damned_institute | Night 54: M-A Block Hallway

[from herp]

Battler wasn't sure what he was expecting in this kind of situation, exactly, but it could be said that this wasn't exactly ideal. The near-empty hallways and the complete lack of any light aside from the flashlights was unsettling, and something about the way the quiet settled in made even the sound of footsteps bring about some strange kind of tension. It was familiar somehow, the same sort of feeling he'd get wandering through the Ushiromiya mansion despite knowing there was still a killer on the loose, but that was stupid, wasn't it? Why would something like that be happening here? ..... Then again, asking that question in itself implied that this situation was normal, which was far from the truth. Dammit, just what the hell was going on here....?

At the very least, it was more than obvious where to go next. The hall to his left were just like the one he'd come from; nothing but empty rooms and dead ends. Or at least, he could only assume that much. It was true that there could be something different, but he couldn't say he cared enough to find out. In fact, if he could help it, he wanted to see as little of this place as possible. ..... Who cared where he was? He just wanted out...!

[to derp]

Edited 2011-02-10 03:44 (UTC)

[ from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=75849592#t75849592) ]

The hall was a carbon copy of the one on the girls' end, which wasn't all that surprising coming from an insane asylum set-up. Much like prisons, the places were set so everything looked uniform and, well, if the patients weren't out of their gourds when they got dropped in, they would be after looking at this crap all day. It was like a never-ending maze of the same shit.

Even the door to the bathroom was in the same place, she realized once she turned and shone her flashlight in the direction opposite the possible rows to pursue. Sufficiently annoyed by the monotony, she counted off in her head, making a few assumptions to pick which of the lined hallways to head down, then decisively made her second right into the row of labeled cell -- or, rather, 'patient room' doors.

[ to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1046147.html?thread=75850115#t75850115) ]

Edited 2011-02-10 12:46 (UTC)

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1041810.html?thread=75851410#t75851410)]

The announcement had promised them an inevitable occurrence that would happen tonight, yet it would remain to be seen what it was that would happen. It was as obscured by the unknown as the military and their changes were, and the dark corridors did not provide the slightest of answers.

Retracing familiar steps, Xemnas carefully moved through the area.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=75857016#t75857016)]

Seeing as Peter was making his trip to the same exact place as the night before (and likely a few nights before that, as well), he made sure to not waste any time. It was true that it was hard to carry around a bag full of medical supplies, a shovel, and a flashlight at the same time, but Peter didn't let that slow him down. If anything, he was feeling less of a strain on his arms than he usually did, which was nice.

The strange voice on the intercom had hinted that they would be receiving further punishment tonight. Peter had thought that the tear gas was more than enough, but he knew that things never worked that way here. But the point was that he needed to get to Ritsuka fast, before things started going weird. And so he continued to the door at the end of the hall and took it out.

Edited 2011-02-10 18:08 (UTC)

[from here]

Yue hadn't stopped to pick up his flashlight or any of the other items he usually brought along at night; the flashlight was dead anyway, hadn't that been the point of their last expedition that hadn't gone anywhere? How long ago had that been? Was he about to vanish, "released" as so many patients had been during the time he'd spent here?

No, he simply couldn't allow that to happen. Not while Sakura needed him... wherever she was right now.

Once he reached the larger hallway, though, he did pause for a moment, wings half-spreading in agitation. He needed to find Touya first. Maybe he knew what was going on, how long he'd been gone, and where Sakura was. There first, then.

(From here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043623.html?thread=75884967#t75884967))

Fortunately, Touya didn't have to go far to find Yue--the wings half-spread in the middle of the hallway was enough of a marker. The guardian was no doubt ruffled that Touya had spent the day in his room. Or, more accurately, in a room that was newly his. Touya approached Yue quickly, flashlight lowered.

"Yue," he called. "They moved me."

And before Yue could get very far with that resolve there was Touya... behind him, rather than ahead. Moved him? How much had changed, during that unknown space of time he'd slept?

The guardian turned a little more sharply than he normally would have, wings still lifted and feathers ruffled, not visibly soothed at all by the other's presence. "Touya?" He glanced from the young man back toward the hall from which he'd come, blinked once, then shook his head and started to turn toward the exit once more. "Good. We have to go. Now."

There was an urgency to the tone of Yue's voice that had Touya jogging to close the rest of the distance between them. He hadn't heard that in Yue's voice in a long time--probably since the arena. So what did it mean? What did it always mean: it meant they were in serious trouble.

"What's going on? What happened?" he asked, stepping around Yue's wings so he could see the guardian's face. "I woke up every time the intercom went off, so I know something's going on."

"You woke up?" As he realized Touya was forced to move around his wings Yue frowned slightly and drew them back in again, trying to make it seem as though he meant to do that and not as though he'd forgotten just how openly agitated he'd looked. If Touya had woken up "every time" the intercom sounded then he would have been aware of time passing, but at the same time... had he slept through an entire day as well? Or more than that? "The last thing I remember it was night. We were going to find batteries."

He hesitated a moment longer, then looked away as though trying to listen to something faint in the distance; without his conscious realization his wings shifted and re-settled uneasily. "Something is going on. And Sakura... she isn't in her room." Could he be absolutely certain of that, though? With all the other interference to his abilities....

"Sakura isn't in her room?" Touya was more disturbed by that than the fact that both he and Yue had slept through an entire day. What if she had been taken during a time where they could have prevented it? What if she was scared and hurt or being hurt?

"Come on--" Touya broke into a run. "You can find her, I know you can! Come on, let's go!"

(To here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1042734.html?thread=75967278#t75967278))

Once again Facilier felt that odd sensation of floating through a world in which he didn't belong to. He found himself walking amongst faceless strangers in grey uniforms, scurrying past him like casual shoppers spending the day at the market. Everything seemed so wrong! Yet everyone around him seemed to know just where they were going, as though an unwarranted nighttime stroll was completely normal! Where were the guards, or those nurses in pants?

The witch doctor kept close to the inky walls, keeping his thin form shrouded in the shadows as he kept an apprehensive pace down the hall. He slouched forward slightly, as though expecting thunderous alarms to suddenly go off, followed by shouts and gun points from omnipresent soldiers.

Nothing of the sort happened however, and Facilier felt a boost of encouragement to walk deeper into the unknown.

[From here.]

The more steps Castiel took down the hall, the more he felt as if something had shifted. There was something that had returned to him; it was small and barely noticeable at first, but there was a hum of power inside him that was building and growing as he made his way through the dark institute.

Once it had gotten strong enough, he realized what it was. His wings were no longer tied down. He felt as he could truly stretch them out now -- not completely, but enough that he was fairly certain he'd be able to move around the building at the least. That was nothing when usually he could travel the whole of Earth in a split second, but it was far better than what he'd been dealing with as of late.

Was it possible that somehow the seal on him was slowly fading, that whatever had been binding him was now loosening? He didn't know what would have caused it, but it was also no surprise that an angel couldn't be held down forever.

He needed to test it. Normally he would have been able to travel quickly, faster than the speed of light, but in this case he felt almost lethargic; he was still being weighed down, but not to the point that he couldn't move.

Realizing that he had been standing in the hall for a few minutes at the least, Castiel prepared himself for the test. While this change was a monumental one, he couldn't simply abandon the human he'd agreed to meet with tonight. More than that, he already knew that his wings wouldn't be able to take him far beyond the building's walls, but at least traveling within it would be much simpler now.

He could get to his meeting spot without walking, for instance. Straightening his shoulders, Castiel attempted to fly.

[Teleporting to here.]

Edited 2011-02-11 04:29 (UTC)

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043623.html)!]

Matthew made a point of moving the flashlight around his new surroundings as soon as he stepped out into the second hallway. He clutched tightly at the metal pipe in his right hand, imagining the monsters that were supposed to be around here. Fortunately, the light exposed nothing.

Sighing, Matthew quickly rushed towards the doorway at the end of the hall. Holding his breath, he slowly inched the door open and poked his head through the crack. Although the West Wing was lighter than the closed off hallways, it was still difficult to see anything.

Well...he couldn't hear anything suspicious, so the coast seemed clear. Opening the door a bit wider, Matthew leaned out of it and cast his flashlight around the hallway, preparing to jump back and shut the door tight if his flashlight landed on anything unusual.

Fortunately, nothing except the dirty and empty hallway was revealed under the flashlights glare. Adjusting his glasses, Matthew stepped into the next area, making sure to silently shut the door behind him.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html)!]

Edited 2011-02-11 07:56 (UTC)

((From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1046147.html?thread=75893379#t75893379).))

The hallway was quiet. Most patients had likely gone on their way, or hadn't left their rooms yet. Spock swept his flashlight over the area, making certain that there was no chance for an ambush. When he was satisfied, he kept walking at a brisk pace.

He wondered how McCoy's condition was this evening, if he'd exhibit some of the strange behavior from last night. Regardless, he fully expected Kirk to press them for details concerning last night. Spock knew that, as the ranking officer overseeing their exploration of the morgue, he would have to take responsibility for what happened.

As concerned as he was about their doctor's health, however, Spock didn't use that as an excuse to lower his guard. The Vulcan passed through the next door.

((To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=75913336#t75913336).))

Edited 2011-02-12 05:51 (UTC)

[From here]

It was his third room in a week, but it was Gilbert's first room in a different room block. Still, this hall didn't look any different than the other one, so it was pretty easy to get around still. It suited him just fine to be a little closer to the stairs, anyway.

...Then again, coming out this way was seeming like a pretty terrible idea right about now. He was pretty confident that he could handle any 'monsters' he might run into, but there was some pretty weird shit around here, like those creepy shadows. (Come to think of it, Ludwig had been there that night and had tried to get them moving away from the shadows; maybe his untested faith in that guy's opinion wasn't as terribly out of place as it had first seemed.)

It felt more and more awkward to be carrying a sword as he moved through the hall. Could he even use the thing? He was glad to be armed, sure, but a weapon wasn't going to do much good if he couldn't even defend himself with it. He'd never fought anything, and the middle of a battle was going to be a terrible time to find out whether he was a disaster with a sword or not.

Maybe that should be the second thing he did tonight.

[To here]

Edited 2011-02-12 09:12 (UTC)

[From here.]

Gren hadn't made any plans for the evening, and given how the night promised to go, he was glad. It was difficult to anger him, but the more the reality of the situation settled over him, the closer to it he got. He'd been through this game once before and survived, he wasn't going to let himself be beaten now. He'd be cautious, but given an opportunity to vent his frustration, he was going to take it.

[To here]

Edited 2011-02-13 04:11 (UTC)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043978.html?thread=75904522#t75904522)]

The hallway outside was dark and silent. Dexter clicked on the flashlight, sweeping it over rows of other doors briefly before swinging it up and back along the hallway.

Which way from here?

The other doors all looked identical to the one he'd come from; other rooms maybe. This place was bigger than he'd thought. Now if only he knew what it was. The hall seemed to diverge nearby, so Dexter followed that, moving silently as Harry had taught him and keeping an eye out for others.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=75941240#t75941240)]

Edited 2011-02-13 11:04 (UTC)

There were a few people here, all moving with direction and purpose. Where were they going? There was a wider hallway beyond; perhaps that would lead to some answers.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1046147.html?thread=75942531#t75942531)]

The hall had very few people in it. And by very few, Japan meant two - one of which had....wings. Really. He had wings. And they were extremely well constructed. They were almost too realistic to be constructed, but the idea that someone would have wings here just seemed so fantastic to him that he couldn't begin to imagine that it was real.

Even if he was fairly certain he recognized the man with the wings.

It couldn't be that.

It had to be an illusion.

Japan looked away, focusing his gaze on the floor as he moved forward, eager to get out of the hall and away from wherever Russia had shadow enough to lurk in.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=75971960#t75971960)]

Edited 2011-02-14 06:58 (UTC)

[ from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1046147.html?thread=75960707#t75960707) ]

Once they were free from that narrow hallway into a … well, slightly less narrow, more populated hallway, she considered stopping to chat. Not an option. No, instead, she just let go of his hand, convinced that the dire need to book it the hell out of there that had her pulse racing in her chest was at least a little subverted just by the distance.

While she headed for the door, glancing behind her at Peter and nodding towards it as an indicator of where they should head to, she spoke up again.

Her voice was stubborn and resolved, but it seemed a pretty stark contrast to her mannerisms and general demeanor. She sounded strong -- determined, driven, all the things that Claire Bennet was best known for -- but there was a paranoia in her gaze and a serious anxiety to her. She didn't like knowing that Sylar could bust out of any corner. It'd been so long since she'd seen him, she'd gotten kind of reckless in the 'avoid at any cost' department. Now it was clear that it had her shaken by the way her knuckles were turning white around her flashlight and baseball bat, and in the way her shoulders and back had tensed visibly.

"I wouldn't have come if it wasn't important, okay? I mean, you should have told me, don't get me wrong. But I would have come anyway. I thought you might be in trouble -- I mean, you heard Aguilar, right? Project 2911 or something creepy and vague, I thought maybe he'd grabbed you or you were hurt or … I don't know. I don't know, okay? I just had to come and see for myself. There's no way I was going to just wait till morning." She shook her head, pace slowed now that the urgency was drained and now that she was talking enthusiastically enough to distract herself.

"And before you just start with the 'well, I'm okay, get back to your room' thing, there was other stuff I wanted to talk to you about too." She cast a surreptitious, sideways glance over at him that was looking for validation and reeking of apology. Her pride was literally weeping at how much of it she was sacrificing right now. "I talked to Pete."

Was she talking a lot? She paused purposefully, mostly for emphasis and to see what Peter had to say about it or if he even cared, but also to quell that worry. It was part of the scared thing. Or, rather, the didn't-want-to-seem-scared thing. Peter still didn't know what Sylar had done between his time and her time and, frankly? She kind of wanted to keep it that way. It was less complicated and would keep him from feeling guilty or something stupid or dismissing her like he had in her time.

Okay. So maybe there was some latent bitterness there still. But … Considering it had more or less been the most traumatizing experience of her life (scratch that, seeing him working with her father had beaten it) she'd expected a little more in the sympathy department and a little less of him making it all about himself. 'It wasn't supposed to happen' and 'I should've been there to protect you' didn't exactly equate 'I'm sorry you had your brain raped by some creep.'

[From here]

The dimmer Roxas' light source became, the more his steps wavered in the dark. His once keen senses were limited now and the money boy could barely see a foot in front of him. Goku was determined to carry on in order to find those nurses and make them pay for their cheatery, but the hallway had other plans. Before he could recognize the feeling that something was too close, he hit a wall and went down with a howl.

He hated this place! What was the point of stripping all his skills from him and then sending him off to go find kidnapped persons?! It was a game that Goku wasn't enjoying anymore, not when they were cheating! So what could he do? What could be done to help?

Rising back up on his feet, Goku realized Roxas was not right beside him. "Ah-?" He couldn't find a source of light from either end. Huh. "Roxas!" He shouted, expecting him to pop up on command.

"Hey!"

Roxas hadn't even known if Goku would agree to help him, so of course he hadn't expected him to run off without an explanation! Or even an answer! (And what did witches have to do with anything?!) It didn't take more than a few seconds for Roxas to be left with nothing but air and a distinct sense of loneliness. There wasn't anyone visible in his own circle of light, and there were very few other bobbing light sources in the hallway.

Knocking his hood off his head, the Nobody headed into the darkness of the hallway in the direction he'd seen the tail flit in. Goku would've gone to leave the block, right? No point in going back into a dead end. But where was he going, anyway -

- did Goku know where they took the patients?

Running through the door into the next hallway didn't help much, but the Nobody perked up when he heard his name and scanned the area to the side with his light. There he was!

He jogged to Goku's side, taking a moment to catch his breath from the sudden change. "What were you running off for? Do you know where they took Neku?"

Once the young boy caught sight of a bobbing sphere of light, Goku waited patiently for Roxas to catch up with him. His reaction to the person's question was a big smile that was less embarrassed than it should have been. "No, I forgot I didn't know where he is..." Goku chuckled and threw his hand behind his back. He always acted before he thought, but his friends had always managed to come out on top regardless of his behavior.

"So where are we going?" The monkey boy asked, unable to gleam Roxas' similar ignorance from their introdution.

"Uhhh..." Well, he'd been expecting the question, but the problem was he didn't know. Wait. Hadn't he already told Goku that? Roxas wasn't sure their best bet was wandering around randomly, but at this rate that was all he could do in his attempt to find Neku. Even if he was totally positive they'd taken his roommate to the experimentation rooms he'd heard about, he hadn't a clue as to where they were.

At least Goku didn't seem too bothered by the fact. The Nobody knew it was already kind of eating away at his insides.

It was hard keeping the defeat out of his voice as his mouth drooped downwards. He stared at the flashlight's beam, mumbling, "I dunno. I don't even know where to start looking. He could be anywhere, really."

"Hmmmm..." Yes, this was going to be hard. Crossing his short arms over his chest, Goku stared down at the floor with a bleak expression. This building seemed to go on forever in the boy's opinion, which made tracking rather difficult. The only reason he knew where the kitchens were was because he could smell them.

It didn't work in the day time (too many people and too many sterile witches running about), but his nose was certainly more sensitive compared to his other senses during the night. He'd tracked people before, he could try it again. The only problem was he had no lead.

His black eyes slowly rolled up at Roxas and caught his attention with a "Hey... D'you have his smell?"

"Huh?" Okay, there was no point in hiding the confusion on his face, because it was as clear as day even in the fragmented light they had in the hallway. Tapping his pipe on the ground once, the Nobody remained silent for a moment while he tried to figure out the point of the question. It didn't take longer than a second for him to promptly give up. "What do you mean his smell?"

Could Goku find people through smells? That was the only thing Roxas could think of - and honestly, he knew weirder things were possible. Like Marluxia's apt ability to make his plants eat passing Dusks... yeah, it wasn't that weird in comparison. "Like... something of his? I don't have anything of his on me, but maybe - um, are you going to find him that way? I can get his pillow case from his bed. That should probably smell like him, right?"

"You know, his smell!" Everyone had their own unique stink that distinguished them from one another. Not that Goku was the end all, be all on matters concerning the nose; he could barely count, let alone begin making biological leaps. The point was, there was a difference, and Goku could exploit it, even if no one else he had met could.

So all they needed now was-- "Yeah, pillow case works!" Goku shouted, excited Roxas was catching on instead of giving him the side eye. "Then, we'll jes follow th'trail..." The kidnapping was fairly recent, so the monkey boy was confident that the strange omniscient sterility of the place hadn't washed it away yet.

So that was how it worked, huh? It was pretty weird, but Roxas wasn't going to complain about any leads to Neku's location that he was getting. This was more than he'd expected, anyway. If it didn't work out, they would just have to wander around and search out Neku the old fashioned way!

"Stay right here," he said, in the best commanding tone he had... which wasn't incredibly impressive, but Roxas was sure it got the point across. He put the hood of his coat back over his head and ran off, cutting the corners of the block as closely as he could. Luckily, they hadn't gone very far from his and Neku's room, so the trip didn't take more than a minute. His roommate's bed was still disheveled and the Nobody had a moment of indecision, unsure of whether he should also take the sheets or something just in case the pillow wasn't enough. It'd be a pain to carry, though.

He grabbed the lone case, folding it up as small as he could and shoving it a pocket so he could return quickly to Goku's side before anything happened. When he found the smaller boy again he was out of breath and his legs felt warm and tight, but he still had enough energy to lift the case out of his pocket and hand it to Goku.

"Is that enough?"

"'Kay!" Goku stood in the darkness without a care, watching the last of the light sputter down the hallway and eventually disappear. It was perfectly silent with the exception of a few grunts from the monkey boy as he surveyed the inky blackness. Inevitably, Goku took a step forward and then remembered he had been told to stay put. Since the whole wandering thing was out, he simply fidgeted in place until Roxas came back with the pillow case.

His blank stare turned cheery once he saw the boy's light came bounding towards him. "Yeah, that'll work!" Goku took the proffered pillow case and held it to his face, sniffing, pondering what he smelled, and inhaling the fibers once more.

"Ah--" He looked up at Roxas and waddled forward to stand in front of him, barely coming up to the blond's chest. Leaning further, he then sniffed Roxas. "Okay, so that's you.... So..." He took another whiff of the pillow case. "Got it! He's this--No, he's...... Yes! This way--!" He turned to charge onward, but his stocky legs caught in the pillow case and sent him hurtling down to the floor for the second time tonight. His chin hit, almost biting off his tongue completely.

"Owwwah!" What was the deal? Goku was never this clumsy with his tail. It was all for balance and yet doing a lousy job. Rubbing the bottom of his mouth with his stubby hands, he eventually righted himself and decided walking was probably the better course of action for this tricksy hallway.

[To here]

One step closer to Riku's room, one step closer to the truth. What would they find when they entered his room? Would he be asleep on the bed (that she was hoping for, but ... who was she kidding?) or would the room be empty. If it was empty ... what would they be able to do after? The institute was a huge place; it would take all night to search for him. Would Sora even want to search for him? She knew if he asked she would agree to without a second thought, but ...

So overcome with worry, Kairi couldn't even remember what room number their friend was staying in. "What number room is he in?" she asked in a soft voice, almost as if she were afraid that if she spoke too loudly, then Sora would vanish too.

Just like how Rukia had vanished. And everyone else.

Sora was just as worried as Kairi as they entered the block. He didn't think the news they found was likely to be good, and they hadn't run into their friend yet. He didn't want to think that Riku had run off without them for some reason, but in this case that was almost the best option that they had open to them.

This hall was quiet, especially considering what they had just moved away from. Sometimes it was too easy to forget that people were getting ambushed by monsters all over the building, and Sora had to hold back a sigh.

He glanced over at Kairi when she asked her question. "Oh, it's... M37." Which meant that instead of heading to the very end of the hall the way he was used to in order to get to his room, they had to make an immediate right instead.

For a split second, Sora thought about grabbing Kairi's wrist and leading her down the hall to Riku's room, but in the end he decided against it, moving that direction quickly and yet with a twisting feeling in his stomach.

[To here.]

[ from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043623.html?thread=76126887#t76126887). ]

He just had to make sure he didn't lose his focus, that was all. Having made sure the immediate corner didn't have anything behind it waiting to attack him, he let the flashlight gleam a path ahead down the corridor to what looked like an exit, and made his way down the hall towards it. It wasn't marked as such, but it was worth an attempt.

As he reached the end of the hall with nothing more exciting than shadows flickering on the walls, he turned his head to left, squinting down another dark hallway, and figured he'd try his hand at the door up ahead instead. It seemed quicker, and he didn't think there were any spare ethers or potions lying about this place to waste valuable time looking for. Besides, he didn't want to weigh himself down with anything unnecessary. As it was, he only had his flashlight and radio with him, and the keyring tucked into a pocket along with a pen. All four things could be used as weapons.

If needed, of course.

He reached the door, and hoping that it wasn't a closet or something equally in line with his usual luck, he opened it slowly to find himself looking down... yet another hall. Fantastic. It was wider than the ones he'd been in so far, though, and there wasn't anything out of place there (yet), so Cloud stepped through.

[ to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1043064.html?thread=76130680#t76130680). ]

Night 54: M-A Block Hallway

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SORRY FOR THE WAIT I fail so much /sobs forever

AND I AM SORRY FOR STOCKING THIS POST WITH USELESS FLUFF /)_(\

NOOO DON'T APOLOGIZE ;_;

TTATT

Re: TTATT

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