damned_institute | Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

Yue was all too pleased to leave the cafeteria by the time lunch was over, even if he still wasn't satisfied that Fai was properly taking care of himself. It was clear that Touya hadn't accepted the answers he'd been given and intended to find out just what the guardian wasn't telling him, and being watched so closely was beginning to get uncomfortable.

It was clear that the truth would have to come out at some point, especially if they were going to be spending any amount of time together. Avoiding him was entirely out of the question, but at the same time Yue stubbornly refused to consider the idea of just outright telling him about what had happened in the last week. It was a dilemma indeed, and only served to make him even more irritable than ever.

How could he admit any of it? That he was weak and crippled, betrayed and altered by his creator? That he'd almost broken the promise he'd given in exchange for Touya's power? The latter he couldn't help but be reminded of every time he saw this Touya, who had only just gone through it, and would remember it even more clearly.

Fortunately Yukito was staying silent for the moment, although he could feel his other self's disappointment at being unable to speak to Touya so far, and it didn't make him feel any better.

In the midst of all this Yue was rather dismayed to realize that the nurse wanted to lead him to the music room, of all places: that was the room where he'd met the Sakura-who-wasn't-his-Sakura the week before, and needed neither the reminder nor the inevitable noise in that room. He abruptly halted in his tracks and refused to continue on. The nurse seemed initially disappointed, but finally agreed to let him stay in the Sun Room instead; the guardian found a corner in which to stand, arms folded across his chest and lost in his own ~~brooding~~ thoughts.

[for Sokka]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nope. She hadn't thought so. At the very least he wasn't trying to find a place on the same couch. She would have knocked him right off as well. Well, it wasn't as if she'd had a terrible morning - quite the opposite, in fact. The lack of privacy here was just frustrating at times.

"No kidding," she agreed in a grumble. Sighing, she gave in to the fact that she was never going to have a shift to herself and turned to glare at him. It could have been much worse company, of course. It could have been someone overly cheerful and bouncy who wanted to make friends.

"I've been here a few days."

No, she wasn't the nicest person, but at least she was willing to talk to Suzaku. And if she had been here a few days, she had to know something, maybe even something Senna hadn't.

"If you've been here that long, then you would know better than me," he said with a smile. "I just got here."

He pet the cat for a few moments, thinking of a way to ask her. She didn't seem the type to volunteer to help a new person, so he might have to go for a more direct route.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about this Martin Landel, would you?"

That was just what she needed. A complete newbie asking her for information. If he expected the run-down, he was asking the wrong person entirely.

Callisto didn't expect for him to go straight for information on Martin Landel, and she had to admit that made him slightly more interesting than most of the other patients here. If only just. He glare shifted into a faint smirk, and she sat up on her elbows in order to study him better.

"Not really, aside from the fact that he's a pompous ass who toys with everyone here for sport." She tilted her head, looking briefly to either side as though seeing if anyone else was listening in. (Not that she actually cared if they were.) "I do know where to go if you want to catch a glimpse of him."

So his impression of these people as toying with them was correct, at least according to her. Not that he was going to take her every word as truth, but if that was really what Landel was doing, it was unconscionable. People shouldn't have their lives treated like part of a game, and he had to find out what was really going on here and why. He had to find out who Landel was, where his allegiance resided and what his real motives were.

He couldn't help leaning forward interestedly at the next piece of information. Someone on the bulletin board had said something about the basement -- was she going to say the same, or was there another way? If she had personal experience, it would be even better. "Really? Where?"

Callisto loved the look of interest he gave, and she smiled back at him in a not-at-all-friendly manner before sitting up completely and leaning in herself. Her voice was lowered only slightly, not nearly enough to actually keep any secrets from anyone who passed by the two of them.

One finger was pointed towards the floor. "Directly beneath this room," she said, "there's a much larger one with four sets of doors. Those to the south," she pointed now towards the exit leading out into the main hall, "can only be opened if you've solved a series of puzzles from those on the east and west. If you get through those south doors, he'll eventually show for you."

She shrugged then, leaning back in her seat. "He keeps himself well protected, though. The coward."

For someone who wasn't very nice, she was very forthcoming. Finally, Suzaku was really getting somewhere. He listened intently, trying to commit the directions to memory so he could tell Lelouch later.

"So we can't attack him?" he asked. He had seen something similar on the board, after all. "If you just wanted to talk to him, would you be able to?" He didn't necessarily want to try to kill Landel or something, just confront him. He couldn't stand going into this blind, without knowing anything about whom he was fighting or why.

In response to that Callisto just shrugged. "You can try. I know physical attacks won't get through whatever barrier he has up. He didn't seem open to much discussion, either. Then again, most of the people I was with just wanted to yell at him a bit."

Oh, Callisto wanted others to reach the Coliseum. She wanted to know if the experience was the same for everyone, and if Sanzo wouldn't be the only one to come back from the dead after losing. If that meant that more could then enter the northern doors this was fine with her. If she needed traveling companions she wouldn't be stuck with the same monks as before.

This was definitely an item on Suzaku's to-do list. He was sure Lelouch would say that they needed to learn more and be better prepared before trying to confront Landel, which was perfectly true, so Suzaku would try to curb his instinct to head down to the basement right away. Still, this was a valuable thing to learn so early on. And even if Landel couldn't be attacked, if they could figure out how he was protecting himself they might be able to think of a way around it, later.

"I can see why they would want to yell at him, but yeah, maybe he would be more willing to talk if we used a more reasonable approach. Thank you for telling me all of this, by the way. Oh, one more thing -- how do you get down to that part of the basement? Just any of the stairs?"

"It's my pleasure," Callisto grinned. Then she blinked at Suzaku as if she would have forgotten to mention the way down if he hadn't asked. "Oh, that's right. Well. The only way I know down is through the kitchen and into the cold storage. There's an off-color tile there that opens up to reveal a staircase."

She shook her head. "It's hidden, but not amazingly so. Obviously he meant for some of us to make our way down there eventually."

Suzaku nodded, committing all this to memory as well. There was still the possibility she was lying, as she had given the information away so freely -- and he had finally learned to be wary of lies -- but it was still worth looking into.

"Thank you, again. I would never have found that otherwise. But, you know. . . I wonder what he hopes to gain by setting up these challenges for us down there?"

None of this made any sense. The only way to get answers would be to see for himself.

The woman shrugged. Both arms were flung over the back of the sofa as she lounged, trying to make herself as comfortable as possible. "Who knows? Like I said - he likes to play games. He probably enjoys making us think we actually stand a chance of getting somewhere, yet we can't help but follow the paths he sets for us anyway."

She doubted the door to the north would get her anywhere that would actually prove anything besides the fact that Landel was a twisted individual. That didn't mean she was going to quit trying to see what she'd earned.

Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject