damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 43: M1

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NIGHTSHIFT 43: M1 - M10 CORRIDOR

Ignoring the pain in his broken arm, Snake crept along the hallway. He had brought only the matches and hairspray with him, hooked into the band of his pants, needing no light. His feet made no sound. Even that vision of the corridor earlier hadn't phased him like his much-loved old Outer Heaven flashbacks usually did, as he was far too focused on his mission.

He had been checking the men's block rooms, one at a time. Most of them were vacated; some were not, and even the sounds of movement inside those ones were enough to reassure him that they were not the rooms that belonged to Big Boss.

Systematically, he started down the furthest corridor in the block to the south of his own, starting with room M10. The door was, of course, unlocked, and he cautiously pushed it open. Like many of the others, it seemed empty, but for less than a second he caught a trace of Big Boss's smell. It was enough to lure him into the room, even though no-one was visible. Had he imagined it?

[M10]

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It was only then, once he saw that strange look on Tsukasa's face, that Endrance combined that with how the room had to have looked, and had to turn away from both of them for just a moment to regain composure once again. He almost wanted to say that it wasn't actually what it looked like, but that would only make things more awkward. In the end, he said nothing at all, instead settling into the chair at the desk and looking down for a moment.

"Yes...like the flickery thing. I've seen it twice tonight - the first time, I was sure it was my imagination, but the second, I was just as sure that it wasn't. I don't know what to think anymore. If it's 'Kite', then, that's one thing, but if not..."

Endrance swept his bangs from his eyes, thinking once again. "I don't like disagreeing with you, Haseo, but I truly don't think this is a simulation. I know that the past two days have certainly been eventful, to say the least, but...the two days and one night before that, the days when it was just me here...were less so. I won't say that they were completely quiet, but the overall level of trickery has increased. I'm not sure what to make of it."

"Then what, Endrance?" Within moments, the frustration had built up again, and it showed clearly in Haseo's voice and resulting hand gesture. "Didn't you hear that-- strange voice on the intercom? They admit they're watching us... do you actually think this is the real world as we know it?!"

He looked away, focusing deliberately on the walls as he thought, as if they would change again with merely his will directed at them. However, apparently in the same way a watched pot wouldn't boil, it seemed glared-upon walls didn't glitch, and after a moment the dark room faded from his vision as his attention was forced inward entirely.

What am I even doing? Whether this is a game or a simulation or none of those things... can I really afford to be acting this way? It wasn't like this was the first time something or someone had tried to knock him down, after all... just the first time they'd done it so thoroughly. "No, I guess it doesn't even matter," he said, slow and suddenly calm. He took a breath, but what influenced the turnaround remained unspoken. "We can only observe and decide for certain when the answer comes in front of us."

"Unless you two think all this shit has something to do with me," he added, in that almost-amused tone that tended to indicate something wasn't all that amusing at all.

Tsukasa rolled his eyes, not quite believing that they were having to argue over whether they were in the world as they knew it. "I think that's pretty obvious considering we spent last night in the middle of a zombie apocalypse," he said sourly. "Endrance wasn't saying that he thought that at all," he continued firmly. "It could be a simulation, it could be something weirder. It doesn't matter. What's important is that it's real enough for us to get hurt in which means it's possibly real enough for us to die in which I'd like to avoid." He'd come too close to it during the time he'd been in a coma and he had too much to go back for to let this place kill him.

He sighed softly, closing his eyes for a moment before giving Haseo a confused look. "Why would we think it was anything to do with you?" he asked. "Might as well be something to do with me or with anyone else who arrived on the same day." Boys were confusing. And occasionally annoying. This was definitely one of those times.

Endrance just sighed, pulling his long legs into the chair with him and wrapping his arms around them. It hurt, but he ignored that pain. Besides that...the accusation hurt more than anything physical would have. "I didn't mean it like that, no. Of course this isn't our world! But..."

He sighed, and uncurled one arm just enough to gesture to the bandages on the others' bodies. "You can't get hurt in a simulation, no matter how realistic it is...and there's more to it than that. It seems to, at least, know our weak points. I..."

Another sigh, and Endrance looked down, staring at the floor. "Seven years ago...we were against an enemy with every chance to learn every single one of our weak points. It had access to the entire network, and it didn't care what damage it did, as long as it wasn't wiped from existence. And yet...not even something with that strong a motivation exploited every single weak point, like this place seems determined to."

That last statement...it was enough to make Endrance want to cry, but he didn't. "Haseo. Tsukasa. None of this is your fault. If anything, it's mine. I was the first one brought here, and I...I couldn't keep them from taking you. I couldn't even protect anyone that was here before, and..." The words trailed off, and he had to stifle a choked sob.

"Endrance, don't even--" Haseo sighed through his nose, feeling slightly stung himself. "Video games aren't supposed to send people into comas or connect your will and emotions to... 'Epitaphs,' either," he muttered. Work with me here, Endrance, you have an Avatar too and you've already admitted your sensitivity to it....

"That's not what I think," he answered Tsukasa, "It's just that if you heard what some people have to say, I'm to blame for everything." He wasn't being self-deprecating, just honest, even if by this point he half-expected someone to come along and crown him the Emperor of Misunderstandings. "Besides, this isn't the first time people have tried to knock me down, and I know it's not for you either, Endrance. You just said it yourself." Although the flashlights only partly-banished the room's darkness, he looked up at Tsukasa too. He didn't know the guy's full story, but he had a feeling his words probably applied there as well.

"You can't go saying 'it's my fault because I couldn't do this or that,'" he continued quietly, "Unless there was some choice thrown out and you failed it, I really doubt that... and in any case it's already passed. All we can do is focus on what can be done now."

Haseo picked up one of the sweatshirts off his bed, working it in his hands so it would be easier to thread over his injured arm. "Alkaid and Atoli were here before any of us showed up, as far as I know... do you think we should go tell Alkaid she's a failure because she didn't manage to stop it herself somehow?" A faint smile crossed Haseo's face at that, though he had to kick himself a bit for neglecting to mention her information on how he'd been there before Endrance as well. Maybe he'd bring it up later at a less sensitive time... once he'd talked to the girl again, probably.

Edited 2009-09-04 06:07 (UTC)

Tsukasa winced when Endrance said that you couldn't be hurt in a simulation. he licked his lips nervously wondering whether to tell them before deciding that he might as well. it probably didn't apply here but they deserved to know. "That's not entirely true," he said quietly, glancing up at the other two. "Even in The World, it's possible." He let out a soft huff of breath. "When I was stuck in this body before, I could feel everything there as though it were the real world. Heat and cold, the wind... pain. And it affected my body in the real world when I got hurt." They'd said that his hart had stopped at one point, probably when he'd been data drained but it had become so difficult to tell the passage of time.

He shifted a little awkwardly as Haseo spoke, giving him a surprised look for his words. It resonated with him a little. He remembered being hunted by the knights, being blamed for chaos being brought to The World.

"It's no-one's fault except the person who brought us here," he added quietly but with intensity. "We can't blame ourselves or each other. That's probably what they want."

"I..." There was no way Endrance could have possibly known what Tsukasa was going to say, but the words still hurt, and he tensed a bit more at the thought. It was truly frightening to think of everything that could happen in The World affecting someone in real life in the way Tsukasa had described. But...was it so different from AIDA? No. In the end, it wasn't that different; he remembered being able to feel the cool air in Indieglut Lugh, and of course, Mia's presence, there and steady and comforting. False comfort, but comfort all the same, or at least he had thought that was the case. He choked down another sob, this one harder to stifle than the last, then let the full impact of what Haseo and Tsukasa were both saying hit him. In the end...did it matter what this was? No. It didn't. What mattered was making sure everyone survived and got back home - to the real world, whatever that might be. Endrance didn't say anything, but looked up at both of them and nodded. The words wouldn't come out, but the look on his face said enough.

Haseo couldn't deny he felt relieved when it seemed his impromptu speech had hit its mark at least a little. It seemed odd to take comfort in that odd sort of normalcy in such a dark place, but like he had just said, they could only work with what they had, right? ... Even if they got hurt or whatever else. He sighed and pulled the sweatshirt over the bandaged limb, over his head and other arm, then--

The off-and-on static issuing from the intercom changed, and immediately Haseo's hand was on his short sword, his body stiffening in surprise as he turned his head to the intercom system and then in every direction, as if the input of this "password" would be visible somewhere in that small room.

"What the hell?" he said, "Is that... binary?" There was a brief urge to try and write down the code, but it was already too late and the message was too garbled underneath the... singing. As the broadcast continued, he handed a mental point to the Institute's play in creepiness and applied himself to putting on the boots he'd found with renewed vigor. They were a weird style, but he couldn't argue with something like that- they were better than the 'standard issue' for patient-prisoners, and he'd take every advantage he could get.

"Listen." As the intercom began to die down, Haseo spoke over it, standing once more and regathering his possessions to hide his uneasiness. "I told Leon earlier on the-- bulletin board that we'd come by. M88." He cleared his throat and shifted, for a long moment staring at Endrance before turning to Tsukasa with his eyebrows slightly raised. "I assumed you guys were coming with me, so."

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NIGHTSHIFT 43: M1 - M10 CORRIDOR

[ M4 - I won't do it anymore. T_T ]

[ M4 - Good! Else you hear me roar! ]

Re: [ M4 - Good! Else you hear me roar! ]

[ M4 - O Haseo, why don't you make En cry moar? ]

[ M4 - Continue with that and he'll get ignored... >> ]

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