damned_institute | Night 48: F21-F30 Hallway

Entry tags:

Night 48: F21-F30 Hallway

When the intercom finished another deliberately vague note, Lana was already standing at her door, flashlight in hand and scalpel securely in her coat pocket. She'd neglected to find out exactly how the doors worked at night, but the general idea was clear. Some time soon, they would open, and she had to be ready the moment they did.

Click. The knob loosened under her hand, and she stepped out into an as-yet empty hallway.

F28 was only two doors down -- no-one else emerged as she walked over to the door. She tucked one hand behind her back and waited for Ema to come out. That she would was inevitable, despite the monsters and Lana's express orders. She would just have to repeat them until Ema listened; Lana couldn't protect her and investigate at the same time.

[for Ema]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't take everything at face value. Don't tell her more than necessary. It was like Lelouch expected Yuffie to be dangerous somehow, which -- well, it wasn't a possibility that Nunnally would completely discount. At the same time, though, they had to trust someone here, and she hadn't seen anything to indicate that Yuffie was untrustworthy. She could keep her senses alert, though, if it would make Lelouch more comfortable. He didn't need to be dragged down by having to worry about her constantly. (Not that it was likely to stop, knowing him. Or knowing him as he used to be, as this Lelouch was now... would it ever stop being so confusing?)

"I haven't met very many people so far, but they've all been quite nice." And worried about her, after seeing the crutches she carried around. "This morning a young man named Kio even drew a sketch of me. He's not a bad artist, either." Nunnally might not have learned anything terribly useful as yet, but she was pleased to have made some friends.

That wasn't the most pressing thing to her, however, and she shook her head slightly before moving back to the previous topic. "You're speaking as though I should be afraid of the others trapped here. Why? Is there a reason to worry? Or to keep things secret?" At home they had spent years concealing their true identities in order to stay safe. Here, though, what could it matter? What should she not tell people?

Kio. Another person to keep an eye on. Lelouch only wished it were possible to coax a physical description out of Nunnally without making her too suspicious, unless-- had the person she'd eaten breakfast with been drawing her? He'd been too caught up in the meeting with Homura to tell. At any rate, it was worth at least considering the possibility that that was the person Nunnally spoke of.

Her questions demanding much more of his attention than uncovering the identity of this Kio, though, and he reluctantly turned those thoughts aside in favor of coming up with an adequate response. "Many of the patients here are dangerous. I currently have no reason to believe that any would target you or me specifically, but I still think it's best if we're on guard. Don't be afraid, be... cautious. As for keeping things secret..."

He trailed off. If he were to be perfectly honest with himself, there was little to no reason to keep their identities secret anymore. If anyone did come from their world, the fact that he was openly associating with Nunnally would effectively ruin any efforts on his part to pretend that he was still without his memories of his time as Zero, and if they were from the same point in time that Nunnally came from, they would know even more about him and be in a better position to ruin his plans than he could ever properly prepare for. The best option, therefore, appeared to be to take a route similar to the one he did when Minch nearly discovered his Geass and admit both his lineage and his identity as Zero, but... was this the proper time to do so? Was that even the correct move to make? How would further revelations that he was keeping things from the other patients impact his plans? Homura, he knew, already suspected he wasn't being entirely honest, and if he confirmed it in that way... but surely he wasn't the only patient keeping secrets. Would it really matter if he let slip one or two of them?

He needed to think on this further. "... For now, keeping only Geass, the fact that I am Zero, the actions I took as Emperor, and the fact that you, Euphemia, and I are royalty secret should suffice. I need to reexamine the situation in more detail before I can say for certain whether revealing more would negatively impact us. There are some truths that undoubtedly would, but others..." He trailed off yet again and closed his eyes. "Forgive me, Nunnally."

For as much as Nunnally disliked deception, she still understood the need to simply not say certain things, or deflect questions when necessary. The two of them had managed to survive for years in an occupied Area 11 without anyone but a select few knowing that they were in truth missing Britannian royalty, after all, and even if she didn't quite understand the need not to mention their lineage in a place where Britannia apparently didn't even exist...well, Lelouch had been here longer than she had. She could trust his judgment for the moment, at least until she had a chance to study the situation for herself and make her own decision.

And even if she'd been inclined to argue the point, she couldn't help but be worried about how Lelouch was feeling at the moment; it was obviously upsetting him to ask what he had, and she didn't want to add to that. "It's all right," she said, squeezing his hand lightly. "It would help if I knew more of what you're thinking, though." She knew all too well how much he liked to keep things concealed, but -- she didn't want that. She didn't want him to make plans that involved her without including her, not ever again.

She was more understanding than he'd given her credit for. That was a relief in more ways than one, and Lelouch allowed himself to relax a little. He had no doubt that they would never see eye to eye on certain topics, but at least she seemed willing to accommodate for a few of his lesser sins. Lying in the ways he'd mentioned didn't even strike him as especially harmful (how could it?), but if she took issue with it-- it was so much harder to do things she disapproved of when she knew he was doing them. It was even harder when, as in this case, his reasons for doing so were becoming flimsier with every curve the institute threw at him. Hiding the things he'd done as Emperor was obvious enough, as was concealing the full extent of his Geass's power and so forth, but the fact that he was a prince and Zero... would revealing those at this stage really harm more than help? Would it have any effect at all?

"You need only ask," he said, looking up at her again. "I won't lie to or hide things from you anymore, Nunnally. You have my word." As he had with Suzaku, he knew he was treading dangerous ground by making such a promise, but again, he was tired of lying. He should never have lied to Nunnally in the first place, and although he was, in his mind, far guiltier of hiding things from her rather than lying outright, it didn't matter anymore. She had a right to know what he was keeping from her, and with the Lelouch she had known gone, the task of explaining it all fell to him.

Now that he looked at least a little less unhappy Nunnally was far more comfortable with asking him questions, though she did intend to leave some of the more pointed ones for later. Why had he looked so distressed a moment ago? Did he truly believe that she would utterly reject him for asking that she keep certain things a secret?

Perhaps she would have been upset if he'd asked her to lie about some things, but not those -- it was almost nostalgic, really, like going back to the pretense they'd once lived, when things were simpler and happier. The idea of keeping an identity secret was now somewhat tainted by the memories of other false pretenses he'd maintained over the last year or so of her time, but it was for a different purpose. Rather than to mislead others, to lie and manipulate and twist events to their own ends, it was simple safety. Or so he said, and so she would have to investigate; she'd learned her lesson about completely trusting another's word, no matter who they were.

It would have been nice to go back to how things once were between them, but...there was too much there. Too many memories and too many secrets revealed, even if she still loved him as sincerely and deeply as ever. Nunnally breathed a faint sigh, hoping that none of her thoughts were visible, and smiled at him gently. "You've been here longer than I, Brother. You've made acquaintances and allies and plans, and apparently investigated the situation." None of that was any surprise, of course. She wouldn't expect otherwise of him. "I worry that I may run into something you've found dangerous without realizing."

A reasonable concern. Many of the dangers the institute contained, however, Lelouch had already explained to her, and although there were still some that he had yet to touch upon, he couldn't help but think that those would be obvious enough if they ever arose that they didn't fit the criteria Nunnally had set forth. That far from covered absolutely everything the institute contained that could be dangerous to them, though, and it didn't cover the more ambiguous methods the place had for tormenting them, either. The visitors, for instance...

But perhaps he should start somewhere much more basic. "I don't have my journal with me, but there is something I've recorded within it that qualifies. There is a monster that roams the halls that has the ability to take on the appearance of people close to or familiar with its victims. Often, it's only when this creature attacks that people figure out that it's not who it claims to be." He sighed. "It also appears to gain the memories of those it imitates, so coming up with a code word to confirm the identities of people you meet out in the halls may be pointless. So far, however, there haven't been any reports of this thing mimicking patients that are currently at the institute. I wouldn't take that to mean that it can't or won't, but it's something.

"I'll make a copy of the information I have so far for you as soon as I can," he continued. "A lot of it concerns the different types of monsters here, but there's also a timeline I've been working on that covers as many known events in the institute's history as I could learn about. I used to post a lot of it on the bulletin board, but the new restrictions put a stop to that."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Night 48: F21-F30 Hallway

Re: F23

Re: F23

Re: F23

Re: F23

Re: F23

Re: F23