Night 50: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

[ai_no_minako]

[from here]

Was she really the only one out in the hallway right now? Minako certainly couldn't hear anyone else, and she didn't see any flashlights out there in the darkness. Brr. That was kind of... creepy. When it was dark the hallways seemed a lot more echo-y, and she couldn't help but think about the stories about monsters and things that

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[loyal_soldier]

[From here]

622 entered into the hallway, surveying the area under the light of his glowrod. Patrolling was all well and good, but if he didn't find anyone to help here, he was wasting time he could be spending out somewhere else, somewhere more heavily patrolled by hostiles that new prisoners wouldn't know about. Still, a lot of newcomers tended to take a bit of time before they headed out, so it was still worth doing a check of the main cell block hallways all the same.

He really almost didn't notice the girl in the hallway. Turned away from him, the light she had was more obscured, and frankly, he just... hadn't been looking that far down. Still, her movements looked indecisive, and despite all the time he'd spent here, dealing with all the exceedingly strange people trapped by the Institute, someone who looked like that didn't exactly scream "combat-ready" to him.

He approached, stopping a fair distance away so as not to startle her, glowrod pointed down. "Are you alright, miss?" Normally he would have gone for 'ma'am', but that was usually reserved for someone he could positively identify as being old enough to qualify as a 'ma'am'. The girl looked ridiculously young to him, in clone years, maybe six or seven at most.

[gald_digger]

At the sound of a voice addressing her, Anise blinked a few times, then whirled around to see a larger man looking down at her. Was that concern on his face? Okay, it was a little too dark to see, but she was going to assume that it was.

Ooh, she still had it! All she needed to do was stand there and men came flocking to her aid. It was because of her cuteness, wasn't it?

"Me? I'm just fine!" Anise replied with a cheerful smile. Leaving it at that would mean passing up a chance to get herself a convenient bodyguard, though, so she continued. "I guess I'm just not sure what I should do tonight. Sitting around in my room would be way too boring, you know?" With the way the guy asked if she was all right when she was in perfect shape, Anise guessed he was thinking that she was totally helpless.

...And as much as she hated it, that was true, to some extent. She still had some artes, and she was decent with a mallet, but she wasn't exactly well-equipped to take on some of the things that lurked around at Landel's.

"What about you, mister? What are you up to?" she went on to ask, grinning. If he was going to do something exciting, maybe she could squeeze herself into his plans!

[loyal_soldier]

622 tilted his head just slightly to one side, doing his very best to not even let a confused expression take hold on his face. That... sounded amazingly naive. "It might be boring, but boring is preferable to potential loss of life." Although he couldn't always truthfully say that, there had been days before, back with the Empire, when he had been so achingly bored, he'd caught himself wishing for a firefight. But even then, that didn't make it any less of a stupid thing for him to have wished for.

While he didn't return the girl's smile, his expression softened just a little. "I'm currently patrolling to try and help those who might be unable to defend themselves." There had been a group devoted to that at some point, but he hadn't really heard anything about it in days. That was no excuse not to keep working to protect others, as far as he was concerned.

[gald_digger]

This guy was so serious.

It wasn't like Anise didn't understand the danger - she just didn't like being pessimistic about it! She'd seen people die, and she'd been worn out by the horrible things happening at the institute, but that was all the more reason to keep smiling. She wouldn't let a bastard like Landel break her.

She was trying to be cheerful and casual, but it looked like the stranger wasn't so easily infected by her positivity. It was a little disappointing, but she got over it quickly. At least he didn't seem grumpy or anything.

"Patrolling, huh...?" Anise's gaze wandered to the man's weapon, then up to his mostly-deadpan face. Was he a lawman or a soldier or something? She wondered. "Do you do this a lot? It sounds kind of boring. Unless..." Her face lit up with another girlish grin, her imagination conjuring up the most exciting scenarios it could. "Do you ever get to do any daring rescues? Help any beautiful damsels in distress?"

[loyal_soldier]

Maybe... he wasn't going about this right. He had no idea how to deal with civilians who... were under some certain age that he couldn't quite identify. It wasn't something that came naturally to him. Age groups had been mostly separated at the cloning facility, but even at a young age, clones were still expected to be soldiers in training. Civilian children he'd only really seen rarely, he'd mostly been in non-human areas of Malastare, and Ralltiir had developed into such a mess that it hadn't been all that uncommon to have some children waving to the Imperials while others threw rocks. That... really was as close as he'd ever gotten to young civvies who weren't troublemakers or terrorists. Being at Landel's hadn't exactly expanded his knowledge base much. The only boy he'd talked to here who looked identifiably young had blatantly attempted to manipulate him, misunderstand what he'd said, and had eventually really earned the backhand that 622 had given him.

...Come to think of it, he was probably doing just fine with how he was handling this, all things considered.

"If I can keep others safe, it's worth it. ...And yes, sometimes, although I can't say anything towards the 'beautiful damsels' aspect." Or 'daring', really. He was just trying to do the sensible thing to help those who could potentially help everyone else escape, if they all could be motivated by others with more of a head for command than himself.

[gald_digger]

She couldn't quite fault the guy for being so dedicated to helping others, but at the same time, Anise couldn't help but feel that his perspective was naïve. That was a good way to get used by people, for sure.

"Hmm... so it's a secret? Or maybe I'm the first beautiful maiden you've run into?" Anise ventured, looking like she was enjoying a fun little guessing game. "It's fine with me if you want to help me out, but like I said, I don't have anywhere in particular I'm planning to go tonight."

The girl folded her arms (as best she could, when they were both holding items) and slowly tilted her head from side to side as she thought. "I've already been to most of the exciting places around here, so... maybe tonight would be a good time to stock up on supplies, or something." She straightened her posture again to look up at the man. "Can you think of anywhere good?"

[loyal_soldier]

Given 622's usual place in the grand order of things, getting used would sound like business as usual to him.

"More towards the latter," he said rather helplessly, although he wasn't entirely endorsing the concept. Probably the most attractive woman he'd met here was Taura, and that mostly meant 'she's a soldier with good sense'. As far as he went with the idea of physical attractiveness, his conception of how to handle that stopped at 'they have symmetrical features'.

"I..." Well, the ways to some of the rooms upstairs usually weren't guarded... "The upstairs kitchen and tool closet likely have useful things."

[gald_digger]

Anise just giggled at the man's reply. He really could have worded it in a more flattering way, but she'd take what she could get.

"Hmm. That's a good idea. The last time I tried for that closet, somebody beat me to all the good stuff," Anise mused, recalling when she had gone there to collect metal supplies for the Cooking Club. That felt like a long time ago, now. She was feeling kind of lucky tonight, so... "Maybe I'll give it a shot!"

With that decided, the girl turned and took a few steps down the hallway, walking south. She stopped for a moment, looking over her shoulder with a grin. "You wanna come?" It sounded like this guy was out to protect cute, defenseless girls like her, after all.

[loyal_soldier]

622 was really just lost as to how to respond to the giggling. It was really a relief when they got back to talking about something probably unwise and dangerous instead.

"If you're going, then I would feel irresponsible not to follow." A single person, no matter how skilled, could still be vulnerable without another there to watch their back. Hopefully this would work, but he was still cautious and unsure about this idea.

[gald_digger]

Oh? How nice of him. Anise had already guessed that he'd say something like that, though. If he just did something about that boring, deadpan personality of his, he probably could have been popular with girls. Women loved a dependable man with a sense of chivalry!

Oh well. They couldn't all be princes.

"Then let's go!" Anise chirped, waving the hand that held her flashlight, gesturing for him to follow her. With that, she marched onward to the next hallway.

[to here]