fortruechaos

[fortruechaos]

Yu-nae has left their laptop open, one of the folders they have in window is labelled 'my songs.' Within the folder is a list of MP3s with various labels, but the most recent one is a song called 'His World'

Opening the MP3 would lead to the laptop playing a very badly acappella version, in Yu-nae's voice, no less, of the song.

Shadow isn't often one to snoop on people's personal belongings if he doesn't have to for a job but the My Songs folder attracts his immediate attention and makes him cast a few glances up and down the room to make sure Yu-nae isn't about to bust in and get all embarrassed on him...and then Chaos Controls up to the laptop to investigate.

Oh. Oh no. Shadow pauses it almost immediately. A white hot feeling of second hand embarrassment shoots up his spine faster than any Chaos can, leaving his ears burning. A moment passes though, and he gets curious again, and taps the space bar to let it play again.

It's not good!!!

He only makes it up through the middle of the first verse before he has to stop it again before he feels himself start curdling like a slug on a salt line or something and quickly closes the mp3 window entirely, reverting the screen to the array of windows and tabs that were already open on the laptop before his meddling; something he's good at, being a spy and all. And then with his snooping covered up he Chaos Controls away to an innocuous seeming area on the other side of the room: a window for him to cross his arms and stand in front of.

Now that he can pretend he'd been staring out of the window the whole time Yu-nae had been gone, Shadow confronts the facts. Yu-nae sings. Yu-nae puts their songs in folders on their computer. Yu-nae has a very bad cover of that His World song. However--the more Shadow lets himself think back on the music, the more he realizes that it feels intentionally busted. The arrangement itself seems clipped to make sense and is still recognizable as His World. The microphone's glitching and cutting would have been obvious in the editing process. A joke...a joke. Relief like a dawn-filled morning. Shadow starts smiling to himself over what seems like nothing as he gazes at nothing outside. Thank Gaia. A joke... The second-hand embarrassment had been almost too much for even him, the Ultimate Lifeform.

[fortruechaos]

ARROW...falls to my knees

[fortruechaos]

The way Mephiles words it Shadow knows something is wrong and that it's bizarre that he can't remember such a salient moment in his life. The Ultimate isn't even surprised anymore, it turns into immediate disgust with himself. Frustration. Such an important thing, and I forgot. He breathes in and tastes recycled air and gunpowder. But that's it. Again, the memory leaves a second time. Shadow shakes his head and resettles on the topic of the bat. Rouge. "How dare she pretend to--help me." To be friendly with me.

He only makes it a little farther walking down the shrouded hallway before he stops in his tracks again to stare at his palm. Suddenly Shadow realizes that he's frightened of himself and his past and what any of it means; that it swims in darkness, like a fish skirting underneath the surface. A frightening looming thing he can't name. And yet his hand doesn't tremble. "I don't understand." A zap of Chaos runs against his fingers like trying to pull the memory out of redacted files and the haze of his amnesia. "I don't know why I can't remember anything!" Suddenly he slams his fist into the nearby wall, a shockwave of green racing through the brittle brick and dislodging a few pieces from the crumbling wall--and then he takes off, skating furiously, a red and black arc behind him, with only the Chaos Emerald in mind and without consideration for leaving Mephiles behind, delirious with energy and too angry to stand around waiting anymore, too quiet in personality to scream with anger. Mephiles will catch up anyway.

There’s a glance over the demon’s shoulder at Shadow’s questioning—Mephiles clearly has an answer, but it’s one he’s holding out on. There are many truths he won’t speak on. Confrontation could be a the tipping point of his ploy. If he wants Shadow to have a clear head for their absolution, his ‘friends’ can’t have any involvement. They need to be isolated.

In the same beat, if she maintains the degree of care she did in their former timeline, then she could prove useful. Indirectly if at all. And as tempting as it would be to kill her where she stands, he knows it would trigger an uproar and draw attention to themselves. Besides, where is the satisfaction in killing her once all is said and done?

“ She works underneath GUN, “ the hedgehog corrects plainly, but doesn’t elaborate on what that means for them. Why would he, when the dam could burst from the cracks? There’s an inkling of curiousity at Shadow’s reaction, however, and Mephiles faces forward again. The silence dwells, and then Mephiles offers a tidbit of information,

“ … They hurt you. “

[fortruechaos]

Well that was an awful lot of--information. Shadow's eyes didn't widen exactly but his mouth did fall open just slightly. Enough to communicate the utter shock he was obviously feeling, only closing to give Stone an ire-filled look when the man made his 'joke.' It was strange though. Shadow glanced at his fancy latte and back at Stone. He had no sympathy for an Ivo Robotnik dead or alive or the fate that befell them; he didn't know Stone enough to feel even a smidge of pity. Shadow at least had the decency to keep his mouth shut and just...listen.

"Gerald Robotnik was alive?!"

None of that mattered in the wake of this specific revelation. It was like the floor slipped out from under him. Shadow shoved the rolling chair he had been sitting in aside, the thing clattering noisily on the ground. He gritted his teeth furiously. "No. Impossible. He was..." a breath. He reminded himself that this was another world, a world where Ivo Robotnik willingly hired henchmen who for some god forsaken reason seemed to adore him. "Gerald Robotnik was executed almost fifty years ago here." He turned away so he could glare at the little coffee Stone made him. "That's..."

Shadow didn't know what he would do if he could see the Professor again. He didn't realize he actually found comfort in the Professor's being gone until this moment. His feelings regarding his creator were a complicated thing all tangled-up--there was love there but also hatred and Shadow resented Gerald for what he had done to his mind and his sacred feelings. To use Maria like that so willingly. "He was a broken man," is what Shadow settled on instead, words and expression deathly grim.

Almost as an apology for his outburst, the hedgehog half-turned to look at Stone again. "I did something similar a while ago. If your Shadow is anything like me, he'll be back." Gaze flicked away. "I don't know about Robotnik. But I won't wish for his return."

“He's dead.” Even saying it out loud doesn't make it feel like reality. The Doctor had been assumed deceased before, lost to another planet, only to return just when the rest of the world had completely written him off. Even at his lowest, Stone knew he was being delusional to assume that this instance would play out the same.

He could deny his humanity all he wanted, but not even Ivo Robotnik could come back from a planet-sized explosion.

It was another example of empty hope on Stone’s part, allowing himself to believe that the hedgehog before him was the same that he had briefly known. Continuing to cling to the empty hope; if Shadow had survived, surely there was a possibility, a probability even, that the Doctor had as well. He had fallen far in his devotion to the Doctor, far from the emotionless, duty-bound agent he had trained himself to become.

The corner of his lips twitched up in a half-hearted smile. “I don't suppose the Robotnik from your world is in the market for a henchman?” He shakes his head even as he says it. No other Robotnik could ever compare to his, and it would be unfair to both himself and the Doctor of another dimension to pretend otherwise.

“Shadow - that is, the Shadow of my world was… misled by Gerald Robotnik. They were going to destroy the planet, but in the end, Shadow and Ivo both sacrificed themselves to save it. I don’t know if I would say they got along… But they had the same mindset in the end.”

[fortruechaos]

ok that didnt happen obviously but today. i got some things on my sonic multi posted though so yay

gonna try to get some drafts queued today hii

[fortruechaos]

Camelot? Like from the books? What a strange place indeed. Shadow frowned and turned around to take in more of his surroundings. It wasn't directed Bedivere's way, but the other hedgehog seemed even more morose than Shadow, so...it was possible it could be misconstrued that way. "Yeah, you can say that." A wanderer.

"I..." it was always a little hard to explain that he had a Zone-warping ring that let him travel across universes for the sake of learning about them and documenting them. While many other Sonics were usually well-adjusted to the idea of multiverse exploration and didn't require further explanation, this world felt so removed from what Shadow had come to expect from his travels that he wasn't sure if it would go over the same way. "I'm...from...far away." A terrible cover and he knew it, practically wincing after he said it. Ah, whatever! If this Sonic was half as clever as his Sonic, he'd figure it out in no time flat anyways. So Shadow immediately backpedaled on his initial thought and owned up to it. "I'm from a different universe."

“ Clearly. ” That might be more obvious, especially with how the black hedgehog talked. What was the things on his wrists anyway? Like golden bracelets or something for the nobles. Though even he hasn't seen any noble wearing something like that. They even match the ones around his ankles; so weird and surely out of place. Shackles perhaps? No, definitely not.

“ Camelot. That's where you are. You must be a traveller then, or a wanderer? ” A spark of interest glimmered in his emerald gaze. “ This is simply one of the villages... Which is under our protection. So whats your business here? ” Bedivere asked, wanting to know. If this stranger was a wanderer/traveller then maybe Bedivere can hear some stories. Part of him would love to travel the world, run in meadows and so on, visiting people in other lands. Ah, if only.

[fortruechaos]

gonna try to get some drafts queued today hii

[fortruechaos]

but you can't save your sorrow,

you've paid in trade.

[fortruechaos]

Shadow shrugged. He agreed with that. But you still had to stop bad people. Maybe that was why he struggled. There were many people who thought they were doing the right thing who simply weren't. As a perfect being, Shadow often concerned himself with such things, believing his way to be the right way, and others not so much. "Would you say that to GUN?" The words left his lips as dry as they could, worded in a way that could either go rhetorical or have Arrow answer, if he wanted. Then he sighed and stretched, crossing over to look out at the same view the other hedgehog had been. He was beginning to itch for a race--talking about his perspective with other Sonics sort of made his skin crawl. It felt so foreign. "We've never raced before, have we? I mean you and me."

{➹} – TO HIS CREDIT the accented hedgehog didn't dismiss Shadow's thought right off the bat. In fact, he seemed to ponder it a moment, a light hum leaving him, before he shrugged a shoulder. "I can't argue with that one, I s'ppose. Not the bit about differing shades anyway. I don't agree that one action always hurts another, seems awfully pessimistic t' think of things that way."

He could have given a dozen and more examples of how he had experiences just that. That notion of 'paying it forward' in a sense. Rarely did he see it going the other way.

It was interesting to hear Shadow's take on it all, and the hero did find himself feeling...almost appreciative for the conversation. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be a common event. "At the end of the day 's intentions that matter. Not everyone is perfect at being good, and sometimes bad people are just misread."

[fortruechaos]

Shadow exploded, incredulous: "You're really going to listen to him--?!" He didn't shout or make any indication of disobeying Rouge's command, but he was obviously surprised and annoyed and thoroughly caught off-guard, eyes widening at his teammate. It wasn't that he believed Rouge was actually going to tag-team with Scourge's suggestion, he was just surprised the bat wasn't joining him in his attempt to put the green hedgehog down-and-out-of-commission forever. Or send him back to whatever world let him have this disgusting, gnarled mess of Chaos energy that always felt like it was bound to give Shadow the flu.

Either way, the effect of Rouge's demand was immediate. Shadow gritted his teeth in an open-bared aggressive scowl at Scourge, hands turning to fists at his side as he stood up straight and squared his shoulders, effectively backing off as much as he could in the current situation. Drawing energy from the M.E. or whatever Scourge said he did was definitely cause for concern, and as soon as Shadow didn't have his heart set on pummeling Scourge half to death, he was suddenly able to see Rouge's angle, eyes sliding over to the bat to shoot the glance she had shot him a few minutes prior back at her before they drifted back to the hedgehog in the jacket.

@spirestar

Well, hey! Now that there was a hot babe involved--especially one as tricky as Rouge the Bat, if there were any commonalities between this one and the one he used to know--Scourge had one thing on the brain. Or, two. He still wanted the Chaos Emerald. But he had to triage the shit, right? Simple steps to follow according to Scourge: 1. See hot babe, 2. Get hot babe to help get emerald, 3. Clobber Shadow the Hedgehog with hot babe in tow.

"No joke, toots--" He shot a finger gun at her and played with his glasses again while Shadow fired the Chaos Spears at him. Maybe being slightly incorporeal wasn't so bad! Sometimes. Ish. "I'm a real rare jewel myself. Got some juice from the Master Emerald, even--Wouldn't wanna help a guy out here, huh? I'm gonna be king o' this joint soon and I'd make sure you're reallll taken care of if you dooo--" He grinned, not quite moving into Rouge's reach but a bit out of the way of Shadow's initial warpath. Unluckily for them both, Scourge was used to betrayal; Not like that very small amount of vigilance would help him if he let talking to a lady distract him, though. And wait, yeah, it was kind of silly he hadn't mentioned his name yet. He'd almost forgotten they wouldn't remember him. "I'm not called Scourge for nothin'! It's gonna be a bad day for everyone's who's not on my team."

@npcharacters

[fortruechaos]

hi guys sorry i've still mostly been on my heartinhands multimuse and vergil's blog songsofreason but i added another blurb to my rules for content i'd rather not see which is basically that i would rather not engage with extensive talking about diet culture, exercising for 'body goals' (i.e. 'trying to lose a few pounds' or 'fixing' some part of your body), food shaming and shame around food ('cheat' meals or 'good' or 'bad' meals), body dysmorphia especially as it pertains to exercise helping 'fix' it etc.

basically if it sounds like something a fitness influencer would say to help you "meet your body goals", i don't really want to hear it

it's too many differing extremely generalized tags to keep up with as i can handle mentioning it in a thread or one of those things at a time, but not all at once and in extensive conversation. tagging body dysmorphia, for example, is a bit difficult cuz it can be such a large encapsulating symptom that doesn't bother me in other discussions, but talking about trying to 'fix' it through exercise bothers me immensely.

i'm fine with one mention of a character having a 'cheat' meal because (unfortunately) some muses are just like that, or if a character is talking or joking about trying to eat more protein to build muscle, but if it's the entire discussion of a thread or ask, it bothers me. i hope this makes sense why i just added it to my rules because it's a sort of difficult thing to tag for when there's lots of situations where these topics can be mentioned where it doesn't impact me at all (but if anyone knows more specific tags i can make to account for this without making it too generalized/all-encompassing please let me know!!)

anyway added (a much shorter variant of) that to my rules and it's ok if people need/want to sb or hb as always. i will try to queue some more stuff up here to post while im writing more on my other blogs but we will see >:)

[fortruechaos]

If he could have known what Yu-nae thought he would have been concerned and even horrified too--but that was already so much of Shadow's feelings regarding the horrors Yu-nae had been suscepted to, and the thought of Robotnik having to live longer than the average human lifespan was downright horrifying. But Shadow didn't think about it or make the connection and so Yu-nae's slight shift went missing while he fiddled with the side-view mirrors a little bit, too busy thinking about how they needed a new coat of wax soon.

Shadow smirked but couldn't exactly reply to Yu-nae's joke. He'd forgotten everyone but Maria the first time after all. It wasn't something he could promise and he knew he probably should just say that he did, but words meant things to him that they didn't mean to other people. He'd already made a promise that defined his life. He didn't want to make one for the sake of conversation. "So that's why you decided to bring this up when it's going to be too loud to talk about it, huh?" The hedgehog quipped, popping a rather ostentatious wheelie on the Dark Rider once Yu-nae was on the bike just to piss off the people glaring at him for having a loud motorcycle even more. "Embarrassed?" After Yu-nae answered, Shadow took off.

‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒ There was something disturbing in what he said. Perhaps not for Shadow, who seemed to have accepted his powers and who he was, but for Yu-nae themself. The nanomachines Eggman had worked so tirelessly on were meant to replicate Shadow's abilities, and for more or less, they worked: Chaos Control, Chaos spear, immunity to disease and infection, enhanced reflexes, agility, and strength.

But there were some differentiating factors in the nanomachine features as well: a metallic skin-shield that responded to and prevented physical trauma, the lack of speed, the adaptability in the water, the ability to use Chaos Drives as a temporary power up. They also needed to eat and drink far more than Shadow did, and slept heavily.

So that begged the question: would Robotnik and Yu-nae inherit Shadow's agelessness? Would Yu-nae, if they were lucky enough to get out of all this, have to deal with seeing the people they knew and grow close to die of old age? Would they remain the same as they are now in ten years? Fifty? The realisation of this very real possiblity slowly dawned on them.

They snapped out of their harrowing thoughts when the motorcycle roared to life, returning them to reality.

"Aheh hah, well, I hope you don't forget me if that happens." They joked back with a mask.

"There is... *one* romance series that I thought was a silly, but decent read." Said Yu-nae, one leg stepping over the seat of the back of the motorcycle to straddle it behind Shadow, putting on their own, rather pointless helmet that was still slightly too big for them. "It's called the Serpent & Dove. Didn't see it at the store though."

[fortruechaos]

i forgot to mention it when i added it but i updated my rules to include this blurb:

a pet peeve of mine is sending asks or doing starters or liking starter calls and only getting 1 or 2 replies into them before it gets dropped in favor of another new thread or ask that gets about 1 or 2 replies on it before it gets dropped. i try to limit the amount of threads i have going with someone (soft limit of 3-4) and i will probably stop sending asks or liking starter calls to try and encourage replies on our already-existing threads at a certain point.

just to recap it's ok if threads get dropped, i know it can be hard to keep muse up sometimes on certain threads, but i'm not a fan of getting 1-2 replies in every thread i have with people to keep starting new ones; i am not a person who can substitute chatting and plotting in DMs with actually writing the stories out. i like to see where stuff actually goes with the bare bones idea in mind.

as always it is OK if you need/want to softblock if this crosses a boundary of yours, i understand and don't take it personally <3

[fortruechaos]

The wisp-on made contact--Shadow went careening sideways. "--Nngh!!" The force wasn't enough to knock him off of his feet, Kit was still just a child and hadn't used his water abilities, but it still made him drop Kit's hand and make him grab at the wounded spot. "What the--," red eyes snapped back into attention, easily locating Kit in the dark, and that split-second of surprise melted into aggression. The Ultimate Lifeform doing his job. "So that's how it'll be. Fine. It's easier to just knock you out anyway." His words were dark and dangerous like his namesake, and the phrase was an unspoken promise.

The backpack activating heightened Shadow's awareness. This was no longer a simple searching mission, this was an an enemy to be handled. The backpack was new tech to him and the fennec seemed remarkably at ease with it, not to mention Kit's outward hostility. Ultimately though this was information catalogued and filed away to be brute-forced at the hands of Shadow's power and abilities. The hedgehog would incapacitate Kit, especially since no explanation had been offered up about why he was messing around in the warehouse.

Eyeing Kit with something not quite resembling wariness, Shadow opted to keep the distance Kit had put between the two of them, summoning up some weaker Chaos Spears between his fingers, arm arcing and sending energy lancing towards the tendrils of water to test their strength before he got any closer to Kit.

“Wah!” 

▸ // A  gasp and the rattle of a fallen weapon  reverberates  against  the  warehouse  walls.  The  boy's  unsuspecting heart  slams  into  the  ground.  Outsized  eyes  follow  the  grasp  ensnaring  that  feeble  wrist  to  its  source.  Vision  narrows,  desperate  to  see  beyond  the  darkness.  The  silhouette  before  him  was  oh  so  familiar... 

“S-Sonic?”  The name is uttered in an amalgamation of spite and confusion.  Something  was  off…  There  was  a  gravity,  a  harshness,  wholly  unbecoming  of  the  blue  hedgehog.  “No.”

▸ // With  a  grunt  that  restrained  hand  attempts  to  break  free  and  when  he  found  himself  overpowered  that’s  when  he  gets  to  thinking.  The  next  movements  were  swift,  Kit’s  free  hand  reaches  for  the  hammer  at  his  feet  and  slams  against  the  side  of  the  hedgehog’s  head.  Taking  advantage  of  this  distraction,  fuschia  eyes  grow  bright,  cutting  through  the  dark,  the  tell  of  his  powers  activating.  Emerging  from  the  spouts  of  his  pack,  water  coalesces,  forming  faux-tails  that  waste  no  time  springing  into  action.  For  a  moment  the  boy  is  a  cyan  blur  as  aqua  coils  lunge  him  a  good  distance  from  Shadow. 

The  fennec’s  form  darkens  against  what  little  light  seeps  into  the  building.

▸ // Internal  admonishments  relay  behind  a  grimace- how  could  he  have  left  himself  so  open?  No,  the  conundrum  here  is  he didn’t.  All  exits  were  thoroughly  examined.  There  was  no  entering  without  the  jarring  screeching  of  rusted  metal  doors,  turning  of  locks  announcing  a  presence  or  at  the  very  least footsteps.  This  new  presence  seemingly  had  dropped  in  from nowhere.  It  just  didn’t  make  sense.

“I-I-I  checked  every  exit- how…?”  There  was  a  panic-  a  frustration-  in  that  scrambling  voice.  If  there  was  one  thing  he  couldn’t  stomach,  it  was  being  outsmarted.

"No matter, I'll just deal with you."  ▸ // Anger  overwhelms.  His  aggressor's  query  is  ignored,  only  to  be  answered  with  sharpened  coils  blazing  toward  their  surly  target.  It  was  clear  Kit  knew  little  of  said  target  if  pure  physical  force  was  his  first  solution.  It  worked  for  just  about  anyone  who  had threatened  him  before  and  there  was  unfortunately  no  reason  to  think  otherwise  even  now.

[fortruechaos]

hi hello! please feel free to either ♡ or ⤿ this post if you would be interested in interacting with a personal interpretation of METAL SONIC — largely based upon external media influences as well as earlier SONIC THE HEDGEHOG games and shows. i’ll check out your blog and info if we’re not mutuals and i’ll see if it’ll be a match! all my blog warnings, as well as important portrayal points and rules, can be found on my pinned! i am very duplicate, crossover, and OC friendly! let’s get a chat going and develop a verse and connection! thank you so much for taking the time to read. <3

[fortruechaos]

The words were like magic to the echidna. Knuckles stood up fully and put his hands on his hips, almost fully disarmed. "Meanies, huh?" He tilted his head slightly to the side. "You know what, kid, you're alright in my book." And he grinned.

Thank Chaos, Shadow thought, who had been dreading trying to explain it to Knuckles--the two of them were so similar in a lot of ways, but their stubbornness was probably the most binding trait between them, for better or for worse, and since Knuckles didn't respect Shadow's work, it often made the echidna deaf to listening to him. "This is Echo," he said, when Knuckles moved to extend a spiky fistbump to the rat before the guardian changed his mind and made that fist into a flat palm for a hi-five. "They're like me. I'm helping them learn how to control their powers."

"You don't have to tell me that, the Chaos radiating off him is crazy." Knuckles grinned at Echo again. "So you found this place on your own? Not too shabby."

They silently appreciated the help without making a fuss, only playfully retaliating by sticking their tongue out defiantly with a little "Behhh.". Getting back up on their feet and steadying themselves, Echo held out their hands to assist in their balancing. Echo's ears twitched and rotated at a new voice, their head followed with a tilt all while taking note in Shadow's words, "Hm?" Oh, a new person. And he seemed as angry as he is red. Why was he beinging up G.U.N.? They weren't with them! Echo leans to get a better view, looking over to the new red stranger and gives him a small unassuming wave.

"Hiiii.", they wave, "We're not with G.U.N. they're meanies."

[fortruechaos]

Oof. Shadow couldn't help but stiffen as Amy squeezed him like a toy, one hand half-raising. It didn't quite return anything at all, lingering in the air like a fisher's tackle, bobbing in the air. Shadow didn't dislike hugs with people he knew, and Amy was obviously a very trusted individual--but he still didn't initiate them. "Amazing, yes," he managed to reply, "It was. Hopefully we don't have to use it again, I have no intention of stealing one of Sonic's moves. Heh."

Shadow followed Amy when she started dragging him down the left highway after she released him only to gleefully grab his palm and take to 'navigating' the place. What else could he do? Amy had her heart set on going left, so they would go left. The hedgehog tested a Chaos Spear in his free hand, watching as a green arrow formed in his palm then dissipated. "I can use my Chaos abilities out here," he said, relaying this information, "Whatever they did to that room won't catch us again." The hall was still dead silent, but since there weren't any offshoots yet for them to investigate, Shadow didn't mind letting himself continue to be dragged until they came to another metal shutter. He wriggled his hand free so he could knock on the material, feeling it to be still quite sturdy as it was probably initiated in the lockdown--but nowhere near as annoying as the prior door would be.

He looked to Amy and half-turned. "I got the last one, you want to do the honors this time?"

"Shadow!" Amy heard 'trap' and 'guard', but not well enough to make it the immediate priority. Her hammer stowed away, she hopped through the torn doorway, bounded across the splintering steel debris, and threw her arms gleefully around Shadow's shoulders even as he'd turned away. "That was AMAZING! I mean, it was different and weird and of course that one's still for Sonic and me but—oooh!"

Despite its best efforts, the gust of victory hadn't swept Amy's head too far out. She released him with a breath, smoothing out her dress. Synergy, Rose. This was a mission in discretion with a subtle sort of hedgehog. And Shadow didn't like hugs. Or he seemed indifferent to hugs. Or it was something about her hugs in particular.

You know what? Hard to read.

"Right." Amy gave the hallways her own look around, took one of his hands in hers, and picked one to start tugging him down. Left felt like a good choice. "This way!"