Night 53: M51-M60 Hallway

[longlivetehking]

The doors had not even unlocked and Landel had already began granting them more examples of his cryptic rambles. Hnn. Perhaps Scar was growing paranoid after all this time, but it almost sounded as though as if he had yet another surprise in store for them, be it tonight or tomorrowThe doors finally unlocked, and the former lion moved into the

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[blood_and_pocky]

[I SAW NOTHING!]

Aidou disliked others failing on him when he had extended to them a certain amount of expectation, but he disliked nonchalance even more; the tension he saw in Sasuke pleased a part of him, because he knew he wasn’t the only one frustrated and hungering for progress. And a greater part of him knew he didn’t need to doubt that would be the case until they were both free, because ultimately they wanted the same thing, were facing the same obstacles.

Which meant he checked his ire and the impulse to say, You couldn’t have told me that sooner?

For the same reason he hadn’t done more the night prior, he let it be so that silence filled the space where his reply would have been.

So Sasuke did have one of the rings. The answer would have been ‘yes’ or ‘no’ either way, and Aidou had already considered each option. It was good, an opportunity to see what Landel intended by them. The excitement their sudden appearance had caused may have faded some from public view, but they were still a notable and very real question mark. But even after much thought, to use them?

His gaze was fixated on the small red stone, memorizing its contours. “If,” he said, quieter than before but with a distant, hard quality to his tone. “If you use it, I want to hear about it. But it’d be ill-advised to factor it into arrangements unless we know for certain it’s not a ploy.” Which they never would, Aidou felt, but it was Sasuke‘s choice if he wanted to be a guinea pig. The noble wanted to know more about the ring because it was another piece to the puzzle, not because he had the least desire to make use of it himself. Even looking at it, he felt a hatred for the thing, and for Landel who acted like a zoo keeper throwing sweets to the discontented animals. And the dumb beasts would gobble them up.

“…Sasuke,” the vampire uttered, followed by a short pause as if it were an afterthought he hadn’t meant to voice aloud. “I hope you won’t do anything rash.”

[sasuke_of_sound]

The way Aidou phrased his response left the intimation of choice and almost suggested at the luxury of discovering more information than had already been given and shared. Sasuke was reasonably certain that the rings worked as they had been intended; it was not in Landel's modus operandi to provide them with tools that would give him no entertainment. Whether there were undesirable side-effects was something nobody would know until well past the time that the immediate use of the rings could be recognised, and though Sasuke was fully capable of patience, he was also fully aware of when he was willing to bet against it.

Caution had its role. Sasuke had been unconscious and useless, the most cautious activity possible in this place, for far too long. Aidou had to be aware of both that fact as applied to Sasuke and the danger of resisting danger in this place. Sasuke expected that much, with that peculiar familiarity borne of necessity.

So that warning narrowed his attention for a moment. "I don't doubt there will be a price for its usage." Nothing here had come free yet, from the extra breaths of Sharingan he'd discovered after losing his sight to the map that had come at the cost of rotting for two nights. "But there is little point in ignoring what is available for the sake of caution.

"Have you heard any suggestion that these don't work as claimed?"

[blood_and_pocky]

… Was he abandoning speed for caution? Despite how uncertain he’d been about Sasuke lately, the matter-of-fact comment was enough to touch something in him. So the boy would use the thing and accept the consequences, would he? Aidou wondered if Sasuke would have said the same thing a month ago, or if he honestly believed pandering to his enemies was worth it.

A month ago, would Aidou still have refused to do the same?

“It's so easy for your own intentions to unravel to nothing, or for your rules to become less concrete. When one has a clear goal in mind, the method through which to reach it can sometimes become... fuzzy. Am I correct?"

At his side, his free hand clenched. He already knew the answer. He would never, ever have his way through debased assistance. His shadow was wrong. Landel was wrong. And it wasn’t caution, but pride, pure and simple. He’d survive just as long as someone like Sasuke, but not at the cost of his dignity. As it stood, the rings appeared for all intents and purposes like bait, like the weak path.

“I don’t need to,” Aidou answered. “They’re tainted just by the source they come from.” Fruit from a poisoned tree. If Sasuke did do something rash, the noble couldn’t very well stop him… but there was a chance his usage could become an issue. Landel had never given a gift that provided a verifiable advantage to a select number of prisoners before--there was no denying that such a precedent could be very dangerous. Either way, unless Sasuke had gone to the basement without his knowledge, the ring wouldn’t be directing them in their intended direction. Releasing a breath, he asked a different question. “If you broke the jewel now, where would it take you?”

Knowledge was still knowledge, especially having this “Eagle” business up in the air.

[sasuke_of_sound]

Didn't need to -- there was an interesting assertion. One way or another they were all tainted by this place, from the food they ate to the water they drank. Was it so large a leap from eating what was offered here and using the tools they had been given? Perhaps it was habit ingrained from Sound, but Sasuke had learned enough from the sacrifices he had made for his goals to be aware that the price paid would never be within comfort.

Then again, those selfsame goals had been ... Sasuke dropped his hand back to his side, tension abruptly written through his frame in unwitting mirroring of Aidou's movements. Had he sacrificed too much on the altar of blind intent -- had there even been another option (but there must have been, had he simply been more) -- and was there any other, here, with every step dogged by one interested overlord or the other?

Landel had violated the integrity of Sasuke's shinobi body and above and beyond that the sanctity of Sasuke's brother's body. It was too many cards played already. If there was worse to come (and Sasuke doubted there was) -- if there was, he was sick of simply letting it happen for free. Aidou could take the luxury of selecting what he did and didn't take (and maybe that was related to how he ate, here, less direct and more selective to begin with). Sasuke was accustomed to using no more than what he had.

"Where I was the night the doorways first shifted," he answered, brief and disappointing. "It was a room neither my companion nor I were able to recognise before the night ended."

[blood_and_pocky]

What a topic they were getting into. Perhaps best if they left it alone. Aidou… didn’t know how to resolve his own feelings, let alone someone else’s, someone so different from him to begin with.

He turned instead to the persistent dilemma that was Sasuke’s blindness. Although the boy had grown more accustomed to his disability since those first few days, it could still be problematic, as in the case of a battle, or in this case, being unable to identify his surroundings.

“Hm, maybe I’ve been there. What could you tell about it?” he asked. Who knew what could happen--if they didn’t know anything about the ring itself, they could at least figure out where it might lead, if Landel’s fanciful little teleporter actually worked as advertised. He knew almost all of the first two floors by reputation, if not personal experience. From what he’d learned from Hime, though, people had ended up in all sorts of unusual places… “Anyway, Zack’s waiting. We should talk while we move.”

[to here]