damned_institute | Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

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Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Though perhaps not entirely as successful as he wanted it to be, Homura walked away from lunch feeling satisfied with his efforts. Roland and Fai both had shown interest in the goal, and that was enough for the moment. Homura could be patient, had already been for five hundred years, and felt no harm in waiting another five hundred if he had to. He would have his goals realized, no matter what obstacles he faced, be they from the prison or those trapped within.

But now was time for business of a different sort, and the demi-god made his way to the Sun Room, near the common board. He made sure he could be seen from the entrance to the cafeteria, knowing that one stranger and one member of his own group both wanted to meet with him. It worked out well enough, especially given that the stated purpose of the History Club was simple.

Revenge and escape.

For now, Homura had no intention of revealing that it'd grown more complicated than that.

[Waiting for L and Junior]

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"Well," Rinali said after some thought. "It's close to that, but not entirely accurate. We use innocence, a special material that comes from God, which to most people might appear supernatural, and we fight an enemy called Akuma which also might appear to be beyond the natural world; however my brother thinks it's all scientific, and that some of these things are just technologies that we haven't entirely come to understand. But...what an exorcist does is binds with this substance to create anti-akuma weapons which we use to combat the Akuma...which are the weapons of the Earl of the Millenium which he is attempting to use to destroy the world."

She glanced at Allen as he pushed off Aidou's feet. She did agree that he was being a little more lax than she was accustomed and was proper, but at the same time Aidou wasn't from their time. Things changed. She shot Allen a slightly irritated glance, then glanced back to her new friend. "Allen is right, Aidou," she said with a slight smile. "If we lower ourselves on account of the situation, it's the institute that's won, not us in defying it."

Allen was the picture of innocence when Rinali gave him a slightly irritated look. He also made sure she saw him send the other boy an apologetic look, though he didn't mean it at all. Though it wasn't much better when he propped up his feet again, out of reach on the table this time. He was convinced though, that Rinali would be unimpressed with the display.

He had little to add to Rinali's explanation, she had covered everything fairly well and he wanted to say as little to Aidou as possible.

"Who's lowering themselves?" came the playful, rhetorical question. Chin propped back in hand, Aidou only turned bright blue eyes on Rinali, noting every action they made, but revealing nothing of it. Inwardly, he was royally unimpressed by the chastisement. What a naive way to put it. "Being able to consciously act outside of one's habits when the situation arises can be a sign of poor adaptability. But I guess you already know that! Religion and nobility are pretty traditionalist themselves!"

Really, it was a most generalized thing to say, and normally Aidou wouldn't even see a point in addressing such a stupid issue... He, of all people, knew when propriety was absolutely necessary, when it was expected, and when it was merely a choice. It was something a noble never forgot.

And just like that, Aidou flipped his attention onto the true topic of conversation. "Innocence... God... weaponry... Akuma. Are they sentient? How would they destroy the world?" Questions helped keep his clinical mind from being overtaken with scepticism. "And for that matter, is this something supported by the government or is it an issue of contest?"

"Well," Rinali said thoughtfully. "You say it's important to be able to act out of one's habits when necessary in order to be able to adapt. Is it necessary to display bad manners here? I don't think it will solve anything, do you?" She didn't take offense to the boy's seemingly innocent challenge.

His questions regarding the Akuma was interesting, and threw her back a little. "Well," she said after some thought. "Their first form isn't sentient. It hides inside a human skin and comes out when triggered, a large ball with guns. Each gun fires poisonous bullets that kill you no matter where they strike. Later forms appear sentient, and are progressively more powerful as they evolve. They would destroy the world by killing all of humanity. They've already taken out Japan." This last bit of information she said somberly. "And I don't know what governments are involved. The church is self-supporting."

While he didn't appreciate the way Aidou challenged every little thing asked of him, Rinali knew how to stand her ground and didn't even seem bothered by his behaviour. He wasn't sure exactly what to make of the boy, but at least he wasn't provoking anything further. Though he was suspicious of Aidou's curiosity about the Order. Just why did he want to know all of that? Was it really wise to share it in the first place?

He consented, however, that Rinali was wiser than he in many aspects, and had been with the Order for much longer. She knew what was appropriate to share and what wasn't. Though, with her thorough explanations and Aidou's questions, it left him feeling left out of the conversation. And while it might be fine if she were conversing with just about anyone else, for some reason it really got under his skin to think of this boy having any kind of private conversation with Rinali.

"That's plenty about us," Allen said warmly to his friend. "We've hardly let Aidou say much about where he's from. I'd be very interested to hear what kind of world that might be." Though he couldn't trust much of what came out of Aidou's mouth to be true, at least it got the focus away from them and anything Rinali might reveal.

He raised a forefinger teasingly, drawing out his words in order to convey his point, just like how his stuffy teacher used to do it. "It's definitely important to uphold etiquette in someone else's house, because not only does it reflect on me, but on my family name. But only if I'm trying to be respectful." He shrugged lightly, shaking his head. The vampire hoped this was registering with the dolt Allen, and even Rinali, because he just couldn't stand the idea of someone harping on small modes of decorum when there were more important things to consider. It was stupid and short-sighted, and comparable to acting like a collared pet. And he really hoped Rinali wasn't either, because those traits weren't worth any respect, and she was cute. Then he'd have to start disliking her.

And that wouldn't be any fun.

"I don't want to be that person who acts like a sheep, being in a prison and surrounded by people who mean me harm. There should be a limit to that, just like there's a limit to how unruly some of these people should get. But that's just my opinion." He waved one of his feet. "If I have to run around with monsters all night, the least they can do is let me prop my feet up."

He shot a glance at Allen, wondering just what the hell the kid expected him to confess, even if Aidou normally enjoyed talking about his life. Surprisingly, he found himself rather curious about what Rinali was saying. It was an interesting set-up, with a few similarities... "No, no, I like talking like this!" Aidou exclaimed brightly. "Tell me more. Like how you can tell who's an Akuma and who's not. And why co-existence isn't possible. The entire species is really just dead-set on removing the humans?"

Rinali pondered his words, then decided not to press the issue. She might have pointed out that etiquette showed not only respect for the owner of an establishment but also respect for those one conversed with, and explained that good manners showed a goodness of character, but none of it would likely have reached the young noble. They were literally from two different worlds on the issue, and trying to argue about it further would only promote ill-will between them.

She thought about mentioning Allen's eye, but decided it wouldn't be wise to go explaining everything about Allen's abilities. Keeping things secret about the order hardly mattered when the likelihood of Aidou ever coming to their timeline was virtually nonexistant, but as for Allen's abilities...well, those had practical application in the here and now. Besides that, it was Allen's power. If anyone wanted to talk about it, it should be him.

"It's okay, Allen. Most people know about Akuma in our timeline now, too," she said. After all, now that Japan was gone, it was a difficult thing to hide.

"We can't tell who's an Akuma and who isn't," she explained. "All we can do is wait for them to attack. Fortunately, because we carry innocence we are the greatest threat to the Earl's plans, and so Akuma are known to attack people openly wearing the uniform of the exorcist on sight. So we openly display what we are, and hopefully the Akuma will see us before they are triggered to attack."

She shuddered slightly at the suggestion of co-existence. "I don't think it's possible," Rinali said quietly. "The Earl wants to kill all of humanity. The akuma only evolve by killing humans, and they have no free will. They're effectively sentient machines. We fight because we must, because we have no other option." Because Komui is counting on us.

He wasn't quite sure what Aidou was trying to get at, if anything during their first meeting Aidou was the one who had been disrespectful, openly demanding answers and with no regard for anyone but himself! It was no wonder Allen had no respect for him in return. He raised a suspicious eyebrow at the boy, frowning at his continued lack of respect. Just because he'd been in the foul company of Master Cross, didn't mean he'd needed to lower himself to that level. He was quite happy he'd managed to stay far away from most of the vices that his master suffered from.

"It shouldn't matter," Allen pointed out, since Rinali hadn't. "You ought to at least have respect enough for a lady not to behave in such a manner. Unless you feel Miss Rinali isn't worthy of your respect?" he asked the question innocently enough, more than happy to argue whatever small point if it meant showing this little upstart that he wasn't to be trifled with.

"It's as she says, the Akuma aren't human, they don't have a will of their own. They're just puppets," he didn't want to say much more than that and was somewhat relieved when Rinali didn't mention his curse to Aidou either.

"Then perhaps we owe both owe Rinali-chan an apology," quipped Aidou, turning to Allen and addressing him seriously for one of the few times in the conversation. "Unless you mean to say suddenly putting your hands on someone else without permission is deemed acceptable where you come from. I forgive you, though." And then he turned back to Rinali with another smile and a shake of his head. "Let's forget it already. I've been taking lessons in etiquette my entire life, and it's boring after the first course. Super boring. But if you really want to see propriety in action, sit in on one of my dinner parties."

If not for Rinali's presence, he would have slapped Allen, the universal punishment for disrespect. Inwardly, Aidou was getting mad and had said enough on the subject. Boring was right. Why the hell had they been talking about mannerisms for so long? At first, he would have entertained the idea of assenting to Rinali's idea of 'proper' and dropping his feet, but by now... He had no intention of acceding to anyone over anything regarding etiquette, especially not humans.

"But," Aidou continued, acting very well-behave indeed by calmly furthering the conversation, "you said stronger ones 'appear' sentient--does that mean they can think for themselves? And the Earl you're talking about, I assume he must be, perhaps, if he's the master stringing along the puppets. So why want to annihilate everyone?" So far neither had properly answered his question, and Aidou thought it was the fundamental key to the entire explanation. At least in his experience, where the pyramid level of vampires was concerned, E classes were driven to mindless violence because they needed to feed. It was an instinct that drove all classes of vampires.

It didn't make sense to Aidou unless either person before him could say more than 'because they do'.

Rinali would have to have been blind to not have noticed the tension in the atmosphere between the two boys, but she couldn't for the life of her comprehend why. Firstly, why was Allen pressing the issue of manners with Aidou? And secondly, why was Aidou pushing back? She found herself breathing inwards and stiffening slightly, tensing in response to them. "It's ok, Allen," she said with a smile, though her eyes still reflected the concern. "There's no need to get into such a heated argument over ettiquette, is there? He's not from our timeline or our world...we may have very different ideas on what's proper behavior and what isn't..."

Rinali glanced back at Aidou, hoping the change of topic would lighten everyone's mood...or at least get them to stop bickering. "As far as we can tell, they can't think for themselves. If they do have independent thought, that thought is in the same line as the Earl's. I don't know his motives, unfortunately...I don't think any of us do. We can't exactly ask him, as normally the only things we end up encountering are Akuma. I've never met the Earl of the Milleneum personally. Few have."

"I shall apologize for that when you do the same," Allen said coldly, every bit of pretense gone from his voice. He rose to his feet, slamming his palms down hard on the table. "If I recall correctly, you were the first one to commit that offense," he replied with biting clarity.

"Don't think I've forgotten," he added. The first time he'd met Aidou had been bad enough, but the boy had been every bit as pompous and obnoxious then as he was now!

"I don't know know what game you're trying to play, but leave us out of it," he finished, eyes trained on the other boy's.

"Hmm, what an enemy that is, even for having such a stupid title," said Aidou, looking ponderous despite himself. "And you use weapons you don't fully understand? That's interesting... Why do you suppose that is?" Just from the sounds of it, whether he truly believed in the account or not, a mysterious offence that wasn't fully understood probably had more in common with the enemy than with "innocence," or whatever meant by it.

And fighting against an enemy whose motives you couldn't even describe... Well, Aidou supposed one reason he couldn't relate to such an idea was because when it came to his experience, he was the non-human entity dubbed the 'enemy'.

Aidou would have continued with his thoughts had Allen not interrupted again, and this time at the end of his little human chain. The vampire laced his fingers in an arch, elbows propped on the armrests; he glanced at Allen from the corner of his eye, but no more. Aidou knew Allen breaking had only gained Aidou ground, like two wolves circling the kill, and it soothed any of his irritation. He was every bit his aristocratic background when he said, "I have nothing to apologize for. Nobody likes a crabby soul, so why don't you try and cool your head before dinner."

He sighed lightly, giving Rinali a look and a half-shrug as if to say he was sorry for the rude interruption. "This shift is almost over, anyway. Do you want to spend some more time with me tomorrow, Rinali-chan? I enjoyed this."

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Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

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