[EVENT] ▫ แล้วสอนว่าอย่าไว้ใจมนุษย์ มันแสนสุดลึกล้ำเหลือกำหนด... ▫

[jivitadana]

Who: Seta Souji [eatsyourscience] and Arisato Minato [jivitadana]
Where: Second Floor [The Asylum]
When: Saturday, March 22, 2014
Rating: PG-13 to R for violence and other questionable medical treatments
Summary: Souji and Minato find themselves in the asylum, then find themselves falling into certain patient/doctor roles.
The Story:

This time was a first for Minato as he was experiencing just how complicated Wonderland could be. All of a sudden, the whole world had changed, shards of different universes smashed all together, and yet neatly separated into sections or compartments. It was more than what Minato had originally thought Wonderland was capable of, though he shouldn't have underestimated it in the first place.

The playground was fun. In the beginning Minato had been apprehensive, thrown back to a place in time that part of him didn't want to remember, but after being in the company of the friends he made here, he slowly began to open up and realize that it wasn't so bad. He wasn't alone, and he didn't have to be. Even the Carnival that played tricks on him, showing him fleeting visions of people he hadn't seen in a while and hadn't quite wanted to see, wasn't something he couldn't handle either. The dreams and traversing through them was also more fun too, especially as a little boy who never got to see anything so fantastical or do something even so simple like playing with a best friend.

By now, he had his share of exploring outside. Now it was time to see the other transformed parts of the Mansion. Souji had accompanied him as they made their way through the building, as it was always better to travel as a team instead of by one's self. It was safer.

They discovered at the second floor had changed to what looked like a hospital of sorts. It was quiet, perhaps too quiet. The further they went, the more Minato had the suspicion that this wasn't an ordinary hospital.

He indicated down the hallway. "How much farther do you think this goes?"

If it were anything like the hallways of the Mansion itself, it might've gone on for what seemed like forever.

Comments

[eatsyourscience]

With Minato beside him, the whole thing was a lot like exploring the TV world. The only things missing were a sword and Rise's voice in his ears. And the shadows, of course, but that went without saying.

"It might not ever end." He was thinking the same way Minato was--that it might just be like any other hallway on any other floor that never ended.

Souji peered into a room to one side, taking in equipment that looked far too draconian for a mental health facility.

"I wonder who all of this belonged to." It might be someone who'd been here long before him.

[jivitadana]

Minato wondered the same thing. He tried the door, pushing it open a little more, and saw that it did give. He could see the room in its entirety now. That atmosphere was suffocating to some degree.

"If this belonged to someone, then the playground and carnival outside are someone else's too?"

Minato was thinking that it belonged to someone currently here. But wasn't this place just recently built by that lizard? He stepped inside that room, looking for any clues too that could shed some light on the origins of the facility.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji nodded, following Minato into the room. He ran his fingers over a dusty control panel attached to what looked like ancient electrodes, then fiddled with a knob. An electrical buzz emanated from the device and he switched it back off.

"Or maybe something like them? The playground made us younger. Maybe this place will do something to us, too."

The possibilities that cascaded through his mind's eye weren't altogether pretty.

[jivitadana]

No one followed through with the upkeep of this place, not thoroughly anyway. It was clean, looked like it could be used if necessary, but it wasn't immaculate or as clinically sterile as Minato had imagined a hospital should be.

Minato didn't think the equipment in here would work until Souji had turned it on. Still functional? Wonderland never did cease to amaze him.

"Mn, I hope not." Maybe that was a sign that they should leave soon.

He had opened up a cabinet or two, seeing a few bottles left inside with a few medical supplies such as bandages or cotton balls. Another drawer or two had blank forms and empty patient chart file folders. The standalone closet contained a couple of white lab coats, which Minato had touched the fabric of, and they were also clean, newly pressed.

"Has Wonderland ever been like this?" That is, this disjointed. His eyes wandered back to the lab coats, trying to imagine who would be wearing those here.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji stepped closer to what looked like a dentists chair at the middle of the room, the kind that could be tilted to lie flat and raised or lowered. It was sturdier than a dentist's chair, though, reinforced to manage struggling patients. The straps at various points indicated that.

"Yeah, once. It was a lot worse than this, though."

[jivitadana]

That meant someone had to live through something like that. Minato wouldn't wish that on anyone.

He nodded, then out of curiosity, took out one of the pristine lab coats, and proceeded to put it on. He lifted his arms up a bit to get a better look at the way the length of the coat draped against his body.

"How much worse could it get?"

[eatsyourscience]

"Imagine a patchwork quilt." Souji drew closer and took the edge of the lab coat's sleeve between his thumb and forefinger, feeling the material. "Wonderland was the quilt and all the different memories or events were the patches."

[jivitadana]

Minato saw how Souji was touching the coat he was wearing. The coat was a bit long, but lots of lab coats were like that.

"... Like how you have to be patched up?"

Glass broke, and Minato summoned Thanatos. His eyes met Souji's once he commanded the warrior death god to attack Souji with Pralaya.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji had time to realize what was happening, but not enough to do anything about it. Izanagi absorbed some of the damage, but the force of the blow still forced Souji backward. The arm of the chair behind him bit into his lower back.

"Minato..." He brought a hand to his stomach and it came away sticky with blood. "What..."

[jivitadana]

Minato didn't dismiss Thanatos, needing him to stick around for now. Souji would most likely protest and get out of hand. That needed to be taken care of.

"You're late for your session."

He commanded Thanatos to unleash Vorpal Blade at the other boy in front of him.

[eatsyourscience]

This time, Souji managed to raise his arms, crossed, in front of his face, but it didn't offer much protection. With the chair right at his back, he couldn't easily retreat--the attack nearly knocked him back over the arm completely, leaving him off balance.

"Stop this..." A thin split across his cheek opened as he spoke through his teeth and blood dripped down his jaw.

[jivitadana]

"I will if you cooperate."

Minato stepped forward now to try and get Souji into the chair now that Souji was weakened. He would probably have to fight him to get at least the wrist straps buckled and in place.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji went down into the chair easily enough, though he was intent on not staying there.

"What's this about?"

He didn't want to counterattack, not when Minato was probably acting under this place's influence, but he had no idea what might happen next.

[jivitadana]

Minato brushed some nonexistent dust off his labcoat. If he had glasses, he would've adjusted them by now, and made up for it by tightening the straps around Souji's wrists.

Of course Souji wouldn't remember why he was here. He was so stubborn.

"They aren't real. It's all inside your head."

How could anyone think that they could call on various mythological and divine beings and have them do their bidding? It was ridiculous.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji's limbs felt cold as he tried without success to free his arms, pulling at the straps and trying to twist his hands back through the cuffs. Nothing worked.

He could still summon, but he didn't. He wouldn't unless he had to.

Swallowing, he forced himself to calm down and looked up at Minato.

"What's inside my head?"

[jivitadana]

Minato poked his finger at Souji's forehead.

"Those things that you insist are inside your head. We have ways of getting rid of thoughts like that."

With that, Minato gave Souji a smile before checking some of the drawers for something he could use in case Souji protested any more.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji flinched and turned his head to watch Minato when he moved away. Maybe he could keep him talking and avoid any more attacks.

"You mean my Personas? You just used yours, though. You know they're real. You have them, too."

He kept his voice calm and reasonable, and despite the situation, the irony that he was the one who wasn't functioning under some delusion wasn't lost on him.

[jivitadana]

Minato found several items that were useful. He set them out on a silver tray nearby, and did bring one of them over, hidden in the pocket of his labcoat.

"Hallucinations and delusions. Did your condition worsen?"

He shook his head as if disappointed more in himself than with Souji. Then after using his Evoker to summon Thanatos once more, he dropped Morning Star straight down on Souji. He spoke as if nothing had happened.

"Your argument didn't work the last time." And it wouldn't work this time. Minato wasn't the one who was sick, after all.

[eatsyourscience]

Morning Star wasn't an attack Souji could shield himself from, either on his own or with Izanagi's help. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and even when the light had dispersed, his vision was bleached out and blurred, like an over-exposed photograph.

He let his head hang between his shoulders, gasping, only conscious by a thread. He couldn't endure another attack from Minato--even something as innocuous as Agi would probably send him spiraling into unconsciousness. Arguing wasn't a viable response--clearly. He had to try something else.

He swallowed, gathered himself, and spoke again. His voice came out hoarse and soft, not as composed as he'd hoped.

"...How will you treat me?"

[jivitadana]

That was more like it. Minato put his Evoker back in its holster.

"It appears that pain is the only way to get through to you."

It was fine with Minato if Souji was now asking for it and needed the help. Souji bleeding out though wasn't all that helpful for his recovery, and therefore Minato switched to Jack Frost to cast Dia on Souji.

"Tell me more again about how you supposedly have those things appear."

[eatsyourscience]

If they were supposed to be delusions, wasn't talking about them just validating his belief in them? But Souji didn't voice that thought. Dia had only stopped his bleeding--it hadn't done much else, not even dull the pain. He didn't want another of Minato's strongest attacks leveled at him again.

"...I grab the cards that appear in front of me."

[jivitadana]

Minato nodded, making mental notes to himself, and they would've appeared as frenetic scribbles on paper.

"After you grab them, then what happens?"

Details, Minato wanted all the details of Souji's hallucinations.

[eatsyourscience]

Souji raised his head to look up at Minato. He was finally catching breath.

"...A Persona appears."

[jivitadana]

Minato had been waiting for that. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

He held down Souji's hand, giving himself enough leverage before jamming the scalpel he had in his pocket straight through the back of that hand and had it protrude out of his palm.

"Try it now."

[eatsyourscience]

Souji's breath stuck in his throat. Blood slicked the arm of the chair and dripped onto the floor.

His fingers twitched, but wouldn't move quite how he wanted them to. The scalpel had severed something important.