damned_institute | Night 71: Main Hallway, 1-West

[From here.]

Like the night before, this area -- which was usually so populated -- was completely empty for the moment. Castiel could speculate about it all that he wished, but in the end it wouldn't change anything.

Kratos generally didn't keep him waiting long, and so to pass the time Castiel focused on his radio. He might not be fond of using technology like this, but it would be for the best if he could puzzle out how it worked before he had an essential need for it.

He started to turn knobs and push buttons, piecing through what each thing did as best he could. The radio kept spitting static back at him, but that was a normal occurrence for an angel, and he ignored it.

[For Kratos.]

[from here; after Lloyd passes through for the first time]

Kratos noticed Castiel almost immediately; it was difficult not to, since there were so few people in the hall. He walked over, grimacing as the sound of white noise filled his ears. It was incredibly loud - painfully loud - and it was the recognition of the pain that caused him to realize what was happening: the crystal the doctor had installed was, for whatever reason, taking effect. His eyes began to water as the world zoomed into incredible focus, and eventually, Kratos had to hastily look away for a moment to wipe them on the back of his sleeve while he tried to acclimate to the constant, smothering buzzing of the radio in his ear.

"Castiel," he managed to say without sounding too pained. "I received something tonight that you should see." Kratos tucked his flashlight under his arm so he could fish out the note from the rebels; the tips of his fingers had begun to accordingly go numb, so it was a slightly more difficult task than it should have been. Eventually, though, he held it out for Castiel to take. "It pertains to the third floor."

When Castiel caught sight of Kratos walking over, he switched off the radio and dropped it back into his pocket. There wasn't much point in using it now that he had met up with his traveling partner for the night. He turned to face Kratos when he started searching for something to show him, and tilted his head to the side as the note was handed over.

Surprisingly enough, the note was different from the one that he'd received. It was more direct, if lacking in some proper spelling and grammar. But the important thing was that it contained some new information. Teleportation pads? Castiel had never heard of such a thing...

He handed it back and nodded. "I received one as well, though it wasn't quite as informative." Nonetheless, he pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over as well. "Have you ever encountered a teleportation pad?" He and Kratos seemed to have a similar confusion when it came to electronics, so Castiel doubted it.

And then, just like that, the buzzing ended as Castiel switched his radio off. The quiet was beautiful, even though he could still hear conversations going on in the background. Those were much easier to ignore, though; he'd had years and years and years of practice.

His equilibrium thus restored, Kratos exhaled and began to read Castiel's note. As Castiel had warned, it didn't seem to reveal anything that they hadn't known before, with the exception of this mysterious "archive", which his note had clarified as a "records archive". What those records consisted of remained to be seen.

Kratos nodded as he finished reading. "I have. They're often used for transportation between non-adjacent regions of a building. As the name implies, it's instantaneous. The experience is not unpleasant." He returned Castiel's note. "You are unfamiliar?"

[From here.]

Even though he hadn't stopped for long in the previous hall, the time it had taken to talk to Al and Ed and get his new sword made was enough that Lloyd wasn't nearly as out of breath as he had been a few minutes back. He wasn't running anymore, but his footsteps were still urgent. He had no idea how long Kratos might have been waiting. He needed to find him so they could get going. They still had so much ground to cover tonight.

Once he rounded the corner, he swung his flashlight to scan the hall. Where was he-? There. Even if Lloyd didn't recognize his form in the dark, the white uniform with all those belts that he'd worn when he'd gone back to Cruxis couldn't have belonged to anyone else. The younger man grimaced at the sight of it, and the memories it dragged up, but he shoved them back impatiently. He had more important things to focus on now.

"Kratos." He kept his voice low as he approached, eyes darting to the other man standing with his father. It looked like the two had been talking. Who was he? Lloyd could only vaguely recall seeing him around the Institute before. "I got the sword, so I'm ready. I tried to come as fast as I could." He probably looked it, too, hair disheveled from his mad dash down the halls. With his hand that was holding his flashlight, he tried to tug his jacket straight. Not exactly an easy thing to accomplish. Maybe he could turn his flashlight off and tuck it away in his belt, since there were two other people standing in the hall with their flashlights turned on now.

From what Kratos described, these pads were something foreign to Castiel, but he could understand the basic concept. Angels did something similar themselves when they flew, so this seemed to be a technological version of that. How someone had made that possible even for humans was a mystery to him, but he'd experienced something similar in this place before.

"Yes, other than when the doors here have been set to send us to unexpected places." That had happened once or twice in his time here, and it was definitely enough to disorient. If the third floor was made up of that, then they were going to have a difficult time finding what they were searching for.

The odds were stacked against him, but that wasn't going to stop Castiel. He took his note back from Kratos and was about to suggest that they get moving, but then a young man approached them. Castiel didn't recognize him, but from the way that he spoke to Kratos it was clear that he was an acquaintance at the least. Not the sort of person that Castiel would have expected Kratos to be familiar with, but that was besides the point.

"We have a third tonight, then?" Castiel didn't particularly mind, but he hadn't been told. It might increase their chances, especially if they came up against more obstacles on the way there. The newcomer was armed as well, which would help.

"I see." Thankfully, teleportation pads weren't devices that required previous technical knowledge to use--and even if they did know the mechanics inside and out, that probably wouldn't be helpful in getting them to the records archive as fast as possible anyway. "Well, I assume you will be well-acquainted with them very soon if all goes well tonight."

Kratos heard Lloyd before he even said his name: he had picked up the sound of someone approaching him and Castiel, panting as if he'd run a great distance. "Lloyd," he said, acknowledging his son before he'd even turned around to see him. "I'm glad I didn't have to call." His eyes moved swiftly from Lloyd's messy hair to his wrinkled jacket to the new sword in his hand...the first two could be forgiven; Lloyd had said that he'd come as fast as he could, after all.

He turned back to Castiel. "I apologize for not telling you earlier, but yes, we have a third. This" - he gestured toward Lloyd - "is the help I was able to secure. Lloyd, this is Castiel. Castiel, this is Lloyd. We are from the same world, and have worked together in the past." Kratos's hand came to rest on Lloyd's shoulder. "I can vouch for his ability."

Lloyd nearly opened his mouth to echo his surprise that there was anyone else coming tonight. Kratos certainly hadn't warned him. It wasn't even that Lloyd had any problem with having someone else along that bothered him, it was the fact that Kratos was keeping things from him - things that Lloyd should know. It was an irritating habit he had.

The words died on his tongue, though, his whole body stilling under the weight of Kratos's hand on his shoulder. That hand, and those words...

I can vouch for his ability.

Eyes wide, it was suddenly hard to catch hold of his own thoughts. Kratos... sounded proud? It was hard to hear anything in the tone of his voice - it was always hard to do that - but Kratos avoided physical contact with anyone, especially anything-

Affectionate. His mind tried to stall on the word. It didn't fit. It wasn't Kratos. Kratos was distant and professional and...

And...

And yet part of Lloyd remembered wanting this acknowledgment, wanting it so badly he'd started calling Kratos his teacher, his master in sword training, back before he'd known who Kratos really was. He'd thought of Kratos as something like an older brother then. How much more did that acknowledgment mean coming from his father instead? His hand on Lloyd's shoulder... It was almost like... almost like he was acknowledging that Lloyd was his.

Still stunned, it was several moments before Lloyd realized that he'd been just standing there too long, that he should say something back. "I... uh... Hi..." He struggled to pull his attention onto the other man. His hair was dark brown or black - it was a little hard to tell in the light - and he might have been a little taller than Lloyd. His clothes were a little strange, but standing next to Kratos, Lloyd couldn't really say anything about that. "You're coming with us?"

In retrospect, the answer to that was obvious, but Lloyd's mind was still trying to catch back up.

Castiel was willing to become very acquainted with those teleportation pads if it would allow them to find something vital to their escape from this place. What help records would be was beyond him, but he was willing to hinge everything on this single clue they'd received, because desperation had driven all of them that far. The fact that the rebels expected them to be able to get to the pads at all seemed to indicate that it was possible, if nothing else. Or maybe it was more wishful thinking.

Though he may have preferred the advance warning, Castiel didn't mind the addition. Lloyd seemed young, but that was no reason for him to doubt his ability. Castiel viewed all humans as young in comparison to his almost inconceivable age, so it hardly mattered one way or the other to him. So long as Lloyd proved himself capable, all would be well, and Castiel found it hard to believe that Kratos would invite along anyone incompetent.

He nodded, glancing from Kratos to Lloyd. The stunned expression on Lloyd's face was a difficult one to decipher, and it was almost as if he'd just missed everything that Kratos said. Castiel narrowed his eyes, but decided to leave it alone.

"Yes. And we shouldn't waste any more time." Without waiting for an agreement from either of them, Castiel turned and led them down the hall.

[To here.]

[from here]

Rita wasn't waiting; they hadn't set a specific meetup point, so Taura kept jogging down the hall. She wouldn't enter the sun room by herself; even if there was an ambush waiting, if they were both there she could be a distraction while Rita made for the library.

[to here]

Edited 2013-07-06 20:17 (UTC)

[ from here ]

The main hallways were just past the corner, so naturally, they didn't take much time at all for them to reach. Kyousuke scanned both ends out of sheer force of habit, going through all the motions, but not paying as much attention to detail as he perhaps should have. In any case, it didn't seem like there was anything waiting to attack them quite yet.

So they had to pull some random book off of a shelf in the library? Wow, Sora never would have figured that out for himself. He may have found some useful items in Beast's library in Hollow Bastion, but those had been pretty obvious. A random book on a shelf, no different from any of the others -- how could anyone have found that?

Tsurugi had only heard about it from someone else, though, so he wasn't going to have the answer to that. Sora kept his thoughts to himself, then, following after the other boy as they reached the main hall. "At least that means we don't have very far to go. Teleporters might make it kind of hard, though," he said with a sigh. He hated to admit it, but that was the exact kind of thing that would probably hold them up. They were just going to have to see for themselves.

Edited 2013-07-08 20:44 (UTC)

_{[from here]}

By the time Tsubaki arrived in the hallway leading to the Sun Room, she was on her way to a mission she didn't know how to start. She looked to and fro, but didn't spot a dark head of hair with a ponytail.

Hm, not in this hall, then...

She kept going, forehead puckered in concern, until she almost stepped into the line of someone's flashlight and illuminated herself by accident. Distractions. An assassin would never make that mistake if their head was truly clear, no matter how silently they were moving. She needed to get a hold of herself! "Sorry..." she hedged, backing away.

Only after she started to move around the two figures did she glance at them, and it dawned on her late that one of them wasn't as unfamiliar a face as she'd thought.

Wait...

It looked like Kyousuke really wasn't paying as much attention as he should have been. He was usually sharply tuned into movements, after years of reading everything around him to strike at the best possible moment, but not in this case. There was a flicker of something in the corner of his eye, but whoever was there, he didn't even notice until they were already visible.

"... Ah." It was about all the surprise he could muster; he was too distracted himself to be too alert or on edge. ... He needed to concentrate before he got himself into a mess. "It's fine," he muttered, and began to move away himself.

Sora didn't realize that someone was passing them until she drew into the beam of light, either. It took like little to no time to figure out who it was, though. He had just seen Tsubaki earlier in the day, after all, and he wasn't one to forget the face of a friend either way.

"Hey!" he greeted, overwhelming Tsurugi's reserved attitude with his exuberance as he took a step toward Tsubaki. Sora once again had to stop himself from even setting his hand on her shoulder, though. "Where are you headed, Tsubaki?"

Sora knew that they couldn't waste very much time, but after this chance encounter it would have been rude to just brush Tsubaki off and keep moving. Besides, she was on her own, at least for the moment. If she needed people to travel with for the night, then Sora was already ready to offer.

Tsubaki focused on the shorter of the two figures. Sora, and another boy? That was kind of a relief, seeing Sora out and about with someone... She stopped where she was, smiling automatically at Sora's greeting.

"Sorry, I didn't recognize you there for a second," she explained. "Um..." She clenched the hand holding the note harder, feeling the paper crumble against her palm. Where was she going? Now that was a question. Where to start? "Um, I was wondering, might you have seen a girl around so far? About your height," she said, turning to Tsurugi, "with dark hair and dark skin?"

So these two knew each other, then? Actually, Kyousuke had heard the name Sora used once before from Kratos, when they went to search the morgue, but considering the circumstances, it would probably be best to keep quiet about that. For the time being, he quietly stepped aside so the two could greet each other.

The description they were given did sound a bit familiar to him, but nothing immediately sprang to mind. "Sorry, we haven't run into many people yet," he explained. "Are you looking for someone?" Who knew—maybe they could help. He did have a list of radio numbers with him, so it could be someone they could contact easily.

When Tsubaki apologized, Sora quickly shook his head. It was pretty easy to get disoriented in these dark hallways, and so he didn't take it personally that she hadn't realized he was there at first. But instead of offering up her plans for the night, Tsubaki asked after someone else. A friend?

"Uhh, no, I haven't seen anyone like that," Sora said, shaking his head as a frown took over his features. With the way Tsubaki was acting, from her clenched fists to her nervous speech, Sora got the feeling that something had gone wrong. "Were you supposed to meet up with her around here? Maybe she just got held up." Sora realized that he and Tsurugi had a plan for the night, but he couldn't just ignore a friend in need, either.

So neither of them had seen Korra. It'd been a long shot, for sure, but she'd had to ask...

Her manners had already fallen by the wayside, but it was the least Tsubaki could do to smile at each boy in turn, nodding in thanks for their answer. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt your night," she said. "The girl, she's my roommate. They collected her for Special Counselling tonight. I thought maybe... if someone had spotted her early enough..."

She kept the worst of her concerns to herself, not letting her voice waver again. The chances of finding Korra and being able to do something about her state of mind were very slim now, she knew; she didn't want to involve Sora and his friend when they had their own goals for the night.

But there was the note, too... After everything Sora had told her that day, maybe it was fortunate that she'd bumped him into him?

She hesitated, and when she spoke next her tone was more uncertain. "And there was something else, too..." Uncurling her fingers, Tsubaki held the paper out for Sora. "Maybe you should see it yourself. I found it on my side of the room tonight."

... So that was it. More brainwashing. Kyousuke frowned, stiffening slightly, but he kept his mouth shut. He wouldn't know what to say to someone he'd never met, and there wasn't much any of them could do about it right now anyway. The best thing he could do would probably be to avoid saying anything that might make it worse.

He watched quietly when Tsubaki held out a piece of paper that looked similar to the one that he'd found. Another note from the rebels...? He wondered if it contained anything new; his and Sora's seemed to be a bit different.

Special Counseling? It had been so long since Sora had even had to worry about something like that, but that didn't meant that he'd forgotten how terrible it was to go through, both for the person brainwashed and their friends.

There was no way they would have seen Korra, though. In all the time that Sora had been here, it always worked the same way. Patients were dragged from their rooms and the next time anyone saw them, they were already in place to guard a room and attack anyone who tried to pass through it.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking straight into Tsubaki's face as he spoke. The lighting wasn't good here, but he wanted her to know that he meant that. "Hopefully she won't be in a place that a lot of people pass through..." That would make it easiest for everyone, right?

When the note was handed over, Sora took it with interest. It really did seem like everyone had gotten one. This one was kind of weird, though. It was like whoever had written it hadn't quite known what they wanted to say, so they kept crossing stuff out. Sora tried to ignore that, though, focusing on the rest of the information. It didn't say anything they didn't already know, really. "Tsurugi and I got notes too," Sora explained as he returned the note to Tsubaki. "According to Kratos, we've got to go to the library to get up there, so that's where we're headed."

If Tsubaki had gotten one of these notes, then that meant that she was supposed to be a part of this too, right? Sora wanted to ask her along, but he didn't know if that was fair when she had her roommate to think about.

"I hope so," she answered, letting her gaze drift for a moment. Korra's situation was only one of many problems, all of which seemed to have impossible solutions.

Sora's reaction to her note took her by surprise, however. She glanced back to him, then at the boy beside him, mouth dropping open. "You both got some, too!?" What did that mean? How many people had the rebels contacted? She'd thought at most a few people, perhaps, but... "They say the same thing? They want you to go upstairs?"

Why were they sending people up there now of all times...?

So Tsubaki hadn't been expecting that many people to have received the notes? Sora had to admit it seemed a bit risky, since he still didn't know how the rebels had managed to sneak in and drop all of those slips of paper into their boxes like that. But the more people who knew things, the better, so he wasn't about to complain.

"Yeah, all of them are about going to the third floor and finding some archive," he said with a shrug. If the rebels had gone to all of this effort, it had to mean that this was something really vital, which was why Sora had pushed aside all of his other plans for the sake of this one.

"We should probably get going," he said with a frown, because while he didn't want to run off and leave Tsubaki here, they also didn't have much time to spare. He wasn't going to push her to come with them if she had other things to take care of, but that also meant that they were going to need to part ways...

"Really?"

Tsubaki had known all along the rebel group had a lot of influence, but reaching out to the prisoners on such a wide scale seemed hard to believe... It reminded her of when the military had been in control of the Institute and there had been less focus on covert operations.

Harder still to believe the Head Doctor didn't know about the assignment if more than just a handful of people had been contacted. A trap? A distraction? It was so hard to say when both parties had such mysterious end goals. The memory of Sakura in Landel's office hung over her head. Landel had resorted to threats to make her, Kurogane, and Fai do what he wanted--did the rebels have the same idea in mind? Were they pushing the prisoners toward the third floor for some reason of their own?

As she looked at both Tsurugi and Sora, her surprise slowly melted into a sombre thoughtfulness. Then her expression turned hard. "I wonder about the timing," she confessed before nodding at Sora. "If you need extra help, I can support you."

Cynical though the facts were, she suspected Korra would be fine regardless of whether or not she succeeded in overcoming the brainwashing. Everyone headed to the third floor, on the other hand... She didn't know what was in store for them.

Kyousuke nodded, silently affirming what Sora was saying. He wondered if everyone had gotten a note, or if it was only just handful; it could just be a coincidence that three of them all happened to have one. Either way, things were already in motion. After having both Landel and the rebels call out the third floor in the last few days, they couldn't afford to ignore it, even if it ended up being a trap.

"I don't mind," he responded to Tsubaki. "It sounds like it could be dangerous, so it might be better to move in group." The more they combined their power, the better a chance the probably had. Unless Sora had some kind of objection, since he obviously couldn't speak for both of them.

Tsubaki came through, offering to come along after all, and Sora smiled in response to that. While this might be a dangerous path for them, it would be easier to walk with three of them, just like Tsurugi said. Sora was relieved that everyone seemed to be on the same page with that, and so no more time could be wasted.

"Right. We'll tackle this together." Sora felt better traveling in groups of three, and so the addition of Tsubaki seemed to immediately lift his spirits. Not that he'd been down before, but there was a spring to his step now as he moved past the other two and led them further down the hall, flashlight pointed straight ahead. "At least the library isn't far, right?"

[To here.]

[From here.]

Lloyd thought he saw someone else in the hall this time, the first sign of life he'd seen all night, but he didn't pause to see who it was. If it was Kratos, he'd have to wait a little longer for Lloyd to come back. He'd already warned the man he had something he needed to do first. He just needed to run to Al's room and then back. He'd catch his breath while his friend was making a sword from the metal he'd found tonight.

Assuming his friend was still in his room. Lloyd grimaced and tried to ignore that thought. He's still there. He has to be.

[To here.]

Edited 2013-07-07 21:50 (UTC)

[From here]

As usual, there were a few others milling about in the main hallway. Fine. Scar continued to check back on the brothers, making sure that the three of them weren't being followed.

That was the last thing they needed.

Al kept up with Scar, looking around as they went through the halls. Now they were out of the patient blocks, the danger increased, and he drew his blade to keep at the ready.

Ed looked around alertly, keeping a wary eye out for anything that might pop out at them. He hefted his flashlight, ready to use it as a blunt weapon. While yeah, he still had some ability to use his alchemy left, he wasn't sure how much more he could do with it tonight and wanted to save what was left for emergencies.

Scar fiddled with the sword as he walked, the weight of it unusual in his hand. It was well balanced. That much, he could tell.

And it would prove to be far more useful than those foolish scalpels.

He continued down the hall at a decent clip, remaining alert.

[To here]

[from here]

The big hallway. There as a proper name for it, he'd even heard it in passing, but it wasn't the kind of thing he bothered to commit to memory. It was 'the big hall' and always would be as far as he was concerned. While he'd gone fairly quickly through the smaller hallways leading to this place, now he slowed his pace and listed carefully for any sign of friend or beast.

[to here]

Edited 2013-07-09 02:31 (UTC)

[Skipping a couple of halls from here.]

As the narrow corridor opened up into the larger main hall, Sechs felt his pace grow increasingly hindered by the chilling pain in his spine. Needing his flashlight to stay aloft in his hand, Sechs brought his axe-bearing arm down and tucked the weapon beneath his belt, allowing him a free hand to press against the back of his cold neck. Having any sort of warmth against his afflicted spine always helped somewhat, but it was never enough when the drug was at its strongest during the dead of night.

Turning the corner towards the center of the main hall, Sechs was hunched over more than usual as he continued his run. He briefly looked over his shoulder to check on Zero, making sure his ally was close by but also hoping that he hadn't noticed anything wrong yet...

As soon as the two got out of the door, Zero settled into a steady pace that was not too fast but also not slow by any means. He also made sure to keep up with Sechs, who had moved somewhat ahead of him now.

However, despite having Sechs always in his vision, Zero was so focused on trying to keep his eyes and ears open for threats in the hallways that he failed to notice Sechs' unusual movements until they were almost to the center of the main hallway. 'Unusual' was probably the best way to describe it, really; he was holding a hand to the back of his neck and hunching over, but he was still moving and wasn't saying anything about it. Zero shot him a questioning look, though he wasn't going to comment on it just yet.

But it did suddenly remind him of several nights ago, when he'd seen Sechs nearly die from an illness the staff here had given him... The former Reploid quietly hoped that wasn't about to happen again.

[To here.]

[from here]

None of the others had arrived, though there was a small cluster of children plotting strategy, and she could hear a large number of people down the hall. In fact, something was definitely going on down there, and it wasn't a fight. She was tempted to check it out, but even if it wasn't an all-out brawl, walking into it without backup would be foolish at best. The others would be here soon, and their carefully laid plans had already been disrupted by the notes, assuming she wasn't the only one with one; a little more disruption seemed likely.

[Team Investigate Something!]

[From here.]

L's thoughts were occupied with the note in his pocket and what it might mean for their plans that night, and as such, it was fortunate that his short walk through the corridors was uneventful. As he approached Lana, he heard a distant commotion and his head snapped in that direction. After listening for a moment with a frown, unable to place exactly what was going on, he turned his attention back to her.

"We need to talk." He dug in his pocket as he spoke, and then the paper was in his hand. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"Indeed," Lana said, presenting a folded note with, perhaps, more flourish than it actually deserved. She ignored the pleasantries, and asked the real question. "Up, or down?"

They could hash out the details later; she wanted to know what his gut instinct was. She had her own suspicions...and her own preference, which just asking the question might have betrayed, but he already knew she wasn't eager for more senseless death. Even if she'd resigned herself to the likelihood.

He handed her his note and took hers.

"My vote is for up, but we'll have to see what the others say. Skulduggery told me yesterday that the door is hidden in the library. With Landel gloating over it these last few days... it's hard to trust it. I don't think it will be easy."

That was one of the most persistent problems at the Institute. Very little was easy, and almost none of the open possibilities could be said to qualify as a "good idea."

Still, this new avenue offered an alternative to what he was convinced had to be some kind of particularly gruesome and unpleasant manipulation. Not just an illusory but convincing death, but in a Coliseum: that implied that the death would be the result of a fight to the death. Which meant that whoever didn't die would probably be doing the killing, unless they would all have to fight one of Landel's creatures until one of them was overcome.

Some people were better off dead, he thought, but not directly at his own hand, and not these people.

Edited 2013-07-20 17:58 (UTC)

She was about to ask if there was anything he wouldn't gloat about, but he had seemed genuinely shocked when Aguilar had burst in. "I don't trust it." Any more than you do. "I also don't want to kill anyone. Or die. And neither do you."

Her expression didn't change. "If he wanted us in a particular place, we'd be there." They weren't. "Leaving us at least the illusion of free will must be important to him."

Most petty tyrants didn't. They tightened their hold until it was a noose around their own neck when the law stepped in. Landel had broken out of Aguilar's trap; was this all his game, or was there another side to this confrontation after all?

He gave her a wary, penetrating look, then conceded with half a nod. It was a line that he tried never to cross, at least not in that way, and nothing that he wanted to experience. "No." He sounded rueful; the edge of a bitter laugh was in his voice. "No, I don't."

She was right about the other thing, too, so he merely inclined his head to agree with her. Then, there was time to fill while continuing to wait for the others.

"Speaking of free will... Mr. Lunge visited me today."

Edited 2013-07-27 05:30 (UTC)

Lana turned, looking out into the gloom, as if watching for the others. "I see." She let the silence build; she wasn't going to pretend she'd known him -- or, for that matter, Ryuuzaki -- well enough for sympathy, and it wasn't unexpected. "Did he have anything useful to say?" With the notes, and the breakdown in accustomed patterns, it was just barely possible.

"Useful?" His gaze shifted to the side, then back, then narrowed, contemplative. "Maybe in terms of being a cautionary tale."

He paused to take a slow, heavy breath before continuing. "He was incredibly boring, and full of concern for my sanity. It wasn't just that he had dismissed most of what he experienced here as pure fantasy, some kind of folie a deux between us, it was like the edge had been taken off of him. Not like a lobotomy--I wouldn't put that past Landel, but I haven't heard anything suggesting that he's performed that specific kind of procedure here, particularly since some of the "cured" patients do return. But Lunge was like himself and not like himself." There had been enough left of him there to underline how much of the rest was gone.

"Useful in relation to all of this, however? No. Not to us."

Edited 2013-07-31 20:41 (UTC)

Lana took a sigh; deep, and no less honest for being intentional. She hadn't known Lunge that well, but the idea of being changed like that was unsettling. She'd seen people lose their edge -- and she'd seen what they would do to hold onto one they didn't entirely had.

Not for the first time, she wondered if there had been a point where she could have stopped Damon, or if it had been too late when she'd met him. Probably the latter, but how much had having a young, up-and-coming, protege shown him how his edge was fading? Or had it merely been his ability to keep things quiet? Ambition, or a misguided, ruthless righteousness? She still wasn't sure which had predominated when he'd killed Neil, though ambition had taken over as soon as the blood was on his hands.

"What happened to him? Here, that is." If it had been on the bulletin, she'd missed it -- or forgotten it. The constant list of death reports and disappearances was mind-numbing, and she didn't have an entire staff to keep records for her; maybe she was losing her edge, too, but she would do it with more grace, and on her own terms. Besides, she had been sick, and she was better now. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"To Lunge? He had a 'sleep study,' but that wasn't anything unusual or particularly extreme within that category. It only seemed to unsettle him for a day or two." He hadn't ever been able to convince Lunge to tell him what had happened in precise detail, but what L knew about had seemed far less invasive than his own procedure.

"Then he disappeared one day a little over a week ago. I saw him in passing in the afternoon, but he didn't meet me after dinner. Although he told me at the time that his memory was affected, I don't think the sleep study had anything to do with what I saw today. I suppose it's possible, if it took a while to take effect.

"Still, to know that for sure, we'd have to look at whether or not there's a common, consistent passage of time between a patient's procedure and a patient's release. It's been much longer for me, for example, than it was for him, but my procedure was different. And in all, I'm not sure that it would be a fruitful line of investigation. It seems like a distraction to me... one of the wrong questions we can ask that will keep us too busy to think of the right ones."

Holding that opinion didn't stop his train of thought on the subject. The thing in his head, the minuscule device they had implanted that night... could it be altering his personality? A switch could be flipped to force him to think and behave like Daniel Laurier, but that had been demonstrated even before the procedure. The idea that the device might make it permanent caused an unhappy expression to settle in on his face.

"I don't think torture is the ultimate intent here... it seems to be primarily a side effect that comes from a lack of care and a willingness to behave in a completely unethical way. But I can admit that this is wearing on me."

Edited 2013-08-08 00:23 (UTC)

[From here]

Here he was, the proper hallway. There were a good few people already collected for the night, but no sign of any of his usual companions. Good, he wasn't late.

Now, he wondered, would anybody show up? He hadn't already missed them, had he?

[Soma!]

[From here.]

Ciel continued to walk through the more open hallway she found herself in. There were some stairs, and also a few doors that couldn't be opened. It took her a few seconds to figure out how to operate them, having been used to automatic doors, but felt the responding locks with the twists of the knobs to know enough.

Still finding no one around, for better or worse, the seemingly ancient place came off as very much abandoned. She still couldn't shake off the feeling that she felt very, very alone. It was a terrible feeling.

Was there ever a time when she felt this way in her life, ever since she was with the Resistance? She had all her friends, the Reploids that she helped save, the sentient robots that had enough of a spark of life and will of their own that they might as well have been human beings. And now? Ever since what happened right before she came here...

...no, ever since that event a while ago. How long was it? A year or so? A part of her heart died that day, and she could only confirm that right before...

Her breathing began to oscillate, replaying what happened in the Outlands. The uncomfortable shoes that weren't broken in, and probably weren't her exact size to begin with, began to fade into the background of her thoughts against the cascade of feelings overwhelming her. Finding that evil monster, running for her life.

And the worst part: She had nothing to show for that, now. It was almost too much to bear, now. She had nothing, and at this point if she couldn't get out of this situation, she would die in vain. She would die, and he would win, after everything that was sacrificed in the name of peace.

... No. She had to come back. Come back with what she found. Her breathing calmed down as she attempted to regain control of herself. She needed to return, with her discoveries, or else there would eventually be nothing left to save.

She wouldn't let what happened be in vain. The reminder of the source of her newfound strength helped her keep going, towards the source of the night light, seeing the open doors to her left up ahead.

[To here]

Edited 2013-07-31 04:36 (UTC)

Night 71: Main Hallway, 1-West

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tsubaki's coming in next tag!

/ARRIVES IN A PUFF OF SMOKE!

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