Night 48: F21-F30 Hallway

[fourstonewalls]

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]

Comments

Re: F23

[kingside]

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.

Re: F23

[jouer-sans-voir.livejournal.com]

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."

Re: F23

[kingside]

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."