damned_institute | Night 46: North of the Institute

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Night 46: North of the Institute

[From here.]

The landing was rough, but not as bad as it could have been. Pressing a hand against the ground to brace himself, Harvey straightened painfully and then searched around for his flashlight and pipe. The former was easier to fine, and once he'd collected that and turned it back on, he used it to run over the ground as he waited for the pipe to jump out at him.

Waiting for Jones to follow after him, Harvey heaved out a sigh. This was very different from anything else he'd attempted in this place so far, and he definitely hadn't been planning to take a hike when he'd left his room earlier in the night. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, though. If they were lucky (and he knew that was unlikely, but if), maybe they'd actually find something of interest.

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Indy waited until Dent was more or less safely down and then pushed off the wall himself. As predicted, it was a pretty smooth landing. At least he managed not to make a fool of himself again.

He unzipped the flashlight from his jacket pocket and turned it on--out here was one of the few places it was worthwhile to keep two lights on and burn two sets of batteries. The fog was still fairly easy to navigate here, but if he remembered right, it got thicker in a hurry the closer you got to the site.

If there was anything else moving nearby, it was doing a good job of hiding itself. Wary nonetheless, Indy followed Dent along the route he'd outlined.

"What were you planning on doing if your friend showed up?" he asked out of curiosity, still keeping his voice down.

It was a few seconds after Jones had landed that Harvey found his pipe. Good thing that the forest hadn't somehow absorbed it or something -- that was just the sort of thing he would expect from this place by now. Ridiculous, annoying things that didn't make sense and were only meant to trip them up.

But he had managed to reclaim his weapon, and he could already tell that now wasn't the time to worry about saving battery power. It was darker than should be allowed out here, and if some wild animal was going to creep up on them, he'd like some advance notice if they could manage it.

He and Jones ended up walking side-by-side along the wall, with Harvey close enough to reach out and touch it if he wanted to. Eventually it was going to end, and then -- what, they'd be taking a right?

Glancing over when the other man asked a question, Harvey instinctively kept his voice low when responding. "We had some things we needed to talk over," he said, thinking back to his earlier conversation with Tim Drake. "Other than that, just more exploration. So it isn't like it was a huge loss." Their plans were going to get set back, but Jones didn't need to know all of those gritty details.

They still had a little way to go along the back wall, which Indy could admit to himself he wasn't sorry about. It felt reassuring to have the constant means of keeping your bearings, so at least you knew you were walking in a straight line. There hadn't been many landmarks to identify in those woods, especially with the fog; once they veered off from the road, he'd be relying mostly on instinct and luck to get them to the site.

Walking on this side of Dent meant that the damaged side of the man's face kept catching Indy's eye, even in the darkness. It was hard to ignore. He wondered again what the hell had happened. And why would Dent take the bandages off at night? What was the point of risking--even courting--infection or contamination in the wounds?

Obviously those weren't questions that seemed likely to lead to a smooth trip, so Indy set them aside in favor of a more innocuous topic. "Anywhere in particular? There seems to be a lot of interest in the basement, but I haven't had a chance to look around down there myself."

He grimaced as he realized how seriously he'd just said that. Sure, the storage rooms of Caswell Hall could be as dangerous as any desert or jungle he'd ever been in, but Indiana Jones would never have thought he'd be talking so earnestly about the perilous prospect of exploring a basement.

While Harvey had heard some vague mentions of the basement over the bulletin board and wherever else (it was hard to keep track of where he'd heard what), he hadn't put too much effort into finding out about it. All of his attention had been focused on cornering Batman for a while now (why not take advantage of the fact that they were both stuck in a relatively small space?), and so he hadn't put as much effort into finding things out. He'd wanted to deal with the vigilante before getting back to the rest of people he needed to make pay.

"Me neither," he said with a shake of his head. Luckily, it was dark enough that Harvey wasn't catching the glances that Jones kept sending him. It also helped that the vision out of his left eye wasn't particularly good anymore.

"We'd mainly been looking around upstairs," he continued. "We came across a computer last night, but it was password protected." Harvey should have expected as much, but if they'd somehow lucked out and gotten into the records system, that would have been a huge advantage. He wondered if it was worth tracking down someone who might be able to crack the code, but knowing this place, it'd be impossible for even the most skilled hacker to pull off.

Sending Jones a more direct look, Harvey decided to return the question. "Have you been focusing on looking into things out here, then?" It made sense for an archaeologist, but Harvey couldn't imagine scaling the wall to run out into the cold and fog every single night.

A computer! There was another thread Indy hadn't really been following lately, but if he was right about Dent being from around the present time, it made sense that he'd know how to use a computer. Apparently even high-school students were experts on the things. What were the odds someone could get past that encryption Pierson had talked about?

"Any ideas about how to get past it?" he asked, hoping there weren't six obvious ways he was tipping his hand by not knowing. How many of the staff were likely to have the password? Surely the doctors, but maybe all of them, if computers were so common that anyone could use one. The nurse who brought the dinner? Hmm.

They'd hit the edge of the wall. Indy turned right and kept going along the east side of it.

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[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/785023.html?thread=63973503#t63973503)

Momo landed softly on ground outside the wall. Keeping her hand on her sword, she started traveling along the wall in the direction she recalled traveling the last time she'd been to the ruined town. Of course, she shouldn't be doing this alone, but she wasn't feeling very social and, for the moment, the lack of responsibility to anyone but herself was refreshing.

Pausing at the edge of the institute's wall, Momo checked for enemies before leaving the cover the wall granted her.

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[from here]

Sneaking around and climbing over walls like this reminded Anise of the time she and Ion left Daath in secret, just before their journey began. Only then, she had gentle, cooperative Ion by her side, and this time, she had... this guy. Aidou was definitely seeming less and less like a charming prince by the minute. Most men would be delighted to have someone like Anise along with them - or they'd act least act like they were.

Anise took a moment to step away and look back at the institute. This was the first time she'd ever seen the building from this angle, even if all she could make out was its massive, looming silhouette.

But once that sight was taken in, Anise brought herself back to the wall. If it could provide cover in the recreational field, it could probably do the same for them out here, at least until they reached the east end.

What, like his point became less valid with time? It was quite the opposite. And the longer this went on, the longer he left himself open for a series of… well, the options were numerous, and none of them good. If he believed for a second Anise could actually be an effective companion of sorts, capable of defending against foes, everything she could do he could probably do just as well, anyway. Probably better. The same applied to all of Aidou’s ‘companions’, but where he got along well enough with Sasuke, he couldn’t reconcile the boy’s personality with Anise’s. Knowing half of what Sasuke did about him, Anise would no doubt out him in a minute, and he’d rather not have that.

And if it came down to another emergency like what had happened in the cafeteria with Chere…

Aidou had leaped onto the lip of the wall, leaving himself in a semi-crouch. But instead of jumping down right away alongside Anise, he paused, tipping his head back to observe the sky and his surroundings. It was a colder night than usual, and the mist was far thicker beyond the Institute’s walls. Alone, how fair of a chance would the girl have? It was the perfect opportunity to ditch her. The noble could just as easily continue to walk along the wall, and she would have no idea what direction he had gone in. He looked down at her.

Selfish, really. She expected to insinuate herself into his company, burdening him without suffering any repercussions in return. And he was just to accept it, was he? It presupposed his goodwill, which wasn’t a given. Trust, she’d said. In a way, that ‘trust’ was the most selfish thing of all.

… But was it? For a human, no. And to hide, does one not mimic?

How Aidou was willing to go to appease human expectations was the problem, however. Whether Anise knew it or not, she was straining the fine line between being agreeable and acting how he felt he should.

For another moment, he stayed poised, and finally slipped from the edge. There was wind tugging at him, and then the solidness of the ground beneath his feet as he landed easily, barely a foot from Anise and yet still eerily quiet in the act. Straightening to his full height, the vampire gave her a look. “Why did you want to come with me?” he asked again, tone light.

Edited 2010-01-20 06:39 (UTC)

Once again, Aidou's movements were way more agile than expected. Anise wasn't sure what to think of it. It seemed pretty unusual to her, but maybe it wasn't so weird where he came from. It was always so hard to judge other-worlders.

"Huh? Didn't we just go over this?" Anise looked surprised at the question. After all the arguing they'd already done, he wanted to do more? Hoping it would get him to back off quickly, she tried to look hurt while she replied. "I want to spend more time with you. Is that bad?"

Holding one hand at her hip, she added in a firmer tone, "Besides, we were both traveling alone at night. It's only natural to team up in that kind of situation!" That was, like, Rule #1 of Landel's. Even if Aidou was surprisingly quick on his feet, he couldn't possibly deny the value of having someone around to watch his back. Could he?

The girl took a few casual steps in their planned direction, though she kept her head facing Aidou with an inquisitive look. If he was going to ask her questions, it was only fair that she got to ask some, too. "Why do you want to go to east?" It was a reasonable question. Did Aidou already know a thing or two about the grounds beyond the institute walls? Did he know something about what was in that direction, or had he maybe explored some of the other directions? Aidou had a tendency to be stingy with details, but maybe he'd let her in on something, since she was coming with him.

And she was coming with him, whether he liked it or not.

They had, but when the answer didn’t satisfy Aidou, there was nothing resolved about the subject. “I don’t think that’s true,” was the vampire’s response at first. “So perhaps it is.” Playing on affections with a certain lack of sincerity was something he, himself, had been doing for ages, and the fact that Anise seemed to do the same, with him no less, would’ve bothered him had he been outside Landel’s. Here, though, that she hadn’t been taken in by him was mostly water under the bridge. He just didn’t believe her. It was about time she realized that.

Whether he, too, should follow his own line of thinking and drop his sweet-talking pretences remained to be seen. He hadn’t been calling on them much at all, but even when he did, he was different from Anise in that he didn’t reek of dishonesty when he did so. But that was daytime play for him, at best. Head cocked, he didn’t answer when she claimed that safety in numbers was the other reason for her persistence.

Well, even if she reversed her position on the eye-batting front, nothing else really changed about what he was going to do with her…

He exhaled, moving away from the wall before orienting himself east so that he wouldn’t be single file with her. “As for what’s out there, I take it you don’t know.”

Huh? He didn't believe her? It was true that Anise wasn't exactly being sincere... but she wasn't exactly lying, either. In a way, she was just trying to get to know Aidou better. And normally, traveling with someone at night was a really good way to get closer, worm her way into his heart, maybe help him out and get him to feel indebted to her... stuff like that. "What else would it be?" she asked, sounding bewildered at his apparent suspicion.

Hmph. Anise wasn't sure what he suspected her of, but it was pretty rude when he was acting so suspicious himself.

His non-answer to her own question got a pout from Anise. "No, I don't really." She wanted to know, which was a big part of why she was out here in the first place, and hopefully Aidou was going to start talking before they ran into something weird or dangerous.

Although his own physical restrictions and the layer of mist made it difficult to see very far into the distance, Aidou couldn’t make out anything out of the ordinary in the forested, half-dead area the hospital was situated in. Everything was as it’d been the first time he’d come this way, including the aroma of blood that circulated along air currents and tickled the back of his throat. Soon there would be the burble of water, followed by a moderate run to the town. If nothing hindered him, and he didn’t lag, he could make it there with time to spare, despite how much time he’d lost arguing with Anise.

But that was without factoring her in. Unless he was carrying her on his back, he’d have to keep in mind that she would probably move at a slower pace… unless he really was going to leave her to get eaten by a bear. But that was… And she was in slippers, no less.

Again, that feeling of resigned finality. A part of him saw no choice in the matter, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Turning his head to eye her up, he drew himself back to the discussion at hand. She posed the question when it came to the other prisoners. Relations with them were rarely simple. If they didn’t want something from him, and weren’t actively seeking to harm him, they still had their own survival in mind, and true colors could emerge. Aidou had never counted himself a miserable misanthrope, but he was hardly expecting innocence and altruism from the others. Half were back-stabbing ingrates, and even if it’d be a sign of total paranoia to think someone like Anise were out to get him, he had his eye on people’s underbellies rather than their facades. It was a better judge of character. So was she honestly just doing what came natural to her?

“I don’t know,” Aidou answered easily. “You’d have to tell me that. I would just think people would be less willing to throw their lot in with an unknown variable, considering how high the costs can be in this place. Especially at night. If you’d only wanted the company, you could’ve approached me during the day.” Excluding the fact she was a human child, in general ‘trust’ and ‘nightshift’ were complicated elements to combine. But to get into that would be needless and overly convoluted. He didn’t think this whole meeting was more than bad luck, and any of Anise’s motives straightforward.

Having a population comprised of so many unnatural, unusual prisoners would change any playing field, though. It wasn’t over thinking to question them more closely than normal.

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[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/785023.html?thread=64703359#t64703359)]

Without further ado, the young ninja backflipped off the wall and into the mists down below. She twisted in midair to put her back to the wall and, as she landed as softly as she knew how, immediately brought her shuriken to bear.

"We're clear," she said, voice pitched low but just loud enough to reach them. No bears charging out of the woodlands yet, as far as she could hear; no immediate danger to be worried about. Now, if she'd gone and landed in something's mouth, that'd have been a bit of a bother. A worse bother than the fog was, totally. And the fog was bad, even worse than usual. Yuffie narrowed her eyes as she straightened from her crouch, and stepped a few paces away from the wall's shelter.

How much worse was it gonna be when they got further out? It was always clearest closer to the institute, but when it got thick and rolling, it got thick. And rolling. Like soup, or congealed porridge, or that butterball, Palmer.

"If you're not careful, those hips might land right on you," Aerith shot back with a grin. She wasn't a terribly hefty girl herself, and unlike Yuffie, she lacked any kind of surprising strength for her build. The flower girl was even a little wary of taking a jump down the wall for fear of landing incorrectly. A twisted ankle would put a pretty big damper on their plans for the night. Of course, there was one way to make sure she wouldn't. Aerith turned her head slightly, careful to keep her balance, looking at Cloud.

"You first, Cloud. You can catch me after you get down," she informed him brightly.

Cloud allowed himself to pry his eyes away from the sky long enough to get a good look down at the ground on the other side. It looked safe enough, but Aerith was obviously hesitant. Someone who wasn't as athletic could hurt themselves from such a height...

"I'll do you one better. Hold on." With that, he placed the blade of the wakizashi between his teeth, readjusted his grip on his flashlight, and reached over to lift the girl up in his arms. A catch could be fumbled, but this way she was certain to reach the ground safely.

He slid off the edge of the wall then, landing lightly in a crouch below, allowing Aerith to get up and move away before he stood himself.

Edited 2010-01-23 08:55 (UTC)

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Night 46: North of the Institute

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