(open) i will never find a way to heal my soul

[puzzlingly]

Who: Atem and peeps. Open mostly, specially to anyone in the in the clinic.
What: Atem finally comes to after being attacked by Yukari, spends some time at the clinic being a massive grump, then goes home to grump a little more.
Where: Clinic / house 6-1
When: November 3rd- 14th
Warnings: Mentions of stitches and wounds ew, torture and blood. Other possible warnings in comments.


november 3rd | clinic | open to one trafalgar law

「He wakes. He wakes and all his being pushes him to scream, it is not possible for someone to withstand so much pain, so much cold. But he does not utter a sound. His body shivers from the cold, and he frantically looks around trying to get his bearings, trying to locate him, Yukari. He doesn't remember anything, just pain, and so much red, and the need to hurt that man as much as he possibly could, to stop him from going after someone else, then nothing, just nothing. He tries to sit up, failing completely, the ache down his chest forcing him to fall back onto the mattress and finally making him blurt out a pained cry.

It's been so long since he's felt this torment, this body is was not designed to endure so much punishment, it was a temporal vessel for his wandering soul. Why must he go through it all over again? Wasn't he done? Wasn't his time up? Why have they abandoned here...? Was he never good enough to move on, to go back home? -- Why is he here?!

Please end it, anyone, please just, end him.」

november 3rd - 12th | clinic | ota

「He should probably be sleeping instead of forcing himself to stay awake and even more so, forcing his dominant hand to play chess on his phone, or even to reply a few messages. Hell, he can barely hold the stupid phone, but he needs the distraction. Every time he goes to sleep, he sees his face, and then he remembers how stupid he was to give his trust away, again.

Meh, just meh...」

november 13rd - 14th | imported house 6-1 | open to bakura and anyone who asks idk (someone bring food to this child omg)

「Not being able to stay at the clinic any longer, because it is so damn depressing, Atem finally convinces them to let him go home, under the solemn promise that he would not do anything stupid. Like going outside and look for Yukari.

Being drained from the past days, he often finds himself simply sleeping, indulging into tiredness and allowing his vessel to regain its strength (not that he has many options controlling that...). But more than once, he finds himself bored to death and trying to get a hold of his cards, he can't. Having sliced through his fingers, trying to avoid Yukari's blade to go any further into his shoulder has made it impossible for now. It is so frustrating, so painful! 」

Dammit!

「It wouldn't be the first nor the last time during these days that he's absolutely tempted to toss his deck of cards to a close wall due sheer resentment, but he doesn't... Picking them up would be yet another pain in the ass.」

Comments

[puzzlingly]

「Don't worry man, no one notices. Or maybe they do, but not this one, not right now at least, even if any other day he would have. Between the pain and the sudden high that Law's painkillers would give him, he can only focus on one thing, himself. Though it's terrible and really wishes it wasn't that way, so what does he do? He plays on his phone while trying not to bother anyone else at the clinic if he can help it. I was for the best.

So when this guy comes over and Atem just looks at him because, well, what else can he do?」

... Helping me with what?

「He's good, well no, he's not, he looks terrible, but Law is been good to him, maybe too good, Lance too, oh man, he's that popular patient, huh? Not like are any others.」

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael has some regrets, mostly about that word choice. Your whole everything isn't exactly a kosher response.]

With, uh. I mean it looks like someone already bandaged you up but... is there... anything else you needed? You look, um, bored. ['Why I should stay in my lane and stick to dead people, a 23-word essay'.]

Also, how long have you been here?

[Atem is the popular patient, but Michael is not exactly an observant doctor. Or a doctor at all, actually.]

[puzzlingly]

「That is actually a good question, he seems to ponder it for a moment.」

Dunno, a few days.

「He's been mostly very quiet, he wouldn't blame him at all for not noticing.」

I don't need anything. Who are you?

[aroundthecoroner]

[A few days??? Jesus. This is why Laura was always telling him he was going to get mugged someday.]

I'm... Michael? I work here. [As if he needs to justify his qualifications to this kid.] And you are?

[puzzlingly]

「It is good that Michael presents himself as someone who works at the clinic, otherwise, well, he was attacked once, he wouldn't surprise him at all if anyone else would take the chance and finish the job. It would be rather easy at this point.」

Atem.

「He might be sorry someday for being so, to the point, so dry in his answers, but it's obvious why, isn't it? Completely bedridden, probably unable to move much if at all from the bandaged torso, his shoulder, his hand... He's a mess, a mummy would look better.」

What do you do here?

[aroundthecoroner]

[The thought of killing for the Null hasn't not crossed Michael's mind. He's in the market, after all, and stealing the thing someone might use to try and murder Hope seems like a good idea. But he hasn't been able to confirm any killers on the hitlist, and he has a better idea anyway.

Also, he would never go after a kid. He has standards.

Of course, all of this matters very little, because he's instantly distracted the second Atem says his name.]

Atem. The one who got attacked by someone called Yukari?

[That's maybe insensitive, but sometimes you just gotta blurt out stuff you suddenly connected in your brain. No you don't.]

And uh, first aid, mostly. I'm not, like, a living-person doctor.

[puzzlingly]

「It does not offend him in the slightest more than surprise him, so the word got around? Good. Maybe that way everyone would know they had to be careful around that guy — and part of him wished it was kept just between them both, Yukari apparently didn't make it personal, but Atem did in the end.」

The one and only.

「If it's meant to be funny or not gets lost in the apathy he bears at the moment. But what Michael says next seems to catch his attention.」

You work with the dead?

[aroundthecoroner]

[Ah, yes, excellent. Michael has Questions.]

Heard about it from Delmar. If you don't mind me asking, was this a personal thing, or a random attack?

[There's more where that came from, but he can work up to it.]

And yeah, back home at least. We don't get a lot of dead around here, not permanently. Brennan wants me around in case we find any of the prior residents, though.

[puzzlingly]

「Michael may be able to see the aloofness change into something a little more fiery. It clearly affects him more than in a physical level, but that was expected. The way he tenses and the obvious apprehensive silence in between may seem as if he were not going to answer at all. But, he swallows, hard, and then there is an even a drier response.」

Random.

「His own questions about Michael's profession get lost along the way.」

[aroundthecoroner]

[Hmmmmm he shouldn't push this and he knows it. Whatever happened was clearly traumatic, both in a literal and a psychological sense. But also... he needs to know. A certain something has taken interest in this whole Yukari affair.]

So he just... attacked you out of nowhere? Was he trying to kill you or something?

[He tries to sound like he's concerned for public safety, or maybe his own.]

[puzzlingly]

「So is it how things gonna be? Alright, fine, Atem allows himself a moment to set his mind on that track, bracing himself from what answering this guy's questions would mean to him, it's fine, he can do this. It had just taken him by surprise before, since most people here had been pussyfooting around the issue and treating him more like one delicate thing. It was nice while it lasted, he's not going to deny it.」

Have you been living under a rock? Didn't you see the Null's post and their hit list?

[aroundthecoroner]

[.... Right. That's technically both personal and random, but also neither. You win this time, semantics.]

Oh, yeah. Sorry, didn't realize you were on there. Or that anyone would actually be dumb enough to follow through with that.

[But hey, that's a tick in the "murder" box, right?]

Don't worry, though, I doubt anybody would try anything here.

[puzzlingly]

「Wow, that was rude from his part and... Nah, a reality check is necessary from time to time, better let this guy know that he better be aware of what people here can do. Apparently.」

I thought so too.

「Right.」

Honestly? I don't know what to believe in anymore.

「Michael might not know Atem at all, but that's saying a lot, he's not usually like this, so pessimistic, but that's what happens when someone you kind of thought as good enough frigging slices you with a damn sword.」

[aroundthecoroner]

[It's not that he didn't think anyone would be willing to kill- several people have apparently killed here already. It's that he didn't think they'd be dumb enough to do it for the Null. Did anyone seriously buy that bullshit?]

Never underestimate the depths of human idiocy, I guess.

[But hey, maybe all this pessimism isn't good for injured teenagers??? You're supposed to be encouraging to live patients.]

But I mean, not everyone sucks. Whoever brought you here obviously didn't want you to die. And whoever patched you up.

[He should know who that was, but alas.]

[puzzlingly]

It hardly is stupidity, it is... Never mind...

「He's not about to embark in this conversation about the darkness in people's hearts, it's depressing. But that's super rude, Michael, he wouldn't consider ever calling humans idiots. He has to wonder why he'd think so, however.」

I know... Law did.

「He knows him... right? Michael you know who you work with, right?」

Tell me more about you.

「More than a request, it sounds like an order. Enough about him.」

Do you know how to embalm corpses?

[aroundthecoroner]

[It's desperation, not stupidity. But one thing leads to the other, and his worldview has gotten simultaneously more gray and more stark in the last couple of years. Ignore him, Atem.]

Right, Law, makes sense. [That's absolutely the type of guy who finds injured people on the street and drags them to the clinic. Michael is prepared to relate how this exact thing happened on a larger scale a couple months ago, but the sudden subject change throws him.]

I- yeah? I do, actually, but that's only because I used to work in a mortuary. I don't do any embalming these days. [As a matter of fact, he makes life more difficult for those who do.] Do you... need something embalmed?

[On the one hand, it would give him something to do. On the other: what???]

[puzzlingly]

「That would have made more sense and less of a judgmental statement. One step at a time. 」

No, not right now. It's just rare to find someone in modern times who knows how to do that I guess.

[aroundthecoroner]

Oh.

[Not right now.]

Do you have an interest in that kind of thing? It's not all that uncommon where I'm from.

[puzzlingly]

「Nope, not right now, maybe when he dies for sure. Again.」

Yeah, kind of. Where are you from?

[aroundthecoroner]

Earth. Or, one of them. One of the ones without magic and stuff?

[Which is patently untrue but. You know.]

I live in the United States, if that means anything to you.

[puzzlingly]

It does, I come from some version of Earth too. One of the ones that does have magic but no one believes in it anymore.

「It's a bit nice to relate to something though.」

So, where in America?

[aroundthecoroner]

So I'm guessing you're one of the few who do?

[His wording wouldn't make sense otherwise.]

I live in Ohio, it's in the Midwest? I used to live in Maine, though. I feel like that one's more well known. Where are you from?

[puzzlingly]

Yep.

「easy」

Hmm, only heard of them. Originally, I'm from Egypt, but lived in Japan for a while.

「He definitely looks more Japanese than Egyptian though.」

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael knows a thing or two about being from a country where you don't look like the majority ethnic group.]

Is your family from Japan?

[puzzlingly]

No, my family was from Egypt.

「Confusing yet? Atem might or not be enjoying this... shh.」