"Cheer up and dry your damp eyes and tell me when it rains and I'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins. 'Cause your heart has a lack of colour and we should've known that we'd grow up sooner or later 'cause we wasted all our free time alone."
-"Rainbow Veins" Owl City
XxxX
Sanji came to in the back of a car. He was completely strapped down and there was a gate separating him from the driver. Oh right, they thought he was crazy. It was not any wonder after the performance he had given in the court room. There was not much he could do in that back of that car other than thing toil in self pity and remorse. It made him feel slightly car sick.
The ride was not too long, to Sanji it was only about twenty minutes seeing as he was unconscious for the first forty minuets of the journey. After that time he saw a large complex of white buildings, well he would have seen them if he wasn't strapped down. The driver was actually the one who alerted him to the approach of the facility.
"Here we are, Camerillo state hospital," said the driver, pulling up the drive. It was sort of in the middle of nowhere. This was probably because people did not want to see this sort of institution, they put people in them to disappear. Sanji wished he had a cigarette but as he made an attempt to pat himself down he realized they had been taken from him while he was out along with his lighter. Of course they would take his lighter, if they hadn't he would have worried for their intelligence.
When the car came to a stop Sanji was unstrapped and pulled from the vehicle by the hands of some people in white, and lead into a room filled with filing cabinets where a woman was sitting a table. It was explained to him that she was the admissions clerk and she would be taking care of any valuables he might have on him. He was very sorry to say he left all his valuables at home. When this became apparent he was taken into an empty communal shower.
"Cloths off," said one of the men in white. Sanji tried to think of a way out of this situation. He had alway been more on the modest side, unlike the marimo, the muscly bastard, and the idea of showering in front of these guys was not a pleasant one but he would never make it out with the security this place had. It was worth a shot anyway.
As he was being pulled forward Sanji threw out one of his legs and tripped the guy on his right. While that guy was falling the blond turned to the other dude and kicked him into the wall. Then he made a run for it, while the men called out for help. Sanji ducked back down the hallway they had come down, passing alarmed looking people on his way. He had nearly made it back to the admissions lady when he was stopped.
A mad in a white coat managed to knock him out of balance on his way by, sending him flying into a wall. Once he was down he was swarmed. When he was once again escorted down the hall he was more heavily guarded and bound. They could not bind his legs but they tied his arms uncomfortably tight. He struggled with them until some females got involved, then he was compliant.
They arrived back at the shower and this time his captors did not wait for him to undress they Forcefully began to remove his clothing as Sanji struggled. It was a horrible experience. When his cloths were removed one of the men took his cloths and shoes back the way they had come, probably to give them to the admissions lady. When he retuned Sanji was blasted with freezing water and handed a bar of soap. He washed as quickly as possible while the guys watched. The whole time he could not stop thinking about how dirty, and disgusting the floor was under his feet, while he tried to avoid thinking about the eyes watching him. After he had finished he was given a pair of shoes, jeans, and a dirty white shirt with the hospitals name sewn into it.
His next stop was to some doctors who drew blood from his arm with a large needle, but it wasn't so bad. Then he was given a chest x-ray. After that they drew spinal fluid, a procedure that was slightly uncomfortable but nothing he couldn't handle. He finally ended up in a room with an actual psychiatrist.
"Hello, Mister Noir," he said as he took his seat, "How are you today?" Sanji made no move to respond, that was the second time today he had been asked that question in such a patronizing tone, but the man did not look too bothered by his lack of response, "Right down to business then. Okay, how long have you been suffering from this illness?"
"I'm not sick, leave me alone," Sanji said, glaring at the wall.
"Okay, then how long have you been attracted to men?"
Sanji rolled his eyes, "This is ridiculous, I am not crazy, I'm not attracted to men, and I don't deserve to be here."
"Mister Noir, before you can get better you have to admit to having a problem."
"But I don't have a problem!"
The man sighed and wrote something down on a sheet of paper in front of him.
"Very well," he said then noddedto the guards, "We're done here."
Sanji was taken from the room and down a series of hallways, passing other patients as he went. They all looked very unhappy. Not all of them looked outwardly very ill, they just walked by with troubled expressions. Sanji wondered why they were here. It was not a very pleasant place, it smelled of cleaning solutions and urine. They ended up in a room filled with beds with only a few feet separating them, in the male wing of the ward. There must have been about fifty beds in that room, most already had residents but Sanji was guided to an empty one and told to stay put, it was nearly time for bed anyway. The guards left him to stand by the door monitoring the other patients coming in.
Sanji's bed was in the far left side of the room. There was a man in the bed to his right but he was already asleep. He gazed down at the bed, the white sheets were stained and did not look particularly clean. While he was standing there the lights were shut off. He slipped off his shoes and into the uncomfortable, dirty bed. He tried to relax but with an empty stomach and itchy sheets it was more easily said than done. He wondered what Zoro was doing. The marimo must have noticed he was missing, hopefully he would not do anything too rash. He imagined that he'd never been taken at all. Zoro would have come home, they would have eaten dinner, fool around a bit, and go to bed together. That's what he wanted.. Maybe he really did need help.
XxxX
In the morning Sanji was nudged awake by one of the nurses who handed him a new set of clothing, which he sluggishly put on. The shirt was too large and the pants were too short length wise and too wide around the middle. When he was dressed he walked out with the other patients to the cafeteria. He steeled himself for the shitty food he was about to eat. It did not disappoint, he was given bland, clumpy oatmeal. The refined chef inside him screamed in protest but food was food.
He sat at a table by himself, not really sure of where to go. Just as he started eating a man approached him, "You're in my spot," he said in a low voice.
Sanji internally groaned, he did not want to make enemies on his first day, "Sorry," he apologized, moving to sit on the opposite side of the table. The man did not look happy about this but did not protest.
"I haven't seen you before, you new?" He asked, Sanji nodded, his mouth filled with gluey oatmeal, "What are you in for then?"
Sanji swallowed, "Nothing, I'm not sick," he said, knowing the guy probably would not believe him.
"Right, of course not," the guy said in a patronizing voice, "What's your name then?"
"Sanji."
"Gin," the man stuck out his hand. As they shook hands Sanji hoped that this guy wouldn't be some sort of psychopath. He seemed normal enough.
"Alright, Gin, how long have you been here?" The blond asked.
"Two years," Gin answered, "I was a foot soldier stationed over in Japan. When I came back I couldn't stand it. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't go out. My sister finally committed me. I've been here ever since."
"And do you always sit at this table by yourself?"
"The boss is in solitary right now, so I'm on my own for a while."
Sanji was not able to ask who this boss was because he was interrupted by some commotion a few tables down. There was a nurse standing over one of the patients who's chair he had knocked over. The patient was making a gurgling noise but not moving.
"Get up!" Shouted the nurse, kicking the man in the side.
Sanji made a move to stand up and help but Gin grabbed his arm and shook his head, "Not worth it," he whispered. So Sanji watched in horror as the gurgling patient was dragged out of the cafeteria.
"Does that happen often?" Sanji asked, turning back to Gin
He shrugged, "Yeah, not much we can do about it. If you try to intervene it just makes things worse for you."
It was like he had entered a whole new world. He wondered if this was how Zoro felt when he was in those camps. I reminded him of a weird little fish tank, except all the other fish wanted to hurt him.
After breakfast he and Gin parted ways, it was time for Gin's treatment. Whatever that was. There was not much to do in the ward so he just sort of wandered the hallways watching the patients and nurses walk by him, also searching for some means of escape just in case. He could not find one. This place was horrible, he wanted a cigarette.
XxxX
After lunch nurses picked him up and took him to a psychiatrist's office. It was time for his first formal secession. During this secession Sanji promptly ignored the doctor and denied all implications that he made.
After about half an hour of getting nowhere the doctor gave up, "Alright, Mister Noir, you can go. I am prescribing the use of a Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System. That way you can't hide from the issues. Your treatment will start this evening after dinner, good day," he mumbled, ushering Sanji out the door.
That did not soundgood, particularly the self-injurious part. Sanji spent his time before dinner wandering about, worrying over what would happen to him. By this time he was feeling jumpy and he felt a massive headache coming on. He really needed a cigarette.
At dinner he sat at Gin's table again, picking at his food.
"Hey, Gin, do you know what a Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System is?"
Gin gave him an odd look, "Sure, it's a kind of shock therapy. They give it to people with addictions or weird sex illnesses," he narrowed his eyes, "So which are you?" He was leaning toward sexual illness but the guy did look strung out at the moment.
Sanji looked back down at his food and did not say anything for the rest of their time together.
XxxX
The treatment room Sanji was taken to had a chair bolted to the floor with restraints, a box with wires hanging out of it, and a projection machine. This gave him a feeling of extreme trepidation. The doctor was there setting up the box and fiddling with knobs, "Ah," he exclaimed, looking up, "Please take a seat."
Sanji made no move, whatever this was it could not be good, so one of the nurses shoved him forward. He stumbled and when the other nurse grabbed his arm he panicked, swinging his leg in a deadly ark that the man just barely avoided. Seeing that they were going to need help with this one the man ran to the door and called out for back up. Four more people came to their aid. It took a good ten minuets but they managed to force the patient, literally kicking and screaming, into the chair.
The blond struggled against the restraints, but he was completely immobile, he could not even move his head. When he was completely secure one of the guards gaged him then unbuttoned his pants, sliding them down as far as the restraints would allow, leaving Sanji exposed. Electrodes were attached to his genitalia and the projector was started up.
The film contained pictures of people which the doctor would flick through. These people were doing various activities. Some were playing the piano, or walking hand in hand, while others were of people in various states of undress or sexual action. There were both heterosexual and homosexual couples on the film. Every time there was a homosexual couple, or any man shown a blinding shock was delivered. The treatment lasted about forty minuets and by the time it was over Sanji was ready to curl up in a ball and die, that's how painful it was. He could hardly imagine the pain he would feel given that he had to have this treatment four times a week.
He was dragged back to the room with the beds after it was all over and was instantly asleep.
XxxX
The next day Sanji felt horrendous. He trudged into the cafeteria, got his food and slumped onto the table where Gin was already sitting.
"Not so fond of the treatment I see."
Sanji groaned in response. He forced himself to eat, but the pasty meal made him nauseous. Before he was done nurses approached him, he assumed to take him to his next treatment.
One nudged him, "Time to go," he said irritably. Not having a good day, apparently. Sanji didn't give a shit so he just gave a defiant look and turned back to his oatmeal. This infuriated the guard, who grabbed him by the hair and jerking him back causing the chair to topple over
"Come on, get up, faggot," he said loud enough for everyone to hear, grabbing the blond by the arm and dragged him to his feet. Sanji would have kicked him but in that moment he could barely lift is legs to walk let alone kick the fucker's head off. He ended up right back in that chair again.
XxxX
He forced himself to go to lunch only because he had thrown up the contents of his stomach after his treatment.
Gin gave him a weird look as he sat down, "So you're a fag then? You do look the type."
Sanji just glowered at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're kind of girly looking is all."
"Fuck you," he said scathingly, "Aren't you going to find somewhere else to sit or make me leave?"
"Nah, you seem alright and it's hard to find good company here. Just don't touch me and we'll be alright," he gave an uncomfortable wave of his and toward Sanji, "And you should watch your back. A lot of the fags that come through here end up in a bad way."
Sanji took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to keep his temper in check. Where was that cigarette? He was dying here.
XxxX
Life in the hospital became a routine; get up, eat breakfast with Gin, resist going to SIBIS therapy four times a week, wander around the building, eat lunch, listen to a psychiatrist prattle on about how disturbed he was, wander around again, and go to bed. Most days the nurses had the patients clean around the hospital, scrubbing the floors and such, it was terribly tedious. Sanji wished he could work in the kitchen, or at least kick the cooks who made such poor quality food.
Some days they were allowed to wander the grounds, one would think they would look forward to thisbut it came with a price. When they were out the other, more serious patient were also out too. These patents were extremely sick, shouting, contorting themselves, and talking in hushed tones. The worst of them had to be roped together and lead by a nurse. It was a very sad sight. Then on Sunday the best behaved patients were allowed to attend a small church ceremony, fanfuckingtastic.
He wasn't allowed to have visitors either, most patients were allowed to see people if they bothered to come but the doctors forbade him from seeing anyone. Something about getting back into old habits or coming in contact with whomever he had unholy feeling for. Fuck that, seriously.
After his week of resisting treatment Sanji was prescribed a drug that was supposed to calm his resilient behavior. He, of course, only pretended to take it and when the the nurses caught on they started holding him down and forcing him to take his medicine. The medicine made him feel all out of sorts, he felt sluggish and heavy. He was still resisting the SIBIS as much as possible. The thing was pretty much pure evil, after a while he developed blisters where the electrodes had been placed on his skin.
He also had to avoid as many people as possible after they figured out his diagnosis, they did not take kindly to his type. Not everyone was bad, some of the guards and nurses looked just as horrified as him that abuse was going on. Plus Sanji would never say anything bad about the female nurses, even when they were the ones abusing patients. The talks with the psychiatrist were the worst, Sanji refused to talk so he just had to listen to the guy go on and on about how sick he was, and how what he was feeling was so wrong. He grew more and more unhappy by the day. He wanted to be back home with Zoro and his friends, how could it be so wrong?
About a month in Sanji met Don Krieg, Gin's so called boss. He would never tell anyone why he was committed, he made up a new story every time. Sanji thought he may well be in for being a compulsive lier. He had been held in a different ward for a while after being unruly. Apparently he had been held in solitary confinement all that time.
Don Krieg did not like Sanji, he belittled him as often as he possibly could, which was a lot. Don Krieg also had a crew he went around with. He kept Gin with his crew and away from what was now just Sanji's table. Until he was taken back. He came and went, Gin always came back while he was away. Sanji could not understand why he was so loyal to that guy.
Sanji did eventually get to know some other patents. There were a few people who did not seem like they should be there but there were others who went on mumbling to themselves, rocking back and forth, throwing terrible fits, and claiming paranoid plots against them.
It was the worst to see the kids there, this was not a place where children should be. Well, not exactly kids, young adults who were too old for a children's center. For a while one of the kids followed Sanji. It was kind of nice to have someone to talk to. Unfortunately one day one of the nurses noticed them walking around together and pulled the kid aside. He did not follow Sanji around after that. He was not sure what they told him but no one went near him anymore. He assumed that it had something to go with the homosexuality thing which for some horrifying reason people seemed to associate with being involved with any young boy they could find.
He met a few other people in for homosexuality. The nurses tried to keep them apart for obvious reasons but he did at one point meet them. One man seemed just as normal as any other person but had committed himself after his urges started to overwhelm him. Another was a cross dresser, committed by his family. The third of them was beaten to death a few days after Sanji met him.
XxxX
Zoro and Luffy were plotting, they wanted Sanji back and they were not going to let doctors keep their cook away. They planned it out as carefully as they could, they even scouted the hospital out to the best of their ability. The first thing they had tried was going into the visitor's center but the people there told them Sanji wasn't allowed to see anyone so they went into planning mode. Maybe it wasn't the most well put together plan ever but it was all they had.
They decided that they would sneak in through the one of the back doors, jump one of the doctors or whatever they were and search for Sanji.
It was evening when they set the plan into motion, dark but not too dark. They moved swiftly toward the building, Zoro was almost suprised when they made it to the building without being spotted. Luffy poked his head around the corner and spotted someone going out the door. Perfect. They grabbed the guy, who was a nurse, knocked him unconscious and stole his outfit. Zoro took his cloths, they were a closer fit. It was weird, they kind of looked like a fancy outfit really. He tied a bandana around his head to cover his oddly colored hair as well.
When they were just about ready to move on a female nurse came out and gaped at them. They quickly took her out as well and Luffy took her outfit. They didn't want to take down more people than they had to and as long as Luffy kept his head down they should be fine. They did leave the girl in Luffy's cloths, you know, for the sake of modesty.
So they were in but they had no idea where to go. They walked through the halls carefully, mindful of everyone who walked by, Luffy walked closely to Zoro to keep from being spotted but they still looked pretty odd. They had to go quickly before someone started asking questions.
Zoro trusted his feet to take him to the right place. They always got him to where he need to go eventually. And when he spotted the blond he was looking for down the hall he dared let himself hope.
Sanji was on his way to therapy, he was slouched and glaring angrily at the floor. He knew if he didn't show up it would be worse but he couldn't help but drag his feet. He wasn't the compliant type. As he was walking one of the nurses grabbed him by the arm.
Sanji automatically jerked his arm back and tried to brush past him when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hey cook, guess who." Sanji's head snapped up and saw he was actually standing in front of Zoro and Luffy.
"What-?" He started, wondering if the nurses had smuggled some sort of drug into his dinner.
"We're here to break you out," Luffy hissed with a wide grin.
"What the fuck are you wearing?" The blond asked, eyes on the nurse's dress he had on.
"We'll explain later, first we have to get you out. Come on." Zoro turned back to go through the hall but Sanji stopped him.
"Hang on, we can go through the visitors' center, you can make it look like I'm being discharged." he pointed down another hall.
"Yosh, let's go!"
They set off, Sanji guiding the two morons ahead of him to make it look like he was being led out.
They were nearly out when someone noticed something was up. It was actually Sanji's psychiatrist who noticed them. The guy was walking toward them when he saw Sanji. Whenever he saw Sanji in the halls he tried to make a point of talking to him in hopes that it would make his patient feel more comfortable. It never did.
He walked right up and tried to start a conversation with him, "Mr. Noir, how are you?" He asked as charmingly as he could.
Sanji tried not to appear as if he was up to no good, "Aller vous faire foutre," he said with a glare. Best not to deviate from the usual dialogue.
The doctor let out a sad sigh, "You know if you don't cooperate I'll have to extend your treatment." Then his brows knitted together, "Where are you going anyway?" He looked toward the visitor's center, "You aren't allowed visitors." His gaze turned toward the 'nurses', "What-?"
He was cut off when Sanji kicked him aside, fuck that felt good. Once the guy was down they made a run for it as the doctor called out for someone to stop them. Ahead of them doors slammed shut, no way out. They doubled back Luffy and Zoro, being dragged by Sanji while they were chased by a horde of hospital staff. Sliding around a corner they ducked into an empty examination room, everyone ran past them.
As they tried to catch their breath Luffy jumped on his blue eyed friend, "Sanji," he whined, "You have to come back with us. I need meeeeat and everyone is really sad, right Zoro?" He turned his head toward the marimo.
Zoro nodded, he wasn't quite sure what to say. He was just glad to see the cook, although he looked rather gaunt and unhappy. It made him wonder what they did to him in this place. Sanji was giving him a weird look, he couldn't quite place the expression.
"I'd love to come back with you," Sanji said, "This place is pretty shitty. We should probably lay low in here for a while, wait for them to move on."
Zoro nodded.
"What do they do to you?" Asked Luffy, curiously.
Sanji grimaced, "Feed me shitty fucking food, give me some bullshit medicine, tell me how fucking sick I am... God dammit. It just sucks."
"Sorry," Zoro said quietly, he felt guilty that Sanji had to suffer through this because he convinced him that they were a good idea.
Sanji lifted his eyes angrily, "Why the fuck are you apologizing? This isn't your fucking fault, dumbass. You should just be fucking happy I'm gracing you with my radiant presence."
Zoro hummed, "You're right, I've noticed a distinct lack of radiance since you've been gone. It's rather dark in the apartment, so I think you should probably come back with us."
Sanji snorted, "Right, a man sent away for being a fag moves back in with his male roommate as soon as he escapes from the nut house. Sounds like a good idea, nothing suspicious about that."
Zoro grinned, "Eh, we can move away and nobody would suspect a thing. We could run away from all our problems."
"Can I come too?" Luffy asked excitedly.
Sanji pinched his cheek, "Of course you can idiot captain."He let the moron go and peaked out the door. No one was around, "Okay, I think the coast is clear. It's going to be difficult getting out of here so follow me closely. I want to escape." his eyes ran over his friends, this was his chance to get out and if he didn't... Who knows how long he would be stuck there. His eyes lingered over Zoro, if only they could have a moment.
As if reading his mind Luffy suddenly turned around covering his ears and saying, "La la la la la la la la, I'm not listening."
Sanji grinned, sometimes Luffy really did get it. Zoro snaked his arms around the blond and pressed their lips together briefly, it was very sweet. Ugh, they didn't do sweet. "I love you," the Japanese man whispered.
"I love you too," Sanji murmured before grabbing Luffy and charging out the door.
They were as stealthy as they could be but everyone was on patrol so they ended up being chased again. All the exits were blocked, there was no escape. But Sanji had an idea, he guided them into a first story room and smashed some weird medical instrument through its high window. Sanji hoisted up Luffy because he was the shortest while Zoro held the door against a vicious assault. By the time Luffy was out Zoro could barely hold it back. There was no way both of them could make it out and they both knew it.
"Go!" Zoro shouted, there was no way he was going to let the cook stay here.
Sanji set his jaw determinedly, "No way, you'll get arrested and I'll get hunted down. I'm not leaving if you're not and there's no way I'm letting us both be caught."
"Well, I can't let you stay here. Who knows what they'll do to you. You could come out a completely different person. Fuck, there's no time to argue about this. Get the fuck out now!"
Sanji leaned in very closely, "Zoro," he said very carefully, "If you don't he out of here I will never forgive you and I will never forgive myself. So get your fucking ass out of here." He meant every word and Zoro knew it but he couldn't stand to go.
"Fine," he said though gritted teeth, "But you better fucking come back, Sanji." They switched places. Sanji now had his back pressed to the door, Zoro dragged the desk across the room and braced it against the door. It would not hold but it would buy time. With one last farewell kiss Zoro was up through the window.
As soon as he was through Sanji made his attempt. The desk was pushed aside while Zoro and Luffy were trying to pull him through. He was pulled in two different directions but the hospital staff won the battle. His was out was gone.
XxxX
An investigation was underway to uncover who exactly tried to break the blond out but nothing concrete was found, luckily. They tried to get Sanji to tell them but no matter what they tried he refused to talk. He was placed in the difficult ward with the more dangerous patients and his therapy intensified.
After a few months Sanji finally started talking to the psychiatrist just to get him to shut the fuck up. He didn't even care to deny it anymore, there wasn't any point. He just talked about whatever he was told to but he never talked about his relationship with Zoro, only that he wished they could have had one. Not long after that the doctor diagnosed him with depression and giving him more pills to swallow. Of course he was depressed, he was stuck in a dirty, dingy hospital where he was tortured and everyone reminded him of how horrible he was. The fact that there was nothing to do also left a lot of time for introspection. He started helping the nurses to make beds or just did whatever the female nurses told him to just so he could stop thinking so much.
His therapy also progressed, the doctor was now making him press the button on the bad slides, forcing down his thumb, and it was not so hard to get him into the chair either but that was partially because it caused a great deal of pain to struggle.
He was not ever really sure how much time passed while he was there. The only way to know was to ask the nurses or doctors and sometimes they lied. Time was strange there, it felt slower somehow.
About a year in Sanji got into a massive fight with the security officers after trying to make another escape. He had nicked some keys off of a particularly stupid nurse and in the middle of the night he slipped out of the bed room while the nurses were changing shifts. He managed to sneak all the way to the visitor's center when someone spotted him, then he was swarmed by nurses.
He fought them off as they weren't very good fighters but all it took was one guy to grab his ankle and yank it. His head smacked against the white tiled floor, which stunned him. Of course by this time someone had a needle ready and he was sent into the dizzying darkness.
He woke up in a cushioned room and given time to think about what he'd done. It was terrifying because no matter how long he screamed no one would answer him and he lost all track of time. Being stuck alone in a room for so long can do funny things to your head. It did not help that Sanji's head was throbbing from the trauma he had received earlier.
After this incident he was moved to another part of the ward for the hysterical patients, diagnosed with mania, and started on electroconvulsive therapy, they tried to shock him out of his manic behavior.
That morning instead of going to breakfast he was held down at the ankles, thighs, arms, head, and bite piece was placed in his mouth apparently to stop him from biting his tongue. He struggled against the arms holding him down. Electrodes were placed on either side if his head, a button was pushed and he blacked out. Sanji was not aware of this but his body jerked into a convulsive fit. He seized for only a few minuets before coming awake again very disoriented. This procedure was carried out once a week, sometimes he had to be shocked more than once. The whole thing left him in a lot of pain because they didn't use any anesthetic and very, very tired. Oddly enough, it did make him feel better mood wise.
XxxX
February 9, Joseph McCarthy claimed to have a list of communists and sparking a witch hunt. With raising fear of the Soviet Union people jumped on the McCarthyism band wagon. People do strange things in times of fear, black lists of communist became a normal thing and trials were held to hunt down the red commie bastards.
XxxX
June 25, the Korean War began. This was the war of the communist North Korea against the capitalist South Korea. Men once again began to be drafted and sent off to war.
Luffy was sent off July 15. Luffy was sad to leave his Nakama but he was alright with going back to combat. He was a little not right in that respect.
XxxX
July 10, 1951, Sanji was approached about a surgery that would cure him of his urges and depression. It was fast and he would being on a faster road to recovery. They did ask him directly after one of his treatments while he was slightly out of it on his medication so he was kind of coerced into it but by this point Sanji didn't really care anyway, he was hoping more than anything that he would die on the table. He did not think they would ever release him and he still wanted to go back to Zoro, so the current treatment was obviously not working as well as it had at first. Now it just made him hate himself that much more. Thus he agreed to the surgery.
Three days after he had consented he found himself laying on his back on a cold metal table. The doctors sent him into a electroconvulsive fit like they usually did for his electroshock therapy, but this time only to knock him unconscious while the surgery was preformed. They had to give it four goes before he was out.
When Sanji was out the doctor pealed back his right eyelid and slid a long, ice pick like tool called a orbitoclast into the upper side of the socket, careful to avoid the eye. A mallet was used to tap the pick through the bone in his head and into the brain about five centimeters then pivoted at forty degrees toward the nose before being returned to the original position and being pushed in another two centimeters and pivoted at twenty eight degrees in both directions. The orbitoclast was removed and the same thing was done to the other eye.
The whole procedure was over in just ten minuets but Sanji did not wake up for another two hours. He was in the hospital's medical care ward when he woke up. He was completely disoriented, he had a splitting headache, his eyes were swollen, and he developed a high fever. He stayed in that bed for four days, during which he mostly stared out ahead if him blankly. He felt like a zombie.
When he was was no longer feverish he was let out into his ward. He had two black eyes and an empty feeling inside him.
About a week after the surgery Sanji was walking down one of the long hallways when a strange feeling came over him, a weird sort of tingling. After a few minuets his muscles started to jerk before he lost consciousness. When his eyes opened again a female nurse was kneeling over him, holding him down. He was laying on his side and he could not remember how he got there. He was all out of sorts, he tried to speak but the words would not come out right. The nurse shushed him and he did not protest, not that he had the energy to, he felt utterly drained. A few minuets later he was able to sit up and ask what had happened. She explained to him that he had just had a seizure.
This seizure became on of many as a sort of aftershock or echo of the shock therapy. He was given more medication that did reduce the effects but not as well has he had hoped. At least they stopped zapping him, it was starting to fuck with his brain, making things difficult to remember.
In the months following Sanji's will faltered as he followed a dull and painful routine everyday. He did exactly as the nurses and doctors told him to like an robot. He felt disgusted with himself and with nothing to do but soak in self hatred he started tofall apart.
During one of his visits with the psychiatrist he had a total breakdown. He was a sobbing mess on the floor and he talked about every obscene act he had ever committed. He refused to give a name, he still refused to incriminate Zoro, although it probably would not have mattered if he did because most of what he said came out in incomprehensible French. In fact, that probably saved his ass because they did not send him off to some prison the following day. He cried until he was sick on the floor. The doctor told him that all of this was a major step forward toward his recovery, but he did not feel any better.
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November 1, 1952, the United States tested the fist hydrogen bomb. One must always be one step ahead of the Russians.
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November 4, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president.
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December 19, the doctors decided to start Sanji on insulin coma therapy, given that his previous treatments had failed to work. Early, before breakfast, he was lied down in a bed in the Insulin coma therapy unit. Doctors recorded his vitals before injecting insulin into his bloodstream, dramatically lowering his blood sugar levels. Sanji was prone to "dry" comas where the skin would be hot, dry and his muscles would twitch before leading into a full seizure. "Wet" comas were not fun either, they were named thus for the profuse sweating and goosebumps they brought. Luckily for him the insulin tended to subdue him rather than excite him so most of the time he did not need to be restrained.
In the first stage of the coma he would no longer respond to voice and touch. In stage two eye movement wandered, then would stop, sweating and temperature spiked, tendon reactions stopped, and breathing became slow and difficult. About fifteen minutes after stage two he was brought out of the coma by a thin rubber tube going through his nose into his stomach administering the glucose.
It took him usually ten minutes to gather himself and realize where he was. Upon waking the bed was often soiled and he was soaked in sweat. He would be given a shower, clean clothes, and then breakfast. He would be absolutely starving and he knew that people on this treatment tended to gain a large amount of weight so he exercised as often as he could while he was on it.
The hunger pains reminded him of back when he was a kid in France. It was 1930, he was nine years old hand had run away from the orphanage where he had lived. His family had been very poor from what little he could remember. His father had died when he was five in a factory accident, something not terribly uncommon for the time, and had left his mother to care for him alone. He had better memories of her, she was kind and gentle, although he had not known as a child he realized now that she was a prostitute. One night when he was seven she never came home and he was shipped off to an orphanage.
He hated that place, the only thing that made him happy there was the kitchen, even though the workers were not very nice to him. The year that he left there had been an influx of children taken in and the place was practically overflowing. Sanji made the dumb decision to leave in search of somewhere better. For weeks he slept in the streets, begging for food or work, but who wasn't? The landscape was war torn, the country was massively in debt, the government was unstable, they had spent a massive amount of money on a an intricate line of defense that would not hold up against Germany in the future, no one had jobs, and it was all very depressing. He was always hungry, starving in fact, his cheeks thinned and any excess fats withered away.
When he felt he couldn't go on any farther he was stumbling down some ally and collapsed, unwilling to take another step. As fate would have it he had collapsed outside the back door of a restaurant named the Baratie just a few minutes before the owner stepped out do the trash.
Sanji did not really remember what happened after he was discovered because he was unconscious but he opened his eyes in a soft bed without such a horrible aching in his stomach. Zeff brought him back to life and kept him around, teaching him all he knew. He was forever indebted to that old bastard and now he could never really pay him back for that kindness. He may not even be able to fulfill his dream of owning his own restaurant.
He tried his best to hold onto these memories because the insulin therapy stole many childhood memories from him. It also left he with a difficulty in remembering words, or rather confusing them with other words. It did not help that English was not his first language so half the time he would know the French word but not the English one.
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The Korean War ended July 27, 1953. Luffy came home and was disappointed to find that Sanji was still not back. A while back Zoro had found a new apartment for himself, he took Sanji's stuff with him.
From what Zoro heard form the captain this war had been different. It wasall gorilla warfare, there were no real means of holding ground. It was chaos. It didn't even have a real victor in the end.
Nami felt horribly responsible for Sanji being gone. To be fair, it was all her fault but she did not think that he would be gone so long, and neither did Robin, who shared her grief. They all thought he would have been out by now but no one had heard any word from him.
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Historic notes and stuff:
Aller vous faire foutre means go fuck yourself.
So when I was rereading this I realized I didn't make Sanji defiant enough. So I had to fix some of that whiny bullshit because I hate it when Sanji's all mopey.
Mania, or Manic-Depressive Disorder, is an old fashion version of bipolar disorder. I guess it wouldn't be a large leap to make for the doctors to come up with this diagnosis, but in this story I would not say that Sanji is bipolar, at least anymore so than usual.
The Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System was an actual device used to correct homosexuality through negative reinforcement. It sounds immensely painful and just plain cruel. Poor Sanji had to deal with the after affects of this treatment as well as cigarette withdraw, which peaks at about 48 hours.
ECT is a practice that is still sometimes used in cases of extreme depression. It's way more humane now with actual sedatives used. It can cause some nasty side affects like memory loss.
The transorbital lobotomy was invented by Walter Freedman, along with the help of James Watts, as a quicker way to preform a Lobotomy, without cutting open someone's head. Over 5,00 were preformed in 1949, the peak year. Over 18,000 were preformed in the US by 1951. Over 50,000 were preformed in all. Effect varied in patients; some improved, some became vegetables, some suffered form seizures, personality changes, some suffered memory loss...etc.
I think I'll go back and edit this when things aren't so stressful because I seriously hate everything right now, so sorry for that. I could use some rainbows right now.
Thanks.
