damned_institute | Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

Entry tags:

Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

[From here, roundabouts M16]

Celes tapped her foot and as she tried for the life of her to remember just where the Gambler resided. Hellfire, she should have gotten a straight answer from him. But then, it would have meant she'd also asked. Celes sighed and shook her hair from her eyes, adjusting her hair clasp. She walked for a bit, up and down the halls, listening for voices that were familiar. When the first hallway bore no fruit, Celes turned to the next one.

Halfway down, she heard the familiar accent of Luxord's voice through the door. There was still plenty of time to meet her subordinate, she'd been quick tonight. Celes rapped on the door three times and waited. "Master Luxord? Are you within?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Takaya will do no such thing!" Frey was appalled and, somehow, insulted by the suggestion that Takaya would try to harm himself. Had that been true, at some point? It was horrible to think that Takaya could be so unhappy. But Frey refused to believe that it was true now--Takaya wouldn't do that.

Kagetora laughed at that. An honestly amused laugh. It was still a cold and very cruel sound, but it was a laugh.

"No, of course not. He's more the type to jump in front of something at the last second. Less chance I'll stop him." He continued to grin at the thought. How amusing. Takaya had a .... friend.

Frey made a soft noise somewhere between a hmph and a growl, his jaw clenching slightly as he resisted the powerful urge to say something unpleasant. "I believe we're done discussing strategy for the time being." Which was as close as Frey was going to get to saying go away, you foul little man.

Kagetora's smile widened. "Oh, am I upsetting you? So sorry. I'm quite comfortable where I am," he added, settling on the bed as though relaxing for the night. Truthfully, he was debating giving control back to Takaya. They boy had been rather ... quiet.

"I think I'll just stick around."

Really, Frey knew better than to react to bullies--it only encouraged them. It was just particularly difficult to ignore this particular bully, since he was hurting not Frey but rather someone Frey cared about, and doing it while wearing that someone's face. The whole situation made Frey feel rather helpless, and that bothered him a great deal more than the actual confrontations. But getting angry wasn't going to help Takaya, so Frey just closed his eyes for a moment and forced his expression back into neutrality. "You are of course free to remain here if you wish, but I can't imagine you'll find anything of interest to you."

"I don't know about that," Kagetora said with a small shrug of his shoulders. Still, watching Takaya stumble around in the morning, confused and angry would be less interesting that anything Frey could offer him at the moment.

So, he stepped back from the front and it was Takaya that fell back against the wall, his head connecting soundly with a thud.

Frey half-rose from his seat, instinctively wanting to go support Takaya and keep him from falling, but of course Takaya wouldn't want to be touched, and if it wasn't Takaya... well, Frey didn't have the slightest interest in touching Uesugi, either. "Takaya?"

Grumbling, Takaya sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Son of a bitch," he growled, taking a moment before looking up at Frey.

"Hell, at least I'm not blind this time. What the hell happened now?"

Frey smiled slightly, relieved that Takaya was indeed back in control. He was less happy, though, that Uesugi had chosen such a spiteful way to leave. "Nothing in particular. I asked him to leave, and I gather he decided to do so in a most sudden manner."

Takaya scowled and leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and looking miserable in an absent sort of way.

"I wasn't paying any attention," he said. "Fucker just likes to be a dick about everything."

"Are you hurt at all?" That had seemed like an awfully solid thump on the head, but Frey realised that he was perhaps a bit over-protective of Takaya, when it came to Uesugi's nasty tricks.

Takaya frowned. "What?" He reached up, almost touched th back of his head, then snorted.

"Nah. I'm good. Got a hard head." Smirking, the teenager snorted. "Guess Morino was right," he added absently.

Though Frey didn't think it wise to bring up the matter of what Uesugi said about him, he did want to discuss the issue of weapons with Takaya himself. "Takaya... you've been here a long time. Have you never thought about approaching one of the weaponsmiths for something to defend yourself with?"

Takaya shook his head, letting his hands drop to his lap. "No. I'm not any good with weapons like the people here. I'm better with my fists anyway. Brute force and that kind of crap, you know?"

Takaya remembered the shovel incident quite clearly, but mentioning that might require an explaination and while being a fucking nutcase with another dude in his head was one thing, Takaya didn't think he needed to mention the whole 'undead army' thing just yet.

"Fists are weapons too. Why not something like brass knuckles? Or, rather, steel I suppose, as that seems to be easier to come by here than brass, and rather more durable in any case." Any edge that Takaya had in combat would be good for both of them, if they did indeed start travelling together more often. And, of course, Frey just didn't want Takaya to get hurt, period.

Takaya shrugged again. "It's probably not even worth it," he said. Truthfully, he didn't want to ask when other, more skilled people had a greater need. "Maybe I can find a bat or something outside. There's the weird-ass storage buildings out there."

He glanced over at Frey. "I don't want anything with an edge or some shit anyway and that seems to be the thing to have around here."

The conversation seemed to be edging towards precisely the topic Frey had wanted to avoid, but there was no sense dragging it straight there if Takaya didn't want. "May I ask why?"

Takaya shot Frey a Look. "You really think it's a good fucking idea to give that asshole a knife?" Kagetora had experience, as he often pointed out, and knew his way around a blade, of almost any type.

"Last thing he needs is something sharp to fucking play with."

Flashes of fire and pain made Takaya wince for a moment and shake his head slightly as though to get rid of it. The flash of memory notmine notmine not mine died away quickly.

"Honestly, I don't know. I would hope he would be more likely to use it to defend himself, and therefore you, but I'm afraid I cannot read him as well as I would like." Of course, Frey would worry a bit if the day came when he truly did understand men like Uesugi easily--better not to connect with such mindsets.

Takaya shrugged. "Bastard's just as likely to do that as dig your fucking eyes out or something with it." He shook his head.

"Son of a bitch is fucking cra-" His head connected soundly with the wall again. "Motherfucker!"

Frey winced at the sound and shook his head slightly. "Perhaps it's better not to antagonise him needlessly? Are you okay this time, as well?"

Takaya sighed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He settled with his back against the wall again and considered Frey.

"Are you okay?" They'd been talking about some pretty heavy stuff before the bastard had shown up.

Frey nodded, though his expression turned a touch sad. "I think so. I will be, in any case." He'd been through loss before, and much worse than this. And each time he'd thought he'd been left alone, abandoned, he'd managed to come through. He'd come through this, too.

Takaya frowned, uncertain and hesitant. He wasn't any good at this kind of thing.

"Sorry," he finally managed. "For, you know, your loss and stuff." The wording had gotten mangled between his brain and mouth, but Takaya was sincere.

"I'll be okay, I'm sure of it. No sense moping about it, anyway." Frey was determined not to cause Takaya any more worry--the other boy had enough to deal with as it was, and the Star Dragon Sword's departure was really a small matter, compared to Takaya's problems, wasn't it?

Night 37: M11-20 Hallway

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15

Re: M15