Night 73: M-A Block Hallway

[freewill]

[From here.]

At this point, the walk from his room to the meeting point that he'd set up with Kratos and Lloyd had become tedious. That didn't stop Castiel from being cautious, something that was ingrained in him from years of acting as a soldier and nothing else.

He scanned the hall with his flashlight and determined it was clear before crossing it to the door that would lead him out of the block. From there, it was a quick right.

[To here.]

Comments

[armoredsoul]

[from here]

"Do you need to go find Lust first? We can meet out in the main hallway," Al suggested.

[envy_the_sinners]

"I suppose." Should they find something, she ought to be there. And the more people around whom he could trust, the better.

"Find your brother. We will see you in the main hall." Scar continued into the larger hall.

[To here]

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

Excepting one other pair of patients, it was quiet out here. Hopefully that meant they were making good time. Sora didn't need for them to be the first group to make it to the library, but it sure would be nice.

Realizing that he was with two people who weren't the most talkative, Sora realized it was on him to keep the conversation flowing. He couldn't ask Tsurugi how he was feeling, though, which meant he'd have to turn to another topic.

"So... what do you think those archives are for, anyway?"

[his_legacy]

Link raised an eyebrow at Tsurugi's request, but said nothing as he fell back behind the other two boys. It was like dealing with Talo all over again. All three of them were used to taking the front, couldn't he tell? His sharp ears would pick up on anything sneaking up behind them, he supposed.

"I have no idea. It seems strange that they wouldn't tell us, given the room's obvious importance." Link put it down as security reasons. Trying to slip too much information under Landel's nose was a risky gamble- one they couldn't afford to take unless absolutely necessary.

He poked his flashlight around the corner as the group made its way for the larger hallways.

[To here]

[idolism]

_{[from here]}

Being so early on in the night, the hallways were still teeming with people, some in main corridor, some still in their rooms. His senses were hyper-sensitive and as a consequence he could feel the warm bodies moving in the dark even if he wasn’t in a position to see them.

The one person he really wanted to get to, though, the one person’s blood he really wanted to feel on his hands was Landel’s. Nothing else would do. Compared to his need to get at Landel and make him finally shut his foolish mouth, the faint blood scent he could detect in the air did very little to stir him.

Distractions would only slow him down, anyway. He had a ninja boy to find.

[firewhichrefines]

[from here]

It was either late enough in the night that there was limited traffic in the halls or that the numbers had dwindled even further while Sasuke was once again useless -- but turning toward the hall he remembered Aidou had been moved to he spotted the flash of blond hair even in the narrow beams of the few flashlights moving through. His sight had healed completely, no remaining strain left from the surgery, the crispness of Uchiha vision as precise as his own eyes had given him.

Practice in the darkness meant he approached silently, his own flashlight left behind in the drawer, and familiarity with Aidou by now meant he didn't waste time mincing words:

"How long was I out?"

[idolism]

From the surprised look on Aidou's face, Sasuke could rest assured that he hadn't found Aidou too late. The fact that the boy was early, and had beaten him to the cell block before he'd had a chance to leave, was the most surprising thing of all.

Well! Someone was energetic!

He stopped where he was, hands going to his hips. He looked Sasuke up and down, checking for signs he'd been replaced with a body snatcher.

"That was fast," he remarked. But... oh. Sasuke's question gave him away. He'd been sleeping? Again? "What, did you take a nap after we last spoke? That was this morning."

[firewhichrefines]

The look Aidou gave him, more of a once-over, was far from reassuring (what, had he expected Sasuke not to show up at all?), but the words made him blink. Only a day. The black insensibility of the sleep here left no sense for the body of how long he'd been out, just an increasingly familiar sense of weakness lingering in his muscles, but a day ... it could have been worse.

The kind of standards this place left him with were almost funny in an utterly ridiculous, desperate sort of way.

"I stopped in my room for something and woke up after the doors unlocked," he admitted, because there was no point pretending otherwise, and then dryly: "I've never slept this much in my life."

Still, it had been only a day and there was a night ahead. He lifted the hilt of his sword, unwinding the chain of bones they'd been given. "Are you ready, then?"

[idolism]

"I'd say so!" he agreed. "This place has turned you into a narcoleptic. No wonder you were in such a hurry to get here. I was headed the same way, in fact."

As a matter of course, he was ready, more than ready, but there was still the issue of where to go and what to do. At this point, Aidou's frustration overwrote any personal interest in what he did with his time--he just wanted to see some viable results. They were looking at two very different options, however.

"Naturally. But have you thought more about where you'd like to focus your efforts? Either we proceed to the basement, or we see what the fuss is about with these high-handed notes the radio people seem to be handing out to long-suffering victims like me."

[firewhichrefines]

A narcoleptic was close enough. If there were any med-nin left here he might have ventured to try to locate them, even, to see if that might be the correct diagnosis, but that was a pointless thought to even remotely contemplate. He pushed it out of mind and frowned at the reminder of Aidou's note -- and his own, a cryptically useless piece of paper that had fluttered out when he'd reached for his sword.

As far as he could tell, both notes (however different the wording) amounted to the same thing: something might happen but we won't tell you what or when.

"I received one as well --" he started, about to voice the thought that followed, only to be interrupted by the fizzle and panic of the Head Doctor. Impatience for the broadcast to end was rapidly replaced by surprise, then a thoughtful glance up at the shadowy ceiling where the intercoms were.

"... but if that is when, we still know nothing about what."

[idolism]

--Sasuke had gotten one, too?

Aidou frowned, an expression that bordered on petulant. Why was he not surprised? It would seem the radio people were sending them out with all the discretion and forethought of grocery fliers in the mail. Had Sasuke's made the same implication?

He would have gladly heard Sasuke's rendition of the note if not for the sudden obnoxious outburst over the intercom. Landel's voice was hard to miss, but... what was that about the second floor?

"Speak of the devil," the vampire said. "Did your message imply you head toward the second floor?"

[firewhichrefines]

"Mine didn't specify a location." Sasuke's note had rather implied that the sender (the so-called rebels, he had to assume) didn't trust him sufficiently to share that much detail.

"It mentioned a device to use near Landel's location," which was utterly useless without information as to what the device was meant to be or where Landel was, unless -- "Do you know anything about that?

"I'm assuming that broadcast was the security disruption mentioned in your note."

[idolism]

Aidou's eyes narrowed. Could it be? Had Sasuke gotten a copy of the same note?

"What did yours say, precisely? I still can't say what the device is--I haven't yet come across anyone who seems to have more information than these vague tidings--but it's too be brought to Landel's front door, the implication would seem to be the third floor."

The boy's assumption was a fair one--if the radio group was making a move, perhaps it was possible they were circling in on the building's defenses. But they still knew nothing of the suppose device, especially where it might be. Perhaps this was the initial delivery, but even that theory lacked weight without the facts to support.

"None of that really matters if no one has a clue where to find the radio people's gift and what to do with it. Even their nightly riddles offered to go on than this."

[firewhichrefines]

"That's all it said -- stop Landel with this device once it's delivered. Nothing on when or where it might be delivered," which was about as helpful as the radio people had ever been through the weeks he'd been here, but a tangible break in the security system was new. The man had sounded panicked on the intercom.

"If someone else got more specific information, it's possible they'll bring the device to Landel themselves." Piggybacking on the off-chance that someone else had received more information was something less than his favourite way to go about it, but between trying to find out what exactly was going on here and continuing to chip away at the frustration of the basement ... neither were ideal choices, but one was at least action.

[idolism]

"Do you have it on you? I want to see it."

Not for any doubt toward Sasuke, or any hope that seeing the note in all its glory might magically make a new clue fall from the sky, but because thoroughness was an old habit, one that had gotten him past more than one obstacle. Even if the scales were stacked so far out of his favor that he no longer took comfort in sheer cleverness to get him out of this problem.

He resisted a sigh, gaze wandering back to the intercom system. Absolutely everything about the rebels' plotting smelled rotten, but then, what didn't in the Institute? Everything was rigged, everything a matter of sleight of hand. Regardless of whether or not the notes were sincere, they were being used as pawns--blind pawns, without the right information necessary to pick their battles.

Annoying.

"At any rate, we are not those people," he said. "Yet it would seem this is all nonetheless connected to the mysterious third floor. What say you, shall we head that way?"

[firewhichrefines]

Sasuke had been close to not bringing the note -- if not for the unexpected confluence with Landel's broadcast, Sasuke would have been in full support of continuing their attempt through the basement, however grueling -- but the awareness of how infrequently he seemed to manage to stay awake during the day had spoken to prudence. Still, he raised an eyebrow at the request even as he fished the slip of paper out of his pocket and held it out.

"Do you believe you'll see something else in it? They're doubtless spreading their information thin in case one of their recipients is compromised.

"It's clear enough we're being played as pieces in a larger game." A sensation he'd grown both accustomed to and distasteful of over time. He turned toward the next hall even as Aidou arrived to their shared conclusion, that sense of urgency that came with nightfall rising at the awareness of how empty it was already.

"This way we'll at least run the chance of learning something more."

[idolism]

"Oh, come now," Aidou replied with mock sincerity as he took the note, "what's the point of living if you can't memorize morsels of information that may never amount to anything? You never studied very hard in your classes, did you?"

Honestly, though, he didn't. Yet maybe there was something in the word choice...

In a manner of seconds, Aidou had scanned the note, a task made far easier when he possessed eyes suited for reading in the dark. He handed it back with a frown.

"Well, you certainly won't hear me arguing about being pawns, though the amount of useful facts they're dispersing isn't even enough to organize pawns in a collected manner. But if we're agreed, then perhaps we can use this "something more" to connect the dots for ourselves. In the end, it may have something to do with the caverns, after all."

[firewhichrefines]

Sasuke had studied hard for the classes that mattered and largely ignored the ones that hadn't; there was no point getting lost in details when what was and wasn't of practical use was so plainly apparent. Things were a little less cut-and-dry in Landel, to be fair, but Sasuke still allowed himself a half-second of satisfaction when Aidou turned the note back over with no apparent further flash of insight.

It was drowned quickly enough by disappointment at the lack of one: at this point in the game, it would have been more than easy to sacrifice a bit of pride in exchange for meaningful information.

Landel would want a great more than that before any kind of answers were shared, though.

"Even if they know more than they're sharing, it hasn't seemed likely thus far that they know as much as they imply they do." It was less a complaint and more irritation voiced -- Sasuke had no faith in these people who called themselves rebels in any case, but if they wanted help bringing the Institute down they could at the least have been more effective about it.

Still, disruption of whatever Landel's nighttime security fully entailed was better than nothing. Sasuke moved even as Aidou drew the obvious conclusion, turning toward the more substantiated rumours of a secret third-floor secret.

"Whatever it is, it's more than nothing."

[to here]