Night 46: North of the Institute

[unheroed]

[From here.]The landing was rough, but not as bad as it could have been. Pressing a hand against the ground to brace himself, Harvey straightened painfully and then searched around for his flashlight and pipe. The former was easier to fine, and once he'd collected that and turned it back on, he used it to run over the ground as he waited for the

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[blood_and_pocky]

They had, but when the answer didn’t satisfy Aidou, there was nothing resolved about the subject. “I don’t think that’s true,” was the vampire’s response at first. “So perhaps it is.” Playing on affections with a certain lack of sincerity was something he, himself, had been doing for ages, and the fact that Anise seemed to do the same, with him no less, would’ve bothered him had he been outside Landel’s. Here, though, that she hadn’t been taken in by him was mostly water under the bridge. He just didn’t believe her. It was about time she realized that.

Whether he, too, should follow his own line of thinking and drop his sweet-talking pretences remained to be seen. He hadn’t been calling on them much at all, but even when he did, he was different from Anise in that he didn’t reek of dishonesty when he did so. But that was daytime play for him, at best. Head cocked, he didn’t answer when she claimed that safety in numbers was the other reason for her persistence.

Well, even if she reversed her position on the eye-batting front, nothing else really changed about what he was going to do with her…

He exhaled, moving away from the wall before orienting himself east so that he wouldn’t be single file with her. “As for what’s out there, I take it you don’t know.”

[gald_digger]

Huh? He didn't believe her? It was true that Anise wasn't exactly being sincere... but she wasn't exactly lying, either. In a way, she was just trying to get to know Aidou better. And normally, traveling with someone at night was a really good way to get closer, worm her way into his heart, maybe help him out and get him to feel indebted to her... stuff like that. "What else would it be?" she asked, sounding bewildered at his apparent suspicion.

Hmph. Anise wasn't sure what he suspected her of, but it was pretty rude when he was acting so suspicious himself.

His non-answer to her own question got a pout from Anise. "No, I don't really." She wanted to know, which was a big part of why she was out here in the first place, and hopefully Aidou was going to start talking before they ran into something weird or dangerous.

[blood_and_pocky]

Although his own physical restrictions and the layer of mist made it difficult to see very far into the distance, Aidou couldn’t make out anything out of the ordinary in the forested, half-dead area the hospital was situated in. Everything was as it’d been the first time he’d come this way, including the aroma of blood that circulated along air currents and tickled the back of his throat. Soon there would be the burble of water, followed by a moderate run to the town. If nothing hindered him, and he didn’t lag, he could make it there with time to spare, despite how much time he’d lost arguing with Anise.

But that was without factoring her in. Unless he was carrying her on his back, he’d have to keep in mind that she would probably move at a slower pace… unless he really was going to leave her to get eaten by a bear. But that was… And she was in slippers, no less.

Again, that feeling of resigned finality. A part of him saw no choice in the matter, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Turning his head to eye her up, he drew himself back to the discussion at hand. She posed the question when it came to the other prisoners. Relations with them were rarely simple. If they didn’t want something from him, and weren’t actively seeking to harm him, they still had their own survival in mind, and true colors could emerge. Aidou had never counted himself a miserable misanthrope, but he was hardly expecting innocence and altruism from the others. Half were back-stabbing ingrates, and even if it’d be a sign of total paranoia to think someone like Anise were out to get him, he had his eye on people’s underbellies rather than their facades. It was a better judge of character. So was she honestly just doing what came natural to her?

“I don’t know,” Aidou answered easily. “You’d have to tell me that. I would just think people would be less willing to throw their lot in with an unknown variable, considering how high the costs can be in this place. Especially at night. If you’d only wanted the company, you could’ve approached me during the day.” Excluding the fact she was a human child, in general ‘trust’ and ‘nightshift’ were complicated elements to combine. But to get into that would be needless and overly convoluted. He didn’t think this whole meeting was more than bad luck, and any of Anise’s motives straightforward.

Having a population comprised of so many unnatural, unusual prisoners would change any playing field, though. It wasn’t over thinking to question them more closely than normal.

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