Night 62: M-A Block Hallway

[kings_thief]

[From Here]

Of course, as soon as he thought about what Tolten could be planing for the night, Locke's thoughts went to Edgar's comments on the board; not for the first time since Tolten's post, Locke found himself silently cursing his friend's teasing. 'What if he's right' was a thought that plagued Locke as he entered the main hall and turned left towards the hall that would take him to Tolten's room.

He just had to keep himself calm and ignore those thoughts. Surely that's not what Tolten had meant...besides, from what Locke could tell, his friend had wanted time to think everything over-which was fine-and it had only been a bit over one day so...

Locke decided he was going to have to find some way to get back at Edgar for messing with his head like this. Maybe if his head wasn't so fuzzy this whole thing wouldn't be as confusing.

[To Here]

Comments

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar welcomed the excuse to leave his room. He had been contemplating staying in, but the Ishbalan had no desire to spend any more time than necessary sitting around with his talkative roommate. Taking the flashlight as Lust had suggested, he made his way out into the hall.

The man on the intercom's words had been unsettling at best. He had ignored his silly cryptic messages until now, but when he mentioned "symptoms," Scar's attention was snagged. He had no idea exactly what they meant, but he also could not shake the idea that whatever the crazed man was referring to, it was responsible for how poorly Scar had been feeling all day. And it was only getting worse, if he believed what the man said. He would just have to wait and see.

The... thrill of the hunt? Scar shook his head, trying to pass it off as madness. But it seemed that in this place, madness was normalcy. Putting on a trademark scowl, the Ishbalan set off into the second night.

[envy_the_sinners]

[To here!]

[ofthemotions]

[from here]

For all of the light insanity heard over the intercom, people at least didn't seem to be acting any differently. They still moved on their unknown paths at night, a darkened city for all the bustle. It was basically what this place was, Mikado thought. A contained city, with people and their own business and motivations and goals. Each person had priorities set first on their list, things important to them and not to others.

It was sort of uplifting, in an obscure sort of way. The boy smiled to himself and continued on.

[to here]

[heroesdontshave]

[from here]

...Of course, it would probably help if he turned his light on, wouldn't it?

Snow paused in his steps to fiddle around with the thing in his hand before he found the button that turned it on. As usual, the damn thing really didn't do much to help. But, better than nothing, he guessed. It sure as hell beat all those nights he spent running around feeling his way along the wall.

...The place kind of looked strange in the dark like this. Spooky. Not like he was really one who got spooked easily or anything, but it definitely had that kind of feeling to it. Especially when the hall was all quiet and empty. Yeah, just a wee bit creepy there. He almost liked it better without the light.

[to here]

[forsworn]

[from here]

Once he was in the hallway, he started running through the rest of Landel's nightly message. As deranged as the man had sounded over the intercom, he was probably being serious, which meant that things were probably going to become very tense over the next few days. This would need to be addressed tomorrow with Sora; he could tell that a decision would have to be made. No one with any sort of conscience (even one as murky as his) would simply allow friends or fellows to turn into monsters without any sort of resistance, and it would be uncharacteristic of Sora to not make some kind of effort to fight and maybe save the day, as idealistic as that was.

Perhaps they could get a head start tonight, now that he thought about it. He would have to mention it to his team.

[forsworn]

[skipping to here]

[rocksthecourt]

[from here]

Klavier clicked his light on as soon as he stepped outside of his room and shoved the little radio into on of the hoodie's pockets. He scanned the hallway up and down with the light before proceeding forward. Once satisfied the coast was clear, he yanked the hood of the jacket up and onto his head and proceeded down the hall. It wasn't pulled far enough to obscure his face, but it was enough to hide that spot on his head. Which was enough.

[to here]

[corvus_veritas]

[From here.]

Maybe.

Okay, so he had no earthly idea what he was going to do tonight. All he knew he needed to do was stay as far away from a certain detective as possible. (And not just because Badd had pissed him off earlier.)

Byrne headed down the hallway, following a different (and much larger) group of patient traffic than he was used to. Oh, right. He was in a completely different block now. This was going to take some getting used to...

[To here.]

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

Between Sora's fever, the mostly dark hallway, and a slight throbbing that was starting in his head, walking down this path was harder than it should have been. He'd done it more times than he'd like to remember, should have been able to do it with his eyes closed, but right now he kept swaying toward the wall, having to fight the urge to use it as a crutch to walk.

Some of that was due to the fact that he was still groggy and processing what he'd heard over the intercom, but he couldn't blame all of it on that. He definitely didn't feel completely right at the moment, and the promise of what this all might lead to wasn't helping.

He needed to get to his friends somehow, to at least let some of them know that he was okay. Riku and Kairi might be wondering where he was right now, not to mention everyone else in the club and all the other friends he had outside of it, and he really didn't want anyone to worry needlessly. Of course, there was always the chance that no one had noticed he was gone, but when he usually showed up every day, he had to figure that someone had.

There was no way he could let everyone know that he was all right tonight, but if he just found one or two people, that would put some of his anxiety at ease. Finding a second wind with that thought, Sora forced himself out of the block's door.

[lighthearted]

[To here.]

[not_heavens_adam]

[From Here]


The first hallway was nondescript. Nothing appeared different than as it was in the morning. The only thing he did note was that he, himself, felt slightly different. It wasn't much of a change and he might not have even noticed had he not been thinking about how his night-vision wasn't perfect but better than he'd expected. The sensation was a slight force, particularly when he got closer to the door across from his. So...his room situation was back at night.

That seemed fairly pointless. Why would he have any interest in sneaking into other people's rooms anyway? It wasn't like he needed blood anymore. It seemed the more he tried to look at this place logically, the more it wanted to seem illogical.

"And so, order was born from chaos...apparently." The vampire smirked to himself and entered the larger hall that connected all the halls together. He could hear a few, quiet, noises that told him he and his roommate weren't the only ones out and about. So, clearly, this was normal. Landel liked to let his mice out into his maze and watch them run around. Delightful.

Well, alright, he'd play the game. For now.

[To Here]

[inamatus]

[from here]

Automatic movement. He had no idea where he needed to go, but he knew he couldn't stay sitting in his room all night. He had to move forward - always forward, it was a drive, a necessity, some strange instinct he couldn't ignore - and so he put one numb foot in front of the other. His head ached and Ritsuka touched it, ears flattened against his hair.

"Nngh...."

First, medicine. The medical wing. Next...? How did he find them? Ritsuka couldn't recall Nigredo or Albedo's room numbers, nor was he certain he could even face them right now. Albedo had won so Nigredo had to be alive, but the cost...

His step faltered and Ritsuka stumbled, shoulder hitting the wall hard. The jolt woke him up and he pressed his free hand against the cold plaster, turning so he could rest his forehead against it. He was just sleepy, he realized. It wasn't a fever, just...nightmares lingering beyond what they should have done. Heavy lashes opened again and his eyes focused on a crack in the wall right in front of him. He had to find them.

Turning, he ran on.

[to here]

[strayfag]

[to here]

Sometimes it was weird to think that the institute halls were getting as easy to navigate as the streets of his own city, but a few weeks traveling anywhere by night was bound to to make it feel downright familiar. He never thought he'd miss the city, not the gangs or the smell or any of that bullshit but...

Well, with Landel turning people into mindless killing machines, it was practically like home, wasn't it?

He headed out into the hall, eye sharp, gun pointed down.

[to here]

[oyaji]

[From here]

As they walked quietly together through the empty hallway, Wild Tiger decided it would be okay to elaborate. There didn't seem to be any lurking presences anywhere close. Even if there were, two against one were fair odds in his book.

"Some NEXT who can shape shift grabbed a hold of me..." Tiger looked over at Castiel briefly before continuing. "You know any patients that can turn into a cat? She needs some serious medical help." It was fortunate he had been so dumbstruck by the whole thing or else he could have severely hurt her and he knew he would just feel awful for that afterward.

[freewill]

While Castiel really didn't know why his roommate had decided to put on a mask all of a sudden, he wasn't going to outwardly question it. He didn't see the point of it since it only covered a small portion of Kobayashi's face, so any hope of hiding his identity would be pointless. And who would he need to hide from in the first place?

It wasn't all that important in the end, which was why Castiel was quickly distracted by the man's explanation about what had supposedly attacked him. A Next? That wasn't a term he had heard before. Castiel was familiar with shapeshifters, though, and it wasn't outside the realm of possibility for one to turn into an animal, but... "How are you so sure it was another patient? Did you watch the transformation?"

Judging by how Kobayashi was walking, they weren't headed out of this block, which meant that his friend's room had to be in this area. Since Castiel didn't know where exactly to go, he was willing to let his roommate take the lead for now.

[oyaji]

"Oookay," he mumbled for his own comfort. It made his thought process a bit more productive when he could talk it out. "He's in tw--Uhh..." Oh crap, what number was he again? It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't quite spit it out.

"I think he's over this way..." Taking a left at the intersecting hallway, Wild Tiger walked swiftly down to the next corridor, peaked around the corner and began doubling back just as quickly. "Okay, now that I've got my, uhm, bearings, he's got to be this way!" It was a terrible cover, but it wasn't like he knew where anything was in this place, especially in the dark. It also didn't help that he had no short term memory to speak of, but that didn't need to be made public right now. He had a civilian to lead! Keeping it together was the duty of a Hero--Well, he supposed it was just the duty of a good person now that he was retired.

He passed another hallway until he came upon the teens.

[To here]

[freewill]

[From here.]

As they moved back into the hall, Castiel couldn't help but feel like some kind of guide. While angels often led the way for lost travelers -- or had in the past, at least -- this wasn't quite the same. He held back a sigh, looking back over his shoulder at the pair as he walked.

"So, was there somewhere in particular you were interested in going? I haven't searched the entirety of the institute myself, but I've been a number of places inside and out." Why he was doing this instead of making some actual progress was beyond him, but the soreness of his still-healing wounds was a good reminder.

[baniichan]

Barnaby figured they either needed to get inside and shut the door, or venture out and explore. Of course, he hadn't anticipated on a third person showing up, which threw quite the wrench in his original plans. Although he sent Kotetsu a quick glance as they made their way down the hall, he didn't voice his dissatisfaction. After all, if they wound up learning something from all of this, then he couldn't exactly call the night a waste, either.

"We're still in the middle of gathering information so we can decide where we should focus our attention at night," Barnaby confessed. "One place that interests me is the basement since a few people here have mentioned it. But it might be better to gather supplies during our first few nights here."

That was especially so if they needed time to familiarize themselves the building's layout anyway. Barnaby's map was better than nothing, but there were far too many blank spaces for his liking.

"What things would you recommend we try to find?" he politely asked. "Also, does the institute let us keep what we pick up, or do we need to earn those privileges somehow?"

[oyaji]

"There's a basement?" Not that he was genuinely interested in the architectural structure and teamwork of this place, but it was more a comment to the fact that such a mundane thing seemed of interest to his partner. The former Hero wondered what Barnaby had been doing the last two days to gather all these odd tidbits. It was like they were all having a different conversation--At least, he was. Castiel and Barnaby seemed to be right on the same page.

"Wait, wait--Why are we trying to find anything? Shouldn't we be making a run for it?"

[freewill]

It was becoming more and more clear that these two were still brutally new, which Castiel was already aware of seeing how he'd only spent two nights with Kobayashi in his room. Nonetheless, it seemed that they had at least gathered some information, although his roommate's friend seemed more informed overall.

"...Making a run for it, as you say, is not as simple as you might hope," he said first, wanting to make that clear before he addressed anything else. That had been his main goal thus far, after all, and it hadn't gotten him very far. Seeing how he was probably more capable than the two of them combined, he couldn't say he was expecting them to get out anytime soon.

They reached the end of the hall, and Castiel led them out before he continued his explanation.

[To here.]