CICONIA: WHEN THEY CRY

[insinning]

It's a holy night. Silent night.

All is calm.

Everything is b r i g h t.

Comments

[insinning]

[The hell? Sinclair wishes he could react. But he doesn't have a gauntlet to give chase for more answers. So he sinks to his knees and ignoring the pain in his arm once he's bandaged it roughly and draws Oria close to him to check his forehead. He didn't think he hit him that hard, and yet]

Oria...Oria.

[He bites his lip down on an angry sob and in the chaos of his mind, retreats briefly. This time, there was another failsafe. Doctor Faust had expected the virus would come back for Sinclair. It was a matter of luring it into the right part of his selcom and snap. This time, the trace could be found.

Sinclair just hugs Oria close as Demian closes in on the virus in his mind and reaches out dimly through the selcom again for help. And in a matter of second, a white van rolls up, and people in in high tech gear come out.

"We're tracing that hacker now! Securing Oria Severine and Emil Sinclair. We'll take them back to base."]

[dissimulative]

[ The rook has been traced, leading to Shion's location. When the searchers find him, he isn't in any special place--he probably knew he was being tracked. Anyway, they arrest him and jail the guy. Bye, Shion...

Meanwhile, there's definitely a bruise forming on Oria's forehead. Thanks for that, Sinclair. But in all seriousness, he continues to be passed out until they're brought into the base.

He eventually wakes up, unable to process his surroundings from his headache. His head feels like it's throbbing as he tries to recount what happened: he and Sinclair met up with Shion, Shion had a vendetta against Sinclair, and attacked him. Then... he doesn't remember. ]

Ugh... My head...

[insinning]

[ Sinclair is in the bed next to Oria's, and perks up when he hears Oria's voice]

Oria? You're awake.

[ There's medicine and a glass of water next to Oria. Also an icepack. Sinclair meanwhile is hooked up to some kind of machine, with a silicone sleeve covering his arm. It looks like nanobots are hard at work to get his body to heal]

[dissimulative]

[ Oria doesn't have his glasses on right now, so everything looks like blobs of color. He turns his head to look over at Sinclair and sees the medicine and water... he can only tell that those are such because he's seen them a lot. ]

Emil...?

[ He tries to process what he's seeing--there's a blob of yellow. That must be Sinclair's head. Then his eyes travel downwards while lying down and... ]

What is that?

[insinning]

Your glasses are next to your water.

[ He can't get up or he'll be fussing over Oria directly. He looks down at the sleeve]

Oh, this? Um. It's injecting me with an infusion to get my arm to heal up.

[dissimulative]

[ Oria frowns. ]

What happened to your arm?

[ What happened to him? And everyone? Oria still feels a little groggy, and it's not from medicine since he hasn't taken any yet. ]

[insinning]

Oh. Um. Shion was the one who unleashed the virus on everyone. He did it again, to me and then tried stabbing me.

[Normal things, clearly. He's trying to explain it in the simplest way possible despite his head still being a mess]

[dissimulative]

And... you sound fine and not knocked out into a coma or anything.

[ So Oria will assume that Sinclair has more or less made it through, unless... ]

He was really angry at you, huh...

[insinning]

Mmm...I had protection from Charon and...

[ He trails off, laying back in the bed]

Yeah. He really wanted me dead. I don't blame him

[dissimulative]

[ Oria rolls to his side so that he can look at Sinclair (rather, the yellow blob that he is) better. ]

Someone from Limbus?

[ Charon and who? ]

[insinning]

Mmm...kind of. Demian's been protecting me for as long as I can remember.

[ He's groggy enough and still tired from blood loss to just come out with it like that]

[dissimulative]

[ Oria blinks slowly,trying to rack his brains on what Sinclair means by that. ]

Who's Demian?

[insinning]

[Oh. He shouldn't have said that. Demian told him to keep it a secret or people would use it against him. But this was Oria. Despite the projection that took over, Sinclair still trusted him]

Demian is my friend.

[a pause, and then]

I'm a CPP too.

[dissimulative]

Your... oh.

[ It sounds like Oria understands and nods. ]

It's nice that another personality tries to protect you like a friend.

[ He's truly glad for Sinclair, because that means someone will try to save Sinclair when he can't for whatever reason. ]

[insinning]

[Sinclair gives a little nod, even though Oria can't see]

Mm...I'm not sure if that's how other CPPs are but it's always been like that for me. A more reliable personality...

[One that Sinclair kept close to his heart]

I never told anyone before.

[dissimulative]

Does he ever come out? I don't think I've seen him before...

[ Oria wonders if that's the kind of person Sinclair wishes he could be. As far as Oria knows, Sinclair was just Sinclair. ]

[insinning]

Not while I've been conscious at least. Ah, he does like to speak to Mister Dante occasionally.

[ He thinks a little]

... Demian was like my last defense against the scientists back then, when I felt like giving up.

[dissimulative]

[ A small curiosity brews with the mention of Dante's name, but it quickly diminishes when Sinclair says that last line.

He hates that.

He hates that so much. ]

... I see. What does he actually do? You said defend, but... how exactly? Does he take over and prevent stuff that scientists try to do?

[insinning]

He's taken over before to talk them out of...some things. But he did it in a way that none of them realised I'm a CPP.

[ Sinclair fidgets, looking up at the ceiling.]

Mostly, it's more like...if someone tries to hack into my selcom or anything, he's there to protect me.

[dissimulative]

He even acts as your firewall? That's a really impressive personality.

[ He sounds like another helper AI like Keropoyo, except he can affect real life things too. Wow. ]

He cares about you a lot. I'm glad.

[insinning]

Yeah. Sometimes I think it would be nice if other people could meet him properly.

[They would 100% like him. Demian isn't unsettling and dangerous at all. lol. lmao]

...also I'm sorry about your head.

[dissimulative]

[ tfw I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not

Oria squints a bit. Why was his head hurting... ]

What did you do? I have such a headache right now.

[insinning]

Um. I headbutted you.

[ Confessing to his sins]

[dissimulative]

[ Oria considers this. Sinclair is a test experiment and wondered if he put in his all into doing that. ]

... I'm so glad my skull isn't fractured.

[insinning]

[ Hey!]

My skull isn't that thick...!