damned_institute | Night 68: M-B Block Hallway

[From here.]

The hall was still quiet when Lloyd left his room, though Lloyd suspected that would change in a minute once other patients emerged. Without hesitation, he started down the hall, footsteps sure with growing familiarity with the path he planned to take. He'd spent plenty of time studying the map of the building he'd copied from others, enough that when he pulled the map out to double check where he was going, it was really only a glance. It helped that he'd even been to the greenhouse before, though that had been during the light of day. Still, that and the map should hopefully be enough to get him to his destination.

Edited 2013-01-25 14:33 (UTC)

[from here]

Alphonse stepped into the hallway, and paused when he spotted another patient leaving as well. "Oh, uh, hello," he said somewhat automatically. He hadn't expected to run into anyone else quite this soon.

Edited 2013-01-28 00:53 (UTC)

Ed followed his brother out of his room and stopped short to avoid running into Al.

"Al, I can't see around you," he complained.

He swore he'd only taken his attention off of his surroundings for a moment, but apparently it had been long enough that he'd missed the approach of two other patients. He started in surprise, turning his head and lifting the flashlight, the map forgotten in his other hand. Two boys, probably not much younger than him, had apparently just emerged from one of the adjoining patient hallways.

"Hey," Lloyd offered tentatively. He didn't recognize either one, though that didn't necessarily mean anything. There were a lot of people he didn't know here. He hadn't been here that long.

"I'm right here, jeez!" Al belatedly flicked his flashlight back on, giving the other person a closer look. This was the first patient he'd seen to not be wearing the 'uniform' everyone had been wearing during the day, but he seemed friendly enough.

After a glance back to his brother, he stepped forward. "I'm Alphonse, Brother and I just woke up here this morning. Would you happen to be heading toward the greenhouse? We've been told it's best to travel in groups if possible."

"I know. I almost ran into you," Ed groused, as he moved to the side to see else was in the hall. "I'm inclined to visit the kitchen first, greenhouse second."

Ed also noted Lloyd being dressed differently from them, although he stayed quiet about it.

"The greenhouse?" Lloyd echoed, blinking in surprise. He hadn't really thought about the possibility that other people might be headed to there too. "Actually, yeah. I wanted to-"

His stomach grumbled, cutting him off. His cheeks heated with a sheepish flush.

"Sorry. I didn't get lot to eat." He paused, tilting his head with a curious hope at the idea he hadn't considered. "You're going to the kitchen?" He glanced at his map. It wasn't on the way. But... "Do you think I could go with you? I'm Lloyd, by the way," he added hastily, only remembering at the last moment that Alphonse had introduced himself.

Al couldn't help laughing when Lloyd's stomach growled, and he nodded with a wide grin. "Sure, the more the merrier, right? It's good to meet you, Lloyd." Al shoved his flashlight under his armpit to offer a handshake--he was going to need to make some sort of sheath and belt for his new blade, he realized.

"And I'm Edward," Ed added, looking at Lloyd's paper. "That a map?"

"Thanks." His own hands full, it took a moment of juggling for Lloyd to free a hand to accept the offered handshake, smiling back to match Al's grin. The other boy seemed nice enough, something about him just exuding a friendly warmth. Edward (his brother?) seemed a little brusquer, or at least more down to business, but given the circumstances, Lloyd couldn't really fault him for that. "It's nice to meet you, too."

At the question, Lloyd held the paper out, inviting Ed to take it or look at it more closely if he wanted. "Yeah," he said. "I copied it from some maps that someone else had. It's not complete, but..." But an incomplete map was still a lot better than nothing at all. It had most of the first floor on it, with stairs labeled to indicate the presence of other floors, but Lloyd didn't have any sketches of those. "You're welcome to look at it. We're in this block right here." He tapped the paper.

Al leans over to take a look at the map as well, holding up his flashlight to see. "Okay, so that's the path we'll be taking...oh, is that a library labeled there?"

Edited 2013-01-28 02:41 (UTC)

Ed also moved to look, and reached out his right hand, the metal glinting in the low light, to trace the path. "Yeah, that'll work."

Oh sure Al. Divert your brother's attention to the library. "They got anything worthwhile there?"

"I wouldn't know," Lloyd said, eyeing the brothers half-warily now, easily hearing the perked interest in their voices. Having been friends with Genis and being taught by Professor Raine, Genis's sister, for several years now, he knew all too well what it sounded like when people liked studying. They weren't going to ask to stop by the library, too, were they? "I haven't ever... been... there."

His voice trailed off, whatever fear he might have had of triggering any potential Ruin Mode-type mania forgotten when his eyes picked up that glint. Something was wrong with Edward's hand. It didn't look normal. All the fingers were there, but the color was-

Lloyd sucked in a breath. "What happened to your hand?!"

"Well, we can go check it out later. Getting to the kitchen and greenhouse take priority tonight," he says with a significant glance to his brother.

"Huh? It's just his automail," Al says with a faint frown. Sure, having automail did mean you'd suffered a traumatic injury to lose the limb, but usually people didn't react that badly to seeing it.

Ed wrinkled his nose at Al and opened his mouth to respond when Lloyd freaked out about his hand. "...Who doesn't know what automail is?"

"Auto... mail?" The alarm faltered at this explanation. Some kind of mail. That made sense. He flicked the beam of his flashlight onto Edward's mail-clad hand to get a better look. He was expecting to be reassured by the better lighting.

He wasn't. The joins clearly showed there wasn't any flesh being covered up. There were places he could swear he could almost see right through to the center. All the alarm welled back up.

"That's not just mail! That looks like it's part of your hand!"

"It is his hand," Al said. "It's a mechanical replacement for his arm. You don't have anything like that where you're from?"

At this point, Ed had folded his arms across his chest, hiding his hand, and glowered at Lloyd. He didn't really need the reminder why he wore gloves, although Lloyd's reaction was different from the usual gawking.

Lloyd shook his head, though he hesitated before answering. Still transfixed by Ed's now-hidden hand, his mind skipped back to a man he'd met months ago. A man with a hand that had a machine attached to it, an arm cannon that could blast him with mana. He'd always just thought Forcystus had his hand inside it like a glove, but what if his hand wasn't there at all? What if he'd lost it and replaced it with that cannon? Lloyd's stomach turned uneasily at the thought, despite the fact that the half-elf had been an enemy.

"So it's... some kind of magitechnology?"

Al shook his head--magitechnology? What did that even mean? "No, it's just regular mechanics, hooked up to the body's nerves so the wearer can move and control it. There's nothing magic to it."

He was getting a feeling that this sort of conversation was going to happen quite a lot. It was going to get old very fast--especially for Ed. Al may have attracted more odd looks when they went into towns, but the stares when Ed took off his coat and gloves weren't much better.

"Magitech--what even is that?" Ed asked crossly, still keeping his hand out of sight.

He also had a feeling there was going to be a lot of this and was pretty sure he was going to be snappier about explanations as time went on. At least he won't have to deal with Lust wanting to know what it was and he could console himself with that.

Lloyd cringed at the description. "It connects to your nerves? Doesn't that hurt?" He couldn't think how it couldn't, with metal buried in your flesh deep enough to make that kind of connection.

"Magitech is machines and mechanical stuff too, stuff that needs mana to run." He frowned, eyeing Ed's hand again. "I guess that's using your own mana to work instead of lightning mana or something." He didn't begin to understand all the details of how magitechnology worked, but that felt like a reasonable guess.

Al sighed and shrugged. "That's probably a close enough description. There's a battery in there that stores and converts metabolic energy from the body into power for the automail."

Ed shrugged. "Getting everything connected did, yeah. Anyway, that's why I want to check out the kitchen. I need more to eat than most people."

Hint hint, people.

Lloyd's mouth opened, a question of what a "battery" was on his lips, when Ed's pointed hint cut across his words, hammering an importance into their goal that Lloyd hadn't realized had been there before. "Oh!" Ed needed mana to make his arm work. Food helped people recover their mana; Lloyd knew that much. Of course it made sense that he'd need more food.

Taking a step toward the door leading to the next hall, he turned his head to keep talking to the other two. "Let's get going, then. We can keep talking on the way."

[To here.]

Edited 2013-01-28 20:21 (UTC)

[from here]

He didn't bother with any stealth as he proceeded through the halls. It made him feel silly now, thinking about how he'd acted last night before dragging Ryuugamine along.

Well, silly in more ways than one. He'd been overly frantic last night. Even if he did have to get to Jirou's funeral, there was no need to lose his head about it. 'If,' he'd thought. Something bothered him about that. It was true his memories were conflicting with each other. But that had just been a dream, hadn't it? At least, it seemed dream-like now that he was thinking about it. But Jirou had recovered. He'd seen it with his own two eyes. But on the other hand, he also knew what killing Gentaou had felt like. Because he'd done it.

He let out a breath. Maybe this wasn't so easy as he'd thought.

[to here]

Edited 2013-01-25 23:02 (UTC)

[From here.]

But of course, 'what can go wrong will go wrong'...

When Zero was halfway out of the block, he noticed how the beam of light from his flashlight was dimmer than it usually was. He might have passed it off as just his imagination if that light didn't continue to get noticeably dimmer with every second that passed. By the time he reached the door to the next hallway, the light was barely visible. Zero grunted with annoyance, flipping the flashlight switch on and off. No difference. Was it...? Seriously? ... Damn.

Well. Guess it was up to memory and poor eyesight now. There was no point in going back if his roommate was still there; that would be too dangerous for him.

At least this would make it harder for Zero to see other prisoners nearby, therefore reducing the danger he posed to them. But what about monsters? What about the route he'd been planning to follow tonight? Would he still be able to get anywhere without the help of any sort of light, be it his own or another's?

... He'd have to try his best.

[To here.]

Edited 2013-01-27 18:06 (UTC)

[[from here]]

There was still enough movement in the hallway to mark it as early in the night, which meant that Sasuke hadn't spent too much time with the brothers. He hoped they'd be wise with their resources, whether it was alchemy or otherwise -- and then put them out of mind as much as he could.

Though perhaps it was past time he started taking more investment in his roommates, given the way they kept vanishing. If there were any pattern in those who disappeared and those who stayed ...

In any case: tonight he had a destination. A destination, his brother's eyes, and a dull determination that he could nonetheless use to hack away at time.

[[to here]]

[From here.]

As usual, there were a few people lingering around, and Guy saw Lloyd disappearing down the hall, or at least thought he did. Either way, there was nothing else to do but wait, and so Guy leaned up against the wall, taking a few seconds to examine his hand-crafted sheath for any sign of mistakes.

Minutes passed.

Guy shifted his weight a few times. He watched a few other patients go down the hall and out of the block, obviously on their way to meet someone or take on a foolhardy solo mission. But despite all that, there was no sign of the hard hat and light that Claude had taken to wearing.

Maybe he was just being antsy, but Guy felt like it had been too long. Claude hardly ever made him wait very long, and while he knew that Lloyd would have told him if something was wrong, it seemed silly to just keep on waiting when Claude's room was just down the hall.

Shrugging his shoulders, Guy stepped away from the wall and headed down the hall that housed Claude's room. He might as well investigate this.

[To here.]

[from here.]

It was all Gabe could do not to stop just outside his door, not to let the fear drive him into paralysis. The rosary's knots dug into his palm and he drew the strings tight across his hand so he could feel the tension in it, cutting into his skin. It helped, a little.

The constant litany of Latinate prayers helped more. His voice shook at first, but he used the words as an anchor, pulling him forward down the corridor, hand tracing the wall. By the time he reached the other door his voice was almost steady.

[to here.]

Edited 2013-02-03 12:55 (UTC)

Night 68: M-B Block Hallway

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject