Night 66: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[overlimit]

[from here, skipping a few halls]

Here it was. Skulduggery wasn't around yet, but Rita expected he would show up soon. He'd been punctual up until now.

If what she'd been hearing was right, she was going to need to look out for both monsters and patients tonight. Seemed simple enough. Rita stood with her back against the wall opposite to the Sun Room doors, and waited.

Comments

[thisisyourgod]

"What, you think if we just go up and ask someone where to find the rooms they torture people in they'll be able to show us the way? Is that like a commonly known location around here? Because all I've been hearing is how no one is able to escape from this place, and being able to just walk in and rescue someone would kinda go against that."

That was certainly a defeatest way to look at things, wasn't it? Perhaps he shouldn't have been so mean about it, but Karkat commonly suffered from the inability to filter his thoughts before speaking them. Sadly, knowing this didn't keep him from doing it often anyway.

He looked just a little apologetic after that, mostly due to how stupidly innocent they both seemed. "Whatever. If you want to go back there, then fine. I don't know what all he had anyway. I don't just go poking around in other people's stuff."

Usually.

"...And then maybe you can sit down." He raised an eyebrow at the girl. "You look like shit."

[redcladidealist]

Something about that pessimistic tone was starting to get on Lloyd's nerves. People who gave up before they'd even tried everything made it sound like they didn't even want to succeed. "How do you know it's not as simple as that?" he shot back. "Just because we haven't heard of someone making it out doesn't mean it hasn't happened. It just means we haven't heard about it yet."

As though to prove his point, he swung his flashlight around to scan the rest of the hall. The girl who'd been there before was gone, though, and as far as he could tell, no one else was around. Undaunted, Lloyd turned back to face the other two.

"Even if it hasn't been done yet, that doesn't mean it's impossible. Dwarven Vow number sixteen: You can do anything if you try. We should still give it a shot."

Defeatism? Meet idealism. I'm sure you'll make wonderful friends.

"So, you'll take us back to Ishida's room?"

[faeth]

Rooms they torture people in--

That was an awful, awful feeling that dropped into her stomach at the sound of those words. Orihime swallowed, and it was a relief to say the least, when Lloyd-san had picked up where her voice had failed her, when the reality of it had been too terrible to even try to imagine. But then again -- Frankenstein easily came to mind. Or perhaps the image of a man strapped down to a doctor's table. He'd have woken up in the middle of the night only to find that his doctor was dressed in a tuxedo and magician's garb, a chainsaw in his hand and a manic grin on his face as he intoned, trust me, I'm a doctor.

(The reality of it was, she was not new to it. There had been a time and a terrible moment when the air smelled like blood and burnt flesh, when there was a man, a murderer, who stood in front of her and Ishida-kun, offering her the opportunity to become a test experiment.

But she'd buried the memory. Now, she tried not to let it reach out and grab her from where she had last left it.)

"Y-yes!" She squeaked, holding her hands up defensively. "We're going to have to turn our frowns upside down and... Well, at least we can't sit around and mope. If we really sit here thinking something like, 'what's the point!' Then of course we're not going to get anywhere." Those dwarves really knew what they were talking about...

But um.

"I'm really fine," she lied -- fibbed? -- insisted as she shrugged her shoulders, clasping her hands together. "So- maybe we can check Ishida-kun's journal. Or ask around? If we see someone in another hallway, perhaps..."

Maybe if she tried hard enough, she'd be able to feel him... see his reiatsu, or maybe catch wind of one of his arrows.

[thisisyourgod]

Dwarven? Did that make this guy some other species originally too? And that wasn't even a vow. That was a statement. But really, correcting this guy on something like that wasn't going to get them anywhere right now.

And that girl? Totally not 'fine'. At least not when it came to her state of well-being, as she was certainly attractive enough to be considered 'fine' in another sense. He made sure his expression let her know just how wrong he found her assurances to be, but honestly he wasn't going to push it much further than that. At least not yet.

If they were going to insist on heading back to his room, then there was no point in standing around and discussing it further. He pulled away from the way and shoved his way past the other boy.

"Alright, you wanna talk until your seedflaps fall off, or do you want to search for your fucking clues?"

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