Nightshift 46: M11-M20 Hallway

[notthistrain]

Once again the doors had opened. Cloud believed most of what Yuffie had told him, but it was still unreal the way this place operated. They were clearly being tested, mocked, or both with the nightly routine, yet they didn't have many other options but to take the chances they were given

Comments

M19

[replicatedorder]

After Cloud made it clear that he was leaving for now, Luke left his bed to return to his desk with his journal and the maps in hand. He retrieved his flashlight and checked around the room until he located his pipe in the closet. Maybe he would use it tonight, maybe not, but he still liked having the comfort of it sitting there. He returned to his desk, setting up the flashlight in such a way that it would shine light overhead and illuminate his portion of the room. It wasn't a great strategy, but it would work for now

Outside M19

[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]Fully aware of how ridiculous he must have looked with a meat cleaver in one hand, a short sword in the other, and a flashlight crammed under his arm, Guy just hoped that Luke would focus more on the fact that he was doing him a favor rather than his appearance. Seeing how neither of his hands were free, he had to resort to banging his foot against the door as a substitute for knocking. Definitely not as polite as he would have liked, but he got the feeling Luke would forgive him that

[replicatedorder]

One of the bad things about working like this was that he was forced to strain his eyes the entire time. It wasn't like he hadn't had to do it other times. Making notes in a journal while moving through various parts of Auldrant hadn't always afforded Luke with the best positions; sometimes he was forced to squint and look closely by a firelight. Other times, he had the fortune of stopping at an inn, which was well-lit most of the time. Then again, writing journal entries just meant he had to remember things. This required precision, and, of course, this place didn't exactly make that easy. Still, he did what he could, and just hoped that it would be legible when he handed it over to Cloud.

The good thing, at least, was that he was mostly done. The roof needed a couple more markings, but he could finish that in the morning. This was especially good with the banging on the door-though Luke wasn't an expert about knocking of all things, that didn't sound like a hand-coming just as he pushed aside his journal with a heaved sigh

[razing_phoenix]

Just hearing that voice put Guy at ease. He'd known through all of his worrying that it had been more or less unfounded, and yet he hadn't been able to help himself. He imagined that was a side effect of watching over someone for so many years. That protective instinct didn't go away so easily.

He didn't hesitate to hand over the flashlight when Luke moved to take it from him, since that was definitely the most precarious thing that he'd been holding. On the other hand, the meat cleaver was what he was really here to deliver, and so he flipped the blade around to extend it handle-first to his friend. "As promised," he said with a smile. "I know it's not much, but it'll work for now."

It wasn't like Luke would be able to perform most of his Artes here, anyway. Without being able to do a lot of fancy swordplay, all that was really necessary was the means to take out a monster, and the cleaver would work well enough for that in most cases. Unless they ran into something really nasty, anyway

[replicatedorder]

Kneejerk reaction as it was, Luke frowned in response to behavior. Serving as his friend or not, he didn't entirely like the habits and jokes that tended to come along with it. He just wanted his friend, and some part of Luke felt weird about it. It was the same as when he was titled as the Viscount for being a hero; it was true that he did a lot and he embraced it, but the similar air of awkwardness was still there within him. For the sake of not making a big deal out of it, Luke shoved it aside, but he had a feeling Guy would be able to tell anyway

[razing_phoenix]

As expected, Guy did notice Luke's reaction, and it was enough to make him straighten and square his shoulders almost immediately. He still wasn't being casual, and he realized that, but he never liked to relax too much, even when he was in these hallways that were hardly ever frequented by monsters. If it chafed against Luke that much when he did things like that, then Guy would have to try and quit it. Easier said than done, but he'd keep it in mind

[replicatedorder]

"Yeah, that's also what I know," he said with a frown. "But it's better to go up there than to go back down to the basement. Even if you can't tell me what happened there, I know it was something bad." Another assertion of information, to make it clear that Luke was apparent something happened. He regretted not telling Cloud that bit of information, but knew he would at their next shared meal. If not there, Luke intended to experiment with the bulletin a little to see what he could tell others. "But ... uh, that's gotta be what we do now."

An epiphany occurred to him just then. Luke glanced back toward his journal and what he had been previously drawing. A roof. "Hey, Guy, how come people know about the roof, but not the way to the third floor?" Knowing this place, there was some uncomfortable, unfortunate explanation, but he felt the need to ask. Really, he figured it was something stupid like the fact that the floor was somehow skipped when they went up on an elevator. It seemed to match the atmosphere of this place.

[razing_phoenix]

What? Why wouldn't Guy be able to tell Luke about what had happened in the basement? He'd already hinted at it, after all. "That's where..." But even though more words should have come, they didn't. He wanted so badly to tell his friend that's where Sync killed me, but it wasn't working.

So that's what Luke meant. He must have figured it out when speaking to Anise about all this earlier on. Guy clenched his teeth and let his arms fall to his sides in a sign of irritation. "Well, that's annoying. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, though." If they were able to warn everyone about what the basement led to, then people wouldn't continue to fall into that trap. It made perfect sense, really.

At least Luke went ahead and brought up something that Guy could talk about, although he quickly realized that he didn't have a good answer for his friend. "That's a good question. I only ever got my hands on maps of the first and second floor, so I'm not really sure." Maybe there was some secret way to get up to the roof? He hadn't heard much about

[replicatedorder]

Luke noticed Guy's inability to speech and it annoyed him immediately. Those bastards who ran this place made it impossible for him to share what happened; just seeing that made him tighten his hands around the flashlight and handle of the cleaver. They needed to make everything harder on people, and it was obvious that they needed things to go their way. At least, Luke did have a plan around that; he just hoped they didn't come and try and shut him up for trying to employ that. With their stringent controls on things, he wouldn't be too surprised

[razing_phoenix]

Guy was as annoyed, if not more so, by his inability to talk, but there was no point in either of them dwelling on it. There didn't seem to be any immediate way to fix it, and so they would just have to look for other options for how to get back at this place. Guy drew a little closer into the room and then took the map from Luke when he handed it over. He recognized Anise's writing and smiled to himself, but then took to examining the map itself.

It was very detailed, to the point that it made Guy suspicious. Why hadn't he heard more about this until now? Maybe it had been special circumstances that had allowed someone to gain access to the roof, but figuring out what that was wouldn't be easy. "Yeah, it's worth a shot, but first we've gotta figure out how to get there." Which was already obvious, but sometimes it was worth setting Luke on the right track. The redhead had a tendency to jump too far ahead of himself. "I guess the first step would be asking Anise where she got this." It had been after Guy had copied her maps, at the

[replicatedorder]

Recalling where Anise got the maps from, Luke had a feeling that going to her might not give them the results they needed. "She said she got it from the bulletin," he explained. "Before they decided to make everything harder on people." Not that he knew how well distributed things were before, but Luke could easily imagine. Anise was able to get maps then. That was enough of an explanation of how much things changed. "I-I have a pretty good feeling that she probably will be as clueless as we are." In a way, he berated himself a little for not asking that very obvious question when they were talking. Then again, it was too late now to worry about it

[razing_phoenix]

That did complicate things, then. If Anise had just snatched them off of the bulletin, then anyone could have put them up. Chances were that they wouldn't be able to ask about it on there unless they used some sort of veiled language, but it might be worth a shot just to solve this mystery. There was a chance that someone had just made the map up to try and mislead people, but Guy didn't want to assume anything. "Yeah, we... might be out of luck, then," he agreed. At least Anise had managed to copy it down before the staff had started watching the board so closely

[replicatedorder]

One of the good things about drawing maps while Guy was coming was that he wouldn't be going out completely blind. Luke didn't know all the various intricacies of the institute, but he at least recalled where the stairs were. "Yeah, I remember from drawing it," he replied. His hands shifted to fold up the map for the moment, so it would at least be in a different condition. Plus, even if Guy offered to lead, Luke wasn't sure he would have wanted that. It was a thing that he forced himself to do, even in the most difficult of conditions. Making decisions for himself was one of the big changes, and his friends had always been there with him. Now that he was here, it only seemed logical to continue down that vein.

Luke took the proactive position by easing around Guy and opening the door. His flashlight pointed forward, he started down into the hallway, hoping that he wouldn't run into anything problematic along the way. And if he did, at least he would have the meat cleaver, which felt decidedly better than a stinky old pipe.

[to