DZH Extracurriculars -- a collection of oneshots

[anima]

[post reserved for future table of contents]

[tarot]

Retest
warnings for: discussion of child abuse/medical abuse

---

MOON LOGIC: Miss Geartown?
KATE: How many times do I have to tell you, just Kate is fine.
MOON LOGIC: Miss Kate, are you available?
KATE: Yeah. Sure, Moonbuddy. Free enough, at least.

Moon Logic opens the door fully and sits in the cluttered office, hands and wings grabbing at the occasional piece of paraphernalia to more closely examine it. Kate seems almost amused by the behaviour.

MOON LOGIC: I don't really know where to begin with what I have to ask.
KATE: Wherever you're comfortable, pal.
MOON LOGIC: I... hm... Do you know the Menagerie?
KATE: Yeah, why?
MOON LOGIC: I just wanted to know your opinion of it.
KATE: It's fucking incredible. Maes Artag does good work. Why do you ask?
MOON LOGIC: ...Do you know much about Anya?
KATE: The previous director? Nah, not really, why?
MOON LOGIC: She was... the one in charge when my parents brought me there.
KATE: I've got a bad feeling about this, but go on.

Moon Logic shifts; their head sliding back in a nearly elegant writhe, their wing-fingers curling and uncurling against their shoulders and hips, their hands running overtop one another and twisting like a tornado.

MOON LOGIC: Well, you should, I'd say.
MOON LOGIC: Uh, sorry, that doesn't explain anything. But, ah, hm. You're right to... have this sickening pit in your stomach when Anya is mentioned.
MOON LOGIC: Everyone there does. Or, did, back when I was younger.
KATE: I'm sure some still do.
MOON LOGIC: A fair assumption. But... yes, she sure does have that effect on people, haha!
MOON LOGIC: I've only seen her a couple times, but that's not really relevant, to be honest... Oh, I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry about that.
KATE: No big deal, really. I don't mind the ramble.
MOON LOGIC: Thank you, but... I really should get to the point of this. Seems I'm avoiding it.
MOON LOGIC: ...The bulk of my visits had nothing to do with her, but I...
MOON LOGIC: Something gives me the feeling I wasn't the only one to undergo... testing there.
MOON LOGIC: They'd take me to the basement--
KATE: Wait, hold up.
KATE: The basement?
MOON LOGIC: Yeah, real creepy place. Feels like... the eyes of a thousand ghosts, always on you, even when there aren't any scraps around.
KATE: There's a fucking basement?
MOON LOGIC: Several, I imagine, but they only let me see one floor.
MOON LOGIC: Anyways, they'd...
MOON LOGIC: My parents would accompany me to a point, all eager smiles and curious glances, like they belonged in this strange world of grim spectres and spectacles-- and then they'd...
MOON LOGIC: They'd begin testing.

They take a mock breath, the sound of a grandiose sigh more important than the absence of traditional lungs. A hand runs over their face, and they concentrate; a wave of blinding white passes over the whole of their body, covering it for a moment, before it fades to grey, greyer, black.

KATE: Oh, so you can just... do that.
KATE: I've always wondered how you get that one disguise you keep using with minimal scrap magic.
MOON LOGIC: Yeah, when I was a kid, I could do this a whole lot easier. Didn't take as much concentration to keep it going.
MOON LOGIC: That... changed after the testing.
MOON LOGIC: So, uh, I'm not sure how many of those tests involved specifically horror slime and radiation? But I'm certain it was a non-zero amount--
KATE: Hold on.
MOON LOGIC: Hm?
KATE: Sorry, I just now processed the basement thing, and I'm starting to... realize what it might be for.
KATE: But who-- why would someone--
KATE: I just can't fucking believe it. I can't imagine testing horror on unwilling participants, let alone children.
KATE: There's a thing called "informed consent--"
MOON LOGIC: --Enough therapists have explained it to me in the past, yes, I'm aware--
KATE: Yeah. It applies to more than just psych shit, though. You don't just do medical procedures-- outright experiments-- on people without telling them what's up and making sure they understand the risks involved.
MOON LOGIC: I wasn't the only one down there.
KATE: What.
MOON LOGIC: I saw... a lot of karacels in the halls. Specifically karacels. Frequently mutated-- not quite invariably, but more often than not. Once I even looked into a cell and saw-- well, you don't strictly need to know that.
KATE: ...Yeah, I probably don't. I've seen enough shit here.
MOON LOGIC: Fair point!
KATE: Wait a minute, cell?
MOON LOGIC: I don't know how else to describe it.
KATE: So just a place with... cells, and wildly unethical horror testing practices.
MOON LOGIC: Oh, there was definitely more than just horror in my testing, though that was a lot of it--
KATE: Sorry, I'm still processing this. I mean, it kind of tracks, but...
KATE: Still a lot to take in, you know?
MOON LOGIC: Take your time, it's not about me.
KATE: You came in to talk about this. This literally is about you.
MOON LOGIC: Ah, right... Sorry.
KATE: See, here's what I don't get.
KATE: I know your parents are... big. Famous actress, famous novelist, the power couple d'Arte. Fly all over the world all the time.
KATE: Drop off their extra special parody kid in the very best school of its kind-- not to toot our own horn-- upon the bustling island of formerly dead Eclipse.
KATE: And now I hear they knew shit I didn't about the place I wrote my thesis on?
MOON LOGIC: You wrote your thesis on a hospital?
KATE: They do... daylight research, too. It's the largest biotech facility I'm aware of. Snuglin corp envies it.
KATE: I just...
KATE: It's stupid. I feel like a fool over the fact that I didn't know something someone else did, that's not... great.
KATE: There's this idiot part of me that's like... if I knew, maybe I could've...
KATE: Helped someone.
MOON LOGIC: It tends to be more complex than that.
MOON LOGIC: It's harder to do the right thing with all the weight of authority breathing down your back.
KATE: I guess you're right, but... you know.
KATE: Some sick parallel to survivor's guilt or whatever.
MOON LOGIC: At least knowing what it is helps with dealing with it.
KATE: Yeah. Yeah.

The silence that permeates the room is thick, tangible, before Kate clears her throat.

KATE: So, you want to tell me what else they did to you?
MOON LOGIC: I'm not sure I remember it well enough to say... It just sort of seems like the usual, to me? Some physical aptitude tests like making me run until I got tired or injecting me with toxins, some mental aptitude tests like making me do puzzles and stuff-- kind of miss it, now, those were always fun-- some scrap aptitude tests, seeing how I could use them or resist magic and stuff like that.
KATE: Not much of that is usual. People don't inject their kids with toxins, if they give a shit about them.
MOON LOGIC: ...Sort of fucked up that I need someone to tell me that, isn't it?
KATE: Yeah. Undoubtedly, buddy.
MOON LOGIC: I know my parents... care about me, in their own way.
KATE: It doesn't sound like a good way.
MOON LOGIC: I know that much! It's just... I can't discount that they care, even if it's only as a strange object to keep around as a conversation starter.
MOON LOGIC: "Look, look at our parody son, look at this miserable creature we've rescued, look at all of the incredible tricks they can do!"
MOON LOGIC: Where was I going with this, again?
KATE: You're not really off topic, I think? You were just talking about how fucked up your childhood is in general.
MOON LOGIC: Right, right! But that's not the reason I came here-- I was discussing the Menagerie, right? I think I can't come up with anything else to say on it. I'll take my leave, miss Kate.
KATE: Hold on.
MOON LOGIC: Hm?
KATE: If you need... we still don't have a new counsellor, but. If you need someone to talk to before we finally get someone, feel free to drop by, alright?
MOON LOGIC: Alright. Thank you, and see you around.

As the vantablack parody exits the room, the witch calls out one last time behind them.

KATE: Assignment's due next Friday!

[Shifter55]

That was... interesting Tarot, given the Menagerie's propaganda shown in Maybequest, it feels as though Kate might be playing up her ignorance a bit?
With advance warning and power over the workers in the lower levels, it's possible even an extensive tour by researchers wouldn't notice much amiss, especially with someone in their own group to put spin on any small things that don't match the public image perfectly.

[cosmo]

idk if comments are allowed here but I think kate’s reaction makes sense. like she said, it’s kind of weird skewed version of survivor’s guilt, having come in close contact with a place that does terrible things and not realizing. it’s not that she COULD have realized but it’s more like “if somehow I had been able to figure it out, could I have been able to stop it?” logically of course kate had no way of finding out but this is such a jarring revelation that it makes for her emotional reaction to not be entirely logical. i feel like the mood here isn’t “i could have done something to stop this” so much as “what IF I could have done something to stop this”. so you’re correct in that kate feeling guilt over this isn’t like.... its not her fault at all, but that’s still the emotional reaction that the character is having to finding out something like this, and that makes sense to me.

[tarot]

Exalted Exile, Miffed Miss
no applicable warnings

---

The warm orange-yellow glow of the outside light mingles with the cold halogen of the medical ward. The scene is peaceful, still, silent. Three bodies lay in the infirmary, well enough as they'll ever be; Exalt, a delinquent, Maize, a survivor, and Alicorn, not quite yet a corpse.

Maize deigns to interrupt the pure and sweet silence.

MAIZE: You know you're insufferable, right?
EXALT: Oh? Speak for yourself.
MAIZE: Sorry, which one of us is in here for getting beat up by a teacher? That's right, it's clearly not fucking me.
EXALT: Teacher's assistant. Bullet doesn't have full certifications-- "yet," he might say, but we all know he'll die before that.
MAIZE: You'll die before that. You do realize that by treating everyone else as a target you're becoming one yourself, right?
EXALT: Let the rabble hate me. Any attention will only make me stronger.
MAIZE: Holy fuck, dude. Are you even listening to yourself? You're insufferable!
EXALT: Guilty as charged.

His smarmy grin is practically audible, the twinkle of sharp amerveille heritage teeth sparking yet more silent anger in Maize. She tries her best to remain silent, get back to reading a horror tale upon her digital book.

It's a good four minutes before Exalt decides to break that silence again.

EXALT: Lost your bite, have you? Come on and try to throw an insult that actually wounds me.
MAIZE: You're not worth the effort.
EXALT: Ohoho! Insulting my sense of self-worth is a good start, but you're not quite there yet. Come on! Throw in a little fire!
MAIZE: Could you shut up? This scene is supposed to be really tense and your chatter is ruining it. I'm reading horror to feel alive, not feel like some kind of bug is buzzing near my ear.
EXALT: Oh, of course, your majesty. I didn't realize you had such an important, monumental task ahead of you. Do continue.
MAIZE: Have you ever been sincere? Have you been sincere in your lifetime?
EXALT: Oh, I'm always sincere when I insult people. I simply call what I see. It's not my fault the world is made with more flaws than can be salvaged.
MAIZE: You're one to talk about flaws that can't be salvaged.
EXALT: I've never been one to ignore that, but I try to be the best I can. It's a shame no one else has that capacity...
MAIZE: On god, you're infuriating.
EXALT: Maybe I should use one of your favourites on you...? "You're one to talk."
MAIZE: Ugh.

Maize turns idly, in a sort of desperate plea, to look towards Alicorn. The ruffneck is still comatose. In this state, he would offer no retorts, no amelioration. She tries, with a twitch of her ears, to press on against the immovable object.

MAIZE: Come on, Alicorn, say something.
MAIZE: Weren't you always the one trying to make sure everyone gets along?
EXALT: It's a good thing that foolish endeavour has been put to rest.
MAIZE: The boy's practically dead, show some respect. Don't you have a shred of decency?
EXALT: Fine, fine, I'll refrain from insulting the one who can't even react to it anyway.
MAIZE: Need I remind you how you got here?
EXALT: Yes, that was far more fun than slinging insults at Alicorn. I should berate Bullet more often!
MAIZE: Your scrap affinity is actually, you know, pretty fucking useful. You're an asset to Class 12 when you get off your shiny fucking throne and stoop so low as to help us out.
EXALT: Thank you, thank you.
MAIZE: But you can't just shut up and help. You have to have all the attention on you, one way or another.
MAIZE: Literally everyone is sick of it.
EXALT: But they're not sick of me, not quite yet.
MAIZE: Oh, they're getting there. Bullet must be, if he beat you up enough to send you here.
MAIZE: It hurts to get up, but I'm getting to that point, too.
EXALT: Perhaps we can agree to a truce, for now?

She considers her words carefully; Exalt adds weight, importance to his. A grave aura fills the air for the briefest moment.

MAIZE: Fine. Truce, for now.
MAIZE: But shut up.
EXALT: Deal.