Night 55: M41-M50 Hallway

[corvus_veritas]

.....Ow. Okay, uh. Was all that static really necessary? If that guy was hoping to give everyone a migraine, he was certainly on the right track. He excelled at being annoying as much as he did delivering creepy, cryptic messages. Alright. Good for you, whoever you were.

But no matter. The strange speech over the intercom was the least of the

Comments

[thestormishere]

[ From here. ]

As such, again Lightning lead on without paying much attention to how closely her companions were following. These halls were deserted, their threat level relatively low unless something lurked behind one of the doors that was supposed to lead to just another bedroom... or unless something strange kicked in again- a possibility she was extremely aware of. Even though some of the comments being made - heading outside after this, for example - probably needed more discussion applied to them, she was determined to get this meeting with Kibitoshin done first. Before something happened or night came to an end entirely.

Several steps into the hallway, though, she spun in place - a common thing to do tonight, apparently - facing Snow and Zack as she took a step backward and then halted right in the middle of the hallway.

"It might be better if you stayed outside," she said, chin lowered. She had several motives for suggesting that, but chose to voice only one as she glanced between them: "Faster, that way."

[zack_fair]

Glad to see that they didn't have to travel to a different block entirely, Zack followed after Lightning once she'd taken the lead. It seemed like they were going to get all the necessities done with time to spare, which was honestly a first for him -- or close to it, anyway. He'd gotten a lot done on the night that they'd gone back to Gaia, but had he experienced any successful nights since then? Not really. He'd gotten close with Sasuke and Aidou, but it had always fallen flat before they could really get anywhere. He'd see how working with these two compared

[heroesdontshave]

You know, Snow had only ever run right out of this block and out into the hallways at night, so he'd never actually taken the time to stop and look at this sector. But now that they were wandering through here, he couldn't help but be a little unsettled by it. All these halls were so narrow and the rooms were so damn close. They were just packing people tight in here, weren't they? Then again, it made sense. Whether this was some sort of prison or a training facility, it wasn't exactly the type of place the guys in charge tried to make comfortableApparently he was so busy looking around, that they ended up reaching their destination faster than he'd expected. Or close to their destination, anyway. It sounded like Lightning wanted to go the rest alone. Made sense. He guessed it sounded faster doing it that way rather than getting everyone caught up in conversation. So Snow was fine waiting outside and standing watch with Zack while she went in

[thestormishere]

Neither offered any sort of objection, which was certainly good... although the brief sigh Lightning gave in response held only a very small amount of relief in it. Leaving Snow to talk with Zack? She gave the taller man a long look of warning as any number of adverse possibilities ran through her head in rapid succession. Unfortunately, whether or not the 'NORA' leader would catch the meaning of it at all was... debatable.

"Just watch yourselves," she said steadily, finding it impossible to not also think of the weird occurrences from previous nights, "I shouldn't be long." And with that she turned away to finally find the room she'd fixed as her goal for the night ever since talking to its owner over lunch-time.

[ To here! No wild parties while she's away, boys. ]

[zack_fair]

While Zack caught the look that Lightning sent Snow, he didn't really know what it meant. It was a little bit awkward, he had to admit, since he knew he was the third wheel in this whole situation. But he wasn't going to let that stop him from taking advantage of a good opportunity like this. He doubted that Lightning needed three weapons for herself, which was probably why she'd offered in the first place.

A bit nicer than she seemed, then.

Either way, she was inside the room now so it was time to settle in for what might be a long wait. He didn't know if a transaction had to be made or if this unknown person would want to chat, so it was best to be prepared to kill some time. Which was pretty easy for Zack to do, thankfully.

"So," he said, leaning against the wall and then turning his head to eye Snow, "how did you and Lightning meet?" They seemed like such an unmatched pair that he figured there had to be a good story behind it, and Snow didn't seem nearly as secretive as Lightning did.

[heroesdontshave]

Unfortunately, there was no super-secret inside meaning behind the look Lightning threw Snow. None he could deduce, anyway. She'd either gotten annoyed at his response somehow or she was just being normal and he was having trouble telling again. Sometimes it was hard to differentiate one glare for another, you know? If it was something important though, he figured she would have said something.

After she turned and headed into the room, Zack seemed to settle himself against the wall, ready to pass the time with some idle conversation. Which was probably good cause Snow would have started getting reeeally antsy if he had to wait in silence for too long. Snow rubbed the back of his head and laughed almost sheepishly at the question. Oh, man. How to even start with that.

"Hahaha, it ended up bein' kinda an accident, actually. Lightning's part of the Bodhum Security Regiment. Guardian Corps, you know? I think part of her job is patrolling or something, so it'd be kinda hard not to run into her somewhere eventually." Especially when G.C

[zack_fair]

As Zack had guessed, Snow had no problem with answering his questions. He actually gave more information than Zack really knew what to do with, since he was throwing out terms as if he'd be able to follow along when in reality he hadn't heard of these things before. Bodhum Security Regiment? Guardian Corps? It was pretty clear that he was talking about the military organization that Lightning had been a part of, but still

[heroesdontshave]

"Uhh. ...Stayin' away?" He laughed and lifted a hand up in a sort of 'oh well' shrug. "Okay okay, maybe she didn't completely figure it out, I guess. I think maybe she thought I was just following her around or something? I dunno." Something about his tone probably indicated that he hadn't given this 'talk' much consideration until now. Probably because that was exactly the case.

Snow crossed his arms and looked like he was actually pondering this over. "Serah said Light was always away from home and stuff with how much she worked. So it's not like there was ever a good time to swing by and introduce myself. Probably just looked weird."

That was what he told himself, anyway. He and Lightning hadn't spoken at all before that chance meeting, so it's not like he could have gone and done something to make her all unhappy about the idea, right? I mean, yeah, she had seemed kind of irritated during that exchange, but then again, Lightning always kinda looked irritated or mad or something

[zack_fair]

It was hard to get a proper read on the situation when Snow was wavering back and forth on the details, but Zack did his best to piece through it nonetheless. So Lightning had noticed this guy with her sister and had likely jumped to some conclusions, but because she was always busy with her work Snow hadn't gotten the chance to introduce himself, which she'd probably seen as rude...

Either way, it sounded like a bit of a mess and yet the fact that Snow was acting so casual about the whole thing made it seem like it had been resolved at this point. "Well, I guess that's true," he said in response to the last comment. "Soldier work can be pretty tiring, but it doesn't have to be all bad." He'd gotten high up in the ranks and he certainly didn't act like Lightning. Nor had he completely ignored his friends and family because of his work. He'd regularly written to his parents and had gone to visit Aerith pretty frequently after they met. It was true that a lot of his friends had been fellow soldiers, but still

[heroesdontshave]

"I guess," Snow agreed a bit offhandedly. "I mean, if you're going about it right, soldiers get to save lives and stuff. That's always good, right? Guess it's kinda worth it if you think of it that way." That was assuming you weren't a complete bastard like most military tended to be. At least Guardian Corps functioned more like patrol and security than a straight military group, but in the end, all soldiers were on the government's leash. They say jump, you ask how high and all that. He really hated that. And he hated having to rely on the Sanctum or the military for anything. Normal people can look out for each other. You didn't need a rank plate on your shoulder to help someone. That was why NORA had been started in the first place. But Zack probably didn't understand that and figured all soldiers were good or something. Despite everything. Snow wasn't exactly going to crush that belief if he didn't have to

[zack_fair]

Getting to save lives. Well, that was supposed to sum it up, and in many ways, that was what Zack had been expecting when he'd first joined SOLDIER. That he'd be fighting for the good of the people, that he'd be able to make a difference. And he realized that he had done that in a number of ways, but the truth was that not all of them were good. He could recognize the grudge that Yuffie still held for him, for instance. He'd had to take the lives of people he cared about because orders dictated it and because they themselves had asked for it. In the end, it all went back to Shin-Ra and to Hojo, but

[heroesdontshave]

Snow himself probably didn't realize how absolutely average this kind of thing probably sounded to an outsider. This was honestly about as complicated as life ever got back home for normal people. Things like fighting monsters were really rare for most people. Unless you went out of your way to join the military or go into some obscure field, civilians lived and died perfect, worry-free lives. The way everything was regulated, it was difficult for anyone to understand how truly sheltered they had been for centuries. So as far as he was concerned, this kind of news was a pretty big deal.

"She said yes!" he said immediately, looking absolutely ecstatic for a few moments before the context of the question sank in. Then he blinked. "Wait. ...Aha. You mean Light, don't you?"

Mmm, that one was a bit more complicated of an answer. They'd both ended up losing their tempers then, hadn't they? Even though it had only been a few weeks ago, Snow honestly hadn't thought back to any of this. After his anger fizzled out, he'd just kinda forgotten

[thestormishere]

[ From here. ]

... Whatever Lightning had planned to do or say once she'd left Kibitoshin's room with her three new weapons, it went out the window immediately the moment she heard Snow's loud voice, talking about something that she thought he really shouldn't have been- it wasn't hard to piece together, even with the scant few words she was able to hear while coming out of the door.

Alarm rose up in her instinctively, instantly, making her chest and throat tighten in involuntary response. "What are you talking about?" she demanded, and though her own voice wasn't that much more raised than normal, it was undoubtedly just as sharp as the varied blades now on her person, cutting through the darkness in the hall as if she'd gone and thrown one of the things at the two men

[zack_fair]

So it seemed that even though Serah had wanted to marry Snow (a bit young to be doing that by Zack's standards, but he was guessing that different worlds had different ideas about that sort of thing), Lightning hadn't approved of it. While an older sibling had no business getting that involved when it came to such a personal matter, Zack didn't imagine Lighting was the sort of person who thought about things like that

[heroesdontshave]

"What are you talking about?!" The voice seemed to pop up out of nowhere, sudden enough to get Snow to turn toward it immediately, half-startled. Sure enough, there was Light with weapons in hand and this really pissed off glare aimed right for him. Snow frowned slightly at the look (more borderline wincing, really). Whoa whoa, what the hell was she all mad at? Had he said something wrong? The question made it sound like he'd just been talking about something he shouldn't have been, but he couldn't see why. Not like he was saying anything top secret or super sensitive as far as he could tell. So there was no harm in saying any of it. Looked like Lightning didn't feel the same way, though

[thestormishere]

When Zack spoke, Lightning's gaze snapped to him but then back to Snow, trying very hard not to go and actually bare her teeth at either. For the other l'Cie to sound at all cheerful, after what had happened to Serah, after what she now knew about it all... she couldn't help but glare up into that stupid expression, feeling well-worn, bitter questions trying to well up to the surface. How could he just casually talk about back then, the one day her entire life had been turned upside-down, like... like it was nothing? Hands-down, that was easily not just the worst birthday she'd ever had, but pretty much the worst day of her entire life. What was he thinking?

... Nothing, of course. It seemed Snow just never thought about that kind of thing unless it was specifically thrown right in his face. How he managed to stay so chronically empty-headed escaped Lightning entirely... and it was jarring for her to face it full-force right then when, before she'd woken up in the institute, he'd been noticeably different