damned_institute | Night 70: Main Hallway 2-West

[From here.]

"My Exsphere's different from Kratos's," he began. "Mine's... newer. A lot newer, and it was made differently. I'm not sure exactly how it was supposed to be better. Nobody ever stopped to explain that to me. But my Exsphere's supposed to be special. They probably took mine to study it."

They were on the second floor now. Lloyd was pretty sure that was the floor he'd been taken to last night. That meant they were closer to the room where he'd been locked up, strapped down, hurt... He swallowed, trying to steady his breath, and swung the flashlight left to right. Did anything look familiar?

"Exspheres... It's kind of hard to explain if you don't know what mana is, but Exspheres can make people stronger and... and other things. It's... complicated." He didn't even know how to bring up the topic of Cruxis Crystals and angels.

An angel. He had Kratos's Exsphere, and Kratos was an angel. Did that mean Lloyd might turn into an angel, too, if he didn't get his Exsphere back? The question sat hollowly inside his stomach. And on top of it...

My father's an angel. What does that make me?

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Lloyd huffed out a breath of mixed disappointment and exasperation when Ishida ended the conversation so abruptly, before Lloyd had even really gotten to talk to him. He'd wanted to try out the radio, too, and say hi to Ishida. "He's like that sometimes, but I guess you'd know that." Tsurugi had to know Ishida at least a little well if he was calling him on the radio.

"So, I know you have to turn that knob thing. If I wanted to call him back, how would I do it on my radio? I mean, he said there's no point, but what if I need to call someone for help? Or to let someone know if we find something important?" All of which he considered very valid reasons to learn how to do this now, and why not with Ishida, who Lloyd already trusted?

"...Not really. We were only just roomed together," Kyousuke explained with a shrug. They'd be stuck with each other a certain portion of the day from now on, which meant he'd probably start seeing that sort of thing, but somehow he had a feeling he wouldn't be subjected to that particular personality trait. But who knew.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy. You just set it to the other person's number and hold the button when you want to talk." Which, he realized wasn't quite what Lloyd was asking, but there wasn't much Kyousuke could do about it. He didn't see any problems personally, but Ishida seemed to be trying a little too hard not to talk to Lloyd, and even explicitly told him not give away his number. The whole thing seemed a little silly and tiring if you asked Kyousuke, but he didn't really have any desire to put himself in the middle of it either. "If you want his number, you'll have to take it up with him. He might give in eventually." Which was about as far as he could go.

"What's yours, by the way? It might come in handy."

"Set the number and hold the button..." Lloyd repeated the instructions to himself as he turned the dial to... His hand spinning the dial faltered when Tsurugi didn't give him Ishida's number. "Aw, come on. You're not gonna tell me? Why not?"

And why did he have the sneaking suspicion that Ishida was behind it?

"My number's pretty easy to remember." Lloyd grinned and flipped his radio so that Tsurugi could see the number engraved into the plastic. Seven eight nine. "See? It's got the scariest number in it!"

"Ask him. He's the one who said no," Kyousuke pointed out. But maybe Lloyd hadn't caught onto that part of the conversation, since it wasn't phrased 'do not give Lloyd my radio number', or something quite that direct. "But we can still contact him through mine if something comes up."

789... That was certainly easy to remember, but 'scariest number'? He wasn't aware there was such a thing, let alone in any of those numbers. He gave Lloyd a blank look, tying to figure out what he could mean. ... 789. Seven eight nine...?

....

Oh. That was—

"... We should probably get moving," Kyousuke muttered, soured by the terrible, elementary level joke. He wasn't even going to comment on it.

Wait. Wait a minute. There was something wrong with Tsurugi's logic. "How am I supposed to ask him if I don't have his number to call him?" Of course, he wasn't thinking about trying to contact Ishida during the day. Waiting had never been one of Lloyd's strong suits, and he wanted to try this cool new toy out now.

The blank look distracted him for a moment, though, and he waited, curious, for some kind of response. Nothing, though. Wait, maybe he didn't get the joke.

"You know seven's the scariest number, right?" he asked, hesitating only another moment before picking what he hoped was the right direction and heading forward. The joke was a good distraction from his own thoughts which, now that they were moving again, fluttered back to the events of the night before. What if they did find the room he was in? What if the doctor was still there...?

With someone else.

Something twisted in his stomach, and he tried to push it down. If that was the case, they'd just have to rescue whoever the doctor had this time.

"All the other numbers are afraid of seven," he pressed on, trying to push the disturbing thoughts aside. "Because seven eight nine! Get it? Seven ate nine!"

... What? "It doesn't make any sense to ask for his number so you can call him to ask for his number," Kyousuke pointed out. Where did Lloyd even get that from? ... He'd probably be wasting his time trying to figure out the reasoning behind that one. "Ask him tomorrow. Besides, it doesn't sound like he's up to talking right now."

Why was he complaining to him about it, anyway? It wasn't like he was the one being stingy. Kyousuke shook his head.

Somehow, hearing that joke out loud had the effect of making it even worse, and Kyousuke grimaced. ... This was almost as bad as Kariya's naming sense. "... Don't you think we're a little old for that kind of joke?" he commented. He felt like that, at least, so he wasn't sure what that said about Lloyd. ... Well, whatever.

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Night 70: Main Hallway 2-West

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