Nightshift 55: Main Hallway, 1-West

[tightsofmight]

[From here.]

All righty. First one here. Surprise surprise.

Peter took a thin breath and took up a post across from the hall, where he could watch both entrances for the gang. His arms crossed and he leaned against the wall. The whole thing was rather broody-looking, to be honest. Not the kind of chipper attitude you expected from a guy dressed like a cast member of Cirque du Soleil.

He was allowed to have bad moods. They happened. He hadn't started the night in one, but he'd tripped into it easily enough on his own. That sort of thing happened when your life sucked this much, okay. There was no sanctuary from the suckage. He sighed yet again. It'd be easier to perk up once somebody else showed up. Then he could push his mind away from all of this garbage and pound some small talk out of it.

Not to mention that waiting out here alone in the big hallway was twice as creepy as it was moving alone through the little ones. His flashlight swung back and forth. Please don't let anything be creeping on me in the dark. Please please please...

He was so not in the mood for whatever monstrosities were lying in wait for him. And knowing Landel's, they were.

[For the Platonic Family!! Y'all know who you are.]

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[savagesolitude.livejournal.com]

As the man (boy?) stepped closer, it was easier to make out features beyond his vivid suit and hair. He was younger than the both of them, but a little past being a teenager. Or maybe he was in his last year of school? Claire took him in with a wary gaze. It was hard not to notice he was good looking, but something about his attitude suggested a vague sense of...was regality the word she was looking for?

She rolled her eyes at his comment. No, definitely not. The suit may have suggested as much, but he was a little too cavalier for it. Maybe he was just pretentious.

"We're not on a-"

An unearthly sound rattled her ears. An feral wail. Claire halted. The axe rose, the head hovering parallel to her chest in a one handed grip as she silently switched the torch off, aiming it at a pocket in her bag. She watched the nearby door with narrowed eyes. There was a loud crash. Thumping noises.

It wasn't the soldiers. It was something else. Another monster - monsters, maybe, bigger than the rats and the trolls she'd seen thus far. Too stupid and too bloodthirsty to be of any use.

What a shame.

"...Yeah," she agreed with a nod, eyes still trained on the door. Having Klavier along, she had no more need for the torch. If something were to surprise them, she'd need both hands to take care of it. She slipped it into one of the tool bag's outer pockets, next to Rika's knife. Both would be immediately accessible if she needed them.

Claire took a step forward, tilting her head upward to catch the boy's eyes. She was within arm's reach of him now. The axe was still raised. "Are you coming?" she asked quietly. The tone was less than welcoming, cool and calculating. You couldn't expect any kind of enthusiasm from her about a total stranger tagging alone, but if he knew Klavier then there might be some use to him. "Or would that interrupt your date?"

Not that he'd looked anything but lost the whole time. She seriously doubted he was waiting for anyone.

[dreadofthegrave]

Instead of a comment in turn, like he was expecting, what Battler received was a sound that made his blood run cold. What.... the hell was that....? Whatever it was, it definitely didn't sound human. He gripped his flashlight a little harder, the wound from the previous night aching as though in anticipation of something similar. He intended to ignore that sound at first, pass it off as the product of residual feelings from before and an overactive imagination, but that kind of thinking wasn't something he could entertain. Not when they'd both heard it, too. In a way, it was a reassurance that he was thinking clearly, yet.... Somehow, he couldn't really consider that a good thing.

The sarcasm he'd been expecting came a little too late, and all he could really do was laugh weakly in response. He kind of deserved that, and given the situation, joking around was about the last thing on his mind.

"Y-yeah. It's not really the time for being a smartass, is it... Sorry about that."

Rather than the woman, he was more looking at the axe she was holding, lifted right in front of him. He couldn't blame her, exactly, but something about it made the hairs on his neck stand on end. When he quietly ducked into the next hall, it was as much because of that than the sound they'd been hearing.

[ducking into random hall like a sissy CALMLY WALKING HERE WITH DIGNITY AND PRIDE.]