damned_institute | Night 74: Secret Stairs

Kratos's eyes flicked to Castiel once, and he lifted an eyebrow before turning his attention back to the top of the stairs. "I'm fine," he said, his voice flat. Truthfully, he didn't think he felt any lingering effects from the night before, but it was hard to sort out his true physical condition from the grogginess and lightheadedness that came from sleeping the entire day. It wasn't anything he felt would interfere with their work tonight, though, so as far as he was concerned it didn't merit any note.

His answer had nothing to do with the fact that he was uncomfortable and unused to having people be concerned about his health.

Behind him, Lloyd scowled at the vague response. "You were missing all day," he pointed out. "If you were fine, why didn't you show up?"

"I was sleeping." Kratos reached the top of the stairs and turned to cock an eyebrow at his son. "I am here now. Isn't that what's important?" Shaking his head, he didn't wait for a response before gesturing at the door. "We need to focus. Castiel, did you bring the cards?" Castiel hadn't yet given him one, and it looked like the lock on the door had changed. Instead of a keyhole, there was now a small box with a thin, vertical slit.

It was hardly a surprise that Kratos was brushing off their concern, but if he insisted that he was fine, then Castiel was going to take his word for it. Kratos wouldn't be stupid enough to not mention the possibility that he could be a liability on this mission.

If he had slept all day, then maybe that extra rest had taken care of any residual effects. It was good enough for Castiel, and he wasn't going to waste any more of their time with questions.

When it was pointed out that he hadn't yet handed over the key, he pulled the extra out of his pocket and handed it over to Kratos.

And the lock had switched around to fit their needs, even. Some kind of strange magic, perhaps? Castiel hesitated for just a moment, shifting the card around in his hand before he slid it inside. He removed it, and the door beeped and then unlocked.

That had been easy enough. Shrugging his shoulders, he stepped through.

[To here.]

Edited 2013-12-19 18:37 (UTC)

[[from here]]

At least the ring didn't seem to weaken with use or anything similarly inconvenient, though the faint feeling of disgust with every use didn't get any better. They wound up this time at the base of the moving stairs, literally in motion, and it took a moment before the teleportation nausea resolved into realisation that it had been mixed weirdly with the body suddenly being in motion when before it had been standing still.

And at least this was quick -- Sasuke glanced toward the bottom of the stairs, trying to discern if anyone else had opened the secret door recently.

He hated the ring. That went without saying, of course, but it was still true: he hated it. He hated the whole unnatural process, that the Institute necessitated its use, that he had to be flung to and fro like a sack of potatoes.

He also mildly hated the location Sasuke had chosen to mark it with his blood, but as he prided himself on his vampiric grace landing on the escalator wasn't too bad. The noble didn't miss a step and crash to the floor, for instance, a show of clumsiness that would be much harder to hide than merely masking his motion sickness under a grimace.

"I hope Landel is enjoying watching these hijinks wherever he is."

_{[to here]}

Edited 2014-01-07 20:33 (UTC)

[From here]

Once again, the jarring light of the staircase flooded Link's eyes. He squinted against it, frown deepening.

"I wonder if he will have tightened his guard upstairs... We went nearly completely unbothered last night."

"Except for that thing that came out of the bathtub," Sora murmured as he stepped onto the escalator. That hadn't exactly been his idea of a fun time, though they'd at least gotten away from it unscathed.

"That reminds me," he said as they reached the top of the moving staircase and were faced with the door. It had a lock in it now, just like Lloyd had said, and so Sora went fishing for his key. "Lloyd warned me about something that's coming up."

He'd finish explaining after they tried the door. Sora slid the key in and grinned to himself when it turned without any protest. The door swung open and he stepped through.

[To here.]

[From here.]

As they stepped into the room, he shot his flashlight beam up the escalator. It didn't seem like there would be any unpleasant surprises, unless they were waiting in the next area, beyond where they could be seen. A blast from the speakers was still possible, but a very specific form of torture to commit in an area that seemed to be a major route of traffic lately. He had considered it as a possibility the previous night, but the fact that it hadn't happened to anyone yet made it seem far less plausible now.

He holstered the gun, kept his hand on it, and rode the escalator to the top, all of which carried a distinct sense of deja-vu. The difference was a slight increase in confidence that came with covering ground that was now more familiar.

When they reached the top, they were confronted not with the queasy twist of teleportation, but with an electronic lock. He shot a look in Lana's direction as he dug in his pocket for the card he'd found in the maintenance closet the night before. Had she remembered to bring the card he'd given to her?

They were on the stairs, quietly and efficiently. Two nights in a row things had been going smoothly -- Lana didn't trust it. That smacked of a trap, and she did Ryuuzaki one better, and transferred her radio to under her left arm so that she could pull out her gun. The escalator was too exposed, and the least she could do was guard their backs until they were whisked away to the third floor.

Well, that was different.

The door with the card-lock was in front of them, not on one of the many branching corridors on the third floor at all. Ryuuzaki was shooting a glance at her -- she arched her eyebrows back, and patted where a breast pocket would be on her jacket with the side of her pistol. (As it happens, the jacket had none, but the card was in a pocket, just not there.) She felt no need to get it out unless the door required it, not when an attack could come roaring up the stairs at any moment.

He would need a third hand now if he was going to have his own pistol out; it was good that she could continue to cover them both.

He looked at her again for confirmation, then slipped the card through the lock and opened the door.

[To here.]

[From here]

Scar hissed under his breath as the white light from the stairway flooded his eyes.

"Dammit-" It didn't matter how he braced himself, the change was always jarring. If the bastard put any of his beasts in here, he wouldn't stand a chance for the simple fact that he couldn't see.

Lust made a small noise when Scar informed her that the book was harmless now. Of course it was.

Her own eyes suffered the same fate, she had to lower her head and close her eyes against the sudden glare. Spots passed over her eyeslids, and she knew that they'd remain even after she opened her eyes.

This would be a place to leave a guard, hidden to take out trespassers before they knew what hit them. The homunculus' hand came up out of instinct, as though in preparation.

Adjusting slowly to the harsh, unnatural light, Scar's reaction was similar to Lust's. He grasped the sword the Elrics gave him more firmly, ears tuned in for any sign of movement beyond their footsteps. None came. When he could finally open his eyes to the blue and purple splotches nearly flooding his vision, Scar stepped forward toward the moving staircase.

"I think we're alone."

"Wait, I can't see well, it's going to take me a few moments..."

Lust's homunculus eyes were still adjusted to the darkness, the light hurt and all she could see when she opened her eyes were blurs and shadows. She could feel it like small stabs into her skull. She closed her eyes an her other hand found Scar's shoulder out of necessity, simply for guidance.

"Alright."

Scar paused, his own eyes gradually becoming more usable in the brightness. He rested his hand on the back of her shoulder, gently urging her in the right direction. The longer they stagnated, the longer they waited for something horrific to find them.

Then, the radio went off.

Scar jumped significantly, staring at the thing in shock for a moment before responding.

Lust stayed silent, her blurry eyes flicking from Scar to the radio as the Ishbalan handled the transmitting. She felt a strange sort of nervousness, likely because this was the surest sign so far that they had some chance of escaping this place.

Her hand tightened on Scar's shoulder. Neither one of them had anything to return to, in their home world, but as long as they could get out of this place...

Scar had no intention of using the information for himself. He doubted Lust wanted it, either. But if it could get the Elrics home...

"Could you hold that-" he looked to Lust briefly and held the radio out for her to take so that he could slip his journal from inside his robes.

She nodded and took the radio, watching Scar. The strange anxious nervousness she felt was something new. It wasn't hope - she knew what that was, and it was a quieter and more determined feeling. This was hectic and frantic, and she supposed this was desperation.

Because at this point she was desperate for any small scrap that would bring them closer. After so many nights of dead ends and walls and too little time, finally there was some small pay off.

And perhaps it was a sign of turning luck.

As the boy recited the supposed coordinate numbers for Amestris, Scar scribbled them onto a blank page of his journal. He closed the pen inside it, slipping the book back into his robes.

"Will you be needing the number?" He glanced to Lust, wanting to make sure.

Lust shook her head. They weren't the ones who needed it, and as long as one of them had it written down, it would get where it needed to.

"You have it." Her eyes were well adjusted now and she gave a nod. "Come on, let's keep going."

Scar only nodded, finally stepping onto the moving staircase and toward the door at the top. They had wasted enough time in here. He had assumed Lust wouldn't be wanting the number, but that still led to the question...

"I doubt there is anybody here that could help you attain your goal." He turned to glance over his shoulder at her as he ascended the stairs. He assumed that she understood what he was getting at. If they wound up stranded here, the humanity she had claimed to seek in the past would be almost certainly out of reach.

Lust shrugged before following after Scar.

He wasn't telling her anything she hadn't considered already. But she thought of the power this place had, what had been done to them, and still she wondered. Alchemy did work here, after all. Was it truly so mad to think that somewhere there was someone or something who could make her human?

Of course it begged the question of whether or not she even wanted it anymore. She'd met others here, not-quite-human, who were perfectly content and at peace with what they were. Why couldn't she be? Wasn't who she was more important than what she was?

"Who can say?" she finally said. "I don't think it matters much, anymore."

Scar's eyes narrowed. He continued forward, reaching the top of the moving steps and beginning to open the door that he knew led to the exercise room. There was no point in getting distracted. However-

"It doesn't matter?" He turned to face her, honestly perplexed. "We've been here for two weeks." She a little longer, but it was still a valid point in Scar's eyes, even if the weeks had felt like more.

"You'd throw away your best chance so quickly?" He was more shocked than anything else. Scar knew very little of her background, but he could tell that humanity had been in the works for a long time. Was that the goal of her "group?" The reasoning behind the activity at Laboratory 5? That had been why she had been there, he at least knew that.

"For what? There's nothing left for me, back home. What's the point of humanity if I'll only be alone and lonely?"

There wasn't any reason to be coy or close mouthed. Not any longer. And Scar seemed to genuinely want an answer, a real answer. The least she could do was give it to him.

Her tone was mild, but tired, and she didn't hold Scar's eyes when she spoke.

"I don't have any home. I don't have any family or friends. I don't even know if the rest of my kind are even still alive. Where would I go? What would I do? No. A human life in our home world doesn't matter anymore."

She hadn't considered any of these things before? But Scar left his cold logic unspoken, even pushed away. No home. No family, friends, or even a purpose. Those were exactly the thoughts that had circled about Scar's mind whenever he allowed it to wander. He had been rebelling against this place not for his own benefit, but for the others'. He truly didn't have anything to do with his life. He had devoted himself to vengeance, been willing to throw what little he had away because he couldn't bring himself to rebuild.

What was he supposed to do now?

Could he try it all again? Scar would never be able to truly leave it all behind, even if he gave it the most honest effort someone like him could manage. But he could live, couldn't he? Find some semblance of the normalcy he had so long been denied? His mind wandered to the photograph pressed carefully inside his journal. Scar wouldn't know if his brother was truly out there until he got some real answers about this place, but...

Was it selfish, that some part of him was relieved to know that she was staying? It was certainly strange. It wasn't so awful, when she was around, and Scar couldn't even deny that she understood him like nobody else truly could, simply because of who and what she was. She was a slap in the face and a soothing presence in the same moment. But, in a life that would soon be devoid of everything but a goose chase for a ghost in a photograph, she was someone. Maybe that was what mattered most.

A moment later, (Scar couldn't really say how long he stood there and thought on her words) he glanced away, suddenly remembering that he should say something, or at least move forward to the next room. He only managed a small nod, not even sure if she saw it. Strangely subdued, he finally opened the trapdoor that led to the third floor.

[To here]

Edited 2014-01-16 03:53 (UTC)

[From here]

The stairs were already moving by the time they reached them. Korra could only assume that they weren't the first ones to arrive, tonight.

That made her wonder how the book had replaced itself.

Forcing her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, Korra stepped onto the moving stairs and began climbing up them. They were too slow for her liking.

Once again, they were alone in the sterile room housing the escalator. Aside from the escalator's soft whirring and the sound of Korra's shoes on the stairs, it was almost completely silent.

Tsubaki might have let the escalator carry her up while she took her bearings, but she didn't want either of them to fall too far behind the other. She followed after the other girl, keeping her hand off the bannister and tucked close to her pockets in case she needed to make a quick grab for a knife.

They were almost at the top when a sound from one of her other pockets stole her attention. Hidden away in her clothes, her toy radio hissed with static before a voice cut in on the public channel.

Somebody was sending a message?

Korra whirled around, less than gracefully skittering back down the escalator to listen to the broadcast. She grinned, eyes darting between Tsubaki and the radio like a kid who'd just unwrapped a puppy on her birthday. They were getting closer!

The name of a world, though...

She stopped to think. What sort of a name could her world possibly have? The material world? But that was in comparison to the Spirit world... Nobody even knew that there were so many other universes out there!

"You gonna reply?"

Coordinates? So distracting was the thought that Tsubaki barely noticed when the escalator carried them closer to the top of the floor and they were forced to disembark.

She was thinking along the same lines. Not only had they found the place where Landel was storing his information on all of their worlds, but they wanted the rest of them to differentiate between each other...? But there were so many different versions of Earth, weren't there? How to figure out which was which?

"Um..." Absently, she adjusted the dial, searching for the public frequency. "Let's see... did you want to go first?" She held the radio up for Korra to speak into if she wanted.

This was important information to have, no matter what, and Korra was much bursting at the seams to go home as anyone else was. Maybe Tsubaki could think up some special part of her world that would make it stand out...

"Sure-" Korra took the radio from Tsubaki and looked it over for a moment before pushing the appropriate button to speak.

This was really it! They were getting closer to going home!

Absently, Tsubaki leaned closer, listening intently. She wondered what kind of database it was. How many worlds it listed.

How many coordinates could Landel possibly have?

"I don't have a pen with me, but we just have to remember the coordinates until we find one," she said to Korra once the young voice on the radio was finished speaking.

Korra nodded to Tsubaki, hoping that the coordinates would be easy enough for them to remember. If not, she was sure that whoever was in there could help them out.

...Right?

She leaned against the wall at the top of the moving stairs as she waited for an answer.

Tsubaki thought she had a fairly good memory, and she thought at first the voice on the other end meant something like latitude and longitude coordinates, a set system of numbers she felt confident she could memorize as she had before in the past. But hmm, the string of numbers seemed slightly different than that. Longer, too.

She wasn't so sure anymore. My! How to make sure they didn't get the information wrong...? This could be their only chance.

"Oh! I have an idea," she said suddenly. With her hands free, she reached under her clothes for one of her maps and a throwing dagger, turning the map over to spread the paper on the nearest flat surface. While the numbers were still fresh, she started to scratch their likeness very gently into the back of the paper, almost impossible to make out but just enough of a clue of how the sequence went to jog her memory if she needed it.

"Don't worry, Korra-san, we can take them down! This should work until we have something better."

Korra had been struggling to commit the code to memory when Tsubaki pulled out her map and knife. Oh...? She raised her eyebrows as her roommate started to carve out the numbers.

"Good thinking, Tsubaki!" She set the radio on the floor and sat down next to her. Once she was done writing, she could tell Lloyd what she needed to.

"I got it!" she reassured, turning her head to smile at the other girl.

They would at least have Korra's coordinates to take with them! Finding the way to get home was just as important in the end as acquiring the means to get there, which Tsubaki was still unsure about.

With Korra manning the toy radio, she asked, "Do they have time to look for Earth? That's where I'm from. I live in Death City."

Korra nodded, grinning slightly as she returned to the radio and asked Lloyd about the Earth and Death City.

What an odd name for a city... She did a doubletake the first time Tsubaki mentioned it.

Ahaha... as she'd thought, Earth was a popular name. Tsubaki had never set eyes on Landel's records of who and where he'd snatched people from, but she knew from experience there could be dozens.

Deep down, she was a little worried. What other details could she give if she had to? What made her Earth special? What if they couldn't find the one she belonged to or someone selected the wrong Earth? The urge to see home again was so strong, she could almost taste it. She'd squelched the feeling down as much as she could while she'd been detained, but one day... one day she needed to go back...

To Tsubaki's great relief, the voice came back with positive news, bringing a smile to her face.

Death City was her home. The only Earth with a city by that name must be hers.

"Thank goodness..." She turned back to the paper, still smiling. "I'll take it down."

A weight lifted from inside Korra's chest when Lloyd finally turned up the coordinates to Tsubaki's home. That pause had felt longer than it actually had been. She grinned up at Tsubaki, then looked back to the radio as she finished recording the information.

"Whew! Thanks, Lloyd." With that, she flicked the audio off and looked to her roommate.

"You ready to get going?"

Korra wasn't the only one pumped up by the success. Having a tangible piece of home was more exciting than she thought.

She wasn't sure they'd be able to hear her at a distance, but she chimed in with, "Yes, thank you!" alongside the other girl while she busied herself folding her map back up and tucking it safely away over her heart.

When she was done, she nodded. "Yes! Why don't you hang onto the radio? We can take turns if something else comes up."

If Korra still wanted one, she could have one now.

"Sure." Korra nodded and slipped the radio into the deep pocket of her sweatpants. At least these stupid outfits were good for something.

There were long since at the top of the moving stairs by now. She opened the trapdoor at the top and climbed to the third floor. Weird way of getting in, if you asked her...

[To here]

Night 74: Secret Stairs

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LMAO, THOSE RADIO THREAD ICONS...

I don't get to use dumb icons a lot here :''''D