sight of it. Here was this kid with a big smile on his face as he, without complaint, without the slightest change in expression, chewed up that rotting slop and those maggot guts. MAGGOT. GUTS. The horror! Niikura was too young to be undergoing such cruel and unusual punishment! Byrne wanted to rip that bowl away from the kid to prevent him from eating any more. If not for his health's sake, then for the prosecutor's own sanity!

...Fortunately, Niikura was able to provide him with a distraction from the incredibly disgusting act he was witnessing here. Unfortunately, it was in the way of a very inconvenient and troubling question.

Gant told him about the Yatagarasu?First of all, how did Gant know about it? And second of all, why did he tell Niikura? And only about ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 5 2011, 06:11:38 UTC

Niikura watched out of the corner of his eye as Byrne covered his mouth with his hand in horror and nearly choked with laughter, although he hid it by pretending to gag on the gruel. It probably didn't help things much for Badd's friend there, but...ooh, he needed to stop this train of thought before he got caught up in trying to troll Byrne rather than actually get some useful information out of him. Messing around later. Business first.

"I dunno. I thought it was pretty odd myself, knowin' the guy. Seemed to really not like those types of people when I first met him. But...heh, it was a pretty relevant story to my interests since I'm also 'that type of person', if y'know what I mean, so I'm guessin' maybe that's why?" It was a fairly sterile version of events, but then, Byrne didn't need to know that Badd had snitched on Gant who was now snitching on Badd.

"But from the sounds of things, he wasn't tellin' the truth?" Niikura frowned. "Kind of a funny thing to make up, if ya ask me."

corvus_veritas October 6 2011, 03:18:35 UTC

"...I agree," Byrne responded, raising an eyebrow, "And it's really bothering me now that Gant said that, of all people." That was an honest statement, too, because Gant always seemed to be a guy who worked hard for the right side of things, and...okay okay, he would put his hand down as long as he could keep his eyes away from that disgusting pile of not-food-ever that was even making Niikura gag oh god why was he eating it?!

Ignoring it, he was ignoring it now. B-besides, the topic at hand was much more startling than the food, anyway. Also, Niikura's easy admission there definitely piqued the prosecutor's curiosity. "So wait, you say you're 'that type of person'?" Funny how he was just going to admit that outright...seemed a little suspicious, didn't it? If it was true, what was Niikura doing as a vigilante, and why? And if Gant knew about it, too, then that would give him a reason for telling Niikura about the Yatagarasu, right? Sort of?

oneman_onekill October 6 2011, 04:11:18 UTC

"Hm..." He leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. Time to push this in a direction he wanted. "So, unless I'm judgin' your reaction improperly, he wasn't lyin'. Good to know I can trust a cop to be honest about one thing, eh?" Niikura laughed lightly. "But I'm sorry that it bothers ya that much; don't worry, s'not like I'm going to go tellin' everyone I meet about this ( ... )

kjdfnkef sorry for the delay! corvus_veritas October 8 2011, 05:52:45 UTC

...Oh, geez. Either this kid was good or he was bluffing. Whatever it was, it didn't matter to Byrne, and quite honestly? Neither did Badd's statement about the Yatagarasu being old news. He was starting to feel a bit of that rush he got going up against defense attorneys in court - in other words, this was a challenge. And, he was probably never going to admit, a little bit of pride was involved in this as well. There was no way Byrne was going to just give in to this guy so easily ( ... )

np! oneman_onekill October 8 2011, 08:25:29 UTC

That defense attorney comparison might have been closer than Byrne had expected, given Niikura's physical resemblance to a certain spiky-haired lawyer with equally crooked eyebrows. Except that Niikura would rather be caught dead than in any sort of legal institution ( ... )

corvus_veritas October 9 2011, 14:15:31 UTC

Wow, really? Niikura was taking Byrne's little joke and turning into an outright catch-me-if-you-can challenge. How original! Actually, it was kind of cute for a kid his age to be claiming such a bold statement, since teenagers tended to act like they knew it all. Hey, it was only natural, and it wasn't like Byrne himself hadn't been the same when he was Niikura's age. (God, that thought made him feel so old.) There was nothing wrong it unless it crossed certain moral lines. Unfortunately, vigilantism either did just that or skirted dangerously close ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 10 2011, 06:21:27 UTC

Ah, he was making things hard. Niikura sighed inwardly. Byrne Faraday was certainly a tough customer, but then, maybe he shouldn't have expected anything less from a man who called himself Badd's friend. You had to be just as stubborn and unyielding as that guy to get yourself into his good graces. (You also had to not be a teenager with awesome white hair, but that was a story for another time.)

Well, there was only one thing to do: keep applying pressure and stay on the offensive. At worst, he would make himself a new enemy, and Niikura hardly cared if that happened; he would never work with an actual agent of the law.

"Assumin' things, huh?" He chuckled. "Well, when ya keep bein' all evasive like that, means I gotta do all the guess work myself, y'know? And I'm a man who's looked at the justice system and found it lackin'; of course I'm gonna expect the worst outta every cop or lawyer I meet. So I'm only throwin' out what seems logical to me.

"As for Gant-san...well. Why would your Chief of Police wanna stir up needless drama ( ... )

corvus_veritas October 13 2011, 16:37:05 UTC

...Well, Byrne had to admit Niikura was right about one thing: the justice system was lacking. There would be no reason for the Yatagarasu to exist if that weren't a fact. However, that fact didn't mean every single cop and lawyer was corrupt, blind, or worse, like Niikura believed. In fact, a vast majority of the cops and lawyers Byrne had met throughout his life were just regular people doing their jobs. The problem was not that they were agreeing with the faults in the system, if they noticed any faults at all; it was that they lacked the guts to stick up for what they knew was wrong.

That was one of the reasons Byrne had decided to become Yatagarasu. If he and Badd didn't stick up for what was right, despite what the law said otherwise, who would?

Ahh, but now he was just rambling to himself. Those thoughts probably showed through in his expression momentarily - a brief frown, some glint of resolve in his eyes. He forced himself to get back on topic and listened as Niikura went on to deliver his argument.

Another valid point. ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 19 2011, 06:43:49 UTC

Byrne seemed pretty convinced of Badd's character; the two had to be close--Gant had mentioned that Badd had worked with a few lawyers, right? If Byrne had been one of them...hm, that would twist a few things that had been said thus far. But he couldn't go throwing out that bomb; it was pretty preposterous and operated on the assumption that Gant was telling the truth entirely. He couldn't use that; he needed some key, some final weapon that would for sure trap Byrne in the steel claws of his logic. There had to be some hole, some weakness he could dig into ( ... )

corvus_veritas October 19 2011, 20:24:38 UTC

.......Oh hell no.

Hell. No. He was NOT about to drag Kay into this. The little brat, who did he think he was ( ... )

oneman_onekill October 21 2011, 09:13:39 UTC

Jackpot. He was pissing Byrne off, but that was irrelevant, as cold as it was to say that. The whole point had been to elicit a reaction and to overturn the logical stalemate between them, and if one looked at it that way, Niikura's move had done both admirably. Now he just had to make sure that Byrne didn't leave or...okay, maybe there would be no stopping that, but he had him. He'd found his sticking point, and now Akumetsu would begin his inexorable, relentless march toward the truth.

First, though: reassurance. He hadn't introduced Kay into the conversation for the purpose of threatening the prosecutor, rather to build up to his next point. "Your daughter? I figured you two were related somehow, but heh, that makes things a lot clearer ( ... )

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