"Well done, Sancho," Luis says. "I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to get around just yet, myself, but it sounds like either we have a steep learning curve ahead of us, or everyone here is crazy as a goat."
He leans his elbows on his thighs and folds his hands together, trying to hide the pain again as the movement pulls at the scar on his back.
"What about the rest of the house? Anything interesting?" Given Leon's penchant for looting every square inch of any area he finds himself in, he guesses he's been thorough.
Leon frowns a little, watching for any sign of pain or discomfort as Luis shifts position, and lo and behold. There's not much he can do about it though, other than wince in apologetic sympathy.
(And for what it's worth, he's been keeping his paranoid magpie instincts in check just fine so far. He didn't even steal the keys off the pantry door or anything!)
"Couple of things. The windows are all... mismatched. Each one looks out over completely different scenery, even the ones right next to each other. And I swear the hallways change shape whenever I'm not looking. The doors and windows are unbreakable, too, at least with any tools we have handy. Can't even scratch the glass." He sighs. "Probably would've written off the magic stuff as people trying to fuck with me if not for all that. If there's a scientific explanation for all of that, it's more advanced than anything I'm aware of."
"There's probably some explanation, but it would either be invented by the owner, or require a lot of funding. The windows could be screens, covered with panes of extremely hard crystal. Doors and windowframes can be reinforced from the other side, or even fake..."
He takes out his lighter and begins to fidget with it.
"But again, that kind of thing is very expensive."
“Yeah. It’d be a weird investment, making an unbreakable funhouse. Not to mention the kind of coordination it’d take to kidnap - what, over 20 people, some of them on the brink of death? - and lock them all inside.”
Leon pauses, then adds;
“Not that it’d be the first murder mansion in the world, or even in the last six years, but if this is someone collecting combat data for their new weapons then they’re putting a lot of effort into some weird places.”
"Or vengeful ghosts. Would that fall under 'a curse', though?"
He wrinkles his nose, clearly not pleased about this line of thought even though he was the one insisting on it.
"Ugh. That reminds me, though. For what it's worth - I did manage to kill Saddler, and I guess he was basically some kind of shitty wizard. Had to go through him to get Ashley out."
"Mm. Wasn't easy, but it was worth it. After everything he did." Everything he'd tried to do, too. Which also reminds him...
"Question for you, though. Ada - she said she had a deal with you. Something to do with the amber. Do you know what she was planning on doing with it?"
He'd assumed, if Luis was in on it, that it couldn't have been anything too fucked up. But he'd like to get some confirmation of that, if possible.
Luis feels a chill, as clearly as if there was a gun in his face.
"Ah," he says, eloquently.
"When we made our arrangement, I was at a very low point... I was only trying to do the same thing I did at Umbrella - and that is, run. Save my own skin, you know?"
Well, that doesn't feel great to hear. Leon goes a little bit pale as the implications of their respective decisions hit him. He wants to be mad about it. A part of him feels like he should be mad at Luis, and he kind of is, but mostly he just feels stupid for having trusted Ada on so little evidence that she'd make the right decision this time around. Fuck. What was he thinking? That Luis was a better judge of character than he was?
"Uh. Thanks for being honest, I guess. Now it's up to her what happens next."
"A woman's heart is a mysterious thing..." Luis says, in a tone like he's agreeing.
But he liked Ada. And he liked to think that by the end he'd managed to grow on her a little, too. He remembers calling her, but barely remembers what he said. It had been hard to speak - and he'd been trying to get to where Leon was fighting the man who stabbed him.
"I did get the sense that you two were acquainted, but as you can imagine she is not the most forthcoming with details."
"Hers especially," says Leon, sounding exhausted just thinking about it. "I met her when I was still a rookie cop in Raccoon City, a couple days before the bombs fell."
He takes a deep breath, taking a moment to decide how much detail to share here before continuing.
"She was posing as an FBI agent investigating the outbreak. Convinced me to retrieve a sample of the G-Virus for her as 'evidence', when the plan was really to sell it on the black market. The way things went... I don't know if she's to blame for it getting out, in the end, but it was her original mission."
The name had crossed Luis' radar, after he left Umbrella. In the way that American news permeated the global culture, the news that the American president had launched a nuclear strike on one of his own cities and immediately resigned had been inescapable.
Well, that explained why Leon had reacted with such hostility at first.
He takes out his lighter and starts to spin it between his fingers, not knowing what to say for a moment.
"She helped me gather the ingredients to make the suppressant. She refused to let me give up when the doses I had hidden were destroyed."
He looks up at Leon.
"While we're stuck here, I think maybe we just have to believe that people can change."
Leon just nods, looking subdued and thoughtful. He's quiet for a moment before he responds.
People can change, right?
"Yeah, you're right," he says, sighing again. Ada had scoffed pretty hard at the idea that he'd changed, at least, but had dodged the question on her own end by exiting stage up before he could press her on it. "There's no point in worrying about it right now, anyway. Not unless we run into any plagas scuttling around here."
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nothingbadeverhappensto) wrote2025-05-01 11:19 am
no subject
He leans his elbows on his thighs and folds his hands together, trying to hide the pain again as the movement pulls at the scar on his back.
"What about the rest of the house? Anything interesting?" Given Leon's penchant for looting every square inch of any area he finds himself in, he guesses he's been thorough.
no subject
(And for what it's worth, he's been keeping his paranoid magpie instincts in check just fine so far. He didn't even steal the keys off the pantry door or anything!)
"Couple of things. The windows are all... mismatched. Each one looks out over completely different scenery, even the ones right next to each other. And I swear the hallways change shape whenever I'm not looking. The doors and windows are unbreakable, too, at least with any tools we have handy. Can't even scratch the glass." He sighs. "Probably would've written off the magic stuff as people trying to fuck with me if not for all that. If there's a scientific explanation for all of that, it's more advanced than anything I'm aware of."
no subject
"There's probably some explanation, but it would either be invented by the owner, or require a lot of funding. The windows could be screens, covered with panes of extremely hard crystal. Doors and windowframes can be reinforced from the other side, or even fake..."
He takes out his lighter and begins to fidget with it.
"But again, that kind of thing is very expensive."
no subject
Leon pauses, then adds;
“Not that it’d be the first murder mansion in the world, or even in the last six years, but if this is someone collecting combat data for their new weapons then they’re putting a lot of effort into some weird places.”
no subject
"Maybe both."
no subject
He wrinkles his nose, clearly not pleased about this line of thought even though he was the one insisting on it.
"Ugh. That reminds me, though. For what it's worth - I did manage to kill Saddler, and I guess he was basically some kind of shitty wizard. Had to go through him to get Ashley out."
no subject
"He liked to dress like one, certainly. And what he lacked in personality, he made up for in mind control parasites."
He begins flipping his lighter, just basic spins.
"But I'm glad you took him out."
no subject
"Question for you, though. Ada - she said she had a deal with you. Something to do with the amber. Do you know what she was planning on doing with it?"
He'd assumed, if Luis was in on it, that it couldn't have been anything too fucked up. But he'd like to get some confirmation of that, if possible.
no subject
"Ah," he says, eloquently.
"When we made our arrangement, I was at a very low point... I was only trying to do the same thing I did at Umbrella - and that is, run. Save my own skin, you know?"
no subject
Well, that doesn't feel great to hear. Leon goes a little bit pale as the implications of their respective decisions hit him. He wants to be mad about it. A part of him feels like he should be mad at Luis, and he kind of is, but mostly he just feels stupid for having trusted Ada on so little evidence that she'd make the right decision this time around. Fuck. What was he thinking? That Luis was a better judge of character than he was?
"Uh. Thanks for being honest, I guess. Now it's up to her what happens next."
no subject
But he liked Ada. And he liked to think that by the end he'd managed to grow on her a little, too. He remembers calling her, but barely remembers what he said. It had been hard to speak - and he'd been trying to get to where Leon was fighting the man who stabbed him.
"I did get the sense that you two were acquainted, but as you can imagine she is not the most forthcoming with details."
no subject
He takes a deep breath, taking a moment to decide how much detail to share here before continuing.
"She was posing as an FBI agent investigating the outbreak. Convinced me to retrieve a sample of the G-Virus for her as 'evidence', when the plan was really to sell it on the black market. The way things went... I don't know if she's to blame for it getting out, in the end, but it was her original mission."
no subject
Well, that explained why Leon had reacted with such hostility at first.
He takes out his lighter and starts to spin it between his fingers, not knowing what to say for a moment.
"She helped me gather the ingredients to make the suppressant. She refused to let me give up when the doses I had hidden were destroyed."
He looks up at Leon.
"While we're stuck here, I think maybe we just have to believe that people can change."
no subject
People can change, right?
"Yeah, you're right," he says, sighing again. Ada had scoffed pretty hard at the idea that he'd changed, at least, but had dodged the question on her own end by exiting stage up before he could press her on it. "There's no point in worrying about it right now, anyway. Not unless we run into any plagas scuttling around here."