Day 56: Bill's Hardware (early afternoon)

[yin_yang_fox]

The day progressed, and still the Digimon had maintained a casual air despite herself, moving around the town to take note of the going-ons instead of see to something herself. The credit given was still a question, but the more realistic side of her demanded that she purchase something, and test the boundaries that were set for them. Thought

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[yin_yang_fox]

[SAME.]

She had moved back into the aisles in consideration, and had been debating her need for anything. If anything, the Digimon needed a place to hold some of her weapons at night. Placing them on her person simplified things, yet limited what she could have on her at any such time. She needed her hands free, or at least preferred it, so holding her larger tools invariably came as flawed. More something that could hold them, then. She had cases, those still had kept her hands full. A bag could be far too easily disrupted. Something like....

She hesitated near the tools, glancing in the direction of the register for any outcry. A toolbelt, possibly. That would allow some of her things to be held as well as have a few pockets for things she came across. She considered silently, as the door again opened. This time offering a familiar pair of footsteps, a quiet walk she was becoming used to. Her eyes slid to the side, following the sound through the aisles, and Renamon left the choice for now, instead moving around the corner into the next aisle where the steps had paused.

"Sasuke," she greeted quietly, a part of her seeing this as ironic; her greeting, his actions, from the week prior. Her mind touched his reaction at her last answer he had requested. She wondered. In the end, left it. It was not for her to so idly know.

[sasuke_of_sound]

[[AND AGAIN ;;]]

Sasuke could recall the first time he had been in this store and the considerable lengths he'd gone to in an effort to steal something remotely useful from it, only to have the tools he'd deemed most useful taken from him at the bus. How closely were the soldiers clinging to their covers as hospital staff? If they made a legitimate purchase, would they care about its contents?

He was frowning deeply over a selection of various gauges of wire when footsteps approached him -- measured and familiar enough that when the greeting came, he was not surprised. Without moving his line of blind-sight, Sasuke inclined his head, almost amused by the regularity of some things in this place.

"Renamon," acknowledgment even as his fingers curved thoughtfully over a coil of steel. "We meet again."

[yin_yang_fox]

At his words, she inclined her head on habit, despite the lack of vision. "Yes," she responded quietly, eyes tracing his movements. Vaguely familiar, this. Would he try to steal again, or just test the money given? "Were you able to explore the basement further after that night?"

If memory served, it placed a shield to accompany sword, and the Digimon wondered if there was symbolism in that. There were still doors that had not been opened--were there more of items to be gathered, or were they something else entirely? It was a game to be played, of that she was sure, but of any importance was still something to be measured.

[sasuke_of_sound]

The question of progress, immediately. Renamon was nothing if not efficient, something Sasuke appreciated without appreciating the fact that he had little more to tell since she had last accompanied a basement trip. Finally selecting two gauges of wire -- one thick enough to work into lockpicks, or anything else that might be useful, and one thin enough to be practical in the night shift -- he lifted the coils from the shelf.

"We were able to reach the doors where the items fit," he said after a moment. "The plan is to get past them --" Finally -- "Tonight.

"Have you progressed toward your goals?"

[yin_yang_fox]

His reply answered her unspoken question, and she noted it. An item from either side, sword and shield, to fit within a third door. The one straight-ahead once they had come down, most likely. Landel had been nothing but dramatic, and that would fit the theme. And so... She thought of the challenges she had faced personally. A set of four rooms tasked with the elements and threatening survival, and a creature of myth with a riddle to answer. Testing the mind and body, then? What would the center door hold with that theme? Something to test the heart?

At his own question, part of her internally grimaced. Both aspects of the question were faulty--progression, nonexistent, and if asked on her focus, she'd reveal none. This was how the Digimon had spent the past days--reviewing her information and going over the aspects to further investigate. This, however, lacked the actual detail of a concrete goal. Renamon's goal? To find Rika, and secondly, to take down this place. Somehow along the way, it had switched from escape to destruction, and she wondered if it had been Nataku's words that had shifted her mind. The boy-god had allowed her much--her own continued movement not being the least. It was only something correct, that she work for his sake as well.

She was silent, watched the other as he moved and selected items. "No," she answered, tone lack and void of emotion. Something more normal than she had been using lately. "There's very little I can say as of late that I've accomplished to any satisfaction."

[sasuke_of_sound]

The answer echoed a frustration that was familiar in fact and feeling; for all that Renamon's voice was calm and without expression, Sasuke recognised in it the flavour of his own failures over the past weeks. If there was one hold stronger than any other that the Institute had over them, it was the control of time itself, their days whittled to useless repetition and their nights compressed and decompressed at will. It was a plaything that made toys of them by proxy as much as any lock on their powers.

Was that how the monsters in this place were kept as well, perhaps? The creature in the basement that had presented its question with the air of a captive unable to choose other than what was ordered -- it had been a structure of behaviour that Sasuke knew well. Sound and the Institute; the Institute and Sound; as dissimilar they were in the physical, they were designed with like purpose and methodology that matched it.

But what was the purpose of deliberately frustrating their progress over and over, if it was anything other than a test of tenacity?

"There are times when ..." He paused, uncertain of how to phrase an unfinished thought. "It seems almost that we are held back. I am not sure of the purpose of doing so."

[yin_yang_fox]

She glanced at the boy when he spoke, the hesitance statement made sounding familiar to Renamon's ears. Held back. That was a way to say it... One way to touch on the vaguest of curiosities placed before them. "There are a few explanations," she allowed slowly, watching Sasuke.

"There are few that have remained." As she was sure he had noticed. "For any amount of time longer than a week or two. It's possible it's fortitude then. A culling of the beings gathered until the stock procured is a bit more resilent to what they are intending." Of what that was, there was but a few details--and was not the subject at hand. "There is also the possibility of restraint on the ones that are close to succeeding in some places--that was a theory amoung some of my contacts, that the closer you are to finding something, the more you lose time and possibility to succeed at it."

And the rest? "...Or it could be neither. And this is only a game." Unlikely, she thought, at this point. She could have believed that, had believed it, but now there was a denial of that as a theory. And she wasn't quite sure if that was a logical conclusion or personal bias.

[sasuke_of_sound]

Culling of the stock had been Sasuke's theory and frustration simultaneously; as much as the trials they faced seemed designed to do the same, the day-to-day grind and the fact of who went and who stayed appeared the opposite. Renamon's ideas were intriguing, something he'd turned over with no small measure of irritation before: the notion that they were somehow being tried for psychological perseverance moreso than physical. But if so, why bring people back?

Why had there been so many returns amongst merely those from his own world: Kakashi twice, Sakura twice, Naruto three times, even. There had been no logic to it that Sasuke could detect, when objectively assessing their strengths.

The notion of being restrained when close to success ... there was something the struck home. Frowning, Sasuke picked over the rest of the shelf, finding a box that rattled when initially touched and was ultimately revealed to contain large paperclips. "Why restrain us if we're about to achieve something? To test our will?

"If this were a game, there seem to be too many players," he added, pensive. Landel and Aguilar wanted the same thing, and Doyle seemed to have at least at one point wanted it as well. "To keep us for their entertainment ...

"No," he decided after a pause. "The people who have held power here seem too restrained in their own turn to be merely playing."

[yin_yang_fox]

The Digimon gave a soft "hm" of acknowledgment, nodding despite herself. "You're right," she replied. "The recent override tells us that. Whether or not the coup is a farce, this at least places several things into focus. That they are tired of waiting, for one thing. Their timetable has moved up, and the ways they were using to achieve their goal were replaced by another that may be more effective. None of those who have graced the board have been any more than pawns." Her eyes fluttered shut in thought. "In my opinion."

Of the military, Renamon both knew too much and too little, and altogether far more than she would have liked. The machinations of human men was more than often faulty--moreso when government was involved. Of the theories to this place, the military aspect had been the one least liked and most hoped against, and yet if she took sights as facts, it was what existed as actual. Her mouth thinned.

"To test our will," she repeated, tone flat. "There is also the option that some may actually be close to important information or data. And are restrained for the simple matter of restricting their actions on the subject." She glanced up. "Whether or not that is accurate, the fact remains that we will not move unless it's by their rules. The basement itself adds credence to that."

[sasuke_of_sound]

Pawns indeed; pawns playing pawns forming the Institute after all. A degree of removal from Sound, where at least there had been a clear enough kingpin in the form of Orochimaru. Then again, there had been nominal heads of each facility in turn, but they had been somewhat less than what Landel and now Aguilar were. If this was meant to be a mode of selection for some military purpose, as Sasuke increasingly felt confirmed, then this was something less rational than what Orochimaru had been running.

And yet it was something much less organised than what a standard shinobi village used on its students, nowhere near as gentle as Konohagakure nearly sending the weak as long as they were willing or indiscriminate Kirigakure whittling down its own students until it ran on only the leanest and most vicious few.

"There are those who have been through the basement before us, surely," Sasuke responded, frown building across his forehead. "That there has not been more information about it shared ..." Either his information network was more deteriorated than even he had thought, or -- "Are they prevented from speaking of it?"