damned_institute | Night 74: M41-M50 Hallway

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Night 74: M41-M50 Hallway

We'll see how long that lasts.

Those ominous words followed Lloyd as he made his way out of his room. Tonight, unlike last night, he'd chosen to wear his own clothes, red jacket and black pants, red gloves and boots, despite the metal that would get him into trouble if he had to go through that metal-detecting trap again. The Key Crest on his hand meant that he'd be in trouble anyway, so he figured he might as well dress as he wanted. His tool belt rested comfortable around his waist, packed with the things he thought he might need. His sword rested in his hand, ready for any attack, though he wished, not for the first time, that he had something to sheathe it in and make it easier to carry when he didn't need it. At least his other hand was free now that he didn't need to hold his flashlight. The little lamp he'd taken from that first aid kit last night dangled at his hip, attached to his tool belt with the ring at the top. It jostled with each step and he couldn't aim it easily, prompting him to take his flashlight along with him, too, tucked into a pocket in his tool belt, but the fact that he didn't need to hold it more than made up for that. It also made up for the fact that he had to stop every twenty minutes to wind the light back up. He'd spent dinner playing with it, getting a feel for how long the light would last.

He'd tried not to think about his roommate's still-empty bed, or the plate of food growing cold on the other's desk. It had been days since he'd seen Claude. What had happened to him? If he was gone, or if he'd escaped, then why did they still bring him food? Lloyd had tried to ask his nurse, but she'd just brushed the question off with a smile and a reassurance that "Thomas" was fine, then told Lloyd he needed to worry about himself, she'd hardly seen him eat a thing at lunch.

Lloyd frowned at the memory, then shook his head, pushing it to the back of his mind. He needed to focus on what he was doing tonight. Footsteps sure, he rounded the corner.

[To here.]

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What…?

Anise was a smart girl; she could put two and two together. But when Guy answered Claude’s question by mentioning Ilia, her mind went in circles, trying to think of any kind of alternate explanation, before having to settle on the obvious implication. Ilia was Claude’s mother? But that didn’t make any sense. Ilia never mentioned that in all the times they’d talked, and besides that, she was so young!

Even as her mind was reeling, Anise heard what followed. Just like Anise, Claude had some of Ilia’s belongings in his room, too. While she didn’t fully know what that meant, Claude’s reaction showed that he had some idea… and it wasn’t good news.

The conversation was beginning to turn to Luke. While it was tempting to continue eavesdropping, this was probably a good time for Anise to join the discussion. Maybe she could ask about Ilia, too. After a little hesitation, she knocked on the door. “It’s me!”

Guy knew exactly what it meant when someone's belongings showed up in another's room. Ilia must have been released. It reminded him that he should look through his own room, to see if any of Luke's things were there, as that would answer that question pretty soundly.

It was discouraging to realize that all of the friends they'd been fighting so hard for might have been brainwashed and shoved out into this world while they were gone, but...

That just meant they had to save them, right? And nothing was for sure with Luke.

"Yeah, his room number may have changed--"

So Guy started, but then there was a knock at the door and Anise's voice came through. With a smile, Guy stood up and went to open it for her.

"Don't worry," he said as he shifted to the side to let her in, "you haven't missed too much."

He was startled by the knock on his door, but Claude was immediately relieved to see Anise entering the room. Not that he'd been expecting anyone else, exactly. He was just glad that his friend was safe.

"Hey!" he greeted, doing his best to hide the frustration that had been mounting inside of his chest just a few moments ago. "How was the walk over here? Everything okay?"

Well, as okay as things could be, but that was a given.

Anise felt a little uncertain as she entered the room, but she was quick to answer Claude's question. "It was fine! A little quiet, but that's better than running into monsters." Guy's assurance that she hadn't missed much rang a little hollow, but maybe he didn't know how close she and Ilia were.

She was quiet for a moment. Normally, Anise would leave prying into people's personal lives for a more appropriate time, but if they were going to attack Landel soon, maybe there wasn't going to be a better time. It was now or never. "So, um... I kinda heard what you two were saying before I came in. Not that I was eavesdropping or anything, I just happened to hear it! But... well... is it true?" She looked to Claude. "I mean... you and Ilia...?"

It being quiet out there was much better than Anise running into some kind of trouble. Guy was confident she would have been able to handle herself (or at least would have been capable of running away), so he focused more on what Anise brought up next.

So she'd overheard. Eavesdropping or not (and Guy was well aware of how capable Anise was of listening in on things), Anise knew now, and there wasn't really any way to undo that.

Guy glanced over at Claude, waiting for his response. If anyone were to find out, Anise was probably the best case scenario. Now that Ilia was gone, the need to keep it a secret probably also wasn't as great.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, there had been the niggling feeling that Anise would ask that. Having accidentally heard his share of private conversations in his time, he couldn't exactly blame her. Maybe he should have been more careful about where he discussed all of this. Then again, Anise was his also his friend, which meant that she probably would have learned the truth sooner or later.

Claude rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly feeling a bit sheepish about the whole thing.

"You mean that she's my mom? Um...yeah, but because of the weird way this place works, she's from before I was born -- or, I guess, I'm from her future?" It was almost enough to give him a giant headache, to be honest.

"A-anyway, I wasn't sure what would happen if she found out," Claude admitted, "especially since my dad was here at one point, too. So Guy was the only one who knew about it. I didn't want to keep you in the dark about it, Anise, I'm sorry."

Claude’s explanation made a lot of sense (in that nonsensical Landel’s-logic way), and it explained both why Ilia looked way too young to be his mother, and also why she never told Anise about this. And his dad had been around, too? That was pretty wild. Anise wondered if she might have met him without knowing.

Still, if there was anything Anise didn’t like, it was being kept in the dark. “Boooo. You should’ve told me sooner!” she pouted at the two of them. “You too, Guy!”

But Claude did just apologize, and they didn’t really have time to be arguing about something like this, so Anise supposed she’d have to accept the apology without giving him too much grief (she wanted him to feel a little bad, though). “Well… anyway, if you’re sorry, then I guess I forgive you.” Now that she confirmed what she wanted to know, there wasn’t much time to pry for details. They had more important things to focus on. “… Is the device safe?”

At least Claude knew better than to try and deny anything now that the cat was out of the bag. Anise put on the act of being bothered by it, but Guy was sure that she would get over it. In the end, they'd managed to make it through without either of Claude's parents finding out who he was, although Guy didn't know if that was a good thing, not when it meant they were who-knows-where.

Ilia was just another name added to the list of people they had to save.

Guy wasn't prepared for Anise to turn her pouting on him, though. "Hey!" he yelped in reply, putting his hands up in front of him in a conciliatory gesture. "Claude swore me to secrecy!"

And really, it was that device that they had to focus on now, so Guy quickly turned his attention to Claude again. He hadn't had a chance to ask himself, having been too distracted by the topic of missing people.

Well, he would have been lying if he'd said he hadn't expected Anise to be at least a little upset. After seeing her reaction, he couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. At least she was forgiving, which was good since the last thing Claude wanted was for a friend to stay angry with him. "Thanks for understanding," he told her.

But now it was time to focus on other things, and Anise wisely steered the conversation into that direction. "O-oh, right!" After patting down his clothes, he realized that he had it on him.

"Looks like it's safe," he breathed with a sigh of relief. For good measure, he showed it to Guy and Anise. "Kind of surprised the staff here didn't find it, but I guess whatever the rebels did to keep it under wraps worked."

"Whew! That's a relief. I thought for sure they'd take it away!" Anise had a lot of doubts about being able to keep it from Landel. Even seeing the device safely in Claude's hand, she still had doubts. Like, what if they sabotaged it, or swapped it with a lookalike, or the rebels were just lying from the beginning? But that device was their only hope at the moment, so all they could do was try and believe that the plan really would work.

"So, what now?" From what she understood about the device, they had to be careful about when and where they used it. She also wasn't sure how the device was supposed to be used or how it worked, but maybe Guy or Claude had that worked out. They were good with gadgets and stuff.

It really was a relief. While the nurses hardly ever confiscated their items for good, Guy had expected this to be some kind of exception. But the device had remained on Claude's person, which meant the staff had no clue what it was, or so he guessed.

Did that mean that Landel had no idea what was coming? And how could he, when he had no jurisdiction over Farwell? He might have eyes and ears all over the place here in the institute, but that clearly didn't extend everywhere.

"Well, my guess is that we need to get close to him if it's going to work," Guy said. "We don't really know what kind of progress people have made while we're gone, so maybe we should make a broadcast?" He lifted up his radio to show what he meant. The more people who knew about this device, the better.

But right at that moment, the radio came to life with an unexpected message from Kratos. He'd really found a database with information about all of their worlds? And coordinates? Guy stared with widened eyes down at the radio.

"... Looks like we missed a lot."

Maybe making a broadcast was a good place to start, although Claude worried about accidentally sabotaging their efforts by cluing Landel in on too much. Of course, before he could say as much, someone else made a broadcast of their own.

He was stunned when he heard the message. Someone found information on their home worlds. For real?!

"Yeah, no kidding!" It almost sounded too good to be true. "Maybe we should go ahead and ask for the coordinates, and I can jot them down in my journal.

Trying to memorize them all right off the bat was probably a little tooambitious, to be honest.

No way. Someone actually found information about their home worlds?

That was incredible. It was starting to feel like there really was hope after all!

Asking for the coordinates sounded like a good idea. Anise wasn’t sure how they’d use them, but any information they could get about Auldrant had to be good! “Right!” she agreed immediately, lifted up her radio, and then paused. “…Um, how do we do that?” They needed to pick the right number, or their reply wouldn’t get through… at least, that’s what she got out of the rebels’ instructions.

There were a few other people asking for more information about their worlds. There was information on multiple Earths…? So they were filed separately, even though it was the same planet? That was probably good news for Claude, who seemed to be from a different Earth than this one. It made Anise wonder if there were different Auldrants, too.

While Guy's day had been rather uneventful, especially for his first day back after going to Farwell, there was one thing that had stood out. He'd been passed a piece of paper that recorded different radio channels for various patients.

But there was also a public channel, and if this was being sent to them, then that had to be what Kratos was using.

"We have to tune it to the public channel," he explained, shifting his own radio around in his hand and then turning the knob until it had the correct number displayed. "It's 88.8, for future reference."

With the job already done, Guy didn't hesitate to lift the radio to his mouth and speak into it. Once he was done, he glanced over to Claude. "What should I tell them about your Earth? I think they might have to narrow it down..."

Considering how many people here seemed to come form some other "version" of Earth or whatever, Claude wasn't surprised that he had to clarify about his own world. Of course, now that he was looking at the opportunity to go home, he knew deep down that he didn't really want to return.

That was why he hesitated for a moment.

Of course, he realized it would be irresponsible to not at least have the number on hand. So, he did his best to come up with something that would distinguish his reality from other people's.

"If it helps, the year is SD 366," he said.

88.8? That was easy enough to remember. Anise committed that number to memory and put her radio away for now, allowing Guy to go ahead and do the talking.

As if reading Anise’s mind, the voice on the radio informed them that there was only one Auldrant. “Too bad. It would’ve been neat if we had alternate worlds, too.” Of course, it was a lot easier this way, with less chance of them getting mixed up, but still. What if there were some really weird ones out there, like a world where people could fly, or where cheagles were taller than humans, or… something! Alas, she would probably never find out.

With Guy handling the radio and Claude the one with a journal handy, there wasn’t much for Anise to do but stand by and wait patiently. Or at least, as patient as she could be at a time like this.

Well, that was fast. Guy didn't even have the time to get back to Lloyd before he had a response about Auldrant. Anise might be disappointed, but Guy personally was relieved. Getting back home was proving to be difficult enough on its own -- did he really want to worry about ending up in the wrong place on top of all that? "Let's be glad," he said to Anise.

Guy told Lloyd that they were ready and then drew close to Claude so that he would be able to hear Auldrant's coordinates loud and clear. It was a fairly long string of numbers, and Guy could barely believe that these could be the key to getting home after all this time.

It was hard not to feel a little excited in spite of all that.

After everything was safely recorded, Guy then offered up some information about Claude's Earth as well. He really hoped they'd be able to find the right one.

Claude, too, let out a small breath when they easily received Auldrant's coordinates. He'd hate having to worry about accidentally sending his friends to the wrong universe. All of that went without saying, though, so Claude dutifully wrote down the string of numbers without comment.

Next came his own world. Good thing the date was good enough, or else Claude would have been wracking his brain for other ways to distinguish it from any other Earth.

"Do you think we should ask for Expel too?" he asked once he'd written the relevant information down in his notebook. "I know Ashton, Dias, and Leon aren't here anymore, but..."

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Night 74: M41-M50 Hallway

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