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31_days2008-01-06 10:06 pm
sophiap.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-01-06 10:06 pm
[Jan. 06] [D.Gray-Man] End of Days, Part 6
Title: End of Days pt. 6
Day/Theme: Jan. 6/ambiguity
Series: D.Gray-Man
Character/Pairing: Ensemble, with a few OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Part 5
Hevlaska lurked low in her chamber, at once listless and restless. She also seemed cranky, but that may have been in reaction to Johnny's constantly asking if she was all right, was she getting any better, any worse?
"We finally got through to Komui," Reever shouted down into her chamber. Unless an examination was warranted, they would stay on the ledge. If one was needed, it would take less time to load up the floating platform with the necessary equipment right here rather than have to take it back up and back down again. "He's on his way--"
"Actually, he's here." Komui acknowledged Reever briefly, then pulled Johnny aside and gave him some terse instruction. New clothes for the exorcists, a discreet examination--one they wouldn't know was an examination--and then get them fed. Their old clothes were to be sent down to the lab.
"Have them examined--every bit of them. If there's anything there that can tell me who these people are, I want it catalogued and analyzed. Also, talk to that one you recognized. See if you can figure out where you know him from."
Johnny hurried off, but not at pace that might induce vomiting.
"About damn time you showed up." Reever's attention was still focused on Hevlaska. She didn't look desperately ill, but her health was about so much more than the state of her body; the last time he'd seen her like this, the Noah had destroyed several fragments of Innocence in the space of a few minutes. "We tried calling you several times."
Reever decided that telling Komui that one of those calls was about Lenalee's return should probably wait until he was not standing at the edge of a deep pit. He seriously doubted Komui would ever do him deliberate harm, but he did tend to flail when excited.
"Tell me what's happening, Hevlaska." Komui leaned forward as much as he dared, one hand keeping careful hold of the temple of his glasses; too many pair had been lost here.
"Innocence..." A thready, whispering moan rose up from the chamber. "Some of the Innocence I hold are resonating. But yet it feels that they have been taken from me. They are here and yet they are not."
Reever turned over dozens of possibilities about what that might mean, and none of those possibilites were good. It was true, though, that they knew knew very little about Innocence. They (or rather, Hevlaska) could measure its synchronization with its user. They could even fuse it with objects to make specialized weapons. They could perform surgeries on those with parasitic Innocences, and those surgeries generally worked.
They may have had a good idea of what caused Innocence to reject its user, but they had no idea of what caused it to select that user in the first place. They had no idea of why someone competent and dedicated like Lenalee or Noise Marie could only synchronize in the mid-eighties while lecherous bastards like Cross or certifiable nutcases like Sokaro could surpass one hundred.
Komui once told Reever that he'd finally given up trying to make sense of how Innocence worked when he saw that Cloud's had taken on the form of a monkey.
"Could've been worse," Reever had observed without even looking up from his work. "Could've been a duck."
Komui had laughed a lot longer and harder at that than Reever had expected. Yeah, it was kind of funny, he supposed, but not that funny.
"You mean the Innocence are fading?" Komui snapped.
"No... no..." Her voice rose up like a cold breeze from a cave. "They are here... and they are also there. Other innocence are also reacting..."
"Others? You mean others that have already bonded to an exorcist?"
"I cannot tell. There are too many, too many..." She looped around and around herself. The bottom of the pit appeared to be filled with churning, translucent white. "I do wish the Innocence would decide where they are."
Mapping human emotions to Hevlaska's moods was a pointless exercise--her way of feeling things simply didn't translate--but she sounded plaintive.
"I will accustom myself to this, if I must," she said.
"Not for long, I hope." Komui smiled down into the pit, but when he turned to Reever, the smile was gone.
"I'm thinking the timing of this isn't a coincidence," Komui said as he pressed his hands to the small of his back, pressing against it and leaning back to ease the ache. "This happened a little too soon after our new friends' arrival."
"That's not the only thing," Reever said. He took hold of Komui's arm, ignoring the man's sudden tensing, and pulled him well away from the edge. He let go and braced himself. "Allen just piloted the Ark--don't ask me how. It's parked right above Headquarters, and they opened a gate from it down into the main labs."
The way Komui's jaw went slack might have been funny at some other time. But then he figured out the implications, and he almost glowed with sheer delight and reached out to clasp Reever's shoulders. "She's back? Lenalee's back?" The glow dimmed slightly. "Why didn't anyone tell me she was back?"
Reever just stood still and gave Komui the sternest look he could manage. "We tried to call you, you know." There was just enough embarrassment mixed in with the reproach to make it a halfway decent apology.
Komui gave his shoulders a final squeeze, then turned and ran for the doorway. "Meet me down in the lab in fifteen minutes!"
"I'll make it thirty!" After forty minutes had passed, Reever would march down to the infirmary and drag Komui away from Lenalee's bedside by the collar, ignoring the protests and the banging of heels against the floor. He'd worked too long with Komui to imagine it going any other way.
"Idiot." he muttered at the empty doorway.
Reever tugged at and settled the shoulders of his lab coat even though it had hardly been disarranged, deliberately taking a few seconds before leaving Hevlaska's chamber. "I hope you can suss out where those Innocence are. We'll do what we can in the meantime to make you comfortable. This not knowing what's what and what's where has got to be a pain."
An arctic sigh was the only response as he made his way out to the hall. Not knowing for certain was a right royal nuisance, he thought as he headed back to the labs. Sometimes, though, having your suspicions confirmed was even worse.
Part 7
Day/Theme: Jan. 6/ambiguity
Series: D.Gray-Man
Character/Pairing: Ensemble, with a few OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Part 5
Hevlaska lurked low in her chamber, at once listless and restless. She also seemed cranky, but that may have been in reaction to Johnny's constantly asking if she was all right, was she getting any better, any worse?
"We finally got through to Komui," Reever shouted down into her chamber. Unless an examination was warranted, they would stay on the ledge. If one was needed, it would take less time to load up the floating platform with the necessary equipment right here rather than have to take it back up and back down again. "He's on his way--"
"Actually, he's here." Komui acknowledged Reever briefly, then pulled Johnny aside and gave him some terse instruction. New clothes for the exorcists, a discreet examination--one they wouldn't know was an examination--and then get them fed. Their old clothes were to be sent down to the lab.
"Have them examined--every bit of them. If there's anything there that can tell me who these people are, I want it catalogued and analyzed. Also, talk to that one you recognized. See if you can figure out where you know him from."
Johnny hurried off, but not at pace that might induce vomiting.
"About damn time you showed up." Reever's attention was still focused on Hevlaska. She didn't look desperately ill, but her health was about so much more than the state of her body; the last time he'd seen her like this, the Noah had destroyed several fragments of Innocence in the space of a few minutes. "We tried calling you several times."
Reever decided that telling Komui that one of those calls was about Lenalee's return should probably wait until he was not standing at the edge of a deep pit. He seriously doubted Komui would ever do him deliberate harm, but he did tend to flail when excited.
"Tell me what's happening, Hevlaska." Komui leaned forward as much as he dared, one hand keeping careful hold of the temple of his glasses; too many pair had been lost here.
"Innocence..." A thready, whispering moan rose up from the chamber. "Some of the Innocence I hold are resonating. But yet it feels that they have been taken from me. They are here and yet they are not."
Reever turned over dozens of possibilities about what that might mean, and none of those possibilites were good. It was true, though, that they knew knew very little about Innocence. They (or rather, Hevlaska) could measure its synchronization with its user. They could even fuse it with objects to make specialized weapons. They could perform surgeries on those with parasitic Innocences, and those surgeries generally worked.
They may have had a good idea of what caused Innocence to reject its user, but they had no idea of what caused it to select that user in the first place. They had no idea of why someone competent and dedicated like Lenalee or Noise Marie could only synchronize in the mid-eighties while lecherous bastards like Cross or certifiable nutcases like Sokaro could surpass one hundred.
Komui once told Reever that he'd finally given up trying to make sense of how Innocence worked when he saw that Cloud's had taken on the form of a monkey.
"Could've been worse," Reever had observed without even looking up from his work. "Could've been a duck."
Komui had laughed a lot longer and harder at that than Reever had expected. Yeah, it was kind of funny, he supposed, but not that funny.
"You mean the Innocence are fading?" Komui snapped.
"No... no..." Her voice rose up like a cold breeze from a cave. "They are here... and they are also there. Other innocence are also reacting..."
"Others? You mean others that have already bonded to an exorcist?"
"I cannot tell. There are too many, too many..." She looped around and around herself. The bottom of the pit appeared to be filled with churning, translucent white. "I do wish the Innocence would decide where they are."
Mapping human emotions to Hevlaska's moods was a pointless exercise--her way of feeling things simply didn't translate--but she sounded plaintive.
"I will accustom myself to this, if I must," she said.
"Not for long, I hope." Komui smiled down into the pit, but when he turned to Reever, the smile was gone.
"I'm thinking the timing of this isn't a coincidence," Komui said as he pressed his hands to the small of his back, pressing against it and leaning back to ease the ache. "This happened a little too soon after our new friends' arrival."
"That's not the only thing," Reever said. He took hold of Komui's arm, ignoring the man's sudden tensing, and pulled him well away from the edge. He let go and braced himself. "Allen just piloted the Ark--don't ask me how. It's parked right above Headquarters, and they opened a gate from it down into the main labs."
The way Komui's jaw went slack might have been funny at some other time. But then he figured out the implications, and he almost glowed with sheer delight and reached out to clasp Reever's shoulders. "She's back? Lenalee's back?" The glow dimmed slightly. "Why didn't anyone tell me she was back?"
Reever just stood still and gave Komui the sternest look he could manage. "We tried to call you, you know." There was just enough embarrassment mixed in with the reproach to make it a halfway decent apology.
Komui gave his shoulders a final squeeze, then turned and ran for the doorway. "Meet me down in the lab in fifteen minutes!"
"I'll make it thirty!" After forty minutes had passed, Reever would march down to the infirmary and drag Komui away from Lenalee's bedside by the collar, ignoring the protests and the banging of heels against the floor. He'd worked too long with Komui to imagine it going any other way.
"Idiot." he muttered at the empty doorway.
Reever tugged at and settled the shoulders of his lab coat even though it had hardly been disarranged, deliberately taking a few seconds before leaving Hevlaska's chamber. "I hope you can suss out where those Innocence are. We'll do what we can in the meantime to make you comfortable. This not knowing what's what and what's where has got to be a pain."
An arctic sigh was the only response as he made his way out to the hall. Not knowing for certain was a right royal nuisance, he thought as he headed back to the labs. Sometimes, though, having your suspicions confirmed was even worse.
Part 7