If only I could run away from it all

[lovesickkiller]

Who: Misa and Micah
What: Yet another Numbered from that same world has shown up in their midst. Now is as good a time as any to meet him
Where: Hospital
When: January 8th


She will be released from the hospital soon.

Misa has been here so long that she wonders if she will remember how to function out in the real world, where bland meals aren't brought on trays three times a day. Vague plans to get as far away from here as possible have formed in her head, but nothing more than that yet. Being discharged certainly does not mean that her legs are fully healed, and she prefers that the ugly things remain under the covers where they belong.
 
But she will have to walk if she is going to run away from all her problems.

Comments

[enflammen]

Micah's become a regular fixture at the hospital; his prior EMT training put him in good standing to work as a part-time volunteer, and help was definitely something in short supply after the destruction the fires wrought just a few months before. He's shown up early today - earlier than usual, for no specific reason - but it's a good thing he has, because he ends up standing at a dead stop in the hallway, staring as a now-familiar sensation washes over him and a memory comes racing back to his mind.

She looks different enough from her Other, but still similar enough for him to recognize her from the Echo - Misa Amane. In the memory, he's watching from a distance in a crowd as she wanders through, thinking She might have been the second Kira in the past, but she isn't anymore.

[lovesickkiller]

It takes Misa a while to notice the man standing outside her doorway, despite the long blond hair and scars; attributes that would normally have her attention and judgement in seconds. She blames the hospital. Her legs may be healing, slowly, but her brain is rotting in here.

Not enough to prevent the echo.

Misa's hand clenches into a fist as the echo washes over her, holding a piece of paper she hadn't been before. She doesn't look down at it, eyes locked on the figure that caused it. While she is thankful for a physical item rather than a memory or a feeling, she is still displeased to have gotten anything at all. She doesn't want anything more of that life. Why do reminders keep finding her?

[enflammen]

Well - he could stand here staring at her like an idiot, or he could go in and talk to her like an adult. He's seen Echoes produce items before - a blank puzzle appeared for Nathan at their first meeting - so what's happened here is fairly obvious.

Micah steps toward the door, rapping along the frame with gloved knuckles to announce himself once he's there. "Hi," he says, voice steady. "I guess there's no way this isn't gonna be awkward, huh - I'm Micah."

[lovesickkiller]

"Misa," she replies, without moving an inch. No hand of friendship extended here, though she at least doesn't ask him to leave outright. "Lazarus told me about you."

Not much, as they aren't exactly talking much right now, and that makes her all the more tense. Misa doesn't like to think about sides, because they are not their Others and if they were, she would be on the wrong side. But it is somewhat intimidating knowing that there are now Lazarus, Micah, and Nathan, all echoing back detectives... and then there is her, echoing back a murderer. Not only is she on the wrong side, she is outnumbered three to one.

[enflammen]

"Yeah," he says, nodding, "Lazarus told me about you, too." Also not much, just basics. He doesn't move to come farther inside the door - he can guess as to why she might be less than friendly toward him. Mello was, from everything Micah's managed to glean about him, a huge asshole, and anyone who had dealings with him would have likely found him entirely unpleasant. If he'd suspected Misa of being at the very least aligned with Kira, there's no reason to think she'd associate anything good with him.

"He's, um. Pretty good at talking about this Numbered stuff, isn't he." Micah had learned much from Lazarus, and was grateful for being taken under the other man's attention - something almost like a mentor. Better than what L had been for Mello, anyway. "Really smart guy. One of the first things he told me when I met him in person was that a lot of us Numbered try to live by a rule, to learn what we can from our Others but remember that we're not them and shouldn't let their relationships influence ours."

It's a bit of a walkaround, but he is trying to say that he doesn't have any expectations that Misa will be anything like her Other, and he won't treat her the same as Mello might have treated the past Misa. He hopes it's enough to offer even a small bit of reassurance.

[lovesickkiller]

Misa wants to ask what exactly Lazarus has told him, but suppresses the urge. Things are complicated enough between the two of them right now without bringing a third person into it.

"He is smart," Misa agrees, "About some things. He's right about that, but... I'd rather not learn any more about my Other. I know enough."

She glances down at the paper in her hand, and is surprised to see that it isn't lined. She had anticipated a notebook page. Taking it in both hands, she smooths it out and finds herself looking at a fairly realistic sketch of a young boy. Her eyes go from the paper to Micah a few times, and there's no mistaking that the drawing is a younger version of him. Minus the scar and a few years, plus a bowl cut.

"Here," she says, offering him the paper. If he is so eager to learn more, let him. Were their Others childhood friends or something? That would complicate things immensely.

[enflammen]

He can sort of understand that - from all accounts, Mello, Near, and L had not been pleasant people. Micah knows he holds within himself a number of conflicting feelings about the sort of man Mello was and the choices he made with his life. Every new Echo seems to bring some even more horrible revelation about his Other.

But on the other hand, Micah is deeply curious about him. He only has a handful of the other man's memories, and he hungers for a more complete picture.

Micah steps into the room and takes the paper from Misa, scrutinizing the sketch. It's definitely him as a boy - well, Mello as a boy, they looked the same. The significance, though ... that eludes him, as no Echo washes over him to bring a clue as to the portrait's significance.

"Your work? If so, you've got a good eye," he says, handing the page back to her. "That looks just like me when I was a kid."

[lovesickkiller]

"I don't know," Misa admits, frowning at the picture. She has always had a fair knack for drawing from her fashion days, but the likeness in the face is too spot-on compared to her more stylized sketches. Of course, her Other could have been an artistic master for all she knows.

"I don't know what it means, either. I guess they knew each other as kids?"

It's quite a coincidence, if someone her Other grew up with wound up working against her as a detective. But stranger things certainly happened in that world.

[enflammen]

"Maybe." He nods, but he thinks it's doubtful that the scenario she proposes is correct. Mello didn't have the same sort of recognition when he saw her as he did for - say, Near, who he knew from childhood.

Still ... it can't be ruled completely out. "Does the name Wammy's House mean anything to you?"

[lovesickkiller]

Misa doesn't answer right away, pausing a moment and looking uncomfortable before she nods. "Lazarus told me about it."

Clearly there is a stronger connection between those two's lives than her own and his, considering how often those words are being spoken. But that only makes the drawing all the more confusing.

"An orphanage for geniuses, right?"

Not somewhere Misa's Other would have been. She wasn't a genius, and she hadn't been orphaned until later in life. Misa isn't exactly sorry to be left out of the little boy's club; from what Lazarus had told her, it sounded like a highly questionable place.