damned_institute | Day 48: Courtyard

"I could tell you some stories," Yuffie suggested brightly, "of unquestionable legality." Illegality, that was. Petty little things like the law didn't usually mean very much to her, except for the times when she had to uphold it. Always fun for the breaking, though, the law, and messy for the clean-up. Just the way she liked it.

Her nurse looked like she wanted to rub her temples. With sandpaper. "No, thank you," she said instead. "Why don't you run along, now?" Please!, was the unspoken request. Before I spontaneously combust. Or commit various acts of violence that would have me arrested, or placed in a loony bin. Like this one. Yuffie had quite a bit of fun filling in the blanks other people left. Sometimes she did it outloud, just to see the reaction; sometimes she kept it to herself. It really, really depended.

"Don't mind if I do!"

She took off, bolting out into the Courtyard. The weather was dour, overcast and threatening rain, but Yuffie didn't care. She'd refused a coat on principle, and had found herself bargaining: Fine, fine, Plucky had conced she could go without a coat, but unless she had at least a sweatshirt on, there'd be no outside-time for her. She ran a little ways down the dirt path, then toppled herself into a series of cartwheels. Straighten, run. Cartwheel. Straighten, run, just for the sheer sake of movement, and the whip of the wind. She laughed a little giddily, checking her gait down to a jog. Gawd, Leviathan, she'd needed this. Right from the get-go, she'd needed this. Every day she spent cooped up in side, the more nervous energy she had.

Nanaki had helped, she realized. Sort of. He'd…helped. In a way. His presence and everything that was wrong with it weighed on her, for sure, but he was still Nanaki. He didn't deserve to be here, didn't deserve to be stuck in a body that he hated and couldn't use, but all the same, she found herself glad to have him.

Yuffie started to hum, as she jogged leisurely around the Courtyard. A cheery little tune, one of her favorites; no, it was her favorite. A Wutaian walking song, with the roughly translated title of Pathway After the Rain. The pace stayed even but the tune picked up, and she found herself half-singing snatches of the lyrics to herself. It felt like ages since she'd last said anything in her native tongue, at least outloud; she wrote in it all the time.

[The Doctor]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was good to see that Aidou wasn't taking his response personally or anything. It wasn't like Zack wanted to turn these people down, but he'd ended up with a lot more on his plate than he'd planned for. He knew it was good to keep busy, but he was going to have to make sure he kept everything straight. He usually had relied on his phone for that, but he obviously wasn't so lucky here. Even writing by hand on that bulletin board had been a blast from the past.

As the kid went on to explain why he needed him, Zack nodded in response. In that case, it sounded like any other patient would do, which honestly made him wonder why Aidou had decided to ask him of all people. Not that Zack didn't think he would be a good pick for the job (of course he would!), but Aidou had been here a while. He would have thought he'd have met a ton of people who could help. Still, maybe it went back to what ZEX had said about there not being many military types here.

"I get it," he said. "I don't mean to string you along or anything, so I'll try to let you know as soon as I can. But where's this area and why do you need more than one person to look around there?" He figured that if he was possibly going to pitch in with this, then he might as well get all the details. A mission briefing of sorts, if he wanted to put it into familiar terms. Not that he considered Aidou a superior by any means, but he wanted to have all the facts before he checked in with his friends about tonight.

As for ZEX, that was a whole other problem. It sounded like his problem wasn't quite as urgent, though, so maybe he wouldn't mind if Zack put it off for now. Or he could come along. That was an option, at least, if Aidou was planning on recruiting people.

Having distanced themselves a bit from the pond, Zack then took a look around before sending a glance at Aidou. "Anywhere you wanted to go?" he asked. He liked the idea of stretching out his muscles a bit rather than just standing around, but he'd leave it to the kid to decide.

Dimly, he had to repress a snort at the words ‘string you along’. If it wasn’t his enemies themselves, something else was bound to confound him either way, Aidou had found. His expectations were already low, so it didn’t much matter. The sentiment was nonetheless quaint.

He gave an absent shrug of one shoulder, coupled with a shake of his head. “Nowhere in particular,” he replied, taking it as a signal that Zack wanted to move as much he did an invitation.

More importantly was Zack’s initial question, and the vampire straightened, turning toward the courtyard path so that he could fall into step if the other wanted to continue on. Aidou remained cautious regarding the give and take of information, but being too tight-lipped could be just as much a hindrance as running at the mouth. Since he’d taken the step to involve Zack already, there was no point in withholding the details of where and what they‘d be doing should they actually cooperate at night. It was still up in the air about what Zack would do with those details, but that was something Aidou had to roll with.

He shifted the sweater on his arm before pointing at the ground beneath their feet. “Below us. The basement. As for why a group is necessary, it’s a theory of mine. Two seems to be too few, while three allows people to pass through the doorways.”

If Aidou didn't have anywhere specific that he wanted to go, then Zack was content with just taking a stroll as they talked. It would allow him to get a good idea of the scope of this courtyard, and what he was quickly realizing was that it wasn't all that big. Enough to allow them to stretch their legs, but that was about it. An illusion of freedom, but he knew better. No one was going to find their wings here.

It was still preferable to a mako-filled tube, though. So long as he kept that in mind, he would never be able to get too downtrodden. It was like that was his style, anyway.

When Aidou pointed, Zack couldn't help staring down in mild awe. So there was a basement here? This was the first he'd heard of it, but he wasn't surprised to discover that that was the place to be. The Shin-Ra mansion had been the same way. Down in that basement was where four years of his life had been wasted, and yet Zack felt no trepidation at the prospect of venturing into this one. They needed to get to the bottom of this!

"All right," he said as he looked up again. He was still unclear about how Aidou knew that multiple people were necessary, but he'd leave it alone for now. "So who's our third man gonna be?" he asked. Or, err, third woman, if that's the case," he clarified with a grin. Zack wasn't one to discount someone's skills because of gender. He knew some women out there were tough as nails. Cissnei was proof enough of that.

Speaking of which, where was the Turk? He'd have to check up on her if he could. Or leave a note for her, at the very least.

Ah, yes, one variable always involved in picking teams were temperaments. And the fact that Zack seemed the type to accept some things as they came without distracting Aidou with a bunch of pointless questions or outbursts or other mental fits was fine by him. He eyed the human, assigning a few more ‘like’ points to him. The basement had been chalk full of messy and somewhat rough plans from the beginning, Aidou knew this, but the lack of proper preparation would be much easier if the people he had to work with could just deal with things instead of getting on the noble’s nerves.

A part of this was the willingness to follow Aidou’s words without second-guessing him, but that went without saying.

“Someone I’ve been cooperating with regarding the basement for a while. His name is Sasuke and he‘s already in,” Aidou answered. He didn’t hold prejudice against females, either, considering the balanced scales of the vampire world, but most of the women he’d had dealings with in the Institute were all deficient for the job in some way. Anise was the latest example of that. If Aidou happened to be hurt again in front of someone like her…

Well, he couldn’t necessarily trust Zack in that regard, either. He’d just have to ensure there was no reason to reveal his nature if it came down to working together.

So Aidou already had someone else in mind, huh? It looked like he would be the third piece of the puzzle, then. Zack was going to feel even worse if he had to decline, in that case. It sounded like Aidou was more or less ready to put his plan into action, and Zack would be holding him back if he had to devote his time to something else.

As for having to work with a third person who he didn't know, that wasn't something that concerned Zack much. He didn't have issues when it came to teaming up with strangers, since it didn't take long for them to not be strangers anymore. He was sure he'd get along with this Sasuke guy just fine.

"If not tonight, then tomorrow night for sure," he said decidedly. Zack was sure he could coordinate that with his friends. While he would have liked to work together with them as well (Cloud specifically), he was sure they'd have all sorts of time for that. He felt bad about ZEX, too, but he'd technically made this promise to Aidou first -- not to mention he got the feeling that Aidou's issue was a bit more urgent than ZEX's.

Then, the intercom went off and Zack paused in his walking. He glanced over toward the doors that led back into the building and watched as more nurses piled out to come round them all up. "Guess our time's up," he said with a small shrug. "I'll get a hold of you over that board, okay?"

That would work. If Sasuke had his other business to attend to then, well, Aidou would figure something else out to round out a three-person group. Almost any other fighter-type would be preferable to cooperating with an ex-human again; if he looked at things that way, he had a hell of a lot more choices. There was always the option of helping Sasuke in order for Sasuke to be free later…

Outwardly, Aidou just nodded and gave an acknowledging, “Okay,” while inwardly suppressing a scowl at Landel’s routine interruption. It was exceptionally infuriating that afternoon, though. Ugh, that fool! What he wouldn’t give to end that life once and for all.

At least his morning hadn’t been a total waste. This’d been something resembling progress.

Day 48: Courtyard

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject