damned_institute | Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

Entry tags:

Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

[from here]

Sai hit the ground and rolled as the blasts from their opponent ripped through the air to either side of them. He crawled up onto his knees, pawing around for the flashlight that had been knocked from his hands in the attack. "Naruto?" He hadn't seen if the blond had been hit or not. If he had, this whole venture would have been a mistake.

The robotic man from the field didn't seem to be following them, and as the adrenaline left his system, the use of chakra started to catch up to him. He remained on the ground as he listened for his friend, catching his breath. If they'd truly gotten away, then this was the furthest he'd managed to get in the past several days.

Now if only such luck would hold out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When the shadow moved toward him, Claude had to resist the urge to take a step back. He didn't want to let on just how unnerved he felt when he saw the pitch-black figure that was so very much like Guy, yet so sinister and unnatural. Guy's unease was apparent in the way he tried to grab it, but that didn't do any good. Still, though -- you mean you care about him? What kind of question was that? Claude fixed the creature with a hard stare, uncertain of where this was going.

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't wondered what it was Guy had been carrying with him. At least he'd been honest that there were things he was keeping to himself for now. But the idea that he'd been holding off this long because he was scared had never occurred to Claude. Was Guy really worried that he wouldn't want to be his friend anymore once he heard everything?

He wasn't saying anything, which meant it was probably true. Claude's heart ached at the thought. Whatever it was, it must have been a heavy burden if he thought that it'd be enough to drive him away. Something that, according to the shadow, should have even driven Luke away, but hadn't. But, surely, deep down, Guy had to know that Claude wouldn't just abandon him...

"I don't care about the reason," he spoke up, squaring his shoulders as he looked at the shadow in front of him. It was so much easier to face one of these things when it wasn't his own. "If he's not ready to talk about it, then his wishes should be respected."

"Oh, really," his shadow cut in from behind, its voice slicing into the end of Claude's statement like a cold knife. "Because I'm pretty sure you like it when your friends confide in you about their problems. It makes you feel like you're trusted, like you're actually needed. After all, if someone's willing to come to you with their problems, it just means you're that much less likely to lose them in the end, right?"

Stunned, Claude whipped his head around to look at the marionette. "H-huh?!"

"It's pathetic!" the shadow spat, face twisting into an ugly frown. "And top of that, you never even once seriously considered telling Guy about your baggage. I'll bet he'd love to hear about how you were such a terrible son to your poor father. What a hypocrite."

The words stung. Claude loathed hearing them, and hated knowing that Guy was listening right alongside him. "But that's not--!"

"I just wanted to set the record straight before you kept spouting anymore of your usual self-righteous nonsense," the shadow interrupted. Then, it turned its gaze to Guy's shadow with an apologetic smile and a slight bow. "Please, go on with your story. You've got me curious now."

Fully aware that it had to be difficult for Claude to keep his cool in a time like this, Guy appreciated the words that his friend said, even if he might not mean them. For the moment, they just had to resist the shadows as much as they could, and they could deal with the actual fallout of it later on. That was his theory, anyway. He didn't know if Claude truly felt that way or if he was going to angrily confront him about this at some point, but he would deal with that when they got to it.

Still, now both of the shadows were taking their turns jabbing at them, which meant that there was no easy way out of this. Guy had almost completely forgotten about Asch due to this whole mess, though there was a good chance that if the God-General had even managed to outrun that monster, he had then had to deal with a shadow of his own. Still, there was no way of knowing -- any chance of finding the redhead now seemed nil.

Hearing from Claude's shadow that the younger man wanted to be trusted just made it more painful to realize that he'd been holding back so much. Guy knew that it was fear that influenced his choice; he needed to prove to someone that he was so much better now before he confessed to them how terrible he'd been in the past. His jaw clenched at the mention of Claude losing him, though, because he knew that it was something he had no control over. Landel could whisk either one of them away whenever he wanted, and it was pretty surprising that he hadn't yet.

Still, the thing wasn't done yet, and Guy couldn't help turning to it as it started hinting at Claude's own problems. He did have to admit that he never would have guessed there was such a nasty undertone to Claude's relationship with his father, but he hadn't felt like he needed to know every detail of his friends background, either. "Actually, I wouldn't," he responded with a deep frown. This was getting old fast.

It was disturbing to watch the two shadows interact, seeing how they were warped doubles of the two of them and acted nothing like how they actually did, but Guy held his ground as his own shadow took its cue.

"Oh, there's not much more to it," it said with a shrug. "You just have to wonder what kind of person plays nice around someone while plotting their death behind their back, right?"

Guy hadn't been ready for the thing to just spell it out like that. He tensed, rounding toward the dark figure as a deep-seated anger came boiling up to the surface. "That's enough."

As mortified as Claude was to listen to his shadow talk about his issues with his father so clearly in front of Guy, he couldn't dwell on it for long -- not with Guy's shadow so eager to dig up all of the dirt on Guy. As much as he wanted others to trust him, he'd never wished to find out about his friend's problems like this. They were both being forced to bare their darker side to the other in one of the worst ways possible.

The thought caused his throat to constrict with anxiety, but he did his best not to let it show in his face. Would they would be able to look each other in the eye after all of this?

And yet, even while he was asking himself that, he hadn't expected to hear Guy's shadow say that he'd wanted to kill Luke. That was just too outrageous to even believe. Guy and Luke were friends -- best friends, even. They'd known each other for years! The thought that a lot of that had been tainted with Guy planning to murder him...it was like saying the sky was purple even though it appeared blue.

Yet Guy wasn't denying any of it. Did that really mean it was true? Claude was at a loss for words, but his own marionette didn't hesitate to pipe up. "He can't even imagine it," it said with a laugh. "He doesn't want to have to acknowledge how utterly two-faced that sounds!"

"Speak for yourself!" Claude snapped before he thought better of it.

"But I am," the shadow smoothly replied before giving a cruel smile and changing to a mocking tone. "'Guy is such a good friend, 'I'm so glad I met Guy', 'Guy always knows just what to say' -- face it, you can't even wrap your mind around him doing something like that!"

Claude instantly felt his face go red. "Shut up! That probably isn't even the whole story!"

"He said so himself that there isn't much more to it," the puppet reminded him before looking back over to Guy's shadow. "Isn't that right?"

Everything had fallen so intensely out of his control that Guy could barely wrap his head around it. The last thing he'd expected to happen when he headed out of his room that night was for all of his darkest secrets to be dredged up to be judged by someone whose opinion he valued highly. And what hurt the most was how he could see the disbelief and the resistance in Claude's face.

Claude didn't want to think it was true. He thought that Guy was better than this, when he most definitely wasn't. He tried every day to be better and to make up for everything he'd done when he'd been too young and too vengeful, but...

The way Claude's shadow was rubbing it in wasn't helping much, and while it was true that his friend didn't have the full story yet, Guy really didn't know if it would help much in the long run. He'd had reasons to hate the Fabre family, but there were so many things wrong with how he'd handled it that he didn't know where to start.

"Right," his shadow replied before he could even speak up for himself. "I mean, maybe he was justified, but that doesn't excuse acting all buddy-buddy with someone while you secretly want to take a knife to them in their sleep, does it?" It shrugged and placed its hands on its hips, and even Guy could see how the mannerisms completely mimicked his own.

It was enough to make him feel slightly queasy, but he tried to push past that with anger.

"What gives you the right to talk about all this, anyway?" he demanded of his double as he stared right into its dark, featureless face, hands clenched. "What are you, anyway?"

The shadow scoffed and shook its head. "And why should I answer you when you never gave Claude, let alone the rest of your friends, the real truth until it was forced out of you? That's one thing Sync was good for, wasn't it?"

At this point, just the mention of Sync was enough to increase Guy's anger twofold, and without even thinking about it he started to lunge for his shadow, sword outstretched. But as before, the blade just sliced through the black substance like it was nothing but air.

Even though he'd had it spelled out for him, Claude still couldn't imagine Guy acting like he was good friends with someone while secretly wanting to slit their throat. Especially where Luke was involved. The shadow spoke as though his feelings had been justified, so what could have possibly made him want to go so far? And what had made him change his mind? Did he still harbor that kind of rage toward him?

Now that he thought back on it, he'd assumed the reason Guy acted weird around Asch was because of the unkind way he referred to Luke. But if it was true they were replicas, then...

"I-I don't understand," he said, shaking his head. "This doesn't make any sense. Guy isn't--!"

Wasn't what? A back-stabber? But his shadow talked like he was, and Guy hadn't denied it. Still, this felt all wrong to Claude. And at that moment, he wished more than anything that Guy had just sat down and explained all of this on his own terms. Yet Claude realized it was unfair for him to feel that way. He suddenly felt disgusted with himself. A hypocrite, his shadow had called him.

Just when things couldn't have gotten any weirder, Guy's doppelganger brought up Sync, of all people. Hearing that name caused Claude's jaw to clench in anger. But to his shock, it was enough to push Guy over the edge, sending the blond charging at his shadow with every intention to destroy it. "Guy! No, wait--!"

Yet the blade didn't connect with anything, instead passing through the creature like smoke. He snapped his mouth shut, stunned, though perhaps he should have realized that Landel would make it impossible to silence the things that carried all of their darkest secrets. Dammit.

Claude's yell of warning had only reached Guy's ears after his attack had been made, and he already knew what he'd done was foolish. He was usually above lashing out, but this thing had managed to prod at all of his tender spots, at wounds that weren't completely healed even when he claimed time and time again that it was "all in the past."

As for Sync, the problems the God-General had brought upon him were recent. From attacking him and breaking his arm, to getting on Claude's case about things and generally harassing him, to killing him and causing him to lose his memories of the airship they'd used during their travels...

Even if Sync hadn't known that would be the result, Guy couldn't imagine the boy being anything but pleased by it.

Meanwhile, his shadow had burst out into laughter, and it was getting frustrating having to listen to his voice do such uncharacteristic things. "Anyway, I bet you two have a whole lot to talk about now, don't you?"

"Is that was the point of this is?" Guy asked, placing a hand on his hip. "Just to make our lives here that much harder?"

"And to make you face facts," it responded simply, giving a small bow -- the sort of gesture Guy would have made, except genuinely. "You should be thanking me, actually. You probably would have never gotten around to explaining it otherwise, and then Claude would have gone on thinking you were so perfect. Better he finds out now than never."

Guy didn't know if he could argue with that. He'd known from the start that Claude deserved to know, but getting the words out was a whole other story. He didn't know if he actually felt thankful, but at least now Claude would know everything he needed to, and could make his decision from there.

And so his sword hand fell back to his side, a sign of defeat as he glanced to his friend apologetically. He'd give him a proper explanation the next chance he got, but for now they still had their darker sides to worry about.

They really did have a lot they needed to talk about - at least, if they could find the courage to do it. He wasn't sure how they were going to deal with this once the night was over. It was too daunting to think about right then, especially when they still had the doppelgangers practically breathing down their necks.

Hearing Guy's shadow claim they ought to thank it was more than a little galling, though Claude knew lashing out at it wouldn't get them anywhere. At least Guy had apparently realized attacking it was just a waste of energy by this point, if the way he'd lowered his sword was anything to go by.

"He said he'd get around to it when he felt like it," Claude said with narrowed eyes. "There was no reason for you to just--say all that when he didn't want it." Of course, even trying to reason with it was probably worthless, but he couldn't stand the thought of just listening to that kind of crap in silence, either.

"This again," the marionette sighed, sounding somewhat bored. Claude threw a glare at it, having almost forgotten about the creature in light of Guy's failed attack against his own shadow. "You're so desperate to feel like Guy trusts you that you're willing to believe he had every intention of telling you he wanted to murder his best friend in cold blood."

"Of course!" Claude responded heatedly as he turned toward the puppet. "When my friends say they'll do something, I trust them! Why is that so hard for you to get?"

"You're just in denial!" his shadow pointed out as it drifted closer to Claude. "Just like you were about a lot of things. Once you're alone, though, you won't have any people to call you out on your own idiocy. So think of this as a favor, from one puppet to another."

It was obviously trying to bait him, but Claude wasn't going to let himself lunge at the thing, as tempting as it was. "And you're just spouting nonsense!"

The puppet didn't respond right away. Instead, it fixed him with an infuriatingly pleasant smile. Then, without a word, its hand tightly grabbed onto his shoulder -- the one, Claude realized with a twist in his gut, that had the heraldic crest tattooed onto it.

Watching as Claude argued with his own shadow, Guy couldn't help but feel some sense of awe. Even with the thing making his situation with Luke even more clear, Claude continued to resist. He wasn't denying it now, but he still believed that Guy would have told him in due time.

Which was true. He'd explained the roots of his phobia to his friends the moment that he'd remembered it, after all. They had traveled with him so long and had been forced to deal with the effects of his fear so many times that it would have been wrong to keep it from them. They had all ended up feeling guilty about it in the end, which hadn't really been the point, but...

Maybe he'd been putting it off, but he would have told Claude eventually, and he was going to have to make that clear to his friend at some point. On the other hand, he realized that Landel may have separated the two of them before he'd even gotten the chance, but he'd done what he could to not think about that.

Honestly, he didn't know why Claude's shadow kept bringing up the idea of him being left alone, but it seemed like that was one of his fears. Guy didn't know why, but his guess was that it had something to do with his parents. Had something happened to them, or had they been neglectful? Of course, in his situation he'd never even gotten the chance to forge either a good or a bad relationship with his parents, but now wasn't the time to be feeling sorry for himself, was it?

The moment that the shadow reached out for Claude and was able to touch him, Guy wanted to run forward and separate the two -- but he already knew that that would be impossible. He was about to order the thing to leave his friend alone (why could the shadows make contact with them, but not the other way around?) when he felt a hand on his arm as well.

"Oh, you two match, don't you? You've still got that curse slot on you, after all. Just because nothing's happened yet doesn't mean that you're not still scared, deep down, that you'll be forced to do something you don't want to do, right?" The shadow was now peering into his face, and Guy had to grit his teeth to try and keep control of himself.

"Except," and the dark figure leaned in -- while its face had no expression on it, Guy was certain it had to be smirking, "some small part of you does want to do it, and that's the worst part."

"Let--go--!" Claude growled between clenched teeth as he tried to jerk his shoulder away. But the shadow's grip onto tightened as it continued staring at him with a simple smile.

He hadn't expected Guy's shadow to comment, and Claude's head whipped around in time to see it touch Guy's arm, too. What the hell! Why was it bringing up the curse slot, of all things? Unless...

No. That didn't make sense. How could he still be suffering from the effects of the curse slot when that had happened before he'd even been brought to Landel's? Still, the though that he'd been keeping that to himself was pretty worrying, especially since Claude realized that wasn't out of the realm of possibility at this point.

His gaze sharply snapped over to Guy. "But you said Ion removed that!"

The last thing Guy had expected at that moment was for Claude to be the one who was piling accusations on him, though he soon realized that it was justified. It wasn't like he'd told his friend about what Sync had done during the coliseum match, but that was because he hadn't wanted to needlessly worry him. If Sync hadn't exploited the curse slot yet, then chances were he no longer had the power to use it.

"He did," he explained with a frown, relieved that he could speak for himself for once, rather than having his shadow jump in and take over. "But in the coliseum... Sync applied one again. I don't think he can actually make use of it, but..."

But there was always that chance, and Guy knew that.

"So you're keeping even that from your friend, huh?" his shadow remarked as it removed its hand from his arm. Guy could have sworn he felt his skin burn with the reminder of the hidden marking that was there.

"I didn't think it would come up!" he shot back, only hoping that Claude would believe him. Because it was the truth. And when they had so much on their plates already, why add to it? Unfortunately, their shadows weren't giving them much of a choice.

Aghast, Claude could barely believe what he was hearing. "He what?!" Why hadn't he mentioned that back when they'd first discussed his missing memories? Even if Guy tried to sweep the severity of the situation under the rug, that didn't change the fact that he was carrying another curse slot on him, and Sync was the one who'd put it there.

He took a deep breath, trying to will himself to calm down. But between having so many bombshells dropped on him at once and having to confront his own shadow, Claude's nerves were rapidly becoming more frayed by the moment. It was hard to deny how bothered he felt that Guy had deliberately hidden that from him, but losing his cool wasn't going to do either of them any good.

"Aww, look, he's upset!" his own shadow laughed, its fingers digging into his shoulder.

"No, I'm not!" Claude snapped before he could help himself. He wasn't mad at Guy, and he didn't want to give the impression that he was. Still, it was hard to sort out his muddled feelings about all this, especially since before tonight he'd had no reason to suspect that Guy would completely keep him in the dark about something so important. Up until now, his friend had been pretty clear about when he was keeping things from him, even if he wasn't ready to share all the details. That had been part of their promise to be honest with each other, hadn't it? And yet...

"I just...what would have happened if Sync had activated the curse slot while we'd been together, Guy?" he added, knowing he didn't need to justify himself to that damn puppet-thing, but feeling he ought to explain to his friend just to same. Claude looked directly at Guy now, his gaze holding a a confusing mixture of his anger toward what Sync had done to him, and his anxiety over Guy's choice to carry that burden on his own. "I wouldn't have known how to help you!"

He'd already come dangerously close to losing him twice due to his own inadequacies. Claude couldn't bear the thought of being powerless to do anything the next time Guy was in trouble. Because in this place, it wasn't exactly a matter of if.

For the first time during this whole jumbled conversation, Claude actually sounded truly angry with him, and Guy couldn't help but be shocked by it. Considering everything else he'd been keeping close to the chest, why was it the curse slot that his friend was the most bothered by? To him, it seemed like the least significant thing (which he realized was a ridiculous thought on its own), but...

He couldn't help glaring at the marionette when it tried to exacerbate the situation, but luckily it seemed like Claude had the composure to ignore the baiting and instead just focus on him. Honestly, he appreciated the fact that Claude was taking the time to explain why he was so upset about this particular omission, and he could see why... if only because Claude didn't have all the information.

"I know," he agreed, "but the thing about the curse slot is that it can only act on emotions that I've actually felt. Since I've never felt the urge to hurt you, it wouldn't have ever been a problem." At least not in the context of him attacking Claude -- though he had to admit to himself that there were countless other ways that Sync might have been able to exploit it.

"I didn't really want to worry you over something that might never come up," he admitted, somewhat sheepishly.

But that was when his shadow was no longer content with just listening. "Oh, please! That's just the excuse you give because you don't want to have to talk about things that make you uncomfortable. It's that curse slot that brought all of those terrible things about you to light in the first place, right?"

It was awful, how this thing knew exactly where all of his weak points were. Guy tensed, turning to the dark figure for a moment as he shook his head. "Haven't you figured out that I've stopped listening to you?" Even if he could see the truth in the shadow's words, that didn't mean he needed his face shoved in it.

The fact the curse slot operated from Guy's suppressed emotions was good to know, but if Guy thought that was going to make Claude feel better about it, he was mistaken. "'Might never come up' isn't the same as 'won't ever'," he pointed out with a frown. Not only that, but realizing that Guy was keeping those sorts of things to himself despite the promise they'd made to each other meant that Claude was just going to worry about him even more in the future. Hell, in this case there had at least been a practical reason for letting him know about what Sync had done, and he still hadn't breathed a word about it.

Besides, this wasn't about whether he'd wind up hurting Claude as a result -- it was about how Sync very well might have the power to manipulate Guy into doing something he didn't want, regardless of whether it involved him attacking someone or not. That was enough reason to at least be aware of it, even if the chance of it happening was only a small one.

He grew quiet when Guy's shadow pointed out the underlying reason for his silence on the issue, though. It sounded like it had once been used to make him try to kill Luke. Of course that was going to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, but Claude wouldn't have necessarily expected him to go into those details. Something like, 'By the way, that curse slot thing I told you about is back, so be sure to clock Sync if I start acting weird,' would have been enough.

"I love how bothered you are that Guy didn't tell you about this when you have no intention of explaining the full implications of what those doctors did to you," his shadow suddenly spoke up with an amused grin. "Maybe you ought to practice what you preach before getting all huffy."

Scowling, Claude finally managed to rip his shoulder out of its grasp. "That isn't the same thing at all, and you know it," he said in a low voice.

It seemed that even with those extra details, Claude still wasn't completely convinced, and Guy knew that he had every right to feel the way he did. While he was almost certain that Sync was too weak to actually control him, there was still that slim chance -- and he spent enough time with Claude at night that he would have likely been witness to his loss of control.

"I guess I didn't realize how..." But even as Guy tried to form some sort of apology for his friend, Claude's shadow swept in to make his friend feel worse about things. It was pretty much inevitable that it was going to end up detailing some of what had happened to Claude when he'd been taken for experimentation, but that didn't make Guy any happier about it.

While he wasn't sure if it was or wasn't the same thing, Guy still wasn't bothered by the fact that Claude had been tight-lipped about it. "I don't need to know," he directed at the shadow. "Whatever happens, I'll help Claude through it when the time comes." Guy was convinced that there was more to what had happened than met the eye, since some temporary blindness didn't seem severe enough. But he wasn't going to demand that Claude tell him, danger or not.

"Oh, so you're trying to take the higher ground now, huh?" his own shadow asked with a small chuckle. "Claude might be upset that you didn't tell him, but you'll be the noble gentleman who doesn't need all the details. I don't recall you being that understanding when Luke was sick."

Guy didn't even like to think back to that time, as valid as the point might have been. But Luke was Luke -- they were close enough that Guy was able to smack him upside the head when he knew he was being an idiot. While he was close to Claude, it wasn't quite to that point yet, was it? They'd made a promise, but Guy also knew that there were boundaries, and he was patient enough to wait for when the other shoe dropped.

He wondered what it was Guy had been trying to say when the marionette interrupted him, but now probably wasn't the time to ask. As touching as it was to hear him say that he intended to stick with him through thick and thin, though, Claude didn't immediately speak when Guy explained that he didn't need to hear the details about his experiment. It almost made him feel foolish for being so unhappy that Guy had kept the information about the curse slot to himself, but he just had to remind himself that they were two completely different things.

"I'm not the same as Luke," Claude said in response to Guy's shadow. "Of course he wouldn't react the same." There were years of history there that simply didn't exist between him and Guy, for starters. Then there was the whole underlying master-servant thing that came from him working as a servant in Luke's manor. And that wasn't even touching on the once blood-thirsty intentions Guy had apparently once harbored toward Luke. Bearing all of that in mind, there was no doubt that their dynamic was a complicated and close one that had endured the test of time and even possibly the fire of hatred.

"To suggest otherwise would be like saying you're just a temporary replacement, right?" his own shadow cut in with a smile. "You certainly wouldn't want that. No, being Guy's 'Luke' isn't what you want at all. That's why you don't feel jealous whenever you see them together."

"You don't have to word it like that!" Claude said with an irritable tone.

The puppet laughed, glancing over to Guy now. "Anyway, if it were something you could help him with, Claude might have told you by now," it admitted with a small shrug. "But, hey! If you're still willing to put up with all his hypocrisy, then be my guest. I doubt it'll be for long. This place already brainwashed Ashton into forgetting just how close he was to Claude from day one." It paused, looking thoughtful for a second. "Or maybe Claude was brainwashed into believing they were actually best friends. Wouldn't that just be pathetic enough to be true!"

Claude's eyebrows furrowed. "That's enough."

The shadow ignored him, looking rather smug. "Either way, it's probably only a matter of time before one of you winds up forgetting the other, and then it won't matter whether Claude tells you what being a product of foreign technology will mean if he ever makes it back home."

The last thing Guy had expected to be dredged up was the possibility that Claude was some sort of replacement for Luke. Honestly, the thought wasn't one that had even occurred to him up until now, mainly because he and Luke had been through so much, both good and bad. His interaction with Claude as opposed to Luke was also totally different, so it bothered him that Claude's shadow was even trying to make that sort of claim.

"It's nothing you have to worry about," he quickly told Claude under his breath (though he expected the shadows could hear even their whispers, seeing how they could apparently hear their thoughts). "You and him are completely different." And meant different things to him, naturally. He glared at the puppet for a moment, but that expression soon turned into one of confusion.

He didn't know what the thing was going on about at first. Ashton, brainwashed? Guy knew that he'd disappeared and come back once, but that involved memory wiping, not brainwashing. He didn't know something had been done to him upon first arriving! Why had Claude never mentioned it? He shot a glance at his friend, frowning, but realized that maybe it had just been too difficult to discuss.

The mention of them forgetting each other caused him to clench his fists. It didn't have to end like that, even if the chances were high. If they both stayed strong and resisted Landel, maybe they would get out of here and back home. And maybe they wouldn't be able to see each other again, but neither one of them would forget. He realized he was being unreasonably optimistic, but right now he couldn't accept another option.

Granted, it was probably the last part of that comment that was supposed to stick with him. Guy was curious, of course, because when it was phrased like that it sounded rather serious, but he wasn't going to fall for this creature's bait. "It's not like we have to share every single one of our thoughts and worries with each other," he pointed out, his expression firm and unmoving. "If you think this is going to pit this against each other, then you've got it all wrong."

"Maybe not pit you against each other," his own shadow spoke up, "but it'll certainly make things a bit tense for a few days, won't it? And we'll silently be watching how you two handle it."

The implication that these beings -- their darker thoughts embodied -- actually existed in their shadows on a normal basis... Well, it was more than a little eerie. But it also could have been a bluff, and so Guy did his best to ignore it.

"I'm not worried about it," he responded with a frown, frustrated at his shadow for making Guy think that it could possibly be an issue. But it wasn't a problem at all, and that didn't stem from any sort of denial, either. The shadow hadn't been lying when it said he didn't feel jealous when he saw Guy and Luke together, and since it didn't try to contradict him on that matter, hopefully Guy would accept it for the truth that it was. There were other ways its words could be twisted, though, and quite frankly, they had enough to deal with as it was. "Look, don't think too hard about what it said just now, okay? I'm pretty sure it's spouting stuff off just to be difficult at this point."

That partly went for the stuff about Ashton and his experiments, too. It had been so unnecessary to bring up, and yet his shadow had done it as though it got some sort of entertainment out of spewing his personal secrets everywhere.

The thought that these...things would be literally watching them from the shadows was kind of sickening, but Claude wasn't going to buy into it so easily. Instead, he glared at the two shadows. Did they see this as some sort of joke or spectator's sport or something? He just didn't understand...

"Considering how you needed us to spell out just how much you hide from each other, I'm looking forward to seeing you two bumble along after this," the marionette said with a smirk.

Claude's glare turned into a narrow-eyed gaze. "If you're done, then, we'd like to be on our way."

If Claude was insisting that he wasn't bothered by it, then Guy was going to do his best to believe him. Honestly, that wasn't as simple as it should have been after everything that had been said tonight, but he wasn't going to let these shadows get to him. Besides, some possible jealousy really didn't match up to the other issues that had been brought up. "Got it," he said with a nod.

Of course, it couldn't really end there, with both of them having to get one last jab in. After Claude spoke, Guy's shadow laughed and shrugged. "If you want it that way, then fine. I'm not sure if anything we said got through to you after all. I have to admit, I'll be pretty shocked if you two change at all after this." It sighed and glanced at the puppet. "But we tried, right?"

Guy rolled his eyes. These two were clearly drunk on their own egos (and while he didn't know what that said about himself and Claude, he didn't think it was worth thinking too hard about), and so he simply waved them off.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the shadows flickered and were sucked back into the ground, returning to the spots that they should have never left from in the first place. And while they were now alone, they weren't even given a second to say something to each other in relative privacy, because in the next moment everything went dark.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject