damned_institute | Nightshift 39: North of the Institute

He ignored her and took the wall at a jump, hardly seeming to expend any effort in getting himself to the top and pitching himself over in a controlled fall, hands already in his pockets before his feet touched the ground. Somewhere along the way, he’d tucked the flashlight away, and straightened with his elbows cocked at a sharp angle.

Oh, sure, he moved as nimbly as the most lithe human could hope to, but the vampire knew he was capable of so much more, as was his birthright. The fact that he had to put a hand on the wall at all in order to clear it remained a sore point in the back of his mind, where he kept most of his grievances suppressed. It was this place that made him weak. Clumsy. Diminished. It was this place that tried to tarnish his very nature.

A deep, silent breath in. No pinch in his chest, where only days before, there’d been a ragged hole in his lung. Good.

There was no need to gain his bearings to know in which direction they were headed; his internal compass could set itself to east as easily as he could see the moon in the sky. The atmosphere of the world outside of the walls he’d been stuck behind for more than two weeks was strange… but not nearly enough to upset the vampire. He did a full turn, scanning the horizon, looking over Senna’s head, and when he was done, he looked back down to regard her. “I suppose I am, if you wish to follow,” Aidou replied, because if nothing else, he was not a follower. “Do we have no other information other than our destination is to the east?”

He’d wondered if finally being outside the building would shake him. He’d been so long without freedom, after all. But there was an odd sense of self-control, of focus on the debt he was repaying through this venture. The larger part of him did not want to broach the wilderness in a wild attempt at escape, as much as he felt he was capable. No, that would come later.

Aidou couldn’t leave until everything was ruin behind him.

Oy, oy. Mr. Serious needed to let up a bit.

She slid a hand to her hip, the other fingering the spear. "Nope. Nothing. Nadda clue." So she'd be following him blind, with her having the supposed leadership if anything happened. This would be fun. ~~Please note the sarcasm.~~ Especially if pretty-boy--Idol--here would be this playful all night.

Suddenly fun and exploring and maybe finding some stuff turned into work.

Senna blew out a sigh of air, before taking a step forward; keeping her weight on the balls of her feet in case Aidou decided to sprint again. "You always this fun to be around?"

He’d thought as much. Looking back to the rocky terrain falling away to misty outlines in the distance, he have a nearly imperceptible sigh himself, breathing in the smell of earth, and cold, and the ever familiar ghost of something unhealthy that seemed to permeate every pore of this place.

East, then. Wherever that took him.

The vampire started forward, not needing to sacrifice the long strides of his legs even when he was essentially hiking on unfamiliar ground, in the dark, under the threat of attack. Human girls might’ve been enchanted with their princely Idol, but not even he could deny that there was an element of falsity to it, a face that only came out during the day. Always, he was himself.

“Fun?” Aidou repeated absently, with only a sliver of his full attention.

Always, he was himself, and at that moment, the vampire could hardly understand what the girl meant by ‘fun’.

She sighed again, scratching the base of her skull lightly. Yep. This would be a long night. She started off after him, giving the scenery a courtesy glance-over before returning her gaze to the blonde in front of her. This seemed familiar. How did she get stuck behind a social-skills-lacking guy again?

"Fun. You know. Excitement. Adventure. Stuff that's enjoyable." The opposite of this right now. "Stuff you like. Stuff that's nice." Etc. Whatever.

Senna went through a list in her head of things that this guy might find fun. Sitting inside reading. Studying. Sipping tea. She half-grinned at his back. Yep, he was probably one of that type, all manners and no real world experience with people. She wondered if she could get Meche to join A&C.

A part of him was unsurprised by how insipid the sentiment was; she wouldn’t have bothered making a comment about how fun he was if it’d been anything but.

He centered himself due east as he followed the wall of the building before replying. “And what about it? Your idea of ’fun’ must be quite odd if you think this is supposed to be exciting, enjoyable adventure.” Although his tone was blithe, almost misleadingly friendly, a flicker of irritation cut through him, the kind he often felt when someone said something that sounded incredibly stupid without further explanation. If there was a good explanation behind what the girl was getting at.

Her unspoken thoughts weren’t hard to pick apart. So somehow she thought one of the most charming, worthwhile ‘human’ boys she’d ever have the fortune to meet was a drag. Well, she was lucky that he continued to treat their circumstances with the seriousness they deserved, or else the leader and her team might have found themselves all killed before midnight.

“I don’t think being a prisoner is fun.”

Senna kept after him, eyes looking for anything strange in the dark. "It's better than getting upset about everything. What's the point in that? --There's good stuff here, too, mixed in between all the shit this place makes."

She worked her way over the terrain, hearing Aidou's last words, but not knowing if she should respond. In the end, of course, Senna was Senna. "This place isn't that bad to me. I know it is to others. But I'm alive, and get free food, and have a weird sort of place in the world."

She shrugged to herself. "Doesn't mean I don't see the bad. Doesn't mean I'm not going to try my hardest to help people get out of here. But it does mean that that's not all I'm seeing."

Senna fell silent, wondering about that. She had talked a lot to a stranger about very real things. Even now, she was hoping that this place wasn't taken down--but that everyone just escaped. Because then she could exist, too. If everything was undone... She would be dead. Worse--she would have never existed to begin with. Unless Ichigo had told her the truth.

What was the point in getting upset? Obviously she didn’t understand the concept of personal sovereignty, wherever she came from. A god of death, sure. When gods were supposed to be greater than mankind, it was one of the more ridiculous titles he’d ever heard very flawed individuals lay claim to.

The vampire didn’t look back, letting the silence resume its place.

It wasn’t that Aidou would disregard her words entirely, but in how they related to him. He certainly had no stake in her amusement. He was prepared to let this place burn, and everyone with it, looking back only with disdain. Although he had no stake in the Arts and Crafts mission, either, he was a part of this one, and if Senna had shown--or wouldshow--any hesitation in doing what was expected in an effort to thwart their common enemy, he wouldn’t show her any further regard. He couldn’t. How could he? When this prison was a hell and the people who supported it fools?

Eventually, he looked back over his shoulder, just once, tone frank and without its former airiness. “Whatever the case may be for you, to me, there’s nothing good nor fun here. The nights are for action, nothing else. I’d advise against seeking more if you want to lead anybody.”

The silence told her enough--that Aidou didn't agree. She didn't expect him to--hell, if anyone besides Hokuto did, Senna'd be surprised. But she did think that the guy would loosen up a little, 'specially after he turned over a nickname, but she guessed she was going to be disappointed. His last lines strengthened that, and Senna twisted her mouth unhappily. "I never asked to lead anybody," she muttered, half to herself.

[following mopily to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/590991.html?thread=48768655#t48768655)

[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/579063.html?thread=48871159#t48871159)]]

He landed without much sound. The dirt was soft and it wasn't a long drop to the other side. Peering out into the darkness yielded nothing, so he looked up at Sora.

"All clear down here," he reported, bending to pick up Sora's portable torch light. "Can you make it down okay?"

Glad to hear that there was nothing dangerous waiting for them, Sora realized that he couldn't put off jumping down any longer. It was going to aggravate his wounds even more, but he was just going to have to bear through it.

"Yeah, just a sec'!" he confirmed as he scooted himself to the edge of the wall, letting his legs dangle for a moment before he pushed off and landed in an awkward crouch. His injured leg almost gave out on him, but he pulled himself to his feet using mainly his right leg and then readjusted the extension cord on his shoulder.

"Oh!" he exclaimed when he saw that Allen had grabbed his flashlight for him. He reached out to take it back. "Thanks! So I guess we'd better hurry..." It was going to be tough hiking over this terrain in his state, but he was going to have to make it work.

Hopefully they'd made it through the worst of things. Allen didn't want to make a big deal of Sora's injuries and he'd seemed to be doing alright so far, so maybe they really would make it all the way to the quarry tonight.

He thought he remembered the general direction they'd gone the other night, but he'd wait to follow Sora's lead. And on the way, he could ask Sora about that weapon from before. It was interesting that he could make it appear from seemingly nowhere like that.

"It was that way, right?" Allen asked, pointing further into the darkness.

"Yep, just move straight forward from the wall," Sora confirmed, wanting to make it clear so that Allen would know where to go if he was ever leading a different group of people in this direction. Even though it was tough, he started to lead the way, doing his best to set a quick pace even with his injuries. The way they throbbed in pain was really the hardest part, but if he focused on something else (like the cold) it wasn't quite so bad.

Sora didn't know what Allen's train of thought was, but he had been wondering about the other boy's arm ever since it had distracted him earlier.

"So... about the fight earlier. What was that?" His tone was more that of awe than disgust or disbelief or anything like that. Sora had definitely seen his share of weird things in the past few years.

Allen had no trouble keeping pace as Sora set out, and his worries subsided when the other boy didn't seem to be having too hard a time of it either. The path was familiar too, now that it was the second time he'd come this way. He wasn't the best with directions, but repetition always helped.

When Sora broke the silence, Allen took a second to figure out what it was he was asking. What was what? Sora had to have seen the creatures here before, so did he mean the Innocence? But Sora had a weapon that was kind of the same, didn't he? He'd made that key just appear in his hand. "Ah- you mean my arm, or-..." he trailed off, scratching his head.

"That's just... er... how I fight. It's called Innocence and... well normally it looks like my arm always does, but sometimes I can change the shape. Here I can only shift it into level one though."

Now that Sora was injured, he was going to have to be even more careful about not tripping on the rough ground, and so he was steadfast in lighting up his way. It made their walk a little slower, which he felt bad about, but he couldn't really risk falling and hurting himself even more.

He hadn't meant to confuse Allen with his question, but he was glad for the explanation nonetheless. "Right... I just wasn't expecting your arm to suddenly change like that. I guess I should have asked you about how you fight before." Sora realized he also should have gone into some details about his Keyblade, but that was pretty much water under the bridge now.

"Does it hurt?" he asked with a slight wince, and while he would have preferred to make eye contact with Allen while he spoke to him, he had to keep focused on where he was stepping.

Allen followed behind, trying to keep note of any landmarks as they continued, but there wasn't a lot that was distinct about any of it. Even the stars didn't seem quite right, though he didn't usually resort to using them to navigate.

Was the way he fought strange? Well, normal people were kind of surprised by it, but he supposed here most everyone could fight in one way or another, so it didn't often come up.

"No, it really doesn't hurt at all. That's what it's made to do," he assured Sora. That question, he actually had heard several times, though it was usually in regards to the strange looking arm he had when it wasn't invoked. People had even gone so far as to suspect him of self-mutilation! It was silly to him, but he supposed he could see where they were coming from.

"What about you? I've never seen anyone fight with a key before. How does that work?"

It was hard for Sora to really understand how Allen's arm worked, but he figured that he should just accept it rather than keep on badgering the other boy with questions. His Keyblade was pretty mysterious, too, so it wasn't like he could talk.

On that note, it looked like Allen had noticed the Keyblade, and Sora smiled a little. He knew it was on the strange side, and he would have expected to get teased for it, but the Keyblade was important and so he hardly felt self-conscious about it. He was proud of the task that had been laid out for him.

"Oh, well, yeah, I guess it's pretty rare," he admitted, trying to be modest and probably not doing that great of a job. "Basically, I ended up with it in order to defeat those Heartless. I think I told you about them? The Keyblade is meant to take them out, and so it doesn't work quite as well here, but I guess it can still get the job done." It had eventually taken care of that dog, after all.

It probably wasn't the best idea for Sora to be chatting too much, though, since he almost stumbled. Sighing to himself, he regained his balance and kept walking. "I hope we're almost there..." He was pretty sure they were getting close, but it was hard to tell when everything looked the same and they couldn't see that far ahead of them.

Allen tried to fit the facts into place so they made sense. He remembered Sora said the heartless were sort of like Akuma, or at least a serious enemy, and so the key...blade? was sort of like Innocence, the weapon for fighting them. That wasn't too hard to understand.

"Yes, I don't think much of anything works as well as it should here," Allen smiled, but sighed. Unless of course it was according to the head doctor's plans or something, then he was sure it would work more or less how it should, kind of a depressing thought. Most of the time though, Allen just had to push his body to the limits and it would be strong enough; his Innocence could make up the difference. Most of the time. Here it was a very different story. It was like there was a wall or something, keeping him from getting any stronger no matter how hard he pushed against it.

"But it's really neat. I always thought a sword or something would be interesting to use, but I don't know if I'd be any good at it," he said. Of course, he wouldn't want it to be the same kind of sword as someone like Kanda, but they were still pretty neat as far as weapons went.

It seemed like they'd been walking almost as long as last night, so Allen only mumbled a quiet "Mmhmm," in agreement.

It was true that they were all weakened here, but for Sora there was a whole other level to it. The Keyblade was meant to fight the Heartless, so it wasn't like it was going to do all that well against mutant dogs. On the other hand, it had worked just fine against Nobodies (which he recalled with a mental cringe) and Dusks and things like that, but they were almost sub-categories of the Heartless.

Still, he had fought people like Jafar and Captain Hook with his Keyblade, and they certainly hadn't been Heartless, although they'd been influenced by the creatures. It was all pretty interesting, though he wished he had a better idea of how it worked.

"Well, I wouldn't say the Keyblade is exactly like a sword, but I get what you mean," Sora agreed with a nod, even as he continued to face forward rather than glancing over to Allen. "I think it'd be pretty cool to have my arm grow to a huge enough size that I could crush things with it!" he said enthusiastically. But it wasn't like he could get everything he wanted. Sora had already had the chance to fly and meet Santa Claus. He couldn't be too greedy.

As they kept walking, Sora started to spot something familiar in the distance. "I think I see it!" he said, pointing ahead of him.

He hadn't been forced to use his arm in its most basic form for a while, so getting used to using it like that again was kind of strange. The other forms were much more versatile.

"Thanks," he said with some hesitation. That was a compliment, wasn't it? Cool? He might've asked about it, but Sora had already spotted their destination. Finally! He hoped they'd be able to do some exploring tonight before it got too late.

As much as Sora was eager to just rush toward the quarry, he made sure to take his time, taking careful steps as he traversed the rocky area. "You have to be really careful now," he warned Allen as they got nearer to the large hole in the ground. "If you slip around here, it might not turn out so well, if you know what I mean." He smiled, not wanting to get too serious about the whole thing.

A little further, and they were just about at the edge of the quarry.

[To here.]

Nightshift 39: North of the Institute

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